captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, november 15: a contentious transition as covid cases continue to spike. political organizers and their expectations for president-elect biden. and, in our signature segment, musical dynamo cindy blackman santana. next on "pbs newshour weekend." >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund. bernard and denise swartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family.

barbara hope zuckerberg. the leonard and norma klorfine foundation. charles rosenblum. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular has been offering no-contract wireless plans, designed to help people do more of what they like. our u.s.-based customer service team can help find a plan that fits you. to learn more, visit www.consumercellular.tv. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private coporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thank you for joining us. president-elect biden met with

his transition advisers at h home in wilmington delaware today as the current president seemed to acknowledge he knows mr. biden won. in a tweet this morning, flagged by twitter for unsubstantiated claims of election fraud, mr. trump said "he won because the election was rigged." but shortly after, he tweeted," i concede nothing!" a group of federal and state election officials said in a joint statement thursday "there is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised." but the general services administration-- the federal agency which oversees the presidential transition-- has not yet signed off on funding for the transition or approval for contact with federal agencies. president-elect biden's chief of staff ron klain said the incoming administraon's efforts to roll-out a covid-19 vaccination plan could be jeopardized. >> joe biden will become president of the uted states in the midst of an ongoing crisis. that has to be a seamless transition. we now have the possibility, we need to see if it gets approved,

of a vaccine starting in december, january. there are people at h.h.s. making plans to implement that vaccine. our experts need to talk to those people as soon as possible so nothing drops in this change of power we're going to have on january 20. >> sreenivasan: in the u.s. the coronavirus continues to spike rapidly and more than 1,200 people died from covid-19 in just the past 24 hours. "the new york times" shows an 80increase in confirmed cases over the average number two weeks ago. aths are increasing at a 38% rate. in comparison, new coronavirus cases worldwide over the past two weeks averaged a 17% increase. mexico has now reported more than one million cases-- the 11th country to reach that staggering number. in mexico city, where the mayor tested positive for the virus last month, all bars and restaurants will be closed for two weeks beginning tomorrow. in the u.s., where some states are reinstating restrictions this coming week, new york city

saw one sign of relief: schools will remain open. mayor bill deblasio tweeted this morning that the seven day test positivity average is at 2.57%, below e 3% that would trigger a shutdown of in-person classrooms in the country's largest school district. a federal judge has invalidated the department of homeland security's suspension of daca-- the federal program that allows roughly 650,000 young undocumented immigrants to live and work legally in the u.s. acting d.h.s. secretary chad wolf assumed control of the department last year and issued a memorandum this past july that effectively halted daca. but in august, the nonpartisan government accountability office said that wolf's appointment was unlawful because it violated the vacancies reform act. yesterday's court ruling upheld that finding and found that wolf had no legal authority to halt the program. we'll ve more of the news summary, later in the broadcast. for more on the presidential

transition and the latest national and international news, visit pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: we've been reporting on the record turnout this election of black and brown voters, which helped impact the political process, especially in battleground states like georgia and pennsylvania. now, with the election over, many of the organizers, who helped register thousands of those voters, say the fit is far from over d want democrats to deliver ocentering marginalized voices. newshour weekend's ivette feliciano has re. >> reporter: in the run-up to the november elections, members of united we dream, the largest youth-led immigrant rights organization, reached out to tens of millions of undecided latinx and first time voters across the country, through phone banking and digital ad campaigns. >> i know that, like, people

like myself, i have daca, have u.s. citizens in our families that we had them, and asked them to think about us when they went into the voting booth. >> reporter: greisa martinez rosas is united we dream's executive director. >> the record turnout of latinos, of young people, black and brown folks have been as part of the long term investment of organizers like myself, people in arizona and michigan, pennsylvania, wisconsin. so, you know, i think that there's work to do and we will not stop until we tell the story about how this turn out wasn't an accident. >> reporter: the black and brown turnout did not go unnoticed, as president-elect joe biden acknowledged in his acceptance speech last saturday night. >> the african american community stood up again for me. they always have my back, and i'll have yours. >> i'm not one for empty platitudes. the democratic party owes a great deal to the black electorate. and it's time to pay up that tab. >> reporter: black lives activist and writer cherrell

brown is based in atlanta, georgia, where politician stacy abrams is credited with delivering hundreds of thousands of votes for the democratic party. >> there will be a number of articles that praise abrams, that praise black and brown voters, but whether that translates into actual material benefits for those same communities is still the question. >> reporter: brown recently wrote an article for "essence gazine," where she argues biden's proposals for addressing anti-black state violence aren't radical enough. >> the right has done this really wonderful job, actually, of painting president elect biden and vice president elect kamala as this very anti-cop, socialist ticket. but nothing could be further from the truth. biden and harris both support giving more money to police for things like police training around anti-bias or to diversify the force. >> reporter: according to the american election eve poll 2020, which surveyed more than 15,000 registered voters, black voters named discrimination and racial justice as the second most

important issue candidates should address, after the coronavirus pandemic. >> if only whites had voted, president trump would have been reelected with about 56% or 57% of the vote. >> reporter: gary segura co- founded the polling and research firm latino decisions, which helped produce the american election eve poll 2020. he's also dean of the luskin school of public affairs at u.c.l.a. he says the media's homing in on trump's success, with latinx voters in miami dade county in florida and the rio grande valley in texas, paints a misleading picture of this year's latinx voting bloc. >> you're talking about a population that voted about 70/30 in favor of vice president biden. we think that puerto ricans probably gave as much as 71% of their vote in florida to vice president biden. but it gets overlooked in orange county and along the i-4 corridor because we spend all of our time talking about cubans and the venezuelans in dade. >> reporter: segura says, though latinos voted in higher numbers

for barack obama and hillary clinton, seven out of ten voted for biden in november, which is still above the historical average. >> the latino margin will exceed the victory margin in nevada and arizona and new mexico and colorado. latinos will have elected senator hickenlooper, senator luhan and senator kelly. we think latinos gave over 120,000 vote margin to vice president biden in philadelphia, which means without latino votes, you would not have had the vice president carry pennsylvania. this is also true for african- americans, of course. so, like all victories, there are many owners, right. >> reporter: both cherrell brown and greisa martinez rosas say a biden presidency might mean more favorable conditions for their political organizing, but their fight is far from over. >> look at what's possible when people feel like ty are part of the voting process. what democrats suld do, instead of diluting the message or spinning away from the most consistent and loyal voting

bloc, is opening up more pathways for folks to be a part of the process. >> how do we make sure that we are ensuring that black folks and immigrants and queer people and women are not only being heard and being put part of policy agendas, but as a culture ensuring that there's restitution for those of us who have been directly in the target of trump. which is why it's going to be so important to heal as a nation, to ensure that we are owning the things that happened on our collective watch, and toe really committed to bold shifts in our society. >> sreenivasan: nasa and spacex are set to make history again when they launch their first operational commercial voyage to the international space station. the initial launch was scheduled for yesterday evening but delayed due to weather.

the next window for the launch, with four astronauts aboard, is scheduled for 7:27 eastern time tonight. i recently spoke with dave mosher, senior space correspondent for "business insider" about the anticipated flight. dave, we were supposed to have a launch and it was delayed, any important reason why? >> so spacex likes to recover the rocket boosters for this falcon 9 rocket, this 230-foot- tall sort of giant rocket that's going to launch these astronauts into space. this saves them many millions of dollars every launch. we're not quite certain how much. and they didn't have all the equipment they needed in place to recover that booster-- in particular, a drone ship which will go out into the atlantic ocean and be there to sort of catch the rocket when it lands. >> sreenivasan: while spe travel seems commonplace because we've been doing it for decades, this is still a giant experiment. >> there's nothing routine about this mission. it is very much an experiment, just as space flight has always been since the very beginning,

because we haven't hit that cadence, that repetition of flight. and anything can still go wrong. we're still really trying to understand these vehicles, and therefore they're dangerous and they have a certain amount of risk to the people who are flying them. >> sreenivasan: and this one we're talking about, i mean, humans have only been on it once before successfully. >> that's correct, so demo two, which launched back in may, this was a demonstration mission by spacex for nasa to show that, "yeah, we can get people to and from space safely. and, therefore, that's going to give us all the data we need to get through this very lengthy certification process" that they've been working on for the better part of a decade. this constitutes the second crewed flight of the crew dragon spaceship and the falcon rocket and all of the other things that go into it-- the recovery operations, the ground control, mission control. this is all very new territory for spacex. they're still learning how to do it. they've shown they can do it very well, of course, on demo two, but, you know, anything can happen. >> sreenivasan: what's this an now?

if this one, let's say it goes well, does that mean that this is our system, that we're going to send people up periodically this way? >> this is kind of the very beginning of what could be a very fantastic era in the human race, for the human race. we are talking about the first certified commercial spaceship. this meansnybody can go on it and that includes tom cruise or maybe a tv contestant through "space hero." you know, there's all these passengers who are sort of champing at the bit to get on the space vehicle. so we are talking about if this mission succeeds, we are going to have another demonstration that this vehicle is apparently safe tfly and we're going to see more passengers go up more frequently. and it's also the beginning of an era for spacex. they're going to be in space continuously with humans from this point forward. they're going to at some point, they're going to have two spaceships with people inside in space as they rotate these crews on the international space station. >> sreenivasan: finally, th is happening in the middle of a

pandemic. what are some of the challenges here that they're experiencing now that they had less of last time? >> i mean, one challenge we just saw was that elon musk, the ceo, chief architect and founder of spacex, tested positive for covid-19 just a few days before launch and nasa had to go and backtrace all of his contacts over the past 14 days to make sure that he didn't interact with anyone or the astronauts that would have put them in danger because what you don't want is you don't want the coronavirus going to the space statioand this height, you know, air-recycled sort of facility. like, you don't want that to happen. and on the ground, we have all of these people who are working to prepare the vehicle, to check the vehicle, to put stuff inside of it, you know, very sensitive cargo. so there's all of this stuff that has to be done during the pandemic. and it just added this several extra layers of chaenges so that the fact that we're seeing this happen relatively on time is kind of an amazing thing in of itself. and i think it bodes well for spacex and nasa that they're able to do this and apparently

pretty safely. >> sreenivasan: dave mosher, senior space correspondent for "business insider," thanks so much. >> thank you for having me. >> sreenivasan: the great jazz drummer max roach once said, "i think that the rhythm sections-- drummers in particular-- are the unsung heroes of the music." unsung, perhaps, because they seldom step from behind the kit and into the spotlight. but after decades in the business, one prominent percussionist is stepping out, with a recent release that defies categorization. "newshour weekend" special corresponnt tom casciato has the story. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: you might say cindy blackman santana was born into her vocation.

>> there's this music thing that's, you know, running through the veins of our, of our family. and mostly the women. my mom is probably my biggest influence ever. she played violin. she totally understood my desire for playing music. and her mom was also another incredible lady. she was a classical pianist. >> reporter: i think a lot of parents, one might even say most parents, want their kids to be musical. but i don't know if most parents want drumming in the house. >> no, they don't. ( laughs ) when i first said that i wanted to play the drums, they said. "they're loud, and they're expensive!" i had to beg for a year tget drums. it was one of those like really cheap student model kits. and before that, i had the little beatles kits from sears, you know, they had the little blue beatles design on the front and on the bass drum head. >> reporter: she recalls being 11 and visiting an amusement park near her connecticut home, where it wasn't the rides that attracted her.

>> i heard music. so, of course, i gravitated over there and i tried to walk in the door thinking i could get in with my little ticket. and they said, "you can't come in, you're a minor," you know, because they were serving alcohol. so i snuck around to the side window and i peeked in and i saw this guy with these hands... ♪ ♪ like fast as lightning and like, "whoa, who's... who's that old guy?" ♪ ♪ >> reporter: that "old guy" was a legend, buddy rich, and the music he played was jazz. she began to see a path for herself. it led next to a drum clinic where she heard jazz fusion pioneer tony williams. >> and then when he walked out, you know, he had the attitude, which was so confident and so full of life and energy. it was just incredible. and then when he played... ♪ ♪ i'll tell you, all my friends

were into "star wars" at the time. and i went to see "star wars." to me, it was boring after seeing tony. that's how incredible tony williams was. >> reporter: soon the young drummer was accepted to boston's prestigious berklee college of music, and from there moved in 1982 to new york, where some great jazz pioneers still plied their trade. >> that was an incredibly special time because miles was walking around and alive and well, dizzy, elvin, max, dexter gordon, art blakey. >> reporter: blackman befriended and played with art blakey, and before the decade was out, she was leading jazz groups and cutting albums of her own. along the way, her musical identity solidified. >> i'm a jazz musician. that's who i am. i just can't stop it. it's what i'm designed to do, what i'm designed to be. it's who i am. >> reporter: she didn't mind, she says, that women drummer role models were in short supply at the time. >> there weren't any women to look up to, but i didn't look at drumming like that, so i

didn't feel like i was blazing a trail. i just felt like i was following the music that i loved. and, you know, i was following the drummers that i loved. i didn't care if they were women, men or whatever. >> reporter: and what about the way you were treated? did you ever experience sexism as a drummer? >> oh surely, yeah, definitely. but, you know, i mean that's nothing that i align myself with for very long because it has nothing to do with my intention, h nothing to do with my heart, has nothing to do with my playing. i really learned very early on just to roll that off. >> reporter: so you started leading your own bands. you're playing jazz. you're playing with great jazz players, and all of a sudden you wind up in a video with lenny kravitz doing "are you gonna go my way." ♪ ♪ that's not jazz, cindy. ( laughter ) i don't want to be the one to break it to you.

>> no, my friend. that is not jazz. you know, i hadn't really thought about a rock gig, but i liked rock, so i was okay with that. >> reporter: from that point on, this jazz drummer's palate just got broader. she later joined a band known for its explorations of latin rock and more: santana. >> she's a great drummer, she used to play drums with lenny kravitz... >> reporter: the group's leader would be her future husband. >> there's a rumor going around that she's going to be my wife. >> reporter: she brought an explosive style to the band. ♪ ♪ >> cindy is like bruce lee on drums, because she's very devoted and dedicated and disciplined. so there ain't nothing cute about, you know, cindy playing drums. >> you know, the drums is the

seat that really propels the music. you know, drums are the driving force. and we do it acoustically, you know, where if you're playing, you know, an instrument with an amp, you can just turn that down. you can turn that up or down. the drummers, you know, we do that with these. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: cindy blackm santana's latest project is a new album: "give the drummer some." and to call it eclectic almost understates the case. it includes fusion... ♪ ♪ pop... ♪ going on >> reporter: hip hop... ♪ while we're in it live a life of service ♪ >> reporter: and, of course, jazz. ♪ ♪ >> she has a very distinct sound that she loves, a lot of command ofer instrument. >> reporter: grammy-winning producer narada michael walden worked with her on the album. >> and she's very fastidious how she wants her things to sound. >> reporter: the record also has something brand new for her: lead vocals, including her

unique takon john lennon's "imagine." ♪ it's easy if you try when i was thinking of it as a message that i liked and that i wanted to play in a, in a rock-funk kind of way. ♪ imagine live as one ♪ >> reporter: doing a rock-funk "imagine" might be something a young jazz drummer never imagined, but at this juncture of her career, it makes perfect sense to cindy blackman santana. >> you know, drummers, we play with so many different people. our job is to make that band sound as great as possible, and so we have to adapt with different rhythmic situations, with different textural situations. and, you know, i just really wanted to put out a record of a collage of things that i love. ♪ living, living john lennon

♪ imagine >> this is pbs newshour weekend, sunday. >> sreenivasan: today, the leader of ethiopia's separatist tigray region claimed that his forces had fired missiles at the neighboring country of eritrea in an escalation of what may become a civil war in ethiopia. tigrayan leader, debretsion gebremichael, told the associated press this morning that the attack was retaliation for eritrea sending its troops into the region. the eritrean government did not comment on the accusation. the tigray region occupies northern ethiopia where it borders eritrea and sudan. violence in the region has been escalating for two years. the fighting has forced some 25,000 ethiopians from their homes into neighboring sudan. in israel today, a government agency opened bidding for construction of more than twelve hundred new homes in a settlement near east jerusalem.

the settlement occupies contested area that the palestinian authority claims as its capital under a two-state solution. the new hos would also seal off east jerusalem from the palestinian town of bethlehem. the move comes just over a month before the inauguration of president-elect biden, who has objected to israel's settlements in the past, and days ahead of secretary of state mike pompeo's planned visit to an israeli settlement in the west bank, a stop previous u.s. secretaries of state have avoided. a human rights group says that more than 500 people in belarus were arrested today as anti- government protests sweep the country. in the capital city, police used tear gas and water canons to disperse thousands gathered to protest president alexander lukashenko who was re-elected in august under questionable circumstances. tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets every week since lukashenko's re-election. today's protests came just days after an anti-government demonstrator died of injuries reportedly from a beating by security forces.

>> sreenivasan: finally tonight, iota is now the 13th hurricane of this atlantic season. the storm is headed for the coast of honduras and nicaragua tomorrow-- a region still struggling to recover fr eta, the category four hurricane that hit earlier this month. the official end of hurricane season is november 30th. that's all for this edition of" pbs newshour weekend." for the latest news updates visit pbs.org/newshour. i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching. stay healthy and have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund. bernard and denise schwartz.

the cheryl and philip milstein family. barbara hope zuckerberg. the leonard and norma klorfine foundation. charles rosenblum. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. >> for 25 years, consumer additional support has been provided by: consumer cellular. and by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

(music, wind, and cricket sounds) (narrator) it only takes one. (music, wind, and cricket sounds) (footstep and wind noises) (music, wind, and cricket sounds) one moment... (dirt falling sounds) ...one person... (music, wind, and cricket sounds) ...and one terrible decision...