GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz.

On the "News Hour" tonight: The man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare's CEO is charged with murder as an act of terrorism.

GEOFF BENNETT: Displaced Syrians return to their homes after the fall of the Assad regime, while the search for missing Americans continues.

We speak with the mother of journalist Austin Tice.

DEBRA TICE, Mother of Austin Tice: He was 30 the last time that I hugged him, and he's 43 now.

It's just so hard to imagine.

AMNA NAWAZ: And the ongoing opioid crisis prompts a renewed focus on expanding access to the medication methadone as a treatment.

(BREAK) AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "NewsHour."

Prosecutors in New York have charged the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO with murder as an act of terrorism, among other charges.

GEOFF BENNETT: Luigi Mangione had already been charged with murder in the killing of Brian Thompson.

The terror allegation is new.

Under New York law, such a charge can be brought when an alleged crime is intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, among other factors.

Manhattan's district attorney, Alvin Bragg, said the brazen attack was meant to have a broader impact.

ALVIN BRAGG, Manhattan District Attorney: This was a frightening, well-planned, targeted murder that was intended to cause shock and attention and intimidation.

It incurred in one of the most bustling parts of our city, threatening the safety of local residents and tourists alike, commuters and businesspeople just starting out on their day.

AMNA NAWAZ: The killing has sparked a wave of outrage against the health care industry at large, with police warning that there could be an elevated threat against executives, and it's led to an outpouring of support for Mangione himself.

At a press conference this afternoon, New York City's police commissioner compared some of the public's reaction to that of a violent mob.

JESSICA TISCH, New York City Police Commissioner: In the nearly two weeks since Mr. Thompson's killing, we have seen a shocking and appalling celebration of cold-blooded murder.

Social media has erupted with praise for this cowardly attack.

Let me say this plainly.

There is no heroism in what Mangione did.

GEOFF BENNETT: The 50-year-old Thompson was shot in the early hours of December 4 while walking to a Manhattan hotel where UnitedHealthcare was holding its investor conference.

Mangione was arrested nearly a week later in Pennsylvania.

His lawyer has said he will fight extradition to New York to face the charges there.

An extradition hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

AMNA NAWAZ: The day's other headlines start in Wisconsin, where officials say the motive behind yesterday's school shooting appears to be a -- quote -- "combination of factors."

But Police Chief Shon Barnes provided no further details.

Officials say a 15-year-old girl killed two people and wounded six others at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison before shooting herself.

Two students remain in critical condition.

Police searched the alleged shooter's home today and said they were investigating her online activity.

Madison's mayor said that authorities would not be releasing information about victims just yet.

SATYA RHODES-CONWAY (D), Mayor of Madison, Wisconsin: There is so much that we do not know at this point.

And we have to allow law enforcement the time and space for a careful and methodological investigation.

Let them do their jobs.

And, above all, please respect the victims.

AMNA NAWAZ: The Madison police chief also said that numerous local schools were dealing with false threats known as swatting.

That's when fake reports of violence are called in, leading to an emergency response.

But police say there are no current threats to any nearby schools.

Ukraine has claimed responsibility for a bomb blast in Moscow that killed one of Russia's top generals.

Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov was head of Russia's nuclear, biological and chemical defense forces.

Dashcam video from Ukraine's security service shows the moments before a bomb was remotely detonated outside of the general's apartment complex, killing him and his assistant as they left for work.

Just a day earlier, Ukraine had opened a criminal case against Kirillov for allegedly granting the use of banned chemical weapons in Russia's war.

Moscow has denied this and says it's looking into Kirillov's death as an act of terrorism.

DMITRY MEDVEDEV, Deputy Chairman, Russian Security Council (through translator): Today, as a result of a terrorist attack, our colleague and our comrade has died.

Everyone understands what happened, what happened and what needs to be done.

The investigators must find the killers in Russia and we must do everything to destroy the patrons who are in Kyiv.

AMNA NAWAZ: Meantime, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed Poland's prime minister to the Western city of Lviv today.

Donald Tusk said that Poland will do everything in its power to make Ukraine's membership in NATO a real possibility.

Zelenskyy is set to meet with NATO leaders tomorrow in Brussels.

Turning now to the Middle East, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his nation's troops will remain in what Israel calls a buffer zone inside Syria for the foreseeable future.

Netanyahu made the comments during a visit to the top of Mount Hermon about six miles inside Syria and across the border from the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.

Israel seized a portion of Southern Syria in the days after President Bashar al-Assad was ousted earlier this month.

It comes as another conflict, the war in Gaza, barrels on.

Palestinian medics said today an Israeli strike in the north killed at least eight people, all from the same family.

Meanwhile, in Washington, U.S. State Department officials expressed cautious optimism about a potential cease-fire in Gaza.

MATTHEW MILLER, State Department Spokesman: We should be able to get to an agreement.

We should be able to bridge the disagreements between the two parties.

But that is not to say that we will.

All the United States can do is push and try to come up with compromises, but we cannot dictate to either side what choice they have to make.

They have to make those decisions for themselves.

AMNA NAWAZ: In a statement today, Hamas said reaching a cease-fire agreement is possible and cited the -- quote -- "serious and positive discussions" being held by mediators in Qatar.

French authorities issued an overnight curfew for Mayotte as the territory struggles to recover from last weekend's deadly tropical cyclone; 22 people are confirmed dead across the archipelago, which is located between Madagascar and the coast of Africa.

The storm was the worst to strike Mayotte in nearly a century.

Authorities fear hundreds, if not thousands, of people have been swept away or buried beneath the rubble.

The French military is dispatching planes with up to 50 tons of food, water and medicine each day.

And French President Emmanuel Macron plans to visit the territory himself on Thursday.

President-elect Trump is suing The Des Moines Register and Iowa's top pollster over their final poll before the election.

That state poll showed him trailing Vice President Kamala Harris by three points.

Trump ended up winning Iowa by more than 13 points.

He's now suing nationally recognized pollster Ann Selzer, her polling firm, the newspaper and its parent company, Gannett, accusing them of consumer fraud.

A Gannett spokesperson said today -- quote -- "We stand by our reporting on the matter and believe this lawsuit is without merit."

This comes just days after ABC News agreed to pay Trump $15 million to settle a defamation case.

On Wall Street today, stocks slipped ahead of tomorrow's decision by the Federal Reserve on interest rates.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped more than 260 points.

The Nasdaq fell 60 points, but held above that 20000-point level.

The S&P 500 also ended lower on the day.

And a bit of unwelcome news for the pair of astronauts who have been stuck aboard the International Space Station for much longer than planned.

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were only supposed to spend a week or so in space when they blasted off an early June on board Boeing's new Starliner aircraft.

Technical problems extended their stay until February.

NASA said today that they now won't be home until late March, at the earliest.

Still to come on the "News Hour": Congress works to strike a deal to avoid a government shutdown and fund hurricane relief; members of the Electoral College meet to officially cast their votes for president; and the Library of Congress adds a new group of movies to the National Film Registry.

GEOFF BENNETT: In Syria this week, civilians are finally returning home after nearly 14 years of civil war displaced millions and left the country both divided and destroyed, Assad regime checkpoints that used to sever any chance of seeing loved ones now gone like the government that manned them.

Special correspondent Leila Molana-Allen spoke to families across that nation in Jobar, Homs, and the northwestern city of Azaz who are overjoyed to be reunited, but now face the daunting task of rebuilding their homes and their families.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: The desolate wreckage that once was home.

Bittersweet memories rise for every dusty track newly carved through the rubble.

As Syria's newfound freedom open up roads long blocked to most, Syrians are crossing the country in the thousands to return to homes they fled un der Assad's brutal bombardment that they thought they'd never see again.

YASSER AL ASALI, Displaced Syrian (through translator): My memories of this area are so beautiful, full of flowers and jasmine.

It was more like heaven than Earth.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: But what they find there brings it all back.

Yasser Al Asali watched his beloved hometown of Jobar destroyed house by house a decade ago as they refused to surrender to regime forces.

YASSER AL ASALI (through translator): And here was my study where I used to read.

This is the house I was raised in.

My life is here and everything I have worked for.

It's destroyed now.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: His neighbors gone, his community torn apart, Yasser knows it will never be the same, but he wants to try.

YASSER AL ASALI (through translator): I want to rebuild it brick by brick.

I just want to go back home.

I swear to God I will get a tent and put it here on the rubble of my house.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: As Yasser looks at the life he loved in pieces around him, he wonders why.

YASSER AL ASALI (through translator): They only wanted to be free, and the price was complete destruction, fires and savage killings everywhere.

I don't really understand where this hatred comes from.

We're all Syrians at the end.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: These thriving Damascus suburbs used to be home to millions of people, but the Assad regime systematically targeted rebels and their families here with airstrikes, shelling and chemical weapons, eventually clearing them out.

They're now free to come back, but, in this shattered wasteland, most of them don't have homes to return to.

Leaving Damascus to drive north to Homs, the highway is a patchwork of carnage, some former neighborhoods now little more than dust.

Abandoned Syrian army tanks litter the road, scattered with remnants of the fallen regime.

But now this road, once a feared path lined with risky checkpoints, teems with life, excited families heading home, rebel fighters reinforcing the country they now run.

In the wreckage of Homs city, a lone figure wanders.

Mohammad is home after 12 long years.

In this hollow shell where he was born and raised, he remembers how life gave way to fear and death at the hands of Assad's army.

MOHAMMAD RAJOUB, Displaced Syrian (through translator): They used to kill whoever showed up in their path.

I was even scared to send my children to the school, which was 65 feet away from the house.

They used either airstrikes or snipers to hit us with no mercy at all.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Staying home didn't keep them safe.

Two of Mohammed's children were killed by a barrel bomb in this house.

He's overjoyed to be back, but how could he even begin to rebuild?

MOHAMMAD RAJOUB (through translator): When I came back home to my mother's house, I started crying.

I remembered my childhood and school memories.

Very few neighbors of mine are still alive.

The rest are all gone.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: His family, though, is still here.Whispered conversations kept short for fear of Syria's ever-present spy network are all that has kept them connected through these years.

MOHAMMAD RAJOUB (through translator): I have relatives who I haven't spoken to for about 10 years.

It was forbidden and all the calls were tracked.

They arrested you if you said anything.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: But now they're at liberty to reminisce together on the good times and the bad.

The children didn't understand what the sound was and they were trembling on the ground with fear.

You said they were going crazy from the fear?

ARWA NAJJAR, Displaced Syrian (through translator): When the bombing started suddenly, the kids would start crying hysterically.

I felt so helpless.

I wanted to protect them, but there was nothing I could do, so we'd cry with them.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Mohamed's sister-in-law Arwa came back to Homs after the initial bombardment, unable to afford life elsewhere.

With three young children to raise, life under regime control and sanctions has been tough.

So the snipers, the army snipers, would stay on this roof and they would shoot at civilians in the streets.

ARWA NAJJAR (through translator): Life was very hard.

You couldn't move freely and everything was so expensive.

I have a little girl and we had to spend days searching for milk and diapers.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: She can hardly believe how much has changed in just a couple of weeks, the whole extended family reunited under one roof.

ARWA NAJJAR (through translator): We're so happy.

We couldn't believe it.

When they arrived, we didn't even dare to come out to the balcony.

We were asking, is our country really free now?

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: You can really see the damage on everything.

ARWA NAJJAR: Yes, everywhere.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Arwa and her family rent a small apartment in the middle of a devastated street.

ARWA NAJJAR (through translator): There's nowhere else for me to live.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: But for many families who fled further north to rebel-held areas, even a house amidst the ruins is a distant dream.

Surviving this war in tents dotted across Northwest Syria has been the reality.

We first met Ali and 7-year-old Mohammed in the Southern Turkish city of Gaziantep struggling through a yearslong wait for essential surgery unavailable in rebel-held Northwest Syria.

Separated from his mother and siblings for years as they remained behind, penniless in this displacement camp, Mohammed was lonely and miserable.

But now there's no need to be far from home.

ALI ZAKHOUR, Displaced Syrian (through translator): Mohammed was so happy Syria was free.

He told me, "I want to go see my mother and siblings,' and finally we were able to make it.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Miriam still didn't believe they'd be allowed to cross.

Suddenly, MIRIAM ZAKHOUR, Mother of Displaced Syrian (through translator): Suddenly, they opened the door and it was unbelievable to see them after two years of waiting.

When Mohammed first arrived, he ran towards me and hugged me tightly and couldn't get enough of kissing me.

He was hugging everyone and playing with them.

He's so happy.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Ali says Mohammed's demeanor has changed completely since they came home.

The shy, fearful boy who longed for companionship runs and plays with his two little sisters, delighting in squeezing the cheeks of his baby cousins.

Mohammed still has 10 more difficult surgeries ahead of him.

But now the checkpoints carving up Syria are gone.

He can stay at home and undergo his operations at a nearby hospital in Aleppo.

MIRIAM ZAKHOUR (through translator): He tells me: "Mom, the doctor will transplant my hair and eyebrows and fix my hands."

He became happy, and I was happy too, because before he would tell me how kids were making fun of him.

But it's not the same with his siblings.

He loves playing with them.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Where that home will be is the next question.

Their house in Aleppo was destroyed in the airstrike that burned Mohammed five years ago.

So, like so many here who fled, the road is finally open, but there's nowhere to go.

The family has a mountain to climb to restore Mohammed's health and build a new life.

But now they will climb it together.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Leila Molana-Allen in Azaz, Northern Syria.

GEOFF BENNETT: Shifting our focus now to Capitol Hill, congressional leaders should be ready to go home for the holidays.

But they are staring at yet another government funding deadline and scrambling to make it.

The deal coming together could have much larger implications, but lawmakers have not yet released the full text of an agreement.

That's despite Speaker Mike Johnson's assurances earlier today.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): We're going to take care of these obligations and get this done, and then we're going to go to work in unified government in the 119th Congress that begins in January.

GEOFF BENNETT: Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins is checking her sources as we speak, but joins us now.

GEOFF BENNETT: Lisa, I'm starting to think that Yogi Berra was talking about Congress and not baseball when he said this is deja vu all over again.

What -- bring us up to speed.

LISA DESJARDINS: I am.

I'm checking to see if we have the text of this bill yet, and we do not.

The deadline is Friday, as our viewers know.

And let me just first make a plea to our viewers.

I knew you want to change the channel probably right now.

People do not like dealing with this again and again, but it really is worth understanding what's happening in this moment.

I'm going to say some of it is the same, but there's two reasons that this is different.

One is what we expect to be in this particular short-term funding bill.

It's not just that.

So let's talk about a couple of things that are in the bill.

First of all, it would extend government funding to mid-March, so that means we are going to be back here again in March.

Now there's really $100 hundred for disasters, and that includes hurricane damage that we saw obliterated many parts of the south and southeast.

This is something new.

There will be $10 billion in direct aid to farmers.

Part of that has to deal with drought.

And also this would allow year-round ethanol sales.

We know that that is a powerful force, and some in the middle of the country particularly have wanted it.

Now, the second reason this is important, critical test for Speaker Mike Johnson.

And so far he is happy and on very hard time getting this across the finish line.

Many of his Republicans don't like that it is this late.

They haven't seen the bill.

They don't like that there are not pay-fors for it.

And there is a large group of Republicans that simply are not happy.

Here's one of them.

REP. RALPH NORMAN (R-SC): I like Mike.

I'm frustrated with the outcome.

I'm frustrated with what we get.

The American people didn't bargain for this.

And they will not understand this.

We're evidently going to take a 1,800-page document that we really hadn't read and going to pass it, add more debt.

Very frustrating.

It's opposite of what the DOGE commission is trying to do.

So am I voting for it?

No.

LISA DESJARDINS: Now, Ralph Norman's important for a few reasons.

He sits on the Rules Committee, which is the gateway to bills.

And right now, Speaker Johnson doesn't have the votes to bring this up under a normal rule because of Norman and others.

But, in addition, Norman is someone who has opposed potential speaker candidates in the past.

And there is a rising question about whether this will hurt Speaker Johnson, who needs to be reelected in January.

One more thing about this.

There's not just a spectrum of financial issues here, but there's other things in this bill that we should pay attention to that are making some Republicans mad.

Others like it.

One, the Washington Commanders will be able to build a stadium in Washington, D.C.

The Baltimore Bridge collapse, there's money in there to help the federal government and Baltimore recoup costs for that.

And, also, we're watching prescription drugs.

This is something that affects a lot of Americans.

There is the potential.

There is some reform in this bill, but we are waiting for the language to understand it.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, Speaker Johnson will likely need Democratic votes for this funding bill to pass.

When Congressman Norman says we're going to pass this 1,800-page bill that no one's going to have time to read... ... Speaker Johnson put a rule in place that members would have three days to read bills like this, but it's now Tuesday.

Are they going to have three days to potentially read this thing before they vote on it and keep the government funded?

LISA DESJARDINS: This is one of the reasons that Americans have problems with Congress, is they do things like this.

We don't know.

Because the deadline is Friday, they need to have the text moving tonight in order to make that deadline.

It doesn't seem like it's going to happen.

So Speaker Johnson right now has only bad choices because of the way he's done this with his conference.

So if they move it tonight, maybe, but right now it looks like it's moving too slowly.

He may have to break that rule in order to get this across the finish line.

We may also have to have weekend votes, which sort of is like a wink and nod that a shutdown sort of happened, but not really.

GEOFF BENNETT: I want to ask you about some internal Democratic Party politics, namely that New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez today lost her bid to become the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.

And this is at a time when Democrats -- there's an appetite for some fresh faces, especially in Congress, leading some of these committees.

Bring us up to speed.

LISA DESJARDINS: That was a big part of her pitch.

She is now going to be a fourth-term congresswoman.

She's not new to the Hill anymore, Ocasio-Cortez.

Let's talk about that race, first of all.

She pitched that new generation.

She said, I'm one of the top fund-raisers.

Seniority is not -- should not just be the way that people gain traction here.

It should be the people who are the strongest and able to voice things for the working class.

But she lost to Gerry Connolly, a Virginia Congressman, who, among other things, has important ties to Washington, D.C., which is part of the Oversight Committee's job.

But there was a vote for one newer person.

That's Angie Craig, who will be heading the Agriculture Committee, despite Nancy Pelosi endorsing someone else.

GEOFF BENNETT: All right, Lisa Desjardins, thanks, as always.

LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.

AMNA NAWAZ: While the numbers are finally starting to decline, more than 74,000 Americans are still dying every year from opioid overdoses.

Despite that, very few people struggling with addiction get treatment.

Tonight, William Brangham looks at the renewed focus on methadone, one of the oldest and most effective medications in this fight.

NATALIE KNIGHT, Methadone Patient: They give me 27 days at a time.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: For Natalie Knight, what's in these little white bottles has turned her life around.

NATALIE KNIGHT: It's nasty.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: That pink liquid is methadone, and it's helped her tame an opioid addiction that she has struggled with for close to a decade.

NATALIE KNIGHT: Actually, such a small amount, but it really is -- it's amazing that I don't get the highs, I don't get the lows, I don't get anything that I would get on a normal opiate.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Her path to addiction was like millions of others, a legal opioid prescription to help with chronic pain caused by an autoimmune disorder and a difficult pregnancy.

At first, it really helped, but, within a few years, she could not stop, and her life began to unravel.

NATALIE KNIGHT: I was still trying to be a wife and a mother, which I was failing at both, and I was not able to hold a job, because, when you run out of pills every three days, opiate withdrawal is excruciating.

It's excruciating, and you're sweating and freezing at the same time.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I can't imagine doing anything like that.

NATALIE KNIGHT: Yes.

And every single day revolved around finding what I needed, even if it was just to get me through the next day.

I got him as a puppy.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: She tried several other treatments, including Suboxone, a medication that helps curb the cravings for opioids, but it wasn't enough.

So, last year, she was prescribed methadone.

It's a potent opioid itself, first approved for drug treatment in the U.S. in the 1970s.

NATALIE KNIGHT: If I hadn't made the move when I did, I don't think I would have been living much longer.

I don't think I would have lived today.

I should have died 100 times over.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: But for many Americans battling opioid addiction, getting methadone isn't easy.

It can only be prescribed in federally regulated methadone clinics.

And, nationwide, there are only about 2,000 of them.

Eighty percent of U.S. counties have none.

DR. PAULA COOK, Moab Regional Recovery Center: OK, well, because you're still working two jobs?

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So, once a month, Knight makes the trip from her home in rural Utah to see Dr. Paula Cook.

She's the medical director at the Moab Regional Recovery Center.

DR. PAULA COOK: How's the methadone going?

NATALIE KNIGHT: I don't have any withdrawals.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: This clinic has only been here for two years.

And before it opened, the nearest one was 120 miles away.

DR. PAULA COOK: We're unique.

Very few rural towns have a methadone clinic.

Some states don't have a methadone clinic.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In these clinics, patients often get other services, like counseling and behavioral therapy.

WOMAN: That's the blood pressure before you take your methadone.

So that's probably -- after you take it, it'd be a little lower.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And decades of research has shown that methadone can cut the risk of overdose death by nearly 60 percent and that people on it are four times more likely to stay in treatment.

Given all of that, why is methadone still so hard to access?

DR. PAULA COOK: Because it is an opioid, so we're giving someone a substitute therapy, which in essence is somewhat true.

You're giving them an opioid to treat and opioid addiction, but the outcomes are very different.

Most people who get on methadone actually stop using illicit opioids.

They actually retain in treatment and get a job and stop going in and out of the criminal justice system.

DAVID FRANK, Research Scientist, NYU: The very first day, I went to my methadone clinic, and I had taken my first dose, I was walking back to my apartment, and I was like, my God, I'm not going to get dope-sick today.

And I'm not going to have to do any of the stuff I have to do every day to alleviate that dope sickness.

And not only that, they're going to give me another dose tomorrow.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: David Frank has taken methadone for nearly 20 years after he became addicted to heroin in the 1990s.

Today, Frank is a research scientist at New York University who studies opioid use and drug policy.

He credits methadone with helping him get his Ph.D. and turning his life around.

What about the argument that you often hear that you're simply substituting the addiction of one drug with the addiction to another drug?

DAVID FRANK: It's almost like, so what?

When I got on methadone, I swapped taking an illegal criminalized, stigmatized drug that was very difficult to access and could only be obtained on an illegal market and never with any kind of knowledge about what your dose would be for a consistent, stable, legal drug that I could access every single day at my methadone clinic or for my take-home doses.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: For decades, because of fears that people would take too much or sell their doses, most patients were required to show up every day at a clinic to take their methadone under close supervision.

Many patients criticized those rules, saying they made it extremely hard to hold down a job or live a normal life.

But, this October, emergency measures that were introduced during the pandemic... WOMAN: You're all set.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: ... were made permanent in many states.

These rules give clinicians more flexibility to let patients like Natalie Knight take home up to a month's worth of methadone at a time.

DR. PAULA COOK: It's a gold standard evidence-based medication.

We don't put barriers up for medications like insulin.

We allow people who have diabetes to have access to insulin and we don't require them to participate in an antiquated system that's stigmatizing that some people can't access at all actually because of the nature of their condition.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Last year, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced legislation that would allow more doctors and specialists to prescribe methadone and would expand the kinds of places where patients could get it to places like pharmacies.

But that legislation stalled and made concerns among some in the medical community that loosening methadone safeguards could backfire.

DR. KENNETH STOLLER, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine: People who are just starting on methadone are actually at a higher risk of overdose for the first couple of weeks than before they even started on this medication.

So the initiation of this medication can be quite tricky.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Dr. Kenneth Stoller is an addiction psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins University and he directs an opioid treatment program in Baltimore that prescribes methadone.

He says it is not a silver bullet on its own, that people battling opioid addiction really benefit from the additional support clinics often provide.

DR. KENNETH STOLLER: If people are getting medication within a setting that is not addressing their needs, their social needs, their medical needs, their mental health needs, all the barriers to treatment that they have, their outcomes just won't be as good as if people were going to comprehensive treatment.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: You also hear concerns about methadone from within the recovery community.

Some argue it's still a drug and getting off methadone can be as difficult and painful as trying to quit other opioids.

They argue abstinence through programs like Narcotics Anonymous is the better path.

Some others who've used methadone paint a more complicated picture.

Getting on methadone saved my life.

Getting off of it gave me a life.

RYAN DUXBURY, Former Methadone Patient: He was revived with Narcan from someone from our team.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: We first met Ryan Duxbury back in 2017 while reporting on the opioid crisis in Rhode Island.

He took methadone for six years to get over his OxyContin addiction.

He eventually got off methadone and now credits his sobriety to abstinence and support from peers.

RYAN DUXBURY: I had to go to the methadone clinic in a fairly seedy neighborhood, and I had to be there every day.

Still, I'm trying to find recovery and I'm trying to change my environment a little bit.

And still standing in line outside in the cold with people that I used with wasn't very helpful.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Do you think if you would been given 30 days' worth of doses to take home, that that would have helped?

RYAN DUXBURY: I do think that would have been better for me, but I wish that there were more support in terms of me being able to become more productive as a member of society.

DR. PAULA COOK: So, today, I'm going to send her with some medication.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Back in Utah, Dr. Paula Cook says, today, because fentanyl is so prevalent and so potent, increasing access to methadone is critical.

It's why she supports allowing it to be prescribed outside of clinics like hers.

DR. PAULA COOK: Come in.

Have a seat.

Is there a risk?

Of course there's a risk.

That's why it requires good stewardship.

But I'm 100 percent sure it's the right path, because that's what the evidence shows.

And that's what people who have opioid use disorder have demonstrated.

And improving access will reduce loss of lives.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Natalie Knight says methadone is slowly helping her rebuild her life.

Could you have envisioned who you are today and how you're living today?

NATALIE KNIGHT: No, I never envisioned that I could have a life like everybody else has.

I'm able to work two jobs and not go through withdrawal, but also not be in pain.

I am able to be a mother.

I am able to be a sister again.

It's changed my whole life.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: For the "PBS News Hour," I'm William Brangham in Moab, Utah.

AMNA NAWAZ: Tomorrow, we will look at why medications are so rarely prescribed for people who struggle with one of the most commonly used and deadliest drugs, alcohol.

GEOFF BENNETT: The election may have ended over a month ago.

The election may have ended over a month ago, but today is the day Donald Trump's victory becomes official.

Across the country, hundreds of presidential electors are gathering in their respective states to cast their Electoral College votes, an often ceremonial, but essential step in the process of confirming the election results.

To help us break this down and explain its significance, we're joined now by Jessica Huseman, editorial director of Votebeat.

That's a news organization focused on elections and the voting process.

Welcome back.

And I have to say, we're glad you're here because we have reported extensively this past year on election security and the integrity of the voting process, so we thought it fitting to see this process all the way through.

When we say that the Electoral College is convening in all 50 states, help us understand what that actually means.

JESSICA HUSEMAN, Editorial Director, Votebeat: You know, it's not that exciting.

All of the people who are chosen as the electors by the political parties in each state are gathering in one place and casting their ballots officially for the people their state selected as president, usually on a winner-take-all basis, unless you live in Maine or Nebraska.

And then, in that case, the electors get to vote proportionally, but everyone else is just voting along the exact same lines as what the state voted for.

GEOFF BENNETT: And we should note that there are 13 Republican officials who signed false certifications claiming that Donald Trump won the election back in 2020.

They are now serving as electors today, this time casting real votes for the president-elect.

All of these folks hail from Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Nevada.

Do we know why there was no recourse for these 2020 fake electors when other people have faced court cases and legal issues?

JESSICA HUSEMAN: Sure.

So, some of these people still are facing legal issues.

There are eight of them that are currently facing charges in Nevada and Michigan, but certainly they didn't face any repercussions whatsoever within the Republican Party.

The Republican Party still brought them back.

Republicans still voted for these folks to be the people who cast these, even if ceremonial, quite important ballots today.

So, yes, I think that they're unlikely to face political repercussions at any point moving forward, even if they do face misdemeanor penalties in their states.

GEOFF BENNETT: There's also the question of public sentiment.

And there's a recent pew poll that found voters feel broadly positive about how elections were conducted this past year.

That's in sharp contrast to 2020.

You see the numbers there.

And it's especially true for Trump voters; 93 percent of Trump voters say the 2024 elections were run and administered at least somewhat well.

That's up from 21 percent four years ago.

And the only difference is, their candidate won.

I mean, the 2020 and 2024 elections were both secure and fair.

JESSICA HUSEMAN: Yes, absolutely.

I mean, I think it is true that the 2020 and the 2024 elections look a little bit different.

We were certainly in a pandemic in 2020.

Many more people were casting their votes by mail.

But in terms of the procedures, the security, the way those ballots were counted, the way those ballots were audited, it's basically the same.

We -- there have been no major changes in the way that America's elections are conducted between 2020 and 2024.

And so I think that what this really shows is that we are a nation of sore losers.

When our candidate wins, we are happy.

When our candidate loses, the entire system is corrupt.

GEOFF BENNETT: Looking at the calendar, there are a few more key dates that are important in this electoral process ending on Inauguration Day, of course.

Walk us through what we can expect.

JESSICA HUSEMAN: So, the votes that are being cast today by all of the electors across the country are going to go to Washington and they will be signed off on in a procedure that became quite famous in 2021.

It's happening on the same day, January 6.

Those votes will be signed off on by the vice president this time.

That's Kamala Harris.

And so that's the first time that we will see all of these electors coming together and for -- and officially nationally signing off on the results.

And then, of course, we have an Inauguration Day.

So it's all downhill from here.

GEOFF BENNETT: The effort to scrap the Electoral College, I mean, it usually gets kicked around every four years.

Where does that stand now?

JESSICA HUSEMAN: Nowhere.

It doesn't stand anywhere.

It would be really, really difficult to overturn the Electoral College.

It would definitely require either a constitutional amendment or for lots of states working in concert to change the procedure across the country and agree to do that.

So it's quite a lot of work.

And the last time that this was even remotely successful was in the late '60s.

So I think that we're going to be stuck with the Electoral College for quite some time, unless there is a national movement that has, as far as I am aware, not gained a lot of steam.

GEOFF BENNETT: Jessica Huseman of Votebeat, thanks, as always.

JESSICA HUSEMAN: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: Austin Tice, a former U.S. Marine and freelance journalist, is one of the longest-held American hostages abroad.

But the recent fall of Bashar al-Assad and his brutal regime in Syria has renewed hope that Tice will be found some 12 years after he was abducted during a reporting trip outside of Damascus.

Details about Tice's imprisonment are limited, but here is what we do know.

Tice traveled to Syria in May of 2012 to cover the war.

On his way to Lebanon on August 14, he was detained at a checkpoint in Damascus.

Five weeks later, a 43-second video surfaced showing Tice being held by armed captors.

Reports emerged that Tice had escaped imprisonment in early 2013, but his freedom was short-lived and he was recaptured in Damascus soon thereafter.

Still, the Biden administration declared in 2021 its sincere belief that Tice was alive.

And, more recently, a Syrian former prisoner has come forward telling NBC that he saw Tice twice in prison in 2022.

Tice's family has long advocated for his release, pushing American officials over three administrations to do more to find him.

And now that prisoners held by Assad's regime are being released all across Syria, Tice's family is stepping up their campaign to find him.

Austin Tice's mother, Debora, joins us now.

Debora, welcome.

Thanks for being here.

DEBRA TICE, Mother of Austin Tice: Thank you so much for having me here.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, 12 years, you have been fighting, more than 12 years, to bring your son home.

What was it like for you to see the Assad regime fall, to see a new Syria emerging, and to see a new opportunity to potentially find Austin and bring him home?

DEBRA TICE: Well, there were two feelings.

I don't think that the way that it -- the changes coming on might be more difficult than we're thinking, right?

But those first days, of course, when people were able to go into the prison and find their loved ones and families could be reunited, there was just a jubilee with that.

And that is the kind of thing that just has to be contagious, right, just see these families that are -- have been wondering and waiting for so long.

AMNA NAWAZ: You know what that's like to be one of those families.

DEBRA TICE: Yes.

I can hardly wait.

AMNA NAWAZ: You sound as if that has been tempered over time, though.

Do you not hold that still -- still hold that same hope right now?

DEBRA TICE: Well, no, it's still the same, because there are a lot of prisons in Damascus.

And the ones that they were going to first were the ones that were most dangerous to their inmates because of lack of air.

So they really had to get after it.

We believe that where Austin was kept was -- they kept him more carefully.

And so it would make sense that he would come later.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, President Biden was asked about your son on December 8.

He said that the U.S. remains committed to bringing him home.

Secretary Blinken said just a few days ago that the U.S. continues its dogged, determined efforts.

And we know they have been in direct contact with HTS, the rebel group now running the country, as well.

I mean, the FBI's offered up a million dollars.

The State Department's offered up to $10 million.

Do you believe that the U.S. government is doing everything they can to find Austin and bring him back?

DEBRA TICE: They're doing everything that they want to do.

For me, there could be more.

AMNA NAWAZ: Tell me more about that.

What are they not doing right now that you would like to see them doing?

DEBRA TICE: Well, I mean, one of the things that seems so odd to me is that they're not going into Damascus.

AMNA NAWAZ: That there's no U.S. officials there yet.

DEBRA TICE: Right.

AMNA NAWAZ: These are civil society groups, right, other journalists on the ground you have been in touch with as well.

DEBRA TICE: Yes.

And Hostage Aid Worldwide is the NGO that we have been working with.

And they are on the ground there looking for Austin.

So we do have that kind of support.

AMNA NAWAZ: President Biden has also said that the U.S. does believe Austin is alive, but that they have to first identify where he is.

And you just recently sent a letter to the Israeli prime minister, to Benjamin Netanyahu, asking him to pause Israeli airstrikes in one particular area, around Mount Qasioun, because you said you had credible information that Austin was held in a prison there.

Tell me more about that.

Is that information that the U.S. government says is credible and have they acted on it in any way?

DEBRA TICE: Well, I do have affirmation from the government that it is credible.

For me, reaching out to Netanyahu, he's the boss of all the bombing people, right, so just to take a pause with that and give us the opportunity to check those prisons that are in the mountain.

AMNA NAWAZ: And have you gotten any response from the Israeli government on that?

DEBRA TICE: No, I did not get a response from them.

They did say that the letter was delivered.

And so we did see HTS said that they had worked with the Israel government and they did have a pause.

I don't know if that had anything to do with my letter, but it did happen.

AMNA NAWAZ: You know, Austin went into Syria for the first time around the same time that actually I first went to cover the war as well.

And I wonder if you could just tell us a little bit more about your son.

I mean, what drew him to want to go into the chaos and uncertainty at a time when a lot of other people would run away?

DEBRA TICE: Well, I mean, keep in mind it was 2012.

So it wasn't at all like what it became.

So it was still a civil uprising.

He had served in Iraq.

He had served in Afghanistan.

And so when this was starting to bubble into what would look like it was going to be another urban war, that was what compelled him to go only with a camera.

He was just hoping that he could take such beautiful pictures of Syria itself, the Syrian people, the amazingly cute and beautiful Syrian children.

And he was just hoping that these photos could be compelling enough to prevent another -- another urban war.

AMNA NAWAZ: Knowing your son as you do, does any of that surprise you, that he would want to go there and do that?

DEBRA TICE: No, it wasn't surprising.

And the other thing is, by the time he's announcing that he's going to do something, he's thought it through, you're not going to talk him out of it.

So the best response is to say, have you thought about your safety?

How are we going to stay in contact, and those -- just to be practical, because he's made his decision, and he's going to do the thing, you know?

So that's the only appropriate way to respond to him when he makes a -- just like an announcement like that: "Mom, I'm going to join the military."

Well that's something I never heard before.

(LAUGHTER) DEBRA TICE: And he did.

So, yes, that's Austin.

AMNA NAWAZ: After 12 years of fighting to bring him home, have you thought about what it will be like to watch him walk free, to be able to hug him again for the first time?

DEBRA TICE: It's so hard to imagine because he was 30 the last time that I hugged him.

And he's 43 now.

One thing that Austin thought was just really funny would be, he would give me this big hug and twirl me around, because isn't that a blast?

(LAUGHTER) DEBRA TICE: So, I'm just wondering if he's still going to be thinking about wanting to do that, you know?

AMNA NAWAZ: Debra, what keeps you going every day?

DEBRA TICE: My faith.

My faith is what keeps me going, 100 percent, yes, because I tell people, me, myself, I am at home right now in the dark in my bed in the fetal position sucking my thumb.

So what you're seeing right here is really my faith, and that's what and keeps me going, yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: There's a lot more information coming out and going into Syria post-Assad.

If you could speak directly to Austin, if you can get a message to him today, what would you say?

DEBRA TICE: We are waiting for you.

We have not given up.

You're coming home.

You're going to go on with your life.

And I just want you to know, Austin, that I am praying that you are already working on forgiveness, because, when you walk free, you're going to need to walk free of any rancor or any kind of wanting any kind of revenge.

Please walk free.

Walk really free.

AMNA NAWAZ: Debra Tice, thank you so much for being here today.

Thank you for spending time with us, telling us about your son.

We hope to see you here with him soon.

DEBRA TICE: Oh, yes.

I will do it remote.

(LAUGHTER) DEBRA TICE: Yes.

Thank you so much for having me.

AMNA NAWAZ: Today, the librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, announced the 25 films for entry into the National Film Registry.

GEOFF BENNETT: The registry, which began back in 1989, now includes some 900 movies chosen for their cultural, historic and aesthetic importance to preserving the nation's film heritage.

Our senior arts correspondent, Jeffrey Brown, has more for our arts and culture series, Canvas.

PATRICK SWAYZE, Actor: Nobody puts Baby in the corner.

JEFFREY BROWN: An iconic line from an '80s romantic classic, a graphic and brutal scene that helped define the horror genre.

ACTOR: I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth.

JEFFREY BROWN: And the story of an American hero told in one of its seminal sports films.

Three of the 25 films chosen by a Library of Congress panel from the more than 6,700 nominated by the public for consideration this year.

Led by University of Chicago cinema studies historian and Turner Classic Movies host Jacqueline Stewart, the panel worked to choose titles that demonstrate a wealth of films and genres.

The oldest name this year, "Annabelle Serpentine Dance," made in 1895 by the Edison Manufacturing Company.

From the dawn of cinema, the silent short is one of a series of recordings of popular dances performed by dancer and actress Annabelle Moore.

The newest films, 2007's "No Country For Old Men" and "The Social Network" from 2010.

JESSE EISENBERG, Actor: People want to go on the Internet and check out their friends, so why not build a Web site that offers that, friends, pictures, profiles, whatever you can visit, browse around?

JEFFREY BROWN: The award-winning drama about Mark Zuckerberg's creation of Facebook written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher.

Other popular Hollywood hits include the 1984 comedy "Beverly Hills Cops."

EDDIE MURPHY, Actor: You know, this is the cleanest and nicest police car I have ever been in my life.

JEFFREY BROWN: And "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan," starring William Shatner and Mexican-American actor Ricardo Montalban.

RICARDO MONTALBAN, Actor: Buried alive.

Buried alive.

JEFFREY BROWN: "The Wrath of Khan" is one of five films selected this year that include prominent Latino artists or themes.

The others include 1995's "Mi Familia."

ACTOR: It was one of the greatest days in the history of my family.

JEFFREY BROWN: And the 1970s counterculture classic "Up in Smoke."

CHEECH MARIN, Actor: The level of improv that we brought to those movies is what gave it its spontaneity.

And that's why people thought they were happening for the first time, because in many instances it was happening for the first time.

JEFFREY BROWN: The award-winning documentary "Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt" is a heartbreaking record of the 1980s AIDS epidemic told through the creation and exhibition of the AIDS Memorial Quilt on the National Mall.

Several films selected were made by Black directors, including "Compensation," "Uptown Saturday Night," and "Will" from 1981, widely considered to be the first independent feature-length film directed by a Black woman, the trailblazing cinematographer and director Jessie Maple.

Also included this year, "The Miracle Worker," Arthur Penn's biopic of Helen Keller and teacher Anne Sullivan, starring Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft.

ACTRESS: Yes.

ACTOR: Can I have 10 hot dogs with lots of mustard and ketchup?

JEFFREY BROWN: The selection group cited 1989's "Powwow Highway" as one of the first indie classics to depart from long-perpetuated stereotypes and treat Native Americans as ordinary people.

Have a favorite movie you think should be named to the Library of Congress' list in 2025?

You can submit your nominations on the library's Web site through August 15.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Jeffrey Brown.

GEOFF BENNETT: What would you nominate?

AMNA NAWAZ: I mean, I'm just glad to see "Dirty Dancing" made it, finally, finally.

(LAUGHTER) GEOFF BENNETT: I got to say "Coming to America."

AMNA NAWAZ: Oh, it's a good one too.

GEOFF BENNETT: All right, an update now to our earlier conversation with Lisa Desjardins.

Congressional leaders have now unveiled the text of that stopgap spending bill that would prevent a partial government shutdown and keep the federal government funded through mid-March.

AMNA NAWAZ: Lawmakers are still digesting the more-than-1,500-page bill, which provides more than $100 billion in emergency aid for communities hit by natural disasters.

GEOFF BENNETT: And that is the "News Hour" for tonight.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz.

On behalf of the entire "News Hour" team, thank you for joining us.