captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: a country on strike. france comes to a nationwide standstill, as protests over pension reform closels and stop trains. then, anatomy of a conspiracy. how a disproven narrative tying ukraine to interference in the 2016 election found a home init the whhouse. and, it's friday. as the u.s. house drafts articles of impeachment, mard shields anvid brooks are here to analyze the process and the president's troubled summit with nato allies. plus, a new exhibit reveals the inspiratn that led a struggling artist named vincent to become the beloved painter van gogh. yo the thing is, as soon a label somebody a "genius," youop

ooking for sources. "oh, they have this magical gift"-- but actually it's whole lot of other people and it's the world. >> woodruff: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine t.t connects us >> consumer cellular offer

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station from viewers like you. thank you. >> wuff: u.s. unemployment has now fallen to a 50-year low, as hiring picked up steam. the labor departnt today reported that the unemployment rate dropped to 3.5% in november, down from 3.. meanwhile, employers added 266,000 new jobs last month, the biggest increase in ten months. today's strong jobs report sent stocks soaring on wall street. the dow jones industrial average surged 337 points to close at 28,015 the nasdaq rose more than 85 points, and the s&p 500 added 28. florida officials have confirmed that a gunman who killed three people today at naval air station pensacola was a member of the saudi air force.

the attack happened in a classroom where the suspect was undergoing aviation training. several people were unded, before an officer shot and killed the suspect. governor ron desantis said authorities are investigating several possible links to terrorism. >> the government of saudio arabia needske things better for these victims. and i think they're going to was one of their individuals.s when you have a foreign national ulinvolved, you know, partly in that part of the world, the investigation is obviously going to bdifferent than if it wer just somebody from a local community. >> woodruf in washington, president trump said that saudi king salman had called to offer condolences and assistance. >> the king said that the saudi people are greatly angered by the barbaric actions of the shooter, and that this person in no way, shape or form representh feelings of the saudi people, who love the american people smuch. >> woodruff: this was the second deadly shooting at a u.s.ta

mi base this week. harbor naval shipy hawaiirl on wednesday. a u.s. navy sailor fatally shot two people before killing himself. military officials said today undergoing counseling.py with the white house is refusing to ke part in the house of representatives' impeachment proceedings against president trump. white house counsel pat cipollone wrote a letter to the house judiciary committee's chairman jerry nadler an demanded an end to the inquiry, calling it "completely baseless."me while, house republicans said today that they want toes hearmony from hunter biden, the fort'r vice presidson; from house igence committee chairma adam schiff; and from the anonymous whistleblower. the death toll from a migrant boat that psized off mauritania rose to 63 people today. w

the vess headed to spain's canary islands when it ran out of fuel wednesday and overturned off the coasof west africa. some 150 migrants weboard. most were from gambia. the u.s. sanctioned three iraqi militia leaders today he killing of anti-government protesters.se the men are acof leading iranian-backed paramilitary groups that shot at demonstrators. more than 400 people have been killed since october, in a crackdown on protests demanding reforms. toy, a senior state department official left open the possibility of imposing more sanctions. >> we're not done. this is an ongoing process. these designations don't prejudice future designations, and we will be dng further designations in the future. >> woodruff: in central baghdad rsday, thoands of protes flooded the streets demanding the formation of a new government.later, iraqi officiat

an attack targeting those demonstrators killed at 15 people. lebanon's outgoing primeer minippealed for international aid toda amids the countrrst economic crisis in decades. prime minister saad hariri sent letters to several ces, including the u.s., asking for help in securing credit lines. for months, thousands av protesters htaken to the streets across the country to mismanagement and tion.f china today waived tariff hikes bean imports and s amid ongoing trade negotiations. in september, beijing ha promis to lift the duties in the hopes of securing an agreement. washington is seto impose a new round of tariffs on $160 billion of chinese goods on december 15.ge oil prices stoday after opec reached a deal committing to some of the deepest oil output cuts this decade.

at a meeting in vienna, the group's oil producing countries and eir ally russia agreed t cut an extra 500,000 barrels per day through the first quarter of next year. the move aims to prevent an oversupplynd boost oil prices. north carolina republican congressman george holding announced today he won't seek re-election in 2020.ar his raleig district now leans heavildemocratic, after a court ordered the congressional map be redrawn. duncan hunter said today that he will resign at the end of the year. he faces charges of misusing campaign funds. there are now 23 house republicans who are not seeking reelection next year. still to come the newshour: france is brought to a halt, as the nation erupts in protest ron's pensiont m reform.

how a fringe conspiracy theory about ukraine gained currency in the oval office. mark shields and david brooks break down a week that brought us even closer to impeachment. and, much more. >> woodruff: for a second straight day, a general strike brought much of france to a ha. the streets are filled with protesters denouncing president emmanuelle macron. as nick schifrin tells us, it's macron's ideas on reforming sacrosanct sections of the french national retiment system that have sparked outrage across the country. >> schifrin: in the city of light, dusk arrives early, ia cloud of tear gas. protestors have sh down paris and much of france. phalanx of police charge at

demonstrators, and sw little restraint. police have arrested hundreds. demonstrators have held up the flag-- and much of paris' public trsit and schools-- for tw days. hundreds of thousands of protestors from all walks of life are united by opposition to proposed pensions reforms. >> ( translated ): retirees are here, youth are here. this shows that we arell affected by this bad proposal, and we are all here to say that we don't want it. >> ( translated ): i demonstrate for the next generatio i doubt that younger people will have a pension like we currently have. >> schifrin: this is the french unions' greatest show of force since 41-year-old emmanuel w macr elected president, promising fundamental reforms to an economic syem considered anti-business, with pension reform at the thnter. >> it'most ambitious reform than macron has introduced. >> schifrin: jean pisani-ferry helped design the pension

reforms as a macron seor advisor. he says they're supposed make a complex system more transparent and fair. >> it's a very ambitious reform, the reform of the pension system. we have a fragmented pensions system. the ambition of the reform is to create a unified system.wh h favor mobility, so you could easily move from one sector to another, and in terms of fairness, it would be the same rules forveryone. >> schifrin: france has one of the world's most protective pension systems. france's average retirement age is 62, and the country spends 14% of its g.d.p. on pension. the average for leading industrialized countries is 8%. these reforms don't actually change those numbers, bu protestors fear the reforms could lower peions and increase the retirement age, tapping into larger economic concerns. >> ( translat): reforming the pensions was the last straw, since in the past few years, we've beening everything--

whether it be unemployment benefits, or job cuts in the public sector. >> schifrin: and as that fear increases, macron's considered out of touch. his critics call him imperious.s and he misread017 election landslide, says pisani-ferry, who is now athe peterson institute in washington, d.c. >> these was never a real debate on issues. and i think macron misinterpreted that by saying, he has got a mandate to dohat he had proposed. and that put him very much out of touch with the perception of inequality, and the anger, and what we see in many of our societies, our people feel they are left behind. >> schifrin: for more than a year, yellow vest protestorsra have demonstd the high cost of living and rising fuel costs. they carried the cross for lowe taxes ange increases on weekends, to n lose work days. today's protestors are mostly unionized employees d afraid to sprkdays on the streets.

and that means they threaten macron's entire reform agenda. >> if he has to capitulate, this means the ability to do anything significant until the end of the term will be destroyed. >> let's be serious. >> schifrin: in euro, macron's become an outspoken voice, standing up to president trump, and calling for fundamenta forms to nato and european defense. but if he loses his domestic reform battle, that imperils his international agenda, says pisani-ferry. >> part of his legitimacyha internationallbeen based on the fact that he's perceived as a reformer, as someone who is frenchociety andhe problem of economy. you cannot be unable to do reforms at home, and ask for reforms at the international level. >> schifrin: today, the majority of france supports the general strike.

macron's fundamental reforms, are being fundamentally challenged, and the protestors vow to keep going until the pension reforms are abandoned. for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin. >> woodruff: this impeachment inquiry underway began with president trump's phone call with ukranian president volodymyr zelensky. but president trump harg repeatedly c tt the real wrongdoing was by ukrainians. he asserts that they colluded against him the past. william brangham begins our look at this theory, and whe it may have originated. >> brangham: in that now infamous phone call with zelensky, president trump brought up two distinct theories he wanted the young ukrainian president to investigate. the thing we hear most about was the request that ukraine investigate the bidens. but the other request was about an unproven allegation that the

ukrainians were somehow working tukranians,mssians, whowas were hiding something about the hacking of the democratic national committee's computer server back in 2016. we're going to look at second issue-- why it's not true, where this idea comes from, and w it's now morphed into a much larger accusation about how ukraine allegedly interfered more broadly in the 2016 election. our guide is our very own lisa desjardins. lisa, welcome. >> reporter: so muge through on all of this. tell us morebout this theory that president trump has that he brought upith esident zelensky about ukraine's involvement in the hacking o the d.n. >> this resolves around the server the intense community overwhelmingly concluded was hacked by the russians containing democratic party information from the democratic natial convention. the. has long resented the idea the

russians got involved if his favor. he embraced the theory it was the ukrainians trying to help out clinton who may have had something to do with this server. this is the favor he sad zelensky for. let's look at the partial transcript from the call withpr ident zelensky. president trump said i would like you to find out what happened with the whole situation with ukraine. they say crowdstrike, the server. they say ukraine has it. also, the president brought this up in a press conference over availability in october. >> how come the.b.i. never got the server from the d.n.c.? the servinger they say is heldom by apany whose primary ownership individual is from ukraine. >> so now we can explain what he's talki about. crowdstrike is a cber security firm hired by thedoms to look into this hack. it is not owned by ukrainians, it is owned by two americans including this man, dimitri

alperovich, you may have seen him on the "newshour" talking about cyber security ie past. while the f.b.i. did not take possession of the d.n.c. server as the prident noted, neither did crowdstrike, they don't have it, they had no connectiono kraine. there's zero evidence ukraine had anything to do with thrv at all. >> reporter: the president and supporters point to other evidence, ey say, that show some ukrainians, at least, had real animus towards thn candidate trump back in 2016. what's the evidence for that? >> two things. first, republicans pointed to this op-ed run in 2016 wrbyitten he ambassador to the u.s. from ukraine, that ambassador raised concerns about whathen candidate trump was saying about crimea. trump was kind of incating he may be okay with the russians taking over crimey and the ambassadors raising sharp concerns about that. republicans say that's anpl exof bias. the second example involves a tedemocratic national comm staffer named alexander chalupa.

you've heard that name around. she said in her off work time, not as par of her job, he was interested trump campaign chairman paul manafort, had questions about his past in ukraine and spoke with officialt ukrainian embassy. she said they didn't give her much guidance than they would have given anyone else but a ukrainian staffer from the time said it went beyond that. he's offered no proof. we take from this there were individuals looking into the trump campaign or miffed bias, but in the case of the ambassador, it was a case of national inst. there's no evidence of any larger ukrainian government efforts to try and undermine the trump campaign. >> reporter: so where di this idea come from that ukraine, more broadly, was trying to interfere? >> we may not know all of the actors, but let's start with the press. first of all, there was this article from politico in 2017 saying ukrainian efforts to sabotage trump, that's a blaring headline but if d yig deeper,

really the only evidence e about e democratic staffer, and that article says there was no deeper effort, they had no proof oa top-down effort. that was 2017. flash forward to earlier this year, and you say in theill in march, reporter named jon solomon in a piece entitled as input out this idea there was a ukrainian plot to help clinton. now, it should be noted that this -- particularly this report, william, now is under john solomon's rting.hill, as is the president, though, picked up on it. he tweeted the very next day -- or that day, he saw that report, and you see this idea staing to take hold. rudy giuliani appeared on fox ne a couple of months later, also putting out these seies. what's happening hee? the intelligence community is looking at this and they have, recentcording to the "new york times," concluded actually it was russia that put out the ideas that ukraine was behind any election meddling in 206,

certainly something that benefits russia that's been in the hot spot -- >> reporter: push blame off russia on to ukraine. >> yes and the intelligence community concluded that's what happened according to the "new yorkimes" reporting. people might remember fiona hill on the national security staff, she testified to this about a week ago in the ieachment hearings. >> there are some questions and statements i've heard, some of you on is committee appear to believe, that russia and its security servicesid not conduct a campaign against our country and that, perhaps, somehow,ror some son, ukraine did. this is a fictional narrative that is being perpetrated and propagat by the russian security services themselves. >>ne more note on this. vladimir putin himself last month said he paid attention to this anhe sort joked in a happy way he's glad ukraine isth gettin blame. >> reporter: despite the seeming evidence itmight be the

russians trying to gin up this idea, we are seeing some .mbers of theo.p. parroting these points. >> first, i'll play a sound bye from louisiana senator john kennedy. >> i think both russia and ine meddled in the 2016 election. i think it's been well documented in the financial times and politico, in the economt and the washington examiner, even onbs. >> also notably, the senate intelligence chairman richard burr known for being cautious told me and a few other reporters a couple of days ago, there's no difference the way russians put their finger ear on on the scale and how the ukrainian officials did it. things saying this is blowing the minds of the republicans. tt looking at senator lindsey graham, an ally president, but he said i'm 1,000% confident that the hack

of the democratic national convention was by russian operatives and no one else. so you see a battle for what's are true or not when ally the evidence is overwhelming on one side that the russians attacked us in many ways,nd there's almost no evidence that the ukrainians had a government-wide 2016.pt to try to meddle >> reporter: lisa desjardins, thank you so much for helping us wade through this. >> good teaork. you're wlcome. >> woodruff: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: discovering the inspiration bend vince van gogh's masterpieces. and, the difficulties farm workers face in maintaining their health. a milestone week in washingtonac the iment proceedings againspresident trump advanced to the house judiciary committec and speaker pelosi direed house chairmen to begin drafting articles of impeachment. and while facing impeachment back home, president trump faced

nato allies in london, as the democratic primary field shrunk, again. here to help us make sense of il l are shields and brooks. that is syndicated columnist mark shields, and "new york times" columnist david brooks. okay. shrink, shrank, shrunk. >> shrinking right innt of you. >> reporter: we're moving ahead. let's start with impeament, mark. quite a week. to begin, to th chairman, iyou want you to begin drafting articles. judiciary committee held a hearing with constitutional scholars on wednesday. where does this argument stand w that the president should be impeached? >> i tennk the argis straightforward, that the esident elicitly used his power -- il illicitly use his

power to maybe subvert another country toarticipate in and sabotage an american election, upcoming, not 2016, you know, ai ting that. he's talking about the election of 2020. and i thinkyou know, i think that's it. it's clear, strrdaightforin violation of not only his oath but of the expre position, will and law of the united states congress, a, so, you know, i think it's pretty clear. >> reporter: is it clear to you?ke >> it two to have an argument and we don't seem to have an argument becausee have the democrats who are happy to talk about it and the white house doesn't seem interestein confronting the argument with decision in the hothat's their i wonder what they're going to do in the senate. is che white houming? are they going to leave it to republican senators? i agree with mark, the evidence is pretty overwhelming. judiciary committehappened its hearings.

they heard from scholars. monday they're going to have what's called an evidence hearing. is either side -- both of you are saying the white house isn't present ago defense but some ofu the icans on the committee are saying this whole thing is a sham. i mean, how much headw are the republicans making with that argument that they keep hammering that? >> i mean, the republicans have been united. i mean, k so, i donow if there's headway to make.h and ine nation. their position is pretty clear. they're going to stick with the president, reg'sdless. ind of fascinating to me, there's a little vignette, i think, that sort of encompasses and explains this whole thi. in the 2018 election, the 11t 11th district of new jersey, a republican seat held for 25 years, the democrats nominated a nrather remarkable didate, a navel academy graduate, mother of 4, whoaad been helicopter pilot and a federal prosecutor and nancy pelosi supported her,

but before the election, mikey cheryl, a democrat, called nancs pelosi aid i'm getting an awful lot of criticism, i'm going no have to ance i will not support you as speaker if i do win. nancy pelosi said, oh,ikey, forget about it, go win, that's what matters. that same election in utah, mayor love, the only black republican woman in the congress, in a district that was incrediblyhite, 290,000 votes cast, she lost by one-third of love didn't show me any love and she lost. that encapsulates where we are on the combatants. a'it's pelosi against trump. >> and trump ha argument of a sort today which wasw 256,000 obs. >> yes. the economy is a big factor

heresand, so, as long as he that economy, the republicans will be sticking with it -- sticking with him and the atmosphere with theli repns will be good. nancy pelosi had one of the best momentof the year saying she doesn't hate donald trump, she's going to pray for donald trump. that was a beautiful moment of, wellshe said is her catholic faith, her christian witness. >> sheas quotingst st. aue, hate the sin but not the sinner. >> reporter: so do i hear both of you saying u think the democrats are correct to be moving forward with this impeachment, that this is a wise move their part? >> i don't know if it'wise. i think they feel it's an imperative move, if they don't do it, they will never, again, be able to face themselves in the mirror or look at history's judgme that they watched a president do this. they saw a president do this

openly and, clearly, and did not act. i mean, that is just simply saying -- it's abdicating all power and changing our system. p osi understands two contradictory facts, one, they have to do this for constitutional reasons, and, two, it could hurt swing voters, buit's not th conversation she wants to have, about hong kong and so on. they're ing the right thing to do it and as fast as they possibly can.st i'mruck by how mitch mcconnell will react in the senate. does he want to drag this out as a way to deedemocratic senators in there or does he also want to get it out of the way? if i were him, i would probably want to get it out of the way, too. >> reporter: lot of questions. meantime, ile this is going on in washington, the president is london meeting with n.a.t.o. mark, once again president managing to get into a squabble with hirts counter is this something that you think is having a bigger effect on the united states or is this something that is limited?

this is a video of the other leaders apparently mocking president trump. is this something that's just about him or is this affecting h united states? >> well, judy, i went back and checked the record. it's the first time that donald trump, at least publicly, 1987 took a full-page add in the "new york times" sasying japan wa having a freighter sail through the persian gulf and they ought to pay for it, erwise the world, opec, china and russia would be laughing at us, iran was laughing at us. this was a costant the throughout his campaign, you know, that the world is will lag at us. i was unaware of the world laughing at us, to be honest with you, but ide saw ee of the world laughing at the presidenof the united states. world laughing at him and what had been his egotism and ego sentriesty just run rampant at

the intemperatures of anybody else. that's what stru me about that vignette you described. >> reporter: is that about him or is it about the dismoun >> it's about him. my twitter feed was interesting that day when the video came out because the left side of m twitter feed ws saying, this is terrible, everyone's laughing,an donald trump can't get along with foreign leaders, and the right side of my twitter fe was saying this is awesome, donald trump can't get alonggn with foreaders. so they liked the idea he was having a fight. ly say from the right side of the universe, mockery is a sign of higher status to people thy think are less intelligent oler good. so a lot of people who feel that everyone is looking down on the see mockery as an eliteon phenomoward him. and it's read very differently, parts to have the coury.ferent so i think this is an example of how see the worldtl differ i think it's indisputable donald trump is hurting ourit relationshipour allies, i think that's indisputable. i had a friend in the state

department saying most of what weo heris not foreign policy, it's foreign relations. we do relationships. as mark will tell you in politics as in life, relatiships are 98% of the game, and if you're torturing your relationshs with your allies, they're notng to be there when you need them. >> in the meantime, a dozen and a half democrats running fo president. kamala harrs dopped out this week. we saw an interesting exchange e tween joe biden and a voter yesterday where den loked like he got pretty angry. how is the race shaped -- has the race shaped up at this poin given a number ofnd ates have now dropped out? >> well, in, meaamala harris, why not, first term african-american senator running for the presidency, barack obama did it. two major differences, barack

obama was once-in-a-lcaetime politalent and, secondly, he was the only anti-war candidate in an anti-war party. everybody else had supported the iraq war. a lack of core convictions. she was for single payer health insurance until she was against it, an she got caught in the changing worries. i mean, a woman who had been a district attorney, an a.g., was a real plus, you knowkind of proving her toughness, but all party and in changing vals,atic the question became about prisoners' rights and so forth. so i think, you know, i think thpre-mortems on campaign in both politico and the "new york times" tanned "the washington post" on t intnal strife almost -- >> reporter and we talke about that lt week. the democrats are left with fewer peoplof color.

>> and, you know, i think as people have said, politics playw ontter and beto o'rourke and kamala hris were two of the most identity politics candidate. i think it's true that democrats think other people are racist and won't vote forn african-american. i think that's the explanation for why cory booker who i think has run a vy good campaign has not done bert and why she has not done betterd they're left with this all white debat stage. >> woodruff: and among those left in the race, we mentioned joe biden getting into a scabble squabble with a voter this week. you had three obama ficialstration of endorsing pete buttigieg. what about the endismormts. >> well, theohn kerry is not

unimportant. i don't think endorsements -- m they mean a lre on the back of a check than in a political campaign, uness it's the spouse of one candidate endorsing that candidate's opponent. but iowa, he was the nominee, he was the secretarysecretary of state, cey one of the simple themes of joe biden's campaign is that the world is in disarray, as we've just been talking about, and it's going to take an awful lot of effort and expertise from day one to reaeme it. and it's a little bit oa slap at elizabeth warren at the same time. >> kerry endorsg. deval patrick, even. i think the obama officials endorse buttigieg is a bigger deal just becau he needs c credibilit a 37-year-old do this, and that lends some credibility to him. but i think joe biden had one os the best wf the campaign. he had an ad mocking

president bush, presidump, wishful thinking, and he went after the voter, which i thinkte vigor, showed toughness, shows he's doi well and controlled the news cycle which he hasn't done in a long tim>>e. isagree. i disagree with davi i think that joe biden can take on a voter but he -- you want to do pushups, you want to run, you want to take an i.q. tes itlooks like a little bit like a mini trump and that's not the way joe biden will win this campaignf he's going to w it. >> woodruff: mark shields, davibrooks, thank you. >> thank you. oo >>uff: vincent van gogh. there was the mental illness-- but an exact diagnosis is still disputed. the early death at 37, thought to be a icide, but again, not certain. at we do know is, he was difficult, pained man, who produced some of the world's

most exuberant paintings, and became one of the most beloved artists of all time. jeffrey brown takes us to a new exhibition, with an interesting origin story of its own, that it is part of our ongoing arts and culture coverage, "canvas." >> brown: it's the most famous "stare" in art history: the one and only vincent van gogh. >> i say to visitors, if you're sitting on a stool in a bar, and someone turns to you with this look, you might want to move. and this says something about vincent: he is out there emotionally, and "this is my life.": >> broll south is curator of a new exhibition, "van go and his inspirations," at the carona's capital cy.uth va presents a less-familia gogh-- the wayward, struggling,f largely aught young man who learned from looking hard at the world and the work of artists around him. this is seeing how van gogh became van gogh.

>> that's the question we sought to answer. he doesn't come out of the womb and paint "starry night." it takes a lot of failure, a lot of experimentation, a lot of false starts, a number of eay successes. you have to look at a lot of things to arrive at "starry night. that doesn't just come out of nowhere. >> brown: in fact, "starry nght" and mostf van gogh's best-known paintings, date to the last few years of his short life. they rarely travel, and are not here. what is here? 12 van goghs, on loan from museums around the country, surrounded by works by 30 other artists, most from earlier in the 19th century. a drawing of an old woman by jean francois raffaelli, next to one by van gogh of a worker. a japanese woodblock print of a plum garden, side by side with van gogh's "orchard with arles in the background." tice the tree branches. jean-francois millet's paintin n of two peasantt to van gogh's "beef cart."

van gogh would retain some elements of what he saw, even as he later exploded them into his own revolutionary style. >> all those things are coming in, and he's going to reshuffle those things constantly. the thing is, as soon as you label somebody a "genius," you op looking for sources. what's there is this tremendous background of effort and struggle and experimentation, thate constantly brings forward. >> brown: the source for this exhibition is an hour iaay from coluin the town of aiken, in a gilded-age, 60-room estate that had fallen intopair and neglect when steven naifeh and gregory whit ismith bought 1989, slowly restoring it over the next 25 years. it was here that the twoen, profession and life partners before smith died in 2014, wrote their pulitzer prize-winning biography of jackson pollock, and then spent a decade researching and wring an acclaimed biography of van gogh, published in 2011.

>> the thing we came away with from the ten years, the most important lesson, was the lesson of resilience. resilience in the face of adversity. it was constant, but somehow he just picked himself up every day and started painting again. >> brownit was also re that a naif smith began bing art, as a way to see through van gogh's eye they couldn't afford actual "van goghs," but they combed auctions to find works by lesser-known artists they knew he'd admired. >> we're living in his head. we're looking at the list of artists he admired, the artists that he wanted theo to make sure that he went to see. >> georges michel, who painted this landscape. the van gh we all know and love would create something very different. but naifeh makes the case, he got there through artists like michel.e >>aves behind the coloring of paintings likthis, but what he keeps are certain things like these dynamic clouds, these

wonderful clouds. and if you think about his late, most advanced landscapes, they may be brightly colored, but they have these wonderfu tempestuous, exciting, jubilant clouds. and they come directly out of georges mich. these were paintings that are in the exhibition. >> brown: naifeh lent part of his collection to the coluia museum of art for the new exhibitionincluding this painting by adolphe monticelli, whose work van gogh greatly admired. >> what's astonishing about monticelli is how abstract he is. the other thing that's important in it is the thickness of the paint. it's almost sculptural. >> brown: yeah, you can see. and he also painted what'se. >> brown: next to it: van gogh"" wheat field with poppies."g this is gettoser to the van gogh that many know, right? >> yes. >> brown: because we look around and i imagine a lot of people coming to the galleries are saying, "this doesn't look like a van gogh." e well, the van gogh that know is only the van gogh of the last four years of his life. so what's really hel is to

realize that art history, even with somebody as revolutionary as van gogh, is an ongoing dialogue between each artist and the artists that came before. brown: that was a lesson being passed on to a group of local who visited the exhibition, and then made their own works, inspired by van gogh and his interest in japanese art. paige williams and olivia herod are both 17. >> i think it's so cool to see how van gogh kind of took inspiration and techniques from other artists and incoorated that. and then he transformed it into his own work, but he still put his own van gogh twist. >> and he focused more on the emotion thin it, while this other person didn't. so you can tell the dierence in artists. >> brown: i'm curious about how often do you get to see a van gogh or van gogh exhibition? >> never ever. >> brown: never? >> no. as famous as he is, i just really any other m famous seen paintings in person.

>> i just feel so fortunate, able to see these famous works, and i'm able to not see them through a computer screen.♪ ♪ >> brown: pulling in both art lovers and people who aren't regular museum visitors was very much the idea for curator will south, who says this exhibition carries a largermbition. >> there's this idea wn you're in a moderately big town, reall a small big toat we are just so far from the pis', the new yorks of this world. and in a sense we are, but that doesn't mean we aren't a capable town, an aggressively smart town. everybody needs to experience art. but if they can make it here and wean give them a similar experience-- n the same as similar experience-- then we should. that's our responsy.at. that's our job. and we take that very seriously. >> brown: the exhibition "vans gogh and hisrations" isan here throughuary 12, 2020, and will later travel to santa barbara,alifornia and columbus, ohio.

for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown in columbia, south carolina. >> woodruff: and we will be back shory with a look at how a farm worker community in arizona is addressing the challenges of providing health care. but first, take a moment to hear from your lol pbs station. it is a chance to offer your

>> woodruff: finally, farm workers face major challenges when it comes to access to health care, but theoutheaston ararea health education center, or sea-hec, is working to impve health care for farm workers with a unique solution. here's producer anikka abbott. >> reporter: bend, pluck, place, repeat. for hours a day, worke nature sweet farms in southeast arizona pick tomatoes. it's worthat requires strength, skill, and good health. public health expert jill guernsey de zapien says farm work often causes muscle and back issues. everything is built for harvesting crops, for packaging. it is built to make it happen fast. it's not built to protect th

body of the workers. >> reporter: the national center for farm-worker alth says the top three things farm woers suffer from are obesity, hypertension, and diabetes. workers like dillon valenzuela do what they can to get ready for the day. >> ( translated ): when we enter, first we have to exercise, stretch out, then weth put alprotective clothes onor the greenhouse. >> reporter: even though they prepare for the work, some farm workers struggle to maintain their own health. 400 people are working in this tomato plant. greenhouses and almost 95% of them speak spanish primarily.ua la is one baier to healthcare. access is another, says gail onrick, executive director of the southeast ararea health education center, or seahec. p ticularly precarious with farm workers is the type of labor they're involved in, shift work versus ongoinor form employment.

d so some people may have health insurance and health coverage, and others may not. >> reporter:he national center for farm-worker health says almost 53% of farm workers across t country are uninsured. even some with health insurance have limited access. the ratio of people to doctors in rural areas is 2,500 to one. >> it's not saying necessarily that we don't have enough health professionals. it's saying that they're not distributed well throughout the country. r orter: here in winchester heights, an unincorporated latino neighborhood just ten minutes from the farm, there are no doctors. facility is 20 minutes away. enter the southeast arizona area health education center, whose goal is to help residents in rural areas gain acccas to heal. in winchester heights, they enhelped build a communityr where public health interns train resident volunteers, known as promotoras de salud. after receiving training

idhealthcare workers, likea dominguez, go door to door in winchester heights to teach their neighbors about better heal, like nutrition and sun protection. >> and then she told me, "i am so grateful because i didn't know but now i know that you have to use a hat." >> reporter: latino fa workers say the community center and health workers have made an impact on their health. having promotoras whk their own language and come from thr own community make a difference. >> ( anslated ): it's important to have a social environment and so to be abl to help the children, the youth, the ults, the elders, so we will be united. >> reporter: along with healthcare, the health education group is now also teaching residents how toun their own non-profit. they plan to turn the community center over to the people in winchester heights next year.

for the pbs newshour, i'm anikka abbott with cronkite news in winchester heights, arizona. >> woodruff: before we go night, a brief news update. it has been a busy evening at the u.s. supreme court. the court has blocka request from the trump administration to lift a ban on federal executions. for 16 years, there have been no death penalty executions in federacases. also, the supreme court hasil temporgranted the president's request to block ruling by a lower court thatre ired banks to hand over president trump and his family's financial vordz congress. justice ruth bader ginsburg signed that order. the stay gives relief for only a week while thcourt considers the q. a fedeaeral ap court ruled earlier this week that

deutsch bank and capital one must turn over what they have of the president's prsonal and financial business records. there are two other cases before the court involving subpoenas for the president's financial records. and that is the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been pvided by: >> bnsf railway. >> consumer cellular. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's mostbl pressing proems-- skollfoundion.org. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world. at www.hewlett.org. >> and with the ongoing support

of thesenstitutionsnd and frof the newshour. >> this progibwas made po by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by wshour productions, llc captioneby media access group at wgbh

tonight on kqed newsroom. house democrats begin drafting articles of impeachment against age for a showdown with e republicans on capitol hill. also, don't let a spark turn into a flame. we talked through the best tactics for diffusing family holiday tension . and the ncy pelosi way. from building bridges to tearing down walls. a new book ascribes e leadership style of a political powerhouse. good evening, and welcome to kqed newsroom , i am risa lagos. we bin tonight with th week's top political news. on thursday, speaker nancy pelosi said the house of representatives would begin drafting articles