judy: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight, rough waters. the commander of the united states navy in the pacific discusses rising tensions with china and an uncertain future in the region. then, a winter surge. the white house warns of increased infections from covid, rsv, and the flu that are straining hospitals. and, the state of america. a new poll shows americans want congressional cooperation, but expect gridlock. >> it speaks to the frustration that people are feeling in the process because they really would like things to get done and like the system to run smoother. judy: all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour."

♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by the kendeda fund, committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work through investments in transformative leaders and ideas. more at kendedafund.org. carnegie corporation of new york, supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security at carnegie.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. judy: a gigantic winter storm system that's moved across the u.s. is now reaching the atlantic coast, after blitzing the south with tornadoes. the scattershot storms there killed three people in louisiana. roby chavez reports from new orleans. ro: just days ago, this pile of debris was a home. on wednesday, the woman who lived there, lost her life to a tornado. >> the car was in front of this mobile home. roby: in killona, louisiana, many people living in trailers,

still recovering from hurricane ida last year, h their lives flipped upside down once again. they described the moment the storm struck. >> the awesomeness of it, the fierceness, the force of it, just in a matter of seconds can just change your whole life. roby: and what they saw when theyoke up today. >> it looked like a bomb went off actually. roby: louisiana's governor toured the state today to see the damage. >> if you're in one of those families, who 10 days before christmas, you just lost a love d one, or someone was hospitalized or you just lost your home, then this weather event was as bad as it can get. roby: he said that as many as 10 to 15 different tornadoes formed in 24 hours, from the hardest hit town of killona to new orleans. the twisters ran parallel to highways and ripped through buildings, leaving destruction in their wake. this used to be a rare sight around new orleans, but it's the second time this year that the

city has seen cyclones. >> get inside my get inside. roby: the unusual storm system that created them in the south produced an arctic blast in the midwest, burying towns and cities in deep snow. in nebraska, the blizzard shut part of an interstate this week , forcing trucks off the road. from montana to new england, the coast-to-coast storm is expected to continue sweeping the country. just in time for holiday travel. in new orleans, for the pbs newshour, i'm roby chavez. judy: storm clouds of a different sort overtook wall street today. stocks dropped sharply on fears that the federal reserve will keep raising interest rates to break inflation, even it causes a recession. the dow jones industrial average

lost 764 points to close at 33,202, down 2.25%. the nasdaq fell 360 points, more than three the s&p 500 dropped 2.5%. the federal government will resume making free covid tests available to all u.s. households. the white house announced today that each home may order up to 4 at-home tests online, at no cost. that policy had been suspended for 3 months, but cases have risen sharply since thanksgiving. so, officials will now draw on the stockpile. >> we knew there would be a moment later in the year when covid cases would rise again. so we kept we preserve the tests so we could have them on hand for exactly this moment. and if we don't get more funding, we won't be able to send more tests out to the american people. roby: -- judy: so far, congress

has not agreed to provide new funding for free tests. meanwhile, china's government counseled calm today as infections there surge. the foreign ministry pointed to what it called "institutional advantages" to help the nation cope. the spike in cases has triggered long lines at covid testing centers and fever clinics in beijing and elsewhere. and there've been runs on various medicines. ukraine armed that russia's goal is a long-term conflict to wear down ukraine's forces. it is already in its 10th month. in kyiv, the defense ministry said there is no sign that moscow is interred by its recent losses. >> we in the world should not relax because the ultimate goal of the russian federation is to conquer all of ukraine. if they reach this goal, they will move on to other countries. the world should understand this. judy: in washington today, pentagon officials said the u.s. military will expand combat training for ukraine's troops.

in this country, harvard university has named its first black president. she will be the only black president currently leading an ivy league school. she will also be the secon woman told the top post at harvard. still to come on the newshour, president biden pledges more support and investment at a summit of african nations. two literary critics give their takes on the best of -- best books are 2022. a new musical exploits -- explores neil diamond's life and career. >> this is the pbs newshour, from pbs --weta studios in washington and from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. judy: the u.s. government labels the people's republic of china, or p.r.c., as one of its major challenges, even more so not as

beijing flexes its military prowess with an unprecedented buildup. the u.s. military command responsible for china, north korea, the entire pacific, and all the way to the border with india, is known as the end of pacific command. nick schifrin -- indo pacific command. nick schifrin traveled there. nick: the admiral is in the middle of the pacific ocean and his command covers half the earth's surface. >> we're about a stone's throw from pearl harbor. are you concerned that we're at the most dangerous point since world war ii? >> i do see the current strategic environment as as really dangerous, the most dangerous time i've seen in 38 years. this is based on, a, the largest military buildup that we're seeing in history. both conventional and nuclear. number two, the unprovoked, illegitimate war in the ukraine, 63 missile launches out of the dprk. unprecedented, the most in

history, to include a potential nuclear capability and a desire to have nuclear capability. and then you add one additional piece, and that is a no limits policy articulated by the leaders of russia and the prc. >> no limits cooperation. >> no limits to their cooperation. that's concerning. that's a different world. this is about two incompatible visions for the future, right? free and open and a legacy of liberty. or you look at an authoritarian, closed, opaque, and a tradition of tyranny. that's the choices that have that nations might have to make in the future. >> chinese fishing boats, warships, and aircraft regularly harass other countries in the region. how do you think you're already competing with china? i think what you articulated is behavior that we see often.

the inability to operate in accordance with the rule based order, the coercion of allies, partners and friends that are in the region. economic, militarily, and then to your point, whether it be fishing vessels or other capabilities. right? these behaviors destabilize the region. >> xi jinping has never renounced using violence to unify with taiwan. and he specifically said by 2027, when the people's liberation army, the pla, turns 100, that it will have, quote, "enhanced capacity to safeguard china's interests." do you believe that by 2027, china will have the capacity to invade taiwan if it wants? >> president xi jinping has tasked his military department to deliver the capabilities that he might need should he decide to take a choice of force by 2027.

he's said it in open space. so i believe that they will execute the orders of their president. >> secretary blinken put it this way. he said beijing has plans to pursue unification on a much faster timeline. again, does that give you a sense of urgency? >> we have a sense of urgency in everything we do. and we do that because of those actions that we see executed in the region. we see concern from the failure to adhere to agreements that applies to hong kong. we certainly have concern based on lethal actions on the line of actual control with india. we have to have a sense of urgency in order to deter any follow on actions. and, oh, by the way, we at indopacom need to move faster. we, the u.s. government, need to go further. >> in response to speake pesi's visit to taiwan in august, we saw chinese missiles fly over the island for the first time, bracketing the island, and we saw the chinese navy operate on the eastern side of twan. china at the time said it was creating a new status quo or wanted to create a new status

quo. do you think it has? >> i think the intent for the prc is to always move forward in a way that would help them achieve their end state of unification of taiwan. that is certainly their strategic objective. what i would say is our actions and efforts will continue to ensure that we can meet responsibilities under the taiwan relations act, in order to enable any peaceful resolution, as agreed to by people on both sides of the straits, free of coercion and force. right. the critical portion of this is the free of coercion and force. and what i think we saw was the threat of force and coercion. the 1979 taiwan relations act mandates the u.s. government -- >> the 1979 taiwan relations act mandates the u.s. government provide taiwan weapons to maintain a quote "sufficient

self-defense capability." the act is ambiguous about how the us would respond to a chinese invasion, but president biden has reduced that ambiguity. president biden has said on multiple occasions that the united states would come to taiwan's defense. are you ready today to come to taiwan's defense? >> the united states military force in theacific is ready for all contingencies. >> do you think you will be more or less ready to respond in five or ten years, given the steps you're taking, but also the steps that beijing's taking? >> nick, we'll be ready. we will be ready. there is no caveat, or more or less. you're either ready or you're not. and in the future, the united states will be ready. nick: including on taiwan. >> the united states will be ready for any contingency that the military is told to execute. nick: do you think taiwan is taking the steps it needs to defend itself? >> in the wake of this illegitimate and illegal war that the russians have waged on ukraine, i think what it did is it highlighted to people around the world that the potential exists for, you know, action by

adversaries, especially when you talk about authoritarian governments that one person can decide whether to invade or not. so what i believe is that the people on taiwan have seen that. i think they should learn from that and take the actions that are going to be required to defend themselves. nick: what lessons do you think that taiwan should take from ukraine? >> what i tell you is what i learned, and that is the actions and responsibilities under the taiwan relations act, we probably need to go a little faster. what does that mean? -- >> what does that mean? >> that certainly means that the capabilities and the training that are required to defend the island, we should certainly ensure they are received. so the defense industrial base should be able to deliver those

capabilities that the taiwans have purchased. nick: american weapons bought by taiwan, including artillery and stinger missiles have been delayed because of u.s. production limits. the us is pushing taiwan to purchase smaller weapons that could help repel a chinese invasion, instead of big-ticket systems that taiwan used to prefer. china has increased its nuclear capacity. and according to the department of defense, it will yield about 1500 nuclear weapons by 2030. how does that make you what you do militarily more difficult? >> what's going on in the prc to accelerate and deliver that capability and capacity in the time that you just articulated, that's a nuclear buildup. and all the nations are concerned about it, as they should be. >> what we've got behind us is the b-2. nick: a few minutes from aquilino's office, he shows me a visiting b-2 bomber and the us' -- u.s.'s most advanced fighter

jets. aqulino says he wants to have a dialogue with his chinese counterpart, but he won't pickup the phone. >> it's very important for me to be able to have communications with my counterpart. if there were ever an event for he and i to be able to talk and potentially de-escalate and keep anything from turning into a real problem, that's certainly beneficial. i've been working towards having that event now for almost a year and a half. we have yet to be able to schedule it. it was never scheduled, so it was never cut off. nick: but you've been trying to schedule it and they haven't replied. >> we haven't been able to set it up. they haven't accepted the request yet. nick: this year china's neighbor , north korea, officially called the democratic people's republic of korea, or dprk, has launched an unprecedented number of tests . it says it has nuclear weapons that can reach the continental u.s. >> so it certainly destabilizes and threatens not only the united states, but our allies and partners. when you think about south korea and japan. that capability, either conventional or nuclea is concerning. now, that said, the united states, south korea, and japan

have come together to both operate together, to do trilateral response options, to ensure all of our homelands are protected, and to deter any future actions. so it's concerning that the provocative action by the dprk continues and no sign of slowing down. nick: admiral thank you very -- admiral, thank you very much. >> thanks, nick. ♪ judy: the white house is warning of a surge of illness th holiday season, as the country deals with the simultaneous uptick of three hily contagious respiratory viruses. hospitals across the country are filling to near capacity, and stressing healthcare workers. william brangham has our report on this alarming rise. william: just before thanksgiving, elly rivera's two-month-old daughter sloane

got sick. she was congested, started coughing. after a few days, it got worse. sloane was really struggling to breathe, so rivera rushed her to a nearby hospital in las vegas. so you go to the emergency room and then what happens? >> as soon as that nurse was able to look at sloane, it was like a blur they start tearing off her onesie trying to find a vein for an i.v. there'an oxygen mask. they're probing and, you know, doing all the things that they need to do to make to get her vitals and her temperature and all that. it was i feel like there was probably six or seven people working it on her atnce. >> just such a horrible feeling to sit there watching your kid go through that. >> you try as a parent to hold it together, but i lt it. william: doctors said sloane had a common cold but she also had respiratory syncytial virus, known as rsv, and while most people recover from rsv in a week or so, it can be more

severe for the elderly and for infants. so once that was determined, they went from a just standard kind of oxygen mask to something called the high flow, which from my understanding is the step before cpap or intubation. william: across the country, hospitals are grappling with an earlier-than-usual peak in rsv infections. it's a common virus most people are exposed to by the time they are two years old but due , to the isolation of the pandemic, manyids have had no normal exposure, and so cases are surging. you take rsv, add on a particularly bad flu season, plus covid, it's creating what some public health experts are calling a "tri-demic." this season, the cdc has recordedore than 13 million cases of influenza, and an estimated 7300 people have already died, and 120,000

hospitalized from the flu, the highest numbers in a decade, and in the last two weeks, covid cases and hospitalizations have risen 25% nationwide, all of which is leaving hospitals, once again, overwhelmed. >> various layers of backup that we typically have in place during our normal respiratory season month, which is usually kind of january or february. that all out a couple of months -- 're having to kind of roll that all out a couple of months early. william: dr. per gesteland is a pediatric hospitalist at intermountain primary children's hospital in salt lake city, utah. the majority of his patients have rsv, but flu is taking a hey toll as well. >> our hospital is designed to have about 287 beds. we've been popping up around 95% to 105% of occupancy of those beds. that means, at times, we have to double bunk patients. we create beds out of thin air. we take one smallish room, put a curtain in the middle, roll in some portable monitors, and next thing you know, you've got two beds. william: right now, nearly 80% of hospital beds across the u.s. are occupied, so to ease the

flow of new patients, some areas are urging people to mask back up. in new york, the city's health commissioner has advised mask wearing in all indoor and crowded settings. in california, rates of rsv are the highest they've been in years, and an uptick in covid and influenza is pushing frontline workers to the brink. >> pediatricians we're talking c

>> can you hear me? looks like we are having a hard time connecting with our local epidemiologist. we will get back to her in a little bit. judy: thank you, william. we will try and get back to that as soon as we can figure out the audio problem. meantime, a three-day summit that included the leaders of 49 nations on the african continent concluded in washington. it was the first such gathering in eight years and it included pledges of significant new involvement by the united states. here to update us is laura lopez. laura, hello. we have heard president biden speak often as he hosts these leaders from across the continent about the global battle between democracies and autocracies and you invited to this summit are a number of leaders who were clearly

considered autocrats. >> the president has talked a lot about democracy, threats to it at home and also abroad and he spoke to african leaders today, addressed them, and here's what he had to say. pres. biden: the united states is all in on africa and all in with africa. african voices, african leadership, african innovation. all are critical to addressing the most pressing global challenges. laura: that was not the audio we were looking for right there but essentially what the president did say is democracy is never guaranteed and that he really stressed to africans that the best tool that they have is to address -- is to use democracy to address a wide range of challenges and he said that doesn't mean that the u.s. always gets it right. i spoke to a number of form obama administration

officials who worked on african policy and they said they felt as though demoacy was getting a short shrift at this summit. a number of other officials told me the same and is because of who was invited. th said that the ethiopian prime minister who has been accused of widespread atrocities, human rights violations, and in ethiopia, we e seeing one of the most brutal conflict in the world where some 500,000 people have been killed and again, he has been accused by human rights advocates and analysts of a number of crimes. there was also rwanda that was invited as well as the egyptian president, and he is an authoritarian leader. i asked the white house about this. i spoke to an official today and they said why not talk to these countries and leaders about the concerns that we have about these human rights violations? they defended inviting them,

saying they are in good standing within the african union so that is why they were inviting them. judy: interesting. when they had a summit of latin american leaders not so long ago, they left out several leaders. moving on, we know that a country that is casting a shadow, if you will come over the summit is a country that has put a lot of money and investment in the african continent and that is china. what did you learn about that? laura: with china right now, the u.s. under president biden has been trying to counter china's large economic presence, particularly with africa. china has had summits with africa regularly, about every three years, so chinese trade with africa is about four times the size of the united states. they purchase massive amounts of quantities of african agriculture. they have also distributed billions in infrastructure amending and aid. when i asked the national

security official about this and whether or not they were going to, you know, that they felt as though they were trying to play catch-up to china, they refuted that. they said we are not playing catch up to china right now. there is an enduring record of the united states and africa which is what the official told me. i also stressed that the esident is going to follow up on everything that the u.s. is trying to commit to right now which is to visit the country in 2023 and that vice president harris as well as the first lady and a number of cabinet officials are going to go to africa to try to really assert this presence, this lasting presence and commitment of engagement to the continent. judy: clearly an effort to put morettention on the continent of africa than has been the case for so many years. laura: of course. the big thing about this summit is tt it is the first summit in eight years between the u.s. and africa. there's some 49 african countries that are here in the u.s. and the president has tried

to demonstrate over the last three days that this is a commitment that the u.s. is making that is much bigger than it has in the past. there has been criticism, saying the $55 billion worth of investments as well as increased u.s.-africa trade and a support that the president has asserted, saying that african union membership should be made at the g20 as well as the security council, that those are things that are basically given and should have been done anyways, but the administration has said that this is a really g deal for the united states, that they also deemed the summit a success, and they say that in all of that funding and those vestments they are trying to make africa are necessarily prepackaged or things that have already been approved in budgets. they are also things that are new and they are trying to work

with congress to approve. judy: clearly trying to plant a flag and say this is important. laura barron-lopez. thank you very much. laura: thank you. judy: and we do take another look at what americans can do to protect themselves against infection this winter. we go to william with that. william: let's focus on what people can do to protect themselves during this viral search. for -- surge. for that, i am joined by an epidemiologist with the university of texas and she writes the "your local epidemiologist" newsletter on substack. great to have you back on the newshour. we have three highly contagious respiratory viruses circulating in the world right now. i know that they are on different trajectories, but when you look at the data, what is your crystal ball telling you

about the winter? is it going to get worse, is it going to plateau, what do you see? katelyn: that is really the billion dollar question is what it's going to happen and the reason we don't really know is because flu and rsv are incredibly early this season. typically, they peek in around january -- peak in around january and for them to peak now is perplexing because during all of those holidays, we are opening up our social networks. in fact, this respiratory season, we may see several homes instead of 1 -- humps instead of one large one. we are approaching this with a lot of humility and we hope it is over soon. william: always a fan of humility. when you look out in our society, who is most at risk from these three viruses? katelyn: there's really three groups. one is those over 65. they are at risk for a severe disease from all three.

from flu, rsv, covid-19, and very concerned about our immunocompromised and i'm very concerned about thosender five. rsv is incredibly dangerous for them. flu can be as well as covid-19 can be as well so all three of those groups really need to take extra precautions and not only them but the people around those groups have to do that as well. william: tell me a little bit more about those precautions. what should people be doing to best protect themselves? katelyn: i think people may be sick of what i'm about to say. it's masks. masks work. they work against covid, they work against flu, and we think they work against rsv. they work just even if you are the only one wearing them, especially if it is fitd and tight fit. the next on the line is antigen testing. we got great news today that the usps program is offering free

antigen test again so ghly recommend doing that a few days in the morning of an event and i think one of the most important things is filtration and ventilation, but stay home if you are sick. i know it is not fun during the holidays. it is super lonely, but it is honestly the best thinyou can do for your family as well as your community, so the hospitalization numbers go down. willm: what about the issue of vaccines? we know there is not one for rsv but there is a very good flu shot out there. and the covid bivalent booster that is out there, we rectly got data about how effective that is. someone comes to you and says should i get the flu shot, should i get that bivalent booster, should i do both? what do you counsel people? katelyn: i say yes. william: yes to all? katelyn: the best time to have gotten those is tour three weeks ago but today is the second best time.

flu vaccine, we are getting great data from the southern hemisphere that it is a good match this year which we are super happy about. we are getting real world data. almost in real time about our fall boosters and i really could not be any happier about the data we are seeing. ---- the fall boosters increase our protection against infection and hospitalization. they brought in our protect so our antibodies are more able to see different parts of the virus because omicron is changing and we also hope that there longer duration. unfortunately with that third, we are at the mercy of time so go get the booster shot, go get the flu shot. it will help this winter. william: your local epidemiologist. it is a great newsletter. i want everyone to read it. thank you so much for being here. katelyn: thanks for having me.

judy: we are just three weeks away from the start of a split congress. lisa desjardins takes stock of what voters want to see from this new congress and how they view the two parties. lisa: judy, a divided electorate weighed in on the future of democracy, compromise among lawmakers and more in our latest ll.ewshour, npr, and marist here with me to talk about all the findings is lee miringoff. he is the director of the marist college institute for public opinion and he runs this poll. let's jump right into it. following the election and ahead of the january 6 select committee's final report, we asked americans what they think about any threat to democracy, and 83% said yes, they do believe there is a threat to democracy, a serious one right now. we also asked them which

political party poses a greater threat. 48% saying republicans and 45% saying democrats. how unusual are those numbers and what do they tell you? >> they reflect the times we live in. they see it as a serious strength. that has grown. we have a lot of people who are very concerned. what is interesting and somewhat surprising in this is the comparability of the two parties, the fact that both democrats and republicans are seen fairly equally as culpable in all of this. that has to do with if you are a democrat, you think the republicans are too extreme. if you are a republican, you think the democrats have gotten to an extreme. your concerns about democracy from both camps and democrat folks concerned about, you know, january 6, and what happened at

the capitol, and on the republican side, it echoes former president trump's rigged elections and labels that people are putting on more progressive democrats. lisa: it sounds like concern is rising but so is blamed for the other guys. we also ask what americans think about lawmakers in general. we are just a few weeks ahead of the new congress and some 58% of those who responded that they have no confidence that the two parties can work together. look at that number at the bottom. just 9% sayinghey have a lot of confidence that the parties can work together. we also asked should the parties be looking together? 74% of those we talked to said yes. compromises more important than standing on principle. those are big numbers also. what do they say to you about us ? those numbers have changed, have they not? lee: it speaks to the frustration people are feeling in the process because they

really would like things to get done and would like the system to run smoother. that 74% is the highest we have had in a decade in terms of people wanting bipartisan compromise so people are frustrated. that is not news but it sure shows in these numbers. what is interesting, talking abt the last congress, we saw that 24% think that they did more than previous congress have accomplished. what i find interesting about that is 24% isn't a huge number but it is the highest since 1998 so people have actually noticed that congress is accomplishing things. they would like more in the direction of working together, t they are totally not convinced that that is likely to occur and who can blame them given the back and forth every day we are seeing in our politics coming out of the capitol? judy: -- lisa: let's look at

president biden's current approval numbers. 48% disapproval in this poll. that is a slight improvement for him. we also asked who do people want as a 2024 presidential nominees? 35% of democrats and democratic leaning independents said president biden. 45% for those meeting republican said former president trump. what does that tell you about the mindset? neither one of these men has a majority of those who lean their way? lee: you have two frontrunners. neither of whom is commanding their strengths within each of their parties and i think, you know, it speaks to this plurality that both of them have and raises the question of where are we going to get the leadership going back to the congress? people want things to move forward and they want that to happen at the national level and clearly, in these numbers, that may not be occurring. i should mention also that when you look at numbers like that, what this speaks to is where is everyone else going to go? where are the democrats going to

go if president biden do not run? where are the republicans going to go? how many republicans ultimately do get in a donald trump does continue his candidacy, which he indites that he will? a crowded field, he does better. remember 2016. if it is just one or two people running against him for the republican these numbers suggest he would have a much tougher battle. lisa: americans are clearly looking for leadership but they may not have found the person or people they believe can bring it to them yet. director of the marist college institute for public opinion, thank you so much. lee: my pleasure. ♪ judy: the year in books. we take a look at some of the best writing of 2022. jeffrey brown leads the way for our arts and culture series, canvas. jeffrey: it's always one of our favorite discussions of the

year, even if we can only get to a handful of top books. we'll do our best. joined this year by gilbert cruz, books editor of the new york times, and maureen corrigan, book critic of npr. nice to talk to both of you. and maureen corrigan, book critic of npr. gilbert, let's start with fiction. how about two or three picks? gilbert: sure. i will mention two books that we recently put on our top ten books of the year list. the first is trust by hernan diaz. this is a novel that tells the rise of a financier in new york city in the early 20th century. but it tells it from four different perspectives. it is historical fiction, but it's also literary fiction. it's something that i honestly did not know anything about going into it. i picked it up off the shelf this summer, and i think in the first five or six pages i was just totally taken by it. this is one of my favorite books of the year. jeffrey: okay, how about a second pick? gilbert: sure. another of my favorite books of the year is the candy house by jennifer egan. so jennifer egan wrote the pulitzer prize winning novel a

visit from the goon squad. this came out in 2010. and the candy house is a sequel. a follow up, i think she calls it a sibling novel. you find some of the same characters but it sort of takes them in a completely different direction. it presupposes that there is a technology that has been invented called own your unconscious. so it's sort of a social novel in that it is graping with what it means to be hooked into technology and social media. it's relevant. it's endlessly inventive. 's it's fantastic. jeffrey: i'm glad you picked that one. and i hope our viewers will remember my talk with jennifer egan earlier this year for that book. so maureen corrigan, two fiction. maureen: claire keegan's foster, this is a novella. it was originally published in 2010 in the new yorker. it's been out in great britain for years. it's the first time it's been published in this country. jeffrey: she's an irish writer, right?

maureen: she's an irish writer. she's telling the story of a young girl who's shipped off to relatives she doesn't know to live for a summer on a farm. keegan raises the question of whether this is a kindness or not to introduce a child who has of living and different relationships when she's going to be shipped back to her parents at the end of the summer. the other book that knocked me out was a debut by jonathan escoffery called if i survive you. it's about a jamaican american family. the parents come to florida to to escape political violence and to try to give their two young sons another kind of life. they keep getting knocked down. the 2008 recession. hurricane andrew. racism. escoffery is a terrific writer. he's funny.

he's witty. he's sharp. his characters are more than just sort of ideas. they're fully realized human beings. and the "you" his characters are trying to survive is america. jeffrey: all right. let's turn to nonfiction, gilbert, want to pick, give us a couple? gilbert: i sure do. the first is a book called stay true by a gentleman called hua hsu, hua is a writer for the new yorker magazine. and stay true is a memoir. it's a memoir of growing up as a child of taiwanese immigrants in california. but it's also the memoir of going to berkeley in the mid 1990's. he becomes friends with the son of japanese american immigrants, a boy named ken, who he first thinks is sort of this very simple frat boy, but then grows to learn it's much more complicated than he first suspecte it's a book about grief. it's a book about youth and nostalgia.

there's so much that is packed into such a small, such such a small amount of pages. it's quite wonderful. the second is called an immense world. ed yong is a writer for the atlant magazine. some might know him for his wonderful stories over the past three years on coronavirus. but is is a book about animals and specifically about the ways that animals perceive the world and how those perceptions are different from the way that humans see the world. and whether you like animals or not, it was just endlessly fascinating. jeffrey: okay, maureen, nonfiction. maureen: ada calhoun, also a poet. ada calhoun is writing about her father, peter schjeldahl, who was an art critic for the new york times. jeffrey: yeah, very prominent. maureen: very prominent, but kind of an elusive, emotionally elusive father. ada goes down to the basement of the east village apartment house where her parents lived for decades.

she comes upon these cassette tapes that her father made when he was trying to write a biography of the new york poet frank o'hara. and she decides she's going to use these tapes to try to complete what he never completed. he never wrote this biography. also a poet is literary criticism. it's biography of both her father and frank o'hara. and it's also a daughter's memoir and a love letter to new york city. so it's fabulous. the other book i that has stayed -- the other book i -- that has stayed with me is by the medical historian lindsay fitzharris, and it's called the face maker. it's about the pioneering plastic surgery work of harold gillies, a doctor during world war i, who's faced with this catastrophe of all of these men who've had their faces shattered by the new technology of warfare during world war i. there are no textbooks, there are no guides. he's trying to put these men's faces back together again and to give them their lives. jeffrey: gilbert, you know, i know in your position you get lots and lots of books sent your way.

i'm just -- i'm wondering, do you see any themes jumping out at you or subject matter that speaks to our moment, whether it's the pandemic, the politics of our time? anything hitting you? gilbert: one book that came out this year that was particularly well-received, book called lucy by the sea, by the author elizabeth strout. and this was a novel starring a character that she's written about several times bere, lucy barton. and in this novel, lucy experiences the pandemic. she is an older woman who has to leave new yorko go up to maine to join her husband in a cabin so they casort of get away from what they imagine is is a very dangerous place to be at the moment. it's a little too close for some people at the moment. i found it extremely readable and i imagine we're going to continue to see books like that over the course of the next many years. jeffrey: maureen, you get a lot of books comg your way. what do you see? maureen: i do.

the pandemic novel and nonfiction. i see the pandemic entering in ways that i don't expect. something like alexandra horowitz's the year of the puppy. alexandra horowitz is the head of the canine cognition lab at barnard, and she's written a lot of nonfiction about the way dogs think. kind of connecting with what gilbert said about ed yong's nonfiction book. mc: she and her family adopted a puppy during the pandemic. and so it's partly that personal story. so many people adopted dogs and cats during the pandemic, but also this attempt yes, to get into the mind of a creature who we love but who is not us. so i think we're going to keep seeing those pandemic stories. jeffrey: all right. just some of the best books of 2022. maureen corrigan, gilbert cruz, thank you both very much. gilbert: thank you. maureen: thank you.

♪ judy: the playlist is personal for the team distilling the life of and legacy of neil diamond in the newly-opened broadway musical "a beautiful noise." without diamond, we would not have "sweet caroline." the monkees wouldn't have had number one hits like "i'm a believer." and there would be no song about "coming to america." diamond's decades-long march through the music charts is portrayed in the musical which first ran in boston this summer. that is where special correspondent jared bowen of gbh got an early look, for canvas, our series on arts and culture series. ♪ jared: for the team distilling neil diamond's life on stage, the playlist is personal. linda powell: my gateway drugs for neil diamond really were theatrical in a way because it was seeing the movie the jazz singer. >> ♪ i couldn't at all tonight ♪

"america and brooklyn roads and -- michael mayer: america and brooklyn roads and shiloh. shiloh i think they speak to his heritage and to his childhood. america >> ♪ coming 2 america ♪ michael mayer: we understand what it is to be the son of immigrants fleeing in terror in europe and coming to america and seizing that opportunity and then finding yourself in brooklyn and lonely and creating an imaginary friend named shiloh , who is your constant companion. >> ♪ young child with dreams dream every dream on your own ♪ jared bowen: and for actor will swenson who is playing the superstar singer and songwriter, his diamond pick? >> ♪ i am myself to no one else ♪

>> it seems like maybe he learned early that like honesty is the currency that people respond to. he was never afraid to put himself out there personally. >> we spoke with the team as the show was deep into rehearsals. >> it's kind of a story of a man coming to grips with who he is today and the challenges he has today and grappling with the decision that he made in the past and wishing he could change them. jared bowen: the 81-year-old diamond retired from performing in 2018 after being diagnosed with parkinson's disease. it was only when he stepped off the stage, says director michael mayer, when diamond, who has been part of the process every step of the way, was ready to tell his life story. >> he is probably truer to the human he was before he became a star. we reveal in the show the showman of neil, the jewish elvis, if you will, that is a character that he put on. it was a way for him to take someone who is innately shy and quiet and kind of a loner.

that's how he could stand on a stadium stage and sing to 80,000 people. jared: mayer, the tony-winning director of shows like spring awakening, the green day musical , american idiot, and hedwig and the angry inch, has shaped the show as a memory play, not simply a night of diamond's greatest hits. michael: we're not doing the and then i wrote, and then i wrote and then i wrote, and then i wrote. it's a much more emotional and abstract exploration. jared: teased out by way of a therapist, played by linda powell, helping an older neil diamond reflect on his younger days. now, decades into her own acting career, it's a concept with which she deeply identifies. linda it starts from an older : person looking back at their life and looking back at experiences they went through and trying to figure out how did that make me who i am?

why did i do that, that way? and i'm not that person anymore. who am i? will: i relate to it endlessly. jared: actor will swenson plays the younger neil diamond. who began writing songs at 16, whose hits date back to the 1960's, and who's ultimately sold more than 100 million records. will he was just being played on : a loop in our house. growing up, one of my earliest memories is of a hot, august night eight track in my dad's van in like 1976. i think. jared: so with diamond virtually in his dna, swenson says he had an out-of-body experience the first time, during rehearsals, he had to perform diamond in front of diamond. will: i was just strumming my guitar, thinking, "keep it together, keep it together." and i went about five feet too far downstage. and then one of the ensemble members bashed into me and i was like, "oh, terrible way to start." i don't remember a lot of it. as a positive i don't think i'll , ever be more nervous in my life. ever.

jared: clearly, he's become more comfortable-joining diamond who made a rare appearance singing "sweet caroline" at a red sox game earlier this month. ♪ >> ♪ hands reaching out ♪ jared: swenson says parkinson's disease may have curtailed diamond's career, but his spirit rages on. will he reminds me of my dad a : ton. they're the same age roughly. and he's great. sharp as a tack. and is still so invested in the music and the sound. he's been singing along with us and we feel really privileged to get to be in the room while he's singing sweet caroline with us. it's amazing. >> ♪ sweet caroline ♪ jared: for the pbs newshour, i'm jared bowen, in boston. judy: that is definitely one to see if we possibly can. and that is the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs

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ever. hello, everyone, wedge come to -- welcome to kwl"amanpour a company." the january 6th committee find wises the report, one of the rioters main targets, speaker nancy pelosi. her film maker daughter alexandria tells me about capturing her mother's story and the brutal attack on her father paul. then. >> this is one of the most impressive scientific feats of the 21st century. >> but what exactly is nuclear

fusion and how soon could it unlock new hope for our planet and clean energy?