captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> nawaz: good evening, i'm amna nawaz. judy woodruff is away. on the newshour tonight, kim jong un says north kor will not make or test nuclear weapons, or give them to others. and he's ready to meet president trump any time. then, new year, new laws-- some gnotable rule changes tak effect today. and, how limited access to water is a microcosm of the larger israel-palestineinonflict in the easingly uninhabitable gaza strip. >> the water security of israeln is very much cnected to the water and sanitation situation in gaza. >> nawaz: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs

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>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. pd by contributions to yo station from viewers like you. thank you. tr >> nawaz: presidenp has invited congressional leaders to the white house tomorrow to talk about a border wall, as the partial gornment shutdown entered its 11th day. earlier, he mocked a plan fromat house demoto re-open the government. that plan included $1.3 billion for border security, well short of the $5 billion the president demanded for a wall. the president tweeted: "the democrats, much as i suspected, have allocated no money for a new wall. so imaginative!" still, he told fox news last night he's rea to negotiate.

>> i'm here. i'm ready to go. it's very important. a lot of people are looking to get their paycheck. and so i'm ready to go anytime they want. >> nawaz: in the meantime, the largest federal ployees union is suing the trump administration for damages, onbe lf of some 400,000 employees who've been forced to work wihout pay. the shutdown is also taking a toll on some national parks that are still open to tesitors. listaffing has led to overflowing trash and human waste, sparking public health concerns. w around tld, people welcomed the start of a new year. in the netherlands, swimmers dove into frigid watring a polar plunge, while back in theo u.s., hundrethousands of people gathered in pasadena, california, to watch0tloats in the annual rose parade. the new year also meant a number of new state laws went into effect. in california: the boards of publicly traded companies arein now required tude women. illinois mandated a 72-hourin waperiod for all firearms

purchases. anutah lowered its drunk- driving limit to .05% blood alcohol level, now the nation's strictest drunk driving law. we'll take a closer look at some of the new laws, later in the program. and in indonesia, a landslide triggered by torrential ins pummeled the country's main island of java overnight, just as villagers were lebrating new year's eve. at least 15 people were killed. 20 others are still missing. rescuers worked to retrieve bodies from beneath tons of mud. the landslide destroyed 30 homes, and forced dozens to seek shelter. >> ( translated ): the main challenge in this evacuation process ishe lack of information. we are all afraid about a possibility of another landslide. in the meantime, we are still looking for survivors.aw >>: the indonesian landslide comes just nine days after a tsunami, triggered by a volcanic eruption, killed at laast 437 people on the isnds of java and sumatra.

still to come on the newshour: north korea's leader promises to clear weapons production nasa's new horizons mission explores the far reaches of wsace. new la taking effect today in states aoss the country. e opioid crisis and the class action lawsuits to watch inh 2019, plus mre. >> nawaz: in his new year's speech, north korea's leader said he s ready to meet face to face with president trump and would make efforts to insure all parties de-nuclearize. inis annual new year's address, north korean leader kim jong un stressed his desire r peace on the korean peninsula, and improved relations with the u.s. echoing a message delivered after his unprecedented handshake and summit with presidentrump in singapore back in june of 2018.

that meeting saw the sudden rise of kim on the world stage, and opened the doors for continued negotiations with the u.s. today, kim announced that he now wants a second meeting with the president, and claimed that north korea is still committed to denuclearization. >> ( translated ): we have i declaride and outside our country that we will no longer make, test, use, or distribute nuclear weapons and taken various practical measures. >> nawaz: but north korea watchers in the u.s. express dsdoubt that kim truly into give up his country's nuclear weapons. washington and pyongyang remains at odds over what specific actions each side should take to start the process. e day, kim warned against too many demands by s. >> ( translated ): however, if the united states contues to break its promises and misjudges oupatience by unilaterally demanding certain things and pushes ahead with sanctions and prsure against our republi then we may have to seek another

way to protect our country's sovereignty and interest and establish peace and stability on thkorean peninsula. >> nawaz: kim did not clarify what he meant by "another wa" but the north korean leader was clear in his call for the u.s.a and south ko stop any future joint military exercises on the korean peninsula. last year, president trump temporarily suspended thosese exerto move along negotiations. while kim stated tod that he's seeking more concessions from the u.s., there is no set timeline nor plans for more talks between the two countries to continue. talks that have already been stalled for months. for more on kim jong un's speec and test on negotiations between the u.s. and north korea, we get two views. victor cha was the director of asian affairs on the nationalnc security c staff during the george w. bush administration. he's now at the center for strategic and internat studies and is a professor at georgetown university. and jenny town is the managing

edh,or and producer of 38 no an online policy journal thator focuses on korea. welcome to you both. wjenny, i want to stah you. obviously, this is a speech primarily delivered foy a domestic audience, but he just used the phraseon denucleariza what does that say to you? >> you know, what i think it, is he's really now building a narrative of denuclearization to the domestic population, so whether or not we believe him, he's planting the seeds this isb po and the track they're going down. i think we were looking for signs he would actually change and announce a new state policyo that wase econ-focused. he didn't do that, but what i think he did was change the narrative of the state policy of dual developnt of nuclea deterrent of the economy, he's now shifting that narrative to be more back to the military development as wales th economy. so it still gives him room to neuver in case things go bad.

but, at the same time, has talked about the commitment to denuclearization. the commitments to not makewe nucleapons. you know, whether or not we believe him, again, this narrative now is being creat domestically. >> nawaz: there was hedging there. he said we'll take actions if ere are corresponding measures from the u.s. what does that mean. >> cure. that isnsistency in their position that we've seen in the past. they used to call it action for action, step for step. essentially, they want if they're going to take actions on the nuclear front, they want the united states also to take actions like lifting sanctions and stopping exercises. the one thing that i would say about this commitment to denuclearization is i think kim is building a narrative to say that we may at some point stop producing nuclear weapons or sop augmenting our nuclear stockpiles if the united states, you knons sig a peace treaty with us, all these other things. but the botom line, i think, is

they want to be accepted as a nuclear weapons state what he was messaging in that part of the speech to the united states, to donald trump ws we can do a deal if you accept me as a nuclear weapons state and a responsible nuclear weapons state. that's essentially the deal that he's putting on thlee taband that has been consistent, i think, in north korea's posion going back to previous negotiation as well. so there's a commitment to denuclearization in the sense that some day we all want that there be no nuclear weapons in the world. but praakctically speg, i think he wants to keep his weapons and still try to get a deal with trump. >> nawaz: we're six months after the hisrisingapore summit, jenny, and the commitment to denuclearize was made back then, but what specific actions have been take bin the rth koreans since then? >> well, the north koreans have done, you know, several things. i think they stopped the testing of the neural missile testing, they shut down the nuclear test site, started to dismantle some

of the key facilities and launching stations, they've offered the option forsp tions. you know, so, they feel like they've done several things. on the u. side, there also looking at the u.s. actions being taken and, yes, you know, whrfs the military exercises but the u.s. renewed the travel ban on u.s. ciizts traveling to north korea, they imposed more unilateral sanction on north korea and cut off humanitarian ae d assistato north korea as well. so if you're looking at the body of action for action and the commitment to having a new relationship, these are not the actions of a country that's ready to have a new relationship. this is signaling more of the old status quo relatiohip, and i would sort of disagree with victor on that they want to be accepted as a nuclear weans, thinking the offer is there.

but the process is -- >> the offer is there, you mean the offer to fully denuclearize? th the offer to fully denuclearize ise, but the approach is very different, and i think we still haven't come terms with how different that is because the north koreans se it, in order to go down that road, we have to have a different relationship, and the u.s. has always approached it as you have to drsenuclearize and then we can have a relationship, and i think we're still butting heads against that as to how do we get to that point and how do we find a mutually ageed-upon path in order to justify -- having them justify going down that road. >> was it a specific timeline in the vaguely worded sttement, do we consider the last sex months to progress?ha >> it' to say, really. i think what we're looking at is this big meeting that took pla in the summer, laying out broad guidelines for a possible

agreement, a lot of negotiations in the interim that got nowhere, and we're looking at the possibility of a scond summit to jump start what they talked about in the first summit. so thiis not the way we've done diplomasy with north korea in the past. i'm not saying that's good or bad because the past gotiations have failed, so we can't say this is a better or worse path, but it is.nt we're at a pow where we need a summit meeting to try toe the diplomacy going. the good part is if you get the ybe you to agree, then can make good progress. the bad part is if they cannot agree, then the diplomacy by definition fails. there's no ere else to goat that point if the leaders agree. >> tell me where this could go now. there was a time notn too log ago when these two leaders were trading escalating insults in public and there was a lot of fear around that if they can't come to some specific agreement on how to move rward, caney

get back there again? >> you know, that is the fear. i do think th of them have a mutual cal respect for eacal-- muespect for each other. on a personal level, they've built a relationship that hasn't necessarily translated to country level, and the question is can we get there. but this whole diplomatic process is not the way u.s. has diplomacy but is the way asia is comfortable doing diplomacy. the leader, pie by peks to build the relationship and track record and trust as you move towards a mutual goal. >> you think there's a regional difference? >> i think there's a cnstural deand it's something the koreans are much more comfortable th in the u.s. and the idea that singapore set up a framework not necessarily for a comprehensive agreement but for >>w the relationship should evolve. awaz: before we go, i guess americans want to know did the agreement of the last six

months, did all that make us safer in any way? >> rhetorically, maybe it's taken down the temperature a little bit, t as you menoned in your questionnaire, we're still on the prcipice. if these diplomas yeforts fail, we could end up back whe we were last year where we were clearly on a path towards r. no one nts that. you have a commitment to the u.s. prence of diplomacy at the highest level. we've never had that before in the rehiatiobetween the two countries. north korea is not your normal negotiating p >> nawaz: right. we have to remember that. there is a lot to look forward to in 2019 and the speech was the first step. >> wlook forward to it. victor cha and jenny town, thank you so much for being here. >> tha you. >> nawaz: nasa headed for the real outer limits, four billion miles from earth, on a mission that inspired a slightly unusuaa

new year's celon. jeffrey brown launches our stor with tport. >> i don't know about all of you but i'm liking this 2019 thing so far. >> brown: it was a spectacular way to bring in the new year, ai nasa scis confirmed that the "new horizons" spacecraft had successfully reached the farthest object ever explored in space: a small icy world called ultima thule. "new horizons" arrived three- and-a half years after it had flown past pluto and 13 yearsth aftecraft, the size of a mini van, rst left earth. ultima thule is a billion miles farther than pluto, located in what's callethe kuiper belt, the outer edge of our solar system. it's small, just 21 miles across, and, as seen in the first dimentary images, seems to be shaped like a bowling pin. >> now the ige that i'm about

to show you is the best we got pre-fly-by, but it's better an the one we had yesterday. 's ok to laugh, but there it is. meet ultima! >> are definitely looking forward to getting down to science data so that all of our scientists and the world can see what the outer solar system, the origins of our solar system, have to hold for us, what surprises there are.wn >> bthe celebration, children along with the science team and guests, began last night at the johns hopkins applied physics lab in laurel, maryland, at the moment "new horizons" was scheduled to fly by and take photos of ultima thule. ane of those celebrating: astrophysicist bri may, who also happens to be lead guitarist for the rock band quee he wrote a new song for the occasion.>>

his mission represents more than the mission itself, it actually represents the spirit of adventure and discovery and inquiry which is inherent in the human spirit. o brown: new images of ultima thule are expected sent back to earth in the coming days. for more othis mission and what it took to get there, we're joined by our own resident space expert, miles o'brien, from vero beach, florida. miles, welcome. happy new year tyou. >> same to you, jeff. >> brown: so tell us more about the missionf new horizons. what's it after so far from home? >> it's looking for really our origins, jeff. when you go out to this very distant aspect, this very distant place in our solar ld kuiperhe so chi belter, there are a lot of cold bodies that e orbiting around there in a deep freeze, and they have been pretty much left in

the deep freeze, undeterred, for 4.5 billion years. pluto is in the kuiper belt. this is one of the other objects in the kuiper belt, and the idea is, if you can understand these objects well, you can really see whether we are from and know a little bit more about the formathen of otplanets. >> brown: so this particular object which sounds maybe like a marvel character or a rock band, what's the importance of it? >> well, it's a tart of opportunity, for one thing. so, when new horizons launched in 2006, and in the summer of 2015 we had an amazing fly-by of pluto, we ill had gas in the tank, if you will, and they started picking another locatioy toy. the reason it's interesting is it's so unlikely much has changed there over theast

4.5 billion years. so going into the deep freeze and learning what is in that deep freeze is of great intereso cientists. >> brown: so how difficult was this to find it, to get there, to take the photos and how did they manage to do it? you know, it boggles the mind, frankly, to thinkbout the navigation task that's there and how easilyt could have gone awry. this is a drive-by at 30,000 miles an houe and during ey time when all the science was gathered, there is no dir communication between spacecraft and earth. it's pointing its camera and antennas at the object, sowf thing had to be locked and pre-loaded in, and they had to do ratel bit of educated w guessing as ere to end the lens as it flew . we won't know for certain how they did until tomorrow. >> brown: we get a remembers

of the 50th anniversary of apollelele 8 the other niht, the first manned mission to see the other side of the moon, and i was thinking w that's an earlier age of space yploration. wh look at what they're doing now with a mission like this, put that in context, where are we at this days? >> well, this is the farthest body tat's ever been explored by a spacecraft and it's actually its second fly by, and it's picked up this opportunity for steins as welli . buink what it tells us is n.a.s.a. is still in assumption that because the summary program is eretired and there is no n.a.s.a. capability for putting astronauts into space at thent mobut somehow n.a.s.a.'s not in the game anymore. to the contrary. these are missions are fascinating, tkes us t new worlds, even if people aren't on

them. >> brown: one other poignant aspect to this, miles, the spacecraft was acthually --e planet was seen by the hubble lescope and the woman known as the mother of the hubble just died thi week. >> nancy set every glass ceiling you could imagine. as a child growing up in reno, nevada, she looked to the skies and became fascinated with astronomy and never let go and ultimately got her degree at university of chicago, made hern way a.s.a. she ultimately became the first female executive at n.a.s.a. and the first chief astronomer, period. and she managed tob make huble happen. she retired before it was launched buttill stayed close to that program, and her memory lives on. >> brown: quite an achvement all around. miles o'brien, thank you very

much. >> you're welcome. >> nawaz: earlier we reported on the number of new laws taking effect today. yesterday, i spoke with reid wilson of "the hil newspaper who tracks state politics. i began our conversation asking him why new rules in specific states matter to the rest of the countr well, over the last 30 years at so, we've seen that happens in state capitals today is going to happen in washington, d.c. tomorro'r whether talking about well fair reform in the 1990s or healthcare in 2000s that became the affordable ca act or even crnlg reform. over the last decade, we've seen 30 states pass criminal justice erefem efforts in thir state capitals and just before they left the u.s. senate gave nal approval to a sweeping criminal justice bill here so what happens in the states today will happen nationally tomorrow.

>> nawaz: let's start with gun control. wh are you watching in te new year? >> democrats won a huge amount of legislative seats iis year's midterm election, they won a lot of governorships, and so what we'll se is a number of states pushing gun safety laws, red flag laws, laws that would prevent somebody who represents a danger to themselves or somebody else inossessing a gun, allowing law enforcement to take those away. we'rgoing to see those in states like colorado, new mexico, states that have not had r willipublican governor or republican legislators for a long time, we're going to seea pretty scope sweep regular form come out of new york where democrats j v just gained control for the first timdin moern history. >> nawaz: and some of those changes cam about where democrats won the solicor. marijuana. >> marijuana has become legal in a lot of states where citizens

vote on ballot measures. state legislators don't want the approve new drugs being legal or something like that, but no given we're up to ten states that have come online for recreational use, state legislators are taking a lookr and nt passed its first form of legalization through the legislature, not sent citizens, a republican governor signed by law. now we're seeing governorsn democratic-controlled states like new jersey, new york, and possibly rhode island talking about legalizing themselves. they see how much money is generated, they want a piece of the pie. >> nawaz: more on the economy there. what are some of the other issues on the state level that you're watching? s >> well, thems to be a bipartisan push lately to roll back some regulations on certain time -- certain types ofbusines. if you want to bec beautician in a lot of states, you need hundreds of hours of training before you can get certified. that works in favor of the people who are already in the market, right, tpiey're kee

out some competition, but a lot c state shaiforts legislators on the democrad republican sides think that's unfair and too high a barrier of entry in a lot of jobs, especially as the u.s. economy bemes more service-oriented soivment expect a lot of rollbacks on regulations and business licensing in the next couple of >> nawaz: you mentioned big wins among democrats and how that chane s thgislature and agendas and priorities. where would some of the big changes be? >> i think california is going toou be zero for the big liberal push for whatever agenda the demoats have this year. they have a more liberal democratic governor than the outgoing governor jerown in gavin newsom, they have a huge majority, three-quarters of theb seats ith chambers of the state legislators. what we're starting to see no a lot of california democrats saying we're going to pause a little bit and pump the brkes opened things like a single payer bill. we'rogoing to take our time figure out how to do it right.

there is a huge, pent-up liberal ambition in sack meant o they're trying to because a little bit -- pause a little bit and that's a trend because a lot of state legislators are worried there is a slow-down coing or recession. so states across the country have budget sur, saved more money for the rainy-day funds than ever in the historyo of thetry, but they're worried the next time is coming so eryone is cautious on spending on new programs. >> what are some of the issues they might touch on? housing? sing is huge. housing is a huge crisis in a number of castal states, big urban coarse, like san francisco, seattle,ne york. homelessness is on the rise, so states are getting into the housing market. californ is trying t address the where density can happen and more growpl can takace because people are simply being priced out and homelessness is

on the rise as a result. >> nawaz: so you get to track so of the off-kilter ne laws coming on the books. what are some of those? >> as a parent of a tmddler, i happy in two states, now, will requ'se menooms to have baby changing tables. i would appreciate that. ere are new sexual harassment policies coming online inli rnia and louisiana, two state capitals rocked by sexual assault and hartiassment alles over the last few years. i expect we'll see more of the #metoo movement hapning in state legislative changes across the country because state capitals are really a pla where there's not a lot of oversight of people's behavior and, therefore, people are behaving badly. we'll see more fallout on that. california, which tends to lead the way on a lot of these things, they're doingwo interesting things -- they are oanning plastic straws at restaurants unless ask for one, so the waiter will not hand you a plastic straw in he beginning, and they're also

going to start treating pets like children when it comes to divorces so people will be able to debate cusoftody in fron a judge over pets. this is now the second state to do i illinois has already come online with this. >> illinois was the first.ca fornia -- illinois was first and ca sliforniaholg. if anyone gets divorced, the pets are subject to custodyar gs just as children. >> nawaz: we are tracking it all. thank you very much for being here. >> thank you. >> nawaz: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: how the water crisis in the middle east is making the gaza strip uninhabitable. members of newshour's student reporting labs share the stories they hope to cover in 2019. and author john grisham discusses his latest nov, "the reckoning." it was declared a public healt emergency in 2017, and received

new funding as part of an october law. but the nation's opioid crisis remains a slow-moving disaster, responsible for some 40,000 overdose deaths in america last year. as william brangham reports, this year could see the culmination of a flood ofts lawsall seeking accountability for the epidemic, and trying to secure more money to treat its victims. ere are dozens and dozens of lawsuits right now ausing opioid manufacturers, distributors and retailers of failing to do enough to stop the flow of these drugs into u.s. communities. these lawsuits, which are largely brought by states andci es impacted by the crisis, allege that many of these actors could have done mond acted sooner to stop the addiction and deaths oso many americans. barry meyer covered this epidemic for 17 years for the "new york times." he wrote a book at perdue pharma, the company behinthe billion-dollar opioid 0xycontin, it's called "paink an empire of

deceit in the origin of america's opioid epidemic" and he joins me from new york. barry meyer, recently in a "new york times" editorial, you argued that you're concerned that many of these cities and states might settle these lawsuits and that, in settling, the public will get short-changed. what do you mean by that? >> well, wilnliam, this i an uadinary situation, it's an extraordinary sion. every year, tens of thousands of people die from these drugs and erdoses, and that's the result of their overuse, their misuse, eir overdistribution and overpromotion. and, you know, we can't deal with this as an ordinary, y know, lawsuit where money iso transferred -- companies to cities or from copanies to plaintiffs' lawyers. at this juncture, we have to inow the truth, why did these companies act in way, what

did they know, who are the, decision-maky did they decide to flood this country with millions and millions of pain pills? >> one of the pieces of evidenco i knowhold very strongly in this case is there's 120-page doj document that you leaked agd there was about a case broughtinst perdue pharma and the doj procutors in that case tell they had enough evidence to psecute i think it was at least three highly-rankee perdue etives. can you remind us what the evidence showed in that case? >> what the prsecutors alleged was these three top excutives knew almost immediately after 0xycontin appeared on the drket which was in 1996, that it was beiverted to the street, that it was a drug of abuse and that they hd gotten consistent reports, reports th the prosecutors believe should have been the basis for a public alert, a public warning, and

it's quite possible that, had the company made tho -- that alert in time, a lot of thee havoc that we today would not have occurred. more importantly, had this evidence been made public during a trial of these expensive, the practices of doctors may have changed, the positioof public regulators regarding the 0xycontin and other drugs may have stiffened. i mean, it's a stunning statistic, but in the five years at the justice department decided to settle this case, more than 80,000 americans died of overdoses involving prescription painkillers, including 0xycontin. >. you also argued another settlement in 2001 against perdue by the state of florida had a similar effect ofi hding relevant information that would have helped change the course of this epidemic. >> absolutely. i mean, all along the way, you

had situations where either public officials or plaintiffs' lawyers, had they been aggressive, had they gotten the documents that are inside perdue, could have brought information to light that would have chanad medical ctice, would have changed the attitudes of paents, would have changed the attitudes of regulators, bu time after time after time they balked, they settled, either for political reasons, for fincial eexpdiency, sohis ball kept rolling and rolling. it's not that we're discove ng anything nw, it's that we're only discovering what had been hidden foer 15 yars. >> but as you well know when you pointed this out in you editorial, there are communities all over this country, i know you and i both have been to many of them, that are desperate for ney, desperate for ney to train new addiction specialists, desperate r more money to buy

r narcan and desperate fored more treatment so it could mean saving lives. so you could understand the tension that a state might settle because they want the money to treat people today. >> i totally understand it's a difficult decision.no theless, i believe a lot of that money can come from public coffers. there's really no reson why is people who created this crsi are going to profit from selling drugs to cure the crisis. i as a taxpayer uld preferto see my money going to those purposes than many of the other purposes it's currently being used for. i think eventually thesit and states will get the money from industry, but these cases should n be settled absent a total and complete disclosure of the internal documents of these companies. there is a history here, and we cannot allow that history to be

buried. >> let's see that we do get a better accounting of what all these companies' role if any played in this crisis. do you think that's important for this current crisis, or doth you thin is part about sending a message for the next crisis and on down the road? >> i think it's absolutely important r the future. i think that we are in a situation where the history of this epidemic will inform how drugs are approved in the future, how they're regulated iu thre, the actions of uture.ations in the f you cannot have corporate executives going home to theirta comfe lives, knowing that millions of pain pills are being shipped to areas likea west virgiere abuse is rampant without their being somv tual accounting for their activities. >> barry meyer, thank you very much for your time. >> thanks, william.

>> nawaz: last night, we began our series on the middle east's waisis, in israel. tonight, special correspondent fred de sam lazaro reports from the gaza strip, a region the united nations predicts will be uninhabitable by next year, partly due to the severe shortage of water. >> reporter: twice a week, khamis al najjar and his wifema ain go down the street to a municipal water station to fill containers of drinking water for their family of nine including six children and madlain's ther. the water costs nearly a third of the monthly government stipend on which they survive. kham lost a leg in a construction accident years ago and is unable to work. >> ( translated ): we are really suffering with the water situation right now. >> reporter: the water is not only costly, it's often polluted.

the united nations says just 1o of gaza's twllion people have access to safe drinking water. >> ( translated ): my children get sick because of the water. they suffer from vomiting, diarrhea. often i can tell the water is not clean but we have no other option. >> reporter: 97% of gaza's freshwater supply is unsuitable for human consumptio e underground aquifer that has long supplied freshwater to gaza has been overdra. the void has been filled with sea water and untreated sewage. abdul rahim abu from the gaza water authority said the municipality can't afford to treat the water. >> ( translated ): 80 to 85% of people here don't pay their water bills because a majority of the people live in poverty. and the municipality doesn't have the ability to pay for fuel to keep the water pumps running. >> reporter: along the beach each day, young men drag in a meager catch. food is scarce they said.pl

unment in gaza is over 40%, and over 60% among young people. it is one of the most significant consequences ofis el's 11-year blockade of the gaza strip, which followed the election of the militant islamist party, hamas cross border skirmishes are common here. everhing from hamas' rockets to smaller improvised explosive devices, attached to balloons, are lobbed at israel. each time, it provokes a vigorous israeli military response. israel has asto severely ppcted the flow into gaza of equipment and sues. uri shor, of israel's water authority, says infrastructure supplies, ment for instance, are often diverted, others are weaponized. >> if they want to bring into gaza somethinghat might be turned against israel, as building rockets or tunnels, of course we have a problem with

that. >> reporter: the standoff has greatly hindered efforts to address the water crisis. back in gaza, this $10 million desalination plant, built with european aid is the first installment in a large project to bring clean water to the strip. t fuel and electricity supplies, controlled by israel, allow it to operate only about four hours a day. a large solar array that could fill the gap sits idle because cables to connect it have been held up at the border, says gaza water authority director monther shoblaq. a without real cooperation between palestinia israelis, th project will not be materialized.te >> rep but a lack of water in gaza isn'the only issue. e blockade has created a massive sanitation crisis here in gaza where every single day 110 million liters of sewage, raw and untreated, are

discharged directly into the diterranean, into the ve waters that feed the israeli desalination plants visible here, barely five miles up the coast. >> the ashkelon desalination plant of israel's domestic drinking water. >> reporter: on the israeli side, i met gidon omberg, co- director of an environmental group called ecopeace whichtr s to broker cooperation among all parties. >> the water security of israel is very much connected to the water and satation situation in gaza. the israeli military can build a fence around gaza. we can say to the public that we are disengaging from gaza but the environment doesn't allow us to actually do that. >> reporter: ecopeace uncoveredb and widelycize, satellite

imagery confirming that pollution from gaza was affecting the ashkelonimlant, and at forcing it to close. he says the situation threatens the health of israelis living near the gaza border. >> we us our connections with nde israeli mayors here ar gaza to come out and write a letter to the prime ministerle that we the peho have been at front line of rockets from gaza, refuse to be at the front line of potential pandemic disease. >> reporter: israel's government did agree to sell more electricity to gaza for water and sewage treatment. a world bank financed treatment plant recently came online after 14 years of delays. but again, fuel shortages still hinder its operations. once again politics has gotten in the way, bromberg says, in this case internal palestinian rivalries, in which the fatah

party of president mahmud abbas has resisted bringing electricity into gaza to punish hamas. >> in gaza, electricity water is also hereto being used as a tool in the internal political fights. >> reporter: former palestinian water minister shaddad attili concedes that palestinian in-ti fi has worsened the situation. >> and who's paying the heavy .rice? the people of gaza who's drinking undrinkable water?pe thle of gaza. who's delivering blue babies? our people in gaza. our women are delivering blue babies because of the attrates in the. so all people are punishing our people in gaza. >> reporter: amid all the intransigence, the udicts at this rate that gaza will become uninhabitable by 2020. >> we pump water to these storage nks. >> reporter: international aid agencies are trying to helr with the wateisis. oxfam recently opened a pilot

desalination plant. it plans to rehabilitate 45 similar facilities that have fallen into disrepair across gaza, says spokesman mohammed ammar. >> in this project we target 1,200 households and more than io000 individuals with plans to target half a mipeople in the coming two years. >> ( translated ): we drank contaminated water for a long time until oxfam came and gave us clean water.he >> reporter: tubad family is one of the lucky early recipients.on every two weeks, oxfam fills their small rooftop tank with 130 gallons of desalinated water. absent a political solution, it appears, gaza's ocean-size crisis is being addressed a fe t gallons at ae. for the pbs newshour, i'm fred de sam lazaro in gaza city, za.aw >>: fred's reporting is in partnership with the under-told stories project at the university of st. thomas in

minnesota. >> nawaz: student reporting labs is a pbs newshour project that teaches journalism and media literacy in high schools across the united states and abroad. to start the year, we asked these young reporters to sharehe whaty want in 2019 from the media they consume andreate. here now, is a sampling of what they said in this week's installment of our regular education segment, making the grade. >> in 2019 i would love to tell more hard hitting news because i feel like especial in high school we get distracted by the little light things and don't really focus on the bigger picture of the things that are happening around us. >> i really want to tell stories about our youth because most of the time all of the stories that are on the news or on tv are about older people, who aren't really connected with our

younger generations. >> it's important that young people are just as informed as people in older generations sos mainstream nd media should definitely try to tap into issues that younger people care about. >> something i like about being a student reporter, is being able to go out and record stories that matter to the realo d, and also being able to >> the chaos isn't over at the border and thereles still a prwith women's rights and the black lives matter movemento >> our generis actually doing some pretty amazing things that aren't being covered by mainstream media but should be. >> the opioid crisis that is shaking america is something knat everyone should reall about because especially because we livin maine where the percentages are so high and i just think that it's just getting worse d i think if one more person knows about it the better. >> in 2019 i hope to hear stories about job companiethat become more lenient about people

having tattoos and letting them express themselves more. >> i hope to tell stories about people who are marginalized and try to tell more than one side of the truth. >> i hope in 2019 i can tell stories for those thl they don't have a voice and for those that don't have the opportunity to tell the stories they'd likeo ell. >> i want to be able to showcase other peoples cultures, other people's religions, other le's beliefs, and just t spread more knowledge about um other people within our community today.>> really want to tell more human interest stories in 2019. i think it's more interesting to watch and you can definitely learn somethings throughe he people youterviewing and who you're telling stories about. muslim and i get affect by the fact that only negative stories are told about muslimsev y single day. so i think that they could truly affect positive change if they showed positive stories. >> some stories i would like to tell in 20, are definitely more family and community basedt tohe community more

involved in each others lives and things that are taking place. >> a lot of people have different opinions on politics and understanding their poinof view on why they picked each side is very interesting. >> we feel more disconnect in our relationships, and i feel like we can kind of shed some light on that, a really use our new tools and social media as a force to bring itogether. >> i feel like today we are not focused on what really matters, and i feel like we don't actually talk to each other as human beings. so i feel like being able to share stories about people and how amazing they are is just my dream. >> nawaz: author john grisham began life aa lawyer and then, he says, got bored and began turning his courtroom experience into best-selling legal thrillers. his latest, "the reckoning,"or

tells the of a murder of a prominent mississippi preacher by a returning world war ii hero who confesses but refuses to say why he did it. jeffrey brown spoke with grisham for pbs books at the miami book fair, and found out this novel includes a grisham first. did something i've never done before. in the context of i guess a legal thriller, we turn off with a murder, arrest, criminal prosecution, the trial, a looming ecution, you know, that's my sweet spot, okay, that's what i like to write abt. >> yeah. suddenly, when that's over in part one, the book takes a hart left turn and goes off to world war ii, the philippines andhe deton death march because our ante-hero, the mr, the defendant, went off to fight in a war. >> brown: is it co this is a story you heard a long time ago? >> yeah, yeah. i think it took place in mississippi in the 1930s, that's the way -- the version i

heard. >> brown: no question about the who done it, but there's the why he doesn't wa to talk about. >> that's why it's a great story because the truth is never known. there's speculation it involved his wife but he wou ld nevy that because he did not want to dama her honor, impugn her reputation. >> brown: right. so he took it to his grve. >> brown: when you're writing e out 1930s, '50s, mississippi, youni'veta bring writing about race. you often, in your books, ibo think, write and get into social issuest tha interest isn't the right word -- that seemmportant to you. is that fair? >> yes. i'm always searching for a story about an issue. issues involving criminal justice, especially injustice, mass incarceration, death penalty,roort prisons and all these profits that we have, ldat we could fix if we wou simply do it.

>> brown: is it the issue that interests you first and then you find thetory togo with it? >> both ways. >> brown: both ways. w sometimes fe will say stop preaching, get off your soapbox and go write another "firm," a good story of suspense, legal intrigue, and stop preaching for a while. and i'll do that. you can't impose youicr pol on your readers because it becomes sort of intruffes. you don't want to asume everybody's got the same policies. so itay away from it a lot. it was fun to write a good, old-fashioned thriller, suspense novel without the heavy legal issues. >> brown: what made you want to be a writer in the first place? >> i had a great story, "a time to kill," and som one day in court, and i said, i'm going to take that story and change ts and that and make it a very compelling croom drama in a small town in mississippi. so i became obsessed with the ory that became "a time to

kill." >> brown: i read you were giving early advice aboutis pung regularly or once a year. >> i never thought about it. i never thoht about publishing every year, but when "the firm" came out in march of '91 now, a young editor made an offhanded comment and said, well, the big yys come out i've writar. >> brown: the big guys. the big writers. she said, look at the list -- come -- tom clansy, stephen king, the key is to do it reverie year for a while. i never realized that. i started my third book "pelican brief" and i hurried back home and quit touring and said i'm going to finish the bach and publish next year and that got 25 started anears later i do it once a year. >> brown: justice, system and

process never wet awy. >> we're men's, we have a insatiable appetite for stories about the law, lawyers and crime and ao cmpulsion for litigation that's unmatched in the world. we have so many rights that we either really have or we think that we have as americans, and we love our rights that we cherish, and if somebody does something to tamper with a right that we think we have, we're not going to take it.e you know,e going to call a lawyer, we're going to file a lawst, we're going to do something because we want justice. that's just the american way. that's in our dna and that leads to a lot of great stories. >> brown: yeah, if you know where to look. >> if you know where to look. >> brown: the new novel is "the reckoning." john grisham. thank you. >> thank >> nawaz: all of jeff's conversations from the miami book fair are available online at pbsbooks.or

>> nawaz: finally tonight, preview of that moment when, newshour's show on facebook watch. in this episode, political conservative max boot shares the moment he realized he could not support then-candidate donald trump nor the republican party. when did i leave the right? i mean, i think it's been a gradual process.an it really bn the summer of 2015 when trump began running r president, attacking mexicans as rapists and murderers, att mccain, somebody i revere. it continued with his policy proposal to bar all muslims fron this coy, his praise of vladimir putin, it was one appalling statement ter another, and at first i just chalked it down to, well, this buy o isthis toxic -- this guy is this toxic bully, this guy who cnnot become president.

>> nawaz: you can find all episodes in our series on facebook at that moment when show. ewile online, find six year's resolutions that are better for your health than a crash diet. that and more is on our web site, pbs.org/newshour and that's the newshour for tonight. on wednesday, a medil mystery striking kids with a polio-like disease. i'm amna nawaz.re join us again omorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provid by: >> babbel. a language app that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, alian, and more. >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide.

>> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic entgement, and the advancem of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and byontributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. caioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

♪ ♪ - this week on milk street, we travel to the middle east. we start with salmon chraimeh. it's a quick skillet dish with mint, cilantro, paprika, and cumin. it's easy, and also delicious. an then we take a cue from armenian cooking. it's a version of tabouli, .bulgur, mint, tomato sal and, finally, we do a tangerine almond cake whh is infused with a sugar syrup. it's absolutely spectacular. m stay tuned fls from the middle east, right here on milk street.