newshour productions, llc >> nawaz: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. judy woodruff is away. on the newshour this thanksgiving day: on an unannounced visit to says he's restarted talks with the taliban. then, a look back at presidential impeachments in america, and what lessonthey hold for the current inquiry into president trump.in and, a look de the effort to turn the massive amount of food waste in america into energy toe power fficient food production. >> we, in our homes, actually make up the biggest source of all the food that is going to waste out there. >>onawaz: all that and more tonight's pbs newshour.

>> m newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. chlogysumer cellular.te b e and improvnomic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. giar>>rpne supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org.e >> and with going suppot of these institutions: and individuals. >>

his program was made possible by the corporation forb publadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> nawaz: president trump spent part of this thanksgiving in afghanistan, at bagram airbase, noh of kabul. mr. trump met with seval hundred american troops, served a traditional thanksgiving dinner to many, and met with afghan president ashraf ghani. president trump also said he had restarted peace talks th the taliban, talks which he cut off in early september. for more on this, i'm joinedy our own john yang, here inthe esident said-- restarting the peace talks. where do they sta. >> it's interesting anna officials tell want newshour this was not intend to ta about the peace talks. as stephanie grisham told reporters on air force one on the way or this was to be a show of support for the

troops, a holiday greeting, a traditional thing for presidents to do. as so often is the case, president trump had different ideas when he sat don with afghan president ghani. >> we've been wanng to make deal, and so hav e we were thgettieng close, ande pulled back. we didn'tant to do it becau of what they did. it was not a good-- it was not going they did with killing the soldier. i don't know if they knew he was a soldier, but hwas a soldier, american soldier. we want to make a steeliehl. we'll see what happens. if they make it that's fine. if they don't mke it, that's fine. at the same time we're bringing down the number troops substantially. we'll be down to a number that's a go number, and were going to stay untilas we have a dsueae l o timr we hae l victory. >> yang: now, these talks haveoi been on, we're being told, what they call an informalat

level. and they're not starting atra h. they're starting, essentially, with the proposed agreement thaf was ered to president trump in september when he stopped the talks. you remember, he went on twitter, blew up tal that were scheduled for camp dav the u.s. envoy and his counterparts are reviewing tht proposal, and that's the process going on now. he's been in the region for the weeks, in pakistan and qatar, and holding these talks with taliban officials. >> nawaz: so the talk tks are tank. let's talk about something elseh said that caught a lot of people's attentions. president ump said he would like to bring the number of troops down t 8600. it was a very specific number. we should say the pretense for the peace talks ws to try to get that number down to 0. where did the 86number come from? >> 0, of course, was the number he presented in the campaign. the, in 8600-- the troop levels now are about 13,000.

8600 is the number that genscal t miller, the u.s. commander of troops in afghanistan, says he can carry out a mission of supporti afghan troops, training afghan troops, and carrying out counter-terroriwi effort that level of about 8600. it's interesting when he was talking to reporters, the president was asked about what level he wanted. he said, i don't ink i want to tell you that level. i don't want to tell you what we're planning, what i wan do." a reporter asked him, is it 8600?" he said, "yeah." >> nawaz: okay, so confirmed, and moving on then. i want to ask you about something else you mentioned,th which is is something of a visit u.s. troops deployednts around the world onth ksgiving. is it particularly significant for president trump right now during his presidency? >> it's only his sond trip in aa t chr and now in afghanistan this thanksgiving. it was the beginning of a campaign season. he campaigned on beinguullyt of afghanistan by next year, by the election, promises made,

promises kept is something we'ra likely to heot about over the next year. and, also, it was a chance for him to be on t world stage as commander in chief, seen with the troops, going ina week when the house judiciary committee is holding its first impeachment hearing. >> nawaz: john yang with the latest for us help happy >> happy thanksgiving. er>> nawaz: in the day's o news, tensions surged even higher in iraq after a blobath in the last 24 hours. security forces shot dead at least 40 protesters. gunfire sounded in the uthern city of nassiriya, where 31 people re killed. crowds later joined funeral processions, despite a curfew. four more died in baghdad as protesters again denounc government corruption and economic mismanagement. >> ( tranated ): people are here today to demand their rights that have been stolen. for the past 16 years, the

people have been played. we've been livg in destruction and wars. the youths and all the generations have been destroyed. >> nawaz: meanwhile, video from najaf showed the iranian consulate there burning last night, and protesters cheering as they condemned tehran's influence in their country. in recent days, iran carried out a crackdown on widespread protests in its own cities.s we'll discat situation, later in the program. fierce fires are still burning tonight at a chemical plant in east texas, forcing more than 50,000 people to spend thanksgiving away from their homes. two explosions rocked the site at port neches on wednesy, ading to evacuations within a four-mile radius. today, huge plumes of blacked smoke billverhead as the fires raged on. fire crews used water cannons to cool down nearby tanks, and prevent new explosions. a winter storm system that disrupted thanksgiving travel y,across parts of the coun eased today. in new york, giant balloons

were able to fly at the annual ma,'s thanksgiving day para but they stayed much lower as spectors looked on. >> very windy. all of the balloons, all of the people caring the balloons, they really had a tough ta today keeping everythingnder control. >> i saw a few people go down. i hope they're okay. yeah, it was pretty roug >> nawaz: in southern california, snow forced interstate-5 to close for theerf trouble ahead for holiday avelers in the western and central u.s. beginning tomorrow night through saturday, the region could get two feet of snow.er an unusually srainy season in east africa is causing severe flooding across three countries. in djibouti, more than a foot of rain fell in a single day. that about two years worth of normal rainfall in an otherwise arid country. in kenya, the government says 120 people have died in mudslides and flooding, and, somalia has seen heavy flooding as well.th rains could continue through

the end of the month. china today condemned president trump's signing of two bills backing human rights in hong kong.re the n ministry in beijing warned the measures could damage cooperation with the u.s., but it did not directly mention trade talks. in hong ng, thousands of pro-democracy activists gathered this evening, many of them wearing masks. they welcomed the new american laws.ry >> we are hankful for that, and we knew today is thanksgiving, so we especially want to thank the united states citizens and also the president donald tmp for supporting hong kong. >> nawaz: the rally was the latest in six mont of protests that have roiled hong kong.carrt another weapons test, the 13th this year. the north today fired two short-range projectiles at flew 235 miles out to sea, off its eastern coast. state media said it could be the latest test of a new rocket launcher. the north has carried out several unches in recent

months, as it presses the u.s. for progress in nuclear talks by the end of the year. a federal appeals court in washington has temporarily delayed forcing former white house counsel don mcgahn to appear before congre a lower court had ruled monday that he must comply with a congressional subpoena that was issued as part of the russia investigation. the appeals court said it will hear arguments in the case on january 3. and, as american shoppers gear up for a black friday buying binge, some lawmakers in france say they want to put an end to it. they say it promotes over- consumption and waste, and generates emissions that damage the climate. the proposal to ban black fridai ll be debated in the national assely next month. still to come on the newshour: a discussion with experts on past impeachments. how some dairy farms are turning food waste into sustainable energy. a report from iran following a violent crackdown onionwide protests. and much more. >> nawaz: impeachment is a rare

event, and as the nation has watched the last weeks of pu'vic hearings, naturally wondered how this time in history compares to the others. er answer that question, i spokm president who had to deal with the threat of impeachment.il in to tell busclinton's d.hes"hment, peter baker joins ch coauthor of "impeachment: an american history." on richard nixon, timothy naftali joins us. he is a pfessor at new york university and former director of theichard nixon presidential library, and he also coauthored "impeachment: an ry."ican his and for andrew johnson, brenda she is the author of "the

impeachers," the trial of andren johnsothe dream of a just nation. u,k th o ayoofll yo yu.fo backward go kind of in time here. if you had to give sort of aor 90-second hi lesson on what the story of b bill clinton's impeachment was about, how would do you that? >> well, it's hard to do in0 seconds, but we'll give it a try. look, president clhtnton got cap in a sex scandal. he was being accuse of of sexual harassment in a lawsuit, and as part of that lawsuit he was asked to testify abo his relationship with other women. he lied about a relatiohip f withrmer intern named monica lewinsky. >> i did not hve sexual relations with thatoman, miss lewinskyou >> and the hse ultimately impeached him along party lines for perjury and obstruction of justice. >> i hereby deliver these articles of impeachment. >> e went to the senr trial but he ended up getting acquitted on a pretty strong vote. the prosecutors didn't get more than 50 votes, even though they needed 67 to convict hi>>.

adjudged, william jeffersond clinton hiesh is acquied of the charges in the said article. >> at the core are all kind of interesting questions about accountability, balance of epr,rpoio oarf sn at pof impeachment, whaconstituteaise gh crime and misdemeanor, and these are the issues we see today as well. >> i want to say againo the american people how profoundly sorry i am. >> timothy naftali tell us the story of richard nixon and what s at stake there? >> richard nixon gets caught up in an espionage and break-in story in the summer of 1972, a group of burglars are caught breaking into the democratic tional committee's headquarters at the watergate. this leads to some excellent wojournalism, largely bopped ward and bernstein. and after the 1972 election, a special senate watergate committee looks into issues and questions of misconduct in the

campaign. that leads to very lebrated public hearings. >> good evening from washington. in a few moments we're goi to bring you the entire proceedings in the first day of the senate watergate hearings. >> the committee will come to order. >> no one's talking about impeachment at that point. >> we are beginng these hearings t iodnvi gr aa. >> but public hearings that bring out the possible that the president himself was involved in a cover-up, andact that the president is taping his conversations in the wte >> i was aware of listening devices, ysir. >> there might not have been an impeachment inquiry at a, but the president is very nervous because in addition to the senate looking in him, there is a special prosecutor that's looking into him, an that special prosecutor wants access tow thosose tapes to go to the e prosecutor. e do lesn't gest what in fire

archibd cox but, he tries t put the entire independent investigation out of business. that send a shockwave through want country after something called "the saturday night massacre" and it is then that thought just demts wgr--raho at the time-- but republicans, too, join and say we need to investigate. from that point, inate '73, until august of '74, the house is engaged in an impeachment inquiry. ultimately, the housees three articles of impeachment. all three have bipartisan support. before those articles of impeachment can be ted on by the entire house, richard nix, who understands his support is crumbling, richard nixon resigns. >> i shall resign the presidency effective at nooorn tow. >> reporter: richard nixon's case involved obstruction of justice and puse wer. and it's that abuse of power element of the watergate story that seems so relevant in the current discussion of impeachment. >> nawaz: and we're going to

dig through some of those issues you made in ora bit me detail. brenda wineapple, over to you. tell us the story of andre johnson and his impeachment proceedings. >> johnson was impeached just three years after the civil w. and when you think about what was going on then-- the cotry wain need, desperate ned of putting itself back tother again. xecutive whoief e assigned himself the role of so much peaud to restore the south tots former supremacy, which was white premacy. and it wasn't an rew ofa th q o passed in order to reign him in so that conshongruess, wh wonich really restored civil rights and finally voting rights to bla men in the south, to give them representation in the country,

oen j house had no choiclt e,t,fehnics impeached because he spped on a statute, because he violate aid law. he broke the le country,nd certare issinmonngly, ben d halt h much too locon ag.essre and he was rearyelly squan z ativvictory, which hadolhery towcours h in teahche ti imn thomt,ceedeni. peter, i'll come back to yull , in coubuect netoss the .he wasngdigfy,

on't ing to geot du inwiwln l, o obsessed by it in public.behinde was obsessed by it. mesubye, h d y italike he wasn't and even there. ne his aides during a trpi za trying to neatletiddt miulder, e they noticed the president writing o tepad, "focus on your job, focus on your job." he was trying very hard to project this idea of a president who unaffected but in fact he was, as any person, i suppose, wo qd be,uite consumed by it now thee diffesiredencnce iest is he was very popular at the time. so he had a welspring of public

pport. chment above 60% ape pvalro trial.it went up, not down, afte impeachment vote in the house. 20 upo3 7%ic, you daten totst al base to wrk to the peoplide. he understood what impeachment was, but it was almost faz he didn't, and he thies htougf rado stay in the white house, which they made him do. wanted to testify in his own behalf, but they were really afraid-- he was afr verht do, ad

yostteou, t earlier, in the moment, richard ctually withdrew. he was not out thubere licly advocating for himself. but i'm curious about how the rift ofrt his y reacted. it's so interesting we see now republicans in the house reall stand buying president trump, staunchly defending him. was that true o pfresident nixon and his party at the time? >> in 1974, the public hadrshioe republican party was hoping that richard nixon would resign. when he didn't resign, those leaders felt they had no choice but to and behind him. they discovered there was a lot of support for richard nixon outside of washington, and so they decide they had no better alternative than to s by him. what happens in this story is that rank-and-file republicans, the republicans on the house judiciary committee, as they absorbed the data that's amassed for them, they come to the conclusion that richard nixon ldstaying in power we a

threat to the constitution. and theyc deided, against their political judgment, their political fortunes and against want recommendations of of the leaders of the republican party to vote against the president. so there are two different stories. there's the story of the republican leadership in 1974, which ultimately staindh nixon. s and there's the sfort republicans on the house judiciary commiee, many of whom thought they had no alternative but to do their constitutional duty and votfor impeachment. >> nawaz: wnyc, i'll give you w lad here, of course a lot of people studying these moments in history to see if there are lessons to be learned. what do you see in echoes of past proceedings and of or parallels between the proceedings of the past and the one we're seeing today? >> one interting parallel is the fact there was an election coming.peachepeached in february of 1868. the trial started very soon after that. and by may, you have the republican con

candidate. so that was a consideration, aor very int consideration determining how some of the members of cogress voted. and as you probably know, johnson was acuitted by only one vote. there are a lot of politics that come into play, in addition to the constitutional issues. the interesting thing finally, though, is that johnson was impeached. he was not removed. he was not convicted. but ry goes down in hiss one of the few presidents, one of the two, one of the only two stain that will stay on his recordazorever. ree important moments in ourth erican history. brenda wineapple, timothy naftali, and peter baker. thank you so much for being with us. >> thank you.

>> nawaz: on a day when families across t country gather for a thanksgiving meal, it's worth noting that over the next ri12 months, the average an household of four will spend roughly $1,800 on food they ver eat. special correspondent alisoney auf npr talks to scientist and cookbook author dana gunders about why americans waste so i muthe kitchen, and she gets some lessons on how to cut those losses. it's the latest in our special series on "food wast >> reporter: celebrity chefs share tricks of the trade-- l how to wasteess in the kitchen. it's part of 20-city tour underway the james beard foundation kicked off here in new york cit >> one of our key priorities is the reduction of food ste. >> reporter: esther choi is chef-owner of mokbar, a korean restaurant in brooklyn. tonight, she serves up a traditional korean rice dish she calls buddha bimp.

and what's the easiest way to do that? >> you just turn up your oven at 150 to 200 degrees a leave the vegetables overnight. hos the goal dry up. a>> so iswhthat i have here ars that normally would be wasted. >> reporter: the foundation has launched a social media blitz cooking up waste-free recipes.m and the beard foundation is not alone in its efforts. >> we waste 50% more food today than we did in the 1970s. o we, homes, actually make we, in our homes, actually makeg up thest source of all the food that is going to waste out there. r

orter: 43% of the food that americans' waste each year comes from what we toss at homeh 's double the 18% that restaurants waste, and the 16% grocery stores throw out all told, america's food waste bill adds up to $218 bilon. according to the u.s.d.a., this would be akin to filling the willis tower in chicago 44 when food rots, it releases methane gas, and climate changes expertmate that food waste is responsible for up to 10% of greenhouse gas emissions, so according to many scientistse reducing it isf the most effective things each of us can do. changing the way we shop and cook can make a difference. >> beets, if you buy them, you can actually use those beet greens, cut them up, sauté them and cook them up. >> reporter: here's gunders at google's headquarters, sharing lsome hacks to employees ch time.

she advises corporations and grocery chai on strategies to manage food waste, and she's also written the "waste free kitchen handbook."of it's fulays to repurpose food you might have thrown out.i she joins usn the kitchen to show us one of her favorite fooa waste kitches. >> one of the things i hate wasting the most are avocados.ep >> rter: look at that. it's really yooey and dark. re not going to eat that, are you? >> it's totally fine to eat. the browning is just from zymes in the fruit. so, what i like to do is use it the cocoa really covers that up. first, you put avocado ia food procesr. >> reporter: then we added five other simple ingredients: cacao powder, lk, vanilla, salt and maple syrup. it's going to taste like dessert. >> it will, i promis >> reporter: gunders says a large part of the food waste problem here in the u.s. is cultural.

et>> if i walk down e st today and throw some food on the ground, people would think i'm crazy. but if i throw that same food in the garbage can, people would not think much of it. and i think that signals the cultural acceptabity we have right now of food going to waste. >> reporter: she points to great britain as an example of a untry that's put a dent in the cultural acceptance of food waste. >> 50% of the waste comes from the household, so we have a big respbility here to sort of curb theaste culture. >> reporter: the british are spending millions on a decades- long national campaign called love food hate waste. evts to raise awareness showcase chefs that cook up leftovers at public events u throughout t. and the result? consumer food waste fell by 18% in great britain between 2007 and 2015. the cool thing to culture where

businesses is to reduce their own waste, and help consumers duce waste as well. >> reporter: here in the u.s., three federal agencies have t strategies to help tackle food waste, including new efforts to measure and track the problem. and at the endf 2018, congress allocated almost $30 million for composting and fooe bolster recovery programs. wnders says all this is good, and given how muwaste in our own homes, a cultural shift in our attitudes and our habits is impornt, too. change policy and have thato change culture. like seatbelts, or littering, or for the federal government to support large campaigns

throughout the country. and we have not seen them support a campaign around food waste. and, voila! >> reporter: all right. it looks like chocolate mousse. >> want to try it? >> reporte it does not taste like avocado at all! it aost tastes like buttery creamy. >> the avocado actually takes cream, so it's much healthier for you. >> reporter: i'm allison areyki of npr news, c for the pbs newshour in san francisco. >> nawaz: stay witus. coming up on the newshour: the american trucking industry at a crossroads. and, a thank you to flossie. students reflect on one teacher's impact. for the past two weeks, iranians have taken to the streets by thousands in what began as protests denouncing a hike in

gasoline prices. but the uprising quickly turned political, with demands that top officials step down. the iranian government responded with a five-day internet shutdown, so the user-generated videos and accounts that raised awareness of past demonstrations were blacked out. we still know little about what's happened. yesterday, iran's supreme leader ayatollah ali khamenei said thes pr were a u.s.-led plot toe destroy untry. >> ( translated ): it was a deep, extensive and nsry dangerous racy that cost the united states so much money wd effort. thted to use an opportunity to carry out this mo, which was an act of destruction, arson, murder and vandalism, under the pretext of a gasoline price increase.te >> nawaz: the et has been partially restored, and special correspondent reza sayah joins us from tehran, where he's been following the latest on the ground. reza it's good to see you. we know connectivityg able to get any word out has been an

issue so fill us in. what is the latest on the ground? the latest is still a challenge because many iranians are just now getting back online, just now getting their internet service back. the big new today here in iran, thursday, ishat cell phone users are back online after being off line for the better part of two weeks. and it was a lack of internet connections for cell phne users that perhaps played the biggest rt in this information blackout we saw last week, an information blackout that made it very difficult, nearly impossibly for many people to conclusively report on the magnitude and the scale and the intensity of the protest. that said, indications are that the protests have died down, and when you drive around tehran today, nowhere near the security prence that we saw last week. >> nawaz: reza, let's talk about why these protests are happening now. we mentioned that hike in gasoline prices. do we have any idea why that decision was made in the fir

place? >> reporter: it's impossible for to us say why authorities deci that this was the boast time to raise gas prices, at a timehen many working class iranians are suffering so much and under so much pressure. but we can tell you that many iranian officials and iranian analysts have long said thatis g gas prices is its right thing to do for iran's ecom remember, iran's gas prices have long been heavily subsidized. they're some of the cheapest in the world, running about$50 cents per gallon, and officials here say that has led to hignsh ption and heavy smuggling, and something had to be done. but the fact that they decided i to do it no perhaps an indication of how much the economy is struggling to aoint where authorities had to take a desperate measure where there was a backlash.a thene the trump administration, who pulled out of the nuclear deal, re-imposed new sanctions. there was never any foreign investment that came in to iran. oil sales went down

significantly. there was inflation, a devaluation of currency, unemployment, and that, many say, led to the government perhaps makin making that drastc measure, raising fuel prices. m so, agaiy people argue that the u.s. sanctions had a hugeaole in whatpened last week. but, also, many people argue that it's these u.nctions that areurting average iranians and not impacting the government. we can also tell you that when e protests happened, many groups, both inside and outside iran, tried to take over the narrative.s the hard-linre blamed the moderates on the rising fuel the mod raits blamed the hard-liners. and in d.c., the trump administration and the iran hawks said the proantest rising fuel prices were evidence that the u.s. sanctions were working. and on the other hand, the moderate observers of iran said that the prtests and the rising gas prices were an indication that the sanctions were only impacting average iranians, and the fact that the government is

the sanctions were not working. >> nawaz: at one point it waspo ed there were protests in mo than 100 cities across the country. tell us a little bit about the overall government response. has the scale of these protests shaken them at all? are that the governments reacted they reacted brutally. and they reacted witdeadly force, perhaps more deadly force than they've ever used. over the past several days, we've heard a growing number of repos naming individuals who were allegey kill by security forces during the protests. a lot of nesmave been posted online. reports that we can't independently confirm. we can tell you that amnesty international made headlines when they put out a report that more than 100 peopl were killed. this time, of course, they made the seemingly efftive move of shutting down internet. and, again, using deadly force ry quickly. >> nawaz: reza, these are easily among the largest demonstrations aainst want

islamic republic since the as large as the green resolution in 2009, though, tell us what happens now. >>eporter: what's teresting is this week there were demonstrations in tehran other and cities, sanctions approved by the government, where there were some people who were protesting against the rising fuel prices in a struggling economy. they were peaceful protests and there was no violence. there was no crackdo also this week, there was a national newspaper with a headline criticizing iraniane stdia of not hearing out the people's concerns. and you also have the supreme leader, government leaders here continuing to ay that want ,eople's concerns must be met something must improve with the economy, that the government must address e people's concerns. so you're hearing some rhetoric. but it still remains rhetoric. at this point, there's no idication that there's going to be a turnaround for the economy, at the economy is going to

improve. and, certainly, no indatication he government is going to evolve into something that the government sees as a threat. >> nawaz: that is speal correspondent reza sayah reporting from tehran. thanks, reza. >> nawaz: the american trucking industry today eloys more than two million people, the vast majority of them men-- many of them older, with no llege education. the race to put driver-less trucks on the road has bee underway for several years now, leading many to wonder if those driver jobs are doom. and yet, the industry is facing a driver shortage, and has for years. in this encore presentation of our weekly "making sense" series, economics correspondent paul solman asks who's right? how long before driver-less trks are the kings of the road?

and, what will it the mean for the job now done by truckers? >> reporter: longtime trucker finn murphy, inadvertently showing me how tough a job a trucker's can be. >> what i need to do is turn around, before i get on a low bridge or some other nightmare that i don't want to get >> reporter: despite such subtleties, though, says murphyh future of work on the road is just around the corner: the driver-less truck. i >> i this imminent, yeah. i think it's going to happen within the next three years orha so, where yo a level-4 aunomous vehicle, which means operator.t need a human >> reporter: finn murphy is a been since he drpeerator, has college in the early 1980s. he's now at the top of the trucking hierarchy: a driver and mover of pricey cargo like art. >> so, movers, we're called bedg s. >> reporter: bed buggers? >> yep, oud buggers. antrucks are called roach coaches, because it has people's

stuff in it. and then the flatbed haulers, they're caed skateboarders. >> reporter: bed buggers like murphy driving roach coaches, which haul high-end merchandise, can gross $200,000 a year. skateboarders, on the other hand, and other non-specialists in this increasingly deregulated, de-unionized industry, are paid $30,000o $50,000. >> companies are struggling to find qualified commercial truckers who deliver 70% of all goods in this country. >> the american trucking association predicts a major shortage of drivers. >> reporter: along with the many hazards-- something like a quarter of all work-related fatalities are truckers-- and endless hours away from home, paltry pay explains what's come a chronic trucker shortage. but we're still talking some two america.toucking jobs in e outcompeted completely by automation? >> they've got their eyes on the prize-- get rid of drivers. >> reporter: but can programmers teach tro hook up the trailer, as a human can learn to do? h

just about aan?t conne hoses? check the oil? not to mention navigate rain, wind, sleet or snow-- and pedestris? that's why finn murp's boss, will joyce, thinks humans are still in the driver's seat. >> even if a truck hadhe capabilities for braking and guidance-- which is ntastic; the more, the better, for safety-- but you're still going to need an operator, like a train needs a conductor. >> reporter: but murphy remains adamant. >> i think they're in denial because it's already h we've already logged 23 million miles. there are autonomous trucks on the road right now. >> reporter: there's volvo's "vera." the truck by start-up embark,

with no one in sight. google, waymo, daimler, the" inspiration." all seem to validate the trucker's lament, written and n ng by econo-crooner merle hazard: no one eleep at the wheel. ♪ chip chip chips and softwareho call the sts now ♪ the roads will be for driving bots now ♪ old school highway cowboys lost the fight ♪ > reporter: and yet, such visions may be a bit premature. from bristol, connecticut, we flew to portland, oregon, home of daimler trucks nortica, one of the world's leading producs of semis, now at work on automating them. three years ago in nevada, daimler owed off its" inspiration," the world's first road-licensed self-driving truck. steve nadig, daimler's head engineer for mechatronics, showed us the newest" freighiner" model. it has all the latest sensors and doodads-- but can it operate

without a iver yet? >> absolutely not. not at this point. >> reporter: all right, sohen is that point going to be? >> at this point, i cannot tell you. i can tell you what we're going to do. and we, daimler trucks are going to take it step by step, safety by safety, use case by use case, to make sure that we're putting the safest truck on the roadib po. >> reporter: what we're likely to see, nadig says, at least in the short and medium term, is more automated features to make trucks safer and more fuel efficient. automated transmission, of course. automated braking. lane.pilot for staying in the they're also still working on old-school stuff like aerodynamic styling to save fuel. and many of the new-fangled features are already available on cars. 80,000 pound, 53-foot lo 18-wheelers, there's still a long way to th. in the nexe years, says steve nadig, the most we're likely to see is platooning--

where, to decrease wind-drag while increasing safety, multiple trucks can be electronally linked together. and when might you or i actually pull up alongside an autonomous truck? five years? all right, ten years? >> maybe, maybe not. i still ink in ten years, when we look at it, we still have a driver in the seat. >> reporter: but as an engineer, i just assume that you believe that ultimately, systems will be safer an people. >> to be honest with you? i don't know if we can put this on pbs-- i have a lot of beer discussions over that. can a human being ever be safer than a vehicle or can a vehicle be safer thuman being? and we've had a lot of intellectual discussions on both sides of it.ep >>ter: where are you, before you have too much beer? >> i would tell you at this point in my career i haven't seen the evidence to take the driver out of the seat.

>> reporter: and that seems to be the engineering consensus-- autonomous trucks in 10, 20, maybe 30 years.ev but en then, likely driving only the long stretches of opena the easiest and demand for drivers is greatest, before handing off to human drivers for the "last mile" into cities, with their turnsnd twists, affic lights and... us. so, whew, right? uckers can keep on trucking? >> the biggest threat to truck near term. not job loss in the >> reporter: sociologist steve ascelli wrote the book on trucking-- a booway-- after driving a rig for six months himself. the biggest threat to truckers? >> it's the loss of job quality, features come onliautomated it's going to allow the industry to use less-skilled drivers, which will extend a long-term trend in trucking wages where drivers are earning less, working longer hours, staying out on the road for long periods of time, and automation could

feed right into that. >> reporter: that don't leave finn murphy-- our long-haul driver and student of history-- with much hope. >> i mea we've had thism prob civilization for millennia. the issue is, what does a society decide if they have a role in helping these folks out? and if the average age is 55,re these guysoing to be computer programmers? they didn't finish high school. i doubt it. oh, look at these three pedestrians ladies. are you really doing this? now, how is a machine going to view that? that's the question. ( laughter ) connecticut to por oregon, this is economics correspondent paul solman for the pbs newshour.

>> nawaz: next, we turn to a special encore psentation from our "brief but spectacular" series, featuring one of our mostopular profiles, flossie lewis. it includes series creator steve goldbloom as he accompanies ooflossie back to the clas where she re-encounters former students who were grateful to have her in their lives. >> getting old is a state of mind. now, i'm 91, i'm badly crippled. but i still think i'm 15. will this go viral? >> this? we hope so. >> accepting the fact that the body is going to go but the personality doesn't have to go and that thing which is the hardest to admit is thatch acter doesn't have to go.os

i'm e lewis, and this ist my "brief ectacular" take on growing old. >> welcome to this special i'm steve goldbloom.t the clip you just saw of flossie lewis first aired on pbs predicted, it did indeed goe viral. mos than seven million view watched her taken growing old and living well, with thousands comments coming in from around the world. and, flossie was a little overwhelmed by all the attention. was expected to respond if she personally to each of the comments on facebook. i assured her at she was not. flossie's video struck a chord with millions, but ones of the responses caught our attention.

a came from author author daniel handler, mony snicket, who wondered how we managed to track down his high school elish teacher. we soon heard from other bay area residents who passed through flossie's classroom-- and not just passed through, but who described the experience as profound effect on their education and their appreciation of language.n >> so, basedpular demand, we took a deeper dive with flossie. we spent se time with her in her retirement home in oakland, and we even organized a reunion to take place inside her old classroom. we invited many of her former students, some of whomn she hadn't s 40 years. flossie got right to work. she prepared a lecture for the occasion owhether or not bob dylan was worthy of the nobel prize for literare. that's really all the context you need for what you're about to s.

let's start with an introduction. tell us where you were born. >> i think i was born in bensonhurs which is a section of brooklyn. i received my b.a. from brooklyn college, 1945. in the jewish community of brooklyn in the '40s, a girl was expected to be married, and theh worst thin could happen to her would be spinsterhood. and what was my fate? to be a spinster. so i got on a greyhound bus. i went with a friend and it took five days and constipation to get to berkeley. teaching was the one thing that a woman could do. n could command the attent a class. i had a voice. i had that kind of personality s that did nm teacherly but was provocative.

well, you couldn't be in charge of the weather.ve we should one this yesterday. >> i think this works well. >> well, my philosophy is that everything that can go wrong, will go wrong. let's hope for the best. >> okay., >> now steveare we on ocean ave? i think we are. >> i don't know. >> are we on ocean ave, driver? >> not yet. >> because we used to go down ocean ave and we'd be there byis th time. so when you go back, go back by ocean ave, please! >> okay. >> i think i was intidated by her name. flossie is a very unusl name. >> petite woman who always wore very funky clothes. >> she called me once when i was in college, i was very ill. i had just come out of the hospital.

and she read to me from kafka's diary. she said this will cheer you up. i said, but it didn't go wellka foa, though, did it? and she said, no, no it didn't. >> she changed the direction of my life. becae of flossie, i became a writer. all throughout my life, flossiea been there for me. everyone else said no to me, and she said yes. >> my wheelchair is in place? >> it's in place. >> this is the absolute ( bleep )! that's all i can say! it ain't no fun, but delighd toe here and thank you for coming! oh jesus, how lovely okay, ready. the trivial task before us is to

worth the laureate forylan is literature. the people in sweden were very defend his work.ey or, open m to something that i haven't seen. and we don't have to go up and down the row, but speak! >> what is wrong with dylan, flossie? i mean, he's just putting out the questions. >> so he makes a search? >> for some people. >> rena, dear. you' on, baby. >> "how many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man" is a rhetorical question. >> yes.i e what you're saying. i will not dispute anything that i've heard. i know you love him. i happen not to love him, but that's not the point. he speaks for your generation. how do we decide who represents poetry? honey? speak.er

>> whee's a poet laureate. the question for me is, compared to what? >> put him next to someone that also merits this kin consideration, and show me how he wins, and then we can give >> we used to fuss when the landlord dissed us. no heat. we wondered why christmas missed us. birthdays was the worst days now we sip champagne when we thirsty. i like that so much more for what it does for the english language. i personally am unequivocally opposed to dylan being chosen at the nobel laureate, but that doesn't mean that i'm opposed to the views that i've heard here. and, that's what was wonderful about your classroom, flossie, was it wasn't just your voice. you would bring us all in.>> remember when you read us a sonnet from shakespeare and you said "it's no good!" ( laughter ) and that was amazing. that was amazing. >> thank you for remembering.

>> i remember so clearly. >> i remember my firstio composi wrote for you, and your comment was "i'm concerned by how drab your verbs are." ( laughter ) >> when i was here in high school and coming out, i was depressed. i was kind of lost. i was maybe suicidal. i tell people, i have english teacher who i think maybe saved my life. i think you did, so tha you and i love you. >> you really introduced me to poetry. architect and i haeallyan strong affinity for classical greek architecture.os you have made buildings come to life for me, and shown me that architecture canave poetry. thank you ve much. >> okay, guys. the class is over, but i hope it will never be over, and i hope even if the answers are blowing

in the wind, that maybe having an answer that is too certain can destroy us also. ( applause ) >> oh, the cab is here. >> the cabbie's here. it's the same man. >> tell him to go on oan avenue. >> oh boy. you touched a lot of people, >> a lot of peopleed me. idimagine teaching those k he's going to go the way he wants to do. if it's not oceaavenue, what

the hell. and that was flossie lewis. we are greatful to her andef gr to you for spending some of your thanksgiving for us. i'm amna nawaz. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, have a great thanksgiving, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. >> consumer cellular. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutionss

and frie the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thanyou. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

♪ ♪ hello, everyone. welcome to "amanpour and company," here's what's coming up. >> he is an exist earn threat to our countr to our values and our national security.

>> u.s. elections and a billionaire's bid for the presidency. michael bloomberg's campaign thiger tells us why he he's the man to beat trump, and -- british elections, the rao over antisemitism. >> i amha determined tt our society wil p be safe foreople of all faiths. the labor leader refuses to rebukes the party handling of i antisemitism allegations. we discuss with rabbi julian norberger, plus -- >> this is a story