captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, a quarter million dead-- the massive surge in covid-19 infections and deaths prompts the re-imposing of restrictions and a serious strain on the's natiospitals.th , denying defeat-- president trump and what's left of his campaign continue their longeg shot challenges to the election results as the transiti of power remains delayed. plus, age discrimination-- employment lawyers report an uptick in layoffs of older workers as result of the pandemic-induced recession. >> they are using covid and the economy as an excuse tcreate

layoffs to avoid additional expenses with insurance premiums going up if they have an older workforce who could be subject to more difficult problems with covid. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> when the world gets complicated, a lot goes through your mind.th idelity wealth management, a dedicated advisor can tailor advice and recommendations to your life. that's fidelity alth management. t

kendeda fund. committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work through investments in transformative leaders ankeideas. more aedafund.org. >> carnegie corporation of new york. suppting innovations in education, democratic eagagement, and the advancement of international and security. at carnegie.org. and with the ongoing su of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

>> woodruff: rising infections and rising fears that things will get far worse. the covid-19 plague is generating both tonight, and the nation's most populous state, california, has now announced an overnight curfew for most of the state. that comes as the approaching holidays have public health w experts moried than ever. amna nawaz begins our coverage.w >>: thanksgiving is now a week away and coronavirus infections are on the rise in every u.s. state buti. as the u.s. death toll crossed 250,000 this week, members of the white house coronavirus task force held a public briefing for e first time in months. vice president pence projected optimism. >> i belve the day is coming soon when we can put this pandemic in the past.dr >> nawaz: whildeborah birx warned americans to remain vigilant... >> in this moment ofringing people together, to really limit

interactions indoors to immediate households when we see this level of communitad. >> nawaz: the c.d.c. is now urging americans not to travel for the thanksgiving holiday. it's now been 300 days since the -1rst recorded case of cov in the united states. and after subsiding from the summer surge, the virus is now running rampant this fall. two mont ago, the u.s. reported more than 41,000 new daily infections one month ago, more than 60,000. ju yesterday, more than 172,000 new cases of covid-19. infections nationwide, more than one million occurred in just the wisconsin, minnesota and iowa. president-elect joe biden today said the lack of a national response strategy for the virus was driving the surge.-1 >> beating covis going to require all of us working togeer as one country. >> nawaz: and the disparities anntinue to fall starkly along

racial lines: his or latinos have been hospitalized at more than four times the rate of white americans. e same is true of native american or alaskan native people.an african-amerhave been hospitalized at nearly four times the rate of whites. among the most vulnerable are seniors in lonterm care facilities, where 90,000 residents have died of the virus. a new study by the associated ess found the toll of th virus in those facilities to be even greater. researchers at the university of california, san francisco, found that short-staffing, isolation and other pandemic-related issues at nursing homes have led to more than 40,000 additional deaths, something that one nursing home trade group has disputed. >> nursing homes are staffed, in the best of circumstances, to provide routine services to the people who live there. and, so, along comes a pandemic, and there's no reserve capacity. >> nawaz: dawn best says her mother carolyn was healthy when she moved into a nursing

facility on long island in new york. >> within three weeks of the covid patients being for: d into >> nawblames her mother's death on lack of care. the a.p. said records showed rolyn best was dehydrated. t meanwhile inhe nation's capital, rising regional covid cases led the smithsonianio institto once again close down its museums and t ectional zoo. and climbing inftion rates public school systs new yorkst city schools reverted entirely mayor bill de blas. >> something is changing, is changing rapidly in this city. we certainly see what's happening around the country. we've got to reset the equation. >> nawaz: public schools in denver, coloradoill also go to fully remote for all grades for the rest of thsemester. for the pbs newshour, i'm amna nawaz.uf >> woo late today, the secretary of health and human services, alex azar, said pfizel is expected totomorrow for

emergency approval of its new covid vaccine. as the pandemic's impact grows,a congressleaders said today they will resume talks on a deal for vid relief and assistanc but unless a new bill is approved soon, several relief measures, including unemployment assistance, will expire by christmas more than 10 million jobs have been lost since the pandemic began. doctor richard besser wrote about covid's toll on public health and economic well bei today in a piece titled: "the pandemic isn't pausing, the u.s. shouldn't either." he is a former acting director of the c.d.c. and is thepr ident of the robert wood johnson foundation. for the record, the foundation is a newshour funder. dr. richard besser, thank you so much for joining us again. for months we have been hearing these warnings, don't travel, be careful, this pandemic is getting worse, but people appear

to be planning to travel, to gather in large groups over thanksgiving. major warnings today from the c.d.c. and other federal encies. how worried are you that people are just not listening? >> judy, i'm extreme worried. this is a worst case scenario. we have the holidays here at a time when respiratory viruses thrive. they love colweather and low humidity. we have a nation that has not come togher around what needs to be done to control this. you know, it's clear tha our personal actions -- wearing masks, keeping apart from each other, washia our hnds -- has a big impact, but it's also clear that people need rsources from congress in order to be able to protect themselves,fa theiilies and their communities. you know, as your reporter was owing, this pandemic is having disparate impact on communities of color, hitting them at fos ti more of the rates of

white communities. if we wanted to turn the tide on this, people need moneyn their pockets, they need protection from eviction oro mrtgage foreclosure. there are too many people in america who have toid decevery day whether thy go to work to put food on the table and rent or stay home to protect their families and communitieses that tore than wear masks, that takes hard, fast actiono fromress. >>oodruff: the piece you wrote today, as we mentioned, you said the actions of governnt and indiduals will likely determine how many peopla die and our society values. so you're saying a lot of the ersponsibilitylies with congress but it's also with people, with indidl people. >> that's right. what we individually do. you know, if we were able to rally around wearing masks, it woulseseem --e woul a dramatic decline in cases. if we were driven by scice -- you know, i'm seeing around the

country a lot of quick movement to close schools i'm a pediatrician and a parent, and i know how important in-classroom learning is, and there's so many communiti that ve been able to do that effectively. when you look at europ they are vewing schools as an essential service and they're closing everything else that's necessary in order to protect the ability for children to go to school safely and forac rs and staff in those schools to have the resources they need so they can do that safely. but, you know, rather than closing bars, moving restaurants to pick up delivery, canceling some of the intdoor acivities that we know are at risk, we're quickly closing down schools in laces where the data aren't showing thata risk. >> woodruff: let's go back to what you were saying a momento out the federal government, about congress and itsrole. >> yeah. >> woodruff: what do you think as we know, it's been months

since there has been any movement in e congress on aid around this pandemic. what do you think is most important that they get done?he >> well, are several things. they need to put in place immediately a mororium on evictions and mortgage foreclosures. it's estimed there are tens millions of people in january ominare at risk of bec homeless, being evicted in the middle of winter, in the middle of a raing pandemic. they need to put money in people's pockets. saw in the spring how valuable that was for people to meet their essential needs, but also to be able to stay home if they weren't feeling well and thought they might ve covid. they need to extend unemployment benefits and increase theun ployment benefits so people not working have the resources they need to protect semsel and their families. they need to ensure everyone has ck leave and famy medical leave. yhese things that in man countries are the basics. they need to provide protection

for small businesses, the payroll production program needs to be invigorated and the resources needs to be there and our states desperatelyneed money. our states need to balance their budget, unlike the feder government, and without millions and millions dollars to state, states will have to mae desayingses as to whether they fully fu medicaid, school systems, the housing programs, those programs are desperatelyne ed now but without federal dollars state governments will have to make deisions that you never want to see them have to make. >> woodruff: what would you say to lawmakers who say we tried to put a lot of money together, we tried to it out the door months ago, some ot a lot of it hasn't been spent yet, we don't want to rusg into domething, what do you say to them? >> what i would say to them ise look at number 250,000 -- 250,000 deaths -- and recognize that, by the end of the year, we

could be talking about 300,000 deaths and recognize that what you do right now could ha dramatic difference. i am so optimistic, based ons, this vaccine nf we can push tha through this winter ano all these things d get through this winter to the other that's when we're going to start to be able to see hopefully vaccine at the levels where it could have a real dramatic impact on this pandemic. but if congress doesn't act now we're go be talking about horrific milestones every single month, and it just doesn't have to be. that's not what we want toee from our government. >> woodruff: i hear you saying yore worried about what is going to happen before the vaccine is availableto so many americans and before we can fully open up. >> yes >> woodruff: dr. richard besser, of the robert wood johnson foundation, we thank you.

>> thanks, judy. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, the u.s. economy showed new signs of damage from surging covid-19 infections and restrictions. the labor department reported another 742,000 amicans filed for unemployment benefits last week. that was up about 30,000, and it marked the first increase in five weeks. president trump is pulling out more stops in his bid to un-do president-elect joe biden's victory. wisconsin today formally orderel a recount inukee and other county, paid for the trump campaign. and, it was widely reported that mr. trump will try to get lawmakers in states t to name new electors. we'll get details, after the news summary.

hurricane "iota's" doll has risen to more than 40 across central america, as search teami find more bodilandslides. the slides were triggered by ooding that overwhelmed whole communities in honduras and nicaragua. rescue efforts are continuing, and the presidenof honduras is pledging to help thousands left homeless.at >> ( tran ): we are continuing with humanitarian work. it is crucial that pple do not return to their homes. there are still places at risk. in the meantime, we have t attend to our people with hot food in the shelters. those who are hotside of their s, in shelters, suppt will be taken there. >> woodruff: all told, some 230,000 hondurans and nicaraguans are in shelters. human rights watch called today for the u.s.-led coalition in afghanistan to investigate soldiers' conduct. that's after an australian probe concluded that australian

special forces killed at least 39 afghan prisoners, farmers and civilians over the years. the report says it's alleged that british and u.s. special forces carried out similar crimes. a badly damaged giant telescopeo in puerto s shutting down. the national science foundation says the iconic arecibo radio s lescope is unstable and beyond repair, after ye hurricanes, humidity and earthquakes. the telescope, with its 1,000- foot wide dish, was built in the 60's. it has searched for planets, asteroids and possibleife forms. back in this cntry, treasury secretary steven mnuchin is ending several emergcy lending programs, run by the federal reserve during the pandemi they use treasury funds to back the corporate bond and municipal debt markets, among other things. the fed says the economy still needs that support.

but mnuchin saidoday that congress intended the programs to stop at year's end. and, on wall street, stocks managed a modest advance. the dow jones industrial average gaed 44 points to close at 29,483. the nasdaq rose 103 points, and, the s&p 500 added 14. still to come on the newshour: the trump campaignontinues their long shot legal challenges to the election results. mike pompeo becomes the first u.s. secretary of state to visit in the west bank.ed settlement we examine why pollsters often got the numbers wrong in the 2020 election. and much more.

>> woouff: unfounded claims of fraud and calls for recounts escalated agn today in battleground states from the presidential election. in a moment, william brangham will explore the legal challenges and their potential for success. but stephanie sy begins with this report on the latest efforts to contest the results. >> sy: failing to prove any widespread fraud, the president's lawyers and allies have turned the post-election spotlight to the people who canvass and certify votes. ere will be another incident where he will h go down in history as being one of the most irresponsible presidents in american history. it's -- it's just out ofthe -- not even within the norm at all. there's questions whether it's even legal. >> report: in wisconsin, officials today formall >> sy: in wisconsin,ials today formally ordered a recount

in heavily democratic milwaukee and dane counties, paid for with $3 million from the trump campaign. the rancor over how to conduct the recount was on full view last night as state election officials argued for six hours. >> t ridiculous. all you and dean keep talking about is these evil democrats d so these honest, hard working republicans are going to be able to see what's going on and im tired of that. we need to look at this in terms of a non-partisan, even though we are, a partisan commission. and stop worrying about stuff at doesn't exist. >> sy: in all, the president's campaign and allies ve initiated legal actions in six battlegrou states, employing a hodgepodge of debunked allegations that range from voting equipment conspiracies to supposed improprieties by election clerks.

grblicly, at least, most republicans in cs still defend the effort. >> i think every legal vote should be counted, legal challenges should be heard. >> sy: lacking evidence or legal standing, several of the cases have been dismissed or dropped. buwhile the allegations ha fallen flat in court, the president's lawyer rudy giuliani continued today, in a lengthy news conference, to spread them to the public. >> there was a plan from a centralized place to execute these various acts of voter fraud, specifically focused on big cities.th >> sy: even isinformation emanating from the very top, the press marches on. michigan has now certified its statewide results. ngrecount in georgia is co to an end with biden still winning. ted as more battleground s certify tallies ahead of a december 8th deadline, president trump's pathways to ching votes are being closed off, one

by one. for the pbs newshour, i'm stephanie sy. >> brangham: to help explain the trump campaign election maneuverings, we turn to our whe house correspondent yamiche alcindor, who is in wilmington, delaware tonight. yamiche, so nice to see you. help us explain, what is the tlitical strategy behie trump campaign's efforts to keep fighting these fights inhese different states? >> well, presidentrump i continuing to ratchet up his campaign to unjustifiably have the election overturned in his favor by getting personally involved in a way we've not seen election and the trump campaign is continuing to file lawsuit ter lawsuiwithout any evidence of their claims of voter fraud, and mo of that is coming through the president's person attorney rudy giuliani. nom the president did sething that was very, very remarkable. he calwled to county officials in wayne county mihigan, which includes detroit, and essentially talked to them about the election.

these officials were people who did not at first want to certify the votes. they then went ahead and voted to certify them. after talking to president trump, they decided they wted to rescind their votes to certify. the state says there no legal avenue to do that. but crics says this is dangerous for him to call people as the president of the united states. michigan has a republican-controlled legislature, they say that will be a bid fo them to overturn an elecon where president-elect biden is leading him by 150,000 votes. i put the question to president-elect biden today, is this behavior making you alarmed? he says he is not changing his legal strategy at th but that the president is possibly being the mospot irrible president in u.s. history. >> reporter: they've had leg

setbacks, the trump campaign, but is this perhaps working in the court of public opinion? are these various fights actually changing peoe's minds minds? >> well, despite pret sident trp ving any evidence of his claims of voter fraud, it is absolutely havinan impact on the american electorate, in particular trump supyerters. erday monmouth university released a poll that showed 77% of trump supporters believe joe biden is thece president- due to fraud and only 11% believe the election was fair and square. that's problematic because president-elect biden will have to gosh in america where millions and millions believe the president's unfounded claims. president same influence and have these edters continuing to believe the election was rind somehow stolen from him and he could continue to fundraise, continue to have influence in the republican party, so it's definitely a place we should watch the space. >> reporter: the poll numbers are incredible.

yamiche alcindor, wilmington,la re, great to see you, thank you. >> thanks. >> brangham: we contue to explore the president's attempts to overturn the election results with nate persily of stanforsi univ law school. he is the co-founder of the healthy elections project. nate, great to see you again. there are so many ts cooking on th stove, legal pots across e country. let's talk about the lawsuits first. by my count, the trump campaign has filed maybe two dozen different kinds of lawsuits. will you remind us what are those suits, what have been they have been suing and how have they been received? >> well, there's been 31ci ons at this point, actually, or withdrawals of lawsuits and they' lost 30 of them and these lawsuits span the gamut from questioning signature verification in nevada to accusing different election offials in pennsylvania of applying different standards to

democrats and republicans, all s a host of other oseernlgle objections a, for example, not enoughob rvers getting close enough to observe the ballot counting process. so far the courts ha been quite resilient and they have been turning away these lawsuits or the trump campaign hasnee losing them, but there are still several in the pipeline, five or sithat are sort of e more major cases, many in pennsylvania, and, in addition to those cases, we have recount processes in georgia and wisconsin that themselves might lead to lawsuits. >> reporter: the thi i find so interesting is reheard again thin stephanie sy's report rudy giuliani is still alleging this broader conspirac there was this sort of cay dry dry -- cadre of peple in a central place plotting the voter fraud, but the cases don't seem to be alleging any part of that grand conspiracy.

>> that's right, because it can't be proven. so y o can't just say so the man behind the person is responsible for all of thesean voting problemnot know who that man might be. so there's been a blunder bustng approach inclu accusations about voting manufacturers, about local eleion officials and people in polling places, accusations against statefi als, some republican and some democrat. so it's not as if it's just going after some kind of conspiracy on the part of the biden campaign, it's going to after the entire infrastructure in some respects saying there was a multi-state effort to sort of shift votes to biden. >> reporter: you mentioned recounts that are going on. can you remind us where thosean are happeningwhose votes are being counted? >> so right now we have full-onp recount ning in georgia, and that should conclude in the next few days, and those are all the ballots cast in georgia,

it's actually technically what we caell an elction audit, but they're going to be recounting all thballots. to prepare your viewers, there will be a differen in the numbers that were recounted and the ones that are fintoaltals. there always are in these kinds of recounts. but the won't be in th thousands that will be needed to flip the result. in wisconsin we have a dintffe procedure that's about to unfold where the trump campaign paid $3 million to ha recounts in dane and milwaukee counties, dane is whe the capitol of madison is, and, so, they will do recounts to see if there were significant errors in the votes cast electy and mail-in >> reporter: if, as you described, the lawsuits have almost universally failed and the recounts are unlikely to change anything in anynt subse way, what is the point here? you've described in the past n this so-calleclear option, what is that and are these steps

leading up to that? >> well, yamiche alcindor was talking a bit about this, that i ink there are several strategies afoot. there is still i the short teem strategy, the hope some of these lawsuits might flip enough votea to ld one or another state shiftingrom the biden columnto he trump column. then the larger strategy, i think, of casting doun bte legitimacy of the election and joe biden as president, that serv two purposes, one is a long-term purpose of undermining other is to maybe spur some state legislators to say, well, this election was inerentl flawed and, so, therefore, we -- the legislature, under the constitution, are going to designate the sle of electors for trump to thelectoral college. that is such a farfetched, unlikely possibility that i don't want people to think that has happened before as it hsn't or it's likely. but as you said the nuclear

option, the idea you would overturn an election and take away the rights of te voters and replace it with the rights of the pol iticians inthe state legislatures. >> reporter: let's hmee it doesn't o that. nate persily of la university of stanford law school, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: today, in the middle east, mike poecame the first secretary of state to visit the golaheights and a settlement in the west bank. he also announced major shifts in u.s. policy. to discuss this i'm joined by nick schifrin. hi, nick. first of all, tell us what did secretarhpompeo say andat did he do today? >> reporter: the first unprecedted step pompeo tooks waout travel. he visit add settlement in the occupied west bank with a winery that last year named a vintage after him.

israel calls the settlement legal, palestinians who own the land call it stolen. he took an israeli military helicopter to the golan heights, got a tour miolitary along the syrian border.p the trministration recognized it last year. >> you can't stand here and stare out at wahat'oss the border and deny the central thing that president trump recognized that previous presidents had refused to do that this is a part of israel aeand a central part of i >> reporter: the next steps were on policy. he said any food noduced most settlements in the occupied west bank should be labeled "made in israel,t" that changes decades of policy that required the labeling of th west bank. and he also embraced the israeli government's argument that the boycott divestment sanctions movement or b.d.s. was

anti-semitic and pledged to cut funding for any groups that supports the b.d.s. overall this was another attempt by the secretary of state tois endorsael's arguments about land and legality and minimize palestinian claims to statehood and what the international community conegsiders i actions by israel. the b.d.s. movement earlier.f he said he was trying to change israeli policy through economic fresh and accused popeo of conflating antisitism with legitimate chris simple of israel and advocacy of paleinian rights which heaid should be protected by the first amendment. >> woodruff: nick, we're down to almost the last two months of this administratio what's thactual impact of all this? >> most likely not very much. there are only 62 days left before inauguration. it's unclear how much the administration can get done onbe ng or the b.d.s. in that time and many of the administration's moves when it comes to israel and theav

palestiniansbeen directives or executive orders, those can be easil reversed by president-elect biden on januar. what can't be reversed, jd is the photo opportunities that this trip gave mike pompeo p if he were to choose to run fo office, for example president in 2024. >> woodruff: so maybe veral meanings behind all this. nick schifrin, we thank you. >> thank you. >> woodruff: political polling is under scrutiny once again. while pre election surveys set expectations of a democratic blue wave, the presidential race as well as senate and house races, came down to the wire. to help us understand what went wrong, we spoke to two veterans of the industry: j. ann selzer,

iowa pollster and president of selzer and company, and chris kofinis, democratic poller and c.e.o. of park street strategies. you both for being with us.ank so look at the resultsjo biden warned president trump dlost, but the president better than a lot of polls suggested he would.in he did betteexas, better in frida, certainly better in the in the national polls. ann selzer, do you have a theory abt what went wrong? >> well, i have a couple of theories. i'll share one. and that is that it appeared to me that the democratic surge, its arc peaked a little earlyar nd the time the early voting was starting and that their push was to get people requesting absentee ballots and getti those filled out. and the and the surge on the republican side happened closer to election day, that their big push was to get people to show

up that day. and it could be that there was just more enthusiasm and excitement, more recruitment of getting people to vote who maybe were going tsit this one out. i don't think it's so much changing minds at the last minute, but i do think the decision on whether to vote that made up may have happened late for republicans. >> woodruff: chris, kofinis. what about this? how do you see how the polls g it wrong in so many cases? >> well, i don't think there's just one reason. i think one of the factors, to be frank about it, was the so- called silent trump vote i mean, we had been seeing thatr in oearch for a long time. the difficult part about what this was trying to figure out,ow whatig was it? what percentage of the of the electorate was really solid trump voter. and but it was revealed and i think what was happening was one, i think some pollsters were obab discounting it. i think there was a lot of noise we startedg in some of our

polling for our clients that, strength among trump was among hispans, which was really, i think, something that people didn't expect. and i think part of i think the challenge in this tection mparmaybe 16, but even prior to 16 isrump is such a diffict candidate to poll because of the perception around him, which makes, i think, rtain voters reluctant to say that they support hi >> woodruff: ann selzer, you did. in fact, your last poll had it close to. right. in iowa and elsewhere. do you think there's a special difficty polling around president trump?'t >> i dnow that i saw anything like a shy trump voter in my data. we asked not only who are youo planningte for? and we had trump ahead by a large margin. but we also asked, who did you vote for in 2016? and we found that in many, many states and we don't find that there's a reluctance, an apparent reluctance to tell us about that.

i think there's something else perhaps happening and that has to do with enough representation among rural voters who go strongly for president trump. and judy, i think the question about whether this is unique tor trump, the fwill tell us he certainly has been someone personality and unndingcult of why people felt so strongly about him. i think we have ret to still fihat out. >> woodruff: what about that, chrikofinis, our pollsters a our and i know there's so many pollsters, it's hard. we can't lp them all together, but particularly those who work in the media, a work from media organizations. are they loong hard enough at or people in the mof theas country? how do you see that? >> i think there areome predisposed notions that kind of both frame what pollsters do as well as how the media es those polls.

i mean, i think we have to bere ly honest in the polling profession that there were some real mistakes made in this election and big misses both at thsenate level as well as the presidential level. i think wee got to step back and be a lot more critical about what polling is there for. you know, there's this tendency, i think, to want polling to be kind of a predictor of the future where nostradamus we're going to tell you exactly what the outcome of the race is. it's art and science. better job of listening and asking much more critical questions to understand why aree le thinking about voting one way or another are we expecting too much of pollsters and the work that they do that you do? >> well, certainly when the polls lead the public to think of a certain outcome an that has to be adjusd, it's a bilike shakespeare. fit thing let's do let's kill all the pollsters instead of lawyers. and there is sort of a sense

polls and then it becomes like they almost think it's a patlic utility hey are owed. correct. polling when it's just far more complicated an industry an that. i do tnk this is a time for reflection and really unpacking. pollster by pollster whats assumptie being embedded the way that they ciding through who's a likely voter, for example, how they're managing the telephone numbers that they're calling? are very technicali think there some things will be revealed. i hope. >> woodruff: chris, isuch of this is just not being able to reach enough people, frankly, to have a representative sample? >> i mean, part of it, you know, to be honest, i think what we've seen is the response rates were actually really good this time, strangely engh, primarily because of the pandemic, has more people at home more willing to answer phones. i don't think it's the response rate that's the challenge here.h

i think thlenge here is are we asking the right questions?ys and i alet disturbed when i see polls, especially in media polls, that tend task what i call very basic cursory questions and don't dig beneath what are win are people ng one way or another? i think the more important thing is howo we get to the point where i think the media starts asking much more critical questions and we're not cheerleading polls simply because we like who's losing or who's winning. that is t the job of a pollster. it is not my job to tell the clie what they want to hear. it is not the job of i think the pollsters tell the media what they want to hear. it's trying to understand what is going on in the electorate in this election. you know, there was a lot more complexity going on that i still don't think we have fairly understood. >> woodruff: a lot of nversation around polls certainly leading up to elections and always afterwards as well. ann seltzer. chris kofinis, we thank you both.

>> thank you. >> woodruff: ethiopia is confronting what the u.n. calls a "full-scale humanitarian crisis." the federal government, based in the capital, has been fighting a war with the tigray regional government in the north. it's unclear how many people have died, and the conflict has acerbated hunger. nick schifrin isupack with this >> schifrin: judy, the state department called for both whsides to de-escalate fro the international community could become a fulloan stifle war. the most recent conflict began after ethiopia's prime minister side lined tigray's leaders. both sides considered the otheri illete for decades.

and we turn now to special correspondent, coletta wanjohi. coletta, you've been out reporting. what are you seeing? >> reporter: the military from forces in the forth continues fr the fourth of november. the internet is down, so there is a lot that we do not know. s but what we arre about is sudan, approximateaverageto of about 4,000, it appears, fleeing into sudan seeking refuge cause they're running away from the conflict. thousands of refugees each day for the laswo weeks thousands of refugees each day by foot from the northernssing ethipoian region called tigr into neighboring sudan. they're trying to escape airstrikes and fighting between the ethiopian army and t tigray people's liberation front, known as t.p.l.f. long-simmering political tensions between the prime minister abiy and the t.l.f., the formeruling party, with each accusing the other of illegitimacy finally boiled over on november 4th. f.ter prime minister abiy ahmed

accused the t.p.f attacking a federal army base, he lauofhed a military nsive, declared a state of emergency, and cut off communications with the tigray region. >> the federal government is compelled to undertake a law enforcement operion to defend and prect constitutional order and uphold the rule of law. >>hobel wabela knows about t ethnic tensions first hand. in 2014, when the t.p.l.f. was rulinghe country, he was part of a group of bloggers that estioned their governance which faced local and international accusations of human rights violations. in response, the government accused them of terrorism. wabela spent 84 days in the maekalawi detention center, where many political prisoners were held in the 27 years before prime minister abiy ahmed assumed power in 2018 and shut it down.

>> i was very hopeful i was out how he is going to build a good justice system and he was going to abolish this segregational ethnic federalism systemut rather than making honest reforms he preferred to keep some ports ofhe remnants of the previous administration. >> but there is significant support for the military offensive particularly amongst veterans who fought in the war between ethiopia and neighboring eritrea in 1998. len jibili lost his limbs i that war.sl >> ( tred ): i wish victory for the ethiopia defence forces. they should defeat this junta group in the north. they should behased away from this land of ethiopia. >> prime minister abiy won the 2019 nobel peace prize for reaching long-aited peace with eritrea. but now the united nations i leading international calls for an immediate cease fire. he says he must first restore

law and order in the north. >> there should not be any mistake made in treating the federal government as equal witm al groups. >> meanwhile, close to 100 thousand eriean refugees living in camps in the tigray region are said to be stranded with no humanitarian assistance. reportedly died fr have fighting, and prime minister abiy says he's not going to compromise.ra the fegovernment, the northern section, cut off tigray entirely. do we know h deadly this conflict has been so far? >> reporter: the best we can gauge is in terms of the refugees fleeing from the northern region. that shows us the conflict hasns inied and people feel it is not safe within the northern region. the government is quiet, but admits there have been casualties from both government forces and the the tigray regional forces.

also, we know in terms of communication, the fac that electricity is down the other side. people have been stuck there. we have about 1,000 americans who are said to have been stuck there. remember, it's a tourism destination, and also members fromihe european are stuck there. >> reporter: zoom out for a second. what a the regionalism cases of this fighting? >> reporter: at first the prime minister said itould be more of an internal conflict between the government and it northern region, but the fact the northerregion has blamed e neighboring eritria of assisting the government and that brings them in and also now sudan is receiving refugees,is ther problem there. on the other side of the they have military bases in, different countries and consent there could be a spiover effect of this conflict. so we're already seing countries within the region reaching out to ethiopia and saying probably it's time for istergue but the prime min says, no, he must finish his military operation before he really goes and sits wn with

people he says who will note corrupt and people who have supporte r impunity. porter: colettea in ethiopia, thank you very muchu >> thank ythank you very much. >> wdruff: as we repted earlier, jobless claims were up today. in fact,oughly one-third of the unemployed have now been out of work for more than six months. about 3.6 million people without regular work since the dawn of the pandemic. for older workers in particur, this kind of long-term unemployment can be the end of road. economics correspondent paul solman looks at their problem as part of his series, "unfinished business."o >> we've hadke some cutbacks due to covid. you were the one that we chose

to let go. >> reporter: and poof, 61-year- old kathy docter, an i.t. liaison at cincinnati-based cintas, was just another older american out of a job. 0> i'd been with the company years. i never dreamed they would terminate me in that way. i've never been fired from anything. >> reporter: weeks before, at a meeting about how the fis handling covid, a young colleague stormed out. >> and he just blew up at my manager. a few hours later, i was at my desk and my supervisor came over and told me that they needed tok o me. and he said, we know that you instigated that entire outburst from him. and we're telling you right now we're not going to tolerate that. >> reporter: the charge was absurd, says the grandmother of six. but she was termined. the youncoworker? still there. you think that they wer thinking we're going to get rid of her, we'll use this incident the excuse. >> yes. >> reporter: what do you think prompted the dismiss

>> i think it was age and my physical condition because have cirrhosis. >> reporter: that puts docter at higher risk of severe illness from covid-19. >> kathy's situation is not unusual. >> reporter: not at cintas, says cincinnati-area attorney katherine daughtrey neff, nor at lots of firms these days. >> they are using covid and the economy asn excuse to create layoffs. you ask a company, that could be workers tend to earn more.lder they may also be trying to avoid additional expenses insurance premiums going up if they have an older workforce who could be subject to morele difficult pr with covid. >> reporter: the rule of thumb used to be last hired, first fired. p the new reality is a real departure from tt for older workers, says economist teresa ghilarducci. >> this is a trend that we all are surprised about because it used to be that at leastce

experit attachment to the employer paid off in a in aha recession,you saw the younger workers being pushed out a lot faster. >> reporter: but unemployment have been higher than mid-career employees since the start of thisandemic, says ghilarducc >> the volatility of this recession is much greater than it was even in the last recession. and in those times, you have employers going very short term and getting rid of headcount. getting rid of high cost headcount is the order of the day. >> reporter: age bias has been amplified by the virus but of course it's nothing new. resource action, which is basically a purge of employees. >>eporter: marjorie madfis then 57, was a digital marketing strategist at ibm. >> we brought them into the world of twitter, into pinterest, and kept sort of pushing forward ibm. >> reporter: so you're in the

right place at t right time with the right skills? yes, i was, yes. the rest of my team was. >> reporter: but in 2013, most 0 madfis's team was shown the door, as were 6,hers at ibm. >> the majity of people who were let go were people over 50. >> reporter: 61-year-old ed miyoshi had joined ibm right out of college.th >> i was alwayyoung guy. and then suddenly i wasn't anymore. >> reporr: in 2016 miyoshi worked in a unit that ran computer systems for other firms. >> i had beea hi performer r many years, so my salary was top of the grid. my benefits were highe most people's. i was old enough to stile qualify for d ibm pension plan. how can you be a young hip company working on all these new nd having a lot of people with gray hair running around doing it? >> reporter: first, the other ldmembers of his team, all, were ousted. and then... >> i'm on my 35th service anniversary and i get a call

from my manager. when i picked up the phone, he said, i hate to teyo you this, bure being resource actioned. a week before christmas. >> reporter: really? >> yes. what was interesting, though, was i was hired to do that exact same job as a contractor after i was laid off from ibm. >> reporter: and were you getting paid anywhere near the same amount? >> the first year i worked as a contractor, i made $20,000 less. >> reporter: the next year miyoshi made $40,000 a year less, but he stuck with it until last year. >> one day i come in a the offi it's you ha to you're done. .ou have t >> we're talking about tens and tens of thousands of people. >> reporter: journalist peter gosselin says age bias at ibm was widespread. >> basically 86% of all thele pehat ibm laid off in the last five years have been older workers. >> older, meaning older than 50. >> yeah. i >> reporte has maintained that age plays no role in employment actions. but in august, the equal

employment opportunity commission determined then the companged in systematic age discrimination. ed miyoshi joined a class action suit against the firm. sbut ibm is no outlier, s gosselin. >> across a nationally representative sample of older american workers, something like 60% of people, beftoe they get e 70 they're laid off or they're forced out. >> reporter: and when gosselin was 63... >> i myself was laid off from a job. i thought i had a good resumé and i could get a job. and i was out for a long, long time. >> reporter: he finally raised money to fund his own reportings on ageimination at nonprofit propublica. ex-ibm-er ed miyoshi has plenty of hobbies and may not need the ney, but he continues looking for work. >> i've got some things to offer. and i'm certainly noready tols. watch tv all day for the rest of my life. >> reporter: marjorie madfis just gave up looking after her layoff. >> and i remember having an

interview with a young man whoje came in his, put his feet up on the chair and was texting during the interview. and that was kind of the ahai moment thaally don't want to be somebody's mother in a job. >>seporter: instead, madfis doing something less rewarding financially, but far more emotionay: running a non- profit to teach jobs skills to wome american girl-loving daughter, izzie. >> i'm learning how to accept feedback. emotional regulation. with customers i've learned how to control my tempercu omers can be overwhelming at times. >> reporte pre-pandemic izzy learned on the job at a now, she and her peet on zoom. kathy docter? she has been jobless for seven months. >> i am running out of money. i had money saved. i mean, i'm running out of money now. and now i have to pay for cobra, which costs an additional five hundred fifty dollars a moh

because i can't get coverage anywhere else because i have preexisting conditions. unless i go to what's left of obamacare and try to get coveragehere, i'm pretty much stuck. but i can tell you that i will not be able to pay for cobra after the first of the year, because i just can't afford it anymore. >> reporter: so you'll go uninsured?.o. >> i'll have i don't have any other choice. >> reporter:or the pbs newshour, this is paul solman. >> woodruff: sobering story to make us all think, thank you, paul. on the "newshour" right now, on on the newshoune right now, joy harjo will serve a rare third term as united states poet laureate. hewe explore her newly lau teoject that collects recordings from dozens of corary native american poets into a digital archive. find that on our web site, pbs.org/newshour and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and aere tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, pleassestay safe, anyou soon.

>> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> conmer cellular believes that wireless plans should we offer a variety of no- contract wireless plans for toople who use their phone a our u.s.-based cr service reps can help you choose a plan to learn more, go to consumercellular.tv >> the ford foundation. frontlines of social change worldwide.

>> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. >> and with the ongoheg support of institutions and friends of the newshour. >> 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 newshour productions, ll captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

here's what's coming up. blood and bullets i nigeria. an investigative report on shooting to kill peacele protesters. and -- >> if i lose my alth, if i lose my car, i'll replace i'it. rebuild. but you cannot bring my son back. >> a covid catastrophe in west texas. we ask el paso mayor dee margo what he'll do to stop the virus ravaging his city. >> by january 15, 2021, our rces, tir size in afghanista will be,5