captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, may 2: covid-19 continues to devastate india. >> sreenivasan: in our signature segment: scotland and wales weigh a break from london. and long dtance caregiving with the country of georgia on their minds. next on “pbs newshour weekend.” >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. barbara hope zuckerberg.

the leonard and norma klorfine foundation. the peter g. peterson and joan ganz cooney fund. the estate of worthington mayo- smith. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular has been offering no-contract wireless plans, designed to help people do more of what they like. our u.s.-based customer service team can help find a plan that fits you. to learn more, visit www.consumercellular.tv. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

>> senivasan: good evening and thank you for joining us. president joe biden marked the tenth anniversary of the killing of osama bin laden today with a statement thanking the military service members who carried out the attack on the al qaeda leader's pakistan compound. the president said ”we followed bin laden to the gates of hell— and we got him. we kept the promise to all those who lost loved ones on 9/11: that we would never forget those we had lost.” mr. biden, who is spending the weekend at his home in delaware, was vice president when then- president obama ordered the killing. the u.s. sent troops to afghanistan in 2001 in what has become america's longest war. in his statement president biden said al qaeda is now “greatly degraded.” yesterday the formal withdrawal of troops from afghanistan began, and is set to be complete on september 11. earlier in the day, the biden administration focused on the nearly $4 trillion in new spending on infrastructure and proposals to expand education and the social safety net for lower income families.

today, treasury secretary janet yellen, who previously served as chair of the federal reserve, defended the administration's plan to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthiest americans to pay for the plans. >> we're proposing that the spending be paid for, and i don't believe that inflation will be an issue, but if it becomes anssue, we have tools to address it. these are historic investments that we need to make our economy productive and fair. >> sreenasan: president biden will continue his tour to sell his proposals this week, including a planned visit on thursday to lake charles and new orleans in louisiana. louisiana republican senator bill cassidy is part of a small group of republicans that has put forward a smaller $570 billion infrastructure bill. in an interview today, cassidy said a bipartisan deal is possible, but it will have to be a much more limited package than what the biden administration is proposing. >> if you're tking about a scope, which is roads and

bridges and internet and tunnels and airports and waterways we can be pretty close. if you're talking about spending hundreds of billions of dollars to benefit public service unions then we are far apart. >> sreenivasan: in india this weekend, the surging second wave of coronavirus infections combined with a shortage of vaccines are now causing an average of 3,000 deaths every day. hospitals are overwhelmed, and new lockdowns are underway, but less than 2% of india's 940 million adults are fully vaccinated. the "new york times" database shows the average number of cases explosive increase-- up 82% over the past two weeks. the number of deaths increased 195% on average. as grim as those statistics are, experts say the real number of lives lost in india is far more than the 215,000 officially reported. india's vaccine shortage put a new inoculation campaign for all adults on hold in several parts of the country this weekend.

despite the crisis, people in four states were in the streets today celebrating election victories-- many without masks. preliminary results showed prime minister narendra modi's nationalist party did not gain a significant number of seats in the local legislative elections. analysts say modi's support may be slipping because of his handling of covid-19 and the increasing rate of infections and deaths. in israel today, the government held a national day of mourning for the victims of a deadly stampede at a religious festival in northern israel last week. flags were flown at half staff to remember the 45 people who were killed at the lag b'omer festival when the exits became too crowded. it was the deadliest civilian disaster in israel's history. at least ten of the victims were younger than 18. there were an estimated 100,000 people at the religious festival-- the largest gathering in the country since the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic. vigils were held throughout the country, and questions continue about how the event was allowed

to continue despite multiple safety concerns raised in past years. prime minister benjamin netanyahu said friday there will be a formal investigation. the special election to replace the late republican congressman ron wright in texas' 6th congressional district will be going to a runoff between two republicans. wright's widow, susan wright, received 19% of the vote in a field of 23 candidates. state representative jake ellzey was a close second, but neither came close to the 50% needed to avoid the runoff. the district has become competitive in recent years with former president donald trump narrowly winning by three points in 2020. the leading democrat in the field came in third, failing to get enough votes to qualify for the runoff. four astronauts returned to earth in a rare nighttime ocean laing very early this morning. the spacex dragon capsule nad“ resilience” undocked from the international space station just after 8:00 p.m. last night, ending the astronauts 167 day stay at the station. "resilience" landed in the gulf

of mexico off the coast of panama city florida at around 3:00 a.m. in the first u.s. nighttime splashdown in 53 years. ( applause ) all four astronauts were safely retried from the capsule, a successful end to nasa's first commercial crew mission. nasa is using commercial companies to provide transportation to the international space station to free more nasa resources for deep space missions. for more national and international news go to pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: crucial elections are coming up on thursday, may 6, in the three countries that comprise great britain: england, wales and scotland. nationalists in scotland and wales are hoping to do well enough to demand referendums on independence from london. in 2014, scottish voters rejected independence in a referendum, but brexit and the handling of the coronavirus pandemic are renewing interest, and exacerbating tensions between the nations in what's

being described as the "disunited kingdom." newshour weekend special correspondent malcolm brabant reports from north wales. >> reporter: sundowner time in caernarfon, 300 miles northwest of the british seat of government in westminster, london. this world heritage town is a bastion of welsh separatism, and voters are on a collision course with westmster. >> essentially, it's all about being anti-westminster because it's an establishment of awful people. >> the union is collapsing. i think that the-- i think scotland has done pretty well in puing independence themselves. >> i really got to the point where i just think we've got to go for it or it's not going to happen at all. >> reporter: for the past 20 years hywel williams has represented this district in the british parliament on behalf of the nationalist party of wales, known in his language as plaid cymru. >> our motto is "stop the world, want to get on." actually, we want to join the world, not separate ourselves from it. but we want to join the world as ourselves, and i think we have a

positive contribution to make to world affairs in our own small way. >> reporter: until now, only a minority of the population has supported welsh nationalism, but with polls estimating 35% are in favor of independence, plaid cymru is promising a referendum if it gets into power in the welsh assembly. >> certainly, wales is a poor country relative to, say, germany or denmark or whatever, but we look at the small nations across the water here towards ireland and see the huge strides that they have made as an independent country. >> reporter: wales, scotland and northern ireland were given their own national assemblies at the turn of the century, so- called devolution gave powers over issues such as health and education to the three new authorities in cardiff, edinburgh and belfast. the welsh assembly has traditionally been governed by the labour party, which is opposed to independence. sion jones is a labour councillor in caernarfon. >> i want to see wales have more self-determination, and that

means more powers towards our country. however, going as far as independence, i think is a step in the wrong direction. we are at the moment having nearly 20 billion pounds by the westminster government to control and to run our services. without that, i think wales would be in danger. >> reporter: polls suggest that labour will be the biggest party after the election, but may have to share power with the welsh nationalists. the british government likes to boast that the united kingdom is the most successful political and economic union the world has er seen, but a new study by public policy experts at cambridge university warns that boris johnson is widely perceived as a prime minister who only speaks for england. >> this present crisis is, i think, a lot more serious than the british state seems to realize. >> reporter: historian owain jones believes that english brexeers, who triggered britain's divorce from the european union, bear responsibility for welsh referendum demands. >> from the perspective of welsh

home rule or welsh independence, i think brexiteers are more to be thanked than blamed. the fact that they are moving against the small measure of self-government that wales has at the moment is forcing people to choose their side. ( speaking welsh ) >> reporter: the welsh language is part of the cultural identity driving the independence movement. what's unusual here is that the brown family, all fluent welsh speakers, are english. they fell in love with welsh culture, set up home here, and have become welsh nationalists. >> successive english governments have always been patronizing towards us. >> because of ignorance, they're ready toelittle the language. and i don't really like that. >> reporter: beca brown was elected as a local councillor for plaid cymru during the pandemic. having control over health issues enabled wales to enforce tougher measures than england.

>> mainly for me, it's an ambition for wales, wanting to see us healthier and wealthier. because going back to the pandemic, what we have seen is i think the eight areas in the u.k. who are worst hit by covid, five of them werhere in wales, and that's poverty. >> reporter: all welsh eyes are on scotland, which is further along the road to independence, because the nationalists dominate the political scene here. as she launched her election manifesto, party leader nicola sturgeon lay down the gauntlet to westminster. >> i believe passionately that with the powers of independence, we can do so much more for scotland. >> reporter: this is what remains of kelso abbey after english troops sacked it in the 16th century. it's in the borders region where paul wheelhouse is fighting for re-election. he's been the energy minister in sturgeon's government. wheelhouse believes brexit and sturgeon's competence during the pandemic have boosted their chances. >> it's not a competition, of course, but we have seen a lower level of deaths in scotland,

lower level of infections in scotland, and we have sometimes taken politically courageous decisions that have been unpopular at the time but proved to be right in terms of shutting down parts of the economy earlier than in england. >> reporter: this is the border. on the left bank of the river tweed is scotland, on the right, england. john lamont is a conservative member of the westminster parliant for the scottish borders. >> we need to not only ensure that we defeat the spread of the virus, but we need to deal with economic recovery plan, and that will take some time. so i don't think now is the time for a referendum. >> reporter: the scottish political scene has been complicated by a vicious split in nationalist ranks over unproven allegations of seal harassment by the former s.n.p. leader alex salmond. salmond was cleared in court of all charges. his supporters believe that nicola sturgeon orchestrated a campaign to bring him down. salmond has formed his own party, alba. >> the party's strategic aims

are clear and unambiguous: to achieve a successful, socially, just, environmentally responsible independent country. >> reporter: alba candidates like christina hendry, reject claims that independence demands will damage scotland's post covid recovery. >> scotland is best placed to decide how we recover from the pandemic. the people of scotland are best plac to decide what policies we should be putting fward, how we should be recovering. >> reporter: at a memorial to fallen british veterans, former soldier bob bolton stands up f the union. >> we are better together. this pandemic has proved that. and if i hadn't been for the u.k. government, scoand would have been so far behind in the vaccination process. there would be many, many more peop dead in scotland than what there is now. >> reporter: some analysts believe that boris johnson should offer the scots a surprise referendum now because there's a good chance of it rejecting independence in the wake of the pandemic. >> scots will recognize the great benefits of being part of a strong united kingdom and they

recognize what they contribute to the entirety of the u.k. as well. so i do not accept that independence is inevitable. >> reporter: but in this small welsh garden, hopes are soaring higher than ever. >> scotland is very much our model. if scotland goes independent, then i really do think that there will be nothing to hold us back then. >> reporter: the good ship britain may look stable now, but troubled waters lie ahead. >> sreenivasan: in the small country of georgia, with about 3.7 million people, more than 8% of the population has tested positive for the coronavirus. at its peak in december, with a rate of about 4,400 new cases a day, the medical systethere was overwhelmed, and georgians had few resources to turn to. but here in the united states, nearly 6,000 miles away, two georgian doctors found a way to tackle their home country's woes with an unlikely grassroots effort, advising doctors and thousands of patients using the

power of social media. nana gegetchkori is a cardiologist at maimonides hospital in new york city. zurab guruli is the chief of anesthesiology at montgomery v.a. medical center in jackson, mississippi. both are immigrants from the country of georgia, a small nation in the caucasus mountains between russia and turkey. and when each realized the toll covid would take on their nation's health system, they teamed up to help from half a world away. >> i was terrified, what if my country will have as many numbers as we have right now and how they will be dealing with this? >> first thing that came to my mind was my little georgia which does not have a well developed healthcare system and it is a poor country. >> sreenivasan: they tapped into platforms like facebook to share their in-the-trenches knowledge and, in essence, become the persal doctors for thousands of patients in their old country, even as they treated americans sickened by the disease at their respective hospitals. >> maimonides already had an

enormous number of cases. that experience became so valuable i thought this is time to share because before they get new cases and before they get really sick patients they have to know. >> pandemic is like a war. and what is the most important thing in the wars? intelligence. especially in such a condition when you do not know your enemy. >> sreenivasan: an ocean and a continent away from the united states, georgia, a country of only 3.7 million, was stricken in december with the highest infection rate per 100,000 people in the world... with the daily cases up to 5,000. how did this happen? recently in georgia's black sea port city batumi, kids have been training for the world karate championships outdoors due to covid safety restrictions. normal life is slowly coming back after a big wave of covid pummeled the city last summer. >> ( translated ): we forgot about everything in summer. the state and, more importantly, the part of the population that

came here to relax, relaxed here freely. >> sreenivasan: by the end of the season, local tourists were offered free virus testing. as the number of positive cases increased, people panicked. >> ( translated ): that period lasted approximately two weeks in adjara and it was a period of complete collapse. >> sreenivasan: the hospitals were converted into emergency covid treatment centers, and local doctor sophio beridze became one of the covid care group leaders. >> ( translated ): before arriving at hospitals covid patients were badly managed, and not to mention that people who entered hospitals had a lack of access to oxygen and enough medical personnel. >> sreenivasan: as the virus spread throughout the country. emergency hot lines were overwhelmed, as was the nation's entire medical system. more than 1,000 people were being infected every day. citizens were rattled by rumors, misinformation and limited access to credible medical advice. in response, dr. gegetchkori and dr. guruli posted a collaborative guideline. it was the first popularly

accessible medical guideline on covid-19 available in georgian. it went viral and made national headlines, receiving tens of thousands of shares on facebook and more than a million views. >> i can tell you that there were hundreds of letters. i started sorting out information how to prevent, what to do, and the next questions were how to treat and of course they needed psychological support, too. >> ( translated ): it was night when my test results came in and exactly that was when i started to really worry. >> sreenivasan: when eka lominavili discovered she had contracted the virus, she couldn't find credible treatment information in georgia. >> ( translated ): that was a horrible period in sense that, in georgia, in tbilisi, there was no family doctor, no insurance company and practically no one from whom one could get help, evenomething as simple as advice. >> sreenivasan: a friend advised her to contact dr. guruli and dr. gegetchkori, who provided their compassionate bedside manner from eight time zones away. >> ( translated ): in that critical period those two people

were everything to me, a tremendous source of hope. >> sreenivasan: lominashvili recovered quickly at home. a doctor living in a small town called senaki was not so lucky. irina pshenichnaia-sichnava was hospitalized, and spent a month fighting for her life. >> ( translated ): when they took me to resuscitation room and started to insert the central venous catheter, a thought passed through my mind: my children. who will they be left with; how will they be? and that's when i told my resuscitator, "do whatever is needed with me, i will obey. but i have to leave on my own feet from here, please, know this." >> sreenivasan: as her condition worsened, a friend sought out dr. guruli in mississippi, for help. >> ( translated ): i called him crying that my best friend was like this, dying. then dr. zura contacted dr. nana. >> ( translated ): i didn't know what was happening around me, i didn't know many things. >> sreenivasan: the two u.s.- based doctors consulted with the clinic on a near-daily basis. after one month she returned home to her faly. >> ( translated ): it seems it

wasn't time for me to go yet. >> and we were not alone in this. it was also very impressive that a lot of other doctors started doing the same things. >> sreenivasan: dr. guruli and dr. gegetchkori joined a georgia-based digital platform with other doctors that through a chatbot connects patients with qualified caregivers, and helps combat dangerous self-treatment of the disease. >> we found out that the people were not able to get the proper and trustworthy information, as well they had no access to hospitals. >> ( translated ): then i went for it and just started taking blood thinners. it wasn't only blood thinners, there were a lot of other things as well. >> sreenivasan: sandro kandelaki was a victim of misinformation himself, and is now part of the digital assistant covider that has been visited by more than 87,000 unique visitors so far. >> nana and zurab were not sleeping. i can tell you that once they were ending their jobs they were calling us. so without their help i could say that we would have much more harder outcomes. >> ( translated ): we all had

our roles, of course. all those innovations that were coming from their experience, shared by them. on our side, we did all we could in terms of ambulatory protection and help. a serious team of doctors were involved in the stationary management. >> sreenivasan: locked down in their jobs in new york and mississippi, dr.'s guruli and gegetchkori have never actually met, but their long range caregiving in their old homeland has ilt a lasting friendship. >> it was a really important experience of using new technologies to deliver care transatlantically. >> if we shareur experience, and if we gether come to tackle any disease, i think there will be no problem which the human race cannot solve. and it's just important that we have to come together we have to help each other and not to be selfish, because this planet is our home.

>> this is pbs newshour weekend, sunday. >> sreenivasan: finally tonight, the east african country of eritrea has been called the north korea of africa, ruled by one of the most secretive dictatorships in the world. in a new documentary premiering tuesday on the pbs program "frontline," viewers get a glimpse into life under eritrea's repressive regime. "escaping eritrea" features exclusive footage and interviews with those who have fled, including a former prisoner named michael. he smuggled out footage from a government prison where he said he was incarcerated and tortured after avoidi military conscription. here's an excerpt.

>> the prisoners can be seen packed into large holding rooms. according to michael, they can be held like is for years. without trial. >> sreenivasan: "escaping eritrea" airs tuesday, may 4, at 10:00 p.m., 9:00 central on pbs

stations. >> sreenivasan: that's all for this edition of “pbs newshour weekend.” for the latest news updates visit pbs.org/newshour. i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching. stay healthy and have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. barbara hope zuckerberg. the leonard and norma klorfine foundation. the peter g. peterson and joan ganz cooney fund.

the estate of worthington mayo- smith. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. additional support has been provided by: conser cellular. and by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. you're watching pbs.

ramin setoodeh: have you ever wished you could hang out with your favorite hollywood stars? male: that's the greatest gi to me about acting. the expansion that happens is massive. ramin: variety studio invites you to listen in as today's biggest actors talk to each other about their craft. anthony hopkins: you know, working as an actor, i just have such a ball doing it. ran: with jodie foster and anthony hopkins, and riz ahmed and steven yeun. ♪♪♪ ramin: welcome to "variety studio: actors on actors." i'm ramin setoodeh. our show looks a little different this year, but what hasn't changed is the quality of the conversations you're about to see. thirty years ago, jodie foster and anthony hopkins delivered oscar-winning performances in "the silence of the lambs," one of the most influential horror films of modern times. based on a true story, jodie foster stars as a defense attorney trying to get her client freed from guantanamo bay