And with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. And. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Warner five days and counting with plenty of titfor tat charges, but no agreement in sight. That, in short, summed up the state of affairs in washington today as the fiscal cliff deadline loomed, january first. It would mean more than 600 billion in acrosstheboard tax increases and automatic spending cuts. Come the first of this year, americans will have less income than they have today. If we go over the cliff, and it looks like thats where were headed. Warner this morning, the senates democratic majority leader, harry reid, was blunt about chances for a deal. And he blamed House Speaker john boehner. Just before christmas, boehner floated his socalled plan b letting taxes rise on millionaires. But faced with opposition in republican ranks, he pulled it, and sent the house home for the holiday. Reid charged today politics explained why the speaker had not yet called the house back. John boehner seems to care more about keeping his speakership than keeping the nation on a Firm Financial footing. Its obvious whats going on. Hes waiting until january 3 to get reelected to speaker before he gets serious about negotiations. Warner a boenhner spokesman shot back, harry reid should talk less and legislate more. But late today, Republican Leaders put out word that the house will reconvene on sunday. Yesterday, they challenged the senate to take the next step, by extending the bushera tax cuts for all income groups. In a joint statement, they said, the house will take. Action on whatever the senate can pass, but the senate first must act. President obama returned early from hawaii today, still pushing to extend tax cuts for the middle class, but raise rates on the welloff. Aides said he made phone calls last night to Speaker Boehner and House Minority leader nancy pelosi, as well as senator reid and his opposite number, minority leader Mitch Mcconnell. But today, mcconnell gave no indication of movement. Last night i told the president wed be happy to look at whatever he proposes, but the truth is were coming up against a hard deadline here, and as i said this is a conversation we should have had months ago. And republicans arent about to write a blank check for anything Senate Democrats put forward just because we find ourselves at the edge of the cliff. Reporter adding to the urgency, treasury secretary Timothy Geithner warned hell have to begin taking extraordinary measures to postpone a government default. The government is on track to hit its Borrowing Limit on monday, he said with no prospect of congressional action to raise the limit. Here now to help us unravel whats going on is todd zwillich. Hes washington correspondent for the takeaway on public radio international. Todd, welcome back. Decode this for us. Are the players privately as bleak about the prospects as their Public Statement suggests . Not as bleak, margaret, but bleaker than they were even a week ago and thats not terribly encouraging. The president as you reported is flying back to washington last night and some members of congress are coming back earlier than others. There will be some meetings here, there have to be some meetings between the principals and the president. There are a couple of options in the last couple of days even though it seems like five days is terribly, terribly short. There shall bills floating out there to keep tax rates where theyre at for people making 250,000 and below. That could slide around. Theres a senate bill that floats around. Theres the president s offer which could still be amended. Option 3, of course. Is to go over the cliff and fight this out on january 1. Warner are there any meaningful backchannel negotiations going on . Leadership aides on both sides say the channels have been open even during the christmas break. When the president called senator mcconnell and others last night, senator mcconnell made clear to say thats the first time hes talked to a democrat since thanksgiving. Now that sounds like they havent been talking at all but thats not true because we all know the president and the speaker have been engaged in close negotiations and their staff even closer. Even when the speaker and the president dont talk the negotiators do. Warner why late today did Speaker Boehner call for the house to reconvene on sunday . Because he knows that there is going to be something probably to vote on and even if theres not the president has flown back, the senate is here, the country is watching. If you were the speaker of the house would you want your members to be seen as him on vacation zipping champagne on new years eve and everybody else is in washington working. Its a combination of optics for sure, not wanting to be seen as off on vacation, but there is likely to be something that democrats muster to get voted on. It would have to probably get through the senate first but john boehner may need his members here. Warner now you heard Mitch Mcconnell refer to were happy to look at anything the president proposes. What is the president s role right now . Well, the president ran on tax rates. The president right now, his role is knee deep, margaret. There have been other iterations of debt talks, supercommittee, where you saw the president try to really keep arms length from a dysfunctional congress. The congress the Democratic House and the Republican Senate have proved that they dont have any Common Ground on taxes. Theres nothing that one side can agree to that the other side will agree to. Thats the president s role here having run on tax increases for people making 250,000 and above, not to mention all that entitlement talk. He ran on it and he won. Hell have to fight this out next year for sure. He would like to get some of the math off of the table here if he can. Warner are there schools of thought in both parties that each may think hes going to be in the stronger position after going over the cliff . Certainly. People on both sides who think that. Liberal democrats in particular say this republican orthodoxy, no tax increases at all, remember, those bush tax rates expire on new years eve and they say if we go over the socalled fiscal cliff, take all the tax votes you want, theyre all tax cut votes. And conservative republicans believe their bargaining position improves. You reported on the debt limit but that becomes more of a concern as february approaches. They think they have leverage there to come bean the debt limit with the debate over more spending cut and more leverage on what they want from taxes. So there are strong voices on both sides so they say go over. Warner we better fasten our seat belts. Ed to brown still to come on the newshour a ban on adoptions from russia; the impact of austerity in greece; the tea party and the fiscal cliff and the administrations environmental record. But first, the other news of the day. Heres kwame holman. Holman wall street was down much of the day, but trimmed its losses after news that the house will convene sunday to focus on the fiscal cliff. In the end, the Dow Jones Industrial average shed 18 points to close at 13,096. The nasdaq fell four points to close under 2,986. Also today, the Labor Department reported the number of new claims for Unemployment Benefits fell this week to the lowest level since march of 2008. President obama is urging dockworkers and shippers to avoid a crippling strike at atlantic and gulf coast ports. It would be the first since 1977. The Workers Union contract expires this weekend, and a white house spokesman said today the two sides need to agree on a contract extension as soon as possible. Talks broke down last week in a dispute over wages and royalties. The Christmas Season storm that blasted the south and midwest swept across the upper northeast and new england today and the death count climbed to 16. The system dumped a foot or more of snow in parts of pennsylvania, upstate new york and new hampshire. In some places, snow brought road travel to a standstill. At the same time, operations at major airports improved, with far fewer delays than earlier this week. In india, the embattled Prime Minister remained under pressure to take action against sexual assaults after a gang rape this month triggered violent protests. Manmohan singh promised a thorough review of indias rape laws and efforts to expedite trials. Meanwhile, police moved to quell a rally by about 500 students protesting the treatment of women as they moved toward a monument in new delhi. The students complained officials had declared the site off limits. translated we are taking out this peaceful protest. We dont have any conflict with the police. We have just come here to express our stand. All the students are expressing their opinions here as you can see so the police should allow all of us to pass through to the place. This is only our demand and nothing else. Holman the rape that ignited the protests was that of a 23 yearold woman attacked by six men, then thrown from a moving bus. Overnight, she arrived in singapore via air ambulance for treatment of severe internal injuries. Doctors described her condition as extremely critical. The top prosecutor in egypt has ordered an investigation of major opposition leaders for allegedly inciting revolt. An official in the Prosecutors Office said today the probe will focus on nobel peace laureate mohammed elbaradei, former foreign minister amr moussa and former president ial candidate hamdeen sabahi. All three oppose islamist president Mohammed Morsi and the countrys new constitution. The new u. S. Senator from hawaii democrat brian schatz was sworn in today. Hed been Lieutenant Governor for the last two years. Now, he replaces fellow democrat daniel inouye, who died this month at the age of 88. Schatz took the oath of office on the senate floor after being tapped by hawaiis governor. The new senator said hell seek election in his own right, in 2014. Inouye wanted hawaii congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa to take his seat. She said today she respects the governors choice. Those are some of the days major stories. Now, back to margaret. Warner we turn now to russia, where a proposed new law on adoptions, causing alarm in the United States, came a step closer to being enacted today. Ray suarez has the story. Reporter in moscow today, president Vladimir Putin said he does intend to sign a bill that bars americans from adopting russian children. You know, after all in the world there are probably a lot places where the quality of life is better than here, but so what . Are we going to send all the children there . Maybe we should move there ourselves. We need to support the proposal which is directed at doing everything in our own country in order to provide for a worthy future for all of our children. Reporter yesterday, russian lawmakers gave final approval to the legislation. It was, pointedly, named after a russian toddler who died after his adoptive american father left him in a hot car in 2008. The adoptions bill is a direct response to the magnitsky act, signed this month by president obama. It slaps sanctions on russian human rights violators. Russian president putin and other kremlin leaders have roundly condemned that measure. This is without any doubt an unfriendly act towards the russian federation. And the main point here is not about officials that are not allowed to have Bank Accounts there or whose property will be controlled. Reporter but the russian response banning u. S. Adoptions has garnered criticism even inside the country. translated concerning the law itself, of course it disappoints me, because we know a lot of instances when children who have no future here end up in the United States, and get a loving family and a future because the government takes care of them. Reporter americans have adopted more than 60,000 russian children in the past two decades. The impending ban means families currently in the adoption process are left in limbo. Weve already started preparing our home. Not remodeling or painting or buying furniture or anything but just preparing the emotional state of our home of ourselves and children for the change that is going to occur. Reporter for their part, senior officials in moscow have indicated that the bill will block children already selected for u. S. Adoption from leaving russia. When its signed into law, the adoption ban will take effect on january first. Suarez for more on all of this we are joined by lauren koch, the director of development and communications at the National Council for adoption, a Nonprofit Organization that promotes adoption. And fiona hill a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who recently served as the National Intelligence officer for russia at the National Intelligence council. Her upcoming book is titled mr. Putin operative in the kremlin. Welcome to you both. Fiona hill, is this even about adopted children at all or is this about a more confrontational stance towards the United States . Well, it is now about adopted children which, of course, the story makes very clear. But its come out of really Campaign Politics on both sides of the United States and in russia. Mr. Putin first actually survived a Bruising Campaign to become president again in spite of the fact that everybody saw him as a shoein and as part of that campaign he did ratchet up antiamerican sentiment. He blamed protests that took place around the elections for the Russian Parliament and around the president ial elections, many thousands of people out in the streets in moscow and elsewhere, he blamed those on the u. S. Support. Hes taken punitive action against u. S. N. G. O. S. Hes declared many nongovernmental organizations in russia that received foreign funding, especially funding to the United States to be foreign agents, people now under a new legislation have to register themselves as foreign agents and this is also part of that. So by ratcheting up antiamerican sentiment does this kind of thing play well where with the russian public . Keeping the offense inside the country the orphans inside the country rather than letting them go into the United States . Well, part of the story is also the legislation thats just gone through the congress that the president signed last week and this is seen in many respects as a tit for tat, the u. S. Always, in the russian view applies a double standard and is always taking punitive action and applying sanctions against rush so that so this does play well. However, i think as we saw from the clips at the begining theres been some soul searching on the part of Many Russians about the this particular bill because this is a disproportionate action. This is something that hurts russian children as well as ordinary families. So this is really sort of taking things in a very different angle. Suarez lauren koch, in an era where International Adoptions have become more common in the United States, where does russia rank as the home country of foreignborn adoptys here . Historically russia has been one of the most popular sending countries to america. Right now china is the leading country. Russia is certainly in the top 5 with over 700,000 orphans in that country. Theres certainly plenty of children who need a loving family here in the United States. Suarez how about that side of the story. Unicef estimate there iss only about 18,000 russian families looking to adopt children. Thats a disproportionate number considering the need for new homes. It is. Last year alone here in america there were a thousand children adopted from russia. There are Many American families, many of whom right now are in the process of adopting these children that are willing, ready, and able to adopt these kids, some of which have severe special needs. So it speaks to the heart of these American Families that are willing to adopt these kids and bring them home. The. Suarez but there have been unfortunate stories that have gotten a lot of attention here in the United States and back in russia does that make things more difficult for your organization and others that are watching International Adoptions . Sure, well, i think what we have to remember here is there have been over 45,000 children from russia have that have come to america. Most of whom thrive in healthy, successful families here. The very small number of cases of abuse, neglect and very terrible cases death shouldnt account for such a large number of successful adoptions that have happened. I would hate to see orphans in russia now suffer simply because of a couple of very tragic and sad instances here which, by all means, should never be overlooked. Any cases in which a child is in a harmful situation should always be taken very seriously. Suarez fiona, we saw the russian president , mr. Putin, talking about keeping the kids here and taking care of them here. Is there a nationalist aspect to this . I