captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasanon this edition for saturday, december 14: a look at the next steps for the impeachment vote; in our signature segment, new hurdles for peace in afghanistan; and illusionist derren brown,un pushing the ries of mentalism. next on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the cheryl and philip milstein family. rosali p. walter, in memory of george o'neil. barbara hope zuckerberg. charles rosenblum. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow

can help you make e most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. additional suppo has been provided by: and by the corporation forbl broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at wlincoln center in rk, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenasan: good evening, and thanks for joining us. the full house of representatives, where democrats have the majority, is expected to vote on two artles of impeachment of president donald trump this coming week. if passed, the next stage is a trial in the republican-majority senate. senate mority leader republican mitch mcconnell has said he would be "surprised" if there are 67 votes to remove the president from office, and mcconnell saidhis week that he is taking his cues from the white house in shaping the trial. >> and everything i do duringwi this, be coordinating with white house counsel.

>> sreenivasan: democrats show the majority leader is not going to be impartial and called for him to recuse himself. joining us now for more on what comes next in the impeachment process and what a trial in the senate may look like is ryan goodman. he's a professor of law at new york university and co-editor-in-chief of the "just security" web site. so, here we are. we're technically almost out of the house. it goes to the senate now. and the rules in how it's even o played out a of those things that we're now thinking about. >> right. really is, what will those rules be? mitch mcconnell gets t in a certain sense, write them as long as he has a simple majorite ofenate agreeing with him. republicans right middle that determine what this will will there be witn how fast will the entire process taket are they jusying to get this out of the way, or are they trying to make it lomo a little bi robust than that? >> sreenivasan: now, the white house says they wa witnesses.

they want hunter biden on the and. they want nancy pelosi. they want a bunch of other people. so, is there an incentive, then? >> if they on that door. if they open that door to some witnesses for the president's side, it's going to be very hard for th not to allow the house managers to bring witnesses. and then, the key ones are the ones they couldn't get in the the star witness.mick mulvaney y next on their wish list. maybe rudy giuliani, though he's not the most reliable witness. and i think that's... that's at's really at stake here. and i think the democrats and the house managers have a strong argument: as long as there are any wiesses, we want a real trial. these are the people that you want to hear from. >> sreenivasan: and in this case that there is a real trial, at is the role of the chief justice of theupreme court?or is he like al judge in these things? is he just working within the confines of whatever the rules are that mitch mcconnell sets up? >> so, the chief justice basically is regulated by the rules themselves.he constricted. and in a certain sense, if the rules are already set up to sayt

nosses, there's nothing that he can really do about it. but if there's any wiggle room-- and as lawyers, there's lots ofa wiggle roo you can interet certain rules fferent ways-- if he has an that sticks. of the rule that's the chief justice presiding over the proceedings. but he can be rebutted by a simple majority. i think a large part of this is not out the formal rules but the legitimacy of how they decide to preed. and, yes, there might be, as many people think, like, an acquittal in the senate. but e questions, is it an acquittal that the american public thinks was a fair process and a real trial if, indeed, it comes to certain key questions that the chi justice of the supreme court says should be "x" and then a political group of republicans say "not x i think that's going to put them in some jeopardy. >> sreenivasan: and, technically, all the senators are part of the jury. and, obviously, we have now republican senators that are saying, "well, we have already ncided," before they've s the trial. but this is also coming during a presidential season, right, and

so there are campaign questions that are happening.th how long wilsenators be sticking around? are they going to be there watching this thentire time? >> yeah, it's such a strange confluence of events at this particular moment. en looks like the senate will start the trial hey return early january, and it's the exact period of time for the democratic primary, heading in towards iowa. and you have many of theho senatorsre up for that primary. >> sreenivasan: yeah. >> so, do they have to be seated air six days a week, rather than on the campaign that's one implication of it. >> sreenivasan: all t, ryan goodman from the "just security" blog and n.y.u. law school, thanks so much. >> thank you. >> sreenivasan: in madrid todaye tiations on a u.n. climate change agreement stalled after two weeks of talks. delegates from nearly 200 countries failns to reach a sus on issues including rules for international carbon markets and money to help poorer countries cope with climate change. environmental groups criticized the latest version of the agreement as "extremelweak,"

and many representatives said they fear a backtrack from commitments made at the 2015 paris climate accord. president trump officially u withdrew t. from the paris accord last month. as of late this afternoon, there was no word onhether a compromise had been reached. sudas former presidentomar al-bashir, was convicted of money laundering and corruption in a courtroom in the capital city of khartom today. a judge sentenced the 75-year- old al-bashir to two years in a minimum-security reform facility rather than a prison because of his e. al-bashir will remain in jail to face more serious chargesd rela the killing of anti- government protesters. the military deposed al-bashir in april following months of street protests. he had ruled sudan for 30 years. in india, thousands of demonstrators gathered in new delhi today to voice tir opposition to a new citizenshipm dmenbill. the bill grants indian citizenship to most religious minorities except muslims who are fleeing religious persecution from neighboring countrie that would exclude, among others, rohingya muslims who persecution in myaious

protests continued yesterday, sometimes violently, between police and univershiy students. u nationalist-d government of prime minister narendra modi introduced the controversial bill which has passed bothouses of parliament. it will become law once signed by india's ceremonial president. tens of thousands of sardines took over rome's piazza san giovanni today-- not the fisew members of aovement opposed to the anti-immigrant politics of far-right leader matteo svini. the sardines held up banners and called on italy to resist salvini and his leaguearty's italy-first rhetoric. critics of salvini say that the league, italy's biggest political party, promotes hatred of immigrants. more than 1000 people joined the sardine movement's first protest in bologna at the beginning of november. a co-founder of the sardines movement says the name reflects the numbers who oppose salvini. he reportedly said "we are like a shoal of sardines. there are far more of us than the sharks." >> sreenivasan: an insider

attack in eastern afghanistan overnight has left at least 23af an soldiers dead. officials said the attack took ghazni province.ary base in the soldiers had been sleeping when a taliban infiltrator who was on duty at the base shot and killed them before taking weapons and equipment and t returning to tiban insurgency. this latest attack comes just after the united states took what it's calling a pause inta peacs with the taliban and after an earlier attack wednesday that killed two afghan civilianand wounded dozens more near bagram airfield. sbut if and when those ta resume, th're still leaving major players out of the conversation-- the afghan government itself, as well as other prominent figures. nehour weekend special correspondent jane ferguson has our story. >> reporter: in this stunning corner of northern afghanistan called the panjshir valley, the tajik people have long claimed their ancestral home.

it's from ese lands that for centuries tajiks launched campaigns against invaders and other enemies, most cently theta ban. on this day, the 30-year-old tajik leader ahmad massoud is ready to launch a new kind of campaign as he begins a political career to lead his ople. >> we think this is a golden opportunity for afghanistan; that, for the very first time, a superpower such as america and regional powers such as russia, china, pakistan, iran and other countries, they all agree that a peace must come and the war mus afghanistan. >> reporter: important guests gather at his family homestead, and the taliban arthatn the u.s. anyone wants to discuss. over breakfast in the garden,is massoud says hell aware of the white house's determination to pull american troops out of afghanistan. his people have beend with the americans from the start, and they know any opity for peace is precious.

>> so, w very grateful and to use it with utmost kind of respect and clarity so t people trust and lieve and be part of this, seem to be a part of this peace process. that's... first and foremost, that's how important and how critical and how amazing this opportunity is. >> reporter: despite this opportunity, it comes with skepticism and bad memories of the time before the war when the taliban ruled. back then, massoud's father tried to make peace with them. >> my father, all alone, he went to the center in the camp of taliban with no guards, with no bodyguards, with nothing, just with the simple fact andat intention i want to end this war and let's make a peace." they did not accept it, and they continued, you know, the war. they continued the bloodshed. >> reporter: massoud's father, ahmad shah massoud, was a legendary tajik militi commander who had led afghan forces against the soviet moscow finally pulled out in

1989, and he fought the taliban when it seized power shortly after.for years, he cautioned t. about the growing threat of al radiw group basing itself in afghanistan called al qaeda. en, two days before 9/11, al qaeda assassins killed him, removing a leader who would have been a crucial strategic partner in america's military response to the terror attacks. e elder massoud's legacy remains colossal among his people, who now would welcome at end to the fg-- but, they say, not at any price. >> unfortunately, w the peace process has been managed so far, it's not clear what are the things that they are signing with the taliban, what's the >> reporter: it's highly likely the taliban will try to grab power in kwhul. happens? >> and keep their forces. well, in that case, this is not a peace. this is a coup, and we do not

have a good experiences in our history, you know,rom coups. and we do not accept it. we do not allow it. >> reporter: would you fight the taliban in that case? >> if they want an oppressiveeo gy, if they want to force and their system, theirr belief political system and structure upon the people of ahanistan with gun and with force, in thae case, weere to defend our people. >> reporter: bringing homefr american troop afghanistan was a major campaign pledge byum president trin 2016. in september, he came close to h deal with taliban that would have seen the start of adr down of u.s. troops. that deal fell through, but, during a surprise thanksgiving trip to afghanistan, trump declared that talks will start ce again. all this back-and-forth is leing people in the panjsh valley worried. as the young massoud addresses his followers in the shadow of his father'sausoleum, there is ep anxiety that trump will

give too much ay to the taliban in his rush to leave the country. >> ( translated ):hey are addressing them as though they are addresng them as a powerful group, and they wt to bring them into e political stage of afghanistan. if the americans do that, we will fight the taliban. >> reporter: there's also apprehension over the sight of taliban commanders-- for so mane s ostracized-- now travelling the world treated like dignitaries. an informal amnesty has enabled their leaders to travel internationally to discuss the peace talks. >> ( translated ): people are worried that the taliban arema bein stronger by the americans. they want to bring them back into power in a brutal way. that's why people are concerned. >> reporter: u.s. envoy for afghan reconliation, zalmay khalilzad, has said america wants to create peace between all afghan factions. >> my overall goal is, at thedi ction of the president and the secretary of state, not to seek a withdrawal agreement but the other issues that must be

dealt with are issues of a roadmap for afghanistan's political future to end the afghan war. >> reporter: it's not clear yet if a deal between the u.s. and eathe taliban would also lto a deal between the taliban and the currengovernment in kabul. so far, the group has refused to recognizthe afghan government, calling it an american puppet. meanwhile, ithe u.s. rushes to leave without guarantees, there's a strong possibility of a dead schism among non-taliban groups similar to that of the 1990s when cpeting ethnic militias led by warlords streets and the enountry.bul's is that a risk? >> absolutely. and that's why it must be handled very carefully and delicately. >> reporter: hamdullah mohib is the national security adser be afghan president. >> i think we han insisting on an afghan-led and afghan-owned process not because just for the matter of protocol.

it's because we have seen failed peace processes afghanistan that have resulted in violence and destruction inur country inhe past-- and not in a very faraway past; very recent past.e in my me, we have seen that. >> reporter: so far, the kabul government has been locked out of negotiations by washington. t, there's no avoiding, if the trump administration makes a deal with the taliban, talks between the group and the afghan vernment would be the next, more difficult step. >> an intra-afghan negotiation will encompass much more. it will talk about gove and how the country is... is run he future. it will talk about power sharing, how do we readjust our secuty forces, political posturing,ur foreign policies. it will include a lot of different aspects. and to be able to come to an agreement on that will definitely require time, and it

will be... it will be a difficulphase. >> reporter: exactly what kind of afghan government the taliban would talk to, however, is not clear. september's presidential elections in afghanistan were a disaster due to low voter turnout and disputes over the results. two months aer voting, a winner has yet to be announced while campaigns for both incumbent president ashraf ghani and his competitor, dr. abdullah abdullah, are claiming. vict trump's meeting with the afghan to afghanistan is seen asg visit validation by ghani's camp, but theris still no guarantee th taliban will recognize his legitimacy. former mujahideen warlord and follower of massoud, gul haider, battled the taliban and al qaeda alongside the c.i.a. and u.s. special forces in early 2002.ay hethe main challenge for any afghan government will bett g the taliban to lay down arms. >> ( translated ): many of the sons of former commanders in the mujahideen are fighting and dying within the security

forces. in that situation, if they bring th,taliban back into liti then that will create a backlash because they have committed a loof atrocities. if the leadership want to be in government, then all the taliban should surreer. their fighters should leave their weapons, and they should be reintroduced in t government forces. i am not afraid of fighting the taliban. back then, we fought them with our bare hands. te >> rep back in the panjshir, most are resigned to american tros one day packing up and going. >> i'm not nervous about americans leaving. they came with their own will, and they will leave with their own will. but the people of afghanistan and they never let any invasion to be successful. and if any other invasion happens, if any other war breaks

out, again, my trust is in afghan people not americans. >> reporter: persuading afghans like ahmad massoud that an american deal with theiban is a withdrawal and not a suender will be tough; leaving behind a country at peace, even tougher. a sreenivasan: in more th dozen television scials and stage shows in his native gland, illusionist derre brown has showcased a wide range of nearlimpossible abilities, including convincing ordinary people to take alarming actionsb in his debadway show, brown seemingly reads the minds of the entire crowd. what makes his bramagic--out or "mentalism," as he calls it-- appealing to audiences. in this stage show "miracle" performed london, brown took on the illusion of faith healing

and appears to "heal" an audience member with bad eyesight. >> open your eyes. let's have a look. okay. does it look any clearer to you? >> "turn off the shower if you've been out for a week." >> this is effortless. this is effortless. your eyesight is healed. .u don't need these anymo you can throw those glasses away. eo sreenivasan: you go out of your way to telle you are not a psychic, you're not a faith healer. what do you do? i'm technically a mentalist. >> sreenivasan: yeah, what's a "mentalist" mean? >> well... exactly. it's... so, it's like a anch of sort of magic, i guess, but it deals with the mind rather than, you know, finding your playing card or... or pulling a rabbit out of a hat. what you're seeings kind of mind reading and influence at d rk in a... in an audience participation-baow. >> sreenivasan: how do you mind read or influence in such a large crowd? >> i have to work with random itdience members, otherwis could just look like, you know, everyone's a plant. connie, very nice to meet you. i'm darren. and sleep. i've g right the way down.

right the way deep. >> sreenivasan: the suspicion inthat audience members arn the act is heightened in a show like brown's. as this ess event, brown claims to read a woman's mind, guessing correctly which auence member she was picturing in her head. >> daniel and david, sit down. actuallysijustin, you can down. and that should just leave one of you, if yan're still stng. right, one person left. your name is? >> brendan. >> brendan. rn it around. who were you thinking of? brendan! excellent! well done. i think there's a eling that creeps in that you'rthe only real person in the audience, and everybody else is in on it. i... i hear that quite a lot. >> sreenivasan: the stage show that at least you have here in new york right now, it's kind of a long process, d you're building towards a thesis throughout the program. and the audience is kind ofre aled one layer after another after another, and, at the end, they're... well, hopefully, they're impressed. >> what any magician does is a great analogy for how interpret the world. magician of any sort-- of which i am, and i've got one foot in that world-- is making you pay attention to certain elements of a story and join up the dots in

the way that he wants you to or she wants you to. and, of course, this is what we do in life all the time. we have this infinite data source coming at us. we edit and delete that to make sense of what's going on.m we need to fnarrative, and then we mistake that narrative for the truth. >> sreenivasan: what are the things thayou're looking for to say, "this is somebody that i can work with"? >> i throw ufrisbees to choose how somebody catches the frisbee and just says... puts their hand up and says hello or says their namerei know exactly how they' gointo be onstage. it's like a little microcosm of how they are on stage. and how th are on stage is a microcosm of how they're going to be in life. and a thing that i... i learned which i found very helpful just for myselffrom doing these shows is, if people comep and they're nervous-- which, ofur , they are because it's a baffling, weird situation-- it's what they do with those nerves. if they're just nervous, and if we are just nervous when we're nervs, the audience love the right? the audience are feeling vicariously, "well, that could e up there." >> sreenivasan: they empathize. >> they're seeing them as vulner... vulnerable, and vulnerability is a strength when it doesn't feel veong atpeople. the time, but, to everybody

watching, it... it feels like strength. >> sreenivasan: so, you almost want to root for them versus you. >> exactly. >> sreenivasan: brown has adapted the principles of mentalism for tv, showing how the same methods of suggestion and influence used for his stage shows can work in the real world. in his special, "the push,"n broworchestrates an elaborate untup with actors to convince an tting participant to push a stranger off a roof. >> just give him one big push.re >> senivasan: that seems like an insane propgeition from the go. first of all, why would you even want to do that? >> why would you want to do that, right? >> sreenivasan: bu, secondly, by the time you get to the end, it's sort of a stunning reveal. >> what i tend to do wese is large-scale "truman show"- style set-up so there'ally one person going through it that doesn't know that they're part of tv show. there's all these actors, and... and it's this sort of dark psychologil journey. so, the point was, through social compliance, could you push someo to commit murder?

>> sreenivasan: our interview withllusionist derren brown continues here, or watch our extended interview at facebook.com/newshour. >> sreenivasan: you're sort of pulling the audience on-camera aside and explaining what's happening, which i think is something very strange to a u.s. audience thinking about magic because "wait, he's telling us how he's doing it. " >> yh, but there's no magic tricks in it. chris is enmeshed in a web of lies. and that's important. erneed him to feel like ths only one way out when he's told to commit murder. you're now watching a real person go... going through a really, you know, a dramatic situation that's unfolding, which is so much more compelline so, he... and the point of it is to show about social compliance. and what the... the people that did it--nd i don't want to give away the ending of the show-- butrom these... from these things that i do come away very often with a sense of... amazing about it eteeling looks like a very dark and reckless journey. >> sreenivasan: one of the other ones, "sacrifice..." n>> there is absolutely a immigration problem in the... ia the uniteds.

>> yes, i'm taking someone who's essentially kind of racist lld... and seeing if they'ay down their life for an illegal immigrant, and using these he was caught up in a narrative for his own socio... socio- economic pssures that he was unde and he had a particular oprrative about mexican pe and what that meant and what their... what their motives were. d... and the... the key was to undo that and actually... >> sreenivasan: y. break the st >> have him see real people. and thissn't a kind of... those kind of makeover-y type shows where people ang spat out on a conveyor belt every week. there... these things take mayb einths to make. i do one of them a year, and it's a huge thing for somebody so, i've always re friends with them. >> sreenivasan: are you concerned that these people might have p.t.s.dafter surviving something like this? >> well, i would be if we... if we treated them irresponsibly. but despite how reckless the shows can look, they're incredibly well handled and vetted. and in terms of the sort of duty of care afterwards, all of that is huge. and i've just stayed in touch with them forever, and they've i all sas the best thing you know, weddingsnd having, children. >> sreenivasan: ( laughs )

>> sreenivasan: finally tonight, today marks seven years since the mass murder of 20 first thgraders and six adults a sandy hook elementary scho in newtown, connecticut, on december 14, 2012. vigils and church services were held in nearby tns, andt' connectigovernor ordered all state and u.s. flags to be flown at half-staff from sunrise to sunset today. that's all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend.iv i'm hari sreenan. thanks for watching. have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the cheryl and philip milstein

family. rosalind p. walter, in memory of george o'neil. barbara hope zuckerberg. charles rosenblum. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care tomorrow can help you make the most o today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a privateo corporfunded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. u're watching pbs.

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