trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> stewart:: good evening and thanks for joining us. the c.i.a. assessment that russian hackers tried to tilt the u.s. election in favor of donald trump by targeting emails from the democratic party drew fire from the president- elect himself. mr. trump blasted the reports today in an interview on fox news sunday. >> i think it's ridiculous, i think it's just another excuse, i don't believe it. i think the dems are putting it out because they suffered one of the greatest defeats in the history of this country. personally it could be russia i don't really think it is but who knows? >> stewart:: despite the president-elect's skepticism, voices on capitol hill are calling for a congressional investigation. a bipartisan group of four senators, including john mccain and chuck schumer, released a statement this morning saying: >> democrats and republicans must work together, and across the jurisdictional lines of the congress, to examine these recent incidents thoroughly. >> stewart: senator mccain later said that the senate armed services committee, which he chairs, will investigate the allegations, and that he would like to form a special committee to learn more. speaker of the house paul ryan also responded to the report with a statement that said in part, "foreign intervention in our elections is unacceptable," but speaker ryan did not call for an investigation. the report of russian attempts to influence the election is highlighting concerns about exxon mobil ceo rex tillerson since his emergence as a late frontrunner to be secretary of state. the oil executive has long-time ties with russia and president vladimir putin, who gave tillerson an "order of friendship" honor in 2013. senator marco rubio tweeted today "being a ¡friend of vladimir' is not an attribute i am hoping for from a secretary of state." mr. trump believes tillerson's familiarity with putin would be an asset. >> he's much more than a business executive; he's a world-class playe. he knows many of the players, and he knows them well. he does massive deals in russia, for the company, not for himself. >> stewart: but the president- elect said he has not made a final decision, saying mitt romney and senator bob corker are still candidates. mr. trump weighed in on another foreign policy issue, questioning the long standing "one china" policy when asked about his controversial phone call with taiwan's president. >> i fully understand the "one china" policy but i don't know why we have to be bound by a "one china" policy unless we make a deal with china. >> stewart: on tuesday the federal reserve board begins a two-day meeting, its last for 2016, and it is widely anticipated that fed chair janet yellen will announce an interest rate increase. also at play is the transition from the obama administration to the trump administration and what that might mean for monetary policy moving forward. joining me from washington dc for some insight is binyamin appelbaum of the new york times. >> the fed has signaled it plans to raise interest rates. why? >> they're ready to raise interest rates for the first time in almost a year because they think the economy is doing better. we've had slow but steady growth for quite some time now. a lot of people have found jobs, the ung employment rate unemployment rate is down to 4.6% and the fed thinks the economy is ready to habl slightly higher interest rates. >> fed chairman janet yellen, its economic policy what are some of the unknowns out there? >> yeah, that's right. this is sort of the last fed decision that probably won't be influenced by donald trump. you know it reality has complicated the fed's outlook. the fed was expecting before the election that growth would remain slow and steady and there is now at least two other options. one that donald trump and congressional republicans succeed in passing legislation such as tax cuts or sphrawrmt ss spending, that boosts us out of the malaise that the economy has been in or the other, that the economy tips backwards into potentially a recession. the fed has to be much more mindful of both of those situations. the degree of uncertainty has increased. >> when donald trump was campaigning he said harsh words about the fed accused it being political and trying to keep interest rates.down to benefit president obama's knowledge administration. for the record let's fact check this. the fed is not a political organization, correct? >> the fed is an independent agency. its members are certainly appointed by the president and confirmed by congress. but they are intentionally insulated from short term political pressure and there is no evidence that any of their decision making is the result of political pressure. >> fed chair ja janet yellen sad she with would stay until the end of her term. >> donald trump will be able to fill two seats, but congressional republicans refused to hold hearings on those nominations so those two vacancies are still there. the interesting question is who he wants on the fed. you know donald trump is by nature and by his long career a borrower. the kind of guy who generally would be thought to favor lower interest rates. he now leads the party of lenders, the republican party, which has long thought that fiscal and monetary policy should be a little bit tighter. and that would tend to argue for the type of governor who might want to raise interest rates a little more quickly. so how that balance plays out between who donald trump is as a person and some of the political imperatives of leading the republican party is going to be very interesting to watch. >> stewart: >> read more about the continuing protests against the south korean president. visit pbs.org/newshour. >> stewart: wind power is a technology gradually helping some parts of the united states reduce their reliance on the fossil fuels that contribute to climate change. sometime in the coming days, a technician in rhode island will flip a switch, and a source of electric power in the u.s. will begin a new era: harnessed energy from offshore winds. rhode island's project is small, but in tonight's signature segment, newshour weekend special correspondent mike taibbi reports, it could have large implications. >> reporter: at ground level, in their outsized elegance, they looked like the components of some futuristic space complex. but in fact they're the blades that will spin atop america's first offshore wind turbines. this demonstration project, a decade in the making, borrows renewable energy technology from land-based wind farms and takes that technology out to sea in a patch of the atlantic ocean off tiny block island, rhode island. jeff grybowski is the ceo of the company behind the project, deepwater wind. >> we lift all this equipment about 450 feet up in the air and bolt together. >> reporter: and these are, like, 25 tons apiece? >> 29 tons, each blade. each is about 241 feet long. >> reporter: rhode island governor gina raimondo came to the port of providence to take"" victory lap." >> it means a cleaner source of energy. ultimately, it means a lower cost of energy. i love that. i love it when rhode island is the first. >> reporter: the first to start an industry in the u.s. that's already established and growing in europe, where some 3,000 offshore turbines supply power for more than seven million homes. in denmark, for example, as "newshour weekend" reported last year, offshore wind turbines, combined with land-based turbines already provide 40% of the country's electricity, and are turning toward a goal of 50% by 2020. by comparison, in the u.s. today, wind power accounts for only about 5% of all electricity generation. to take this step in u.s. waters, planting a mere five turbines on the shallow continental shelf south of block island, deepwater wind had to overcome several court challenges, obtain state and federal permits, and beat back arguments that the windmills are an eyesore. block island only has about a thousand year-round residents, but tens of thousands of admirers, mostly tourists and seasonal visitors, flock here in the summer. rosemarie ives and her husband, jonathan, own a home on block island and have been spending their summers here for decades. >> instead of one coming to the island and looking out at this wonderful, amazing view where the ocean does rise to meet the sky, you're focused on a manmade industrial installation and i don't like it. >> reporter: it cost $300 million to build this project, all coming from private investment. though deepwater wind is also getting a federal tax credit. but there is uncertainty about how much the energy generated from the wind farm will cost the ratepayers who'll use that energy. the company that's buying and distributing the electricity, national grid, will pay deepwater wind a price for the wind farm's renewable energy that's higher than today's market prices from traditional sources. national grid says that's because "renewable energy can be more expensive than traditional as part of the deal, national grid will be paying deepwater wind annual cost increases of 3.5% every year, for the next 20 years. critics say that could result in higher electricity bills for all one million rhode island residents. al lubrano, who owns a home on block island, used to run a manufacturing tech company on the mainland. >> this is going to be much more expensive. i would love to start a company where the state not only guaranteed me annual increases in what i could charge customers, but also guaranteed me profitability. and that's basically what happened here. >> i don't think anybody has a problem with making investments in r & d and renewables, whether it's solar, wind, or something else that's out there. >> reporter: i hear the "but." >> however, if you ask the public do they want to pay 100% more or do they want to pay 300% more, i think they would say "hell no!" >> reporter: while the rates almost certainly will rise across rhode island, most year- round block island residents don't believe their electricity bills will rise that much. that's in large part because the island already pays some of the highest electricity rates in the country because it depends for all its power on shiploads of fuel oil from the mainland and an old inefficient diesel power plant. in tough times, as when oil prices soared to well over $100 a barrel in recent years, islanders have endured electric bills double or triple the national average. in better times, right now, for example, with oil prices way, way down, deepwater wind's project not only powers block >> even if the cost of fuel comes so low that the savings are flat, we have no savings, it just costs the same, so what? we end up with renewable energy. we end up with a stable cost. it's not going to fluctuate month to month. >> reporter: the winds here are steady and dependable. but with other large scale proposals to exploit those winds rejected or stalled up and down the east coast, deepwater and grybowski made a strategic decision eight years ago: instead of trying for the much larger wind farm, they went for a mere demonstration project: just thirty megawatts of power from these five turbines. >> that really was a focus of our company's philosophy on how to build this industry up. let's start with something small that's manageable, where we can control the risk. and let's gradually make these projects larger and larger to the point where we can eventually do really utility- scale stuff. >> reporter: bottom line, they're here. and wind power dreamers all along the 12 thousand miles of continental u.s. coastline: the atlantic, the gulf coast, the pacific, are looking at little rhode island and saying, "it's on!" >> i think it's the beginning of something really big. it's a pilot, but it's the beginning of an industry, and now we're starting to hear from massachusetts, hear from new york, hear from our neighbors. >> reporter: in fact, the republican governor of massachusetts, charlie baker, has signed legislation paving the way for the development of enough offshore wind generation to power about half a million homes. across the country, in california, a veteran engineer named alla weinstein saluted rhode island and said success there makes her own proposal for floating turbines anchored in deeper pacific waters much more do-able. >> just to get to the point of flipping the switch and getting energy from offshore wind is going to be a significant event. i can point and say, here, we do have it in the united states! >> reporter: weinstein's company, trident winds, hopes to plant 100 floating turbines, based on prototypes tested and manufactured overseas, in the deep waters off morro bay, just down the west coast from big sur and hearst castle. the turbines, essentially ships with towers and blades all turning with the wind 20 to 30 miles offshore, would be pinned to the ocean floor by massive anchors. floating turbines can be fully assembled on land rather than oduction process moree efficient and scalable. >> you basically pre-fabricate all the pieces ahead of time and then you have a serial production line where you assemble them all together. >> reporter: mass production? >> exactly! >> reporter: but while the estimated cost of the project is $3.5 to 4 billion, weinstein says that's no more than the cost of a new oil, coal or nuclear power plant. >> it has to work economically. it's a balancing act again of looking at the market, looking at the demand, looking at the time it's going to take you to permit a project of this sort, and doing it at the right time. >> reporter: 200 miles east of morro bay, the technicians tending to one of the world's largest land-based wind farms, the mojave wind farm in the tehachapi pass, say it is the right time for offshore wind, and the block island pilot project is the trigger. neal emmerton monitors the turbines owned by the company everpower. >> i think it's tremendous. it's huge. it's nothing if you're from europe, because they've had them out in the water for 15, 20 years but here in the united states, it is. the first one to do it is also the most expensive, but once it's been done the costs are going to drop like the crazy, and then it gets to be cost competitive. >> reporter: that's what happened with land-based wind power: the oldest turbines here that go back 20 and 30 years were small and inefficient, by today's standards, their useful life mostly over. today, the wild mustangs that have roamed these vast acres for generations pick their way among more than 5,000 modern towers with space-age blades capable of sweeping more usable energy from the steady winds than ever before. right now, wind provides about 8% of california's energy needs. but to meet the target of 50% renewable energy by the year 2030, wind is going to have to do a lot better than that. so alla weinstein sees her proposal for floating offshore >> if we don't innovate, if we don't look beyond the horizon, if we don't take the risks, we'll not be advancing. >> reporter: back in rhode island, some residents, like al lubrano and rosemary ives, remain skeptical how much those advances will cost them and their view. but jeff grybowski thinks his company has harnessed the wind in a way that was inevitable. >> it is awe-inspiring. it's remarkable that we're actually here at this moment. it's actually going very fast now. that's what really strikes me, how quickly it's going. >> stewart: here in new york," not that jewish" is the title of a new one-woman, off-broadway show that features a comedian grappling with her cultural upbringing, her career, and life as a single mom. newshour weekend's christopher booker recently sat down with the show's writer and star. >> this was us. we were suns of the sunset. there's robin there. >> reporter: whether performing with a young robin williams, touring with jerry seinfeld or writing for such shows as "roseanne" or nickelodeon's rugrats, monica piper has worked in nearly every corner of comedy. >> the great thing about stand- up as opposed to almost other art is that you know immediately whether it's good or not. >> reporter: but after nearly 40 years making people laugh, the bronx raised piper has lent her comedic pen to a one woman, off broadway show called "not that jewish." >> spilkus and he looks like a sfagogoner, if you know what i mean. >> i >> to make people laugh-- seinfeld said it's powerful and addicting, and it is, but to see them laughing in this broader context is a whole new thing. >> reporter: performing in new york's new world stages, piper chronicles not only the origins of her life in comedy, but her quest to understand what it means to be a jewish american woman. >> when i was growing up we didn't belong to a temple, but on the high holy days me mother would make us dress up and stand in front of the apartment building so it looked like we just got home from temple. i was very determined for this to really be a play and not just stand-up with furniture. >> reporter: while the show is threaded with some of the same jokes that carried her comedy routine, piper takes the audience through failed romances, the death of her parents and her life as a single mom to an adopted son. >> so if i talk about the men that i'm meeting, which in stand-up would be, "then i went out with this guy." but this now has meaning in a greater sense. >> reporter: is that frightening to not only change the format, but also to change the format in a way that you're revealing so much more about yourself? >> no, i would not say it's frightening. i would say it's really freeing. >> reporter: within this freedom, piper bares all. her revelations that her marriage is over, a battle with breast cancer and her struggles to raise an adopted son born of christian mother to be a jewish man. >> i scud asked how she felt about me raising him jewish, she took a beat and said, so no jesus? well, not entirely. i'm sure if i stubbed my toe or something -- (laughter) >> jesus! >> reporter: piper traces much of her comedic instincts to her father, who, in his early years, also worked as a comedian. ultimately, the undertow of the entire play comes by way of piper's revelation that this comedic instinct has not only passed down from her father to her, but onward to her son jake. >> there's a line in the play earlier, right before his bar mitzvah, when i say to my father, "this is crazy. every time i turn around, it's $1,000." my father says, "don't turn around." that's my father. so i tell jake that, and he laughs. now, that was when he was 13. now he's 18 telling me he's not jewish and i'm doing the dishes, and he comes in the kitchen. and i say, "this is unbelievable, every time i turn around, there's another dish in the sink." he says, "don't turn around." and we don't even say anything, we just look at each other, the humor, the spirit, the-- his grandpa's words. >> i'd speak to my father on the phone, hey dad guess what i'm dating a new guy, that's great. don't be bossy. i am not bossy. you are, you just don't know you are. fine can we please change the subject? absolutely. how's the acting? are you any good? yeah. i think i'm really good. that's terrific! next time you're out with a guy, play the part of someone who isn't bossy. (laughter) >> that's what i love about the play. >> that's what i love about the play. the first third, not even, is my childhood and my relationship with my father, my father being funny. then me being funny. and now my son being funny. that's what we're passing down, you know. >> stewart:: campaign 2016 is now officially over. republican state treasurer john kennedy defeated democrat foster campbell in yesterday's run-off election for the u.s. senate in louisiana. kennedy's victory gives the republicans a 52-to-48 edge in the senate when the new congress convenes next month. republicans also defeated democratic rivals to win two open u.s. house seats. outgoing u.s. defense secretary ash carter made a surprise visit to iraq today to meet with prime minister haider al-abadi and assess the on-going battle to retake mosul from islamic state militants. iraqi troops assisted by u.s. forces have been making slow progress in their almost two- month old offensive. carter said he remains confident that, "isis' days in mosul are numbered." turkey declared a day of mourning today for the victims of last night's twin bombings outside a soccer stadium in istanbul. at least 38 people were killed and more than 150 wounded. most of the dead were police officers. an off-shoot of the outlawed kurdistan workers party claimed responsibility for the two bombings which happened less than a minute apart. in egypt, a bomb exploded during sunday mass inside a chapel next to cairo's largest coptic christian cathedral, and officials say at least 25 people were killed; six of them children. almost fifty people were injured. there has been no claim of responsibility, but islamic state militants are suspected. it was the deadliest attack in years on members of egypt's coptic christian minority. the death toll is expected to rise from a horrific disaster in nigeria where the roof of a church collapsed on worshipers during a service yesterday. today the hospital director in the city of uyo said at least 160 people were killed after the roof suddenly gave way. some survivors said workers had been rushing to finish construction of the church. >> and finally tonight, the world's longest opportunity opened for business today in switzerland when a passenger made the trip from zurich to logano. took 17 years to build and cost almost $12 billion. trains will eventually travel through the tunnel at more than 150 miles an hour. that's it for pbs newshour weekend, i'm alison stewart, thanks for watching. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. judy and josh weston. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the john and helen glessner family trust-- supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by 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. accomplish the same thing -- they both allow us to venture into our world and experience great art, music, history, food, and people. bread for the world, an advocacy organization working to end hunger and poverty at he and abad. enjoying more of the best of europe. and this time, we're exploring italy's dramatic amalfi coast area, and somewhere along here, we're going to find a blue grotto. thanks for joining us.

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