♪ >> this is pbs newshour west from weta studios in washington and our bureau at the walter cronkiteat arizona state university. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] >> - [narrator] sarah's weeknight meals is made possible by sunsweet and by - cooking is the first kind of love you know. it was starting when i was child, with my grandmother doing fresh pasta. and now i introduce it to all the guests. it's something made specially for them. - [narrator] oceania cruises, proud sponsor of sarah's weeknight meals. (gentle music) - [narrator 2] zwilling, makers of fresh and save, the vacuum food storage system. one of the ways zwilling has been helping cooks do it all in the kitchen for 290 years. the zwilling family of cookware is proud to support sarah's weeknight meals. (gentle music) - [sarah] basta pasta means, "enough pasta" in italian. but you know, i can never get enough. i just love pasta.

. ♪ >> this is the pbs newshour from w eta studios in washington and in the west, from the walter cronkiteof journalism at arizona state university. judy: funding for the federal government is due to run out tomorrow at midnight. today, house democrats passed a short term measure to keep the government funded through february, but a group of republican lawmakers in the senate are threatening to force a shutdown to fight president biden's vaccine mandate. to help break all this down, i'm joined by our congressional correspondent, lisa desjardins. lisa, we are right up on the deadline. where does everything stand? lisa: we have had some stormy days, but i'm here to report in the last few minutes, a rainbow may be forming above the senate. in the past few minutes, multiple sources tell me it looks like there is a deal to get past the problems in that body. let me back up with what we know. let's talk about the temporary funding deal. we are talking about a continuing resolution that paradoxically is named funding bill, that the house voted on in the last couple hours that would extend funding

. ♪ >> this is the pbs newshour from w eta studios in washington and in the west, from the walter cronkite journalism at arizona state university. judy: congress is back, and facing a high stakes december on capitol hill. funding for the federal government runs out on friday, and lawmakers are scrambling to avoid a shutdown. on top of that, senate democrats have a long to-do list of items to pass before the holidays, including president biden's build back better agenda. for more on all this, i'm joined by our congressional correspondent, lisa desjardins. lisa, a lot to keep track of let's start with the deadlines. government funding and the debt ceiling. is the government going to run out of money? lisa: the short version, we are back again at crisis point, but this time it feels like offramp's are being built. let me tell you about the longer version. let's look at a graphic. the first deadline is government funding running out on friday. what is going on now, talks are underway and i can report there is a likely deal to extend the temporary funding bill into mid-january, early february.

. ♪ >> this is the pbs newshour from weta studios in washington, and walter cronkite school and museuma state university. judy: it has been a week of setbacks for the biden agenda and for democrats in control of congress. a key piece of immigration reform hit a wall in the senate and voting rights bills have stalled. frustrated democrats today intensified talks of changing the 60 vote filibuster. we've been talking with key figures involved. lisa, you and i talked on the program last evening about immigration, where it stood, but shortly after that, we learned that the democratic hopes for immigration reform left a big wall. tell us about it. lisa: first a quick reminder that democrats have 50 votes in the senate, which usually requires 60 votes to get past a filibuster, which can block any piece of legislation to do that. to get past that, they are trying to use a budget reconciliation process to pass many pieces of the biden agenda. one of them is what you just mentioned, immigration reform. but last night, we learned that their plan is not going to pass muster for this budgetary pro

. >> this is "pbs newshour west" from weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkiteool of journalism at arizona state university. amna: for the first time in nearly two months, the united states is averaging more than 100,000 new coronavirus cases a day every it this comes is roughly one third of states have detected the new variant, omicron. john yang has our report. >> delta continues to be the most dominant covid variant in the united states and around the world, but was overall cases on the rise, questions abound about the omicron variant. an epidemiologist at the university of texas health science center's school of public health and she writes, thank you for joining us. given what we know about omicron and what we don't know, how concerned should people be about it in america? >> what we do know is concerning. but we also don't know a lot. i think there is a lot of hope that we don't want to lose at the same time, so there is this balance between let's wait to see what the science is going to say and continue to be vigilant. our house is already on fire with de

. >> this is "pbs newshour west" from weta studios in washington and in the west at the walter cronkitel of journalism at arizona state university. judy: the u.s. senate is set to vote this evening on repealing president biden's vaccine mandate for businesses with 100 or more employees. the measure, which needs 51 votes, is expected to pass after democrats joe manchin and jon tester announced their support. but the bill faces an uphill battle in the democrat-controlled house of representatives and president biden is likely to veto it, should it land on his desk. i spoke about this moments ago with senator john thune, the second highest ranking republican in the senate. senator, thank you very much for joining us. let me ask you flat out. what is the argument for not having the government require large employers to make sure that their employees are either vaccinated or are tested once a week? >> i think several arguments. one is the impact it would have on the workforce. all of a sudden heard from employers and our states. the number of south dakota is 30% of workers would not be able t

. ♪ >> this is thebs p newshour from eta studioswa in shgtinon and in the west, frothm e walter cronkite journalism at arizona state univtyersi. ju: dyafter findinysg wa to oid fiscal cs riseinhe t past few we deks,emraocts on capitol hill are nowa in crchun time for criticalts par othf eir agdaen. our lisa desinjards injos us to lkta autbo three high-esstak suises that seembe to apit vot in, tsthe build baetck bter bill, grimmiatn ioand voting ghts. hello, lisa. a lotke to epra tck of. build backte betr,hi ts has been central part of the biden agdaen. whe esdo it stand? sa: demtsocra wanted tgeo t thrsei through the satene by christmaous, y wlil rembeemr. looks like th ieres vea ry slim cechan,f i any, thatht at will ppen. as we anstd, just a litetl over a weeunk til chrtmisas, theres i not a fully fledged bill yet and ere are not yet0 5 demraoctic narsto on board. t's talk abthout e hescduling prleobms. one involvs the senate paiarlmentarian. is bill must go through a ocess called reconciliation, which means it mshust ow buardgety feefct. the parliamenta jrianudsge that. she, however,

. >> this is "pbs newshour west" from weta studios in washington and from our bureau at the walter cronkitejournalism at arizona state university. judy: as we reported earlier, the u.s. house of representatives today took up a contempt of congress charge against mark meadows -- the former white house chief of staff. this comes after meadows defied a subpoena from the select committee investigating the january 6 attack on the capitol. lisa desjardins begins our coverage. lisa: on the house floor today, yet another rarity. >> just a handful of people who somehow think they are above the law. lisa: democratic congressman jamie raskin and other investigators argued for a contempt of congress charge for a second very high-profile trump advisor, mark meadows, the former chief of staff to president trump, who just two years ago was himself a house member. on january 6, as attackers smashed their way into the capitol, meadows was at the white house with trump, making him a pivotal hub of information. now, he is a flashpoint over the push for his testimony and trump allies' insistence it is politica

. ♪ >> this is the pbs newshour, from w eta studios in washington, and in the west from the walter cronkiternalism at arizona state university. judy: as we reported, new data released by the labor department today showed consumer prices are surging at a rate not seen in almost four decades. inflation is up 6.8% over this time last year, due in large part to rising food and energy prices. i spoke a short time ago with jared bernstein, a rep -- member of president biden's counsel. jared bernstein, welcome back to the newshour. so, prices climbing at their fastest rate since 1982. how big a problem for the country is this? jared: well, this is something that the president considers a real challenge to family budgets, even a moderate amount of inflation he's mentioned, can be a challenge. however, we also have to recognize that we are in the midst of one of the strongest labor market recoveries on record. that is certainly helping to lift people's job opportunities and live their paychecks. we are talking about unemployment claims that are down to a level we haven't seen since 1959, fastest fal

. >> this is "pbs newshour west" from weta studios in washington and from our bureau at the walter cronkitel of journalism at arizona state university. judy: the cdc director said today the omicron variant could become the dominant covid strain in the u.s. this winter. she also said delta remains a major problem. i sat down this afternoon with dr. francis collins, the director of the national institutes of health, to talk about those concerns. dr. francis collins, thank you very much for talking with us. >> judy, i'm really glad to be here and welcome to nih. glad you came out here. >> very glad to be here. as we sit here on december 3rd, we covid very much still with us, is your greater concern at this moment, the cases, the variants that are still out there or omicron, which is now arriving in this country? >> well, the one we know about is delta, and delta is still very much with us. even though we've seen some decrease in the number of cases, it's still tens and tens of thousands every day. so while omicron, the sort of new variant that we're all focused on is a potential threat. delta

. ♪ >> this is the pbs newshour from w eta studios in washington and in the west, from the walter cronkite journalism at arizona state university. judy: president biden's meeting today via video conference with russia's president, vladimir putin, was the fourth time the leaders have spoken or met this year. russia now has more than 100,000 troops stationed on the border of ukraine, and mr. biden gave putin a, quote, "crystal clear" message, according to white house aides, that russia faces significant economic reprisals if it were to invade. here's nick schifrin. >> good to see you again. nick: in a virtual meeting president biden and putin started with smiles. but the national security advisor said biden delivered a firm warning. >> the president was crystal clear about where the united states stands on these issues. nick: senior officials tell pbs newshour, the administration is threatening economic sanctions including removing pressure from the international swift banking system, freezing russian banks' international assets and locking international transactions. the u.s. hinted any rus

. >> this is the "pbs newshour" from weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkitechool of journalism at arizona state university. judy: just before the boy scout settlement was announced, there was another major settlement today. after a five-year battle, usa gymnastics, the u.s. olympic and paralympic committee, and their insurance companies reached a settlement with the victims of former physician larry nassar. john yang has the details on the settlement, totaling $380 million, making it among the largest ever awarded in a sexual abuse case. john: judy, the money will go to hundreds of athletes, including olympic gold medalist simone biles, aly raisman, and mckayla maroney. they and others were abused by nassar when he was the u.s. women's team doctor. the two sides have been negotiating since 2018, when nassar was sentenced an effective life sentence and usa gymnastics filed for bankruptcy protection. christine brennan is a columnist for usa today who has long covered olympic sports. christine, thanks for joining us. this settlement has been a long time coming.

. ♪ >> this is the pbs newshour from w eta studios in washington and in the west, from the walter cronkiteournalism at arizona state university. judy: as the omicron variant is spreading rapidly, top federal health officials warn it could bring a massive wave of new infectns to the u.s. as early as january. john yang has our report. john: judy, there are now confirmed cases of omicron in at least 36 states. the cdc estimates the new variant represents about 3% of positive u.s. cases. dr. saad omer is an epidiologist, and the director of the yale institute for global health. thanks for being with us. given what we know about omicron or more importantly what we don't know, how concerned should people be about it and how, should we expect omicron to become the dominant strain? john: here's what we know. we know it is a highly infectious strain. we know that it evades immunity, especially by two doses of the vaccines we use, but we also know that it response to three doses, so people have better protection with three doses of vaccine. what we don't know is how severe it will be. so there are t

we were watching television and it had to be walter cronkite who said it has been said if john kennedyresident, the pope will run the country. i looked at my mom and i said, boy, you don't know the catholics we know. [laughter] that is all i could come up with because i've never seen anybody tell a catholic, a protestant, or a jew anything. they're going to make their own minds up. david: have you ever thought life would be easier for you if you shifted to being a republican? somebody said recently people have approached you about doing that. sen. manchin: every day. david: wouldn't life be easier? sen. manchin: it would be much easier. my goodness. is that the purpose of being involved in public service? if it is easy? david: are you thinking about doing it? sen. manchin: no. what i'm telling you now is who i am. do think by having a d, i, or r is going to change who i am? i don't think the r's would be anymore happy with me than the ds right now. i don't know where in the hell i belong. david: is being governor more fun than being a senator? sen. manchin: oh my god yes. [laughter] be

. >> this is the pbs newshour from washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalismarizona state university. judy: now, let's return to the other major story of the day -- the first case of the omicron variant detected in the u.s. -- and the concerns over what may lie ahead. william brangham is back with that. william: judy, that first case was a person who'd been vaccinated, but had not received a booster shot. dr. fauci said it was a mild infection. still, there are many questions about how omicron will affect the u.s. michael osterholm is the director of the center for infectious disease research and policy at the university of minnesota. and he joins me now. great to have you back on the newshour. omicron is here. we seemed to us on was going to be here sooner or later, but there are things we don't know about its contagiousness, its virulence, whether it can escape the protections from our vaccines. among those questions come into those three stand out in equal importance? >> i think they do and i would add under the seriousness is the issue of do they challenge

but like walter cronkite said, "that's the way it is." . >>> it is 5:00 a.m. at cnbc global headquarters and here is your top five at five. >>> waiting on saint nick as investors wonder about a year end rally. >>> double trouble for thousands of would be flyers over the weekend, as airlines get hit hard by covid and staffing shortages. the former spirit airlines ceo will join me soon. >>> a year fraught with regulators, forms, and surging commodity prices what's in store for stocks in 2021 we have marcus mobius. >>> rising prices doing nothing to persuade the u.s. consumer, new numbers on how much we spent and how much retailers gained. >>> 12 days and $12 billion later a new box office record thanks to marvel you're watching "worldwide exchange" here on cnbc >>> good morning, i'm seema modi in for brian sullivan. here's how money and markets are setting up their days according to a higher upper last time i checked. nasdaq up by 28. this coming after a record breaking stocks on thursday with the s&p closing at an all-time record high, the 67th year-to-date rec

i didn't know what walter cronkite's politics were. he just told the news and informed us. today, you go to the cable news networks that reflects your point of view. the unit has improved our lives but through social media, it is helped to divide us and created bigotry and hatred. we've got to figure out a way to discipline ourselves and create some ground rules for the media that don't compromise freedom of expression. that's one of the basic rights we have. i'm an optimist about the future. we are about to begin a new year. i think we have it within ourselves to get america back on the right track. we can do it. that's the message of our history. i am arguing we have done it recently and we can do it again. it's going to happen from the problem-solving bipartisan center of american government and politics. thanks for having me on. it's been a good discussion. i appreciate it. host: i hope we can do it again in 2022. the book, the centrist solution, how we made government work. thank you. will change, and innovations such as the use of mrna. >>

you combine that with racial stratification and the siloing of the media so you don't have just walter cronkiteivering the news, but you have a thousand different venues, all that has contributed to that sense that we don't have anything in common. so so much of our work is going have to involve not just policy, but it's also how do we create institutions and ok sccasions i which we can come together and have conversations. >> in promise land, our democracy seems to be teetering on the brink. there was the attack on the capital. the big lie being pushed continually by not only the former president and the republicans in congress. >> are we still just teetering on the brink or are we in crisis? >> well, i think -- i think we have to worry when one of our major political parties is willing to embrace a way of thinking about our democracy that would be unrecognizable and unacceptable even five years ago or a decade ago. when you look at some of the laws that are being passed at the state legislative level where legislators are basically saying, we're going to take away the certification of electio

i didn't know what walter cronkite's politics were. he just told the news and informed us.oday, you go to the cable news networks that reflects your point of view. the unit has improved our lives but through social media, it is helped to divide us and created bigotry and hatred. we've got to figure out a way to discipline ourselves and create some ground rules for the media that don't compromise freedom of expression. that's one of the basic rights we have. i'm an optimist about the future. we are about to begin a new year. i think we have it within ourselves to get america back on the right track. we can do it. that's the message of our history. i am arguing we have done it recently and we can do it again. it's going to happen from the problem-solving bipartisan center of american government and politics. thanks for having me on. it's been a good discussion. i appreciate it. host: i hope we can do it again in 2022. the book, the centrist solution, how we made government work. thank you. guest: good day and goodyear. host: in our last 50 minutes or so, returning to that que

it's not like the old days where walter cronkite could speak to them.s critical. i want to add to the last thing. i said their plan for a coup last time was dumb. it was and it wasn't likely to succeed. it was because joe biden won by a lot. if this was a close election and came down to florida and had marjorie taylor greene or one of dan's puppets been in there, it might have worked. this guy is chopping at the bit for that fight next time. he's got a big audience. >> they've also installed so many of their people. softer doors to push on next time. i want to read one more piece from this great piece in "the new yorker." one of the people reading according to an analyst was ashley babbott. she was killed by police while trying to storm the capitol. in the last week of her life, she retweeted bongino at least 50 times. >> tim's right. this article, this great article lays out exactly what a lot of people who studied democracy and think about democracy are worried about is that after what happened, the different blueprints we've seen, there's another one

i didn't know what walter cronkite's politics were. he just told the news and informed us.oday, you go to the cable news networks that reflects your point of view. the unit has improved our lives but through social media, it is helped to divide us and created bigotry and hatred. we've got to figure out a way to discipline ourselves and create some ground rules for the media that don't compromise freedom of expression. that's one of the basic rights we have. i'm an optimist about the future. we are about to begin a new year. i think we have it within ourselves to get america back on the right track. we can do it. that's the message of our history. i am arguing we have done it recently and we can do it again. it's going to happen from the problem-solving bipartisan center of american government and politics. thanks for having me on. it's been a good discussion. i appreciate it. host: i hope we can do it again in 2022. the book, the centrist solution, how we made government work. thank you. guest: good day and goodyear. host: in our last 50 minutes or so, returning to that que