>> good evening. i'm geoff bennett. on the newshour tonight. the biden administration cancels another $5 billion in student loans. how the president is erasing debt for millions of borrowers after a supreme court ruling struck down his earlier plan. ahead of the new hampshire primaries, judy woodruff with the governor about why he's trying to stop donald trump from becoming nominee. a family struggle. an american helping afghans start their own businesses held captive i the taliban. the growing calls for his

release. >> want him to know i'm going to fight for him to bring him back home and do everything i can to bring him back home. >> major funding for the pbs has been provided by. it a proud supporter of public television. on a voyage, the world awaits. a world of flavor, diverse destinations, and immersive experiences. a world of leisure. an british style. all with white star service. >> the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions.

and friends of the newshour. including jim and nancy build there, and the robert and virginia schilling foundation. >> the john s and james l knight foundation, fostering informed and engaged communities. >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> welcome to the newshour. both the east and west coast have been hit hard by new

storms. a part of an increasingly deadly winter that has claimed at least 50 lives in two weeks. the latest round walloped a huge swath of states, bringing bitter cold temperatures, treacherous ice, and more snow. in new jersey, missed from waterfalls turned a park in patterson into a frozen landscape blanketed in a thick coat of ice. in the west, oregon declared an emergency with power out to more than 100,000 customers. a rift emerged in israel's war cabinet over calls for a cease-fire with hamas. the former army chief told an israeli tv program the hostages will only return alive if there is a deal linked to a significant pause in fighting. prime minister netanyahu has vowed to keep fighting. he also rejects talk of palestinian statehood as president biden wants. aids spoke iphone today. >> it will not change the president's view that the best long-term solution for regional

security, particularly of the security of the israeli people, is a free and independent palestinian state that can live in peace and security. and this is an important caveat with israel's security. also guaranteed. >> president biden said there are a number of two state solutions and benjamin netanyahu is not opposed to all of them. he offered no other details. u.s. navy planes have hit more houthi missile launchers after they fired and un-american owned tanker in the red sea. the vessel was undamaged. pro demonstrators packed the streets in yemen. they blasted the u.s. for re-designating the houthis as a terrorist group. >> the most eloquent message we are spending is the entire yemeni population is supporting palestine, not just the houthis. the u.s. listing of the houthis as a terrorist group will not

change what is happening in the red sea. >> in washington, the white house insisted strikes will continue until they stop firing at ships. a ukrainian drone attack on western russia ignited a huge fire at an oil storage depot. the site was in a small city. around 40 miles from the border with ukraine. reservoirs holding more than 1.6 million gallons of oil were set on higher. the russians said there were no reports of casualties. north korea says it tested not underwater drone that can carry a nuclear weapon. the north state media reports it can carry out attacks on ships and ports. the announcement comes as kim jong-un has stepped up weapon testing amidst threats of nuclear conflict japan became the fifth nation ever to land a spacecraft on the moon. celebrations were short-lived. mission controllers were glued to monitors as the lander touched down. the solar panels failed to

generate power, leaving officials hoping for a solar rescue. >> it takes 30 days for the solar angle to change on the moon. when the light shines from a different direction, it could end up hitting the solar cell from a direction other than what we have in the current situation. >> controllers still hope to confirm the lander made a pinpoint touchdown. that would be a first for lunar fights. thousands of antiabortion activists rallied in washington for the annual march for life. they stood in snow and freezing cold to hear house speaker mike johnson and others. abortion policy figures to be a major issue in this year's elections the supreme court overturned federal protection for abortion in 2022. a grand jury in new mexico re-indicted alec alequin for involuntary manslaughter. it stems from a fatal movie set shooting in 2021. he said the gun went off accidentally. special prosecutors dismissed an earlier charge saying the gun might have been modified.

they brought the new case after analyzing the weapon. major new layoffs are in the works. away fair announced it is cutting more than 1600 jobs. 13% of its global workforce. macy's is eliminating 23 hundred positions. 3.5% of its work worse. on wall street, a rally in tech stocks pushed the broader market higher. the dow jones industrial gains 395 points to close at 37,863. the nasdaq rose 250 five points. s&p 500 added 59 points to finish at a new high. still to come. clashes between the baltimore sun's new owner and staff spark and earns about the wider industry. david brooks and jonathan capehart rate down the latest political headlines. swimming from cuba to florida. annette benning on her new role as famed swimmer diane anaya.

>> this is the pbs newshour, from w eta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. >> president biden and outs another $5 billion in student loan forgiveness for 74,000 borrowers. the latest batch of student debt cancellation's after the u.s. supreme court struck down his larger forgiveness plan last year. john yang has our update on the president's. >> today's move will provide relief to nurses, teachers, and other public service employees working for at least 10 years. it includes forgiveness for some borrowers making loan repayments for 20 years, but never got the relief they were entitled to under existing programs. earlier this week, the administration said it would move up the start date of a new student loan repayment program from the light of february the biden administration says it erased more than $130 billion in

loans for 3.7 millimolars. daniel douglas gabriel covers the economics of higher education for the washington post. >> two announcements. public service workers for for student -- 20 years, but have not gotten the benefits they were entitled to. >> since the late 1990's, there have been income driven repayment programs. these programs allow you two based on portion of your discretionary earnings. it is supposed to allow you to have affordable payments, make it easier for folks to manage loans. after 20 or 25 years of payments, you can get forgiveness for whatever your balance is. unfortunately, the education department weren't keeping count of how many people were making payments on those loans during that time, so there were hundreds of thousands of people

who have been in payment for 20, 25, many more years and never received this and if it. the biden administration said we are going to play cleanup. they extended these initiatives that made it easier for people paying for decades to have their loan forgiveness and the news today of that is what we are seeing. >> the program they are moving up the start date from july to february, what does it do and how significant is it? >> it is all rooted in biden's latest repayment plan commonly known as save. one of the cool features is if you borrowed less than $12,000 originally and had made repayments or 10 years, whatever your raymond -- remaining balance would be forgiven. the bot -- department of education was supposed to put that feature into effect in july. they moved it up to february. they are not certain how many people will benefit from this.

but a lot of people borrowed less then $10,000 who own more money because of the way interest accumulated on their loans. a lot of those people are at the center of where we see the most pain in student loan repayments. meaning the people who default the most, delinquent on their loans. often times because they started college, never finished, and got the credential needed to get the work easy to repay the debt. >> this is an election year, voters under 45 think this is a big issue. student loan forgiveness is a big issue. they also feel biden is not doing enough. is this piecemeal approach the president is taking now that the supreme court struck down his program, is it enough for borrowers? are they satisfied? >> we are not seeing that. relative to any other administration in recent history, this administration has forgiven the most amount of student debt.

but because of the failed promise of this widespread debt relief that would have touched 40 million people, a lot of borrowers are still not fully satisfied. the ones benefiting from the incremental approaches are pretty happy. they don't have to make payments on their loans. for the vast majority, they are still trying to push for something that may not quite happen. to be fair, the biden administration is fighting for more expensive loan forgiveness through this negotiated rulemaking process that is still underway. but it is not what folks were hoping for and certainly not what many people thought he could have delivered. >> loan repayment to getting the student loans. the biden administration rolled out the new free application for federal student aid. they did that at the beginning of the year. how is it going? >> a lot better than it started. i think we have more than one million people who have

submitted fafsa. a lot of the trouble people experience on january 1, december 31, have largely dissipated, from what i'm hearing. but there are still technical issues some applicants are facing when their parents try to get id. especially if they don't have social security numbers. it was supposed to make it easier for folks. but it has not fully worked out from what i'm hearing. i think the challenge is filling out the form is one step. there are other steps along the way. all of those delays have a domino effect. folks in financial aid are waiting to see how this plays out. >> financial aid has to decide what they can offer students and students have to figure out where to afford to go. but this is getting pushed back? >> the department, while everyone can submit their application, the department may not provide colleges that

information and data until the end of this month. that creates a much shorter timeline for financial aid officers at schools to be able to provide award packages. it also creates the complication of missing potential state and outside scholarship lines that require it in order to apply for that money. so everyone is really nervous about how students and families will be able to get this information to make an educated decision about where to go, where they can afford to go if there is a shorter timeline. >> daniel douglas gabriel, thank you. >> thank you. >> this week has brought questions about the futures of some of the country's most storied newspapers. the baltimore sun has a new owner, but his political --

political background cost concerns about what the 187-year-old newspaper can become. staffers at the los angeles time walked out the job to protest planned layoffs after his top editor stepped down following reported tensions with the billionaire owner. marie lipinski is the former editor at the chicago tribune. now curator of the nieman foundation for journalism at harvard. thank you for being with us. the new baltimore sun owner raised eyebrows at his initial staff meeting where he reportedly insulted the journalism being produced by the paper and told staffers to focus on profit. is this type of ownership model sustainable for newspapers moving forward where the super wealthy soup in and buy them up? >> no. billionaire owners do not equal a business strategy. there have been a number in the

last decade or so. some which have had good intentions and in some cases, there has been some success. but this idea that your success in one realm will translate to a success in another, in this case, newspaper publishing, is not axiomatic. i think from all accounts, it was a rough start between mr. smith and the newsroom. he talked about having not read the paper hardly at all, and had a lot of systems. not just of the paper, but the community. i think that is a rocky place to start. there was not a lot of detail about what else except let's make money and change that the newsroom could really sink their teeth into. i think the mission is not clear. >> david smith is also executive chair of sinclair broadcasting,

which brought criticism for injecting conservative and right-wing commentary into its local news broadcast that owns over 200 local tv stations. what concerns you have about how that might in act the sun journalism moving forward? >> we have examples historically where newspapers had political agendas. i think the question is where do those play out? do they play out on the editorial page where we've come to expect political endorsements and political campaigns as it were played out by owners and publishers? i think that is something we are accustomed to. where it gets really dangerous and interferes with the reporting obligations of a newspaper is when you see that agenda creep in to the news. and we have certainly seen that. we have seen national campaigns

rollout at sinclair, for instance. where many of the markets will be required to read these statements about faith, which effectively sounded like an attack on the press that mimicked the one president trump was voicing at the time. i think there are differences. you can play out a political agenda or have an agenda around issues in the community on the editorial page. columnists do that. where it becomes a problem and a community is not served is where that plays out in the news columns. >> let's talk about the l.a. times read we mentioned that walkout. the first work stoppage in their 143 year history. what is the impact on the landscape of news in los angeles and the surrounding region shimmer >> the walkout is an interesting strategy. my question is is paying attention to that?

those of us in the media are paying attention to it. i hope there's a sustained conversation with the community. we have mounting data that show us when newspapers are diminished or closed income -- communities, there is an increase in corruption, pollution violations, eoc violations. i wish we could pave it and have that conversation when rooms are under attack or when we have shrinking resources. that is the real cost. there are jobs, journalists pay a price and lose their jobs. that is true and a lot of companies and industries. the outsized impact really is on what happens in communities. we need the support of communities to support these institutions. >> as much as it pains me to say this, the story of print media

is in so many ways a story of decline. sports illustrated, once considered the standard of sports journalism, announced they would lay off their staff. is there anything that is working? what is the story of reinvention for print media? the nonprofit model evan smith is championing? >> the texas tribune is a good example, financial challenges. they have done incredible work on a different model. we have seen in the handful of months this initiative called press forward, which is $500 million being committed across 22 donors, foundations, and individuals to support a local news initiative in markets across the country. we have a lot of people living in news deserts in this country. it is an effort to try and return local news to a lot of those communities, strengthen it in places where they may be

fledgling efforts. baltimore is another good example. the baltimore banner, if the baltimore sun is disappointing you, you should support this new effort, which is a startup, which is being run in part by a lot of alumni from the baltimore sun. in my perfect world, they both thrive. if one model is not working, we have to be experimenting with others. a lot of those are for not -- not-for-profit models. >> and marie lipinski is curator and harvard. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. ♪ >> with election year 2020 fully underway, the effort to understand what is dividing americans politically has become more urgent. for her america at a crossroads

series, judy woodruff turned to new hampshire to look at how a popular republican governor is going all out to persuade voters to stop the renomination of former president trump. >> the big winner in iowa was gop caucuses this week grew even bigger cheers from his supporters. there and across the country. but among those republicans who don't want the former president back in the white house, it brought dread. >> now we have a binary choice. >> and attorney -- determination to derail the trump train. >> the only candidate who set the expectations that he's absolutely going to win every state is trump. if he doesn't, that would be a massive upset. i think a shocker, and it would crack the national narrative that it is his party and he's going to win. >> if she's tom brady, i guess i'm the new guy on the scene, directing it a little bit.

>> new hampshire's four term republican governor chris sununu has thrown himself into an effort to persuade his constituents the path to heal the country's polarization and get back to normalcy begins with defeating trump and handing the win to former south carolina governor nikki haley. >> this is joe. >> as a longtime political reporter, i was eager to get to new hampshire myself to listen to voters and follow governor sununu around. but thanks to a fall i took last week, i cannot travel for a while. so i ended up speaking with the governor remotely. >> eve got to get behind someone who can get stuff done. not who agrees with you on policy. we all agree on a lot of policy. but who can achieve the goals, who can secure the border, bring down inflation, be fiscally responsible? trump did not do any of that. nikki haley can do it. i think that is why you see her

numbers surged. it is like the emperor has no close. once people realize it, they realize we have a choice. >> he flies in, that is not campaigning. it is a loony -- losing strategy. >> he argues not only is nikki haley better for the country, she can reduce its partisanship. >> america is as divided as we have seen in a long time. do you think the election will make that worse or have any effect on the polarization? >> if we elect the wrong person it gets worse, if we elect the right person, it gets better. the trump path is like throwing gasoline on a firework. it will get so much worse. >> we have a packed house. >> of feeling voters echoed outside of haylee events. >> when he's campaigning and back in court, what does it say about our leadership?

morals, integrity? >> i think the last few presidencies have done that. all the way back to obama. trump put a huge divide in the country just by his rhetoric and the lack of respect he has for people. that is the divide. >> people are afraid to put in front of their house and publicly declare that they support somebody other than donald trump. people seem to be afraid of that. and we all know why. >> how much genuine support do you think there is out there in the country and in your state? >> the genuine support is not strong. the 35% we talked about, that is strong. they will come out and walk through walls for the former president. they feel like he shares their anger. that is all it is, it is no

policy connection. it is anger, frustration. most go along to get along. they say he's got to bthe guy, so we will get behind him. because we don't want to get pushed back on social media or have to explain all this. for some folks, it has become the easier path. ask we can't have a country in disarray and world on fire and go through four more years of chaos. >> in new hampshire, nikki haley continued to argue it is time to move on from trump. >> rightly or wrongly, chaos follows him. you know i'm right. >> it is all about small business. >> a point that resonated with at least one trump supporter who heard nikki haley for the first time that night. >> i think going to lie, i have always been a trump supporter. what she is talking about about the chaos thing, i feel like it may continue. not so much on his part. i don't believe it is 100%.

>> when you talk about the things he did not get done as being one of the main reasons, you don't support him. when she's asked that question, asked about the chaos and destruction that follow him, to what extent is he responsible for that chaos and destruction? >> almost all of it -- all of it at its core. let me take you a step back and folks think the chaos is about january 6 and election denial. that is a piece of it. those are not really coming into the mindset of the voter. most republican primary voters don't consider the january 6 or election denial, they are not voting on that. but there is chaos and disruption. it is the way he's been his whole life. it got exasperated hitting the national stage and has he got more frustrated with what he was not getting done in washington, d.c., the outbursts, attacks on the media, as opposed to saying

we can disagree, but let's find a path forward, the pieces we agree on. he did not have those skills. he lacks skills of getting stuff done because you have to negotiate, work with folks, find common ground. >> governor, i hear you saying former president trump did not do what he said he would when he was in office. he talked about how divisive he is, you said a minute ago he's not a republican, he's not a conservative. he also said you would support him if he's nominee of the party. >> sure. because the alternative is joe biden. what biden has done, the way he has let down this country and democrats. i have democrats coming up to me that are let down by joe biden. understanding where he is today with his age. that is not a political hit.

physically. does he have for more strong years in him? nobody believes that right now. a lot of things to consider getting on track and moving forward. i don't think either would do a fantastic job. if i had to go with someone, we will support the republican. he surrounds himself with other good republicans that share more of my ability and necessity to get stuff done. i have no faith. joe biden has proven no ability to manage his team. >> just to be clear, your statement about president trump if he's nominee, even if convicted of a felony between now and then? >> we both know that is wildly hypothetical. he's very likely not to be convicted, things will be appealed, it will go on for years. you don't wait for a conviction to happen to stop donald trump. don't wait for some external factor to stop donald trump. that is not going to happen. beat him at the ballot box. that is how you get rid of trump

if you think he's a threat or understand he's not a conservative. for whatever reason you don't want to see him as a standardbearer. it happens in the ballot box. the biggest threat to democracy is not just donald trump. it is people staying home, not participating. believing their vote doesn't matter or they don't have a choice, that everything is being run behind the curtain. that is not the case. your vote matters. your opportunity to participate matters. the more that come out, the more change happens. let's make it happen. >> that is what governor sununu will spend his energies on ahead of the primary on tuesday. for the pbs newshour and with reporting from across the state of new hampshire, i'm judy in washington.

>> was just days left before the new hatcher primary, donald trump notches an endorsement from a former arrival. on that and more we turn to the analysis of brooks and capehart, david brooks and jonathan capehart associate editor for the washington post. the to see you both. south carolina senator tim scott is endorsing donald trump at a rally in new hampshire. a huge blow to nikki haley moving forward. especially lest we forget it was nikki haley who appointed tim scott to serve in the u.s. senate. what is the significance? >> it means donald trump is continuing his steamrolling towards the nomination. and it fits a pattern that we knew was coming. which is everyone is going to get on board the trump train as quickly as they can. i would not be surprised if governor desantis drops out of the race, decides to endorse

donald trump. if nikki haley drops out, i would not be surprised if she endorsed donald trump. we heard governor sununu of new hampshire say he would support donald trump if he were the republican nominee. which is mystifying to me, given the things he said after that answer. donald trump is going to surround himself with people who want to get things done? has he not paid attention to what he's been doing and who he surrounded himself with since then? if senator scott wants to jump on that bandwagon, maybe wants to be vice president or cabinet official, good for him. but history will deal with him. >> i'm told by sources familiar donald trump pursued tim scott's endorsement, as did nikki haley. not directly, but through mutual friends. if she performs well, she moved to south carolina where donald

trump is already up. what does it mean tim scott is throwing his support behind trump and not her? >> there was a moment in 2016 when tim scott and nikki haley did a rally with marco rubio to endorse him. you had a black guy, indian-american woman, that was one direction for the republican party. they went in a very different direction. tim scott is adjusting to the winds. he's probably pro-trump, anti-nikki haley. south carolina politics is the roughest state politics in the country. so the betrayal is nothing new. scott and nikki haley have not had a great relationship. even though she appointed him. the trail is the art form. if tim scott becomes vice president, the vice presidential campaign, i would be happy. he's a good senator, a good guy, good human being.

if he was elected, he would have a moderating effect on the trump administration. maybe someday there would be a future -- president tim scott would be better than what the republicans are offering. >> as reported earlier, president biden spoke benjamin netanyahu for the first time in nearly a month about the ongoing war in gaza, the risk for regional escalation and what the plan is for gaza after the war. the division is between these two men has never been as pronounced. help us understand the dynamics at play. >> when i look at these dynamics, you have a president who is desperately trying to keep a lid on the middle east as much as he can. you have an israeli prime minister who has political problems because he has a far right coalition government he's trying to keep with him to remain prime minister.

he also has legal problems. people say he is waging this war in part because he doesn't want to go to jail. when you put this mix together, it is oil and water. i praise the president and secretary of state for trying as hard as they can to be the adults in this, looking at this from a diplomatic perspective. but they are dealing with a prime minister who has very parochial considerations in a war that has global significance. >> i think you can argue benjamin netanyahu believes he can outlast u.s. officials and the american president. as president biden is pushing for a palestinian state, benjamin netanyahu said the prime minister needs to be capable of saying no to our friends when necessary and saying yes when possible. how does biting contend with it?

>> benjamin netanyahu is about him and staying in power. he's been good at it. his strategy now apparently is i'm going to defend israel from america and the americans are trying to shove a two state solution down our throat area he has remote chances of being prime minister after the war ends. he's going to get blamed for october 7. he's adopted this strategy, which is insane. the idea america -- netanyahu would attack the president, who came to israel after october 7. there is no viability to his plan. he has a war with no end date. a stream of security from the river to the sea. you cannot have a future in the middle east without some palestinian authority, the people who live there. he has an opportunity to sign alliances with saudi arabia and everyone else. but they need a palestine partner. the fact you can do this without

any palestinian partner is unworkable. but it is a campaign strategy more than anything else next when he says the prime minister needs to be capable of saying no to the u.s., why can't the u.s. say we can say no to more aid and weapons? at least without conditions. >> i think we are going down that road. every week it seems there's another democratic senator, democratic elected officials saying we need to take a look at this. we need to do something because the prime minister is not paying attention. i think this is something the president and administration have been trying to warn him about. clearly he's not listening. because he has domestic considerations. >> that strikes me as a long way off. president biden agrees we need to get rid of hamas or severely degrade hamas. a lot of the pressure is to get them to do more targeted tax,

less bombing, slow down the military operation. i think the posture is right. that does not mean you want to cut off arms or let the u.n. pass a resolution for genocide. that would be very disruptive of the relationship. i want to talk about the big picture of the challenges facing baltimore sun and the los angeles times. what is this model for american newspapers is sustained? [laughter] i guess if we can answer that question. but is it super wealthy -- men swooping in and buying the paper? >> that is the way we have always done it. i work at two places doing. the new york times and i write for the atlanta, and both places are either close to breaking even or doing moderately well.

i would not say even at our publications anybody is satisfied or not completely alarmed. the business model for online journalism is tough. the oncoming train is ai. suppose you wake up in the morning and asked what happened in the middle east. the bots take all of our news organization material which we paid for to get. they synthesize it and give it away for free. as bad as it is now, ai is even a bigger threat. >> i agree with what david said. i would also say between the atlantic and new york times, i am the washington post, owned by jeff asus, what we have with the post, the times, and the atlantic is they are mission driven. it seems to me the baltimore sun and los angeles times, the owners are status driven. when you have mission driven owners, they let the journalists

do the journalism. >> we end it there. thank you so much. for more than 500 days, an american citizen has been wrongfully detained in afghanistan. ryan corbett lived in afghanistan for 12 years, where he worked with local ngos and advised afghan small businesses. his wife was in washington this week meeting with lawmakers and senior officials to push for her husband's release. she sat down with online divorce. ask welcome to the newshour. >> your husband has been held i the taliban -- held by the taliban for 17 months. how were you able to get news about his condition, how he's doing, and what can you tell us?

>> i'm in contact with the state department and have weekly calls and a lot of contact at state department. they give me updates when they can. i was able to speak with ryan on christmas day. he called us. that was my third call. we spoke to him for six minutes. did not get a lot of news. it was so short and he expressed how difficult it is to be held in a basement cell for so long. but it was good to hear a little bit from him. he did mention the qatari's had visited him. and they gave me a picture. that is all i've had so far. i'm hoping for more of a readout. there are bits and pieces of news, but it is very sparse and so little for 17 months. >> they gave you a recent picture of him? how did he seem to you?

>> it was awful. he had aged so much. the last picture i had seen was january of 2023. this was almost a year later. he's lost a lot of weight area and he looked aged, really tired, and frail. that was hard to see for the kids and i. >> you and ryan made a home in afghanistan from 2010 on. moved there from minnesota. why that move? >> we were young, healthy. our kids were little. we wanted to make a difference in a place that suffered a lot. ryan became involved in ngo projects. he saw he would have a bigger impact on afghan families by helping them start their own businesses. that was the purpose of his business. we wanted to make a difference. we made a lot of friends.

we loved afghanistan. our kids were little. my son was born there. they adapted to a new place. it was an interesting life. but we were thankful for the opportunities. >> you lived there for 12 years. you evacuated when the u.s. withdrew. but ryan made the decision to go back. even as u.s. officials told americans not to go. why did he go back? >> his business was still running, his staff was counting on him. his visa was running out. he thought let me see if i can try to get back in and pay my staff, check on the work. he returned in january 2022. it was a very short trip, everything went smoothly. he was given a warm welcome. they said we need your kind of business in the country. in august of 2022, he wanted to return, pay staff, do training. that is when he ended up being

detained. it was shocking because it was opposite of what we expected. >> did you ever think that would happen? knowing the relationships he had on the ground. >> no. he knew the language, we had lived there, we had friends. really did not expect that to happen to him. >> this is your eighth trip to washington, d.c. i know lawmakers introduced a bipartisan resolution calling for his release. you met with the secretary of state, national security advisor. what are they telling you his chances of release? >> they tell me they are working hard towards his release. i appreciate state department, congressmen, senators on the hill. all of them are expressing how much they want ryan home. but i'm 17 months in. eight trips to washington, d.c. with three children alone.

i'm concerned is it being prioritized or not? i have a meeting with jake sullivan. i'm looking forward to talking with him and hearing where things are at. the situation is dire. he's getting worse. the winters are really difficult in afghanistan. the reports i've heard from other western prisoners are really scary. talking about fainting, discolored extremities. he's not doing well and i'm worried about the winter conditions. last i heard, there was no heat. he's in a basement cell. i need the government to prioritize and see this as very urgent that he needs to be brought home. >> you have three kids. how are they coping? >> it is tough. i'm proud of them. i know ryan would be proud of them. they are amazing. it is hard to focus on their studies.

my daughter is a senior in high school. i'm trying to teach her to drive . that is a really challenging, even when life is going well. i son is in basketball. his dad has never watched him play. it is really tough. >> if you can get a message to ryan, what would we want him to know? >> i'm going to fight to bring him back home. i'm going to do everything i can to bring him home. we love him and miss him like crazy and we are worried about him. >> thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> one of the years most acclaimed acting performances now receiving often -- oscar buzz came from annette bennett, a four-time academy award winner known for films such as the

grifters, american beauty, and the kids are all right. and the latest, she takes on a formidable woman, the famed long distance swimmer diana nyad. jeffrey brown has a look for our arts and culture series. >> 100 miles. 60 hours of constant swimming. >> at age 60, diana nyad, played by annette ending, decided to attempt what she was unable to achieve in her 20's. swim from cuba to florida. >> imagine knowing in your bones you could do something only you could do. >> she navigated more than 100 miles through waters infested by sharks and venomous jellyfish. this time without a protective cage. she would fail and fail again. before finally accomplishing her dream in 2013 at age 64. swimming for just under 53 hours. accepting the role was

irresistible for banning. only then did reality hit. >> i did not really think about it. that is a good think. that is how you end up plunging into things that are shocking, new, and different. you learn, grow, have a new challenge. i don't regret it at all. but i did pause and said wait a minute, i'm in a bathing suit and swimming, i'm 60 -- whatever i was at the time, can i do this? how is that going to work? then i got into the business of trying to figure that out. >> that echoes diana nyad, who titled her 2015 memoir find a way. she has achieved fame early on for her epic swims, retired at age 30, and worked for decades as a sportscaster before resolving to make waves again. >> i need to get myself functioning at the highest level. you will be my coach. >> the film costarring jodie

foster as her win lover, forever friend, and coach for the swim, was codirected by julie chen and elizabeth chive thoroughly, a husband and wife team who previously explored in documentaries, including 2018 free solo. determined to do her own swimming, she trained for more than a year with radha owen to capture the athleticism and drivable woman who had written herself i'm either a stubborn fool or a valiant warrior. next i love that she said that. >> she is an extreme person, incredibly energetic. well-educated, worldly, charismatic woman. she does have a single-mindedness that is extraordinary. >> if you are playing a fanatically driven person who almost killed herself and drives

even the people around her who love her crazy, is that hard or fun? >> fantastic. it is such a great gift. in the profession i'm practicing, we sort of come to ourselves, but we also escape ourselves. there is a funny duality to it. in a way, it is a wonderful escape to be somebody else, to leave your own concerns in history and issue and jump into somebody else's shoes. at the same time, you are always confronting yourself as an actor, dealing with your inner world. you are the instrument. that is also rattling around in your head or you would be insane. >> for all their hollywood celebrity, eating one-time marriage to warren brady,

banning started in theater and returns to it regularly. in fact, we had first talked in 2009 when she starred in a production of medea. the ancient greek tragedy. she's clearly unafraid to take on challenging roles with medea, the scorned wife takes revenge to shocking a stream by killing her children. or nyad, where her physical appearance is altered to reflect endless hours of water and sunshine. frequent vomiting and life-threatening jellyfish stings. that is liberating. it is wonderful to strip everything away. i think i was trained that way, did a lot of plays. i did not start doing movies until i was almost 30. this whole thing about being glamorized and having makeup put on you and being lit in a certain way and all the things that come with it that is all

fine, and interesting part of the job. but it is part of being able to strip everything away and service of a story that you care about. that is a great feeling. >> look at the horizon. you see it? >> is it the sun? >> it is not the son. those are the lights of key west. >> for all the single-minded obsession, she said the real key is how nyad comes to see she cannot do it alone, relying on a support team in and out of the water. most of all, friend bonnie. and fort benning, jodie foster. >> diana needs bonnie to do what she does. it is also a reflection of our profession. we need each other so much in our work. it is interacting, listening, responding. being there for your partner and

giving. all of that is such a satisfying, joyous exchange. even in tough scenes and dark moments, to have that bond, that mutual vulnerability, is a key part of acting. >> they are two women who are older than perhaps we usually see in the movies >> es, there have been a lot of stories that have not been told about women. not that they haven't been there, it is that people have not made them. women don't disappear when they are 50 or 60 or 70 or 80. stories are interesting and rich. we are in a time where a lot of stereotypes, not all, but a lot of stereotypes women were trapped in in the movies are dropping away. it is not just about playing a strong woman. that is not interesting. it is interesting to play somebody with nuances and flaws and vulnerabilities. and also humor and intelligence.

home range. >> for you personally, you don't have a desire to swim from cuba to miami? >> i do not. but i still swim. i love it read i've always needed a certain amount of exercise to maintain my inner annuity. now it is swimming. i love it. it is the best. >> one other enduring benefit from the film, the friendship between them that started during production continues. happily going the distance. for the pbs newshour, jeffrey brown. >> we invite you to tune into washington we without lentic innate. jeffrey goldberg and his panel will talk about the republican presidential race and widening conflicts. watch pbs news week and tomorrow

for why it is becoming more expensive to fly as air travel gets back to prevent direct levels. join us next tuesday for special live coverage of the new hampshire primary starting at 11:00 p.m. eastern. that is the newshour for tonight. on behalf of the entire newshour team, have a great weekend. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by. >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour. including kathy and paul anderson and camilla and george smith. the walton family foundation. working for solutions to protect water during lame change so people and nature can thrive together. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world.

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>> after the iowa caucus was exactly as predicted, it surprised no one if new hampshire republicans give donald trump of a victory. >> we blew it out. i think the several things will happen here. >> what is in question is the entire rest of the world. it is a lot for any president to handle, especially one who is 81 years old. next. >> this is "washington week" with the atlantic. corporate funding provided