captioning sponsoredy wnet >> stewart: on this edition for sunday, december 30: the countdown to the new year begins as washington prepares for a reboot in the midst of a stalemate. in our signature segment, california's highest ranking o muslim judfaith and professional success. and a look back at some of our stories from this next on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: .bernard and irene schwar sue and edgar wachenheim ilv. seton . the cheryl and philip milstein family. dr. p. roy vagelos and diana t. vagelos. the j.p.b. foundation. rosalind p. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america--

designing customized ianividual group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. b additional support hn provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. ank you. from the tisch wnet studios at teincoln center in new york, alisonrt. >> stewart: good evening and thank you for joining us. as the partial goverent shutdown marks its ninth day, the standoff between the president and his republican party and the democrats remains the same. president trump stayed at the ite house again today. he started the morning tweeting d pinning blame on senat minority leader democrat chuck schumer. mr. trump called it a "schume" shutdown." after lunch with the president at the white house rhis afternooublican senator lindsey graham, said they mscussed syria and their agreement that thet be

money for border security to end the shutdown. >> i've never been more encouraged that if we can get people talking, we can find our way out of this mess. and that would include around $5 billion for border security,wa slas, slash fencing, whatever you want to call it.wa >> s: the shutdown is expected to continue at least until the new congress, with a democratic-majority house, is sworn in on thursday.in jous now from washington, d.c. is new york times national political corrpondent, michael tackett. michael, welcome. >> thanks for having me. >> stewart: so next week the democrats take control us the of representatives after gaining 40 diseet seat, giveidn prt trump's governing style, how is he going to have to ajust? >> well, he is facing a dramically different terrain as he goes into this weehek. oes from having a house of representatives that was acquieent to one that is going to be openly defiant. so he is going to have to change his ways if he wants to getan hing dob. whether or not he will do that is always the open question.

ut stewart: this weekend vladimir wrote a letter to donald trump, a new year's letter that said that moscow is rey to engage in a dialogue on quote wide-ranginagendas. what does that mean? >> well, i guess you have to be a kremlinologist to know tha for sure, i done think it is politically helpful for president trump to have open communication with vladimirim putin at the athat the mueller investigation has yet to conclude. >> stewart: just tweed had a long and good caught with president xi of china, deal is moving along well frk made it i, comprehensovering all points of dispute, big progress being mae, exclamation point what are 9 points of dispute president trump is referring to. >> i'm not rea sure there. i think you could go back into his twitter feed and will you see something similar said several different times about china. so we're already looking for, what i think is a purist measure of whetherr not there is real progress will deal with the financial markets. nd the financial markets respo very positively, then that will

signal that they believe real progress is be,g made. if nhen that shows some skepticism. >> stewart: these talks are supposed to concl march 1s. these talks with china. what happens if the no deal is reached. l is reached then the president has said that he will impose are or at least reserve the right to impose massive new sanctions on china. so that is a bigncentive i guess for both sides to end this kind of trade war because nobodw ning it. >> stewart: you mentioned the president's staff about the uiturnover there has been a retary ofously, very big defense, chief of st in 2019, who are we likely to see in permanent positions. en that is a tough one. i don't think perm is a word i would use for some of these top posts. part of that is a natural transition. d then they go back to theirt. lives, so here though we have a lot of people who have the title of actinwe ave an acting attorney general, an acting chief of staff.

now we do have a nominee for attorney general so that could change. and of course the next thing we want to look for is will mik mulvaney take over the permanent chief of staff and we'll be looking for who is going to replace the defense secretary jim mattis. >> stewart: mentioning chief of staff joh kelly gave a pretty wide-ranging interview to the "l.a. times" and piece of this interview that em coos coming up in all of the headlines t isbout the president's wall, the wall he has promised his base and his supporters. and john kelly said of the wall, be honest, it's not a wall. >> that was really sort of a remarkable, you know, it is sort of like the old joke about washington, a gaffe is when somebody tells the truth. and we're sort of in that ight now. i mean i think what he is saying is the pre and over again, at first it was a concrete wall, then it was a rrier, nowkind of ba maybe it is some kind of steel slats. and really you can't call it a physical wall because most ople who looked at the border know that you can't actually lit reallily put a physil wall all

across the border. nancy pelosi, of course, sort of mocked this the other day when she said well perhaps he will settle for a beaded curtain. >> stewart: well, of course, the wall is at the beginning of this govnment shutdown we're going through right now. you've covered many presidents. you covered many shutdowns. what is different about this one? >> i guess what is different about this is there seems to be sort oa singular point of contention. the wall is clearly becoming axp verysive symbol of disfunction. nobody actually wins a shutdowno although s will be assigned blame for the shutdown. the president himself said he would be quote unquote happy to own it well, theer is. >> stewart: michael tackett from "the new york times," thanks so much for being with us. >> thank you. >> stewart: to learn more about today's top stories visit/n facebook.cshour. >> stewart: california marked a historic milestone this ye when the state's first muslim judge, halim dhanidina, was apinted to the california court of appeal.

his position comes at a time of ring anti-muslim sentiment across the country, with people judging him becausof his religion and questioning his role in democry. pbs newshour weekend special correspondent david tereshchuk has the story. >> reporter: a regular family man, to all intents andpu oses. halim dhanidina spends much of the weekend with his children. but on working days, dhanidina wields great authority over e.her people's lives and families as a ju and he carries an uncommon distinction in america's courtrooms. he's a muslim. one of very few among this country's judges. >> i've been faced with people who woulmake ignorant or bigoted comments. and it was just something that you learn to deal with. it's very easy for people to say, to imagine what horrible things would hpen if a muslim is a judge, if there aren't any muslim judges. by providing what i'm hoping iso

terexample, it sort of demystifies the subject. >> reporter: america's most senior judge professing the faith of islam had a substantial career in the california state court system, progressing topo more elevatetions over time, and ending up here, sitting on the state court of appeal. dhanidina was born in chicago to gujarati parents from the indian subcontinent who'd already migrated to east africa before coming to america. he attended college in california, gaining his law degree there too. he then t a junior job in a district attorney's office, soon becoming a prosecutor himself. a colleague from those days, judge andrewim, recalls him well. >> talking to him about cases, it was obvious that he was light-years ahead of me in terms of trying cases, his ability to connect with juries. >> reporter: dhanidina came tohe takeead in prosecuting the kinds of crime to whichus california'sce department

applies some no-nonsense labels. re the last two trial assignments i had he "hardcore gang division," which is i think what you'red eferring to, en the "major crimes division" was the one i went to after that. >> reporter: sounds like hea duty? >> you could say that. i mean los angeles does have something of a gang problem. i was in that unit for almost four years handling any kind of violent crime, usually murders or attempted murders, that had a gang-related angle. >> reporter: in 2012, governor jerry own made him a superior court judge. initially at least, dhanidina didn't think much about hisfi being tht muslim to be appointed to the bench in california. then things changed when he was greeted with more than just congratulations. >> there was some negative feedback too, mostly on the internet, certain websites that, i think it was sort of a third rail for them or the people who read tir sites to have a muslim appointed as a judge.

and so really horrible things were being written about me. >> reporter: the governor's office received slews of hate mail about dhanidina, including poreats to his safety. but the negative re did not stop governor brown from promoting him to the state courts of appeal in 2018, making him the country's highest- ranking muslim judge. undeterred by threats, dhanidina is matter-of-fact about his role as both muslim and judge. >> muslims can participate fully in the civic institutions of the united states with honor or even with distinction. and that your religious background doesn't need to be an obstacle to that. >> reporter: he sees it as an important part of his job to go out among the community. here he's helping to preside at a bridge-building event that links los angeles' jews with the city's muslims. >> you have all taken risks to be here clearly, fighting the traffic tonight was the first risk. he cares h about their is

community, about muslims, about jews, about relationships, abouq fairness, aboulity. i've gotten to know him over the past four plus years, when it's been a pretty difficult time in america and i feel like we've had each other's backs. after e pittsburgh shooting, when i turned on my phone, my first email was from halim. and that waso meaningful that he was the first person that reached out. >> reporter: dhanidina was brought up in the ismaili branch of islam, which emphasizes respect for other people's beliefs and traditions. that was driven home by mynt paand by, you know, other ismailis, who have learned very early on turalism in society is a good thing, and diversity in society is a strength. and no better place to denstrate that really than place like the united states. >> reporter: in today's ited

states, dhanidina uses his position to reach out in perhaps unexpected directions. he has addressed a chapter of the conservative federalist society at the evangelical christian trinity law school. >> as someone who is muslim, who was a lawyer and now is a judge and now is an appellate juice, it's part of my responsibility to, where there are opportunities, to try to educate people. >> reporter: the federalists at trinity wanted to discuss a fear frequently voiced among conservatives-- that sharia law, the body of religious law observed by many muslims, might be gaining undue influence in america's courtrooms. >> there's somethingbout being muslim that people believe maker you an at to this version of what's called "sharia law" that they kn about from what they see on the news. you know, the horrible things done in the name of religion in other parts of the world. >> reporter: beh >> beheadings, you know,

kidnappings. boko haram, al shabaab. al qaeda certainly. hezbollah, hamas. you name it. and so therefore people believe pl a muslim were in the legal system they would that type of law in our society. i've always felt that there are people who have these doubts in good faith so i want to try to dispel them if i can. >> reporter: indeed there is a persistent anti-sharia movement afoot. since 20, over 200 bills have been introduced in 43 different state legislates with the intent to ban sharia law from being invoked in any court. 13 states have passed these bills into law. >> that issue, i think, is perhaps being used as sort of a wedge issue to try to isolate an insular minority or make people feel that american citizens who nappen to be muslim are foreign.

>> reporter: dhanielieves the fear behind these anti- sharia moves is entirely baseless and that it's important that he, a muslim judge, deliver that message. >> i think the law applies the same to everyone regardless of otheir religion, regardle their gender, and that the legal system is intended to be free from religious influence, it's a secular system. >> reporter: so just how does the justice's background as a muslim inform his decision making in court? >> within the religion of islam, just like judaism and christianity, buddhism, et cetera, there are etcodes and probably not surprising, maybe surprisingly, they're the me across the board. honesty. integry. fairness. justice. mercy. these are coepts that all of

the major religions that i'm aware of have in comn. and to that extent, my r upbringing or beliefs play a role because i think it is important to be honest, have integrity, and treat peoplefa ly. >> stewart: we've been bringing yoessome of our favorite sto of the past year, with the producers and correspondents who work both front of and behind the camera. hari sreenivasan recently sat down with pbs newshour producer sam weber who along with er connie kargbo spent a good amount of time on the road with hari this year. it's true. the holidays to,ou >> sreenivasan: before we got here to this table. living shorelines was an idea you guys came to me with that i had not even heard of. actually, how did that story

come about? >> well the truth is it wasn't i even oa. so this was an idea by one ofol our frequentborators at climate central, which is a non- advocacy, non-profitrch and journalism organization that we've worked with a bunch in the past. oh one of their reporters, t ton, had this idea for looking at this really s unique way of deali with the energy that comes from the water and dealing with you know what could potentially be a bigger issue au sea levels conto rise. and the more that we dug into it the truth is it was a really interesting and frankly sort of counterintuitive idea thatso thing that was not a hard wall not a seawall, not putting up a giant concrete r. something that was a little bit more at least natul seeming put into the water could atually do a better job than something that wot firmer and in place. >> sreenivasan: here in pensacola, florida, just like the rest of the southeast, or much of the eastern se, coasts have to deal with large storms and hurricanes.

but there's a growing body of research that suggests living shorelines, like this one, are more resilient through storms than hardened shelines like seawalls. >> it looks today as good, if not better, than before th hurricane. >> sreenivasan: darryl boudreau is the watershed coordinator for the nature conservancy. he showed us a 30 acre living shoreline project in downtown pensacola called project greenshores. the first part w completed in 2003, one year before hurricaneh ivmered the region. >> hurricane ivan was a category 3 hurricane. it was basically a dirt hit. it washed away the road on i-10, further up the bay that's how powerful that storm t the road behind project greensres was really not damaged. >> sreenivasan: the experience with proct greenshores in pensacola is not unique. in north carolina, researchers documented how living shorelines like this one were barely damaged after hurricane irene in 2011 while about 100 yards away, this hardened shoreline had to be

completely replaced. and then there's sea level rise. tclimate change is expect push seas in this region up between two and five feet over the next 80 years. we've got two differentde strategies to with sea level rise: got a solid wall and you've got this marsh. r at's going to do better? >> i would say ome the marsh is going to do better. the seawl is sort of a fixed point. so it's a fixed height. it's a fixed location. with sea level rise, the water levels are going to increase. and the only way to adapt a hardened structure is to come back with a higher structure. >> s memories from that story is i stretch on a basically a party pontoon boat. >> sreenivasan: ...pontoon boat, that should just be on flatwa r and we were on anything but. >> it started out very calm. and as we traveled out and then of course as soon as we kind of got out into that pensacola bay it was a little bumpttle bumpy but you know i think we really felt like it was important that if we were going to be able to me footage of this major project in

pensacola and we were out with one of the real architects of this project it was nice to be able to see it from that perspective. buetof course then we had to back and unbeknownst to us i think the wind had maybe picked up a lite bit. >> sreenivasan: just a little. >> just a little. you know in ll disclosure we might not be the most experienced sailors that were out on the pensacolaay that day and things got a little bit choppy. >> sreenivasan: that is one example of one of the stories that we've done on climate her in the united states and connie, you, and i also just went to scotland recently to do a couple hi follow up pieces as well. >> yeah, i mean, i as a program it's been really interesting sort of covering some of these emerng energy technologies particularly when we think about what are some of those maybe more outside-the-box solutions for climate change. and what we had dog some reporter the years on ocean energy technologies,

you see this as a place to particularly go? and honestly as a technology to particulocus on? >> sreenivasan: you know, look, i don't own shares in any of these particular companies. i love scotland but it's not the place that i want to go every week. i think it's just that there are things that are happening all over the planet where companies and countries are seizing opportunities to figure out how to change, to adapt to climate change, how to profit from mate change, how to get off fossil fuels. this isn't sort of agenda driven reusporting it'smore that all this stuff is happening whether we choose to at this mothment in time invese or not. right? so whether this is happening in scotland or somethin might be happening in egypt something else is happening in indiais lots of stufappening in china. technologies are emerging. countrs are investing. companies are investing. and this is going to be part of what's necessary if we're going

to transition in any way away so i just find it kind of interesting to take a look at these other places. >> and of course it also gave us plenty of opportunity to shoot a correspondent not only and various hardhats but different types of aquatic safety gear. >> sreenivasan: that's fun. >> including lifesaving, i don't know what you would even call it. >> sreenivasan: i don't know aat you would even call it, liiant suit. >> and then seeing you know everyone does their best to go literally down the hatch into a major tidal energy project somewhere off the ast. >> sreenivasan: i think it's cool i think it's one of those things that you want to try to figure out how to communicate ck to an audience. like what is the type of stuff that i can tell you how feels or how something smells that you can't get just from a nice picture that we have great cameras we can take great piutctures correspondent i think is one of the ways that they can help tell a story is to help somebody at home understand what it's like to stand someplace or feel somethi or smell something. but you and connie seemed to get me into weird situations. i've had my foot stuck in weird swamps with you guys. this is pretty silty, sinks

right in. i've put things on my head. this is very amelia earhart, old school. >> i really think that if you're notke going to dvantage of having the anchor of your show out in the field and be able to put an f.m.r.i. machine on his head and give him a test early in the morning to see how we he can coun backward from 100 by sevens. >>reenivasan: 16, nine, two, thank god, it's over. >> and the idea that you'd be willing to do that and be willing to rt of put yourself in the shoes of somebody who was going through that test where researchers are you know we had some fun with it but they're working on a very serious policy problem. and i really think it's a unique opportunity to be ae to sort of really show the viewer what that process is like, and what trchose resrs are learning from it. and we're certainly really happy teehat you'vesort of game to do that with us over these past year, years. >>in sreenivasan: wiguinea pig. sam weber, thanks so much, and connie kargbo in absentia. >> absolutely.

>> this is pbs newshour weekend, sunday. >> listewart: mons turned out to vote today in thpdemocratic reublic of the congo's presidential election.th e election marks the end of the 18-year rule of president joseph kabila, who is stepping down.it many hope ill be the country's first peaceful transfer of power since d.r.c. gained its independence from belgium in 1960. congodlese voters fa torrential rains, flooding, and long lines at polling stations across the country. earlier th week, violent otests broke out after the government announced it would delay voting in several ebola- stricken cities. official results are expected next month. there were allegations of vote rigging and intimidation in parliamentary elections in bangladesh today. unofficial results show a victory for the ruling party which will give prime minister sheikh hasina a third consecutive term as the country's leader. critics accuse her of relying on increasingly authoritarian tactics in her rule.

bangladesh's opposition leader, kamal hossain, has called for new elections, calling today's proc there are reports from voters claiming they were denied entry to polling places or were forced to vote in front of ruling party officials. and starting on january 1, for the first time in two deces, a trove of books, films, and musical works will enter the public domain, meaning that copyright holders will no longer be able to claim ownership over th. the works, all published in 1923, were originally set to become public and free for anyone to use or publish in 1999, but an act of congress extended their protected status for 20 years. the listot of sooe publicly available works include the books "the prophet" by kah" gibran;new hampshire," a pulitzer prize-winning poetry book byt robert frich includes his poem, "stopping by woods on a snowy evening"; and" the inimitable jeeves" by p.g. e.dehous some movies entering the public domain include cecil b. demille's silent epic, "the ten

commandments"; and charlie chaplin's "the pilgrim." >> stewart: tomorrow on the newshour: the year in books-- we'll review some of the best books of 2018. happy new year from all of us here at newshour weekend. have a safe and happy celebration. i'm alison stewart. thanks for watching. have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii.

seton melvin. the cheryl and philip milstein family. dr. p. roy vagelos and diana t. vagelos. the j.p.b. foundation. rosalind tep. w barbara hope zuckerberg. funding is provide by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement product w that we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contrutions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. was funded in part b

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