EULOGY - Nelson Mandela by President Obama

"Obama eulogizes his hero, Nelson Mandela" by Associated Press, PBS Newshour 12/10/2013

Celebrating one of his personal heroes, President Barack Obama praised Nelson Mandela as the last great liberator of the 20th century, urging the world to carry on his legacy by fighting inequality, poverty and discrimination.

At a memorial service in Johannesburg, Obama compared the former South African President to Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln.

"For nothing he achieved was inevitable," Obama said.  "In the arc of his life, we see a man who earned his place in history through struggle and shrewdness, persistence and faith.  He tells us what's possible not just in the pages of dusty history books, but in our own lives as well."

The crowd at the half-filled stadium erupted in applause each time Obama's name was mentioned or his image was shown on the screen.  Dozens gathered below the box seats where Obama and other U.S. presidents sat, waving and snapping pictures of the leaders.

As if to underscore the spirit of reconciliation that Mandela's life embodied, Obama shook hands with Cuban President Raul Castro as he made his way down a line of world leaders gathered to honor the anti-apartheid leader.  It was a rare moment of accord for the leaders of the two Cold War enemies.

Calling himself a beneficiary of Mandela's struggle, Obama traced the influence that Mandela's story has had on his own life, disclosing that he asks himself how well he's applied Mandela's lessons to himself as a man and as President.

He said in the U.S., South Africa and around the world, people must not allow progress that's been made to cloud the fact that more work must be done.

"We, too, must act on behalf of justice.  We, too, must act on behalf of peace.  There are too many of us who happily embrace Madiba's legacy of racial reconciliation, but passionately resist even modest reforms that would challenge chronic poverty and growing inequality," Obama said, referring to Mandela by his traditional clan name.

Extolling Mandela as practical but unyielding on his core principles, Obama said it was because Mandela could admit to being imperfect that the world loved him and continues to learn so much from his example.  "He was not a bust made of marble.  He was a man of flesh and blood," Obama said.

He said Mandela had changed both laws and hearts, inspiring those around him by reconciling with the jailers who kept him prisoner for 27 years.  In trusting others despite the injustices he suffered, Mandela showed that the cruelty of the past must be confronted with truth, generosity and inclusion, Obama said.

"We will never see the likes of Nelson Mandela again," Obama said.  "But let me say to the people of Africa, and young people around the world:  You can make his life's work your own."

Joining Obama on the 16-hour trip from Washington for the ceremony were first lady Michelle Obama, former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.  Former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter also attended the memorial service.

AFRICA - French Troops in Central African Republic, Update

"French troops start disarming rebels in the Central African Republic" PBS Newshour 12/9/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  With approval from the UN, French troops began disarming fighters in the Central African Republic.  While the intervention has started to have some impact, many are still too afraid to return to their homes.  Alex Thomson of Independent Television News reports from the city of Bangui on challenges facing the peacekeeping forces.

UKRAINE - Anti-Government Protests

"As anti-government voices grow in Kiev, police begin cracking down on protests" (Part-1) PBS Newshour 12/9/2013

GWEN IFILL (Newshour):  The president of the Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, is backing a call for talks with the country's opposition, in an attempt to quell weeks of protests.  Tensions are running high in Kiev tonight, however, as pro-Europe demonstrators are barricading protest camps which police have threatened to disperse.

On Sunday, a party-like atmosphere prevailed in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.  Several hundred thousand people angry over what they see as the government's tilt toward Russia and away from Europe demanded the government's resignation.  It was the largest crowd yet.  The night ended with protesters pulling down a statue of Vladimir Lenin.

Today, signs of a new crackdown appeared.  Riot troops encircled some camp sites, and eventually began dismantling protesters' barricades.  Opposition leaders warned their followers not to provoke the police.

ARSENIY YATSENYUK, United Opposition Leader (through interpreter):  In any case, don't touch the police.  Don't beat them.  If they destroy our camps, we will go for new barricades and set them up tomorrow.

GWEN IFILL:  Elsewhere, masked men armed with guns raided the party headquarters of a jailed opposition leader, Yulia Tymoshenko, and a state prosecutor warned protest leaders they face arrest.

VIKTOR PSHONKA, General Prosecutor,Ukraine (through interpreter):  The calls to rally organizers show total disrespect to law and a desire to satisfy their political ambitions for any price.

But it won't work.  If they ignore the enforcement of judges' verdicts, disrespect the law and the constitution of Ukraine, they will be held responsible.

GWEN IFILL:  President Viktor Yanukovych announced he will meet with his predecessors tomorrow to discuss the crisis.

"What's the U.S. role in calming Ukraine unrest?" (Part-2) PBS Newshour 12/9/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Now in the third week of widening unrest, Ukrainian protesters are bracing for a crackdown.  Gwen Ifill talks to David Herszenhorn of The New York Times about what's going on behind the scenes and the outlook for a solution to end the civil crisis, plus how the United States has reached out to the government to urge caution.

NATIONAL SECURITY - Tech Giants Call, Update

"Tech giants call for tighter limits on government surveillance" PBS Newshour 12/9/2013

Excerpt

JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour):  The giants of the tech industry made a highly public appeal today to rein in government surveillance.  It came in the form of an open letter to President Obama.

The call for curbs focused on people's personal information being collected from online traffic.  Eight major companies, including Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Twitter, banded together to write an open letter to the president and Congress.  It appeared in full-page newspaper ads and online.

The letter read in part:  "The balance in many countries has tipped too far in favor of the state and away from the rights of the individual, rights that are enshrined in our Constitution.  This undermines the freedoms we all cherish."

It's the tech giants' latest bid to salvage public trust, amid revelations that they have had to provide users' data to the government.  The details come from Edward Snowden, who leaked a trove of material from the National Security Agency last summer.  Intelligence officials maintain the data collection operation has thwarted a number of terror attacks.

A presidential advisory panel has been reviewing the issue.  Its findings could come this week.

We hear now from the tech world.  Brad Smith is the general counsel and an executive vice president of Microsoft.  He's also speaking on behalf of the companies that signed today's letter.

As I've said before, I consider Edward Snowden a traitor.  Also, using the internet has NEVER been private, any more than holding a conversation in the middle of Central Park can be considered private.

MUSIC - Profile of Carlos Santana, Kennedy Center Honoree

Santana is one of my top favorites.  He actually has a music style with his name.

Note that the video includes his comments after Nelson Mandela's death.

"Carlos Santana on the conviction and charisma that inspired his rock career" PBS Newshour 12/9/2013

Excerpt

JEFFREY BROWN (Newshour):  Since his emergence in the San Francisco music scene in the late 1960s, Carlos Santana has been recognized as one of rock 'n' roll's greatest guitarists.  His Latin-infused sounds and rhythms, beginning with the band that bore his name, have produced hit songs and albums that have sold in the millions.

His appearance at Woodstock helped rocket him to fame and concerts around the world continue to this day.  In February, he makes his first concert tour of South Africa, part of a long-held interest in the continent.  And just ahead of the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony, we met up at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington.

Santana's story began in Mexico, first in the small town of Autlan de Navarro and later in Tijuana, as the son of a violinist who played mariachi and other music.

And one of my favorites, Smooth:

SYRIA - Islamist Fighters, Journalist's View

"Seeing Syria's Islamist fighters through the eyes of a journalist" PBS Newshour 12/9/2013

Excerpt

MARGARET WARNER (Newshour):  For more than a year, the Bab al-Hawa border crossing from Turkey, a vital lifeline for Syria's rebels, was controlled by the anti-Assad Free Syrian Army.  But, Saturday, a newly formed alliance of Islamist rebels calling itself the Islamic Front took charge.

It was the latest blow to the moderate forces backed by the U.S. which initially led the armed insurgency arising from Syria's 2011 civilian protests.  As the civil war has ground on, radicalization among native Syrian rebels has grown.  And the conflict has attracted foreign jihadist fighters from throughout the Arab and Muslim world.

So, rather than a coherent force opposing Assad, there is an array of rebel groups on the moderate to extremist spectrum, the Free Syrian Army, or FSA, the new Islamic Front, including Islamist groups once allied with the FSA, the al-Qaida-linked Syrian-grown Jabhat al-Nusra, and its al-Qaida Iraqi parent, the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS.

Among the few Western journalists who have had access to report in depth on these groups has been Rania Abouzeid, now a contributor to "The New Yorker" magazine.

I spoke with her Friday in Washington.

OPINION - Shields and Brooks 12/6/2013

"Shields and Brooks on Mandela's influence, Obama's vow to address inequality" PBS Newshour 12/6/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week's top news, including the passing of Nelson Mandela and his impact on world history and American politics, plus a new pledge by President Obama to refocus on and address economic inequality in the United States.

MEMORIAM - Nelson Mandela, Moral Example to the World

The world has lost a truly good man.  One who forgave his enemies, a shining example of an ethical man.  I consider Nelson Mandela as standing next to Mahatma Gandhi as a beacon to the world.

"South Africans mourn loss of Madiba, celebrate gift of freedom" (Part-1) PBS Newshour 12/6/2013

Excerpt

JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour):  The death of Nelson Mandela resonated across South Africa and around the world today.  Millions mourned the former president and symbol of racial reconciliation.  And officials planned a mass memorial service on Tuesday.

We begin our coverage with Rohit Kachroo of Independent Television News, reporting from South Africa.

ROHIT KACHROO:  This was a day to mourn one life lost and a day to mark the many lives made by Nelson Mandela.  The gift of freedom is being celebrated here.  And even those lost in the sadness of his death know how much bleaker things here might have been.

WOMAN:   Now we are free because of Madiba.  I'm very, very sorry here.  But, today, I'm sad and I have got happiness.  I don't know what can I say.

ROHIT KACHROO:  From his home last night, his coffin was brought away draped in the rainbow colors.  His pain is over.  But the hurt is now all theirs.

Yet, for all the bleary eyes and broken hearts, this nation was not broken, as the old songs of the struggle from sung through the night.  And the new day brought the start of South Africa's future.

"South Africans draw from Mandela’s strength, perseverance" PBS Newshour 12/6/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  As the world mourns the loss of Nelson Mandela, Judy Woodruff talks to Lydia Polgreen, Johannesburg bureau chief for The New York Times, who called the former South African leader the "moral center" for the country.  Polgreen said Mandela’s example may help the country struggle against current economic and societal challenges.

"How Mandela forever changed South Africa" (Part-3) PBS Newshour 12/6/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The South Africa of Nelson Mandela's birth was a different nation from the one he leaves behind.  Jeffrey Brown gets perspective on Mandela's impact from three South Africans: Penelope Andrews of the Albany Law School, Mzamo Mangaliso of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and Charles Villa-Vicencio at Georgetown University.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC - 'Women of Vision' Exhibit

"Nat Geo's female photojournalists capture and share visions of the world" PBS Newshour 12/4/2013

Excerpt

JEFFREY BROWN (Newshour):  Two boys chasing a kite through the rubble of an anti-government stronghold near Yemen's border, a herder in Norway chanting while tending his reindeer, a full moon hanging above the highway to Mount St. Helen's, three of the 100 photographs depicting cultures far-flung and close to home in an exhibition titled "Women of Vision: National Geographic Photographers on Assignment," part of the Society's 125th anniversary celebration.

It showcases 11 women, from veterans of the magazine to several who've completed just a few projects.  One of the best known is 39-year-old Lynsey Addario, a Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent who's covered conflicts from Iraq and Afghanistan to Darfur and the Congo for "National Geographic" and The New York Times.

LYNSEY ADDARIO, photojournalist:  I go in because I think that the story has to be told.  Like any journalist who dedicates their life to covering conflict, I feel very strongly that these stories need to be seen by the American public.

JEFFREY BROWN:  Part of that coverage, capturing the daily life that somehow goes on amid violence.

Photo Essay

AFRICA - Genocide Warnings in Central African Republic

"Lack of security adds to Central African Republic crisis" PBS Newshour 12/4/2013

Excerpt

GWEN IFILL (Newshour):  Tomorrow, the United Nations Security Council will vote on sending forces into the Central African Republic, where 12 more civilians were killed in fighting today.  The French have already dispatched more than 600 soldiers to the troubled nation, with more on the way.

The CAR has fallen into chaos since rebels seized control of the capital last spring.

We have a report from Alex Thompson of Independent Television News.

A warning:  Some images may be disturbing to some viewers.

EDUCATION - OnLine Lectures, 'Homework' in Class

"How one school turned homework on its head with 'flipped' instruction" by Mike Fritz, PBS Newshour 12/5/2013

Walk the halls of Clintondale High School, just north of Detroit, and the school doesn't appear out of the ordinary.  You'd find the typical smells and the sprawling nondescript interior, as well as the persistent challenges confronting many American public high schools serving mostly low-income students.

Yet, there's a stark difference in the way instruction is delivered.  Clintondale is the nation's first completely flipped school, meaning teachers record lectures for students to watch online outside of class, and what was once considered homework is now done during classtime, allowing students to work through assignments together and ask teachers for help if they run into questions.

In 2010, with more than half of the school's ninth graders failing math, science and English, principal Greg Green decided to adopt the flipped approach, a blended learning model that also relies heavily on outside videos like the popular Khan Academy and Ted Talks.

"We were desperate for change," said Green. And, he suggests, change has come.

Clintondale ranked among the worst 5 percent of all schools in the state of Michigan prior to the flip.  But since then, the principal says failure rates for students have declined from 52 percent to 19 percent, and standardized test scores have risen steadily.

Local businesses helped fund the instructional overhaul at Clintondale, and students who don't have access to needed technology or the Internet at home are given extra time to use computer labs and the media center.

Proponents of the flip argue that it allows teachers to spend more one-on-one time with students, and because lectures are mainly recorded and digitized, it removes some of the monotony of repeatedly delivering lessons.  Another often-cited benefit of recorded instruction is that it allows students the chance to rewind and watch lessons as many times as necessary to fully grasp them.

Moving away from the traditional model wasn't an easy sell for some members of the staff at Clintondale.  Chris Carpenter, who has utilized the flip in his social studies class for the last few years, said he was initially reluctant to adopting the change.

"At first I was a little bit put off by it," Carpenter said.  "But I soon realized that I was no longer just one teacher to 35 students... but more of a tutor for all 35 students."

Over the last few years teachers at all levels of education across the U.S. have begun experimenting with the approach.  Justin Reich, a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, has been studying the flipped classroom.  He is optimistic that the model could force schools to rethink how the precious time between teachers and students is being spent on a daily basis.

However, Reich is also quick to caution that changing only the sequence of how instruction is delivered will likely have little effect on academic achievement.  If the instruction is poor, he said, recording it and delivering it to students via video will not likely enhance it.

"I think we know very little about the efficacy of [the flipped classroom] so far," Reich said, adding that the teachers using these new methods should be given a few years to test what works before judgments are delivered on their merits.

Greg Green recognizes that the flipped classroom might not work for everyone, but he's pleased it's now firmly in place at Clintondale.

"We feel we've perhaps figured out the structure of the way schools should be set up," Green said.  "And we're trying to make it an ideal situation for both the learners and the teachers."

CLIMATE CHANGE - Large Companies Willing to Pay Carbon Tax

"Large Companies Prepared to Pay Price on Carbon" by CORAL DAVENPORT, New York Times 12/5/2013

Excerpt

More than two dozen of the nation’s biggest corporations, including the five major oil companies, are planning their future growth on the expectation that the government will force them to pay a price for carbon pollution as a way to control global warming.

The development is a striking departure from conservative orthodoxy and a reflection of growing divisions between the Republican Party and its business supporters.

A new report by the environmental data company CDP has found that at least 29 companies, some with close ties to Republicans, including ExxonMobil, Walmart and American Electric Power, are incorporating a price on carbon into their long-term financial plans.

Both supporters and opponents of action to fight global warming say the development is significant because businesses that chart a financial course to make money in a carbon-constrained future could be more inclined to support policies that address climate change.

But unlike the five big oil companies — ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, BP and Shell, all major contributors to the Republican party — Koch Industries, a conglomerate that has played a major role in pushing Republicans away from action on climate change, is ramping up an already-aggressive campaign against climate policy — specifically against any tax or price on carbon.  Owned by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, the company includes oil refiners and the paper-goods company Georgia-Pacific.

The divide, between conservative groups that are fighting against government regulation and oil companies that are planning for it as a practical business decision, echoes a deeper rift in the party, as business-friendly establishment Republicans clash with the Tea Party.

Tom Carnac, North American president of CDP, said that the five big oil companies seemed to have determined that a carbon price was an inevitable part of their financial future.

“It’s climate change as a line item,” Mr. Carnac said.  “They’re looking at it from a rational perspective, making a profit. It drives internal decision-making.”

Companies do not know what form a future carbon price would take.  Congress could one day vote to directly tax emissions.  President Obama is moving forward with plans to regulate carbon pollution from coal plants, with or without action from Congress — and states could carry out those regulations by taxing carbon polluters.  At climate change talks at the United Nations, State Department negotiators have pledged that the United States will cut its carbon emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, and 80 percent by 2050.

Mr. Carnac said: “Companies see that the trend is inevitable.  What you see here is a hardening of that understanding.”

Other companies that are incorporating a carbon price into their strategic planning include Microsoft, General Electric, Walt Disney, ConAgra Foods, Wells Fargo, DuPont, Duke Energy, Google and Delta Air Lines.

AMERICA - Should Pensions Be Part of Debt-Shedding

"Chicago Pursues Deal to Change Pension Funding" by RICK LYMAN, New York Times 12/5/2013

Excerpt

First came the State of Illinois, now comes the City of Chicago.

The hard-fought passage here Tuesday of a landmark bill trimming retirement benefits for state workers, aimed at fixing the vastly underfunded pension system, has become instantly relevant to the nation’s third-largest city, which has its own pension systems in various stages of financial collapse.

And if anything, the reckoning in Chicago is even nearer and more difficult than the one the state had faced, putting its Democratic mayor, Rahm Emanuel, in a difficult position under a tight deadline.

Under state law, the city must increase its contributions to its workers’ pension funds by $590 million in 2015, to a total annual contribution of $1.4 billion for current and future retirees.  If no pension deal can be reached by November of next year, when the city will draft its next budget, the city will either have to raise taxes or cut services or some combination of both.

But city officials are hoping there is now momentum on their side to force a compromise solution.  They come armed not only with Tuesday’s state vote but also with a federal judge’s ruling, also on Tuesday, to formally send Detroit into bankruptcy.  Chicago is not facing bankruptcy, but the Detroit case produced a development being watched closely by cities and unions across the country: It explicitly permitted changes to public pension funds to help the city shed its debts and reorganize.

"States and cities grapple with cuts to pensions that workers have already earned" PBS Newshour 12/4/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Illinois joined other cities and states in cutting pensions as way to curb costs.  Should public employees who have already earned their retirement be subject to cuts?  Judy Woodruff talks to Andrew Biggs of the American Enterprise Institute and Steven Kreisberg of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

DETROIT - Bankruptcy Ruling

"Pensioners will face negotiations as Detroit starts road to financial recovery" PBS Newshour 12/3/2013

Excerpts

JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour):  Finally: the choices ahead as Detroit moves forward with bankruptcy.

Today's ruling by a federal judge begins to clear the way for it to happen, and he said public pensions could be cut as part of other changes aimed at shedding billions in debt.  Unions and pension funds had argued that Michigan's state Constitution protected those pensions.
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CHRISTY MCDONALD, Detroit Public Television: It was.

But, Judy, he had to answer several legal questions before he could clear the way for Detroit's eligibility for Chapter 9.  One of those is, is the city insolvent?  And the judge found, yes, the city is insolvent.  It can't pay its debts.  And no one really argued that point there.  There is an $18 billion debt.

The other question he had to answer was, did the city negotiate in good faith with its creditors before they even filed for bankruptcy?  And while he chastised the city and said, you know what, the city really didn't negotiate in good faith, he moved to the next legal question was, did the city -- was it even possible for them to negotiate?

And he said it really wasn't, given the fact they had 100,000 creditors and an $18 billion debt.  And then the other question he had to answer was, was it constitutional to file for bankruptcy?  And, indeed, he said, yes, it was.

And, interestingly enough, the judge said that Detroit should have and could have filed for bankruptcy even years ago, given the financial situation it is in.

EDUCATION - In the U.S. vs Rest of the Globe

"How does American education measure up to schools around the globe?" PBS Newshour 12/3/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The PISA test is given to students in more than 60 countries as a way to compare scores in reading, math and science across the globe.  As in past years, 2012 results show the U.S. near the middle.  For insight on the results, Jeffrey Brown talks to Andreas Schleicher of the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development.

JEFFREY BROWN (Newshour):  It's considered by many the world's most important exam.  The Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA test, has been given to 15-year-olds in 65 countries and educational systems every three years since 2000, a way to test and compare performances in reading, math, and science, with an emphasis on how facts and figures can be not just learned, but used.

Results from 2012 were released today, and, once again, the U.S. hovered near the middle of the pack, lagging in some areas, even as other countries advanced.  Math remains the biggest challenge; 29 other systems had higher average scores than American high schoolers.

The U.S. fared better in reading, where it ranked 20th, and in science, ranking 23rd.  The best results were in East Asia, where students from Shanghai, Singapore, South Korea, and Japan, among others, placed near the top.

CHINA - China Sea Disputes

"Biden rebukes China for imposing air defense zone over disputed islands" (Part-1) PBS Newshour 12/3/2013

GWEN IFILL (Newshour):  Now to rising tensions in Asia and the United States' strong words for China.

VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN:  The only conflict that is worse than one that is intended is one that is unintended.

GWEN IFILL:  The vice president issued that warning in Tokyo today, on the first stop of a weeklong Asia tour.  He sought to reassure an anxious Japan, as a tense standoff continues with China over which country controls a string of uninhabited islands.

VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN:  We, the United States, are deeply concerned by the attempt to unilaterally change the status quo in the East China Sea.  This action has raised regional tensions and increased the risk of accidents and miscalculation.

GWEN IFILL:  The dispute over the islands, known as the Diaoyu in China and the Senkaku in Japan, has spiked sharply during the past 10 days.  It began when China announced a 600-mile-long East China Sea air defense zone, which includes the islands' airspace.

The U.S. ignored that declaration by dispatching two unarmed B-52 bombers to fly over the islands, ostensibly part of a training mission, without informing the Chinese first.  On Wednesday, Beijing announced it knew about the flights, but it offered no insight into how the zone might be enforced.

QIN GAN, Chinese Foreign Ministry (through interpreter):  We have said many times before that we will react accordingly, depending on the extent of possible threats we are facing and the circumstances.

GWEN IFILL:  A day later, Japan announced its aircraft, too, are continuing surveillance missions in the region, also ignoring China's demand that they get permission first.

YOSHIHIDE SUGA, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary (through interpreter):  We have no plans to change what we are doing out of consideration to China.

GWEN IFILL:  South Korea, which has interests in the East China Sea as well, said it also wouldn't recognize China's new defense zone.

KIM MIN-SEOK, South Korean Defense Ministry (through interpreter):  As of now, the South Korean government will allow our airplanes to pass the zone without notifications to China.

GWEN IFILL:  Chinese officials have not backed down and instead accused Japan of refusing to negotiate in good faith.

HONG LEI, Chinese Foreign Ministry (through interpreter):  China proposed that China and Japan should enhance communication and dialogue to properly solve the issue of flight safety in the overlapping zone.  We have demonstrated our sincerity, but the Japanese side on one hand keeps saying we should talk, but when it comes to dialogue, they keep the door closed.

GWEN IFILL:  All of this comes against the backdrop of China asserting its growing economic and military might.  Last week, the Chinese sent their sole aircraft carrier into the South China Sea, where other territorial and mineral rights are in dispute.

Vice President Biden, who will visit South Korea later in the week and Beijing tomorrow, says he will raise the airspace issues with China's president.

"Examining U.S. interests in calming tensions between China and Japan" (Part-2) PBS Newshour 12/3/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Tensions are rising between global powers China and Japan over newly declared air defense zone over disputed islands.  For insight into the seriousness of the dispute and potential ramifications, Gwen Ifill talks to two former State Department officials, Kurt Campbell and Susan Shirk.

POLITICS - The ACA and 2014 Midterm Elections

"What Obama's new health care offensive could mean for midterm elections" PBS Newshour 12/3/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  President Obama attempted to shift focus away from the technically troubled health care website to the benefits Americans are receiving under the law.  For more on the politics behind the president's new push, Judy Woodruff talks to Ron Bonjean of Singer Bonjean Strategies and Brad Woodhouse of Americans United for Change.

ART- New War Photography Exhibit

"World-shattering drama:  War photography" PBS Newshour 12/1/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  A wide-ranging exhibit titled "WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY:  Images of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath" pulls moments from 165 years to reveal what happens before, during and after battle.  Jeffrey Brown talks to a curator from the Houston Museum of Fine Arts about the challenge of reframing images of world-shattering drama as art.

ACA HEALTH CARE - Is the Federal Exchange Site Ready?

"Is healthcare.gov ready for its close-up?" PBS Newshour 11/30/2013

Excerpt

HARI SREENIVASAN (Newshour):  Starting tomorrow administration officials hope the website will be able to service as many of 50,000 Americans at once.  Their goal is to sign up seven million people by the end of March.  For more about all this we are joined by Sharon Pettypiece, she’s a healthcare reporter for Bloomberg News who has worked the beat for the past decade.

Thanks for joining us.

It’s odd for me to be almost asking for a website update – but how is it doing?  Is it better than those problems we heard about?

SHANNON PETTYPIECE:  Well, it’s better than October 1st, that’s for sure but that doesn’t mean too much because if you remember October 1st, people were logging on and not getting past the homepage.  They have been making progress.  But as of (late) last week, myself and my colleagues were out talking to people – talking to consumers; talking to insurance brokers; talking to non-profits that were trying to sign people up – they were saying that this site is still in pretty rough shape.  A couple people gave it four out of ten as far as its functioning, obviously ten being the best.

One of the problems we’re hearing about most from people is that though the site has improved and now you can get to the last step – you can create an account, shop around for plans, find out if you are eligible for subsidies – but you get to the point where you say ‘OK, I’m ready to buy insurance,’ which if you recall is the whole point of this website, that’s where it locks up.  That’s where it breaks down.  So only a trickle of people is actually being able to buy an insurance plan.

OPINION - Shields and Books 11/29/2013

"Shields and Brooks on the pope's critique of capitalism, Thanksgiving gratitude" PBS Newshour 11/29/2013

Excerpts

SUMMARY:  Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Hari Sreenivasan to discuss the week's top news, including the short-term Iran nuclear agreement, the pope's writings on capitalism, proposed changes to campaign finance rules and things to be grateful for.
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DAVID BROOKS:  .... really have to be tough on, the Iranians are counting on us, or the entire world, that the sanction regimes will begin to dissolve, that once companies get the chance to make some money in Iran, it will all fall apart.  Somehow, if the Western alliance can really hold the sanctions together, then this is a worth -- a risk worth taking.
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DAVID BROOKS:  The Saudis -- though, to be fair, the Saudis are really upset.  The Gulf states are really upset.  The Israelis are really upset.  The people who are most vulnerable to an Iranian nuclear weapon are really upset.  And that, to me, is to be trusted.  It seems unlikely that a regime that went so far to get a nuclear weapon is suddenly going to pull back and give it up.
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HARI SREENIVASAN:  OK.  Let's shift gears.

The pope came out with -- I want to get this correct -- his first apostolic exhortation.  It was his first major work, big report.  In there, he takes quite a few very specific jabs at capitalism, calling it a new tyranny.  I mean, popes in the past have had these concerns before, but really he's laying this out.  And some of the sort of pope watchers, experts are saying that this is the agenda for how to reform the Christian church.

DAVID BROOKS:  Yes, well, I -- I actually have a lot of sympathy.

I'm a fan of capitalism, but I have a lot of sympathy for it.  And it should be remembered that Benedict and John Paul II issued some extremely critical statements on capitalism.  That is the job of the Catholic Church, to be a balance to the materialistic drives of our culture and of economy.

I guess I would wish he would emphasize two things, first, that capitalism over the last 25 years has been an incredible moral good.  It has reduced poverty more in the last 25 years than ever before in human history, mostly in Asia.  But that's been a phenomenal good.  That's relieved suffering.  And that has been a product of capitalism.

The second thing I would say is sometimes I think the analysis and some of the language used this time was too narrowly economic.  One of the things capitalism does is, it does enhance and exacerbate the sin of pride, making yourself, the material world the center of your universe, instead of God's will.

But the doesn't only happen in capitalism.  That can happen in faculty clubs.  It can happen at NGOs.  And so that is a spiritual sin.  And to talk about some of the spiritual sins that capitalism encourages in a broader scale seems to me the right way to do it.  To focus on a certain sort of economic theory, that seems to me a little out of the pope's lane.

MARK SHIELDS:  I think it's very much in the pope's lane.

And I think that survival of the fittest has never been a tenet of either Judeo-Christian values or Christian -- our culture.  And I think the pope has confronted us with a fundamental question:  What are we first?  Are we a free market system, that we have confidence that, untrammeled and unfettered, it will eventually provide good for more people?

Or are we a community, a community of human beings of equal dignity, and that a capitalist system, a free enterprise system, under regulation and required regulation -- and that's what he -- that's the difference he makes more than any to me in the economic sphere, which is not private charity and private generosity, which have always been important, but that we have a collective responsibility to make that sure all of us, the least among us, through our collective instrument of government, have education, have health care, have shelter, have food, that that's not just a matter of individual kindness or compassion.

And I -- to me, that was it.  And David's right.  It's not a deviation from John Paul II or Benedict or past popes, but the emphasis that he brings to it, the passion he brings to it, that Pope Francis does, as well as the sense of engaging the world, I mean, it's an optimistic, upbeat, and passionate pope that we are seeing right now who drives a Ford Focus.
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MARK SHIELDS:  We had 32 years, from 1976 to 2008, in which we had elections.

As somebody who spent his early year in politics, before I turned to journalism, by default, I can tell you, they were clean.  Ronald Reagan three times ran for president.  He accepted the limits on contributions, the limits on what you could spend, and he ran on public financing in the fall elections, when he won 49 states one time and 44 the next, George H.W. Bush twice, Bill Clinton twice, George W. Bush.

And it changed in 2008.  President Obama was the first president not to abide by the limits in the general election.  And then along comes the Citizens United case decision at the Supreme Court, which took off all limits on spending.

We had in the last election $470 million contributed by 100 individuals.  And we don't know through these 501(c)(4)s, which are -- list themselves as social welfare organizations, charitable organizations, we don't know who is contributing.  They can hide behind that.

So, we have gone from total disclosure and limitations to no disclosure and no limits.  And anybody who thinks that is good for politics in the long run, you know, I just wish anybody on the Supreme Court who voted that way had ever run for sheriff, because they would know, people who give money in large amount in politics are basically not altruistic.

They have some issue.  They have some interest.  And it's -- you know, it may be world peace.  It may be preserving carried interest.  But it's not altruistic.