captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc i'm amna nawaz.ening. judy woodruff is away. on the newshour tonight: reviewing the year in climate. the exaordinary impact environmental change has had on our planet in 2019. then, the state of the world. a decade-long look back at the trends around the globe and what they mean for the unitedtates. plus, on the "newshour americans." "the other novelist laila lalami examines immigration and identity throu fiction. and: ♪ hark, hear the bells >> nawazunited, we sing. members of the united states armed forces around the rld perform "carol of the bells." all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour.

>> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ >> bnsf railway. >> consumer cellular. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> the lemelson foundation.co itted to improving lives through invention, in the u.s. on the web at lemelson.org. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundaon. committed to building just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions:

this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by ctributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> nawaz: yet anothewave of anti-government demonstrations paralyzed parts of hong kong on this christmas day. black-clad protesters descended on the streets of a busy shopping district. riot police usedear gas to disperse crowds. meanwhile, hundreds marched through malls chanting pro-democracy slogans. the city has been upendeby more than simonths of unrest against police use of force and mainland china's influence. new protests erupted i india's capital today, over a controversial new citizenship la students, writers and activists gathered at a college campus in new delhi to denounce e legislation. it grants expedited citizenshipe to migrants lly in the country, excluding muslims. protesters accused the government of violatdia's secular constitution.

>> india has been shaken. the principles of the constitution have been shaken by is government. and when the soul of the constitutionas been targeted any government, then india >> nawaz: peacefulsts alsoime. continued in india's eastern state of assam. atwe'll take a broader loohe recent wave of protests around the world, later in the program. more than 200,000 syrians have fled an onslaught of violence in idlib province in recent weeks. that's according to the syrian response coordination group, a relief group active in the area. the exodus continued today, as crammed trucks headed north g wards the turkish border. civilians are beshed out by syrian president bashar alssad's forces working to regain control of syris last rebel-held stronghold. there is temporary relief in australia today, as cooler ather slowed down the spread of devastating wildfires. but, forecasters warned higher temperatures are expected to return this weekend. about 2,000 firefighters spent this christmas holiday battling

more than 70 fires still burning in new south wales. >> the fire doesn't stop justus beit's christmas. so some of the crews have to keep working and monitor t fire. luckily, today, we've got benign weather, and not everybody has to be out here. >> nawaz: in his annualdr christmas s today, australian prime minister scott morrison paid tribute to two refighters who died last week battling fires southwest of sydney. and, this christmas day brought a number of celebrations-- both solemn and fesve-- around the world. christians in bethlehem sang hymns of worship... while in germany, brave swimmers dove into icy waters for their annual christmas plunge. u.s. troops stationed in a christmas feast.ed to enjoy meanwhile, president trump and firslady melania, who are celebrating the holiday in florida, sent this message to

all americans serving abroad. >> we say a specl prayer for those military service members stationed far from home. anewe renew our hope for pe among nations and joy to the world. >> nawaz: pope francis also hoped for peace during his annual christmas day message in st. peter's square. he spoke to the plight of migrants and refugees, and said the light of christ was stronger than human suffering. the pope also issued a separate statement-- with the head of the anglican church and the former moderator of the church of rival leaders to fsouth sudan's coalition government earlyext year. the year in climatchange.hour: what it means for the earth's future. recounting the major global of the decade, and thei impact on the world. lity tos about the a repair paris' notre dame cathedral. and, much more. az

>> nby almost any measure, 2019 was a year of especially sobering news about climate change. not only because of new findings and grim warnings about what could happen, but because of some extreme weather e happening now. it was also a year where a movement grew from the ground up to try and tackle the problem. but, as miles o'brien explains, the call for action was often divorced from political reality. his report tonight is part of our regular coverage of the "leading edge" of science. >> when apollo astronauts looken back at the tblue marble in the vast inky void we call they were awe struck by its . that you might have predicted. >> but there was a surbeauprisig

aspect. somehow e earth projected a feeling of fragility. >> apollo 11 crew member mike collins. >> if i had to describe just in one word what the earth looked like from the moon, i would say fragile. >> 50 yers later the collision between that fragility and humanity's indifference to it came closer to home, much closer. when the final numbers come in, bientists predict 2019 wi the second or third hottest year on record. it means the past six years were the warm exsix sinc sestix sincs started keeping track. in australia they are feeling theveat like neer before. on december 18th, the country logged i hottest day on record, a national average high of 107.4 degrees fahrenheit. along with the heat came hundreds of wild fires, fueled

by drought parched brush. wild fires once again ravaged california this year. a quarter million acres burned. in september, theof remnant tropical storm imelda dumbed more than inches of rain in texas. the wetytest cclone left $2 billion in damage behind. also in september, category 5 hurricane dorian slow rolled the bahamas. >> the water is extremely warm, warmer than normal so you haveor conditions perfectly exploding storm. >> meteorologist watched theag satellite with equal parts disbelief and terror. i know beneath that storm there's going to be great devastation. i knew houses were going to be toppled. know that we are going to be destroyed. life is going to be i packed. it had a pit in my stomach

earlier. >> doian killed 67 and the impact made greater by rising sea levels which in november helped turn high tides inenice into the worst flooding in more than 50 years. the threat of eveen greatera level rise looms as the west antarctic ice sheet faces further assaault. the ter captured of the ice here wuld raise global sea levels by more than ten feet and scientists have concluded the glacier which accounts for two feet of that is more precarious than they once thought. early in the year a nasa rborne radar found a thousandat foot hol the base of the glacier. new york universityia mathematdavid holland is there now, a lead version with the international glacier collaboration. >> we are trying to head to that location now to carry out a field mpaign to investigate

how warm ocean waters are currently causing it to change duration and melt very rapidly. >>ur oceans which absorb so much of the heat humans arere creating a changing rapidly. temperature sensitive coralef continue their precipitous decline. we've lost more thn one quarter of them in the last 30 years. scientists who stu one of the fastest warming bodies of sea water in the world, the gulf of maine are making a grim forecast for the next 3ars. >> if the planet continues to warm up at an accelerated rate because we haven't taken care of the carbon problem that's when maine starts to have temperatures that feel more like you'd think of new jersey. we don't really think of new jersey as a lobster state. >> as the planet steadily warms, the scientific picture goes steadily clearer. may, global dioxide levels

surpassed 415 perts per million, an unprecedented high. in november, scientists gathered in geneva to deliver a sta warning. global greenhouse gas emissions are still on the rise. and for the world to limit temperature rise to 1.5egrees celsius, we must reduce annual issions by 30 billion tons in the next decade. that is about half of what we emit now. v>> we would hae to reduce our emissions. >> ingred alexander is director of the environmental program. >> no because of climate procrastination which we havese ntially had during these ten years, we are looking at a 7.6% reduction every year. is that possible? absolutely. will it take political will? will we need to hthe private sector lean in? yes. but the tcienlls us that we can do this. >> geopolitics tells just the opposite. >> the united states willno

withdraw iember. >> the trump administration began withdrawal from the 2015 paris agreement undewhich 187 tions pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions enough to keep global temperatures from rising no more than 2 degrees celsius above pre itrdl levels. this set the stage for a filed united nations summit -- failed united nations sly mother in ma id. an agreement was blocked on how to implement thearis goal. patricia ep esinozaxecutive secretary of the framework convention on climate change. >> we are not acting quickly enough to enact the detransformation to our society that will save humanity's future on this planet. we are out of time. >> among those addressing the

summit16 year old climate act tice gretau thrnburg forced politicians to recognize and respond to the realities of imate science. in september she sold on a soar powered -- sailed on a solar powered both. that'shere she satown with newsur william brangham. >> we should not -- cse it looks like individuals go almost anything. can accomplish so that's what i want people to take out from this. >> but are enough peoplready? turning the tide will require power our future and pay theto bill. but it does appear the puic i at an inflection point. this year, gallop reported two thirds of americans believeob warming is caused by pollution from human activities

rather than natural chances in e environment -- changes in the environment. and yet only 44% sayhey worry a great deal about it. but don't count an intriap identifyollo astronaut among them. >> i feel about the planet today a different way having gone out 240,000 miles and eing it gives me as much greater as soon as of fragility, a much greater urge to protect that fragility as we go along. >> in 2019, increasing numbers of earth lings got th same urge. not because they saw trouble from afar but rather beause it came ever so close to home. for the pbswshour, i'm miles o'ien on fragile planet earth. >> nawaz: in foreign policy, the past ten years have seen both

transformation andnertia. in many countries, the lders have changed, but their authoritarian style of leadership has not. new powers are emerging, but are as opaque as ever. and, evolving domestic politics could lead to new relationships betweethe united states and its allies. the newshour's nick schifrin sat down with three experts last week, to discuss this decade of discontent. >> schifrin: as we close the 2010s, we look back at this year and this decade in foreign affairs and global security. we'll tackle a few main topics a wiall-star cast. michele flournoy, deputy secretary of defense under president obama and co-founder and managing partner of westexec advirs, a national security visory firm. rebecca heinrichs, a former congressional security now senior fellow at the hudson institute. and from london, corey shockey, a national security council staff director under president george w. bush, and soon to takn over the d policy program at the american enterprise and thank you very much and

welcome all to the newshour. i want to set up ourirst topic with a small setup piece about the dede that began with the arab spring and that ends with worldwide prest. from the streets of cair >> ( translated ): mohammed mcclusky mubarak... >> schifrin: president hosni and the demise of a dictator...n ...to tunisia's jasmine revolution, protesters across the deddle east began the deca standing up to u.s.-backed authoritarian leaders they considered corrupt., in syriayoung people called for a peaceful transition of power, but the country descended into chaos and a civil and proxy war. the arab spring's legacy is decidedly mixed. the decade is ending the way it began. across the world, protesters objecting to what they call corruption, inequality, and authoritarianism, from bolivia and chile to iran, iraq and lebanon.

popular protests are shaking established political systems, eachueled by local issues. but united in frustration and fueled by optimism that a betteh life is reach in this deca of discontent. rebecca heinrichs, when you think back to the arab spring, when you think about the protests today, do you see stabilitreplaced with chaos? >> i do see stability replaced with chaosra i thiner than the optimism beat we habeginning of the arab spring, it' replaced with, i think, realism and perhaps mixed with pessimisman that democracyin the day simply by supporting the small groups of people who wou rightly wish to overthrow an authoritarian, even ifhat authoritarian was more stable. so now we had stable, chaos.itarian, now replaced with >> schifrin: corey shockey, that idea that maybe stability has been lost, the stability that has been lost a little bit.pt when you see u.s. policy going forward, do you believe that it

should be more based on principle than it has been? >> absolutely. it should beore based on principle. what people are protesting against in these societies is terrible governance. they want the rule of law. they want predictability. they want representative governance. and the united states should always be on the side of people demanding human dignity and individual rights. >> schifrin: michele flournoy, is that realistic that the u.s. can always that side? >> i do think we have to stand per democracy and freedom, better rights fole. i mean, that is who we are. .hat's our histo those are our values. but the challenge is how to do i think the best pgrams are the ones that work long term to invest in the foundations of civil society and sort of grow better governance over time. >> schifrin: rebecca heinrichs, is that realistic ng term investment? is the political appetite in the u.s. for a long-term iestment in these countries? >> i think long-term is e only

way it will work. i do not think that we had the political appetite rht now in the united states, especially after we've seen what's happeng in afghanistan, that our efforts there to create a democracy have not been met with fruit there at we wish. that after 18 years. which i think is gr thes desire, united states, that we want to see other countries share the freedoms that we-- that we have, that it almost cheapens democracy to think that we can simply by helping or assisting and toppling these authoritarian governments, that democracy wil simply rd remain stable. that simply has not been proven out in reality. that how you see i shockey, is and think about, for example, saudi arabia, an example wherebe u.s. policy ha controversial, especially because of human rights violatio>>. o, i see it slightly different th rebecca and michle, in that i think the united states very often takes too much responsibility for other people's outcomes. and it's certainly true that programs that help build society

and independent media and autonomous judiciaries, those are all good long-term programs. but it's not good enough to tell people "in the next generaavon, you willa government that supports individual rights." and it seems to me thahithe understanding whenems are ripe, that the amount of effort te united states is willi put to create change, matches the moment. it's our rponsibility to judge when and how we can help people create positive change for themselves. >> schifrin: one of the places around the world that people are creating their own opportunities certainly is hong kong. and we've seen major protests there. and so let's take a little looks atup story about the state of china and u.s. affairs.at in beijing's gall of the people, the people celebrate one

man. after the removal of term limits, xi jinping can be president for life. under xi, china has dramaticalli moderniz military and eated outposts in the south china sea, ignoring international law and u.s. objections.xp china has alsoded its inflnce abroad with the most expensive infrastructure project in history and advanced technology. >> my administration has taken the toughest-ever action to confront cna's trade abuses. >> schifrin: but the trump administration has confronted flina both on trade and international innce, and has called china a revisionist power whose goal is to displace u.s. preeminence. michele flournoy, are the u.s.de and chinined for conflict? >> i certainly hope not, because we're both nuclear powers, but we are certainly destid for a period of much greater competition, economically, technologically, for political influence around the world, and also potentially in the military sphere.

e best thing we can do is actually invest in the drivers of our competitiveness here at home, whether it'sciencend technology, research and velopment, higher education, 21st-century infrastructure. why in the world do we not have a u.s. 5g industry, for example, so that we a in for a longer competition? it would be a terrible failure of policy if that necessarily ends in conflict. >> schifrin: corey shockey, part of confronting china has-- is the united states working with do you believe president trump is working with allies to confront china? >> no, i don't. in fact, i think he's squandering whats america's greatest strategic advantage in a competition with china, which is that we're historical pretty good at playing team its repressi at home, its intimidation abroad, its refusal the international order thats of have served the united states, otr countries, including

china, extordinarily well. and president trump, because he seems unable to prioritize which arguments he wants to have, he's arguing with everybody all at once. instead of making a common front th other countries who a nervous about china's behavior and who want american cooperation. schifrin: rebecca heinrichs has president trump squandered an opportunity, as we just heard? >> actually, i see it quite differently. i think this is where president trump has e greatest strength in his administration, is that i really believe that if it wasn't for this particular administration, the united states would not be talking about great power competition with china in the wathat we are, in the robust way that we are. you see you see themes all the way from senior administration officials talking about how china is not good atpr reity-- it's opaque. you can't count on them. you've got business is taking a second guess looking, taking a second look at maybe they don't want to invest so

early inhina. so i'm optimistic about what the united states is doing now to set us on a good track for the years to com >> schifrin: the u.s.'s oldest allies are in europe, and there are tensions between the united stat andurope and within rope. so let's take a look at a quick setup piece about the state of europe, nato and the u.s. beyond the traditional stage photos at the nato leaderset g, the transatlantic alliance is facing a crisis of identity and confidence. president trump questions the alliances foundation, emphasizing shared spending,ar not values. french president emmanuel macron across this, trump has turned his back on nato and he rently called nato "brain dead" in an attempt to shake up its strategic assumptions. and europe is facing its own shakeup. isitish prime minister bor johnson just won a big political mande based on his pledge to in his words, "get brexit done." rebecca herichs, should the u.s. have a tough conversation with western europe right now? >> i think that's exactly what we're in the middle of.

i think, you know, all of the things that make so manyeople, i think, rightfully uncomfortable about president trump, about his abrasive approach and the way he talks to pele-- many of these things that predent trump has brought up and raised are true, in fact. and as a result, we do see nato spending more on defense, committing more on cole security. and then some of these other problems that although they're not fixed. it's good that we're now addressing these head on. >> schifrin: corey shoeyis na in a better place after are done? trump's term or terms >> no, i don't think so. nato has underlying problems that the president has had splashed a whole lot of attention to. but i think the question for th administrationether the president's engagement with eeuropeans is going to so those problems. and it doesn't look to me like it is. it doesn't look to me like it's producingreater european commitment. it does look to me like it is scaring europeans and encouraging our adversaries to

question the aanicle five gue that nato allies make to each other, which is that an all.ck on one is an attack on so the increase defense spending, including by the united states, doesn't compensate for the anxiety and the questioning l our fundamenmmitment. and that really is the result of the president's polici >> schrin: and michele flournoy, last word. this story isn't only about the tensions within the transatlantic alliance, but also, when it comes to turkey, who's in nato, obviously, but also president putin, who's about to celebrate his 20th year in power. >> yes, but the two are related. sove think the fact that we our european allies questioning the u.s. commitment to nato more fundamentally than they have created an opening.ng, that has and it's to the delight of vladimir putin to be able to weaken nato, to see disssion in nato, and to start picking

off allies like turkey, say, hey, if you know you can't relyt on the unitees, you're not sure of the predictability of their policy, the reliability of their leadership, let me sell you some air defenses for you.ea sounds like a deal, but that's a wonderful way to get in there and start dividing the alliance. >> schifrin: michele flournoy, rebecca heinrichs, corey, schaanks to you all. >> nawaz: and what a decade it's been. onlinewatch our in-depth series on protest movements that broke out across the globe this year, with a deeper look tonighh at the unrest g kong. you can find that when you newshour. on instagram at >> nawaz: stay with us. coming up the newshour: breaking through. lilly singh on becoming the first woman of color to host a network late night show. on the "newshour bookshelf," "the other americans." immigrant stories immortalized in fiction. and, united we sing. a version of the holiday classic

"carol of the bells." today marked the first time since the french revolution that notre dame's famed cathedral did not host a christm service. instead, its congregation, clergy and choir celrated midnight mass at a church across from the louvre museum. notre dame's monsignor warned there's a 50% chance that the 12th century cathedral, damaged in a fire this year, cbe fully saved. that, as french officials plan restoration and repair work for 2021. as jeffrey brown reported this fall, jor questions are being debated among the french about how best to save the cathedral. het.'s a reprise of that rep >> brown: they are the fallen angels: once soaring high in the cathedral, now lying chipped, broken and contaminated in the" historical monumenresearch laboratory" in a suburb of paris, where director aline magnien sums up the daunting challenge of restoring notre

dame. >> ( translated ): it's really a building site like no other. it'suite an extraordinary project, which is very difficult, very tough and very dending at the same time. >> brown: from some angles today, you can sint and imagine all is well at notre dame, but it is certainly not, and tourists and locals alike still mourn. >> just devastated for the world because of what a treat is. >> it's the eiffel tower and notre dame, when you think of paris. >> a monument burning is like the part of a piece of a story of humanity vanishing. >> brown: visito continue to come-- an act of witness, or just curiosity. but now, large barriers are upd e entire site is closed off. inde, the cleanup continues. and all around, the realization has grown of just how hard it will be to restore the great cathedral. >> the dust is mainly

concentrated in seals like this, or on the banks of the seine, otween cobbles or in inla in cracks like this. >> brown: an immediate and ongoing problem: lead contaminion. the fire melted hundreds of tonn of leahe roof, and the smoke carried and spread it throughout the surrounding area. jacky bonnemains of the french environmental group "ro sn hood,"s the government was slow to respond to a public healthhreat, even allowing visitors into the cathedral's plaza for the first mohs. >> from around april 20 until august 20, it was open.er were thousands of people, tourists, coming as families with children, who were lying on the ground to take photos and to eat. brown: nearby schools like this one had to be the long-term health impact remains unclear. also unclear? just how much of the lead found here, in a city as old as paris, is due to the fire. government officials insist they

are taking it seriously, but bonnemain's group has filed a lawsuit demanding more accountability.>> translated ): what we really want, and this might surpriseou, is that other cities in france, as a lot of towns in spain and in italy, maybe evenn the united states, that have beautiful monuments like notre dame, learn something from this fire and thet was handled. in the end, that's what we want for the future >> brown: lead contamination inside the cathedral has slowed the cleanup and forced workers to wear hazmat suits. inuly, authorities offered several mediorganizations a tour of the interior, but not long after, issued a dramaticin new wa that the entire structure is still in danger of collapse. and stabilizing the walls is a priority before turning to any restoration of the spire and roof. at the lab outside paris, aline y:gnien explained it this >> ( translated ): there's a risk that notre dame's vault will become unstable, which would result in more stones

lling and would put the public in danger. so we have to establish to what extent the stones are damaged and whether they still have some resistance. and then, which stones we can keep and which ones need to be >> brown: here, scntists study how stonesrenched with water in the aftermath of re expand or contract as they dry. >> this is a vault element that has been used to many, many little tests. >> brown: they're also conducting tests using lasers to clean the stones. so the test is to see if the lead can be removed by this kind of method. >> on a small scale. t and thy will go to the cathedral with the machine and make tests on the wall and onul the ures of the cathedral. >> brown: all of this will eventually lead to the main event-- actually rebuilding and restoring notre dame. and surrounding that are many more issues. though the cathedral dates to medieval tim, the spire was by architect eugene viollet

le-duc. among the questions now: whether to restore the wooden and lead roof or use more modern an exact replica ospire.o build when authorities put out a public call for new designs just days after the fire, instagram lit up, including with some wild ideas. but the prevailing attitude seems to be, rebuilt it exactly as it was. art historian phillipe plagnieux. >> ( translated ): i think our we've inherited forethe heritage generations, and if we can't preserve it, then we should recreate it.re nstructing the cathedral, the roof, the spire, as it was before. >> brown: another question: how soon can this be done? immediately after the fire, french president macron promised to rebuild within five years-- a target many saw as timed to france's hosting of the 2024 olympic games. this summer, france's parliament

created a new commission to ersee reconstruction, led by a former army chief. it's yet to formally meet, but we talked with one member,is monsignor bede sinety, who will represent the catholic church.>> translated ): the most important thing is to remember that notre dame is first and foremost a cathedral, a church, a place of worship. >> brown: that may sound obvious, but debate had already swirled around notre dame for years, as it became an often overrun tourt site. the monsignor wants to use this momento return to church values. >> ( anslated ): it is important underline that when a bishop decid to build a cathedral in the middle ages, it was also a project to help the poorest in society. today when rebuilding notre dame, we are going to launch projects to help the most lnerable in our society. >> brown: there are so many interests: political and economic, and cuural, of course, and the church. could there be a clash? >> never in france.

( laughs ) >> brown: which means, always in frce? >> ( translated ): of course there will be difficulties. debates.ll be questions, big in france, we like having big debates, asking questions. we can go on and on. ( english ): we love to speak. >> brown: will the rebuilding go like others we spoke with, monsignor de sinety wonders when the last stone will finally be put in place, the cathedralle comply restored and reopened. but he does hope to celebrate mass in notre dame within the next five years. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown in paris. >> nawaz: a new face appeared ia night television this fall, and she has broken all sorts of ground to getlthere. "a llate with lilly singh" on nbc made 31-year-thd lilly only person of colo get

that slot on a major network. we visited lilly on her los angeles set just before her debu this encore report is part of our sees "race matters." she's one of youtube's biggest success stories ever. lilly singh, a.k.a. superwoman,p first a toe into internet waters ten years ago with basic video blogs... but she quickly dove deeper in, and, over the years, upping her production game, translatingth nto fourillion subscribers and over threede billion viviews. she's now going where no

youtuber has gone before-- network television. tonight, she'll make her debut on nbc as host of "a little lat" with lilly sin taking over the late-night time slot for carson daly. singh made the announcement in march, welmed by her fellow nbc late night hosts, jimmy fallon and seth meyers. >> an indian canadian woman with her own late night show, now that's a dream come >> nawaz: she built her fame by standing out online, and in her elw role, singh will defin stand apart. when your show premieres, you are going to be the only woman on the major networks, in late night, in a sea of white male hosts. >> honestly, it's exciting, and? nerve-wrecking at the same time. i mean, it's a huge honor, i'm so humbled to be part of creating that path, because i wouldn't be here without the women that paved the path before

me, but i think that, for the same reason, it's so important for me to bring that authentic point of view, you know? >> nawaz: she'll also be the only woman of lor on late night television, and the first l.g.b.t.q. host of any network late night show, ever. singh came out as bisexual to her family last year, and to her fans, just six months ago. >> it's been tough, but it's been-- listen, at the end of thw day, is think there's two ciways that you can go, esly in our community. you can go the route that is, scared, i'm scared. ormou can go the route of, going to lead with love. and i think the route of leading with love is, even though this reis scary, i'm going to s this about myself because it will help people. and all i want to do is encourage more people in our community, especially our south asiacommunity, to, even if something is scary, and you're not supposed to talk about it, talk abo it. talk about it. lead with love. it's unlearning people's m opinions abo and what, >> nawaz: that lesson was years 2010 when singh poer firstk to video on youtube, with no clear career plans, struggling with depression, and living in her parents' suburban torome. but right away, singh says, she

knew this was her path. and what was that conversation withour parents like? >> it was like hey, i don't want to go to grad school, i would li. to make videos on youtu >> nawaz: that sounds reasonable. >> yeah, they had a lot of quesons. but i think in their mind, they were like, this is a phase, she's going to grow out of it, next year she's going do these essays, and get into graduate school. i dinot think they were expecting me to make a career out of this. i don't think anyone was, to be fair. >> nawaz: branding herself as superwoman, singh set herself apart on a crowded internet by leaning into her view of the world. posting campy impersonations of her parents...ti ...w and performing hip- hop parodies... ...and delivering a steady stream of observational humor in her signature over-the-top style.

as her followers and her fame grew, singh's reach extended far beyond the internet. j t under ten years, she ascended into entertainment's upper echelon, collaborating with hollywood royalty like the rock, pop culture stars like selena gomez, even interviewing then-first lady michle obama. the lilly singh empire has now unfurled across media platforms. her 2017 self-help book "how to be a bawse" became a "new york times" best-seller.s her world told out in dozens of countries. her journey so faras even been documented in a 2016 film, a documentary called "a trip to unicorn island." unicorns, by t way, are sort of a thing for singh. >> i just like unicorns! honestly, i am obsessed with anthem, because i feel lik time i talk about unicorns, people are so fixated on if they're real or not, and i feel like that misses the whole

point. i feel like, if i want to sayhe i'm a unicorn,i'm a unicorn, and you can just believe and be. and also, it's because my synonym for a happy place is unicorn island, that's really where it sms from. >> nawaz: for her next chapter, singh has brought along the teah from some of biggest viral hits, hoping they n create the same success for nbc. >> social media people are minei the editor is , possibly >> nawaz: equally important, she says, is the history she's carrying forward. in 1986, joan rivers became the first woman given a shot at the late night chair, but she failed to gain traction and was quickly taken off the air. it took decades before another woman was given another chance, and since then, no woman has made it past a single season in regardless of what the outcome

is, and i'm being super candid with you, it's kind of not going to matter, because it's gointo help continue to pave that path, and that's what my priority is now. >> nawaz: you're saying regardless of how this goes, the fact that you are here. >> i mean, we want it to g well, there's no doubt we want it to go well, but i'm saying my actual presence, and everyone else being a part of this, is already going to contribute to paving that path. >> nawaz: in some ways, singh is uniquely qualified to succeed in the new world of late night, one in which hosts are scraming to turn television segments into internet sensations. writers, and we're going through the show format, i think great, that's a great show. and i think by nature my brain automatically goes, that's going to be the youtube part of it, and this is what the title is going to be, and that's going to be great. >> nawaz: you can just see that. >> it's already built in, like, i'm already sitting with my writers being like, t, and we'll call it this, and we'lles frame the qution like this, and it will be done. so, i think it's just a different way of thinking, it's about thinking about two formats rather than just one. >> nawaz: when her show premieres tonight, singh says she knows she'll be speaking to

a largely-levision audience, one she won't have much time to win over. >> i want to go out there and be like, this is my point of view, this is what i'm going through, these are my thoughts and feelings, thiss the person i am, and this is the person i want you to get tonow, not just talk show host, but i want you to get to know lilly. >> nawaz: now, a new entry on the "newshour bookshelf." jeffrey brown caught up with the naonal book award fiction finalist laila lalami at the miami book festival. her latest work of fiction "the other americans" explores issues of immigration and intity, part of our ongoing ts and culture series, "canvas." >> laila lalami. thank you for having me. >> i don't usually start this way but looking at the title itself, the oth americans what does that mean, what do you mean by that phrase? >> well the book starts off with the hit and run of a mowan

morrmmigrants told in the mind of the character. while they are all tied to thiis ne way or another also have a shared experience eeling as though they were on the outside. whether they are immigrants, undocumented or naturalized or has ved from one part of this country to another. for example the version in the hit and run moved to this small desert town where the accident takes place.ch thracters are feeling as though they are other in some sense ask that's what tied the bookogether. >> it begins as a kind of murder mystery. you have that style of writing, buy grafted on to that is much bigger. >> i started working on this book in14 and my dad had gotten really sick and i had travel to morocco and i really

thought he was near death. fortunately he recovered and he's fine now but that experience really broughtome for me some of the longer term consequences of the immigrating to this country more than 25 years ago and i thought the book ally exploring that and the grief of loss really squared me. but as a myste might keep me interested and keep me going in terms of writing the story and having sort of an energy to the >> in what way is this fiction work or perhaps not work sometimes to explore big issues like this. >> i think it works really well to explore these issues. i think one of the problems in writing about issues li this in non-fiction is that it's impossible to it without taking sides. in fiction, when youi wrte about themes that show exclusion or

racism or discrimination, there is the possibility of showing different perspectives and eache pective retains its own integrity in a w.y so when the wife is recounting this event, it' oa sto grief, when the detective is talking about it, it's a crime story. when theaaughter is tlking about it, e it's also a story of loss and missed opportunities. so it's a way o looking at life in a way. i really do believe that fiction allows the possibility to tell the truth in a way that non-fiction doesn't because non-fictiois more interested in facts. and i think that there is a difference between facts and truth. >> the main protagonist, the man who is killed gets to tell part of his story too . he really talks openly about the ameran dream and his daughter

talks about him seing his living the american dream. this head on.plori >> he's an interesting character because he had not intended on immigrating to the united states. he was a graduate student il ophy of all things and got involved -- >> in morocco. >> in morocco and go involved in different political events that caused him to want to leave. and he went from being soebody who is very much i would say, i mean he had lie marxist tendencies when he arrived in the u.s. starting a business and embracing fully the idea of the americur dream. of c the irony is that on the very first page of the book whenou open the book he dives into this very mysterious run and we're not clar what motives there are behind it. >> how much this comes from your experience as an imgru immigrant yourself. >> in my case i became an and fell in love and gotsomeone

married. before i knew it i was an immigrant and then later an american. i was reflecting on thisnd experienceow it changed my life. i realize this is something that ties me to more than 40 millionp pe in this country. there are a great number of heople in this country and eac of them has a very different life experience, a differe w reason fy they are immigrating and in the book i fry to exlore two -- i try to explore these two or threece experi the book is the imagination but it's really what got me started into it and the inspiration came to me. >> how much is tied to the because i know you also write columns an essays and you address these issues in that way too. ll yeah. to me this is ra book that's more general about the america and i sorof leave my own political opinions about the here and now to other works. i have actually a book of

non-fiction coming out next year in which i talk a bit more about the experience and immigrationom y mom's perspective. >> but in the novel you chose to do something different. >> yes. in the novel it's more about the private experience of im agration. speaoreign language which i am doing right now. and especially when you firstth arrive icountry and you mispronounce something and somebody laughs or yodon't quite know the culture or some the jokes that people are laughing about and so thiexs rience of being on theou ide is an experience that i've had in my life not just because i'm an immigrant butx also formple, after i finished my ph.d. wok and often times i was the only woman. sometimes it's this experience being on the outside is one that i have spent a lot of time thinking about. i think most of m fiction

really is about the act of crossing borders and the preliminarimplications that it . >> did you feel you had to wrap it up or tie it up in some y or resolve things. a well the characters is very much unresolvedd the book is really about the relationship between them. it's not as if tht ey stt one point and end up in anotherr point where eng is perfectly sorted out in -- lives. it's not like that. it's really about how they relate to one another in the aftermath of the crime. we do find ot who was behind all of it. but the book is really an relationship to one another. >> the book is the other americans. laila lalami, nice talking to you. o>> nice talking to youo. >> nawaz: and finally on this christmas night, we continue a tradition started a few years ago when we asked the u.s.

military to share a holida story or song. tonight, musicians from the air force, army, navy, marine corps and coast guard perform "carol of the bells."id this was produced by the "defense media activity" group, an agency within the department of defense. ♪ ♪ ♪ hark how the bells sweet silver bells ♪ all seem to say "throw ces away" ♪ christmas is here bringing good cheer ♪ to young anold meek and the bold ♪ ding-dong, ding-dong that is their songul ♪ with joing all caroling ♪ one seems to hear words of good cheer ♪ from everywhere filling the air ♪ oh, how they pound raising the sound ♪ o'er hill and dale tellintheir tale ♪ gaily they ring while people sing ♪ongs of good cheer christmas is here ♪ merry, merry, merry, merry christmas ♪ merry, merry, merry, merry christmas ♪ on, on they send

♪ hark how the bells sweet silver bells ♪ all seem to say "throw cares away" ♪ christmas is here bringing good cheer ♪ to young and old meek and the bold ♪ ding-dong, ding-dong ♪ oh, how they pound raising the sound ♪ o'er hill and dale telling their tale ♪ gaily they ring while people sing ♪ songs of good che christmas is here ♪ merry, merry, merry, merry christmas merry, merry, merry, merry ♪ christmasar ♪how the bells sweet silver bells ♪ all seem to say "throw cares away" ♪ christmas is here bringing good cheer ♪ to young and old meek and the bold ♪ ding-dong, ding-dong that is their song ♪ with joyful ring all caroling ♪ one seems to hear words of good cheer ♪ from everywhere filling the air ♪ oh, how they posod raising thd ♪ o'er hill and dale ♪ gaily they riale while people sing ♪ songs of good cheer christmais here

♪ merry, merry, merry, merry christmas ♪ merry, merry, merry, merry christmas ♪ hark how the bells sweet silver bells ♪ll seem to say "throw cares away" ♪ christmas is here bringing good cheer ♪ to young and old meek and the bold ♪ ding-dong, ding-dong that is their song ♪ with joyful ring all caroling ♪ one seems to hech words of goor ♪ from everywhere filling the air ♪ oh, how they pound raising thsound ♪ o'er hill and dale telling their tale ♪ gaily they ring while ople sing ♪ songs of good cheer christmas is here ♪ merry, merry, merry, merry chstmas ♪ merry, merry, merry, merry christmas ♪ hark how the bells sweet silver bells ♪ all seem to say "throw cares away" ♪ christmas is here bringing good cheer ♪ to young and old meek and the bold ♪ ding-dong, ding-dong that is their song ♪ with joyful ring all caroling ♪ one seems to hear words of good cheer ♪ from everywhere filling the air ♪ oh, how they pound raising e sound ♪ o'er hill and dale telling their tale ♪ gaily they ring while people sing ♪ songs of good cheer christmas is here rr♪ merry, merry, merry,

christmas ♪ merry, merry, merry, merry christmasw ♪ hark e bells sweet silver bells ♪ all seem to say "throw cares away" ♪ christmas is here bringing good chg r ♪ to yod old meek and the bold ♪ ding-dong, ding-dong that ♪ with joyful ring all caroling ♪ one seems to hear rds of good cheer ♪ from everywhere filling the air ♪ oh, how they pound raising the sound ♪ o'er hill and dale tellig their tale ♪ gaily thelering while peing ♪ songs of good cheer christmas is here ♪ merry, merry, merry, merry christmas ♪ merry, merry, merry, merry christmas ♪ on, on they send on without end ♪ their joyful tone to every home ♪ ding-dong, ding-dong ding-dong, ding-dong ♪ their joyful tone e ry home ♪ ding-dong, ding-dong ding-dong, ding-dong

>> nawaz: on the newshour online right now, as the decade comes to a close, what's changed? from smartphones, to the effects of climate change, to the #metoo movement, we take a look at seven major shifts that have shaped our world. that's on our website, www.pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. on tomorrow's newshour, national book award winner sarah broom on her memoir about life in new orleans few get to visit: "the yellow house." d m amna nawaz. join us online, ain here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you for spending christmas day with us. we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshouras been provided by:me >> concellular.y. >> bnsf rail >> and with the ongoing support

of these institutions d individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributns to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> you're watching pbs.

♪ > lidia: i'm lidia bastianic. i'vehieft my big city home to discover real small-town america through its food. like this? this holiday season, i'll visit rural communities across the nation and explore the patchwork of traditions that mcoe up america's diverse try cuisine. >> well, i usually kiss them right (kisses) on the... >> lidia: oh, i can do that! (kisses) almost three-quarters of the nation's land is still rural. that's chester? >> yes. you can pet her. >> lidia: she recognizes you. >> yes. >> lidia: over 50 million americans live in small town and farmlands. many have been here for centuries. i think it's perfect. >> pretty good. >> lidia: others are recent arrivals. did we get everybody?