amna: good evening and welcome. i'm amna nawaz. judy woodruff is away. on the newshour tonight, in custody. a man accused of making the bomb that brought down a passenger plane over lockerbie, scotland, in 1988 faces charges in a u.s. court. then, prisoner swap. a hostage negotiator recounts basketball star brittney griner's first moments after being freed from russia, even while other americans remain in prison overseas. and searching for justice. a kentucky jail works to break the cycle of recidivism that plagues inmates with substance abuse issues. >> our philosophies of we can incarcerate ourselves out of this and arrest everybody just

plain doesn't work. amna: 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 nora. the the william and flora hewlett foundation for more than 50 years advancing institutions to support a better world. at hewlett.org. ♪ this program was made possible

by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. amna: it's been decades in the making, but u.s. prosecutors got a crack today at a prime suspect in the pan am bombing that killed 270 people. he appeared before a federal magistrate in washington, after being extradited from libya, but did not entea plea. john yang has our report. john: nearly 34 years after the wreckage of pan am flight 103 rained down over scotland, today the accused bomb maker finally saw the inside of an american court. mas'ud is facing federal

criminal charges in the deadliest terror attack ever on british soil. all 250 nine people aboard died, along with 11 on the ground, when the jumbo jet was flown out of these guys shortly after taking off from london for new york. there were citizens of 21 different countries. the majority, 100 90, were american. one of them, tom. >> he was 36. he didn't get to live his life. john: the blast scattered debris across 845 square miles of scottish countryside. the united states charged mas'ud in 2020 after learning he had admitted to libyan authorities he had built the bomb. attorney general william barr made the announcement on the 37th anniversary of the attack. >> no amount of time or and

our scottish partners from pursuing justice. john: mas'ud is the third libyan intelligence officer the united states has charged in the case but the first to be tried in an american courtroom. victoria lost her husband john. >> it is the victim family fervent wish that u.s. criminal trial proceedings begin immediately. justice delayed is justice denied. families are keenly aware that after 34 years, informants and witnesses died, memories fade, and evidence can deteriorate or disappear. john: for years the only person convicted was sentenced by a scottish court to life in prison in 2009 authorities released him on humanitarian grounds after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. he died in tripoli three years later. with mas'ud in u.s. custody, the

families of the ctims hope that justice will finally be served. for the pbs newshour, i am john yang/ amna: across the nation, a major winter storm pushed east after pummeling northern california and obata. soda springs, california recorded 43 inches of snowfall in 48 hours. areas south of lake tahoe saw 36 inches. blizzard warnings were issued in the northern plains with heavy rain and possible tornadoes headed for the south. iran has executed a second prisoner for alleged crimes during anti-government protests. state media reports he was publicly hanged today. majid reza rahnavard had appeared in court after his arrest in mid-november. prosecutors said he stabbed two paramilitary members to death. israel has acknowledged that its troops shot and killed a 16-year-old palestinian girl overnight during a raid in the occupied west bank. the military says it was

unintentional, and that the soldiers were aiming at a gunman who shot at them. this has been the region's most violent year since 2006 with at least 150 palestinians and 31 israelis killed. back in this country, federal and local officials around el paso, texas, struggled today to cope with one of the largest migrant crossings in recent years. up to 1000 people, mostly from nicaragua, waded across the rio grande late saturday night. some carried children in their arms as they headed for el paso to await processing. border crossings in the region have surged in recent months. the newly installed mayor of los angeles, democrat karen bass, has declared a state of emergency on homelessness in her first official act today. bass was sworn in sund as the first woman to lead the city. she also faces high crime rates and racism and corruption scandals. and on wall street today, stocks

rose on hopes that the federal reserve will go smaller on interest rate hikes. major indexes were up 1.25% to 1.5%. the dow jones industrial average gained 500 28 points to close back above 34,000. the nasdaq rose 139 points. the s&p 500 added 56. still to come on the "newshour," tamara keith and amy walte break down the latest political headlines. an increasing number of people in the united kingdom go hungry because of price spikes. a new film dramatizes an improbable friendship during the korean war. plus much more. >> this is the pbs newshour, from weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: brittney griner is readjusting to life here at home after her nearly ten-month ordeal in russia. here was griner over the weekend, reunited with her wife cherrelle. and the man in the middle there

isoger carstens, the special envoy for hostage affairs in the biden administration, who played a pivotal role in securing her release. roger carstens joins me now. welcome to the newshour. >> thanks for having me. amna: you flew to the united arab emirates to make this swa meet brittney griner, and make her home. you introduce yourself and say, i am here to take you home? what did she say to you? roger: there was a little shocked. she knew she was going home. they woke her up and told her to get her stuff and she would end up in the united states. when i jumped on the plane and said, i am here on behalf of president joe biden and sec. lincoln, there was still a little shock, like this is really happening. she had a big smile. i had a bg pen produced by cherelle griner and i handed it to her and said, this is the

kind of thing that cherelle and lindsey and everyone in the united states has been concerned about, you. i think at that point she realized i was who i said i was. i sat her down and said we are going to go through a choreography. i have identified you. i am going to go backo my plane, get the russian gentlemen who is with me, and we are going to do the bridge of spies walk where both people cross each other. she gave me a big smile and said, i am ready to go. amna: you were on the flight back, 18 hours. you said she only slept for about six and wanted to talk the rest of the time. did anything she wanted to ask or share surprise you? roger: yes. i know a little bit about a russian penal coly, having gone through this, and i have done my homework. listening to her describe what she went through, the dayi word-

i would prefer her to tell that story herself. for me it was informative but above all it was interesting. some of these stories she told highlighted her humanity, how the other prisoners came to treat her well, most of the guards came to respect her. it is a person i have found who can make friends pretty much anywhere because as i found in 12 hours, she is very genuine, authentic, relatable. i think she was making a good impression in the prison system connecting with other prisoners and guards. amna: you mentioned her wife cherelle. we saw this public campaign she helped lead with members of the wnba and lawmakers, also the bring our family home campaign members. doesn't that say to russia, you

have someone we really want back? does that higher profile make your job harder? roger: in ways sometimes it is just flatlined. i will tell you why. most people don't know we have brought back roughly 15 people over the last nine months. we are bringing back just under two people per month if you want to average it out. most are not high-profile. when we get them out they sometimes fly under the radar. does it help whether you are famous or not? no. the thing that's important is it doesn't matter whether you are famous, rich, the color of your skin. nothing matters except are you wrongfully detained and do you have a blue passport? if you do, your country is coming to get you. amna: you were not able to free fellow detained american paul whelan. the former ambassador to the u.n. paul richardson who runs a center to free hostages says he believes he could be released fairly soon.

he indicated it could be by the end of this year. ? do you believe that's true roger: i am an optimist. you can't have this job unless you are an optimist. it's in the realm of possibility. i hate to put timelines on it because even when you are getting close, you might not be as close as you would like. allow me to tell you the timeline i am interested in is are we working on it now? we had a meeting this morning, initially going to be a white house state department strategy session, but elizabeth whelan joined us and we spent 45 minus talking over strategy. why i want you to know that is it's not just the government that solves the problem. we partner with families, work with families, create strategies together. we don't have a monopy on all the good ideas and sometimes engaging with families produces a solution or strategy we might not have thought of ourselves. we are working hard engaging

with the family and we will bring paul home. amna: i have been in touch with the family of another american detained in russia, mark vogel, who has not been designated wrongfully detained by the u.s. government. his family believes he should be designated that way and we should be working to retrieve them. why do you see mark vogel's case as different? roger: we don't discuss the determination process for obvious reasons. i can tell you his case is under review and it will stay under review. it's not like we look at a case and put it awa if a case rises due under review, it is constantly staying there. we keep adding more information trying to see if it obtains wrongful determination. the state department has called for humanitarian release and we will see if we can push on that. amna: a foundation put out a report that said of all u.s. nationals wrongfully detained, 75 percent are in five

countries, russia, venezuela, syria, china, and iran. in iran a russian citizen has been there since 2015. his sister tells me she is worried attempt to free him are wrapped up in larger discussions, specifically the iran nuclear deal. roger: i have had a chance to talk to the families. it is my sense we have been able to find a way to work on the nuclear issue and the hostage issue and separate those. we are still working hard. the iranians are tough to negotiate with. the othere always has the key to the jail sid cell and the other side always gets a vote. it is a tough matter. you have to meet the other side, tried to get them to turn that key, and it is never simple. amna: it's never simple, but at least this time there is good news for the family of brittney griner. roger is the special

presidential envoy for hostage affairs. thank you for joining us. morehan 100,000 americans have died from drug overdoses last year. this year, the same awful to is expected. two-thirds of those deaths are tied to the drug fentanyl. but the federal government has for years been slow to recognize the rise and the real threat of this highly-potent drug. now, as william brangham tells us, a new investigation looks at many policy decisions over the years and their consequences. william: amna, just to put these numbers into context, nearly 200 people in this country are dying every day from fentanyl. the "washington post did this new investigation about fentanyl , focusing on how multiple administrations dating back over 20 years have made what the post calls a series of strategic

blunders and cascading mistakes. nick miroff is one of the reporters who worked on this project and he joins me now. this is such a tremendous piece of reporting you and your colleagues have done. you track multiple presidential administrations -- bush, obama, trump, now biden -- and chronicle the ways in which each administration either didn't catch the rise of fentanyl or didn't respond appropriately. i know this is hard to generalize but do you ha a sense as to why these different administrations didn't quite get this right? nick: i think what we are seeing here, when you step back, is an accumulation of failures. it goes back to the first wave of ob right addiction that came out of americans' struggles with pharmaceutical pain pills. when the u.s. government started

to crack down on u.s. opioid manufacturers during the bush administration, there was a tremendous vacuum in the market. there were millions of people who were addicted already and essentially primed and in need of something to continue that addiction. that vacuum, so to speak, was filled first by illegal heroin that mexican drug trafficking organizations were sending to the united states. but the united states government across multiple institutions and administrations was slow to recognize that threat, slow to see that transition, and has been generally slow to respond. that is true of the dea, the premier anti-narcotics agency, which in the face of the biggest challenge in its 50 year history really faltered. the department of homeland security and the white house drugs are's office and others.

this is a failure of american institutions to respond to a grave national security threat. william: a lot of your reporting is focused in san diego. why is that so central? nick: san diego is the epicenter for fentanyl trafficking in the united states. that's because the mexican cartels on the opposite side of the border, sinaloa in particular, e responsible for sending the vast majority of hard narcotics across the border. more than half of the fentanyl seizures reported along the southern border are in the san diego area. that said, the drug business remain in san diego. it goes from there across the united states to many east coast cities, the appalachia, too many of the places that have been hard-hit by the opioid epidemic. william: there are many startling facts in your report,

but one really jumped up. at one point there were nearly a quarter million trucks and cars coming across the mexico border into the u.s., but at one point we were only scanning about 6% of trucks and 1% of cars. isn't that one of the main ways this is getting through? have we gotten better at scanning vehicles? nick: this is the main way fentanyl is entering the country, vehicles and commercial trucks through official border crossings. traffickers are hiding their drug loads in those vehicles and attempting to smuggle them across. the u.s. government has been very slow to rapidly scale up the kinds of scanning technology needed to detect more of this illegal fentanyl. what we saw during the trump administration is the governmen spent $11 billion on a border wall with mexico. the border wall is virtually useless for stopping fentanyl

because the fentanyl is coming through the ports of entry. a congressional aid described to me we need a manhattan project for the kind of scanning technology it would take to detect this fentanyl. that effort is starting to be underway now. the biden administration is accelerating those efforts, but it is years behind. we are not scanning the vast majority of the vehicles coming in and mexican cartels are taking advantage. william: one other issue your reporting touches on, and this goes back to the obama administration, is the failure to see that fentanyl in itself would not be just an additive to her drugs but it would become the monster it s become. nick: one of the most extraordinary things we found was that fentanyl has virtually replaced heroin on u.s. streets as the go to opioid.

that is because the mexican cartels recognized a tremendous opportunity. they could make as much illegal fentanyl as they needed. that's one reason the price has plummeted. a fake mexican fentanyl pill that sells on the streets of the united states goes for four dollars or five dollars now, infraction of what someone with an opioid addiction would have paid years ago during the prescription pill crisis. the price has crashed and i don't think any of the american law enforcement agencies years ago ever anticipated they would see fentanyl almost entirely replaced heroin in the united states. william: nick miroff of the washington post, thanks for being here. nick: thank you, anytime. amna: and thank you, william. the consequences of the nation's opioid crisis ripple through many aspects of society, including our criminal justice system.

it's estimated that up to 65% of the u.s. prison population has some sort of acte substance use disorder. and when these inmates are released, studies have shown that many will return to using and be arrested again within a few years. but stephanie sy recently visited a jail in kentucky that's trying to not only break that cycle but also save lives. it's part of our ongoing series, searching for justice. >> what does the group feel like is another character defect he is struggling with? stephanie: bethany has a way of getting people to open up. she approaches inmates just like any other patient struggling with addiction. >> i have had issues trusting people i get close to. stephanie: ball is a substance abuse counselor in covington, kentucky. she leads a program for 100 men and women getting addiction treatment while serving time. >> i hope you all keep in mind,

all of this is how is this affecting your recovery? >> you can't constantly run from yourself everywhere you go. you have to face reality at some point. stephanie: this is essentially an inpatient treatment facility within the jail. they offer classes, counseling, medication that can treat opioid use disorder and prevent overdoses. >> what do you consider your drug of choice? >>. opiates. stephanie: access to medication for those that qualify makes this program unique. >> have you ever done medically assisted treatment? >> yes. stephanie: it started in 2015 with federal and state grants. >> have you ever overdosed on opiates? how many times? >> five. stephanie: it's estimated 217,000 prisoners in the u.s. have an opioid addiction but only 5% have access to medications that can reduce cravings. >> it's horrible.

epste:ni 26-year-old tommy arnold is preparing for life on the outside. >> my fears is going back to the old people places and things. >> the old people, places, and things mean -- >> that have connections to the opioids. stephanie: arnold was arrested on a drug charge last year. >> i've been in this addiction since i was in the womb. my mom smoked crack. i came out addicted. stephanie: arnold says when his mom died of a drug overdose in 2011, his life began to spil. >> anything i could get my hands on, i was doing. stephanie: along with daily therapy and self-help classes, arnold receives a monthly shot. getting this treatment in jail has given him hope for recovery but could also save his life. >> i am just a sick man. i still have desires wanting to use. stephanie: studies have shown in

the first two weeks after release from incarceration, people are up to 40 times more likely to die from an opioid overdose than the general public. >> when you were in active addiction before you came in, you were taking a higher dose. now you have detoxed some so that is a more lethal dose for you. we talk about the dangers of using when released and talk about the date -- the options available. stephanie: the jailer says the medications are an important opon for rehabilitation. >> you want it to take effect so those cravings are not the one deciding factor about every choice i make. stephanie: he says another goal of the program is to try to limit recidivism. 70% of inmates here are locked up on drug charges. >> if this is a war on drugs, we are losing. our philosophies of w can incarcerate our way out of this,

we are going to arrest everybody, just plain doesn't work. you can't take somebody and put them in the same situation they came from and expect them to succeed. sthanie: for inmates of the substance abuse program, the journey doesn't end upon release. >> we are going to follow you on a weekly basis so please do the right thing. stephanie: for many the next stop is a ride to the life learning cter in covington. it's a one-stop shop for returning citizens. once here, participants learn how to reestablish their identification. >> do you have a driver's license? stephanie: and role in public insurance and receive help finding housing and jobs. >> i wrote the past is the past, i won't let it determine my present or future. stephanie: they take classes that focus on coping skills and confronting how their addictions began. >> i started using when i was

seven because i was abused all my life. stephanie: 55-year-old jeff came to the center in october after being released from the kenton county jail. after battling addiction and depression most of his life, he says he began using heroin five years ago. that led to using fentanyl, a synthetic opioid up to 50 times more powerful. >> i accidentally overdosed eight to 10 times on that. that's got to be the most embarrassing, humiliating thing i have felt in my life. you wake up and there is the paramedics working on you and you know what happened and you know you did it again. all you can think of is getting out of there to get high again. stephanie: this summer he violated probation from a previous drug charge and was locked up for 90 days. he began the in joke treatment program. for him it was game changing. do you still have cravings?

>> i have not. stephanie: what does it feel like to have your brain back to being yours and not in the grips of an addictive substance? >> have you ever burned your hand? you know how the burn won't stop, and eventually it goes away? that's what it feels like. you don't realize the staying, you don't realize how bad it is destroying you until it's gone. stephanie: schultz credits the life learning center with helping him slowly rebuild his life. he is living in transitional housing and working as a painter. >> coming from the background i come from, when people reach out to you like that, it's greatly appreciated. stephanie: the life learning center also provides much-needed essentials like food, clothing, bicycles, and they hire employees who know what it's like to work in the formerly incarcerated shoes.

were you incarcerated in kenton county? >> actually is a peer support specialist, 11 years removed from a heroin and opioid addiction that sent her to prison for more than a year. >> as soon you tell someone you are in recovery, it's like, she gets it. she knows what it's like to neglect your family and responsibilities because your life becomes consumed by drugs and alcohol. stephanie: the nonprofit life learning center is overseen by alicia webb edgington, who spent decades in law enforcement. >> 90% of the people we have substance use disorder and 82% have a co-diagnosis of mental health disorder. stephanie: for individuals who have completed all six months, three months in jail and three in aftercare, edgington says 24% are rearrested within three years. that compares to 68% for all

u.s. prisoners during the same period. >> been doing this for too long. it's not to like to have. stephanie: tommy arnold is already planning to head to the life learning center when he is released. >> if i could get one more chance, i won't let myself down. stephanie: sometimes a second chance isn't enough. tommy has been in treatment before and it didn't take. bethany ball says she never gives up on anyone willing to try again. >> you get somebody a resource they need and it saves their life, it was worth it. one person is worth it to me because that spreads. stephanie: arnold is scheduled to be released this week. addiction may haunt him, but the kenton county jail substance abuse program may have given him a fighting chance. for the pbs newshour, i am stephanie sy in covington, kentucky.

amna: tomorrow the president plans to sign into law a bipartisan bill on same sex marriage, after what the white house called a very good week of delivering for voters. that optimism despite a jolt to the new 51-seat senate majority in senator kirsten sinema's party switch. here to analyze all this and more is our politics monday team -- amy walter of the cook political report with amy walter. and tamara keith of npr. welcome, good to see you. i thought it's a good time to pull together some headlines you have been seeing around the president and get perspective on what comes next. we saw the president's party outperform history and the midterms. gas prices are down. they had a legislative win codifying same-sex and interracial marriage protections. they brought brittney griner home. if the president chooses to run

again, is the primary proof? >> i have been talking to democratic consultants and pollsters. their sense is yeah, maybe there could be some gadfly who might try to run in a primary, but joe biden has cleared the field. the reality is an incumbent president should easily clear the field. in the past, nobody was asking, is barack obama going to run for reelection? and his approval rating was in the same general neighborhood as biden's. one person told me at this point with the hyper partisanship and polarization, you don't have to be widely beloved even in your own party to be a strong contender, depending on what the other party does. >> the take away from the

midterm elections was donald trump had a terrible night, joe biden had a great night. when you look at the data in terms of how people see both candidates, it doesn't look like either one had a particularly great night and the midterm elections. president biden's approval ratings, somewhere around 42% -- we are in a really polarized era, so it is rare you see the president's approval rating very high, but still didn't really get any sort of bump from overcoming the traditional midterm drag, nor any of the things you mentioned about gas prices etc. it is not translating to support for biden. there was a poll that came out this week or late last week. more than 57% of democrats, 66% of independents don't want to see joe biden running.

this was from a democratic polling firm that came out with, here is our analysis of what happened in 2022. this is the polling firm that does joe biden's polling. they said democrats over performed because voters disliked republican candidates more, not because voters liked amna: we know his agenda could be complicated by the fact that one sitting democratic senator decided to switch party affiliations, christensen him a, from democrat to independent. politico is reporting that an arizona congressman seems to be taking another step toward potentially challenging sinema in 2024. he was asked about possibly running this morning on msnbc. >> i'm going to listen to my family over the holidays. i have a big latino family that's going to come over

christmas. it's going to be a very crowded house. after that we will be making the decision based on what's best for arizona and based on what i hear from the constituents of arizona. amna: does he run and risk splitting democrat voters? >> a lot of people are spending a lot of time with their families this holiday to make big decisions about their political futures, including the president and several republicans spending a lot of time with their families trying to decide whether to run for president. sinema is now an independent who votes for democrats like 90% of the time. she is going to stay on committees, giving them the majority in the senate. there are two other independents who caucus with democrats, so she is not blazing a path necessarily. the question is if she is an

independent, she doesn't have to run in them the democratic primary. even though she would not copy to that, that was part of the calculation, avoiding a primary that congressman gallego was basically telegraphing. the question for democrats is if it is a three-way race, a democratic nominee, an independent who leans democratic , and an republican, do the democrat and independent split the left-leaning, center-left about, and what does that mean? does that give a republican an easy path? amna: what does the president do? does he endorse? what does the party do? it's a mplicated dance. she didn't switch parties in the sense we have seen in previous years. but being an independent means

the party itself, you are not part of any party apparatus. it's important because arizona is not just about the senate race. it's a critical senate race for the presidential race. to have the party divided is problematic. what has helped democrats in arizona these past few years, since 2018 they have been incredibly united. have not had the kind of knockdown, drag out primary fights like republicans have had. amna: we know the former republican gubernatorial candidate kari lake has refused to concede, is challenging that loss in court, asking the court to throw out the results of maricopa county and either declare her the winner or rerun the election in that county. what does this tell us about republican voters and future candidates in arizona? >> she is unique. of all the candidates who did

support former president donald trump can tension that the election was rigged or stolen, they all conceded or have not gone to the lengths kari lake what's important to remember about throwing out maricopa county, you know who the top vote getter was? republican statein micopa county. second most was mark kelly the democrat, then kari lake. if you throw out those votes, you throw out a lot of republican winners. amna: how do you look at this? >> the judicial process is part of the election system. people can appeal things. when courts weigh in, and in the case of 2020, former president trump's cases were thrown out, that's when it is over. amna: it looks like that's a story we are going to be following for a long time. arizona continues to be interesting. tamera keith, thanks so much.

amy walter, thanks. a winter of discontent is coming for the united kingdom. today, the first in what will be weeks of nationwide strikes began across multiple professions, from ambulance crews to border officers, all in protest of skyrocketing living costs. and as the days get colder, many are faced with a terrible choice -- heat the home, or feed the family? from whitehawk, one of the poorest districts of brighton on the south coast, special correspondent malcolm brabant reports. malcolm: sue is cooking up 300 hearty meals. her kitchen is the vanguard of the fight against hunger. in this social housing complex and beyond, millions of britons are forced to cut back on food and warmth.

>> it's made for these people that are what i call the forgotten people. people don't care, but we do. that's the main thing. malcolm: janet cronin's nonprofit provides home deliveries because the local authority can no longer afford to run the service. what's your assessment about how bad the cost-of-living crisis is? >> pretty bad. you can't even have your heating on. do i need, do i put the heating on? i am the same, i have not had the heating on much. malcolm: food price increases are the sharpest in 30 years and this hits the poorest hardest because proportionally they spend more income on food than the better off. single mother natosha is heading for a handout. once a music business executive, she fell on hard times and into the red. a nonprofit christians against

poverty helped to get debt collectors offer back. despite working part time, she has relied on food banks and the advice of a debt coach. >> two kids? how do you see things like christmas? >> i am dreading it. malcolm: what would you say the situation is? >> i can't imagine how some of these people survive. we can blame the economic situation, the war in europe, but ty are not going to go away anytime soon. malcolm: the dosha is not alone. a recent survey showed if most working britons lost their jobs, they would survive financially for on the 19 days. demand for food banks is up this year and many are struggling because donations are down. what's it like going to a food bank? >> it's embarrassing. when i first started going, i would be looking at the floor because i didn't want anyone to

see me. then i realized a lot of people i know have started using the food bank and it's not so embarrassing. i don't really care anymore that i go to a food bank. malcolm: what sort of difference does it make to you? >> really big difference. like your real kind of staple. it's like, you know, pasta , washing powder, liquid bleach, shower gel. they shouldn't really be luxuries, but they are. malcolm: it isn't just the poor who're drowning. those in the middle-income bracket are running faster to stand still or even go backwards. britain's recent financial turbulence pushed mortgage interest rates to their highest level in 14 years. >> a lot of families are genuinely terrified if they're looking at increases of over $1000 per month u.k. equivalent then i think they just can't find that money. they don't know where they're going to find it from. malcolm: sam murphy's consultancy is called mortgage medics. but in this climate, there's no available cure. >> the typical mortgage payment might be about 20 $500,000 per

month. -- might be about $2500 per month. and a lot of people, when they'reoming to the end of their deals at the moment, they're looking at their payments going up by 40, 50, 60%. some even as much as doubling. malcolm: as he tried to balance britain's books, treasury chief jeremy hunt targeted middle income and wealthier households with the highest taxes since world war ii, fully aware his budget would send living standards plunging to record lows. >> there is a global energy crisis, a global inflation crisis and a global economic crisis. but the british people are tough, inventive, and resourceful. malcolm: some of the $67 billion hole in britain's finances was created by the fiscal mismanagement of conservative premier liz truss, kicked out after just six weeks. the cost of government borrowing and imports shot up. but there's another significant reason why there is a shortfall -- britain's decision to leave the european union, it's biggest trading partner. >> independent empirical work suggests that as a result of

brexit, uk gdp is of the order of 3% to 5% lower than it would have been otherwise. malcolm: michael gasiorek is director of the uk trade policy observatory. >> economically we are taking a hit and there's no doubt that we are taking a hit. but there are political reasons for wanting to make that decision, which is to do with sovereignty. so it becomes a trade off. malcolm: recent suggestions that britain might seek a closer relationship with europe have been dismissed by rishi sunak, the country's third prime minister in the past six months. >> i believe in brexit and i know that brexit can deliver and is already delivering enormous benefits and opportunities for the country. >> i think britain is very broken. i think it's a banana republic. it's not all about business and it's not this trickle down. it doesn't trickle to anywhere. it trickles into a yacht or a holiday or a speedboat. so i don't know. it's not trickling down to, you know, us having like a fantastic kitchen. malcolm: to serve people like former bodybuilder and window cleaner dave blythe, whose leg

was amputated four years ago because of a blocked artery. the meals he receives keeps him from being one of more than a million british seniors said to be wasting away because of hunger. >> it is fairly depressing where i've worked all my life to actually rely on people to give you food. it doesn't make you feel too good. malcolm: the kitchen's co-founder, bryan coyle, has launched a nationwide campaign to compel local authorities to fund meal deliveries to the vulnerable. >> so we'll give them two punnets. here you go. >> we've now got a situation in england where over a million over 65-year-olds in this country are suffering from malnutrition. it's quite a shocking statistic in a country as rich as the united kingdom. >> here is your dinner. >> thank you very much. malcolm: charles sadler is collecting a food parcel for himself and six neighbours. >> i've been getting food here for quite a while.

malcolm: what would happen to you if you didn't get this meal? what sort of difference does it make to you? >> stops me from going hungry. but i am blessed. malcolm: across town, debt coach neil avard is delivering a welfare package to someone who is housebound. he believes many people have cut back right to the bone >> you can budget and get your expenditure right down. but i'm now coming to a point where i'm finding, well, actually, no, you're in negative expenditure and you've cut down or cut back on everything. now that's going to be a big problem unless the government steps in with more help for people, you know, with heating grants and food grants and things like that. malcolm: in the words of britain's institute for fiscal studies, the country is in for a long, hard, unpleasant journey, made more arduous by a series of economic blunders. for the pbs newshour, i'm malcolm brabant in brighton.

amna: a recently-released film provides a new reference point for the term "wingmen." "devotion" is the true story of two naval aviators' loyalty and heroism during the often- overlooked korean war. special correspondent mike cerre reports on the pilots' bond and the story that has taken on added relevance today, for our arts and culture series, canvas. mike: an unforgettable true story from the forgotten war in korea. two naval aviators from different backgrounds demonstrated what it means to be wingmen in war and life. jonathan majors plays jesse brown, the navy's first black fighter pilots, by way of a mississippi sharecropper family. he was the first african-american killed in the korean war. >> this man didn't just pull

himself up from his bootstraps. he pulled himself up and put himself in the sky. mike: glenn powell played hangman in the recent top gun movie. he plays lieutenant thomas hunter junior from a prosperous w england family, who turned down harvard to go to the nal academy and later became an aviator. he received the first medal of honor of the korean war for first -- for intentionally crashing his plane in a futile effort to rescue jesse brown after he was shot down behind enemy lines. >> what is the a wing man and how finmief:ioitofe executive producer, having optioned the film rights to the book devotion prior to his top gunnvolvement. powell met with the real tom just before the pilot died at age 93.

>> the thing i took away from meeting him was how much jesse brown means to him, now 72 years later, and that friendship was sothing he thought about every day. the families are tied together for life. mike: jesse brown's grandchildren and tom's son worked together to make sure the film accurately reflected the uniqueness of their personal bond, given the background and times. >> you know how tired i am of people trying to healthy while looking down on me? -- trying to help me while looking down on me? >> i am not looking down on you. what do you want me to do? >> just be my wing man. >> i certainly think their relationship was unique. mike: thomas hudner's son

believes jesse brown was his father's first black friend, coming from his privileged background compared to jesse brown's in rural mississippi where he worked on the fields and was frequently taunted. >> dad's baseline approach to any relationship and certainly to a wing man was someone shows aracter through their actions and behavior, not the color of their skin. mike: the two pilots were inducted into the national aviation museum and where film director jd dillards family was once stationed. >> my dad was a naval aviator and the story was similar to him. this is something he had to predominantly do alone. there is a specific isolation that comes with that. you have tuskegee airmen in world war ii but the benefit of what they had was community. mike: vintage navy corsair

fighter planes and an aircraft carrier mockup were used to set the scene in 1950 as the squadron prepared for the korean war, which coincided with the desegregation of the u.s. military after world war ii. >> it's good to know the man you are flying with, see what they are fighting for. >> after he died, she went back to school. she became a teacher. mike: jesse brown's daughter pamela was only o when he died and never got to know him. lives large at the african-american military history museum in hattiesburg, mississippi, his hometown. devotion's cast members and director came for a reception and special screening. brown's family, friends, and

entire town. jesse brown has been recognized as a favorite son. >> somebody like him back in that time was one of the first african-american pilots, and he was good. mike: hattiesburg's historic theater is where brown used to frequent in the 1940's and 50's, but they couldn't use the front door. that led to the colored section. that door and that policy are long gone. at tonight's special screening, the browns are getting the front row. >> you can't make it go away, you can erase it, so you have to embrace it and grow. >> i am so grateful to the city and so happy we get to celebrate this and lift up what this community has meant. mike: for jesse brown's granddaughter jessica, the film

has been worth the wait. the story of friendship without cultural boundaries is just as timely today. >> there is a great line in the movie after we experience jesse's loss, where they say the world needed jesse brown. the world needs jesse brown and tom hudner's story. the level of divisiveness we experience in this country, it's important to see them overcome that. mike: for the pbs newshour, this is mike cerre in hattiesburg. amna: you n see more canvas stories later tonight on pbs when i host the final episode of this season's "beyond the canvas." the show features interviews and profiles with wi some of the brightest stars in music, writing, and more. tonight's episode focuses on the power of words. on this episode of beyond the canvas, we witness the power of words. >> i use poetry to reach young people. >> black people built this house

of country music. >> this is the first book i have written in real time. it was the most difficult writing i have done. >> country music has a vortex, a culture. amna: and some breaking news we go -- sam bankman-fried, former billionaire and ceo of cryptocurrency exchange ftx, has been arrested in the bahamas. the arrest came after the u.s. filed him and all charges and requested his extradition. he had been scheduled to testify before the house financial services committee tomorrow. d that is the news hour for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. join us online and back here again tomorrow evening. thank you for joining us. we will see you soon. >> major funding 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 no contract plans and our u.s.-based customer service team can find one that fits you. >> the landscape has changed and not for the last time. the rules of business are being reinvented with a more flexible rkforce by embracing innovation, by looking not only at current opportunities by the head for future ones. resilience is the ability to pivot again and again for whatever happens next. >> people that know know bdo. >> >> the kendeda fund, committed in dancing -- in advancing ideas. supported by the john d. and

catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. moretior ionma atma 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." here is what is coming up. brittney griner is back in america. the basketball star just release ded ed from russian tention. president xi eases up on the covid crackdown. we get insight and china analysts in shanghai plus. >> this is a case about raw political power and who is able to execute it >> voting rights expert david daily talks to harry about the supreme court's case on redistricting and why american democracy is on the line. finally. >> i'll grateful to every single one of you. >> trevor noah signs off.