captioning sponsed by wnet >> hill: on this edition for sunday, november 29, the latest on the presidential ansition; covid cases are still on the rise as laakapple with celebrating the 30th anniversary of a cultural movement that raised awareness for h.i.v./aids. next on "pbs wshour weekend." >> pbs newsho 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.se charles rolum. we try to live in the otment, toiss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. 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 erwww.consllular.tv. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private american peoplnded by the and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> hill: good evening and thank you for joining us.

idprt donald trump lost another round in court late yesterday but continued to claim-- without evidence-- that he won the election. president-elect joe den won the popular vote and the projected electoral college majority needed. in a unanimous decision issuedla yesterday, pennsylvania's supreme court threw out a lower court der preventing the state from certifying dozens of contests and challenging all mail-in ballots. o e of the justice's wrote," they have failedlege that even a single mail-in ballot was fraudulently cast or counted." in another loss for the president, wisconsin completed its ballot recount today and confirmemr. biden won the state. 5-voteounty reported a gain for president trump. on friday, milwaukee cnty, the other county targeted in a recount that the trump campaign p raid for,orted a 132-vote gain for president-elect biden. the trump campaign paid $3 million to learn biden's victory

grew by 87 more votes. the president returned to the ite house from camp david this afternoon. this morning he spent almost 45 g nutes speaking with fox news by phone, repeatlong list of grievances including election frich he has not proved. mr. biden had no public events today and ed to his home in wilmington, delaware after spending thasgiving at his vacation home in rehoboth beach. the covid-19 pandemic continues to sweep across the united states with death rates now approaching the peak numbers from last spring. "the new york times" database shows covid-19 related-deaths increasing 29% over the average number two weeks ago. last wednesday, more than 2,300 deat were reported nationwid

surpassing 2,000 in one day for the first time since early may. despite a rise in cases and deaths, new york city's mayor made a surprising announcement this morning: the largest hool district in the country will begin to re-open in person elementary classrooms in phases starting december 7. >> we know that if you put a y avy emphasis on testing and you continuainforce those health and safety measures, and the situation room, we know weth can keep our schools safe for the duration and link up to that day when we ve the vaccine and all of us.he whole reality for >> hill: the new plan also phases o the goal of five-day-a-week classroom learning. globally, according to johns hopkins university's coronavirus tracking project, the virus is still spreading with more than 62 million infections now reported and more than 1.4- today in south korofficials

announced new restrictions a the virus re-emerges there, banning year-emi parties and ting gatherings starting this coming week.te in the ukingdom more than 60 protesters were arrested yesterday during a demonstration opposing restrictis and vaccinations a paisial lockdown in britain the to end on tuesday. for more ou.k.'s response to covid-19 and to their brexit transition, wh now just a month away, i spoke with frank langfitt, npr correspondent and thor of "the shanghai free taxi." frank, thank you so much for joining us. boris johnson is lifting england's second lockdown this week on wednesday. will this be a tiered system? how is this going to play out? >> y tiered system, michael, and what we'll see is the second and third very high, which is the vast majority of england will be in, e'll be some differences so, where i am just outside of

londonill be in tier two. so, our corner pubs will start to open, but they'll have to close at 11:00. people still will not be able to mix different housolds, mix inside. and then, i think the big difference we'll see when you gthet up into tiee is really shutting down restaurants and pubs only for takeaway and delive, that sort of thing. those are, those are some of the big differences. but what you're seeing already is complaints among members of parliament who say, wait a second, this is-- these tiers are blanket in some areas where you'llone county like kent and say, even though it varies a ofgreat deal in termhe covid rate, make iall tier three, where you can just drive to the next county five minutes ay and you can go have a drink at a pub. so, they argue it doesn't make sense and that it's da economies here. >> hill: frank, we've seen anti- lockdo protests kind of throughout europe, in france and certainly there in england. >> i think they probably will. you know, we had a l of lerests yesterday. peere actually marching through the west end of london. that's the theatre district.

and it was a mix of people. i've covered these all fall, really. some of it is anti-vaxxers. some of it is covid conspiracy theorists. some of this are q-anon people. way out, q-anon still resonatese here in the united kingdom. led there's a feeling from 's perspective, the people that come out for these rallies, that, at a minimum, covid has been grossly exaggerated, is doing a lot of damage to the economy. and they do believe, some of them believe, that there's a global cabal that wants to actually depopulate the world and that's whyis happening. >> hill: frank, there's a lot of covi19 lockdown fatigue. we see it all over the place, certainly here istates. have people been complying there with the pro to social distance, to stay inside and so forth? >> yeah, michael, it's getting worse and worse. i think that, for instance, as-- i ride my bike around my town outside of london he, and other than the fact that the stores are shut, you can't

really tl that we're in a lockdown. you would never think it was a lockdown. you know, boris johnson, many months ago, his chief advisor violated a much stricter lockdown that we had that went in in march. and i think that really damaged tation of boris johnson, the government here, so that people pay less attention, frankly, to at he says. >> hill: frank, a month away do things stand?t, where are people ready for this? >> no, they're not r at all, and i'm glad you asked that question. i mean, what's up in t air is, will the united kingdom leave thth some kind of thin deal the european union, or will they walk ay with nothing? but i think the fact that itas taken so long, michael, it's again coming down to a last minute, last minute decisions is pretty shocking, given that this he biggest thing. this is going to change the course of modern british history. and yet, it feels like they still haven't entirely taken it seriously or put, kind of, the great diligence into it that they should have. >> hill: what arrisks of a no brexit deal? is that even possible after all

this time? >> if you'd asked me six months ago, i'm goingy, "gee, they would have figured something out." i think what will happen is if there's a no deal brexit, you will see customs and tariffs and rder posts going up between the united kingdom and the european union you could see giant, what they call "tailbacks" here-- we call them bs in america-- of thousands of trucks at the border post at dover to get on the ferry, to get through the, the chunnel.an it would do even more damage to the economy than we're already going through. and things are pretty bad here economically. i mean, most of the stores are shut down. and, you know, on december 2, we'll begin to loosen up. things will get a liit better. but its economy is in pretty bad shape right no >> hill: frank, to switch gears, we just came through a big election here in the states, as you know. has the prime minister there, boris johnson, shown how he will work with president elect den? >> oh, absolutely. i think what he's going to try to do is not focus on brexit at

all. he knows joe biden didn't like brexit, was against it, and he's going to focus on things wre he's actually relatively closely aligned with the vice president elect biden, things like climate change, those kinds of issues where he's actually much closer to biden than he would have been to trump. tavrump, of course, brexit, and so, he was somewhat valuable to boris johnson. b, beyond that, johnson has much more in common with biden than he would have had with trump when it com>> to policy. hill: frank langfitt there with npr, talking to us from england. thank you, frank. >> happy do it, michael. >> hill: in east africa, six explosions overnight rocked the eritrean capital, asmara, accordinhe u.s. embassy. there were no reports of it was not immediately clear if the explosns were related to fighting in the region of tigray in neighboring ethiopia. yesterday ethiopia's prime minister, abiy ahmeddeclared ctviy against the tigray people's liberation front. the ethnic faction which runs battling federal troops for more

than three weeks. communication is largely cut off in the tigray region, and there is no indendent confirmation of the prime minister's claim. nigerians in the northern state of borno held a mass burial today, aftern attack by suspected islamic militants left more than 40 dead. the attack took place yesterday, a day when residents were cacasting their votes for government councils for the first time in 13 years. the attackers beheaded about 30 men, including many fishermen and rice farmers. the nigerian government has blamed theslamic militant group boko haram for the attacks, but so far no group has claimeresponsibility. security forces continue to search for dozens of people still listed as missing. david prowse, the towering english actor who played darth vader in the original "star wars" films died yesterday. e prowse was the actor inse film villain's suit beginning with the first "star wars" film

in 1977, but he was not the voice of the iconic character.s the producd james earl ornes replace his voice. the 6'6"r weightlifter said he was offered a different "star wars" role butr hose darth vacause "you alys b remember t guys." david prowse was 85-years-old. for more international and national news go to pbs.org/newshour. >> hill: the coronavirus pandemic and public service messages about the global health crisis share some parallels to the aids/h.i.v. crisisecades ago. back then, little was known about the spread of the illness, and the stigma associated withas contracting itigh. but one organization that helped to change that is celebrating an anniversary in the lead-up to world aids day this tuesday, december 1.

the red hot organization was founded to help raise money and awareness around the aids crisis. dedicated to fighting h.i.v./aids through pop culture, the organization has raised millions, and has helped to decrease the stigma associated with aids. to celebrate it's 30th anniversary this year, red hot is re-releasing popular track lists. newshour weekend's christopher booker has more. he hi, i richard gere, and we ar tonight because aids is . reality that demands personal action by everyo >> reporter: to the ears of a 2020 audience, there is nothing particularly noteworthy abp t this c richard gere, but 30 years ago, when it oniginally airebc, gere's introduction to the "red hot + blue" special, a musio montage benefit, was groundbreaking. >> nowhere is the most important thing you need to if you have sex, wear a condom. >> proudly for him andor us, it was the first time the word

"condom" was mentioned on american television outside of a news context, and that just-- it even sounds absurd to say that today, 30 years later, because condoms, you know, protecting people from a viral pandemic would seem to be very obvious, but just like today, there was a lot of politics involved back then. responsible for the words gere delivered. in collaboration with his partner, filmmaker leigh blake, "red hot +ar blue" wasof a new multimedia advocacy organization called "red hot." >> we wanted to create a propaganda organization through pop culture, and music in particular is really powerful to reach people that don't agree with you. themselves as a creative consortium dedicated to fighting aids through pop culture, red hot was born o of new york's wntown art and music scene of the late 70's and 80's-- a scene t that tuld be among the earliest to be upended by the

aids crisis. >> aids in new ywk in the 80's a lot like covid is today, where it just sort of came out of nowhere and then all of a c sudden the wornged. people who you assd with,young who you admired, you know, got sick, and many of them died, um, and that was one of e things that we really when we started red hot, that wareally one of the great motivations. the rest of thworld didn't know what was about to happen. >> reporter: the first effor "red hot + blue" was a compilation album of cole porter songs performed by an ecleic group of artists like david byrne, u2, k.d. lang, iggy pop and deborah harry. ♪ and have you heard th♪story of a boy, a girl unrequited love ♪ sounds like pure soap opera i may cry ♪ >> reporter: why cole porter?

>> first of all, the songs were just great, and they were sortut of undized. no fitzgerald and frank sinatra, my parents' generation, had really done the songs. but the otr very powerful reason was that cole porter was a gay american artist who had to be closeted for his entire career. >> an excited owd sees the arril of cole porter, the great songwriter. >> we used to call it "the trojan horse approach." you know, there's this, oh, there's a u2 track. it's annie lennox. it's debbie harry aniggy p. isn't this, like, really funny? and they're singing cole porter songs. isn't that weird? but it like kind of cool. and those songs sound great. and then all of a suddenalboom, you'reng about the stigma around bei l.g.b.t.q. or wearing a condom or e fact that aids is a preventable

disease that at that time the president of the united states, ronald reagan, wouldn't say the words "aids." >> the more cases of h.i.v. infection we can prevent now, the less cases of aids will be seen in the future. >> reporter: "red hot + blue" would sell over one million copies worldwide, and the accompanying film was seen in over 30 countries. the music videos-- direcd by filmmakers including jim edrmusch and jonathan demme-- were across mtv. >> reporter: after 30 years, and in compilation albums feat more than 500 artists from around the world, red hot has generated millions of dollars in te fight against h.i.v./aids. where do ynk the red hot organization fits in, in the way america changed the way it thought about sexuality? >> one was making sure that there were significant l.g.b.t.q. artists on threcord like k.d. lang and jimmy

somerville. but, in an odd way, the most important thing i think when i look back on it is how many artists on the project were straight. nobody thought that bono or david byrne were gay because they were doing an aids benefit, it was sort of like, okay, it's safe. it's safe to not only embrace our l.g.b.t.q. neighrs, family, but also to say this is not a disease that is really about this. >> reporter: it's also interesting thinking, again in contemporary terms, the power of acknowledgment from someone or a group that is outside of the group. for instance, hoe america has really struggled to say "black lives matter." it's a similar damicif you ill. >> david byrne said s becausla ps sister-i tina chao, was h.i.itive. and it's a very important lesson that empathy is often borne through proximity, knowing

ovsomeone, you know, being by someone's story. and that, to me, is the power of art d culture ultimately. ♪ give me land, lots of land under starry skies above ♪ don't fence me in >> reporter: in recognition of their 30th anniversary, red hot will be re-releasing a nber of their compilation albums, including "red hot + blue" on december 1-- world aids day. ♪ listen to the murmur of ♪ send me off forever but i ask you please ♪ don't fence me in >> hill: last spring, as the coronavirus sent tens of millions into lockdowns, one musian captured the attention of the world as she took her cello to a par rooftop and serenaded a mostly silent city.

months later, camille thomas continues to make music in some unexpected spaces-- french museums the pandemic has closed to visitors. ♪ on thursday, 32-year-old camille thom turned the museum of decorative arts in paris into a pandemic-era concert hall. ♪ ♪ the audience for her cello performance of maurice ravel's "kaddish" was a production crew and the magnificent artworks watching silently along the walls. >> to play in these empty museums is also very symbolic because i wanted to symbolize with these images the neliness of musicians without the public, of museums without visitors, and the fact that we are just waiting for the publicre not dead, we are just patient, trying to be creativstill

bring and create beauty. ♪ >> hill: last march, thomas became a symboof perseverance d hope when she took her cello to the rooftop of her home in paris. and thend her performance online as france began its first lockdown during the corovirus pandemic. >> i posted this video in march on my social media and the response from all the world was incredible. i received messages from really everywhere, people telling me that seeing these images and hearing is music, seeing paris, just made them feel good and it gave them hope. >> hill: in the months that followed, thomas-- a successful recording artist who performs with orchestras worldwide-- began to play online concerts alone in the halls of museums in and around paris-- all now

closed to the public. places where the music-- combined with the beauty of the wart and architecture-- ck together to ing hope for the future. >> ofee course peoplemedical care in these pandemic times, buthey also ne care for the soul. it's to say that beauty is there usand hope is there and we have to survive and keep our heart open to art. >> hill: that's all for this "edition of "s newshour weekend." for the latest news updates visit pbs.org/newshour. i'm michael hill. 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: rsue and edchenheim 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. we at mutual of america, believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of amera financial group, retirement services and investments. additional support has been provided by: consumer cellular. and by: and by the corporation for puic broadcasting, a priva corporation funded by the americanbyeople. anontributions to your

pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

hello. i'm greg sherwood.n and hererthern california we're used to emergencies or every kind. in recent years we've dealt with severe drought and massive fires and we've learned the painful but necessary lessons about how to prepare. but we all know another emergency is coming because major earthquakes that canme strike at any re central to our history. we all know another one willve hit, andthe next half hour we're going to look at thexp latest science andin how you can be proactive and prote yourself and your loved ones. we're going to be talking with our first guest in a few moments, but first we'd like to invite you to support kqed and take a big step in yourth emergency planning asame time. now, we've got two levels for you to consider. so take a look and then make a give us a call atg/donate or 1-800-568-9999.