Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. Xq institute. Lincoln financial committed to helping you take charge of your financial future. 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 russian president Vladimir Putin today slammed u. S. Sanctions and the expulsion of Russian Diplomats over electionhacking attacks. But, he said, moscow will not toss out u. S. Diplomats. Instead, he invited the children of american diplomats to holiday parties at the kremlin. And, in a statement, he said russia will plan further steps to restore relations, based on the policies of the Trump Administration. Later, the president elect tweeted to say great move on delay by v. Putin. I always knew he was very smart. We will return to the putin response, after the news summary. And in the days other news a fragile ceasefire appeared to hold across syria, despite sporadic shooting. Diana magnay of independent Television News reports. Reporter its not as though theres no fighting today this is a regime air strike earlier on near the city of hama. But nothing so severe that the deals off, yet. translated there is a real opportunity to reach a political solution for the crisis in syria that ends the bloodshed and establishes the roots for the future of the country. Reporter with the frontlines quiet, people in opposition areas went back onto the streets, just had they done in the early days of the revolution. Not that everyone here remembers those days, but the refrains familiar a syria without assad, even if the outcomes as unclear as ever. If you say, are we happy with assad still in power . Of course, we will not be happy, and i tell you that all refugees will not move back unless assad goes away, unless he goes from his position in syria. Reporter that will be up to the russians. Aleppo was part of this deal, struck between turkey and russia in two months of back and forth talks. With aleppo chalked up for the regime, its now up to putin to see what pressure he can bring to bear on the syrian president before talks next month in kazachstan, if this ceasefire holds and thats a big if. Along its border, turkey is expanding its facilities for refugees, to house the tens of thousands freshly displaced from aleppo through this bitter winter and beyond. Russia and turkey are pitching themselves as Regional Power brokers, guardians against terror, bringers of peace. High stakes if they fail, but the initiative now is with them. Sreenivasan back in this country, a North Carolina judge blocked a republican bid to strip the Incoming Democratic governor of some of his powers. Republicans passed the statute after roy cooper was elected. It takes away his control of election boards. Cooper sued today, saying the law is unconstitutional. The judge stopped it from taking effect on sunday, pending a review. New numbers confirm that fatal shootings of police rose sharply in 2016. The National Law EnforcementOfficers Memorial Fund reports 64 were shot and killed in the line of duty, up 56 rom last year. The total includes 21 officers killed in ambushstyle attacks, in dallas, baton rouge and elsewhere. A winter storm socked new england overnight and today, the regions first strong noreaster of the season. Some areas got as much as two feet of snow. Nearwhiteout conditions hit maine, where snow fell at the rate of three inches an hour in some places. The storm knocked out power to more than 100,000 homes and businesses. And, wall street closed out a winning year on a losing note. The Dow Jones Industrial average gave up 57 points to finish at 19,762. The nasdaq fell nearly 49 points, and the s p 500 slipped ten. But for the year, the dow gained more than 13 ; the nasdaq rose 7. 5 ; and the s p was up 9. 5 . Still to come on the newshour u. S. Russia relations after president obama imposes sanctions; david brooks and david corn take on the weeks news; a year of triumph and heartbreak for music fans, and much more. Sreenivasan we now turn back to the latest in u. S. Russia relations. For insight into putins reaction to the Obama Administrations leveling of sanctions against russia yesterday, we turn to andrew weiss. He was director of russian, ukrainian and euraisian affairs at the White House NationalSecurity Council staff. Hes now with the Carnegie Endowment for international peace. So what do you make of putins reactions . Vladimir putin is an opportunist and loves being the center of attention. So here he has the entire world talking about his incredible magnanimity and not returning the favor by expelling u. S. Diplomats or responding to these sanctions. A couple of months ago when putin was talking about the hacking scandal, he said a to you years ago no one talked about russia, but now its all they talk about, they say bad things but its good for us, its very pleasant. Sreenivasan do the sanctions create deterrents enough to stop russia from doing what its doing . Deterring russia from engaging in cyberoperations against the United States is an impossible task. You can shame and hit a few key individuals like the Obama Administration did yesterday that might expose what russia is doing, provide Public Education especially on the eve of european elections, thats what governments are doing around the world, theyre saying we know what the russians are up to, explaining it to the public and hopefully it wont have the affect it did in the United States. Reporter what is the effect of the introduction of the kremlins children at Holiday Party . I think its a pattern of u. S. Personnel in moscow that goes back for years, apartments broken into, diplomats followed, children bothered, cold war style pressure against the people stationed in moscow. Sreenivasan even in this moment, he sees the long game. Putin looks ahead and i think sees continued opportunities. He has a new u. S. Administration taking office on january 20th, president elect trump has been saying all sorts of flattering things including as recent as this afternoon about how brilliant putin is, what an effective leader he is. He has seen all sorts of western leaders basically disappear from the scene, obviously barack obama has been a nemesis for him, so if he looks ahead he sees russias got the upper hand in syria, hes transformed the battle on the ground inside sir i cant he sees a weak ukraine, western europe divided, acenning e. U. He has a sense of wind at his back and confidence that the more audacity, the more surprise, the more the west will back off, and a lot of the aggressive russian tactics weve seen are to be intimidating, unpredictable and your enemies will back off. Sreenivasan some dissension among the ranks early in the morning you hat alerts that said foreign minister lavrov wanted to kick out u. S. Diplomats and within minutes Vladimir Putin sid, no, not going to do that. The russians have become mastesmast masters at the arf surprise. 14 months ago, president putin was coming to the u. N. General assembly, he was not going to get any meetings. They announced syria and russia was as the center of attention and a showtown between obama and putin in new york. Its where you start a covert war in ukraine, suddenly the world has to respond to the facts youre creating. Sreenivasan particular the prospects for the relationship creating with the United States . We dont know. Trump said hes going to team up with russia to knock the hell out o of i. S. I. L. There have been many efforts in the past year between the Obama Administration and the russian government to find ways to cooperate on the ground in syria. We have serious definitional challenges where there are groups that the United States supported on the ground that the russians want to payment with a brush and say theyre all terrorists. So its hard given the mistrust between the two governments. No trust between the National Security establishment, the career people serving under President Trump and counterparts. It will be difficult to develop trust. Sreenivasan what is the cost of the win in syria and i. S. I. L . Russia is saying the United States should recognize the annexation of crimea and pay a penalty for the impocigs of economic sanctions after the shoot countdown of the civilian airliner over Eastern Ukraine in 2014. These are outlandish demand and would be unusual to expect the Trump Administration will grant the wishes. Sreenivasan are there concerns the Trump Administration doesnt see the multiple dimensions of Vladimir Putin . I think we dont know. We know this is a president elect who has very little Foreign Policy experience. Hes tapped a neophyte to be his secretary of state, Rex Tillerson. These are people who have records in the business community, they have a lot of credentials in that area, but for the issues that have been at the heart of u. S. Russian relations in the past two and a half decades and which have created so mention tension and builtup resentment and distrust, its not something theyve had to deal with. Sreenivasan you call Rex Tillerson a neophyte. Hes a neophyte to government, but not necessarily foreign affairs. Hoe might be the best person with connections to russia in the Trump Administration. There are no doubt his accomplishments in russia are dramatic. Hes worked in russia at the highest levels going back to the late 90s, he knows putin personally and top advisors personally. Thats a real asset. The question is does he know a lot about the i. N. F. Treaty, the harassment of u. S. Diplomatic personnel, follow syria closely, my sense is those are issues he has not had to delve into in great detail. Sreenivasan andrew weiss, afternoon gi endowment for international peace, thanks for joining us. Thank you. Sreenivasan next, to the analysis of brooks and corn. Thats syndicated New York Times columnist david brooks, and Mother Jones Washington Bureau chief david corn. David, lets start some of the unilateral steps president obama has taken in the last few weeks. We are talking about everything from the russian sanctions to the u. N. Security council condemnation or allowing the u. N. Security council to go forward in the condemnation of the israeli settlements, preserving large swaths of land. As the New York Times said, is this about boxing trump in . I guess, but what can be done by a president can be undone bia president. Whats remarkable in the israel and russia cases, youve got a u. S. Citizen donald trump siding with a foreign leader against the u. S. President. There is a reason why president elects have tried to remain mute during their transitional periods relatively because you dont want to be for some other country against your own government, and especially when youre about to take the helm of that government. And there will be a lot of permanent people who will be stuck there who are now in a war between the president elect and the guy theyre currently serving. Sreenivasan david corn does this violate the smooth transition the gentlemen had in the white house . President obama is still president and the the world keeps turning. The republicans wanted to call his presidency over in last february when he nominated Merrick Garland to the supreme court. The u. N. Sanction vote came up, he wasnt scheduled by obama, and a lot of people think he should have responded to the russian hackings of the u. S. Elections months ago. So these happened on his watch. Theres nothing wrong with him dealing with it. The trump side now seems to be whining hes violating the smooth transition and trying to de legitimize the trump. But coming from trump who pushed the birth Conspiracy Theory against obama, i think obama has been a gentlemen and has no reason to bother with trump. Sreenivasan is there a reason to leave an exclamation point at the end on your way out . When george w. Bush left, he left barack obama two raging wars, and the biggest fight he had was inside his own government whether or not to pardon scooter libby, and he was confumed sighting be dick cheney about that and didnt do a lot externally. I think he was focused from a National Security perspective to bring obama and his people up to speed so they could take control of these wars. Bill clinton had the controversy with pardons when he was walking out the door, mark rich and others, that certainly tarnished his reputation. But i think obama is doing what he should be doing at this point. Sreenivasan it seems there is a first 100 day strategy and at the end of four or eight years the last hundred days to do the things you wish you could have done and this is on your way out. There is a ton as they try to jam everything in at the end, thats reasonably standard, but there certainly is a pattern of administrations that have good transitions. George w. Bush to barack obama and administrations that have really bad transitions. I would say this looks like a bad transition as they argue even at the president ial level which is more or less unprecedented. Sreenivasan talking about russia, will the sanctionings weve imposed keep the Russian Hackers out . No. Its so disproportionate. They interfered in our elections and we penalized a few of them. What theyre doing underground, we dont know. This will be a big issue. The trump position is, a, mystifying but,b, doomed. He has a nice putin romance going now. I think we need to get outthe hankies because this will turn into an ugly relationship soon. The things that make them simple will turn them into bitter and dangerous enemies. Well look back on this moment as a moment of bitter irony when they get into a school yard display with each other amping up eat others war tendencies and putting the two countries in a scary position. Thats my feel. That may be the bestcase scenario. I dont necessarily see things going that way. Im still mystified about why trump is out there tweeting praise of Vladimir Putin these days and denying and dismissing whether the hacking happened or the seriousness of it. And people keep asking what is behind this bromance . Before the election, i reported on a story about a counterintelligence officer from another service sending reports to the f. B. I. Saying that his sources in russia were saying that moscow tried for years to cultivate and coop donald trump. Im not saying that happened. Im saying i hope the f. B. I. Took a strong look because it is hard to believe that a president elect would be so callous in how he approaches this issue and so dismissive of the seriousness of it. So maybe hell turn on putin, as you suggest, but maybe there is Something Else there in which h he is enamored with putin for some reason that we really dont understand yet. Sreenivasan what about the president elects position that weve got to move on . These are all essentially ploys to delegit mice my win . I think he should be delegitimized for very many reasons, and the response to this hacking is a reason for the delegitimization. It would be so easy for him to say this is terrible, well look into it and well try to prevent this from happening again in the future, but his denial of it happening or the seriousness shows there is something amiss from his end of it. Sreenivasan david brooks, what happens in that conversation with intelligence officials that donald trump said he is going to take in order to get to the bottom of this or a common set of statics . Its already a fairly tense relationship with the intelligence community. Of course, i dont know whats going on in the mind of trump but i know one of the things president obama was struck by is how much time he spent on cybersecurity was one of the bigger surprises as president and he said in the years ahead the president will be spending more time cybersecurity wont go away. Its a constant flow and russia has advanced attack on u. S. Businesses and u. S. Foft and u. S. Institutions and its not like donald trump is going to be walking away from. This h he will be spending a lot of time on it if hes any sort of normal president. Maybe, we dont know. He keeps dismissing the seriousness and even tweets a statement saying, yeah, computers, its kind of complicated, you know, a lot of things happen. It remains to be seen what he is serious about on any policy level. Sreenivasan speaking of policy level, one of the things that we saw was that the u. N. Security council was allowed to go forward with the condemnation of yirltz sessments that the United States did not use its veto power. Right move . I think its a policy thats very defensible in that, right now, the settlements are a complete obstacle or threat to a twostate solution. I think that netanyahu and the far right of israel dont believe in a twostate solution and they cant come out and say it yet. Donald trumps designated ambassadors have said that quite clearly, but if theres nostate solution then israel is on the path to being an occupying nation without full Political Rights for all its inhabitants and, you know, there have been other i