♪ judy: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on "the newshour" tonight... brutal tactics -- russia bombs the city of kyiv with explosive-packed drones, prompting european leaders to boost support for ukraine in the form of weapons and military training. then... power play -- president xi jinping outlines his vision for china at the communist party congress as he seeks to solidify his grip on authority and his nation's role in the world. and... search and rescue -- volunteer emergency response teams are stretched thin with more americans than ever hitting the outdoors. >> we got a huge increase in calls over the pandemic. our trailheads were packed from

sunup to sundown. people were parked all over the place just to get out in the woods. judy: all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour." ♪ >> major funding for "the pbs newshour" has been provided by -- ♪ and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions, and friends of "the newshour," including -- leonard and norma, and t ewans. >> actually, you don't need vision to do most things in life. yes, i am legally blind. yes, i am responsible for the user interface. data visualization. if i can see it and understand it quickly, anyone can. it is exciting to be part of a

team drivingechnology forward and i think that is the most rewarding thing. people who know know bdo. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world. at hewlett.org. ♪ ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you.

thank you. stephanie: i'm stephanie sy with "newshour west." we'll return to the full program after the latest headlines. ukraine's capital city is waking up after a tense night following a barrage of russian drone attacks. authorities say at least 4 people were killed. it came as the european union approved nearly half a billion dollars for ukraine to buy more weapons. john yang has our report. john: people ran for shelter as drones descended on kyiv. the strikes tore through buildings, sparking fires and leaving behind ash and debris. residents were in shock. vitali: it is murder. it is simply murder, there are no other words for it. we are all so shaken, we do not even know what to do. john: the strikes were carried out by explosive suicide drones,

appearing to be iranian-made shahed-136 drones. first responders recovered some fragments of the autonomous drones. "for belgorod" was written on one of the pieces, a reference to a russian region hit by ukrainian shelling. at least five drones hit targets in kyiv, including a residential building. police and soldiers on the ground shot at least 13 others out of the sky. president volodymyr zelenskyy condemned the attacks. pres. zelenskyy: russia stands no chance on the battlefield and it tries to cover up its military defeats with terror. why does it need terror? to put pressure on us, on europe, on the whole world. terrorists must be neutralized. john: despite the apparent iranian-origin of the drones, officials in tehran denied all claims of involvement. mr. kanaani: the islamic republic of iran is not on any side of the war between russia and ukraine.

the islamic republic of iran has not exported any weapon to any side of the war. john: but ukrainian officials still called for sanctions against iran, a position backed by several members of the european union. and eu officials in luxembourg today said they were investigating whether iran was involved. in kyiv, residents did their best to carry on after the strikes. for the people of ukraine, attacks like these remain the daily, horrific reality. for "the pbs newshour," i'm john yang. stephanie: later, the u.s. state department charged that iran is violating un restrictions by supplying the drones to russia. meanwhile, a russian bomber crashed today in the city of yaysk, in southern russia. at least 6 people were killed and 21 hurt. the plane hit a 9-story apartment building, and left several floors in flames. russian defense officials blamed the crash on a fire in one of the engines.

in iran, authorities say the death toll has reached eight in a weekend fire at a tehran prison. interrupted on saturda at evin prison. iranian officials blamed inmates for the fire, which happened during ongoing protests. we will return to this later in the program. britain's new government has reversed nearly all of an economic package announced just weeks ago. today's decision scraps planned tax cuts and scales back a cap on energy prices. those measures were not paid for, and that had spooked financial markets. newly named treasury chief jeremy hunt formally announced the change. mr. hunt: it is a deeply held conservative value, a value that i share, that people should keep more of the money they earn. but at a time when markets are rightly demanding commitments to sustainable public finances, it is not right to borrow to fund this tax cut. stephanie: prime minister liz

truss issued the economic plan after taking office last month. this evening, she said she's sorry for the mistakes, but plans to continue as leader of the ruling conservative party. officials in pakistan report more than half of those who fled during recent floods in sindh province have now returned home. the region w inundated over the summer when unprecedented monsoon rains sent rivers overflowing. some 12 million people in sindh were affected. roughly 200,000 remain in aid camps. back in this country, documents show that former president trump's hotels charged the secret service up to $1,200 a night during his time in office. a congressional committee obtained the records as it investigates claims that the trump organization profiteered from presidential security. the company denies the allegation. the nation's first trial over a state ban on gender-confirming care for children has started in arkansas.

the law bars doctors from providing hormone treatment, puberty blockers or surgery to anyone under 18. families of four transgender youth and two doctors say the law is unconstitutional and want it struck down. more fallout today from the secret recording that captured some los angeles city council members making racist comments in a private meeting. the body's acting president stripped two members of their committee chairmanships for not objecting to the remarks made on the tape. last week, the council president resigned over the same scandal. a wildfire in southern washington exploded rapidly in size and forced thousands of residents to evacuate. the nakia creek fire is blazing 20 miles northeast of portland, oregon and is only five percent contained. still to come on "the newshour"... we speak to the sister of an american held at the notorious iranian prison that caught fire this weekend... tamara keith and amy walter break down the latest political headlines... playwright tom stoppard

discusses his latest work chronicling a jewish family's history... 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: this weekend china's president and communist party general secretary xi jinping gave what is viewed as his most significant speech of the year. he chronicled his achievements over the last decade and charted his vision for the country's future, all as the communist party appears set to hand him a third term and further cement his power. nick schifrin has the story. nick: during the first day of the national party congress, general secretary xi stressed the importance of improving the standard of living for chinese citizens and increasing self-reliance, especially on high end technology. he praised china's response to

the covid pandemic, which relies on massive, widespread lockdowns. and xi emphasised the need to become more adept at deploying china's military on a regular basis and for their military to be prepared for major challenges. pres. xi: we must be mindful of potential dangers, be prepared to deal with the worst-case scenarios, and be ready to withstand the jor challenges of high winds, choppy waters and even dangerous storms. nick: for more on all of this we turn to christopher johnson. he was previously a china analyst at the cia and now runs his own consulting company, china strategies group. welcome to the newshour. when xi discusses case scenarios and talks about headwinds, is he preparing china for a long-term confrontation with the united states? christopher: absolutely. in fact, i think he is telling us that he sees war with the united states as increasingly likely and we see two aspects of this in the speech he delivered to the congress. the first is that long-standing phraseology in these work

reports were china judged peace and economic development not only were the dominant global trend but also an enduring one are gone from this report and instead they have been replaced with what xi jinping called the spirit of struggle, which is a throwback to the 1960's under mao zedong. the other way he is telegraphing that is he is showing us that the economy is moving toward what we might call a fortress economy, that is less dependent on the global order and less dependent on the united states. he talks a lot about self-sufficiency in technology and that tells us he is hardening that system in preparation for that possible coming war with the united states. nick: he spent a lot of time on military modernization. not only a regional war or confrontation with the u.s. with united states over taiwan or the south tunnel see -- south china sea, but a more global one. christopher: we see him through the defense reforms he has been pushing in his second term and through the type of weapons systems they are developing,

undergoing the massive expansion of their nuclear force. they tested this hypersonic light vehicle last year and those systems are designed to threaten the u.s. mainland and homeland and show that china is ready for a global contingency with the united states if necessary. nick: the largest tension point between beijing and washington is taiwan, it has been for a long time. let's take a listen to what xi said about taiwan. pres. xi: resolving the taiwan issue is a matter for the chinese, a matter that must be resolved by us chinese people. we will continue to strive for a peaceful unification with the greatest sincerity and the utmost effort. but we will never promise to renounce the use of force and we reserve the option of taking all measures necessary. this is directed only at interference by outside forces and the few separatists who seek taiwan independence with their separatist activities. nick: outside forces and those who seek taiwan independence. what message is he trying to send? christopher: he's telling the united states, stop messing around in the taiwan issue and

abide more tightly to the one china policy that has governed the u.s. approach to taiwan since we reestablished diplomatic relations with china in the 1970's. he is saying to us as long as we continue to have a one china policy in the united states and taiwan does not move towards independence, the chinese actually see a potential military conflict with taiwan as a crisis to be avoided rather than an opportunity to be seized. nick: when it comes to domestic issues, he did not ease any of the covid zero resictions which continue to leave millions of chinese people in law down. -- in lockdown. he reiterated his belief in a highly centralized economic control, even if that centralization leads to lower growth across the country. what does that say about his version of state control 10 years into his second term? christopher: it tells us he wants more state control and centralization whether it is in the economy, covid zero policy, or any other policy across the board.

we are seeing a guy who believes fundamentally in marxism, believes that communism is a system that can have its own successes internationally, and can defeat the united states and capitalism in the longer-term. nick: about 10 days ago, the u.s. imposed its sweeping export controls, trying to prevent china from purchasing high-end technology with any kind of u.s. factors inside that technology. xi jinping today, as you have been discussing, talked about self reliance. can those export controls do what they are designed to do, which is set back china's military and keep the u.s. technological advantage? christopher: it can slow them down and that is what the objective of the policies are. the key question for not only the united states government, but our companies, is if china gets there on its own in terms of producing semiconductors, and let's remember, fabrication is not literal rocket science. there are plenty of people who know how to do it. china will eventually gain this

capability, and when they do, will it be a situation where our companies are left on the outside looking in while other semiconductor companies sell to china? nick: there is a risk in trying to constrain china's growth in u.s. companies. christopher: absolutely. the risk that you run is what if we are partially successful but they double and triple down in all these other areas of technology, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and so on? if they are successful and wind up in front of us, where the race is very much at hand, we could be behind them. nick: xi jinping is the most powerful chinese leader since mao. has he taken even more steps to try and erase the most powerful chinese leader that was between xi and mao, and his reform? christopher: the foreign policy was that china should keep a low profile and not raise its head internationally. xi jinping says china alrey is a superpower and it is time for it to start acting like one on the global stage. that is a masve diminishing of

his predecessors role and an effort to create a direct lie between mao zedong and himself as china's unparalleled top leader. nick: that's what we expected next weekend, xi jinping being granted that third term. thank you very much. christopher: my pleasure. ♪ judy: for a month now, people in iran have been protesting against the regime after a young woman died in police custody. over the weekend, a large fire erupted inside a prison facility in tehran known for jailing political prisoners. at least eight people are believed to be dead. amna nawaz has more. amna: the protest movement sweeping iran after the death of mahsa amini spread to the notorious evin prison in tehran. on saturday, videos spread on social media of the prison ablaze, flames and smoke rising from parts of the compound. gunshots can be heard on some

clips. tehran's governor later blamed a prisoner riot. activists said prisoners were chanting anti-regime slogans, and guards launched a crackdown. later that evening, protesters outside were seen marching to the prison chanting "death to the dictator." american citizen emad shargi is currently detained inside evin prison. his sister neda shargi, who has been campaigning for his release, joins us exclusively tonight. welcome. thank you for being here. so, i wanna ask you about your brother's detention, he's been held there for 4 years now in a moment, but i wanna begin with this weekend. as the fires were burning, as the riots were unfolding, your brother was inside and he called you. what did he tell you, what did you hear? neda: he, i was actually in d.c. at an event for hostages who had come home. so i thought he was calling at that time to see how the event went. but, when he called it was quite loud in the background and emad

just just said you know, hi i want you to know i'm ok, and i said what's going on, what's all thnoises in the background, and he said it's just very chaotic here. and that's all he said, his voice was incredibly heavy, and he said we're just staying in our room. i said ok. he said, you know, tell everyone i love them, and i hope to talk to you soon. but it really wasn't what emad said, it was more what i could hear in the background. it sounded like he was in the middle of variety. -- middle of a riot. i could hear people shouting, and i could hear what i now know are gunshots because i only found out later that there had been riots in that part of the prison where he is. amna: what was it like for you, when you're seeing these videos, when the fire is burning, hearing the gunshots, knowing your brother is inside? neda: you know, i try to be a very optimistic person, but i was, i thought to myself that could be the last time i hear

from him. i imagined him you know, in a smoke filled room unable to get out. all the worst possible thoughts came to my head, and then i had the responsibility of knowing that i was the last person who spoke to him. so it was terrifying. amna: your brother has been there since 2018, wrongfully detained. he is an american citizen. he was convicted in a sham trial on some national security charges. what can you tell us about the negotiations to bring him back home? what do u.s. officials tell you? neda: we just hear that they are doing their best to get him out, but emad should have been out last year, emad should have been out 6 months ago, emad should have been out 3 months ago and he's still there. i think what we learned this weekend is that time is an illusion, at any moment something could happen to him and he could die. amna: he did survive, we should say, you were able to confirm he is okay, but what can you tell us about how he is doing? neda: he called finally yesterday morning, and it was a minute long call, he just said i'm alive, and i'm fine, don't worry. i didn't ask him anything and he

didn't offer any more details, the calls are usually short and monitored. his voice was hoarse and he was coughing, and i am putting 2 and 2 together thinking he has probably inhaled a lot of smoke from the fires because the fires are near the ward where he is kept. and he said that they moved him late at night to section 2a of evin prison, away from the fire. amna: have you or anyone in your family been able to meet with president biden or speak to him directly about this? we have seen the biden administration have some success bringing home americans who are ongfully detained, most recently from venezuela, but also baquer namazi was released from medical treatment from iran, have you spoken with them directly? neda: i have not spoken, we have not spoken to president biden, we have made several requests to speak with him because i think it's important to talk about the case, and what we understand, and our frustrations, and the need for urgency.

i think it's very important for the president to know. we keep requesting, and we hope to hear from him and have the opportunity to meet with him. amna: do you believe they're doing everything they can to bring him home? neda: i believe they don't quite understand when we say you need to do this quickly. i believe they think that time is on our side, and that they can just wait. so i don't believe they understand how urgent it is to get them home. amna: this moment in time in iran, we're seeing historic protests across the country, also the nuclear talks are playing out between iran and the u.s. are you worried all of this impacts your brother's future? neda: of course i am. it's hard enough to get attention for this humanitarian issue around our innocent american hostages and it's even tougher now to get our voices heard and to urge action on this very quickly. amna: neda sharghi, sister of wrongfully detained american citizen emad sharghi, who's held

in iran thank you for joining , us. neda: thank you for having me. ♪ judy: across the nation, search and rescue teams are mostly made up of a patchwork of volunteers, often overseen by local sheriffs' departments. but many of these teams are struggling to keep up asore americans than ever are hitting the outdoors. special correspondent christopher booker reports from colorado. christopher: high atop colorado's rocky mountains is where 46-year-old jennifer staufer finds peace. jennifer: being outside is just such a mental clarifying relief for me. like, it's just a place where i go to kind of reconnect with what fundamentally matters to me. christopher: raised in colorado, staufer began climbing more than two decades ago, and by july of 2015, she had made it to the summit of more than 40 of the state's mountains with elevation above 14,000 feet.

they're collectively known as the 14ers. jennifer: i was ten weeks pregnant at the time. my doctor had cleared me to hike to i was 20 weeks pregnant and i was on a mission to kick off -- to check off some more 14ers before i had a kid in my life. christopher: that mission brought her and her climbing partner adam to the summit of crestone peak in southern colorado. but shortly after this photo was taken as staufer was making her descent, she slipped on a patch of ice, and fell headfirst down the mountain, tumbling 250 feet before coming to a stop on these rocks. what was going through your mind? jennifer: the first thing going through my mind is i was 10 weeks pregnant. i'm probably not pregnant anymore. i started preparing my mind with what to tell my family if i don't make it home. christopher: they were able to get out a call to 911, dispatching custer county search and rescue. about seven hours later, this team of 14 volunteers arrived by helicopter, with some having to climb more than 1500 feet to reach staufer. jennifer: i did have a collapsed right lung.

i had three broken ribs. i had pelvic fractures. this kneecap was completely shattered in half. and then i had broken my foot in a couple of different places. christopher: but unbelievably you were still pregnant? ,jennifer: i was still pregnant, yes. christopher: while staufer's story is harrowing, it was just one rescue in a state where 3,000 people call for search and rescue every year. a number that has only been increasing in recent years as more and more people are drawn to the colorado wilderness. jeff: we have to be everywhere at one time. christopher: jeff sparhawk runs colorado search and rescue, a nonprofit organization that represents the roughly 50 search and rescue teams across the state. he says over the last few years some of these teams have experienced a record number of calls. jeff: we got a huge increase in calls over the pandemic. our trailheads were packed from sunup to sundown. people were parked all over the place just to get out in the woods. now there are some anymore people who have moved to colorado and don't have experience in our mountains, don't have experience in our rivers, don't have experience in our backcountry.

jim: by far the majority of our , missions get back to some kind of unpreparedness. christopher: after retiring in 2015, 62-year-old jim mccoy began working for a search and rescue team in park county, colorado. this sprawling rural community southwest of denver is about the size of delaware. jim: park county, which is pretty large, 2200 square miles, has about 80% public land. we do as a team, about 60 rescues a year. did everybody sign in? christopher: on a recent saturday morning, much of mccoy's 38-person team was here on one of seven field trainings members must complete every year. jim: the purpose of today's exercise was for us to practice a high ankle rescue. so we had a climber who was stranded on a vertical face and injured. it's probably about the most difficult rescue we do. the most technal thing we do probably requires about the most ge of anything that we do.

christopher: what do you think people don't understand about what you do? jim: one of the biggest misconceptions about us is that we get paid. everyone on the team is a volunteer, the entire team. each individual has to provide their own gear and their own gas. christopher: one study found that the average search and rescue volunteer in colorado spends more than $1500 a year. and this is how it is throughout much of the country. chris: almost 99.9% of all search and rescue in the united states is done by volunteers, local stewards of their communities. they pay for their own equipment. they pay for their own training. christopher: chris boyer is the executive director of the national association for search and rescue. he says that even national parks rely on volunteers in some cases. chris: a few national parks have specialty teams, like in yosemite. parks that have specialty environments usually have a half dozen or so specialty rangers, but they sti all rely on volunteers to do the heavy lifting. i think overall, at a nationwide

level, we have a system that is broke. christopher: and in colorado, a state where outdoor recreation is a multi-billion dollar industry, it is especially glaring. jeff: we need to figure out a way that the outdoor recreation industry, the tourism industry, all of those who are benefiting from this are to some degree supporting it. in some weird way you can look at us as the safety net or maybe kind of an insurance policy for this entire industry. and we see this is a non-sustainable situation. christopher: is that the way that you frame it, that this is not sustainable? jeff: long term, it's definitely not. here in boulder county, we have somewhere north of 200 calls, maybe 300 calls a year. and so that's really tough for for volunteers. how do you hold down a job? how do you maintain a family life? page: i have two young kids.

i have a three and a half year old and a ten month old. so unless they're in daycare for the day, i'm almost guaranteed to get a call while i'm trying to do something with them. christopher: 39-year-old page weil has spent a decade with colorado's rocky mountain rescue group in boulder one of the state's busiest teams. he also works as a full-time consulting engineer. on a recent sunday, he got a call. page: someone is her right now. christopher: within a few minutes, he and his wife jess and their two kidsll were racing toward a hiking a trail just outside of downtown boulder. page: we are responding to an eighties female who fell and hit her head. it says like she's injured and can't walk. we will probably have to carry her out. i made it a priority in my life. once i make that decision to respond, it's everything's out the window. going to get my gear. i text my wife, i let her know. i will cancel meetings if i have them scheduled for work, or i'll let my supervisor know. and then immediately my mind is

sort of in rescue mode. jess: i realized like a few years into it, how much of a commitment it was for me as a partner, as a spouse, as a mom. it is a sacrifice. christopher: like many search and rescue teams across the nation, the rocky mountain rescue group relies heavily upon donations to do this work. they also receive some state and local funding. page: we are a team of approximately 80 volunteers. our annual operating budget for our group is around $80,000. for the whole team for the entire year. >> help protect our state with the 29-year-old -- $29 keep colorado wild past. christopher: starting in colorado residents will be asked 2023, to voluntarily buy a parks pass when they register their cars. officials here say the legislation, which passed last year, could generate about $2.5 million in additional funding for search and rescue teams.

other states like new hampshire are trying a more controversial approach billing some , individuals who are rescued. james: we do bill, when there is negligence, when it's determined negligence that was involved. over the past decade or so, we average about only 13 or 14 billed missions a year. christopher: lieutenant james kneeland is a conservation officer with new hampshire fish and game, which runs search and rescue operations in the state. james: i think it has helped with is people are trying to get themselves better prepared if they know they have the potential for getting billed. i think they're doing a little bit of research on their hike, whether it's getting the right equipment or or studying, can i do this in a day? christopher: bk in colorado jeff sparhawk says the state , shouldn't start charging for rescues. jeff: if people think they're going to be charged, they're going to delay. they're going to make it more difficult for us, more dangerous for us. in general, i think colorado looks at this as we take care of the folks who come here. christopher: for this, jennifer staufer remains forever grateful. her son, morgan, is now seven years old and shares his mom's love of the mountains. jennifer: morgan just climbed his first 13-er this summer, and he was really blessed to be able

to do so with ff, who was one of the guys who was on he my rescue and who you know, he helped carry the litter and helped get me out. christopher: staufer says she's still climbing and hopes to one day return to the same mountain where she was lost her life. jennifer: i would love to put it behind me. christopher: for the pbs newshour i'm christopher booker in colorado. ♪ judy: election day is three weeks from tomorrow, meaning this is a time when candidates and campaigns are having to focus more than ever on money. they recently faced a federal deadline to report campaign spending and fundraising through september. lisa desjardins is here to walk us through how finances are playing in this year's elections. compared to other years, how much of a factor is money this year? lisa: we are seeing a storm of

campaign spending. let's look at the comparative numbers. you go back to the last purely midterm election, total spending was $5.7 billion. this year, the estimate by open secrets says more than $9.3 billion, approaching twice that much in just four years. notably, this year, outside spending groups, super pac's, all those kind of ideas, they are can tripping more than $1.3 billion. a billion-dollar force from folks who are not candidates and not political parties. i will say one thing we are noticing this year is that democratic candidates seem to be raising more than republican candidates, the candidates themselves. however, republicans have an advantage and are raising more money with these outside groups. judy: who don't have to tell so much about who they are. lisa: they have different requirements. judy: where the money is coming from. how much difference does it make on the ground when one party gives so much and another gives

a different amount? lisa: i want to focus on the outside groups because democrats especially are feeling that pressure in the senate races right now. i want to talk about a senate group. the senate leadership fund is a group connected to senate republican leader mitch mcconnell. it is a super pac, but it is connected to a dark monday group as well. i want to look at a map of where that group has been spending money on ads in senate races. wisconsin, pennsylvania, georgia. those are races they believe that influx of millions of dollars they are spending can move the race one way or another. let's look the ads they have been putting on air. do you feel safe? this is an ad you see in wisconsin. this is against the democratic candidate. dark images, negative ads so to speak. we spoke to someone from open secrets about super pac's and dark money in this group and this is what he told us.

>> both groups are raising millions of dollars from the dark money groups. but right now what we are seeing especially in the senate the , senate leadership fund is able to outspend their democratic counterparts and and we saw this coming over the course of the cycle. lisa: might emmett craddick senate sources -- a democratic senate sources are feeling this. they felt they had so much momentum through the summer and now this change in spending is affecting them, they say. they are seeing a change in who is paying for this. we don't know who all the donors are for senator mcconnell's group. we know some billionaires like peter thiel, e well-known west coast investment guru he , has been spending millions of his own dollars including in ohio. his candidates have won in those primaries. democrats have their own billionaires. george soros put in over $100 million last year. what we are seeing here is small

donors, regular folks, they are tapped out. they have nothing more to donate. they have been asked so many times. billionaires are continuing to give and they are controlling a lot of the spending right now. judy: and a lot of that is going to republicans, it appears. lisa: from the largest donors, at this moment. judy: that was mostly about the senate and house federal races but you have also been looking at state and local races and the money they are raising. lisa: this is important because as much as we are talking about billions for control of congress, we are seeing historic numbers for many of the races across the united states. we have 46 state legislatures up on the ballot this year. let's look at what we know about this. we are seeing record spending for control of those state legislatures by both parties across the country and just cretary of state races alone, we know that is such an important race right now as we talk about our democracy. those candidates have raised $50 million, which is an unheard of figure for that kind of what used to be seen as a government

process office. just one example, the arizona secretary of state race, when we have a known election denier running that race alone right , now is well over $10 million and that could be even more. i know it is millions, not billions. it is easy to lose track. but in secretary of state races, that is a massive amount of money. what is happening is those election deniers, so-called election deniers on the ballot, when we talk to the brennan center for justice, they say they are having an effect on just bringing in money from both sides. here is dan wiener from the brennan center. dan: those candidates bring in a lot of money nationally and so do their opponents because the stakes are high for democracy in those elections, but you know, i think this is the wave of the future that we will see a lot more money and a lot more correspondent ideology in elections that were previously considered somewhat sleepy. lisa: this is a shift he is

saying in how elections work. one other thing, this money is obviously very important. voters are going to be getting the effects seeing ads, but it's , not the only thing. both sides, sources are telling me, they think the candidates themselves are just as important right now, but it is sort of like a nuclear buildup on both sides that certainly voters will feel. judy: right in these final weeks when people are paying more attention to these races. lisa, thank you. lisa: you are welcome. ♪ judy: speaking of politics, more than two million americans have already cast their ballots in the midterm elections, and a new poll shows some good signs for the gop in the final weeks. 49% of likely voters say they plan to vote for a republican for congress, compared with 45% who say they plan to vote for a democrat.

that's a five-point swing toward republicans compared with the same new york times and siena college poll conducted last month. here to analyze this and more are our politics monday team. amy walter of the cook political report with amy walter. and tamara keith of npr. hello to both of you. are you getting nervous? it is three weeks away. amy: can't wait, my favorite day of the year. judy: always. bigger than birthdays. as you just saw, amy, seeing a shift towards the republicans . not only that, one of the questions in the poll asks people what is your top issue? in july, 36% of respondents said it was the economy. now, it is 44%. that is an eight percentage point shift. what should we take away from that? amy: with the obvious caveat,

this is one poll, etc., this is what we are hearing as well when i talk to campaigns and strategists, that the bump democrats felt over the summer, i think it was a combination of the decision on roe v. wade, the so-called dobbs decision, the fact that gas prices were going down a little bit, the intense focus on donald trump, mar-a-lago, january 6, gave a really big boost to democrats. it increased enthusiasm and took the media focus off the economy for a little while. but folks who are now tuning in, which there are a lot of voters who have not been paying attention over the summer, they are tuning in now, three weeks into the election. ithould not be surprising when we have 40 year high inflation that the issue of the economy is driving voters. it's what they are really focused on. the other thing you will notice in that number is that it is not that the democrats have lost ground, it's just that they have not gained ground.

they were at 45% earlier now -- or 46% and now they are at 45%, something like that. basically, what i am hearing from sources in the campaigns is that democrats may have maxed out that enthusiasm gap. they got over the issue of abortion and growing beyond that is going to be the challenge. judy: this focus on the economy comes as president biden is out on the campaign trail several times a week. i want to play for everyon this is something that senator bernie sanders has said in the last few days about what democrats ought to be doing. i am going to come to you after this. senator sanders: i think democrats have got to fight to make sure that it is women who control their own bodies, not the government. i think this is a very important issue. but i don't believe it can be the only issue. it goes without saying that we have to focus on the economy and demand that we have a government that works for all of us and not just wealthy campaign contributors. judy: you have senator sanders

saying don't just go and talk just about abortion. address what is on people's minds. tamara: and i have to say, i don't know what campaign senator sanders is watching because the campaign that i am seeing how in -- seeing out in the field, traveling this last week with president biden, looking at campaign ads from democratic campaigns, what you have is their primary negative message about republican candidates in a lot of these races is that they are against choice, that they could, you know, restrict abortion, that they want a national ban on abortion. that is the leading negative message from democrats in a lot of races. however, they have a positive message and their positive message is we just passed the inflation reduction act. they say that they a focused on kitchen table issues that americans care about like the

price of prescription drugs and the cost of energy. democrats, president biden -- he is giving a speech tomorrow about abortion but i just spent four days with him and i don't think he publicly even mentioned the issue. it was all about the economy again and again and again. judy: amy, he's talking about the economy but what is coming across? amy: i was talking to a democratic pollster today who said the policies themselves, if you break it out and ask about the specifics in these pieces of legislation that democrats have passed, specifically the inflation reduction act, they are popular. this sounds very familiar. it's like obamacare. individual pieces of obamacare are popular but overall, voters still give low ratings to the president and to democrats on who do you trust on inflation and who do you trust on the economy. which is why you are seeing as many ads, especially in these battleground swing districts, where democrats are talking about what republicans would do

if they got in charge. so we are hearing things about social security, and in the case of arizona, republican candidate wanting to privatize social security. or as senator sanders talked about, trying to make republicans the party of special interests and big business. i think they appreciate we are the party in charge, we are going to get the blame when things are going wrong. it is hardo make people feel the economy is better if they don't think it. but the risk of what democrats is the risk of change is more dangerous than sticking with the status quo that you are disappointed in. tamara: as i was on the road with president biden, on a couple of occasions, he was asked by reporters economic questions and he was a bit dismissive. he said the economy is really strong. when asked if he had any concerns about the economy. i asked him about gas prices in southern california which are , around seven dollars a gallon and he said gas prices are always high in california.

they are not always that high. judy: yeah. talking about it but making the case is something else. something else we have seen in the last few days, former president trump, on one of his favorite social media platforms, made this statement after he looked at a recent poll about where american jewish voters are. his support among american jewish voters is very low. he said no president has done more for israel than i have. somewhat surprisingly, our wonderful evangelicals are far more appreciative of this than people of the jewish faith, especially those living in the u.s. u.s. jews have to get their act together and appreciate what they have in israel before it is too late! tamara: this is not the first time that he has accused american jews of disloyalty or tiptoeing around the anti-semitic trope of dual loyalty, that they should be

loyal to israel or that they are loyal to israel. president trump, former president trump, he is someone who feels like everyone should support him if he has ever done anything for them. amy: yeah, it is transactional. his politics have always been transactional. i have done something for you, i don't understand why this is a problem for you. he also touches into the issue of the fact that, you know, he does believe that he deserves support from voters simply because he has delivered on one piece of policy. judy: is this the kind of thing that could change or affect the vote? amy: i think with so many things that donald trump says, much of the reason he does it is he wants us to talk about him and he wants to still be in the conversation. i think for so many voters, they

hear this, they choose to not process it and leave it be or it reinforces feelings they already have about this president. judy: and here we are talking about it. amy: here we are. tamara: here we are. judy: amy walter, tamera keith, see you next monday. ♪ judy: in a new broadway play, one of the world's greatest writers grapples with his own hitting past and its implications for our time. jeffrey brown talks with playwright sir tom stoppard for our arts and culture series, canvas. >> you are not looking. jeffrey: the year is 1899, the city vienna. >> it is a beautiful style, darling.

jeffrey: the members of the next plan, an assimilated jewish family in which a confused grandchild can put a star of david atop a christmas tree, feel themselves part of a highly cultured viennese society and austro-hungarian empire. over t coming years and generations, they will learn how wrong they are. >> to a gentile, i am a jew. there is not a gentile anywhere who at one moment or another has not thought "jew.” jeffrey: nearly every family member in the play will be killed or die as a result of the holocaust. it is the devastating story of a family tree cut down, one that is impacting audiences and playwright tom stoppard himself in ways he hadn't expected. tom: i came out very dry-eyed and quite happy with the show. a woman approached me and she was drenched in tears.

and i suddenly started crying with her. i just switched straight into her state of mind. and actually, this is new with me. i've shed more tears over watching "leopoldstadt" than the rest of my work put together. jeffrey: stoppard, now 85 and often described as the greatest living english playwright, has written some 37 plays and earned four tony awards. >> that woman is a woman. jeffrey: he also won an oscar for the screenplay for the movie shakespeare in love. this play is more personal, a kind of coming to terms with what he saw as the charmed life he led and what it concealed.

we talked recently at a famed broadway restaurant. tom: by the time i was an english schoolboy, english journalist, english playwright, the idea of having a charmed life was familiar to me, until it turned and bit me because finally, i thought rebuked by the attitude. -- i felt rebuked by the attitude. jeffrey: tom stoppard, the english playwright, was born tomas straussler in 1937 in czechoslovakia. his parents, jewish on both sides, took him and his brother toingapore to escape the nazi invasion. his father was killed by the japanese. and his mother fled again, taking her sons to india, where she later married an englishman. at age eight, young tom was brought to england, his jewish past and family left behind. was it a question of knowing? or a suppressed st, a lack of desire to know about it? tom: all of thabove.

my mother was very relieved to have found a sanctuary for herself and her two sons when the war ended. she didn't want to look back, and she never spoke about the past, except just very casually, occasionally. and i also have to own up to not really having sufficient curiosity about it, partly because my mother didn't want to talk about it. >> there are thousands leaving every month. the office of jewish immigration cannot get rid of the jews is fast enough. jeffrey: "leopoldstadt" is the result of years of reckoning with a history stoppard only learned about in full in his 50's, when a czech relative told him that all four of his jewish grandparents and three of his mother's sisters had been murdered by the nazis. the play's family is not his, but their experiences would have been similar. >> by a miracle, he kept the business going through war,

revolution, inflation and now anschluss. and saved it for jacob. why give it all away now? >> the nazis will take it. jeffrey: the nazis do take it, all of it, the business, the home and most of their lives. and then stoppard gives us a final scene after the war in 1955. >> no more family business. >> and not much family. a new yorker, austrian, and a clean young englishman. jeffrey: with three survivors, one of them a young englishman, who had come to his new country at age eight and was oblivious to the holocaust horror and the toll on his own family. >> i'm sorry you had a rotten war. >> a rotten war? >> yes, i'm sorry. jeffrey: a stand-in for stoppard himself. tom: the boy in the play is rebuked, in the words, you live as if without history. and that was rather me. jeffrey: the specific line is "you live as if without history,

as if you throw no shadow behind you." that was you? tom: yes. yes. and i guess this play, "leopoldstadt," is the shadow behind me. jeffrey: the play also, he knows, has a new relevance and force to it. >> jews will not replace us. jeffrey: as overt anti-semitism has been on the rise around the globe. tom: there is a line in the play where a young man says to a jewish survivor, he says it can't happen again and it feels like such a clunky line, plucked from the cluniness -- clunkiness of how wrong people have been in the past. but it's inescapable now. it's certainly resonating. and all kinds of things are now happening in america, as in europe, which you would not have anticipated a generation ago, half a generation ago.

jeffrey: after "leopoldstadt” premiered in london just before the pandemic began, stoppard caused tremors in the theater world by suggesting this could be his final play. now, as it stuns audiences on broadway, he's resolved to continue. tom: i don't know what the thing is that i'm gonna be turned on by and it could be anything. and that is my situation as i sit here talking to you, jeff. it could be anything. and i would like get back to my desk and write another play. jeffrey: "leopoldstadt" is scheduled to run through march 12. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown on broadway. ♪ judy: a new film on pbs focuses on another group that has been the target of discrimination here in the u.s.

later this evening, "rising against asian hate: one day in march," explains how the killing of six women in atlanta in march 2021 became a watershed moment in addressing violence against asians and pacific islanders. the documentary chronicles the troubling escalation of hate and spotlights the movement to turn grief and anger into action. >> the shootings in atlanta revealed that prosecuting hate crimes aimed at asian americans presents unique challenges compared to other targeted groups. >> we had a lot of instances that were gear toward intimidating black workers and in the jewish community, there is the nazi symbol. the asian community, we don't have one symbol, there are multiple symbols that solidify

the ideology against asian americans. you have to dig to find evidence of the motive. judy: the film premieres at 9:00 p.m. eastern tonight on pbs. and that's "the newshour" for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online 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 that helps people communicate and connect. we offer a variety of no contract plans and our u.s.-based customer service team can find one that fits you. to learn more, visit consumercellular.tv. ♪ >> the kendeda fund, meaningful -- mated to justice and meaningful work through investments in 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 news station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ >> 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. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.]

♪♪ -"cook's country" is about more than just getting dinner on the table. we're also fascinated by the people and stories behind the dishes. we go inside kitchens in every corner of the country to learn how real people cook, and we look back through time to see how history influences the way we eat today. we bring that inspiration back to our test kitchen so we can share it with you. this is "cook's country." ♪♪ today on "cook's country"... christie and bridget make chocolate babka. i share the history of babka. jack explores the world of espresso powder. and ashley makes failproof chocolate fudge.