amna: good evening and welcome. i'm amna nawaz. judy woodruff is away. on the newshour tonit, in ane 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 -- 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. stephanie: we will return to the full program after the latest headlines. 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 enter a plea. john yang has our report. john: nearly 34 years after the wreckage of pan am flight 103 rained down overcotland, 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 259 people aboard died, along with 11 on the ground, when the jumbo jet was blown out of the sky shortly after taking off from london for new york. there were citizens of 21 different countries. the majority, 190, 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 admitted to libyan authorities he had built the bomb. attorney general william barr made the announcement on the 37th anniversary of the attack.

>> let there be no mistake. no amount of time or distancetnr wito justice in this case. john: he is the third libyan intelligence officer charged in the case by the u.s., but the first to be tried in an american courtroom. victoria lost her husband john in the bombing. >> it is the victims's families fervent wish that u.s. criminal trial proceedings begin immediately. justice delayed is justice denied. the victims's families are keenly aware that after 34 years, informants and witnesses die, memories fade, and evidence can deteriorate or disappear. john: for years, the only person committed in the case was a man sentenced by a scottish court to life in prison. in 2009, scottish authorities released him on humanitarian grounds after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

he died in tripoli three years later. with massoud in u.s. custody, families of the victims hope that justice will finally be served. for "the pbs newshour," i am john young. stephanie: across the nation, a major winter storm pushed east today after pummeling northern california and nevada. over the weekend, soda springs, california recorded more than 43 inches of snowfall in 48 hours. areas south of lake tahoe saw 36 inches, cutting visibility and closing roads. blizzard warnings were issued in the northern plains with heavy rains and possible tornadoes in the south. sam bankman-fried, the former millionaire and ceo of the cryptocurrency exchange ftx was arrested in the hamas late today. the arrest came after the u.s. filed criminal charges against him and requested his extradition. he had been scheduled to to testify before the house

financial services committee tomorrow. 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 2 paramilitary members to death. israel has acknowledged that its troops shot and killed a 16-year-old pastinian girl overnight during a raid in the occupied west bank. the military says it was unintentional, and that the soldiers were aiming at gunmen 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 coury, federal and local officials around el paso, texas struggled today to cope with one of the largest migrant crossings in recent years. up to 1,000 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 sunday as the first woman to lead the city. she also faces high crime rates and racism and corruption scandals. the white house announced today it is establishing an interagency group to counter antisemitism and islamophobia. the group worked to address harassment and abuse and seek to prevent future attacks. still to come newshour, tamara keith and amy walter 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, and much more. >> this is "the pbs newshour"

from weta studios in washington, and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: 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 ther is roger 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. roger: thank you for having me. amna: you flew to the uae to make this swap, you introduced yourself to her and said i am here to take you home. what did she say back? roger: there was a little shock. she knew sheas going home, they told her to grab her stuff and she would eventually end up in the united states at some point in the near future, yet i think when i jumped on the plane and said i'm here on behalf of president joe biden and

secretary blinken, here to take you home, there was still a little shock -- this is really happening. she had a big smile. i had a bg pen, and i said this is the kind of thing cherelle and everybody in the u.s. has been concerned about, you. i think at that point she realized i was who i said i was. i sat her down and i said we are going to go through a choreography the next three or four minutes. i'm going to identify you. i'm going to go back to the plane and get the russian gentleman, and we will kind of bridge of spies walk. she gave me a smile and said she was ready to go. amna: you were on the flight with her back come 18 hours. you said she only slept about six of it.

she wanted to talk the rest of the time. anything she particularly talked about? roger: yes, i know a little bit about russian penal colonies now,ut listening to her describe what she went through, her experiences, the day-to-day and strange one off events, i found it fascinating and informative. amna: what kind of events? roger: i would almost prefer her to telit herself, i don't want to rob her of that. for me, it was informative but above all, interesting. some of the stories she told highlighted her humanity. how the other prisoners came to treat her well, how some of the guards -- most of the guards came to respect her. and as a person i have found who could make friends almost anywhere, i found she is very genuine and authentic and relatable. i think she was making a good impression in the prison system just connecting with other

prisoners and the guards in a way that was positive. amna: you mentioned her wife. we all saw this incredible public campaign she helped to lead with members of the wnba and lawmakers. did the higher profile -- doesn't that say to russia might you have someone we really want back? does it make your job harder in some ways, or help? roger: in ways, it has flatlined. one thing most people don't know is we have brought back roughly 15 people in the last nine months. right now we are bringing back just under two people per month. most of these people are not high-profile. are not known about. when we get them out, they sometimes fly under the radar. does it help whether you are famous or not? no. from our side, it doesn't mother -- doesn't matter whether you are famous or not, rich or not the color of your skin -- , nothing matters except are you wrongfully detained and do you

have a blue passport? if you have a blue passport, your country is coming to get you. amna: you were not able to free paul whelen. i wanted to share with you, bill richardson, who runs a center that does a lot of work to free hostages, said he believes paul whelen could be released fairly soon, maybe by the end of the year. do you believe that is true? roger: i am an optimist by trade, you cannot have this job unless you are an optimist. it is in the realm of possibility, but i hate to put timelines on it. some negotiations are so brutally hard that even when you get close, you might not be as close as you would like to be. instead of putting a timeline on it, allow me to tell you the timeline i am interested in -- are we working on it now? i can share with you that we had a meeting this morning, it was initially going to be just a white house and state department strategy session, but elizabeth whelan joined us and spent about a good 45 minutes talking over strategies with elizabeth. it is not just the government that solves the problem. we partner with families, work

with families, create strategies together. we don't have a monopoly on good ideas. sometimes engaging with families produces the solution or strategy we would not have thought about by ourselves. we are on the job, working hard, engaging with the family, and we will find a way to bring paul home. amna: one of the families of another american detained in russia, who has not been designated wrongfully detained by the u.s. government and there is a distinction, but his family believes he should be designated in that way and we should be working to free him. why do you see mark fogel's case is different? roger: we don't discuss i guess the determination process for obvious reasons. i can tell you his case is under review and it will stay in review. it's not like we look at a case and put it away. if it rises to the point that it is under review, it is constantly there and at times we had more information, try to see if it did -- it attains a wrongful determination.

the state department has called for humanitarian release for park vogel, and we will continue to see if we can push. amna: the foley foundation put out a report saying of all u.s. nationals wrongfully detained, 75% are just in five countries. in iran, an american citizen has been held since 2018. his sister tells me she is worried the negotiations are wrapped up in larger policy tensions, specifically the iran nuclear deal. are they? roger: i had a chance to talk to her, all of the families, and it is my sense that we have been able to find a way to work on the nuclear issue in hostage issue and separate those to my mind, we are still working hard. it is tough, the iranians are tough to negotiate with the other side always has the key to the jail sale. the other side always gets a

vote. it is tough. you have to meet the other side, try to get them to turn the key on the jail cell and it is never simple. amna: but at least this time there is some goodews for the family of brittney griner. thank you so much for joining us. roger: thank you for having me. ♪ amna: more than 100,000 americans died from drug overdoses last year. this year, the same awful toll 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 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 single day from fentanyl. "the washington post" did this new investigation about fentanyl, focusing in large part on how mulple administrations dating back over twenty 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. nick, this is really such a tremendous piece of reporting you and your colleagues have done. as i mentioned, you you track multiple presidential administrations -- bush, obama, trump, and now biden -- and chronicle the ways in which each of those administrations either didn't catch the rise of fentanyl or didn't respond appropriately to the threat. i know this is hard to generalize, but can you do you have a sense as to why all of these different administrations didn't quite get this right? nick: well, i think what we're seeing here, when you step back

is an accumulation of failures. and it really goes back to the first wave of opioid addiction that came out of american struggles with pharmaceutical pain pills. and once the u.s. government started to crack down on the 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 quickly after by failure. the united states government, really across multiple institutions and administrations were slow to recognize that threat, slow to oversee the transition, and generally has been slow to respond.

that is true of the dea the nation's premier anti narcotics agency. which in the face of the biggest challenge in its 50 year history really faltered. but also the department of homeland security, and the white house drug czar's office and others. this is really a failure of american institutions to respond to a grave national security threat. william: a lot of your you and your colleagues's reporting is focused in san diego, california. why is that so central to this story? nick: san diego is really the epicenter for fentanyl trafficking in the united states. and that's because the mexican cartels on the opposite side of the border. the sinaloa cartel in particular, are really responsible for sending vast majority of hard narcotics ross the border. and so, more than half of all the fentanyl seizurerecorded along the entire u.s. southern border are in the san diego area.

that said this drug does not , remain in san diego, obviously. it goes from there across the united states, to many east coast cities to appalachia, to new england and many of the places that have been hardest hit by the opioid epidemic. william: there are so many startling facts in your report. but one really jumped out and is relevant to the point you're making. which is that at one point that there were nearly a quarter million trucks and cars coming through across the mexico border into the u.s. but at one point we were only scanning about 6% of trucks and 1% of cars. i mean, isn't that principally one of the main ways this is getting through and have we gotten better at scanning those vehicles? nick: this is the main way that fentanyl is entering the country -- in vehicles and in commercial trucks coming through the official border crossings. traffickers are hiding their drug loads in those vehicles and attempting to smuggle them across. but the u.s. government, and this is one of the missteps that we described in our investigation, 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. and so what we saw, for example, during the trump administration is that the government spent $11 billion on a border wall with mexico. the border wall is virtually useless for stopping fentanyl because the fentanyl again is coming through the ports of entry. what we need, as one congressional aide described to me, we need like a manhattan project for the kind of scanning technology we take to detect this fentanyl. and that effort is starting to be underway now, and the biden administration is accelerating those efforts, but it's years behind. so we still are not scanning the vast majority of the vehicles coming in and the mexican cartels are taking advantage of that. william: one other issue that your reporting touches on and this goes back to the obama administration, is the failure to see that fentanyl in and of itself wouldn't be just an additive to other drugs, but that in and of itself, it would

become this monster that it has become. why do you think that is? nick: well, one of the most extraordinary things we found in the course of reporting this is that fentanyl has virtually replaced heroin on u.s. streets as the go to opioid. that's simply because the mexican cartels recognized a tremendous opportunity. they could make as much illegal fentanyl as they needed to. and that's one of the reasons why the price has really plummeted. so the kinds of -- a fake mexican fentanyl pill that sells on the streets of the united states goes for four dollars or five dollars now. just a fraction of what someone with an opioid addiction would have paid years ago when during the prescription pill crisis. again, the price has crashed. i don't think any of the american law enforcement institutions that were facing this years ago ever anticipated that they would see fentanyl almost entirely replace heroin

on the streets of the united states. william: nick, thank you for being here. nick: thank you, anytime. amna: thank you, william. the consequences of the nation's opioid crisis ripples through many aspects of society, including our criminal justice system. it's estimated that up to 65 percent of the u.s. prison population has some sort of active 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." bethany: what is another character defect he is struggling with? stephanie: bethany ball has a way of getting people to open up. she approaches inmates as she would any other patient struggling with addiction. inmate: you know, i've had

issues in the past with trusting people, especially people that i get close to. stephanie: ball is a substance abuse counselor at the kenton coty jail in covington, kentucky. she leads a program for about 100 men and women who are getting addiction treatment while serving time. bethany: i hope you all keep in mind like, how is this affecting your recovery? inmate: you can't just constantly run from yourself everywhere you go. you're going to have to face reality at some point. stephanie: this is essentially an inpatient treatment facility within the kenton county jail. not only do they offer classes and counseling, they offer medications that can treat opioid use disorder and prevent overdoses. counselor: what would you consider to be your drug of choice? inmate: opiates. stephanie: access to medications for those that qualify makes this program unique. counselor: have you ever done medically assisted treatment? we're talking buprenorphine, vivitrol. inmate: yes, sir. stephanie: it started in 2015 with a mix of federal and state grants counselor: have you ever overdosed on opiates? how many times?

inmate: yes, probably five. stephanie: it's estimated that about 270,000 prisoners in the u.s. have an opioid addiction, but only 5% of them have access to medications like buprenorphine, which can reduce cravings. tommy: being in addiction, man, it's horrible stephanie: 26-year-old tommy arnold is preparing for life on the outside. tommy: my fear is going back to the old people, places and things. that's my main fear. stephanie: and the old, people, places and things mean? tommy: friends that has, you know, connections to the opioids. stephanie: arnold was arrested on a drug charge last year. tommy: i've been in this addiction since, you know, since i was in the womb. my mama smoked crack. i came out addicted to, you know, crack. stephanie: arnold says he began -- he said his died of a drug overdose in 2011.

tommy: you know, anything that i could get my hands on, i was doing it if it was an opiate. sthanie: along with daily therapy and self-help class, arnold also receives a monthly shot of buprenorphine. getting this treatment while in jail has given him hope for recovery, but could also save his life. tommy: to be honest, i'm just a sick man. i still have, you know, desires of wanting to use. ephanie: studies have shown that in the first two eks after release from incarceration, people are up to 40 times more likely to die from an opioid overdose than the general public. bethany: when you were in active addiction before you came in, you were usually taking a higher dose and now you've detoxed some and so that is a more lethal dose for you. we talk about the dangers of using when they're released and we talk about the options available to them. stephanie: kenton county jailer marc fields says the medications are an important option for rehabilitation. marc: we want it to be taking effect so that those cravings aren't the one deciding factor about every choice i make in my life when i walk out the door.

stephanie: he says another goal of the treatment program is to try to limit recidivism. about 70% of inmates here are locked up on drug charges. marc: if this is a war on drugs, we definitely are losing that battle. our philosophies of all those ways about how we can incarcerate our way out of this and we're going to arrest everybody. just plain doesn't work. you cannot take somebody and put them right back in the same situation that they came from and expect them to succeed. stephanie: for inmates in the jail substance abuse program, the journey doesn't end upon release. >> we are going to follow you on a weekly basis. please do the right thing. stephanie: for many, the next stop is a ride to the life learning center, also in covington. it's a sort of one-stop shop for returning citizens. once here, participants learn how to re-establish their identification, enroll in public insurance and receive help finding both housing and jobs.

teacher: and what i wrote is the past is the past and i won't let it determine my present or future. stephanie: they also take classes that focus on coping skills and confronting how their addictions began. jeff: i started using drugs when i was seven years old. because always be -- i was beaten and abused all my life. stephanie: 55 year-old jeff schultz came to the life learning center in october after being released from the kenton county jail. after battling addiction and depression for most of his life, he says he began using heroin five years ago. that led to using fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that's up to fifty times more powerful. jeff: i accidentally overdosed, gosh 8 to 10 times, and that's got to be the most embarrassing, humiliating thing that i've ever felt in my life. waking up and you lookround, and there's the paramedics working on you and you know what happened and you know you did it again. and all you can think of is getting out of there to go get

high again. stephanie: this summer, schultz violated probation from a previous drug charge and was locked up for 90 days. he began the in-jail treatment program and was put on buprenorphine. for him, it was game-changing. do you still have cravings sometimes? jeff: i have ne. stephanie: what does it feel like to have your brain be back to being yours and not in the grips of an addictive substance? jeff: have you ever burnt your hand? stephanie: yeah. jeff: you know how that burn just won't stop, and eventually it goes away. well that's what it feels like. you don't realize the stin or how bad it burns and how bad i's destroying you until it's gone. stephanie: schultz credits the life learning center with helping him slowly rebuild his life. he's now living in transitional housing and working as a painter. jeff coming from : the background i come from

when people reach out to you like... like that. it's greatly appreciated. stephanie: the life learning center also provides much-needed essentials like food, clothing, and even bicycles. and they hire employees who know what it's like to walk in the formerly incarcerated's shoes. ashley: so were you in kenton county? is that where you were incarcerated? stephanie: ashley boothby is a peer support specialist here and she's eleven years removed from a heroin and opioid addiction that sent her to prison for more than a year. ashley: as soon as you tell someone that you're in recovery, too, it's like, oh, she gets it. she knows what it's like to, you know, neglect your family and your responsibilities all because, you know, your life becomes consumed by drugs and alcohol. stephanie: the nonprofit life learning center is overseen by alecia webb-edgington, who spent decades in law enforcement. alecia: 98% of the people that we see at life learning center have substance use disorder and 82% have a co-diagnosis of a mental health disorder.

stephanie: for individuals who have completed all six months of th treatment program -- 3 months in jail, 3 months in aftercare -- webb-edgington says 24 are rearrested within three years. that compares to a 68 percen recidivism rate for all u.s. prisoners during the same period. tommy: i've been doing this for too long. it's not the life to have. stephanie: tommy arnold is already planning to head to the life learning center once he's released. tommy: if i could get one more chance, i wouldn't let myself down. stephanie: sometimes, a second chance isn't enough. tommy's been in treatment before and it didn't take. bethany ball says she never gives up on anyone willing to try again. bethany: if you get somebody the resource they need and it saves their life, then it was worth it. onperson is worth it to me because that spreads. stephanie: arnold is scheduled to be released from jail this week.

addiction may yet haunt him, but the kenton county jail's substance abuse program may have given him a fighting chance. for "the pbs newshour," i'm stephanie sy in covington, kentucky. ♪ na: 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 to you both, good to see you. i thought it was a good time to pull together some headlines we've seen around the president and get perspective on what comes next. the last few weeks saw the

president's party outperform the midterms, gas prices down, they had a legislative win codifying same-sex marriage protections, they brought brittney griner home. at this point, if the president chooses to run again, is he primary proof? tamara: i've been talking to democratic consultants and those following this closely and their sense is yeah, there could maybe be se gadfly who could 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? what's up? -- what's up with that? his approval rating was in the same general neighborhood as widen, but -- as biden's, but what one person told me is with the hyper partisanship and

polarization, you don't have to be widely beloved in your own party to be a strong contender, depending on what the other party does. amy: it's interesting, the takeaway from the midterm elections was donald trump had a terrible night, joe biden had a great night. when y look at the data in terms of how people see both of those candidates, it doesn't look like either one had a particularly great night, or midterm election. several days, however long it took. president biden's approval ratings are around 42%. tam is right, we are in a very polarized era and it is rare you will see the president's approval rating very high, that still did not get any real bump from overcoming the traditional midterm trend, nor any of the things you mentioned, gas prices, etc. it is not translating to support

for biden. there was a report that came out i think this week or late last week -- only, more than 57% of democrats, 66% of independents don't want to see joe biden running. and a democratic polling firm came out with this is our analysis of 2022, they also do joe biden's polling, and they said democrats over performed because voters disliked republicans more. not because they like to democrats. amna: we know his agenda could be complicated slightly by the fact that one sitting democrat senator decided to switch party affiliations, kyrsten sinema, from democrat to independent. politico is reporting that arizona congressman ruben gallego seems to be taking

another step toward potentially challenging kyrsten sinema in 2024. heas asked about possibly running this morning and here's what he had to say. mr. gallego: i'm going to listen to my family over the holidays. i have a big latino family that's going to come in over christmas, it's going to be a very chemical very crowded house. then after that, we'll be making a decision. and we'll be making a decision based on what's best for arizona and based on what i hear from the actual constituents of arizona. amna: does he run, and if he does, does he risk splitting democratic voters? tamara: a lot of people are spending a lot of time with their families this holiday and making been life decisions about their futures, including the president, and several republicans spending time with family trying to decide whether to run for president. the calculation for democrats is rsten sinema is now an independent who votes with democrats like 90% of the time

or something le that. she will stay on committees, giving them the majority in the senate. there are already two other independents that caucus with democrats so she is not necessarily blazing a path. the question is, if she is an independent, she doesn't have to run into a credit primary, which was obviously -- even though she independent is avoiding a primary that gallego was basically telegraphing. the question for democrats, if it is a three-way race, and democratic nominee, independent who leans democratic and republican, do the democrat and independent o used to be a democrat split the left-leaning and centerleft vote? what does that mean? does that give a republican and easy path? amna: what does the president

do? what does the party do? amy: she didn't switch parties in the sense, like we've seen in previous years, but being independent means the party itself -- you are not part of any party apparatus. it'also important because arizona is not just about the senate race, but for the presidential contest, to have the democratic party divided is quite problematic. what has helped democrats in arizona the past few years, since 2018 they have been incredibly united, haven't had the knocked down, reg out primary fights like republicans. amna: can i ask you about republicans in arizona? we know kari lake has refused to concede and is challenging her governors loss in court, asking

throw out two the results and either declare heard the winner in maricopa county. what does this tell us? amy: she is unique. of all of the candidates who did support former president donald trump's contention that the election was rigged or stolen, they all conceded or at least have not gone to the lengths that kari lake has gone to. what is really important to remember, throwing out maricopa county -- the top vote getter was the republican state treasurer. the second most was mark kelly, the democrat. and then it was kari lake. you throw out all those votes, you also throw out a lot of republican winners. amna: how do you look at this? tamara: did judicial process is part of the election system. people can appeal things to courts, but courts will weigh

in, and in 2020, president trump's cases were thrown out. that is when it is over. amna: looks like a story we will be following for a long time. arizona continues to be interesting. thank you to you both. ♪ amna: 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's kitchen is in the vanguard of against hunger, as many of britons are forced to cut back against essentials. food and warmth. sue: it is made for these people that i call the forgotten people, people don't care about them but we do, but we do. that's the main thing. malcolm: janet cronin's non-profit provides home deliveries, because the local authority can no longer afford to run the service. what's your assessment of how bad the cost of living crisis ? janet: pretty bad. it's dire. there's just so many things. you can't even have your heating on. you've got to be ok do i eat? or do i put the heating on? i am the same. i haven't got mine on that much. malcolm: food price rises have been the sharpest they've been for over forty years.

and this element of inflation hits the poorest hardest because proportionately, they spend more of their income on food than the better off. single mother natasha bell is heading for a handout. once a music business executive, she fell on hard times and into the red. a non-profit, christians against poverty, helped get debt collectors off her back. despite working part time, bell is reliant on food banks, and the advice of debt coach neil avard. neil: how do you see things like christmas coming up? natasha: i am dreading it. neil: i can't even imagine how some of these people survive week to week. we could always blame the economic situation. we can blame the war in europe. they're not going to go away any m:hal'aln. a recent survey showed that if most working britons lost their jobs, they would survive financially for only 19 days. demand for food banks is up

40% this year, and many are struggling, because donations are down. what does it feel like? sort of going to a food bank? natasha: embarrassing. it's embarrassing. when i first started going, i'd be in a queue and kind of like looking at the floor cause i didn't really want anyone to see me. then i realized that quite a lot of people i know have started using the food bank. it's not quite so embarrassing. i don't care anymore that people know i go to a food bank. malcolm: what sort of difference does it make to you? natasha: 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 the basic stuff. it's not like they are giving away lobster. malcolm: it isn't just the poor who're drowning. those in the middle-inme 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 fourteen years. sam: i think a lot of families are genuinely terrified if they're looking at increases of

over $1,000 per month uk 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. sam: the typical mortgage payment might be $2500 per month. and a lot of people, when they're coming 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. the british people are tough, inventive, and resourceful. malcolm: some of the 67 billion dollar hole in britain's finances was created by the fiscal mismanagement of conservative premier liz truss, kicked out aft just six weeks.

the cost of government borrowing and imports shot up. but there's anher significant reason why there is a shortfall -- britain's decisi to leave the european union, i's biggest trading partner. michael: 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. michael: 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, whh 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. pm sunak: i believe in brexit and i know that brexit can deliver and is already delivering enormous benefits and opportunities for the country. janet: 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. 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 joining more than a million british seniors said to be wasting away because of hunger. dave: 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. brian: there you go. we've now got a situation in england where over a million over 65s in this country are suffering from malnutrition.

it's quite a shocking statistic in a country as rich as the united kingdom. >> will feed you dinner. malcolm: charles sadler is collecting a food parcel for himself and six neighbors. charles: i've been getting food here for quite a while. malcolm: what would happen to you if you didn't get this meal? i mean, what sort of difference does it make to you? charles: you would go hungry. but i'm 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. neil: 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. 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

distantly different backgrounds demonstrating what it means to be wingmen in war and life. jonathan majors plays jesse fighter pi highwoway of the 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, and plays thomas hunter junior, from a prosperous new england family, and elite prep school who turned down harvard to go to the naval academy and later became an aviator. he received the first medal of honor of the korean war for intentionally crashing his plane in a futile effort to rescue jesse brown, his wing man, after he was shot down behind enemy lines. >> at the end of the day, what is the definition of a wing man? how far are you willing to go for the guys next to you?

mike: glenn powell is also the executive producer, having optioned the film rights to a book prior to his top gun involvement. he met with the real tom just before the pilot died at 93. >> the thing i took away from meeting hiis how much jesse brown means to him, now 72 years later. that friendship was something he thought about every day. i think as you have seen today, the brown and hunter family are tied togher for life. >> this was the black wall street of hattiesburg. mike: jesse brown's grandchildren and tom hunter's son work together to make sure the film reflected the uniqueness of their personal bond, given their background and the times. >> you know how tired i am people 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: tom's son belies jesse brown was his father's first black friend, coming from a privileged new england background. compared to jesse brown in rural mississippi, where he worked the fields with his father and was frequently taunted. >> i am sure my dad's baseline approach to any relationship and certainly to a wing man was someone shows their character through their actions and behavior, not through the color of their skin. mike: the two pilots were recently inducted into the naval aviation museum at pensacola air station where they first trained, and where the directors family was once station.

>> my dad was a naval aviator 30 years after this and it was a similar story. it was something he had to predominantly do alone and there is a specific isolation that comes with that. of course you had to stinky -- tuskegee airmen in world war ii, 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 pilot squadron prepared for the korean war, which coincided with the desegregation of the u.s. military after world war ii. >> it is good to know the menu -- the men you are flying with, see what they are fighting for. >> what are you fightingor? >> after he died, she went back to school and became a teacher. mike: jesse brown's daughter pamela was only two when he died and never got know him. but his legacy lives larger at

the african-american military history museum in hattiesburg, mississippi, his hometown. the cat and director came here for a special screening of the film. the entire town where jesse brown has long since been recognized as a favorite son. >> just to know that someday -- somebody like him back in that time, he went in the military, one of the first african-american pilots, and he was good. mike: hattiesburg's historic theater is one where the browns used to frequent in the 40's and 50's, they could not use the front door, they had to use a side door that led to a balcony that was called the colored section. that door and policy are long gone, and for tonight's special screening of devotion, the browns get the front row. >> what happened happened, you cannot erase it, so you have to

embrace it and grow from that experience. >> i am so grateful to the city and so happy get to celebrate this and really lift up what the community has been. mike: for jesse brown's granddaughter jessica, the film has been worth the wait, since the basic story of friendship without cultural boundaries is still timely today. >> there is a line in the film after we experience jesse's loss, the world needs jesse brown. and the world needs their story right now. the level of divisiveness we experience in this country, it is important to see them overcome that. mike: for the pbs newshour, in hattiesburg, mississippi. amna: you can 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 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 as a vehicle to reach young people. >> black people built this house of country music. it was a real homecoming. >> this is the first book i wrote in real time and it was the most difficult piece of writing i have ever done. >> country music has a culture, and there are country queers. amna: that is. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at "the pbs newshour," thank you and 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 landscape has changed, and not for the last time. the rules of business are being reinvented for the more flexible workforce, by embracing innovation, by looking not only at current opportunities but ahead to future ones. resilience is the ability to pivot again and agn for whatever happens next. >> people who know know bdo. >> the kendeda fund, committed two advancing restorative 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. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] >> pbs newshour from w eta studios in washington, and in the west, from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university.

♪♪ -"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 ea and we look back through tie 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," lawman makes new england bar pizza... i talk about regional pizza styles... adam reviews grill pans... and ashley makes atlanta's own lemon pepper chicken wings. that's all right here on "cook's country."