Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. Supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the worlds most pressing problems skollfoundation. Org. 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. Woodruff the december jobs numbers are in, and they show employers were in a hiring mood. According to the department of labor, monthly surveys found that u. S. Businesses added a net of more than 290,000 positions. The Unemployment Rate was unchanged at 5 , as more people went looking for work and found it. Well hear from the secretary of labor, thomas perez, after the news summary. President obama has vetoed a republican bill that would have repealed the Affordable Care act. He said today it would reverse significant progress in improving health care. This was the first such repeal measure to reach the oval office, but in a video statement, House Speaker paul ryan said it may not be the last we have shown now that there is a clear path to repealing obamacare without 60 votes in the senate. So, next year, if were sending this bill to a republican president , it will get signed into law. Woodruff the bill had enough votes in the house to override a veto but not in the senate. The president also made moves today on fighting violent extremism. They include a task force to counter the use of social media to radicalize and recruit. Senior Administration Officials traveled to Silicon Valley today to get the tech industrys help. An Islamic State affiliate in libya has claimed responsibility today for a deadly truck bombing. The explosion rocked a police base outside tripoli on thursday as hundreds of recruits were training. At least 47 people were killed and scores more were wounded. Meanwhile, investigators in belgium say theyve discovered an apartment where Islamic State militants made bombs for the paris attacks last november. A raid in brussels turned up suicide belts and bombmaking gear. The attacks killed 130 people. In syria, relief agencies waited today for the green light to enter a town that is literally starving to death. The Syrian Government has now agreed to let relief into madaya, in the northwest, near the border with lebanon. Geraint vincent of independent Television News filed this report. And be advised that some of the images may be disturbing. Reporter in the desperate neighborhoods of madaya, the people are to be found huddled around two stoves. The old man here take delivery of a small bag of olive leaves. Can you not bring us some rice . He asks. But the leaves are the nearest thing to food hell see today. There is at least some water to boil them in. We cant independently verify these pictures, but at the hospital the doctors say the emergency they are trying to cope with is getting worse and worse. This man hasnt eaten for 25 days, were told, and hes one of hundreds being kept alive with medication and spoonfuls of food. Laying siege to towns of civilians is a tactic employed by both sides in syrias war. It is forces loyal to assad which have cut off madaya. His government says it will allow humanitarian access. Aid agencies hope to get food in there by sunday. We know that when people are besieged and are cut off from supplies that the situation will be bad. We know that there will be high rates of malnutrition, severe malnutrition, stunting among children, health issues, diseases. We know that usually the children, the women, the elderly will pay a heavy price. Reporter aid might get through soon, but the uncertainties of war mean it might not. The time is running out for the people of madaya and so is what passes for food here. Woodruff the Syrian Government wants to wrest back control of madaya to secure supply lines to its hezbollah militia allies in lebanon. South korea fired up its loudspeakers today near the demilitarized zone, and blasted propaganda into north korea. The highdecibel criticism attacked the north korean regime and its leader, kim jong un. One message claimed un and his wife Wear Clothing that costs thousands of dollars. Seoul resumed the broadcasts after the north carried out a nuclear test, and South Koreans near the d. M. Z. Seemed supportive. translated no wonder the south korean government has started the loudspeaker broadcasts. We cannot tolerate those who conducted a nuclear test which was a violation. Dont you think . We should counteract it. Woodruff in the past, north korea has branded the broadcasts an act of war. It responded late today with propaganda broadcasts of its own. Adolf hitlers political manifesto mein kampf went on sale in germany today for the First Time Since world war ii and demand quickly outstripped supply. The initial print run was for 4,000 copies, but 15,000 orders flooded the publisher. The twovolume work includes critical annotations that debunk the nazi leaders claims. translated this edition exposes the false information spread by hitler, his downright lies and his many halftruths, which aimed at a pure propaganda effect. Woodruff for decades, the german state of bavaria used its copyright on mein kampf to block any new editions, but the copyright expired at the end of 2015. Back in this country, police in philadelphia say a man who ambushed and wounded an officer last night, pledged loyalty to the Islamic State group. The suspect, edward archer, is in custody. His mother says hed been hearing voices recently, and his family urged him to get help. Surveillance video shows the gunman firing more than a dozen shots at officer jesse hartnett, who was sitting in his cruiser. Hartnett shot back and wounded his attacker. Reports of sexual assaults have spiked at u. S. Military academies. The Associated Press reports they rose more than 50 during just the past school year. Its unclear whether thats mostly because assaults are actually on the rise, or whether victims are more willing to come forward. Wall street slumped again today, amid ongoing worries about chinas economy and falling oil prices. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 167 points to close below 16,350. The nasdaq fell nearly 46 points, and the s p 500 slipped 21. For the week, the dow and the s p lost 6 the worst since 2011. The nasdaq fell 7 . And finally, theres a new world record for mass tooth brushing. More than 17,500 children gathered in bangalore, india yesterday to highlight good oral hygiene. That should easily surpass the old mark for most people brushing their teeth, in one place. Still to come on the newshour the u. S. Labor secretary on a solid year in job growth; mexicos infamous drug lord, captured again; outrage over mass sexual assaults in germany, and much more. Woodruff the final jobs report for 2015 helped finish the year off with solid growth. Overall, the economy added 2. 6 million jobs last year. Combined with 2014, that led to a twoyear gain in jobs that was the best since the late nineties. And yet, wage growth remained slow or modest at best for the year around 2. 5 . Tom perez is the secretary of labor, and he joins me now. Welcome back to the program. Pleasure to be with you and all your viewers. Woodruff so this is a strong year of growth. I saw one report that said called it a redhot hiring spree. Whats behind this . What was driving this . Well, your introduction is really spot on. When you look at the last two years, not simply the last month and by the way the best quarter of 2015 was the last quarter of 2015 when you look at the last two years, this is the best twoyear stretch weve had since the late 90s. You look at auto sales. Last year was the hottest year for auto sales in history. You look at the you look at the fact that this sixyear stretch of auto sales is the best stretch since weve had since the end of world war ii, and you look at not only the quantity but the quality of jobs, judy, because what weve seen over the last two years is not only good numbers but very good quality. You look at, for instance, professional and business services, thats been the biggest growth area over the last two years. These are good jobs. Construction had a good year last year. With the infrastructure bill that passed at the end of last year, i expect construction will continue to do well. Healthcare, notwithstanding the truth deniers who say the aca is a job killer, the healthcare has been a recessionproof industry. So quantity and quality has been moving forward, and thats a good thing. Woodruff well, much of the underlying data is strong, mr. Secretary, but there still are some signs of concern. I want to ask you if its concern. It looks as if jobs that pay at the higher end, people earning more, are doing better than those in the middle and lower income levels. As we just mentioned, wage growth is stagnant. How do you explain that persistent sub stubbornness in terms of getting wages higher . What invariably happens in recovery is the jobs that come back first are the lowerpaying jobs, and thats what happened in this recovery. Now what youre seeing in recent years, which is a good thing, is more jobs that pay better are coming back. Thats what i was mentioning about the last two years. The challenge of wage stagnation is an undeniable challenge and it predates the great recession. Last years real wage growth of 2. 1 was the best weve had since the recovery began. So thats solid but thats not enough. Again, this issue dates back to really the late 70s. For decades after world war ii, productivity and real wage growth went hand in hand. Americans helped bai helped e the pie of prosperity and shared in the benefits. We still have real work to do on wage growth. Woodruff it sounds like something you expect to continue, the slow wage. Last year was the best year weve seen in the recovery. In the end of the clinton administration, the Unemployment Rate was 4 and, so, one of the things we can do to put upward pressure on wages is to continue to have tight labor markets. Another thing we can do is to raise the minimumwage. Another thing we can do is the regulations the president directed us to do to make sure people who work overtime get paid overtime. Investing in skills is a tried and true method of helping people get access to those middle class jobs that are out there in i. T. And other sectors. Woodruff broaden this out for us. We know globally china is slowing down. Weve done a lot of reporting on whats happening to chinas market. Thats having global repercussions. Then you have the price of oil at record lows. How much do yo do you worry of e effect of things like that on the u. S. Economy and u. S. Jobs . Well, the price of oil as it is now for consumers is unmitigated boon. You go to a gas pump and youre paying less than 2 a gallon. The average family last year had 500 to 800 additional money in their pockets. Thats good for consumers. What do they do with that money . They spend it. So you see very good numbers on Consumer Spending in the United States. Woodruff unless youre working in the industry. And the challenge for those working in the sector, and weve seen that impact in the Mining Sector where the oil jobs are found and, certainly, the head winds from china, and others in the strong dollar, its more difficult to manufacture, so the manufacturing numbers in 20 is a werent as good. But again, we had these head winds in 2015 as well. I did a lot of numbers days interviews where people said the market was volatile over the last two weeks, isnt the job numbers, arent they going to go down . And you look and see weve had two years in a row of north of 200,000 jobs a month on average. Thats solid. Woodruff one other thing i want to ask you about mr. Secretary is the Labor Force Participation rate. It continues at what i understand to be a fourdecade low. What is it, 62 of americans who want to be or would like to be in the labor force actually have a job. So how do you whats the prospect for the future for people who want the to work, either dont have the job they want or dont have any job . The Labor Force Participation rate over the last year has been basically the same. Its about 62. 6 . And its been a very narrow band. And the reason it has gone down from, say, ten years ago, 15 years ago, even five years ago, the primary reason its gone down is because of the aging of the population. Economists say roughly 50 of the reduction in Labor Force Participation is atrippettable to demographics. The main thing that we could do to increase Labor Force Participation at a policy level is to enact federal paid leave. The countries that have enacted paid leave laws and canada is a great example. In 2000, the female Labor Force Participation in canada was identical. Because of their investment in paid leave, they are 8 ahead of the United States. If we had kept pace, we would have 5. 5 million more women in the workplace making Silicon Valley look for like america and making our Social Security trust fund more secure. Woodruff labor secretary tom perez, thank you very much. Always a pleasure. Woodruff the words from mexicos president Enrique Pena Nieto this afternoon said it all mission accomplished. We have him. The him is perhaps the worlds mostnotorious drug lord joaquin guzman, known as el chapo, the ringleader of the Sinaloa Cartel. He was arrested after a fierce gun battle today, nearly six months after his elaborate escape from a highsecurity prison. We go to Hari Sreenivasan for more. Sreenivasan im joined now by alfredo corchado, director of the Borderlands Program at the Cronkite School of journalism at Arizona State univeristy. He has also reported for many years from mexico for the dallas morning news, and is author of midnight in mexico, a book about his experience covering the brutal drug war. So lets start with the basics. What happened, where was he . How did he get captured . Well, he was captured this morning right before dawn, intense firefight between the marines and drug traffickers, people close to or guarding el chapo guzman. What we know, since last july, the marines with the help of u. S. Intelligence have been tracking him in several mexican states including sinaloa where he was captured this morning, the state of durango and even tabasco. There were two confrontations from what we know. The first a private home and later captured at a hotel. Five of his trusted body guards were killed an at least one marine was wounded. Sreenivasan this is the second time the president of mexico has gone on National Television and said theyve got this guy. I mean, this is an important win. This is the second time for president Enrique Pena Nieto and the third time a mexican president has said that. He said, you know, mission accomplished, but i think a lot of people will feel the mission has not been accomplished until el chapo actually chases justice and the best chance of doing that will be on the u. S. Side. A lot of debate going on as to whether he will be extradited this time. Sreenivasan and lets talk a little bit about that. The United States has asked for extradition. Do you think that is a greater possibility now . I think the timing is much better than last time. I think the first time he was captured there was a lot of angst and reticence within the mexican government, the suspicion that you dont want to let the americans come in too close. But after this huge eembarrassment that went worldwise, i think there is a sense this may be good for mexican government, this obviously will be good for the u. S. Government. But keep in mind chapo guzman has a vast number of lawyers. Last time there was a fight for temporary injunctions to stop extradition. It may happen, but i think its a long, long ways before this happens. Sreenivasan what involvement was there if any by the u. S. In assisting with the capture . Well, my sources tell me that the u. S. Has been helping the Mexican Marines since the capture with intelligence, but unlike the first time, there were no u. S. Agents on the ground assisting the Mexican Marines and the federal police. So this is primarily a mexican operation. Sreenivasan you know, chopo guzman already had almost folk lower status but that prison break and how elaborate it was just six months ago really sealed it. Right, and today the premier of the movie chapo is in mexico city. Theyre expecting at least four other movies this year to talk about a series or there have been books. It will be interesting to see how people in regions in mexico, especially sinaloa, how they will react. Will they come out and protest again because of this arrest or let it go. Im sure there are songs written as we speak about chapos latest capture. Sreenivasan is there some sense this will be a more significant blow to the drug cartels . In some ways his capture is representative of mexicos ability to win the drug warm. And the ability to create rule of law. Chapos main lieutenant was captured so thats a huge blow to the Sinaloa Cartel. The Sinaloa Cartel for a long time has been under control of mio sambada, so there might be territorial fights in wha juared chihuahua and other places, but business as usual, as long as you have u. S. Demand, i think the drugs will continue to come up north. Sreenivasan alfredo corchado, thanks so much for