his top domestic priority and taking aim at what he calls the gop's ultra maga economic policies how republicans are firing back. also tonight the dramatic capture, the sheriff saying a fugitive inmate and an alabama corrections officer planned for a shootout with police before a car crash ended the 11-day manhunt. the officer apparently taking her own life the arsenal police say the fugitives had and the tip that led officers to them. the deadly missile strike in the critical port city of odesa. a shopping mall destroyed. our team inside ukraine tonight. celebrity chef mario batali, the verdict in his sexual misconduct trial the senate on the eve of a vote on abortion rights and now the growing battle can states block women from going out of state for abortions? the extreme fire danger in the southwest and tracking severe storms in the central u.s. and elon musk weighing in on donald trump's twitter ban,

would he lift it if he takes over the company good evening fill her up is becoming a cringeworthy term for a lot of american drivers these days with it costing more than $50 to fill the average size car the price of gas reaching a new record average today, $4.37 a gallon, michigan, ohio and new jersey all places where the price at the pump has gone up between 17 and 24 cents a gallon in just a week the price of gasoline, the most dramatic symbol of inflation that's eating at the bottom lines for many americans with new inflation numbers expected to be released tomorrow, today president biden declared soaring prices a top economic challenge saying he understands the frustration while reminding of the global impact of russia's war in ukraine and the pandemic peter alexander reports now from the white house. >> reporter: for americans on

the road tonight another speed bump gas prices today reaching a new all-time high. >> they're horrible. >> they're ridiculous. seems like you're working for gas. >> reporter: regular unleaded average ing $4.37 a gallon and president biden is highlighting his efforts to slow the spike. >> i'm taking inflation very seriously, and it's my top domestic priority. i know you got to be frustrated. i know i can taste it >> reporter: inflation now at a 40-year high, prices surging on gas, groceries and rent. auto repair shop owner wilson halley says prices for parts are so high it's costing him business >> customers aren't coming in because they have to hold off on repairs. >> reporter: and this single mother tells us she has to work multiple jobs. >> i could go in the grocery store and spend $60 and i'm like, what did i purchase?

>> reporter: from groceries and higher rent. >> one paycheck now just covers the rent i shouldn't have to work three jobs just to do the extra. one job should suffice. >> reporter: but tonight president biden insists he is not to blame for prices that have been skyrocketing for nearly a year. >> i think our policies help not hurt. >> reporter: and taking aim at former president trump's maga movement and its allies. >> the maga republicans are counting on you to be as frustrated by the pace of progress, which they have everything -- they've done everything they can to slow down that you're going to -- will hand power over to them. >> reporter: a top republican tonight is blasting the president. >> let's look at the biden agenda right now we have 8.5% inflation, we've got the highest gas prices ever. so i mean he doesn't have any ideas. >> so, peter, everyone bracing for those new inflation numbers

due out tomorrow. >> reporter: yeah, that's right, lester the president told me he's weighing whether to lift former president trump's tariffs on chinese products that could help lower costs here, lester >> peter alexander at the white house, thanks. tonight dramatic new details of how the manhunt for those alabama fugitives came to an end. the sightings, the tip and the final encounter with police that prevented a shootout sam brock is in evansville, indiana, and has the latest. >> reporter: tonight two of america's most publicized fugitive, casey and vicky white dramatically caught after 11 days on the run. their cadillac crumpled after a short-lived pursuit from police in evansville, indiana >> members of the u.s. task force basically rammed the vehicle and pushed it into a ditch and we later found out had they not done that, the fugitive was going to engage in a shootout with law enforcement. >> reporter: an arsenal of weaponry found in the car. >> we could hear her on the line

saying she had her finger on the trigger. >> reporter: but the only person to fire a shot, the highly regarded corrections officer vicky white set to receive the employee of the year award next week but took her own life before deputies could reach her. u.s. marshals telling nbc news casey got out of the car, surrendered and said please help my wife. she just shot herself in the head and i didn't do it. authorities say there is no indication the two were married but they were clearly disguising themselves quite masterfully with wigs and glasses. tristan berger was staying at the same motel down the hall following the case and had no clue and you definitely saw her. >> yeah, i definitely saw her. she was walking around hair dyed and everything. >> reporter: officials ultimately getting a crucial tip from james stinson, an indiana car wash owner. >> that truck setting right there. >> reporter: who spotted an abandoned ford f-150 with tennessee plates early in the week. >> i said this is probably the

guy from alabama as soon as i seen it, i mean, the windows are down, keys in ignition, perfectly good truck. >> reporter: also the question of why park the car here of all the places casey white could have left his truck, he picked this bay at a car wash next to a sign that says security cameras in use. that security camera capturing the image of casey that broke the case casey white waved his extradition headed to alabama tonight. now some relief after a nearly two-week-long saga has ended lester. >> sam, thanks let's turn to the war in ukraine now and a new warning this evening about the world's food supply. as russian forces intensify their assault on the critical port city of odesa, kelly cobiella has more from inside ukraine. >> reporter: tonight the crucial southern port city of odesa in the crosshairs again ukraine says russia has fired seven missiles at the city hitting a shopping center and warehouse killing a security guard. "this facility has nothing to do with the military," odesa's mayor said "there are no ammunitions depots

here and never have been." several buildings have been reduced to rubble. odesa almost untouched in the first two months of war is now being targeted nearly every day. tonight ukraine's president zelenskyy warning the russian blockade of ports like odesa is threatening the world's food supply ukraine produces about 20% of the world's high grade wheat used to make bread the u.n. says nearly 25 million tons of grain is now stuck in silos. while the war still rages across the east, anna and her husband told me they fled their home city now under constant russian shelling "there was no gas, no water, and my best friend was killed when she went out to find water." i'm so sorry "it's so hard to bear," she says she told me her husband lost his eye when he was 10 during the siege of st.petersburg during world war ii

now both living through another war. who do you blame "putin, of course, it's russia we didn't invade anyone" she says in russian. "even though we're old," she told me, "we still want to live." anna and her husband are now among the more than 12 million ukrainians displaced because of the war. lester. >> kelly, thank you. one of america's most famous chefs, mario batali, was found not guilty today of indecent assault and battery. a boston judge delivered the verdict in the nonjury trial a woman accused batali of forcibly kissing and groping her at a bar batali's lawyer said the woman lied for fun and she lied for money referring to a lawsuit she filed. let's turn to the growing state battles over abortion rights after the leak of that draft supreme court decision that could overturn roe v. wade. new efforts tonight aimed at

both abortion protection and possible prosecution here's stephanie gosk. >> reporter: there's a new abortion law in connecticut. >> we're doing everything we can to stand up on behalf of the reproductive rights of all our citizens. >> reporter: setting up a battle between states >> texas, don't mess with connecticut. [ applause ] >> reporter: the law expands abortion access and protects providers like those in this clinic from being sued or even criminally charged by another state. >> i am very grateful for it and i think it was necessary in our political climate. >> we're not going to sit here with our residents, with our doctors, nurses, our facilities undefended we're going to stand up for these rights here in the state of connecticut. >> reporter: state representative matt blumenthal says it was in direct response to the abortion law in texas and in anticipation of roe versus wade possibly being overturned >> people are already coming to connecticut from places like texas to seek safe and legal care

>> reporter: missouri state representative mary elizabeth coleman drafted a bill similar to the one in texas that would allow private citizens to sue abortion providers should a doctor in connecticut be concerned that they may be sued from a private citizen in missouri if they performed an abortion on a missouri resident? >> no, i don't think that's an accurate reading of the law. >> reporter: her bill has not yet been passed. >> because the abortion issue has been decided by the courts for so long that taking this back into the state legislatures, there's rhetoric that is ramping things up in ways that isn't particularly helpful. >> reporter: scholars say the criminal and civil law has not been tested and anti-abortion states might push boundaries if roe is overturned which is why states like connecticut are acting quickly >> you see connecticut looking at that kind of mess and saying, we want clarity. we don't want to wait for things to shake out in the courts. >> what kind of world are we potentially going into if roe is overturned? >> i'm afraid a world where this conflict is uglier and messier

than the one we're in now. >> reporter: stephanie gosk, nbc news, hartford, connecticut. billionaire elon musk said today he will restore donald trump's twitter account once his deal to acquire the company is done the former president was permanently suspended from twitter after the capitol riot musk calls himself a free speech absolutist and says only twitter accounts that operate bots or spread spam should be banned. in 60 seconds the new fire and severe weather alert we'll tell you where and when and americans feeling the housing squeeze as rents and mortgage rates soar. what you should know

we are monitoring the extreme fire danger tonight in the southwest. red flag warnings up in eight states, about a dozen massive fires burning. the largest in new mexico burning more than 200,000 acres. thousands have been forced to evacuate and a tornado watch has been issued for parts of wisconsin after a tornado damaged homes and farms in the western part of the state on monday.

the cities of madison and green bay in wisconsin are in the potential danger zone. to the south, severe thunderstorm watches are up across much of west texas. back to the fight now against inflation, specifically the severe housing crunch faced by growing numbers of people as mortgage rates and rents keep rising miguel almaguer and the new struggle for americans trying to find a place to call home. >> so this is my favorite room in the house >> reporter: as rents rise and now mortgage rates climb, the fishers like so many other american families are trying desperately to buy a home while facing a tougher housing market every day. with low inventory and record high prices, if they wait any longer, their 30-year fixed mortgage could tick up even higher >> we're definitely willing to make more sacrifices than we were at the beginning. >> reporter: the typical mortgage payment in march was $1,700, up nearly $400 from a year ago

>> yeah, you kind of don't know when it's going to end with the mortgage rates rising, with inflation going up too, i mean, everything is getting more expensive. >> reporter: though the housing market remains hot, there are some signs of cooling. the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate has now climbed to 5.36%, up 2 points from a year ago. that led to an 11% drop in new mortgage applications. still, many prospective homeowners are lowering expectations and raising budgets. it's definitely squeezing some people out but demand is still there and it's still far exceeding supply >> reporter: to get their foot in the door families aren't just willing to pay more for less, many are turning to adjustable rate loans where the interest rate can change after five, seven or ten years >> we think in 2022 with higher mortgage rates that will cool down somewhat and be back to more typical market conditions. >> reporter: after losing on multiple offers the fisher family wants to buy now in order to save later or else they worry

their american dream could become a nightmare miguel almaguer, nbc news, los angeles. up next, a potentially lifesaving new test that can detect deadly fentanyl we'll show you how it works and why there are critics that oppose it.

hi, my name is cherrie. i'm 76 and i live on the oregon coast. my husband, sam, we've been married 53 years. we love to walk on the beach. i have two daughters and then two granddaughters. i noticed that memories were not there like they were when i was much younger. since taking prevagen, my memory has gotten better and it's like the puzzle pieces have all been [click] put together. prevagen. healthier brain. better life.

today is the first ever national fentanyl awareness day. it's an effort by the dea to spread the word about the synthetic opioid that now accounts for nearly two-thirds of all overdose deaths in the u.s. >> reporter: on a recent friday in l.a., students from usc were handing out free kits used to test drugs for the presence of deadly fentanyl. >> one line means there's fentanyl present which means don't take the drug. >> reporter: their harm reduction group is called t.a.c.o., team awareness combating overdose madeline hilliard founded t.a.c.o. in 2020 following a year when a dozen usc students died of an overdose. she and co-founder jack elliott were neuroscience majors and saw a need to educate. >> our goal is to remove any and all barriers so that you have absolutely no reason not to be testing your drugs. >> reporter: they've handed out 10,000 free test strips at campuses across california and now ship to schools around the country. students can also use an app to have strips delivered within ten minutes for one cent plus delivery.

>> fentanyl is a big deal because you can take it accidentally there could be a couple grains of sand size amount of fentanyl in your drug and that can kill you. >> reporter: of the nearly 100,000 overdose deaths between june 2020 and june 2021, 64% were fentanyl related. for people 15 to 24 years old, 78% of deaths involved fentanyl. >> you want to grab the tip of the strip. >> reporter: we went to nj labs to better understand how the test strips work in the real world someone testing a pill or powder would dissolve a tiny portion in water similar to a home pregnancy or covid test we watch for lines >> there's only one line. >> one line means there's fentanyl. >> there's fentanyl in that product, in that solution. >> reporter: that means throw the drug away. >> do you think these tests are fairly accurate? >> they're fairly accurate and sensitive enough to test trace low levels of fentanyl. >> reporter: some states consider the test strips drug paraphernalia and make distributing them illegal. critics worry they encourage

people to use drugs. >> they were going to use drugs whether we gave them the test strips or not. the difference is now with the test strips if they find fentanyl in it, that means that they are going to wake up tomorrow >> if i'm going to use drugs i'm going to test them. >> reporter: this 21-year-old college student requested anonymity to speak openly. at a party she and her friends went to t bathroom to test a bag of cocaine when the strip showed positive they sat in stunned silence. if you hadn't known some of your friends were about to do it. what do you think might have happened >> one of them could have at least died if not all of them. it was super jarring to think that like they could have died these are people that i like spend every day with it would have changed everything about how i lived right now and i imagine going forward. >> reporter: t.a.c.o.'s goal is to create positive peer pressure if you're going to use a drug, test it first. hoping that small step saves lives. kate snow, nbc news, new brunswick, new jersey.

up next here tonight, one man's intimate wartime portrait. tragedy and hope through his own lens

finally he survived unthinkable conditions and wants the world to see what he saw they are scenes both harrowing and hopeful as witnessed by a man from mariupol with a camera. here's erin mclaughlin this, our mariupol >> oh, so beautiful. >> reporter: this amateur photographer tells the story of a glistening port city full of promise. how beautiful. >> this our grand theater which is fully damaged. >> reporter: until the russian troops arrived in mariupol, nothing was left unscathed by the russian assault. >> the best school of mariupol >> reporter: the school where his children studied the supermarkets where he shopped, the basement where his neighbors sheltered all gone "people were in the basement and when the bomb exploded they were crushed," he says. "nobody could get them out they're still there. his images tell a haunting story of tragedy but also hope a people pulling together,

despite having little food, no running water or electricity and yet still finding a reason to smile. as the weeks pressed on, the horror hit closer and closer until a shell exploded when he was desperately searching for his wife inside his mother-in-law's home "i was covered by the building," he says. "i could not hear at all i had a concussion but i was alive. following a separate attack, his nephew's son, an 8-year-old boy and his family all sheltered together in a basement where the little boy kept a diary. a page from that diary reads, my grandfather died i have a wound on my back, torn skin my sister has a head injury. my mother has a hole in her leg. he reads the final words of the boy's entry out loud >> my favorite city, mariupol, has died small boy wrote that his city has died that's all

>> reporter: a chilling portrait of innocence lost to war, a city destroyed and a man who says he'll never be the same. erin mclaughlin, nbc news, kyiv, ukraine. >> and one more note, we're not naming that little boy's family or showing their faces because they are still trapped in mariupol and they are desperate to get out that's "nightly news" for this tuesday. thank you for watching, everyone i'm lester holt. please take care of yourself and each other good night

i'm raj ma thigh -- mathi. a boba tea shop doubling as a crime operation. inside the bust and how it ties into san francisco's car break in problem. also, more worries about this current covid surge. >> all metrics we follow are ticking up. >> a bay area expert worried about an uptick in hospitalizations. experiencing covid in his own household. $11 for a dozen eggs. is this our new normal? our consumer investigator has answers about the rising food prices. and keep tahoe blue, more than 25,000 pounds of trash pulled out from