capt ning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> nawaz: good evening. i'm amna nawaz.dy oodruff is away. on the "newshour" tonight, the trump administration'sli immigration faces renewed scrutiny after two migrant children die iu.s. custody and w video shows mistreatment in one children's shelter. then, senator elizabeth warren becomes the latest democrat toac declare candfor 2020 as both sides dig in over the ongoing government sn. and in one of the world's driest reons, israel's innovative water management acts as a bulwaragainst climate change-- but also highlights the stark contrast with its palestinian neighbors. >> the thrt of climate change is so great in thiregion that if we don't work with oure' neighbors, also at peril. >> nawaz: all that and more on

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station from viewers like you. thank you. >> nawaz: the partial government shutdown is now in its tenth day, but there may be an end in sight. house democrats are preparing to vote on a package thursday to nd the department of homeland security through february 8. it includes $1.3 billion for border security. that far short of the $5 billion dollars president trump demanded for the border wall. 'll also vote on six mor bipartisan bills to fund other departments through the end of september. massachusetts senator elizabeth rowarren is the first highle democrat to formally move toward making a bid for the presidency in 2020. warren annoued she's formed an exploratory committee to decide whether to eventually run for the office. she spoke to reporters outside her home in cambridge this afternoon. >> i'm in this fight all the way. right now, washington works great for the wealthy and the well-connected. it's just not working for anyone else. but i am optimistic.

i believe in what we can do together. i'm going to build a grassroots campaign. it's already got people from all eacross this country who going to be part of it. together we're going to make change. >> nawaz: today's move will alw warren to begin raisin funds for a likely presidential campaign in what's expected to bea crowded democrat field. we'll take a closer look at the 2020 race and get an update on the government shutdown later in the program. outgoing defense secretary jim mattis bid farewell to pentagon employees today. the former u.s. marine corps itneral resigned last month over policy differences president trump, including theen presids decision to pull u.s. troops out of syria.sa in a written m, mattis insisted "our department is proven to be at its best whenst the times are ifficult. so keep the faith in our country and hold fast, alongur allies, aligned against our es." russia's domestic security

agency says it has detained an american citiz on suspicion of ying. in a statement, the federal security service saiit arrested paul whelan on friday in moscow during what they called an "espionage operation," but the agency gave no further details. spying charges can carry up to 20 years in prison in russia. in the democratic republic of congo several major cities had their internet shut down today as ballots were counted for the long-delayed presidential election. opposition candidates accused the government of trying to prevent social media speculation about election results in the central african country. in the capital city of kinshasa- - an opposition stronghold-- residents worried about the elections' legitimacy. >> ( translated ): i don't think the elections were credible because too many people could not vote because of problems with electoral lists. many people did not find their names registered and were toldv

to go to othing centers. many people didn't vote yesterday.az >> nthe current president, joseph kabila, is stepping down e ter being in power for 17 years. ection marks the first peaceful, democratic transfer oo power since thtry's independence from belgium in 1960. official results are expected to be announced january 15. back in this country, wall street closed t its worst year in a decade. but stocks ended the day in positive territory, bo tted by gains technology and retail sectors. the dow jones industrial average climbed 265 points to close at 23,327. the nasdaq rose nearly 51 points. and the s&p 500 added 21. and revelers around the globe are riing in the new year. fireworks displays lit up the night sky during celebrations from sydney, australia to hong kong. new york city beefed up its holiday security with 7,000 officers on the streets and its firsever use of drone

surveillance. and across france, authorities deployed nearly 150,000 securitd terror attacks. still to come on the "newshour," the recent deaths of two migrant children and new video inside a children's shelter bring more scrutiny of u.s. immigration policy; new, and rare, data on civilian casualties as a result of u.s. air strikes in the fight against isis; we break down thee on the government shutdown and the 2020 presidential race; plus much more. >> nawaz: troubling videos from side a migrant children' shelter in arizona have come to light which apoyar to show ems of a u.s. government contractor roughly treating migrant children itheir care. in one clip, a male staffer is

seen pushing, shovinand appearing to slap one child. another adult is seen forcing a different ild through the room, carrying and eventually dragging the child through a door. followed by yet another staffer pushing and dragging a third child through the same door. the incidents occurred in september,t a facility in youngtown, arizona operated by southwest key programs-- non- profit that runs 24 such shelters nationwide, housing migrant children, mo of whom arrived alone at the u.s./mexico border. the video was obtained through an open records request made by the "arizona republic" reporter mary jo pitzl, who joins me now. mary jo, welcome and thank you for being here. the video, we should point out, en blurred obviously because you want to protect the identities of the children.ls whatdo we know about the details of the children or the staffers in this vido? n> well, what we know is these

incidents happened mid-september at a facility in a suburb of phoenix called youngtown, arizona. it's one of, at the time, 13 shelters operated by sthwest key in arizona. after those incidents happened, southwest key rerted those to the federal government, as is requir by they are contract,bo and, without etion, the federal office of refugee resentment suspended operations at that faciliim. at the, we didn't know why. a couple of weeks later, on a separate mart but involving this facility among others, the sta health department threatened to revoke the licenses of all the southwest key shelters becse of problems with double checking background -- doing background checks in a timelymanner. the settlement resulted in that facility as well as another being shut down. so wdare we're at is the

facility where this happened is g anymore. we don't know where the children are. we do know that the emplinoyees lved were terminated. >> can you talk about the videw and he got them? the cameras in this situation, are they standard in shelters like this? it's hard to believe anyone would treat a chd like that knowing they are recorded. >> they are standard as paavrt f tosight of children in the federal government's care and, yeah, i think that's why these videos are pticularly disturbing. it is important to keep in mind, i mean, these are kids who are traumatized -- the removed from their parents, they're in a strange place, they don't kn it, ty may not even speak the language, so, of course, they are going to act out, and there have to be techniques and training for staffers to know how to deal with these kind of disruptive behaviors, but this seemed togg t they went a little beyond the pale.

we don't have alear grasp of what kind of actions are acceptable, at this point.h we do knowt the local sheriff's office initially looked at this and decidedg here was nothre that really rose to a criminal standard, saying that these arell basi-- basically suggesting these were somewhat rcepted practices. thersed that position or their higher-ups did after we accomplished these videos over the weekend. >> we should point out the county prosecutor theris looking ino reviewing these videos to see if there is something that rises to the level of criminality, but criminal behavior aside, i think it's difficult for anyone to see children in the care of the u.s. government being treated this way, and this one company, southwest key programs, i want to ask you about them, because a the the nation's largest operators of shelters forld migrant cn. they have some 5,000 migrant children across all these shelhirs, and the re cldren removed from these shuttered shelters were sent to other shelters.

awe went to them for a stement and they basically said we welcome suspension ofrations here and said we are simultaneously engaging the child welfare department partnership to do a top to bottom review of the rough seases and procedures hiring an training in the arizona shelters. is there any way they cangu antee this isn't happening in any one of their other shelters? >> that's a go question. we may have to wait for that consultant report to come back out. we do have -- meaning my organization -- we do have soe records requests into state officials who hold the license for the other southwest key facilities that areperating, and we'll see what that might yield. helter that second s was closed at the same time at the one in youngtown, arizona, and we don't kow wh. we are trying to find out, especially in light of these revelations. >> you know, we should also mention it's not the first time you and yor colleagues have

reported on disturbing behavior and even some criminal convictions ming out of specifically southwest key programs. tell me a lilt bit about what u found in the past and what you willcontinue to look into. >> due to work done by my colleague agnew fillip,eted predating this surge of children at the border, a couple of years previous, the youngtown facility had two el negotiation of child sex abuse, child-on-chil issues that were investigated, and since then we have learned there have been two southwest key employees who workt at other shelters who have beenrrested, one who's been convicted on i think it's eight different unts involving child maltreatment. he's set to be sentenced late there are month. another man was arrestedand i'm not clear what has happened to his case e, but there hen problems not just at this one facility that is now closed but

at others tt aretill operating. but those incidents pre-dated sort of this wave of children that came in in the summer of '18. >> befe we go, can you tell me, because you have been reporting on this space for a while,n kind oideo is rare. how difficult is it for us to understand what's happeni inside these government contracted shelters housing migrant children? >> oh, i think it's very difficult. i mean, the only time that we - meanr staff -- has been able to even get a look inside one is when first lady melania trump came this past summer and that was part of a wl-prepared visit, and we had a press pool that was able to go in. the governor of our state and his wife toured one of the facilities and would thy nog about what they saw, neither neutral. negative or it is very difficult to get in. they are not open to the public. these are shelters that -- there

are privacy cone,cerns, of cou so we have to rely on police reports, on any kind of oversight that comes fm the federal government, anything that we can get out of public records, oversight from the fes or from the state health department, but it's a b of a mystery what's going on in there. >> mary jo pitzl of the "arizona republic," thank you very much. >> thank you very much. >> nawaz: this weekend the u.s.l led ion fighting isis in iraq and syria released information about all the airri s it conducted in the last week. it also released an estimate for how many civilians have been killed in those air strikes in the last four years. the number is more than 1,000. but as nick schifrin reports, there are questions about whether the milita is undercounting. >> reporter: four years ago, isis controlled territory across iraq and syria the size of belgium. today, the group has lost 99% of

that land, and eight-million people no longer have to live inside the so-called islamic state. the u.s. has achieved that success thanks in large airt to a massr campaign.ra inand syria, the u.s. has launched 31,406 air strikes in a campaign the coalition describes as the "most precise in history." but this weekend, the u.s. admitted that those air strikes accidentally killed 1,139 civili as. how did thive at that number? and is it accurate? to explore tse questions i am joined by larry lewis, who used to lead the defense department's effos to prevent civilian casualties. he was also the state department's senior advisor civilian protection, and is now research director at the center for naval analyses. larry, thank you very much. welcome bac you and i have talked about how this is probably aundercount, that $1,139, and one of the main reasons is buildings, something almost basic, right, you can't see inside buildings that have been struck.

so how much of a problem has that been, given that a lot of these civilian casualties are in dense urban battles like mosul and raqqa and fors want a lot of progress quickly. >> the fact that the u.s. andio coalhave been working with allies such as iraq and the rds in syria, that is a huge risk to civilians, because in afghanistan, primarily u.s.-led, u.s. could set the tempo. you had the ability to be tactically patient and exercise a lot of different options to better protect civilians, but in this campaign, you know, speed was of the essence.wh the u.s. works with partners, you know, we often give license to the partner to set e tempo, and they don't always have the same kind of priorities the us. does. >> specifically about how you can't see in buildings and, therefore, you could increase

numbers of civilian cassuualties ties if you're hitting the buildings? >> correct. first of all, if you're doing a strike on the building, you don't know who's in he building. after the strike on the building, you don't know what the effect is. so it's tilt to say are there civilian casualties or iot. >> you aere working and living in afghanistan at the same time, 08 and 209, there were 100,000 troops there and there would be civilian incidents where troops would be sent to the scene, cordon off the scene and investigate. that's not happening in syria and iraq. does this affect the actsy of the number the military is >> absolutely. in afghanistan, you had the advantage of 100,000 roops, basically sensors, that could go in and figure out the ground truth. in iraq andia syrthat has not been the case. they don't have the military so they don't have the benefit of

the information. >> there are some n.g.o. workers who go to the sites in iraq and investigate. why isn't the.s. military going? >> the argument the military saidgainst that is it's an additional requirement they're not resourced for. second ofll, there is a force protection element, so it increases risk to u.s. forces. but there's another way to do this, too, is you can work more in collaboration with these other organations, so th u.s. military has its information, they have full-motion video, they he other fms of intelligence. if you combine that wi information from other groups and you can ge better estimates that whic way as well. >> a they not combining that information? >> so they are trying to combine that information, but it couldn be dbetter than it is now. >> is there an increasedll gness to cause civilian casualties? the non-combatant casualty

valu there's a number of casualties deemed acceptable. has that number changed over the years and perhaps even increased? >> yes, the non-combatant casualty value often called the ncv, that is kind of a cap on the sent number of civiltin casu. that is done in addition to the legal conversations made during a strike. soin late 2016, that number was increased, so, as you say, the willingness to take risks to civilians, that the risk threshold wins creased around th time. >> late 2016 before the election of donald trump, by the way, so late obama administration. >> right. by changing that number, does that ini'veta bring lead to more civilian casualties's >> i think ipretty logical to say yes. certainly, there are cases that i'm aware of where strikes were made with the knowledge that they would cause civilian

casualties because they were lower than the value that was prescribed. >> let me play you a sound byte from just the last couple of weeks, actually. british major general chris gika, the deputy commaer of strategy and information for operate inherent resolve, the operation against i.s.i.s. in iraq and syria speaking to pentagon reporters a couple of weeks ago >> i think it's important on this issue of civilian casuties tomake really ar that we conduct all our strikes with considerable care, for eacv any strike to minimize civilian casualties at every turn and, where there are allegations, we investigate them very thoroughly. >> have they tried to minimize civilian casualties and investigate them very thoroughly? >> the u.s. and its coalition partners do a lot to reduce civilian casualties and they do work hard on the investigation piece, b there are also systemic shortfalls, both in res

do you seeing casualties and investating credible allegations that can be proved. >> what do you think the u.s. should be doing better? d they should be monitoring trends, which wo was not done in iraq and sir . ni ca't they should improve tools and tackties for using war fair. we should emphasize civilian protection with patters in because we keep on operating by and with and through partners. finally, there are specific way we can impre investigations to better estimateh tat t truth hold to civilians. >> thank you very much. >> nawaz: stay with us. it may be the last day of 2018, but there's no shortage of political news. as the partial government shutdown stretches into a second orweek, one democratic sens one step closer to a 2020

presidential campaign. here to help explain what liesea in the new year, newshour's own lisa desjardins. and joining us from capitolll erica werner of the "washington post." welcome to you both. a lot to cover on this final day. let's start with the shutdown. li sarks where are we with th latest? >> speaker designate as they are calling her in her ofice, nancy pelosi, tell me that they are going to unveil their plan for a govement funding breakthrough and that's going to be to fund most to have the government, most to have the agencies that are shut down with six different appropriations bills and separate out d.h.s., the department of homeland security, which is what this fighting is about, support for the bor security, a separate proposal cing.illion only for fen question know this is something the president has not agreed to yet, so looks like the democrats will take the vote thursday when they begin the new house and

probably won't go farther. meanwhile, someroom some republe trying to get a bigger deal. lindsey graham on sunday. >> if anything, he's not a man undeensiege. the prt is firm in his commitment to make sure we get money for border security. i know there are some democrats out there who would be willing to provide money for wall border security if we could deal with the population up and d.p.s. people and hopefully we can get serious distecussions stas soon as next week. >> daca and d.p.s., democarts 't biting observe that at all now. >> very much in the er. erica, jump in. this bigger deal that linds slindz floating, is there any chance any part of that get picked up? what about the democrats plan moving forward? >> we'll see about the larger deal.

nancy pelosi has ruled out a daca for wall trade, and it's worth noting severalttempts at striking a larger immigration deal under the trump administration went nowhere for one reason or another. what democrats want to do is open the 116th congress, a new era of divided government in washington, th a challenge to president trump that says back down on your wall, and reopen the government, or don't, and this shutdown that hasdr furloughed hs of thousands of workers will continue perhaps indefinitelys >> this wallere a lot of the conversation about the shutdown began, by separating out d.h.s., democrats want to take immigration out of the equation. re the key differences >> the negotiations have broken awn so much that they're not even really talkiout these differences, but i thought it might be worth looking at them. the president, when proposed his dget for this year asked for

$1.6 billion in money that could go to a wall. the senate bill that the senate passed unanimously, that wouldbi have had 1.ion, but it was for fencing only. it made it clear that that had to go ta fence and not a wall. and then the house bill that d ey passed, kf what triggered the shutdown differce, was $5.7 billion that could go to a wall. this difference of afew billion on scale of the entire federal budget is not much. it's a lot for any portion but they're down to this difference over really what the money is used for more than anything else. >> now moving into a second week, i want to move on to anotr big topic today and that is a look ahead to 2020, already massachusetts deocratic senator elizabeth warren entering the fray nnouncing she's forming an exploratory committet' listen to part of the video she released right now. >> america's middle class is under attack. how did we get here? billionaires of big corporations

decided they wanted morph tohe pie and enlisted politicians to cut them a slice, they crippled unions to nobody could stop them. >> we'll turn the bull loose. the financial rules meant to keep us sa tfe aft great depression and cut their own taxes. we are months out after the first votes cast in the iowa caucuses. what is elizabeth warren doing now? >> right, and new year's eve could be seen as a strange timeo ake a campaign announcement, but she does have the stage to hersf for the time being, the first big announcement from a democrat for 2020, and making very clear with that very v populieo and its imagery what she's going for, she will protect the middle class. she's going to have a very crowdd field to join going forward, but we'll seif she separates herself out by going

firstand going big with this video.k >> so this is y to be a crowded feel. what do we know about the field. >> first, in that video, abeth warren is clearly running from the left. nhat's what we expected but she's taking an o shot to ronald reagan, who most of america admire, butve progres think many of his policies lead to what we have now. but asou and erica said, the issue is this giant field, there are almost as many ways to slicet as people in it. let's talk about the declared presidential candidates. three democrats have rec themself. john delaney of maryland, registeredregistered ojetta, frm west virginia. dwight from west virginia, a bronze star, anndd w yang and he's a nonprofit exec and someone who worked in the obama

administration. all three of those running, done, they're out there. who's exploring the concept? now we have these two, julian castro was the first big name to announce, we knewn november he was going to be an exploratory committee, and elizabeth warren today. julian castro sad h wold announce in november. prepare yourselv, this ist 20 photos, and i went to one of yours. i knowhe more people out there, we're probably going to get e-mails about ias other people v. i like this group because this shows you a little bit of the contours of those who are wristed. 12 of these 20 witmembers of congress. you can see now they are dominating the initial runup to the gate. we don'tnow who will come out to have the gate more strongly, so a few mayors, governors, former governors, it is a massive field. in the democrat, iowa caucuses

e 13 months away, but the first debates on them are in june. so that'hsonly six moway. it's time for this field to start sorting itself out. >> it will be here before we know it. erica, coming to you, the graphic we just saw with all the potential members to have the democratic field, a very diverse bunch there, and they will be covering this new congress, which is the most divse in history. the question about how the midtms will affect how the democrats play, not only the coress and gernment, but how they feel with the 2020 field with all the women and minorities and democrats, where does that lead them? >> a very diverse democratic class elted in the house to take the majority, and that shows the hunger among democrats for new faces. women, minorities, they dominate the incoming democratic class, and that creates a challenge fo some of the older politicians the more established names,

including elizabeth warren but also joe biden and others who are looking at runng. is that really what the democratic party is looking for? this house democratic class, this new majority, the policies that they put forth and embrace may end up specific as the platform for whoever does end up as the nominee, south going tota be very imp to watch what they do and how they establish the terms of the debate. >> lisa, before we go, i want get you to weigh in on this interview. h former whise chief of staff justice kavanaugh gave to the "los angeles times" over the weekend, he was asked about conversations in the white house with president trump specifically about the wall. he said it's really not a wall. he told "the los angeles times," ,e said "the president still says wall oftentimes, frankly, he'll say bar w barrier or fenc, now he tends thwart steel flats.

but we left a concrete wall earlier on in the administratio" the president says, fence, wall, whatever you call it. the demrats say definitely not a solid crete wall. however, t tweet fr president today said an all-concrete wall was nev abandoned. he said some areas will be all concreteo this speaks rt of the problem on capitol hill, not sure exactly what the president wants, and will have to accept whether it has to be a concrete wall or not, has to be a very big factor in the shutdown. >> still in its second week lisa desjardins, ericka werner, thank you to both i don' of you. >> thank you. >> nawaz: the world is moving into a new era-- when water will be a resource as prized as oil. how we manage the demand will be ical, especially in area where water is scarce. fred de sam lazaro begins a two

part look at how the middle east l approaching this crisis. he begins in isrere technology is making all theen diff. you will see a huge farm owned byne com 18,000 trees produce some 1600 tons of dates a year. they are exported around the efrld, but what you cannot tell is what was here ore the farm. >> this ia dead tree. part of a dead tree. nothing grew here before. >> the farm was possible beuse, over the last two decades, israel has become a world leader in conserving, recycling and even producing water in one of thery dest places on earth. it wasn't like that 40 years ago, when the farm asirst planted. >> the beginning, we were optimistic, but it didn't take long before we realized that, if we want to cary on and grow, we

ve to change our way of thinking. >> now, all of tathe wer schick uses on his farm is recycled, treated sewage coming directly from jerusalem some 30 miles away. in fact, 87% of all siewdges generated in israel, while not fit for drinking, is recusycled foin agriculture where it is safe. if you were not here with this artificial system of ivering water here, what would this land look like? >> complete desert. nothing. >> is not just recycled water. israel also now produces most of its tap water straight out of e mediterranean sea. >> the largest plant on its kind in the world. >> he's sur -- he tooke on a desalination plant. 85% of israel's drinking water comes throu desalination

through reverse osmosis technology whose cost have dropped in recent years. two more plants will soon come online, all to serve arowg population and deal with the rapidly drying climate. israel even plans to gin pumping desalinated water into what was once the region's largest source of freshwater but has been severely depted by overuse and the changing climate. i'm standing udit the mouth of the jordan as it flows out of the biblical sea of ca galilee. normal tiernlings i would bdee 12 feet of water. but this is not normal times. there has been drought for 15 of the past 20 years. >> it's worse than being predicted. >> bromeberg is the israeli director of eco peace who brings together isra, ellestinians and jordanians to find regional solutions. >> the teat of climate change is so great in ths region that

if we don't work with our neighbors, then we're also at peril. >> under international agweements, the palestinia bank and gaza buy most of their water from israel. israel has often restricted the supply particularly in the gaza herip. bromeberg saysrrangement is fraught with mistrust. >> dependency in the highly conflict chiewl part of the world is not politically attractive and, therefore, we're trying to think of how do we create interdependencies. >> eco peace poses gaza also build largnae desalion plants with international financing. similarly, jordan, with vast deserts, could supply solar energy for the entire region including desalination plants that run on natural gas.he >> we're eigoing to work

together and sail down the jordan or sink here at the sea of galilee. >> for now, israel is proceeding on its own, relaunching a conservation campaign in the media, in addition to its inn stment idesalination. as for palestinians, dependency on ireland for water and power,u israel like its neighbors to recycle and produce its own water. >> if they would treat their sewage exactly like israe can increase the quantity of water they have by 40%, quite a lot. they do not dot. >> they do not do it because they aren't allowed to says former palestinian water minister, citing in particular israel's 11-year blockade of gaza strip following the election there of the islam militant group hamas.

>> wwhen you have no water, no electricity. >> he agrees conditions in gaz are desperate. >> the series doesn't stop in the aquifer. on the gaza side, it contaminates the groundwater on both side >> he showed me waste water that flowed next to the wall that separates gazfrom isael. >> we have a ticking time bomb here in gaza where the likelihood of diease breaking out is highly likely. >> the united nations has concluded thtt, at the curr rate, the gaza strip will become uninabout thible by 2020 because to have the lack of water, sanitation andelectricity, that's prompted a scramble by international aid groups to prove emergency assistance. will explore efforts by

international aid agencies in tto deal with gaza's water crisis in the next piece. this is fred le samaro, nearly the israel-gaza >> nawaz: fr's reporting is a partnership with the under-told stories project at the university of st. otomas in minn >> nawaz: as we mark the end of year many of us are thinkinglu about reons. that might include reading more. if so, you'll want to pay closef attention asey brown guides us through the best books of 2018. o >> f look at books, i'm joint by two distinguished literary voices. anna ptchette, her last novel "commonwealth" is on many critics "lists for best books of the year in 2016. the latest book isll "nash scenes from the new american

south." and rl lozada, a book critic for "the washington post" who specializes in nonfiction. welcome to both of you. ann, start off with a couple of your fiction chois. >> i live your end roundups because i get to think about what stuck with m over the course of the year. my favorite book this year isoi "baby you're to be mine" a short story collection byevin wilson. it's wholly original, rough, everytory is unique, there are no weak sisters. eversingle story is a winne i love this book. i hope it takes the world by storm. a very close second for me favorite, the overstory by richard powers. you could really say ery richard powers book is a masterpiece, but this one is ally important. it's a giant novel about trees and the people who work to save them, and every single juan of his narrators has an amazing story about an amazing tree, and finally all the parts come

together. it's a giant, engrossing novel, i loved it. >> i know you're a big rear. do many books stay with you throughout the year? >> no, and it's really odd because i can read a book i love and i'll forefeet about it. then another book i wasn't so sure about six months later if i'm city thinking about , i'll know that's a book i really loved. >> carlos. you have a couple of non-fiction, especially topical books, right? >> yes, first is the line becomes a river by francisco cantu. he's a young writer who studied and borders and immigration in college and wanted to see it for himself. so he becomes a border patrol agent working in the southwest. his mother warned him against taking the job, she said the soul can buckle in a job like. this his -b- a jo like this. his did. he had nightmares ,nd guilt he's trying to discourage migrantsby taking their supplies but also tries to help

th in the right trial to have the year at the crossing. >> i went into the desert with him to talk about the boo >> and you really get a sense of place with this book. what i like abo it smuch is that we're having all these big policy debates over immigration right now, and the dilemmas that cantu face are the dilemmas the country spacing now, an honest, empathetic story of one person. next up is "good and mad" by rememberda traster, from rinew york magazine, and wtten ngabout female aer through politicscame out in the midst of the brett kavanaugh hrings, excruciatingly topical at the time, and writes h men are lionized and praised for their anger and female anger is dismissed as irrational, when it can be a vital and rational

organizing tool. traster turns the lens on herself and talks about how she used to suppress her owner ang in her writing and but she's not doing itnymore >> fiction? i have a great novel about female angr by madeline miller. the first book was "song of achilles."n thenearcy" she goes back to home and retells stories of assic mythology. she turns a man's men into pigs. that is one tinyig by the of her ory. she is powerful and grabs ahold of her own life. a fantastic book, educational but also a ripping good readep that will ou up at fight. another book that i loved was calledearly work" by andrew

martin, a book i stumbled on because i read a review of it in the "times" because i thought it sound so interesting. it's really -- dirty. (laughter) >> how dirty, sit, ann? it's a book about young gradua students who drink a lot, read a lot, have a lot of sex, and somehow 's just mesmerizing. i've given this book to a dozene people anerybody said they stayed up ahell night,loved it, terrific book. >> can you top that, carlos? this won't be as dirty. now i want to b 1e the 13th person that gets that book. >> absolutely. "post truthby neil mcintire. >> in our moment. yeah, mat, many books o fate of truth in the american republic. they all have funky names like truth decay or gas lighting america. at i like about this book which is more of a philosophical tour is that he isn't just concerned about the fate of o

particular fac truths, but he thinks what is really under assault here is the very metd by which we ascertain truth or get to truth, in particular science. what is also helpful here is that he doesn't just stay at the level of the collective or sort of as society kind of arguments, but he really tries to look at what wean do as individuals to fight back against his current, and he says we need to question our owo truths, on certainties, we need to embrace doubt. he says hat's very hard to do but a good message for this moment. another book that i think hitsth moment in an unusual way is "the list" by amy siskin. it's a reflection of the intersize the author did right after the 2016 election, she compiles a list of every weird norm-breaking move made by the incoming trump administration. first nine items, then 18, 26,

and finally hundreds of items per week. what's helpful here is it's basicallcompressed histroif the trump presidency. you forget in every shock of the moment about the last shock o the moment. >> right. so i hope she does volumes 2, 3 and 4, though this book is already 500 pages, so i'm not sure how she's going to do more in the next one. >> i think we might have timephor one more pick apiece. ann, you want to start?ng >> okay, i'm go bick the "barrel more book of the dea by marian winak. it doesn't seem logical but it is the most life-affirming they are tiny vignettes of people that she knows, hasnown who have died and also famous people we all know who have died, they're like little personal obituaries and oddly the collective effect is that it makes you see the joy and the

beautylife, a weirdly terrific holiday gift, the baltimore ok of the dead. >> and that one is nonfiction, clearly? >> yes. carlos? ll me anthony apios, "the lies that bin" another controversial subject, basically a tour through the history and philosophy of identity politics. he is sort of skeptical of this trend tords identityolitics and he rejects essentialism, the notion that we hae kind of overriding force that defines us and puts us into one group. he thinks we'reessier that and the fact that we're messy isat ets us free as individuals. it's counter toin identity wr that is not judgmental and is enlightening. >> carlos and ann, thank you very much.

>> thank you. >> nawaz: there is an old saying that necessity is the mother of invention. that is certainlvatrue in the nation. from the cronkite school ofli jour at arizona state university, students jake trybulski and drake dunaway explore the sport of "rez golf"" av reporter: in the vast najo nation that covers most of northeast arizona, the game isn't ways fast, but no one is in a rush. ( laughs ) >> rez golf, it's dirt, frustration and a lot of cussing, but it's fun though. >> oh, it's sandy! y,>> reporter: donald benais two brothers and his cousin freddie created their course in steamboat, arizona, they proudly stake claim to as being the first of its kind. >> as far as i know we are the

ones who generated rez golf. >> rorter: whether they were the first to tee off into sage brush lined faways or not, the sport is growing. rez golf courses are popping up all over the navajo nation. >> they actually have a course in fort defiance as well. and then they have one is shonto, there's one actually in od and then tuba city, so it's around. >> reporter: and in low mountain, marvis ben and his family founded the lowerville stingers golf club. >> well, we didn't really haveg much, noth do around here besides basketball was the main on but then one day i saw michael jordan when he retired, he was playing golf, so that's how it started. >> reporter: on this day it's their seventh annual tournament. and while it may not be a p.g.a. tour crowd, people come from all

over the navajo nation. >> i like it because i bond with my brothers and my dad. that's the only way wean connect. we can't just go out and go to a movie theatre, or go to the mall.or >> rr: what they do have on the navajo nation is land-- a lot of it. so why not make a par five itmost 600 yards long? and just like trnal courses, rez golf courses have their own unique features that make each one differen ve what would tiger woods do? >> my sister, she right there, threw out an old carpet, so just put a hole in it, put it right there and that's how the ball rolled perfectly. >> we don't like to call them greens, we like to call them putting surfaces cause theres no green on the green. >> reporter: maintenance requires hard work, but instead of using specialized mowers and advanced technology, rez golfers get help from those they share the land with. >> the landscape here, it's not

just meant for us, it's meant for the cattlend the livestock. there's food for them all raound. i mean, we're liy stepping on it as we go from hole to hole. >> we don't want to clear the whole thing. sage is much more rez, everywhere. if you go around the navjo reservatn you see a lot of sage. that is part of our bunkers, i mean. tough luck, that's rez golf. >> reporter: and while they are family courses, both are open to anyone who wants to play, free of charge, because this game is one to share. >> this kind of reminds me of way back when st. andrews first started their golf. this is how they started and this is how they took care of their golf course. we are proud of what we have, it makes us feel good when a lot of golfers come. you get to meet people, we got to know a lot of people through golf.

>> reporte for the pbs newshour i'm jake trybulski with cronkite news on the navajo nation. >> nawaz: finally tonight, our essays are a regular feature of the newshour. as many of you consider goals for the new year, here's one to consider: writer frankie thomas again offers us her humble opinion on why you should consider adding more latin to your life. >> reporter: if you can possibly get away with it, you should study latin. okay, hear me out: yes, any modern language offers more practical benefits than latin. but latin offers more fun. it has all the pleasures of a puzzle, a time capsule, and secret code. you say dead language; i say ghost-hunting. my favorite thing about latin is that all of its native speakerse ar. you'll never have to talk to them. this makes latin the perfect subject for introverts.er s no pressure to become conversationally fluent, and no latin teacher will ever force you to turn toour classmate and have an awkward scripted conversation about your winter break. unlike beginner spanish or

french which teaches you to sa"" i would like a salad" and" where is the library?"-- beginner latin teaches you to talk like a super villain. wheelock's latin, the standard beginner textbook at the college level, teaches you how to say the following sentenc" you are all to blame, and tomorrow you will pay the ulmate price." and:" our army is great, and because of the number of our arrows, you shall not see the sky." and:" human life is pushment." how can you not love a language that immerses you in ts epic world of war and gods and gladiators, where every sentence is fraught with portent and someone is usually about to get murdered? my middle school latin textbooks had a e about a barber. pretty tame, right? y cutser who accidenta his customer's throat. to this day, we all rember how to say multus sanguis fluit:" much blood flows." by the standards of middle school entertainment, it beat "dawson's creek."be that b by the way, was a

real guy. he lived in pompeii, as did all the characters in that textbookt here are somr vocab words it taught us: volcano: to erupt. ashes: to be in despair. did i mention that all native latin speakers are dead? not ly that, but many of the died horribly-- buried alive inc volcsh-- which is why we know so much about them today. to study latin is to engage with the dead. true, you can't talk to them directly-- and thank the gods for that, because what would we talk about?? winter bre but they have a way of getting woto your head, with their beautiful useless. no one speaks latin anymore, no one needs latin anymor yet here we are. hee i am, watching my favor sitcom, mentally translating the dialogue-- noli,eandra dulcis, meretrix ebriat pugnax esse! and remembering that nothing is permanent. not emperors. not gods. not even me.

so that's how studying latin will change yo life. you might never get a chance to use what you've learned, but it will live in your memoryr. fore and in that sense-- here's the latin-- it's not really a dead language at all. >> nawaz: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. for all of us at the pbs newshour, have a safe and happy new year. thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: b bel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like spanich, german, italian, and more. babbel's 10-15 minute lessons are available as an app, or online. more information on babbel.com.s >> brailway. >> consumer cellular

>> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial .teracy in the 21st centu >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant anpeaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was ma possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by nnewshour productllc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> you're watching pbs.

♪ >> hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour & co." during the christmas holidays, we're dipping into the archive and looking back at some of this year's highlights. here's what's coming up. [ siren wailing ] idlib province in syria was destined for a bloodbath. can one woman change history? the incredible story of how a syrian-american doctor lobbied president trump. plus... >> what can i play? oh, here. [ piano music plays ]in >> his acareer already has a cult following. now jeff goldblum hits the keys for his debut jazz album. and... >> that was clear that would never change. [ laughter ] >> the comedian mike birbiglia settles in for an honest d.nversation about fatherh ♪