PBS News Hour

GEOFF BENNETT

Good evening, I'm Geoff Bennett. Tonight on "PBS News Weekend," the sports world in mourning, shock and disbelief after veteran soccer journalist Grant Wahl died Friday while reporting from a World Cup match. Then holiday inflation, how rising prices are changing the ways many Americans are navigating this holiday season. And art of the climate protest, why activists are targeting famous works of art in their fight against climate change.

EMMA BROWN

We're going to be noisy. We're going to be disruptive. We're going to be an ignorable. We're going to be a pain in the ass until you listen to us.

GEOFF BENNETT

Those stories and the day's headlines on tonight's "PBS News Weekend." (BREAK) Good evening. It's good to be with you. We begin tonight with the sudden death of prominent American sports journalist Grant Wahl. Wahl was in Qatar covering the World Cup when he suffered what's described as acute distress and collapsed in the press box according to his agent. The incident happened inside the Lusail Stadium during the waning minutes of the World Cup quarterfinal match between Argentina and the Netherlands. Fellow journalist Keir Radnedge was sitting nearby. KEIR RADNEDGE,

Journalist

The medics were there very quickly. And they, you know, worked with him for, I don't know 20, 30 minutes before he was taken on the stretcher.

GEOFF BENNETT

Wahl was transported to a nearby hospital in Doha where he was declared dead. USA soccer released a statement Friday night saying Grant made soccer his life's work and we are devastated that he and his brilliant writing will no longer be with us. As the news spread the outpouring of grief was immediate on social media. And in a postgame news conference in Philadelphia basketball Star LeBron James talked about his interactions with wall many years ago for a Sports Illustrated cover story on the then rising star. LEBRON JAMES,

LOS ANGELES LAKERS

It's a tragic loss. It's unfortunate to lose someone as great as he was.

GEOFF BENNETT

While the circumstances of his death remain unclear, Wahl said on his podcast just two days ago that he'd not been feeling well. GRANT WAHL,

Journalist

So, I've had a case of bronchitis this week. I've been to the medical clinic at the media center twice now including today.

GEOFF BENNETT

Earlier in the World Cup Wahl posted a selfie wearing a rainbow t-shirt and said he'd been detained for 25 minutes by Qatari authorities for his show of support for the LGBTQ community. Wahl was instrumental in helping grow the sport of soccer in the U.S. through his coverage of the game. Grant Wahl was 48 years old. And we will hear more about Grant Wahl's contributions to the sports world later in the program. And the day's other headlines, more than a dozen drone strikes knocked out energy infrastructure across southern Ukraine today. Officials say Russia is to blame for the attacks in Odessa, Kherson, and Mykolaiv. Ukraine's military says the drones were Iranian made and that 10 of them were shot down before they hit their targets. It marks the latest and Russia's unrelenting assault on the country's energy grid and civilian housing. Millions of people are still without heat, light and clean water. Back here at home, there is a major storm system moving inland from the Pacific coast. And will slowly move cross country over the next few days, threatening severe weather in the south and blizzard conditions in the North. In western Sierra Nevada, meteorologists already report two to five feet of snowfall in the upper elevations. The Forest Service warns there is a high risk of avalanche. And Kari Lake, the Arizona Republican and prominent election denier who lost her race for governor in November has asked a court to throw out the state's election results. Lake alleged yesterday in her lawsuit that hundreds of 1000s of ballots were cast illegally or improperly in Arizona's largest county, Maricopa. There is no evidence to support Lake's allegations in the state certified its election results days ago. Kari Lake centered her campaign on false claims that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from Donald Trump, who had endorsed her. And still to come on "PBS News Weekend," how inflation is changing the way some Americans celebrate the holidays. And why activists are targeting famous art to protest climate change. (BREAK) Morocco made history today in Qatar, becoming the first African nation and the first Arab nation to reach a World Cup semi-final. Since the first World Cup in 1930, only European and South American teams have made the final, leading to questions about whether the tournament is making strides toward its goal of global inclusivity. Kevin Blackistone joins us now. He's a contributor for ESPN and the Washington Post. It's great to have you here. So, Kevin, Morocco was not the strongest African team coming into the World Cup, but they have grown with every game. What do you see as the significance of Morocco's historic win? KEVIN BLACKISTONE,

Sports Journalist

Well, the significance is that they won with players who were the progeny of colonization, the progeny of their occupiers, in this case, Spain, which along with France that had colonized and occupied Morocco for many, many decades. And so, I thought that that was really, really jumped out to me, because it's about -- as I've watched the World Cup over the years, and I recall specifically being in France for the final back in 1998. It's the number of foreign players who wind up starring for European teams and carrying them to glory. And this particular time, it's the other way around. And we have the foreign-born players deciding to play for their ancestral home, and finally bringing them to the -- to some glory. And so, you have Morocco here breaking through with people who are Moroccan, who could have played for other countries, but decided to play for their motherland. And for the first time now, we have an African side, it's going to be in the Final Four for the World Cup.

GEOFF BENNETT

This is the first World Cup held in the Middle East. How has that changed the dynamic of the competition?

KEVIN BLACKISTONE

Well, I think one of the things that it's done is it's given the rest of the world a chance to stand on this stage. You know, I remember when Qatar got this bid back in 2010, 2011. And I wrote that this was really a good thing for soccer when everyone else was bemoaning the fact that would be in the middle of the English premiership season, and other European seasons that would be in a climate that no one was accustomed to playing in, that it would be in a land that didn't necessarily embrace soccer, like the rest of the world. But if you're going to be the World Cup, and if you're going to celebrate, what you have said is the globe's favorite, favorite sport, then you need to take it to the rest of the world. And that's finally what FIFA is doing. It's finally what the Olympics are doing. You know, we had the World Cup in 2002. That was in Asia for the first time, shared between South Korea and Japan. So, this was a fantastic thing for the West, rest of the world to be involved in staging this global event.

GEOFF BENNETT

Yeah. Kevin, I think it's interesting. I mean, help us understand why have South American and European teams traditionally been so dominant?

KEVIN BLACKISTONE

They created the game, or at least modified the game from some ancient games elsewhere around the planet. And they are the ones that put all the money and time and resources into it. And as they begin to enjoy the game, they also begin to export it to their colonies, to their protector, it's to other lands around the world that they occupy. And I think, you know, in my reading of what people have had to say about the export of sport particularly when you're talking about European sport, it's been exported not necessarily as a noble cause, but as a way to instill European sensibilities and European ideas elsewhere around the planet. And in doing so, and in teaching people who hadn't played this game traditionally how to play it, they also begin to harvest that talent and bring it back to the European leagues. And now you're starting finally to see that reverse that talent is starting to go back and play for the ancestral lands.

GEOFF BENNETT

As we wrap up our conversation here, I wonder if you might be able to share a thought or reflection about American soccer journalist Grant Wahl who died suddenly last night?

KEVIN BLACKISTONE

Yeah, Grant Wahl was the primary voice, the written word for soccer in this country for a couple of decades. And I didn't know him. But we crossed paths at several World Cups. And, you know, he was very fortunate. And I think the game of soccer was very fortunate that he was able to dedicate his career to writing about, to writing about this game. And a lot of people know about this game in this country, not just from broadcast, but also from being able to read what Grant Wahl's had to say about it for so many years. And so, this was a, you know, it's a tragic loss for journalism. The tragic loss for sports journalism, and in particularly, for soccer journalism.

GEOFF BENNETT

Yeah, tragic loss, indeed. Kevin Blackistone of ESPN and The Washington Post, thanks so much for your insights, I appreciate you.

KEVIN BLACKISTONE

Thanks for the invite.

GEOFF BENNETT

The holiday season is in full swing, and for Americans whose paychecks haven't kept pace with inflation, that leaves little money for extras like entertainment, travel or shopping. Stephanie Sy has more.

STEPHANIE SY

'Tis the season for gift giving and cheer. But as the holidays approach, inflation for many Americans is altering how they celebrate. In a recent survey, nearly 70% of Americans said inflation was a concern. And they worried they wouldn't be able to buy as much this year compared to last, for some Americans increases in prices have had little impact on their finances. For others, inflation is making the holidays harder.

JOHN CALLOW

We're buying things now that we might not need. But we know we'll use six months, a year down the road, because they aren't going to get cheaper, later on.

ALISON KOVACH

I really have to be conscious about the food prices, what we're buying, where we're going, how much gas we're using.

SYLVIA PETRO

Overall, I could see the increase in prices, oil, gas, food, medical care, normally, we would maybe go out a little bit more often travel a little bit. But right now, we try to limit that a little bit to save on gas cost anything, we're dealing with traveling a lot.

ALISON KOVACH

It's not just food prices, it's not gas prices. It's not utilities, it's everything all at once.

JOHN CALLOW

I have friends that are definitely trades people that are, you know, they, in good times they're spending $100 a week on gas, and now they're spending, you know, probably $150.

SYLVIA PETRO

It makes me think about what do I want to save money for? What do I want to do in the future? How will I help mitigate the impact of inflation?

ALISON KOVACH

Christmas came so fast. It's like, what do we get it? You know, like all, you know, okay, well, you want this, you need this. And it's just -- it's a lot. It's overwhelming at times. And it feels almost as like, there's like a black cloud overhead. And you're just afraid of what's going to happen. And you have, you know, the change of spending is worried what's going to happen down the line? Is it going to get worse instead of better?

STEPHANIE SY

For more, I'm joined by Neil Irwin, Chief Economic Correspondent at Axios. We just heard from a number of people who are concerned about high prices. But isn't there some data just in the last month showing that we may be seeing a moderation in inflation? Are things getting better? NEIL IRWIN, Chief Economic Correspondent,

Axios

So, there's good news and bad news on that. The truth is inflation does seem to be starting to slow and there's some good reasons to think it will slow more in 2023. But it's still high. So, it hasn't come down yet. Prices, we just got a number this past week, for example, wholesale prices up 7.4% over the last year and in November, that was 8.1%. So that's improvement, but 7.4% inflation still really, really high. If you're on a budget, if you're trying to make ends meet, that's not great news for American consumers.

STEPHANIE SY

All right. I want to get into all of that. But let's take A few steps back and remind us Neil how we got into this situation in the first place, inflation that we have not seen in a generation?

NEIL IRWIN

That's a lot of things that converge at once. And the biggest is probably that this pandemic really threw the entire world economy for a loop. You had cutbacks on production during the pandemic, you had a combination of massive stimulus out of the U.S. government and other world governments, you had the Federal Reserve, keeping interest rates low for a very long time, even as the economy took off. And so, all those things together created too much demand, too little supply. So, a shortage of lots of different things of workers of goods, of shipping capacity, all sorts of things like that energy, gasoline, on the other side, you have demand that was been -- we have demand has been stimulated and has been through the roof, the combination of too little supply, too much demand. That's higher prices.

STEPHANIE SY

And I do understand that some of the supply chain issues when it comes to just that one factor are starting to be ironed out. But as you say, inflation is still high, the Fed is still worried about that. I want to take just Cyber Monday and Black Friday sales, though, and look at that for a minute, because we did see historic sales on that -- on those days. Does that make sense to you that type of consumer behavior in the face of what we're looking at right now with higher prices?

NEIL IRWIN

Yeah. What we see from consumers is yes, they're strained by inflation, they're paying more for groceries, more for gasoline than they were a year ago. But they're dealing with that by using the savings they accumulated during the pandemic, they're spending more money, even despite those hurdles. And as you say, the supply chain stuff has gotten better. So, store shelves, inventories look a lot stronger than they did a year ago. So, there are goods on the shelves if you want to go by and people are taking advantage of those pent-up savings and those stimulus checks from a year ago, things like that, to make it happen.

STEPHANIE SY

You know, the other factor and I know you and your colleagues at Axios have written a lot about this is this tight labor market. We still have very low unemployment, and the Fed has to grapple with that, that's part of their mandate. So, given that you have still high inflation, a tight job market, and you have wages that have increased, taking all that into account, what's the sort of macroeconomic picture, what is the greater impact of inflation on the economy?

NEIL IRWIN

So, what's been happening over the last year or so is unemployment is very low, people can get jobs and people are getting raises, but inflation is higher than those raises. So, if you got a 5% raises here, good for you. That sounds great. But when inflation is 8%, that 5% raise doesn't go quite as far and doesn't sound so good. And that's the weird thing about this labor market. We've had extremely remarked tightness, lots of jobs out there, but real wages actually declining, inflation adjusted wages. The question is, how does that change in 2023? Can we -- you know, will live more become less hot? But will we see inflation come down enough so that people can actually have greater purchasing power with their paychecks? That's the big open question for next year.

STEPHANIE SY

You also have the Fed meeting again next week. And a lot of speculation about whether they will, again, raise interest rates, I'm sure you're watching that. What specific ramifications would we expect to see if we see yet another interest rate rise?

NEIL IRWIN

Yeah, it looks very likely that what the Fed is going to do on Wednesday is raised their target interest rate, another half a percent. We're getting up into the mid to high force now that's higher than it's been in many years, really since 2007. So, you know, that means money is more expensive, borrowing money is more expensive, that is doing its job, it's slowing the economy, it's slowing growth, it's lowering asset prices, it means the stock market has had a rough year, and the goal is to slow the economy and bring inflation down. So far, the first part is starting to happen. The second part inflation coming down is not quite as clear.

STEPHANIE SY

Okay, so that is also related to all the talk about the big are, the potential for recession in 2024. How are you viewing that in relation to the Fed's decision next week?

NEIL IRWIN

Look, the odds of a recession are definitely higher than usual. We could very well find ourselves in a recession in the next few months. Hard to argue we are in one right now, job growth has remained very strong. Growth seems to be positive. But the idea that we find ourselves in a recession, or at least a soft patch in the economy where there's a somewhat higher unemployment rate seems more likely than not next year. I think the question is just how severe is that? How widespread is the pain? Whether it's technically a recession or not is not the question. The question is, does this affect the ordinary American in ways that are that are really painful or can we get out of this inflationary situation in a more measured kind of way that doesn't hurt so bad?

STEPHANIE SY

Well, everyone hopes for the latter. And everyone has that that word that you used earlier weird when it comes to the current economic picture. Neil Irwin, Chief Economic Correspondent at Axios, thanks so much for joining us.

NEIL IRWIN

Thanks, Stephanie.

GEOFF BENNETT

Finally, tonight, activists are turning to a new form of protest to call attention to the climate crisis. Over the past few months climate protests have targeted, priceless works of art making for viral moments that grab attention. But is the message getting through. Tonight, we look at how these polarizing protests could be both helping and hurting the fight against climate change. Visitors at the National Gallery in London stood stunned as two young activists glued themselves beneath an exhibit of Vincent van Gogh's sunflowers.

NO NAME GIVEN

What is worth more, art or life? Is it worth more than food, worth more than justice?

GEOFF BENNETT

The protest went viral making international headlines. The environmental activists demand no new oil or gas licenses from the British government. Emma Brown, a spokesperson for Just Stop Oil, the group responsible says the shock factor is intentional. EMMA BROWN, Spokesperson,

Just Stop Oil

There is that moment of smugglers security and that kind of outrage that people feel is justified. It is shocking what we're doing. If we take action that people can ignore, you know, so if we stood in a park somewhere with some placards, and people didn't know about it, it didn't disturb them. They didn't even hear about it. That would be a completely ineffective form of protest.

GEOFF BENNETT

And these protesters are not alone, in the Australian capital of Canberra, activists scrawled blue marker across an Andy Warhol painting.

NO NAME GIVEN

We're in a climate emergency.

GEOFF BENNETT

Outside Berlin, protesters flashed mashed potatoes across the work of Claude Monet. And in Paris, one of the world's most famous artworks, the Mona Lisa smeared with cake. Each time bystanders were left in disbelief and headlines followed. But in the media coverage, most of the protests were reduced to acts of vandalism.

EMMA BROWN

I think is interesting because that artwork was not vandalized, it had a sheet of glass on it. So really what everyone was becoming so outraged about was a bit of soup thrown on a piece of glass. And unfortunately, there's no pane of glass protecting the life support systems that we need to survive, you know. There's no pane of glass protecting the people in Pakistan from the devastating flooding. There's no pane of glass protecting the 146 million people in Africa that are suffering like drought related starvation.

GEOFF BENNETT

Bill McKibben is an author and environmental activist who founded the organization's Third Act in 350.org. He says the previous climate protests have been different. He understands the underlying message and these new demonstrations. BILL MCKIBBEN, Founder,

Third Act

We live in an incredibly beautiful world filled with almost unbelievable treasures, and we are desecrating and destroying those treasures every hour of every day. It doesn't seem in that context, quite so shocking, that people decide that they might throw a can of soup on the glass pane over a painting. I think it's way to try and get people to understand that much larger desecration that's underway. If you don't like one kind of protest and figure out another because left to its own devices, inertia and vested interest are going to win this existential fight.

NO NAME GIVEN

Millions of people are dying.

GEOFF BENNETT

Others in the climate space questioned the effectiveness of these recent protests. MICHAEL MANN,

University of Pennsylvania

Who's the target? Is it Vincent van Gogh? What did he do to create the climate crisis?

GEOFF BENNETT

Michael Mann is an author, professor and climate scientist who studies the effectiveness of climate communication.

MICHAEL MANN

There just wasn't a sensible connection. The headline, you know, would say, you know, protesters throw soup on van Gogh's Sunflowers. Only if you got to paragraph six, did you learn that the painting wasn't actually damaged.

GEOFF BENNETT

In two recent surveys conducted by the University of Pennsylvania, Mann found that the protests set back public support for climate causes across the board.

MICHAEL MANN

It played poorly with independents who were sort of a key swing vote in winning over more support for more aggressive climate action, and play bad with Democrats. Even people who are sort of generally overwhelmingly on board with climate action, it turned them off, even if they knew that the painting was preserved.

GEOFF BENNETT

But some scholars in the environmental justice field say that disruptive nonviolent protest has in some instances spurred dialogue and even change. Shannon Gibson, Researches Social Movements and Climate Governance at the University of Southern California. SHANNON GIBSON,

University of Southern California

We've had, you know, tons of examples in history of civil disobedience like these so they're drawing on predecessors for sure and I think that in some cases they are justified, right? We've had 30 years of climate negotiations and fairly little progress and they're saying we've done it your way for decades. And now it's time to be loud, it's time to be rally.

EMMA BROWN

We're going to be noisy. We're going to be disruptive. We're going to be uninsurable. We're going to be a pain in the ass until you listen to us.

MICHAEL MANN

It would be tragic if these protests were instead driving people to the other side, to the side of the polluters. Let's make sure that the public is getting the right message.

GEOFF BENNETT

As advocates debate the merits of targeting great works of art to spur action on climate change. And that is our program for tonight. I'm Geoff Bennett. For all of us here at "PBS News Weekend," thanks for spending part of your Saturday with us. We'll see you back here tomorrow night.