Transcripts For KQED PBS NewsHour 20180103 : vimarsana.com

KQED PBS NewsHour January 3, 2018

Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by babbel. A language app that teaches reallife conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. Babbels 1015 minute lessons are available as an app, or online. More information on babbel. Com. Bnsf railway. 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. Woodruff a sixth day of protests against irans leaders roiled that country today, leaving over 20 people dead and hundreds under arrest. President trump has welcomed the demonstrations, but today white house spokeswoman Sarah Sanders stopped short of calling for regime change. Rageh omar of independent Television News has more. Reporter there is little letup in the protests across iranian cities. Their numbers may not be huge, but their significance cannot be underestimated. This crowd are chanting death to the dictator, a reference to Supreme Leader of iran, ayatollah ali khamenei, who earlier today met with supporters in what was his first public appearance since the nationwide protests began. He accused what he described as irans enemies of fomenting the disturbances, a clear reference to the united states, israel and saudi arabia, and he said irans courage and faith would overcome such efforts. That warning didnt stop President Trump from taking to twitter, where he said the people of iran were finally acting against what he called a brutal and corrupt Iranian Regime. He said the iran people have little food, big inflation and no human rights, and that the u. S. Is watching. The protests started in the holy city of masshad last thursday, quickly spreading to the capital of tehran, and further east, to some 50 cities, across the country as far south as chabahar and ahwaz. So far, the government has been careful not to respond with a hardline violent crackdown, as it did in the wake of the political riots of 2009, which saw thousands lose their lives. What began as demonstrations born out of economic grievances are now sounding much more like angry condemnations of the leadership of the Islamic Republic itself. The regime will be hoping that large progovernment demonstrations will drown out such sentiments. Woodruff that was rageh omar of independent Television News. In the days other news, south korea extended an olive branch to its rival, north korea. It offered highlevel talks with pyongyang to find ways to cooperate on next months Winter Olympics in the south. That came a day after north Korean Leader kim jongun issued a rare overture to discuss easing military tensions. South korea proposed for the two countries to meet in a border village next tuesday. translated we look forward to candidly discussing mutual interests from both sides facetoface, to improve relationships along with the norths participation in the pyeongchang Winter Olympics. Woodruff back in the u. S. , President Trump weighed in on the possible talks between the koreas, tweeting, perhaps that is good news, perhaps not. We will see. U. N. Ambassador nikki haley said any talks wont matter unless the north drops its nuclear program. The Trump Administration is withholding millions of dollars in aid to pakistan over concerns that it hasnt done enough to fight terrorism. U. N. Ambassador haley made the announcement a day after President Trump used twitter to criticize islamabad for harboring terrorists. Haley also left open the possibility President Trump could eventually halt all funding to pakistan if they dont fully cooperate. She spoke at u. N. Headquarters in new york. The administration is withholding 255 million in assistance to pakistan. There are clear reasons for this. Pakistan has played a double game for years. They work with us at times, and they also harbor the terrorists that attack our troops in afghanistan. That game is not acceptable to this administration. Woodruff in pakistan today, scores of demonstrators took to the streets of karachi. Protesters burned american flags and chanted slogans condemning President Trumps tweet. Pakistans Foreign Office also summoned the u. S. Ambassador to explain the president s comments. Late today President Trump also suggested in a tweet that the u. S. Could cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority over its stalled peace talks with israel. An American Service member has died in combat in eastern afghanistan. Pentagon officials said the fighting took place yesterday in nangarhar province, near the pakistani border. Four other soldiers were wounded. The u. S. Military formally ended its combat mission in afghanistan in 2014. But it still takes part in operations against the taliban and the islamic state, alongside afghan forces. In peru, at least 30 people lost their lives when their bus plummeted over the side of a cliff. The bus was traveling on a treacherous stretch of highway north of lima, when it collided with a tractor trailer. Rescue crews worked to save who they could. Several survivors were transported to a nearby hospital with serious injuries. Back in this country, the longestserving Senate Republican announced he is retiring at the end of this year. 83yearold orrin hatch of utah said he wont seek reelection after being in office more than 40 years. In a video announcement, hatch, who chairs the powerful Senate Finance committee, said its time to move on. Ive always been a fighter. I was an amateur boxer in my youth, and i brought that fighting spirit with me to washington. But every good fighter knows when to hang up the gloves. And for me, that time is soon approaching. I may be leaving the senate, but the next chapter in my Public Service is just beginning. Woodruff the move now opens the door for former republican president ial nominee mitt romney to possibly run for hatchs seat. A bonechilling cold gripped a huge swath of the u. S. For another day. The deep freeze has now been blamed for at least nine deaths in the past week. Subzero temperatures forced schools to close in indianapolis. And farther south in houston, texas, traffic on icecovered highways slowed to a crawl. Freeze warnings were issued there, all the way north to canada, and from montana through new england. The leader of the new York City Ballet is retiring, following an investigation into sexual misconduct. Peter martins had been accused of sexually harassing or abusing members of the company over decades. In a letter to the board of directors, martins maintained his innocence, and acknowledged the scandal had taken a painful toll on his family. And on wall street today, stocks began the new year on a high note, led by gains in the technology and health care sectors. The Dow Jones Industrial average soared 104 points to close at 24,824. The nasdaq hit a record high, rising 103 points, and the s p 500 also notched a record, adding 22. Still to come on the newshour how irans leaders are responding to the unrest in their country. Congress returns with a full plate of budget issues. Can having a dog help you live longer . And, much more. Woodruff we return to the protests in iran, and take a closer look at whether the iranian government is united in how to respond, with abbas milani, director of the Iranian Studies Program at stanford university. Mr. Milani, thank you very much for joining us. Before i ask you about the governments response, how do we know whether these protests are organized, whether theyre spontaneous . What do we know about that . I think what we know is theyre spread over a remarkably large expanse of the country. Theyre occurring in some of the places that have never been centers for action against the government, small towns where people cannot hide behind anonymity, where the regime knows everybody. So it to me is an indication of the level of despair in places never before the center of discontent. You are seeing massive demonstrations, either in size or in the voracity of the slogans. Woodruff what does that tell you about what is bringing these people out into the streets . I think what it tells me is that the result of about 30 years of economic mismanagement, of corruption, of cronyism, increased pressure as a result of the sanctions have created a moment i think where people, and new categories of people. This is the regime of the poor, the dispossessed, and it is here, too, these elementings that have come into the streets, sometimes in cities known for their religious piety, from mashad, to najafabad, which has the distinction of having more people in iraq in terms of the number of people killed. These are now the centers of activities, and this gradual grind of doubledigit unemployment, doubledig inflation, no prospects of economic improvement, remarkable cronyism, recent publication of budget figures that show millions of doll verse been given to religious endowments that have done virtually nothing to contribute. All of that i think created a tipping point. Drew so what. Woodruff so what do you make, professor, of the regimes response in today, among other things, the Supreme Leader said that its enemies of the country that are behind this. I think he has a paranoid view of the world. He does not believe that he has made any mistakes. He has yet to accept any mistakes for any of the major policy decisions that he is directly responsible for. I think many in the regime, including rouhani, have long realized that the status quo is not tenable. They know the level of disgruntlement. They know that more serious economic structure challenges that are on the horizon. Iran faces some truly remarkable economic challenges from the falling price of oil to, water shortage, to unemployment, to the failure of investments to come into iran. None of these can be solved unless mr. Rouhani and his conservative allies accept responsibility for the catastrophe that they have created and maybe allow, its not too late yet, maybe allow more mergers. Woodruff do you believe there is a chance he will do that . Everything i know about him, everything i have read about him, everything i have watched about him, unfortunately i do not have room for optimism. My only hope is that people around him and people who have a stake in the regime, people who realize the bloodshed that will come will prevail upon him to change his views. I hear that hes going to give a talk this friday, and if the talk that he gave this morning is any indication, i see very little hope of the much, muchneeded tone of contrition that he needs to have. Woodruff is there room for dissent, for debate within the leadership of the country . I think there is. I think there is considerable room for factual dissent within the regime. They dont like it in public. They all have to be very careful of not causing problems for mr. Rouhani. A number of people have been arrested illegally. Theyre under house arrest. The leader of the green revolution. Most leaders of the country other than khomeini know this is stupid and counterproductive, but they dont challenge him. But behind closed doors, one hears unconfirmed reports that more and more people are beginning to realized that his path is literally a path of a grim future for iran, because i think the level of anger is so rackable. There are forces that are instigating more anger on their side. Woodruff and just quickly, what effect do you see President Trumps tweets having . Hes very critical of the regime, calling him corrupt, saying its time for change. Is that helpful or not . I think in some ways it has been very helpful because i think people need to know, the Iranian Regime needs to know, as mr. Trump said, the world is watching, but mr. Trumps policies of the past have made the effectiveness of the tweets i think less. The fact that there is a ban on iranian, the fact that he sided almost completely with saudi arabia in the region, the fact that he called the persian gulf the arabian gulf, all of these have helped undermine the potentially far more effectiveness of the muchneeded support for the iranian people. And i think europe, too. People are increasingly trying to see where europe stands. Woodruff abbas milani at stanford university, thank you very much. Woodruff over this holiday break, republicans in congress celebrated their tax cut bill and stressed plans to rebuild the military and infrastructure. But they spoke less about a tough tradeoff involved adding to the governments red ink problem. Our Lisa Desjardins looks at how lawmakers are spending, and a potential budget collision ahead. Desjardins thats right, judy. To get our hands around this, we have with us longtime spending watcher, stan collender. He is a professor of Public Policy at georgetown universitys mccourt school, and a contributor to forbes magazine. I want the start breaking down some of the big examples here, stan. Lets look quickly, the tax cuts, thats estimated to be about 1. 5 to 2 trillion it would add to the deficit, disaster aid, three hurricanes and wildfires last year, there are proposals for 100 billion there, and infrastructure, President Trump proposing another 200 billion there. Not clear how this will be paid for. I want to ask you about another big one, budget cuts. This year is unique that acrosstheboard spending cuts called a sequester are to go into place, but now republicans and democrats want the lift those, which would add to the red ink. Can you explain this . Sure. Let me make a lessthanbold prediction. Those spending cuts will never happen. Democrats want more for domestic spending. Republicans want for for the military. These cuts would be so dastardly that congress would do everything to avoid it. They didnt think avoiding it meant raising the caps. They thought it meant consulting other spending. Now well just increase the deficit so to get to your basic point, how are they going to pay for it . Theyre not. Theyre going to borrow to pay for it. Drew what does this mean . We have major shortterm deadline coming up january 19th. Thats when the latest government funding bill runs out. How does this bigger budget cap and spending cuts battle affect that in. Well, in a perfect world, democrats and republicans and the white house, we get together by january 19th and work out a deal. Thats very unlikely given the hyperpartnership thats going on, given the unpredictability of President Trump. So chances are well get another shortterm funding bill, im guessing until the end of this month, that is the end of january to, give them more time to deal with it. Ultimately it means more spending than were expecting spendinghat was on the list yout down. There a much higher deficit. I have been saying to months for my readers. Were looking at deficits of 1 to 1. 2 trillion a year every year during the Trump Administration. Woodruff we have a longer list of these spending items in our weekly politics newsletter. A bigger question, ive been on the halls in capitol hill, ive been talking to republicans. And even some members of the conservative Freedom Caucus are shrugging off or holding their nose about the spending decisions. This was the party of the deficit hawks. For republicans, is this spending a change in philosophy or is this just a change of shortterm priority . Look, im going to say it differently. It wasnt a change, because the republicans never cared that much about the deficit to begin. With they cared about the deficit when it was a way to stop someone else, Barack Obamas proposals from happening. But now that its their proposal, tax cuts, defense increase, the deficit be damned. They want to move ahead and do what they want to do, and if it means that it induces or forces cuts or forces people the look at cuts on things like medicare and medicaid and social security, so be it as far as theyre concerned. Woodruff balanced budgets predate barack obama and go back before that. Oh, sure, but these same people who were big on balanced budget amendments to the constitution and spending deals that would result in a balanced budget in ten years, they just have gone by the wayside. That was in many ways just subterfuge to get through what they wanted to do so they can do what they want to do now. The last question, voters also in polling, they dont seem so concerned about spending and deficits right now. Thats different than six years ago when we saw that spike and people were worried. Playing devils advocate here, maybe do republicans not need to Pay Attention if voters arent paying attention . Undoubtedly the polling for the republicans showed exactly what you just said, which is that give an choice between a tax cut and a deficit increase, no problem, well take the tax cut every time. But when tax cuts dont produce that much for the average person and start spiking up Interest Rates and inflation and it starts people. People start to hurt to feel by it, they will start to worry about the deficit again, and its going to be more difficult. Classic short term long term problem. Stan collender, thank you for joining us. Youre welcome. Woodruff stay with us. Coming up on the newshour changes coming to public and private schools in the new year. And, whats behind the publics distrust of the news media. But first, a new Scientific Study underlines the truth of the old phrase, dogs are a mans best friend. According to researchers in sweden, dog owners live longer. Their figures show that of people who live alone, those who have a dog have a 36 chance of living longer than those who dont have a pet. Malcolm brabant begins his report from uppsala, north of stockholm. Reporter tove fall practices what she preaches. Shes got a dog called vega. An epidemiologist, shes an expert in dise

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