Moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. The ford foundation. Working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Sreenivasan an arctic cold wave still dominates the nations weather tonight. Its blamed for several deaths, and its making life miserable for millions of people. That includes new york, where a dozen people died last night, in the citys worst residential fire in decades. John yang begins our coverage. Yang it was just 15 degrees when the bronx blaze erupted, forcing firefighters to battle both the fire and the cold. Residents escaping the flames had to brave the elements. All i see is a bunch of kids on the fire escape cold, and with no jacket, no pajamas, no nothing. Yang the citys fire commissioner said today the fire was started by a child playing with a stove. The stairway acted like a chimney. It took the fire so quickly upstairs that people had very little time to react. Yang new yorks cold was part of the deep freeze gripping the midwest and east with record or nearrecord cold. In parts of the deep south, temperatures are dipping into the 20s. I like cold weather, but this is getting to the point of ridiculous. Thank god im not in erie or out in the midwest or minnesota, or i would move. Yang President Trump remained at his florida resort, but he warned new years eve revelers in the east to bundle up, while taking another shot at climate science, suggesting that, perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming. Around the country, the bitter cold left icy impressions, like this blanket of steam hovering above the harbor in rockport, maine. But the beauty belies the danger. Across the country, officials are working to get the homeless off the streets, and urging people to help elderly neighbors. Forecasters say the cold wave could last well into next week. For the pbs newshour, im john yang. Sreenivasan well return to the issue of the weather and Climate Change, after the news summary. In the days other news, authorities in puerto rico now say power has been restored to 55 of the islands customers since Hurricane Maria struck in september. The rest of the 1. 5 million customers are still waiting. The u. S. Army corps of engineers says it will be may before all have power back. A gunman in egypt opened fire outside a coptic christian church, sparking a shootout with police. At least nine people died, including the attacker. Officials say some 350 worshippers were attending the church in a cairo suburb. Police had tightened security at the site during the holidays. It was the latest attack targeting Egypts Christian minority. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility. For the fourth consecutive friday, thousands of palestinians turned out in gaza and the west bank. They were protesting President Trumps decision to recognize jerusalem as israels capital. Israeli soldiers fired tear gas at rockthrowing protesters. The military said it also used live fire against instigators. Palestinian Health Officials say dozens of protesters were injured. Militants in gaza also fired several rockets, and the israelis answered with tank and aircraft fire. There were no reports of injuries. China today denied that it is violating u. N. Sanctions and allowing oil to reach north korea. South korean reports say chinese ships have transferred oil to north korean vessels at sea 30 times since october. And, the u. S. Treasury says satellite images show one of the transfers. But in beijing, the Foreign Ministry rejected the reports, and President Trumps claim that china had been caught red handed. translated the vessel involved has not docked at any port in china since august. There is no record of its entry and exit at chinas ports. We have no knowledge of whether it visited any port in other countries. Therefore, the series of recent reports do not accord with the facts. Sreenivasan meanwhile, south korea announced it has seized a ship from hong kong that is suspected of offloading oil to a north korean ship. President trump says he thinks special Counsel Robert Mueller is going to be fair in his probe of russian meddling in last years election. He spoke to the New York Times and insisted again there was no collusion between his campaign and russia. He did not call for an end to muellers investigation, but he did say it makes the country look very bad. So the sooner its worked out, the better it is. The people of liberia have chosen a new president. Former soccer star george weah was formally declared the winner today of a runoff election. Supporters anticipated the victory, and began celebrating yesterday and on into the night. Weah ran on promises to fight corruption and revive the economy. In january, he will succeed Ellen Johnson sirleaf in liberias first democratic transfer of power since 1944. Back in this country, wall street closed out the year on a down note. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 118 points to close at 24,719. The nasdaq fell 46 points, and the s p 500 dropped 14. Overall, the market had its best year since 2013. The dow was up 25 , the nasdaq gained 28 , and the s p was up 19 . And, lifelong entertainer rose marie died thursday at her home in the los angeles area. She was best known for her role on the Dick Van Dyke show in the 1960s. Rose marie played the wise cracking sally rogers on the sitcom. She said later it was a rare role at the time a woman who wasnt a wife, mother or housekeeper. Shed begun as a child singing star in the 1920s, and appeared on broadway as well. Rose marie was 94 years old. Still to come on the newshour amid freezing temperatures, we explore the difference between weather and climate. Bombing hospitals as a strategy of war. Perspectives on feminism from the ancient greeks. And much more. Sreenivasan lets return to our top story. President trump weighed in on twitter last night about the cold snap bracing much of the country, and he seemed dismissive, yet again, about the effects of Climate Change. At the same time, he seemed to conflate the latest weather with the broader issues around climate. John yang is here to help break down the differences. Yang hari, to help us understand that, and how Climate Change is viewed in the world of science, im joined by michael oppenheimer. Hes a professor of geosciences and International Affairs at princeton universitys Woodrow Wilson school. Michael oppenheimer, thanks for joining us. Let me just remind folks what the president said on twitter last night after noting the record forecast or the forecast for record cold on new years eve on the east coast. He said, perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our country but not other countries was going to pay trillions of dollars to protect against. Bundle up. Lets take that in two parts. First of all, is he confusing climate and weather . Its impossible to say what was in the president s mind, but he probably was trying to confuse other people about the reality of Climate Change. This cold snap is weather. Weather is what you experience day to day. Climate is the longterm average of weather over periods of years, decades, centuries or even longer. Let me give you an amegy from the stock market an analogy from the stock market. Its perfectly possible for the stock market to be rising due to understooded factors like favorable economic forecasts and yet to decrease significantly for one day, several days, a month or even several months. That happens all the time, even though the longterm trend might be continuing thereafter. Its the same thing with Climate Change. The earths temperature is going up. Its been going up for about a century. That increase is due to the buildup of the Greenhouse Gases caused by, by and large, by the burning of coal oil and natural gas and, yet, climate has certain unpredictable factors about it which could cause variations like the current cold snap which could cause temperatures to drop below normal for relatively small areas if after what were talking about is the northern half to have the United States. So theres a longterm trend of warming. This cold snap says nothing about the trend and the trend will continue until we make a radical reduction in Carbon Dioxide and other Greenhouse Gases. Yang given that distinction, do scientists see a connection between Climate Change and episodes of extreme weather . Yes, some episodes of extreme weather can be tied directly to the buildup of the Greenhouse Gases caused by human activity. For instance, the incidents of extreme heat increased and heat waves are increasing faster than theyd without the buildup of Greenhouse Gases and that connection has been made clearly. Similarly, incidents of very high water at the coast which is related to flooding, for instance when a storm comes along, has been tied in some cases to the buildup to have the Greenhouse Gases through its effect on sea level rise. So, overall, there are some episodes of extreme weather that are directly related to the human buildup of Greenhouse Gases. Yang lets take the second part of what he said. He said the United States but not other countries was going to pay trillions of dollars to protect against Climate Change. I presume hes talking about the requirements of the paris accord. Is that true, what he said . Thats a complete fabrication. For instance, the cost of the u. S. Proposal to cut its emissions by 26 to 28 , that reduction would have been obtained by and large by reductions in the power sector, the socalled clean power plant, electricity production, and those would have cost a few billion dollars, not a few trillion dallas and would have, in fact, produced for benefits in terms of reduced air pollution starting right now and eventually reduce climate damages they they would have than they would have cost. It was a winner but the Trump Administration decided to rip it apart. Yang michael oppenheimer, princeton university, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. Sreenivasan as the war in syria raged over the past six years, hospitals and clinics were repeatedly bombed. According to the geneva conventions, medical facilities are supposed to be neutral parties in war. But in syria, as well as yemen and a number of other conflicts around the world, they continued to be hit. The new barbarianism is a documentary that addresses this additional war casualty. The Washingtonbased Center of strategic and International Studies made the film, and it was directed by former newshour Foreign Editor justin kenny. I taped a conversation on this topic earlier in the week, but first, an excerpt, which includes some images that are disturbing. By april 2016, half of aleppos population of 3 million were gone, displaced, in flight, dead or injured. thunder many who remained lived under siege with few means t to escap, as syrian president bashar alassads military attempted to destroy rebel forces in the city. Aleppos medical community targeted and in collapse struggled to continue. Dr. Mohammed, one to have the citys last remaining pediatricians, was among a small group of doctors who vowed to keep working despite the dangers. Hes seen here as he began his shift at alkuds general hospital. Its the last time anyone saw him alive. He was killed when aircraft struck the medical facility with missileles. We were so surprised and shocked when we saw our colleagues covered with their blood and giving their last breaths. Neurosurgeon dr. Rami khouris staff at a nearby hospital tried to save victims of the attack including severely injured health colleagues. I dont know how to describe that. Its so hard emotionally. Its like you are losing one of your precious in front of your eyes. 55 people died in the attack. Among them, two doctors, two nurses, a technician and a guard. This attack fits the assad regimes abhorrent pattern of striking first responders. The Syrian Government and russia, its close partner in executing the air war, denied targeting the hospital. Hundreds of similar attacks upon civilian infrastructure followed. For more on all of this, we turn to Stephen Morrison. He was the executive director of the film and is director of the Global Health policy at center for strategic and International Studies. He served on the state departments policy planning staff during the clinton administration. And dr. Ahmad trochee, Syrian American medical society, a medical Relief Organization that provides assistance to syrians, going joining us from fresno at a hospital via skype. Why target hospitals . Its a very good way to demoralize a population in an area of conflict, if you take away something so fundamental to the functioning of society. You take that away, people lose hope and it induces mass flight and weakens the armed enemy that you are opposing. So its a very, very good tactic of war and, as long as theres impunity, which, in most of these cases that weve seen, thats true, then youre not paying much of a price. Sreenivasan dr. Trochee, tell us about the type of work your organization does. A student medical American Society known as sames. At this time we have about 120 medical facilities inside syria and about 2,000 medical professionals, doctors and nurses providing care for people inside syria. In 2016, we provided care for more than 2. 5 Million People inside syria. Sreenivasan so, doctor, how many of your facilities have been targeted . From 2014 until now, more than onethird of the attacks documented attacks on Healthcare Facilities are against sames facilities. Sreenivasan dr. More rison is there a distinction the airplanes are making . Well, i think that the national and indigenous institutions in these zones of war, whether were talking about syria, yemen, afghanistan, there are over 20 countries where were seeing documented cases of this. The National Institutions are even more vulnerable than those who are international n. G. O. S. These cases so unreported oftentimes. Sreenivasan dr. Trochee, can you give us an example of what happens in these strikes . How do you respond . The attacks we just witnessed on the hospital, around that time aleppo was completely besieged, and the goal was to displace the people and collapse the infrastructures in the city. As time goes on, those attacks were actually mainly waged against medical facilities. It was not collateral damage. So when we see those attacks, they follow a certain pattern. You see the attacks are targeting hospitals in the same neighborhood, so the Health Facilities were collapsed as well as the airstrikes will start attacking ambulances and so on, so there will be no way to achieve or respond medically. What happened internally among the aide workers is they communicated on documenting and reporting and what to do next. Weve seen significant courage of the aide workers who are not running away. Theyre running into the risk. Theyre not leaving the hospitals or the patients as the ambulances are rushing out despite the airstrikes to save as many as we can. We had more than five attacks on the same hospital in a week until that hospital collapsed and got out of service completely. Sreenivasan i want to ask a twopart question. One, what sort of measures are you starting to take now . Ive heard of hospitals moving into underground locations and caves. Also, what keeps your doctors going back and putting themselves in harms way to do this work . We move many facilities to underground hospitals and we move them to caves, and a few months back we accomplished our report showing that the casualties and the medical staff and the underground hospitals despite the attack has been zero. Unfortunately, the time we released that report, we witnessed the first medical staff chemical attack on our facilities. The other part is what we call track meaning the hospitals. You will see, for example, the peerkdz unit might not be connected to the intensive care unit and you see the units around and that has decreased the casualties. It became a major challenge for all of us. Sreenivasan dr. Ahmad trochee of the Syrian American medical society and Stephen Morrison from the center for strategic and International Studies. Thank you both. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity. Sreenivasan stay with us. Coming up on the newshour shields and brooks analyze President Trumps first year in office. The year in music a look back on the top hits of 2017. And, an argument for why we need more poetry in our lives. But first, lets close out our book conversations for 2017 with a new release that highlights one of the hotbutton issues of this year womens voices in the Public Square, and