Transcripts For KQED PBS NewsHour 20151203 : vimarsana.com

In nigeria, the cancer of corruption has been spreading for years. Ifill and, we explain why two degrees is so important to those in paris looking to combat Climate Change. All that and more on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. Supported by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation. Committed to building a more just, verdant 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. Ifill 14 people are dead and another 17 wounded including ten critically after the nations latest mass shooting. It happened today in San Bernardino, california, a city of more than 200,000 people about 60 miles east of los angeles. Gunmen attacked a banquet facility at a social services complex, then fled, but authorities now say suspects died in a shootout with officers hours after the attack. It was late morning when heavily armed police and others raced toward Inland Regional Center moments after the alarm sounded. The subject is still inside the business, possibly active shooter. Male in black clothing is still firing rounds. Ifill the social Services Center is one of 21 run by the state, serving people with developmental disabilities. People came prepared, either dressed in a way to indicate they were prepared and they have long guns, not handguns. They came prepared to do what they did as if they were on a mission. Ifill Marcos Aguilera said his wife was inside the building when the shooting started. She said the guy shot two men next to her office, and when they started shooting, they locked themselves in her office. They saw bodies on the floor and said now ambulances are taking people out in stretchers. Ifill s. W. A. T. Teams desended on the facility and employees and others walked out with their hands in the air. The wounded were wheeled away on gurnies and Triage Centers were set up on roadways nearby. As the afternoon wore on, dozens of police flocked nearby streets and joined the manhunt. Hours later and dozens of miles away they got into a gun battle with two people in black suv. One person lay motionless in the street and officers pulled another from the bulletriddled vehicle. We have multiple officers involved in the shooting. We have two suspects dead at the scene, one of them male, one of them female. We had one Police Officer that was wounded. He has injuries that are not considered to be lifethreatening and he is at a local hospital and is expected to be okay. Ifill meanwhile, president obama says the San Bernardino assault reinforces yet again the need to prevent mass shootings. We should come together in a bipartisan basis at every level of got to make these events rare as opposed to normal. We should never think that this is something that just happens in the ordinary course of events, because it doesnt happen with the same frequency in other countries. Ifill the San Bernardino attack joins more than 350 shootings in the United States this year that killed four or more people. Our producers caught up with a witness to the standoff with police a short time ago. Once he got to, like, right there, they started shooting. We started hearing cracks. Those officers were literally coming out of the car. Ifill todays assault is the worst sense december 2012. Well have more on that right after the news summary. Ifill in the days other news, the first of six baltimore Police Officers, charged in the death of freddie gray, after an arrest that sparked unrest last spring, got his initial day in court today. Gray died of a severe spinal injury in police custody. Among other things, officer William Porter is charged with involuntary manslaughter. Prosecutors said today that porter did nothing to help gray or prevent his injuries. Defense attorneys disputed that. The United Nations Nuclear Agency has concluded that iran did work on Nuclear Weapons prior to 2009, despite its denials. The International Atomic Energy Agency reported today that the iranians did their most coordinated work on developing nuclear arms before 2003. It also said the activities were limited to planning and testing basic components. Nato formally invited montenegro today to join the alliance, and russia immediately threatened retaliation. The small balkans country has only 2,000 soldiers, but its strategically located on the adriatic sea, with deepwater naval bases. In brussels, the nato secretary general said the decision was not aimed at russia, in spite of ongoing tensions with moscow. It is a decision for our security. For the security of the 28 allies, and for the security of montenegro. Every nation has its sovereign right to decide its own path including what kind of security arrangements it wants to be part of. Ifill montenegros admission into nato will not become official until all 28 members of the alliance ratify the decision. Catastrophic flooding across Southern India grew even worse today, after the heaviest rainfall in more than a hundred years. The countrys fourth largest city, and industrial hub, chennai was all but paralyzed, with auto factories closed, and airport operations disrupted. Monsoon downpours dumped 15 inches of rain over a 24hour period, flooding thousands of homes. Stranded people had to waded through chestdeep waters in many places. Back in this country, the white house welcomed congressional agreement on a fiveyear funding bill for highways and mass transit. The 280 billion measure would end a long cycle of shortterm patches. It relies partly on oil sales from the Strategic Petroleum reserve, but does not increase the federal gas tax. Final passage is expected by friday. The house of representatives moved ahead late today on a longawaited rewrite of the no child left behind education law, from 2002. The compromise bill still mandates annual testing for reading and math in grades three through eight, and in high school. But it also lets the states, rather than washington, decide over how to use test scores to assess teachers and schools. The onesizefitsall formula of adequate yearly progress is rightfully gone. The accountability provisions in the every Student Succeeds act create a framework for states as they create their own meaningful accountability plans. This means that states can be flexible and innovative to create specific policies that work for them. Its a challenge ifill the senate is expected to vote on the bill next week. The government reports u. S. Health care spending surged last year by the most since president obama took office. The centers for medicare and medicaid says spending was up more than 5 from 2013 to 3 trillion. Expanded coverage under medicaid, as a result of the Affordable Care act, reached nearly 500 billion. On wall street, stocks sagged as oil fell below 40 a barrel and Federal Reserve chair janet yellen said an Interest Rate hike is still on track for later this month. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost nearly 160 points to close below 17,730. The nasdaq fell 33 points. And the s p 500 dropped 23. Former National Security adviser sandy berger died today, after a struggle with cancer. He helped craft president clintons Foreign Policy from 1997 to 2001, including bombing campaigns in kosovo and iraq, and the response to alqaidas bombing of u. S. Embassies in east africa. Sandy berger was 70 years old. And the white house unveiled its annual holiday makeover today. The featured attraction is the blue room tree, more than 18 feet tall. Its covered with messages from families of members in the armed forces. Theres also a 500pound gingerbread white house, covered in chocolate. And outside, 56 snowmen and women, one for each state and territory. Still to come on the newshour britain considers more military action against the Islamic State. Corruption in nigeria. From the streets to the government. A trend of big giving in Silicon Valley. And much more. Ifill first the latest from the mass shooting in San Bernardino. Hari sreenivasan is on the scene. Hari, there are so many loose ends and one seems to be at the local f. B. I. Folks on the ground will not rule out terrorism. Thats right, and the most recent press conference, the f. B. I. Said they cant rule it out, they cant rule it in, but at this point they say they will go where the investigation leads them and that could be domestic terrorism, that could be something more, but right now they just dont know enough about exactly who these people were and what their motives were behind the attack today. Ifill seems tube they are still examining and searching the building where this all took place. What are they looking for . Sreenivasan well, right now they are looking for any clues as to what these people left behind, was there anything else, was there any sort of explosive device. That was one of the concerns earlier this afternoon. In fact, there was even an object next to the suv where the shootout occurred and they spent quite some time making sure that wasnt an explosive or pipe bomb. That was one of the concerns they had. Considering these individuals were dressed in full Tactical Gear and what they were able to carry out today theyre very concerned perhaps the place is booby traps and perhaps there are other things that could be big problems for authorities. Ifill you talk about the two, the ones we heard about, the man and woman found in Tactical Gear killed by police, but there is apparently still at least a third suspect on the loose . Sreenivasan well, the third individual was seen running from the suv. That particular area. The most recent press conference, they said, look, we have detained this person. We still dont actually know whether or not theyre connected or if they are connected, how so. So this could have been somebody fleeing for a completely different reason. Right now the authorities have that person in custody and theyre trying to figure out if theres a connection between a third individual and perhaps if theres a fourth or a fifth, if there is Something Else that theres a larger plot at play. Ifill as far as we know, the one thing we know for sure is this investigation which started at the center for disabilities has now extended to nearby towns and cities. Yeah, one of the things that you notice here, San Bernardino is a city of 200,000 people, and just getting to this location this afternoon,t eerily quiet. Strip malls are shut down, road closures. Certain parts of town are running as normal. This is a place where even in these areas that are well cordoned off, people are trying to get home or people are stuck inside, trying to reach loved ones on the outside. So this is a significant disruption for this small of place. And virtual shut countdown in some parts of the town. Sreenivasan yeah, thats right. Ifill okay, hari, stay safe and keep us up to date. Thank you very much. Ifill the campaign against Islamic State forces advanced on several fronts today. Britains house of commons approved an expanded air Strike Campaign in syria, and the fight for a key provincial capital heated up in iraq. gunfire street battles raged today in ramadi as Government Troops backed by u. S. Airstrikes move closer to end a drawnout siege. But many iraqis led by the Prime Minister abadi did not appear to welcome the news in that u. S. Is sending Additional Special ops forces to root out i. S. I. S. Strongholds. translated we do not need foreign forces, whether american, danish, italian or french ones. The iraqi people are capable. translated u. S. Forces have no credibility and no good intentions. I consider this a new invasion. Ifill at nato headquarters in brussels, secretary of state john kerry denied iraqi leaders were not briefed about the new force in advance. We will continue to work very, very closely with our iraqi partners on exactly who will be deployed, where they will be deployed, what kind of missions people would undertake, how theyd support iraqi efforts to destroy isil. Ifill monday, british Prime Minister David Cameron made a plan to expand the british air campaign in iraq to syria. The question is do we work with our allies to degrade and destroy this threat and do we go after these terrorists in their heartlands from where they are plotting to kill british people or do we sit back and wait for them to attack us . Ifill but cameron faced riledup opponents to his plan after reports said he called them a bunch of terrorist sympathizers. An amendment was signed by 110 members of this house from six different political parties. Ive examined that list very carefully. I cannot identify a single terrorist sympathizer among them. Will he now apologize for his deeply insulting remarks. Ill be very clear, this is about how we fight terrorism and there is honor in any vote the honorable members make. Ifill in the end the house of commons backed the conservative government plan to begin airstrikes inside syria. Seperately, russia released satellite imagery purportedly showing trucks delivering Islamic State oil in turkey and turkish leaders profiting from the illicit trade. President erdogan dismissed the claims as slander. Ifill later in the day, an Islamic State video appeared to show the beheading of another hostage. The militants said he had spied for russia in syria and iraq. Ifill we return again to our continuing series this week, nigeria pain and promise. Tonight, special correspondent Nick Schifrin looks at the corruption in the oilrich nation, from the highest levels of nigerias government, down to the police on the streets. Reporter on the streets of lagos theres a saying every day is for the thief. Godwin ekpos thief was supposed to be his protector. Do the police often ask for money . Reporter godwin drove a taxi called a tricycle. Last month, a Police Officer stopped him to demand a bribe. Reporter thats about 10 what godwin would have made working as a taxi driver that morning. Reporter he was with his wife and their three children. He refused to pay. Reporter the officer had shot him, for refusing to pay 10. The perception has been that the police is corrupt. You can abuse the rights of the average citizen. Reporter Kemi Okenyodo studies police corruption. She says low salaries and a culture of impunity has led to this videos on local media show Police Officers inside peoples cars demanding money. The officer exhibits no shame. His victims reveal no surprise. Reporter in nigeria, this is daily life. For some, when the person asking for money has a club or a gun, bribes are more like ransoms. The low level corruption makes it worse. When you come into contact with Police Officers, when you go to police stations, when you go and report a case and the case can easily be turned against the person that has come to report. Reporter in nigeria the corruption is, sadly, everywhere. Shopkeepers here say police preside over a market for fake medicine. Ive been asked for bribes by Police Officers, by soldiers, by Airport Security officers behind the xray machine. In nigeria, the cancer of corruption has been spreading for years. Often it starts in childhood. The kuletu school in bauchi state looks like many rural nigerian schools. This is the 2nd grade classroom. No desks. No chairs. No pencils. No books. Reporter principal Musa Muhammad points out, this is mostly not about poverty. The 2014 federal education budget was 2. 4 billion. Muhammad accuses the government of pocketing money thats supposed to educate children. Reporter hes been asking the local government to fix this classroom. The wind blew the roof off six years ago. The contractor used this wood instead of the wood they were supposed to use . Reporter and the thinness of this wood, this is why the roof came down . Reporter so theyre keeping a part of the money and putting it in their pockets. Reporter is that because the government is in on it . Reporter why is there not money coming to these schools . Reporter yibis sylvester is a local human rights campaigner. He accuses government officials of theft. Reporter you might think a man who travels with people who call him king, who travels with police escort, and who rides in the back of a rolls royce limo is a member of nigerias corrupt class. But Muhammadu Sanusi is one of nigerias most progressive voices. In nigeria, theres no accountability at all. And thats why i think Nigerian Corruption is worse than in many parts of the world, because its the worst type of corruption. Its stealing. Reporter sanusi is the emir of kano, nigerias second highest islamic authority. But hes most famous for what he did wearing a suit. Reporter thats a tedx conference in 2013, when sanusi was Nigerias Central Bank governor. He accused former president goodluck j