Sreenivasan those are some of the stories were covering on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by lincoln financial committed to helping you take charge of your life and become youre own chief life officer. Supported by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation. Committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. More information at macfound. Org and with the ongoing support of these institutions and. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Sreenivasan around the world, people welcomed the start of a new year and all the promise it holds. But for some in shanghai, the year began tragically after a street celebration turned into a stampede that killed 36 people. Anxious friends and relatives filled the waiting rooms at hospitals in shanghai today. They sought information about loved ones caught in the deadly stampede during new years eve celebrations. As authorities looked for answers, people gathered at a makeshift memorial, and witnesses recounted the horror of the citys worst disaster in recent history. translated its too cruel. People in front of us had already fallen to the ground people were stepping all over them. People just needed to leave the site. Its peoples lives at stake. We felt death so close to us last night. We were horrified. Sreenivasan police today denied reports that the stampede started after people rushed to grab fake money falling from a nightclub in shanghais waterfront area. Chinese president xi jinping has demanded an investigation and new years Day Celebrations in the city have been cancelled, according to chinese media. cheers and applause thousands of miles from the tragedy, pope francis made a wish for no more wars. translated this proximity of god to our lives gives us true peace. Peace, the divine gift that we implore especially today. Peace is always possible. Its always possible, we have to search for it. But amid the revelry, there were new protests in places like boston where a small group of demonstrators staged a peaceful diein over recent Police Killings of unarmed black men around the country. The traditional times square ball drop, which this year drew a Million People. Meanwhile, the 126th annual rose parade was the center of attention in southern california. This year, one of the coldest on record, there was a new face involved in the old tradition. Joan williams rode the lead float, nearly 60 years after she was denied the honor because she is african american. The first victim of the airasia plane disaster has now been identified. The womans remains were returned to her family and laid to rest in a funeral ceremony in surabaya, indonesia. Where the jetliner took off sunday before disappearing with 162 people aboard. Recovery efforts to find more bodies in the java sea resumed briefly, until wind and rain hindered the operation. Nine victims have been found so far. But theres still no sign of the plane itself. North koreas leader kim jong un said his country is open to talks or even a summit with south korea. Kim made the remarks during a new years address on state television. North and south korea are technically still at war. Even as he indicated a willingness to talk, he blamed south korea for current tensions. South korean government should stop all war maneuvers and reckless military drills that it has made with Foreign Countries an turn its steps towards relieving the tension in the korean peninsula. Needless to say conversation cant be implemented nor the relationship between the north and south proceed when there are military drills to oppose one another in a warlike atmosphere. Sreenivasan south korean officials later called the move meaningful. The two nations last held a summit in 2007. The president of syria, bashar assad, made a rare visit to the front lines of the civil war over new years eve. State television aired footage of assad visiting different groups of soldiers in eastern damascus last night. He also sat down and ate with some of them. The damascus neighborhood has seen intense fighting in recent months. A britishbased Human Rights Group reported today more than 76,000 people were killed in fighting in syria in 2014. That makes it the deadliest year since the war began in 2011. In the u. S. , General Motors announced three new recalls today, on top of one yesterday for faulty ignition switches. The recalls affect 92,000 trucks and suvs. In the last year g. M. Has recalled about 15 million vehicles around the world for ignition and key related problems. The fastfood chain chikfila has announced it is investigating a possible data breach. In a statement on its website, the restaurant chain said it has received reports of potential unusual activity involving payment cards used at several of their locations. The locations were not disclosed and chikfila officials said they first became aware of the suspicious activity on december 19th. Still to come on the newshour. Imprisoned al jazeera journalists to be retried in egyptian court. How will minimum wage increases in twenty states help or hurt the job market . Economic strategies to keep new years resolutions. A look back on the major stories around the world and whats ahead for 2015. Microbreweries in south africa target a growing black middle class. And, the harrowing stories of chilean miners when they were trapped 2,000 feet below ground. Sreenivasan for 369 days, a trio of al jazeera journalists has been held in an egyptian jail. But today, with the latest ruling from egypts highest appeals court, their case took a hopeful turn. Outside the cairo courthouse, a crowd dominated by police and media waited for news on the al jazeera journalists appeals. In june, mohamed fadelfahmy, a canadianegyptian; australian correspondent peter greste; and egyptian Baher Mohamed were handed seven to ten year sentences on charges of publishing false egyptian news and aiding the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group. But outside egypt, the trial was widely viewed as a sham and the verdicts sparked an international outcry. Supporters organized protests and social media campaigns, claiming the journalists were unfairly caught up in tensions between egypt and qatar, the owners of aljazeera. But the two countries have recently begun a public reconciliation. And in late december, greste thanked his supporters in a letter written from his cairo cell, saying we have created a huge Global Awareness of not just our cause, but the far wider and more vital issues of press freedom, the persecution of journalists, and of justice in egypt. Sreenivasan today, egypts highest Court Granted the three retrials. Lawyers for the journalists welcomed the decision, saying the initial verdicts were based on flawed evidence they assume that if you work for al jazeera automatically you are a member in the Muslim Brotherhood, which is not true and is illegal. Sreenivasan still, family members expressed disappointment that the three would not be released on bail. I was expecting, yes a retrial, but i was expecting with that, a release today, we were really hoping for that, we wanted mohammed to come with us home today. Sreenivasan and in doha, al jazeeras managing director pushed for an expedited retrial. translated we welcome this initial verdict and we request their Immediate Release without any conditions. Leaving them in jail, regardless of how long they are there, is another indication to the global media, al jazeera and all the journalists, that the press is still oppressed in egypt. Earlier today, i spoke with borzou daragahi, hes been covering the journalists detention for the Financial Times in cairo. Borzou, start by telling us what happened in court today. First of all i should just give a caveat, the journalists were not allowed into the courtroom this is based on speaking to Defense Attorneys as well as to members of the families of the defendants who were allowed into court they were, you know apparently it was a very short session, less than half an hour in which the defense lawyers were allowed to plead for their clients to arc on behalf of their clients and give various arguments as to why the case did not stand up to legal scrutiny. This is a court of , in the egyptian legal system its sole role is to scrutinize Court Decisions to see if they measure up to legal standards and if the case gets referred to a court of appeals, at the end of session there was an hour where the judge was deliberating and he came back we were told by Court Decisions we never actually saw the judge, that the case had been vacated so to speak. The verdict had to be cancelled and a retrial ordered vaz was there any explanation on why these individuals were not let out on bail . There was no explanation of anything. There was no explanation to the courts reasoning for vacating the previous june Court Decisions, and there was no explanation to why they werent released on bail. There was no real communication between the Court Officials and the public or with the defendants who were not in the court session, or to the defense lawyers. Srennivasan do when does the retrial start . Were not sure of that exactly. From my understanding, and speaking to the Defense Attorneys within a week the court of appeals will announce a trial date which should start within a month. So that means that theres no chance for these guys to be released from prison on bail until that first court hearing, which should begin within a month. Srennivasan how much of this is political versus legal . Theres a lot of speculation that this trial or the retrial hangs on the fate of the relationship between egypt and qatar who owns al jazeera. If you talk tow gyp shan officials, theyre very strident about the integrity of the egyptian judicial system and the independence of that judiciary. Many people are very skeptical about those claims. They see a lot of politics in the prosecution of this and other cases. And you know based on the comments of certain officials yeah this diplomatic spat between egypt and qatar is part of the problem in getting these guys freed and getting them out of jail and ending this whole charade i dont know what else to call it. Because these guys are clearly not guilty of anything other than being ode journalists. So you know it seems like that will be a big actor. But its not just a diplomatic dispute. Theres also billions of dollars at stake here. Because the qatari government, when the Muslim Brotherhood was dominant here, invested billions of dollars in the Egyptian Central Bank and now wants that money back. In addition, the qatari government has sued the or rather al jazeera owned by the qatari government has sued egypt for 140 million for damages pertaining to this particular case and other matters. And so theres this big financial dispute as well as a political dispute jz so the egyptian president could have gotten involved. He said that this is a court that should retain its independence. How independent is this particular court that this retrial was granted under . Well, many people that i have spoken to legal professionals in egypt say that the court of castian is known to be relatively free of politics, relatively independent, has a rather high relative degree of integrity compared to other parts of the egyptian judiciary and legal system. So it has a very good reputation. But in recent months recent weeks actually weve had leaks of audiotapes rather credible leaks showing high level members of the generals around al sysysisi openly discussing with each other how they would manipulate this court case or this legal matter or that. These have been aired on various internet stations and so on. And these have really raised questions about just how much and how the egyptian judiciary system is an independent or not. Srennivasan art borzou daragahi, thank you so much for joining us. Sreenivasan millions of workers across america just got a pay raise, thanks to new minimum wage laws that went into effect over the new years holiday. 21 states just increased their minimum wage. As a result, a majority of states in the country now require that wages be above the federal minimum of 7. 25 an hour. What those increases will mean is a matter of debate. The minimum wage has existed in the u. S. For over 70 years, yet economists are sharply divided over whether it helps lowincome workers earn a Better Living or hurts them by choking the number of jobs available. To sort out the debate, i sat down yesterday with two economists with two different perspectives. The federal minimum raise now is 7. 25. States minimum rages i range from 5. 75 to 5. 47. I stat down with different economists with two different perspective. Joining me Diana Furchgott roth with 21. Organize at the Manhattan Institute and Jared Bernstein with the center for budget and policy priorities. So first let me just start with the basic question, who is going to be affected by these increases in minimum wage . What were going to see is that people who have skills that are under the new minimum wage whether its 10 an hour or 12 or 15 those people are going to find it a lot harder to find jobs. And thats the real disadvantage of raising the minimum wage. The people with skill levels under that amount find it far more difficult to get employed. So i very much disagree with that assessment. I think theres going to be a lot of folks who will benefit from the wage increase. And in fact we now have literally decades of research underscoring that point. But more specifically the people are going to be affected are not as a somewhat typically thought teenagers or families of rich kids or something. Its adults over 80 are adults. Most of them work fulltime about a quarter of them are parents, so theyve got kids. About 70 have at least a High School Degree maybe ten percent have a college degree. So were really talking about the folks that you picture when you think of the lowwage labor force. People actually depend on their earnings, particularly this little bit of a boost in their earnings to make ends meet. Srennivasan diana, you were mentioning the 15 and 10. A lot of states increasing their minimum wages are not even at that 9 mark or 10 mark. Exactly yes. But when you have a minimum wage as we do right now a 7. 25 an hour, which adds up in costs to about 8 to the employer, you have to have skills of up to that in order to get hired. So whether the minimum wage goes up to 9 an hour or 9. 50 or 10 you do find that more and more people are squeezed out. And that they cant get that first job. If they cant get the first job, they cant get the second job. And its just immoral in the United States to say that people with no skills are not allowed to work. That if you have skills under a certain level, i are not allowed to work in the United States. Its unamerican. Its not who you are. Its very american actually, since the fair labor standards act of 1988 stro a wage floor on the economy, which we know is the minimum wage. I think what diana and i differ is in the following. Diana is talking about the thee ree of wage determination. If you raise peoples wages above a certain level, then somebody is going to lose their job. What is much more relevant in this case is the empirical evidence okay now that we have Something Like 26 states with minimum wages above the federal level about 20 21 now increasing their minimum wages as we speak, we have something that is quite rare in economics. Kind of a pseudoexperiment where we can look at all of these different changes over literally decades now, and evaluate the kind of claims that diana makes. And what we find is that they simply dont bear out. Srennivasan what is the best there was a new study that just came out in december like two professors at the university of california san diego medical diag. And it showed that when the minimum wage went up the last time, from 5. 15 an hour to 7. 25 an hour lowskill individuals earned about 100 a month less in the year following the 7. 25. And 150 a month less in the two years following that. And that fewer people were employed. So yes there are studies that show some things. Studies that show the others. There are teens that can get jobs at 7. 25 an hour who wouldnt be able to get jobs at 10 an hour. Right now only 3 of working americans are making minimum wage. You can do a lot of studies does it go up, and not find a whole lot of effect on most people in the workforce. Because 9 97 are making more than minimum wage, not because the law says so but because employers have to pay them more to stop them moving to other jobs. It increases inequality if poor people cannot find jobs. One point, that i factuallyly disagree with because there has been considerable studies, nothing theoretical empirical studies showing that the increase in the minimum wage has actually lowered in equality. And that makes a lot of sense. Because if you think about where all the growth has been going in the economy of really the last few decades its largely been eluding low and middle wage workers and going right to the top of the scale. The minimum wage has helped lift the bottom a bit and helped some of these lowwage workers get a bit more of their fair show of the growth that they themselves are helping to create. What about that idea that basically there will be a Ripple Effect in both directions. When you say for example that low skilled workers arent going to be able to enter the work divorce and hes also saying it might actually have a Ripple Effect in that if i have to now get 9 an hour, the person who already was making 9 an hour at grade number two or three, they will have to get a bump up as well. Everybody knows that you dont hire somebody if theyre not worth the amount. When are you paying more youre hiring a different kind of person. Look at chilis restaurant for example chilis restaurants are putting in place ipads and kiosks so you can order without service. So you change your mix of workers and technology. But again, the people who get hurt and the people with the low skills who cannot get that job at chilies because there has been an ipad that is taking the place of a job. Or but go to cvs. Srennivasan what about the idea that employers are going to start hiring at exactly the threshold where they can keep someone at parttime or keep someone if they have to pay a higher minimum wage maybe its a boost to employment but not the employment we really would like to see if. Again, i think if you go back to the empirical research, what would be imemployed by your question is that employers will significantly alter their hiring practices, will hire more parttime workers or will hire more higher skilled workers. Theyre hire away from less skilled workers. But again, the empirical evidence shows none of that to be the case. What we find for example the Congressional Budget Office widely agrees to be the nonpartisan arbiter of these kinds of arguments found recently that if we raise the minimum wage to 10. 10 an hour thats the federal proposal over three years phase it in 24. 5 Million People would benefit. 500,000 people would be hurt. So im grantsing that points. Thats a 491 benefit to cost ratio. Again the point is not that you will have more parttime or more higher skilled workers that hasnt been the case at all of this multitude of experiments across the country. If does what it supposed to do. Give lowwage workers a bit of a bump. Srennivasan so in any conversation of minimum wraj there is always a lot of data. We will put both sides of your argument online to see where did he or she get that number. So diana fun goth rolt of the Manhattan Institute and Jared Bernstein from the center of budget and policy priorities. Thanks so much for joining us. Thank you. Great to be with you. Sreenivasan to help ring in 2015, tonight we start a new weekly feature on the broadcast. Making sense thursday, a regular report on business, finance and related matters. Tonight, economics correspondent paul solman takes a look at how to fulfill those perhaps by now already burdensome new years resolutions. I really want to learn how to nilt. Stay better organized. Im going to create a schedule. Try to combat procrastination and focus a little more. Save more money. Going to work harder. Thats pretty much it. And how are you going to do that . So new years resolutions. People make them. And just about as often, they break them. Why . Because theyre formulated in a way that is a general Good Intention but its not a plan. If there is a man with a plan for leading us not into temptation its psychologist walter michelle. Author of the marshmallow test mastering selfcontrol. And by mastering it working harder saving more. Key factors in economic success. The book is based on half a century of research by michelle and others that began with a simple experiment. Now among the most famous and replicated in the history of psychology. Theres a marshmallow. You can either wait and i will bring you back another one so you can have two, or you can eat it now. Michelle ran this selfcontrol experiment on some 650 preschoolers at Stanford University in the late 60s and early 70s. Most gobbled up the puffy confection but onethird abstained long enough to get another. You get two. And delaying gratification at even the earliest ages has been shown to correlate powerfully or else equal with prosperity later in life. Michelle found that the successful selfdeniers had a Pretty Simple strategy. Which is they transform an impossibly difficult situation into a relatively easy one by distracting themselves, by turning around, by putting the marshmallow farther away. Or i can do it by exploring my nassal cavities or my ear canals and toying with the product. The fancy word for it now is executive control. Im able to use my prefrontal cortex my cool brain not my hot emotional system. I am able to use my cool brain in order to have strategies that allow me to make this miserable effortful waiting effortless and easy. Or not so effortless and easy. Two minutes . Ten minutes . Ten minutes 10 minutes 10 minutes ten minutes i think some people find it much easier to exert control than others. But no matter whether one is reasonably good at this overall or easily bad at this overall it can be enormously improved. So how do exert executive control as an adult facing vices more inviting than marshmallows when childish distractions no longer work. So if i have a new years resolution to drink a little less than i do, what do i do . What you need is a plan that says at the end of the day 5 00 is the time that i am likely to have a drink. Right. Okay. I have to have a substitute activity at that time so there will be an alternative and it will be very very practiced will. I mean to give you an example for my own experience chocolate mousse is generally irresistable for me. Is selfcontrol strategy. I will order the fruit salad. And thats a specific rehearsed plan so before the guy can tempt me with the mousse im already ordering the fruit salad. And just to be safe. The idea that the chocolate mousse before it was brought out of the restaurant kitchen may have had a cockroach having a little breakfast on it first. Behavioral economist has me neared a different approach. I go to the restaurant with some friends, i know that after i have had my wine the dessert menu comes i will order the dessert even if i swear i wasnt going to. So i turn to my friend and i will say if fine lets get the wine. But if i eat dessert then i owe you 100. Carlin first became involved in socalled commitment contracts in grad school. Researching them even making one with a friend who like carlin wanted to lose weight and keep it off. The contract was for 10,000. So the point was to make it for a lot of money, enough that it would be really really painful to write that check. How much did you lose . I lost 48 points. Growing out of that experience carlin cofounded a web site called stick, in part for its disstinkly noncarrot like approach to helping people reach their goals. If you put monetary station up you can have it so your money goes to say a friend who will hold you accountable. Or one of the more popular options is the anticharity now the money goes to something that you hate. The Nra Foundation is one of the most popular causes that people dont like and choose on this site. The National Rifle association. The National Rifle association. We also have super pacs left and right and those are very popular because they kind of capture all the issues in one bundle. Keep in mind that there would have to be some reporting of the failure. Then the money goes to some truly odeo cause. And the other part that also is very popular and very effective for a lot of people. So do you have to admit that you failed on facebook or twitter . But why do our resolutions so often fail . Because humans like you and me and walter michele, both of us former smokers temp orly discount valuing immediate rewards much more than those in the future. So if its not now its essentially never because the future, for example the cancer that i could get if i kept smoking is probe it is distant. We dont know for sure. And so it might as well not be there. Unless i do something that makes the far away consequence immediate and vivid. Hence the graphic warnings on canadian cigarettes. A similar image 50 years ago got michelle a threepacks a day addict to quit practically cold turkey. Thats a metastasized lung cancer and those x marks are for where the radiation goes. That was the beginning of my ending my smoking because the image of me on a gurney with little green x marks is very very vivid and it makes the distant probable election consequence something immediate and now and changes the cigarette from a huge temptation to a small dose of poison. In the end, then. The most powerful way to have control is by transforming what the stimulus means. But of course everything follows for making that resolution in the first place. It starts the conversation about trying to change something. You have to really want to because you are taking that delayed goal to live longer, to live healthier to have Retirement Funds when you need them rather than to not have them. It is what we want and how we think about what we want that controls and regulates what were able to do. Paul solman reporting for the pbs newshour, from hopefully, the land of selfcontrol. Sreenivasan last year, the u. S. Confronted new kinds of conflicts and challenges overseas. In a shifting political and economic landscape, new actors entered the world stage, while longtime powers tried surprising strategies. Gwen ifil takes a look back and at what 2014 means for the new year. Ifill global upheaval was the hallmark of the year just ending. A prorussian leader was toppled in ukraine, a new government and civil war followed, and russia seized crimea. The Islamic State and boko haram became household names in Foreign Policy circles. U. S. Led middle east negotiations derailed and a war broke out between israel and hamas. Ebola killed thousands in west africa. American forces returned to iraq. And thats just the beginning of an eventful year that is already spilling over into the year to come. So what were the biggest Game Changers . And what comes next . For that, we turn to indira lakshmannan, Foreign Policy correspondent for bloomberg news. Washington post Foreign Affairs columnist David Ignatius. And former British Foreign secretary David Miliband, now c. E. O. Of the International Rescue committee. Welcome to you all. David ignatius i want to start by asking you just from the United States point of view, what was the biggest Foreign Policy challenge that this administration had to deal with . I would have to say, an its a big list, that the most consequence was the breakout of isis, the Islamic State in iraq and syria drawing the United States back into war in iraq. And i say that because i fear that this conflict and the consequences for america will be generational. This is going to take a long time, the resilience of these islamic fighters their ability to rip through Northern Syria and northwestern eye back iraq was astonishing forcing obama to dot thing he least wanted to do which is to reenter this conflict. David miller, miliband from a global perspective what would you say is the biggest challenge . I think that this was a very odd disorder. Its striking that the beginning of the year people were talking about tensions in the south china sea. No one was talking about tensions on the russiaukraine border. By the end of the year obvious obviously russia emerged as the biggest geo political spoiler. And in the agreement that president obama struck with the chain ease on Climate Change is perhaps an indication of the kind of geo political cooperation that could take place for the final two years of his presidency. However from the humanitarian sectors point of view the fact that old wars in somalia, congo, et cetera continue and new wars started as david says back into iraq the south sudanese civil war suggest that the International System is to the doing a good job at keeping a lid on conflicts that are just bubbling over i want to circle back to that issue of the humanitarian impact. Because there are places we touched on where that was a big deal. Indira think about it ukraine, something that certainly is not resolved yet. There are so many of these issues that remain and some we havented which is which still spill over. Thats right. And to me the other huge challenge we need to talk more about is russia and ukraine. That is a problem that is not going away. I dont think there is anyone that could have predicted at the beginning of 12014 that we were going to see a shelfed trade pack by the ukrainian leader leading to massive popular protest the fall of his government, the rise of a westernoriented government and finally putin being you know, worried to the point that he felt he needed to invade annex crimea and go down this path of destabilizing eastern ukraine. I think nobody saw that coming. And its going to have huge huge consequences. Not only do we have the biggest east west struggle since the end of the cold war, but we have this cycle now of sanctions from the United States and europe which have not stopped putins behavior. And combine that with the other huge story i think for 2014 which is the drop in the price of oil. 45 down for crude in this calendar year. And that has really hit russia and other petro states like venezuela iran. So i think thats a big thing that is going to push putin in the coming year. Ifill David Ignatius, she mentioned Vladimir Putin by name. Is there any other single leader who we should be the most concerned about, worried about, planning our Foreign Policy around . I think we should pay special attention to the leader of china who would be on my list as the most skilled and successful leader of the year. She identify the biggest threats to the communist partys rule corruption and environmental pollution that china is fight being. And he went after aggressively, after Top Party Officials for corruption and signed a climate pact with president obama in november that nobody saw coming but they should have because it was clear that xi had made the decision, i have to show my people that i am acting on this issue that they fear is going to make china unsafe for them in the future. So i am impressed by his skill and aggressiveness his boldness as a leader. Were going to have to deal with him maybe in good way coop rattively. Maybe in more difficult ways. Ifill and david what do you think about Bashar Alassad in syria . To what degree is he a major figure we have to be worried about in 2015 . Well sad to say president assad certainly strengthened his position in syria. But the country imploded underneath him it is actually extraordinary to think of 12 Million People half the population uproot ready from their homes three to four million in neighboring countries. And of course isis has emerged not vacuum that was created in central and eastern syria. One thing that i think is very very important that people keep an eye on in 2015 is how the iranians decide to play that cards. Not just on the nuclear file but also on the wider regional conflagration that is engulfing significant parts of the middle east. Obviously theyve been significant destabilizing force over the years. But partly because of the oil price change but not only because of that. Also because of popular pressure inside iran. I think its very important to see them as having an absolutely pivotal sense of set of decisions to make in 2015. Ifill indira, do we have to worry now in this post snowden era as much about cyberwarfare as oldfashioned warfare. Cyberwarfare as we see it with the close of this year with the hack of sony which may or may not have been the result of the north korean state depending on whose intelligence you believe, has turned out to be the cheapest form of warfare since the bow and arrow. I do think that there is a lot of potential for spoilers to come in, just weve seen major attacks on major u. S. Banks major u. S. Retailers and now this attack on sony shows the ability to do things quite cheaply and easily with sort of off the shelf mallwear, i think that is a really important thing to watch. I also agree that iran really bears watching. Because that could potentially be a game changer. If there is a possibility, and i think thats a very big if of getting a nuclear deal with iran that could lead to some agreement on normallization just like we have seen at the end of this year with cuba. Im not saying it will happen but its a big thing to watch. Ifill david ig nay should ignatius should we reshape or redefine how they which about policy. With cyberwarfare where you can with the push of the button completely change what we are thinking about or whether we are overreaching. Cyberdimension pushes warfare into a zu space its like the Nuclear Weapons which changed the nature of Foreign Policy. I was struck this year by the way in which Foreign Policy played with president obama and his presidency and his legacy. Ooises for good or for ill. Both. At the middle of this year it was a commonplace at least in washington that the turbulence around a world explosion of putin in ukraine, the explosion of isis was a sign of obamas weakness that he was weak and affectless im quoting republican critics now. And that this disordered world was a consequence. But at the end of the year im struck by all the things obama must be glad he didnt do that critics were urging him to do. Must be glad that he didnt take military action to check the russians and ukraine, which the u. S. Couldnt have fold up. He must be glad that he didnt take more extreme action early in iraq which might have blown the opportunity to get a more United Government there. So i think the year ends for obama with this attempt to engage cuba, with the iran talks going the obama of 2009 talking about engagement and probably just as happy not to be seen as the tough guy as his critics have been urging him to be. And David Miliband there are the Foreign Policy changes which nobody can prepare for. And im thinking about ebola. The kind of Health Crises things which affect people, catch peoples attention take our eye off other balls. And isnt done yet. Well, i think that the fact that one refugee occurred every four seconds there 2014 tells you the scale of crisis and disorder that exists around the world. One thing that strikes me is how the political and economic and humanitarian pillars of societys intersect so closely. Many of the places that are being truck by political disorder are also great markets where businesses are trying to invest. In the case of ebola this Health Emergency has upended not just politics but also economics. And i think there are some very important lessons there about not just government but also aid agencies how we think about how we the liberia sierra leone case that you raise is one that i think very very few people put at the top of the list earlier this year. You see countries coming through a terrible conflict n a post conflict phase were Building Systems of governance and services that could survive. When you then find out that there were only 15 ambulances in the whole of monrovia at the beginning of the ebola crisis you see how far weve got to go to tackle some of the causes of extreme poverty and instability around the world. And the fact that now 50 of the worlds poor living on less than 1. 25 a day are in conflict with fragile states tells you a lot about the changing geography and possibly also the changing geography and instability around the world. Indira lakshmannan David Ignatius David Miliband thank you all very much. Thanks. Sreenivasan its been 20 years since apartheid ended in south africa. And despite many social and political advances, more than a quarter of the countrys black african population remains in poverty. 40 is unemployed. What is less reported in the u. S. However, is that communitys rising middle class. Tonight, newshour special correspondent Martin Seemungal introduces us to one man who is emblematic of that ascension. An entrepeneur hoping to make his fortune in gold. He is doing something that has never been done before. Hes brewing highquality craft beer in soweto. He calls it soweto gold. Whenever i drive to work i think how wonderful it is that we are starting the first microbrewery in the township. I mean the first microbrewery in the country was in 1983. And since then all microbreweries have been in white suburbs. And the first time that we have set up a brewery in a black township. Soweto, the sprawling township near jo hansburg an enduring symbol of the struggle against appear a apartheid parts still home to thousands of impoverished black South Africans. But soweto is also changed in the 20 years since the first multiracial election. Streetlights are everywhere. The roads are paved. And there is a huge shopping mall. But lala is emblematic of the difference a new south africa my family is always very proud of what i have agreed agreed achieved. And they are the guys who rebear the brunt of apartheid. For them it was really ahead of all, very very difficult for black people to start their own businesses. We are coming to realize that Political Freedom on its own is meaningless without economic freedom. A columnist has been charting change in the country over the past two decades. He says there are more black entrepreneurs than ever before, but still note enough, he says. And the official statistics support that. Five percent of black South African adults own a business. The figure for White South Africans is nearly three times that. Now you have people actually doing things for themselves. That is very good actually because it also creates jobs. Rather than actually expecting things to fall in their lap simply because they are i think people need to understand that freedom actually is the freedom to really do things on your own. So is madlals soweto gold any good . Lucy corn writes about South African beers in her blog called the brew mistress. Its got a different flavor to the but it is very much designed i think forhe South African palate and South African climate. It is a crisp refreshing beer it is very full flavoured, very drinkable. He worked many years for South Africanbased sab, one of the Biggest Beer Companies in the world some sow has brewed beer before just never like this. Here it is just you. You control basically about every step. So it requires a lot of attention to detail and you have to know what you are doing. He is very focused on brewing a consistently high quality beer. Hes also very focused on marketing. And his target market is the large and still growing black middle class. It is estimated that the black middle class in south africa now equals the entire white population. They have spending power and many return to soweto on weekends. This man runs a restaurant on the popular villa kazy street. He says nearly half the black South Africans who come here live in rich suburbs in johannesburg that used to be all white. They grew up in soweto but they still have relatives, they still have very strong roots in soweto. Often their idea of relaxing unwinding is coming back to soweto where they grew up. So soweto serving that gold beer would be appeal to them. He takes a more discerning view saying he wont drink it just because matlaa is black. If it is good, i would drink it. Soweto gold isnt available yet on that street. He is work on contracts that will clear the way for distribution. Ironically you can buy soweto gold outside soweto. This is a wealthy area of northern johannesburg. Most of the people that come here are white. And one of the most popular beers sold here is soweto gold. I would say there is a lot more intrigue. A lot more intrigue about it. People would like to see what is going on. How does this whole change in south africa has brought out different things. Lets give it a try. Its right around the corner. Lets see what it is. Lets see what soweto gold can produce. Soweto has this largerthanlife reputation. And people see the name and they think wow thats really awesome this has company out of soweto. I want to try this beer. I want to drink this beer. This is a great beer, actually. A better is drinking soweto gold for the first time. We have come a long way south africa. And for a black man to go and have a brewery and brew a quality beer like this it just shows where we have come from. We have come a long long way. And this is the new neighbor nation we are proud. We love it this country has such a great future. Soweto gold is the first beer that of its kind but it is not expected to be the last. It is a sign of south africas changing times moving forward away from the memories of its racialized past. Creating new ones every day. Sreenivasan finally tonight, arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown talks with author hector tobar about his book on a group of chilean miners who were trapped underground for more than two months after a cavein sealed them inside their mine. Brown it was an extraordinary story that captivated the world. There 2010 33 chilean miners were trapped below the either in a collapsed mine for 69 days. For the first 17 days, they had no contact with the outside an were feared dead. But after a powerful drill broke through the rock, the story took a bizarre new twist. The miners found hope and found themselves international celebrities. They were still trapped in this mountain that was rumbling, had threatened to kill them still. They were waiting to get out. They were desperate to get out but they also thought we might be rich. We might have a story the world wants to hear. So they made this pact underground. They decided that they would share collectively, the rates to a book. They would tell their story to one writer. Hecker tobar who i spoke with recently in a Miami Book Fair would write the book deep down dark, telling of the mine collapse the rescue effort and media spectacle that followed and most of all, the men themselves. And the harrowing ordeal they endured. It was an extremely traumatic event. It was a psychological torture. Even working there under an ode day was tough. The temperature was 90 degrees, they are 2,000 feet underground. They have to get to the mine through this stone highway in the mountain that spirals down to the bottom. Its 98 humidity. Most of them didnt have breakfast on an ode day because they would throw it up after a couple of hours working in these conditions. So the mine collapses. Huge stone crushes the road out. It blocks their way out with a curtain of stone a guillotine of stone and they are slowly dying the first 17 days t was a very existential and a very spiritual thing. Because most of the men were fathers, were providers for their family. And they realized that their families might never see them again. Might never be able to provide for them families again. When they started to die of starvation they reflected on what kind of father was i was i a good father bad father, a good husband. Many of them felt they were being pun shalled for what they had done in their life. I drank too much. I did drugs. Im being punished. And of course in a Group Dynamic like that under extraordinary stress things happen,. Exactly. Leaders arent leaders other people become leaders, the group changes. What struck you about what they went through in that regard . Well none what many of the men wanted to tell me was the man who people think was the leader underground was not the leader. He was the shift foreman he abdicated his responsibility on the second night. And he did not take charge. They wanted me to know that the other thing they wanted to tell me which was a big secret was that on the first night several of the men stole some of the food emergency supplies. And so they staferbd a little bit more than they would have thanks to the desperation of a few men. Brown incredibly they survived, brought to the surface one by one until all were there in a joyous celebration for them their families, their country and the world. As hector tobars book shows though, the celebration didnt last. Unfortunately i think almost every man had his breakdown. Almost every man had his crisisment because they had been tortured by the mountain, the mountain was like a monster while they were in it that was growling at them for ten weeks it left them with this profound trauma. Some of them had it the first three four months they were shattered. I interviewed many of the men who were trembling when i first spoke to them about what had happened. When i went to their homes. Others didnt have their crisis until a year or two years later. So i think every man, they really went through something that was uncomparable in human history. In fact, they were trapped longer than anyone in human history. So it was a very deply shattering emotional experience. Tragedy and celebrity hits them at the same time. Right. The world is watching, theyre famous. And then what is there a letdown, are they expecting to stay famous did they become rich. When they came out they knew that they were the most famous miners on earth. They had been called National Heroes even while they were still trapped. Many of them believed they would never have to work again because a certain chilean millionaire had already given them 10,000 each, which is a kings ransom in chile for a working man. Many of them believed that from the film and the book, they would get rich and never have to work. And it turned out that the money didnt really last very long. You know, they ended up many of them had 20 go back into mining. There are several of the men who went into underground mining months after being rescued. So you can imagine being pulled out of the earth while a world audience watches, and six months later you are just a working stiff again who has to go back underground and work in a mine. For some of the men who did that, that was a very difficult and emotional experience. The book is deep down dark hector tobar, thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Sreenivasan again the major developments of the day. Police in china dismissed accounts that a new years eve stampede in shanghai was triggered by people scrambling to catch coupons thrown from a window. 36 people were killed and nearly 50 injured. And the highest court in egypt ordered a retrial of three jailed journalists who work for al jazeerea television. Theyve been held for over a year on terrorrelated charges. On the newshour online right now, now that its officially 2015, were officially living in the future. Or rather we will be in october, thats the date that marty mcfly and doc brown set in their famous delorean time machine in the movie back to the future part two. Thats one of the eight things you probably didnt know about 2015. See the complete list, on our home page. And researchers are testing a new treatment to help heavy drinkers cut back, so naturally theyre doing it in a bar, albeit a fake bar, set up in a lab at the National Institutes of health. Their goal is to create a real world environment to see how that can spark a persons appetite for alcohol. All that and more is on our web site, pbs. Org newshour. And thats the newshour for tonight. Im Hari Sreenivasan well see you online and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and david gerson, for all of us here at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. Lincoln financial committed to helping you take charge of your life and become youre own chief life officer. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Captioning sponsored by Macneil Lehrer productions captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org announcer a kqed television production. Larriva its like holy mother of comfort food. Kastner throw it down. Its noodle crack. Patel you have to be ready for the heart attack on a platter. Crowell okay, im the bacon guy, right . Hoofe oh, i just did a jig every time i dipped into it. Man it just completely blew my mind. Woman it felt like i had a mouthful of raw vegetables and dry dough. Sbrocco oh, please. I want the Dessert First [ laughs ] i told him he had to wait