captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> brangham: good evening. i'm william brangham. judy woodruff is away. on the newshour tonight: a new variant. a highly-mutated and highly transmissible strain of covid-19 emerges in south africa, causing markets to fall and prompting new travel bans around the world. then, searching for justice. why dozens of men in louisiana have spent most of their lives behind bars, after the state reneged on their plea agreements. and, the tipping point. the millions who rely on the colorado river for water face an uncertain future amid an unrelenting drought. >> the severity of the drought is undoubtedly worse because of climate chan. >> brangham: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour.

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>> the john s. and james l. knight foundation. fostering informed and engaged communities. more at kf.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these 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. >> brangham: they're calling it "omicron," and its emergence is reverberating around the world tonight. key questions remain unanswered, but this new mutation of the coronavirus has already prompted a wave of reactions. word of the new variant triggered crowded scenes at airports, heavy selling on

world markets, and appeals from health experts not to panic. the world health organization held an emergency meeting in geneva, and one of its top covid researchers, dr. maria van kerkhove, said this new version of the virus appears highly transmissible. >> what we do know is that this variant has a large number of mutations, and the concern is that when you have so many mutations, it can have an impact on how the virus behaves. >> brangham: the w.h.o. designated the new variant as "omicron." it first emerged in southern africa. and the first reported case outside of the continent was in belgium. >> translated ): we have one confirmed case. it is someone who came from abroad. he was not vaccinated and had no prior infection. but, i want to repeat that it is a suspicious variant. we don't know if it's a very dangerous variant. >> brangham: although it is still unclear how effective covid vaccines are against this new variant, some south african scientists said today they

believe that current shots will still prevent severe disease. but, alarm is growing in nations already facing an uptick in infections due to the delta variant. >> it may be more transmissible than the delta variant, and the vaccines that we currently have may be less effective against it. >> brangham: many european nations that were facing this delta wave were contemplating lockdowns before omicron appeared. today, a number of european governments banned flights from south africa, despite the w.h.o.'s call to avoid any hasty reactions. european commission president ursula von der leyen. >> all air travel to these countries should be suspended. they should be suspended until we have a clear understanding about the danger posed by this new variant. >> brangham: u.s. officials also met today and issued a travel ban affecting seven southern african countries.

in nantucket, massachusetts, president biden said he wants to proceed with caution. >> we don't know a lot about the variant except that there's a concern it can spread rapidly. >> brangham: in cape town, south africa travelers rushed to get on flights. >> my family live in australia and i'm going back to see them before the country shuts down, so i don't know when i'm going to return. i had to leave my job behind. >> brangham: meanwhile, oil prices and stock markets around the world plummeted over fears of the omicron variant, and its potential economic fallout. the dow fell 905 points-- that's 2.5%-- marking its worst one-day percentage loss in a year. the s&p 500 and the nasdaq also dropped more than 2%. so clearly, this new variant is generating many questions. for some perspective, i'm joined again tonight by dr. ashish jha, dean of the school of public health at brown university. dr. jha, always great to see you. the markets are spooked, travel

restrictions are bei implemented. i don't want to panic anyone unnecessarily, so, in your perspective, how concerned should we be? >> good evening, william. thanks for having me back. you know, we've seen variants come and go and every month or two we hear about one. this one is concerning. this one is different. there are a lot of features here that have me and many of us concerned about this, and we really need more information, but we've got to pay attention to this variant. >> reporter: so what are the things that jump to mind as most concerning off the top of the bat? >> yeah, so first and foremost, we've seen a huge uptick of this variant in south africa that has really taken off, very very quickly, much faster than we saw the delta or the alpha variant, suggesting, not prving, but suggesting that it may be a lot more contagious. and then there are mutations on this virus that really make many of us concerned that our vaccine effectiveness may take a hit as well. so there are several features here that i think have a lot of

us looking for more data and just concerned about where this is going. >> that concern about the effectiveness of vaccine is top of mind with americans. for many of the -- those who have gotten the vaccine, how shall we know if the variant is pumping true the vaccine. >> we're doing laboratories now looking at serum, blood of people who have been vaccinated and saying do the antibodies that the vaccines generate, can nay neutralize the virus? we'll have that data within a week, that will be extremely helpful. there will be more careful studies that may take longer but i think that will help a lot. >> what about the concern that the variant makes people who do get infected sicker? >> that's the question we always ask about variants. we have no answers about that.

there are anecdotal stories, but we need testing, a good grip of those who have been affected, hospitalizations and death. all the data that need to be put together, that's many weeks away before we have an answer to that question. >> the south africans have a great research community, do a lot of genomic queening more than here, which makes his think this variant is already in america. do you believe that's true? if so, what does that mean for us? >> i think it's possible it's here in the united states. we know it's in bell yum and part of asia. it wouldn't be surprising if it was here in the u.s. if it isn't, it will get here quickly. one to have the things about south africa is they do such a good job of surveillance that they often identify things early. doesn't mean it started or is most prominent will. we've got to look more carefully within the united states. >> with all these european

nations and the united states announcing some kind of travel ban, does that strike you as a good strategy? should we be doing that or as some have suggested are we unfairly punishing the south africans and others for alerting us to this threat? >> here's the data about travel bans, travel bans, assuming the cases are in southern or south africa, travel bans will slow the spread of that virus into the u.s. by probably about a week or two compared if we didn't have a travel ban at off the that's helpful on the margins, but there's no doubt there's a cost here and the cost is that we're talking a country that's done a fabulous job who's identify the variant, been open and transparent and punishing them for it. so, net-net, i'm not sure it's a good policy. in the long run, it may have a effect on other countries who may say we don't know if we want to share information on variants if there are travel bans.

we need to be careful on the issue. >> the variants have been causing problems in europe and other parts to have the united states and we know variants in some ways compete for dominance. do you have a sense of why delta is wreaking such havoc in europe right now? >> yeah, delta is, until again this new variant, we'll see what happens with this new one, but until this appeared delta was by far the most contagious variant we've seen, and europe was going through its winter, weather is colder, people are coming inside, and they have not seen the kind of delta way the southern part of the united states and india saw. essentially, in europe, you have a lot of unvaccinated people, colder weather, people spending more time indoors and relaxation of public health measures like mass or social distancing and that's really what's driving these huge surges in cases across europe. >> right now we don't have any way of knowing whether this variant will become the

preeminent variant, it's too early to tell. >> it's really early to tell. it has happened to some extent in south africa. that's what concerns all of us, how quickly that has happened, but whether that will play out in the rest of the world we just don't know right now. >> on the issue of global vaccine equity, i mean, we know that variants are created when viruses can replicate unchecked, and even if you put aside the moral argument for why we should be getting vaccines in the rest of the world, from a purely selferring standpoint, this seems to be a textbook example as to why we should be getting vaccines to the countries that need it the most, to stop this from happening. >> absolutely. this pandemic doesn't end until most of the world is vaccinated, and while we've made progress in many, many parts to have the world, the climate of affect has really been lacking in vaccine supply. we have just not done a good enough job.

the u.s. government may send a couple hundred million doses abroad, that's good, but not nearly enough and the europeans haven't done enough as well. we must make a concerted effort to get vaccines out globally particularly to the people of africa. >> dr. ashish jha, good to see you. thank you very much for being here. >> thank you. >> brangham: in the day's other news, the u.s. food and drug administration reported merck's experimental covid-19 pill is effective. the f.d.a. analysis found it can reduce rates of hospitalization and death in patients with mild to moderate infections. but, the agency will consider with outside experts on potential risks of birth defects and other problems during pregnancy. the president of ukraine charged today there's a plot to overthrow his government, and

that the russians are involved. volodymyr zelensky said his intelligence service recorded the plotters planning a coup for next week-- and that it also involved ukraine's richest man. zelensky spoke with reporters in kiev. >> ( translated ): we have not only intelligence information, but even audio information, where representatives of ukraine with representatives of russia, let's say, are discussing rinat akhmetov's participation in the coup d'etat in ukraine, and $1 billion will be used. >> brangham: akhmetov called the allegation that he'd fund a coup "an absolute lie." russia also denied any role. ukrainian troops have been preparing for trouble along the border, where russia's military is building up forces. moscow insists it has no intention of invading ukraine. russian search crews have found one survivor inside a coal mine in siberia, this is a day after a deadly methane explosion. it reduced the expected death toll to just 51.

crews resumed the search today, but officials said finding other survivors is unlikely. families of the victims gathered at the mine, demanding answers to what caused the disaster. china is condemning a u.s. congressional delegation for visiting taiwan today, with tensions at their highest in decades. president tsai ing-wen greeted four democrats and one republican from the house of representatives, who reaffirmed american support for the island. beijing said the visit challenged china's longstanding claim to taiwan. online retailing giant amazon faced protests and scattered strikes on this black friday. climate activists from "extinction rebellion" blockaded warehouses in britain, germany, and the netherlands. they called for improved working conditions and environmentally- friendly business practices. here at home, stores opened early for black friday, but in many places, crowds were smaller than in years past. analysts cited online shopping, concerns over inflation and supply chain disruptions. still, people lined up early,

from san diego to new york. some said it was calmer than usual, but that sought-after items were harder to find. >> seems more chill. nobody is rushing. yeah, not the craziness it normally is. >> well, we came from brazil. we are tourists, and we came here to buy. i want to buy the iphone, and he want to buy the samsung 21. and they're all sold out. >> brangham: the national retail federation predicts sales will grow 8.5% to 10.5% this year. much of western washington state is threatened tonight with new flooding. forecasters say a wave of heavy storms could bring three inches of rain to areas already hit hard by earlier floods. the danger is most significant around bellingham and the greater seattle area, through monday afternoon. the biden administration is recommending an overhaul of the federal oil and gas leasing program.

today's report calls for limiting the areas available for drilling on public lands, and for making energy companies pay more. it stops short of proposing an outright end to leasing. the issue has drawn new attention lately with gasoline prices rising sharply. and, an afghan woman who famously appeared on "national geographic's" cover as a young girl, in 1985, has taken refuge in rome. sharbat gulla arrived on thursday, after being evacuated from kabul. there had been fears that the taliban might target her for being a high-profile woman. she is now in her late 40s. and, one of the greats of broadway musicals-- stephen sondheim-- died today at his home in connecticut. he was a six-time tony winner, renowned for his words and music, starting with the lyrics for "west side story" and "gypsy" in the 1950s. a long list of hits followed, including "company," with elaine stritch and jane russell, plus "a little night music," "sweeney todd," and "into the woods."

sondheim discussed his work in a newshour interview in 2010. >> the craft is not just the craft of writing. it's the craft of doing. it's the craft of putting it on. it's the craft of the combination of the orchestra and the singers and the final collaborator, the audience. because the audience is the final collaborator on every show. >> brangham: stephen sondheim was 91 years old. we'll have more on his life and work, later in the program. still to come on the newshour: david brooks and jonathan capehart weigh in on this week's verdict in the ahmaud arbery case. more on the life and legacy of theater great stephen sondheim. plus, much more. >> brangham: some of louisiana's longest-serving prison inmates are receiving renewed attention. they're called the“

10/6 lifers"-- a group of now-elderly men who were promised parole after serving 10 years and six months. but, the state reneged on those deals, and many were never released. newshour's communities reporter roby chavez has been reporting on this from louisiana. i spoke with him earlier this week. it's part of our "searching for justice" series. so, roby, it's so good to see you again. can you just explain a little bit more about these men? how is it that they came to be stuck in prison for so long? >> well, quite frankly, the goalposts were moved on them some five decades ago. they were promised, if they pled guilty, they'd have a chance at parole. they'd also have an opportunity for freedom. but that never happened. many of them, as you mentioned, are still in prison. there are some 55 so-called "10/6" lifers. five of them have now been released from louisiana state penitentiary, better known as angola. keep in mind, they were sentenced in their 60s, in

the '60s and in the '70s, which was a much different time back then, especially for most of these men, who were african americans, who are not always assured of fair trial. they were faced with a stark choice. "do we take this plea deal, or do we almost certainly face electrocution in the state's electric chair?" many of them chose to do hard time at angola. a notorious prison where 18,000 acres sitting on a former slave plantation. many of them said, if they would have known that they would have spent the rest of their lives in jail, they would have not taken the deal. we met louis mitchell, shortly after he was released from prison. he has been there since he was 19 years old. he was charged with two rapes. he now believes he was tricked. >> i didn't want the death penalty, but i really didn't want to really plead guilty. but-- but my lawyer said my best option was to plead guilty, so i plead guilty on an agreement that when i plead guilty i would

get 10 years and six months. >> and as a result, he spent 55 years in prison. his case was recently brought before a judge and district attorney. once they all agreed to change his sentence, he was released within a month, william. >> brangham: so, help me understand how this actually happened-- how and why did the state suddenly change the terms of these men's imprisonment? >> look, william, for 46 years, it was common practice. if you took this deal after being charged with a serious offense, all you had to do was serve 10 years and six months. but in the '70s, when laws started to change, people started to get tough on crime. parole eligibility changed several times-- in 1973, '76, and then again in 1979, when parole eligibility was taken away altogether. there was new hope in 2017, when a prison reform package passed in the state. however, these men, the "10/6

lifers," were overlooked. that meant that if you were convicted before 1973, you had to serve out your life sentence, even if you were a model prisoner, which many of these men were. >> brangham: so, your story, and as you're describing here, describes these men as forgotten men. how is it that they-- that their cases are now starting to come to light? >> look, the stories have been out there for quite some time. they recently got renewed interest because of the louisiana parole project. it's a nonprofit run by ex-inmates, and designed to try to help folks who were wrongly convicted or living these longer sentences than they were promised. it's also a matter of good timing. in new orleans, there was a reform slate of judges that were elected into office, along with a reform-minded district attorney, jason williams. once both of them-- those judges and the district attorney-- heard about these cases, they were very quick to re-sentence

them, and most were released within the last month or two. >> brangham: and what is it like for those men? i can't imagine spending five decades in prison and then suddenly coming out. that's got to be quite a transition for these men. >> exactly. as you might imagine, there's been a lot that has changed in the world in the last half century. keep in mind again, many of them are older and have health problems-- they've never even managed their own medications. so it's quite a challenge. take a listen to what they said about this new world. >> it's like... i fell out of space, because when i left the street, we didn't have a microwave, we didn't have these little telephones, they didn't have the g.p.s. and they didn't have seatbelts in cars. >> we went with them to a simple pizza joint, to try to see exactly what their experience was-- would look like. there were scanners, credit card machines, and mobile app menus

that they had to use, and they all struggled. the louisiana parole project, however, is well aware of the difficulty. on one day that we visited, they brought in l.s.u. students who were volunteering just to teach them how to use their telephone. they were taught how to use their g.p.s.; they were taught how to answer a phone; they were taught how to use their voice message. >> brangham: and roby, as you're-- as you're describing, you met some of the men who have gotten out, but there are still, as your reporting indicates, a lot of men who are still in prison. what happens for them? do they have any chance of getting out? >> look, we expect at least eight of them, who are from new orleans, to be released before the end of the year. that leaves about 40 others. the road for them does not look as quick and easy, because the rest of the state is a little more conservative. some of the judges are equally conservative, and very hard on crime. as you know, louisiana, known as the incarceration capital of the world. still, the louisiana parole project says they're going to

meet with those district attorneys, and possibly even with the state legislature, to try to change laws. hopefully, new laws that can right the wrongs of the past. william. >> brangham: all right, roby chavez, our newshour communities correspondent based in louisiana. always good to see you. thanks for this great reporting. >> thank you, william. >> brangham: you can read more of roby's reporting on this issue on our website. that's www.pbs.org/newshour. >> brangham: the colorado river is a critical source of water for the western united states. but, a mega-drought-- one significantly exacerbated by climate change-- is jeopardizing that river's future, how that water gets used, and threatening longstanding agreements between states. miles o'brien has our report, part of our coverage on how climate change is creating a "tipping point" for the u.s. and

the world. >> reporter: this is where the shortage meets the soil. pinal county, arizona-- desert farmland between phoenix and tucson; life-long home for farmer nancy caywood. >> my family has been farming in this area for 91 years, and my grandfather bought this farm. 255 acres. >> reporter: they grow alfalfa and cotton-- both thirsty crops, which are not doing well right now. >> this is the drought in action right here. i have never seen it this bad before. >> reporter: much of her water comes from canals that are filled by the gila river, a tributary of the colorado river. but in april of 2021, the water stopped flowing. >> we don't know when we'll see water in here again. >> reporter: same goes for farmers in pinal county, who draw water directly from the colorado river. when the u.s. government

declared an official shortage for the river in august, farmers who depend on it were also drastically cut back. almost 1,500 miles long, the colorado winds its way through seven states and into mexico. this river basin is filled with lush natural ecosystems. it transforms about 5.5 million acres of barren desert into fertile farmland. 40 million people are sustained by this water. it's one of the most heavily utilized rivers in the world, and it starts here, as a deep blanket of snow-- high in the rocky mountains of wyoming, utah, and colorado. hydrologist ben livneh is an assistant professor at university of colorado boulder. >> most of the-- of the water in the colorado river starts as snowpack, and one of the reasons is that mountains act as these big catchments of precipitation. >> reporter: but around the year

2000, a drought took hold-- and has not let go. this means less snow on those peaks in the rockies, year after year-- and thus, a steady reduction of water to feed the river. the two largest reservoirs in the river basin-- lake mead and lake powell-- are now at all time low levels. climatologist park williams is an associate professor at u.c.l.a. he uses tree rings to study the ancient climate. >> the 2000 drought in the colorado river basin and across the western united states has been as dry as any other 22-year period in the last millennium. the drought that we're in today is not going to last forever, that it will break at some point when we have a string of really good luck years. >> reporter: but the climate emergency has changed the odds. the global temperature is about two degrees fahrenheit higher than it was before the industrial revolution. >> if climate change hadn't

happened, the west would still be in a drought, but the severity of the drought is undoubtedly worse because of climate change. >> reporter: here's why. warmer temperatures mean drier air. as the snowpack shrinks, it sheds water vapor into the atmosphere. a larger amount of snow melts into liquid water and rapidly evaporates in this warmer climate. now, the soil is dryer than usual. >> this causes the soils to act like a very dry sponge, and the next precipitation events that occurs on top of at dry sponge is going to work to refilling the soil sponge as opposed to refilling our rivers and reservoirs. >> reporter: this precious resource is allocated based on a 1922 agreement called the“ colorado river compact.” once the river basin states agreed on their fair shares, they each established a seniority system-- “first in time, rst in right.”

>> and so there's kind of a hierarchy of water rights. and that means that people who gained access to the river first, they have what we would call a senior water right. >> reporter: colorado river water first came to pinal county in the mid-1980s, upon completion of the central arizona project-- a network of canals that spans more than 300 miles across the desert. it puts farmers here at the bottom of the seniority list-- making them the first to go dry in the midst of this mega-drought. >> over the years, we've had to adapt to different-- whatever we can make money at, basically. so, on this farm, it's really close to a bunch of dairies, and they need a bunch of feed. >> reporter: will thelander is a third-generation farmer in casa grande. he and his family are part of an experiment in using their dwindling allocation of water on crops that demand less of it. >> so, here's the guayule field.

so you can see it's in a nice bloom, and this crop hasn't been watered for about two weeks. >> reporter: they have planted a 40-acre tract of guayule-- a plant that thrives in the desert-- and contains a milky latex that can be used to formulate rubber. an acre can produce enough to make 50 tires. bridgestone is working out the production kinks at this pilot plant, while thelander does the same at this pilot plot. >> with this crop using half as much water as the corn, our water will last twice as long here. so that's why the crop is so promising and we really hope it takes off. >> reporter: but for nancy caywood, the story is different. she can't afford the cost of the new equipment required to harvest crops that need less water. she says she can hold onto the family farm for a year, but...

>> eventually, the money runs out. you can't pay the water and the taxes anymore. so it's not your best interest to try to keep the land. your best interest is to probably go ahead and sell. and it's heart-wrenching to think that. but it's true. >> reporter: it would be the end of an era here. and, maybe the beginning of a new one. her neighbors recently sold their land, and it's now a solar farm. caywood has been approached by an energy company as well. there is little to suggest this trend will reverse anytime soon. for years, humans overspent the colorado river and nature covered the overdrafts. but now, the climate emergency has insured the bill has come due. for the pbs newshour, i'm miles o'brien in phoenix.

>> brangham: even though it was quiet in washington this holiday week, with congress and the president away, inflation, and now this new covid variant, has made many americans uneasy. for some perspective, we turn to the analysis of brooks and capehart. that is "new york times" columnist david brooks, and jonathan capehart, columnist for the "washington post." david brooks, welcome back, good to see you. >> good to be here. >> brangham: let's talk about this new covid variant. again, as we heard earlier in the broadcast, there's no -- we don't need to be panicking just yet, but if things were to get bad again and more severe restrictions wercalled for by our public health officials, do you think that our experience of this past pandemic has so, i don't know, poisoned the body politics that we couldn't deal with this if we needed to? >> yeah, i think if we tried to close schools again, i think you would have armed revolution in the streets. but i have been away a few

weeks. i have been traveling mostly doing some reporting and speaking and other things, and one is struck by just how different different places are. in wisconsin, we're all masked, i'm speaking with a mask. in tulsa, no mask, florida twice, no masks, texas, no masks. parts to have the country are having covid, part of the country are not having covid. so i imagine this polarization would continue if this variant turns out to be another delta. and the thing to look at, i've read from better experts than me, is not how many cases but deaths. we have so many more tools to deal with anything that comes along. so i think it would be tending toward a normal in which we're constantly struggling against this thing. i don't think we'll ever go back to where we were in march 2020. >> brangham: jonathan, same question to you. do you feel we have the capacity that if the government said, look, this really is bad, and, again, let's be clear about this, we don't know if that's

the case, could we deal with that? >> no, but if the government gets to the point where it says this is really bad, we need to shut down, it would have to be really really bad for the american people to say, okay, we get it. i think that we have been through this for so long that we have sort of -- those have us who are taking it seriously, we've figured out how to live with it, how to guard against as best we can, getting covid, getting the vaccination, getting the booster, making sure that our loved ones get vaccinated and boosted, wearing masks if we're unsure, taking precautions that help protect our own health but also protect the health of our communities, whether we live in apartment buildings or whether, you know, our children go to schools. i don't have kids, but if i did, i would be mindful of my actions and how they'd impact me, my

familiened and the people my family comes in contact with. i'm happy to hear dr. jha say, relax, calm down for a few days, but if it turns out that the new variant or, i like omicron, which is the other name for it, turns out if it is bad and serious, i think the american people, by and large, are ready to deal with it if it comes, but don't close the schools, don't do all that other stuff, we've got to figure out a way to live with it. >> one of the other things, david, that we're living through is a seemingly two-faced economy. people genuinely concerned about inflation, alarmed about gas prices, yet we've got some pretty great jobs numbers in the recent days. how do you see the economy? is this this dual two-faced monster? >> yeah, they're related, though. i see it sews logically. i'm a journalist who covers it sews logically and for the past 15 years i've seen a society

coming apart, large regions of the country getting left mind and people dropping out of the labor force, so to me, i want a white hot economy that raises wages at the bottom, which is happening, which will bring people back in the labor force, which is 457ing, which will spread wealth across the country, which is happening. we're getting inflation. the question is what kind of inflation. post covid inflation? we've got a lot of supply chain problems that will get ironed out in a year? or a 1970s inflation that will build on itself. i think we need it as a society to heal, but fit turns out to be accelerating 1970s inflation, that becomes its own monster. >> right. i've read a zillion economists on the subject and they don't know. >> brangham: president biden, to try to address some of this, we saw he released millions of gallons of fuel to try to lower

prices, he reappointed yes yom powell at the head of the fed, do you think those efforts are going to be enough to get us through this phase? >> yes, and no. the no is the strategic -- the releasing of the oil from the strategic petroleum reserve. every president, when faced with high gas prices, there's always this pressure to do it, while, at the same time, the story notes usually tenth or eleventh paragraph, it will have a neg i believe effect on gas prices. it's more political. it's more of showing the american people that you take the fact that gas is above $4, you take it seriously in doing everything you possibly can to address it. when it comes to jerome powell, chairman powell, he is somebody who a lot of progressives and liberals are saying you cannot reup this guys, but when you have high inflation and people worried about what's happening with the economy as david just

terrifically explained, do you really want to up-end the person who's in charge of monetary policy? do you want to send the signal to the markets that things are so unstable in the united states, like, we're worried about the future insurrection and you're going to get rid of this guy? it was about sending a message that this is fine, we are going to keep things in place. >> brangham: steady hand on the wheel kind of thing. >> thank you very much. that is the phrase i was looking for. but it is this weird time that we're in at the macro level. there are all these great signs about the economy doing so well, but for work, whose wages have gone up because of inflation, those wage increases have been slashed. so at the kitchen table, at the micro level, everyone's, like, where is that great economy for me? and that is the problem for the country but particularly politically for the president. >> brangham: david, another big piece of news this week was

the conviction of these men in the killing of ahmaud arbery. again, this was another one of the cases where absent the cell phone video we never would have known what went down and likely it would have been brushed over as we saw it was initially, do you think that verdict helped salve some of the wounds of the last year and a half? >> no, i think we averted a real social catastrophe. if the verdict had not come back the way it was, i have been reading a lot of african-american writers, that would have been the final straw, this is ridiculous. so we avoided that. and we got a thing where -- we got a prosecutor who just stuck to the facts, didn't turn into a drama, stuck to the facts and won her case well. and, so, we got to a place where what should have happened did happen. that's not exactly cause for celebration. and so we can convict people who are obviously guilty in a

racially-charged case but, you know, maybe jonathan has a different view, i don't see this as a huge win, i see it as avoiding a gigantic loss. >> brangham: hmm. is that right? do you see it that way? >> yes. it's a celebration because it so rarely happens. i mean, in this case, as you just talked about, two prosecutors opted not to arrest these guys, opted not to press charges. >> brangham: these were the people initially presented with the case who thought nothing to see here? >> right. and one to have the prosecutors was indicted for not g doing her job. this was going the way of basically every lynching that has happened anywhere in america, certainly pre- and during civil rights, where what happened to ahmaud arbery, what happened, the people who did it would get away with it, if they were arrested and put on trial,

they would be found not guilty in a matter of minutes. in this case, the two prosecutors opted not the do anything, and, so, they had to go all the way to atlanta to get this prosecutor, linda dunnkowski, who did such a suburb job by relying on the facts. there's a lot of the fact she didn't make race a huge part of the case. she didn't need to. she put her trust in the facts and to be jury. a lot of african-americans, myself included, although compared to the rittenhouse case, i had a lot more faith of what would happen in the arbery case, but for a lot of african-americans to put their fate, even though we're not on trial, but one of our loved ones could have been ahmaud arbery, to put our fate in the hands of eleven white people in the deep south, given the history of this particular case, is a lot to ask

for, and the fact that we got guilty verdicts for all three, yes, it's worthy of a celebration, it is relief, i agree with david. if they had been found not guilty, we would be having a completely different conversation right now, but we still need to have these conversations because what we're talking about right now, there are a lot of people around this country who consider what we're talking about critical race theory. >> right. when all we're trying to say, is look, there's a reason why. >> there's a history here and a legacy here. >> and reason why the arbery case was followed so closely and why you had those black ministers in the gallery with the family. but you won't understand that, if you don't take the time out to learn the history, to allow your children to learn the history. >> in just the last minute we have left, i can't help but note it was thanksgiving yesterday, d if you don't mind, i would be curious to know what you said

you were grateful for at your thanksgiving table yesterday. >> we had the family together the first time since covid, extended family, oldest son and his kids, and we played basketball and i got clobbered, ping-pong, i got clobbered. i got clobbered in every competitive thing. can't compete against 22-year-olds, turns out. i am grateful to be defeated so badly in everything i've done in the last 48 hours. >> brangham: by friends and family. how about you? >> i guess i'm thankful for just being able to be with my mom and with my husband and my really good friend who they call me her gay husband to, all be together, and also because, you know, my mother just turned 80 last week, and we celebrated in italy when i was away, but the idea of all being together, after what we have been through the last year and a half, really, that's what

made me thankful. >> brangham: it's a beautiful thing. great to see you both. jonathan capehart, david brooks, thank you. >> thank you. >> brangham: as we reported, theater lost one of its most influential composers today. stephen sondheim's melodies, music, and complex lyrics made him a giant in musical theater for five decades, with a range of work that stretched from "gypsy" and "west side story" to "sweeney todd," to "into the woods," and many more. our own jeffery brown interviewed stephen sondheim in 2010, and talked to him about how he crafts his lyrics. >> i have often said, if you think of a lyric as a little one-act play, then each line is a scene, and a quatrain becomes an entire act. >> brown: each line is a scene. >> each line is a scene. and you have got seven words in a line. so, we have got somewhere-- so, let's say each word is a speech. well, if you're writing a play, and something's wrong with a

speech, you cut or change the speech, the same way you have got to do it, word by word. it is as focused as that. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ "sundays in the park with george" ♪ >> brown: and the greatest focus is on words that rhyme. sondheim writes lying down, better for a quick nap when things aren't going well, he says. he uses an old rhyming dictionary and a 1946 edition of "roget's thesaurus." >> a rhyme draws the ear's attention to the word. so, you don't make the least important word in the line the rhyme word. so, you have to-- and also, a rhyme can take something that is not too strong and make it much stronger. if you tell a joke in rhyme, it's twice as funny as it would be if you just told it in prose, as if it was just a speech. the same words, but the rhyme goes: ( claps hands ) it does that to it. and that is the use-- one of

the uses of rhyme, is not only to focus the attention on the word, but to strengthen what you're saying. now, sometimes, you avoid a rhyme, because things-- you don't want to draw the ear's attention to-- >> brown: because the ears expect it. >> exactly right. so you want to fool them, because one of the things you want to do in a song and in a scene and in a play is surprise an audience. ♪ he's a very smart prince ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> brown: and that surprise, sondheim says, can come in very subtle ways, from something happening between the ear and the brain. for example, he believes words that are spelled differently, but sound alike, such as rougher

and suffer, engage the listener more than those spelled similarly, rougher and tougher. >> i think we see words on-- as if they're on paper, sometimes, when you hear them. i don't mean it's an absolutely conscious thing, but i'm absolutely convinced that people essentially see what they're hearing. >> brangham: for more on sondheim's life, and the legacy he leaves behind, i'm joined by ben brantely, former co-chief theater critic of the "new york times," and by eric schaffer, the co-founder and former artistic director of tony-winning signature theater here in virginia. he has produced and directed multiple productions of sondheim shows, including at the kennedy center. gentlemen, thank you both very much for being here or what is obviously a really tragic day in this field. ben brantely, to you first, could you just remind us a little bit about why he lives in such a high esteem in the pantheon of theater?

>> well, i think you can say he is truly without peer when you look at earlier generations of composers. there certainly were giants like rogers and hammerstein, but others wrote in that style. sondheim was generous. i came to alien with him so i feel the loss personal. the first broadway show was "foulies" when i was 16. but he was addressen an era in which the old convictions no longer held and people were incredibly ambivalent about practically everything -- their country, their futures, love -- and he found the equivalent of those feelings in music, but it wasn't chilly, as has often been lodged against him. there's incredible feeling in his ambivalence, and, i mean, whether it's assassins, which has been revived recently in new york, or company, his breakout hit, or sweeny todd,

there's some feeling and so much complexity. and the way i think is unmatched by anyone else. there won't be a sondheim heir. >> brangham: indeed. eric schaffer, i know you had the opportunity to talk with sondheim several times when you were producing and directing plays and musicals of his. what was that process like? i mean, i would imagine, to get on the phone or to meet in person with a legend like that, especially when you're working on his projects, how did that go down? how was that? >> it was amazing. i mean, i have to say, with sondheim, one to have the things that i think people may think is he was an amazing collaborator. he wanted to be in the room with you and have a conversation. he was not the one saying, like, look, i'm the smartest in the room. no way was he like that at all. he was the most giving person of all of -- in the room, which is

fantastic. and i think, also, you know, as has been alluded, he changed the face of musical theater all of us looked up to. i saw sweeny todd was the first musical i saw of his when i was in high school on broadway, and i all rightly came home, ran out, bought the album and played it till the record worked in, literally looking at the lyrics and how smart and wonderful it was. so that's the thing i think that people don't realize about him, he was a great friend and a great mentor, and he was also about, you know, giving people a chance, which was -- here was a kid, myself, from fleetwood, pennsylvania, a little small town in amish country who said, oh, i love your work, i want to do it, you know, and he totally embraced that, you know, and i got to end up to direct over 30 of his musicals over the years

which has been amazing. >> brangham: what a great experience. ben brantely, in the clip we heard when he was talking with jeffery brown, he described how he values each and every word, that each line is a speech, every word can be so frated, and you see that in his work that there's incredible complexity, simplicity, he is a tremendous lyricist in that regard. >> and he was first known primarily as a lyricist, that's what people responded to was the wit. and you realize there's more weight to it than that. there isn't just like dorothy parker cleverness. there's a real feeling in the weight of every word. and, often, the words are at variance with the music. so that kind of ambivalence i was talking about earlier will

be tugging. there will be a friction between what's being sung like some of the pistisch movies and foulies, or the music will saying, you're lying, or it's more complicated. >> brangham: eric schaffer, is there a particular moment -- i me, you worked on so many of his projects, but do you remember a particular moment of interacting with him where you got a crystal sense of who the man was? >> well, twell -- well, there's, but i think one of my favorite memories is iad dinner at his house and there was a meeting with myself and michael kaiser who was running the kennedy center when we pitched to him about doing the sondheim celebration where we actually did six of his musicals in repertoire in 2002. i remember we left his house, and a minute later my phone rang, and it was steve, and he said, do you think they can really do this? and i was, like, absolutely,

steve, i said we can do it 300% and we won't let you down. and he was, like, okay, let's do it. and, you know, that festival, i think, really relaunched his work into the world in a brand-new way that people saw his work. even though they were seeing it again and again, they were seeing it the first time in a brand-new way, and that was in 2002. i think something ben alluded to is his work is so written for the character, which is so great, and that's why you see all of these revivals because you can reinterpret his writing because his writing is so brilliant and so strong and it can stand that with someone bringing their ideas to what he's written. >> brangham: and ben brantely, last question to you. i mean, in the end, we know he was working up until the very end. there were reports that he was at some previews or something just a few weeks ago. what do you think you will most remember of him and from him?

>> oh, i think there's a song from pacific overtures, it's one of his less well known works, but it's three different people remembering a single event, a momentous event in history, and they're saying it's the fragment, not the day, and i think sondheim honors those fragments i think more any composer of musicals i can think of, it's what you get in sunday in the park and george, it's all the little moments that make experience life and dark. >> brangham: thank you both for being here. ben brantely, eric schaffer, appreciate your time. thank you. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

>> brangham: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm william brangham. join us online and again here monday evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> the landscape has changed, and not for the last time. the rules of business are being reinvented, with a more flexible workforce, by embracing innovation, by looking not only at current opportunities, but ahead to future ones. resilience is the ability to pivot again and again, for whatever happens next. >> people who know, know b.d.o. >> fidelity wealth management. >> consumer cellular. >> johnson & johnson. >> bnsf railway.

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