PBS News Hour

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Good evening.

I'm William Brangham.

Geoff Bennett and Amna Nawaz are away.

On the "News Hour" tonight: The discovery of mass graves in Syria sheds new light on the historic brutality of the fallen regime.

A look at efforts to lessen the impact offshore wind farms have on the seafood industry.

And New Zealand's shift to the political right ignites protests from the island nation's indigenous Maori people.

KASSIE HARTENDORP, Director, ActionStation: We have not been afforded equality.

So to now be told that our sovereignty is standing in the way of supposed equality is just a lie.

(BREAK) WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Welcome to the "News Hour."

We start our coverage today with a pair of holiday disruptions.

In a moment, we will hear about air travel headaches, but, first, coffee.

A strike by Starbucks employees expanded to some 5,000 baristas nationwide today.

PROTESTER: No contract!

PROTESTERS: No coffee!

PROTESTER: No contract!

PROTESTERS: No coffee!

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Their union says the walkout shut nearly 300 stores across 45 states.

Starbucks says fewer than 200 stores were affected.

Workers say they're protesting unfair labor practices like retaliatory firings and cuts to hours.

They also called out the company's recent wage offer, which one employee called insulting.

RUBY WALTERS, Starbucks Workers United: It's not enough to support any person living by themselves, let alone the Starbucks barista or shift supervisors who have one, two, three kids to put food on the table for.

They don't have enough money to support their families.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Starbucks said yesterday the strike had had no significant impact on its operations.

The employees say they will go back to work tomorrow morning.

Airline passengers also faced disruptions today after American Airlines briefly grounded flights nationwide due to a technical issue.

Passengers crowded terminals as operations were put on hold for about an hour.

American blamed a problem with the technology that maintains its flight operating system.

It comes in the thick of the busy holiday travel season.

Overall, flight trackers cited more than 3,200 flight delays and at least 28 cancellations today.

Snow, ice and thunderstorms were also factors in the disruptions.

The man accused of burning a woman to death in the New York City subway appeared in court today.

The suspect was charged with three counts of murder and arson at the Brooklyn Criminal Court.

He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Federal officials say the 33-year-old Guatemalan migrant set the sleeping woman's clothes on fire on Sunday.

The crime has sparked new worries about safety on New York's transit system, even as officials note that crime is down from last year.

Turning overseas to Sudan, famine conditions are spreading as the country's ongoing civil war shows no signs of letting up.

That's according to the integrated food security organization IPC.

The global monitoring group says five areas are affected, including the country's largest displacement camp, Zamzam, in the North Darfur province, where some 400,000 people live.

The IPC also says five other areas in North Darfur are expected to experience famine conditions in the next six months.

U.N. experts say the biggest challenge is getting aid to people in need.

DERVLA CLEARY, U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization: It is unacceptable in a world like today, where there's so much prosperity, that you are seeing people dying of hunger.

This should never be happening in today.

We need the violence to stop so people can access food, water, health, nutrition, and agriculture.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The U.N. says more than 24,000 people have died during 20 months of fighting in Sudan and 14 million people have been forced from their homes.

That's about 30 percent of the population.

Swiss Olympic snowboarder Sophie Hediger has died in an avalanche at a mountain resort.

The country's skiing federation says the incident happened yesterday at the Arosa resort in Switzerland.

The 26-year-old competed at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics in the women's snowboard cross and the mixed team version of the same event.

In California, weather officials are warning of dangerous surf and flooding after a series of violent storms.

Some waves may be as high as 35 feet today.

Two people had to be rescued after a pier partially collapsed in Santa Cruz yesterday.

A third swam to safety.

In a separate incident, one man was killed by a large wave that trapped him under debris.

Another remains missing after likely being pulled into the surf.

Californians will get a brief break from the wild weather on Christmas Day before more storms roll in.

Bill Clinton has been discharged from a Washington, D.C., hospital where he had been treated for the flu.

The former president had been admitted on Monday afternoon for testing and observation after coming down with a fever.

The 78-year-old has had a history of health problems.

He underwent a quadruple bypass operation in 2004.

Pope Francis has officially kicked off the 2025 holy year and with it the jubilee that occurs once every 25 years.

With a knock from the pontiff today, the great Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican swung open and he crossed the threshold to begin Christmas Eve mass.

More than 32 million people are expected to make a pilgrimage to Rome for this jubilee, which Pope Francis has dedicated to the theme of hope.

On Wall Street today, stocks bounded higher in a shortened Christmas Eve session.

The Dow Jones industrial average added nearly 400 points on the day.

The Nasdaq jumped about 1.33 percent, closing back above the 20,000-point level.

The S&P 500 also ended firmly in positive territory.

And a NASA spacecraft is attempting to fly closer to the sun's surface than ever before.

The Parker Solar Probe will endure blistering temperatures and extreme radiation as it passes within four million miles of the sun.

That's nearly seven times closer than any previous missions.

Scientists won't know whether the probe survived its fiery flyby for another few days.

But, if all goes according to plan, the probe will keep circling the sun through at least September, providing a better understanding of how the sun actually works.

Still to come on the "News Hour": the new Food and Drug Administration rules aim to redefine what's considered healthy; our critics' take on this year's must-see Hollywood hits and a few lesser-known gems; and, on Christmas Eve, a special look at the origins of NORAD's Santa tracker.

With the ouster of former President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, the scale of his regime's mass killings and executions are coming to light more and more each day.

Yesterday, the United Nations said the new Syrian government was receptive to receiving help gathering evidence and prosecuting individuals responsible for war crimes.

Special correspondent Simona Foltyn visited some of the mass graves that have been discovered across the country and has this report.

And a warning: Some of the images and descriptions here are disturbing.

SIMONA FOLTYN: This is Tadamon, what used to be a bustling suburb of Southern Damascus.

After almost 14 years of war, it's a desolate wasteland with more bodies buried underground than people still living above it.

Human remains are scattered all around.

An air of dread and sanctity hangs over these grounds, where countless souls perished in summary executions.

Tamer Farrah lives just the street away.

He bore witness to some of the horrors that happened here.

TAMER FARRAH, Resident of Tadamon (through translator): This was the front line in the fight for Damascus.

All the killing and massacres happened here.

SIMONA FOLTYN: When the uprising began, Tadamon became a rebel stronghold.

Regime forces took control in 2012 and turned it into a killing field.

People picked up at checkpoints across the city were taken here to be executed in cold blood,their bodies burned and cast into unmarked graves.

TAMER FARRAH (through translator): We know that the football field was turned into a burn pit, where they burned bodies.

You could tell by the smoke and the smell coming out of it.

SIMONA FOLTYN: With time and rain, the bodies resurfaced from their shallow graves, like evidence of unsolved crimes returning to haunt the living.

Even the regime was bothered by the sight of its own atrocities.

TAMER FARRAH (through translator): There were a lot of bones here.

They took some away and then they agreed with the head of the municipality to blow up the buildings, so that the rubble would cover the rest of the remains.

SIMONA FOLTYN: We don't know how many people were killed here.

What we do know is that they were buried here in the middle of this residential neighborhood, much of which was destroyed during the war.

Now, some people still live here amid the rubble and the bones, but, during our visit, we didn't see any government employees or security forces guarding this site, which is essentially a crime scene.

Tadamon is known for one particular massacre.

It was committed in 2013 and captured on camera by the very people who perpetrated it.

The video was leaked a couple of years ago.

It shows the executioners as they marched dozens of men towards a large ditch.

One by one, the victims were cast into the grave and shot at close range.

This is the street where the massacre took place.

There, we found a family praying over a patch of dirt.

Ramez and his sister, Mahasen, only just found out that their brother was among those murdered here.

They watched a video over and over to find the precise location of the grave.

RAMEZ AZZAT SHARANDER, Brother of Victim (through translator): They brought them here, they kicked them and then they shot them.

SIMONA FOLTYN: Until yesterday, they had only seen a blurred version of the execution video, after years of uncertainty, finally the truth.

Mahasen is sure that the man in the red shirt is her beloved brother, Ahmed.

MAHASEN AZZAT SHARANDER, Sister of Victim (through translator): We saw him on YouTube we knew immediately that it was him.

SIMONA FOLTYN: Ahmed Azzat Sharander, pictured here on the left shortly before his killing, was 22 years old when he disappeared.

RAMEZ AZZAT SHARANDER (through translator): He had gone out to get bread, him and our neighbor's son.

And then he disappeared.

We were looking for him in the hospitals, at the police station, but we couldn't find him.

We were looking for him discreetly.

We were afraid they'd take us too.

SIMONA FOLTYN: That fear is now gone.

The family are demanding the immediate opening of the grave.

RAMEZ AZZAT SHARANDER (through translator): Even if all that's left are bones, I want to bury him with my hands in our grave, not for him to remain here, where everyone who passes steps on him.

SIMONA FOLTYN: The killing fields of Tadamon are not singular in scale or brutality.

Syria is littered with mass graves.

The new government has yet to put forth a plan on how and when these graves will be exhumed.

The lack of clarity has pushed some relatives to take matters into their own hands, according to Ammar Al-Salmo from The White Helmets.

AMMAR AL-SALMO, The White Helmets: People started to dig in the mass grave, and that could destroy the evidence.

SIMONA FOLTYN: The White Helmets, a civil defense organization, have recovered some human remains found above ground, but they and the country lack the expertise and technical capabilities to open mass graves.

The forensic experts who worked for the previous government are seen as complicit in the murders.

AMMAR AL-SALMO: There is no trust, because they issued a death certificate, normal death for those who died under torture and died under violence.

We need like a committee from international organization, from local organization, even from the government to -- like, to supervise the opening of that mass graves for the -- not only for taking them in expert way, also for the future, for the justice and for accountability.

SIMONA FOLTYN: We visit another, much larger mass grave not far from the notorious Sednaya prison.

Many of those murdered in Sednaya's torture chambers are presumed to be buried in this vast plot, some only days before the regime fell.

Unlike the informal mass graves we saw in Tadamon, this site was meticulously planned and built, a cog in the killing machine that was Assad's state.

Each of these cinder blocks you see on the ground marks the beginning of a new concrete vault that is around a yard wide, two yards deep, and maybe 20 yards long.

It's estimated that dozens, maybe hundreds of bodies were placed in each one of these vaults.

Now, we have counted 12 cinder blocks in just this section over here and there are five more sections nearby.

So you can do the math and estimate how many people might have been buried here.

The number is likely in the thousands.

We drove onwards to the garrison town of Kutefa (ph).

There, we met Sheikh Abdelqadar, a religious leader who witnessed the mass burial of victims of torture in 2013.

At first, the government disposed of the bodies in the town's cemetery.

SHEIKH ABDELQADAR SHEIKA, Religious Leader (through translator): They buried them here, around 40 to 60 people.

The grave was around four meters deep.

I oversaw their burial.

There was a patrol from military security.

They forbade anyone to enter or to watch from the roofs or film.

SIMONA FOLTYN: Sheikh Abdelqadar granted the victims their final burial rites.

SHEIKH ABDELQADAR SHEIKA (through translator): After the burial, I prayed for them.

One of the security officers told me: "Why do you pray for them?

They are terrorists."

And I told him: "These are Muslims from our country and I'm praying for them."

SIMONA FOLTYN: It all happened in plain sight of the town's inhabitants, but nobody spoke out.

SHEIKH ABDELQADAR SHEIKA (through translator): They would yell at the people so they don't approach.

They would forbid them to look.

If they saw someone on the roof, they'd tell them to get down.

SIMONA FOLTYN: As the government ramped up executions to an industrial scale, there was a need for a much larger burial ground.

The municipality assigned an empty plot just outside town with more space and fewer witnesses.

SHEIKH ABDELQADAR SHEIKA (through translator): The bodies were wrapped in a white sheet and there were numbers written on them.

SIMONA FOLTYN: The denial of individual burials was a deliberate act to torture even in death, while instilling terror among the living.

SHEIKH ABDELQADAR SHEIKA (through translator): When the prison sends them for burial, they don't put names.

Those who hand over the bodies hand them over without names and those who receive them also receive them without names.

SIMONA FOLTYN: Sheikh Abdelqadar believes these sites are holy and should not be disturbed through exhumation, but for many relatives of the missing, the unearthing of their loved ones can't begin soon enough.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Simona Foltyn in Damascus, Syria.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The Food and Drug Administration has issued new rules for food labels for the first time in three decades.

It's an update the agency says will help empower consumers to make healthier choices in the grocery store.

Under the new guidelines, items previously denied the healthy label, like nuts and seeds, salmon, and other high-fat fish, would be included.

But some staples, like white bread and heavily sweetened yogurt and cereals, will no longer qualify.

To help us understand this evolution, I spoke recently with Lindsey Smith Taillie.

She's a nutrition epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina's Gillings School of Global Public Health.

Lindsey, welcome back to the program.

The FDA is updating this definition of -- quote, unquote -- "what is a healthy food," three decades since they have last done this.

What is the new criteria they're using to determine what's healthy and what's not?

LINDSEY SMITH TAILLIE, Nutrition Epidemiologist, University of North Carolina: Sure.

So the new criteria are that foods need to be under the thresholds for added sugar, which is new and didn't exist at the time that the initial ruling was released back in the '90s, as well as sodium and saturated fat.

And so the idea is that this is really in line with the current dietary guidelines for Americans.

And then the other change is that the foods have to have some amount of food groups that are recommended, so things like fruits and vegetables, nuts, legumes, and things like that.

And that previously was not part of this rule.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Do you think any of this is going to matter?

Do you think someone standing in the grocery store and holding an item of food in their hands is going to say, oh, the FDA says this is not healthy and put it back?

LINDSEY SMITH TAILLIE: So, that's a really interesting question.

And the reality is that they're looking for this healthy icon label.

And so it's not so much about what's not healthy.

It's about what's maybe the healthiest.

And we have evidence from other countries that have similar label types.

And there's really no data to suggest that this type of label has a meaningful impact on consumer purchasing behavior.

And then the other thing is that many of our food products are already covered in health and nutrition claims.

And so it's unclear whether this FDA healthy label will really stand out from all of these other claims that are already on the packages and really affect consumer purchases.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Yes, my understanding is that only about 5 percent of products have those labels.

And all those other labels that you're describing that say all-natural, low-sodium, all these things that can be incredibly misleading for consumers.

So what does help people realistically decide what is the right thing to eat and the right thing to avoid?

LINDSEY SMITH TAILLIE: So I think what we have seen from the global evidence from what other countries have done, as well as experiments that we have done here in the U.S., is that there are a couple of things.

The first is plain packaging and a regulation that would actually remove those nutrition and health claims from products that don't meet these standards.

So instead of just adding that healthy label, you would also remove all of the other confusing and potentially misleading marketing that's on these packages, because it creates a lot of noise that's hard for consumers to sift through when they're only making these decisions in about 10 to 12 seconds.

The other thing that the FDA could do -- and this rule is actually under consideration right now -- is to put on labels about what's unhealthy.

So, thinking about the foods that are the biggest drivers of our current epidemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes, we could use clear front-of-package labels to signify what a food is high in sugar, high in sodium, high in saturated fat.

We do have a strong evidence base that that type of label works, that consumers understand it, and that it does reduce their purchases of products with those labels.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: We know that there was a Johns Hopkins study that showed that half of all calories consumed at home by American adults come from these ultra-processed foods.

Again, can you just remind us of the dietary and health impacts that that kind of a diet has?

LINDSEY SMITH TAILLIE: Yes, absolutely.

So we have a pretty large body of observational evidence to show that diets high in ultra-processed foods are linked to an array of health problems, everything from adverse mental health outcomes, to weight gain, which is probably the strongest evidence that we have, to increased risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Another issue, the FDA is also considering banning the use of red dye No.

3, which is in a lot of our foods.

What is the science?

What's the argument for why we should take that out of our food supply?

LINDSEY SMITH TAILLIE: So there are a couple of arguments for why we might take it out of our food supply.

I think one argument is that it's not beneficial to us.

It doesn't really add any nutrient value, in -- except that it makes our foods look pretty and more bright.

In terms of the health concerns with red dye No.

3, it was banned for use in cosmetics decades ago when studies show that high amounts in rats led to cancer.

Now, I don't believe that there's strong evidence to show that ingesting this leads to cancer in humans.

However, when you see that kind of mechanism, it might raise these kinds of questions, which is what the FDA wants to review.

The piece of evidence that we do have is that there are some kind of studies that show that consumption of red dye in children increases hyperactivity.

So it's a little bit unclear exactly what's going on with this red dye No.

3, but it does seem like this is something that's not necessarily good for us and it could be harmful.

And so it's worth a further review by the FDA.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, that is Lindsey Smith Taillie of the University of North Carolina.

Thank you so much for being here.

LINDSEY SMITH TAILLIE: Thank you.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: We turn now to the second of two stories about the growth of offshore wind farms and the questions surrounding their impact.

Science correspondent Miles O'Brien takes us to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where local officials are trying to find a balance between greener renewable energy and the potential impact on the critical fishing industry in that region.

MILES O'BRIEN: In the early 19th century, New Bedford, Massachusetts was one of the wealthiest cities in the country because of a grim industry.

It was the whaling capital of the world.

The oil produced from the carcasses lit the Eastern Seaboard before the transition to fossil fuels.

This city, ironically, is on the cusp of being a center of energy once again.

This time, the resource is blowing in the wind.

The tall pylons at the Marine Commerce Terminal are the most conspicuous features in an evolving harbor, an economic transition spurred by the energy transition.

There are cranes everywhere.

You're really remaking this port, aren't you?

JON MITCHELL, Mayor of New Bedford, Massachusetts: Yes, we really are.

Yes.

MILES O'BRIEN: And it's pretty significant.

Mayor Jon Mitchell took me on a cruise around the harbor.

You have got construction all up and down this harbor.

JON MITCHELL: Yes.

MILES O'BRIEN: So what's the total dollar amount right now?

JON MITCHELL: It's about $1.1 billion.

MILES O'BRIEN: Would that have happened without wind?

JON MITCHELL: A lot of it wouldn't.

In fact, most of it would not.

What we're doing is playing to our advantages.

That's what you see here.

MILES O'BRIEN: The mayor is on a political tightrope.

The wind industry that he's been courting for a dozen years is caught in a net of opposition from the economic engine that has propelled New Bedford for the last century.

CASSIE CANASTRA, BASE Seafood Auction: We don't know, are my scallops that I harvest now going to be there in 20 years in the same spot that they have always been?

MILES O'BRIEN: Cassie Canastra and her family run the largest fish auction the U.S. East Coast.

About 70 percent of all the scallops that land on your plate first land here.

The largest scallops can fetch about $20 a pound.

And there are eager buyers for every last morsel.

CASSIE CANASTRA: Scallops are just such a high-value product.

That's like the biggest resource we have coming in through the harbor.

So I think that just is what made us such a lucrative port.

MILES O'BRIEN: New Bedford is the most lucrative fishing port in the U.S.

But scalloper Eric Hansen is very wary of what may lie ahead.

In raising your concern now, you're trying to get out ahead of this.

Is that the idea?

ERIC HANSEN, Owner, Hansen Scalloping Inc.: Get out ahead is an interesting way to say it.

I envision that we have a bunch of steamrollers coming to steamroll our fishery, and we're just trying to steer them.

I don't think we can stop them.

MILES O'BRIEN: He's asking the wind industry to slow down to allow some time for scientists to do some solid research to try and uncover the unintended consequences of wind farms in the ocean.

ARAN MOONEY, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution: So it's obviously super loud here.

MILES O'BRIEN: That's what this racket is all about.

ARAN MOONEY: What we're doing is basically measuring how animals are responding to the sound.

MILES O'BRIEN: Aran Mooney is a marine biologist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, which is where I met him as he was pile-driving for data.

Beneath the surface, flounder, lobsters and scallops, bottom dwellers, are getting blasted with a lot of noise to see how they respond.

ARAN MOONEY: We have actually cameras and sensors on animals under this water, as we measure sort of their behavior and their physiological sort of responses to this.

MILES O'BRIEN: The sensors they attach to the fish record their movement during the jarring noises.

In the lab, he showed me how they work.

They contain small accelerometers and magnetometers to capture the motion.

What is the hardware all about?

ARAN MOONEY: Yes, so we have basically this custom-built tag that we have for them.

So this is kind of like a little scallop Fitbit.

On the back here is just...

MILES O'BRIEN: Scallop Fitbit?

ARAN MOONEY: Yes, a scallop Fitbit.

So it allows us to get the movement patterns and energetics of the scallop.

MILES O'BRIEN: They have been conducting tests like these for three years.

They started with squid and black sea bass.

Can we say for certain that it causes stress in these animals?

ARAN MOONEY: So it really depends on which species and the context that they're in.

MILES O'BRIEN: And what they're doing.

ARAN MOONEY: So, resting squid were very sensitive to the sound.

Mating squid couldn't care less.

MILES O'BRIEN: Scallops close tight each time a pile driver strikes.

ARAN MOONEY: Those responses repeated again over hours and days could be really stressful for the animals.

So I think that may tire them out and make them more susceptible to predation.

MILES O'BRIEN: The pedestals that wind turbines sit on are 30 feet in diameter.

And each requires about two hours of pile-driving to be firmly planted in the seafloor.

The Biden administration's goal of 30 gigawatts of offshore wind equates to about 2,500 turbines.

Mooney is hopeful his work will lead to a more informed construction strategy, things like limiting pile-driving to when squid are mating, avoiding scallop beds, and ramping up the sound gradually.

ARAN MOONEY: At the beginning of the day, start with a low-amplitude sound and then just increase that over a course of a few minutes.

And so you kind of give those animals a warning that that's coming.

MILES O'BRIEN: There are a lot of missing pieces to this puzzle; 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, Brendan Runde is angling for answers.

He's a fisheries biologist with The Nature Conservancy.

This is the site of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Farm.

When complete, it will be the largest in the U.S.

He and his team are catching sea bass and attaching acoustic tags to them.

BRENDAN RUNDE, The Nature Conservancy: This is the part that might be a little uncomfortable for some viewers.

MILES O'BRIEN: The pinging signals they emit are captured by a few dozen acoustic receivers on the seafloor amid the turbines.

BRENDAN RUNDE, Nature Conservancy: And those receivers are constantly listening for the very specific frequency that our tags are pinging.

MILES O'BRIEN: The system allows him to track the fish.

In addition, he has installed hydrophones to measure the underwater sound.

WOMAN: Awesome.

Away she goes.

MILES O'BRIEN: Comparing the spikes and decibels to the movement of the fish may fill in some blanks.

BRENDAN RUNDE: Maybe they will hunker down near the seafloor, and if that does happen, how long does it last?

Another possible response is that black sea bass and the other fish we're tagging might simply leave the area when pile-driving happens.

MILES O'BRIEN: But it's very likely they will come back.

Runde says these fish are actually attracted to the turbines, which become artificial reefs.

BRENDAN RUNDE: The structure that's created by these offshore wind turbines is great habitat for a lot of different species.

As a recreational fisherman, I, for one, am looking forward to having all of these structures.

MILES O'BRIEN: While scientists try to get some real data, many opponents of offshore wind are peddling alternative facts.

Donald Trump is leading the chorus, vowing to try and stop offshore windmill construction.

This is why, in New Bedford, Mayor Mitchell has carefully tailored his pro-wind argument around economic development, jobs, not the climate emergency.

He thinks this has created a firmer foundation of support now that the political winds have shifted in Washington.

Are you worried at all that offshore wind is still, if you will excuse the expression, not on firm ground politically and otherwise?

JON MITCHELL: Yes, I think so.

I guess the question about offshore wind fundamentally is how rapidly it will deploy.

It is here in the United States.

It's here to stay.

There's just too much that's been sunk in the way of major investment by major players here in the U.S. and in Europe for it to stop entirely.

The horse is out of the barn in offshore wind.

And it's a question of how rapidly that horse is going to run at this point.

MILES O'BRIEN: For now, it is a one-horse race.

Electric vehicles and artificial intelligence are fueling a dramatic increase in demand for electricity.

In September, Microsoft announced a deal to reopen a mothballed nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania, to power data centers.

Besides that, here in the Northeast, there are no other renewable options on the horizon.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Miles O'Brien off the coast of Massachusetts.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: New Zealand has long been known for its progressive policies, including efforts to correct and address historical wrongs against its indigenous Maori population.

But, as Ali Rogin reports, a new right-wing government has reversed many of those policies and triggered mass protests in the Pacific nation.

ALI ROGIN: They marched for nine days in the dark and through the rain, carrying portraits of generations past and the flag symbolizing their right to self-determination.

Protesters from New Zealand's native Maori community walked alongside non-indigenous New Zealanders to form what's thought to be the largest March in the nation's history.

The peaceful show of force culminated last month in the capital, Wellington, outside Parliament.

At the protest's heart, a bill proposing changes to New Zealand's founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi, or Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

MAN: To safeguard, to honor, to protect Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

WOMAN: Why are we doing this?

Why are we bringing a bill in where there is already a foundational document in there?

ALI ROGIN: Signed in 1840, the treaty helped establish New Zealand's first colonial government and promised land and other rights to Maori.

CARWYN JONES, Lecturer, Te Wananga o Raukawa: The Treaty of Waitangi is certainly seen as being part of our Constitution.

ALI ROGIN: Dr. Carwyn Jones, a Maori legal expert, says, for more than a century, the government mostly ignored the native rights set out in the treaty, pushing many Maori off their ancestral lands and into poverty.

ANNOUNCER: The column now seems to number an excess of 4,000 people.

ALI ROGIN: But decades of activism has led to increased treaty recognition in New Zealand law and policy.

Today, the treaty is interpreted as a partnership between the government and its native people, who make up almost one-fifth of the country's population.

CARWYN JONES: What that meant in terms of the courts is that government has an obligation to act as a treaty partner, to act with utmost good faith and reasonably towards the other treaty partner, with Maori.

ALI ROGIN: That's led to legal acknowledgment of some Maori rights such as land rights, services that address Maori socioeconomic disadvantage, and official status for the Maori language.

CHRISTOPHER LUXON, Prime Minister of New Zealand: I mean, let's be clear.

There's a strong depth of emotion on all sides of this debate.

ALI ROGIN: That progress, many believe, is threatened by last year's election of the most conservative government New Zealand has seen in a generation, a coalition of three parties led by former airline executive Christopher Luxon.

CARWYN JONES: It is one of the most anti-Maori governments we have seen in a long time.

And this is the first government in a long time which is deliberately rolling back on those rights and taking us backwards in that respect.

ALI ROGIN: In the last year, the government has shut down an agency that addressed Maori health disparities, made it difficult for local governments to have dedicated Maori representation, and scaled back the use of the Maori language by government departments, but most controversially: MAN: Christopher Luxon, you are presiding over the most racist piece of legislation in 100 years.

ALI ROGIN: ... it helped introduce a bill into Parliament that would fundamentally change how the treaty is interpreted.

DAVID SEYMOUR, New Zealand Minister for Regulation: Well, my bill would replace those principles of so-called partnership that have been invented by the courts over the last 50 years and say, no, no, no, for the most part, people would have equal rights before the law in New Zealand.

ALI ROGIN: David Seymour, who himself has Maori ancestry, leads the right-wing backed party and is the architect of the legislation that would effectively remove some Maori rights recognized in the treaty.

DAVID SEYMOUR: This bill, as a matter of fact, takes nothing away from anybody, unless you're one of those people who believe that you should have special rights over and above others as a consequence of your birth and your ancestry.

And we just reject that.

ALI ROGIN: The reaction was loud, swift, and viral... (CHANTING) ALI ROGIN: ... when some Maori lawmakers, led by the country's youngest member of Parliament, Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, launched into a haka, a ceremonial dance, in protest.

KASSIE HARTENDORP, Director, ActionStation: When we saw her do that, we were all immensely proud and knew she was doing the exact right thing on behalf of all of us.

ALI ROGIN: Kassie Hartendorp is a Maori activist who helped organize the largest petition against the bill and attended the protests outside Parliament.

KASSIE HARTENDORP: Get people signing up to make submissions against the Treaty Principles Bill.

ALI ROGIN: She says removing unique Maori rights ignores the historic disadvantages her community has experienced.

KASSIE HARTENDORP: We die younger.

We're more likely to be locked up in prison.

We have every negative health statistic you can imagine.

And so we do not live equal lives.

We have not been afforded equality.

So to now be told that our sovereignty is standing in the way of supposed equality is just a lie.

ALI ROGIN: In a recent poll, more New Zealanders said they opposed the bill than supported it, but most said they don't know enough about it.

Many legal experts, including at New Zealand's Ministry of Justice, say the law could throw the country into a constitutional crisis.

CARWYN JONES: It would effectively be the end of the treaty relationship.

If you undermine that relationship, then you start to take away the legitimacy of government.

You start to erode social cohesion if you are not willing to give effect to a recognized Maori right or to act in partnership with Maori.

ALI ROGIN: Prime Minister Luxon has said he only promised to support the bill through the first stage of review and that his party will not vote for its passage.

CHRISTOPHER LUXON: Treaty issues are complex.

They have been negotiated, debated, discussed over 184 years.

It's simplistic to assume that you can, through the stroke of a pen, resolve all of that.

ALI ROGIN: While this law is likely doomed, after a year of rollbacks of Maori rights, many fear what will come next.

KASSIE HARTENDORP: Our current coalition government is stripping back indigenous rights on a whole raft of laws.

My concern for the future is that a far right populist movement will grow in nature to be able to strip us of the sovereignty that we were guaranteed to those 200 years ago.

Therefore, we need to make sure that we keep this up and make sure that they stick to their word into the future.

ALI ROGIN: An ongoing battle over New Zealand's past in order to define its future.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Ali Rogin.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The holidays are a great time to catch up on the year's best films, whether streaming at home or heading to the theater.

So, to highlight some of the best movies of the year, Jeffrey Brown sat down with two film critics, who shared their top picks.

It's part of our arts and culture series, Canvas.

JEFFREY BROWN: And, once again, it's time to spotlight some of the year's best work, along with a few hidden gems you might have missed.

Here to tell us their favorites, I'm joined by Mike Sargent, host of the podcast "Brown & Black" and co-president of the Black Film Critics Circle, and Linda Holmes, host of NPR's "Pop Culture Happy Hour."

It's nice to see both of you again.

Mike, let me start with you.

Why don't we start with a couple of big films, big-budget films?

MIKE SARGENT, Co-President, Black Film Critics Circle: Well, I guess the biggest budget film I will start with is "Wicked."

I have to say, that was a film that I was not necessarily looking forward to, but I was very impressed.

I didn't -- I didn't understand why they were splitting it into two films.

I didn't -- I never saw the play, so I didn't really -- I love "Wizard of Oz," but I will say that it is absolutely a film you should see in theaters with an audience, as big a theater as you can and with as big an audience as you can.

It was absolutely something -- it's an event and there's a reason why it's doing so well.

The other film I'd pick is a film that I'd heard a lot about and then I didn't get to see right away.

And that's a film called "Conclave."

And that's a mystery thriller.

It's directed by Edward Berger, and it's based on a 2016 novel by Robert Harris.

And it's essentially about finding the next pope and what that whole process is.

And it is quite a ride.

And it brings you inside how all of that goes on.

But there are so many twists and turns and such great performances from literally three Oscar nominees, Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, and John Lithgow.

I absolutely recommend "Conclave."

JEFFREY BROWN: Linda Holmes, two big-budget films.

LINDA HOLMES, Pop Culture Correspondent, NPR: By the way, "Conclave" loved "Conclave."

My action movie heart this year went out to "The Fall Guy," which has Ryan Gosling as a stuntman who is working on a movie being made by his ex, who is played by Emily Blunt.

It is an action comedy, little bit of rom-com.

I found it so kind of big-hearted.

It's also got a lot of great stunts.

The director used to be a stuntman.

I found this to be my favorite kind of blockbuster-ish type movie of the year.

I had a great time at that film.

Another one, to go to the completely opposite end of higher-profile stuff, "The Brutalist," which stars Adrien Brody, is a big, long, heavy, three-and-a-half-hour film.

I love the fact that they have incorporated a 15-minute intermission, which I want more movies to do if they are that long.

It's a beautiful story about an artist post-Holocaust kind of making his way trying to realize his art.

It's a great film about art and artists.

JEFFREY BROWN: How about, Mike Sargent, start us with a couple of lower-budget or smaller films?

MIKE SARGENT: Well, a smaller film I have to mention is a film called "Nickel Boys."

And that's a film that was directed by RaMell Ross.

And it's based on a novel by Colson Whitehead from 2019.

It's based on a school that actually existed for over 100 years.

And it really centers on two boys who go through, let's just say, all the cruel things that they were doing at this school.

It's really an interesting way of storytelling in terms of what the director does.

Everything you see is from the point of view of the two young boys.

And it's a very, very powerful story.

I absolutely recommend it.

I don't want to tell you more about it because I think it's best to go into it having no idea where you're going with this story.

JEFFREY BROWN: I saw that.

(CROSSTALK) JEFFREY BROWN: It's quite unusual the way he shoots it.

MIKE SARGENT: Absolutely.

And it's compelling.

It draws you right in because you get a perspective that you wouldn't have, which is what I think films should do.

The second film is a film, a new film from Sean Baker.

And Sean Baker is a director who always does interesting works.

He focuses on the people who often get ignored in our society.

And "Anora" is about a sex worker from Brooklyn who gets a chance at what she thinks is essentially a Cinderella story.

And this is sort of "Pretty Woman" for adults, where this is a lot more based in reality.

And, again, this is a film that takes many twists and many turns.

And it's been described as entertaining.

And, yes, it is.

It's engrossing.

But entertaining isn't the word I'd use.

I would just say it's very, very compelling.

You won't be bored for a minute.

JEFFREY BROWN: Linda Holmes, two more for you.

LINDA HOLMES: One that I really love this year is "Sing Sing," which is a story about the theater program for incarcerated people at Sing Sing prison.

And it's based on true story.

Not only that, but a lot of the people who are in the film are formerly incarcerated people from Sing Sing who were in this program.

It's who naturally are trained in theater and have some background.

They also worked on developing the script.

It stars Colman Domingo, who I think is honestly one of our best and most reliable actors.

I will watch him in anything.

He's fabulous in this.

And it touched me so much.

And it's a great filmmaking story as well.

Another one that you can find on Netflix, and it's a terrific family drama, is called "His Three Daughters."

This one was sold to me on the cast, which is Carrie Coon, Natasha Lyonne, and Elizabeth Olsen, who, again, three just enormously different, but enormously reliable actors.

And it's about these three sisters who come together at their father's apartment because he's at the end of his life.

And it's a wonderful story about how the aging of parents complicates sibling relationships, can bring people closer, but also can really bring up a lot of family stuff.

It's one of several kind of good pieces of media I saw this year about people aging and kids of aging parents.

And so I very, very much loved that film, "His Three Daughters."

JEFFREY BROWN: So, in our time left, maybe we should give a little love to documentaries.

Mike, you want to tell us, what was your favorite documentary of the year?

MIKE SARGENT: This is the golden age of documentaries.

And what's great, the film I'm going to mention is a film called "Piece by Piece."

And it's documentary about Pharrell Williams.

And it's done animated, but not just animated.

It's done in LEGOs.

And that's such an interesting and original way of approaching a documentary.

And it works perfectly.

There are a lot of aspects of his life that are fantastical, but also you need to visualize, what he visualizes.

He has a condition where he sees music in colors.

And telling it in this way, it disarms you and it makes you pay attention to all the things that happen in life in a very different way.

I think it's really great piece of filmmaking and a great documentary as well.

JEFFREY BROWN: Linda, favorite documentary?

LINDA HOLMES: I think Mike's right that it's a golden age for the filmmaking.

It's also a golden age, fortunately, for the availability of documentaries because of the rise of streaming services.

So one of the ones I wanted to highlight is called "Girls State."

And there was a film a couple years ago called "Boys State," which is about the Boys State program, where high school boys are brought together and they sort of create a mock government and they have elections.

So, this year, they did "Girls State."

"Girls State" is very different.

This was filmed just as the Supreme Court was considering reproductive rights and the girls are very focused on that.

How different it is for girls to be in a program like that, at least for these girls, is explored.

And you can find that on Apple TV.

A lot of these documentaries, it's exactly the kind of film that years ago everybody would have said how good it was, but it would have been super difficult to find it unless you had a really good blockbuster.

This, a lot of these, you can find on streaming.

JEFFREY BROWN: All right, some of the years best from Linda Holmes and Mike Sargent.

Thank you both very much.

LINDA HOLMES: Thank you.

MIKE SARGENT: Thank you.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: During the Cold War, Air Force Colonel Harry Shoup was one of the commanders in charge of an early warning radar system based in Colorado.

It had been set up to detect a possible Soviet missile attack on the U.S.

In this animated conversation from our colleagues at StoryCorps, three of Shoup's children recall a surprising phone call their dad received back in 1955.

WOMAN: I remember two phones on his desk.

One was this red phone.

Only a four-star general at the Pentagon and my dad had the number.

MAN: This was the '50s.

This was the Cold War.

And he would have been the first one to know if there was an attack on the United States.

WOMAN: So, first couple weeks of December, in 1955, dad was at the office and the red phone rang.

He answered it, "This is Colonel Shoup."

And then there was a small voice that just asked: "Is this Santa Claus?"

MAN: Dad was very straitlaced, very disciplined.

WOMAN: He was annoyed.

WOMAN: He was upset.

(CROSSTALK) MAN: He thought it was a joke.

WOMAN: Yes, and so now the little voice was crying.

WOMAN: And dad realized that it wasn't a joke.

So he'd talk to him: "Ho, ho, ho," and asked if he had been a good boy, and "May I talk to your mother?"

And the mother got on and said: "You haven't seen the paper yet?

There's a phone number to call Santa.

It's in the Sears ad."

Dad looked it up and there it was, his red phone number.

And they had children calling one after another.

So he put a couple of airmen on the phones to act like Santa Claus.

WOMAN: It got to be a big joke at the command center.

The old man's really flipped his lead this time.

We're answering Santa calls.

WOMAN: The airmen had this big glass board with the United States on it and Canada.

And when airplanes would come in, they would track them.

MAN: And Christmas Eve of 1955, when dad walked in, there was a drawing of a sleigh with eight reindeer coming over the North Pole.

WOMAN: Dad said: "What is that?"

They said: "Colonel, we're sorry.

We were just making a joke.

Do you want us to take that down?"

Dad looked at it for a while.

And next thing, dad had called the radio station and had said: "This is the commander at the Combat Alert Center, and we have an unidentified flying object.

Why, it looks like a sleigh."

(LAUGHTER) WOMAN: Well, the radio stations would call him like every hour and say, where's Santa now?

And later in life, he got letters from all over the world, people saying, "Thank you, Colonel, for having this sense of humor."

And in his 90s, he would carry those letters around with him in a briefcase that had a lock on it, like it was top secret information.

He was an important guy.

But this is the thing he's known for.

MAN: It was probably the thing he was proudest of.

WOMAN: Oh, I'm sure, yes.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Finally tonight, on Christmas Eve, we continue a tradition we started a few years ago, with members of the U.S. military presenting a holiday song.

This year, musicians from the military services perform the Christmas classic "Jingle Bells."

This video was produced by the Pentagon's Defense Visual Information Distribution Service.

(MUSIC) WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Thank you again to those in uniform who put that song together for us and to all of those service men and women who are working and away from family on this holiday.

Remember, there is a lot more online, including our guide to sustainable holiday decorating.

That's at PBS.org/NewsHour.

And on tomorrow's "News Hour": The Boston Ballet offers a new look for "The Nutcracker" this holiday season.

That is the "News Hour" for tonight.

I'm William Brangham.

On behalf of the entire "News Hour" team, thank you so much for joining us.