b captioning sponsored newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: the u.s. now believes an iranian missile brought down a ukraine-bound passenger jet, killing all on board. then, balance of power. as the u.s. and iran de-escalate tensions, house democrats move to restrict the president's ability to call military strikes. and, rollback. the white house plans to abandon a major envirol protection policy. and, recipe for success. how las vegas's culinary workers union is serving as a model for organized labor across the country. >> people are tired of the income inequality. they're tired of wage stagnation.th see wall street doing very

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>> woodruff: the evidence is mounting tonight that an iranian missile knocked a paenger airliner out of th sky near tehran. iran denies it, but the united states and several othegovernments say it is highly likely. foreign affairs correspondent nick schifrin begins with this report. and a warning-- some of the scenes in this story could be disturbing to some viewers. >> schifrin: there were no survivors. 176 lives lost, leaving behind only family photo scrapbooks, charred shoes, the remnants of a plane wing. and now, western officials say the ukrainian passenger jet that went down, was shot down. at 6:12 a.m. local on ursday, the flight took off from tehran's international airport, bound for kiev. after two minutes, it reached about 7,300 feet, and contact was lost. nce officials and a senior administration official tell pbs newshour, the u.s. assesses iran fired this russian-made missile defense

itstem, mistaking the passenger jet for a u.s. my jet. five hours before, at .m. local, iran's military launched morehan a dozen ballistic missiles at u.s. forces in iraq. u.s. intelligence officials assess, after this attran was on high alert, fearing u.s. aircraft cld attack inside iran. u.s. officials say their assessment that iran shot down the plane is based on photos, rar data, ansatellite information, including infrared detection of the missile launch. more than 60 passengers were adcanadian, and today, cann prime minister justin treadeau blamed iran. >> we have intelligence from multiple sources, including our allies and our own intelligence. the evidence indicates that plane was shot down by an iranian surface to air missile this may well have been

uninntiona >> schifrin: president trump hinted it was iran, but emphasized the human toll. it's a tragic thing. it's a tragic thing. but somebody could have made aon mistakhe other side. could have made a mistake. >> schifrin: iran's civilav iation authority today deniedsa the accusationng it was "physically impossible" for a missile to have hit the plane. but tonight, video emerged of what appears to be a missile hitting a plane. and other videos show the plane going down, and the impact o cauga cctv camera. today, ukrainian prime minister volodomyr zelensky did not blame iran, but called for an international investigation. ou ( translated ): uedly, the priority for ukraine is to identify the causes of the plane crash. we will surely find out the truth. >> woodruff: and nick joins me now, along with our aviation correspondent, miles'brien. .e is in florida. hello to both of y so, nick, you have been talking to experts all day long. what are they saying about how

this could have happened? >> so there are questions about the system that iran was using and questions about user eror. so first the system, judy. the u.s. intelligence assessment is that this was an old russian short-range missile defeale systemd tour sa15. the hardware on that system is considered relatively reliable but the computer software is not as sophisticated and if that software -- that ito not abut targeting but it's about knowing which plane is in the sky. so tke experts i spoo, and they are just experts, they're outside the government, expts i spoke to said maybe the software couldn't det which kind of plane it was and that's where you get user error, the ti ome theperator of the system had to decide what too was seconds. the operator sitting there just hours after that major iranian attack on u.s. bases in iraq, fearing thathere could be u.s. military jets in the sky, andis s the fndamental nature of conflict, judy, that miscalculations could happen, and it's happened, by the way,

to the u.s. 1988 u.s. iran tanker wa, the warship was skirmishing with iraniana bots in the gulf when it entered iranian waters when it thought it discovered an iranian military yet coming toward the ship, that was actually a civilian jet, and it didn't quite know what it was. d fired. 290 people diein that mistake that the u.s. has made in the past. >> woodruff: so miles from a civilian aviation perspective, what are the questions that are being asked tonight about this? >> well, i think an important question, judy, is iran was onhi alert in the wake of the missile attack in iraq. a prudent thing to do would have been to make it azo no-flne for civilian airliners, at least in the afermath of that.

atu have a system as old, already, we don't know how maintainedt was, how the software was working or what it was doing, we don't know how well trained e crew was, but we do know they were on hair trigger alert. that civilian aircraft has a transponder and would have informationruci on what it was and what it was not, but the civilian system and the military system, wherever you go in thworld, is not well integrated and, on a good day, that could cause trouble. this was not a good day. this was a very bad day. >> no question. so, nick, what is iran saying, what are they doing about all >> s we reported, iran has ais? denied this accusation coming out of the u.s. intelligence officials, the head of the civil aviation organization called them illogical rumors. they have been prviding details. they said other civilian airliners were in the air at the same time and that the plane didn't go down middle east, that

it was hit, some kind of mechanical failure, aied to go back to the airport. iran said it was willing t work with the ukrainian authorities but is not willing to hand overe black to u.s. officials. >> woodruff: that raises the question, miles. help us understand why the blacn boxes matternderstanding how something like this could have happened. >> well, the objective dta in those black boxes would be able to settle that alleged dispute here. the iranians are saying it was impossible for them to shoot it down. that's patently not true. this aircraft was 4, feet above the ground, 7,000 feet above sea level, well within range of surface-to-air missiles. that's wrong on the face of it. the black boxes will settle itca e thet data in there will be able to explain it. there might be cockpit voice recordings that might be crual and that's whytt's import the boxes end up in some sort of objective hands so the world caa maassessment. >> woodruff: i want to just come back to you on the question of "no fy" zone, may you nick

and miles because people were asking why were passenger planes, civilian aircraft were still flag a place where basically there was war? >> it's a very good question miles raises. we know u.s. officials were saying avoid the airspace and saying that in the days leading up to this accident, and we believe this was an acct ident, n't know why iran hadn't decided why not creating a "no fly" zone and, obviously, as miles was saying, it would have been a prudent effort and it obviously would have saved a lot of >> woodruff: and, miles, do i hear you saying, if irdan ha done that, civilian aircraft wouldn have been flyin >> correct. look what happened in the united states after 9/1 4,500 aircraft were put on the ground in short order. there was a "no fly" zone. it is a prunted thing to do in situation where everybody is on hair trigger alert. that didn't happen in this case, and the fog of war took over.

>> woouff: just such a tragedy. such a tragedy. miles o'brien, nick schifrin, thank you both. >> thank you. >> woodruff: ihas been just a week since president trump ordered a drone strike that killed iranian general qassem soleimani. that has led congress to reexamine the president's authority ordering military attacks. our own lisa desjardins is here now, to breadown what actions congress is taking to address the president's war powers, and what we know about upcoming impeachment in the senate. and, so, lisa, welcome. so the house is voting tonight on whether to limit thet' presidability to take military action against iraq.ll s, what exactly does this measure do and how much teeth does it hav >> this is not a large resolution, it's only over four pages long, but it is powerful.

the house here is asserting its war powers andg vot limit, in its wording, the engagement of hoslities in or against iran. what ts revolution would do is say the president cannot engauge with iesan unls two things happen -- one, there is a declation of w by kong or, two, there's an imminent threat. both of those are in this. one question about this, judy, it's a cocurrent resolution, a special resution that the president doesn't sign. it only has teeth if the senate also passes a concurrent atresolution. not the current plan in the senate now. those who think the president needs limit on engagement with iran are going to a differe route and going to propose a normal resolution the president would have to sign that would limit his powers, that's because it would get a fast track in the seofte. that kinesolution has abeasier vote. we expect that kind of vote as soon as next week in the senate. but the point is both chambers

are moving now in discussing and debating the president's war powers. >> woodruff: this raises the larger question about the role of kong in any military deployment, u.s. militarys deployment oves. remind us again, what did president trump say about his justification for doing this on his own without kong? >> that's right. tnick schifrin reported e night of this strike what we are departmentm the of defense. since then the administration told congress as well that it has two justifications. one being the articles ofower from the president to the constitution as commander-in-chief, his por to protect u.s. forces from imminent threat.h the er the 2002 authorization of military force, famed we say a.m.f., that was about saddam hussein, talking about seidam hu having protected members of al quaida leading up to 9/1 so it was primarily about saddam hussein. the argument is this happened on

iraq's territory, even though it was a strike at an official from iran who has been labeled a terrorist. >> woodruff: so that's the president's justification. what's the thinkg in congress about that? >> there is a very hot debate. there is concerns about both sides congress let presidents, not just this one, but many in a row not go too far and not express its n oversight of war powers, but right now there is a divide whether this justification is legal let's hear frm a leading republican and democrates cially on this issue especially the 2002aumf. >> obviously, there's clear legal authority in the a.u.m.f.a goin to 2002, where the prident has the ability to take action against terrorists in iraq. president obama used that authority, which we supported. president trump used that authority to take ousoleimani. >> that authorization never intended to even-- as bad as it was thven that there were no weapons of mass destruction-- never authorized the use of force against any country, any hostile country, or any country that was based or had personnel

or officials or a presence in iran, or any other country. >> so that's a debate over the authorization of military forces.p thatlies here. but judy, i want to point out important reporting about the ea of eminence and article 2 powers. the two sides differ on this, republicans do think there was an imminent threacoming, they feel very confident about that. but, judy, here's the thing, ilk to republicans and democrats yesterday who were briefed, they told me that evidence is publicly available evidence. 's the idea that soleimani and those who backed him ad those who directed had been increasingly hostile to america that there was a trend leading to certainty by some, ae dbate by others, that he was going to act again. it wasn't necessarily a special kind of attack or tification, it was what we had been doing in public that the president is arguing led to an imminent threat. >> woodruff: so that's one

larger ques >> yeah. >> woodruff: the even bigger question is u.s. engagemen overseas going back many years. give us some of the historical context. >> that's right. i think we really see, and everyone agrees, as i sa, that congress has been creeing more and more -- ceding more and more power to presidents part ofow this is designed. the constitution says congress can declare war.we r, the president as the commander-in-chief has used morw broad s, and when congress is divided, as we've seen so n't been able to limit it. first let's talk about some conflicts that hven't been congressly approved namely the korean war and vietnam war. what has been been approved, world wars one and world war ii, the gulf war in 1991 led by president george h.w. bush, the response to terror in 2001 and 2002. but the 9/11 and terror approval has ben whstretched since then to apply to all those

conflicts, yermen, syia, niger, all around the world, and this is something that both parties have a real questiono abut, whether that authorizatio nee to end and perhaps a new one xegin or somehow congress fle power. >> woodruff: so much to think about there. finally, lisa, and just quickly, aside from all this, there is the question of an impeachment trial in the senate. remind us quickly where that stands. >> sen mcconnell does not have any special information but did tell ateublicans today, his sen republicans that they should be ready for trial to begin as soon as next week. we are waiting to see house speaker pelosi transmit those articles as well as th name of her managers. soe id today she will probably do thaton, so we don't have anything on that timing. i do think it won't be this weekend, but we -- next week, everyone should be ready.o >> woodruff:king like next week. >> it could be. it's up to speaker pelosi but that's what mitch mcconnellpu

told senate icans they need to be ready for. >> woodruff: lisa desjardins, thank you. >> you're welcome. f: >> woodrn the day's other news, there was new talk of retaliation from iran over the u.s. kling of general qassem soleiman president hassan rouhani warned of a "very dangerous response" if the u.s. strikes again. a top revolutionary guard commander said that the retaliation did no mend with iransile attacks on bases housing u.s. troops in iraq. >> ( translated ): this slap by iran was actually a signal for another operation. next actions must be tak by resistance cells in the region and those actions will be taken. >> woodruff: meanwhile, president trump said ts no need for further u.s. action. but, he suggested he could order new strikes if circumstances change, and he said, "i wouldn't even mind doing it." in britain, the house of commons

gave finalpproval today to leaving the european union on january 31. that followed the sweeping victory by prime minister boris johnson and his ruling conservatives in last month's elections. the bill becomes law once the house of lords gives its pro forma consent. officials in southeastern australia have ordered new evacuations before a new round of high winds and extreme heat. temperatures cou top 110 grees tomorrow. in new south wales, firefightere haeen using controlled burns this week inopes of denying el for the approaching flames. the fires have killed 27 people so far. back in this country, the trump administration proposed a major overhaul of environmental assessments for a wide range of projects. it would eliminate or limit reviews for oil pipelines, some roads and other construction. presidentrump and transportation secretary elainet chao said, too, crucial

work is hampered by red tape. >> we all care abouthe environment. what we're talking about are cumbersome, unnecessary, overly burdensome, duplative and outdated regulations. many of these regulations have not been updated, modernized, in decades. >> woodruff: we will look at the details of the proposal, laterro in theam. white house officials said today that construction on a southern border wall will nowesume. a federal appeals court on wednesday allowed the use of $3.6 billion in military construction funds to pay for wall sections. separately, migrant detentions at the border fell again in december to 40,600. that is down from 144,000 last may.ce ok has reaffirmed today that it will not ban or fact- check political ads.

the social media giant said it will add so-called "transparency features," to give users slightly more control over how many political ads they see. in contrast, googlmihas imposed on political ads, and twitter has banned them tright. and, wall street rallied again on hopes that the risk of war between iran and the u.s. is easing. the dow jones industrial averag gained 211 poi close near 28,957. thnasdaq rose 74 points, a the s&p 500 added 21. still to come on the newshour: why this weekend's elections in taiwan aren't just about the future of the island. the environmental implications of a major white house policy shift. "making sense" of the success of las vegas's powerful culinary workers union. and, much more.

>> woodruff: voters in taiwan elect their next president on saturday. for decades, the island's status has been a contentious issue between the united states and mainland china. the communist government inns beijing ers taiwan a breakaway province, that needs to ultimately come under their control. the united states considers the island a real democracy, and has pledged to defend itst a mainland attack. the results el the upcoming tion could determine the fate of taiwan, and have a major impactn u.s.-china relations. gos newshour special correspondent divylan has the story. ( crowd's channg ) >> reporter: chanting victwey, the crowd omes taiwanese president tsai ing wen in one of her last rallies before voters go to the polls, in a campaign

dominated by two political parties, one vying for closer ties with the unit states, and the other with china >> ( translated ): safeguardingu autonomy and democracy is what i've been doing during the past four years. ( cheers andpplause ) >> reporter: pulling away from china, taiwan's powerful neighbor and biggest trading partr, has been the cornerstone of the president's campaign. >> ( translated ): let's expand our tourist base in taiwan, so we won't have to rely too much on visitors from china. >> reporter: tsai's stance has infuriated beijing. >> ( translated ): i think she's courageous, and that she's been a president with a roadmap for taiwan's future. >> ( translated ): do you taiwanese want to be ruled byin impossible.ep >> rter: china has never had sovereignty over the island, which was a japanese colony19 unti. yet, beijing keeps calling for its reunification-- a suggestiod

tsai and hocratic progressive party have flatly rejected.e' tha real festive atmosphere here. it's hard to believe that less than a year ago, many people had written off tsai ing wen's chances of winning a second term. and that's mainly due to her administration pushing through unpopular social and labour reforms. but in the past few months, several events outside of taiwan, like the u.sa trade war and the hong kong protests, have boosted her populari. the prospect of another tsai term does not sit well in beijing, which has attempted to exert control by both trying to lu taiwan with economic incentives, and threats of invasion and isolation. under tsai's tenure, seven countries have given in to pressure from beijing and broken diplomatic ties with taiwan, leaving only 15 nations still recognizing the government of taipei. even the united states does not have full diplomatic relations with taiwan.

yet washington is taipei's most important ally, due to a long-standing agreem help defend the nation from attack or invasion. last year, washington passed multiple bills to enhance relations and approved $2.2 billion in arm sales. aligning with taiwan is a strategic way for washington to counter china's growing nefluence in the region. >> we view the c threat as real. they have been gearing up their military preparations against taiwan.ha yo seen the military exercises along the taiwan strait, not just airforce but also their navy. >> repter: joseph wu is taiwan's foreign minister. >> the chine also build up their missile capabilities, and they are very threatening. and we understand at the chinese also have that ambition to take taiwan over, and wneed to be prepared for that. >> repter: minister joseph wu says there is also concern that china is trying to intervene in these elections. >> the chinese are using modern

technology, going through twitter, facebook or a messaging service called line. they try to infiltrate these platforms by creating false information, to make the public believe the current government is not trustworthy. >> reporter: social media platforms are a key battleground with an estimated 90% of taiwan's population active online. the government rently passed a law against political interference and foreign infiltration.gg while companies like google and facebook have agreed ps police their platforms, civil society grave also joined the race to expose misinformation. billion e co-founded the non-profit open source site, cofacts. questionable information is highlighted by volunteers around the world. enshe says their site has awash in misinformation about the president, the posts mostlyr inating from china. she points out one of many, trying to discredit tsai ing wen's doctorate from the london

school of economics. >> "she is a president without a ph.d. she has no persolity. she cannot become a leader. shame on the country. please forward this on to your friends." >> reporter: china's preferred candidatis han kuo yu. he's been described as taiwan's donald trump. >> ( translated ): the taiwanese people are no longer happy. 23 million people in taiwan now all feel heavy and suffocated. we are confused about our future. young people are left behind by the international community, and the world has gradually forgotten about us. >> reporter: the 62-year-old blames the ruling party for deteriorating relations with beijing, and describes himself as the president for the common people. >> he is trying to bring all the poor people to upgrade their livi standard. >> ( translated ): china has become a super-power now. if we can help each other, we

will both rise up. >> reporter: han represents the opposition kuomintang party, hich favors closer ties w beijing, arguing that it would bring more economic benefit and security for taiwan-- a view supported by much of the older generation. >> on average, there seems to be a pretty big generation gap. why do you think that is? >> reporter: shelley rigger is a visiting scholar at the national taiwan university. she has been holding focus groups as part of her research on the political attitudes of taiwanese yout >> ieel that a lot of old people feel that it's important to focus on the economy more than identity. >> reporter: all in their early 20s, the partipants are students or research assistants at the university.el >> what u.s.ionship really gives taiwanese people is a new hope for rejoining the global society. that's something exciting forhe us, especiallyounger generation.

>> reporter: topics covered include international relations, identity issues, and the hong kong protests which has impacted the elections. >> we have this kind of connection with those protestors, not only emotionally but also practically. >> reporter: hong kong has been rocked by more than seven months of protests. the demonstrators are calling for more democracy, and less interference from beijing in hongong's affair the city operates under china's one-country-two-systems model,be whicing is touting as example for taiwan if it comese nyder chinntrol. >> it motivated riginally apathetic young people to vote. we see the videos from the hong kong protest, the police brutality, so that makes usd think, "wo want this kind of lifestyle, if possibly we are invaded by china?" >> reporter: tsai ing wen has

been vocal in her support for the demonstrators, and tain has be dozens who have fled hong kong fearing arrest-- like this 20-year-old former student who wantedo remain anonymous. he arrived just before the new year. >> ( translated ): i think of suice sometimes. the other protestors with me were arrested, one by one. it is very painful, torture for me. >> reporter: the upcoming elections are adding to his anxiety. >> ( translated ): if the opposition wins the elections, they are like the pro-china politicians in hong kong. i would probably have to go back to hong kong >> reporter: also adding to china's ire was the taiwaneseve goments' move to capitalize on the u.s.-china trade war. syaru shirley lin is a professor at the university of virginia, and the author of the book, "taiwan's china dilemma." >> in recent years, with the u.s.-china trade war, what it's done is accelerate some of thect

manuers' move because of policy incentives, to leave china and move back to taiwan. >> reporter: and a different kind of trade war has been brewing in taipei's bubble tea shops. coumers of taiwan's favori drink frustrated by china's ownersp claims, and those sympathetic to the hong kong protestors, are boycotting outlets seen as pandering to china. r ( translated ): some companies label thands taiwan, china to market their bubble teas in china, implying .at taiwan is part of chi so we avoid those outlets as a political stance.sl >> ( tred ): i don't normally boycott the shops, but whenever possible, i chooseho bubble tea which have shown they support the hong kong protests. >> reporter: china's growing might and american interest in expanding influence in the region have left those on the island voting not just for their future, but also casting ballots for the interests of the world's two most powerful countries. for the pbs newshour, i'm divya gopalan in taipei.

>> woodruff: as we reported, the trump administration wants to roll back part of a bedrock environmental law to make it easier to build rtainfr tructure projects, like roads, mines and pipelines.am as wilrangham reports, industry has long pushed forto these changeeduce what they argue are endless delays. albut environmental groups this proposal a betrayal of the law's original intent. >> brangham: environmental reviews can seem arcane to many, but they can also be quite consequential. perhaps thmost famous case in recer years was the fight ove the keystone xl pipeline. that battle has dragged out for years and those environmental reviews were a crucial part of the debate. now, the trump administration is proposing to overhaul t 50-year-old law that requires those reviews.

it's known as nepa, the national environmental policy act. some of the biggest proposed changes would include: exempting smaller projects from these reviews at all. projects that don't use significant federal money would also be expt. limiting the length of many reviews to just two years. and allowing agencies to ignore the cumulative impact of proposed projects, which could include a project's potential contribution to climate change. amy harder covers energy and climate for axios, and she joins me now. welcome back to the "newshour". >> thanks for having m >> reporter: so before we get to the administration's proposed changes,an you just remind us this law was signed 50-something years ago by richard nixon. what's the intent, the original intent of the law? >> well, this was signed in ation ofong with the cre the environmental protection agency itself by president nixon, and the purpose of it is to make sure that everything that the governmena hand

in is good to the en so whether it's a road or ar bridge oil pipeline, tre needs to be an environmental review on that, ad that's why both backerand detractors in this law say it ois onef the most let gated laws in america. >> reporter: foar 50 yers, this law has been in place, and if you want to build a bridge, dig a mine, you have to somehow prove on paper h te's whe impact of my project would be? >> right. they're cantled environ impact statements, and if you are following the keystone xl fight closely, as i was for the last decade, you would know that that fight was aout the e.i.s. and supplemental e.i.s.s and supplemental e.i.s.s, the were multiple of those written, and that's the argument trump and others cited for why this law needs to be overhauled. >> reporter: as you were saying, the trump administration comes along and it's been hearing thethse complaintt you're saying causes endless

delays, paperwork, it's sort of gumming up the works. ohat are they proposing change >> well, um, as you said, initially, one of the biggest tanges iso exempt certain projects, the ones that don't require a lot of government funding. now, experts and others ar still going through the weeds of what this proposal would mean, l but that coukely mean that things like the keystone pipeline might not be subject to environment or reviews at all. >> reporter: because no federal role or money beyond permitting it. >> right cause keystone was am private ny, all they needed was governmental approval. so that couldbe a change for oil and gas pliens across the country and other eergy projects. i should emphasize with the nnouncement today the president and others did nocus on oil and gas at all, they focused on other things that i think people care more about, frankly, like highways and schools and things like that that pealople e and notice perhaps more than other pipelines.

repter: one of the changes i notice, they're also saying that reviews don't have to necessarily look at the long-term, downstream consequences of a project, ut aing if i want to bridge across a wetland or a sas,line across parts of ka i'm just looking at what that pipeline would do to the literal nearby territory, not what it might mean five years down the aoad or what it might mean for community in the next county over. is that right? >> correct. so administration offireals today areful to say that the words climate change actually aren't in the proposal at all, and that's correct. but courts have traditionally interpreted cumulative effects to include climate change. so by exc cludiulative reviews, they're essentially excluding climate change. however, that doesn't preclude companies from goingbove and beyond and doing consideration of climate change, and i think perhaps some companies will, but at lot of the smaller companies or those who nk they don't need to, they won't, and, of hourse, the government won't be there to tellm to do that.

>> reporterand we've seen environmental groups across the board up and down, large and small, decry these proposed changes. what's their principle concern with all this? >> i think there's a ce ou them. the first about the fact this could exempt from entir environment review, things like pliens would be significant. fighting pliens across the country have been a key environmental thectic since middle of the obama administration, and, so, while trump and other people today did not focus on pipelines, that could tually be a big impact to this law and could lave environmentalists and others hamstrung in terms of what they could fight. the other is the actual consideration of climate change. i think some worry if you don't consider climate change, will you build a pipelre flooding happens regularly? and i think, again, that responsibility will fall into the burden of the corporation pushing the project, and wil the corporation do it? i think self-gulation is, ofco se, a very controversial

thing that has not proven out s welle past. >> reporter: is there a way you can help us fact check thei concerns thadustry has said all along that this law really does gum up the works? the adinistration pointed today to the example of a bridge, i believe it was, in north carona that theygued took 20 years to build. is it true this law really does get in the way of major projects >> i think with a lot of things, it depends, right? so i think in somea cs, yes, definitely, this law has been on the books for 50 years, there's been really, i think, other than a 1986 change, there hasn't been a lot of reforor reexamination of it, so i do think the administration is very much in the right to say that there have been examples and where burecracy has run ok. does that mean you do away with the entire law and make it sooj ts that don't get government funding should haven't to be reviewed? i think critics would say that would be go way too far. bui think at lot of things in

washtgton, middle ground is where things end up. you do exreme one way or the other and i thiwenk today're seeing the pendulum of this type of regulation revuiew being swng far more to where industry wants it. >> reporter: so as with all things this is not the final word, these are proposed changes. what happens next? >> the next logistical step is to have public hearings andhen the final regulation before the election. if a democrat wins, you can be t sut this will be swiftly repealed. but longer term, this could invite even maybe more losses. >> reporter: amy harder of .axios, thank you very mu >> thank you. >> woodruff: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: investigative journalist ronan farrow gives his "brief but spectacular" take on

the importance of listening to survivors. the heyday of unionization in the american work force is severadecades old. in fact, unions are still struggling to get more workers to join a union, while many companies remain oosed. but in nevada, there's a case study of a union that has broken through. and this weekend, several democratic presidential candidates will be participating in a town hall with those workers. correspondent paul solman looks what the union has done differently, as pa of our series on economics and business, "making sense." >> reporter: batoom cleaning. kitchen prep. bed making. that's the curriculum at the culinary academy of las vegas, a school run by 32 casino hotels and local 226 of a thriving union, the culinary workers. who learns what here, and why? >> a restaurant busser can who makes $35,000 a year, can take a course to become a waiter and make $60,000 a year, and then

ta another course maybe to become a bartender, sommelier, and make $90,000 a year. d these courses are free. >> reporter: for many years, th"new york times" labor repoer, steven greenhouse, is the auth of "beaten down, worked up: the past, present, and future of american labor." since the 80s,s union membersh in the private sector has plummeted by two-thirds local 226 hare than tripled in its membership, to 60,000, and become a torch for the long-moribund labor movement. >> they're the model that unions should look to for representation and organizing.te >> rep cornell university's kate bronfenbrenner has been studying the union for decades. >> they have the most actively- engaged membership of almost any union in the country. and they do that by involving the membership in everything they do. n >> we' just a union that just sits in a building and collects dues. no, we're not. >> reporter: the union's vice president, leain vasho >> the people who are downtown

at the, at city hall, screaming and yellg about "we want better schools," are culinary members. "we want better water," are culinary members. re,"want better infrastruc culinary members. >> we have a rank-and-file union. we're in on negotiations. >> reporter: debra jeffries has been one of the rank-and-file for 40 years. she got more involved in the mid-'80s when she objected to her casino's insistence thatrs cocktail ser like her wear high heels. >> we did all the research, you know, how many miles we walk a night-- i think it was like eight to 12 miles a night, in an eight-hour shift. we lift anywhere from five to 15-pound trays for eight hours,w had a meeting, and we beat the issue. >> reporter: 30 years later, 95% of las vegas hel/casinos are unionized. as for the remaini 5%... >> the only reason some hotels pay the same thing, is to try to prevent them from becoming union. but they still won't be able to compete with that, because of what we offer. >> reporter: job security. >> job security most of all. >> reporter: vashon is a

bell captain at the paris hotel, one of las vegas' seven faux wonders of the world. as massive protests in the realc paris have rtly shown, however, workers have a lot more heft in the old countries. steve greenhouse was stationed paris for the "times." >> unions in europe are much stronger. in france, for instance, 90% of workers are covered by union contracts, whereas in the united states, only 12% are. >> reporter: and in the private sector, just 6%. the reasons are familiar, fromat globalizion, which invited competition from theow-wage workers of the world, to president ronald reagan, who in 1981 broke the air traffic controllers union that had supported his campaign, firing all its striking members. >> they have forfeited their jobs and will be terminated. >> reporter: but the culinary workers bucked the odds. >> sign, sell, or shut it down. that was o picket sign. >> re,orter: geo arguello-klin

who rose from housekeeper to head of thunion, was active in the frontier hotel strike, which began in 199 and how long d the strike last? >> six years, four months, and ten days. y? reporter: there was a picket line 24 hours a >> 24 hours. >> reporter: seven days a week? >> seven days a week. and nobody cssed the picket line. people stick together, they fought, and when they sold the place, they went back to work. >> reporter: it was the longest strike in u.s. labor history. the union won. years later, the frontier was torn down, and on part of the property, trump international was built. it was non-union when it started... >> when i say "union," you say "power." >> reporter: ...but in 2015, says steve greenhouse... >> the culinary launched a huged unionizationve against the trump hotel, and a majority of the workers voted for a union. yet trump still would not recognize the union. >> i wanted to come by and lend my voice.

>> so hillary clinton even camet and join protest. and finally, trump, facing a presidential campaign, not wanting the whole labor movement against him, sued for peace ther than continue his w against the union. >> reporter: even more striking is the union's success in nevada, a right-to-work state, meaning all workers get whatever benefits a union negotiates,g without need join the union at all. what do you say to a worker who says, "i'm going to e union benefits anyway-- i'm not paying the dues"? >> i say, god bless you. we've still got you. and sooner or later, most of them come around. >> reporter: and why do they come around? >> safety the workplace. seniority. pension. guaranteed work week.te >> rep but above all, says cocktail server debra jeffries? >> we health and welfare, that is phenomenal. we're free of out-of-pocket costs for o medical insurance. >> reporter: health insurance is the main reason why food server tracy gregrich helpelmorganize the casino, newly part of ti-unionnchly stations chain. >> if we have to go to the

emergency room, we have to pay $1,000 out of pocket. when you live paycheck to paycheck, that can take years to pay. >> reporter: workers at the palms, recently renovated to the tune of more than half a billion dollars, havvoted in the union, 84% of them. but the parent company is challenging the vote. >> it's harder and harder to get a contract. it's been a fight. reporter: now, let's no romanticize unions. over the years, many have earnei negative reputations for corruption, especially here whea las vewas built.ic for goldbrking-- shirking on the job. for protecting unneeded workers, a practice known as feather- t dding. but as i learnede culinary academy, you shouldn't romanticize the work here either. now, is one person supposed to do this? >>n six minutes or less. >> repter: and how many beds like this would i have to do in one shift? >> you will have to make sometimes 30 of these beds. >> reporter: and wi t happens if

don't finish in time? >> you're going to get probably a warning, a suspension, and maybe you're going to get terminated. >> reporter: more challenging than the work, though, may be the future of it in the face of technological disruption, even here in the epitome of the service sector. >> every job is under threat from technology. they've got machines that are making drinks now. they've got a machine that willt delivef to the rooms. i'm looking for putting information in every contract that says "when you comep with a new technology, union workers will be involved in it. and you will train them, to he facilitate whatever that's going to be." >> reporter: and in fact, the new contracts do include such provisions. >> the uon reached a landmark contract with caesar's, in which caesar's promised to work with the union to figure out ways to retain workers as much as possible, rather than have them replaced and bulldozed by new technologies. >> reporter: admittedly, this union is not in a decaying city or waning industry, but las vegas is not the only labor success story venue these days.

look at new york, new york. the real one. there's a great union in new york that representsor thousands ofs, and window washers, d doormen, and elevator operators. and recently, they've ded more than 10,000 airport workers. >> reporter: making those who work anew york's modern-day ports of entry a little less tired, and a lot less poor, if not quite as well-heeled as the visitorsho book the ellis island hospitality suite back here in ersatz new york.n. one last quest given its success, why don't more unions copy local 226? cornell's kate bronfenbrenr suspects she knows why. >> it is a lot of work to constantly engage the members, and involved members then want more say in the union. >> reporter: so, involved members are a threat to the union leadership. >> yes. >> reporter: and yet, says steve greenhouse... >> people are tid ofhe income inequality, they're tired of wage stagnation. they see wall street doing vy well, they see corporate profits at record levels.

and we're seeing a ton of people unionize we're seeing adjunct pfessors, we're seeing graduate students, we're seeing nurses. whether that will be enough to turn around the decline is g other question. but there's somethally percolating now. >> reporter: and it's onhe full boi in las vegas-- fantasy land for visitors; the workplace for those who rve them. this is pbs newshoures condent paul solman. >> woodruff: tonight's "brief but spectacular" features journalist ronan farrow. he won a pulitzer prize for his reporting on harvey weinstein, the movie mogul who went on trial for rape this week in new york. here, farrow reflects on his experience listeni to survivors of sexual assault by looking inward. his own sister dylan has aused

their father woody allen of assaulting her when she was a child. farrow's latest book is "catch and kill." >> i get asked a lot how you create a safe space for sources, as an investigative reporter. the answer is, it's really down to the bravery of the sources. you are at the mercy of a person deciding whether tdo an incredibly personal, incredibly difficult thing, and you can rush that. >> my mom taught me integrity. she adopted all these kids with special needs, and i grew up in a family with people the worldle behind. in my siblings, i understood a it's liket about wha to have painful conversations about hard truths. certainly in the case of the weinstein story, i was able to, for instance, call my sister who raised an accusation of sexualsa t in her own life and say, what is that process like? what can i do to emper these sources? as a reporter, you never want to be the story. but sometimes, when you work on

a story for a long time, it inevitably becomes personal. i've worked on a store i lost my job, where my whole future career path changed. reporters get legal threats in this ceyntry. o get a honeypot sent after them, and blackmail efforts, andake sources using false identities. there is a whole uerworld just waiting to bubble up to the surface, of illicit tacticused to shut down reporters. you know, for all the symbolis of hfvey weinstein walking of in cuffs, the reality is that it's an example of a powerful and wealthy person who posted $1 million bail and continued to live comfortably in lavish homes. and there may yet be accountability in that case, but it was yet another illustration of the way in which the criminal justice system is very different, depending on how wealthy and how connected you are in this country. people talk about believing all survivors, and that's never been my philosophy. i don't think we should

automatically believe survivors of sexual violence, but i do think we need to listen to them. , really got to see in my own life how my sisto had a claim of sexual violence against a powerful guy, ran headlong into a machine oprivate investigators, of high paidla ers who are willing to gaslight a child. and i only as an adult, later, realized what survivors are up against. i once was one of those guys proximate to aaioman with a li this, saying, "why don't you just shut up about it? it would be so much easier for you. why are you bringing as grief upon you, upon the family?" and she'say, "you don't understand. this is something i live with every day d i'm being shut down by this system commanded by powerful men." and in the end, i came to realize that she was right. when you look at the high- profile, high-paid lawyers who shielded harvey weinstein through the years and allowed hihim to allegedly continu predation, when you look at the public relatns operatives who have shielded people like harvey

weinstein, bill cosby, woody allen, they're doing something that is incredib damaging to the culte, and directly at odds with any kind of accountability in the criminal justice system. if you are wealthy enough and powerful enough, you can literally wipe away a claim of a serious crime. one of the dynamics you encounter when you report on high-profile people is often, they have a constituency that feels deeply that they don't want their image of this person tarnished. if you allow the value someone creates in other areas to be a shield for criminal activity, you allow something dark to fester, that can then have all sorts of other negative effects for the culture.ou that's why aability and transparency is so important. ty name is ronan farrow, and this is my "brief spectacular" take on interrogating the truth. druff: and you can find

more "brief but spectacular" essays on our website ats. www.g/newshour/brief. on the newshour online right now, legal analystnd newshour regular marcia coyle explores some of the major cases that wi come before the supreme court this year. you can find that on our website, www.pbs.org/nr. and that is the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruf join us online, and again here tomorrow evening. k r all of us at the pbs newshour, thu, and we'lsee you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> fidelity investments. >> american cruise lines. >> bnsf railway. >> consumer cellular. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation supporting science, technology,

and improved economicnc perforand financial literacy in the 21st century. >> and with the ongoing supporte of tnstitutions and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation foro publiccasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc

captioned by media access group at wg access.wgbh.org >> you're watching pbs.

hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour and company." here is what's coming up. >> iran appears to betanding down, which is a good thing for all parties concerned and aery good thi for the world. >> president trump appears to be saying, this rou of military escalation is over. whilepi also sl new sanctions on iran and calling on them to make a new deal. wealk to trump confidant and 2020 campaign official david urban. >> the united states waged an economic war against iran the united states has to come to its senses. >> the view from inside iran and what does all this mean for american foreignoly in the region. speak to a former deputy national security advise