tv PBS News Hour PBS December 13, 2023 6:00pm-7:01pm PST
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wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. the xfinity 10g network. made for streaming. ♪ >> good evening. on the newshour tonight, several israeli soldiers are killed in an ambush in northern gaza. further south, floods add to the suffering in crowded refugee camps.
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delegates at the global climate summit agreed to transition away from fossil fuels, but loopholes remain. and the battle in the skies. drone warfare forces russia and ukraine to shift tactics as the war drags on. >> today and tomorrow is about drones. the outcome of this war depends on how many drones there will be and how they will be used. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- ♪
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>> moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. ♪ >> the walton family foundation, working for solutions to protect water during climate change so people and nature can thrive together. supported by the macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by
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contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> welcome. there was fierce combat between israeli troops and hamas militants today across the gaza strip as the ground operation met heavy resistance. civilians are caught in the middle, with the gaza health ministry saying nearly 19,000 people have been killed since october 7. >> in gaza city, israeli troops engaged in heavy combat. their campaign against hamas raging on even after suffering their heaviest losses in weeks. the idf says nine soldiers were killed yesterday when they were ambushed. the military had said operations in northern gaza almost wiped
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out hamas. benjamin netanyahu said setbacks will not deter him. >> we had a very difficult day. every day we have precious boys who fall, the true heroes of israel. i want to say in the clearest way, we continue to the end. i say this in the great face of pain and international pressure. nothing will stop us. we will get victory. no less. >> it comes as global support is dwindling by the day. >> 153 in favor, 10 against. >> last night, the u.n. general assembly approved a nonbinding resolution demanding immediate humanitarian cease-fire. the u.s. was one of just 10 nations to vote against it. today, we pressed white house officials about the president's comment that indiscriminate bombing was eroding national -- international support. >> after his comments yesterday,
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the israeli foreign minister said israel would continue its war with or without international support. do you have a response to that? >> we will continue to support that. the president said we do not want to see them lose international support for what they are trying to do. >> earlier, biden met with the families of the eight american hostages held in gaza. it was their second meeting. in jerusalem, families of israeli hostages ported to the streets, a human chain demanding the government safely and immediately bring their loved ones home. >> every day that passes by might be the last day of the hostages while they are alive. every day we hear about new names and new hostages who came there alive and now they are taken out as bodies. >> in gaza, residents already scrambling for food and shelter
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are already dealing with heavy rain. in this refugee camp, there was knee-deep water. across gaza, tent cities muddied and wet are now practically uninhabitable. >> i woke up my seven-month-old who was soaking wet. we had just one blanket between all of us. five people with only one blanket. there are no covers, no mattresses, no food, no water to drink. this is the fifth place i had to move to, fleeing from one place to another with nothing but a t-shirt on. >> only adding to the misery of hundreds of thousands of displaced gazans. for weeks, officials have pressed netanyahu to increase humanitarian aid as well as reduce civilian casualties. now president biden is taking that to a new level. what is behind this apparent public rift between biden and netanyahu? >> there are substantive differences between the parties
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and political ones. the president had a prime minister see it quite differently. especially the day after of the ground operation in the gaza's trip. we are looking at the last few weeks of this phase of the crowd operation. -- ground operation. president biden has said hamas will not rule the gaza strip. netanyahu has described an indefinite israeli security in the gaza strip, believing that no other international force would have the wherewithal or would agreed to pay the price to conduct counterinsurgency in the gaza strip. he is probably right in this assessment. there are other differences. the president sees a major role for the palestinian authority that currently controls parts of
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the west bank. entering into the gaza strip as the main palestinian force. they have said that is unacceptable. there would be no future for this current form of palestinian authority in the gaza strip. that is a major difference. there is also politics involved. biden has a lot of pressure domestically and internationally. he sees a need to make clear that he is using his love for israel but also his pressure, the leverage he has gained by showing his close affinity. netanyahu is struggling for his political future. he is now trailing badly in the polls against the preservative -- presumptive winner. gas -- that would be benny gantz , who is currently in the coalition, but only temporarily. he is trying to stake out a position that the would differentiate between him and benny gantz. and whether there might be a palestinian state down the road. something he is saying he can
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prevent. mostsraelis are fearful of it. he is hinting that benny gantz when not be able to prevent it. >> they have been going on behind the scenes in private talks. why do you think president biden is bringing this public now? >> we are nearing the end of the year and the american administration has said privately to the israelis that this is likely the last few weeks of what the americans would agree to as this phase of the ground operation. with a lot of israeli forces in the southern and northern gaza strip. we will not see the end of fighting. israel will continue to operate. it can degrade hamas infrastructure. this phase is probably ending in a few weeks. biden has tried to put the pressure on israel to make sure that they do adhere to that timeline. also to set the stage for what comes after. there are deep disagreements. for netanyahu, there is an
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opportunity to voice publicly that this is an attempt to prospective somatically and signal to the audience he cares about most, his voters. he is trailing badly. he is really trying to stake out a political position that will allow him to remain in office as long as possible. >> well the pressure from the u.s. have any effect on netanyahu? >> it is a mixed bag. on the one hand, he is answering to an israeli public that is still very much traumatized by october 7. reliving the trauma and yelling about it and talking about it. they have very little patience for concessions to palestinians. president biden stood by israel in a way that moved israeli hearts and minds immediately after october 7. that gives him a lot of
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leverage. netanyahu will voice strong public rhetoric against any pressure but in private and in practice he often follows suit in terms of what the american administration wants. biden has a lot of sway in israel and he is already used it in ways that about them public. but there is a limit. the israeli public and the israeli elite see it as a national interest. now a national imperative to bring down hamas. that is were biden has leverage. >> is there a real threat you think that u.s. support could change? could go down? or maybe have strings or restrictions attached? >> i do not expect the fundamental support from president biden to change. he clearly believes firmly in the main goal, that hamas cannot be allowed to rule. he is in full agreement with the israelis.
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but we can see a change of the american position that would give full support to the israeli operation, including big crucial supply of munitions. we have seen a major war between israel and hezbollah. but not of a scale that real devastation. both in israel and lebanon, where the devastation between hezbollah and israel would be absolutely catastrophic. it would work even what we have seen since october 7. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. ♪ >> here are the latest headlines. the 2020 election interference case against former president trump
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is putting on hold. the judge paused the proceedings today while at pursues his claim of presidential immunity. the supreme court is determining whether to fast-track a ruling on the issue. that could delay the trial date. also today, the supreme court agreed to consider another appeal that could undo key charges against mr. trump in the january 6 capital right. he has been accused of obstructing congress as a try to certify results. a lower court rejected that because in one such case. the supreme court will decide whether that finding extends to others. the supreme court said today it will decide the legality of
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banning shipments of a drug through the mail. the fda approved it in 2000. since then, more than 5 million people have used it to have abortions. the high court will hear arguments in the spring. hunter biden defied a congressional subpoena to testify in private today to the house oversight committee. he appeared outside the capitol building insisted he would answer questions only in public. republicans rejected that demand, leaving the sides at a stalemate. >> i am here to testify at a public hearing today. to answer any legitimate questions. republicans do not want an open process where americans can see their tactics. expose their faceless inquiry or hear what i have to say. >> if you do it in an open format now, you get filibusters, speeches, all types of things. what we want is the facts. the way you get the facts in every investigation i have been involved in is you bring people in for an interview behind closed door we can get those facts.
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>> the senate approved billions of dollars in annual military spending tonight. the national defense authorization act includes money for military pay raises in nearly a billion dollars for ukraine. it now goes to the house where it is expected to pass tomorrow. the library of congress is out with this years's additions to the national film registry. they include home alone and the oscar-winning drama 12 years a slave, plus apollo 13 with tom hanks delivering that famous line. >> say again? >> houston, we have a problem. we have a lot of thruster activity. it just went off-line. >> other honorees include lady and the tramp, fame, and terminator
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two. emmy award-winning actor andre braugher has died. he won accolades for his tv, phone, and stage roles. he was best known for portraying police officers into very different series. >> the detective has informed you of your rights. he wants you to be protected. >> he first gained national attention as a baltimore detective and the police trauma homicide. -- drama homicide. >> please listen to me. the daughter fought, and the mother did not. >> the power and intensity of his performance brought him an emmy award for outstanding lead actor in a drama series in 1998. he was born and raised in chicago, a graduate of stanford and julliard. >> i would like to speak to you for a moment in private. >> he went on to a professional acting career in films. early on in the civil will drama glory.
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in the 2020 film she said. he was a regular presence on stage, including shakespearean roles. >> i am diffusing a situation. >> and on television, including a second major turn is a police officer in brooklyn 99. this time in a completely different register, comedy. >> the physical act of smiling can improve your mood. i suggest we give it a shot. >> he spoke of it on the today show in 2015. >> i feel like my mind it is expanding. my capabilities as an actor. my ability to mine the comedy is really rising up for the first time in my life. >> after the murder of george floyd, he reflected on the role of popular culture and how police are portrayed, telling variety magazine i have fallen prey to the mythology that has been built up.
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cops breaking the law to defend the law is a terrible slippery slope. that is something we will have to collectively address. he died monday after what was described as a brief illness. he was 61 years old. >> still to come, the federal reserve signals it could cut interest rates starting next year. the houseboats -- house votes on formally opening and impeachment inquiry into president biden despite no clear evidence. and tesla recalls nearly 2 million vehicles because of problems with self-driving software. >> this is the pbs newshour, from our studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. >> the u.n. climate change conference has come to a close with nearly 200 nations agreeing to a historic first, that they should transition away from
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burning fossil fuels that are warming the planet. in addition to that promise, they pledged to triple the amount of wind, solar, and other renewable energy deployed by 2030 to stop deforestation and to curb the release of methane, one of the most potent greenhouse gases. the reaction to the agreement has been mixed. some new represents a small island nations threatened by sea level rise were much more critical. >> the course correction that has been needed has not been secured. we have made an incremental advancement over business as usual when what we really needed was an exponential change in our
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actions and for. >> joining me is the president and ceo of the natural resources defense council. welcome back. and concern going into this. we just lived through what has been the hottest year in recorded human history. people are arguing, why are you holding a climate summit in a nation known for pumping out oil and gas? still, some historic firsts. what do you make of the agreement? >> both of these points can be true. there was for the first time ever the entire international community coming together to explicitly call for the transition away from fossil fuels. that is a significant signal to policymakers, investors, ceos about what the future actually looks a. equally true, the science is clear, the math is unforgiving. we need to see more speed and scale.
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the concern that the samoan delegate mentioned israel. >> i hear when you are saying about fossil fuels. it is remarkable that 30 years into the summits, we are still mentioning this. it is like saying in the 1960's having conferences on lung cancer and taking 30 years to get off cigarettes. it is progress but baby steps. >> you're right. the oil and gas industry in 2022 collected $4 trillion in profits worldwide. this is a significant industry that has a vested interest in the status quo. to get all these countries to sign a paper stating that it is time now to transition away from fossil is not a small, insignificance that. what we need to do is translate that ambition into action. >> one of the other big pledges was this ramp-up of renewables. there is a green revolution underway. do you think we will be able to
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deploy wind and solar and geothermal and hydrogen and battery storage in the full force needed to keep us from dangerously warming the planet? >> that in my mind is what is most encouraging about this conference. we are starting to see the early signs of a better future, a more lucid, productive, resilient future. look at what has happened in the u.s. we have seen over $100 billion of investments in solar, wind, electric vehicles. over 100,000 new jobs created. we are starting to see shovels on the ground. the proof points of real things being built, a better future. i think that shift will happen at a quicker pace than many of us realize.
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>> one of the other big developments around this issue known as loss and damage, a fund being established to help the developing world the with the real-world impacts they are having from climate change today. do you think the developed world is ready to reckon with the damage that our pollution is doing to these nations? >> it is starting to. this is symbolically a big deal. the first time ever we are starting to set up a fund to help the most vulnerable countries. what we need to see is a lot more money go into it. and a lot more money more generally go from the rich world to the developing world to help with the energy transition, build resilience. this is not an act of charity. this is not justice. >> -- an act of justice. >> one of the knocks on the
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summits is there is no enforcement. if countries fail to do this, there is no way to hold them accountable. do you think we put too much emphasis on these? >> we have to be clear i about what they can deliver and what they cannot. it is a statement of purpose, a vision for the future, but it is up to us to translate that and hold governments accountable. take the u.s., they signed up to date language about transitioning away from fossil feels. yet the largest oil and gas producer in the world is the u.s. if you look in the next 10 years, the greatest increase we will see is in the u.s. how do we actually reconcile the? how do we use the commitment to push for greater ambition domestically to transition from
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fossil to clean? >> the president and ceo, great to see. >> thank you very much. ♪ >> the federal reserve opted today to leave interest rates unchanged for a third straight time. what also made headlines was the announcement suggesting perhaps as many as three rate cuts next year. we have the latest. >> jerome powell was more direct than he has been in months in saying rate hikes appear to be over for now. the economy is well-positioned for a soft landing. >> we are seeing strong growth that appears to be moderating. we are seeing a labor market
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that is back in balance. we are seeing inflation make progress. these are the things we have been wanting to see. we still have a ways to go. no one is dictating victory. >> the fed raised 11 times starting in march of 2022 but only once since his last may. i'm joined by an economist and founder of her own firm and a former economist for the fed. let's get right into it. you think we are done with the rate hikes? we have seen then for over a year. >> i think we are done with them. more importantly, chair powell thinks we are done with them. they want to hold onto the option to hike if they need to. but he confirmed that most of the policy on the committee do not expect any more rate hikes. the next move is when to cut rates? >> that is the big headline.
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you probably expected that the pause in interest rate would continue. 17 out of 19 officials agree with the projection that the policy rate will be lower by next year by three quarters of a percentage point. what is your reaction? >> it was a little more aggressive in terms of the rate cuts that we were expecting. we thought they only might have a couple. chairman powell did not look back at that. he said we do not know yet. he said we can go maybe a little bit more. >> inflation is still running at 3%. when i talk to americans, they still complain about the cost of dining out or rent or insurance. have we yet to see the full impact of higher borrowing costs and inflation?
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>> that is right. powell touched on that. when the reasons he saw this discrepancy between low consumer sentiment numbers and really good readings his prices are much higher than they used to be. people do not like that. what a soft landing would allow is the job market to keep going ok. people continue to get wage raises. that would allow purchasing tower to rise. it will take some time to catch up. but the economy is actually going in the right direction. people will start to seat real wage gains. over time, it is not that prices will come down to pre-pandemic. but your income will catch up.
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>> what about interest rates? will they come down is is that what you expect? >> the fed is not in a rush. powell said they will proceed carefully. we will start a sequences of rate cuts. so that inflation does not re-excel array. they will be calibrating these moves with the economy. will they come all the way back down to pre-pandemic? not sure. that is still a long way away. that rates will be materially lower than they have been? >> one of the other impacts of today statements? >> one thing we have started to see with rates coming off the highs in recent weeks is applications for mortgages and have started to pick up a little
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bit. we have seen people respond. when you are looking to buy a car, car loan rates should start coming down as well. they will start making big ticket -- purchases. >> thank you so much for joining us with your insights. >> my pleasure. ♪ >> it has been another significant day on capitol hill. house republicans have voted to open an impeachment inquiry into
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president biden and impeachment inquiry into president biden's families business dealings as talks over the border and ukraine funding hang in the balance. we are covering it all. what does this impeachment abode mean -- vote mean? >> this is a legal and symbolic step. house republicans have already launched this inquiry into the biden family. it is mostly a legal move. by taking this vote and getting the backing of the full republican congress, they think they will have more support in court. that includes subpoenas against hunter biden. he was on capitol hill today defying a subpoena to testify behind closed doors. he said he wants to testify in public. he said there is no case against
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his father. >> let me state as clearly as i can, my father was not financially involved in my business, not as a practicing lawyer or a board member. not in my partnership with a chinese private business. and certainly not as an artist. >> i think the qualifier is important. it shows another change. >> that was jim jordan saying he thinks there is something going on with the words that hunter
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biden is using. they called this a stunt. hunter biden could face contempt charges from the house. >> they said this was not a political move. this was about the law. we have an understanding of how voters are viewing this? >> we do. new information from a poll out today that shows americans overall are divided on this. split almost right down the middle. this is a sharply partisan divide. 78 percent of republicans approve of this impeachment
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inquiry. 24% of democrats. that is significant. i looked at the data. that is led by democratic men. >> as you reported yesterday, this all comes as we are right at the evan hull next couple of days for the border and ukraine. tell us where we stand? >> i can report that we are expecting another meeting tonight at the u.s. capitol with principal negotiators. the secretary of the dhs is meeting behind closed doors with senator chris murphy and kristin synema. those have been the primary dealers here. the white house has gotten more involved. we have been spending the last couple of days really digging into reporting on this. the white house has indicated it can support tougher immigration measures including some increased expulsion measures. including for those who apply
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for asylum and increased attention for those who want asylum. they would have to wait rather than be released into the country. you may not be surprised, some senate republicans say it is a step in the right direction. but immigrant advocates say they are outraged, including congressional hispanic caucus members. they are decrying what they think the white house is ready to agree to and their lack of representation at the table. >> this is a slap in the face to latino communities. imagine the administration try to cut a deal on voting rights or civil-rights without bringing any members of the congressional black caucus to the table. that would never be tolerated. and we cannot tolerate this either.
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>> there is no deal yet and we do not know if the senate will stay or go. but the next 24 hours will tell us much. >> thank you so much. to explain exactly what changes with a formal impeachment inquiry, i'm joined by a professor at the university of north carolina law school. he has testified at impeachment hearings. his upcoming book, the law of presidential impeachment, is out next month. thank you so much for being here. under former speaker mccarthy, house republicans had already started this impeachment inquiry. you were there testifying about it in september. what changes with today? >> nothing insofar as any evidence is concerned. when the embarrassing things that happened at the last hearing is it became obvious to
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everyone there was no evidence of any wrongdoing. what has changed as we have a new speaker. as you pointed out previously, republicans believe that by calling this and impeachment inquiry, they will have more power in the courts. to go after hunter biden. that is one of the real problems. all the focus right now is on hunter biden and not president biden. but hunter biden is a private citizen. >> house republicans make this argument that even though we have had committee hearings and we have been looking into this, we do need investigative tools. what things are they able to do now that they could not do before? >> it is not entirely clear. but republicans are saying is they are not getting compliance with some subpoenas and are not
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getting the data they want. the problem is republicans want to use these for a fishing expedition. they don't know what they are looking or. they have no if they will find it. the problem is the card has been put in front of the horse. we have and impeachment inquiry authorized against a president in the absence of credible evidence. instead, republicans are hoping that with this informal authorization, they can persuade courts that perhaps taking it at tank accounts. not because they think there's anything there necessarily but because they are still fishing to try to find stuff about president biden. >> i appreciate what you're saying. republicans argue they need
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those tools. is it considered somehow illegitimate for them to use this process to try to get those answers? >> at this point i said it was illegitimate. that is because typically impeachment increase are authorized once there is credible evidence of presidential wrongdoing. that happened with clinton, trump, and nixon. this is an unusual circumstance in which republicans are winding out lots of things about hunter biden. they want more subpoenas to get at him and other people in the family who may or may not have information about joe biden. that is is the definition of a fishing expedition. they do not know what people know. just want the power to press people and see what comes up. that is not how the process is supposed to work.
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typically house committees discover evidence that shows that the president may have committed some kind of serious wrongdoing. they said they did not find anything. so nothing has changed. except that today the house approved a moral inquiry with the hope that they will have greater subpoena power to conduct this inquiry to discover who knows what. we don't know what they are looking for. i don't know that they know what they're looking for. >> one of the logistics of the next steps? what do you expect to happen? >> what will likely happen is there will be committees in congress like the overnight -- oversight committee and judiciary committee that will start to conduct hearings at
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which supposedly there will be some evidence gathering and evidentiary findings. there may be a court case filed against some of these subpoenas. in those court cases, courts will have to determine the legitimacy of the subpoenas that have been issued. the republican hope is that by formally authorizing the inquiry, they can use the most powerful mechanism that congress has. >> thank you so much for being here. >> thank you. ♪ >> with congress deadlocked on whether to approve tens of billions of dollars in additional aid to ukraine, that nation's domestic arms industry
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is becoming increasingly important. perhaps the most bioweapon system is an army of drones. we visited the front line in southern ukraine to understand how drones have transformed the war. >> in war, there is never a safe space. but when the eyes in the sky are unblinking, the hunters are also the hunted. why are we staying under the trees? >> because there are drones flying all the time. above us there are a lot of drones. that is why we constantly need to be under trees. >>'s call sign is a reference to his phd in artificial intelligence. his day job is leading this volunteer drone unit on the southern front. their weapons are a macbook pro, a tablet with real-time intelligence about russian positions, and a ukrainian drone
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made of foam and held together with duct tape. it can help destroyed millions of dollars of russian equipment. above the field of sunflowers that have become a symbol of the resistance, their latest homemade invention takes flight. it is flown by a three person team that crowd funds its equipment. we are keeping him anonymous because his family is under russian occupation. in this drone more, each side tries to jam the others drone using electronic warfare. >> there is one frequency. we have the opportunity to switch to others. >> how often does that happen? >> nonstop. we are losing drones this day and they are jamming all of the time. >> they lost nearly a drone a
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day. the armed forces has been losing 10,000 a month. u.s. officials amid they do not have an answer for the superior electronic warfare of russia. it is old-school. but it will be many times more powerful than this one. >> russian radio is looking really good. >> they fly thousands of miles behind enemy lines, hunting or russian vehicles and the jamming devices that are hunting them. the live video feedback is black-and-white, not great quality. but there is a second higher quality camera on the drone that they watch afterward back at the base. >> now is probably one of the most important times. >> in a room where they sleep at an undisclosed location 10 miles away, the team combs through video there drone just found. they compared today's video with satellite or drone images from yesterday, like this russian vehicle.
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>> this is a big truck. used for bringing ammo or something like that. we will put it into the system as a target. we will put in information about it. it is definitely something new. we did not see it yesterday. >> they notice their nemesis, the vehicle that jams there drone. >> we suspect it is a 24 hour system. you can see antennas. >> they sent the image to artillery brigades by an encrypted messaging app. another drone watched as ukrainian shell destroyed the russian vehicle. drones have changed this war and warfare as ukrainians have bragged about online with highly produced videos. there are drones i can crash into military vehicles or fly
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through the back of disabled vehicles. cheap drones destroy expensive equipment. but it goes both ways. russian videos show how drones help stop the counteroffensive. the u.s. assumed that the ukrainians could achieve. russian drones help find western supplies that were supposed to break through the defenses. they menaced ukrainian buildings and critical infrastructure. in many ways, is this a war of drones? >> today and tomorrow is about drones. the outcome of this war depends on how many drones there will be and how they will be used. >> he is the deputy prime minister of ukraine and prime
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minister for digital information. >> an incredibly large industry was born in ukraine in one year. it has a large potential to stay at up. >> is russia? >> this is turning into a war about engineers and economies. you could gain an advantage on the battlefield. we will lose less people and hit targets more effectively. we have to do everything to win the war of technology. >> ukraine will need to win that war with its own industry. this is a drone company in an undisclosed warehouse. it is one of 200 domestic manufacturers that have increased local production more than 100 times. before the war, they designed cargo drones. today they work for the ukrainian military. >> we have to defend the motherland as much as we can. wherever you look, in every garage, something is being made
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for the armed forces. they are being developed everywhere in ukraine. this is the start of ukraine becoming a world center of drug development. >> they produce up to 15 drones per month. one of the newest is lightweight. it's part are covered with a laser. they have a reconnaissance drone that can fly for 25 miles and over 10,000 feet. it is launched by catapult and uses artificial intelligence to try to track possible targets. do you know what your long-range drones are being used for? >> no. it is classified. [laughter] >> ukraine has used large range drones to attack supplies within russia. they have also struck the heart of moscow. bringing toward to the russian elite may be the best way to
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turn the tide. they have also use naval drones to attack russian ships. that has pushed the fleet are enough back to open up black sea shipping lanes. but they have far to go to build enough drones. it will be increasingly up to domestic industry to help when a drone war where innovation and adaptation happen every day. ♪ >> tesla has recalled 2 million cars. nearly every car sold in the u.s. since 2012, because of issues with self-driving features. over the last couple of years, safety regulators have investigated over 1000 crashes involving the autopilot system.
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it can take over fully steering, braking, and acceleration. a washington post report found that about 40 of these crashes were fatal. including eight where autopilot was engaged on roads where it was not supposed to be used. a washington post reporter was one of the journalists who did this analysis. thank you so much for being here. there is this enormous recall from tesla. can you tell us a bit about what regulators and your own reporting found was the problem with this self-driving autopilot feature? >> what regulators have found is the autopilot is able to activate in locations where it is not designed to be used. this was the subject of a washington post report over the weekend. there were eight deadly crashes in which autopilot was activated on a road that was not the type of road which was designed to be used. there are locations of what regulators call foreseeable
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misuse. by activating it on a long and winding road with a lot of intersections. any kind of residential city surface street where this is really intended for interstate highway. or at least a highway with clearly demarcated land lines, exits, a center divider, or what have you. >> you focus on a in florida. he used autopilot on one of these roads yu were describing as not appropriate for autopilot. can you explain what happened in that case? >> this was very similar to a 2016 crash. a car was traveling down a u.s. highway when it barreled into a semi truck. the driver was killed.
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the truck was pulling out of a side street. the car did not come to a stop until hundreds of eat later. this was one of the early instances of autopilot activated in a location where you are wondering, why is this working somewhere it truck should be pulling into? it raised questions about whether autopilot is struggling to see semi trucks pulling into the middle-of-the-road? >> tesla says every time a driver accesses autopilot it gets a warning that you are supposed to keep your hands on the steering wheel and stay alert. to jump in if needed. but there is really no way to enforce that the driver does that. >> i do not know if there is a regulatory will. it is an issue that is complex.
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resource intensive the regulator would have to impose a sword of restriction that it does not want to be seen as imposing. as opposed to having voluntary compliance. that is where tesla is saying, it is your responsibility to activate autopilot in a situation where it is safe. we are not going to overburden you with restrictions. the magic of the feature is it makes it feel like the car is driving itself. it is more of a question of regulatory will. and what sorts of restrictions the company is willing to impose. >> some critics of the government say that to allow these big vehicles to have these features is regulatory oversight. do critics believe the current stat is appropriate or efficient?
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>> i have spoken to a lot of people in the space and i would say that the critical analysis of this, and especially the current recall, is about ensuring that this is not lipservice to the idea that tesla does something. let's make sure tesla actually restricts the software and the conditions for which it has been designed. one vein of criticism is that they have now issued a recall that is voluntary. the ball is now in the court of tesla to impose those restrictions which may come in the form of notifications, restrictions, warning. but they will not fully restrict the software. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. ♪
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>> that is the newshour for tonight. join us tomorrow evening for all of us here, thank you and we will see you soon. >> major funding has been provided by the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour. >> sumer cellular, how may i help you? this is a pocket dial. i thought i would let you know that with consumer cellular, you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that is sort of our thing. have a nice day. >> these are people who are trying to change the world. startups have an energy that energizes me. i am thriving by helping others every day.
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-buongiorno. i'm lidia bastianich, and teaching you about italian food has ways been my passion. just like that. you got that right. it has always been about cooking together and building your confidence in the kitchen. for me, food is about gathering around the table to enjoy loved ones. your family is going to love it. share a delicious meal and make memories. tutti a tavola a mangiare.
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