captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: the fight for the future of ukraine escalated today, well-armed men, alleged to be russian forces, took control of two airports in crimea... president obama warned moscow not to intervene. the united states will stand with the international community in affirming there will be costs for military intervention in ukraine. >> good evening, i'm judy woodruff. also ahead good evening, i'm judy woodruff. also ahead, miles o'brien ventures deep inside one of the world's most hazardous places: japan's fukushima nuclear plant, still mired in trouble three years after its catastrophic meltdowns.

>> resembling astronauts on the way to a fully fueled rocket, we donned special shoes and hard hats, then boarded a bus that would get us as close to the meltdowns as the laws of physics, and common sense, would allow us. and it's friday, mark shields and david brooks are here to analyze the week's news. those are just some of the stories we're covering on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations.

and... friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: this was a day of deepening crisis in crimea, amid growing signs of a possible bid to break away from ukraine. ukrainian leaders accused russia of a military invasion and occupation of crimea. newshour correspondent kwame holman has our report on the day's events. >> reporter: the situation in crimea approached a dangerous pivot point, as ukraine's new government accused russian forces of taking over two airports, a coast guard station and a border post. at a roadblock near one airport,

this man said he had no idea who the armed men were, but they quickly set up a security perimeter. >> ( translated ): they arrived around 10:00 p.m. right there a machine gun was installed. the trucks passed through and immediately took control of the whole area; armed men jumped out from the trucks. >> reporter: the crimean peninsula is a bastion of support for moscow, and is home to russia's black sea naval fleet. the fleet command denied the well-armed, uniformed men on patrol were in fact russian troops, but russian military vehicles were seen outside the base, a possible violation of longstanding regulations. by late today, the gunmen had extended their hold on the main airport, and ukraine's largest airline said airspace over crimea was now closed. in kiev, the new interior minister called it an armed invasion, and the acting president warned against outside interference.

>> ( translated ): according to established agreements, we demand from all countries guarantees to confirm in practice actions to respect the independence, sovereignty and borders of ukraine and to refrain from using force against ukraine's territorial integrity or political independence. >> reporter: he later said russia was following the same strategy it used in the run-up to war with georgia in 2008; and he urged russian president vladimir putin to cease what he called provocations. but large-scale russian military maneuvers continued just across the border on russian soil. and a russian naval vessel took position at the entrance to a harbor that leads to sevastopol and the russian black sea fleet >> reporter: in washington, secretary of state kerry spoke with russian foreign minister sergei lavrov by phone. kerry said lavrov assured him that moscow has

no designs on ukraine. >> i made it clear that intervention would, in our judgement, be a very grave mistake. i nevertheless, made it clear that that could be misinterpreted at this moment and that there are enough tensions that it is important for everybody to be extremely careful not to inflame the situation and not to send the wrong messages. he reaffirmed to me that president putin is committed and that as a matter of policy, they do not intend to violate the sovereignty of ukrainement. >> and this afternoon the united nations security council met to discuss ukraine. >> meanwhile the deposed president of ukraine viktor yanukovych renewed his claim on that post today in his first public appearance since he fled kiev last friday.

he called the pending may 25 elections illegitimate, and the interim ukrainian leadership bandits, speaking in the russian city of rostovondon, hard by the ukrainian border. >> ( translated ): i intend to continue to fight for the future of ukraine against those who are trying to seize it with the help of fear and terror. and i decided to announce it publicly. nobody ousted me. i was forced to leave ukraine under a direct threat to my life and the lives of my relatives. >> reporter: he blamed the west for creating unrest, and insisted he had not ordered riot police to shoot protesters in kiev, when more than 80 were killed. video evidence last week showed heavily-armed, uniformed security forces firing live ammunition in kiev's central square. ukrainian officials announced today they're seeking to extradite yanukovych from russia to stand trial for ordering

those killings. and switzerland, austria and liechtenstein moved to freeze the bank accounts of yanukovych and his son. swiss prosecutors also announced yanukovych is being investigated for alleged money laundering. the apparent spoils of his rule were on display last week, as protesters wandered through a vacant, garishly-lavish palace that he'd had built for himself. >> woodruff: late today, president obama warned that there will be costs for any outside intervention in ukraine. speaking in the white house briefing room, he said the united states is "deeply concerned" by reports of russian military movements. >> any violation of ukraine's sovereignty or territorial integrity would be deeply destabilizing, which is not in the interest of ukraine, russia or europe. it would represent a profound interference in matters that must be determined by the ukrainian people. it would be a clear violation of

russia's commitment to respect the independence, sovereignty and borders of ukraine, and of international law. and just days after olympics, it would invite the condemnation of nations around the world. >> woodruff: we'll look for answers to today's fast-moving ukraine developments, and russia's role, after the news summary. in moscow today, a russian court put opposition leader alexei navalny under house arrest for at least two months. prosecutors said he violated rules barring him from leaving the city of moscow. the court banned navalny from using the internet or having any visitors. but he said the decree is meant to silence his outspoken criticism of president putin. >> ( translated ): using my last opportunity, i just want to say that this is obviously an illegal prosecution. i think it is needless to explain that what happened is only aimed at limiting my ability to continue anti- corruption investigation.

>> woodruff: navalny is already serving a five-year suspended sentence on a theft conviction. he's also charged with theft and money-laundering in a separate case that has yet to come to trial. the medical relief group doctors without borders says it has been expelled from myanmar, the former burma. the move is linked to the group's work with the rohingya muslim minority. they've come under attack by buddhist-led mobs. myanmar is predominately buddhist, and the government has accused doctors without borders of creating tensions. a powerful storm dumped heavy rain across much of california today, raising the risk of mudslides. the deluge brought much-needed relief to areas coping with long-term drought. but communities east of los angeles were vulnerable because mountain slopes above them were burned clean of vegetation by wildfires last month. mandatory evacuations were ordered for 1,200 homes.

in alaska, the u.s. environmental protection agency announced initial steps to restrict, or outright bar, a huge gold and copper mining project. the proposed pebble mine operation would be near a bristol bay fishery that produces nearly half the world's sockeye salmon. separately, the u.s. geological survey reported the number of sea otters in alaska's prince william sound has returned to what it was before the exxon valdez oil spill, in 1989. the obama administration has issued another fix to the health care law -- this one, to help states that struggled to get enrollment web sites up and running. the change permits residents of those states to receive federal tax credits, even if they ended up buying insurance outside the online exchanges. white house spokesman jay

carney. >> subsidies of aca remain available no matter how you get insurance. we're making sure cms is working closely with states to successfully implement their marketplaces. and that includes making sure that those who are eligible for subsidies are able to receive them. >> woodruff: the problems with the federal health care insurance exchange have largely been repaired. but the states of oregon, maryland, massachusetts and hawaii are still laboring to get their websites into optimum shape. a retirement surge means regional airlines in the u.s. will need hundreds of new pilots each year over the next decade, but they may not get them. the government accountability office reports 11 out of 12 regional carriers failed to meet hiring targets last year. a major factor could be the average annual starting salary, just $22,400. regional airlines handle half of all domestic flights. >> woodruff: a major exchange for bitcoins filed for

bankruptcy protection today. mount gox, based in tokyo, acknowledged a massive loss of the virtual currency, topping $400 million. it's still unclear exactly what happened to the missing bitcoins. we'll find out more about the exchange's troubles later in the program. the u.s. economy grew more slowly in the fourth quarter of last year than first estimated, an annual rate of 2.4%. the government said today severe winter weather was partly to blame. on wall street, the dow jones industrial average gained 49 points to close at 16,321. the nasdaq fell more than 10 points to close at 4308. and the s-and-p 500 rose five points to finish at 1,859, another all-time high. for the month, the dow and the s-and-p gained 4%. the nasdaq rose 5%. still to come on the newshour: the fight for the future of ukraine; our rare look inside japan's fukushima nuclear plant;

a troubled exchange for virtual currency files for bankruptcy; plus, mark shields and david brooks on the week's news. lite today the u.s. ambassador to the united nations proposed sending an urgent independent and credible mediation mission to help resolve ukraine's crisis. however russian ambassador checkin dismissed the idea saying he was against imposed mediation. our jeffrey brown takes a closer look at the tensions escalating between russia and ukraine. >> brown: to do that i'm joined by dimity rye simes president for the center of national interest, a foreign policy think tank and angela stent, director for the center of eurasian, russian and east european studies at georgetown university, her latest book is the limits of partnership, u.s.-russian relations in the 21st

century. angela stent, i will start with you. president obama cited-- cited reports of troop movement in ukraine but it is a very confusing situation, isn't it? >> it is very confusing. we do know that in crimea pro russian forces, people and some forces have taken over local buildings. some crimeans would like a referendum to-- and on the other hand there are other groups in crimea that are not pro russian and support the interim government in key avenue. -- key eve. we really don't know that much about what is whatting but we do know russia is flexing its mills t has important equities in crimea t is the headquarters of the black sea fleet and they want to make sure that they don't lose those equities. >> what does flexing its muscles mean. the obvious question is an invasion or some sort of invasion under way? >> well, the black sea fleet is in crimea. -- for the troops which are there quite legally with the

black sea fleet and clearly some other russian units are arriving there. one element of confusion, angela, quite correctly talked about confusion. but it's not only on who is doing what to whom, but what we are talking about. because russian foreign minister lavrov has a cured secretary kerry as we hear that there would be no russian interference. well, russia is not interning because they do in the recognize the government interim. they are talking about them as a so-called government. they did not say-- . >> brown: even the definition of interference. >> exactly. and yanukovych from the russian standpoint is still the legitimate president. he's in russia. and he stated today publicly that he fully supports actions of self-defense units in crimea. and a definition of self-defense units is quite broad, including units provided by the russian

black sea fleet. >> brown: angela stent, when the president says as we also heard that there would be costs to any military intervention, what might that mean? what sort of leverage would there be? >> that's a very interesting question. we do not have that much leverage with russia any more. our relationship with russia has deteriorated. there is not much russia wants from us. and so i think, and on the other hand we need to work with russia on the iranian question and the obama administration wants to achieve an agreement on iran, on syria, on all of these other issues. so there may be costs, there could be some kind of sanctions although even there there is a limited possibility. so i'm not really sure what those costs would be. >> brown: dmitri simes there is a lot of history, obviously with crimea, russia and ukraine, for our audience what should we foe about to help us understand this. >> ukraine, of course, was a part of russia for more than 300 years. and it decided to secede and everybody has accepted it as legitimate. crimea was a part of ukraine.

-- it was given to ukraine by-- but to celebrate 300 year anniversary of ukrainian decisions to join russia. and of course at that time, ukrainia was a solitary republic and the federal part of the soviet union wh who-- in his wildest dream. that gift. >> he was giving them something that he wasn't wanting to give away anything. >> let me say something that is not being discussed sufficient. russia has a major interest in crimea. and unlike in key eve where russia had very few instruments of power, and the west had many more instruments in crimea. russia controls situation on the ground. and we have done to understand that we either would have to develop a solution together with russia, or there would be a military conflict. and in a military conflict the stakes would be much higher for russia than for the united states.

so who is going to bring-- is an interesting question. i would be president obama, i would not be talking about-- in crimea for the united states. >> brown: explain, fill in that, russia controls the situation on the ground in the crimea. >> it does have a lot of leverage there because the majority of the population not all of them, but majority are russian and they want more autonomy for their region. even know they did vote in 1991 to be part of an independent ukraine, they do want a special status. i think the other thing we have to realize is we don't know whether this interim government in key eve is going to be able to impose its will much beyond key eve and the western parts of ukraine. and this is part of i think part of the russian gain too is to wait and see whether the current uniform government lasts and if not, what comes next and then the situation might change again. >> brown: crimea does operate somewhat autonomously right now, correct. >> it certainly does. but interesting, the city of

sebastopol where the black sea fleet is located is supposed to be under the direct jurbs diction of kiev, so it is more confusing. >> so what is all this say about the possibility of the question how far russia might go to protect its interest to an invasion like what we saw with georgia? >> at this point, i think putin does understand that he has an emerging stake in the relationship with the united states, with the european union and he would like to control the situation and to limit the damage. i think at this point, it is still possible to reach a deal where you authorities in kiev would stop talking to the russians in a more conciliatory way, that is what the obama administration also recommends and in return, the referendum in crimea, i'm sure it will take place on may 25th as scheduled. but they would not talk about independence. they would just expect somewhat autonomy. i don't think that this would be a terrible deal for

the united states. having said that, if the situation continues to escalate, all kinds of unpredictable things, unthinkable things may become thinkable in a matter of days. >> brown: what is your analysis of the possibility of escalation. >> the u.s. is to the going to get into a military conflict with russia over ukraine. i mean that is clearly out of the question. but things could escalate, dmitri is right. if moscow is worried that this new government in kiev would revisit the lease agreement with russia whereby it is there until 2042 for the fleet, that would be a serious prove vacation-- provocation. they probably won't do that. but everything is, at the moment, quite unpredictable. >> brown: and what do you make of this international mediation mission that-- raised. >> it would be very, clearly the only long-term solution is for everyone to work together. the united states, russia, the european union and ukrainians. on the economic level and today mr. putin is saying that russia is willing to work with the imf there. but on the political level too. i wonder whether it's too early to do that now.

but i guess the immediate task is to de-escalate the possibility of military conflict. >> brown: of course as we heard, the russians immediately said the mediation isn't necessary. >> because an international mediation was european union, in key eve-- kiev. and yanukovych made concession under pressure. and once he made concessions, the other side's opposition have disregarded the deal and entirely took over. this is a nonstarter. what i think president obama needs to do is not to ask biden to call medvedev, no influence on the russian authority, no real influence n my view president obama has to talk to putin, perhaps to arrange an emergency summit with putin, and to talk about a comprehensive solution for crimea and you crane. the time to do it is now. >> brown: dimitri simes, and angela stent, thank you both very much. >> thank you.

>> woodruff: now, we take you to a place that garnered headlines around the world three years ago, but has hardly been seen since, because it's so dangerous. newshour science correspondent miles o'brien is our guide. >> reporter: three years after the meltdowns, the road to fukushima is still a gauntlet of roadblocks and strict security checks. and inside the exclusion zone, it remains a post apocalyptic landscape of abandoned towns, frozen in time. we were on our way to one of the most hazardous places on earth, the fukushima dai-ichi nuclear power plant. the tokyo electric power company, tepco granted the newshour permission for a rare tour inside the plant where three nuclear reactors melted down after the great earthquake and subsequent tsunami on march 11th, 2011.

in the seismically isolated an radioactively protected emergency response center, we met the man in the hottest seat of all here, superintendent akira ono. he runs an unprecedented demissioning pro-- decommissioning project that will not be done for decades. he prefers not to call it a cleanup. >> after all, if you are just cleaning up after an accident, he told me, there is a lack of quality, meaning speed as the only concern. i feel that isn't enough. we need to look ahead, 30 to 40 years. >> to see it firsthand, we had to suit up. >> we must also wear a full facemask and respiratio respiration-- respirator for good measure, resembling astronauts on the way to a fully fueled rocket, we donned special shoes and hard hats, and boarded a bus that will get us as close to

the meltowns as the laws of physics and common sense would allow us. fukushima dai-ichi or number one was a complex of six boiling water reacters designed by general electric. they were built on sloping terrain, sandwiched between a mountain ridge and the pas civic ocean. the nuclear cores are between 600 and 800 feet from the harbor. three of those cores are now melted down, still steaming hot. their steel containment structures breached. engineers believe some of the nuclear fuel has melted right through the steel containment vessels on to a concrete basement floor where it is exposed to ground water. >> as the ground water passes through the plant, it gets mixed in with the contaminated water that is used to cool the melteddown cores. the result is an awful lot of water that needs to be captured, or else it ends up in the ocean. each and every day about 100,000 gallons of fresh

ground water sinks into the basements of the plant where it becomes contaminated with a witch's brew of radionuclei. tepco is furiously trying to keep pace with the water. they finish a new quarter million gallon holding tank here about every other day. but the hastily built tanks have been leaking. prompting a switch to a welded design, buttressed by gutters, dikes, trenches and water sealants. regardless, no one disputes the plant is steadily leaking radiation-tainted water into the sea. >> when you go out to the open ocean, there is very little contamination found says superintendent ono. basically the contamination is limited to the port. at the port they are bolstering the last line of defense, this water shielding wall should be complete in september. behind it is a system that injects a chemical into the ground that turns water into

a viscus gel, stemming the flow to the sea. the company is also testing an idea to bury cooling pipes near the melted reactors to freeze the ground, making impermeable ice plugs in walls that would keep the clean and contaminated water apart. but all of this is clearly not sustainable. in about three years, they will run out of space for new water holding tanks. then what? ono, no relation to the superintendent is general manager of tepco nuclear power division. >> we can't solve this problem by simply increasing the number of tanks, he told me. we need to solve the fundamental issue of underground water coming in. >> and tepco is also investing a lot in this sophisticated radiation water filtering technology. the trial run, the advanced liquid processing system has cleaned up 12.5 million gallons of water.

it removes ceasium, strontium and 60 other radioactive nuclei but not tradium there is no prak wall-- practical way to factor out this isotope of hydrogen. >> it is hard to remope tridium with scientific methods, he says. but given its biological properties t is a radioactive substance with a very limited risk. >> nuclear engineer lake barrett worked for the u.s. nuclear regulatory commission at three mile island in the wake of the meltdown there in 1979. he ask now a special advisor to tepco's president. >> when you kboin all the water on the site with the tridium, the level was be so low at fukushima they would need to meet international drinking water standards. >> tepco has no authorization from the japanese government, local residents or fishermen to discharge any water at all

including what is leaking from the fukushima dai-ichi site. buet a of millions of gallons of water tainted with tridium into the ocean seems inevitable. >> you can release it into the ocean, in a normal controlled release, which is what i personally believe they ought to do. but they have to work through the fishermen and all the governors and all the social issues that have to be addressed with that. >> reporter: the long-term solution here is to remove and secure the nuclear fuel. at unit 4 they have begun that process. this reactor was shut down for maintenance when the tsunami hit. and so the fuel had been moved into this storage pool. even though the reactor was not running, during the worst of the crisis, hydrogen gas accumulated in the reactor buildings causing a series of explosions. debris rained down into the pool, landing on top of the stored fuel assemblies. workers have now carefully plucked away the pieces and have begun removing the 150033 fuel assemblies stored here.

>> -- it is assumed that some debris fell through the gaps, engineer takashii hara told me. so far we don't think it is anything that will cause the fuel to get stuck, however it could be the case in the future so we're proceeding faux very slowly. the fuel assemblies are transported in casts, that will be stored in a more seismically secure common storage pool. if all goes as planned, this process will be complete by the end of this year. but removing the melted fuel from units 1, 2 and 3 is another matter entirely. radiation levels are simply too high for humans to ever get close enough to clean up, even so, tepco is vows to have the fuel debris removed from one of the reacters by mid 2020. but how? the only way to do that is to invent robots that can do the job. and that is precisely what they're trying to do. >> they're probably the most robotic society, you know,

there is on earth. now you have to take it to another level. you know, to work in the high radiation field and to do things that they've never done before. >> reporter: there are many things that will have to be done here that have never been done before. in order to decommission this plant. >> the need to incorporate more and more new things superintendent ono told me. you can't brood on the past for answers. i want to take on the various challenges with a constructive attitude. >> before we left, they carefully scanned all of us and checked the-- meters that we carried along the way. during our four and a half hour tour we absorbed as much radiation as we would have in a single chest x-ray. it was dark when we road the bus out of the exclusion zone. it was a quiet ride as we all processed the magnitude of the mess. three years after the meltdowns, the crisis has not ended here. in some ways, it is still

unfolding. >> woodruff: next wednesday, miles will have a report on the fukushima meltdown's effect on fish in the surrounding waters. and we want to note, these stories were produced before miles' trip to the philippines, where an accident led to the loss of his left arm. as we said earlier this week, we his newshour colleagues are in awe of his courage. there is more information about what happened, and a link to miles' blog, on our website. >> woodruff: a week ago, most people never heard of an online currency exchange known as mount gox. but it's suddenly become the subject of international interest and its recent turn of fortune is prompting many questions about the future of the virtual currency, bitcoin. hari sreenivasan has the story.

>> sreenivasan: mount gox c.e.o. mark karpeles issued his "mea culpa" before news cameras in tokyo today. >> there was a weak area in the system and as a result we lost bitcoins. i am deeply sorry that i have caused trouble to everyone. >> sreenivasan: his website had been one of the largest on-line exchanges for the digital crypto-currency known as bitcoins. bitcoins are generated, or mined, by computers, solving math problems that become ever more complex and time-consuming. the site, that acted as an exchange, went off-line tuesday, amid allegations of major theft, and karpeles acknowledged today he can't account for 850,000 bitcoins, that almost 4% of all the bitcoins available today, valued at about $425 million. the catastrophic losses prompted picketing this week outside the company's tokyo offices...

>> i had 311 bitcoins in there, which at the time before this started was worth around $300,000. so it looks like that has disappeared. >> sreenivasan: bitcoins were created in 2009 to enable cross- border transactions without third party oversight, and their value soared in recent months. some entrepreneurs even set up a.t.m.-like vending machines to distribute a hard version of the currency. but security concerns and bitcoin's use in money laundering caught the eye of world regulators. in october, u.s. officials shut down the silk road, a major online marketplace for drugs and other illegal products based purely on bitcoin transactions. today, japan's finance minister said the mount gox collapse wasn't unexpected. >> ( translated ): i really wondered whether this would continue. i thought it would indeed go bankrupt at one point. but it has indeed happened quickly. >> reporter: supporters of bitcoin say mount gox is an isolated case, and that virtual currencies still have great potential.

for more on all this we turn to kashmir hill, senior on-line editor and writer at for os who has been following these events closely. she's also author of the ebook secret money, recounting a week she spent living exclusively on bit coynes, so first of all, explain to us what mt. gox was and how it got so big. >> so mt. gox is one of the earliest bit coyne exchanges. its maim actually stands for magic, the gathering on-line exchange it started out basically dealing in magic cards. so it was interested in value created by virtual worlds. and so it made sense it would move into virtual money created for the real world so it was very early, it became one of the biggest, changes out there in part because it just arrived to the game very early on. >> so this potential theft or robbery or dissolution of money that happened, well continuation didn't really happen tuesday, we don't

exactly know what happened, do we? information aroundknow. exactly how mt. gox may have lost these 850,000 bitcoins. there was one document that was leaked that said that there was a leak in there cold storage wallet. and they blamed hackers who took advantage of a flaw in their code to take bitcoin out of their system. but we still don't exactly know what happened. >> so if these coins were to come back into circulation, isn't there the equivalent of a serial number on a dollar bill, wouldn't they show up because all of the transaction on all of the bitcoins are in a kind of open log? >> right, so unless their serve ever-- serves fell in the ocean, bitcoins weren't completely destroyed. they were taken from mt. gox. and theoretically bitcoin is one huge public did -- public ledger, so if we could figure out which transactions were the fraudulent ones, fraudulent ones, the theft, we could trace the bitcoin and

potentially follow it to whoever has stolen it. but there are ways within the bitcoin system to kind of confuse where bitcoin moved. but theoretically we could potentially see when the was taken and see the flow of transactions as to where it went. >> so what about the people who lost money? is there any way that they can be made whole again? there isn't an fdic or even a bank they can go complaint to. >> and for a lot of critics of bitcoin they are pointing to this as saying see, we told you so. you put all of this money into a virtual currency and now it's gone away you know, mt. gox filed for bankruptcy. they did say they have some assets but they also have a lot of debt so, right now it's looking like customers of mt. gox feel, you know, we're using mt. gox as their bitcoin bank have lost their savings which is really sad for a lot of people who had a lot of money there. >> so the japanese finance minister was one of those

critics. he wasn't shy about his pessimism or skepticism for it how are other countries around the world and possibly their central banks positioning themselves to not just bitcoin but other cryptocurrencies. >> there u.s. regulators and lawmakers are being pretty progressive around bitcoin. and they are pointing to things like mt. gox saying we need regulation. we need some kind of oversite of different systems involved in bitcoin so i think this will give them more fodder for calling for that kind of regulation. new york's financial regulator said that they want to issue bit licenses for bitcoin businesses, whether they will be audited and checked and make sure that there is nothing like what happened with mt. gox where people's bitcoins just disappear overnight. >> so it seems like the regulation could be a double-edged sword sword here. on the one hand it could slow things down, which is exactly the opposite of what bitcoin proponents want. on the other hand it could add some legitimacy to these

currencies? >> early bitcoin adopters who liked bitcoin because it was free of the state and free of regulators have looked a scant at the calls for regulation. but people who have got then later who are more interested in the kind of legitimate uses of bitcoin to, you know, avoid transaction fees when sending money, are pretty excited about the idea, these businesses having some kind of oversight. >> and how significant is it that this particular exchange, the collapse of the largest exchange of bitcoin what is the consequence of that on these cryptocurrencies, it seems there are arguments on both sides. one saying it will make the system stronger, the other saying this is the beginning of the end. >> well, mt. gox was for the large time the largest exchange, kind of the only place where you could go to buy bitcoin, but as the value of bytecoin has risen t has attracted other exchanges so there are very big exchanges in china, for

example. there's one in slovenia, and here in the u.s., a company called second market is planning to launch one this summer. so there are other players in the bitcoin market now so a lot of people are saying bitcoin is just going to route around mt. gox's failure. it just clears the field for other, more legitimate companies to operate. other critics say you know h this is-- in terms of mainstream adoption and new people entering the bitcoin market this will be very scary for them. the idea that you might buy a bunch of bitcoin and overnight see them disappear. >> and while we have repeatedly talked about bitcoin, it's just one of multiple currencies. it's sort of the gold there is a silver, there's a copper out there, right? >> there are other cryptocurrencies out there, there is lightcoin, there is doogcoin, these are basically currencies where they copied the bitcoin code and modified in in some way.

so it is very similar to bitcoin with slight differences. and lightcoin is more of an increase in value over the last year than bitcoin did, relatively. if you bot $100 in lightcoin in january of last year it would have been worth something like $30,000 in january of this year. so we're definitely seeing a kind of wider interest in cryptocurrencies or oughtcoins as some people call them. >> kashmir hill from forbes, thank you so much. >> you're welcome. >> woodruff: and to the analysis of shields and brooks. that's syndicated columnist mark shields and new york times columnist david brooks. welcome, gentlemen. so ukraine, russia, david u.s. officials are now saying they're convinced the russian military is in crimea. you heard president obama warning today, what are we to make of this? >> i thought the warning was

strong. i thought the reference to costs, i think the reference to how deeply concerned the u.s. would be and the west would be if russia continues this was a reasonably strong statement to go out there. but fully justified. ukraine was clearly and putin was clearly not going to do anything. he was going to throw some thuggish weight around. will probably get an electoral law but the crucial thing here is money. ukraine is a country which was really teetering toward kbrupt see. and this is a country for sale. and putin has shown in the west when we offered an imf package a few months ago, we weren't really willing to back it up with money and put inwas, he was willing to outbid us. so this will come down to who will outbid who i think put inthinks he can outbid the west again. the administration sources i talked to are pretty resolute we will offer some money this time to keep the possibility of a western-leaning ukraine a fiscal reality. and so i think the administration is pretty resolved not to let putin get away with this, given the leverage we have. >> woodruff: where do you see this going? >> well, chip bolen, the

great u.s. ambassador to the soviet union say there is no expert on russia, there is just various ignorance. i follow that category. i'm amazed that putin just having really been reflected glory of the olympics -- >> a week ago. >> a week ago. and having earned the goodwill that apparently was behind his role, the prominence, the celebrity, the a dulltation-- adulation, puts it on all on the line, i agree with david, ukraine is in terrible shape it needs 25 billion dollars it's a country that has a gross domestic product of $176 billion. it's not a wealthy country at 46 million people. and if it's going to come, judy, it's going to come from the west and with strings attached just as greece z perhaps not as severe but there will be use terity. they have an old value currency, a cotocray with

business moguls cutting deals with the government, the government with them. across the globe in the past year we've seen democracy after democracy and disappointment after disappointment. and i think is one where it's going to require the best efforts and the long-term stamina of the west. >> woodruff: but what about the military piece of this? the fact that the russians are sending their troops in, they're sending military equipment in, david. does this rise to a different level? i know you're stressing the economy. both of you. but what about the military? >> there are two elements of putin's personality. the one is that everything is for sale, all about organizing corruption. and one of the things he's got to probably work on is the oligarches in ukraine take up 80% of the economy, assert the russian oligarches so that is one side of his personality. the second side of his personality and cries 'tis in after crisis is the psychology of fear. and he saw how the ukraine, even the people nominally on his side were basically

running for their lives in the last couple weeks. and so he's going to put the pressure on the other way. and that's just the way he always is. that is what we understand about him, that he's an autocrat who believes in ruling by fear. so he's beginning to install-- instill the fear, and i think he's on his best behavior because of the olympic below. can get rougher than this as we saw in georgia. so the people i speak to expect him they have no illusions about the character of this guy. the u.s. policy, u.s. attitudes towards putin within the administration, the last two administrations have really hardened to an amazing degree. and he is now seen as a narcissistic auto crat. >> woodruff: . >> woodruff: what is really at stake here for the united states? >> well, the importance of ukraine, its european engagement, i mean i think for the future-- i think we have to establish the premise that honest, functioning, competent democracies are good for world peace, are good for

the people of those countries, first of all.ot had that. and it's only hope for that evolving, painful though it will be in its birth is in my judgement, the united states and the eu working together, and being in for the long haul. >> but when it comes to russia, though, tensions keep rising. we're counting on the russians in some regard, if iran, in syria. >> yeah. >> i mean in a host of troubled parts of the world. >> yeah, if you wanted to view them, the bad things that could happen, mentioned earlier on the program, just the possibility of missed calculation. i never thought one was going to happen either. you could have miscalculations and really had something recently terrible if ukraine breaks up. so there's that. but as you say, he could say you mess with me in ukraine i will really mess with you and the parts you really care about, which is iran and syria where we do need

them. i would just go back to putin. we definitely need long-term stability stability in central europe and ukraine and countries like that. but putin is a history-making individual. he sees himself as someone who is shaping history. and people like that are inherently destabilizing. so he is the head of really a failing country with a lot of power, a lot of money, and itch to destabilize the world. and so it's his stability, it's his either rise in power or flow in to we are that maybe ultimately was at stake in one of the world's great troublemakers. >> woodruff: let's bring it back home and talk about something that happened in this country this week, mark. and that is arizona zigzag, i guess you could say, where the legislature passed a law saying, a bill saying that merchants, service providers could refuse to provide a service to anyone who is gay. now the governor, jan brewer, republican, vetoed this. what does it all add up to?

>> well, american civil liberties union, aclu, the anti-defamation league, adl, add to that apple, marriott, delta airlines, american airlines, marriott hotels, starwood hotels, the loss of any standing for arizona as a resort, a convention center, was on the table. and jan brewer understood this. it was-- the old biblical injunction render into caesar that which is caesars. this was not god's, this was caesar. this might have been freedom of religion on the part o of-- religious free done-- freedom on the part of this legislation but this came right down to arizona facing the same ignomiy and loss of capital that it faced on martin luther king day when it refused to accept martin luther king day as a national holiday and again lost convention business. i think it was a pretty

tactical, hardheaded decision made. and mitt romney to his credit weighing in in favor of vetoing it. >> woodruff: along with arizona two senators it is not just arizona, but there are six other states considering similar legislation. >> well, i did declare my interest, hopefully we will see this resolve. what is interesting is the rea sortion of the corporate country club establishment that is what really rallied here and really changed the bill. this is an establishment that has been loss pog we are to the tea party, in part as my colleague gail pointed out because of the campaign-finance reform that made it hard for the big donors to control the party and made it easy for the tea party, but so this was a reassertion of more or less the corporate elite. and saying don't do this to our state. and they carried the day. and what is i think useful is a lot of the small marginal groups often some of the tea parties or social conservative groups off on the fringes have had their way because the people in the establishment center have not been able to slap

them down. and here was a case where they did that. facing ruinous economic cause and i can't see why other states wouldn't face the same logic and would not try to mobilize. if you think the senator needs to mobilize against the fringes, this would be a good sign. >> all right this is a fun subject, tax reform. mark, the republican chairman of the house ways & means committee today rolled out what would be a pretty dramatic change in the tax code, getting us down to three rates, really, 10, 25, 35. but the leadership, republican and democratic leadership basically said it's to the going anywhere. >> i would say first of all two cheers for dave camp. we've had a lot of talk from this guy a lot of seminars, a lot of focus groups, a lot of thesis written on the subject of tax reform. but we haven't had a committee do anything. and dave camp, republican, his last year, chairman of the ways & means committee did, in fact, produce a document, which had her esy in it dave camp said to

those banks, citigroup and goldman sachs, those struggling mom and pop shops that were bailed out by the american people, that he would impose a tax upon them. a slight tax but this is something that republicans don't do. haven't voted for a single tax since 1993, before 1993, starting with bill clinton. so you know, i thought it showed imagination. >> woodruff: but it's not going anywhere. >> i was very disappointed in the speaker's reaction, blah, blah, blah, which was-- an insult to somebody that spent some real work on it, no, it isn't going to go anywhere, judy, because something like this takes a gestation period of three, four years and a lot of work. dave camp began the work. >> ready for mark's smear on seminars. i thought it was a good step forward. like mark, it's a step. at he not going to pass, but it's a step. and a step for some of the reasons mark said. buts it was a republican

plan that preserved the progressivity of the tax code and maybe even increased it a little. and a plan that is revenue neutral but a plan that would produce amazing economic benefits if enacted. if the democrats want to come in and say we'll adopt a similar strategy, maybe we want a little more revenue, then you really could begin to have a negotiation or at least you would if we lived in a normal political system. but i thought it was, as mark said there is a lot of political opposition to this. why should we put out a plan cutting somebody's mortgage interest deduction before an election when it's not going to pass anyway so he did the right thing in fuingt out there and getting this debate going another step forward so i agree with mark. i think it was an outstanding step. >> woodruff: maybe we have time for two things. one is the president rolling out this program this week called my brother's keeper, all about mark youngman,-- a qouning man of color saying we need to do something, a lot coming from its private sector but doing something about young men who just have not had a way up its ladder as the president put it? >> you know, i thought it was pitch perfect for the president.

this was something that he spoke about from the very personal experience, personal angle. he spoke to the young men in the room. auts owe guy-- auto buy graphically about his own, having gotten high and not done well in school and all the rest of it. so somebody who has criticized often even by his own supporters as being too cool, too distance, too detached, i thought it showed a very welcome passion on a subject in which he has, in my judgement, a unique standing. >> i would say what it does, people say oh, there's no money, it's all private sector. but it does a couple of things. first it begins to mobilize a coalition on behalf for some of these programs the next president can use. and the second thing is there will be a lot of testing and studying to find out what works and gathering of that information so i think it's not huge but it plays the predicate for some policies for the next president. >> woodruff: gwen had a wonderful report this week talking to some of these young men. it really is, it really does give you hope. >> yeah. >> woodruff: david brooks,

mark shields, thank you. >> thank you. >> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day. the crisis in crimea deepened, with armed men seizing airports and other key sites. it was reported that u.s. officials see signs that russia is intervening militarily. president obama warned moscow against any military move against ukraine. he said there would be unspecified costs. and southern california braced for major mudslides as a powerful storm brought downpours. on the newshour online right now, our vice week series continues with wrath. we examine why internet users channel their anger online and ask, does it provide any emotional relief to rant in a comments section? tell us what you think. all that and more is on our website, newshour.pbs.org.

and a reminder about some upcoming programs from our pbs colleagues. gwen ifill is preparing for washington week, which airs later this evening. here's a preview. >> we will be covering quickly changing developments this week in ukraine. legal action on gay rights. retirements in congress. and a private sector initiative to take on a public challenge. see you later tonight on washington week. >> woodruff: tomorrow's edition of pbs newshour weekend looks at a program that builds greenhouses in new york city schools, which grow plants in water instead of soil, to teach science and sustainability. and we'll be back, right here, on monday. before we go we want to bid a very fond farewell to a long- time member of the newshour family, kwame holman. kwame is leaving us after more than three decades spent covering a wide range of stories, everything from the decline of the family farm to the end of the a-10 warthog.

he's setting up his own production company, and, fingers crossed, our paths will cross again. that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff, have a great weekend. thank you and goodnight >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us.

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