00
Hari Sreenivasan, Judy Woodruff>
are the lives like for American volunteers helping bandage and heal the
victims of the battle for Mosul? Why are the nation`s infrastructure and
productivity getting slower by the century? What are the latest scientific
advancements to prevent and cure AIDS? One author discusses changing how
society thinks about marijuana. Where do U.S.-Iranian relations currently
stand?>
Medicine; Donald Trump; Hillary Clinton; Government; Transportation; Iraq;
War; Violence; Employment and Unemployment; Indiana; Business; Elections>
JUDY WOODRUFF: Good evening. I`m Judy Woodruff.
HARI SREENIVASAN: And I`m Hari Sreenivasan.
JUDY WOODRUFF: On the "NewsHour" tonight: The future commander in chief strikes a deal to keep factory jobs in the U.S. -- what this early push for the manufacturing sector could tell us about a Trump administration.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Also ahead this Thursday, we join the medics on the front lines against ISIS -- a look into the lives of American volunteers helping bandage and heal the victims of the battle for Mosul.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And America`s forgotten government investment -- a look at why the nation`s infrastructure and productivity are getting slower by the century.
JACOB HACKER, Yale University: Every major component of your iPhone is as a result of public investment and development, GPS, the memory processors, touch-screen technology, even that annoying voice.
HARI SREENIVASAN: All that and more on tonight`s "PBS NewsHour."
(BREAK)
JUDY WOODRUFF: President-elect Trump made his first public speech today since the election on a trip to Indiana to tout a deal that he said made good on a campaign promise.
Mr. Trump met with Carrier workers on the floor of their Indianapolis plant today. Many of their jobs were saved because of the deal he helped broker.
DONALD TRUMP (R), President-Elect: So many people in these other -- that big, big, beautiful plant behind us, which will be even more beautiful in about seven months from now, they`re so happy. They`re going to have a great Christmas. That`s most important.
But, also, I just want to let all of the other companies know that we`re going to do great things for business. There`s no reason for them to leave anymore.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Word of what was in the deal filtered out today. Carrier`s parent company, United Technologies, will get $7 million in Indiana state tax breaks over 10 years. In exchange, the company is investing $16 million into its Indiana operations.
That means its Indianapolis furnace plant will stay open, saving 800 jobs there. Another 300 jobs in the state will also be spared. But it`s not all rosy -- 600 jobs at the Indianapolis plant will still be outsourced to Mexico.
The parent company is also sticking with plans to close a plant just two hours` drive away. Late today, Mr. Trump left Indiana for an evening rally in Ohio, kicking off what his team calls a thank you tour.
Earlier in the day, there was transition work. Robert Gates, the former defense secretary, was spotted in Trump Tower, while, on Capitol Hill, his education secretary pick, Betsy DeVos, met with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Senate Democrats pushed to require nominees like DeVos to release tax returns before they are confirmed.
SEN. PATTY MURRAY (D), Washington: If they have no shady business dealings or records of taking advantage of the middle class, they should be happy to have us take a look.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And in Wisconsin, the recount requested by Green Party nominee Jill Stein began, although it`s not expected to change the outcome.
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton`s popular vote lead has now surpassed 2.5 million, with ballots still being counted.
And late today, there were reports that president-elect Trump has decided who will fill a major Cabinet job. The Washington Post and CNN reported that he`s chosen retired Marine General James Mattis as his secretary of defense. But a Trump spokesman said that no decision has been made yet.
We will have a closer look at the Carrier deal in Indiana right after the news summary.
HARI SREENIVASAN: In other news today: The smoke is clearing from days of wildfires in Tennessee`s Great Smoky Mountains, and recovery efforts are in full swing. The death toll from the blaze rose to 10 people today as search-and-rescue crews fanned out around the eastern city of Gatlinburg.
Sevier County Mayor Larry Waters said authorities were making headway on dozens of missing persons reports.
LARRY WATERS, Sevier County, Tennessee, Mayor: We`re pleased with one aspect of it, and that is that a significant number of those leads, we found people where they are, and we hope that that trend continues as we move forward.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Officials said they expected the search teams to finish combing the fire-ravaged areas tonight.
JUDY WOODRUFF: French President Francois Hollande said today that he will not seek a second term, citing historically low approval ratings. During his time in office, France has grappled with high unemployment rates and terrorism. The first round of the French presidential election is set to begin next April.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Colombia`s Congress has ratified a long-sought peace agreement with the leftist rebel group FARC after years of negotiations. That comes after Colombian voters narrowly rejected an earlier version in a referendum last October. Lawmakers voted last night, clearing a final hurdle to the deal`s implementation. Now FARC rebels will have six months to turn over their weapons to U.N. monitors.
MAN (through translator): We are committed to working very quickly on the amnesty law for members of the FARC who have not committed atrocious crimes, non-admissible crimes. That is perhaps the first thing we have to do.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Opponents of the deal in Congress boycotted the vote, calling the accord too lenient on the rebels.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The U.S. Senate today unanimously voted to extend sanctions on Iran for another decade. Supporters said that it will give Congress the ability to punish Iran, should it violate its landmark nuclear deal with the U.S. The measure had already won approval in the House. Now President Obama is expected to sign it into law.
HARI SREENIVASAN: The United Nations is out with its latest tally of the world`s population. It offers a staggering look at the struggles facing young women today. The planet`s population grew 1 percent this year to 7.4 billion people; 89 percent of the world`s 125 million 10-year-olds are living in developing countries, where girls face obstacles to equal education, quality health care, and safety.
JUDY WOODRUFF: There are new signs the U.S. manufacturing sector is starting to rebound. Factory activity hit a five-month high in November, due in part to an increase in new orders and production.
Even so, stocks were mixed on Wall Street today. The Dow Jones industrial average notched another record high, climbing 68 points to close at nearly 19192. The Nasdaq fell 72 points, and the S&P 500 slipped seven.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Still to come on the "NewsHour": what`s in the deal to keep Carrier manufacturing jobs in the U.S.?; lifesaving efforts on the front lines of Mosul; the latest scientific advancements to prevent and cure AIDS; and much more.
JUDY WOODRUFF: President-elect Trump`s trip today to the Carrier plant in Indiana was a moment to celebrate the jobs that were saved, but it`s also led to more questions about whether this kind of deal could be replicated and to concerns about the state of the industry.
To break it down, I`m joined by Scott Paul of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, which represents some leading companies in that field, and Greg Ip of The Wall Street Journal.
And we welcome both of you to the program.
Greg Ip, remind us, first of all, why was Carrier going to move these jobs to Mexico in the first place?
GREG IP, The Wall Street Journal: Cheap labor, basically, in Mexico. They can pay workers $24 per day, plus benefits. In Indiana, they are paying $30 per hour.
So, they were coming to the same conclusion that so many other manufacturers over the last few decades have come to, which is that it`s cheaper to make that product elsewhere.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, Scott Paul, what`s your understanding of why this company changed its mind?
SCOTT PAUL, Alliance for American Manufacturing: Well, I think it`s pretty clear there was a whole lot of pressure exerted by the president- elect of the United States and the vice president-elect of the United States.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Who happens to be the governor.
SCOTT PAUL: Who happens to be the governor of Indiana.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Right.
SCOTT PAUL: Trump had started tweeting about this in February and talking about it consistently, wanted to make, I think, a point of holding a company accountable for offshoring.
It`s something that he said he would do during the campaign. And I think that there was just a convergence of factors that made Carrier the right case in which to make some progress.
JUDY WOODRUFF: It`s been reported today, though, that the $6 million, $7 million in tax incentives that the state of Indiana is offering Carrier is something that was offered to them before and Carrier turned it down. So what`s different now?
SCOTT PAUL: Well, I think what`s different now is that there was no one in the state of Indiana who was in a position to offer both carrots and sticks.
And whether it was directly or indirectly, certainly, the knowledge that there are billions of dollars in defense contracts, that there is the ongoing exposure that the president of the United States is going to focus on this company is not helpful and probably causes their executives and their board to say, let`s see if we can work something out here.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Greg Ip, is there any precedent for this kind of move on the part of a president or president-elect?
GREG IP: You can sort of see elements of it in different walks of life.
Back in the `60s, for example, just as inflation was beginning to be a big problem, Presidents Kennedy and Johnson would often publicly browbeat companies for raising prices and threatening to move federal defense purchases to different countries.
And we see this in other countries all the time. Brazil and France, to name two examples, have a long history in intervening in business decisions to protect local jobs. What I don`t think we see is much evidence that in the long run those types of tactics make much difference, when the economics of production are pushing in the other direction.
JUDY WOODRUFF: How do you see that, Scott Paul? Is this something that could be replicated company by company by company in this country?
SCOTT PAUL: Right.
Well, there`s a company around the corner from Carrier, Rexnord, which still plans to offshore production to Mexico. And so from a case management perspective, there were about 1,600 plant closures or notices over the last two years that are related to trade.
It`s impossible to work through that list. But I will also say that I think an intervention like this sends shockwaves through corporate boardrooms. When they`re making sourcing decisions, they`re considering the labor cost factor that Greg indicated.
They also consider some the risks that would result from exiting the United States and whether there could be other consequences for that as well.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And consequence, excuse me, is a term, Greg Ip, that the president-elect used today. He said there will be consequences when other companies announce they are leaving and moving jobs out of this country.
What consequences could there be?
GREG IP: Well, he hasn`t been specific, but if you go back over some of the campaign rhetoric, well, obviously, there`s the bully pulpit, just publicly shaming these companies.
And that again is not new to Trump. If you remember, back in 2004, John Kerry was making noises about Benedict Arnold CEOs in a similar context. So, that`s got a long and gloried tradition.
He can, for example, imply the threat that federal business will be withheld from some of these companies. That`s possibly dangerous precedent. You know what I mean? When -- the Pentagon has very specific guidelines, for example, when it goes out and does procurement.
You don`t want them buying a jet engine which is actually inferior to another jet engine simply because that other company outsourced some jobs. The final thing that Trump could do is he could impose tariffs on any products that are imported once they have been outsourced to another country.
It`s not clear how they could do it. The legal authority is somewhat murky. But there`s not much question that he could do it if he wanted to do it. And that`s why people do worry that we end up with a trade war as a result of these tactics.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Is that a concern for the manufacturing sector, Scott Paul?
SCOTT PAUL: Well, I think a full-blown trade war is unlikely. There are a lot of safeguards in place to prevent it from escalating to that point.
I think that there are a lot of domestic businesses that would argue we`re in a trade war with China now. We haven`t pushed back all that much. And, again, the signal that this sends to corporate America and to our trade partners is that we`re going to drive a tougher bargain.
I don`t know that we have always done that. And depending on how it`s managed, it could yield some returns for American businesses and American workers.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And that`s what I`m trying to understand, Greg Ip.
On balance, is this move today and maybe a few other moves down the road likely to alter the health of the American economy, the well-being of American workers across the board?
GREG IP: There`s no question that protectionist or sort of moral suasion efforts like this can make a difference on a case-by-case basis. We have seen it in the past. It will probably save a few thousand, possibly more, jobs this time.
But, as we were discussing earlier, if the economics are saying that this is an expensive place to produce stuff, it`s very hard to see that turning that around.
That`s why it would be more useful to focus on some of the other points that I think Mr. Trump was making today about making this a better place to manufacture. And that`s not really about like threatening or bribery, which is what incentives really are. It`s about lower tax rates, less regulation and better education.
There are 300,000 manufacturing jobs that are vacant right now because employers are having trouble finding the right skilled workers. Back when the Carrier announcement was made earlier this year, the union representative got a phone call from Boeing saying, hey, we need 60 skilled workers, are your guys available?
Unfortunately, very few of those people had the skills necessary that Boeing was looking for.
JUDY WOODRUFF: That`s interesting.
So, Scott Paul, again, same question. On balance, is something like this -- if Donald Trump is talking about tax reductions for corporations, talking about doing away with a lot of regulations, is that going to create an environment where many American companies will decide not to send jobs overseas?
SCOTT PAUL: Yes, I think Greg is right that the macro environment is going to be critically important here.
And it`s a combination of the corporate tax code, the strength of the dollar, which is very important to our exporters, the work force, the investments that we`re making in our infrastructure, because labor, quite honestly, is becoming a smaller component in the cost of manufacturing. Energy, the materials make a big difference.
And the other factor here is that these countries compete for business with us by offering these subsidies all the time. If they see the United States is in the game of this, it could change the equation.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Scott Paul, Greg Ip, we thank you both.
GREG IP: Thank you.
SCOTT PAUL: Thank you.
HARI SREENIVASAN: The six-week-long battle for the ISIS-held city of Mosul has become an increasingly tough urban war for the American-backed Iraqi forces. Up to a million civilians still live in the city.
The front lines are often too dangerous for international aid workers, but two young American volunteers are there saving lives while risking their own.
From Mosul, special correspondent Jane Ferguson and producer Matt McGarry filed this report.
A warning: Viewers may find some of the imagery disturbing.
JANE FERGUSON: Crying in pain, a tiny patient is carried into this basic treatment center in Mosul. His name is Karam. And at just 5 years old, the agony and fear are too much.
"Hawa" (ph), says his father, mortar. His leg was shattered when it was hit two weeks ago. It was operated on, and is now infected. His father tries to comfort him.
For parents, war brings a terrible fear of loss. Two American medics are helping Karam. They have been at this post for about a month, treating civilians injured in the fighting.
How many of your patients are children?
PETE REED, Volunteer: Too many.
DEREK COLEMAN, Volunteer: At least a quarter.
JANE FERGUSON: Injured by?
PETE REED: Everything.
DEREK COLEMAN: Car bombs, mortars, snipers.
PETE REED: Shot.
JANE FERGUSON: Karam is lucky. He managed to find treatment from ISIS doctors. It`s crude, but at least he will be able to walk again. He probably won`t lose the leg.
Is this kind of injury common?
PETE REED: The injury, yes. And actually making it to surgery was less common?
JANE FERGUSON: So, where would have gone for the surgery?
PETE REED: He went in Mosul. There are still operating hospitals there.
JANE FERGUSON: Inside ISIS territory?
PETE REED: Yes.
JANE FERGUSON: These two American volunteers, both just 27 years old, are the first and only point of help civilians and Iraqi army soldiers get this close to the front line of fighting in Mosul.
Pete Reed is from Bordentown, New Jersey. After two tours in Afghanistan as a Marine, he came to Iraq to help.
Derek Coleman is from San Diego. He was a machinist in a factory with some medical training before coming here as a volunteer.
DEREK COLEMAN: I don`t have any kids, girlfriend, wife, nothing like that. So I wanted a little adventure, and see ISIS as an evil enemy, and saw good people fighting against it, and I thought I could help somehow.
And medical work seems to be much more important than carrying a gun and shooting at people.
JANE FERGUSON: Other charities are miles back from the front lines, wary of putting their staff in harm`s way.
Because of ISIS suicide car bombs, the civilians of Mosul are banned from driving cars. Many of the injured wouldn`t survive if Pete and Derek were not this close to the fighting.
DEREK COLEMAN: The location is everything with what we are doing. NGOs and other organizations can`t get anywhere close to where we are.
So, what we are doing is, we are stopping bleeding that would kill someone in five minutes. We are stabilizing patients that hopefully survive the trip to the closest hospital.
Even with us, the hospitals are so far away at this point, that we are afraid of how many patients we lose on the road.
JANE FERGUSON: But being this close to the front puts Derek and Pete at risk. They are always short on supplies, so Pete has gone out to search for any other medical stations to ask for more.
Derek just begins telling us about missing the holiday.
DEREK COLEMAN: Thanksgiving was interesting, because Thanksgiving was also when I left home last year. So, I had a turkey sandwich alone.
(GUNFIRE)
DEREK COLEMAN: That was a little close.
JANE FERGUSON: Bullets start flying, and we have to run for cover.
This is normal, this kind of gunfire going overhead?
DEREK COLEMAN: Yes. Yes, it`s pretty normal. Our proximity to the front line, it`s bound to happen.
JANE FERGUSON: Derek calls to warn Pete to be careful. The fighting has intensified around us.
DEREK COLEMAN: Hey, buddy. How are you doing? We have had quite a few rounds pass really close to our CCP here, worse that yesterday. So I just wanted to give you guys a warning as you are pulling up and just check in with you.
JANE FERGUSON: In the meantime, Derek prepares for the next patients, which will surely come. The conditions here are harsh, but they have learned to manage.
DEREK COLEMAN: As you can see, I`m kind of bloodied here, and I don`t really have time to always clean it all off. So I just try to not look like a I came out of a butcher shop as best I can.
JANE FERGUSON: Pete arrives back empty-handed, his search for supplies unsuccessful, just as more patients are brought in.
The center is also the first point of treatment for many Iraqi soldiers, their bodies brutalized by the urban warfare that rages just down the road. We are not allowed to film the injured and dying soldiers who arrived at the center.
Iraqi special forces medics are here too, some trained by the two young Americans. They often treat civilians, many transported here by the army in war-weathered Humvees. Soon, one pulls up, and a child wrapped in a blanket is lifted from it. A soldier races her into the center. Her aunt stays outside, hysterical with fear and grief.
MAN: Hold her (EXPLETIVE DELETED) head, somebody.
JANE FERGUSON: The small girl has been shot in the head by an ISIS sniper. Incredibly, she is still alive. Pete and Derek fight hard to save her life.
PETE REED: Tell her to stay still, stay still.
JANE FERGUSON: They manage to bandage her head.
PETE REED: Plaster, plaster.
JANE FERGUSON: Despite brave efforts, the little girl died.
Do you think, given what you have witnessed, that ISIS are deliberating targeting civilians?
PETE REED: Yes. They are shooting people with white flags. They are shooting kids.
Last week, we had two kids in a row who had been shot in the neck or the head by a Da`esh sniper because they were fleeing Mosul, not accidental grazing fire or anything like that, proper sniper shots, head and neck and face. Yes, they`re -- they`re purposely trying to kill these people who are running away.
JANE FERGUSON: Being in the crossfire and tending to death, his family are worried about him.
PETE REED: Yes, they worry a lot, probably for good reason. Who wouldn`t worry? It`s not like, I don`t know, a ski instructor in Wyoming. I`m on the front lines in the battle for Mosul. They are really, really supportive. They`re just terrified of what I`m doing.
JANE FERGUSON: Are you changed?
PETE REED: Am I changed? Yes. You can only see so many dead kids a day so many days in a row before you are going to be changed.
People see one dead kid or one traumatic thing happen, and it affects them for the rest of their life. I have seen a couple hundred. I`m doing OK.
JANE FERGUSON: Inside, spirits are high, because Karam, the first child we met, is feeling better. A little tenderness and some candy have helped. He has been fortunate to cheat death in this violent place.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I`m Jane Ferguson in Mosul, Iraq.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Stay with us.
Coming up on the "NewsHour": the link between distrust of government and crumbling infrastructure; and an author`s take on changing how society thinks about marijuana.
But first: Today is World AIDS Day. While the death toll from AIDS has dropped dramatically, the virus still claims over a million people every year, and nearly 40 million remain infected.
William Brangham has an update.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: With the growing use of medications to treat and prevent the spread of HIV, some say ending the AIDS epidemic is actually within reach. But AIDS is still the number one killer of reproductive age women, and in many places, those lifesaving drugs are barely available.
Scientists are also seeking a vaccine. A new trial is under way right now in South Africa. But many remain skeptical.
I`m joined now by "Science" magazine`s Jon Cohen, who`s covered this epidemic for nearly 30 years and was a collaborator with us on our recent series about HIV and AIDS.
Jon Cohen, welcome back to the "NewsHour."
Let`s start off by talking about this vaccine trial in South Africa. As you well know, you wrote the book about the hunt for an HIV vaccine. What is happening in South Africa right now? Is this as promising as some think it is?
JON COHEN, "Science": Well, the AIDS vaccine is the Holy Grail.
People can come in, get a few shots, be protected for life. That`s the dream. In Thailand in 2009, it was revealed that a vaccine being studied there protected people with about a 31 percent reduction in risk.
That`s not very good. That`s extremely low, but it was something. It was the first glimmer of hope. The vaccine trial in South Africa is building off that Thai trial. The results from the Thai trial were extremely controversial. There are people who wonder why that vaccine strategy has moved forward in South Africa, and there are South Africans who argue very strongly that this is a great hope for them, and even if they get some protection, in addition to other protective measures, it could make a big difference.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: OK. Now let`s talk a little bit more broadly
Where are the successes currently in the fight against HIV? And where are those happening?
JON COHEN: Well, clearly, preventing mother-to-child transmission has been a huge success all around the world. It`s one of the easiest things to do in terms of prevention.
And some countries like South Africa have reduced it to below 2 percent of pregnant women who are infected passing on the virus. That`s a great success. Treatment now has scaled up from basically being zero in poor countries around the world in the year 2000 to 18.2 million of the 36.7 million infected people. Phenomenal success story.
People who are treated and stay on treatment fully suppress the virus and they rarely transmit to others. So that is leading to hope that epidemics can stop petering out.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: What about the remaining challenges? Obviously, there are still troubling high rates of HIV among particular populations around the world. You and I saw that as we traveled through Africa and here in the U.S.
What are the other big challenges facing AIDS?
JON COHEN: So, one big challenge is that only half the people who need treatment are getting treatment. So, that`s an enormous challenge.
And the other one, as you mentioned, is there are a lot of young people who are getting infected. I mean, 2.1 million people are still getting infected every year. And that number isn`t changing very much. So something needs to be done particularly to reach young women in much of sub-Saharan Africa, who are highly vulnerable.
And it is really unclear in many places, like South Africa, why they`re becoming infected at such extraordinarily high rates.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: UNICEF recently put out a very stark warning, saying that if prevention efforts weren`t ramped up, we would see what they argued was a real spike in new incidences amongst adolescents.