william: good evening. i'm william brangham. amna nawaz and geoff bennett are away. on the "newshour" tonight, alexei navalny's widow accuses the kremlin of covering up the opposition leader's killing and vows to continue his fight for a free russia. poland's foreign minister discusses the state of ukraine's nearly two-year-long war with russia, and the impact congres'' stalling of u.s. support is having on the battlefield. >> without the united states, we are behind the curve in making

the stuff that ukraine needs to defend itself. william: and, the conservative group behind allegations of illegal ballot stuffing in georgia's 2020 election admits it has no evidence to support its claims. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour, including leonard and norma, and judy and peter foundation. >> for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world.

and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. william: welcome to the "newshour." russia has cemented a substantial battlefield win in eastern ukraine tonight after a grinding four-month fight. moscow says its forces cleared the last ukrainian defenders from avdiikva, a bombed-out city in the donetsk region. russian military footage showed attacks on a sprawling industrial site in avdiivka.

ukraine said its forces had to retreat because of a lack of ammunition. president volodomyr zelenskyy warned today that russia is exploiting the delay of new american aid. 26 members of the european union are calling for an immediate humanitarian pause in gaza. that came today as hamas health officials reported the gaza death toll has passed 29,000. and, israel released security camera video purportedly showing a hostage and her two small boys wrapped in a sheet. they were seen in central gaza just after being taken captive in october. the u.n.'s top court has kicked off a six-day hearing into israel's 57-year occupation of the land that palestinians want for a state of their own. diplomats filed into the international court of justice at the hague today. the palestinian foreign minister opened with accusations of israeli apartheid.

>> no occupying power, including israel, can be granted a perpetual veto over the rights of the people it occupies. successive israeli governments have given the palestinian people only three options -- displacement, subjugation or death. william: israel submitted a written statement that alleged the hearing does not address israeli rights and security concerns. the court is due to issue a non-binding opinion some months from now. houthi fighters in yemen carried out new attacks on shipping vessels today in continued retaliation for israel's assault on gaza. the iran-backed group says it again targeted ships in the gulf of aden. that follows sunday's attack on a ship in the bab el-mandeb strait. a missile caused severe damage, forcing the crew to abandon ship. back in this country, a minneapolis suburb is in mourning after a sunday shooting that killed two policemen and a firefighter.

they'd answered a domestic dispute call in burnsville when a heavily-armed man opened fire. he was later found dead and seven children in the house were unhurt. last night, the community gathered for a candlelit vigil. they paid tribute to those killed and offered praise to the town's police force. >> we need to find a way to really honor these three. and just all police officers, you know, that protect and serve us. all over are our burnsville police cars, and i just think they do. they protect and they serve. they run towards trouble to keep other people safe. william: in a further tribute, flags were lowered to half-staff in minnesota today. the latest in a string of winter storms has moved into california, and it could bring new flooding and even tornadoes. forecasters called for five to 10 inches of rain in central california before the storm moves south in coming days. it's expected to be milder than

the so-called atmospheric river earlier this month in part because it's moving faster. and on australia's christmas island, the famous red crabs are scuttling behind schedule. in typical years, more than 100 million crabs blanket the ground and block traffic as they scramble to the sea to mate, but wildlife officials say lack of rain has largely put this great migration on hold. >> the last six to nine months of 2023 was exceptionally dry, so dry that when the crabs would normally migrate in october and november, we had no rainfall, and they didn't migrate. william: all told, this is already the latest crab migration since tracking began in the 1980's. still to come on the "newshour," tamara keith and amy walter break down the latest political headlines. actor paul giamatti on his oscar-nominated performance in "the holdovers." students and their teacher give their brief, but spectacular

take on building trust. plus, much more. >> this is the "pbs newshour" from weta studios in washington, and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. william: alexei navalny's suspicious death friday in a russian arctic penal colony continues to reverberate around the globe. world leaders, including president biden, spoke today of stepped-up sanctions against russia, as navalny's widow picked up his fight against vladimir putin. meanwhile, russian authorities said they would hold navalny's remains for a further two weeks. heavy with equal parts grief and resolve, yulia navalnaya released this video today vowing to keep up her husband's fight. >> by killing alexei, putin killed half of me, half of my

heart and half of my soul. but i still have the other half, and it tells me that i have no right to give up. i will continue the work of alexei navalny, continue to fight for our country. i urge you to stand next to me. to share not only my grief and endless pain, but also to share the rage. william: the cause of death remains unknown. russian authorities blocked his mother from the morgue. across russia, more than 50,000 people have signed a petition demanding navalny's body be released. today, his widow met with european union ministers in brussels, as they weighed how to respond to the dissident's death. >> what has happened reminds us all of the repressive and oppressive nature of the regime in the russian federation and of how president putin has ruthlessly put down any opposition and suppressed any

dissent. william: in moscow, kremlin spokesman dmitry peskov blasted western leaders who've blamed putin for navalny's death. >> an investigation is underway and all necessary actions in this regard are being carried out. but so far, the results of this investigation have not been made public, and in fact, they are unknown. therefore, in conditions when there is no valid information, we believe that it is absolutely inadmissible to make such, well, frankly, boorish statements. william: european foreign ministers are demanding new sanctions against moscow. >> it's a horrible reminder that -- he was a very strong person because we lost such a hero. william: in st. petersburg, men clad in black removed flowers from a memorial, carrying them away in garbage bags. but moments later, navalny suorters returned to replace them. other memorials have also been dismantled across the country. and police have detained nearly

400 people for attending events commemorating navalny's death. with less than a month to go before russia's national election and with putin's victory all but certain, navalny's death further scatters and weakens an already thin opposition movement. for the latest on navalny's death and what it might mean for the future of russia's opposition movement, we turn to andrei soldatov. he's a russian investigative journalist and a senior fellow at the center for european policy analysis. thank you so much for being here. it has been four days since navalny's death has been announced. russian authorities have not allowed his family to take possession of his body. what do we know about the circumstances surrounding his death? andrei: to be honest, the circumstances are getting more and more mysterious. the initial version was that he

died on the 16th, but now there are some reports that probably he died the day before, because there was a lot of unusual activities. lots of cars coming to his place. apparently, it was somehow connected to his sudden death. why he died, we still don't know. we have no. -- clue. the official reason is sudden death, whatever it means. as you pointed out, the family does not have any access to his body. william: do you think his family will ever truly know what happened? andrei: i very much hope so. of course, we have a very long record of political assassinations under mysterious circumstances over the last 20 plus years under vladimir putin. every time, it was extremely difficult to establish the

cause. and we have a number of poisonings and very few people actually know what was used against them. in several cases, even now after 20 years, we don't know for instance what happened, what was used against a famous russian journalist, and what was used against -- william: president biden and many other leaders have squarely placed the blame for this debt on vladimir putin. do you share that belief? andrei: absolutely. over the last three years, it was a deliberate systematic effort to kill navalny. moving him up north to morton more horrible conditions, and what happened before with his poisoning is a very clear sign

that he was a target of a political assassination. it just failed back then. they did not fail now. we also know that vladimir putin, being a very practical man, made the political assassination part of his toolkit. now we can say that we have the upcoming election, putin is extremely nervous. it makes perfect sense for him. william: can you help me understand something. after that poisoning that navalny survived, he returned to russia. he had to know he would be imprisoned perhaps for the rest of his life. help us understand why he might have done that. andrei: first of all, navalny do not live his political future in exile. he believed he needed to get back and conduct his political activity in the country. he was a strong believer.

now, the circumstances completely changed but before the full scale invasion started, it appeared to some people that there was still some room for legitimate political activity in the country. he also built a very impressive number of supporters around the country and he did not want to abandon them. he believed that ethically, he needed to be with them in russia. of course, he took his chances. it was extremely brave, but vladimir putin decided to imprison him and kill him. william: what does this do to the opposition movement in russia? that movement has been splintered and fractured for many years. now with its up sensible leader gone, what does it do to that

movement? andrei: it is impossible to deny it is a horrible blow because as you pointed out, yes, the movement was never cohesive and very obvious problems within the community of russian activists and opposition politicians. navalny was the most popular politician. of course, it is a blow. at the same time, he and his organization -- several things that the political opposition believed was impossible. for instance, he organized protests in russian regions. we also had this concept that russian liberals live in big cities like moscow. navalny changed that. he built an organization. he got his supporters and a

network of people. these people are still there. they are not going anywhere. some of them are still in the country. some of them left. but they are all very much active and are determined politically. william: thank you so much for joining us. andrei: thank you. ♪ william: along nato's eastern flank are several former soviet satellite states, each with long and bitter memories of russian dominance. those nations are among the strongest supporters of ukraine's fight against russia's invasion, and of american support for europe more broadly. one nation loudly making that argument is poland. over the weekend, nick schifrin sat down with poland's foreign minister, radoslaw sikorski. they talked at the munich security conference, which highlighted europe's anxieties about putin's invasion and

america's resolve. nick: thank you very much. welcome back. as of now, the u.s. house of representatives has not approved vital military aid to ukraine. ukraine is rationing ammunition. what impact is the debate in the u.s. having on american credibility? >> first of all, remember that europe has contributed financially more to the effort than the u.s. nick: in total. >> when you count brussels and the member states. this is money for weapons to be manufactured in the united states. the ukrainians have already destroyed half of president putin's army without the involvement of a single american soldier. lastly, it is much cheaper to help ukraine now then it will be if putin conquers ukraine and has to be deterred. we think this is good value for money and this package is

important. we appeal to the house of representatives, to mike johnson personally. nick: the speaker of the house. >> to please let it go to a vote. nick: do believe it is damaging u.s. credibility? >> if ukraine, having been encouraged to resist, the president of the united states having put his standard on the ground in kyiv, the famous historic visit, then does not deliver on assistance that would send a message around the globe that you have to be careful because the united states, all important but rebuttable reasons, might not be able to come through for you. nick: you mean trusting the u.s. in the future? >> that would have important implications. not only in eastern europe but around the globe where there are other allies that feel exposed,

bordering on more powerful countries. japan, korea, taiwan, others. philippines, australia even. so, the world is watching. this really is not only about ukraine. nick: can europe make up the shortfall for ukraine if the u.s.oes not send military aid? >> we can make up financially, but there's literally not enough production capacity of shells and other equipment. we are 20 times bigger than russia economically, but russia has gone on to a war footing. it is producing ammo 24/7. we haven't. without the united states, we are behind the curve in making the stuff that ukrainians need to defend itself. nick: many people have admitted that ukraine could lose without these weapons but could ukraine

win with these weapons? that has to struggle to even match its own goals for the counteroffensive last year. >> ukraine has recovered 50% of the territory the pressure in -- that the russians occupied. ukraine has cleared the russian navy from half of the black sea and now exporting grain, not thanks to putin's permission, but despite his best efforts. they just need the tool to do the job. they are doing work on our behalf. we just need to enable them because they cannot defend themselves with barehands. nick: if ukraine gets these weapons, could they negotiate the end of the war? >> well, it will be the u.s. responsibility for having brought that about. for having allowed putin to abolish what we established after two bloody world wars, that you may not change borders by force. it will get noticed by dictators

and aggressors around the world. yes, america will encourage to fight but when it comes to, when push comes to shove, you can get away with it. that would then be a very costly proposition. nick:nick: i notice you don't say no. do you think ukraine should negotiate if they don't have enough weapons? >> i have set it before. there's never a shortage of willing to trade other people's land for their own peace of mind. pass, this should be the ukrainian judgment. they are being conquered, being expelled, their children are being stolen. nick: i know you don't want to talk about u.s. domestic politics but i want to ask about comments by the former president where he question whether nato should defend countries that don't need the 2% threshold of gdp spending in terms of defense

spending. do you believe the damage has been done in some ways that the very questioning of article v, the idea that u.s. would come to european defense no matter which european country was attacked inside of nato, do you think that has damaged article v? >> we heard the secretary-general of nato reporting to the security conference, that this year, 18 nato allies will be spending at least 2%. poland, i think, is number one actually. let's hope that the former president meant to energize us, accelerate the increase of the fence budget. we prefer to remember that under his administration, the u.s. sent antitank weapons to ukraine. nick: is 18 countries out of 31, presumably going to be 32, is that enough countries meeting the 2% threshold?

>> some countries are behind the curve. nick: the eastern flank. >> it is not by accident. the closer you are to russia, the more you are spending on defense. nick: in the past, poland has resisted or worried about europe making military plans, making defense plans outside of nato. are you reconsidering those worries that you had in the past? >> very high-ranking pentagon official told me that the u.s. now supports european defense. they know that there may come circumstances in which, irrespective of whose president, you may be engaged in another part of the world and you want to have the freedom, the knowledge that the europeans can at least to some extent fend for themselves, provide their own security. this means we need to develop some capabilities. nick: outside of nato? >> this should be done in

strategic harmony with the united states, and then i think it is actually helpful to the u.s. nick: thank you very much. >> thanks. ♪ william: one of the key groups spreading false allegations of a rigged 2020 presidential election recently admitted to a georgia judge it has no evidence to support its claims. the group is called true the vote and its accusations of widespread voter fraud became the basis for several conspiracies around the 2020 contest. those debunked claims continue to be repeated by former president donald trump and many leading republicans in the lead up to this year's election. laura barron-lopez has been following this and joins us now. hi. so, what were these claims and how did they come apart like this? laura: true the vote made

unfounded allegations of widespread voter fraud in 202 0. they had quite a few key claims. one, that a network of ballot meals paid $10 per ballot to be stuffed into ballots. that they were content by an informant. that they have a team of researchers and investigators providing evidence of fraud. and they received 117 hotline calls from georgia residents about voting irregularities. the georgia state board of elections filed a lawsuit against the group after they repeatedly tried to get information from them, investigating these allegations of voter fraud finally, a judge ordered true the vote to respond with any information they may have to support their claims. true the vote responded in their recent legal filing with the same answer to each request for evidence, saying true the vote has no such documents in its

possession, custody or control. former president donald trump has repeated these concocted claims by true the vote not just around 2020, but even today. william: such an unbelievable admission to say we don't have the evidence. many of those allegations did become the sort of backbone for a lot of these baseless conspiracy theories. can you sketch out how that became so integral here? laura: yes. donald trump lies about the 2020 election led to many in his orbit taking on the mantle. true the vote, founded by -- peddled conspiracies in georgia and beyond. they were picked up and amplified by -- baseless claims of people traveling to multiple ballot boxes devote. voter fraud allegations were also circulated by rudy giuliani

and sidney powell, attorneys who were co-conspirators in trump's attempts to overthrow the 2020 election. i spoke to a former republican congressman from virginia who worked on the house's january 6 committee that investigated the efforts of elections aversion. he described this as an orchestrated of lies -- network of lies. >> true the vote is part of a massive, multi-headed monster of groups that want to monetize lies. there has never been any proof. it is always the same people. it is the same people pushing this. it is a massive grift. laura: true the vote and all of those figures we highlighted had ample airtime on fox news to repeat those election lies. william: as you were saying, the former president continues to perpetuate those lies and spread them. how much of this is going to continue to be a part of the former president campaign?

laura: since he launched his campaign, former president trump has repeated election lies, saying that a rigged system is persecuting him and he has made vows to seek retribution. >> the radical left democrats rigged the presidential election in 2020 and we are not going to allow them to rig the presidential election in 2024. laura: you hear that he's again laying the foundation as he did in 2020, priming his supporters to believe that if he loses this year, that 2024 would have been rigged. william: we heard the former republican congressman there pushing back on some of this but as you know, he is like liz cheney -- is perpetuating this election lie now a requirement for being in the modern-day gop? laura: let's check the receipts. elise stefanik, the third

ranking house republican, and j.d. vance, were recently asked if they would have done what then-vice president mike pence did in certifying the 2020 election results. >> i would not have done what mike pence did. >> if i had been vice president, i would have told the state likens of india, georgia and so many others that we need to have multiple slates of electors and i think the u.s. congress should have fought over it from there. laura: senator tim scott of south carolina, and republican who campaigned against donald trump has also refused to answer that question. all three of them, tim scott, j.d. vance, and elise stefanik are potentially on the short list for trump's vice presidential picks. ritalin said election to nihilism has become a litmus test for the modern gop under donald trump. >> they are pushing the same conspiratorial thinking. there's no way the election was stolen. it was proven over and over

again. they are allowing the base to drive them where they need to go so they can win reelection or have some kind of favor if trump were to win, in his administration. laura: another example of this loyalty paying off is that former president donald trump is pushing an election denier, michael whatley, to be the new chairman of the republican national committee, and pushing for his daughter-in-law lara trump. william: we saw what all of this misinformation and lies did to the country in the last election cycle. if this keeps up, what do you imagine this means for 2024? laura: former congressman roman told me he is concerned that voters are continuing to believe this. when he talks to republican voters in his rural area of virginia, they say they already think 2024 is being stolen by democrats, election workers are preparing for potential continued threats of violence against them in preparation for

the election this year. and election denial has been so baked into the gop, but it is something that americans are starting to accept as a part of the republican party. according to a poll conducted by cnn, the majority of voters surveyed say they didn't think donald trump would concede the 2024 election if he were to lose. william: such troubling reporting. thank you so much. laura: thank you. ♪ william: the presidential primary season could effectively come to a close later this week after voters in south carolina finish casting their votes saturday. meanwhile, there's no end in sight for former president trump's legal troubles or for the debate on capitol hill over continuing funding for ukraine's defense. for more, we turn to our politics monday analysts.

amy walter of "the cook political report with amy walter" and tamara keith of npr. welcome to you both. so nice to see you. thanks for being here on the holiday. tam, let's talk about south carolina. trump has a commanding 30 point lead, if you believe all the polls, over former u.s. ambassador and former governor of south carolina nikki haley. if she gets totally blown out of the water in her home state, how does she go forward? >> she just proceeds forward without a mandate to proceed, which has been her entire time in this primary. she says we've got it down to the race i want. it is me against trump. republican primary voters seem to want trump. so, she is saying she will keep competing through super tuesday at least. that is in early march, march 5. she has been out to several of those states to hold events.

she has been holding a lot of events in south carolina. trump has held very few but he may not need to it turns out. so, she can keep going as long as she has the money to keep going and as long as she is willing to sort of take whatever political damage comes from losing a lot. >> is it political damage or is she positioning herself in a way that she can get something politically from doing this? william: like what? >> is she going to be the voice, somebody wrote the other day, the voice of i told you so after the election. she has been saying over and over again on the campaign trail, he cannot win. every time trump has been on the ballot, he has lost, our candidates have lost. if he does lose in 2024, people look to her and say, oh, she was the one who told us all along and we will now look to her for other political advice going forward.

it may not happen but that is one pathway. the other is you are hearing from folks, from the wing of the party, some known as the anti-trump wing, others in this former establishment wing, the reagan wing of the party, that she will continue to carry that torch going forward. that there always be this element in the republican party of a strong interventionist, culturally but mostly fiscally conservative party. and that even though trump is ascended now, she will be the one carrying that piece of the party and their agenda forward in whatever form that takes. theoretically, you could go forward and amassed a bunch of delegates and have some leverage going into a party convention. but the way that the process works, south carolina -- it is a winner take all system so even getting 40% of the vote gets you nothing. william: empty-handed. you think that is her

calculation here? i understand the theory you are describing. it seems that the gop is not interested in having a principled republican-esque critic in its midst. >> certainly not. look at who former president trump wants to lead the republican party. he wants to get rid of an rnc chairwoman who has been pretty darn loyal to him, and replace him -- william: ronna mcdaniel. >> and replace her with-- william: his daughter-in-law. >> the longer nikki haley stays in this primary -- it is not that it helps her with the delegate math, but the longer she stays in, the more trump's challenges, legal, financial challenges, the longer they have to come to light. now we know there is a trial that will start in new york on march 25, as long as it sticks.

these have this big ruling against him, huge fines he has to pay. she's able to more clearly make the argument she's been making all along, which is like is this really who we want to nominate? then, it still comes back to the same problem in the republican primary, the answer is yes. william: the primary voters have been crystal clear about that. let's talk about that, some of the legal troubles that tam is bringing up. huge, hundreds of millions of dollars, which could be a potential dent on his ability to spend money going forward but also the stormy daniels case, the january 6 case potentially, maybe georgia, maybe mar-a-lago with the classified documents. i know you are always reluctant to say this will have an impact or not, but do you think any of those cases could meaningfully change the selection? >> yeah, so, it is a question that will get asked a lot throughout the entirety of this campaign.

right now, it feels like for so many voters, this is white noise. even these judgments against donald trump have not gotten any sort of traction, it has not changed the method the republican primary and not in the general election. the question becomes if there's a criminal -- if there's criminal liability, he is found guilty one of these cases, the documents case or january 6, will that change people's minds? what is fascinating to watch is how this question gets asked of voters. now, it is very hypothetical. if something does happen, do voters opinions of a change over time? that the immediate reaction may be different from, are we really going to do this? once we get to october and november, where you can see voters rallying behind trump maybe. you can also see them saying i will not vote for him but then rally around him at the end. this is going to take an effort, i think, on the biden campaign's

part to make this part of the campaign. this event is going to happen and then organically voters will end up will they end up. the job of the opposition campaign is to make that certainly a centerece. william: is biden going to do that? he has thus far been reluctant to touch trump's legal woes when they have been obvious targets the schuette. -- to shoot at. >>'s campaign has been extremely reluctant. they feel like the legal challenges that trump has get a lot of attention. just think about, there were dueling court hearings last week. he got to hold court outside of the courthouse, both before the trial date was set and then afterwards. he's getting a lot of attention about this. for now at least, they think it is getting enough attention. they would like voters to focus on what does this mean for them rather than what does this mean for donald trump, and they are

struggling to get voters to focus on that. they are struggling with that message. i think that for trump, these first cases on the calendar, if you look at it, the civil cases and penalties that he's faced in new york. the next case being the stormy daniels hush money/ campaign-finance violation and cooking the books -- that is not the right phrase. but those cases are all in new york. he has done a fairly good job of convincing definitely republican voters, but even people who are not republican voters -- william: these are new york city liberals that hate me. >> yes. these cases should not count against me. this is particularly a witchhunt. you don't necessarily get to a case where voters haven't had -- haven't been convinced of this. you don't get out of new york for quite some time in the calendar. william: let's shift across the

atlantic for a second. the munich security conference just wrapped up this week. the poland foreign minister talk about this yearning for europe to know where america stands. are we going to support ukraine or not? they just lost a city to the russians because they ran out of ammunition. what do you think comes out of that? we saw very dueling views. >> quite clear dueling visions. you had the vice president saying, do we are standing with ukraine. and then you saw someone like j.d. vance, the senator from ohio, basically as a trump surrogate who said in his remarks that, yes, we like europe, we like nato, but don't see putin as an existential threat to europe.

if you are european, you probably don't like to hear that. he basically said we will stay part of nato but we don't see that as important as we do other places in the world, especially the fight with china. william: do you see that the republican move away from supporting ukraine -- it used to be they were lockstep with democrats and now they are not -- does that hurt them in the election? >> generally speaking, foreign policy is not what decides elections. this could be the year where that changes, but it also could be the year where that does not change, where you continue the pattern where people think about their own lives. they look inward, they look to the u.s. and not looking at foreign policy. >> unless putin, something really does happen in europe, that is a different calculation. william: amy walter and tamra keith, thank you both. >> thanks to you. ♪

william: in whatever role he appears in films or tv as lead, or as a character actor, paul giamatti makes an impression. last month, he won a golden globe award for his performance in the film "the holdovers." and the role has now brought him his first best actor oscar nomination. he recently spoke with jeffrey brown for our arts and culture series, canvas. >> i can tell by your faces that many of you are shocked at the outcome. jeffrey: in "the holdovers," paul giamatti plays paul hunham, a crusty 1970's-era new england prep school teacher, ever ready to quote marcus aurelius and take down his pampered charges. >> i cannot fail this class. >> i certainly believe you can. >> i'm supposed to go to cornell. >> unlikely. jeffrey: the setting was well known to giamatti, who had himself attended such a prep school as a teenager and comes from a family of educators, including his father bartlett

giamatti, who served as president of yale university. but, familiarity also presented an unfamiliar acting challenge. >> it's one of the first times i've ever felt that sort of close to something, you know, where there was that much available to me, consciously and unconsciously, which was a good thing, i mean, and i was drawing on lots of, on a deep well of things. but yes, it was sometimes kind of uncomfortable. i was like, wow, am i, i'm not acting enough. this feels so familiar to me that i wonder if i'm doing, am i doing enough? am i doing the job well? i've never had the experience before of this. it was a really peculiar, peculiar thing. jeffrey: so, how did you deal with it? how did you overcome it? >> i just kept doing it. jeffrey: giamatti has made his mark in small parts. "saving private ryan" in 1998. >> when someone talks to you as

if you were no consequence -- jeffrey: and large, the showtime series, "billions." he's been a primate in "planet of the apes." and a founding father in the hbo series "john adams," for which he won an emmy. >> either you are stark raving mad or i am. good day, sir. jeffrey: a breakthrough star turn came in 2004 with "sideways," directed by alexander payne with whom he's reunited for "the holdovers." >> need i remind you that it is not my fault that you are stuck here. jeffrey: in which three wounded souls find themselves left behind during the christmas break -- giamatti's hunham, a troubled student played by dominic sessa, and the school's cafeteria manager, a grieving mother whose son died in vietnam, played by da'vine joy randolph, herself a golden globe winner and best supporting actress nominee. >> can we say it's his birthday? jeffrey: it's brilliant ensemble acting and, for giamatti, the very essence of his profession.

>> it's interesting, the whole idea of sort of chemistry, because people often ask actors like how is it that you find this chemistry? and i actually just think it's at bottom, it's my job. it's my job to get along with other people. it's my job to engage. jeffrey: you mean in a staged, theatrical sense. >> yes. but, it's my job to find something that i connect with these people and then can do it. it really seems at bottom mostly what i do, is to try to find chemistry. and sometimes, you have to fake it and it'll still, if you're good at it, it'll still look like it works. cant stand him. but then, most of the time, you have something like this where we all just melded and it was really nice and we had that magical thing just happening anyway. jeffrey: he knows, your character knows, that everybody can't stand him. >> he kind of likes it that people can't stand him to some extent. jeffrey: he also knows, though, and this is where i think you, you struck me as doing something very interesting. he knows the holes in himself.

you have to show us that. >> yeah, well, he has a self-awareness. he's a self-aware man, which is probably only makes life harder for him. probably if he was more oblivious, he would be better off. and hopefully, yes, you see these kinds of holes in him and his awareness of them, and that gives you some sympathy for him. >> he accused me in order to sanitize his treachery and they threw me out. jeffrey: but how do you do that as an actor? how do you bring that out? i'm thinking of roles where you're talking a lot more, where you're emoting a lot more. this character is a little calmer, a little quieter for the most part. >> yes, for the most part. yes, that's interesting. i start from the script, i mean, i really do. that's the basis and the foundation of the thing, and i'll discover more about the character the more i sort of investigate the script. and the interesting thing with

film is so much of film really, really lives in the, in the inarticulate moments, the wordless moments. jeffrey: do you like those moments? >> i actually like those the most in things. where film acting is at its, where it flowers. because you're expressing everything just through, you know, it's all just bodily expression. and that's amazing. it is the kind of exploration of consciousness and unconsciousness that makes film different from stage. jeffrey: always, though, his decision to take a role begins with the script itself. a close reading to see if he wants to keep turning the pages. >> i'm not being facetious when i say this, but to actually just keep reading the script, if that's what i get, is the script at first. which is usually what i want to see first, you know, even before i'll meet the director or something, i want to see what the story is. if the story compels me to keep reading it, that's the most

important thing. then, it'll be maybe the character and the director and who else is doing it. i'm lucky to be able to choose like that, yeah. jeffrey: wasn't always like that, i assume. >> no. no, it's not for most actors, no. jeffrey: or even for you at some point, right? >> oh, no. definitely, for a long time. jeffrey: did you have doubts about whether it would all work? >> sure. i don't think there's an actor alive who doesn't have doubts, who hasn't sort of encountered doubt at some point, if not all the time. sure. you just don't know. it's such a crazy gamble of a thing to do with yourself. jeffrey: you have any sense why it worked? what do you tell yourself? >> i don't know! you know, at the same time, i had a funny sort of sense that i'd manage. i would manage to find work. i had this, a funny kind of low level confidence that i'd find stuff to do. jeffrey: low level. >> yeah, low level of confidence, i wasn't going to go too far and i didn't want to jinx things. but, i had a sense that i'd find stuff. i'd be ok.

but, you go through rough patches where you're not sure, you know. and then, i don't know, i just, i kept enjoying it, i kept loving it. so, that kept me going. jeffrey: congratulations, paul giamatti, thanks for talking to us. >> yeah, my pleasure, man. thank you. william: online, hear more from paul giamatti, including what's his favorite holiday and why. that's on our youtube page. in nashville, there's a school called valor collegiate academy that encourages students to share what's going on in their lives and to accept support from others. tonight, we hear from high school teacher natalie nikitas and some valor students, as they give their brief but spectacular take on building trust. >> when i go somewhere, the uber driver is talking and inevitably they asked, what do you do? i'm a teacher. and then they have their reaction. a lot of times, they are like why? i asked them who is your favorite teacher? 99% of the time, they are able to name the person and 99% of

the time, they smile. yeah, i don't know another profession other than being a superhero that could do that. ♪ i teach at valor college prep. i teach 11th grade ap u.s. history. the focus is much more on social and emotional learning. teaching students how to navigate the onslaught of emotions and feelings they are experiencing every single day, along with traditional math, science, social studies. >> hi, my name is chester. i am feeling kind of nervous today. valor is unique. so, circle the best way that i have come to describe it is it is halfway between a group therapy session and an aa meeting. >> circle is about a 55 minute experience where students will sit together and basically take

the time to share how they are feeling. >> i am feeling kind of worried today. >> i am a little bit stressed but mostly excited. >> i am feeling a mix of stress but it is both at peace. >> it is a moment for us to decompress and focusing on how we are doing emotionally and give us that same space to just be a collective individually. >> what if i don't and i have to pull more? i did not study and i regret it a lot. i should have listened to my mom. >> i definitely understand procrastinating, but i feel like that same pressure you are under, want to do really well so you can apply to college and get your scholarships and everything. also resonates with the fact of how your mom was saying, making sure you study. the same thing with mine. >> on our best days, where i have truly seen students look

out for one another and make connections that i think every teacher and member of the school hopes to see. >> expressing my worries about school and the stress and the overwhelming feelings that i usually have throughout the day in class, talking about those are pretty relieving because you realize almost everyone is feeling the exact same way. >> i shared last year, it was my first time in front of everybody. like, i was nervous. you get put on a spotlight basically. you are talking and people are listening to you. i would tell my teacher i didn't want to do it. >> you are supposed to have them share their feelings, emotions, struggles. a student is not going to do that unless they trust you. if they do that, that is a feat. if you do it well, the reward is astronomical. >> i personally really disliked it as a middle school or.

i really didn't think sitting down, talking about my feelings was important. over time throughout the year, i started to realize it was something that was useful to me. people know who i am today at valor. they know what i went through and everything. >> the hardest part is being vulnerable but in almost every circle i've been in, vulnerability is always met with support. i am able to trust more with people that i love, like my friends. >> even if we don't understand what a teenager is going through, it is tough, your feelings are valid. for a student to hear that from a teacher, like they actually care about them as a human being , what i have seen happen is students start to excel. >> there's more to life and all of this. this a lot of stress and i felt like i worked myself into this.

this is my life. no one can take that away from me. for the past couple of days, it is appreciating the things in life. >> i will appreciate chris. how are you even the same person right now? you have taken such an initiative and said i am not just going to sit here, i will do everything i can to be the person i want to be. >> want to see students open up, it is like this is everything we've been trying to do. for one brief magical moment, students get to feel whole. i think without recognizing students as whole humans with desires and dreams and setbacks and obstacles, we are truly missing out on half of a student. william: ready? >> my name is natalie and this is my brief but the tackler take on building trust in a circle.

william: tonight's brief but spectacular is part of a six-part collection on the future of education. the entire series can be seen on our website, pbs.org/newshour. later tonight on pbs, independent lens premieres a documentary about how a group of women and lgbtq-plus journalists banded together to launch the nonprofit newsroom, "the 19th." "breaking the news" airs at 10:00 p.m. eastern. check your local listings. that is the "newshour" for tonight. i'm william brangham. on behalf of the entire "newshour" team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> thanks. ♪ >> a proud supporter of public television. on a voyage, the world awaits. a world of flavor, diverse destinations, and immersive experiences.

a world of leisure in british style. all with the white star service. ♪ >> committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work through investments in transformative readers and ideas. supported by the john d. and catherine macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, committed and peaceful world. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you.

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wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. the xfinity 10g network. made for streaming. hello, welcome. to "amanpour & co." here is what's coming up the russian prison service says alexei navalny is dead. we bring you the latest. we get reaction from former secretary of state hillary clinton at this year's munich security conference. >> the choice is simple. you are either scare od or you on. i won't give up on my country. >> a thorn in putin's side. we look back at the life of the