captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edion for saturday, january 4: foreign y licy fallout over the killing of iranian militarader qassim suleimani: wildfires rage out of control in australia; and a special series this weekend exoring climate change alo the mississippi river. next on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made enossible by: bernard and schwartz. sue and edgar wachenim iii. the cheryl and philip milstein family. rosalind p. walter, in memory barbara hope zuckerberg. charles rosenblum. we tryo live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow

can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the erican people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like yo thank you. from the tisch wnet stolios at licenter in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening, and thanks for joining us. thousands of people marched adrough the streets of bag today in a funeral procession for iran's topsoeneral, qassem imani, and an iraqi military commander, abu mahdi-al- muhandis, who were killed in a

u.s. air strike eay yesterday. there were chants of "vengeance is coming" and "death to america" as mourne, including iraq's prime minister, followed the coffins of the two military leaders through iraq's capital. the coffins were later moved to the shiite holy city of karbala. in tehran, iranian president hassan rouhani visited soleimani's family to pay respects and said his killing would "not be forgotten in the history of u.s. crimes." >> ( translated ): americans do not realize what a big mistake th have made. they will see the consequences of their mistake not only today but in the years to come. >> sreenivasan: secretary of state mike pompeo defended president trump's decision to kill the iranian general. >> they were aiming to take down significant amounts of americans. it have undoubtedly killed locals, too-- iraqis, lebanese, syrians, perhaps people all throughout the region. this was an attack that wod have been at some scale. we can't talk much about the

details, but, suffice it to say, tcahe amepeople can know that the decision that president trump made to take qassem soliceimani down saved am lives. >> sreenivasan: iraq's parliament is expectedto convene an emergency session tomorrow to discuss the presence of the nearly 5,000 u.s. military troops in the country. for analis and perspective on the u.s. strikes and iran's tion, we turn to douglas ollivant, former director for iraq at the national security counobl in the bush and a administrations. he joins us now from washington, d.c. so, we're at some point expecting maybe a layout of the evidthe smoking gun on what was the preemptive move that we did? what justified it? i mean, he's been around for a while. why now? >> i'm not expecting any evidence to be laid t. i suspect that this was largely just about what qasem soleimani's been doing forever. he is the... the head of the organization that runs iran's y network throughout the region-- hezbollah in lebanon,

most notably, but also assistance in syria, in yemen, in iraq. that's been his portfolio. and, oh, we decided to put a dent in that. >> sreenivasan: there seems to >> sreenivasan: mon' americans understand how integrated iran's influence is in iraq at the moment, and that it's ready compromised some of the u.s. military's ability to do what they want. kind of break that down for us. how did iran gain all this influence? >ri> well, first, iran't next door. they're their neighbor, so it's much easier for them to be there. you know, iran and iraq have been neighbors for thousands of years and are going to continue to do so. that said, some of us think that we're in this escalatory period because their influenctowas startine pushed back, that the protests that have been going on-- not to be confed with the protesters at the u.s. isbassy who were just dis militia men-- but the protests going on inall downtown baghdad-- which are pro-democracy, pro- accountability, an-corruption and largely anti-iranian-- had

shifted the political winds in baghdad enough that the iranians were about to lose the ability to influence the section of the prime minister. and we think tt maybe what started this whole escalatory cycle, starting with the killing of thu. contractor on the base near kirkuk, and then the tit-for-tat that followed from that. >> sreenivasan: okay, so the u.s. is sending more troops into the region. where does this leave iraq now, who are trying this balancing act? they want to be nice to their neighbor of thousands of years-- tehran-- and also washington. >> well, the troops are going forward to kuwait. we don't know that any are actually going to go forward in iraq, i think, except for a few that are going to relieve the marineathe u.s. embassy and have a slightly larger presence inside what is, by diplomatic agreent, u.s. sovereign soil. so, we should have a... a status quo. the thing to watch in the coming weeks is, will there be poticecal will in iraq to r the u.s. trootrpresence-- the

ning mission, the anti-isis fight-- that ncs been there they were invited back in the late summer of 14? that is the indicator to wa h. but that goes away, if those troops are aske the iraqis to leave, then we're in a very different situation. so, that's the indicor to watch most closely. >> sreenivasan: does iran have to respond? you can't just let the... such a high-profile leader be assassinated or killed without pushing back in some way, to >> one wothuld k that for their own domestic political purposes, if nothing else, they're going to have to do some type of face-savineymeasure, and ave a long laundry list of what they might do. the most escalatory would be attacking u.s. troops inside iraq. we're prepared for that, but that would be escalatory. but they have options inside syria. orthey could, in t launch rockets at israel from lebanon. they could use their cyber weapons. they could attack saudi aramco. they could put mines in the gulf again. they've got a long laundry list

of options, and we'll just see what they choose to do and whether that is seen by the united stes as a routine face- saving meare that can be absorbed or whether that is, in .urn, going to require another respon >> sreenivasan: all right, douglas ollivant, a partner at mantid internaonalnd former s.c. director for iraq, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you, hari. >> sreenivasan: temperatrdes rose to reevels across australia today as wildfires that have killed 23 people continue to rage. the government warned the public that it ""not safe to move" while 3,600 firefighters remained on duty across the state new south wales. speaking to reporters, australian prime minister scott morrison announced tt 3,000 reservists are being called up to battle the wildfires. >> the governor-general signed off on the call out of the austrian defense force reserve to surge and bring every possityble capabio the bear by deploying army reserve brigades to fire affected communities across australia. >> sreenivasan: the wildfires have scorched at least 12 million acres, destroyed more than 1,500 homes and have

devastated countless animal populations since september. for the latest on the aftermath of qassim suleimani's death, visit www.pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: this weekend, we are bringing you a special series of stories examining how the changing climate is impacting states along the mississippi river. our reporters and producers spent the last month travelling to several states that border the mississippi, to explore not only the impact of climate change but solutions for congmbating riaters, environmental hazards and disruption of commerce. we began where the mississippi river doesn the ate of minnesota, where businesses in the north that rely on the cold are facing warmer winters. one such business is dog eredding. kaomi goetz, a for one greater minnesota, brings us the story from twin cities pbs. the series is part of our ongoi promise: the challenge of climate change," and is produced in partnership with nexus media new as, nonprofit news organization.

>> welcome... >> reporter: temperatures dipped to minus digits for the 35th annual john beargrease dog sled marathon. at 300 miles, it's the longest dog sled race in the lower 48 states. peter mcclelland runs a dog sled adventure business in ely. he was one of the 11 marathon competitors. he said it's a challenging course. >> the ma to think about is, just take it easy at the beginning. you could lose this race in the first run. you cannot win this race in the first run. >> one of the mentors of the john beargrease sled dog marathon, please welcome peter mcclelland! ( cheers and applause ) >> reporter: after connecting with his dogs, it was mcclelland's turned to start. >> 5-4-3-2-1, the mentor is now the competitor! >> reporter: it seemed like a picture perfect wintry postcard, bebut the grease is changing.

organizers had to shave off more than 70 miles from last year's course. it was also rerouted, all because of a continual trend: lack of snow. >> he's out of here! ( cheers ) >> climate change, i... i think it, coming. i me's here, probably. i'm not an official, but i think it's here, and it's definitely something that's going to affect our industry. >> reporter: the changes are already being felt by those who make their living off wter. ( dogs barking ) paul schurke came up to ely decades ago and runs a dog sledding business. >> we've kept our own little notes on operating a season since we started here 40 years ago, and we've seen our dogs at operating season diminish by something in the order of 20%. in our first several years, we were able to consistently... our fir decade, we consistently dog sledded for about 116, 120 days of winter. now, maybe just over 90 if we're

lucky. >> reporter: losing a month or more is disaster for a four- month seasonal business. many of the state's dog sledders are concentrated around ely. schurke estimates, if they all gsso under, it'll be a f $1.5 million a year to the area economy, and that's a lot for a ommunity that cat survive on summer tourism alone. >> for those of us who've been here now for some decades and whose businesses have been dependent on it, 've got a microscopic view of what's going deaown because wewith daily. >> reporter: the wintry beauty is something to see, but the scientists agree winter in minnesota is under siege. >> the summertime temperature is going up, but mostly because it's going up at night. tit's not going up during day. whoken we lot winter, the dntertime temperature is going up bh during t and especiay at night. and winter in general is warming about ten times faster an summer in minnesota over the

last five decades or so. reporter: he says it amounts to a warming of about one degree per decade, and that contributes to milder winters. but what about the recent polar vortex of 2019? blumfield says we used to get a lot more of them, and they stuck around for weeks. > the fact that it h been 23 years since one likis happened is probably really strong evidence that the climate has changed and is changing. >> we're seeing this sort of as environmental distress or an emotional anxiety. >> reporter: researchers are looking at how people are responding to climate change. in duluth, cross country skiers are often challenged with less snow. >> one cative adaptation we've seen people do is turning to winter hiking, turning to fat- tire bicycle riding. 'sheat-tire bike tracks all over the place here where people are getting out on a bike.

>> reporter: berry says, with the changes, there also comes a new anxiety-- loss of identity and even livelihood. g barks ) ter mcclelland finished 7th in the beargrease. now, it's ck to work, giving people a taste of winter's magic. but he says, somyears, it's been a scramble. >> one of the problems with this whole climate change in toyourism: when get a good winter, it's off everyone's radar screen. and then, we'll have two or three marginal winters in a row, and it's all anyone's talking about. >> reporter: mcclelland loves what he does for a living. you have to since there's little money in it. but it's a passion he knows he won't be able to pass on to his kids. >> i'd love to be able to do that, but, you ow, we are goi tngkeep having wiers. so... but are we going to have enough weeks of winter that you can have a business that's viable? >> sreenivasan: to watch our

interview with the nature conservancy's joe fargione about the impact of climate change on the mississippi river, visit www.facebook.com/newshour. >> sreenivasan: we continue our series, "further down the mississippi," where, this past may, the river crested in davenport, iowa, at record levels, overtopping flood walls and inundating parts of downt davenport, the largest of the quad cities with about 100,000 people, is no stran flooding. the latest round has re-ignited the detybate about how this the largest on the mississippi without a permanent flood wall or leveeystem, should protect itself from future rising waters. newshour weeke's christopher oker has the story. >> reporter: front irreet brewery opened its doors in 1992. >> did you like the "raging river"? >> reporter: a year later, it introduced its raging river i.p.a., a fermented reminder of the historic dwestern floods of 1993. but tonight, this beer is being poured in recognition of a more recent battle with the miissippi river. >> inside the main floor of the restaurant building, we had

about 18 inches to two feet of water. >> reporter: so, in here, there was two feet? y h, where we're sitting rit now, there was about two feet of water. >> reporter: front street's co-owner, tim bawin, says the water came in, in a matter of minutes when a section of the temporary flood wall assembled to hold back a swollen mississippi river slipped. the exact moment in late april was captured on a security mera. >> we ran, of course, got some things we... we deemed important. and by the time we were done rounding all that up, we found oursees in the back of our bulding, in our parking lot, standing in nearly crotch-deep water. >> reporter: it was that fast? >> it was... it was that fast, ye. reporter: by the time the mississippi crested a few days aftee r each, the river in davenport was 22.7 feet, the highevest leve recorded and more than four feet above what is consideremathe level of a r flood. and front street brewery and more esthan 30 other businen downtown davenport were directly affected. u thinking, "it's done"? "the restaurant's finished?" >> no, i didn't think that the

restaurant was finished because, you know, we know the history of this place, and we know that, in 1993, the exact same thing happen. so, it was, you know, "okay, we'll ju tomorrow."eal with it >> reporter: flooding has always been a part of davenport, but thngs have changed. of the city's 15 largest floods, seven have been since 2008. the increased frequency of , including this spring' breach, has re-ignited a debate about how davenport should protect itself from the river. >> there are peoplimmediately when it happened said, "put up a wall." >> reporter: frank klipsch is the mayor of davenport. >> we've had a lon iterm positionthe community that we want to embrace the and not try to fight it. >> reporter: davenport is the largest city on the mississippi without a permanent flood wall or levee system. rather than build a permanent barrier, the city invested in a temporary floodwall built from metal mesh containers filled with sand, called hescos. the city has also expanded green space by buying out low-lying properties, creating a buffer

zone that is designed to flood and hold water as the river rises. mayor klipsch says it's a model that has served davenport well. he>>you have a record flood, it challenges you. and now, it's a matter of trying to work through that., nd how do fact, contin better job dealing with that temporary nature, but embracing the river overal >> reporter: in july, mayor klipsch formed a task force to study how the city should update its flood plan. it had representatives from federal agencies, including the army corps engineers and the national oceanic and atmospheric administration, p officials and business owners, including tim baldwin. le this is davenport's pr >> reporter: yeah. >> this is bettendorf's problem. their problem is mitigated with that wall. >> rarporter: driving ound the region, baldwin showed me what some of davenport's options may be. >> you think about where our business is located on the river, this would be our view. >> reporter: the town of bettendorf sits right next to davenport. it completed this permanent levee in 1987. it's estimated that a similar wall in davenport, which is a

much bigger city, would cost at least $175 million. but, regardless of the cost, baldwin doesn't want to see one in davenport. >> i certainly wouldn't want my customers to climb up on a levee to... to be able to take advantage of the... of the river views. so, sitting behind a wall like thisust doesn't have the same appeal. >> reporter: but davenport will have to do something, especially if it wants to protect s low-lying downtown. and it's not alone. incread flooding is an issue that communities up and down the mississippi are dealing with. c climange contributing to an increased number of floods? >> absolutely. >> reporter: definitively? >> definitively. >> reporter: larry weber is an en tneering professor university of iowa and the co-founder of the iowa fl center. it's an academic center created to help the state prepare and protect itself from floods. >> we get a lot of rainfall in iowa. as climate change has impacted our weather in iowa, we don't get the right amount at the ght time as much anymore.

you know, we have this intensification of rainfall. you know, it's the rainfall event where we had eight inches of rain, and then we get another six-inch rain, and then another ten-inch ra, and th no rain for several weeks or months. >> reporter: so, flood, drought, flood, flood, drought. >> yeah, yeah, that's right. >> reporter: he says the increase s been noticeable for iowans over the last quarter century. >> in 1993, the general sense amongst many people throughout te mississippi river was, we had just experienc flood of a lifetime. you know, we experienced the "500-year flood." and so, we wouldn't expect to see an event >>ke that again. eporter: lo and behold, though, we've seen many more 500-year floods. >> yeah. in 2008, people were surprised when the iowa and cedar river basins flooded again at levels that were equal to or much greater than 1993. >> reporter: in june of 2008, iowa experienced the largest natural disaster in its history when the cedar river flooded cedar rapids, causing an

$5estimated billion in damages. more than 11 years later, the city is still recovering as it aimplements550 million flood protection plan. funded with federal, state, city and private money, the plan includes levees, walls and entire neighborhoods that were reught out and returned to space. the cost and timeline of cedar rapids' revery is not lost on officials in davenport. >> it takes thatong to plan, and it takes that long to get the prop funding in place. so, it's not a... a quk proposition, unfortunately. >> reporter: nicole gleason is davenport's director public works. she's responsible for implementing the city's flood plan, including the acement of temporary barriers. is it possible to balance these two ideas, the idea that you want to have an accessible riverfront and you also want to have a dry davenport? >> i think it is, but i think that it's going to have to be a balance of figuring out critical infrastructure, critical assets and maybe looking at protecting those scifically; and then lheooking at ways to turn those areas that are more

difficult to protect or don't make as much sense and to protect into more... more parkland, more wetlands, things like that. >> reporter: but figuring out how to balance protecting different parts of davenport's nine-mile riverfront, and who shod bear the cost, could be a contentious process with so many stakeholders. >> y srt this battle between downtown business owners or thosvee that livalong the and the rest of the taxpayers in the city of daveort saying, "yous 're the dummat built down there, or operate businesses down there, or live down there, why should wpay for this and on the surface, you know, that's probably a natural reaction, and probably with some accuracy there. but, yoknow, what people don't think about is that this flood mitigation is a problem for the entire city. >> reporter: and baldwin concedes that permanent flood protection for davenport might mean retreating from the river. >> you know, if... if the city "and fema came in and saiis is what we need to do," we wouldn't have had a lot of pushbk. >> reporter: if they said, "we need to buy your buildings and tear them down"? >> to tear them down. i mean, certainly, we'd want to

be compensated appropriately, but, no, we wouldn't he pushed back on that because it seemed to be the right thing to do. there's other places we can operate from, right? >> reporter: but, for now, this pub remains on the riverfront, celebrating a grand-reopening sesven months after it flooded. ( gavel bangs ) >> i would like to call this special city council meeting... >>ea reporter: mhile, frank klipsch's term as mayor just ended, but he says that the city's flood task force has identified several short-term iorities, includin commissioning a comprehensive engineering study. hasth this changed the wa you think about climate change? >> i think the reality of it is there's still... i have found there's some people that want no talk of... of how it's happening, but everyone can understanthere's a new normal now, and we've got to deal with it. >> s reporter: and officite that this past fall was wetter thaa n 2018, nood sign for keeping davenport dry this year as the winter snow melts and the spring rains come. >> this is pbs newshour weekend,

saturday. sreenivasan: the end of the year is traditionally a time for charitable donations. in france, organirs of a arity raffle hope the possibility of winning an original picasso will rai millions for clean drinking water projects in africa. the frencnnon-profit orization "help the others" is selling up to 200,000 tickets for a chance to win this 1921 picasso still life. a 100-euro ticket-- about $110-- is all it will take to claim the painting, valued at more an million. >> the idea was to have a raffle because everyone all over the world could participate, and we wanted to get money from everybody to raise money for a good cause. so, i thought of a painting, and, obviously, picasso is the most famous artist ever, so i thought picasso could be a good

choice. >> srn eenivasan:splay in the paris picasso museum, the abstract oil on canvas shows abl newspapers and a glass of absinthe. the smsall painting measu about 12x18 inches. >> ( translated ):frnature morte, 1921, is not a painting with a groundbreaking formatic, but it's mecause it's a painting of synthesis. have all this picas genius revealed in a very small size. >> sreenivasan: this year's picasso comes from the collection of a mona billionaire. in a 2013 picasso raffle, the group raisedthan $4 million for charity. >> you don't find a lot of paintings of picasso at ons. million euro it's quite rare. usually, the prices are much higher. >> sreenivasan: the raffle proceeds will go to th international charity "care" for a project providing clean water and sanitation facilities to schools and villages in cameroon, madagascar and morocco. the winner will be announced in paris on monday, january 6.

> w> sreenivasall have more on the impact of the changing climate on states along the mississippi river tomorrow. as part of our special series, 'll look at changes in shipng traffic and the environmental threats from increased flooding. that's all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching. have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access groupt wgbh access.wgbh.org >nd> pbs newshour wees made possible by: .bernard and irene schwar d edgar wachenheim iii.

the cheryl andhilip milstein family. rosalind p. walter barbara hope zuckerberro charles nblum. we try to live in the mont, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can lp you make the most of today. mutual of americfinancial group, retirement services and ionvestments. addl support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. you're watching pbs.

dieg i consider myself chronologist on the absurdity of human nature, their passions and their anguish. cara: perfect, you guys. what comes through in my photographs is that native americans are still very much alive in modern times. wendy: my being deaf was probably the first identity that i was aware of, and then being japanese american. delphine: 120,000 ethnic japanese were sent to camps. the objects they made reflected their unwillingness to give upnd give in. a cristina: i'm gurative sculptor. my puerto rican identity is at the core of how i uand the world. [music playing]