captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: e prime minister of iraq announces his resignation, after weeks of protests that have left hundre dea then, on the ground in afghanistan. as the u.s. resumes peace talks with the talib, what afghan women stand to lose if the militant gro returns to power. and, a death in the amazon warehous an accident and an investigation at one of the world's largest companies. plus, "waste not." finding sources of renewable energy in surprising plas. >> 100 pounds of cow manure per cow per day. we're treatingt through this system and getting electricity. >> woodruff: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour.

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casualties today, among the prime minister said today he will step down. int in the streets, the ki continued, with scores more dead foreign affairs correspondentri nick schreports on the events of thritical day. >> schifrin: on the streets of baghdad, protesters today declared victory they've demonstred for two months, and many gave their lives. they warned that sacrificeould be worth it only if today sparked fundamental change. >> ( translated ): we consider this as the first step. we demand the resignation of all lawmakers. >> schifrin: adel abdul-mahdi was a consens candidate who struggleto deliver promised reforms. in early october, leaderless demonstrations rallied agast 15 years of failed governance, unemployment, and corruption, eand called for the entir political class' ouster. they also criticized iran's influence. today, they burned the iranian flag, and last night, torched the iranian consulate in najaf.

( gunfire in response, security services have used deadly force more than 400 protestors have been killed. the violence spread to iraq'sea south, tning to destabilize the country. that's why today, the spokesman itr iraq's most powerful s religious leader, grand ayatollah ali sistani, spoke to followers and strongly suggested the government step aside. >> ( translated ): we call upon the house of representatives, from which this current government has emerg, to rensider its options. >> schifrin: a few hours later, abdul-mahdi's office released a statement saying he would step down so iraq could "avoid slippi io a cycle of violce, chaos, and devastation." >> the itial response of some security forces or militias to begin to enge the demonstrators with violence irreally caused things to out of his hands very quickly. and so his remaining in office didn't have any logic anymore. he couldn't control the streets

anymore. >> schifrin: feisel istrabadi is an academic and former iraqi diplomat. he says abdul-mahdi's resignation is unprecedented, and will spark difficult horse trading in a deeply divided parliament. >> you have the same political parties who have been an impasse for the last year and a half, having to form another government. we are in a state of deadlock,ob ly for some time to come. >> schifrin: protestors will be watching to ensure today was the beginnin- not the end-- of the reforms they demand. for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin. >> woodruff: in the day's her news, stabbing attacks jolted britain and the netherlands ate art of the holiday season. in the first incident, a man killed two people near london bridge, before he was shot and killed by police.ci wearing what lookelike a suicide bomb vest-- but it turned out to be a fake. d whve the attack was unclear. >> i'm now in a position to confirm that it has been declared a terroristent. but i must stress, we retain an

open mind as to any motive. it wou be inappropriate to speculate further at this time. >> woouff: hours later, in the hague, three people, including eildren, were stabbed on dutch city's main shopping street. police said at least one attacker was at large, and the motive was unclear. in afghastan, thousands of people protested alleged fraud in a recount of september's presidential election. supporters of candidate abdullah abdullah marched in kabul. they claimed that fake ballots are being coted. abdullah is challenginthe incumbent president asaf ghani. but so far, no results have been announced. environmental protesters staged new rallies around the wor toy, calling for tougher action on climate change. thousands marched in 153 countries. activists in berlin even swam in a cold river to protest a

vernment pposal they say is too weak., in texficials declared that fires at a chemical plant are now isolated and contained, and they lifted evacuation orders for 50,000 people. major explosions erupted at the site on wednesday, touching off fires and heavy smoke. the plant owners sayit could take some time to extinguish the flames entirely. th there's still going to be smoke in the aire's still going to be flames visible at night. that's going to be addressed as quickly and as safely as we possibly c. i would love to tell you that we'd be done by the end of the day. i would not be tellingou the truth if i made that statement. >> woodruff: the texas gulf coast has suffered a series of majoaccidents this year, in region with the nation's highest and related plts oil refineries the holiday shopping season is officially under way on this black friday, and online shopping is setting records.

retail trackers estimate shoppers could spend $7 billion today alone. but critics of consumerism clogged department stores across europe today. and protesters rallied outside amazon's headquarters in france. on wall street, doubts about traditional retailers hurt stocks, as trading ended ely for the holiday weekend. lost 112 points to close aterage the nasdaq fell 39 points, and the s&p 500 slipped 12.st l to come on the newshour: what the women of afghanistan i could losethe taliban returns to power.th investigating e death of an employee at an amazon house. "waste not, want not." finding renewably energy in unlikely places. rk shields and david brooks examine the white house's respon to the impeachment inquiry. and, mh more.

>> woodruff: president tru returnedarly this morning from a surprise trip to afghanistan, where he said that talks between the u.s. and the taliban had restarted. in stake, the fate of peac the war-torn nation. but also at stake, progress for women ere, who when ruled by the taliban, could not work,n study or eave the house without a male escort. special correspondent jane ferguson reports. >> reporter: in one of the toughest countriesn the world to be a woman, this clinic offers a refuge. the afghan women visiting dr. najmussama shefajo this morning will get some of the best care in the cou try. s is x-r of the uterus and the fallopian tubes.

>> reporter: she is one of ghanistan's p gynecologists, an expert on women's reproductive health. dr. shefajo gave us a tour of str clinic, full of the la technology, that she imported herself. for the patients that you see, equipment?ant is this sort of >> for the patnt, we reach diagnosis on and there is no need to go out of the country.o >> reporter: sit saves lives? >> yeah, of cour. >> reporter: to the doctor, interaction th her patients is important. here the mothers see the baby, her own ultrasound. how do they react? >> they are very happy. right now, they know "this is the head, this is the heart, this is the stomach," because i teach them. >> reporter: that's one reason women lo coming here. it would have been absolutely unthinkable for afghan women to have this kind otechnology 20, or even just ten years ago, for

dr. shefajo knows that all too well. she began r career delivering babies on mud floors in taliban- controlled parts of the country. when you were working under taliban rule, did you ever have a clinic like this? would >> reporter: you pictured it? >> yeah. >> reporter: since the u.s. invasion, afghan women likeaj dr. shefhave, through their own hard work and self-belief,ed built crle new lives. that's why, today, they watchus the ne anx. a major campaign promise by president trump was to bring american troops home. and in stember, he came close toaking a deal with the taliban, after more than nine months of negotiations in qata.. negotiations where afghan women quite literally had no seat at the tabru. the talibaled afghanistan from 1996 until eir ouster by u.s.-led forces in 2001. that was deeply cruel me for

afghan women. the taliban's harsh interpretation of islamic law afforded them virtually no rights. trump's deal has fallen apart for now, but wen like freshta karim are afraid tir rights could still be pushed aside to make it happen. she's part of a new generation-- educated afghan women completely invested in this country's future. she discovered afghan children had trouble getting hold of books to read, so she gathered donations and bought a few old buses and turned them into mobile libraries we joined freshta in one poor neighborhood of kabul on her way to a school. >> it allows them to have general knowledge and broaden their horizonsf life and inspire them. inspire them to think about what ey want to be. and also understand different characters roles, to putlv themse into different characters' shoes, to understand complex g.ink this all adds to one's critical thinkin >> reporter: freshta won a scholarship to study for a

master's degree in public policy at oxford university. after returning to afghanistan, took a job as an analyst with the government. but her heart was elsewhere. >>henever i would work wit children, that would make me happy, because afghanistan is one of the youest countries in the world, and it made so much sense to me to work with people who will be the future of this country. >> reporter: how do you keep hopeful, keep motivated d keep inspired to keep doing this work? >> i think children. we have the responsibility to create that opportunity for them to meet their potentl. >> reporter: her potential is at stake, however, if the taliban returns to power. >> i think many of us-- or at least i can talk about myself. i might push back for as long as i can. to resisand to fight for the city that we have built ourselves. >> reporter: outside major similar to the way it did under taliban rule. child marriage is rampant, as is

violence against women. sometimes, they have even been but it's ithe home that women are most at risk. those that escape abusive husbands are the lucky ones. >> ( translated ): the day i left home, my husband had beaten me very badly and i had injuriem head. so i left with my children and ran to the police station.ep >>ter: this young woman, whom we won't name for her own o safety, of them. the police brought her to this shelter. her husband, she saya >> (etranslated when he was beating me, i was thinking about how i could ruwoaway, but how d i raise the children and >> reporter: amid climate of fear and intimidation, even the sheltersan be vulnerable places. this one is managed by a u.s.- based charity, and those who run it tell us people in the community still opposed to women's rights spread lies about the shelters, and the facilities come under attack. even the location is kept secret, and we are not allowed to film anything that could

tray where it is. but for thousands of battered won who have come through here, it's a lifeline. women like this 22-year-old, who escaped her abusive husband six >> my husband was a drug smuggler, and he always used to keep knives and guns. every night i thought he might kill me. >> reporter: if this sheltersn here, where would you have gone? >> ( translated ): if ere had not been a shelter like this, i might have killed myself, because there is no place for a woman to go if there are not these shelters. >> reporter: elsewhere in kabuls the burns unit at istiklal government hospital is a depressing place, not just t because of power cuts andie poor hyg. f-. abdul khaled waqila has seen an increase in smolation-- themselves and liga match. >> it is only the burns patients who come to us. those who eat poison or do

something else to themselves go to anoth part of the hospital. so i cannly say that the easiest thing for them to use is petrol. they have access to it. >> reporter: sat othe edge of her bed, and completely alone, this young woman has burns across much of her body and a deep gash across over her throat. she responds to questions with just a whisper. at first, she told the doctor it was an accident, b later confided, it wasn't. there are la to protect women in afghanistan, but where the letter of that law becomes enforcement is the bigger challenge. >> there is a huge distance between laws and implementation. >> reporter: shaharzad akbar is the new head of afghanistan's human rights commission. >> it requires not only changing the legal framework-- which there have been improvements in the legal framework-- but also changing the mentali behavior of pele who deliver juice across afghanistan. scholarship to study abroad, and completed a master's degree atll smith e in massachusetts.

she wanted to apply that education to making life better for women in afghanistan.>> or many women i know they aspire to lives different and t bettn their mothers. for some, it's as simple as saying, "you know what? i want to have access to ain when i give birth." that's it. i'm not interested in education, t interested in becoming pilot. i want to marry, i want to have children. but i kn it's my right to have access to health care when i b gith. >> reporter: at just 32 years old, she feels hugpressure to lead the way for other afghan women. >> it changes a lot for the younger girls who are watching us. every day, i am consciouof being watched. >> reporter: they also watch to see what choices powerful politicians are making. if the taliban were to return to power, she says, afghanistan women risk losing everything. >> women were stoned by them, women were flogged by them, and this is continuously happening in areas under their control.

now imagine e possibility of them not only coming back to power, but also determining what llthe laws of afghanistan look like. that's really scary. >> reporter: flying up toda bakhshan province in the ruralof nortfghanistan, we met with a group of 83 taliban fighters who had surrendered to government forces just a few days before. attitudes.ged them on their if the taliban come back into power, how will things be different for armen this time nd? >> ( translated ): there should be some changes.er like in unty with coeducation. there should not be things like that. like you standing here and not covering yourself, wearing this kind of tight clothing. it's not allowed. >> reporte would you work with female leaders in government? >> ( translated ): we e not against women's education, because we do need doctors, we need educad females. but it should be in a framework of islamic principles. >> reporter:ut back in kabul, dr. najmussama shefajo tells us she sees a different

interpretation of islamic principles already being applied by womenn their lives every day, with the service they provide through their professions. >> our right to work, our right to serve the people, our right for our profesonalism, our right to serve for our family. we want our right as a woman, as afghan, as a muslim.r, as an >> reporter: you have daughters. what do you hope for their future? how do you picture it? >> for my elder daughter, i want her to be a pilot.re shis also ined to travel a lot. but for the others, they are interested to be a doctor. >> reporter: like their mom. as politicians negotiate with afghan women risk losing their hard-fought freedoms and rights. they could end up paying the highest a devastating price for peace in afghanistan.ws for the pbs nehour, i'm jane ferguson, in kabul, afghanistan. >

oodruff: on wednesday, we examined safety rates at amazon rdcilities using never-before- public injury refrom 23 warehouses across the co%try, representing about of amazon's fulfillment centers. mostf those sites had higher injury rates than the industry average, fm two to as much as six times higher. tonight, will evans reveal from theenter for investigative reportinlooks into one particular case that raises questions about how regulars and government officials deal with potential safety violations at the global company. >> reporter: john stallo has been a safety professional for nine years. >> these are from all my years doing construction safety and industrial safety. >> reporter: in a way, it's the family business-- his father worked as a top state government safety official. >> i think it runs in our blood

and in the fact that we want to help people when we can. >> reporter: two years ago, he was working for the inana state branch of the occupational safety and healthad nistration, or osha, when he was called to investigate an accident at amazon wareho outside of indianapolis. >> tre's an emergency in the maintenance area. >> is he conscious and breathing? r orter: phillip lee terry had been doing maintenance on a forklift. a security camera captured the ldcident. >> clearly you cee that he's underneath this, there's nothing protecting him. >> reporter: the heavy forks ant metal rm suddenly fell, crushing terry and killing him. his body lay there nearly two hours befo a co-worker found him. stallo realized that about five feet from where the device that shouldbeens a safety used. >> the thing that was most bothersome to me w, that right there is the stand, that's the jack. you'actually put this

underneath the fork to make sure that they don't come down. nothing was ed. why don't they know they need to block those forks so they don't fall down? >> reporter: stallone concluded that amazon failed to provide adequate training. in interviews with terry's coworkers, stallone's notes show one employee even sa there was "no training, no safety: it's 'get'er done'." >> it was shocking. i was under the assumption that they would have had a really good safety culture to begin with. >> repter: amazon declined repeated requests for an interview, but sent a written statement saying it could not comment on the specifics of terry's death duto privacy concerns. it would only say that, "during the inspection and follow-up discussions with indiana osha, we provided mr. terry's training records." but stallone said the training records amazon gave him didot late to the forklift terry was working on.s >> it vastating to all of us, because he meant so much to each and every one of usiabeing the pah of our family. losing him w indescribable.

>> reporter: zach terry, lee's son, says his father wy organized and responsible. >> you know, i have a lot of anger built up because of but, you know, my big thing is honoring my dad's memory and who he was as a pers. >> reporter: indiana osha gave amazon four tations fo serious workplace safety violations, with fines totaling $28,000. but the case didn't end there. soon after, stallone's boss held a conference call with amazon's lawyers d discussed ways the company could reduce its fines. one strategy would be to blame the accident on "employee misconduct." >> it's very unorthodox to have someone that is in that nd of a management position-- you know, it's like being at a card table and having a dealer teach you how to count cards. >> reporter: right after the call, stallone's boss, indiana osha director lie alexander, told him they might change his

citations. stallone secretly taped the conversation, which is legal in indiana. >> i hope you don't take it personally if we have toma pulate your citations any. >> i think all four of them s pretong on their own, but i get paid by the hoha. you doyou got to do. >> reporter: stallone waset especially uhat she speculated on the worker's responsibility for his own death. >> i'm guessing the guy was prably on drugs or something. , >> reporter: to be cleare toxicogy report shows that phillip lee terry had nothing in his system other than nicotine and caffeine. osha director exander ignored reated requests for an interview. a formermazon fety manager, who asked not to be identified, says that terry's deatshould have been a wake up call. >> there's nobody checking up on a y that's doing dangerous work under an-- under elevated forklike that. that, to me, like, there's several breakdowns there. h

>> reportesays it's wrong to blame terry's death on" emplee misconduct." >> there's no way that would be misconduct. if there was any misconduct nere, it's putting a person that has little experience and working on this piece of equipment. there's your misconduct. whoever allowed that to happen. that's the misconduct. >> reporter: when osha inspector stallone pushed for amazon to face penalties, he says he found himself in the office of the can you remember what they said exactly? >> just, you need to back off. you need to back off in this case. you don't need to push this. and you feel if you're to, then you need to resign. >> reporter: and they faecifically brought up th that amazon might bring its second headquarters to indiana. >> correct. >> reporter: the governor and

the state officials deny that this meeting took place.ep and declinedted reests for an interview. a state labor department okesperson even called t claim "bizarre and fantastical"" but we saw an email stallone sent to a federal government official after the meeting, sounding the alarm about political interfencen the case. stallone says he quit soon after the meeting, and documents show the indiana labor department dropped all penalties against amazon. the department said amazon provided proof that terry was properly trained and the accident was the result of"pl ee misconduct." the former amazon safety manager feels that, even from the company's standpoint, this wastc the wrong ouome. it bothers you that those citations were deleted? it does. it bothers me a lot, because somebody lost their life. fighting the citation, versus acknowledge that we have a it, are two different things.

it sounds to me like we took an easy path instead of taking the difficult path. >> repter: three weeks afters the citatire dropped, the governor appeared in an amazon idund-table event. >> the governor e's still working with the major online retailer, trying to land theer secondeadquaby answering any questions the company might still have. obviously, our tax and regulatory climates are very--ju no attctive, but enticing.to and we wanrow together. >> reporter: ultimately, indiana lost its bid for amazon's headquarters. but stallone belves the way regulators bent over backwards to help amaz just makes accidents more likely to happen in the future. >> you were gambling with people's lives every day. and thatoesn't seem like you should get a pass. you have to hold people's feet to the fire. you have to be accountable for what they did or did not

provide. >> reporter: this is will evans for reveal and pbs newshour in plainfield, indiana. >> woodruff: in the final episode of our special series this week on "food waste," we look at some innovative solutions being developed to deal with the growing problem of spoiled and surplus food in th country.es special condent alison aubrey visited a state where aniry farmers are using it to power their farmmore. >> reporter: it's burger night at barstow's dairy and bakery at loview farm in hadley, nessachusetts, and the pio valley string band has drawn a crowd. as advertised, the burgers are" born and raised" here. but, the cows on ts farm prode more thajust meat.

>> 100 pounds of cow manure per cow per day, and where does it all go? we're treating it through this syst and getting electricity. >> reporter: denise barstow is a seventgeneration farmer and the system she's talking about is aanaerobic digester. those green towers are part of it. barstow is one of a handful of day farmers in massachuset using this technology. just down the road, dairy farmer peter melnick is, too. >> we are taking food waste from all over the greater boston area and our verywn cow manure. t we mm together in the digester vessel and make electricity. >> reporter: this land has been in melnick's family for four generations. but times are tough for dairyrm ers, so lnick has diversied. his land is now part farm, part renewable energy plant. the process arts here. >> this is the manure pit, as we

like to call it. >> reporter: but he needs more than manure. the trick to making this waste- to-energy system profitable ln lume, and k has found an abundant source. millions of pounds each year of surplus and spoiled hat would otherwise be destined for a landfill, now arrivetrat his farm iks like this. the food scraps are ground up into a liquid slurry that gets pumped into this pit. the more you add, the more elecicity you can make. the waste comes from all over. there's unsold pduce from whole foods, scraps and whey from a cabot butter plant, and spent grain from a lal brewery. >> inside the digester it's about a million gallon tank. it's heated to 105 degrees and inside there are tiny microbes. >> reporter: microbes from these cow's digestive tracks and the rotting food produce methane,

which is usually released into the atmosphere, playing a role in climate change. but here, when the gas is captured, it's stored in thesebi black bubbles, and melnick can actually generate power from it.od >> we e a megawatt of electricity every hour. >> reporter: so how much is that? >> enough to power the digester od the dairy farm, our houses and outbuildings here, and we still have 90% of our electricity left over to be put back on the grid. >> reporter: and the 90%, it powers some of the businesses that send their fodi waste to thsters. it also powers two local towns. th a're able to purchase it 10% to 15% discount. >> we are getting about $100,000 in savings >> reporter:he digesters are built and run by a company

called vanguard renewables. the company pays farmers a fee for the use of their land, and gives them fe electricity to power their farms and houses. in addition to the economic boost, melnick says he likes the environmtal benefits. >> i don't need an app or an environmentacalculator to tell me that this makes sense, this whole closed loop system, but it's really been neat to see the connection between all the food companies. >> reporter: one player in this loop is whole foods. they ship 50 to 10tons of food. waste every week to their digester at the stores, they grind up food they can't sell or donate, and then truck it to melnick's farm whole foods karen francykz explains. >> anything that goes to landfill or incineration costs m e money. that is the most expensive way to get rid of waste in our stores. >> reporter: so, sending waste to the anaerobic digester is cheaper, and reduces the ecological footprint.

up to 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions are linked to food waste. and in 2014, massachusetts passed a law to ban food companies from sending their waste toandfills. it appli to all bunesses that generate over a ton of food ste a week. so far, four other states in the u.s. have passed similar ban johnajercak is president of the center for ecotechnology, a non-profit that helps businesses in massachusetts save energy and reduce waste. >> to transport food waste super-long distances is very expensive and also wasteful. dots on a map across the state close to where the waste is produced, so that it can be used to produce energy. and the state did this by incentivizing the devet of these digesters. >> reporter: those dots are now sprinkled across the state, and incentives came in the form of grants, given to the companies

to build the digesters. johnanselman, vanguard's c.e.o., says he was inspired by what he ppening in europe, where there are over 17,000 digesters. in those countries, there are government policies to promote renewable energy. so we saw what was happeninghe in europe, w anaerobic digestn is extreme widespread, t we don't have the incentives and policies that promote renewable energy here in the united states. i think we are at the cusp, the earldays we've finally got the economics to work. >> reporter: hanselman says, after six years in the making, he expects to make profit this year, and he'simistic about the growth. this waste-to-energy approacis new in the u.s., and the extent to which it can ke off may depend on how much states or the federal government are willingto ncentivize it. in massachusetts, it took two new laws, a food waste ban, a renewable energy law and grants

to make it happen. farmer denise barstow is glad it all worked out. >> you can't just work really hard anymore and make it in the dairy industry. you have to work smart. and part of that is diversift ng in a way t better for the land, better for the animals and better for the next generation. >> reporter: for the pbs news hour, i'm allison aubrey of npr >> woodruff: and you can see all of our stories on the topic of food waste on our home page at pbs.org/newshour/tag/foodwaste di>> woodruff: now, here t into the meat political news this thankiving week, it's me for shields and brooks. that isyndicated columnist

mark shields, and "new york times" colnistllavid brooks. to both of you. >> hi, judy. >> woodruff: so the impeachment process, we are seeing the c judiciammittee marching ahead, david. there's a hearing next week ere they talk to constitutional scholars about impeachment. the committee sent a let tore the white house saying the president has till next friday to say wheer he's going to call witnesses and provide evidence. meanwhile thyipresident is the whole thing is a witch hunt and he's notng go cooperate, but is he making progress because the polls show him slipping in suppo for impeachment. >> yes, especially in swing states. thest contill be that the democrats wis treat it aa legal matter and donald tru will treat it like a political matter. joe biden will say this is atan ck on you. the impeachment numbers are divide town the middle with

nobody moving on either side, sw i suspect trumll see this as a tremendous way to get his base and democrats h see it the me way, and we'll march forward and lventually land, and it wi turn our attention to the democratic party and i'm not sure what will have been achieved. >> woodruff: his best defense, go out and call it a witch hunt. david's such a pollyanna. itdy, i think, continues to slide. a little bit of an overstatement. if you think -- compare this to waterge. it took 26 months after the break-in at watergate, 14 months of hearings to get to the point where we areow to rihard nixon,he summer of 1974, one month befoo heesigned, a point where we are with donald trump right now. and as far as -- you can lookt all the polls. it's 6 since the end of october. from 47% in favor of impeachment, to 40 against.n it's bxt to no movement.

i just think thaat t we have, quite frankly, is the early sty es and we're verch in the early stages and i think, you know, for us to rush to the street journal" poll compares it the impeachment and conviction the senate, the criminal part of the tri, thecivil trial will be the election of 2020, and donald trump may very wel be not guilty in the criminal part but, right now, he's in just terrible, terrible shape, looking at november of 2020. you had 47% of americans today that wou vote for anybody besides donald trump and 34% say they will vote for donald trump wh matteo runs against him. he's in worst shyape than an incumbent in my lifetime. >> woodruff: this is not abtou impeaching him and removing him from office by the congr hs, but

damagi enough so that it happens at the polls. >> well, that's not the way it's supposed to be. it's supposed to be t if he did high crimes and misdeanors. i agr, i think donald trumpis in serious trouble, more than most of my democtic friends do. that having been said, in swing states, the "times" set a poll that gave everybody anxiety on the democratic side owing trump winning all the swing states. we have surprisingly shockingly little data how he or impeachment is doing in swing states. we have a poll iin wsconsin which was 40% support, 55% oppose, sof that's the wa the swing states are reacting, then that's not a good thi, because this is not going to looking at the whole country views this, it wille e how thswing voters are viewing it, and whether the democrats want to doa watergate style or length soviet hearings, it seems to mehat's highly problematic. i think there's a case as we discussed last week for brig in mike pompeo and trying to ask him some questions but the

democrats seem so far to want to do this because they want toru this thing. that's a big philosophical difference. they go big and try to engineer that or get this ove are with? >> the calendar is working against them, isn'it, mark? >> the calendar is the calenda there is duel reality in the nominating process. but alking about donald trump's counter-offensive, and i think the worst mistake mocrats can make is look for a democratic dald trump, someone to go to to toe with him and insults him. american voters go looking for the exact opposite of what ws missing, they went for george bush and the off the cuff anti-iellectualism, they sought the cerebral almost removed presence of barack obama. after watergate in vietnam and lyndon johnson and richard nixon and all that experience, they wanted the outsider jimmy

carter. i don't thk thy will want more of somebody to go elbow to elbow or insult to insult. i think at's the appeal of pete buttigieg. he lowers the temperature, he lowers the thermostat, he lowers the rhetoric. he is the mr. rogers of this campaign, and i think, in the most appealing and most flattering of ways. he's reasoned, he's reasonable and he lis. >> well that's the segue. you're giving it to us, mark. but, david, there has been a little bit of shiefting in t presidential landscape on the d. j. side this week. elabeth warren slip ago little bit -- slipping a little bit in the polls. we've seen kamala harris' campaign. michael bloomberg is spending a lot of money to get hisme and message out. >> we in the pundit class oft put people in buckets which are based on ideology, and vote ers oquite in the bucket that

we think they're in, so we had the warn sanders bucket and then the moderate bucket, and but people are moving straight from warren to buttigi. people seem to go betwe those two. they are analytical and academickic-y and, so, they said let's getn expert with plans. people i talk to like elizabeth warr, they just think sh's poisoned herself with medicare for all and they can't go for that so they want to go for buttigieg and buttigieg is doing well with a slow gradual rise. the kamalaarris is remarkable. my newspaper had a story on the deconstruction of the campaign where they spoke to 50 former and current members to have the campaign who off the record criticized the cn and the candidate. that's amazing. they had a resignation letter from a senior official, and it was as poorly strtured a campaign as i've heard of. part of the headquarters is in

baltimore and part of the iadquarters with her sist california. who structures anything like that? that's a remarkable incident and it's hard to see how she turns around her machinery. >> woodruff: a lot of talking from inside that campaign. >> you see people are more viable in losing campaigns. that is the poll when people start talking about what went wrong and who to blame to cover your own area asect, it's not e most attractive feature in as far elizabeth warren is concerned, i think what happened, a real cold shower of reality intruded, judy, 1949, 70 years ago, harry uman proposed national healthcare, it was defeated by socialized medicine. every democratic from that point forward fought for it. and talented people, jack kennedy, jimmy carter, bill clinton, and they did the best effort. ime only te it broke was medicare and medicaid in 65,

that's 54 years ago. that was lyndon johnson because of the goldwater landslide. finally in 2010, the democrats get it. give barack obama credit, nancyt peloost a lot of people their careers and seats, cost eyok seven more years before people said there faorable. now the idea that you're going the wrist of your hand iswith absolutely blowing smoke. it is self-delusion, self-deception. it's going to require careers and the same kind of effort. bill brad riput in four years of working on tax reform, which i anything is a lot less tough. >> woodruff: you're saying warren. >> cold shower, nice to talk about it, it ain't going to happen. >> woodruff: you heard it here. so we are in thanksgiving week, and i can't let you get away without asking both of you what do we have to be thankfu for? david? >> i'm thankful that we didn'tbe

n our career i in this era. we saw what re politics was normally like. i have been thinking about the quality of thanksgiving. we've had a healthy exerce in the country on racial justice, the treatment of native americans. we've laid open the sins which have to be laid open, bu you have to love your country equally after being aware and paying attention to the sis. so being born or living in thest amazing country on the face of the earth is something you can even still say ater looking at this joan side and all the other stuff, it's possible testify a mature love for your country.>> woodruff: good to haa country that keeps renewing itself. >> after standing in awe of marie yovanovitch and others, my

admiration and gratitude for public employees, of dsensy and patriotism who put their careerat risk toeak truth to power and the american people, i'm gl foit. this is the 19th year david and i have spoken on the "newshour". i have spoken stupid things and not once d david take a cheapn shothis friendship an decency. >> woodruff: this is a place hre people treat each oer with more respect. and we are thankful at the "newshour" for the two of you. mark shields, david brooks, thank you. >> woouff: five years ago, the u.s. senate select committee on inteigence released a report c.i.a. used on terror suspects

after the 9/11 attacks. that investigation is nothe subject of a new film,r"the repo." jeffrey brown has a look, part of our ongoing arts and culture series, "canvas." >> brown: the story is straight from the headlines. >> better intelligence could have been obtained by more hum meths. >> their report, released by democrats, contes the tactics failed to produce useful informion >> brown: the film portrays the real-life six-year effort by the senate select committee on intelligence to uncover the c.i.a.'sse of so-called" enhanced interrogation technies" on terrorism suspects following the 9/11 attacks. those techniques, includingat deprn, were initially implemented at the suggestion of psychologists.or

the torture proved ineffective, but remained in practice at secret c.i.a. sites around the world. danielinones was lead stigator on senator diane feinstein's intelligence committee staff. actor adam driver, known for recent roles in "blackkklansmans and the "star sequel trilogy, portrays jones. >> after 9/11, everyone was scared. scared it might happen again. it was my second day of grad school. the next day, i changed all my classes to national security. >> brown: jones was the primary author of the report on torture. >> there are 2findings and conclusions in the overall report which can boil down into three key findinth. one is thatechniques the c.i.a. used, which most referred al as torture, resulted in answers and did not result in unique information. >> w are so many of these guys still lying to us ter you work on them? where is the special sauce? you have to make this work.

it's only legal if it works. >> two is that techniques we far more brutal than the c.i.a. had described to congress, to enthe president, the deparof justice. >> we improve his treatment for a week or two, give him some hope, and then we go back at him hard and create a sense of helplessness. >> and three is, the program was grossly mismanaged.c. tha. did not hold officers accountable for wrongdoing. they did not set up appropriate guelines. over and over again, we saw soma significnagement failures. >> brown: scott z. burns wrote and directed the film. best known for his screenpy "the bourne timatum," burns also produced the academy award- winnindocumentary "an inconvenient truth." why did u think this might be a vie? >> you know, for me, it started out that both my parents are psychologists, and i grew up with some awarenesofof that sion as a thing that exists to help people.he and soi read that people had figured out a way to weaponize ychology, i found

that appalling. >> w with the assertion tt the program was poorly managed and fiexecutedand that unqua officers imposed brutal conditions, used unapproved techniques and were rarely held accountable. >> i also fe that my country had tortured people. and that that was antithetical to everything i had thought. and i know that may sound naive, because the c.i.a. hadone that at other points in history. >> brown: jones and his team set up a secure room within a c.i.a. facility to go through the evidence. >> no paper? >> paper has a way of getting people in trouble at our place.l >> at oue, paper is how we keep track of laws. >> brown: investigators would face multiple hurdles put in the way by the c.i.a. and other t ficials, including a thr legal action against jones. the fi's narrative follows jones as he puts the puzzle pieces together. >> when scott first described to

me his idea, which was this most this dark comedy of errors in some ways, that was the only thing that made sense to me. >> ihink it's the struggle of somebody to get usyou know, get e truth out and i think, you ow, what happened with dan, i think is kind of tracer bullet through our polithtal systemow, that there are that exist to proversighttions and accountability, and yet it took a really herculeart on dan's part and the other people, the senators on th commit to get the story out. >> brown: the film portrays the c.a. andhe obama administration actively tried to keep the findings from being made public, amid other national priorities. actor jon hamm portrays dennisdo ugh, president obama's chief of staff. annette benning is senator diane feinstein.

>> when this admistration took office, we faced the very real possibility of economic collapse. we spend our political capital on going around trying to find people to blame, or do we solve the problem? >> maybe the way to solve the oblem is to hold people accountable. do you ever wonder why historyit repeatlf? well, i think maybe it's because we don't always listen the first time. >> brown: director burns says he felt it was important to depict some of torture. >> you know, it was probably the part of the film that i work d agonized the most over, through the edit and throughin wr through every aspect. and there were early drafts where i wondered if we could tell the story withoutng anything.rd >> thewaterb him 183 times, and then concluded k.s.m. may never be forthcoming or honest.go everything thefrom him was either a lie or something they already had. >> well, okay.

so, my first question is, if it works, why do you need to do it 183 times? >> maybe when the report comes out, people will finally see that ib>> the reason why abu ghas such a sea change in this whole story is, people saw these things and, you know, obviously, as someone who works in a visual thousands of words do paint and i felt unless i show the audience enough of what really yappened, they wouldn't tr understand the trespasses against the law and against human dignity. but when i shot it, i tried to make it more about the torturers than the torture, because a lot of these people did do criminal ndts >> brown: in the, after the years-long drama, daniel jones says the system worked. >> we did get a report out. it's 525 pages. it has redactions. but we did get the report out. the report was released, and i think that's really to the ament of what the senato did, of that committee.

they really were committed to this and committed to getting it out in public. >> brown: do you do you feel that you told a positive story or a warning story? what is it? >> well, as a filmmaker, i don't feel like i get to decide what the audien should feel at the end. you know, i know how i feel, which is, i am-- i am greatly buoyed by the fact that this country did put that report out. i n't know that there's another country other th maybe canada that would, you know, that would have even allowed this kind of investigation >> brown: "the report" is now streaming on amazon prime video. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown at the torto international film festival. >> woodruff: another movie for the holiday season.

and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again right here monday. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, and we hope you have a nice thanksgiving weekend. >> bnsrailway. >> consumer cellular. >> suprting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.g. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more tvan 50 years, ing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world. at www.hewlett.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for

public broadcaing. and by contributions to your pbs yostation from viewers lik thank you. io cang sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> you're watching pbs.

[female announcer] funding for overheard with evan smith is provided in part by hillco partners, a texas government affairs consultancy, the alice kleberg reynolds foundation, claire and carl stuart, and by entergy. [evan smith] i'm evan smith. he's one of fiction's rising stars. his debut novel "there there" was called "an american epic" by the new york times and has won raves from coast to coast. he's tommy orange, this is overheard. [smith] let's beonest. is this about the ability to learn or is this about the experience of not having been taught properly? how have you a what has befallen other nations in africa? you could say that he made his own bed, but you caused him to sleep in it. you a problem and over time took it on. let's star wwith the sizzle befoget to the steak. are you gonna run for president? i think i just got an f from you, actually. this is overheard. (audiencapplause)