amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff bennett is away. on the “newshour” tonight, dozens are killed and hundreds of buildings are destroyed as crews continue to battle the raging wildfires in hawaii. iran moves several detained americans from prison to house arrest, a step toward potential release, in exchange for oil assets being unfrozen. and the family of a detained afghan engineer -- and american citizen -- speaks out about his unjustified incarceration by the taliban. >> he could live anywhere, but he preferred to live there to work for his country and to work for the future of afghanistan. ♪

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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: welcome to the “newshour”" they're still fighting fires tonight on the hawaiian island of maui, in the nation's deadliest fire disaster in five years. at least 36 people are known dead and more than 270 buildings damaged or destroyed, across a blackened landscape. >> oh my gosh, look at the harbor. amna: the resort town of lahaina is now shrouded in a blanket of thick smoke.

the popular tourist spot on the western coast of maui, steeped in native hawaiian history dating back to the 1700's, was virtually unrecognizable today, even to locals. >> oh my goodness, look at all these houses. amna: adding to the devastating human toll is the loss of cultural treasures. >> we were not prepared for what we saw. amna: richard olsen is a helicopter pilot for a maui tour group. >> lahaina used to be the capital of all of hawaii. all the places that are tourist areas that are hawaiian history are gone, and that can't be replaced. you can't refurbish a building that is just ashes now, you know, it can't be rebuilt. it's lost forever. amna: another casualty, the famous 60-foot-tall banyan tree marking where a hawaiian king's palace once stood. the fires erupted tuesday night, catching islanders and tourists by surprise. some even fled into the ocean to escape the flames.

thousands of maui residents were forced to evacuate. >> woke up this morning and got on our phones, took pictures of our house, just down to the slab. nothing but smoke, cinders. amna: the flames were fueled by dry vegetation and low humidity, along with strong winds from a hurricane farther south. >> in the past several decades, as agriculture kind of declined, this is across the state, these spaces fill in with literally tons of fuel. and these grassy fuels are highly sensitive to quick drying out and really easy to ignite. amna: entire neighborhoods were destroyed. block after block revealed the charred shells of homes and vehicles, some still smoldering. today, thousands of customers were still without power and cell phone service. the only road in and out of lahaina was closed to most traffic to clear the way for fire and emergency crews. hawaii's national guard flew chinook helicopters to put out fires and help with search and

rescue operations. president biden also approved a disaster declaration for hawaii, bringing federal assistance to the state. joining me now from maui is kitv-4 island news meteorologist malika dudley. thank you for joining us. this is one of those stories you are not just covering but living through. i understand you had to evacuate when the fires began. i want to ask how you and your family are doing. malika: we are doing as well as we can. i think we are still in a state of shock. and we have begun to mourn. there are moments of sobbing outbursts. i just have to let it out. and there are other moments where we are just trying to keep normal and happy for my children because this is a really dark time for us here on maui. amna: i am so sorry for what you and everyone else is going through. we have been hearing these words like catastrophic and apocalyptic to decide --

describe the scenes on the ground. what does it feel like and look like and sound like around you? malika: fortunately i evacuated from my home and i am in a safe place where we have power, we have water, we have a roof over our heads. and we are all safe. so i have not seen it with my own eyes in lahaina, but i have seen pictures and videos, i have heard stories, i am constantly upgrading on instagram. these days that is really where you get most of your information from on the ground and witnesses. so i have been hearing just devastating stories from people. when you hear about the people who are telling you the story, for example one woman this morning shared that she ran for her life, the fire moved one block in 15 seconds. she ran for her life, jumped over the seawall into the water and was basically in the water for seven hours.

in the meantime one of her apartment mates died right next to her. she saw that happen. then she felt like she was getting hypothermia so she would approach anything that was on fire in order to get some warmth which would then burn her. so a story like that, those are the types of stories we are hearing and those are from mobile, able-bodied people who are able to run to think of just all of the people, the elderly, those who are not mobile, children may be even, we do not know. but we see the entire town leveled. we know 271 structures have gone. those were businesses and homes. history is lost. the town is so full of history. it is the most historic town on our island and one of the most historic in the entire island chain. to lose not just the homes, the

businesses, the history, but also now to hear that we are losing lives, and the number is just going to keep rising, has been devastating. amna: we understand the fires are still burning across maui. there have been reports of more fires on the islands of hawaii and a wahoo. do you have any updates on how many of the fires have been contained? malika: the most important update just came minutes ago and lahaina fire is 80% contained. that is such good news. my husband went over to the fire thatening our home. you can see it because the mountain shows us a good view of what is happening. he said it is still active but it does not seem that our home is in danger. but we still have not gotten the all clear so we are just in a wait-and-see pattern. amna: we know thousands of people do not have power or so

service. have you -- or cell service. have you heard anything about how quickly those services can be reinstated? malika: the thing is in lahaina, what potentially even caused the fires were the power lines that went down. 29 powerlines went down. so there is no easy, quick fix to this. the fiber-optic cable was damagedin lahaina as well. so for lahaina town it is not, oh, in 24 24 hours this will be fixed. that is not the situation we are in. we're in a "years to recover" phase for that side of the island. as far as the other side of the island, there are other people on other parts of the island that are without power. those will probably get fixed although we still do not know when. i still do not have power in my home, for example.

amna: we are thinking of you and everyone else there and keeping you and our thoughts. we cannot thank you enough for joining us tonight. meteorologist malika dudley joining us from maui. thank you. ♪ in the day's other headlines, u.s. inflation was higher in july than it had been a year earlier, for the first time after a year of monthly declines. the labor department reports consumer prices rose 3.2% last month over july of 2022. still, core inflation in july, not counting food and energy prices, was up just 0.2% from this past june. former president trump's valet, walt nauta, pleaded not guilty for a second time today in the classified documents case. he was arraigned in fort pierce,

florida on new charges of obstruction of justice and making false statements. the arraignment for carlos de oliveira, mr. trump's mar-a-lago property manager, was postponed again, until he gets a local lawyer. and in washington, special counsel jack smith asked for a january 2 trial date on charges that mr. trump tried to overturn his 2020 election loss. that would be 13 days before the republican presidential caucuses in iowa. ecuador began three days of national mourning today, after a presidential hopeful was shot dead in the capital city. the crime shocked a country already awash in violence. ali rogin has more. ali: ecuador's presidential candidate fernando villavicencio, moments before he was assassinated in broad daylight. in the hours after the attack, police hunted for the assassins across quito. they say one suspect died of his wounds, in police custody, after

a firefight. ecuadorian president guillermo lasso suggested this attack could be linked to organized crime and declared a state of emergency. >> the armed forces from this moment are mobilized throughout the national territory to ensure the safety of citizens, the tranquility of the country, and the free and democratic elections of august 20 as planned. ali: villavicencio, a journalist turned politician, may not have been a frontrunner in the polls, but he was one of the most vocal candidates on organized crime and its links to state corruption. on the campaign trail, just days before he was killed, he said he wore a sweaty shirt, not a bulletproof vest. let the drug lords come, he said. >> i am not scared of them. i have spent 20 years taking risks in this country against these criminal structures. and i repeat, i am not scared of

them. ali: ecuador, a coastal country on the western edge of south america, between colombia and peru, was relatively safe but has seen an unprecedented spike in drug trafficking and gang-violence led by foreign mafias in recent years villavicencio's assassination marks a shocking escalation, 10 days before the august 20 presidential vote. for the "pbs newshour," i'm ali rogin. amna: fernando villavicencio was 59 years old. meantime, ukraine's government has ordered nearly 12,000 civilians to leave the eastern part of the country, as russian forces launch a new push. authorities say 37 towns and villages in the kupiansk district of the kharkiv region are being cleared out, with fighting getting markedly worse. russia had occupied kupiansk until last september, when ukraine recaptured it. the west african bloc ecowas announced today that it's activating a standby force to

restore democracy in niger after a military coup there. but the group gave no details on when that might happen. ecowas members held a summit in nigeria. the president of nigeria, who chairs the bloc, urged diplomacy, but left the door open to military action. >> no option is taken off the table, including the use of force, as a last resort. amna: also today, the associated press reported that coup leaders in niger have threatened to kill the ousted president if there's any military intervention. back in this country, the cdc reports there were 49,500 suicides last year, the most ever recorded. that was up 3% from the year before. older adults and white men had the highest rates. suicide experts cite the availability of guns and higher rates of depression. on wall street today, stocks managed a small advance after

the inflation report. the dow jones industrial average gained 52 points to close at 35,176. the nasdaq rose 16 points. and the s&p 500 added a single point. and virgin galactic has joined the ranks of space tourist flights. a twin-fuselage carrier took the space plane aloft this morning, from new mexico, then released it. from there, the plane rocketed to the edge of space, with three passengers and an instructor, before gliding back to earth after 15 minutes. still to come on the "newshour," a new report details supreme court justice clarence thomas secretly benefiting from a network of wealthy patrons. alcohol-related deaths rise at a faster rate among women than men, particularly for the elderly. antarctic sea ice falls to a record low this year as a result of rising global temperatures. and we assess the economic juggernaut that is taylor

swift's eras tour. plus much more. >> this is the "pbs newsur" from weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: it appears that five iranian americans who have been detained in iran are in the process of being released. the white house issued a statement this afternoon saying, quote, we have received confirmation that iran has released from prison five americans who were unjustly detained and has placed them on house arrest. the five u.s. citizens are siamak namazi, morad tahbaz, emad shargi, and two americans who wish to remain unnamed at this moment. the associated press reports iran's move is part of an agreement in which billions of dollars frozen in south korea will be released to iran. late today, secretary of state antony blinken was asked about this. >> my belief is that this is the

beginning of the end of their night air. iran will not be receiving any sanctions relief. and in any instance where we would engage in such efforts to bring americans home from iran . iran's owns funds would be used and transferred to restricted accounts such that the moneys can only be used for humanitarian purposes, which, as you know, is permitted under our sanctions. amna: the chief iranian negotiator also wrote on the x platform, formerly known as twitter, that iranian prisoners jailed in the united states would be returned. here with me now is washington post columnist jason rezaian, whose own grueling detention by the iranian government ended in january, 2016. welcome back. i want to begin briefly with your reaction because you spent hundreds of days, more than 500 inside that same prison and you know what these men have endured. what did you think when you heard the news? jason: i have been tracking the

story of these fellow americans for years and other americans held in iran for a long time. anyone released from prison, i am ecstatic for them and their families. but also remain vigilant and nervous because there is a period of time before they fly home and anything can happen between now and then. amna: so the deal as has an reported, iran has done $6 billion of oil on frozen, officials are not confirming this. but is this deal worth doing to bring these men home? jason: i am asked that and any time we negotiate the release of an american who is being wrongfully detained or held hostage by a foreign government. to me, it's a real stark binary choice right now. either negotiating the release of fellow americans were leaving

them behind. leaving them behind means longer detentions, imprisonment, potentially death. the hard truth is what we should be talking about is what can we do, what will we do to deter hostagetaking in the future? right now we are not doing enough in countries like iran, russia, china, are doing this more and more because they don't see anything standing in their way. but to the question of whether or not we should do deals, it is really a choice of bringing people home or leaving people behind. i am proud and thankful to live in a country where our government cares about its citizens enough to try and bring them home. amna: to that point about fueling potentially more hostagetaking, we have already seen criticism of this deal, specifically from republican lawmakers. some have called it dangerous. mike pence said it was a ransom payment that will fund terrorism. are these valid concerns? jason: concerns are always valid. but the reality of the situation

is that these funds are being held in a restricted account. restricted accounts existed in other countries like india and turkiye. those accounts were spent down by iran with no oversight by the u.s. government. in this situation, my understanding is that korea has said we do not want to release these funds unless the u.s. gives us permission. if we are going to have leverage against a country like iran in the form of their money being held in a third country, what better way to use it than to free americans? amna: the u.s. has been able to bring you home safely. they have also been able to bring home americans from other adversarial nations, russia and venezuela. their daughters came on the show recently and talked about that. she had this to say. >> i don't know if we are being treated differently but what i will say is that the

administration has been able to get individuals held hostage out of russia. as russia is currently in a war. amna: so she was concerned that somehow they are being treated differently because their fathers are being held in iran. is it more complicated getting americans free from that nation? jason: it is more complicated because we don't have diplomatic relations with iran. even though the situation with russia is at bottom, we have maintained direct ties with moscow since the cold war. we have never broken them. another thing to consider is that while i do not consider the argument that these are dual nationals and that iran does not recognize dual nationality. the truth is they think of them as gold nationals, said reject -- subject them to irani and court proceedings as though they were iranians, but then when

it becomes time for a deal they become americans. we don't have direct indications we do with them as we did with other countries. in a way the iranians have been doing this for so long, so often, that they may be a bit more seasoned at hostagetaking in negotiations and some of these other countries. amna: you and i and everyone else are hoping they are back home with their families very soon. jason rezaian, thank you so much for joining us. jason: thank you, amna. ♪ amna: now, to another story of an american held abroad unjustly. in an exclusive interview, i sat down recently with the family of an afghan-american businessman who has been held for more than a year in the land of his birth. mahmood habibi's family has decided to go public now, in the hopes that the taliban will

release him. for the last year, he's prayed his family has been together. many were able to leave afghanistan over the last decade but one is left behind. his brother, mahmood. >> we are very close. he's two years younger than me. we are best friends. amna: in august up 2022, he says his brother was taken by the time a ban in kabul and has been held ever since. >> we have no information about him. amna: his wife made it to the u.s. with their daughter. she's asked we don't show her face for cultural and security reasons. a former doctor in kabul, she's now studying to restart her career in america. but without her husband, income is totally dependent on family. >> we have not heard a word from him.

amna: she was in qatar at a temporary u.s. dilatory base for afghan evacuees when she learned of his detention. when was this taken? >> when we were in katter -- when we were in qatar. amna: some of their last moments together, months before he returned to kabul for work and disappeared. >> he could live anywhere but he preferred to live there. amna: a civil deviation expert, mahmood habibi was an engineering wonder kindt. he worked with the u.s. federation aviation administration during the u.s. occupation of afghanistan and later became head of afghanistan's civil aviation authority. his job granted him a special immigrant visa which led to a green card in 2014 and u.s. citizenship in september 2021, just weeks after the taliban takeover. he was a consultant at the time with arx human occasions, an

american company offering infrastructure for afghanistan's airports. his work often took him back to kabul. >> when the taliban came, everybody suggested he should leave afghanistan. but he said he is not a political person. also when the taliban announced they would come, that he was confident that he could work there and be safe. amna: did you ever tell him i don't want you to go back, i am worried about you? >> i did. but he always wanted to go back and he said if i leave and other people like me leave afghanistan, who will build afghanistan? amna: but his loyalty came at a cost. august 10 of last year, he was arrested by taliban officials outside his home. >> his driver was sitting next to him. the driver released him and my sister was at home and they told my sister that the taliban wanted to search the home. and they took some paperwork and

his laptop. 30 other employees were also detained from the company he works for pre-i realized there might be something about the company where he works. amna: just days earlier a cia drone struck this apartment complex in the heart of kabul and killed one of the world's most wanted notorious terrorists. he seceded osama bin laden as a leader of al qaeda and was a force we had many of the group's terror attacks including 9/11. do you think that had anything to do with his arrest and detention? >> when we spoke to the employees and they said the taliban asked them about the strike. so we have a little sense that the company or the arrests might have to do something with it. amna: you think that is what the taliban believe? >> yes. amna: in response to questions from the newshour, arx human occasions", arx was not, nor any

subsidiary involved in any strike. they confirmed 31 of their personnel including mahmood were detained in august of 2022, and 29 had been subsequent released. he and another direct employee are still being detained. we do not know why they are being held or by whom. a recent u.s. delegation led by tom west met with taliban leadership in delhi last month", press for the immediate -- in doha last month and quote, pressed for the immediate release -- special presidential envoy for hostage affairs roger carstens, and national security advisor jake sullivan. u.s. officials tell the newshour they cannot comment rackley on any details of the case. to date, the taliban have not confirmed mahmood's detention. >> i have been talking to the u.s. government and they are supporting us but sadly we have

no updates from the taliban side. amna: you believe your brother could be held as a bargaining chip? >> we think so. the taliban are not acknowledging him so far. amna: it has been a year now and there has been no debt and there is no confirmation anyone has them. i have to ask a difficult question which is, how can you be sure that he is still alive? >> i think he is alive because he was detained by the government and he was innocent. even if somebody is guilty, they have a court system. they want the world to recognize them as a legitimate government. so i am sure they will do no such thing. amna: their father shared pictures of his son through the years. i asked him what he thinks about when he sees them. >> what i think about, what i think to myself, is that he has done nothing wrong. he has done nothing to end up in jail. he has never done anything like that in his life. amna: when she looks at her

daughter, she sees her husband. >> her eyes, her mouth, it's just like her father. amna: she is almost two, not quite old enough to understand what is happening. still, she has learned to keep her in her prayers. she copies you? >> she is so innocent and she does not know about these things, but still she is praying for her father. it has been a year i have been recording her. so he can see all the time he was not with her. amna: you can show him videos to show what he missed. >> we were a small hippie family. amna: for a year the family stayed silent, hoping for a resolution. why are you deciding to speak out now? >> i want the people to hear the story of mahmood and i want the taliban leadership to hear us and i want to tell them he is innocent and to release him. amna: until then, the family says they will wait and hope for

the day they can all be together again. ♪ there were more disclosures today about the gifts supreme court justice clarence thomas has received from wealthy businessmen. john yang has the details. john: amna, today, propublica provided the fullest account yet of the gifts justice thomas has gotten from wealthy and well-connected people. and there are far more than previously known. brett murphy is one of the propublica reporters who unearthed these details, and joel anderson is host of slate's slow burn podcast, whose current season is, becoming justice thomas. brett, who are these new benefactors that you uncovered, and what sorts of things did they give him? brett: these are three new titans of industry.

tony novelli, an oil baron from st. louis. david soquel, the former era parent of berkshire hathaway. and wayne huizinga, who is the man behind blockbuster autonation and waste management. for about three decades as you said, they have given him a sort of a laundry list of vacations. we have found and our reporting there is at least 38 destination vacations in there. something to the order of two dozen or so private jet flights, a handful more helicopter rides, tickets to sporting events in the skybox, resort stays, a standing invitation to an exclusive golf club. and that is just what we know at this point. john: did he report any of this? brett: he did not. that is what the ethics experts told us is the big concern here.

because he was bound, as all justices are, to disclose most gifts. and the ones we have reported on, many of them, would not be falling into the personal hospitality exemption that some of your viewers may have heard about before. things like private plane rides, yacht cruises, expensive sports tickets, that is not personal hospitality. john: there is so much focus right now on the justices activities outside of the court will then. earlier this year there were questions raised about justice so to motor your apparently -- how does what justice thomas did compare with his colleagues? brett: we have been actively pursuing all of the credible leads and tips on all the justices. we continue to report on all of them. what we know right now is justice thomas is an extreme outlier.

he reporting to former federal judges including those who sat on the judicial committee that reviews disclosures. and jeremy vogel told us that he has never seen anything like this before and thought it was unprecedented for both the volume and the frequency of the largess. these are not infrequent vacations. this is a consistent and steady stream of luxury vacations justice thomas has received. and the other justices you may have heard about like justice breyer, justice ginsburg, accepting vacations from benefactors, we know about those because we they disclosed them. that is the important distinction. we are going to continue to look at all the justices for the same type of evidence but right now justice thomas is the extreme outlier. john: joel, you have done a deep dive into justice thomas's life and personality. how do these lavish trips

compare with the image he tries to project in his speeches and interviews? joel: for a man who understandably prides himself on his bootstraps origin story, it is not surprising about what these wealthy white benefactors have been doing for him for 30 years. when he first became a national name during his a prima court confirmation hearing in 1991, his aides and the people supporting him tried to promote the pinpoint myth, which was his impoverished background growing up on the coast of georgia. that is part of the truth but not all of it. he actually grew up fairly middle-class and went to private school throughout. that is not something that is well-known nationally, that story. it is always the sort of thing -- he wants people to believe he is, quote, regular stock. that is something you will hear him say a lot it is more complicated than that. john: as you say, he likes to

talk about his up from the bootstraps life. but the affirmative action case earlier, he said he things affirmative action actually hurts minorities. how does that fit in with what you just talked about? joel: well, i mean, in some ways it makes sense. i think justice thomas understandably is very proud of how far he has come. he had to work very hard to become the second black justice in the history of this prima court. but that is not all of the story. the first person who hired him out of college was an heir to a fortune. in 1971, that was the first year they had an explicit racial quota system. the first year the ever recruited a substantial number of black students. instead he has said this ruined my reputation among people who would have hired me and would have thought i was capable.

he has always had to do with that contradiction. john: this is a man who once wanted to be a priest. he says in speeches he never wanted to be a federal judge. what he wanted was to be rich. you spoke to a lot of people in his life. what motivates and drives him? joel: there are a lot of things. one, he was raised by his grandfather who grew up in georgia and really pushed him to excel in spite of his circumstances. that is one piece of it. another is he has never really recovered what he went through in the 1991 supreme court confirmation hearing. that unleashed a lot of anger he has never gotten over. if you read his autobiography you would be surprised by the anger inhis. also -- anger in those pages. also, he wants to be wealthy. a friend noticed he took down a

picture of malcolm x and put up a picture of rolls-royce. he has always been motivated by money. when he started working in the reagan administration, he wrote a memorandum for missouri senator danforth that said we have power, now what? john: joel anderson and brett murphy, thank you both very much. ♪ amna: in the last two decades, more and more americans have died from drinking-related causes. but a new study shows alcohol-related deaths are rising faster among women than men. laura barron-lopez takes a closer look. laura: amna, deaths from excessive drinking spiked during the pandemic, especially among women. though more men than women die overall from alcohol-related causes, the gap is shrinking.

a study published in the journal of the american medical association found that from 2018 to 2020, alcohol-related deaths increased by 14.7% per year for women, compared to 12.5% increase per year for men, and from 2012 to 2020 those deaths rose 6.7% per year among women 65 and older. for more on the larger impact, i'm joined by dr. paula cook, she's a physician who specializes in addiction medicine and hosts the podcast, the addiction files. dr. cook, thanks so much for joining us. were you surprised by the studies finding that there's an increase occurring in alcohol-related deaths for women? dr. cook: unfortunately, i was not surprised and us in the medical community we're not surprised because we've been seeing these trends of increased alcohol use amongst women and for quite some time, and particularly over the last few years we've seen increased usage, so it makes sense that the death related mortality

rates have been going up. laura: the study didn't provide a specific reason for this faster increase. what do you think is contributing to this? dr. cook: i think there are several reasons/ -- reasons. alcohol use is being normalized amongst women, and so we're seeing the gap narrowing amongst all age groups, especially younger women and teenage women are now increasing their use of alcohol far more than they used to. marketing is targeting women for their alcohol use. they're doing this in very clever ways, and it's being effective. women are experiencing more stress, i think and stress-related drinking as a result. and then i think the effects of social media has had its effect on women increasing drinking as well. laura: the study specifically highlights the rise among women 65 and older. what could be causing that rise within that specific population? dr. cook: well, we're seeing increased substance use and

alcohol use in the baby boomers in general as they age they are using more, and this group of women particularly are subjected to the same effects that we were just talking about. the marketing effects, the stress effects, and as they leave the workforce, there's interesting effects of women in terms of increased rates of anxiety, depression, etcetera, and more likely to reach to alcohol to kind of mitigate some of the effects of that. laura: there's been some studies in the past that have told the public that one glass of red wine a night is ok. but how much drinking is too much drinking? because some of the dietary guidelines say that one glass a night for a woman is ok, two for a man is ok. what do you say? dr. cook: well, this has been very confusing. but lately the american heart association, the american cancer society have come out with really clear guidelines, saying that really no alcohol is safe. so before when we used to say maybe a glass of wine at night was helpful for your health and

your heart, especially now, alcohol has more risk than benefit. and so even though moderate drinking may be ok for some people, one drink for women or less, two drinks or less for men, there are many people in the population who shouldn't have alcohol at all, and the health benefits of alcohol have really been negated in the research. laura: what happens physiologically speaking when women consume alcohol versus when men consume it? dr. cook: well, there's several differences. women, both chemically and physiologically in their bodies, handle alcohol differently. so, women have a higher body fat percentage than men who have more water content. so alcohol concentrates more quickly and in a higher concentration in women than in men, so obviously the effects

are quicker, which means the effects on the organs are more. women have hormonal fluctuations, which can increase the target organ compared to men. and also women have negative effects on their organs at a quicker rate than men do, and that could be due to decreased amount of enzyme in their guts so they don't metabolize alcohol is quickly, and they're just more sensitive to the negative effects. laura: doctor, how often do you talk to patients who may not realize that the health consequences that they're suffering from are related to drinking? and what do you think physicians or the public could do to better educate women and men about their alcohol consumption? dr. cook: i think this is actually quite common. i think people come in with complaints into primary care. they have high blood pressure, they have anxiety, maybe they can't sleep very well at night. or they have more serious health problems like breast cancer or other kinds of cancer, heart

disease, cognitive decline, and these problems are directly correlated to alcohol use, more so than the obvious ones like liver disease, and, you know, gastrointestinal problems. so, physicians and other healthcare providers should always have alcohol on their list of possible contributors to health problems, including mental health problems, and the public should be aware of how alcohol could be playing into their physical health and their mental health and maybe look at the guidelines of where they fit in terms of their alcohol use. laura: dr. paula cook, thank you so much for your time. dr. cook: you're welcome. ♪ amna: as temperature records are broken all over the planet this summer, scientists are also increasingly concerned about what's happening to the sea-ice around antarctica. william brangham, who's reported from that southernmost continent, and has been talking

with some of those researchers, is here to explain. good to see you. so, what is happening down there? it is winter time, you would assume there is more ice, not less. william: you would assume that. remember, antarctica is a colossal continent covered completely in ice. it is the size of the united states and mexico combined covered with glaciers. that is not what we are talking about. we are talking about ci's is frozen seawater. that grows from the periphery of antarctica words. it is this incredible halo that grows off across. the growth of that sea ice is so massive, it doubles the size of the continent every year. but the problem is this year and last year to a similar extent, that ice has not been growing nearly as quickly. this chart shows that line at

the top is what the normal growth of the sea ice is. that red line below is where we are now. it is a marked difference. that is roughly the size of alaska. it is missing ice now in the southern ocean. amna: you have been talking to researchers. do they know why this is happening? william: it is a complicated picture and there are some leading suspects and these are all suspects we have our fingerprints on. the first one is that the ocean is warmer. you have seen that all over the world. as we burn coal and oil and gas and warm the atmosphere, this warms the planet and the oceans observe the bulk of that warming. it makes it harder to grow ice. standard physics. the air is warmer as well. that makes it hard to grow ice. wind is also complicit. changing wind patterns. wind is really important in how ice grows off of antarctica and where it grows. those things are changing.

scientists believe that we are one of the main drivers of this but the exact mechanism is not totally clear. amna: what is the bigger concern in all of this, that sea ice is not growing at the rate expected to, what are the consequences? william: this is the biggest issue. the reason we care about that is that ice provides all sorts of incredibly valuable things for us. first off, that ice keeps the southern hemisphere cooler. you think of ice as this flat white surface that reflects the sun's radiant energy into space. if that ice is not there, that sunlight hits the ocean and warms the ocean. it is part of it a very complicated engine that drives ocean currents and weather patterns globally. so, disrupting that can cause huge problems. the sea ice also text the glaciers on land in nine dr. cop. we want those glaciers to stay there. if they slip into the ocean that raises sea level rise globally. so that sea ice is a buffer, a

big innertube protector around that ice. we don't want that to go away. d there are animals that live all over antarcta d they pengui, seals whales, the tiny krill that live in the water, all spend part of their life on that sea ice, and it is important. one of the researchers i have talked to recently is a boy named marilyn rafael. in addition to explaining a lot of this to me, i asked her how she sees this data. this is what she had to say. >> there is a part of me that's scientifically interested in what's happening, like, what is at work here? that is completely separate from the other part that's the citizen of the world part that says, this is really shocking. and it's not good. it's not good news for our system. and not just the antarctic system, but for our global

climate system. i look at the curve daily, but i look at the curve early and i'm almost willing it to inch upwards. but it's not listening to me. william: researchers all over the world are willing that graph to go up, to grow more sea ice, but there is no evidence that it is. we are about to hit the peak of the antarctic winter. if i chances of growing to its fullest extent are about to run out, soon the sun will return to the southern hemisphere and the already shrunken ice will continue to melt and break up and go away. amna: incredibly sobering information. william brangham, thank you for your expertise on this and for your reporting. william: my pleasure. ♪ amna: pop superstar taylor swift ended the first u.s. leg of her eras tour last night, leaving

american fans waiting until next year to see the concert that's turbo-charging the economy and capturing the pop culture zeitgeist this summer. stephanie sy reflects on the tour and the power of taylor swift. it's all part of our arts and culture series, canvas. stephanie: it's the end of an era, for now. taylor swift closing out the first leg of her blockbuster eras tour that's enchanted swifties, who spent their savings, planned their outfits, wove friendship bracelets, and of course, sang their hearts out. inside the stadium, and "tayl-gating" in the parking lot. the 33-year-old pop phenom is shattering ceilings with this tour, predicted to be the highest-grossing in history, over $1 billion in sales.

demand alone broke records. she sold a whopping two million tickets in the first 24 hours, temporarily shutting down ticketmaster, driving resale prices through the roof, and even prompting calls for action in washington. >> ticketmaster ought to look in the mirror and say, i'm the problem, it's me. stephanie: at her first stop in glendale, arizona, renamed swift city for the event, i scored tickets for me and my daughter. the lengths swifties have gone to see her perform are matched only by the performance itself, three hours packed with 44 songs, surprise performances, dazzling costume changes, and choreography spanning 10 studio albums, or eras. fans met the excess with their own. >> on average, people spend about $100 to $500 on any given concert. people are spending $1300 on average to go see taylor swift.

stephanie: mara klaunig is an economic analyst at camoin associates, and a swiftie herself who has tracked the tour's financial ricochet. >> they're doing things like, you know, getting outfits and hair and makeup and nails to match their favorite era. you know, they're going out to dining at bars and restaurants that have themed menus. i think just the whole experience around the concert's unlike anything we've ever seen. stephanie: charting 20 cities, the tour has left economic booms in its wake. in denver, an estimated $140 million in local revenue. in cincinnati, $92 million. in philadelphia, the federal reserve reported the strongest month for hotels since the start of the pandemic. they said, in large part due to an influx of guests for the taylor swift concerts in the city. so, what were your impressions of the show? >> i was pretty blown away by it. i've never really seen a live

performance like that in my life. stephanie: tyler foggatt is a senior editor at the new yorker. she made the commute from manhattan to philadelphia to see the show and write about it. swift's stardom rivals some of the biggest names in pop history, the beatles, bruce springsteen, michael jackson. but with lyrics that weave an invisible string, tying her to her fans. >> she herself has said that it's been a very therapeutic process, sort of experiencing things, whether it be a breakup or just something else happening in her personal life, and then writing extremely confessional songs that she then performs in front of thousands of people. i think that's why people like taylor swift so much, is because of that diaristic style of songwriting. this idea that, you know, she's writing about her life and wants to share it with us. stephanie: she has not always been so widely praised. fans still shudder at this moment in 2009, a 19-year-old

swift accepting the award at the vma's for best female music video, besting beyonce. >> i'm really happy for you, 'imma let you finish. stephanie: it ignited a years-long feud with kanye west and the lyrics for some of the songs on the album, "reputation." she eventually shook it off, but the blades were sharpened for battles to come. >> which brings us to scooter braun. >> ugh. stephanie: 10 years later, no longer the rising teenage country star, swift denounced her former record label's $300 million deal giving control of her studio master albums to scooter braun, with whom she had bad blood. she outsmarted the executives. >> can you re-record? >> oh yeah. >> might you do that? >> oh yeah. stephanie: at her final show in l.a. last night, swift unveiled her latest album to be re-recorded. 1989, taylor's version. re-taking ownership of her music has made her the man to even the

early skeptics. >> a lot of her current fans who weren't fans before have actually said, oh, that was just like internalized misogyny. and i recognize the error of my ways. and now i respect taylor swift as i always should have. you know, she's reframed this whole project as something very political, like it's like a feminist act to listen to, you know, the taylor's version of "speak now" or "red" instead of the original. stephanie: swift's concerts kicked off the girlboss summer, one also defined by greta gerwig's blockbuster "barbie" movie and beyonce's world renaissance tour. >> we're seeing just like, women that are at the peak of their game that really own their narrative and control their marketing and their messaging and have a very strong voice and a strong message that they're putting out there. and i think it's been really inspirational to a lot of women. stephanie: and more women will get to see it live as taylor swift goes abroad, and adds new american tour dates next fall.

for the "pbs newshour," and for the swifties, i'm stephanie sy. amna: i always knew she was a swifties. and that's the "newshour" for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. on behalf of the entire "newshour" team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by. the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the "newshour." >> architect. beekeeper. mentor. a raymondjames financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life well-planned. >> the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front

lines of social change worldwide. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. and friends of the "newshour." 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.]

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one giant leap for mankind. ♪ hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour and company." here's what's coming up. a break through as amazon countries assemble to protect the lungs of the world. but fall short on specifics to fight deforestation. i ask president biden's former top climate adviser gina mccarthy how to turn talk into action. also ahead -- longtime labor party mp chris bryant discusses his new book. he also reveals shocking allegations of his saexual assault inside westminster. plus, it's