♪ judy: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on "the newshour" tonight, ballot battle. the senate begins debate on voting rights even as republicans remain united in opposing the legislation and any efforts to allow a simple jority to rule. then -- covid surge. calls for new approaches to managing the virus grow louder, as hospitals struggle, and parents of young children navigate an uncertain time. and -- economy in a tailspin. skyrocketing inflation grips turkey as its president implements unorthodox counter-measures. >> anyone who took econ 101 in college would know that inflation climbs up, interest rates have to follow that.

erdogan is doing the opposite. judy: all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour.” ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- ♪ >> pediatric surgeon, volunteer, topiary artist, a raymondjames financial advisor. tailors advice to help you live your life. life, well-planned. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular has been offering wireless contract plans to help people do whatever they work. -- more of what they like. our u.s.-based customer service team can help you find a plan that fits you. to learn more, visit consumercellular.tv. ♪ >> johnson & johnson. bnsf railway. ♪

>> the john s. and james l. knight foundation, fostering informed and engaged communities. more at kf.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. ♪ ♪ >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. stephanie: i am stephanie sy with the newshour west. we returned to the full program after the headlines. the biden administration's

website for requesting free, at-home "covid" tests is now up and running. it's online a day ahead of the officially scheduled launch. households can order four tests from the website, covidtest.gov. it will focus -- we will focus on efforts to deal with covid after the news summary. in oakland, administrators at three schools cancelled classes today after a third teacher "sickout" this year. in the last two weeks, the school district has closed more than a dozen schools amid organized protests from teachers and some students over covid safty concerns. more than 1200 students signed a petition asking the district to move to online instruction, and provide more testing and masks. students in other cities including chicago and new york staged walkouts on similar issues. the u.s. senate formally opened debate today on voting rights legislation, with little prospect of any bill passing. democrats want to expand voting access, increase regulation of campaign financing and challenge states that, they say, restrict voting rights.

republicans say it is federal overreach, and they plan to block action again. party leaders sparred on the senate floor. sen. schumer: senate democrats are under no illusion that we face difficult odds, especially when virtually every senate republican, every senate republican, is staunchly against legislation protecting the right to vote. sadly, unfortunately, this is donald trump's republican party , and it is now trying to take one away the vote. sen. mcconnell: the partisan election takeover bills that democrats want to ram through this week are not, not in any way, successors of the civil rights legislation from the mid-20th century. targeting americans' online speech and sending government money to political campaigns is not about civil rights it's about tilting the playing field. stephanie: democrats say they'll seek to change senate rules so republicans cannot block a simple majority vote. but, it's unlikely they can muster the votes for that,

either. we'll return to this later in the program. a congressional committee subpoenaed former trump adviser rudy giuliani toy in the january 6th investigation. he pushed baseless claims of voter fraud after the 2020 election, and leading up to the assault on the u.s. capitol. the panel also subpoenaed several others, including lawyers sidney powell and jenna ellis. local leaders today called it a big step forward. nance said it will force new austerity measures. warnings back-and-forth today between russia and nato powers over ukraine, after talks last week ended with no progress. today in berlin, nato's secretary-general met with

germany's new chancellor and said the danger of a russian attack on ukraine is rising. >> the risk of conflict israel. -- is real. nato allies call on russia to deescalate and any further aggression will come with a high cost for moscow. nato is a defensive alliance which does not threaten russia or any other country. stephanie: but in moscow, after a meeting with germany's foreign minister, the russian foreign minister named nato its moves in your russia's borders for escalating risks. >> we don't threaten anybody with anything, but we do hear the threats addressed to us. i hope it only reflects certain emotions of certain powers insight within the western camp. we will act in accordance with concrete steps and concrete actions. stephanie: russia also announced it's sending troops to belarus for war games, adding to its forces deployed near ukraine. meanwhile, u.s. secretary of state antony blinken spoke with foreign minister lavrov and they agreed to meet friday in geneva.

verizon and at&t agreed today to delay activating 5g cell towers outside major airports. the new wireless technology will speed up service, airlines warned it measuring distance to could interfere with instruments measuring distance to the ground. major carriers had threatened to ground or delay flights. their announcement followed talks with the white house. in tax s, the nation's most restrictive abortion law to be implemented may stay in effect longer, as a legal challenge continues. a federal appeals court now says a judge who already ruled against the law will not review it again. instead, it goes to the texas supreme court, controlled by republican justices. the law bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. still to come, the food security emergency in afghanistan grows ever more dire amid a harsh winter. microsoft makes a big bet on gaming.

plus much more. >> this is the pbs newshour from weta studios in washington, and from the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. judy: this week marks a full year since president biden took office. that also means that the president has had broad responsility for the federal response to the pandemic for a year. there is plenty of data to suggest that things are not going well at this moment. cases are surging in many parts of the country, with nearly 800,000 new cases a day. hospitalizations and deaths are up significantly compared to two weeks ago. there are close to 140,000 people admitted to the hospital in total with confirmed covid right now. and the country is reporting more than 1,700 deaths a day now. there have been calls for shifting the administration's strategy that includes several

articles written by former advisers to the president. welcome back to the newshour. tell me why is a new approach needed? >> the biden administration came in with a strategic plan and it got more people vaccinated, got more tests out to the community, again flipping other interventions for the public. and then we had cases come down in june, but we developed delta, macron, and the people in the administration have been working hard to address those acute problems. and they do marshall in and require us to rethink the direction of interventions and

how we deploy everything together. and that was really the source of our viewpoints. judy: what with this new approach look like? how would it be diffent? guest: first we have to get there. as you pointed out, we have 750 or so deaths per day, nowhere near normal. but we will not eradicate covid, we have to live with it. living with it means we have to take measures that allow it to be in the background and not causing so much mortality. so, part of this is we have to make sure we have good air filtration in all indoor spaces, an issue we have not heavily emphasized, but can make a big difference, improve that filtration of air. we do have to improve our vaccine distribution. one of the reasons we are having so many hospitalizations and so many people in the intensive

care unit and such high deaths is because a lot of people are not vaccinated, and most of those people -- the people ending up in the hospital are mostly unvaccinated. if you are unvcinated and -- if you are vaccinated and boosted, your chance of dying from omicron, one in 34,000. it is very safe. we have to get more people vaccinated and we need more them. those are some of the areas that will get there. judy: if i could just pick up on what you said about vaccinations, how would you have the administration up the number of people vaccinated, obviously they have been pleading with americans, it has become a political issue, and now you have the supreme court ruling against the administration's requirement that large employers

have employees vaccinated? guest: first of all, we have to get the health care workers vaccinated. the supreme court did deal a very severe blow to responding to this pandemic and i think the ruling was unjustifiable. the federal government clearly has a authority to attack its people and people in the workplace are threatened by covid. the federal government has to try other things -- target the workplace vaccine requirements. it probably has to make a requirement on air travel, train travel, bus travel that is interstate, that it can control. it has got to work with states to mandate vaccination for children when we are convinced that the vaccines are totally safe for them. these are important areas in which we can make progress in, and it really has to work with employers again. it can't mandate them, but it

has to work with them. we have seen employers where things have gotten much better when they have vaccinated people. more people show up to work, they have safer work environments, things go much better. and very few employees required to get a vaccine actually quit. judy: i hear you saying that that is the ideal, but we also know that there is resistance out there, very stubborn resistance. i want to ask you, you said a moment ago that you understand a it cannot happen right now because we are dealing with this omicron wave, with deaths and hospitalizations still at a higher number. so you are saying just to get this ready for the future? is that what you are asking the administration to do? guest: it is not just get ready for the future. many of the things we suggest will actually address problems now. as i mentioned, getting more people vaccinated, improving air quality, having more people masked will address both the

problems now and be important for the long-term. and i would say that this misinformation, resistance to things like vaccines didn't come out of nowhere. it has been fostered by republicans who have no other response to this pandemic and that has made it harder for the nation to have an effective response. we need to counter that, and it will require dealing with the social media environment. judy: i want to ask you about a comment made by one of your public health expert colleagues who was part of putting these articles out publicly a few days ago. dr. luciana borreo, former chief scientist at the fda, she referred to the administration and said we are always fighting yesterday's crisis at not necessarily thinking about what needs to be done today to prepare us for what comes next.

in effect the administration hasn't been forward-thinking enough. is that your observation as well? guest: i have been in the trenches in the white house during a crisis in 2009 and 2010, working on the affordable care act. you are just trying to manage all the crises. you need a separate group that is thinking about the strategy and what we can do today for the long-term, and really make the infrastructure changes that we made. that is what we were suggesting. that is the suggestions we have for them on strategic goals and how to operationalize those goals. and by the way, they have been very well received. judy: they are listening to you? guest: well, i don't know. we will find out soo [laughter] judy: we will be back in touch to find out what the answer is. dr. ezekiel emanuel, thank you very much. we appreciate it.

guest: thank you, a pleasure to be here. ♪ judy: as omicron continues its spread, children under the age of five are still ineligible for vaccinations, leaving many families in limbo, wondering how best to navigate everyday life. stephanie sy has a conversation in a moment about some of these important questions. but let's begin with what we have heard from some parents across the country and how their coping, nearly two years into the pandemic. >> my name is lori and i le in oakland, california. i am a mother of a three and a half year old and we are expecting our second child in three eks. >> my name is tim sookram. i live in chapel hill, north carolina, and i have two kids ages four and six. >> my name is meg trelease.

i live in philadelphia, pennsylvania, and i have two children. i have a four year old girl named saoirse. my son, beckett is two and he has down syndrome. he is awaiting a heart procedure. he is immunocompromised. >> my name is detriecia taylor. we live in clarksville, tennessee. having a four year old who's not vaccinated when the rest of the house is vaccinated, it's been a little hard as far as with them traveling and even having people come into the home. >> right now, with the surge, we're continuing to send our child to child care because we need that help. we both work full time. we're getting ready for a baby. and so, you know, it's sort of like i keep saying, like it's trade-offs of life decisions on a week by week basis >> he's four years old. he's already gotten covid at daycare, even if, and he's been wearing masks as long as he's been back at school. and it seems crazy that he might get it again. day to day, you kind of just have to fool yourself and say

that your kid's not going to be the one that goes to the hospital. your kid's not going to be the one that gets complications. and i don't know that for sure. >> we have family that love us and friends that love us and want to see our kids. but it's like, well, what if we wore a mask? well, what if we tested well? what if we were? water fully? and i go into these conversations knowing that ultimately i'm going to have to say no, but i enter into them because i don't want to be that person. so we are just literally in our house, and we have been in our house for two yearset and i feel so beaten down. >> it is scary. a little cold, you are like oh my goodness, is that the new variant? or fever for no reason -- you are constantly wondering, everything that hahappened to her, could it be the new variant? and if it is, how bad it is going to get for her, will she have to be hospitalized? >> it is really, like, what are the risks toy unvaccinated

three and a half year old? but also, like, are there additional risks to an infant? like, is there a difference between an infant and like a child? you know, even though they're under five and not vaccinated, if there's some other additional risks that we're taking on? our three and a half year old goes to preschool right now and they have safe practices, but it just hard for me to quantify the amount of risk that we're taking on. >> my big question is, how is it taking so long for kids under five to get approved for a vaccine? why aren't they more of a priority? it's bad for us parents. really worried about our kids health, but they're worried too. >> the public health information has been so confusing. i do wish i had a little bit more information on community spread, because right now philadelphia is hovering at about 40% positivity rate. when is it safe for me to send my unvaccinated four year old back to preschool?

so that she doesn't bring covid home and infect fact my son? or herself? >> i was able to finally get my six year old vaccinated. so we are getting there, we're just waiting for her so we can see family members more often and travel more. we are hoping that something comes down. maybe the age will lower even before that time frame. that's what we're looking forward to. we're left in the dark kind of. stephanie: let's try to address some of these concerns. for that i am joined by dr. ibukun kalu, with duke university hospital, pediatric infectious disease doctor. i have my own thr-year-old toddler so i can relate to some of the anxiety from thos parents did we know omicron is more contagious. for more vaccinated people, it's more mild. the key question for a lot of parents is how big of a risk is there of serio illness in our unvaccinated children under five? guest: thank you for having me.

i hear the frustration, and pediatricians and providers around the country have felt the same as we are trying to tackle how best to keep kids safe, particularly those not yet eligible for a vaccine. to your question as to how severe this is, we have seen more cases in the community, which has meant more kids ended up in the hospital, but we are also seeing milder infections, even in kids. so that means we are seeing, upper respiratory infections, but for our youngest kids, the infants, even a simple upper respiratory infection could affect their ability to feed, take in milk, for example, or just maintain their typical health status until they need support for breathing or hydration. that has meant a few more infants in the hospital with covid. geoff: i am glad you answered that question about infants, because a parent asked specifically about that. about immunocompromised children

, one parent has a two year old in that situation, how dangerous is covid to the child, and should they avoid sending their children to daycare? guest: these questions are so difficult, because it really depends on that family's situation. you may need to send the child to daycare just to get to work, just to be able to manage the household. ultimately, it depends on whether you have options, with you can remove a child from daycare or put them in daycare. as much as you can, ensure that the daycare itself. all adults should be vaccinated and get a booster. particularly for immunocompromised patients, i think a lot of people have protective bubbles, so some other daycares, fully vaccinated adults that are there, masking, if at all possible, and ensuring they are preventing other viruses such as influenza, which

has a safe and effective vaccine at this time. geoff: i want to go back to vaccines in a second, but you talked about protocols and things preschools can do for this age group. is it appropriate to be testing kids this young regularly? should they be all wearing kids-sized n95 masks? guest: it depends. i keep coming back to that answer. i don't think a kids-sized n95 mask is necessary for kids. what i think is that a properly fitted mask, that can stay on that child's face for as long as they will tolerate it, should be the goal. if you have a mask that has a proper filter, if you have masks that have ties you can tie around the child's head when they go into the daycare, i think those are safe and effective. if you have a mask for a child that has n95 properties and the child will keep it on, then it is fine to use it.

as to the other question about testing, if they have symptoms, it is good to get a covid test, maybe even some other testing based on these symptoms. talk to your provider as soon as you can if you are worried about covid or other illnesses. stephanie: i just want to follow up on that, because a lot of parents i have heard from whose young children under five have had positive covid tests, have basically reported symptoms of a cold. if your child starts to exhibit cold symptoms, should you get them tested? guest: yes. based on our current community rates, it would make sense to get a test for covid-19, the chances are high that the common cold could be the presenting symptom for covid. if you don't have access to a test, and i really hope that we get past the point where if you want to get tested, you don't have to wait in long lines to get tested, then you could stay home and monitor the child and the symptoms going on until you can get a test done. stephanie: do you think it should be a priority of the

federal government right now to make the vaccine available to children under 5? we heard from the one dad who thought that would be a good idea. do we have data on the safety and efficacy at this point? guest: we are waiting for more data on the clinical trials in children less than five. i think what we know has been based on media reports and other companies working on these vaccines, what they have provided publicly. we know that they had to go back and run this trial for longer, possibly including an additional two to ensure that whatever the final product is, it does what we wanted to do, which is protect our youngest kids and help them mount a protective level of antibodies. i don't know the timeline, i think this should be a priority for everybody, and it is for everyone, but i want to ensure also that it is done safely and

effectively. that is what we are all waiting for. stephanie: dr. ibukun kalu, with duke university hospital, thank you for joining us. guest: thank you for your time. ♪ ♪ judy: the u.s. senate officially began debate today on a key democratic priority, and rights legislation. but without support from 60 senators, final passage is impossible. democrats met this evening on a path forward from majority leader chuck schumer. with an update, our own congressional correspondent, lisa desjardins. lisa, democrats met today. what is the plan? lisa: big news and a big moment for senate democrats. ca out minutes ago, speakingk

to reporters and unveiling what he intends to do now that it is clear he doesn't have the votes to pass voting rights. he will try and change senate rules for this bill, and i will tell you how. he wants to float the idea of the talking filibuster, something you and i have been talking about on this show. let me explain his proposal exactly, and again, it would only pertain to the voting rights bill. essentially the idea is that it would require senators to stand and weak they filibuster. it would still require 60 senators to end that filibuster, force an and to debate, but essentially all the opposing senators would use up their time, get worn out, and ultimately, they would stop speaking on their own. then at that point, the bill would have just a 51-majority vote threshold. this is an idea that we know senator manchin, democrat from

west virginia, has said he is interested in. however, about an hour or so ago, he came out and said he is not on board this plan tonight for a couple of reasons. he says he still thinks the 50-vote threshold is important for bipartisanship in the senate. he also things we should not change it with just one party alone changing the role. here is what he said. >> the majority of my colleagues in the caucus, democrat caucus, they changed their mind and i respect that. you have the right to change your mind. i have not. i hope they respect that too. i have never changed my mind on the filibuster. judy: that does not sound promising for senate schumer's plan. . what does this mean for president biden and the democratic agenda? lisa: this is a moment at i think democrats expected, they knew it. they have been telling us that they thought this was gointo be a tough pill -- a tough

field to clamp. but don't be fooled, it is a major defeat for democrats. this means that voting rights and all the things like same-day registration, early voting, all the things democrats wanted to do, civil rights protections, those will not happen. other legislation, none of it can happen without 10 republican senators now on board in the senate. there is still the exception, potentially, of a reconciliation bill that contained some of the biden agenda, the build back better idea. we will be following that, but democrats will sti need senators mansion and senator sinema on board, and senator schumer has not needled the thread. this is a very big defeat in terms of the muscle that democrats can mount not only in the senate, but in governing in general. it does not mean every door is closed to them, but the largest

one is. judy: no question about it, a big victory for republicans, and a significant defeat for democrats. lisa desjardins staying on top of it all, thank you very much. ♪ judy: it has been five months since the taliban took over afghanistan, and a hard, cruel winter has descended. millions are in dire need and not just in the capital of kabul. john ray of independent television news is there. >> there is a timeless side to afghanistan, resistant to change, resilient to crisis. but this is a test of their deepest reserves. she has her winter larder underground. the difference between eating

and starvation. this is all we have, she says. much of this vast land is cut off. the big freeze follows the worst drought in 30 years. during the long war, this village and so many more like it they were in the front line of the conflict with the taliban, but now they are at the back of the queue when it comes to help from the international community. there is absolutely no peace dividend. the taliban once international recognition. it wants aid, but once it on its own terms. couldn't you solve this crisis almost straightaway by guaranteeing women can go back to education? that would be the clearest indication that the taliban is committed to human rights. >> in respect of women's rights,

we never prevented anyone going to education or the workforce, but it must be under the framework of islamic principles. john: a middle-class who once fared well under the old regime, now struggle. in kabul, they queue for food. >> we have doctors, engineers who worked in the previous government, and now they lose their jobs and they are not able to have food assistance. john: they've got nothing but what they get here? >> yes. john: waiting for their sack of flour and single bag of bns is a woman who tells us her daughter studying to be a doctor, and then the taliban closed her school. the boys still get to sit exams, even if it is outside in t snow, because their school building is a rack with no heat or light. they can dream.

>> in the future, going to beat dr. for the people. john: this little girl can only watch and wonder what might have in. however dp crisis, the taliban will recast this country in its own image. john ray, itv news, kabul. judy: and as you heard, that report was from john ray, of independent tv news. ♪ for turkey, 2021 was marked by a freefalling currency, the lira, and record high inflation. the government's monetary policy sent the country into economic turmoil. and as nick schifrin reports, soaring prices have hurt turks from all walks of life.

nick: for this 45-year-old old, the work never ends. he has made a living and supported his family as a janitor for 20 years. but these days, one job is not enough. >> i am trying to find a fourth apartment building to clean. the price increases have affected us a great deal, so i will have to take more jobs. nick:'s newest additional job, at a small grocery store in east eastern will. he takes phone orders, makes produce, and delivers them on an electric scooter. this is his 15th hour of work today. some days he delivers 20 orders a day. >> i am struggling to make ends meet. i am doing a part-ti job out to of necessity. nick: it is a necessity just to feed his family. at the farmers market, he and his wife struggled with what to buy and what to leave. >> can we have a killer of

tangerines? >> half a kilo will do. just half a kilo. nick: one pound of tangerines, four pounds of patoes was all they could afford. >> the prices are too high. we cannot afford to buy what we need. in the past i used to buy a lot, cook a lot. now i have to buy in small quantities. nick: turkey is suffering its highest inflation in nearly two decades. from december 2020-december 2021, prices rose 6%, everything from food to gas. the economic crisis is everywhere. in december, red lines stretched towards the corner. and as the lira plunged, many rush to change money into u.s. dollars. by president erdogan says it is all part of his plan. >> hopefully we will eliminate the swelling as soon as possible and prevent our nation from being under the burden of unfair price increases.

nick: the economic pain runs deep. extensive borrowing and rich cuts were already driving prices up, but his recent medicine is making the current secker. under his pressure since september, turkey's central bank slashed interest rates four times. >> anyone who took econ 101 in college would know that if inflation clamps up, interest rates have to follow that. erdogan is doing the opposite. nick: soner cagaptay is the director of the washington institute's turkish research program, and author most recently of “a sultan in autumn.” he says erdogan's motivation is difficult to know, but in the last few months of 2021, the the lira lost almost half of its value. in december, 18.4 for one dollar, and a weak lira can boost tourism and turkish exports. >> he is maybe trying to create what is called "growth out of contraction." in other words, let the economy crash and that will make turkish exports affordable because the lira has lost its value and the country will have restored growth driven by strong experts

and also demand for turkish tourism and services. nick: there are some signs of increased tourism. last month, bulgarians by the busload arrived in istanbul, to buy cheap groceries anbargain bazaar christmas gifts. and erdogan says experts are at an all-time high. turkish authorities also raised the minimum wage by 50% in a new land that pays turks to keep their deposits in lira. but depreciation is still large, as is the anger. in november, protesters called for the government to resign and for the police back down. >> how could the economic crisis become a political crisis. >> if he does not restore economic growth, he will not win elections in 2023. we will see that country's economic resilience pushed back. so i would say this is the most important turning point in president erdogan's korea. the unusual part of it is

turkish citizens lived under him for nearly two decades and experienced our severity they have never witnessed before. the livg standards are disappearing in front of the eyes of many citizens. voters are turning away from him. nick: and erdogan is turning inward. he fired multiple officials who resisted his unorthodox economic policies, and his government filed criminal complaints against turks who criticized his policies online. >> at this stage, i think the only way for him to stick to power, it looks like he's not going to be able to restore strong economic growth, is by becoming more autocratic, only. nick: thatoosts figures like the istanbul mayor ekrem , imamoglu, who challenge erdogan's nearly 20-year rule. >> this current process is not merely an economic crisis. i want to underline that it is a political crisis. i see this as a reflection of the inability to run the country. nick: and it is hard to run a family. the turans have cut back on food, cut out any new clothes,

in order to afford one, essential need, their daughter's tuition. 12-year-old nisa's in middle school, and 19-year-old irem's in college. >> i can't say no to their needs, because it is related with their education. they have to stay in school. we have to make personal sacrifices to meet their needs. nick: and maybe one day, solve the country's crisis. irem is studying economics. for the pbs newshour, i nick am schifrin. ♪ jody: microsoft announced lance today to buy activision blizzard, a huge leader in video game development, in a deal valued at 75 billion dollars. but the acquisition comes with significant issues. there have been numerous allegations of sexual misconduct

in the activision workplace. geoff bennett looks at those concerns and what's behind the deal. geoff: judy thanks to video game , subscriptions and the x-box, microsoft is already a major player in the gaming market, an industry generating 175 billion dollars a year in revenue. but acquiring activision will allow microsoft to up its own game during a pandemicueled beginning boom. activision is the company behind major hits like calof duty, world of warcraft and candy crush, and the takeover would make microsoft the world's third-largest gaming company. the more we are joined by kiersten grind from the wall street journal. put this number in context, this 175 billion dollars, the acquisition, what does it mean for the gaming industry generally? >> it is huge. it is one of the biggest deals. one of the biggest all-cash deals. the gaming industry put so much under one roof.

you had xbox and now you have activision's hits that will be in microsoft as well, so it gives microsoft some much more than it had before. geoff: and microsoft which owns studios that produce hits like minecraft, it has gotten more aggressive with the gaming in the last several years. how does this acquisition play into their long-term strategy? guest: activision has so many popular franchises. so with the addition of activision, as you said, they become the third-largest gaming company by revenue worldwide. so absolutely, pending the deal's closure, it makes them a very serious player in that space. nick: and this deal is coming as activision faces multiple regulatory investigations into alleged sexual assault and mistreatment of female

employees, going back years. yesterday activision fired some of its own executives following its own review of what transpired. give us a sense of what is happening in that company, and has microsoft indicated how it will handle it moving forward? >> activision is quite frankly in trouble with its culture at this point. it is facing three regulatory investigations. the state of california, the eeoc, the securities and exchange commission, we have reported about the mishandling and misconduct allegations, stock is down 3% from the last lawsuit about its culture last summer. so it was facing pressure from employees, from shareholders. so this is a really -- it is kind of a good solution really for activision at this point. geoff: and based on your

reporting, do you know what happens to the activision ceo? he led the company for more than three decades but there are allegations that he was aware of these complaints of misconduct, harassment and even assault, that he neglected to share it with the board. guest: we reported that in november and that is what led microsoft's approach when they were in the middle of all this turmoil after our story came out. so bobby actually is not expected to stay with the company after the deal closes. again, these deals canake a very long time to close and it is also pending a lot of regulatory approval, but yes, he is not expected to stay. geoff: can you give us the nature of what has been alleged? >> absolutely. some of the red letter agencies have alleged sexual harassment,

sexual assault, gender pay disparity, a broad range of misconduct across the board. what we wrote about in our november story in the wall street journal was about how bobby himself about the work race and misconduct allegations and did not tell the board about them. geoff: big picture, this acquisition is almost a keen to disney acquiring marvel in 2012. microsoft will now own a huge piece of the gaming industry, as we have been discussing. what does this mean for gamers generally? >> you know, i think going back to the culture questions, i think this could be a very good thing for gamers. i think, you know, i've heard a lot out there about how it was harder to get behind a company that was facing so many culture issues. and if a company like microsoft can help turn that around, i think that would be good for everyone, frankly.

geoff: thank you so much for your reporting and your perspectives on this huge deal between microsoft and activision. guest: thanks so much for having me. ♪ judy: today the first satellite images emerged of the pacific nation of tonga following saturday's volcanic eruption. the photos show the islands coated in ash. despite the violent explosion, the tongan government has so far reported just three deaths. the status of two smaller islands in its chain is still unknown. john yang takes a closer look at the science behind the volcano, it's explosion, and its aftermath. john: judy, science says the explosion revealed some of the mystery behind underwater tornadoes. it produced a tsunami that was felt 5000 miles away, and triggered in oils in peru.

it triggered a lightning storm that lasted seven hours, and had 400,000 strikes. it was heard as far away as alaska. but for all the ways it made itself felt around the world, its damage was relatively confined. tonga bore the brunt of the volcano's fury blanketed with ash that is now contaminating its water supply. michael poland is a research geophysicist with the u.s. geological survey's cascades volcano observatory in vancouver, washington. think you for joining us. as we talk about that was so dramatic this event that that huge plume that was visible from space, the tsunami, the atmospheric shockwave which rippled around the globe. but you say that the data actually showed that this was a relatively small eruption. explain that. guest: it is a very confounding event in that the amount of material that came out of th

ground was not especially huge. it was perhaps the kind of thing we might see every few years from a volcano somewhere on earth. but it produced an outsized explosion, really a massive explosion, and that has to have something to do with the interaction with ocean water in -- to produce that really massive tsunami. so it's having really outsized impacts for the amount of material that came out of the ground. john: and what was in that material? what did come out of the ground? guest: well, there was a lot of ash that came out, of course, as with most volcanic eruptions and so2 gas, among other types of gas, water vapor and so forth, and that sulfur dioxide really allows us to pinpoint where the plume is and how big it is , because we kno roughly the amount of sulfur gas that is dissolved in the magma. so it's a bit like opening a soda a having that carbon dioxide come out of the soda when the gas comes out of the volcano. we get a lot of co2 that comes out of that magma that allows us to track the plume and know roughly how big an eruption is. john: and you talk about that reaction with the ocean water. what is the explanation for it

being heard so far away, as far away as alaska? guest: that is really difficult to understand at this point. it had to have something to do with that sort of interaction. perhaps a large amount of gas rich magma being suddenly exposed to cold ocean water generated just a really massive explosion. and it was heard obviously very, very far away. that's something i think is going to be the subject of an awful lot of research in the in the days years to come. john: and the tsunami, i think a lot of people's familiarity with tsunamis really comes from the 2004 banda aceh tsunami, which was the result of an earthquake of a seismic event. is a name he also common with with volcanic eruption's underwater like this? >> volcanic eruptions that are right underwater or right near the water can generate tsunamis. it's not something we see a lot of. certainly, we see the earthquake-induced tsunami is much more commonly. there is a lot of study that went into earthquake-induced

tsunamis, especially after 2004, and we have come to understand a lot of those processes better than we did before. but volcanic tsunamis being rare give us fewer opportunities to study them and so we don't understand the volcanic tsunamis quite as well. so a bit like that airway that traveled around the earth,this tsunami is also going to be studied quite intently to unrstand more about what generated it. was it some displacement of the seafloor? or was it perhaps the impact of an ash plume on the water? there are many potential mechanisms for why there tsunami is so big, and understanding that we able to forecast some of these events in the future. john: as i hear you talk, it sounds like there's there's a lot we don't understand about underwater volcanoes and that this is suggesting ways or new research, as you say, to examine this one. what sorts of things will you be looking at and your colleagues be looking at, in this event? guest: i think the key here is

magma-water interaction. and so there's going to be all kinds of attention paid to how magma and water interact, what happens when you put these two different materials in contact in a really dynamic way? so we're going to be looking at modeling studies of those sorts of interactions, studying the ash particles to see whether that can provide some clues as to how the interaction took place. and then modeling this explosion, modeling the tsunami to try to understand more about the nature of this interaction. because obviously, there are submarine volcanoes in other places. they are tremendously hard to study because they are obscured. it's it'relatively easy to study volcanoes on land compared to these underwater volcanoes. but clearly, they present a hazard, so we need to understand more about that hazard. this event, as tragic as it is for tonga, might help us understand these kinds of interactions in more detail, and that may help us in the future. john: it is fascinating stuff. research geophysicist michael pollan, thank you very much. guest: my pleasure. ♪

judy: tania maree giordan -ee' founded "nourish nyc," an organization that began with the goal of providing support to black lives matter protestors, and has grown to provide broader grassroots services to her community year-round. tonight, she shares her brief but spectacular take on building a community based on love. >> i have been protesting physically since i was a young child with my mom. it is really funny, i don't call myself an activist because this is just a way of life. nourish nyc, in short, is a community organization that is black-led, black-centered, and we practice a holistic approach to community care. i started nourish nyc on may 29, 2020 in my bes friend's bedroom. [laughs] that was the evening after the very first protest in this wave of protesting of black lives

matter protesting after george floyd was killed. people were hungry, people were getting hurt, scraping themselves, but nobody had ppe. nobody had first aid, nobody had water bottles to share. when i got home that evening, i looked for organizations to donate money to who were providing ppe snacks and water to protesters, but i couldn't find any. and that's how i started in nourish nyc. i just started to post on my twitter and my personal instagram. and then it grew really, really fast. i went from having like a 1000 followers to almost 10,000. within like three days, i had like $80,000 in my accounts, and i knew it wasn't going to stop there. i looked at it and i said, i have an opportunity to really do something with this money. that has been an opportunity to provide over 40,000 meals, to provide over 10,000 safety kits to protesters. it's been an opportunity to connect black trans people with therapy. it's been an opportunity to keep people housed. it's been an opportunity to keep people fed, to get people clothed, to help hurricane ida victims, to help people who are just struggling to make a friend. it's been an opportunity to make a difference in so many people's

lives. and even if it's one person to me, that's success. and so when i saw my bank account just growing and growing and growing, i was like, no. people like me, we deserve the opportunity to call the shots, instead of them always being called for us. in 2019, i was sexually assaulted. and this is kind of like where the idea for having these spaces that take our marginalization and our traumas in mind. but that centered joy came from -- all i wanted was a space to go that understood what i was experiencing wh people who were trauma-informed. to go be happy. i just wanted to go and like create around other people who were going through the same thing that i was navigating, and it just doesn't exist. and so nourish is my opportunity to create that space. when you don't have your basic needs met, you can't show up, for yourself and the way that you want to. and i just don't think that that's a way to leave. i don't think that's the way that anyone should have to live. i deserve the opportunity and people who are like me, who have experiences like me deserve the opportunity to control our

stories. we deserve to feel joy, uninhibited. we deserve to smile uninhibited. we deserve to dance. we deserve to eat. we deserve to feast together happily. my name is tanya marie giordani, and this is my brief but spectacular take on living in a world based on love. jody: to power sry. you can watch all of our brief but spectacular episodes at pbs.org/newshour/brief. fatal drug overdoses spiked to a record high in the u.s. during the first year of the pandemic. you can read more about what experts say needs to happen to change course on her website, pbs.org/newshour. . and that's the newshour for tonight. i am judy woodruff. dennis online and again here tomorrow evening. from all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you. please stay safe and we'll see you soon.

>> major funding for that pbs newshour has been provided by -- ♪ >> consumer cellular. johnson & johnson. financial services firm raymond james. bnsf railway. carnegie corporation of new york, supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security, at carnegie.org. ♪ the target foundation, committed to advancing racial equity and creating the change required to shift systems and accelerate equitable economic opportunity. ♪ and with the ongoing support of these institutions. ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs

station from viewers like you. thank you. thank you. ♪ >> this is the pbs newshour, from weta studios in washington, and from the west, from the walter cronkite studios at arizona state university. ♪ ♪

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