judy: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, storm preparations. residents prepare for impact as hurricane ian gains strength and barrels toward cuba and the florida coast. then, a turn to the right. italy votes for a party with neo-facist roots, setting the stage for the country's first far-right government since world war ii and its first female prime minister. and collision course. nasa tries to knock a space rock off its path, testing one way to defend against future killer asteroids headed toward earth. >> this is the first time in human history that we've actually set out to change the orbit of a natural object in space.

judy: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. ♪ >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by -- >> it's the little things. the reminders of what's important. it's why fidelity dedicated advisors are here to help you create a wealth plan. a plan with tax sensitive investing strategies. planning focused on tomorrow, while you focus on today. that's the planning effect. from fidelity. >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour,

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judy: hurricane ian is aiming at cuba's western tip tonight with winds of 100 miles an hour, and after that, florida's gulf coast could be in the crosshairs. the storm is growing rapidly and may be a category 4 with winds of 140 miles an hour when it reaches the u.s. mainland. stephanie sy has our report. stephanie: florida residents are preparing for ian's onslaught, with swathes of its gulf coast under hurricane watch and evacuation orders. >> this is a really, really big hurricane at this point. stephanie: governor ron desantis spoke in tallahassee today after declaring a state of emergency. >> it will bring heavy rain, strong winds, flash flooding, storm surge along with isolated tornado acvity along florida's gulf coast. stephanie: ian became a hurricane overnight. it battered the cayman islands early this morning as it moved northward through the caribbean sea. it is expected to hit western cuba as a major hurricane

tonight, and then, gain more strength over the warm waters of the gulf of mexico. forecasters expect landfall in florida later this week, with the cities of tampa and st. petersburg preparing for what could be a direct hit. begin's -- ian's trajectory has now forced nasa to scrub this week's test flight to the moon, which had been set to launch tuesday from the kennedy space center after a month of delays. and across the state, residents are stocking up on water and boarding up their homes. >> we're just trying to get some supplies to cover the windows because we've just seen it come closer and closer. and so we just want to make sure we get at least some coverage since we weren't expecting it to come right at us and now it looks like it is. stephanie: meanwhile, in eastern canada, devastation is still being assessed from another major hurricane, fiona, that made landfall over the weekend. >> there was two or three trees that fell on the house, and then about an hour later we had three

more trees fall on the house. stephanie: puerto rico was hit by fiona last week and still has more than 740,000 residents without power. for the pbs newshour, i'm stephanie sy. judy: in italy, a party with neo-fascist roots is now set to form the country's first far-right government since world war ii. the brothers of italy won the most votes in sunday's elections. its leader, giorgia meloni, will become italy's first female prime minister if she can form a governing coalition. we'll take a closer look after the news summary. new protests flared in russia today over military call-ups for the war in ukraine. and in one siberian city, a man shot and killed the head of an enlistment office. at the same time, military-age men are fleeing the country. traffito get into neighboring georgia has been backed up for 48 hours. the exodus began when president

vladimir putin announced the mobilization last week. >> of course, this has scared many people, no one wants to go to die. probably why people choose this way of protesting to leave the country. people are crossing on foot, with one bag, leaving their whole life there. judy: meanwhile, russia stepped up long-range attacks in ukraine's odesa region. an overnight drone strike caused a large explosion there. also today, president vladimir putin granted russian citizenship to edward snowden. he's been living in russia since 2013, after the american-born former computer consultant from the u.s. national security agency. snowden faces a battery of charges, if he ever returns to u.s. jurisdiction. a gunman in central russia killed at least 17 people and wounded 24 at a school today. 11 of the dead were children, along with nearly all of the

wounded. emergency officials in ee-izhevsk arrived to find children and adults running from the school. the regional governor said the 34-year-old gunman ultimately killed himself. >> we already know the name of the person who did it. we know that he was registered in a psychoneurological treatment facility. there are suggestions that he adhered to the nazi ideology, because he was in a t-shirt with nazi symbols, in a balaclava. judy: officials said the gunman was a graduate of the school, but that his motive is not yet known. iran attacked kurdh separatists in northern iraq today and accused them of fomenting protests across iran. news accounts said the revolutionary guard struck the kurds with drones and artillery for the second time since the weekend. the protests in iran began after a young kurdish woman died in police custody. a 90-year-old roman catholic cardinal is now on trial in hong

kong over anti-government protests there in 2019. retired cardinal joseph zen walked into court with a cane today. he and 5 others are accused of failing to register a relief fund that assisted protesters. voters in cuba have approved a law to let same-sex couples marry and adopt children. it will also allow broader rights for grandparents and protections for the elderly. the communist government's support fothe measure overcame opposition from a growing evangelical movement. back in this country, pfizer is asking the fda to authorize its updated covid booster shots for children 5 to 11 years old. it targets both the original virus and the omicron variants. the fda already approved the new boosters for adults and older children. and, on wall street, stocks fell again as recession fears gnawed at investors. the dow jones industrial average

lost29 points to close at 29,260. it's now officially in a bear market, down 20% from its record close in january. the nasdaq fell 65 points. the s&p 500 dropped 38. still to come on the newshour, former nfl quarterback brett favre comes under scrutiny for allegedly seeking welfare funds to build a sports facility. the pandemic and russian threats prompt more swedes to prepare for doomsday scenarios. our politics monday duo look ahead to this week's january 6th committee hearing. 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. judy: as we reported, italians have chosen their first far right wing government since world war ii. giorgia meloni is expected to

become the first female prime minister to lead europea™s third -- europe's third largest economy. her party, brothers of italy, draws its roots from italy's fascist history. today she sounded a moderate tone but as nick schifrin reports, her recent rhetoric has many in italy and wider europe concerned. nick: in the birthplace of the renaissance, today italians woke up to a new political era. and a new, untested leader whose message in victory, was moderate. >> if we will be called to lead this country we will do that for all. we will do that with the aim to unify the people, to underline what unifies it, rather than what divides it. >> we on the right know exactly who we are and what we stand for. nick: but giorgia meloni is unabashedly nationalist, and proudly populist. >> the sovereignty of our nation is under attack. the prosperity and well being of

our families is under attack. the education of our children is under attack. nick: she will lead italy's farthest right coalition in 80 years, with firebrand matteo salvini, the former interior minister and leader of the euroskeptic, nationalist party league. and three-time former prime minister, 85-year-old silvio berlusconi. meloni's rise in italian litics has come quickly. as a girl, she was raised by a single mother and has long said she found a new family as a teenager in the neo-fascist italian social movement, created by supporters of dictator benito mussolini. its logo, the flame, is part of meloni's own logo today. and almost exactly 100 years after mussolini's march on rome brought him to power, italy's future leader, once praised mussolini on french tv. >> i think mussolini was a good politician. everything he did, he did it for italy, and we can't find this and the politicians we have had for the past 50 years. nick: but 25 years later, on the

campaign trail, meloni criticized mussolini. and she vows to stand up to russian president vladimir putin, as she told the conservative political action conference the day after the february invasion of ukraine. >> we are on the side of freedom. and indeed, we are on the side of a proud nation that is teaching the world what it means to fight for freedom. nick: but her coalition is not convinced. salvini used to wear putin t-shirts, and joked he would trade two italian presidents, for half of putin. and burlosconi has described putin as the younger brother. he recently walked back comments that putin's war was about putting "good people" in kyiv, but still wants to restore relations with russia. >> in terms of history, religion, culture, and lifestyle, russia is absolutely a european state. i hope that this situation can change and that we can really create a europe that would include all the truly european states. nick: but each of those

coalition leaders actually lost votes to meloni's brothers of italy. >> the pro-kremlin parties took a real beating, and brothers of italy, gieorgia meloni's party, which has indeed come out on top, as you were saying, actually has been very firm in opposition to the kremlin, and in support of ukraine. nick: nathalie tocci is an italian political scientist and a former senior advisor to the european union >> she firmly believes in the notion of the west. as far as the juxtaposition between the west and russia in the context of the war, this is something that she actually really believes in. this is in a sense an identity point of the party, that's quite firmly held. nick: but meloni's domestic agenda is also firmly held, especially on immigration. she has called for a naval blockade against migrants and predicted a "great replacement" of native italians. >> i see unbelievable things happening on the border between

united states and mexico. and i think of our own sicily, thousands of migrants allowed to enter without permission, who end up crowding out the slums and towns of our cities, -- engaging in crime. nick: and liberal activists worry about her eroding lgbtq rights, and access to abortion. in the european parliament, meloni chairs a right-wing group in of 44 parties in the european parliament that includes : -- poland's ruling law and justice party, which the eu has condemned for undermining the rule of law. it also includes sweden's democrats, an anti-immigrant party created out of a neo-nazi group, that just became the country's second largest party. but meloni's euroskepticism will be constrained by the crises sparked by ukraine, and she will work with the biden administration, says tocci. >> we are in an energy crisis, we are in an economic crisis, we are in a war, and so those are constraining factors to that euroskepticism. nick: why would she want to work with the biden administration, or why does she feel she has to? >> it goes back to this question of kind of belonging to the west. you know, this is the family she

belongs to. these are the international relationships that she believes in. meloni is very, not only is she very opposed to russia, she is also very gung ho about china. and the west, the so-called leader of the west, is still obviously the united states. so this is who she will be looking at moving forward. nick: the election featured historically low turnout, and it will take weeks before the coalition is set. but italians have chosen change, and will be led by the far right, and for the first time, a woman. for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin. judy: the united states social safety nets sometimes fails the people who need it most. and in mississippi, recent reporting has revealed how political corruption, celebrity and power combined to fleece the

state's most vulnerable residents. amna nawaz has our report. amna: judy, tens of millions of dollars meant to assist families in need were instead used for personal expenses and pet projects unrelated to mississippi's welfare program. as part of an ongoing lawsuit, last week a former director of the state's welfare agency pled guilty to counts of conspiracy and fraud, and faces up to 15 years in prison. the scandal has rocked the poorest state in the nation, and has now raised questions about the roles of prominent mississippians including football hall of famer brett favre and former governor phil bryant. mississippi today reporter anna wolfe broke the story, and joins me now from jackson, mississippi. welcome to the newshour. thanks for joining us. you broke the story, an enormous alleged fraud scheme there. the part that caught the nation's attention was this $5 million effort to funnel those welfare funds to a volleyball program where brett favre's

daughter plays. lay that out for us. what did you learn? anna: in 2020 after six people were arrested from the state auditor's office, in this scheme allegedly to steal $4 million from the state's welfare program, we learned quickly that $5 million had gone to build a volleyball stadium at the university of southern mississippi which is the alma mater of brett favre, also that brett favre's daughter played volleyball at that university. amna: the state auditor said this was the biggest public fraud case in state history. how big are we talking? anna: so he questioned a total of $94 million in federal spending from the mississippi department of human services, which was our social safety net agency in mississippi. the money went in a number of kind of wild ways to the political cronies and friends and family and quite a few sports celebrities as well. and so the money wasn't going to

a program that were actually helping people out of poverty instead they were spent on things like speeches from sports celebrities and the volleyball stadium. or, you know, fancy centers with virtual reality equipment, these kinds of things. instead of being used on, you know, direct tangible assistance for mississippi's very poor families. which again, this is the poorest state in the country with one of the highest poverty rates, and that money was not being used to help those folks. amna: tell me more about that. what kind of difference would that money have made specifically in mississippi, who would it have helped? anna: so we went down to hattiesburg to kind of take a look at the volleyball stadium when we found out about it back in 2020. and we interviewed people around the community, you know, people, maybe living in poverty, single parents, and we asked them what they would have liked to have seen this money spent on and one

man that we spoke to actually had his kids taken away because he was homeless about five years before this. and he told us that he in going to the social service organizations that could have benefited from these funds. he asked them for help for rental assistance, you know, to put a roof over his head to get his kid back and he was turned away. he was told that there wasn't any support available for him. so these are the kinds of stories that you know, it's one thing that taxpayer money went to this sports celebrity who has you know, many millions himself, but it's another thing to think about the missed opportunities for people who so desperately needed this assistance, and that it was not there for them. amna: and the text messages here were central to your reporting. and there's one text exchange i want to highlight that was revealed from your work. it's from brett favre and a woman named nancy new who ran the nonprofit that distributed a lot of these funds. anin it, a pt of it rates,

if you were to pay me is there any way the media can find out where it came from and how much nancy new? i understand you being uneasy about that. we should say that brett favre's attorney said he never knew the money was from a welfare fund, but what have you found from your reporting? anna: he says that he doesn't know that this money came from federal fund called temporary assistance for needy families most commonly known for providing the welfare check to very poor families. but he did know that it was grant money, and in some cases, the text messages show even that he said that he figured that she was supporting him with federal grant money. at one point he told his business associate, he was working with another company to try to get welfare money for a pharmaceutical startup company that ended up receiving $2 million in allegedly stolen welfare funds, and he told his business associate at the time that he knew that that nancy knew this nonprofit founder would be helpful because she gave him $5 million via grant

funds for the volleyball stadium. you kind of see in the text messages, their mentality around the spending. this was something for brett favre personally. in the way that he's describing it in these text messages, and it also shows their attempts to operate in secrecy. none of the money that was being spent from these nonprofits was really being recorded and then reflected back to the state agency. so when i was trying to get expenditure reports and asking the agency to show me how they were spending the money and what they were doing for people in poverty, there wasn't any data to show for it, because that nonprofit had kind of turned into a black hole as she described in that text message where she says we don't publicize that information. amna: and i want to be clear about one thing. i know in your reporting, you use the word the misuse of funds a lot. we've seen that again and again, were laws broken in any of this

when you talk about money going into a volleyball program, for example. anna: that's a really good point because there is a difference between misuse, like misspending or even spending outside of federal regulations and a crime . there have been six people who have been charged with crimes. there is a large civil suit that the state is bringing against a number of other people including brett favre that does not allege a crime took place, but it does allege that they received money improperly and asked them to return the funds. and so you kind of have to look at each purchase to say okay, whether this is just bad government or whether this is misspending or whether it is a crime, and that is something that we will learn more about as the federal investigation, criminal investigation into this matter continues. but favre has not been charged with a crime. but the people who have have agreed to work with federal prosecutors in their ongoing probe and i think we're gonna see if that's going to result in

those folks being held accountable for their role in this scandal. amna: it is an incredible story. we'll continue to follow first broken by mississippi today reporter anna wolf, anna thank you for joining us. anna: thank you so much for having me. judy: there has been lots of anticipation today around nasa's first-ever attempt to strike an asteroid and knock it off course. william brangham has all the details. william: judy, nasa is trying an experiment to answer a question that has ripped -- that is ripped straight out of science fiction. what would be due, what could we do if a large object was hurtling through space on a collision course with earth? science correspondent miles o'brien will be here in a moment, but first, here is his report on exactly what nasa is attempting. miles: planet earth is practicing defense.

david and goliath style. a spacecraft the size of a vending machine is hurtling toward a, because a dive into an asteroid that size of a great pyramid. >> dart is the biggest ever. miles: elaine adams is the systems engineer for the redirection test. it is a $330 million nasa mission designed of the johns hopkins applied physics laboratory in laurel, maryland. launched in november of 2021, dart is nearing the end of a 107 million mile journey to the asteroid did a most. >> our job is to go hit an asteroid. that is a very specific job for planetary defense. miles: their target is the asteroid's moon. dart is programmed to augur in at 14,000 miles an hour. engineers hope the 1300 pound spacecraft will nudge the 5 billion ton moon into a new orbit. it is not headed toward earth.

it is just a test. >> this is the first time in human history that we have set out to change the orbit of a natural object in space. miles: lily johnson is nasa's planetary defense officer. >> the orbit of an object is determined by the velocity at which it is orbiting. if you shave a hair, less than 1%, off of that speed, you have changed the orbit, and forever altered where that object will be in space in the future. >> our planet gets grazed and hit by asteroids all the time. most offer harmless thrills for stargazers. but the bigger ones are a different story. in 2013, a 60 foot asteroid exploded about 100,000 feet over russia. about 1500 were injured by shattering glass. over the other asteroids, triggered mass extinctions, including was infinitely --

including most infamously, the one that killed the dinosaurs many years ago. >> is it accurate to say it is inevitable over the course of time that there will be some rock of relatively big size, which has our number on it? >> this is going to continue in the future. it is sort of a cosmic inevitability. the good news is of the asteroids we are tracking, there are no known threats. this is why we need to find all of these asteroids and figure out where they are. miles: in 2005, congress -- ground-based surveys have found all the planet killers they can see, but only about 40% of the asteroids big enough to wipe out a city. at this rate, it would take 30 years to approach the finish line. but no matter how hard they try, they will never cross it using

only ground-based telescopes. >> there is a whole half of the sky we are not looking at, because the glare of the sun prevents you from looking at it easily. miles: an astronomer is a senior research scientist at the carnegie institution for science. >> the ones that are most concerning are the ones that spend their time in the daylight, they get up to where earth's orbit is, barely cross it. miles: shepherd is using the national science foundation's's blanco telescope in chile to look for the holy grail of astronomy, planet x. he decided to point the lines toward the sun at twilight to see if you could see any near earth objects. >> it is a hard thing to do. miles: when you look, you saw some objects that are hiding in broad daylight. >> we found several near earth objects in the survey that have not been found from other surveys. and fairly large objects. these are planet killers. >> it is possible in this scenario, we could have only days to act? miles: we are really not

monitoring the daylight side of the earth very well. if something is approaching us from that distance, it would be hard to find it. most likely, it might hit us without us even seeing it. miles: they d.a.r.t. style mission would have to impact years of advanced to knock an asteroid often collision course with earth. stormers say the solution is a space telescope called neo-surveyor. it is designed to orbit between the earth and sun using a wide-field infrared camera to identify potential threats that we cannot see on earth. congress may have mandated nasa find the most hazardous near earth objects, but it did not appropriate specific funding. the billion-dollar mission is floundering. the biden administrationust delayed it two more years. >> it all comes into the priorities of what nasa has on its plate. it has more things that it has been asked to do than the

funding that has been appropriated. miles: shouldn't we be spending money on surveying before we practice changing the orbit of an asteroid? >> certainly you have to find it first. miles: orbit brought them close enough to earth to create this target of opportunity now. it is a complex technical challenge. the target is only about 525 feet across. too small for the spacecraft to see until the last minutes. when are you going to see it? >> we don't know. maybe as early as 80 minutes prior to hitting it, or maybe as late as 35 minutes before we impact. miles: this entire journey comes back -- comes down to 35 to 80 minutes time, this spacecraft, to identify this tiny rock, and hit it right where you want. >> yes. miles:? what could go wrong? >> nothing whatsoever. miles: spacecraft is equipped with a powerful camera, smart software, and able to hold in --

hone in on it, and switch to do more for once a comes into view. the more fist orbits it every 12 hours. team d.a.r.t. hopes to speed it up by 73 seconds. to see if it works, astronomers will point a few dozen telescopes on every continent and in space at the asteroid. planetary astronomer andy rivkin is a lead investigator. newtonian physics would tell you this is going to perturb this rock. what do we have to understand further? >> we do expect to make -- when d.a.r.t. hits, that is carrying momentum. how much bang for the buck? miles: we can watch the bang as it happens. d.a.r.t. will transmit large images, must-see tv. ask any dinosaur. for the pbs newshour, i am miles o'brien, in laurel, maryland. william: miles o'brien joins me

now. such an exciting project going on. we are watching the nasa live feed of the dart camera. we are seeing this tiny dot out there. 45 minutes away from impact. what is happening now? what are we seeing? miles: it is a testament to how small the target is and how fast the spacecraft is moving. 14,000 miles an hour at this tiny object. it represents about six to eight pixels on your screen. it will come into closer view very rapidly in the coming minutes. i can't think of a more important mission for any space agency than this one. william: as you laid out, the hope is that this impact will deflect this asteroid a tiny bit from its orbit. once this impact happens, assuming it is successful, how

will they know that the mission was successful? miles: this is why they selected a so-called i neri asteroid. an asteroid with a moon. what they will be able to do is train alice goat -- train telescopes at the larger objects, and as the small moon passes in front of it, it will dim ever so slightly. kind of like a mosquito getting on a headlight. but the telescopes are sensitive enough to understand that dimness and recorded. they will be able to record the speed at which it is orbiting around the larger object and assuming it is faster than it used to be, that means they have success. william: let's say this was for real. we know this is not a threat. but let's say that we really were trying to divert something that opposed an incoming danger to eth and d.a.r.t. missed. what do we do then? i remember this hokey bruce willis movie where they sent oil drillers to an asteroid to

disable it. are there other applications that they are looking at? miles: i don't think calling up the oil drillers would be a good idea under any circumstance. the idea of using a nuclear weapon is an idea that is in play. if there was an asteroid we found late in the game, too late to perturb ever so slightly, which quires years, maybe decades, of advanced warning, if we had one coming at us that was called caulking us from the sunny side, you could explode a nuclear device offset from the asteroid. you want to move it out of its orbit and give it a good push, but you don't want to break it up into smithereens, causing further problems. the best idea right now is to find all of these objects and figure out if we need to start making bigger plans. william: for people who are watching this, then as a livestream, what should we expect to see in the next 40 minutes or so? miles: it should be quite a wild

ride. we are going to get a d.a.r.t.'s view of its moments down to the surface, and the signal will go to snow, and then presumably, you will see a lot of happy people at the applied physics laboratory. i think it is worth watching. judy: tremendous stuff. miles o'brien, so good to see you. thank you. miles: you are welcome. ♪ judy: speaking of nuclear weapons, recent threats from russia's president vladimir putin to use nuclear weapons have sent a shudder across the world, conjuring visions of armageddon and nuclear fallout, echoes of the cold war. the covid pandemic certainly showed the world how swiftly society can grind to a halt. most people managed to survive that, but how would they cope with other catastrophes? in sweden, with its bid to join nato and the war in ukraine,

citizens are being encouraged to get ready, just in case. as special correspondent malcolm brabant reports from sweden, what is called prepping has gone mainstream. malcom: sweden is one of the last places you would expect armageddon. it hasn't been at war for over 200 years. but the state is urging citizens to prepare for catastrophe. >> although sweden is safer than many other countries, there are still threats to our security and a dependence. everyone who lives in sweden shares a collective responsibility for our country's security and safety. if you are prepared, you are contributing to improving the ability of the country as a whole to cope with a major strain. malcom: one of the fundamental differences between the united states and sweden is that out of necessity, americans are much more self-reliant. there is a social contract here,

and in return for paying some of the highest taxes in the world, the swedes and other scandinavians expe the state to take care of them from the cradle to the grave. but the covid pandemic exposed the flaws in that system and undermined public trust. what's more, the prospects of the war in ukraine spilling across borders into other countries has accelerated the need for people here to be more self-sufficient. >> lovely axe. i want to survive and i want my kids to survive. and i will do anything i can to protect both me and them. malcolm: lotta dalenius is preparing for emergencies ranging from a power outtage to -- outage to doomsday. >> we have people from ukraine here in our little village. it's good to be reminded that you can't take everything for granted all the time. you have to just be prepared that things can happen. malcolm: in tranquil southern sweden, fear of war has increased since the nation signed up to nato. >> of course, we should be

frightened of russia. they have a frame of mind to bring back the old empire. malcolm: if disaster strikes, lotta will either say, armageddon outta here, and head to her cabin on thwest coast, or grab her emergency kit >> this is just some of the good to have a nice to have. and some must haves. you'll have to have a real good knife. you can use it for everything. protecting yourself. or if you want to make food or have to build a shelter or whatever. malcolm: what is that thing? >> it's a small kitchen. there is the frying pan. malcolm: it's like a russian doll. >> yeah, it is. here you have two make your coffee. and stuff in here. you put your gas burner in here, and then you can just make your coffee. it is basically outdoor stuff. you don't need special prepping stuff. malcolm: there is a a

substantial difference between swedish small town practitioners and american youtuber, the sensible prepper. >> without rule of law if things really kind of go sideways, there is a lot of people out there who become desperate. they want food or they want to do whatever or they're just nefarious and they just wanto cause trouble. i just would highly recommend guys that you stock up on ammo now. >> yeah, we have freeze dried peppers. 15 year shelf life. and then we have, like, butter with long shelf life. apricot jam. malcolm: tins of green peas, curried rice. but no ammo. not a single round in the booming online prepping store run by fredrik qvarnstrom. >> every time something happens in the world, like there is a war or a pandemic or terrorist bombings, things like that, sales go up. we have a lot of water purification equipment. there are a lot of lakes and rivers in sweden. so if you purify the water with some kind of equipment, it's the water is drinkable. when i started, i believed the

normal customer would be a man living in the tskirts far away from the cities. but it's not like that. i have people all over sweden. a lot of them are living inside the cities, like in flats. malcolm: -- >> people tend to remember those typical preppers with with guns surviving in the woods. but i am not one of those crazy propers. -- preppers. i'm just an ordinary man wanting to make sure that my family can live a good life. malcolm: martin svennberg is heading to one of his food stashes in the basement of a stockholm aparment block, that doubles as a bomb shelter . what are you preparing for? >> i don't know. everything. a crisis can be several different things. it can be war. it can be a pandemic, obviously. but it can also be being out of a job. or it can be to also prepare for inflation.

so this is just a buffer. so if something happens, i actually have time to adjust my way of life or adjust something and then consume the buffer. here we have sugar and salt. all these boxes are filled with baking supplies, dry powdered milk, flowers. malcolm: are you being hysterical? >> no. i'm not hysterical. but it has become a way of life for me to be prepared in different ways. but i don't have any guns. malcolm: earlier this summer svennberg spent 24 hours confined to his apartment without electricity. it was an attempt to teach his 16-year-old son maximillian how to survive without the conveniences of modern life. it was fun -- >> it was fun, but yeah, it

became boring after a while. it was kind of difficult for me because i'm kind of addicted to my phone. and without electricity and, like, charging, it was, uh, pretty difficult to just, like, sit and do nothing, because i'm not used to that. >> i wouldn't go so far to say that there's an increased level of fear in the public society. malcolm: if disaster strikes, the swedish government will turn to psychiatrist filip arnberg for advice on how to handle the country's collective mental state. >> and all crisis management, even when it comes to human behavior and our psychology, we have to realize that most of the preparation that we can do is are things that we have to do before the crisis or before the event. >> flour, a lot of flour. >> so i think overall, it is a good idea to increase the awareness among the public. >> something to make the water taste good. malcolm: back in lotta daleniu'' house, that means having a well stocked freezer. >> better. you buy it on site -- butter.

you buy it on sale. stuff like that. i bake my own bread. and put it in here. you have to have like a cake as well. if you have to flee from here, then you can't bring all this stuff. you have to take what's important. i will take my axe. if the end of the world is coming, we'll take a glass of wine and just relax. we're not gonna make it anyway. malcolm: the main takeaway, is the hope that the day preppers are getting ready for, never comes. for the pbs newshour, i'm malcolm brabant in sweden. ♪ judy: on wednesday, the house select committee investigating the attack on january 6 returns for another televised hearing.

this time, as early voting has already begun in some midterm elections. for insight on the politics of the hearings and more, i'm joined by amy walter of the cook political report with amy walter, and tamara keith of npr. hello to both of you on this monday. so much to talk about. let's start, amy, with those january 6 hearings. what are you learning about how these hearings are affecting the way voters think about all of this, if they have any effect? and the fact that this wednesday, we are getting six weeks -- amy: six weeks before the election. people are starting to vote. early voting has started. we don't know yet if before the election, the committee is going to come out with its recommendations. and if so, what are those going to be and how much attention ar those going to get? i think there is still a lot of questions swirling about, whether something will beat -- will come before the election. if you look at what our opinions

about the president? have they changed? about the former president. have they changed over the course over the last year and a half since the january 6? we have had a lot of things happen. we have had hearings, we have had new information come to light, and of course, we have what happened in mar-a-lago, the fbi finding what looks like to be classified documents. the washington post has been asking the question about whether the former president should be charged with a crime. it is maybe not surprising, but it is noteworthy that opinions about whether he should be charged with a crime since the first time they asked this question which was after january 6, until now, have not budged. about 52% of americans think, back in early 2021, two today, that he should be charged with a crime. 40% do not. what this is telling me is that

opinions have not been altered, they have been probably mented, which is pretty much where we are as a country right now. the reality of where we are as a country in terms of the way we see the world is when we get new information, it is not necessarily changing our opinions of something. we are mding ourselves and our ain in a way to say, how does this new information fit into the prior way that i have been looking at this? how do i make it fit into what i already believe to be true? judy: i am trying to get a mental image of all of this. what is your sense of whether these hearings have had an effect? tamara: the remarkable thing about this moment, as they are returning from what they are saying will be their final investigative hearing, not their final results, but their final investigative hearing, is that donald trump is more present in the american collective psyche

right this moment than he was when the hearings were ongoing over the summer. so much has happened to put him in the news. he is holding rallies, essentially, every week now for congressional candidates. the investigations seem to have metastasized, and have also ramped up. at the same time, also the convictions and trials and sentencing of january 6 defendants, the rioters, those have really ramped up in the last few weeks, or month or so. it is a different landscape that this hearing is going to happen in than before. that as amy says, -- but as amy says, the opinions that people have is pretty calcified. if these hearings serve as a reminder, there are a lot of reminders out there that donald trump was president and would like to be president again. judy: we will see -- we don't

know yet exactly what we will hear. but we will see. this is another opportunity for the committee to make its case. i want to ask you both about the messaging we are hearing. six weeks out from the midterms, people are alreadyoting. at the end of last week, house minority leader, kevin mccarthy, put something forward called the commitment to america. it echoed what we saw decades ago from newt gingrich, the contract with america. but what he was saying in big bear -- in very brief form is where the party stands on policing and abortion, and a couple of other things. what do you take away? tamara: every midterm election, the party that is out of power puts one of these documents together. it is more of a messaging document than anything else. when they are trying to say is a couple of things. to the naysayers or the other critics who say well, you are

just running against something, why don't you before something? and they say look, here is this piece of paper in broad brush strokes of what we are for. but it also helps to keep members focused on what the leadership believes are the top issues that are going to move not just the base, engaged the base, but also connect with swing voters. the bigger challenge for kevin mccarthy is if republicans do when the house and by a narrow margin, his ability to put any sort of agenda forward is going to be challenged. they still don't have the white house, legislatively that is a challenge. the smaller the majority, the harder it is for the leadership which we know for the last two republican house speakers, the harder it is for them to keep the party in line, and keep them focused. i think what we are going to see, if republicans win, is an unrelenting focus on president biden, investigations on him and

his administration, especially on immigration and hunter biden, his son. judy: and the cook political report has been saying recently that these -- that republicans may not do as well in the house races as they would. tamara: earlier in the year. judy: what do you take away from the kevin mccarthy message, and also looking at the democrats and the legislation they are trying to get past in these final weeks? tamara: kevin mccarthy can't put out a document that is called the commitment to america that says, realistically, what a republican majority in the house would be able to accomplish. which is, without a president to sign their legislation, if he is in the majority, they will be able to pass message bills if he can truly wrangle his conference. they will be able to investigate and the one lever they will have is shutting the government down or threatening to shut the government down, which is what we lived through in 2010 and 2011. that is more likely to be what it looks like, investigations

and budget and funding the government. in terms of democrats and what they are trying to accomplish, they havbeen trying to work on a couple of areas, funding, and also this electoral count act reform. this would be the one real piece of legislation to come out of the january 6 hearings, the one effort that they would make at a reform. and this is bipartisan legislation. but in classic congress, it may be bipartisan but it is not by camarillo at the moment. there is disagreement of the legislative vehicles that certainly they will be under pressure to figure out before potentially democrats lose control of either the house or the senate, where the few republicans that support these reforms are forced to retire or already retiring. judy: do you see this?

amy: i think the bigger challenge for democrats is not what they pass in congress, but what is happening in the broader environment. things over which they have no control. what is the price of gas? how conservator people about the rising interest rates? we are seeing mortgage rates continue to go up come up, and up. those are the things that are really going to drive the conversation among voters more than anything else that congress could pass. judy: democrats keep talking about the dobbs decision. the economy very much in the picture. six weeks to go. amy walter, tamera keith, thank you both. 7 you're welcome -- amy: you're welcome. tamara: you're welcome. judy: as students are getting into the swing of things back at school this fall, high-schooler solyana mesfin has a very unusual role, sitting on kentucky's board of education. after going to middle school in

the obit, solyana's family moved to louisville, kentucky, and she now works to bridge conversations between the states 600,000 public school students and policymakers. tonight, she shares her brief but spectacular take on the importance of student representation. >> when i first came to high school in americai thought it would be like what is in the movies. once i got here, it was completely different. i did not really know how to operate the system. i did not know what it meant to be a student in america. i am from alexandria, virginia. i moved from ethiopia when i was 11. and i moved to louisville, kentucky when i was 14. when i first started high school, i didn't even know how to open a locker. now, i'm the first active student to serve on the kentucky state board of education. we're one of only a few states that does this across the

country. and it's highly important that, we're able to have a seat at the table, but also just to be listened to and to be validated, so that we are a part of the solution. in my work in student advocacy, i contributed to statewide mental health round tables and equity related campaigns, especially in regards to the black lives matter movement. being the student representative is a huge weight cuz it's like, almost 700,000 students. i recognize the importance of it but you know, i'd be lying if , i said i didn't struggle with it because there's so many perspectives and we have such a diverse array of students. so i really prioritized a collaborative effort and really connecting with students all across the state. my sense of belonging now, it's something that's definitely heightened. i was an invisible student in my freshman year, but now all of a sudden, teachers are saying hi and the administration is saying hi and that's the type of treatment that every student should receive. amongst representation,

especially student representation, you often have students who are glorified by their school systems. students who are the honor roll students or students who are athletes or different things like that. but for me to be in this position and for me to say, like, i just failed a test yesterday. i'm not elevated above any other student or any other person in my class. it's highly important for students to have this position and for students to have this voice so that they can be integral parts of this education system. and we can be validated not only as learners, but as peers in this work. my name is solyana mesfin and this is my brief but spectacular take on student representation. judy: thank you, solyana. you can watch more brief but spectacular videos online at pbs.org/newshour/brief. that is the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff.

join us on-line and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> for 25 years, consumer cellular's goal has been to provide wireless service to help people communicate and connect. we offer a variety of plans and our u.s.-based customer service team can help find one that fits you. to learn more, visit consumercellular.tv. >> the kendeda to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work through investments at transformative leaders and ideas. more at kendedafund.org. supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. more information at macfound

.org. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to 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.] ♪ >>

. hello and welcome to "amanpour and company." occupied territories in ukraine vote to describe a sham. we look at the impact annexation would have on the battle field. then australia calls on china to end the war in ukraine. i ask penny what faith she has as an honest broker plus. >> ignorance is such an asset it's preferable. >> profiles and ignorance. walter isaac son is told why so many dumb politicians thrive in america. finally, little amal comes

to the land of the