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. xfinity internet. made for streaming. geoff: good evening. amna: trump's pick for defense

secretary is under the spotlight tonight. geoff: president biden pardons his son despite repeated promises not to. the precedent it could set for future presidential pardons. amna: syrian rebels seized control of aleppo, reigniting the long-running civil war. >> our aspiration is to be a nation of respect, of freedom, of a nation of foundations and a nation of its citizens. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions and friends of the news hour, including the judy and peter

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-- this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. geoff: a buried whistleblower report has come to life raising concerns about the fitness of president donald trump's pick to lead the pentagon. amna: ptech seth was on capitol hill today. -- pete hegseth was on capitol hill today. >> ok guys, we are done with questions. amna: he refused to take media questions while meeting with alabama sitter tommy tuberville. the new yorker's jane mayer investigated headset's time leaving two nonprofits for military veterans and uncovered allegations of federal mismanagement, sexual impropriety, and personal misconduct. she joins us now.

good to see you. thanks for being with us. you reviewed documents. you also spoke with headsets former colleagues at these groups that he ran. what kind of picture did they painted him as a leader? -- paint of him as a leader? >> it was a future that was increasingly alarming in some ways. it was a picture of a leader pushed out of his leadership positions in two groups that work for veterans because there were so many concerns about his financial mismanagement and personal conduct. in these relatively small groups with relatively small budgets, the first group had only 10 people working at it, veterans for freedom, and it raised a lot of questions about how he would manage the largest department in the federal government, the mostly full and largest military in the world.

>> there are also specific allegations of alcohol abuse, headset getting so drunk he had to be restrained or carried back to his hotel room. there is one incident from may of 2015 when he is on official business traveling in ohio. he and someone else from the organization get so drunk that they are chanting and yelling at the hotel bar. what happens there? >> this was a letter written by a member of a group, concern veterans of america, which headset was leading at the time. they wrote a letter to the managers they are saying that his behavior was despicable and embarrassing, because he ended up closing down the bar at 2:30 in the morning, chanting and screaming "kill all muslims." it was so completely beyond the pale for the veterans that worked in this group.

i think maybe alarming also to think about someone leading the pentagon who has voiced such attitudes and been so out of control. amna: said people with continued alcohol problems should not be at the top of our national security structure. you know if any of mr. hegseth's reported issues with alcohol persist to this day? >> it is a good question, and "the new yorker" submitted many questions to him and his lawyer. instead of answering any of the questions were refuted anything in the story, they said they would have no comment. -- were refuting anything in the story, they said they have no comment. we need to know if someone who will be the top person in the defense department has a serious alcohol problem. amna: there is now a body of

reporting looking into hegseth' is personal story, multiple marriages and troubling details from a police report looking into an assault allegation from 2017. "the new york times" also published a letter from his mother in 2018, in which she says in part, on behalf of all the women you have abused in some way, get some help and take an honest look at yourself. his mother has since disavowed those comments in speaking with "the new york times," but what does this show as a pattern of behavior and also the sexual assault allegations from 2017? >> we have to say that he has denied sexually assaulting this woman. she is anonymous at this point. the thing that has brought attention to this is he failed to disclose to the transition staff that he had secretly struck up a settlement with this

woman and has been paying her, and that they also struck up a nondisclosure agreement to try to keep it secret. the trump administration has decided not to have the fbi investigate a potential cabinet officer, so they did not have the fbi doing a background check , and pete hegseth never told the transition staff that this was in his background. it just came up because a friend of the woman actually went to the transition team and said, did you realize this about him? these tales from the past in his life just seemed to be surfacing one by one by one. amna: the trump team was reportedly blindsided by the stories. does it seem like all the potentially damaging allegations are now out in the open, that everything senators need to weigh is out there and reported? >> i actually do not think so. this story came out in "the new

yorker" just around midnight last night, and by today, people have been calling me all day long with more examples of this kind of behavior from pete hegseth. i don't think we truly know the whole story yet. amna: jane, thank you. good to see you. jane: thanks so much for having me. ♪ geoff: last night, president joe biden issued a full and unconditional bargain -- pardon of his son, hunter, who was just days away from a possible prison sentence in two federal felony cases against him. it's a striking reversal of the president's promise that he would not use his authority to pardon his son or commute his sentence.

the president's son receiving the most sweeping residential pardon in generations, capping years of high-profile legal troubles and political scrutiny. he faced possible prison time for his conviction on federal gun charges back in -- back in june, as well as for separate tax crimes, for which he pleaded guilty in september. he was scheduled to be sentenced in both cases later this month. his pardon goes even further, covering all federal offenses that hunter biden "has committed or may have committed or taken part in" in over the last decade "including but not limited to all offenses charged or prosecuted." it's something the president has insisted repeatedly he would not do. >> have you ruled out they pardon for your son? pres. biden: yes. i'm not going to do anything. i said i will abide by the jury decision. geoff: now, president biden is calling the prosecution politically motivated.

in a written statement, the president said his son was "selectively and unfairly prosecuted no reasonable person who looks at the facts of hunter's cases can reach any other conclusion than hunter was singled out only because he is my son, and that is wrong." today, white house press secretary karine jean-pierre defended president biden's decision, while speaking to reporters. >> you can believe in the department of justice system, and you can also believe that the process was infected politically, and that's what the president says. geoff: it all comes less than 2 months before president biden's term ends, and president-elect donald trump's begins. on social media, mr. trump slammed the move, calling it "an abuse and miscarriage of justice." the pardon cannot be rescinded, once he takes office. trump has repeatedly said he'd use his second term to investigate, and prosecute, the bidens. congressman james comer, one of several republicans leading the congressional investigations into biden's family, wrote on x

-- "the charges hunter faced were just the tip of the iceberg president biden and his family continue to do everything they can to avoid accountability." even some democrats joined the chorus of criticism. colorado governor jared polis expressed his disappointment in the president for putting his "family ahead of the country," and he called the decision "a bad precedent that could be abused by later presidents and will sadly tarnish his reputation." and we are joined now by margaret love. she previously served as u.s pardon attorney under former presidents george h.w. bush and bill clinton. thanks for being with us. >> it is a pleasure. this not only spares hunter biden from doing possible prison time, it also insulates him from ever facing part is for any crimes he could have committed over the past decade. >> yeah, it is hard to compare this to anything in the recent past. it is a broad grant.

the only thing i can compare it to is the pardon that president ford gave president nixon, which was also a preemptive pardon. in this case, it is a po of 11 years. it is really quite unique other than the nixon pardon. >> this pardon is a departure from president biden, who has vowed not to interfere with the justice department's actions and has mostly avoided weighing in on his son's legal issues. there is this question, though, of the intervening events, the reelection of donald trump and the possibility of hunter biden being at the mercy of a trump justice department, where biden has said he explicitly uses -- where he says he explicitly uses the does -- and his nomination of someone who promised to go after the bidens if he is confirmed as fbi director. does any of that bolster the

justification for this pardon? >> obviously it was very important to president biden. i am not going to comment on whether it justifies this kind of a grant or not. i am more interested in talking about the very almost unique nature of the grant itself, which could be questionable, to tell you the truth. there was a lot of conversation at the time of the nixon grant, imminent constitutional scholars debated whether the president had the power under the constitutional pardon power to grant preemptive pardons. i know there was conversation at the end of the trump administration about pre-and of pardons and a decision was made, apparently, not to grant them. i think the real interest for me here is the nature of that grant. i guess it will be found whether

it is appropriate use of the president's power or not. geoff: how does this pardon fit into biden's overall clemency record? >> he does not have a lengthy record, to tell you the truth. he has granted fewer pardons than any other one term president in at least 100 years. and has granted a few sentence commutations, but it has been a britney spears record, to tell you the truth. -- has been a pretty spare record, to tell you the truth. i would hope he would grant more pardons. cases have been waiting in the backlog for years, and it would be great if he took this opportunity to grant some of those pardons and sentence commutations that have been awaiting his action.

he has not had a great deal of interest, apparently, in pardoning to date. this may jog things. geoff: what precedent does a pardon like this set, in your view? >> it suggests that another president might try it if it is not challenged. it is very interesting because president trump himself is very adventurous in his use of a pardon power. he ended up upending many cases in a way no president had done before. but in what was characteristic -- but what was characteristic of president trump's pardons is he always pardoned a very specific charge. one exception to that is the michael flynn pardon, which got a little bit rotter, pardoning anything that the special counsel might have against him, but that was a more defined jurisdiction than the hunter

biden pardon or the nixon pardon, for that matter. you never know what might happen in the future. it is a power that has rarely been tested in court, but i expect perhaps that there may be some opportunity to do that going forward. geoff: margaret love, thank you for your time this evening. our grid: you are most welcome. thank you. -- margaret: you are most welcome. thank you. geoff: the day's other headlines begin with the winter storm in the northern states that has lasted all weekend and still will not let up. nearly 7 million people are under weather alerts today as lake effect snow continues to pound parts of the upper midwest and northeast. western michigan could see another foot of snow today, while other parts of the state,

as well as new york and pennsylvania, are digging out close to four feet of snow from this weekend. >> this weather is buffalo weather. it's amazing weather. geoff: that did not stop tailgaters before the buffalo bills game. fans were paid to dig snow before the kickoff. it did not deter most air travelers either. the tsa says more than three million people took post-thanksgiving flights yesterday, and that set a new record turning now to the middle east, where for the first time since a ceasefire took effect last week, hezbollah has fired projectiles into a disputed border region in southern lebanon. the militant group says it was a warning shot for what it called repeated israeli violations of the truce. no one was reported hurt. israel responded with its own airstrikes in retaliation, hours later. a lebanese official accused israel today of breaching the

ceasefire more than 50 times in recent days with strikes and other provocations. despite that, a state department spokesperson said the ceasefire is working, and that claims of violations are being investigated. >> broadly speaking, it has been successful in stopping the fighting. now, with respect to violations or potential violations of the ceasefire, we set a mechanism up to look into this very question where the united states, along with france, will engage with the israeli military, will engage with the lebanese military to look at potential violations. geoff: meantime, israel's military says an israeli-american soldier previously thought to be alive in hamas captivity is now presumed dead. the body of omer neutra of new york was taken by hamas in southern israel during the october 7 attacks. his parents had led a public campaign for his release, including an address to the republican national convention in july. he was one of seven american

citizens held in gaza. four, including neutra, have been pronounced dead. the biden administration is preparing another $725 million in weapons assistance for ukraine. that's on top of more than 680 million dollars in weapons that german chancellor olaf scholz announced today during a surprise visit to kyiv. it was his first visit to the ukrainian capital in more than two years. the trip comes after ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy recently criticized scholz for speaking to russian president vladimir putin back in november about opening negotations to end the war. in kyiv today, scholz emphasized solidarity. >> my very clear message from kyiv to putin -- we're in this for the long haul, and we will stand by ukraine for as long as it takes. geoff: the biden administration has eased aid to ukraine in the last few months of the president's term.

the incoming trump administration has said it will rethink u.s. aid to ukraine. more than 200 people have been detained in the country of georgia amid demonstrations now going into their fifth night. tens of thousands of people gathered in the capital of tbilisi this evening in protest of the pro-russian government's decision to suspend negotiations to join the european union. more than a hundred police officers have been injured in clashes with demonstrators. it's all unfolding after october elections that were seen as a referendum on joining the eu. georgia's opposition says the vote was rigged by moscow. there is turn-over in the top jobs at two major companies. tonight, the world's fouth largest automaker, stellantis, owner of brands like jeep, ram, chrysler, and dodge, is one of them. ceo carlos tavares is stepping down after nearly four years in the role, after trying to steer the company back to profitability. but stellantis has struggled

with slumping sales and rising pressure from autoworkers at plants in the u.s. and abroad. and the ceo of chipmaker intel has retired in a surprise announcement. pat gelsinger started at intel more than 40 years ago before becoming chief executive in 2021. the semiconductor manufacturer has struggled financially to keep up with rival nvidia. both those companies' stocks fell today, as wall street saw mixed results. the dow jones industrial average dipped lower by nearly 130 points, while the nasdaq jumped up by nearly one percent. in the s&p 500 climbed higher into new, record territory. still to come, how the civil war in syria has suddenly reignited. tamara keith and leigh ann caldwell reflect on the latest political headlines. and mementos from a lost past. a memorial project that honors victims of gun violence. >> this is the pbs news hour. from the david m rubenstein studio at weta in washington,

and from the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: in syria today, russian and syrian warplanes targeted civilian areas held by opposition fighters. and turkey, which backs some of the multi-faceted opposition, called on syrian president bashar al-assad to negotiate. it all comes days after rebels swept into parts of northwest syria that the regime had controlled for years, and reignited a once static war with broad implications for a region already embroiled in conflict. nick schifrin reports. they warning, some of the images in this story are disturbing. nick: in idlib today, scorched-earth. attacks inside a hospital. russia has long targeted syrians who oppose the regime. today's strikes in idlib and

this weekend on aleppo once again targeted victims who were not even born when this 14-year-old war began. they are terrified and forced civilians to flee. but today, it is government forces on the run. on friday, news hour's syria producer film as rebels prepared a surprise assault. for years, the opposition in green has held most of the idlib province in northwest syria. the kurds, backed by the u.s., in the yellow. the regime and its allies in red, with pockets of land controlled by the islamic state in purple. in 2016, after five years of fighting, civilian soldiers recaptured aleppo, syria's second largest city. last week, a patchwork of opposition groups.

the two fresh backed syrian national army took aleppo back in days. on friday morning, we filmed as opposition fighters opened fire on aleppo's outskirts. by 10:00 p.m. that night, fighters and civilians celebrated inside aleppo after governmental forces melted away. this war forced half the country to flee their homes, and now some of the opposition reunited with family they had been separated from for nearly a decade. by day, rebels tore down the tormenter. they are united in their hatred for the authoritarian leader who long ago chose to starve and suffocate rather than serve his people. they unfurled the flag of "free syria." an attorney returned to his hometown in aleppo for the first

time in eight years. >> was a good time to return and get rid of the militias. -- now is a good time to return and get rid of the militias. our aspiration is to be a nation of respect, with foundations, and of its citizens. nick: opposition fighters reached aleppo's military academy. >> these rocket launchers you see behind me were used by hezbollah, iran, and assad forces to fire rockets that targeted civilians in the western countryside of aleppo. they caused the deaths and injuries of hundreds throughout the past few years. nick: the opposition's sweeping success in aleppo is just the beginning. >> it started with the liberation of aleppo. until we liberate all of syria, all syrian soil from this ruling regime has sat on syrians' chest for some 60 years. nick: today, syrian soldiers

said they are regrouping and then fighting back. but the opposition expanding its finding to nearby, province in western syria. the assad regime struggles, as ally russia is bogged down in ukraine and allies hezbollah and iran have been diminished by israel. the biden administration has been cautious in its comments on syria, but today called for de-escalation and a political process to end the decade-plus of civil war. to explain and explore these latest developments, i'm joined again by charles lister, a senior fellow who focuses on this conflict at the middle east institute here in washington. charles, welcome back to the news hour. why do you think the syrian opposition has gone on the offensive, and why has it been so successful? charles: the crisis and conflict inside syria have been far from over for a long time. yes, the lines of territorial

control have been frozen for around four years, the conflict itself has been hot daily, 365 days a year since 2020 when a major cease-fire was announced. the armed opposition has been preparing itself for exactly this scenario for the last four is, intensively training, adding to their capabilities, and waiting for the right kind of timing. the regional crisis has added to that. but ultimately speaking, these armed groups believe they could bring the fight to the regime, that they could defeat the regime on the battlefield. this offensive was meant to start in mid-october. it was pause for a while due to turkish pressure but began over the last week. nick: most recently we saw a cease-fire in lebanon between hezbollah and israel, but more relevantly, we have seen hezbollah and iran get pushed back israel and we have seen russia get bogged down in ukraine. how does that play into the timing of this? >> all of those things are

accurate, but at the same time, what we have seen on the ground in syria over the last 18 plus months is that none of those actives have actually substantially changed their presence on syrian soil. hezbollah remain on all the same frontlines lines they have always been on. russian troop levels remain the same. they have the same number of jets and everything else. if there is a difference those events have made, i would argue it is distraction, not resources. i think what has made the biggest difference is that the syrian regime itself has stagnated over the last four and a half years of so-called frozen conflict. it has been increasingly corrupted by organized crime that is rife within the civilian military and the intelligence apparatus that would have coordinated a response to this. that is why we have seen a collapse in regime front lines. nick: the opposition group hts

helped lead the offensive on aleppo this weekend. the u.s. calls them terrorists. they are a former al qaeda affiliate, but they say they have moderated. half-day? charles: yes, they have, but they also remain problematic. they have done away with their global agenda. they have broken away with al qaeda, a very combustible breakup in 2016 and 2017. they have turned inward to syria. they have portrayed their actions and have done it over the last five to seven years in a more nationalist event. but yes, their religious conservativ -- religious conservatism remains. but it will take three to five years down the line to see if they are as welcoming and inclusive as they claim to be today with it being in control of aleppo city. the early signs are positive, but this is very early days. nick: we have seen russian

airstrikes as well as russian and iranian diplomatic support for syria. we are seeing iranian backed militias from iraq entering syria. do you believe that will be enough to save the regime? >> all the manpower the regime can get at this point will help. one of the main problems is some of the regime's most capable military units were not on the northwestern frontlines when this offensive to ways. the elite fourth division, another unit known as the 25th special tasks vision, both of those have been deployed to the front line in a province where fighting has really intensified over the past 48 hours. on the other hand, there was another side of the picture, which is that the hts and various opposition groups only have so much manpower at their disposal. if they continue to try to push further deeply into syria, they risk making themselves very

vulnerable to a counterattack. nick: the u.s. has more than 800 soldiers in northeast syria aligned with kurdish forces. saw some of those kurdish forces having to flee some of the territory they control over the last couple of days. what is at stake for u.s. interests? charles: for now, relatively little. the u.s. has a minimal state in northwest syria. i suppose the u.s. has more to worry about in terms of the knock on effect this is likely to have on isis's resurgence that is taking place in central and eastern syria, totally in parallel to these developments. the real risk is that the syrian regime's most capable units that have been deployed in the central desert that have been trying to challenge isis have all been removed. suddenly, in central syria, where isis has been rebuilding, there is a total vacuum, and that is likely to happen -- likely to have a very positive

knock on effect on isis, which will have a knock on effect into the northeast of syria, where western troops are present. we are already struggling to challenge that resurgence. that will be all the more the case in the coming months. nick: charles lister, thank you very much. charles: thank you. ♪ amna: while many of us were taking a break this holiday weekend, washington was still busy at work everything from pardons to cabinet next. here to get us caught up his tamara keith of npr and lyons cabo from the washington post. -- leon caldwell from the washington post. we have now seen in the aftermath of president biden pardoning his son hunter some backlash from his fellow democrats. we heard from colorado governor jared polis earlier.

senator bennett has weighed in, saying that he believes biden put personal interest ahead of duty. welsh said as the nation's chief executive, it is unwise. does your reporting show that president biden wade this potential backlash and the precedent it sets making this decision? >> several members of his own party have come out to say that president biden is ceding the political high ground on an issue that democrats have hit and coming president trump on. what i will say is that president biden spent this last weekend with his family in nantucket. this is a family retreat. they get together there every thanksgiving. president biden has always had a political blind spot when it comes to his family, in particular his son hunter and the challenges that hunter has presented to biden over the

years, the challenges that hunter biden's various issues have presented to biden. this has always been an area that has been a political blind spot, almost off-limits for biden. i think another issue this raised was simply that the white house, president biden himself and his spokesperson, karine jean-pierre, repeatedly said that this was not going to happen. a lot of people did not believe that biden really would not ultimately pardon his son, but by then reversing course, that affects the credibility of this white house. >> went about on capitol hill? are your democratic source -- what are your democratic sources telling you? >> good democrats that have come out in opposition to this, senator elizabeth oren told reporters a few moments before i got here that what is wrong is wrong, and this is wrong. there are some senators that

think president biden should not have stooped to donald trump's level and done something donald trump might done in his presidency but there are some democrats who privately are not speaking out, saying, you know what, this is something that was important to president biden, and this might be something that has not been done in this scope in years, but it is his prerogative to do. amna: cabinet picks continue over the weekend. trump nominated cass patel to run the fbi. he is a staunch loyalist, has repeated the lie of the stolen 2020 election, called january 6 writers -- rioters patriots. this is him and his own words about his plans. >> i would shut down the fbi hoover building on day one and reopen it the next day as a museum of the deep state. i would take the 7000 employees

that work in that building and send them as america to chase down tunnels. >> we are going to come after the people in the media who helped joe biden rig elections, we are going to come after you. amna: he is a public defender with little management or law enforcement experience. what does this pic say about how mr. trump use the fbi? >> this pic is very much in line with president-elect trump's many other cabinet nominees, meaning this is someone who is first and foremost loyal to trump. he did work in the first trump administration in several acting roles toward the end, and in those positions, he was there essentially as trump's eyes and ears in weather agencies. when it comes to the fbi, as you asked about, president trump lost faith in the fbi within days of entering the white house, essentially. as you remember, he fired the fbi director, put in place

christopher wray, and now he is saying the person he appointed needs to be replaced with a loyalist, kash patel. patel is someone who has echoed trump's own words about the january 6 rioters and others being patriots, being politically persecuted. trump just fundamentally disagrees with the way the fbi has conducted law enforcement and approached the rule of law, which incidentally also affected him, because he was indicted after multiple investigations, including a search of his are lago estate. amna: a number of republican senators have been asked about the selection of kash patel this weekend. here is what some of them had to say. sen. cruz: one of the most

tragic consequences of four years of joe biden kamala harris is both doj and the fbi have been politicized and weaponized, and i think kash patel is a very strong nominee to take on the partisan corruption in the fbi. >> i think cash does have relevant experience, particularly when it comes to the mandate the american public has signed, turning these agencies around that have become completely corrupted. kash has pointed it out. he's probably the best at uncovering what's happened at the fbi, and i look forward to seeing him taking it apart." amna: chuck grassley also believes the current director failed in his role, and kash patel must prove to congress that he will reform and restore public trust in the fbi. not exactly criticism there, some caution from senator grassley. are you hearing any concerns from republican senators privately about kash patel? >> yes, and chuck grassley is likely to oversee the confirmation hearings of kash patel. this is another tough choice for these republican senators to have to move through.

this is very new for them. just got back into town tonight. senators are still trying to digest, and to be clear, a lot of these senators actually did not know who he was very much before this, but this is going to be a nominee that republicans are going to have to grapple with, along the same lines of matt gaetz, where i heard a lot of, maybe he is just not going to make it through the process and he withdraws on his own, so it does not put them in a position to have to take a vote. but it is still very early in this process, so a lot of senator are wanting to keep their powder dry -- senators are wanting to keep their powder dry and not put their cart before the horse. amna: their concerns looming over a number of nominees. we will not know for a few weeks now if they do move into confirmation hearings, but we mentioned earlier the new reporting around pete hegseth menomini for secretary of defense. there are concerns around tulsi

gabbard as well. how are senators looking at this right now in terms of this matrix of decisions that they are going to have to make? >> we do expect that there will be confirmation hearings that began in early january, as is traditional once the new congress is sworn in. a month is a very long time. if you think about all of the reports and other issues that have come out with some of these nominees in a matter of a couple of weeks, it is possible that more of the sort of public vetting will occur before they ever get to a confirmation hearing. but you are right that senators have a lot to figure out. they have to decide exactly what they are willing to tolerate, and republican senators are willing to tolerate a lot. they are willing to give trump a lot of leeway in part because some of them are in office because of trump, because the senate is now -- senate

republicans are largely much more in line with trump than they were when he came into office in 2017. i will say one question that is looming for me is there still has not been a memorandum of understanding signed between the department of justice and the trump transition to begin the fbi background checks and vetting that are a traditional part of the confirmation process. we also do not know whether the incoming administration is going to participate with the office of government ethics and that sort of conflict of interest vetting that is normally a part of the process. and whether senators, republican senators, will demand that. those are still really open questions about this process. amna: what is your take on this? >> senators are, as tam said, there's a lot of deference to fill the cabinet positions. there is a lot of incentive to

do with the president wants. everyone will have to take in their own political calculations and capital, including if they are up for reelection in 2026. it could be tough votes for republicans. amna: a month is a long time. leanne caldwell and tamara keith, always great to see you both. thank you so much. ♪ geoff: we'll be back shortly with a look at a very personal memorial project for victims of gun violence. amna: but first, take a moment to hear from your local pbs station. it's a chance to offer your support, which helps keep programs like this one on the air. ♪

geoff: for those staying with us, this holiday travel season means a lot of flying, and the aviation sector is under pressure to reduce its carbon footprint. in this encore report, science correspondent miles o'brien looks at efforts to create greener fuels for the skies. >> a half-mile outside the fence of boston's logan airport, carlos florez is helping grace the skids for an ambitious goal, erasing the carbon footprint of airline travel. he is at a wing stop, harvesting used cooking oil. it contains hydrocarbons and can be refined into sustainable aviation fuel. >> every time i fly back to brazil, i think about it, maybe i help here.

reporter: he drives for a subsidiary of a finnish oil refiner that is now a leader in global oil production, including sustainable aviation fuel. dave kimball is their president and ceo. >> the really cool thing about cooking oil is it has already had one life, and now we are having a second life with it. reporter: mahoney currently sucks about 400 million pounds of grease out of dumpsters nationwide. it plans to retrieve a billion by 2030. even though sustainable aviation fuel is two or three times more expensive than the fossil alternative, the airlines are demanding it, facing public backlash over its climate footprint. the industry has set an aggressive goal, net zero carbon emissions by 2050, and it has no other short-term alternative to fossil fuels.

globally, sustainable aviation fuel production will likely reach nearly a half billion gallons in 2024, a sixfold increase since 2022, and yet still only one half of 1% of the 99 billion gallon annual burn rate for jet fuel. in 2021, the biden administration launched a sustainable aviation fuel grant to challenge. the goal is to produce 35 billion gallons in the u.s. by 2050, but to get there, greece is not the only world -- the only word. jerry is the director of the center for biological innovation. he says oil from fire greece, soybeans, and poor and can produce a third of that goal and adding hydrocarbons to existing ethanol production can address another third. the rest will have to come from new crops dedicated to energy.

he says 20 million to 40 million acres of land will be needed. there are about 900 million acres of farmland in the u.s. >> you cannot have it all and have to make a choice between food and fuel. >> there is enough land potentially available to produce 35 million gallons of aviation fuel. >> the team is partnering with 17 other institutions, including the university of illinois urbana-champaign, home to the center of advanced bio products innovation. emily heaton is a professor in the department of crop sciences. she gave me a tour of their energy farm, where they grow, tweak, and study so-called bioenergy crops. when you say bioenergy crops, what exactly are we talking about? >> we are talking about crops that are used to capture carbon out of the atmosphere and used in place of plants that captured

carbon out of the atmosphere millions of years ago, which are fossil fuels. miles: one of the leading contenders is missed cap this gigantic's, a hearty grass plant that thrives in cold climates. they are crossbreeding it with sugarcane, hoping to add fatty compounds known as lipids to it to make the conversion to aviation fuel cheaper and easier. how much growth is this? how long did it take for them to get this big? >> premature plant, this is a single growing season's worth of biomass. miles: there is an equal amount of biomass beneath the surface. >> if you include the avoided fossil missions because we are not fertilizing much, it comes back carbon negative. miles: not just zero, carbon

negative. the energy farm is outfitted with a million-dollar network of sensors to verify the true carbon budget of these crops. but ultimately it will be the budget to farmers that will determine the success of these ideas. it is a chicken and egg problem, as i learned one morning when i visited emily's parents' farm, 20 miles west of urbana. >> you're going to put a wire here, here, and here. miles: johnny and connie are focused on pasture raised beef and ham. they know a lot about it. right now it is not a viable option for most farmers. the infrastructure does not exist for grass production. if you are thinking about growing grass that ultimately might fuel an airplane, the system is not set up for that, is it? >> no, it is a long way off. miles: to entice farmers to grow

energy crops, they will need equipment and crop insurance. right now, it is a field of dreams, except if you build it, the market may not come. this family is undeterred. energy crops not only offer benefits for the climate, they also improve the local environment, reducing runoff and improving soil health, adding diversity. >> getting back to our roots using contemporary carbon to base our society instead of fossil carbon is a choice that we need to make. stephanie: and still -- miles: and still freely travel around the planet without carrying excess carbon baggage. for the pbs news hour, i miles o'brien in boston. ♪ geoff: over 120 five people are killed by guns every day in the

u.s. to address that epidemic through art, the gun violence memorial project shares intimate details of lives lost. special correspondent jared bowen of gbh boston has the story for our arts and culture series, canvas. jared: they are the essence of home, proud structures with peak troops and smiling faces. within your glass bricks, the stuff of home, a treasured all caps, a beloved comic book hero, a triangle of toy trucks, objects left behind when their owners lost their lives to gun violence. >> we are able to see a little more into the personalities, the interests, the passions of those folks who are no longer here who have been taken do gun violence. the gun violence memorial project is a living and participatory memorial to victims of gun violence.

jared: john is one of the designers of the gun violence memorial project, a trip -- a traveling memorial. it is comprised of four houses each with several hundred glass bricks. that was the number of americans killed by guns on a weekly basis in 2018 when the memorial was conceived. >> my most heartbreaking experience of the memorial was hearing families say come look at my house, come look at my child, come see what i contributed. that level of engagement has really become, as it was intended to be, a vehicle for healing. jared: the memorial has been populated by objects received at nationwide collection events, where families contributed personal belongings. >> i chose the computer mouse because he is always on the computer. jared: her only child, ross, was killed in the 2007 virginia tech

shooting, a rampage. to her son' is computer mouse -- next to her son's computer mouse, the remains of a victim of a gun by -- of a drive-by shooting in washington, d.c. >> i can call anyone at any hour, and i have met a lot of people from mass shootings and things, and i can just say hey, are you up? yep. that helps a lot. jared: do you do that a fair amount? >> yeah. i haven't slept. >> there is a natural path of walking through the doorways. jared: ruth is the curator of boston's institute of contemporary art. the memorial, she says, is a way to understand gun violence victims as people, more than the

headlines that pop up in the united states. >> we talked to the family member about how they want those objects explained, what they want them to convey. sometimes the jersey will be folded in a way so that kid's logo can be shown, or the guitar pick can be angled in such a way that guests can see the angle of the guitar. i take it as a portrait. >> they can no longer speak, so we must speak for the dead. jared: clement tina's son lewis was caught in fatal crossfire in boston, on his way to a teens against fund violence -- teens against gun violence meeting. his break includes a christmas hat and library card for both the holiday and books he loved. >> was the experience of interacting with these homes? >> it is a mixed emotion. it is sadness, it is anger that this has to happen. at the same time is a sense of, i want to say celebration,

celebration that they are not forgotten. >> installations like this one market evolution and what public memorials can be. the gun violence memorial project was a collaborative effort, including architects at mass design group, the artist hank willis thomas, and victim'' family members. >> we are responding to calls and asks of how do we tell this story in a way that allows us to see more of ourselves represented in it. >> mass design group is also the firm behind the national memorial for peace and justice, which immerses visitors in the country's history of lynchings. it teamed with hank willis thomas for the embrace, boston's memorial to martin luther king jr. and caretta scott king, with a focus on their love. the firm is now working on memorials to both emmett till and the peaceful protesters attacked as they now began 90 -- as they began a now historic march in selma.

john, who leads the public firm's memorials lab, says these sites should be galvanizing ones, especially for future generations, in this case wanting to see an end to gun violence. >> we continue to insert these houses in the public sphere so that we are having a conversation about the impact of gun violence so that people just demand more. >> for the pbs news hour, i'm jared bowen in boston. geoff: that is the news hour for tonight. i'm geoff bennett. amna: i'm omnibus. on behalf of the entire team, thank you for joining us. >> gauger funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by -- ♪ supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just and peaceful world.

more information at macfound.org. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. ♪ >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >>

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now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. xfinity internet. made for streaming. (upbeat music) - hello everyone and welcome to amanpour & company. here's what's coming up. - [reporter] one of the world's worst humanitarian catastrophes. 25 million people in sudan require urgent aid after more than a year of conflict. sudanese analyst kholood khair joins me.