captioning sponsoredury newshoroductions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: wildfires darken tes in southeast australia, burning millions of acres and forcing thousands to flee. then, the money trail. how democratic presidential candidates' fundraising stacks up, one month before the iowa caucuses. and, losing their religion. why young americans are turning away from fah, and how religious leaders are trying to win them back. >> people want something that actually matters for their lives. so if the content is literally not heal to something bigger, then you're wasting your time. >> woodruff: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour.

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thank you. >> woodruff: vast swaths of australia are still burning tonight, with forecastorse to come, and thousands of people ordered to evacuate. a record summer fire season has charred 12 million acres, destroyed homes, and left 17 people dead. new south wales and victoria states are hardest hit, but fires are also burning across the rest of the cotry. dan rivers of independent television news reports from new south wales, where whole communities are in ashes. >> look athat, bro. >> reporter: in conjola park on felt like the, world was ending, not just the year. the wildfire swept through in minutes. here, local resident peter ruetman films as the fire approached his neighbor's house this is all that's left. peter's home didn't survive either. >> i jumped in the car. it was so hot.

the heat-- i can't describe how hot it was, and the ferocity and the speed of this fire. anyone that thought they were going to beat this fire is really taking life into their own hands. >> reporter: pascale hegarty hasn't experienced fear like this since she escaped the war in lebanon. >> unbelievable. you could hear trees, gas bottles exg, just like a war zone. i have lived in a war zone, and othat's what it reminded yeah. >> reporter: for those who have verything they own, the only comfort is knowing family and friends survived. >> this is what happens when one of these firestorms collides with a community. this is l that's left of conjol, where at least 89 homes have been destroyed and person killed. you can see, it was literally hot enough to melt cars. and what's so worrying is that just a few miles down the coast, there her placing facing exactly the same prospt. >> reporter: the princess highway is the only way out,

and right now it'slosed, a 200-mile traffic jam as the clock ticks down to more seang heat and fire ri this weekend. >> i would like to get home. i would like tnot have to sleep in my car tonight. but i know there are probably others who, so of, don't have food in the car and water with them. and the night will be quite tough for them, i think. >> reporter: the australian navy have been evacuating people from mallacoota, where 4,000 op were stranded on the beach, exposed to choking smoke, and doing what they can to protect vulnerable lungs as they leave. the town may be cut off for weeks, with water supplies being brouin by boat, as the smoke means it's too dangerous to fly. a state of emergency has been declared astralia's prime minister fends off accliations of faing to grip this crisis. in cobargo, residents refused to shake his hand, heckling him as

wn visited the devastated . hink that the strength of the individuals, as we've just seen on dilay here, i think that says everything about australia. and the spirit that will get them through this weeknd the spirit will help them rebuild. >> reprter: some are already blaming climate change for the three-year drought which has preceded this crisis. reeling from their loss, but they know there may be more to come this weekend. >> woouff: that report from dan rivers of independent television news. in the day's other news, the democratic presidential primary field narrowed again, with julian castro dropping out. the former obama housing secretary had failed to make headway in the polls or fundraising. he was the onllatino still in the race. we will return to the presidential campaign with the latest fundraising reports,

after the newsummary. at a senate impeachment trial of president trump. democrats said today clas by the online forum "just security" prove he is hiding something. the site reported that unredacted white house e-mails show mr. trump directly ordered a hold on security funds to ukraine and, later, ordered their release. defense secretary mark esper is threatening pre-emptive military strikes against iran, to preve americans in the middle east. he pointed today to incidents including iraqmilitiamen, backed by iran, storming the u.s. embassy compound in baghdad. esper predicted thatmeran will try ing else, and said that the u.s. cannot wait. >> we have all the capabilities inherent in the u.s. military to either respond to further attacks, or to take action, if additional attacks are being prepared. >> woodruff: the pentagon has already sent more oops tthe

middle east. turkey's president recep tayyip erdogan raised the alarm today about a new rush of syrian refugees. he said thousands mo fleeing from idlib province, the last rebel stronghold in syria. the exodus began when syrian and russian forces intensified their assault on idlib. in ankara today, erdogan said turkey is struggling to manage. >> ( translated ): right now, 200,000 to 250,000 people are moving towards our borders. right now, we are trying to prevent them with some reciprocal measures, but it's not ea's. ifficult. they are humans, too. we cant put barriers and barbed wire agnst humans, like the west does. >> woodruff: in washington, the white hous president trump spoke with erdoday and joed in calling to de-escalate the situation in

idlib province. the trump administration today nounced a ban on most of the flavored e-cigarettes used by teenagers. the ba based products, but it does exempt menthol and tobacco flavors. it also exempts large, tank-type devices that mostly cater to adult smokers. 39 of the 52 republican u.s. senators asked the supreme court today to overturn "roe v. wade," the decision that legalized abortion. more than 160 house republicans also signed the brief supporting a louisiana law. it requires that doctors performing abortions have hospital admitting privileges within 30 miles. the court will hguments in march. north carolina will have the largest coal ash clean-up in u.s. history. the state said today tt duke energy will dig up nearly 80 million tons of toxic ash at six sites, and movit to lined landfills to prevent leaking. a 2014 leak contaminated 70 miles of thdan river.

l street, major indexes surged to new record closes after s central bank announced economic stimulus measures. the dow jonestrial average gained 330 points to close at 28,868. the nasdaq rose 119 poin, and the s&p 500 added 27. and, the only man ever to pitch a perfect basell game in a world series has died. don larsen passed away last night in hayden, idaho. he had esophageal . his moment came in the 1956 series, with the new york yankees. larsen beat the brooklynodgers in game 5, retiring all 27 batters in order. the yankees went on to win the title. don larsen was 90 years old. still to come on the newshour: can president trp hold on to his support from evangelical voters? losing their religion-- the complicated relationship between young americans and faith.

follow the money-- what's included in the $1.4 trillion federal spending bill. and, much more. >> woodruff: 2019 was a year of dramatic changes and new trends in campaign finance. some presidential bindidates spenmoney wooing donors to meet new d.n.c. debate criteria. two billionaires band their own campaigns, while other candidates struggled to raise ough money to keep their campaigns running. to talk about this, i'm joinedon by the "washinost's" michelle ye e lee, who covers money in politics. michelle, good to see you. thank you for joining us again

on the "newshour". first of all, how does this year in fundraising generally compare to other election years t re were some mor new trends in the past year in political fundraising, one of which is the rise of small dollar donors anere p of online giving that really had to be harnessed by the democratic candidates, especially because the democratic national committee made a donor threshold one of the qualification for making it on to ae debage. so we saw democratic candidates to varying degreesf success be able to build online donation programs, reaching o to donors, grass root supporters, just to even ask for a dollar or five dollars at a time to help show momentum for eir candidacy. it's been especially important because it was such a wide field to begin with and still is quit large with so many competitive candidates thaone or two or a handful, really, rise to the top by being able to tap into that

online donor momentum. >> woodruff: interesting, because we've seen in t past some candidates raising big amounts of money through political action committees, so-cald super pacs, super political action committees, those are still around but they just don't function the way they us to. >> they're still around, but we've seen the democratic presidential primary, there is almost a vilification of the participation of such donors, and people who have ties to special interests, increasingly democrats have begun to distance themselves from corporate pac donations, fossil fuel money, you know, saying they won'te t money from pharmaceutical executives. so there have been almost these purity tesee that haveset on each other in terms of the type of money that you should ancan raise from. some candidatue still cont to raise money in these high-dollar fundraisers, private events that cater to more

wealthy donors. >> woodruff: rht. t others are still raising lots of money from a healthy small-dollar base. >> woodruff: let's look at sum of the numbers. we had trouterring period om the last quarter just in. lookt the numbers, leading president trump raised $46 n, overshadowing the other democrats, but not so far behind him, bernie sanders 34.5, pete buttigieg, 34.7. jobiden, just today we learned he's come in third among the democrats at 22.7. what do we learn about the numbers, michelle? >> well, of course, these are early looks at some of the most flattering figures. so once the public filings are reveeeed, we'll get to exactly how much money they have to spend going into the early states. but with these figures released now shows is that there is a lo of donor energy that is forming on the left that a lot of strategists hope, well, you know, will eventually call us around the nomineeme. while, president trump is

just rolling on forward with a very, very powerful reelection machine that raises a lot of money from both small and althy donors. the top fundraisers so far ha se prettymuayed in that place over the past -- over the previous quarter or two, and they're the top polling candidates as well going into the early states. so we really reflect just how unsettled the democratic primary field still is and could be for another few weeks. >> woodruff: but money has been something th has eliminated some of these candidates. we just sa today juliaán castro announced he is dropping out, he sn't been able to raise money, get his numbers up in the poll. t the one hand, money matters, not the onng, but it clearly makes a difference for the candes at the moment. >> it can drive up a lot of hementum. when sanders campaign came out with $35.5 million today, that is ne popg, that's not only the biggest quarterly haul this year bu it's one f the

top in an off year of a presidential election. that was especially markable compared to the previous quarter when he was kind of stagnating in the polls oand thenn the first day of the quarter fundraising, period, he had a heart attack and people were asking how viable his candidacy wagoing to b how this was going to affect him, but he really had a great revival andad raiston of money, and going into the next few weeks, especially before thy gritty details are made public about the money itself, this is going to help him generate a lot of new donors and donations. >> a lot of interest in these nuers. ill waiting to hear from elizabeth warren. uichelle ye hee lee, thank very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: there are signs emerging of a deepening rift among one of president trump's strongest voting blocs:

white evangelical christians. as the president continues his re-election effortill be in miami tomorrow to kick off the "evangelicals for trump" con. correspondent lisa desjardins picks itom there. >> desjardins: a recent editorial publin "christianity today," an evangelical magazine founded by billy graham, stted a debate during the height ofhe impeachment vote. it called ent trump's actions in ukraine "profoundly immoral," adding, "president trump has abuseduthority for personal gain and betrayed his constitutional oath." to explore how the president's support may be shifting with evangelicals, i'm join richard landpresident of the southern evangelical seminary d executive editor of th "christian post." and collin hansen, the editorial director for the gospel coalition. thank you both for joining us. dr. land, let's start with you wrote a response to the call for impeachment in another

publication, your christian "post," defending the president and alsoi his christan supporters. tell us how you see this. >> well, of all, i think we're this close to an election, we ought to let the american people decide through the next election whether mr. trump should be removed from office. i think most evangelicals feel that the president, despite misgivings they have about his language or some of his behavior, believe that he's the most pro-life president in the modern era, that he's done morei for religiourty through the appointment of conservative judges and through speaking out for religious liberty around tli world, for m, for christians, for jews. his statements againstmi antism and his actions against antisemitism, that he is, at the very least -- at the very least -- thlesser of two evs against mrs. clinton and also against the curre crop of democratic candidates. and, so, i find that most

evangelicals still support him. they don't condone everything he does. he was my lastinhoice the primaries. i know a lot of evangelicals that he wa either their second, third, fourth, fifth or last choice in the primaries, but once it became a binary choice between mrs. clinton and mr. trump, we decided that mr. trump was the better choice, and most of us haveeen pleasantly surprised, that he's done better than tught he would. >> reporter: collin, why didn't you vote for prident trump andhy do you think he should not be president? does he represent christian values? >> well, he is our president, d i haven't takenny position on the impeachment proceedings. i think a number of people -- i don't alink i'm really ied to be able to speak into that. what i have seenith president trump is actually something milar to what dr. land had just talked about. many evangelicals like myself who had been skeptical of him actually saw -- he's actually turned out tbe, in some ways, better than we expected and, at the same time, many of the

things that we're discouraged by, some of his racially-charged comments and some of his -- well, basically his constat twitter presence, are things that were well known to everybody who voted for him last time around. so, in that sense, things haven't changed. so ontopose him in that regard. i think the bible very clearly calls us to vote -- excuse me, not to vote -- but to pray for those people ive office, wh they might be, and ultimately to trust him for the outcome. my main concern is the perception of what evangelicals as a sort of partisan part of the republican party, especially the republican party at prayer, i think that's a prlem for the church going forward. >> reporter: this is a president who does not talkng about asgod for forgieness, he's not known as a churchgoer in general,asn't been before this, and someone right now accused of using his political power for his own yrsonal gain, which clea is something that jus was against. sus was the opposite, u your power to help people. richard, i want to ask you,

then, how do you justify this president, who some people question whether he reflectias chrivalues or not? >> firstf all, i would share some of those concerns, and that's why he was my last choice in the primaries, but when itry comes tog to save the lives of the 1150 babies day being aborted in the united states, which i think is a moral issue, mr. trump is on the right side of that moral issue.ic the democrarty is trying to make abortion a sacrament. in public life, you havoe t make prudential choices, and i believe that most evangelicals made a prudential choice, the vast majority of them, and will again to vote for someone who is going to seek to protect them from having their own government weaponnized against them through the courts and will continue to put conservative, strict judges on the courts that will give the americaneople freedom to make

their own choices instead of having them impose bid a judicial imperium and to protect the unborn in this country. >> reporter: collin, is this the end justifying thmeans here? is that for evangelicals for trump are accep >> i was fairly surprised at the outcome in 2016, not only like everybody else about president trump winning, but by the overwhelming support of evangelicals. i do thinkhe 81% does not accurately accouw many evangelicals sat home and did not make that same moral calculus described right there, uh i think i also underestimated the way evangelicals, as basically all americans do, see our elections, our presidential elections as a bier ney choice as dr. land said. we areot in a parliamentary system. if we were we would see many different s voting according to parties and their beliefs but, ultimately, think both political sides make a number of compromises when it comes to the kin of person theyy want to be able to care for

their views and that's the natu of our two-party system for better or worse. >> reporter: why are so in evangeliaders are talking about politics now, not the ministry. how do you know politicians are not manipulating you and the voters for their gain? >> well, let me sast of all, most evangelicals spend most of their time preaching and spreading the gospel, not talking about bricks. they talk about politics nor when theyet asked by the media about politics. they do talk about beingo- fe and pr pro-freed. they talk out the persecuted christians and muslims overseas and those persecuted by china and india, they talk about freedom of conscience. >> reporter: collin, i want to ask you, is there a political risk on the other side of this? fome evangelicals might see their goalwarded by olesident trump, but is it possibleicians can be manipulated by evangecals or

not? i don't have an opinion, i'm just wondering. >> there's a ccern evangelicals may win temporary t ultimatelattles lose the culturawar. i have been surprised the last number of years justto see ho eager both sides are for a cultural war and for how, as much as we want to talk about foren policy or economic policy, so many of our issues this side or that side of this big political gain andnk, insofar as evangelicals are drawn into that kind of game, it does present a majorroblem in terms of our proclamation to the gospel long-run. but i agree with dr. land as well, though, that there are a lot of things happening all he time withal evangel caring for their neighbors, even suffering, but giving god glory and loving their neighbors with joy, but those things don't make th. what makes the news is the 25% in evangelicals who throw their weight aroun politics every four years. >> thank you for this conversation not justbout politics but about faith. richard land and collin hansen.

>> god bless you. thank you. >> woodruff: while evangelicals remain an important demographic group for politicians, the percent of americans who identify with any religion has been on the decline for decades. and a re study has found the biggest generational drop-off is with millennials, young adults born between 1981 and 1996. cat wise reports from southern california on the young people who are changing their beliefs, and the efforts by some faith communities to bring them back. and a note: the pew research center is a newshour funder. >> reporter: aunday service that is part therapy session, part stand-up comedy routine,

and pa live concert, all followed by a round of beers with your pastorn a rented crossfit gym? this is not your grandmother's idea of church. >> any good news? >> reporter: welcome to new abbey, a christian, g.b.t.q.- affirming, progressive, family- friendly church in pasadena, california. it was started six years ago in the living room of thiguy... cory marquez is a 34-year-old ordained ptor who left a larger, evangelical congregation after he saw my of his own friends were no longer interested in attending church. when you wertalking to your friends about why they didn't go to church, what were you hearing from them? >> "this isn't relevant for me," sexuality, that's a big one. the church is not honestly talking about sexuality. >> you can ask my wife. >> reporter: sexuality is not a

boo topic here. marquez's fellow pastor, brittney barron, speaks openly with the congregation about being a lesbian, and many of those tend are from the l.g.b.t.q. community. the congregation has grown from l20 to 400 over tt several years. >> it's less about ft m and more abntent. that people want something that actually matters for their lives. so if the content is literally not healing you, connecting you to something bigger, then you're wasting yoe. >> reporter: new abbey is one of a number of new religious organizations popping up across the country, trying to appeal to younpeople who are increasingly leaving the religions of their anctors. according to an october report from the pew research center, "84% oe born between 1928 to 1945, and 76% of the baby boomer generation, dcribe themselves as christians. in contrast, only half of millennials identifys

christians. four in ten say they are religiously unaffiliated, and one in ten identify with non- christian faiths." diane winston is a professor of religion and at the university of southern california, who has been studying religious trends among young adults. >> many religions just don't feel relevant to a lot of thes young people, they don't speak their language, and now there are other ways you can make those connections. you can make them online, you can make them at an interest group, or an affinity group. >> reporter: she also says many yoople have lost trust in religious institutions. >> there are scandals, theim sexualitoprieties, these pedophilia, of sexism, of misogyny. why would you want to give your time and m that countenances, or protects, people who do these kinds of things? >> reporter:ome of those turned off by traditions religintinue to seek fulfillment in other ways. according he pew, three in

ten adults ages 18 to 49 now identify as spiritual, but not religious. one of those who has made the switch is jaison perez. the 32-year-old from los angeles was raised catholic and attended weekly servicewith his family, but he says he never felt connected to the church, and left in his early 20s. >> as a queer person, the catholic church is unsafe. i go to church, and i'm immediately sinful. it's this feeling of not being able to show up fully myself. >> reporter: now, he works as a healer at "mostly angels," a store specializing in mystical services and products in cver city. perez says there's been a significant uptick in business over the last three to five years. >> we're not sold on the old ntasy of what the church can provide you, what structural spirituality can provide you. >>ter: while new age practices and beliefs have been etowing since the '60s and '70s,

the intend social media have played a big role in the spread among the yos.ger generati more than 60% of adults ages 18 to 49 have at leasnew age belief, according to pew. and many re turning to new horoscope apps and online ftrologs for guidance. but soor much more intimate ways to spread the word. at the open temple in venice, californiarabbi lori shapiro incorporates a variety of new age practices, and even a colorfulus, to reach new people in the community. >> there are a lot of reasons why people have the least of which is ideology. people are hungry for these ideas. we just need to make them accessible again. >> reporter: but many faith leaders aren't rushing to change long-held practices and beliefs in order to keep young people in

the pews. reverend dr. mary minor is the stor of brookins-kirkland community church in los angeles' inglewood neighborhood. the church once had about 10,000 members. today, there are about 300, and many are older adults. do you feel that in an effort to reach younger people, that the church might need to change its views on certain isss? likearriage, for examp. >> i don't think the church needs to change that. my denomination does not believe in gay marriage. however, my nomination embraces those that are of the l.g.b.t.q. community. >> reporccording to pew, black millennials nationally tend tbe less religious than older black adults, but they are considerably more religious than their peers. reverend minor sayshe is concerned about losing young people in her church, and worries they are missing out on an important aspect igion: community.

>> when you're not assembled with believers, then you feel like you're on an island all b yourself. >> reporter: back at new abbey, pastor cory marquez says a sense of community is what's bringing people back sunday after sunday. and their approach isn that radical. >> i've never opened a door in christian tradition where i found that i was the first person there. there have always been people-- ndnks and priests and nuns theologians and philosophers-- who have been asking these questions for thousands of years. >> reporter: and once congregants finish pondering life's most ancient d enduring questions-- they get to celebrate with pizza and cd beverages. for the pbs newshour, i'm cat wise in pasadena, california.

>> woodruff: as the new yegt begins, wash is in a much different place than a year ago, when the govnment was in the middlef the longest shutdown in history and congress was crippled by disagreements on owending. before leavingfor the holidays, lawmakers came together on a huge spending bill. nick schifrin takes at where your tax dollars are going. >> sn: judy, this was a massive bill-- $1.4 trillion. money to research gun violence. money for the mitary. and, it raises the age to purchase tobacco to 21. ere's a lot more, and our capitol hill correspondent lisa desjardins and the newshour team have been combing through 2,400 pages, and lisa joins me now to examine the government's 2020 priorities.

to build border barriers. that's less than he wanted. he got sometng else,isoo. ill has fewer restrictions in where he can build it and gives you more leeway in taking money from other accounts to do that. there is something that remains the same, however -- it still limits the kind of barrier that can be built. still can be only fencing, flat fencing, no concrete wall. examples of what's already on the bored. overall, democrats, in exchange for rder money, they got two new things that are notable -- a new ombudsman in charge of immigration detention to oversee the conditions foree detainand also millions of dollars to help detainees navigate the legal syste and courtwork. it's interesting because the legal program for detainees is somethinthat former attorney general jeff sessions wanted to stop altogether, but here democrats were able to expand

that program, thousands of more detainees in the year will have the ability to get some counseling to try to figure out their situation legally. >> give and take but fallout especially on the democratic side? >> that's the thing. in truth, members of the congressional hispanic caucus and many democrats were not happy with this bill. many voted agast it for this reason. many wanted to cap the number of detention beds. they feel now the administration still has the ability to detain as many people as it wants, and there are no new require exactly what conditions the detainees will be undewa to take you back to earlier this summer when members were touring the facilities and here's the chairperson of the caucus joaquin castro speaking at one of the facilities talkint about how impnt changing the conditions was for them. >> we came today, and we sa that the system is still broken, that people's human rights are still being abused. we remain very concerned aboutit

the cons in which people are being kept. >> reporter: for members of the congressional hispanic caucus, this is a moral issue, and they're concerned this sort of detente right now we're not talking about over immigration may actually be aormalization of things that they find unacceptab republicans, however, they want that normalization, they want this wall to be a normal part of policy. >> all right, topic numberw to, these spending bills do something new and headlineworth on education. >> yes! this is something we hear people want to talk about all the time and here is major change. let's start with the background. a big rift over this. president trump would like to cut education spending. in fac he oposea 10% cut this year. i want to take you back. here's whats hucation secretary betsy devos said to congress earlier this year about why it should be cut. she said the's just not enough money. >> it's easier to keep spending, to keep saying yes, to keep saddling tomorrow's generations with today's growing debt, but,' asbeen said, the government whether run out of

other people's money. >> now, so she was proposing a cut in her education funding. idemocrats wanted anrease. democrats won, and they won very big. in fact, this bill has a record amount ofunding for education, and it's fro the federal government, it includes more than $2 billion of an increase, especiduly for early tion and for k-12, and it's interesting that those k-$12, all of these dollars s,ecifically go to low-income communithere have been block grants, in part, and, also, we will see tens ofs thousare openings for head starts especially in the low-income communies. as people know, education is still mainly fued by the states but, here, the federal government is adding more of its own role to tha >> this isn't just about dollars and a lot more dollars, this is about policy shifts, and this bodes well on coal miners. >> really big shift, somethifeng thral government never has done before, permanently making

up for a gap in the private pensin system espally for al mining. we know coal mining has been on the decline overall. since 2008 between then and 2018, thecoal industry lost 32,000 jobs, or 37% of itsobs, largely to bankruptcies. those companies could not pay the pensions, including pensions of this man, damon tucker, whom we talked to in 2017, long-time e'al mer, depends on his pension, and hwhat he said at the time, then when the pension was running out. ng it's not like we're as for a handout or anything, either. them was hard sweat work benefits thae negotiated and, you know, all we want is jus at was promised to us. >> damon tucker is one of 100,000 miners in that same position, worried about his pension running out, could have been last week or next year. instead, the government is permanently paying for his pension. i talked to him this week.

he just retiret year and said without that pension, he and his wife would have been devastated. he said it was an enormous lief to see this bill extend that pension. however, this is the only timera the fegovernment extended federal money to pay for private pensions for one iy, the coal mining industry. >> how much spending are we abt and whatking does it do to the u.s.'s bottom line? >> this is an eggn ocean of red. between this spending bill and the budget setlier this year, $2.2 trillion of red ink has been passed by this kong by this president this year. to give you bigger perspective, the discretionary spending, since 20717, that kind of spend hack an increas about 15% in a couple of years. this from a president w said he wants to actually rai rein in

government spending. this is one to have the bigger generation. a >> why does th matter. because in an age of gridlock, this is wha government does -- government spds -- money they can agree on. this was a compromise to spend a vast array of mon ysm there are a lot ofther big policies. for example, this bill says the government will help somalia restructure its debt. there are tremendous implicatio w here. this t government does, even though it may not be one to have the most dramatic headlines, it may bte the m important. >> lisa desjardins following thi hes, thank you very much. >> my pleasure. >> woodruff: a man named carlos ghosn was once in the driver's seat of two of the world's most iconic automakers, and was

credited for saving both from insolvency. but he went from the heights of the corporate world to criminal allegations in japan, a record bail, and now his mysterious cape from japan to lebanon. jog reports. >> yang: reporters huddled outside a beirut house this morning, hoping to catch a otglimpse of ousted nissans chief carlos ghosn-- once a c.e.o., now an international fugitive. in tokyo, prosecutors raided his home there searching for clues to how the high-profile businessman, facing trial for ,leged financial miscondu mysteriously escaped house arrest and embarked on a flight to freed. ghosn wartedly smuggled out of japan on his private jet. he stopped in istanbul before arriving in lebanoci where he is zen, on new year's eve. today turkish officials arrested seven people, including lots, for aleged connection to the escape. and, lebanon received a notice from interpol, the international

policing organization, calling for his ar lebanon's justice minister said even though ghosn had entered the country legay, they would comply with the request. >> ( translated ): i suppose the general prosecution will fully implement the notice, and that includesning him and listening to his testimony and then if there are measures to be taken, then th will be taken. >> yang: but lebanon has no extradition treaty with japan. what's more, ghosn also holds brazilian and french citizenship. frfficials have said if ghosn arrived in france, he would receive support. >> ( translated ): if a foreign citizen was fleeing the french bejudicial system, we woul very angry. and on thether hand, he is a lebanese, brazilian and french citizen, and he benefits from consular support, like all french citizens. >> yang: before his ouster in november, 2018, the automotive titan oversa nissan and the french carmaker renault. kr was credited with rescuing both from near-btcy-- by closing plants and cutting

thsands of jobs. but japanese prosecutors say hen also lavishlriched himself by underorting his income and funnelinpayments tcar dealerships he ctrolled in the rddle east. ghosn posted aord $14 million bail last apri and was confined to housarrest, under -hour surveillance. he reportedly decided to leave japan after learning that his trial would be delay until april 2021. in a statement, ghosn said he had jumped bail to escape "injustice and political persecution" in japan. today, he discredited theories that his wife had engineered his escape as "inaccurate and false." ghosn said he will speak to reporters next week. for the pbs newshour, i'm john yang. >> woodruff: generion z--

people born from the mid-1990s to around 2010-- are growing up in an increasingly cashless society. how does tt affect their relationship to money and finance? ics correspondent paul solman took a group of kids on a field trip last winter to ut. this encore report is part of our weekly series "making sense." >> reporter: so, anybody want some ice cream? all right, it's right over here. a chay in manhattan, but for 10- and 11-year-olds, there are no unseasonable treats. but the excitement for tlf grownups, mynd personal finance expert beth kobliner, this was a transaction with an unmiliar twist. this store doesn't take cash. ever. like a growing number of retail shops, it's plastic or mobile payment only. but cashless was no problem

for the kids, who, of course, weren't paying. what re you going with? >> cookies and cream. >> reporter: cookies and cream. >> with a sugar cone. >> sugar cone. >> reporter: but they're also growing up at a time when only one in three purchases is made with so, we wanted to know, does an increasingly cashless onomy keep kids from grasping the basics of price and value? how much do you think these things cost? >> it tastes so good, i think it would be like anywhere from $3 to $7. >> reporter: b ks say expensive compared tthe ice cream truck. >> they only charge you $2.75. >> reporter: okay,ey're familiar with relative prices. but ey calibrate value? if i said to you, i will give you $5.50,ad of the ice cream cone, which would you neoose, the cone or the mo >> the money. >> reporter: you would? why? >> because could get something else, and i could maybe get a cheaper ice cream. >> you can get t same amount, a bigger amounof ice cream,

for $2.75 at trader joe's, or $3.99 at trader jos, and then you can have ice cream for a whole week. >> reporter: all right what i'm going to do. i will offer $2. who will still give me their ice cream for $2? what about a dollar? a dollar but, in the end, two of the kids actually too lowball $1 cash offer for half-eaten ice cream, whose allure was apparently melting as fast as the foodstuff itself. this suggested not only the economic concept of diminishing returns, but also that hard currency has the same cachet, or more, than it did when beth kobliner and i were first lured into the sugar market. >> when i was little kid, about 10 or 11-- >> reporter: yes. >>emember going to the ice cream store, and my dad would give me a dollar. and ice then was 50 cents, and the sprinkles were 5 cents. >> reporter: in my day, a quarter, by the way. an ice cream cone was a quarter. ( laughter ) >> and i would get change.

anwhole transaction was really about learning addition, subtraction,acy. today, 70% of all our purchases are done online or with cards. >> reporter: how many of you have smart phones? every one of you. 2-now, about half of 10-to year-olds have smart phones, and 40% of teenagers have debit cards. so, is cash arithmetic a lost art? how many quarters in $3? >> 12. >> 12. >> reporter: how many quarte in $3.75? >> 15. >> reporter: 15, very good. so, kids can still count without burning much cash. but aren't they being suckered into spending by switching to a credit card? >> i don't think i would be responsible with one, because i would just want to go around spending, spending it. and then all your money is wasted on stupid stuff sometimes. >> reporter: isaac smith lewis' reluctance was echoed by the others. >> i'm going to be going on, like, shopping sprees and be, like, okay, everything is on me.

>> i can't use credit cards, because then i will be, like, ooh, i will buy that, i'm going to buy that, i'm going to buy that. >> money doetr't grow off of s. >> reporter: when it comes to credit cardsin fact, gen zers may be more penny-wise than their parents. dawood's mom, huda qatabi, for example. >> credit especially me, i just swipe, swipe, swipe. and then, at the end of the week, it's like $500, and i don't know what i did with it. peally-- >> reporter: really? y so, you're as bad as theare? >> i'm worse! (glaer ) >> reporter: worse? so, arthese gen zers safe with their or their parents' money? no. take it one further removed, and to tech savvy ers, they're sitting ducks. that's because kids this age spend about six hours a day online, on average. much of it playing viden games, and ng on them. the industry's new business model, s game, like the outfits the characters wea also known as skins, in the game sensation "fortnite."

>> in-game purchases, i el like it's just like, click, click. it's just not real money. >> inside the game, it's just feels like you're st using, like, game money. eporter: these kids aren't alone. facebook came under scrutiny earlier this year when documents revealedt made than $34 million from in-app purchases made by minors. and, as alice richelson told us, these aren't always one-time charges. >> i got a subscription on a coloring app, and it just kept taking money from every month, d, finally, my dad found out, and i got in trouble. es. she somehow signed up on itunes for a bunch of-- some games that kept charging every month. and i didn't get the receipts. it went to her email. but i changed ow. and so, i didn't know that was happening. so, i shut that off, yes. >> reporter: but when it comes to other in-game purchases, jason richelson said... >> i give in sometimes. orter: why do you give in? >> becse they keep bothering me.

( laughter ) >> reporter: impulsis, pestered parents, all overmatched by online credit, cash-free, card-free. and that's why the actual way we finally purchased our ice cream gave me pause. you don't accept cash? >> no, we do not, sir. card or apple pay. >> reporte well, apple pay, i don't have. a card... >> i could do it. i have apple pay. >> reporter: kobliner uses mobile pay apps, but she does have concerns about them. >> there is a study that looked at mobile pay, and it turns out when you use your phone to buy things, you are more likely to feel that you have got a good deal at that store, because it's like that magic nd. you're getting something for nothing. you're not giving up dollars. >> reporter: really? >> yes. so, stores really have an incentive to not let us use cash. >> reporter: even friendly cash- free stores like this one, as if the magic of ice cream

wasn't troublesome enough. for the pbs newshour, economics correspondenpaul solman, reporting from manhattan's lower east >> woodruff: tonight's "brief but ectacular" essay feature psycho-linguist jean berko gleason. she's a professor emerita at boston unirsity, and is best known as the creator of a test that helped transform what we know about children's language. >> i have an intolerance for certain things. yeah, intolerance for rudene, actually. i don't like it when people make noises eating things, and i never stay in the house if anybody is eating so boiled eggs, because soft boiled eggs are an abomination. >> anybody who knows me knows

that i really love technology. i have streaming cameras in my house that i set up, i installed my own video doorbell, i do all of those things. so i'm in my kitchen one day, and a woman rang the doorbell, and she said she wanted to get hold of e neighbor next door, if she could send him a message. so i pulled my pixel out of my pocket and this young woman turned to me and said, "look at you with your artphone." and i was just appalled. i was just appalled that she would ta to me that way. said, "what?" and she said," well, well, my mothedn't know how to use a smart phone." i said, "well, i do have a ph.d. from harvard,"hat shut her up. i was fascinated by language as a child,ecause i was under the impression that whatever you said, meant sothing in some language. my brother mty was six years

olr than me, and he had cerebral palsy. he was so smart that ultimately, l.he got a ph.d. from corn but when he was little, and even when he was not little, he had trouble speaking such that other people could understd him. i was the person who always understood what he said. itso i felt some closeness languages well as with my brother. other people didn't appreciate the fact that he was a sensitive, intelligent person. in fact, a lot of people with disabilities hav problem. people see that they have trouble walking or talking, and they assume that they have no intellectual capacity, so he was not treated with the respect he deserved, and he felt that acutely. i didn't start out to study psycholinguistics. i started out to study a million languages because i loved them. i do speak norwegian, french, russian, bits and pieces of arabican, enough spanish

ok get dinner. , if we're going to talk about this little creature wuat's on me, it's called spelled w-u-g. it comes from a study i did a very long time ago, called the wug test. steve, here and we'll practice on you and see if you can pass the wug test? this is a man who knows how to bing, okay? he is binging. he did the same thing yesterday. what did he do yesterday? yesterday, he ... >> binged. >> that is a perfect child answer. okay? four-year-olds will say that. >> great. >> i created the wug test to try to find out if even ung children have internal systems of grammar that allow them to deal with words they've never hed before. i think that it's very important that children acquire language in a loving atmosphere. kids need to havsome kinof one-on-one relationship with other people so that they care. if we care to communicate with them, we want them to care to

communicate with us. my name is jean berko gleason, and this is my "brief but spectacular" take on language. >> woodruff: thank you. and you can find more "brief but spectacular" essays on our website, at www.pbnewshour/brief. and that is the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and david brooks. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, and we'll see you soon. >> maj newshour has been provided by: >> fidelity investments. >> american crse lines. >> bnsf railway. >> consumer cellular. >> and with the ongoing support

of these institions and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporatio for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station fr viewers like you. thank you. ng captioponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> you're watching pbs.

>> hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour & co." this holiday season, we're dipping back into the arcves and looking at some of our favorite interviews from the year. here's what's coming up. 30 years since the fall of theerlin wall. and we look into how that night changed thrld for better and for worse. our panelists are all witness to history. then... >> you can't eat the orange and throw the peel away. a man is not a piece of fruit. ar>> actor wendell pierce in "death of a salesman." he joins us to talk arthur miller, "the wire," and working with meghan markle. plus...ca >> i'm havinndy for dinner. comedian and actor ellie kemper on finding luck and success in an ultra competitive industry. ♪