amna: good evening and welcome. i'm amna nawaz. judy woodruff is away. on "the newshour" tonight, troubled water. mississippi's governor declares a state of emergency in jackson, after the capital city's treatment plant breaks down, leaving thousands without drinkable water. then, at the extreme -- we speak with pakistan's minister of climate change about the catastrophic flooding that has killed more than a thousand people and displaced millions mo. plus, a major figure -- former soviet premier mikhail gorbachev -- has died. a look at the tremendous impact he had on world history.

and teacher shortages as the new school year begins. districts nationwide take extraordinary measures to fill crucial positions. all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour." >> major funding for "the pbs newshour" has been provided by -- >> for 25 years, consumer cellular has been offering no contract wireless plans designed to help people do more of what they like. our u.s.-based customer service team can find the plan that fits you. to learn more, visit consumercellular.tv. ♪ >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and 0institutions, and friends of the newshour, including the andersons and smiths. >> the john s. and james l. knight foundation, fostering informed and engaged communities. more at kf.org. ♪

>> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. stephanie: we will return to the full program after the latest headlines. the last leader of the soviet union has died. russian officials samikhail gorbachev passed away in moscow today after a long illness. he took power in 1985 and introduced seping reforms, but he could not prevent the collapse of the soviet state and its communist empire at the end

of 1991. at his death, mikhail gorbachev was 91 yearsld. we'll look back on his life, at the end of the program. the united nations is calling for $160 million in emergency funding to help pakistan cope with catastrophic flooding. the u.n. secretary general made his appeal in a video message today. he cited the scope of a disaster that's killed more than 1160 people, displaced millions, and destroyed roads and crops. sec. gen. guterres: pakistan is awash in suffering. the pakistani people are facing a monsoon on steroids. the relentless impact of epochal levels of rain and flooding. livelihoods are shattered, critical infrastructure wiped out, and people's hopes and dreams have washed away. amna: the appeal came as flood victims lined up for food and water distributed by volunteers. flood waters have begun to recede in places, but more rain is expected.

we'll return to this later in the program. a tense calm has returned in iraq's capital city after the worst violence there in years. fighting between rival factions left at least 30 dd and dozens more wounded. simona foltyn is in baghdad and has this report. simona: after a night of deadly clashes between iraq's shiite factions, a sudden reversal today, as followers of the influential shiite cleric mogtada al-sadr began withdrawing from the green zone, home to embassies and government institutions in central baghdad. protester: as members of the mosiist movement, w olwewhlo a televised address, sadr ordered his supporters and militia to leave. >> i still believe that my supporters are disciplined and obedient. and if in the next 60 minutes they do not withdraw, as well as from parliament, then i will abandon these supporters. simona: sadr's call for de-escalation came after weeks

of unrest, during which he tried but ultimately failed to force his will onto his political rivals. moments after he announced his withdrawal from politics on monday, hundreds of angry supporters stormed the government palace. the protests quickly turned into heavy fighting with security forces and armed wings of iran-aligned parties who oppose sadr, forcing the cleric to back down. >> i had hoped for peaceful protests, with pure hearts, hearts filled with love for their country. not ones that resort to gunfire. this saddens the revolution. simona: the clashes stoked fears that the country could descend into a fresh cycle of violence. nour: this dangerous situation and the overtaking of the government's property or storming the highest authority, which is the republican palace, will destabilize the economic situation, as well as our daily lives. simona: all of this played out

against the backdrop of political deadlock. sadr's party won the largest share of seats in last october's parliamentary elections, but not enough to form a government. his refusal to negotiate with shia rivals has left the government, and the country, in limbo. the curfew has been lifted and life in the iraqi capital is slowly returning to normal, marking the end of baghdad's bloodiest day in recent years. but a dangerous precedent has been set, and for now, the rifts over government formation that sparked the armed clashes remain unresolved. in the absence of a clear path towards a political solution, there's a risk that the two sides may once again resort to settling their scores in the streets. for "the pbs newshour," i'm simona foltyn in baghdad. stephanie: also in the region, the u.s. navy and iran have had a run-in in the persian gulf over an unmanned sea vessel. the navy says iran's revolutionary guard tried to

snatch the surveillance drone in international waters last night. the iranians released the drone after a four-hour standoff with other u.s. naval vessels nearby. the incident followed u.s. air strikes on iranian-backed militias in syria last week. heavy new fighting raged today in southern ukraine, a possible sign of of a ukrainian counter-offensive. kyiv claimed its forces broke through russian lines around kherson, a strategic port city that sits on the dneiper river. eyewitness video showed what appeared to be munitions exploding under artillery fire. ukraine said it destroyed bridges and ammunition depots. the russians said they repelled the attacks. taiwan says its military fired warning shots today at a chinese drone firing near an island -- flying near an island it controls, the first time there has been shooting between the two sides since china stepped of military exercises in the area. earlier today, taiwan's president had promised strong countermeasures.

fresh outbreaks of covid-19 cases in china have prompted new lockdowns in several major cities. workers in shenzen put up red barricades to seal off housing compounds. visitors will need to show proof of a negative test to enter. lockdowns also affected half of the 6 million people in the port city of dalian. back in this country, president biden tore into republicans today over political violence. he traveled to wilkes-barre, pennsylvania, denouncing gop lawmakers who've attacked the fbi for searching the trump estate in florida. pres. biden: it's sickening to see the new attacks on the fbi, threatening lives of law enforcement agents and their families for simply carrying out the law and doing their job. [applause] look, i want to say this as clear as i can. there's no place in this country -- no place -- for endangering the lives of law enforcement.

stephanie: the president returns to pennsylvania thursday for a speech in philadelphia. we'll have more on his gun policy agenda later in the program. nasa officials said they will try again to launch their new artemis moon rocket on saturday. they had to scrap their first run on monday due to an engine problem. still to come, a closer look at president biden's plan to combat the uptick in crime across the country. how homebuyers of color are disproportionately impacted by rising mortgage rates. and much more. >> this is "the pbs newshour," from weta studios in washington, and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: the capital of mississippi is coping with a water crisis. the governor has declared a state of emergency and the governor has asked the national guard to help distribute water

for the 180,000 residents and businesses of jackson. john yang has the story. john: amna, officials can't say how long it's going to take to get safe, running water coming out of taps in jackson. mississippi governor tate reeves said there isn't enough water to flush toilets or even fight fires. today, jackson mayor chokwe antar lumumba said this situation has been building for a long time. >> i have said on multiple occasions that it is not a matter of if our system would fail, but a matter of when our system would fail. i have stood before you not only in terms of our local media, but national media, and shared that the city of jackson, even when we are not under a boil water notice, even when we are not contending at that present moment with low pressure, that we are in a constant state of emergency. john: for years, jackson residents have contended with cloudy water coming out of taps, disruptions in service, and

frequent boil water notices. nick judin is state reporter for mississippi free press, a nonprofit online news organization. nick, thanks so much for being with us. what is it like now for you as a jackson resident and for your neighbors? nick: thanks for having me. it has been over a month without clean drinking water. we have had a kind of intermittent boil water notices on and off over the last few months. i describe that right now we are in the acute phase of the jackson water crisis. many of us cannot flush our toilets. the schools are shutting down. restaurants are struggling. the fire department is concerned about water pressure. prior to this period, we were in this chronic period, where you have regular boil water notices, you are not sure if you can trust the water. there is constantly problems at

our water treatment plants. this has been going on. it predates the 2021 freeze that lost us water for a month and it will continue on after water has been reestablished to the city. john: did the flooding of the pearl river bring us to the acute phase? nick: that is something the city and water plant leadership have said contributed to the problem. it is unclear right now how much that flooding the cause of the kind of total breakdown we are experiencing. there are also some pump failures -- this goes back to about a month ago. and staffingssues, which are key, a lack of class-a water operators and just regular maintenance staff, that has been going on for months and months, well before this current phase of the crisis. so the flooding is not helping, but i don't know that it is the

only cause. john: you talked about staffing. today you have a story about the epa saying they don't have any records about jackson trying to meet the staffing problem. nick: right. i spoke with the epa on friday. this was before we had any idea, before i had any idea we would be entering this kind of acute phase of the crisis this week. what they told me is they reacheout to the city of jackson to see therogress they had made in finding staffing -- again, class a water operators and regular maintenance technicians -- and they had not been given any results that showed efforts to acquire the staff, job fairs, interviews, things like that. i asked the mayor today at the press conference, why would the epa not have a record of any of

these actions? the mayor's response was they were ongoing and essentially they will be shared with the epa once the process is complete. john: you talked about being in the chronic phase before this. where do these problems come from, and why has it been so hard to address them? nick: the first time jackson had a serious water outage was 1989. obviously those kind of water outages have not been as significant as we saw last year and what we are seeing now, but it has been a system that has been in great decline for decades. the problems are compounding over time, a lack of investment, a lack of maintenance, a lack of staffing, obviously, is huge. l of these things build on top of each other and compound until you have a moment like this. john: does race and white flight

in jackson, the jackson area, has that played a role? nick: if you look at the history, the historical context of the city of jackson, the integration of the school system and the suburbanization of america absolutely led to white flight and capital flight from the city of jackson. you can see over several decades until about the 1980's, the footprint of the city expanding as a city, annexing more and more territory around it. after that point, even though the flight began before then, you just see population declining since then. when the tax base leaves, when the city grows, these cause an enormous amount of effort the city is responsible for while dealing with less investment and less support. john: nick, thank you.

nick: thank you so much. ♪ amna: now to pakistan, where a torrential monsoon season, accelerated by climate change, has led to catastrophic flooding. one-third of the country, an area the size of colorado, is under water. at least 1100 are dead, and untold numbers have lost everything. here's nick schifrin with the top pakistani official trying to manage the climate crisis. nick: the toll is staggering -- a million homes damaged or destroyed. 2 million acres of agricultural land submerged. and 33 million people affected. to discuss the enormity of what confronts pakistan, we turn to sherry rehman, pakistan's minister of climate change. welcome back to "the newshour." just explain the crisis and the

size of the calamity. min. rehman: the scale of the crisis is unprecedented, a magnitude never seen before in living history in pakistan. it is affecting more than 33 million people, the size of a small country. right now as we speak, more than one third of pakistan is underwater. nick: many people say they haven't received assistance from the government or ngo's. how difficult is it to reach everyone? min. rehman: we have not been able to reach people at least in the first week of the deluge, and it has been eight weeks of unrelenting rain which pakistan has never seen. the way to rescue people in floods and disasters always are helicopter cover, and they haven't been able to take off with the kind of rain and complete cloudbursts of water coming down. there has been a complete humanitarian disaster.

the water cover is so heavy and high that we've had the pakistan navy inland. now the heavys are operating and picking people from rooftops, literally. it has been tragic seeing bridges collapsed in the north, seeing people marooned on rooftops, over 160 bridges collapsed and the water just rip through it. it is a climate disaster of epic portions. nick: as you were just pointing out, many bridges have been destroyed, including bridges that pakistan built higher after they were destroyed a decade ago during those floods. in retrospect, do you believe the government did enough after those floods to prepare for floods like you are facing today?

min. rehman: i mean, where are you supposed to build flags, on a skyscraper? the decade of reckoning is here and now, it is not 2015. the tipping point is absolutely visible to us, and i think many thresholds are being crossed while global leaders did their over which emissions are good and which are not. it is time to make decisions, otherwise it won't just be pakistan. by the way, this year, we've had three times as many glacier melt episodes adding to the water gushing down, bracing for floods from the north. i don't know how we will absorb this amount of resting in water over standing water right now. nick: pakist contributes less than 1% of global emissions. do you believe that pakistan and other countries like it are the victims of climate change mostly caused by richer countries?

min. rehman: i don't like to use the term victimhood. i am a woman, so we like to ascribe some agency to ourselves. it is a clear case of damage and loss of reparations. it is the carbon footprint of other countries that got rich on the back o fossil fuels. we are paying the price for it because we are on the front line of a geographical location. we are uniquely positioned. we have a huge river running through the country, the largest man-made irrigation system in the world. honestly, the bargain made between the global south and north has not worked out as excted. we would love to switch to renewables just for our own import bills to be reduced and to be cleaner anhave cleaner fuel, but just that transition would cost us $101 billion without the transmission line changes. climate resilience costs money.

right now, all of the money is going into relief. nick: pakistan's had a close partnership with the united states for many years. it is also a close partner with beijing. what is your message to the world's two largest emitters? min. rehman: the two largest emitters should stop. it is not a good world today, it is a dystopic one. whatever goes down in one country will eventually impact on the other. i had a good conversation with senator john kerry, and we are perfectly committed to working together, and i believe if we all put our resources to the task of chipping away at joint problems, we can meet the needs gap. nick: after the last floods from a decade ago, pakistan created hydropower projects, some coming under criticism.

do you believe unplanned infrastructure projects have actually exacerbated the current crisis? min. rehman: i am not aware of which hydro project has exacerbated any condition. having said that, certainly some water architectural solutions, the entire architecture of our hydrology perhaps needs a reset now to meet the kind of climate challenge we are seeing. but wrapping one's head around that level of resource mobilization, i'm not sure we have the resources. climate resilience is expensive business. maybe we should go to agriculture, a little bit drought resistance. 90% of our crops are gone for the year. nick: so does that mean that this is not just a problem of

today, that this will have an effect for many years to come? min. rehman: i think we've got ourselves a very large task as well as a large ask from velopment partners. if they are not able to meet it, i don't know how we will be able to service a large population which has lost most of its employment. the next crop is also wiped out because there is too much standing water and the soil will not be ready for what is known as the winter planting season. we have a crisis. nick: pakistan's climate minister, thank you very much. ♪ amna: as students return to class, school districts across

the country continue to grapple with teacher and staff vacancies. but the scope of the shortages, and what's behind them, varies widely across america's nearly 14,000 school districts. carlton jenkins is the superintendent of madison metropolitan school district, the second largest school district in wisconsin. he joins us now. mr. superintendent, thank you for joining us and welcome. you have seen, as we all have, these headlines about a catastrophic teacher shortage, a crisis in schools. the details seem to depend on where you live. paint us a picture, what is the situation in madison? sup. jenkins: i will just tell you in madison, wisconsin, we definitely are not immune to the teacher shortage or exodus, one would say, that we're seeing across the country. in fact, this year, we had record number of vacancies. we had 571 that have been counted. and we've just been trying to do , as my colleagues across the

country have been saying, everything we can to make sure that we market our district. we really have a great city here in madison, wisconsin. and our state is different, but we've been doing a lot of things to try to get people to come to madison, wisconsin. we know we have a great educational system that is supported by the community. but it's definitely a teacher shortage. amna: how are you doing in filling those vacancies? how many do you have today, and how have you done it? are you having to lower qualifications or raise pay as in other places? sup. jenkins: well, one of the things right now that we're looking at, it is really an employee's market. the historical issues of teacher shortages continue to go. in 1970, we had 200,000 individuals coming out ready to go into teacher workforce, and now we have less than 90,000 and we're seeing more women leave the workforce. knowing that, we are trying to be very strategic in trying to keep the talent, that is very important. but individuals, after the pandemic, a lot of people want to go closer to home. some have come from far away and

some are trying to go back. we're also trying to make sure that conditions are welcoming in our schools and that our staff feel valued. and so to do that, we have actually recruited a record number of teachers here in madison, wisconsin, over 500 staff recently. we still have a shortage, roughly about 134, but we are working diligently to close the gaps. we haven't lowered our standards. we have 275 highly qualified individuals, sub staff ready to go, a total of about 600 staff out there. and we're just working together to make it happen. amna: as we've seen, is not just about teachers, although there's a lot of focus on teachers. we saw a survey of rentable's and school districts from july that said 72% of them said they did not have enough applicants to fill teacher positions but 86% said they did not have enough applicants for bus driver vacancies.

you've been doing this for more than 30 years, have you ever seen numbers like that? sup. jenkins: never, this is totally unprecedented. the pandemic has definitely increased what we're seeing in terms of just the vacancies. the last 30 months or so, the whole socio-emotional, mental health piece has taken a toll on all of us. we'd never seen it like this last year. we started with the bus drivers shortage, like colleagues across the country, and ts year we are in better shape with bus drivers. we have to look at foodservice, al positions, and think about it differently, how we make everyone feel as though they belong and create the best environment. we know this, and our board chair says this every day, it is not what we do, it is who we are. our budget must reflect that. but it is challenging for all of us, because some states, as wisconsin, have not invested as much, kept up with the pace of inflation. but today, i have to say we had a great surprise as our governor

took a big step forward and announcing that he's going to give $90 million to support this teacher shortage effort that all of us are going through. he gave us great latitude on how we could use the money to help with the teacher shortage. so we are very excited in madison. amna: pay is one part of it, but teacher burnout is so high after these brutal last couple of years. they are part of political attacks and debates. you have filled the spots for now, are you worried about feeling them in the future? sup. jenkins: first of all, we haven't filled them all, we are working until the last moment and even when school starts. we are going outside of the country. we have individuals who have come here from china, mexico, individuals from spain, all across the country, but we do know this, that public education

has been under such a brutal attack. polarization is really impacting mental health and well-being. i'm asking everybody to just chill out going into this year and really try to support educators. i mean all educators, food service workers to teachers and administrators. that's really impacted our ability to retain people in ucation, high-quality people, i must say. i'm looking for everyone to really support us in that way. amna: mr. superintendent, i wish you all the best of lu. thank you for joining us. sup. jenkins: thank you so much. ♪

amna: president biden first intended to give today's speech on gun violence and public safety last month. his covid diagnoses delayed the trip, so it took place in the wake of unprecedented attacks on law enforcement since the fbi executed a court-approved search of former president donald trump's home. laura barron-lopez has more. laura: in a speech touting the recently-enacted bipartisan gun safety law and promoting funding for police, president biden voiced new urgency. he drew a stark contrast with some republicans who have called to defund the fbi. pres. biden: you're either on the side of a mob or the side of the police. you can't be pro-law enforcement and pro-insurrection. [applause] you can't be a party of law and order and call the people who attacked the police on january 6 patriots. you can't do it. i'm opposed to defunding the police. i'm also opposed to defunding the fbi. laura: joining me to discuss all of this is john roman. he is a crime researcher at the university of chicago. and donell harvin. he's the former head of homeland security and intelligence for washington, d.c.

thank you for joining us today. s -- donell, i'd like to start with you. president biden struck a contrasting republicans cannot be the party of law and order and called january 6 insurrectionist patriots and call for defunding of the fbi. donell: i haven't heard the president this fired up in a long time. i think conceptually he is spot-on in terms of those individuals who make excuses and call the people that stormed our nations capitol, assaulted law enforcement, patriots. i think it feeds into the narrative and helps these individuals continue to radicalize when you don't call them out for what they are. they are criminals, and frankly i believe they are traitors to the constitution and the nation. law and order requires that law and order be kept not just what -- just when it is against people you don't like, but also when it is against your party. we have seen a lot of hate, a

lot of vitriol, not only by lawmakers and officials, but also online, specifically against the fbi and federal law enforcement, and that plays into a narrative of radicalization and mobilization of violence. we saw that in cincinnati last month with the attack on the fbi office. laura: the president made the comments about attacks on the fbi in his speech also about accomplishments by his administration, whether it is getting the nominee for alcohol, tobacco, and firearms confirmed, as well as finalizing a regulation cracking down on ghost guns. those are untraceable guns made from online kits. i know it has been a short time since those have taken effect, but has there been a noticeable impact on crime? john: well, there is every

reason to believe there will be. all of the things the biden administration has able to do in a bipartisan way, the legislation passed by congress, the things that that does, raising the age that people can buy an assault rifle to 21, changing and closing the boyfriend loophole, so the people who are a domestic partner and not a spouse can get an extreme risk protection order and protect themselves if they feel their life is threatened. cracking down on ghost guns. these are all this with a strong research and evidence base behind them. there isn't that much data on firearms, and where we have been able to piece things together, you see good research that informs the kind of policies put forward and passed in a bipartisan way. i think that argues for more data, compromise, and public safety. laura: at the same time there has been an increase in the number of guns circulating in

the u.s., there is also a lot of popularity among americans in terms of stricter gun laws can you explain the cognitive dissonance? john: it's interesting because it suggests the american people have a more nuanced understanding of their situation than the policy narrative would suggest. two things have happened. there were more homicides in 2020, a 30% increase year-over-year, the biggest one year increase w have seen since we've been keeping statistics since 1960. a huge increase in homicides, and more than 20 million guns were sold in each of 2020, and 2021. you have 50 million new guns sold and a big incree in homicide. people are buying guns because they arefraid. they bought a gun to protect themselves, but they are afraid of other people with guns, so they want strong regulation to protect them against the wrong person getting a gun. laura: on this point, there are some 400 million guns in

circulatn in the united states. can you put that in the context of these increased threats toward fbi agent and capitol police? donell: we have a problem with armed militia in this country as well as radical, violent extremists. many of them are antigovernment, and they have been amassing one of the world's largest small-arms arsenal for decades. the lapse on the ban on assault rifles helped propel that when that lapsed during the bush administration. the fact that these individuals are heavily armed, many of them trained, they have former military or law enforcement background, and they are waiting for a lot of the signals. we call them dog whistles, but they are not dog whistles.

they are blatant signals from lawmakers, waiting for the call to come out and really to take down the government or law enforcement. we have accelerationist groups that just want to bring about devolution of our country through civil war. you have mentioned it, we have more guns than people in this country. a lot of those are in the wrong hands. people see that and to the other point, they want to get guns. you see that in new york state, a lot of people lining up to get guns because everyone is scared of what is to come. laura: john, briefly, what more actions do you think president biden could take to address the prevalence of guns in the united states? john: it's interesting, if you look at the surveys we have done, you see there is an overwhelming support among nonowners and non-gun owners for things like stricter background checks, more resources for the atf, limits on concealed carry keep people from being able to walk around unregulated with a weapon they have no training for.

there's a lot of consensus among the american voters about all these issues. i think there is a window of opportunity where we've made progress and had some compromise to improve public safety. there is more to be done and i think we are on the right trajectory. laura: tha you both. ♪ amna: rising mortgage rates and lingering inflation are forcing many americans to put plans to buy a home on hold. that in turn is pushing up rent prices for others. and no one has experienced that more acutely over the last year than people of color. as economics correspondent paul solman explains, as part of our series "race matters." ♪ >> ♪ baby don't care to own

a nine or 10 carat stone ♪ paul: after a lifetime of performing the world over, lily adams, 74, is back in her hometown, one of more than 59 million americans, 18% of us, living with family. her daughter and son-in-law in suburban detroit. but she needs her own place, and it had better be her house. lily: i can't stay in an apartment because i make noise. i have to play. paul: you make too much noise for the neighbors? lily: i need a place like this place. if possible. i probably would teach, go back to doing some teaching too, and nobody wants to hear that. paul: adams says she can afford a $100,000 home in the up-until-recently bargain-basement detroit market. lily: the problem is finding the financing for these houses. paul: that's because of spiking mortgage rates, which have doubled in a year.

lily: they started incrementally going up, up, up, until it reached a tipping point, making it impossible. paul: enough money for a fat down payment, of course, and rates wouldn't matter so much. but black americans like adams were actively prevented for decades from building home equity. the bulk of the wealth base for most other middle-income americans. raheem: from the 1930s to the 1960's, the federal government embarked on redlining, which was a racially explicit housing policy that provided home loans to white families and denied those same loans to black families. paul: thus, says housing researcher raheem hanifa, a detroiter himself, blacks have too little equity to cash in for a down payment. and now, suddenly, the mortgage rate spike. raheem: there's been a decline of 52% in home affordability for black households

paul: even in bargain-basement, 77% black detroit? raheem: detroit is one of those cities that is no longer affordable to low-income families. paul: like the family of post office employee angela smith, renting the last four years. she needs to only put down 3.5% because of a government program. but, she explains -- angela: you try to stay on top of the bills that you already have, and then you're trying to save money to buy a house. do you not eat? do you not pay your rent? then gas went up to $5. so what do you do? do you not put gas in your car to go to work? paul: the interest rate surge is killing her budget already. what's more, smith needs that car just to get to her job. angela: the interest rate on that car is terrible. it's like 19.49% i'm paying on that car. i'm paying $659 a month for this car. paul: mortgage rat are crushing folks like smith. the best offer we could find

online for a $100,000 house, her 640 credit score, a 15-year mortgage with a 6.3% interest rate. $788 a month on a salary of less than $40,000 a year, before taxes, union dues, etc. but, of course, it's not just for homeowners of color that mortgage rates are discouraging. samantha moceri, for instance. samantha: we've set a budget, and now with interest rates, you know, every few weeks to a month or so going up and us not finding a home every few weeks to a month, it, you know, it makes us want to stay where we're at and not, you know, not get in this rat race. ed: i make videos about detroit. paul: local real estate agent ed butler takes to youtube to help buyers navigate the detroit market. but with the new mortgage rates, says butler -- ed: for buyers who are shopping in a certain price range, they no longer can afford their

payments. so they're, you know, deciding to either rent or just stop their search at all. paul: ah, deciding to rent. that's the less-told story of higher mortgage rates. nationwide, the median rent is up 24% in the past year to about $1900, a record high for the 16th straight month. peter: with interest rates going up so dramatically, there are fewer people looking to get a mortgage and more people who are currently renters ending up staying renters. paul: peter hepburn of the princeton eviction lab. peter: and that means more competition for a limited set of rental housing. paul: and this is an added problem for those just getting by in an era where, increasingly, landlords are investor peter: the share of new purchases of rental housing that are coming from investors has been increasing steadily over the last decade. paul: the problem is, those investors have few qualms about

raising rents, and thus more evictions. and evictions are picking up in detroit, including among smaller landlords, like the one this tenants' group has organized to resist. david: i'm being evicted for a late payment in april. paul: 32-year-old david chavarria is a sanitation worker in detroit's sewage industry. he paid his rent, but -- david: what their lawyer said was now i'm causing a ruckus in the building. paul: are you causing a ruckus? david: yes we were resisting the rent raises based off of the condition of the building. the elevator was out for eight months. and for us that live on the fourth floor, that is pretty significant. paul: the fact is, says chavarria -- david: a lot of people on our street can't afford to pay the increases in rent. paul: but because of the hot rental market, others can. 71-year-old lewis bass, a retired chef, has lived here for

15 years. but recently, new management took over. so they're just trying to force you out? lewis: we are being forced out to be replaced by somebody who's willing to come in and tolerate the conditions as they are. peter: fewer people going on to buy their homes means more people staying renters means more competition for limited apartments. paul: even in iffy conditions. the new management's response? inflation is killing everybody right now, so you have to continue to raise rents on a regular basis, otherwise you wither and die. the landlord says he fixed the elevator and insists the only evictions are for non-payment of rent. meanwhile, in recent weeks, as interest rates continued to climb, housing prices have finally stopped rising. ed: in the market we've started to see a lot more price decreases and price drops than we have in the last few years. so naturally, that average price point is going to either

stabilize or pull back. paul: again, detroit realtor ed butler. ed: the rest of the country is kind of experiencing a slight cool off. us, we're doing it a lot more because we have a little bit more inventory than the rest of the country does. paul: good for buyers like samantha? samantha: we go to see these houses and we're finally crunching numbers and saying, okay, we want to do this, we want to do that. we like this house, yada, yada, yada. then you get to the point where your interest rate is now, you know, 2% and 3% higher than what we're currently paying. so is it really going down or is it just kind of shifting over, you know, so who are we paying more to, the seller or the mortgage company? paul: though i guess if you buy now and mortgage rates eventually go down, you could refinance at a lower rate. so mightn't that give hope to those like lily adams? do you think you'll be able to buy a place? lily: eventually, yes. i believe so. paul: is it because you're that kind of person? lily: i'm that kind of person.

paul: let's wish her luck. for the pbs newshour, paul solman, enjoying my first interview concert, as i hope you are. ♪ amna: one of the 20th century's most consequential leaders died in moscow. mikael gorbachev was the last leader of the soviet union, who sought to usher in an era of openness behind the iron curtain. just over six years later, the soviet union was no more, ending the defining conflict of the postwar era. christmas day 1991, the hammer and sickle, the red banner of the disintegrating soviet union is lowered for the last time over the kremlin. the last general secretary of

the soviet communist party, mikael gorbachev, addressed his people. >> in the situation which establishes the commonwealth of independent states, i hereby cease to act as the president of the soviet union. amna: gorbachev and his dying regime had survived a coup attempt a few months earlier, but the long and cold road that led to that december day was years and decades in the ming. 30 years of cold war between the u.s. and russia, both with enough weapons to destroy the planet many times over. the early 1980's were among the most frigid days of the cold war, with a new american president, ronald reagan, who made his name as an anti-communist. he proposed major defense increases and ratcheted up the denunciations of moscow. in beginning with the 1982 death of a long time old guard leader came two more that died quickly.

into the vacuum stepped mikael gorbachev, unanimously elected in march 1985. he was the oldest member of the bureau and became the first and only soviet leader born after the 1917 revolution. he sought to reform a corrupt system likely beyond reform. he had two main platforms, one , perestroika, or restructuring. gorbachev: we need more enterprise, more democracy, more organization and discipline. then we will bring perestroika up to full speed and give new impetus to developing socialism. amna: he would meet president reagan the next year in iceland for the first of several hugely consequential summits over nuclear weapon matters. the adversaries became allies in this effort, with reagan's famous motto leading the way, "trust but verify." all the while, reagan kept up the pressure, dubbing the soviets the evil empire and making this demand in front of the berlin wall.

pres. reagan: mr. gorbachev, tear down this wall. amna: in 1989, the berlin wall again to crumble, the death throes of more than 40 years of communist domination that would end with gorbachev leaving office that cold christmas night. he died today in moscow. he was 91 years old. for more on mikhail gorbachev's legacy, we turn to andrew weiss. he served in the george h.w. bush and clinton administrations at the pentagon, national security council staff, and the state department. he is now vice president for studies at carnegie endowment for international peace, a think tank. welcome back to the newshour. thanks for being with us. it has been said that very few leaders in modern history have had the kind of impact mikael gorbachev did. do you agree with that? is it a fair assessment? andrew: it is a very fair assessment. when gorbachev came into power in 1985, the soviet union was a

formidable, multinational empire and had an enormous external empire in eastern europe, and by the time he left office, the soviet union was no more and the countries of central europe were independent. it was a remarkable mixed legacy. amna: the policies we mentioned, perestroika and glasnost, what should we understand about those? what was behind gorbachev's push for those? andrew: when gorbachev took power, the soviet union was basically a stagnating society, which in the eyes of leadership needed to keep up with the west, but gorbachev unleashed these reforms, trying to introduce more democratic governance, as well as glasnost, to open up some of the dark spots in soviet history, it was his idea that that would somehow humanize or modernize the soviet system. in the end, it proved to be the undoing of the soviet system, an upper formidable -- un-reform

buable system. he did not understand that at the beginning, he kept trying to improvise and that spilled the -- spelled the end of his career and the soviet union. amna: how did the reagan administration view his reforms? with skepticism? andrew: at the outset, the reagan administration was quite skeptical, but then-british prime minister margaret thatcher helped convince ronald reagan gorbachev was someone you could do business with. the two leaders did remarkably important work on strategic nuclear arms control, and when the elder president bush came into office, they insured the soviet empire's dismantlement in europe would be peaceful, and those countries, including germany, allowed to reunify, could go their own way. that was a remarkable achievement.

at the same time, gorbachev's policies toward components of the soviet uniion known as republics really tarnished him in the eyes of u.s. officials. amna: the kremlin has put out a statement saying president putin is extending his greatest condolences on gorbachev's passing. we know that putin has called the collapse of the soviet union called the greatest geopolitical catastrophe in the 20 century. do we know what the two men thought of each other? andrew: gorbachev, toward the end of his life, was a complicated figure who did not, for example, speak out against the war in ukraine, but if you look back at some of the things he said about putin earlier on, i am particularly struck by a comment he made in 2011 where he compared putin, who was thinking about coming bk to the kremlin in 2011, with an african dictator who had held onto power for too long, and what gorbachev said at that point was poignant. he said the only thing important

for those leaders and the people around them is holding onto power. i believe something similar is happening in our country right now. amna: what about his reputation in russia? how was he viewed their? andrew: gorbachev was wildly unpopular in russia, seen as a person who had basically ruined the country, pulled it apart, had removed its ability to sustain itself. the economy was in shambles by the time he was forced from power. in many ways, the popularity are much of -- the popularity gorbachev enjoyed in the west is simply not -- you can't find people except for a small number of russian liberals who would speak warmly about him today. amna: so many events of enormous consequence when he was in office. can you sum up his legacy? andrew: i believe orbit child --

i believe gorbachev enacted seminal reforms in the soviet union, as well as what was called the warsaw pact with the soviet satellite communities, probably the most important part of his legacy. his achievements at home are far more complicated, and i think we are still dealing with the wreckage of the soviet union today, with the horrible war going on in ukraine. amna: andrew weiss on the life and legacy of mikael gorbachev. thank you. always good to talk to you. andrew: thank you. ♪ amna: on "the newshour" online right now, the inflation reduction act is designed to make it easier to get a tax credit for buying an electric vehicle, but some new requirements make many models ineligible. you can read more on our website, pbs.org/newshour. that's "the newshour" for tonight.

i'm amna nawaz. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at "the pbs newshour," thank you and see you on. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> architect. beekeeper. mentor. a raymondjames financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life, well-planned. >> carnegie corporation of new york, supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. the target foundation, committed to advancing racial equity and creating the change required to shift systems and accelerate equitable economicpportunity. and with the ongoing support of

these institutions -- ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] ♪ >> this is the pbs newshour. from weta studios in washington and from the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism. ♪ >>

man, voice-over: here at kato restaurant, we try to use a lot of ingredients that are highly prized in chinese/taiwanese culture. we try and see if we can change what certain perception of what luxury is. when i grew up, it was simply "we're going to this place because they have good food that reminds me of my home, and i want my kids to try it," but now it's like, "wow! i didn't know you grew up in san gabriel. i get it. you like this, i like this, too." it creates a conversation, and maybe one day, this food equates to fine dining elsewhere. [theme music playing]