>> good evening, i'm john yang. tonight on pbs weekend, we look ahead to the incoming congress and what is in-store as the new republican house majority picks the new speaker. then travel woes. we speak with two weary southwest airlines passengers whose holiday plans were upended by the carriers meltdown. and jeff bennett's one-on-one with grammy nominee tobias jesso jr. on his unlikey journey to writing songs for some of music's biggest stars. >> "i'm very anxious. i wasn't meant to be a singer i always knew i wanted write songs but that was as like as far as my nervous system would allow me to go."

john all that and the day's : headlines on tonight's "pbs news weekend." >> major funding for pbs news weekend has been provided by. for 25 years consumer cellular has been offering plans to help people do more of what they like. r customer service team can help find the plan that fits you. to learn more, visit consumer cellular.tv. >> and with the ongoing support of these indiduals and institutions. and friends of the news hour.

this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> good evening and happy new year. we begin in ukraine where air raid sirens drown out any new year's celebration in the capital of kyiv. russia has swarmed the night sky with drones and missile barrages. ukraine's shot down thousands of drones. the assault hammered several parts of the country and came shortly after ukrainian president zelenskyy delivered a new year's addressed just before midnight. >> there are a few minutes left before theew year. i wish one thing for all of us now, victory. one wish for all uainians. let this year be the year of

return. the return of our people. warriors to their families, captive to their home, return to normal life. hours after explosions blared it was a quiet evening in kyiv. many residents carried on with their day. in afghaniststan, the new year began with a deadly bomb attack near checkpoint at kabul's military airport. taliban officials say the blast killed and wounded quote "several" people -- without providing an exact figure. no one has yet claimed responsibility. in uganda: new year's celebrations turned deadly around midnight when police say a stampede to watch fireworks killed at least 9 people -- some of them children. it happened at a popular mall in kampala, uganda's capital. the crowd had rushed into a narrow corridor. today, friends and family grieved together outside. luiz inacio la da silva is again president of brazil.

lula, as he is known, arrived in the capital brasilia today amid heightened security. tens of thousands of supporters greeted him outside before he took the oath of office. it's his third term in office. in his speech, he condemned the predecessor's approach to covid-19 and said with his election that "democracy was the great victor." and, a passing of note. anita pointer, one of the 4 sibling singers of "the pointer sisters", died on saturday at her home in california after a battle with cancer. anita and her sister bonnie wrote the 1974 hit "fairytale" which earned the sisters their first of 3 grammy awards. they had 13 top 20 hits in the u.s. between 1973 and 1985 -- including "jump (for my love)." ♪

john: anita pointer was 74 years d. still toome on "pbs news weekend", we hear from two passengers caught in southwest airline's holiday week meltdown. and,geoff bennett's sitdown with grammy nominated songwriter, tobias jesso jr. >> this is pbs news weekend from w eta, home of the pbs newshour, weeknights on pbs. >> when the new congress convenes on tuesday, one of the first orders of business in the house will be the selection of a new speaker. normally, it's a routine ritual. the er of the majority party wins the election. but house republican leader kevin mccarthy is still rounding up votes. and that's the topic of our weekend briefing with congressional correspondent lisa desjardin. lisa, we know that nothing happens on the hill. no one moves no one coughwithout you hearing it, knowing about it. so w's the current state of play?

>> john. we are less than two days away from the new congress, convening and getting ready to elect a new speaker and kevin mccarthy. the man who republicans have chosen as their nominee for house speaker does not have the votes he needs to win. you need right now a majority of the house to guarantee the speakership, so 218 votes. kevin mccarthy will walk in with a total of 222 republicans, and he does not have 218 of them supporting him. yet he does have a majority, though, and allies of his like daryl isa of california are spending time like they did this morning, saying that they think he will get there. here's what mr isa had to say he has a team in place. it is ready to go. and quite frankly, there's an inevitability that he will be the speaker. so now it's time for those few holdouts to decide. what is it that they really want? say it will make sure speaker mccarthy will make

sure they get it. >> i'm sure you heard those two things there. he believes congressman esa that mccarthy is inevitably going to be speaker. but he also importantly said there that they're still willing to give the holdouts what they want. so a lot of negotiations still happening. tell us who are those holdouts. and what do they want? >> this is a fascinating group of people, and, in fact, look at it in two different ways. there is one group that says they will never vote for mr mccarthy for speaker. these are conservatives from around the country, and many of them say frankly, that they have trust issues. they don't believe that kevin mccarthy is conservative or tough enough when itomes to negotiating. now there is a second group. and by the way, mr mccarthy needs at least one of those five to change their mind and vote with him to guarantee the speakership. but there are somewhere between seven. maybe a dozen more republicans who say maybe i can vote for a speaker mccarthy, but he has to change significantly on the rules of how things operate. they want more power for individual members of the

house. this speaks to the nature of the house itself, and they include some new members, incoming members like representative anna luna of florida, here's what she had to say on steve bannon's podcast a couple days ago. i >> i think right now, a lot of people are not happy about the options. i've gotten a lot of emails from people telling me that they don't want me to vote for kevin mccarthy and i do listen to what my constituents say. and more importantly, you know, if going up to washington means that i have to just follow mine. then why did i really run in the first place, right? and she she was a maybe there's all again comes down to the numbers. john. : we heard representative elect luna, they're talking abouter

options. is there a viable alternative to kevin mccarthy? >> i'll put it to you like this. theris no one who has said they would like to be speaker who is viable. but there some names being kicked around in case the mccarthy effort completely collapses names like the number two publican in the house right now, steve scalise of louisiana. he's someone who generally has wide respect in the conference. he has said he does not want to be speaker. he's supporting mccarthy. but his name is out there. the other one jim jordan of ohio, he is someone known for his very aggressive combating of the biden agenda kind of pugilistic. he's a champion wrestler approach to governing. he also supports kevin mccarthy. but he's another person who has a lot of respect, neither of them running. but those are names if the mccarthy idea doesn't fact collapse this is a -- john: there's a lot of course on the line personally for kevin mccarthy, but what's at stake here? what's the bigger picture?

what's at stake here? >> johnny, i think really with the agenda. it may not matter who the speaker is for the house republican conference because they have a lot of divide that they need to work through. but what could matter here is the way governing happens in the house. just how exactly how far close to the brink do they push things like the debt ceiling, which is something coming up in the next couple of months? those who don't like mccarthy really want to risk that, and this is a question of tone going ahead. john: and what happens if they can't resolve this on tuesday? >> a really important question. the first order of business in the house is electing a speaker if they do not have a majority vote. at that point, it will delay everything else in the house, including swearing in of members. this is something that has not happened in 100 years. it is yet again some relatively uncharted territory. john: never dole on capitol hill for lisa desjardin tuesday is going to be no exception. thank u very much. you're welcome.

southwest airlinesa™ operations appear to have recovered from their holiday week meltdown, with flightaware-dot-com reporting only about two dozen cancellations today. but the anger and frustration of southwest passengers lingers on a“ many are still trying to get to where they want to be. we spoke to two southwest passengers to hear their tales of canceled flights, lost luggage and missed family gatherings. >> my name is ruth and i was traveling from los angeles to seattle to visit some family and i had a layover in denver before i got to the final leg of my journey, which was in kansas city. the layover in denver is where i got stuck. >> i am james. i was headed from baltimore to denver when my plane was canceled and i had to waitntil friday to reschedule. >> i think we went through probably about four delays and then i started hanging around the gate instead of walking around the airport, because i realized something was up.

so at first i said -- they said we cannot take off. 30 minutes later they got on and said we are missing two flight attendants and we cannot take off. then they got on the overhead and said actually, kci is not letting anyone land right now. and then eventually, they nounce that our flight was canceled. >> the plan was to go from baltimore to minneapolis and minneapolis to denver. and we looked and we saw our flight from minneapolis to denver had been canceled. so we went to the airport to try to get a different flight, but the full-service lane was very long. we stood there for about an ur and got you know may 50 feet forward in the line. it was difficult to rebook. on the app i was looking at the flight, trying to check the flight status, but on the southwest cap i could not get it to load. my girlfriend could not get t flight status stuff to work at all.

we even called the phone lines and i got a busy signal. so that was really frurating to deal with not getting any help on that side of things. >> so i had been standing in line for about four hours, waiting to get a refund or take it or voucher for my flight. when i got to the front of the line, i was the next person. i was watching them, the solo agent that had been working all the hours that i had been there. as i got to the front our supervisor came up and told her she was going to have to work on another shift and i heard her say i can do it, i can do it, i can do it and then she started shaking. and then she just broke down crying, because she told her supervisor i have been here since 3 a.m., right? at that point it was 9 p.m. and that is 16 or 18 hours she had been working. and another shift, it just looked like it was about to push her over the edge. >> the whole time, it felt like

thereere not enough people to help. there were people who were trying their best and i felt bad for those people because i had to deal with -- they had to do with 500 angry passengers. >> both had to change their holiday plans. >> we kind of rolled with it but we were a little disappointed, because all of my family members who only take one or two days off of work around the holidays, 2 hours altogether before when my brothers had to fly back to his house. less family time the normal for sure. >> luckily, i was with my family so i was able to spend a next or week with them. but unfortunately i lost out on a week of pay because i was looking to work between christmas and new year's. when i learned that my fighter been canceled i called up my boss immediately and let him know. my flight has been canceled and

as soon as i can get it rescheduled was on a monday. so he was clearly frustrated. >> southwest says it will refund canceled flights and compensate passengers for reasonable extra expenses, but schmidt says that is not her top priority. >> my flight back to l.a. is booked on the first. and as of now i got an email from southwest and they said currently, your flight does not look like it will be disrupted. i am really hopeful that if i can get back, i do have to be at work, just crossing my fingers and hoping that works out. john: to update: james boulter made it home friday night. b ruth schmidt is currently at the airport in phoenix -- her connecting southwest flight home to los angeles is delayed. fingers crossed. ♪

john: the video sharing app tiktok may seem like it is all dance crazes or animal videos but when we peaked beneath the rface or beneath the water to be precise, she found a captivating combination of the two. lisa returns with o story, our new year's treat for you. ♪ >> it is cled a shrink ray. electronic music, synchronized grooving. these exclusive extravaganzas can be seen on the shrimply beautiful tiktok account. it is run by conservationist timothy. >> i would put educational video or low five piano videos,

relaxing video of the shrimp. i would put captions saying how they are endangered and this and that about their species. they never really seemed to pop. once i started putting entertaining music on, a lot of people were john to . >> the stars of the show are cardinal shrimp, a small species of critically endangered critters who want skilled from an ancient indonesian lake but no one has reported them there since 2013. many layman nearby nickel mining along with other factors for wiping out the population. they may be completely extinct in the wild. he says his alternate goal in breeding them is to extend their festivities beyond these raves streamed live on tiktok. >> if the captive population is high, then we could end up reintroducing them, whether it be five years, 10 years, 20

years. they breed like crazy, like rabbits and i went from 30 to having over 1000. >> they gained their tiktok stardom not by actually dancing but by feasting. >> when the shrimp start eating, their arms start moving really quickly and they love being in little groups. so it looks like they are sick or nice dancers. >> these shrimp raves cannot just happen anywhere, it takes a lot of work to replicate their home environment have a world away,he lake is an estimated one to 4 million years old. it is also one of the deepest lakes in the world and is rich in minerals and biodiversity. >> i kind of look like a mad scientist whenever i am taking care of the aquariums. i always set up five or six test tubes hanging out in my room. i'm doing all of these water testings, just to make sure that the shrimpave a great environment. >> striking a chemical balance is a tricky task, he says he wants to make videos that show people how to do it for themselves, so the shrimp's

numbers can grow and bring people a little happiness in the process. >> it brings a ton of joy to peoplend some people tell me they've had a really bad day or they got fired from work, their boyfriend dumped them, whatever. but then they see the shrimp rave and it makes them feel a lot better. >> shrimply beautiful. shrimp raves. >> millions of views later, they are bringing awareness to one of the planets smallest endangered animals. ♪ john: for most hit songs, there's a songwriter helping the singer behind the scenes. geoff bennett sat down with an artist who does just that -- with some of the biggest names in the music industry.

geoff: canadian born songwriter and producer tobias jasso junior is one of pop music's most in-demand collaborators. he's now nominated for three grammy awards for his songwriting work alongside adele and harry styles. jassoa™s rise to prominence is both uniquely inspiring and in many ways totally unlikely. [17.5s] tobias joins us now. thank you for being with us. >> thank you for having me. >> adele as i'm sure you know by now speaks very highly of you. she says that the two of you will be writing songs together for the rest of her career. help me understand the alchemy behind the hit song that you cowrote, when we were young. >> that was the first song i was ever sort of a co-writer for. that was the first session i had ever had as a as a professional songwriter was with adele. so i didn't really know how it was going to go.

we wasted a lot of time talking to each other and getting to know each other. and it turned out to be sort of what the song was, just kind of talking about our childhoods and how we grew up. and it sort of lead to how the song was made, which was kind of a fluke in a lot of ways. give me one of the ways. how was it a fluke geoff:?how it ? >> if i had known what we were going to be doing i would've had some chords ready and wld have been ready to go but since i did not know what to expect, i was letting her take the lead. we ended up going outside to the garden and talking to each other for hours. and if i hadn't known what i know now, i probably would have never let that happen back then. but i say a fluke, because i did not know what to expect, so i just let everything happen. >> in 2015, you released your

first and only solo album and then you walked away from the spotlight. why? >> because i'm very anxious. i was not meant to be a singer, i was not really meant to be an artist in that way. i do not really feel comfortable in that position. i always knew i wanted to write songs, but that was as far as my nervous system would allow me to go and everything outside of that feels really uncomfortable. >> for much of your career you lived a life of a struggling artist. help me understand how that experience informed your music. >> i think as a creative person, you are always searching for the sort of dopamine a hit of being creative. and in a lot of ways, that beats sort of like a money system for a lot of artists. and for me, i just chose art over money. and i don't know if it informed me, i just still do the same thing. i enjoy creativity more than i

enjoy, you know, fame or money or anything. it is mostly about what makes me feel good. and that is just the process of being creative and writing songs more so than what you get from it. >> how is writing songs with adele different from writing songs with john legend or with sia or florence and the machine or any number of different artists he forked with? >> hey are so different in some anyways and equally sort of interesting. you know, somebody like florence, she comes in with the lyrics. she has all of these lyrics all ready. ♪ >> adele, you know, it is very much like a process of just slowly going throu ideas and trying to find what you know is right for her and what all of her lyrics and stuff just confirm her writing and trial and error and stuff.

♪ >> and then, you know, just it is different for everybody. that is sort of what i'm in love with about it all is everyone has a different process and i feel like i am like a documentary camera and i just get to see everyone's beautiful art beg made. and i do not feel like it is my job to sort of influence it as much as amplify what they are actually trying to do anyways. >> your first professional co-writing experience was with adele, one of the most successful artists of the day. what was that like, what was that phone call like? >> i mean, it was amazing. it was not a phone call to me personally, they called my manager. but when i got to talking to them, they were like you want to sit down for this and when they told me obviously i could not believe it. but she was my favorite artist. she really was my favorite artist and i had spoken about it and i don't know, a manifestation, who knows? i cannot figure it out myself.

it is the most sort of unbelievable milestone in my career thus far, for sure, and the most pivotal moment in my life. >> tobias jesso jr , thanks so much for your time and good luck to you. >> thank you for having me. johnat is pbs news week and for this sunday. on monday an exciting new chapter begins for the pbs newshour. my friends and colleagues amna nawaz and geoff bennett take over the anchor desk. i'm sure you'll join me in watching and wishing these two great journalists all the best. for now, from all of us at pbs news weekend, thanks. have a good week. >> major funding for pbs news weekend has been provided by -- and with the ongoing support of these individuals and

institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >>

-this program is brought to you in part by a passion for better understanding our world. -at their best, travel and public television accomplish the same thing -- they both allow us to venture into our world and experience great art, music, history, food, and people. hi. i'm rick steves, here with the story of europe's art from prehistory to the present. all my life, art has brought me great joy in my travels, and i've learned the more we understand art, the more we appreciate it. in this six-hour series, we'll enrich your understanding and, therefore, your enjoyment of european art. thanks for joining us. ♪♪ ♪♪