captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> nawaz: goodnavening. i'm awaz. judy woodruff is away. on the "newshour" tonight, the trump administration's immigration policy faces renewed scrutiny after two migrant stildren die in u.s. custody and new video shows atment in one children's shelter. then, senator elizabeth warren becomes the latest democrat to declare candidacy for 2020 as both sides dig in over the ongoing government shutdown. and in one of the world's driest regions, israel's invative water management acts as a ge--ark against climate ch but also highlights the stark contrast with its palestinian neighbors. >> the threat of climate chang is so great in this region that if we don't work with our neighbors, we're also at peril. >> nawaz: all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour." aj

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thank you. >> nawaz: the partial government shutdown is now in its tenth day, but there may be an end in sight. g use democrats are prepar vote on a package thursday to fund the department of homeland 8.security through februar it includes $1.3 billion for borderecurity. that's far short of the $5 billion dollars president trump demanded f the border wall. they'll also vote on six more bipartisan bills to fund other departments througthe end of september. massachusetts senator elizabh warren is the first high profile democrat to formally move toward making a bid for the presidency in 202 warren announced she's formed an exploratory committee to dec whether to eventually run for the office. she spoke to reporters outside her me in cambridge this afternoon. >> i'm in this fight all the way. right now, washington works great for the wealthy and the wellonnected. it's just not working for anyone else.bu 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 across this country o are going to be part of it. together we're going to make change. >> nawaz: today's move will allow warren to begin raising funds for a likely presidential d campaign in what's expec bea crowded democratic field. we'll take a closer look at the e 2020 race and get an upd the government shutdown later in the program. outgoing defense secretary jim mattis bid farewell to pentagon employees today. the former u.s. marine corps general resigned last month over policy differeenes with prestrump, including the president's decision to pull u.s. troops out of syria. in a wrien message, mattis insisted "our department is proven to be at its best when the timeare most difficult. so keep the faith in our country and hold fast,longside our allies, aligned against our foes." russia's domestic security agency says it has detained american citizen on suspicion of

spying. in a statement, the federal security service said it arrested paul whelan on friday in moscow during what they"e called aionage 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. >>'t translated ): i dhink the elections were credible because too many people couldse not vote becf problems with electoral lists. many people did not find their names registered and were told to go many people didn't vote

yesterday. id>> nawaz: the current prt, joseph kabila, is stepping down after being in power for 17 years. the election marks tst peaceful, democratic transfer of power sie the country's independence from belgium in 1960. official resul are expected to be announced january 15. back in this countrywall street closed out its worst year in a decade. but stocks ended the day in positive territory, boosted by ins in the technology an 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 ringing 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 secu with 000 officers on the streets and its first-ever use of drone surveillance.

and across france, authorities deployed nearly 150,000 security forces to prevent unrest and terror attacks. still to come on the "newshour," the recent deaths of two migrant children and new video inside at children's s bring more scrutiny of u.s. immigrationw, policy; nd rare, data on civilian casualties as a resulte of u.s. air stin the fight against isis; we break down the latest on the govern shutdown and the 2020 presidential race; plus much more. nawaz: troubling videos from inside a migrant children's shelter in arizona he come to light which appear to show employees of a u.s. governmentnt ctor roughly treating migrant children in their care. in one clip, aale staffer is seen pushing, shoving and

appearing to slap one child. another adult is seen forcing a different child 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, at a facility in youngtown, arizona operated by southwest key programs-- a non- profit that runs 24 such shelters nationwide, housing migrant children, most 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 vid should point out, has been blurred obviously because you want to protect th identities of the children. what else do we know about the details of the chldren or the staffers in this video? >> well, what we know is these incidents happened in

d-september at a facility in a suburb of phoenix called youngtown, arizona. it's one of, at the time, 13 shelters operated by southwest key in arizona.t aftese incidents happened, southwest key reported those to the federalovernment, as is required by they are coract, and, without elaboration, the federal office of refugee resentment suspended operations at that facility. at the time, we didn't know why. a couple of weeks later, on a separate mart but involving this facility among others, the state health department threatened to revoke the licenseof all the southwest key shelters because of problems with double checking background -- doing background checks in a timely manner. the settlement resulted in that facility as ll as anoth being shut down. so where we're at today is the facility where ts happened is

not operating anymore. we don't know where the children are. we do know at the employees involved were terminated. >> can you talk about the videos and how he got them? the cameras in this situarion, they standard in shelters like this? it's hard to ieve anyone would treat a child like that knowing they are recorded. >> they are standard art of to have sight of children in the federal government's care and, yeah, i think that's why these videos are particularl disturbing. it is important to keep in mind, i mean,hese are kids who are traumatized -- they have beenhe removed fromr parents, they're in a strange place, they don't know it, they may not e speak the language, so, of course, they are going to act out, and there have to be techniques and training forrs stafo know how to deal with these kind of disruptive behaviors, but this seemed to suggest they went atle beyond the pale. we don't have a clear grasp of

what kind of actions are acceptable, at this point. we dknow that the local sheriff's office initially looked at this and decided there wat nothing here thaally rose to a criminal standard, saying that these are basically -- basically suggesting these were somewhat accepted practices. they reversed that position or their higher-ups did after we accomplished these videos over the weekend. >> we should point out the county prosecutor there is lookvig into reing these videos to see if there is something that rises to theve of criminality, but criminal behavior aside, i thinu it's dif for anyone to see children in the care of the u.s. government being treated this way, a this one company, southwest key programs, i want to ask you about them, because they are the nation's largest operators of shelters for migrt children. they have some 5,000 migrant children across all these shelters, and the re children removed from these shuttered shelters were sent to other shelters. we went to them f a stateme and they basically said we

of operationnsi 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 and training in the arizona shelters. is there anyhe waycan guarantee this isn't happening in any one of their other shelters? >> that's a good question. we may have to wait forhat consultant's report to come back out. we do have -- meaning my organization -- we do have some records requests into stat officials who hold the license for the other southwest key facities that are operating, and we'll see what that mightel there was a second shelter that was closed at the same time at the one inaoungtownzona, and we don't know why. we are trying to find outes, cially in light of these revelations. >> you know, we should also mention it's not the first time you and your colleagues have reported on disturbing behavior and even some criminal

convictions coming out of specifically southwest key mprograms. tea lilt bit about what you fot d in the pasand what you will continue to look into. >> due to work done by my colleague agnew fillip, he noted predating this surge of children the border, a couple of years previous, the youngtown facility had two el negotiation of child sex abuse, child-on-child issues that were investigated, and since then we have lear have been two southwest key employees who workt at other shelters who have been arrested, one who's been convicted on i think it's eight different counts involving child maltreatment. he's s to be sentenced late there are month. another man was arrested, and i'm not clear what hasneap to his case, but there have been problems not just at this one facility that is n closed but at others that are still

operating. busetho incidents pre-dated sort of this wave of cldren fhat came in in the summer o '18. >> before we go, can you tell me, because you have been reporting on this space for a while, in ki of video is rare. how difficult is it for us to understand what's happeningse inside tovernment contracted shelters housing migrant children?t' >> oh, i thinkvery difficult. i mean, the only time that we -- meaning our staff -- has been able to even get a loodek in one is when first lady melania trump came this past smer and that was part of a well-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 say noouthg what they saw, neither positive, negative or neutral. it is very difficult to get in. th are not open to the public. these are shelters that -- there are privacy concerns, of course,

we have to rely on police reports, on any kind of oversight that comes from the federal government, anything that we can get out of public records, oversight from the fds or from the state health department, but it's a bit 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.- s led coalition fighting i iraq and syria released information about all the air strikes it conductede last week. it also released an estimate for how many civilians have been killed in those air strikes inth last four years. the number is more than 1,000. but as nick schifrin reports,ar therquestions about whether the military is undercounting. >> reporter: four years ago, isis controlled territory across iraq and syria the size of belgium.he today,roup has lost 99% of that land, and eight-millionlo

people ner have to live inside the so-called islamic state. the u. has achieved that success thanks in large part to a massive air campaign. in iraq and syria, the u.s. has launched 31,6 air strikes in a sempaign the coalition describes as the "most pren history." but this weekend, the u.s. admitted that thosair strikes accidentally killed 1,139 civilians. how did they arrive at that number? and is it accurate? to explore those questions i am joined by larry lewis, who ud to lead the defense department's efforts to prevent civilian casualties. he was also the state department's senior advisor on civilian protection, and is now research director at the cente for naval analyses. larry, thank you very much. k.lcome bac you and i have talked about how this is probably an undercount, that $1,139, and oe of the main reasons is buildings, something almost basic, right, you can't see inside buildings that have been struck. so how mucof a problem has

liat been, given that a lot of these civian casualties are in dense urban battles like mosul and raqqa and forces want a lot hf progress quickly. >> the fact that u.s. and coalition have been working with allies such as iraq and the kurds 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 nothis campaign, you speed was of the essence. when the u.s. works with partners, yo know, we ten give license to the partner to set the tempo, and ty do't always have the same kind of priorities the u.s. does. ou specifically about how y can't see in buildings and, therefore, you could increase numbers of civilian casualties

casualties if you're ing the buildings? >> correct. first of all, if you're doing a ngrike on the builyou don't know who's in the building. after the strike on the building, you don't know what the effect is. so it's ilt to say are there civilian casualties or not. >>ou and i wereorking and living in afghanistan at the same time, 2008 and 2009, there were 100,000 troops there andd there wo civilian incidents where troops would be sent to theco scenerdon off the scene and investigate. that's not happening in syria and aq. does this affect the actsy of the number the military is reportiny. >> absolut in afghanistan, you had the advantage of 100,000 troops, basically sensors, that could go in and figure out the ground truth. in iraq and syria, thas not been the case. they don't have the military so bthey don't have theenefit of the information. >> there are some n.g.o. workers

who go to the sites in iraq and investigate. why isn't the u.s. military going? >> the argument the military said against that is it'an additional requirement they're not resourced for. second of all, 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 collabotion with these other organizations, so the u.s. military has its information, they have full-motion video, they have oth forms of intelligence. if you combine that with information frm other groups and you can get better estimat that whic way as well. >> are they not coming that information? >> so they are trying to combine that information, but it could be done better than it is now. >> is there increased willingness to cause civilian casualties? the non-combatant casualty value, there's a ber of

casualties deemed acceptable. has that number chenged over years and perhaps even increased? >> yes, th n-combatant casualty value often called the ncv, tha cis kind of aap on the sent number of civilian atcasualties. s done in addition to the legal conversations made during a strike. yo in late 2016, that number was increased, so, a say, the willingness to take risks to civilians, that the risk threshold wins creased around that 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? >> i think it's pretty logical to say yes certainly, there are cases that ere aware of where strikes 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, aually. british major general chris gika, the deputy commander ofnd strategy information for operate inherent resolve, the operation agast i.s.i.s. in iraq and syria speaking to pentagon reporters a couple of o.eks >> i think it's important on this issue of civilian casualties tomake reay clear that we conduct all our sikes with considerable care, for each oand every strike t minimize civilian casualties at every turn and, where there are allegations, we investigate them very thoroughly. >> have they tried to minimize vilian 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, but there are also systemic shortfalls, both in res

do you seeieing casuaand investigating credible allegations that can be proved. >> what you think the u.s. should be doing better? >> they should be monitoring trends, whicwould yo was not don iraq and sir . i n'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 ways we can improve the investigations to beter estimate that the 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 week, one democrat senator is one step closer to a 2020 wesidential campaign. here to help explat lies

ahead in the new year, newshour's own lisa desjardins. and joining us from capitol ll, 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 the latest? esignate as they are calling her in her office, nancy pelosi, tell me that they are going to unveil their plan for a government funding breakthrough and that'ing to be to fund most to have the government, most to have the agencies that are shut down with six differens appropriatills and separate out d.h.s., the department of homeland security, which is what this fighting is about, support for the border security, a separate proposal 1.3 billion only for fencing. k questiw this is something ike president has not agreed to yet, so looks the democrats will take the vote thursday when they begin the new house and probably won't go farther.

meanwhile, someroomli some repne trying to get a bigger deal. lindsey graham on sunday. >> if anythg, he's not a man under siege. the president is firm in his commitment to make sure we getor money for r 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 gete ous discussions started as soon as next week >> daca and d.p.s., democrats aren't biting observe that at >> very much in the er. erica, jump in. this big tger dealhat linds slindz floating, is there any chance any part of that gets picked up? what about the democrats plan moving forward? >> we'll see about the larger deal. nancy pelosi has ruled out a

daca for wll trade, and it's worth noting several attempts 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, with a challenge to president trump that says backn downur wall, and reopen the government, or don't, and this shutdown that has furloughds hundreds of thous of workers will continue perhaps indefinitely. >> this ll is where a lot of the conversation about the shutdown began, by separating ou d.h.s., democrats want to take immigration out of the equation. what are the key differences? >> the negotiations have broken downtho much they're not even really tking about the differences, but i thought itgh be worth looking at them. the president, when proposed his budget for this year askedor $1.6 billion in money that could

go to a wall.se thte bill that the senate passed unanimously, that would have had 1.6 billion, but it was for fencing only. it made it clear that that had to go to a fence and not a wall. and then the house bill that they passe kind of what triggered the shutdown difference, was $5.7 billion that could go to a wall. this difference of a few billion eralcale of the entire f budget is not much. it's a lot for any portion but they're down to tis 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 another big topic today anthat is a look ahead to 2020, already massachusettsedemocratiator elizabeth warren entering the fray announcing she's forming an exploratory committee. let's 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 to the

pie and enlisted politians to cut them a slice, they crippled unions to nobody could stop them. >> we'll turn the bull loose. the eanancial rules to keep us safe after the great depression and cut their ownxe >> we are months out after the first votes cast in the iowa caucuses. what is elizabeth warren doing now? >> right, and new year's e a could be sea strange time to make a campaign announcement, bushe does have the stage to herself for the time being, the first big announcement from a democrat for 2020, and makingle very with that very populist video and its imagery what she's going for, she will protect the middle class. she's gointo have a very crowdd field to join going forward, but we'll see if she separates herself out by going first and going big with this

video. >> so this is likely to be a crowded feel. what do we know about the fl >> first, in that veo, elizabeth warren is clearly running from the left. that's what we expected but she's taking an open shot to ronald reagan, who most ofer a admire, but progressives think many of his policies lead to at we have now. but as you and erica saie d, the 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 declared themself. john delaney of maryland, registeredregistered ojetta, frm west virginia. dwight from west virginia, a bronze star, and andrew yang and he's a nonprofit exec and someone who worked in the obama administration. all three of those running,,

doey're out there. who's exploring the concept? now we have thse two, julian castro was the first big name to announce, we knew in november he was going to be aexn oratory committee, and elizabeth warren today. julian castro sad he would announce in november. prepare yourselves, this is just 20 photos, and i went to one of yours. i know the more people out there, we'reprobably going to get e-mails about ideas other people v. i like this groupe becais shows you a little bit of the contours of those who are wristed. 12 of these 20 with members of congress. you can see now they are dominating thenitial runup the gate. we don't know who will come out to have the gate moregl str so a few mayors, governors, former governors, it is a massive field. in the democra iowa caucuses are 13 months away, but the

first debates on them are in june. so that's only six months away. 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 jussaw 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 diverse in history. the qution about how the midterms will affect how the democrats play, not only the congress and government, but how they feel with the 2020 field with all the women an minorities and democrats, where does that lead them? >> a very diverse democratic class elected 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 for some othe older politicians,e re established names,

including elizabeth warren butid also joeen and others who are looking at running. is that really what the democratic partys loong for? this house democratic class, this new majority, the policies that they ut forth and embrace may end up specific as thefo pl for whoever does end up as the nominee, south going to be verimportant to watch wat they do and how they establish the terms of t debate. >> lisa, before we go, i want to get you to weigh in on this interview. formerhite house chief of staff justice kavanaugh gave to ehth "los angeles times" over ekend, he was asked about conversations in the white house with president trump specifically about the wall. he said it'seally not a wall. he told "the los angeles times," he said "the president still says wall, oftentimes, frankly, he'll say bar w barrier or fenc, now he tends thwart steel flats. but left a concrete wall

earlier on in the administratio" the president says, fence, wall, whatever you call it. the democrats say definitely not a solid crete wall. however, a tweet from the president today said an all-concrete wall was never abandoned. he said some areas will be all concrete. this spes to part 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 we. lisa desjardins, ericka werner, .hank 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 critical, especially in areas where water is scarce. fred de sam lazaro begins a two part look at how the middle easi

is appro this crisis. he begins in israel where technology is making all the difference. you will see a huge farm owned by a com18mune. 00 trees produce some 1600 tons of dates a year. they are exported around thed, wout what you cannot tell is what was here before the farm. >> this is a dead tree. part of a dead tree. nothing grew here before. >> the farm was possible because, over the last two medecades, israel has be world leader in conserving, recycling and even producinr wan one of the dryest places on earth. it wasn'like that 40 years ago, when the farm was first pland. >> the beginning, we were optimistic, but it didn't take long before we realized that, if we want to crn and grow, we

have to change our way of thinking. >> now, all of tck water schi uses on his farm is recycled, treated sewage coming directly from jerusalem some 30 miles away. in fact, 87% of all siewdgd generan israel, while not fit for drinking, is recycled for use in agriculture where it is safe. if you were not here wits thi artificial system of delivering water here, what would this land look like? >> complete desert. nothing. >> it's not just recycled water. israel also now produces most of its tap water straight out of the mediterranean sea. >> the largest ant on its kind in the world. >> he's sur -- he took me on a desalination plant. 85% of israel's drinking water comes through desalination through reverse osmosis technology whose cost he

dropped in recent years. two more plants will soon come online, all to serve a growing population and deal with the rapidly drying climate. israel even plans to begin pumping dalinated water into what was once the region's largest source of freshwater bun has b severely depleted by overuse and the changing climate. i'm standing audit the mouth of the jordan as it flows out ofth biblical sea of cagalile normal tiernlings i would be under 12 feet of water. but this is not normal times. there s been drought for 15 o the past 20 years.s >> irse than being redicted. >> bromeberg is thraeli director of eco peace who bring together israelis, palestinians and jordanians to find regional solutions. >> the threat of climate chge is so great in this region that if we don't work with our

neighbors, then we're also at peril. >> under international agreements, the paleinian west nk and gaza buy most of their water from israel. israel has often rtricted the supply particularly in the gaza strip. bromeberg says the arrangement is fraught with mistru. >> dependency in the highly conflict chiewl part of the world is n politically attractive and, therefore, we're tryi to think of how do we create interdependencies. p >> eco peaoses gaza also build large desalination plants with international financing. similarly, jordan, with vast deserts, could supply sol energy for the entire region including desalination plants that run onatural gas. >> we're either going 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, iaddition to investment in desalination. as for palestinians, dependency on ireland for water and power, israel would like its neighbors to recycle and produce its own water. >> if they would treat their sewage exactly like israel, they can increase the quantity of water they have by 40%, quite a lot. they do not do it. >> 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 the gaza strip following the election there of the islam militant group hamas. >> wwhen you have no waer, no

electricity. >> he agrees conditions in gaza are desperate. >> the series doesn't stop in the aquifer. on the gaza side, it contaminates the groundwater on both sides.m >> he showee waste water that flowed next to the wall that separates gaza froisrael. >> we have a ticking te bomb here in gaza where the likelihood of disease breang out is highly likely. >> the united natio has concluded that, at the current rate, the gaza strip willecome uninabout thible by 2020 because to have the lack of water, sanitation and electricity, that's prompted a scramble byna internataid groups to provide emergency assistance. will explore efforts by international aid agencies in tto deal with gaza's water

crisis in the next piece. this is fred de sam lazaro, nely the israel-gaza >> nawaz: fred's reporting is a partnership with the under-told stories project at the university of st. thomas in minnesota. >> nawaz: as we mark the end ofr any of us are thinking about resolutions. that might include reading more. if so, youl want to pay close attention as jeffrey brown guides us through the best books of 2018. >> for our look at books, i'm joint by two disnguished literary voices. ann patchette, her last novel "commonwealth" is on man critics "lists for best books of the year in 2016. the latest bok is "nashville, scenes from the new american south." and acarlos lozada book critic

for "the washington post" who specializes in nonfiction. welcome to both of you. ann, start off with a couple o your fiction choices. >> i live your end roundups because i get tthink about what stuck with me over the course of the year. my favorite book this year is "baby u're going to be mine" a short story collection by kevin wilson. it's wholly original, rough, every storys unique, there are no weak sisters. every single story is a tinner. i lois book. i hope it takes the world by storm. a very clossecond for me favorite, the overstory by richard powers. you could really say every richard powers book is a masterpiece, but this one is really importgit. it's aant novel about trees and the people who work to sae them, and every single juan of his narrators has an amazing story about an amazing tree, and finay all the parts come together. it's a giant, engrossing novel,

i loved it.ou >> i knowre a big reader. 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.oo then anotheri wasn't so sure about six months later if i'm city thinking about it, il 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 t eer himself. so he becomes a border patrol agent working in the sou his mother warned him against taking the job, she said the soul can buckle in a job like. this his -- a job like this. his did. he had nightmares and glt, he's trying to discourage migrts by taking their sulies but also tries to help them in the right trial to have the year at the crossing.t

>> i wento the desert with him to talk about the book. >> and you really et a sense o place with this book. what i like about it io much s 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 no an honest, empathetic story of one person. next up is "good and mad" by rememberda traster, from new york magazine, a written about female anger through politics, came out in the midst of the brett kavanau hearings, excruciatingly topical at the time, and writes how men are lionized and praised for their anger and female anger idis issed as irrational, when it can be a vital and rationa organizing tool.

traster turns the lens onel heand talks about how she ered to suppress her own ang in her writing and but she's not doing it anymore. >> fiction? i have a great novel about female anger by madeline miller the first book was "song of achilles." en in "searcy" she goes back to homer and retells stories of classic mythology.e rns a man's men into pigs. that is one tinyig by the of her story. she is powerful and grabs ahold of her own life. a fantastic book, educational but also a ripping good read that wl keep you up at fight. another book that i loved was called "earlork" by andrew martin, a book i stumbled on

because i read a review of it in the "times" because i thought it sound so interest it's really -- dirty. (laughter) >> how dirty, sit, ann? it's a book about young graduate students who drink a lot, read a lot, have a lot of sex, and somew it's just mesmerizing. i've given this book to a dozen people tnd everybody saidhey stayed up all night, they loved it, terrific book. >> can you top that, carlos? this won't be as dirty. now i want to be the 13t 13th person that gets that book. >> absolutely. "post truth" by neil mcintire >> in our moment. yeah, many, many books on the fate of truth in the american republic. they all have funky names like truth decay or gas lighting america. what i like about this book which is more of a phlosophical tour is that he isn't just concerneabout the fate of particular facts or truths, but

he thinks what is really under assault here is the very method by which we asc ertain truor get to truth, in particular science. what is alshelpful here is that he doesn't just stay at the level of the collective or sort of as the society kind of argument but he really tries to look at what we can do as individuals to fight back against this current, and he says we need to question our own truthsour own certainties, we need to embrace doubt. he says that's very hard to do g but aood message for this. mome another book that i think hits the moment in an unusual way is "the list" by amy siskifl it's a tion of the intersize the author did right after the 2016 election, she coiles a list o every weird norm-breaking move made by thedm incoming trumpinistration. first nine items, then 18, 26,

d finally hundreds of items per week. what's helpful heris it's basically compressed histroif the trump presidency. you forget in every shheock of moment about the last shock of the moment. >> right. so i hope she does volumes 2, 3 and 4, though this book isy alre0 pages, so i'm not sure how she's going to do more inhe next one. >> i think we might have timephor one more pick apiece. ann, you want to start? >> okay, i'm going to bick the "barrel morebook of the dead" by marian winsnak. it d seem logical but it is the most life-affirming little book. they are ty vignettes of people that she knows, has known who have died and also famous w who haveall kno died, they're like little personal obituaries and oddlyol the ctive effect is that it makes you see the joy andhe beauty of life, a weirdly

terrific holiday gift, the baltimore book of the dead. >> and thaone is nonfiction, clearly? >> yes. carlos? ll me anthony apios, "the lies that bind," another controversial subject, basically a tour through the history and philosophy of identity politics. he is sort of skeptical of this trend towards identity politics and he rejects essentialism, the notion that we have some kind of overriding force that defines us and puts us into one group. he thinks we're messier that and the fact that we're messy is what sets us free asin viduals. it's counter to identity writing that is not judgmental ans enlightening.lo >> cand ann, thank you very much. >> thank you.

>> nawaz: there is an old saying that necessity is the mother of vention. that is certainly true in the navajo nation.nk from the ce school of journalism at arizona state university, students jake trybulski d drake dunaway explore the sport of "rez golf"" >> reporter: in the vast navajo nation that covers most ofno heast arizona, the game isn't always fast, but no one is in a ( laug) lo rez golf, it's dirt, frustration and of cussing, but it's fun though. >> oh, it's sandy! >> reporter: donald benally, his two brothers and his cousin freddie created their course in steamboat, arizona, which they fioudly stake claim to as being tht of its kind. >> as far as i know we are the

ones who generated rez golf. >> reporter: whether they were the first to tee off into sage brush lined fairways or not, the sport is growing.ou rez golfes 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 cottonwood and then tuba citou so it's . >> reporter: and in low mountain, marvis ben and his family founded the lowerville ingers golf club. >> well, we didn't really have much, nothing to do around here besides basketball was the main one. but then one day i saw michael jordanhen 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 wity my brothers anad. that's the only way we can connect. we can't just go outo to a movie theatre, or go to the mall. ve reporter: what they do on the navajo nation is land-- a lot of i so why not make a par five almost 600 yards long? and just liktraditional courses, rez golf courses have their own unique features that make each one different. >> what would tiger woods do? >> my sister, she lives right there, threw out an old carpet, so just put a hole in it, put in right therthat's how the ball rolled perfectly. >> we don't like to call them greens, we like to call them putting surfaces cause there iso no grethe green. >> reporter: maintenance requires hard work, but instead of using specialized mowers andg advanced techn 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 cattle and the

livestock. there's food for them all around. i mean, wee literally 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 reservation you see a lot of ge. that is part of our bunkers, i mean.at tough luck, rez golf. >> reporter: and while they are o mily courses, both are open to anyone who wantsay, 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. >> reporter: 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 shld study lati okay, hear me out: yes, anyde language offers more practical benefits than latin.bu latin offers more fun. it has all the pleasures of a puzzle, a time capsule, and a secret ce. you say dead language; i say ghost-hunting. my favorite thing abt latin is that all of its native speakers are dead. you'll never have to talk to th. this makes latin the perfect subject for introverts. there's no pressure toe conversationally fluent, and no latin teacher will ever force you to turn to your classmate and have an awkward scripted conversation about your winter break. unlike beginner spanish orhi

french teaches you to say," i would like a salad" and" where is the library?"-- beginner latin teaches you to talk lika super villain. wheelock's latin, the standard beginner textbook at the college level, teaches you how to say the following sentces:" you are all to blame, and tomorrow you will pay the ultimate price." and:" our army is great, and because of the number of our arrows, you shall not see the sky." and:" human life is punishment." how can you not love a language that immerses you in this epic rld of war and gods and gladiators, where every sentence is fraught with portent and someone is usually about to ge murdered? my middle school latin textbook haa passage about a barber pretty tame, right? a barber who accidentally cuts's his customhroat. to this day, we all remember how to say multus sanguis fluit:" much blood flows." by the standards of middle school entertainmentit beat "dawson's creek." that barber, by the way, was a real guy.

he lived in pompeii, as did all the characters in that textbook. here areome other vocab words it taught us: volcano: to erupt. ashes: to be in despair. did i mention that all native latin speakers are dead? not only that, but many ofhem died horribly-- buried alive in volcanic ash-- which is why we know so much about them today. to study latin is to engage with the dead. true, yocan't talk to them directly-- and thank the gods for that, because what would we talk about? winterreak? but they have a way of getting into your head, with their beautiful usess words. no one speaks latin anymore, no one needs latin anore, and yet here we are. here i am, watching my forite sitcom, mentally translating the dialogue-- noli, deandra dulcis, meretrix ebria et pugnax esse! and remembering that nothing is permanent. not emperors. not gods. not even me. so that's how studying latin

will change your life. you might never get a chance to use what you've learned, but it will live in your memory rever. and in that sense-- here's the secret of latin-- it's not really a dead language at all. >> nawaz: and that's newshour for tonight. i'm amna nawaz.r l 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: >> babbel. a language app that teachesif realconversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. babbel's 10-15 minute lessons are available as an app, or online.on more informan babbel.com. bnsf railway. >> consumer cellular.

>> and by the alfred p. sloan , undation. supporting sciencetechnology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21stentury. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peacefulrl more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour pductions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> you're watching pbs.

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