Clearly about probabilities. Sreenivasan all that and more on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by lincoln financial committed to helping you take charge of your financial future. And by the alfred p. Sloan foundation. Supporting science, technology, and improved Economic Performance and Financial Literacy in the 21st century. Supported by the rockefeller foundation. Promoting the wellbeing of humanity around the world by builng resilience and inclusive economies. More at rockefellerfoundation. Org Carnegie Corporation of new york. Supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of International Peace and security. At carnegie. Org. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. 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 convoys of buses carried some 3,000 people out of eastern aleppo in syria today, under a ceasefire arrangement. Their evacuation to Idlib Province effectively marked the end of rebel resistance in that city. In washington, secretary of state john kerry called again for peace talks, as he blasted the syrian government. The assad regime is actually carrying out nothing short of a massacre. We have witnessed indiscriminate slaughter, not accidents of war, not collateral damage, but frankly purposeful. Woodruff the white house said president obama spoke with turkeys president tayyip recip erdogan by phone and thanked him for brokering the truce. And syrias president Bashar Al Assad likened the fall of aleppo to the birth of christ or the revelation of the koran. Well get a report from aleppo later in the program. Sreenivasan in the days other news, president elect trump checked another box on his cabinet list. He chose congressman ryan zinke for interior secretary. The montana republican is a former navy seal who is finishing his first term in the u. S. House. Zinke has pushed for Energy Independence and voted to expand oil and gas drilling. Woodruff a jury in charleston, South Carolina, has convicted dylann roof, in the killing of nine black churchgoers last year. The white supremacist was found guilty today of federal hate crimes and other counts. In closing arguments, the prosecution called roof a cold, calculated killer, full of hate. The defense admitted his guilt, but focused on trying to prevent a death sentence. Sreenivasan bitterly cold air swept down from canada and engulfed the upper midwest today, spreading to the east coast. Temperatures were frigid and fell below zero in parts of north dakota, minnesota and wisconsin, where wind chills made it even colder 15 to 30 degrees below zero. The arctic blast also brought snow from the great lakes to the northeast, and caused a pileup of about 60 cars in western pennsylvania. Traffic was stopped. I tried to stop. I got pushed over into another lane, and i stopped and other cars started coming along, truck passed over. He was going about 60, got into the ditch and it just started piling up after that. Sreenivasan overnight, light snow from another storm system caused commuter havoc in portland, oregon with multiple crashes and traffic backed up for miles. Woodruff the 320,000 residents of corpus christi, texas, are being urged not to drink their tap water until further notice. City Officials Say it might be contaminated with chemicals from an industrial leak yesterday. The warning has caused a run on bottled water, with long lines at Grocery Stores across the city. Schools are also closed, and its not clear when the drinking supply will be safe again. Sreenivasan an expolice officer in milwaukee has been charged with reckless homicide in a Fatal Shooting that sparked riots. A criminal complaint released today says the victim was armed, but threw away his gun moments before he was killed. The officer was fired later, over a separate incident. And in pasco, washington; a coroners jury cleared three state police officers. They shot and killed an unarmed mexican farm worker after he threw rocks at them. Woodruff the United States today renewed sanctions against iran for another 10 years. The extension became law automatically when president obama declined to sign or veto the bill. The white house says the president will waive most of the sanctions, but its Warning Congress against doing anything else to undo the nuclear deal with iran. The president did not veto this bill because it does not undermine the deal. But there has been plenty of rhetoric and plenty of legislative work done on legislation that would blow up the deal. And this is a message that if the United States congress blows up the deal that prevents iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, they will have to deal with the grave consequences that ensue. Woodruff iran says the sanctions renewal does violate the nuclear deal, and it vows to respond. Sreenivasan investigators in egypt say theyve found traces of explosives on victims of an egyptair crash in may. All 66 people on board died when the flight plunged into the mediterranean sea. Search crews were able to recover a variety of wreckage from the sea floor. The plane had been on a flight from paris to cairo. There has been no claim of responsibility for downing the airliner. Woodruff back in this country, u. S. Labor secretary thomas perez announced hes running for chair of the Democratic National committee. Hell take on congressman Keith Ellison of minnesota. The state party heads in South Carolina and New HampshireJaime Harrison and ray buckley are also running. Sreenivasan as of today, Recreational Use of marijuana is officially legal in massachusetts. Its the first state on the eastern seaboard to take that step, and one of eight states nationwide. The ballot measure, passed last month, allows adults to grow and use limited amounts of marijuana at their homes. It will be another year before retail pot shops are allowed to open. Woodruff and, wall street rebounded some from yesterdays losses. The Dow Jones Industrial average gained 59 points to close at 19,852. The nasdaq rose 20 points, and the s p 500 added eight. Sreenivasan still to come on the newshour the trump familys role in the administration and business. The last survivors evacuate in the syrian city of aleppo. Evidence of Vladimir Putins involvement in the hack leading up to the election, and much more. Woodruff today was supposed to be the day president elect trump held a News Conference to spell out what role, if any, he would play in the future of his business empire. Hes since postponed that News Conference, of course, to january. Instead, today, there was a tweet pushing back against all of the talk about potential conflicts of interest. He said the media tries so hard to make my move to the white house, as it pertains to my business, so complex when actually it isnt but theres also this from one of his top aides kellyanne conway. She told msnbc this morning that there was still work to be done. Getting this right, before you announce it, is whats important. Thats what ive been told by the legal experts and the other protocol experts. To make sure that the structure thats put in place shows the complete separation, so that donald trump himself as the president of the United States, steve, can focus 100 on being president of the United States. Its going to take a little bit longer. Woodruff meanwhile, theres new pressure today from a group of senate democrats, who unveiled a bill that would require mr. Trump to divest from his businesses, and put his assets in a blind trust. Here now to unpack those possible conflict of interests are marilyn geewax, Senior Business editor for npr, and richard painter. Hes a professor at the university of Minnesota Law School and was a white house ethics adviser for president george w. Bush. And we welcome both of you to the program. Marilyn geewax, let me start with you, what do we know about why this announcement is being postponed . We know very little, other than what he tweets but one can speculate. He had said several weeks ago that he would have this press conference today, on the 15th, and on monday, he said, never mind. Im not really going to do that. So people are speculating that some think he wanted to wait until after the Electoral College votes. Others say the business is just so complicated that its going to take more legal work to figure out how to pull him out of it. And others just say that this is just kind of a general smokescreen, that you could say youre going to do this, you stall for two weeks, then he says hes going to do it, but now hes going to stall longer. And by the time he does get to this topic, it will be january, and well be focused on the inauguration and it will seem smaller. Woodruff richard painter, as we just reported, mr. Trump tweeted today, you know, its not complex. On the other hand, we just heard kellyanne conway, weve heard some of his other advisers say, well, there is more work to be done here to sort it all out. Well, it isnt that complex to sell businesses, particularly if you have the advice of some of the best lawyers and Investment Bankers in new york. They buy and sell businesses all the time. He could have a public offering. He could find a private equity firm, sell it to a private equity firm. There are a number of different options. I dont think its that complex, but it needs to be done correctly. But i wish he would assure us at this point that he is going to sell off his business interests, and in particular, he needs to be in requirement with the constitution, and the emoluments clause of the constitution which prohibits payoffs from foreign governments to United States officials. He simply cannot receive payments from foreign governments. The businesses doing businesses with foreign governments, he cant own them. Woodruff marilyn geewax, is there agreement among ethics experts and i know professor painter is one of them is there agreement about what donald trump needs to do . I think there really is broad agreement. t think of anybody, really, who would say, no, its a great idea to keep owning hotels a couple of blocks from the white house and having people feel pressured to stay at your hotel when i mean, it just its pretty much second grade stuff to see that there could be all sorts of conflicts of interest. Hes going to be shaping foreign policy, and he has businesses in Something Like 20 countries. He literally has some position in hundreds of companies over all of these different parts of the world. It would be impossible to separate out when is someone trying to win his favor, curry favor by boosting his business and when arent they . Its really pretty obvious that you need to have a big, very high wall if youre going to build a wall thats the one you want to build between your business and your job as president. Woodruff well, we dont know what hes going to do for sure, but, richard painter, one of the things he said is hements his sons or suggests he wants his sons to take over the business. Would that provide a measure of separation . No, particularly if hes still going to own the businesses. In order to give them to his son, hed have to pay the gift tax. I dont think he likes paying taxes. So if he just has his sons manage the businesses, thats not going to solve any of these problems. Businesses taking money from the foreign governments he will be in violation of the constitution on january 20 if he owns the businesses. Woodruff is there a precedent, richard painter, for a president and we know we dont typically have billionaires assuming the office of the presidency but is there any precedent what is the precedent for a someone coming into office and figuring out some way to keep his family involved . Well, we have had family members of the president involved. Usually, of course, its the spouse. And but the involvement is informal, and giving advice to the president about how to do his job. But running a business on the side and trying to profit from the presidency, thats whats inappropriate. And i do not not think family members who are both attending official meetings and on the other hand running a business. Woodruff and this week, marilyn geewax, weve seen the children just yesterday in that meeting with technology executives, both of his sons were there, his daughter, ivanka, her husband, Jared Kushner. Mr. Trump has talked about bringing ivanka and jarp ed kushner into the administration. Whats the precedent there . I mean, everybody refers back to john kennedy and his brother bobby as attorney general. But that was back in the 1960s. Right. And there are rules that are supposed ethics that have grown up in the postwatergate era, since 1978, where you really were trying to address these kinds of problemes of nepotism and conflicts of interest where congress did spell it out. Its pretty clear what the will of the Founding Fathers was. They didnt want you to take money foreign governments and they didnt want people to have conflicts of interest. When youre the president , you should be focused on doing only what is right for all americans, not for your family business. But what weve seen this week is really an aggressive pushback to that. Rather than have this press conference and talk about solving conflicts of interest, he had a meeting with a bunch of tech executives. Woodruff right. There were 25 people at the table and four of them were trumps. I mean, thats pretty aggressive on his part. Woodruff thats right, and his daughter, ivankas husband. Richrd painter, if there is some arrangement say where ivanka trump was involved obviously not the first lady. That would be mrs. Trump. But if she is there in a semiofficial role as daughter of the president. If Jared Kushner is involved, as has been suggested, maybe advising on national security, the middle east, and theyre not paid, could an agreement like that work . Well, i think you probably have to work out with congress because the antinepotism statute, which came in after the Bobby Kennedy appointment, is quite clear about not allowing someone to appoint relatives to positions in the government. Expwroang the fact that its not a paid position would would affect that. And i think that that he could work something out with congress, maybe to if he wants to maybe disclose his tax returns and do some of the other things that we care about, i would not have an objection to Jared Kushner. I mean or other family members being given a position. Theyre veriented people, and in some ways i think more talented than some of the people he has brought in. You have to work it out with congress. The statute is quite clear on nepotism. Woodruff and yeltsin the first lady, marilyn geewax, typically does play some role. The modern first lady takes on a clause. With Hillary Clinton, it was health reform. But think about the roles they took on. In mrs. Clintons case, he was pushing a health care agenda. With mrs. Obama, it was about children and obesity and nutrition. But what if, you know, if mrs. Obama had come out with a new line of jewelry and she started selling obamawear, and was holding up her new bracelets, that would have seemed peculiar. I mean, i think people would have been very shocked to see, you know, a little obama fragrance or you know woodruff but we dont know that its going to happen. It didnt happen while they were in office. But we do know the trumps plan to continue it appears to sell all sorts of products. Woodruff we will see. Marilyn geewax, richard painter, thank you both. Thank you very much. Sreenivasan the brutal fight for aleppo seems to now be over. Evacuations of civilians and fighters from the rebelheld east began today, as the pitched fouryear battle ends. Dan rivers of independent Television News is there. Reporter after so many false dawns, the siege of aleppo is over. But even this morning, president assads artillery couldnt resist one last go at killing those still trapped. Inside the rebel enclave, those he targeted for four and a half years prepared to leave. And these pictures show that while fighters were among them, most appeared to be civilians. They included women, children, the injured and the vulnerable, all caught up in the catastrophe of this conflict. The scale of the destruction they were leaving was laid bare. As was the enmity with which they regard those whove besieged them. translated its true were leaving aleppo. But once we grow up, were going to come back and liberate aleppo, god willing were going to come back and liberate aleppo. Me and all of my brothers. All of us. Reporter outside the regime buses were lined up and ready. A solitary vehicle carrying a red crescent flag emerged from rebel lines. Terms agreed. It was time to end the suffering. The buses threaded their way through the debris to start the evacuation. The call to prayer cut through the silence as a tense city held its breath and hoped for peace. Then, the first sign. Flashing lights, a convoy of ambulances and buses emerging onto aleppos ring road. The occupants of the buses came almost face to face with the men whod sought to kill them. But they were allowed to leave unhindered. And it didnt take long for president assads supporters to start their celebrations. I feel very happy. I feel that this victory will continue to all syria. Reporter but after so much bloodshed, this shouldnt have been a day of celebration. Jooerks were joined by satellite connection so please exciewz the interference on the line. You were there the last month. Tell me the main differences between then and now, especially among m