captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> nawaz: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. judy woodruff is away. on the newshour tonight: grounded. thousands of flights cancelled this christmas eve, as the omicron variant leads to airline staffing shortages. then, new frontiers. nasa prepares to launch a telescope capable of seeing farther into the known universe than ever before. >> there's absolutely a lot riding on this telescope. the future of astronomy is riding on this telescope. and i think it's going to be a huge payoff, in terms of what we learn about the universe. >> nawaz: and, it's friday. david brooks and jonathan capehart weigh in on the democrats' legislative setbacks, and the president's pandemic response. all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour.

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>> 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. >> nawaz: the covid-19 pandemic is once again upending holiday plans around the world-- from halting air travel, to scaling back festive celebrations. all this as new infections in the u.s. have spiked 55% in the last two weeks alone, largely due to the highly contagious omicron variant. stephanie sy has our report. >> sy: covid continues to spread

holiday misery. last-minute flight cancellations left thousands of travelers reeling on christmas eve. affected airlines blamed the situation on the impact of omicron, with delta and united at least partially attributing cancellations to flight crews calling in sick with the virus. globally, more than 3,000 flights were cancelled, with international airlines also citing falling demand as a factor. >> the reason that our flight was cancelled was because of a lack of flight attendants. so, yeah, on delta, so, i guess it is sad. >> sy: to ease the staffing crunch, u.s. airlines are pressuring the c.d.c. to shorten quarantine time for fully vaccinated airline staff to five days, down from ten. the rapidly-spreading omicron covid variant is taking a toll on work forces everywhere, including police departments, grocery stores and hospitals. for health care workers, the c.d.c. is recommending shortening the quarantine time to seven days, as long as

workers are asymptomatic, and test negative before returning to the job. daily cases have more than doubled in the last three weeks, and staffing disruptions are only adding to the strain on the health system. >> we're overly exhausted, and it's starting to look like last year at this time right now. you know, it's starting to remind me of last year. it's kind of a p.t.s.d. situation. >> sy: calls are growing for shorter covid-19 isolation periods more broadly, but today, president biden said it was too soon to change the guidance. >> well, i just listen to my-- my team, the docs, and they think we should keep it the way it is for now. >> sy: meanwhile, the white house today announced it will lift omicron-related travel bans on eight african countries at the end of the month. the policy was criticized for being ineffective and discriminatory, and omicron now accounts for more than 70% of new covid infections in

the u.s. the variant has also spread around the world. that hasn't stopped some christmas celebrations from forging ahead with restrictions. in the town of bethlehem in the occupied west bank, a second year of subdued celebration took place under gloomy skies. it was a local affair. israel is trying to buy time to fight omicron, and has largely closed its borders to the international travelers that usually flock to manger square to mark the origin of christmas. for the pbs newshour, i'm stephanie sy. >> nawaz: in the day's other news, a huge storm system is dumping snow and heavy rain on much of the western u.s. in california, two people died last night near san francisco after their car was submerged. mud slides also triggered evacuation orders in orange county. parts of the sierra nevada mountains could see as much as 10 feet of snow through the

holidays. the weather is being fueled by moisture from the pacific ocean. seattle, washington and portland, oregon could even see a rare white christmas. an early morning fire on a crowded river ferry in bangladesh has left 39 people dead. 70 others were injured. 800 passengers were aboard the ferry, many traveling to visit family and friends for the weekend. investigators are trying to piece together what sparked the fire. >> ( translated ): the engine had been running for about an hour while on fire. later, the fire probably spread from the engine to the oil tank. and it stopped with a loud bang at this spot, where we are standing right now. >> nawaz: police officials said most of the bodies were recovered from the river, after passengers jumped into the water trying to escape the fire. in myanmar, the milita today launched a new wave of airstrikes and heavy artillery on a small town controlled by the guerrillas from the ethnic

karen minority. the guerillas are seeking greater autonomy from the central government. the attacks sent hundreds of people fleeing across a river into nearby thailand. just last ek, 2,500 villagers made the same trip to escape the fighting. south korean president moon jae-in said today he is pardoning his predecessor and chief conservative rival, former president park geun-hye. park is serving a 20-year prison term for bribery and other crimes. she's one of more than 3,000 people being pardoned and freed on december 31. moon's government said the move was meant to bring the country together. >> ( translated ): in the perspective of national unity, the government grants a special pardon to the former president park geun-hye, who has been serving her sentence for a long time, and reinstate her civil right to vote. >> nawaz: former president park had already served four years and nine months of her prison sentence. during that time, her representatives have said she's been suffering from a shoulder injury, spinal disk issues, and mental health problems.

and, a court in moscow has fined two tech giants millions of dollars for failing to delete content banned by local law. google was fined nearly $100 million, and faceboook's parent company, meta, $27 million. fines were based on company revenue. it's the latest in a string of russian efforts to pressure companies to comply with content restrictions. still to come on the newshour: why a judge rejected a settlement with the sackler family for their role in the opioid crisis. the barriers to reentering society after prison. a special christmas song from the armed forces. and, much more. >> nawaz: the number of overdoses related to ack market opioids is at record highs-- morthan 100,000 deaths for the last 12-month

period measured. the surge of fentanyl and synthetic opioids is a major part of all of this. many experts say the country's huge problems tie back to the original marketing and distribution of legal opioids by purdue pharma, the company that made oxycontin, and the family that owns the company, the sacklers. last week, a federal judge overturned a $4.5 billion settlement that had been reached between the company, the sacklers, and local governments. william brangham breaks down what's behind that decision.

where there were hundreds of lawsuits purdue declared bankruptcy what to do finalized in september

no wrongdoing themselves no lawsuits against them for instance, the 25 or so states that wanted to sue the sacklers those suits can't move forward. this is all over and donen so. that was the deal. it was finalized in september. a lot of people were uncomfortable with the outcome and you now see this very dramatic reversal by a federal judge who was overseeing whether or not this was a legitimate deal that could move forward. >> reporter: the sackler family continues to deny that

they oversold the risk of overdosing. about the the members of the sackler family had been taking money out of purdue pharmaceuticals, and that is part of the reason purdue pharmaceuticals doesn't have money and must go bankrupt. >> oxycontin has generated $35 about the in revenue. how can can purdue be going bankrupt? we know know the answer, over a ten year pished, the system was quietly been pumg money out of the campaign. in between, the family took $10 billion, out of the company and so this is what judge mcmahan was actually troubled by, she said it looks an awful lot like the family knew that some day the company was going to have to pay the piper and they wanted to make sure that when that time came as much money as could be gotten out of the company was in

their personal accounts, so that the company had less money to pay the piper with. >> the flip side of this ruling coming down is that there are lots of states and local advertise that regardless of what you are think about the sacklers liability they believe that they need they had money right now, to deal with the addiction crisis and they now argue, we don't have that money and delaying that money is a real problem nor us. >> yeah, i mean this is a reality, a terrible reality of this story. 100,000 people died of overdoses last year. the costs of the crisis are estimated to be in the trillions of dollars. so you do have a lot of communities that are desperate for funds. but i think that there was a kind of fundamentally transactional aspect of this deal. the sacklers said we will put up $4.5 billion that you desperately need but only in exchange for this immooument. you had a handful of states that looked at this deal and said

it's not that they said there shouldn't be a number. it's got to be higher than that. 4.5 billion is not enough. in terms of the potential liability or in the terms of the needs of the communities. i think that money will get paid out in the fullness much time and possibly more but there is going to be a delay and i think that will be a painful delay. i think that the states that objected to the deal would say, it will be a bigger payday and one that looks more like justice. >> patrick keefe, author of empire of pain, always good to see you. >> thank you. >> nawaz: when the youngest wake up tomorrow morning to look for holiday gifts, nasa hopes to celebrate with its own special christmas present-- the launch of a next generation space telescope.

the launch, scheduled for around 7:20 a.m. eastern time, will 7:20 a.m. eastern time, will set up a unique window into the cosmos. as science correspondent miles o'brien tells us, nasa hopes to unlock mysteries of the universe. >> reporter: folded up and tucked in tight, the largest space teleope ever built is poised to lach a new golden age of astronomy. the james webb space telesco is billed as the scientific successor to the hubble, which has rewritten the textbooks over the past 30 years. >> i like to say that the james webb space telescope can go where no hubble has gone before. >> reporter: that's astrophysicist and former nasa astronaut and associate administrator john grunsfeld. we met him at the kennedy space center visitor complex, where the shuttle orbiter "atlantis" is now on display. grunsfeld flew on it to service and upgrade hubble in 2009. it was the last of five such missions for nasa astronauts.

>> i'm usually not inclined to anthropomorphize satellites or space shuttles or other things. but, you know, i really do feel a personal affinity to hubble. >> reporter: grunsfeld was on three telescope servicing missions-- making him history's most experienced hubble repairman. >> it proved the existence of black holes, and measured the age of the universe. it peered inside regions where baby stars are born and planets form. it discovered things that we never imagined were there. >> reporter: webb is designed to be about 100 times more powerful than hubble-- primarily a visible and ultraviolet light observatory. built by nasa and the european and canadian space agencies, webb was first imagined in the late 1980s. it will scan the cosmos looking for sources of heat in the infrared part of the spectrum. for astronomers looking deep into space, this is where the

real action is. john mather is the senior project scientist for webb at nasa's goddard space flight center in greenbelt, maryland. >> the universe is known to be expanding. we've known this for almost a century. the distant galaxies are running away from us. and what that means is the wavelengths that we get from them are longer. so the farther out you look in space, the more stretched these waves are, the more infrared they are. so, to see farther than the hubble can see, you have to have a telescope that can pick up the longer wavelengths. >> reporter: what do you think webb will find? >> the webb is so powerful that, if you were a bumblebee hovering at the distance of the moon from earth away from the telescope, we would be able to see you. so, you know, if you're out there, we'll find you. >> reporter: but getting webb out there to its perch in space is a tall order. it will lift off from french guiana on an ariane rocket built by the european space agency. a few days after launch, the telescope is slated to start

unfolding, origami style. i's an intricate two-week deployment filled with mission- threatening achilles heels; in space parlance: “single-point failures.” bill ochs is the project manager. have you counted up how many potential single-point failures there are? >> we have 344 single-point failures. >> reporter: the biggest worry is the deployment of the sunshield. the sizef a tennis court, it consists of five uniquely-shaped layers of a material called kapton. not unlike a mylar balloon, the reflective material is thinner than a human hair. >> when we get through that, we'll be able to take a deep breath. have to keep moving forward, but at least we'll take that one down, and that's-- hopefully will be the hardest thing we have to deal with. >> reporter: so you guys are like karl wallenda. no net. >> there's no net. no net. it's not serviceable. it wasn't designed to be serviceable like hubble. >> reporter: that's right. john grunsfeld won't be visiting this space telescope. it is headed a million miles

away, to a spot in space where it will orbit the sun in sync with the earth. it's the sweet spot for webb because the gravitational forces there will keep it more or less in place; and it is very cold-- important for a telescope looking for the faintest hints of heat at the farthest reaches of the universe. amber straughn is the deputy project scientist for webb communications. >> everything glows in infrared. like, you and i are glowing in infrared. and a telescope, and even in low earth orbit, would glow in infrared. and so, we need to have this telescope out in deep space, so it gets very, very cold, so, in essence, it's not glowing and seeing itself. it has to be cold, so it can see the infrared signals from the distant universe. >> reporter: they have tested the telescope every which way they could imagine. they have shaken it, and exposed it to loud noise to mimic a launch. and, they turned it on in a

giant "apollo"-era thermal vacuum chamber at the johnson space center in houston. the hubble experience looms like a nightmare. it was infamously launched with a flawed mirror, rendering the telescope terribly near-sighted, until it was corrected three years later, during the first hubble repair mission. greg robinson is the webb program director. do you feel pretty confident this telescope is not going to be flawed from the outset? >> we try to test exactly the way it's going to be used in this launch and operation environment. it's been tested well. we have margin around how we test it. so we have high confidence that it'll work just right. >> reporter:he novel design, rigorous testing, and the vagaries of nasa budget allotments led to years of delays, and cost overruns. at $10 billion, the price tag for webb is about twice as much as first proposed two decades

ago. what would nasa do differently today? >> we do have to get better at cost and schedule estimating up-front with these types of missions. it's not trivial. it's-- it's quite hard. we're doing things that have never been done before. we're using new technologies, never developed or flown before. so it's-- it's more of a challenge. >> reporter: all of this ratchets up the pressure on the team. >> we have to get this right. it has to go right the first time. we can't go fix it. so, there is-- there's absolutely a lot riding on this telescope. the future of astronomy is riding on this telescope. it's a huge investment. and i believe it's going to work and i think it's going to be a huge payoff in terms of what we learn about the universe. >> i think the universe has a few surprises in store for us. we don't know what questions to ask, because we've never had a capability like james webb. >> reporter: if all goes well, webb will be focused and fully commissioned six months after launch. after that, it promises to open our eyes to the most

distant past, to the nursery where newborn planets first emerged 13 billion years ago. for the pbs newshour, i'm miles o'brien, in greenbelt, maryland. >> nawaz: and don't forget to tune into that launch tomorrow at 7:20 a.m. eastern. you can watch it live at www.pbs.org/newshour. >> nawaz: every year, about 600,000 people are released from state and federal prisons. in a moment, we'll hear from experts about policies that could help those people better reintegrate into society. but first, as part of the pbs newshour's "searching for justice" series, here now is a reprise of conversations i had with some formerly incarcerated people, about the difficulties older men and women face after decades behind bars. >> how you doing, dr. shavit? >> good.

how's it going? >> nawaz: at the transitions clinic network in san francisco, dr. shira shavit's first patient of the day is melvin malcolm. >> so how's the fatigue been? are you still feeling pretty tired? >> yes, i still am. >> nawazmalcolm is 74 years old. he suffers from degenerative rheumatoid arthritis and prostate cancer... >> i'm just going to take a quick listen to your heart. >> nawaz: ...diseases he developed while serving 38 years in prison for murder and robbery. he was released just three months ago, and so far, life on the outside hasn't been easy. what are some of the challenges that you're facing day to day? >> handling things on your own. generally, incarcerated, everything is handled for you. your medication is brought to you. you're told when to eat. you're told when you put a-- when to sleep. things are more or less programmed for you. once you come out, you have to do things on your own. and it's pretty hard. and it's pretty hard to get used to doing that. >> go ahead and relax your arm

for me, please. >> nawaz: he says the health care he's getting now is much better than what he got in prison, but nearly four decades behind bars has taken a toll. >> i have the degenerative rheumatoid arthritis, as you can see by my hands. and i'm going to have, i think, knee surgery. and my feet are really, are really bad. >> did anything else come up in your visits with him today? >> nawaz: dr. shavit says malcolm is a typical patient here at transitions, a national network of nearly 50 non-profit health clinics that serve people post-incarceration. >> our practice here, 66% of people have done 30 or more years in the state prison system. and what we know is that people age more quickly when they're incarcerated. and so, when we think of older adults, we actually think of people who are 55 and older who have been in the system. >> nawaz: the team here at transitions tries to step in and meet the most pressing needs, not just medical. >> that's why you have that little phone icon. >> nawaz: there's technology training...

>> how you doing? >> nawaz: ...help getting i.d.s and documentation... >> they didn't put my middle name on the i.d. card. >> nawaz: ...and access to food. >> we also got some chicken too. >> yes, chicken is okay, too. >> nawaz: a key part of this team? people who know what reentry after prison is like. people like 58-year-old ron sanders. he battled addiction, and was in and out of prison during his 20s on drug charges. >> so, imagine somebody's been locked up for 20, 30, 40 years. it's good to have somebody to help you guide you along. is this your first time going to walgreens to get the medications? >> no, this is not the first time, but it's the first time i'm going to get a refill. >> oh. >> nawaz: he's been working at transitions for 15 years as a community health worker, and spends a lot of time building connections and trust with patients often skeptical of the system. why do you think they trust you? >> because they know i came from the same place they came from. i have been in those shoes before.

and i know. and, also, i know how scary it is just getting out. and especially when you get out and you don't have any, like, family support, or anything, it's really tough. >> nawaz: but for older adults exiting prison, this level of support is rare. few clinics like this exist across the country. and the ones that do are often located in urban areas. for people who need longer-term medical care, the options are even more limited. >> being away for a while, i was really scared. >> nawaz: leticia is a 67-year- old woman who suffers from mental health disorders and lymphedema, which causes swelling of the arms and legs. she served 17 years in prison for murder. she asked us not to use her last name. >> i have p.t.s.d., and i had deep depression, and i was very, very disturbed. >> nawaz: in 2019, she was released from prison, and discharged to 60 west, a privately-owned nursing home in rocky hill, connecticut, with 95 beds.

opened in 2013, 60 west is funded mainly by the state of connecticut and its medicaid system. many residents here are formerly incarcerated. >> being able to look anyone up and find out what their history is is very easy now in our social world. >> nawaz: administrator jessica dering says nursing homes are often reluctant to accept residents who've committed serious crimes. >> now, certainly, the person could be the picture of nursing home-appropriate. however, traditional nursing homes weren't giving them a chance to be a part of their community. so, that's why 60 west was created, so that we could provide an environment of stigma-free living. >> nawaz: if this place wasn't here, where would you have gone? what were your options? >> i don't know. probably a shelter. >> nawaz: and, jessica dering says, because the cost of care inside prisons is so high, this is a more cost-effective approach for the state of connecticut. >> having us open actually saves the taxpayers of connecticut

annually, because we focus on care, so we can do it in a much more efficient manner. and, ultimately, it costs less money. >> nawaz: well, to further examine some of the issues surrounding reentry, the newshour's nicole ellis sat down with a panel of experts: vanessa chen, a special assistant to the president; keesha middlemass, a howard university professor who focuses on criminal justice; and jay jordan, who was formerly incarcerated himself, and is now the vice president of the alliance for safety and justice. here now is an excerpt from their conversation. >> reporter: jay, you have personally experienced that rocky moment of reentry and trying to get your bearings and reestablish your life. what was your experience like as a young person reentering society? >> in my personal experience, you know, i was fortunate enough to go home to my mother and father. you know, i was fortunate enough to have a plan, sit down inside a facility and write down a plan. but when i got out, you know,

i wanted to sell used cars. i wanted to selleal estate. i wanted to sell insurance, right? contrary to popular belief, i know how to cut hair. i wanted to be a barber. i couldn't do any of that. you know, i was told, no, i couldn't get my insurance license. i was told, no, i couldn't get my real estate license. i was told, no, i can't even get a barber's license. i'm good enough to-- i was good enough to buy a car, but not good enough to sell cars. i was good enough to get insurance, but not good enough to sell insurance, right? so, it wasn't just a moment in time of reentry. it was also, like, just this, you know, society saying, okay, come back, but, you know, here's-- here's this little pocket you have to live in. and that's the most difficult part. it's like, yes, there is like the-- the housing, the job, the-- the-- all this different stuff that you're told you're supposed to get. but then, when you try to get those things, you are limited, and that's extremely difficult on your mental health. >> reporter: which brings me to my question for you, vanessa. is this a priority for the biden administration? and if so, what are the long-

and short-term goals of remedying some of the issues that dr. middlemas and jay have mentioned? >> let me be clear that president biden has consistently reaffirmed his belief in redemption, rehabilitation, and reintegration. i think that when we talk about reentry, to the extent that we're talking about all of these interlocking invisible barriers and very visible barriers, president biden is clear that we need to have a whole-of- government approach, and providing a holistic solution and a holistic way of addressing, reducing, and removing those barriers. because, to the excellent points that have been raised, points that our administration has heard in our listening session with formerly incarcerated individuals, with non-profits,

and intermediaries who work with them, with their communities, and their families, unless we're addressing issues related to housing, food, gainful employment, with the opportunity for continued advancement and mobility, and providing all of those structural supports, we-- we're not doing what our returning citizens need us to do for them. >> yes. may i just respond? because this will capture what-- what jay and vanessa have said, is, those invisible barriers are policies. they're not some random decision being made by bureaucrats, but they're local, state and federal policies that purposely restrict people with a felony conviction. think about running a prison. everything from h-vac to landscaping to food prep to medical, to the idea of painting

and learning how to do plumbing. and people do that inside, men and women. when they're incarcerated, they become experts inside doing it. it's a cost-effective move from prisons, and they then have the skills to do that when they exit. but these invisible barriers are literally written into policies and laws that prevent people from gainful employment, from housing. >> i took a plea deal. 98%-- my research director is in the audience, so you might-- so 95%, let's say, 90%+ of people with criminal records like myself, we took a plea deal, right. so, we sat down and we did the crime. we are literally saying, okay, i'm going to do my time. we got to deal. most people take a plea deal, right. on that plea deal, it's a plea sheet. they tell you the amount of time you're going to do. i got seven years. they tell you if you got any strikes. i got two strikes.

and tell you, like, your restrictions. you can't own a gun. you can't get proximate to the victim. there's a few things they tell you. nowhere on that do they tell you about these collateral consequences that are triggered after you get out. so, something about these 40,000 legal restrictions. 50% are employment-related. most of them are lifetime bans. so, not only can i-- i can't access that part of the economy, bui can never adopt a kid. can never adopt a kid, right? i have a one-year-old and a three-year-old. i cannot volunteer to kid school. they had volunteer shortages because of covid. when i got the form to volunteer, that big question, "have you ever been convicted of a felony?" i can't even volunteer my own kids' school. we just bought a house. i can't-- i can't even join the h.o.a., right? i can never coach my son's little league team. i can't ride on the bus with him to field trips. so it's not just about the economy. it's-- it's about my humanity. it's about the humanity of the people.

at some point in time, we have to say, is this about just checking a box and getting people back to work? i have a job, but it's about my humanity. but i love the term "returning citizens." i love desmond meed. shoutout to desmond meed and the whole voter rights restoration coalition that coined that term. but, how are we even citizens? how am i a full citizen, if i'm locked out of the economy? i'm locked out of my society, and i'm locked out of my child's life. this is about the humanity and the soul of this country. it's not just about reentry. >> nawaz: and you can watch the full panel discussion, and more stories from our "searching for justice" series, on our website, www.pbs.org/newshour. >> nawaz: and now, to the analysis of brooks and capehart. that is "new york times" columnist david brooks, and jonathan capehart, columnist for the "washington post."

welcome to you both. good to see you this christmas eve. gentlemen i don't need to tell you omicron is now the dominate strain in the u.s. it is spreading like wildfire. the president has been facing some touch questions about why if u.s. wasn't better prepared. quick sound bite, how the president answered that question earlier this week and following that how the cdc director michelle wolenski answered that same question. take a listen. >> i don't think anybody anticipated that this was going to be as rapidly spreading as it did. >> we have been working hard as we anticipated this because we knew that omicron had this capacity to increase at this rate. >>nawaz: jonathan does it seem to you like the administration was caught flatfooted on this? displ. >> capehart: judging at the two clips, there seems to be aminimum of a disconnect when it comes to the messaging and who

knew what, when. but look, we were all taken by surprise by how quickly omicron came on the scene. it came on so quickly that a lot of us, myself included were mispronouncing it. we were living through delta and the highly transmiss ibl nature of the delta variant when suddenly along comes omicron and it's even more virulent more contagious than alt at a. swamping caseloads and things like that. in ways that i think regular forecast didn't anticipate and clearly at least listening to the president he didn't anticipate. but michelle wolenski said that they did. the thing that the administration has to get a handle on is making sure that, one, that they can keep things open as much as possible, without resorting to shutting things down especially schools. but also, i think we all should

pay attention to the fact that yes, while cases of covid are spiking, beyond what we've seen in this pandemic so far, hospitalizations and deaths are not -- are not spiking at similar levels. and that is because yes, we're seeing a lot of break through infections among people that are vaccinated and boosted but what we're leerng is those vaccinations are -- learning is that those vaccinations are keeping people quote unquote mild, keeping out of the hospital and keeping people from dying. which means that it is imperative that anyone who hasn't been vaccinated hasn't been boosted do so sooner than later. amna nawaz dawfd, let's catch people up. since this announcements, 500 million tests they will be purchasing and will distribute to americans free on request via a website. but what do you make how the white house has been handling

their messaging at least in response to this? >> brooks: i think it's a much bigger problem than a messaging issue, too little too late. in october a group of scientists came not white house with a ten page plan to get 730 million test to the american families hopefully by the holiday season right now. and the white house didn't pursue that. according to the article and other articles ton phenomenon, other articles felt they were to vaccine heavy, that vaccines were the best way to so it and they neglected a lot of the tools we need. and in one theory they thought, if we have people test, they can test people through crisis without relying on the vaccine. i'd love to see science evidence that shows people thinking that way. at the time the administration taking thup space, they have

been thinking too small and too slow and so we sort of missed a couple of months where we could be in theory ramping up testing. >>nawaz: jonathan, this free test, peoplwill remember, mara liason said, why don't we send free test to the americans dwham was dismissed by the white house press secretary a couple much weeks ago. here they are doing exactly that. what goes that tell you about the conversations inside the white house on this? >> capehart: they are trying to think as expansively as david just pointed out than they were in the past. even though president said yes it was to get out 500 million tests from the reporting, the contracts to do that have not even been signed yet. and, you know, might not be signed until at the earliest next month even though that's next week. still. if you are going to announce 500 million new tests people will

think i will be able to get those tests now. so to david's point, the adminiration has to think expansively and imaginatively all the time. from this point going forward. because who knows what the next variant will be, how transmissible, more transmissible than omicron will be or even what its name will. >>nawaz: david let's talk about the economy, 6 million jobs back unemployment at 4.2% and yet the president did make the decision, crucial decision to extend that freeze on student loan payments. they're also working to try to see if they can extend the child tax credits in some form. how does that show where we are in the recovery and the economic recovery? >> brooks: they put the pet pedal to the metal i'll give them that. it has its bad sides, the

inflation but try to be aggressive on this and keep things going, i think they're right to keep the chide tax credit going, when it expires in just a short time. the white house hasn't given up on build back better. joe manchin announced on fox news that he was a no vote but the white house has far from given up hope and one of the ways i think they can do this is to start with something like the child tax credit. the gi bill for babies. would it have a phenomenal effect for decades. better in school, better lives and if they can just take build back better and take one policies like the child tax credit and then really fund them fully for ten years, that would not ly be a short term boost on those relying on the money but it will be a boost for america.

the white house feels, this is not over. if joe manchin doesn't want that trillion glars that a lot to build back with. >>nawaz: jonathan, do they break off parts of it and move forward with what they can? >> capehart: i think that's where we're headed. from the reporting that i've done, there is sort of a legislative window, meaning there is the framework that senator mancomin agreed to with the president and then there's the build back better bill that he i think david just said that senator manchin stuck a knife in. in between those two areas, is enough negotiating room that if calmer and cooler heads prevalidate, that democrats and the president and senators manchin and cinema can agree on a package that can get through the senate get through house and get on the president's desk for his signature, not everything is going to get into whatever this

new piece of legislation is, but whatever does get in it, is going to be a huge success for the democrats, for the president and then ultimately because this is what the legislation is for, for the country. and i know that there are going to be people out there who will be bent out of shape because their priority might not make it into that bill but welcome to governing. and there's another bite at the apple. stop thinking about 2022 and what's possibly going to happen with legislative majorities and just go for win. because whatever that win is is going to be good for the party and good for the country ultimately. >>nawaz: we're going to be following the movement on any of those plans of course in the days and weeks ahead. before i let both much you go we are speaking on christmas eve, it is not the holiday i think most of us expected or needed or wanted. but i would like to ask both of you, just sort of how you're reflecting on this holiday season right now.

david i recall a year ago exactly we sat here and said, you missed christmas parties, it surprised you but you missed them and the quiteude was bothering you. how are you reflecting on that moment? >> brooks: i didn't think i would be speaking with you through the zoom camera again. 2020 had the big climactic events. this has been a year for me and many people without shape. my memory of what happen this year is very foggy. long periods passed, daily trudge, almost in the process of getting out of this so we were waiting to go out, waiting to unmask and the waiting and waiting and waiting, we never stopped waiting, we're still waiting. i found this an oddly hard year, just a shapeless year. it is christmas eve and it is not a night to be unhopeful. christians all around the world are celebrating the fact that

when the m messiah was going to come, i.t. was in a manger request cow dung all around it and world history was changed by that. so ochristmas eve wee should be thinking about the unexpected hoapts that are fertilizing everywhere on earth earth and the possibility of redeposition, the possibility that all will be well. ds redemption, the mobility that all will be well. not a night of hopelessness. >>nawaz: jonathan w are you reflecting on this holiday season? >> i think david put his thumb on it when he described 2021 as sort of shapeless. started with excitement because the new president was about to be inaugurated but six days in an insurrection that shook our democracy and with each passing day at the end of this year we're finding out just how close we came to losing it all. losing our american democracy.

but going into 2022, as sheapless as this year has been, as, in some ways, you know, almost hopeless that this year has been, i am optimistic. i'm constitutionally an optimist and i view new years, and christmastime, as a time of reflection but also a time of a recommitment to trying to right the wrongs of the past. and tries to do things -- try to do things in ways that move me forward, move my family forward, but also, i think collectively move our country forward. we are in a much better place today evenly though it's been a shapeless year, we are in a much better place today december 24th, 2021, than we were december 24th, 2020. because of a new administration, because of vaccines. and because of the promise of whathose two things mean for us going forward. >>nawaz: we will take that little bit of optimism tonight

from both of you. jonathan capehart, david brooks, merry christmas, thanks for being here. >> merry christmas, thanks amna. >> nawaz: well, the covid pandemic led many to re- evaluate, even change their priorities. for some, it inspired them to try something new. special correspondent jared bowen of gbh boston has the story of people who used the last year to bring their artistic dreams to life. it's part of our arts and culture series, "canvas." >> reporter: before the pandemic, amin tabrizi was flying high. >> i was a-- what they call first officer, or some people casually know as copilot. >> reporter: but after the pandemic slowed air travel, tabrizi was laid off, and turned to something that had long intrigued him: piano-tuning. >> i used to play piano, and

i was always interested in looking inside of this thing. like, man, all these moving parts. so that kind of rejuvenated that urge to want to one day do it. >> it looks like we're off. >> reporter: pre-pandemic, madeline grant colety was more than 20 years into her career as an urban planner. >> working at kind of a national level on issues around fair housing and disaster recovery, as well as affordable housing and community development. >> so now, if you guys pull your chalk again... >> reporter: gnawing at her, though, was the fact that urban planning isn't the same as hands-on building. >> housing and affordable housing and appropriate shelter is a real passion, and i felt like i wanted to see more immediate results in my work. so, i have been contemplating carpentry for a while. >> reporter: so both grant colety and tabrizi have enrolled here at the north bennet street school, making a pandemic pivot into becoming artisans. >> it's not just one or two notes. there's 88 of these things. so, just taking out one key, repair it, fix it, and then move on to the next one. i think it's both problem-

solving and it takes a lot of patience. so that's essentially what i'm doing, discovering things about myself as well. >> i actually have two college-age kids, so you know, it's important for me to have a good income and to make a big transition like this. i can't do it lightly. but the pandemic made me think harder about how our individual decisions affect our community, and the local impact that we have. >> every time i approach a student to talk to them about their work, they're so excited to tell me about what they're working on. >> reporter: sarah turner is the president of the school, which this year marks the 140th anniversary of its founding in boston's north end, a predominantly italian neighborhood. >> it was a place that was first giving skills-- life skills, hand skills-- to the waves of immigrants that were moving to this area of boston. >> reporter: that philosophy

continues today in nine programs as varied as bookbinding, furniture making, and violin crafting. studies, turner says, that are as much about the producing as the producer. >> when you work with a hand and you work at a small scale, your relationship to community changes. i think you start to know the people who provide the materials, you know, the businesses that you have to intersect. you start to know the field, the community of makers that you're a part of. >> reporter: the 150 full-time students here range from teenagers to septuagenarians. when classes resumed last fall, turner noticed that, as the world was upended, students were doubling down on what had become urgently important. >> i remember standing on the sidewalk as school was starting. they were coming to take a real risk. i mean, to come to a hands-on school, still in a pandemic, is really brave. it's such an act of optimism, i think, and courage, to make a life-change any me. but to make it then, just, was so inspiring. >> reporter: just weeks into typically nine-month-long

programs, the students find themselves out in the world. madeline grant colety has been at work on a residential project in haverhill. >> we were putting up boards, siding, and you know, there are five or six steps involved, and each one has to be just right, in order to get that perfect finished product. so it's breaking that down and demystifying. it is very interesting and more complex than i thought. >> reporter: do you have doubt about what you're doing right now? >> not at all, no. i feel more like myself, using my hands and thinking creatively. >> reporter: which, after graduation, grant colety will channel into the design firm she's launched. >> i wanted to really specialize in kind of small home renovation, to help design smaller spaces to make them work better. so, for me, that was part of bringing carpentry and design together, with that special focus. >> reporter: amin tabrizi expects to fly again, but also plans to become a piano technician on the side.

after all, there is a thread between planes and pianos, he says. >> i would say hands-on coordination, that's something we use a lot. and another thing that we use a lot in the aviation world is situation awareness. so it's just essentially anticipating, “okay, i did one part, okay, now what's the next thing?” >> reporter: something he, grant colety, and their fellow north bennet street school students have already answered for themselves. for the pbs newshour, i'm jared bowen in boston. >> nawaz: on this christmas eve, we continue a tradition we started a few years ago, with members of the u.s. military sing a holiday song, or recite a holiday poem or tale. tonight, musicians from the air force, army, navy, and marine corps perform "feliz navidad." this video was produced by

the pentagon's defense visual information distribution service. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ feliz navidad feliz navidad ♪ feliz navidad próspero año y felicidad ♪ feliz navidad feliz navidad ♪ feliz navidad próspero año y felicidad ♪ i wanna wish you a merry christmas ♪ i wanna wish you a merry christmas ♪ i wanna wish you a merry christmas from the bottom of my heart ♪ i wanna wish you a merry christmas ♪ i wanna wish you a merry christmas

♪ i wanna wish you a merry christmas from the bottom of my heart ♪ feliz navidad feliz navidad ♪ feliz navidad próspero año y felicidad ♪ feliz navidad feliz navidad ♪ feliz navidad próspero año y felicidad >> nawaz: for some extra holiday cheer, online, you can watch more christmas carols the military recorded for us in past years, including "little drummer boy," "rudolph the red nosed reindeer" and "carol of the bells." that's at www.pbs.org/newshour.

for more on the spike in omicron infections, and democrats' scramble to save president biden's build back better agenda, don't forget to join "washington week" moderator yamiche alcindor and her panel, tonight on pbs. th is the newshour for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, have a merry christmas, please stay safe, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> fidelity wealth management. >> consumer cellular. >> johnson & johnson. >> bnsf railway. >> financial services firm raymond james. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world. at www.hewlett.org.

>> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.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. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh

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