i hope you're ready. 'cause we are. captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for saturday, october 23: a covid vaccine for young children moves toward approval. >> there will be internet for all. ( cheers and applause ) >> sreenivasan: a cooperative effort to bridge the digital divide with low-cost wifi. >> you wish you could take it all back, but i am where i am. >> sreenivasan: and a personal story of recovery from canada's northwest territories. next on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family.

the anderson family fund. the j.p.b. foundation. the estate of worthington mayo- smith. leonard and norma klorfine. the rosalind p. walter foundation. koo and patricia yuen, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. barbara hope zuckerberg. >> 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 consumercellular.tv. >> additional support has been provided 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. >> sreenivasan: good evening, and thank you for joining us. scientists at the food and drug administration released their analysis of pfizer's covid vaccine for young children le yesterday, saying the benefits“ clearly outweigh” the risks. the analysis followed the release of data from pfizer's own study that followed more than 2,200 five- to 11-year- olds, 1,500 of whom received two pediatric doses of the vaccine three weeks apart. each dose is about one-third the amount being given to older children and adults. the scientific panel did not make a recommendation for approval. its findings now go to an f.d.a. advisory committee on tuesday. after the f.d.a. makes recommendations, the centers for disease control and prevention will review and make the final decision. if approved, 28 million children in the age group may become

eligible for covid vaccinations as soon as first week of november. russia reported a fifth straight day of record high deaths from covid-related causes. it also reported more than 37,000 new cases, another record mber. only a third of russia's population is vaccinated, a much lower rate than in neighboring european countries. the covid surge prompted president vladimir putin to approve a one-week nationwide workplace shutdown to start at the end of the month. a partial lockdown of moscow, the first since june 2020, will start next week. only pharmacies and supermarkets will be allowed to stay open. saudi arabia, one of the world's top oil producers, says it intends to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2060. saudcrown prince mohammed bin salman made the announcement at the country's first-ever green initiative conference ahead of the u.n. climate change summit in scotland later this month. the effort wld more than double the kingdom's current annual target for carbon

reduction. bin salman also said saudi arabia would join a u.s.-led effort to reduce methane emissions by 30% this decade. there were few details released on how t country plans to cut emissions. saudi arabia supplies 10% of the world's oil. u.s. military officials announced a senior al qaeda leader was killed in a drone strike in syria yesterday. the strike came two days after drones and rockets struck a u.s. military outpost in southern syria. no u.s troops were injured or killed in the attack. in a written statement late yesterday, an army spokesperson said the strike killed abdul hamid al-matar and said, "the removal of this al qaeda senior leader will disrupt the terrorist organization's ability to further plot and carry out global attacks threatening u.s. citizens, our partners, and innocent civilians." for more national and international news, visit www.pbs.org/newshour.

>> sreenivasan: a final deal on president biden's infrastructure and social spending plans is still stuck in negotiations this weekend, and there is another stalemate in the capitol over voting rights legislation. the senate failed to even open debate on new federal voting protections this past week. this comes as get out the vote events are ramping up before elections on november 2 that include governors races in new jersey and virginia. i spoke with judith browne dianis, executive director of advancement project, a civil rights organization that focuses on social justice and voting rights issues. so, judith, right now, we are at a time where voting rights are changing throughout the country in different ways, and we seem to have a senate that doesn't want to take a look at this, doesn't want to debate this. so, how do you move forward on a state-by-state basis? >> well, what we're doing is, we're suing everywhere. remember, the supreme court dealt a blow to the voting

rights act in the shelby county case back in 2013. they also dealt another blow to the voting rights act just this past session. and so, it's made it harder for us to prove discrimination in court, but we're still in this. we're still fighting using what's left of the voting rights act and using the constitution. but it would make it much easier if the senate would move to restore the voting rights act with the john lewis voting rights advancement act and by passing the freedom to vote act, which would give us standards for how we run elections across the country. >> sreenivasan: what to you is at stake at the core of all this? >> i don't think i'm being alarmist to say that our democracy is in peril right now. not only have we seen the weakening of voting rights laws, we saw an insurrection on january 6.

we have seen an upbeat iissues and lies about the elections and the outcome of our elections, which has called into question the integrity of our elections with audits and lawsuits, etc. and we know that it's not just about the elections, but redistricting is upon us and states are starting to move. and what we're seeing, even if you look at the state of texas, which always has a problem with redistricting, what we have seen is that the latino population has grown tremendously by about two million people, but they are not going to see an increase in their power, their political power. and so, that means that we're going to be a majority people of color in this country at some point, but we will not be able to exercise our power in ways that mirrors our numbers. >> sreenivasan: beyond the

specific groups that might be in the crosshairs of those who are trying to decrease access to the polls, why does this series of challenges on state level matter to all voters? >> well, it should matter because, you know, our country is only going to be at its best if we all have a say in choosing the people who represent us so that our interests can be met whether we live in low-income neighborhoods or we live in rich neighborhoods, whether or not we have concerns about policing or child care. right now, what we are seeing across the country is a power grab that is disadvantaging many communities so that they will continue to be on the losing side of elections and maki their voices silenced. >> sreenivasan: what are the issues that you find most

threatening when you look across the landscape, across the country and all of these different rules that are working their way through legislatures? >> in georgia, where advancement project has litigation, there's a provision in that law that allows for the state to remove local election officials if they think they're not doing their job. and so, you could imagine that if the call comes from a president who says that he's looking for 11,000 ves, that in fact what could happen is that the state could remove the person who said "i'm not going to look for 11,000 votesecause there is integrity in our election and i ran the election well," that they could remove that person. and so, i am very concerned about that, along with all of the barriers that have been put in our way. these barriers to the ballot box are disconcerting. >> sreenivasan: judith broe dianis of the advancement project. thanks so much for joining us.

>> thank you. >> sreenivasan: internet access is a struggle for millions. and now that covid-19 has pushed even more everyday activities into online spaces, limited or no internet can mean no work, no school, and a widening digital divide. now, in a growing number of places in the u.s., new low-cost connections are springing up in surprising ways. newshour weekend's laura fong has a look at a group in new york city working to connect low-income households to a new low-cost internet provider. this story is part of our ongoing series, "chasing the dream: poverty and opportunity in america." >> reporter: on the sixth floor of an affordable housing complex in the bronx, residents have a new internet service provider. it's called people's choice communications, an employee- and community-owned internet

cooperative with a mission of bridging the digital divide. technician mario munoz i leading the installation. >> in the hallways, we put the wifi, basically, the wifi devices, and that will boost the signal to all the apartments along the hallway. >> reporter: people's choice is installing what's called a mesh wifi network in the bronx. theynstall antennas on rooftops and wifi routers in buildings to connect residents to a high-speed wifi signal. using antennas and wireless routers, mesh networks keep installation costs down. with the help of grant funding, people's choice is currently providing service for free to its customers and plans to keep monthly cost to no more than $15 in the future. in new york city, the need for affordable internet is most acute in the bronx where almost 38% of homes are without broadband, according to mayor bill de blasio's master internet

plan released in january 2020. >> it was built in 2016. >> reporter: brenda rosen is c.e.o. of breaking ground, an affordable housing non-profit that serves low-income and formerly homeless people in new york city. breaking ground operates one of the first bronx buildings where people's choice is being installed. >> they wanted to focus on a building that had a lot of families and would benefit greatly from-- from being able to-- to have affordable internet as soon as possible. >> reporter: had you heard of an internet cooperative before? >> no, no. it was-- it was new for us. we've looked into other options for as low-cost internet services as we could find, but i had never heard of this. i mean, it is not inexpensive to have internet service. and for the people that we serve, saving those dollars

every month can truly, truly mean whether or not you have enough food on the table for your children. >> reporter: residents here already have verizon and optimum as service options, but michael angeles, a college student who takes classes online, says another option is needed. >> the internet sometimes is, like, very expensive, and it's not very affordable for us. >> reporter: angeles' family currently pays $150 a month for a verizon tv and internet package. it sounds like you're excited at the prospect of a new internet service. >> very excited. ( laughs ) >> reporter: people's choice was started by a group of union electricians from new york's i.b.e.w. local three. more than 1,000 technicians have been on strike against the telecommunications giant spectrum for the past four years. there's some background to this. in 2015, charter communications bought time warner to form the second-largest cable and

internet provider in the country. it operates under the name spectrum, serving more than 31 million customers in 41 states. in march 2017, more than 1,800 unionized electricians in new york city called for a strike after negotiations broke down with spectrum. >> people couldn't make it here today because they have to pick up two or three jobs in order to keep going. bankruptcies are happening. >> reporter: it's now the longest-running labor strike in united states histor troy walcott was a union technician for two decades, for time warner and then for spectrum. do you ever see yourself working for spectrum ever again at this point? >> that's a good question. what's spectrum? spectrum is a name on the door, but they're really holding out a system that we built out over the past 40 years. we walked through so many places in the city, and we see places that we literally built with our hands. that's our entire system. we know it in and out. there will be internet for all. ( cheers and applause )

>> reporter: so, last year, walcott and other strikers lached people's choice communications. >> the wordy term is a "multi- stakeholder co-operative," but what we tell people is, a bunch of strikers that work for spectrum, we got together, and we're going to get together with the customers and own the cable system. >> reporter: how is that possible? >> we said, okay, why not cut out the middleman, go directly to the source and be able to get that same service? but now, instead of paying c.e.o.s hundreds of millions of dollars, we can take it and provide more equity and split that and give people less cost service at higher quality. and that way, we can also invest some of those profits back into the communities that-- that we're serving. >> reporter: and they're not doing it alone. people's choice formed the cooperative with community organizing group metro i.a.f. and a green energy startup, bloc power, which connected them to philanthropic funding. >> this is now, i believe, the third install of the antenna system we're putting up for the bronx mesh network. >> reporter: so far, the

cooperative has provided free internet to more than 700 resides in five buildings in the bronx. in july, de blasio announced a plan to bring the service to new york city public housing. the goal is to get up to 10,000 residents connected to free internet in the first year and then charge $15 a month after. >> people that having a problem with the internet have other problems with food insecurity, housing, income inequality. we see the-- the company now as a way to galvanize people towards some type of movement towards something better. so, why don't we get together and join with the customers, reild the system that we already know how to build, and we can own it together? >> sreenivasan: we've been bringing you a series of stories told by indigenous people from yellowknife in canada's northwest territories. in partnership with the global

reporting center, they are sharing their personal stories of life, addiction and recovery. eric wardell was taken from his parents at just three weeks old in what is known in canada as the "sixties scoop." his story is an exploration of identity, what it means to discover who you are, and how your past can shape your future. >> the world was not designed for f.a.s. people. with f.a.s., f me, i'm really hyper. i'm really, like, you know, like, fast. you know, you think can you do this, and i'll run over, and i'll run back, and, you know, it's like, "slow down, eric, slow down." everything's just boom, boom, boom, boom. you know what i mean, like? so, how i interpret things-- not to say that my mind's warped, but some things are just a little different, how i see it, you know. like, i like-- i don't like to

say it, but, you know, like, to steal, you know, i didn't see anything wrong with it. i have over 80 convictions on my record, 40 of them are b&es. see, i don't break into hoes. i don't, you know, carry weapons. i broke in to businesses for the money-- take the money, run to my sister and party, you know, like, drugs, drinking, hotel rooms. and when that's all gone, go do another b&e. they took me from my native family and gave me to caucasian people. we lost our identity, lost our language. i did not know how-- how deeply it affected me to this day.

it's tough. to think that, like, oh, my god, you wish you could take it all back, but i am where i am. when i was adopted, you know, there was no information. that's what really gets me. there was no "this is your nationality, these are the parents." i didn't know nothing. i was really proud. i was really pro to say, like, hey, i'm dene, you know. i-- you know, i-- i belong to some, you know, people. it was a shock. i've never been in a native community before like that. i never had anybody, like, you know, in my life, like, "come on in, you know, eat." i've never had people do this.

like, usually they, you know, shoo you away, like. and they-- they were so kind, so open-hearted. you know, i'll be honest with you, i'm 50 years old. i started stealing when i was six. i didn't stop when i was 46. and all that time, people were mad at me. people were frustrated. people were, you know, like, "aren't you ever going to get it, eric," you know. and i never gave up. i was in the program for 16 months, and that really helped me. after i was done wellness, the judge said, "i do care about you, eric. i want to make sure you're on the right path to a new life." and when the court was over, i actually went up and shook the

prosecutor's hand. i've never done that. and it was almost like a relief. it was almost like, hey, the sun is shining again. it's, you know, no more, you know, gloomy days for eric, you know. and i still know that, just one thought in my head, i can go do a b&e. i can go steal. you know, i still have trauma in my life. i still have that, you know, "why did my mother throw me away?" but today, i'm doing so much better. i've got a little bit of work. i have, you know, a little home to live in. i realize what i have today, you know? i-- i have a-- a lot to give. growing up, i was always causing problems because i'm f.a.s., but nobody looked more at-- at the field of what's going on with me. i feel like i lost a lot of years of my life not being who i am-- like, my real self.

i feel good in the sense that i feel better being a woman, to be honest. like, seriously. and there's nothing wrong with it. i-- i've done it before in-- with other friends, with my sisters. but for me to go out there and actually do it, it's scary, you know? so, i've got to go see a therapist, or i've got to go, you know, talkbout this. maybe my whole life, my stealing and that, was because i felt mixed up about who i am, how i am. at the same time, i thought, like, don't be afraid. don't be ashamed. there's nothing wrong with being transgendered, so why can't i be totally honest with how this really is? because maybe my story and my truthfulness might help someone down the road.

>> this is pbs newshour weekend, saturday. >>reenivasan: finally tonight, indireached a milestone in its efforts to vaccinate the population against covid-19 this week. it's a familiar scen- shoulder exposed, needle ready, and then the jab. but this covid-19 vaccine was being administered as the prime minister of india looked on. narendra modi was marking the one billionth dose of vaccine administered earlier this week. it's a remarkable turnaround for a country that was slammed by the delta variant earlier this spring, making this country of 1.3 billion people the global epicenter of the pandemic. from march to mid-may, the number of confirmed covid cases in india rose by more than 2,400%. hospitals were overwhelmed, and a spike in deaths followed with images of makeshift mass crematoriums in cities like delhi.

india's health ministry has reported 450,000 deaths from covid-19, a figure that is almost surely an undercount. despite being home to the world's largest vaccine manufacturer, india was slow to get its vaccination program up and running. though the campaign began in january, by june, only 3.5% of people were fully vaccinated. as of this week, about 75% of the country's 944 million adults has gotten a shot, with an average of five million doses being administered every day. but health officials warn there is still a long way to go. only 31% of adults have gotten two doses. >> there is a certain degree of athy, as well as the feeling that the worst has passed and there is no further risk. so many people are not really going in for the second dose straight away. ( banging drums ) >> sreenivasan: for this week at least, the milestone was a reason to celebrate. health officials hope that the high levels of vaccination and the high number of indians exposed during the delta wave means the country will be better able to weather any future

surges. >> sreenivasan: that's all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. for the latest news updates, visit www.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. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the anderson family fund. the j.p.b. foundation. the estate of worthington mayo- smith. leonard and norma klorfine. the rosalind p. walter foundation. koo and patricia yuen, committed to bridging cultural

differences in our communities. barbara hope zuckerberg. >> we try to live in the moment, to not ms 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. >> additional support has been provided by consumer cellular. and by: and by the corpotion for public broadcasting, a private corporation nded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. you're watching pbs.

-hello. i'm bob ross, and i'd like to welcome you to "the joy of painting." -i remember being in seventh grade, and i went over to a buddy's house, and the three of us turned on bob ross. -my first memory of bob ross was, like many, watching him on pbs. -when i was younger, i never really watched bob ross, but i always knew of him. -everybody knows bob ross, even people who weren't alive when he was on air. -i started watching "joy of painting" both on netflix and on youtube. -to be honest, i'm gonna be really up front with you. i used to flip past bob ross. -like, the way that i remember him the most is in a chia pet. -saw this fuzzy-haired guy on tv, and you're just captivated. -in your world, where does your little cloud live? let's go right up in her maybe there's a happy little cloud that -- he lives up here and floats around the sky and has fun all day. -i do remember watching bob ross as a child