captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: a punishing stalemate. ukrainian civilians endure russia's onslaught, as president biden visits u.s. troops in poland, and western leaders discuss reducing their dependence on russian energy. then, the heat beneath our feet. an increasing number of scientists and industry executives look to geothermal energy as a viable alternative to fossil fuels. >> it's a really exciting time, because we are getting a lot more, i think, innovative ideas in the geothermal sector than we have for decades. >> woodruff: and, it's friday. david brooks and jonathan

capehart weigh in on the president's handling of the ongoing war in ukraine, and the contentious supreme court confirmation hearings. all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> the landscape has changed, and not for the last time. the rules of business are being reinvented, with a more flexible workforce, by embracing innovation, by looking not only at current opportunities, but ahead to future ones. resilience is the ability to pivot again and again, for whatever happens next. >> people who know, know b.d.o. >> fidelity wealth management. >> consumer cellular.

>> b.d.o. accountants and advisors. >> the john s. and james l. knight foundation. fostering informed and engaged communities. more at kf.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and friends of the newshour. and individuals. >> 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: president biden is in poland today, meeting with a key nato ally that shares borders with both ukraine and russia. mr. biden ends his night in warsaw, ahead of what the white house calls a "major address"

tomorrow in the polish capital. meantime, in ukraine, the horrific toll of a russian airstrike on a theater in the south came in to sharper, and terrible, relief. but, our jane ferguson again begins our coverage with the president's visit near the front. >> hey, folks, i just came by to say thanks. >> reporter: visiting american troops in poland, the president thanked them for defending nato's borders, but said their mission was bigger. >> who is going to prevail? are democracies going to prevail, and values we share, or are autocracies going to prevail? that's really what's at stake. so, what you're doing is consequential. really consequential. >> reporter: mr. biden also thanked his polish hosts for welcoming more than 2.2 million refugees, the most of any country neighboring ukraine. >> the suffering that's taking place now is at your doorstep. you're the ones risking, in some cases, your lives, and risking all, you know, to try to help.

>> reporter: the president also announced more natural gas exports to europe-- at least 15 billion cubic meters. the e.u. buys more than a quarter of its oil, and nearly half its gas, from russia. >> putin has issued russia's energy resources to coerce and manipulate its neighbors. that's how he's used it. he's used the profits to drive his war machine. >> reporter: to punish the west over sanctions, president vladimir putin asked that russian gas exports be paid in rubles, sending european gas prices soaring. the e.u. called it blackmail, but member nations remain divided over a russian oil and gas embargo. nearly 2,000 miles away, in the southern city of mariupol, civilians remain besieged, bombarded, and now, according to officials, starving to death, as food runs out. for the first time, video emerged from inside a landmark theater, showing survivors in

shock after a deliberate russian airstrike. after a week spent searching the wreckage, local officials said 300 victims died. for the first time in days, russia agreed to two humanitarian corridors, including one from mariupol. but inside the city, hundreds of thousands remain trapped. in this open-air prison, they dig graves by the roadside. viktoria's stepfather was killed two weeks ago. until now, the cold weather made the soil too hard to bury him. >> ( translated ): when the doctor was taking our stepfather to the hospital, this guy took a seat in the car instead of me-- and they blew them up in this car. it could have been me. >> reporter: ukraine says russia is distributing aid in parts of the city it seized, but for many, it's not enough to st alive. >> ( translated ): my husband didn't make it to receive humanitarian aid. he had diabetes. the scarce diet of the last days

led him to coma, and he died. >> reporter: a senior u.s. defense official said today russia is focusing its military objectives in the eastern donbas region. the official said russian forces don't want to pursue kyiv aggressively, and are taking defensive positions. a russian official suggested that was always the plan. >> ( translated ): the main objectives of the first stage of the operation have generally been accomplished. the combat potential of the armed forces of ukraine has been considerably reduced, which makes it possible to focus our core efforts on achieving the main goal-- the liberation of donbass. ( explosion ) >> reporter: but for now, there are still cross-country attacks. in kharkiv, there were explosions near a humanitarian distribution site. to the north, the city of chernihiv is all but cut off-- losing its main roadridge in an airstrike this week. ( chanting ) a day after president volodymyr

zelenskyy called for global demonstrations, european capitals overflowed with ukrainian flags, and many ukrainian people. >> ( translated ): ukraine is my home, and we want to come back to our home. >> woodruff: and jane joins me now. poland. jane, so tell us more about this announcement from the russian military. is this a climb down on their part? >> judy, there is potential in that. we've seen them coming out with all of niece statements today talking about first of all the first phase of this military operation, the special military operations they call it, they refuse to call it a war has been quote unquote successful or completed by them. they have said that they have decimated or massively reduced the capabilities of the ukrainian military. we know that's not true. that they will be movg on to

phase 2 which would be shoring up or supporting the donbass region in the far east, separatist part of the country. now it is -- there is hope that this could be an indicator that putin is trying to find some sort of offramp to saif face. he has to answer to the russian people for the potentially 15,000 soldiers, russian soldiers that are believed to have been killed in this fighting and for the fact that they couldn't take kyiv. we know from intelligence reports that the initial plan was to try to decapitate the government in kyiv and replace it with a more russian-friendly one. that they had much broader plans and ambitions. they invaded this country from many different angles and different positions. so this -- there's a possibility that this could be an attempt to start a narrative which saves face. but don't forget, this is coming trt russian military.

we've -- from the russian military. we've heard no such words from putin himself yet. >> woodruff: it may be too optimistic to say it's a climb-down. what jane are putin's other options here? >> you're right, it could be too optimistic. we have heard words saying they are changing tack but we have also seen attacks on cities. those could continue. putin still has -- he may not have his troots to send them into those cities but he has missiles and air strikes that he can continue to bombard cities with. president biden has also raised again several times now the possibility that putin could use biological or chemical wapons, and of course, russia is a nuclear power. while these words might be encouraging for some, there's still the other options, deadlier options that biden could choose to use in the

coming weeks and months. >> woodruff: so grim to think what vladimir putin could do. jane ferguson, joining us tonight from poland. ja thank you. d our ongoing coverage of the war in ukraine, is supported by the pulitzer center. president biden's visit to poland today spotligs that country's importance to the military and humanitarian effort in ukraine. for more on that, we turn to nick schifrin. >> schifrin: poland has long considered itself a front-line state against russia. and, since russia launched its war in ukraine, no country has become more important to western efforts to repel russia's invasion, and to help millions of ukrainian refugees. to talk about poland's role, i'm joined by stephen mull, the former u.s. ambassador to poland from 2012 to 2015, during russia's first invasion of ukraine. he is now the vice provost for global affairs at the university of virginia. stephen, welcome to the newshour.

how important has poland become in the u.s. and nato's efforts to respond to russia's invasion? >> good evening, nick, good to be with you. poland of course has always been the most strategically important country on natick's eastern flank since it joined in 1999. but during the current invasion of ukraine it has become central to the whole crisis first of all because of the long border it joins with ukraine. it has a front row seat for what's going on and it makes our allies very nervous. they share a 330 mile border with poland and not only that that polish border is the principal conduit with the increasing number of weapons that the united states is sending toll ukrainian armed forces and going the other way it is the main conduit for the more than 2 million refugees that have left the fighting in ukraine.

as the conflict moves west, which it's seemed likely to be, it is in a spot that we need to pay close t attention to. >> russia vows to hit, to target, that women's supply line that goes through poland. why is poland willing to take the risk? >> well, it is a big risk, for our polish allies, but they're willing to take it because they thk it's probably the lesser of two evils. the other evil being next in line to be attacked by the russians. so it is an exi existential interest, they are willing to risk about anything to contribute to stopping the russian advance towards its own borders. >> the other part you mentioned of course are the refugees flowing into poland from ukraine.

not enough middle eastern refugees, poland has opened its arms, society and government, to these ukrainian who are coming into the country. why? >> well, i think there are a couple of key differences between the refugee crisis that happened with belarus last summer and fall and what's going on right now. the polish government believed that those refugees from the midd east and from central asia that were coming there belarus, primarily to the pole iish border were sent as a mens of destabilizing poland's relationship to the rest of europe, and probably with russian government support. ukrainians are fleeing from poland and ukraine's common adversary, russia which of course has a centuries long history of occupying and dominating poland. furthermore, the ukrainian community has been quite large

in poland over the past few years, between a million and two million ukrainians have become an essential part of the polish community even before this conflict started. they are essential to the polish economy's operations particularly in the service sector and finally, poles feel a real moral obligation to help their ukrainian neighbors because they believe they have that common adversary and they believe that they need to help them to make sure that when they are in trouble, others will help them, too. >> european union has accused poland's ruling party, law and justice party of eroding justice. law and justice party is accused of, because of poland's importance to the war? >> well, those are concerns that the biden administration definitely has had about the

human rights situation, in poland. there has been some democratic black siding in poland but now that this crisis has happened, it's almost as if the house next door to poland has suddenly caught fire and while poland certainly needs to maybe correct the dry rolt that's -- rot that's going on in its own house, putting out the fire next door has suddenly become a much more dangerous threat to democracy, not only in portland but really throughout all of europe. so concentrating on the most urgent emergency that is on poland's front doorstep right now doesn't mean that we're less concerned about the other problems that you mentioned. >> and finally, poland is you pushing for a permitted presence of u.s. and nato troops who up until now have been rotating into poland back to back. that permanent presence would go against the promises that poland made to russia in the 1990s. why is poland pushing for a more

guaranteed u.s. deployment? >> well, they believe that since the end of the accommodate war and since poland's arc session to the nato alliance that they have become the front line to the alliance and the key to the entire alliance so they believe that that requires moving the u.s. military presence that had existein germany and other places in the west, moving those places to the east where the threat most likely will originate and we have found that they are right, that is where the primary threat to nato is originating. we they it is increasing, and there for the foreseeable future. >> ambassador stephen mull thank you. >> thank you. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, u.s. supreme court nominee ketanji brown jackson has picked

up crucial support. west virginia democratic senator joe manchin said he will vote to confirm jackson. he called her "supremely qualified." manchin has opposed president biden on several other major issues. his vote for jackson could be vital, if all 50 senate republicans oppose her. supreme court justice clarence thomas was released from a washington hospital today, after a week-long stay. the court had said thomas was treated for flu-like symptoms, but did not have covid. his release came amid reports that his wife, virginia thomas, repeatedly texted former president trump's chief of staff in an effort to overturn the 2020 election. we will focus on that, after the news summary. also today, the supreme court temporarily blocked a lower court order that prevented the u.s. navy from restricting deployments of special operations forces who refuse to get covid-19 vaccinations. 35 sailors, mostly navy seals,

sued, after refusing to comply with the mandate on religious grounds. now, the navy may consider vaccination status when making assignments. teachers in minneapolis have reached a tentative deal, to end a strike that began on march 8. about 29,000 students have been out of school since then. superintendent ed graff said that he is looking forward to getting everyone back to class on monday. >> i know this has been a huge challenge for our students, huge challenge for our families, for staff as well, you know. you go into this profession because you care about kids and you want to see them reach their full potential and be a part of the successes. >> woodruff: teachers had demanded better pay, protections for minority educators, and smaller class sizes, among other things. they are set to vote on ratifying the new agreement this weekend. the utah state legislature voted today to override their governor's veto of a ban on

transgender athletes from taking part in girls' sports. the state's ban will now take effect july 1. utah now joins 11 other states that have enacted similar laws. in ethiopia, rebel forces in tigray agreed today to a humanitarian ceasefire. the central government offered a truce with the renegade province on thursday, saying that it would allow aid to flow into tigray. the conflict broke out in november 2020, and has left thousands of people dead and forced millions from their homes. in antarctica, scientists are raising alarms, after an ice shelf the size of new york city collapsed in the eastern part of the continent last week. this satellite image shows the ice shelf in february. and here it is after last week's collapse-- the first of its kind ever recorded in the region. scientists said that prior to now, climate change hadn't had

much impact on that area. meantime, climate activists staged new protests worldwide, with many also calling for peace in ukraine. there were demonstrations across europe. thousands marched through the streets of rome, and mostly teenagers chanted their way across paris. in berlin, crowds waved ukraine's colors, with some linking climate to the conflict. >> ( translated ): we are striking today to show our great solidarity with ukraine, but we also see now that we are in a war that is being financed by fossil fuels. there is no such thing as an isolated crisis. if we want to separate ourselves from the autocrats and live everywhere in peace and freedom and safety, then we need to move away from fossil fuel. >> woodruff: activists also marched in indonesia, australia, and in the u.s. european union negotiators have agreed on landmark restrictions for big tech companies-- including threats of huge fines and break-ups.

the rules aim to bar google, amazon, meta, and others from dominating digital markets. they also include new restrictions on using personal data. the agreement still needs approval from the european council and parliament. back in this country, nebraska congressman jeff fortenberry is under pressure to resign, after a criminal conviction. leaders of both parties in the u.s. house of representatives urged the nine-term republican to step down today. fortenberry was found guilty thursday of lying about accepting campaign funds from a foreign donor. and on wall street today, the dow jones industrial average gained 153 points to close at 34,861. the nasdaq fell 22 points. the s&p 500 added 23. still to come on the newshour: david brooks and jonathan capehart weigh in on the ketanji brown jackson supreme court confirmation hearings. a ukrainian-american candlemaker

re-aligns her business to raise money for emergency aid. plus, much more. >> woodruff: a trove of text messages that former president trump's top aide handed over to the january 6 select committee have revealed an unexpected player in the effort to overturn the 2020 election results. lisa desjardins explains. >> desjardins: judy, the house select committee is looking at more than 2,000 text messages provided by former trump chief of staff mark meadows. at issue here: 29 texts between meadows and ginni thomas, the wife of supreme court justice clarence thomas. she has long been a conservative activist. the messages-- reviewed by cnn, cbs, and the "washington post"-- show she pushed the trump white house to fight the results of

the 2020 election, after it was called for joe biden. on november 10, she texted meadows: “help this great president stand firm. the majority knows biden, and the left is attempting the greatest heist of our history.” in her words, per those reported texts. at the same time, trump was appealing directly to the supreme court to intervene on his behalf. he tweeted on november 6: "i easily win the presidency of the united states with legal votes cast... u.s. supreme court should decide!" jane mayer of "the new yorker" has reported on ginni thomas, her activism, and the supreme court, and she joins me now. i feel right at the top of course we all know that the presidential election was settled law, it was legally held and joe biden was the winner. looking at these texts that three outlets have confirmed for us jane overall what is the wife of the justice saying in these texts to the chief of staff of the president?

>> well, she's arguing that the 2020 election was what she calls the greatest heist in american history. and that the results that were certified were a fraud. and that it had to be stopped. and that the chief of staff, mark meadows to trump, had to step in and do something to try to keep trump in office. >> these texts don't mention justice thomas by name and both justice thomas and ginni thomas have said they keep their work separate. first from chief of staff meadows, he wrote, this is a fight of good against evil, ginni thomas responded, thank you, needed that. this plus a conversation with my best friend just now. we do not know who that best friend was. we know that she and her husband

have referred to each other as best friend in the past. i want to ask you first of all broadly to get our hands around this, are there legal al-and ethical issues for supreme court justice? what are the rules for a supreme court justice in this area of potential conflict of interest? >> well i've been reporting on this and interviewing several of the country's foremost experts on judicial ethics. and what is fascinating about this new material is that several of these ethics experts on the law said, that clarence thomas and ginni thomas in these particular situation have crossed the red lines. and what are the red lines? well, the supreme court as we know is not bound by the judicial code of ethics that applies to all other federal judges, and in the lower courts. the supreme court self-enforces its own ethics code. but it is bound by u.s. law.

there is u.s. statute that says that any judge, and any justice, has to step aside from any case in which their spouse has an interest in the outcome of the proceedings. and what these ethics experts have said to me is that you look at these e-mails and you can't but see that ginni thomas had an interest in the proceeding that was in front of clarence thomas, which was about whether this kind of material, and more material from president trump, would ever surface and see the light of day. and that was what was the issue being argued in front of the court that clarence thomas sat on in january. he didn't recuse himself even though it seems now in looking over this material that his wife involvement in the plot to overturn the 2020 election

stood in a good chance of coming out depending on how the court ruled in that proceeding. >> mark meadows attorney did put out a statement saying there is nothing illegal in these texts. the biggest question at this moment for now, we'll see where it goes, this is just the beginning of the story is whether justice thomas should recuse himself going forward especially on january 6th related cases. just to wrap this up where we are now, jane that choice is entirely up to him is that right? >> well in the past in our history, chief justices have sometimes pressured justices to step aside. that has happened before. and in this case, we have these judicial ethics experts such as stephen gillers a professor at nyu who is saying that clarence thomas just must step aside and recuse from any cases that would have to do with the january

6th uprisings and the efforts to overturn the 2020 election. it's up to clarence thomas of course at the end of the day. but there is sort of a rising pressure i would say on him to recuse in these cases. >> well, we hope to hear from justice thomas in the days ahead and thank you for talking to us tonight, james mayer of the new yorker. >> great to be with you. >> woodruff: the white house was again juggling major foreign and domestic priorities this week. president biden has been meeting allies in europe to coordinate a response to the war in ukraine, while in washington, his supreme court nominee was in the hot seat. to discuss another busy week, we turn to brooks and capehart. that is "new york times" columnist david brooks, and jonathan capehart, columnist for the "washington post." hello to both of you. so good to see you here on this friday night. a lot to talk about jonathan but let's start with ukraine.

the ukrainians more than holding their own on a number of fronts but the russians just keep pounding away. in general, how do you think the west is doing in standing up to what's going on? >> capehart: well, i think the west is doing a good job. i mean they've been making it very clear that if putin hits a nato nation, that nato will hit back. the alliance has been continuing to funnel weapons and things to the ukrainians to aid in their fight. and with the president in brussels and also in poland, but especially in brussels with those back to back to back meetings, nato, eu and other meetings, the signal being sent by the president and from the west to putin is we are united, we are strong and you will have to contend both with ukrainians but with us collectively if you go further than that. i think it's symbolic backup but

symbols matter in a conflict like this. >> woodruff: is it an effective response to what's going on david? >> brooks: i think so. if you take where we were sitting here last week, more people have been killed and more buildings destroyed, that's one reality. secondly russia is more worse off, particularly or the battlefield. there was a piece on the battlefield, they made three key points, first we may be leaving the tank era, the anti-tank weapons are very good at destroying tanks. and the russian organization is not aa learning organization the way we thought they were, the soldiers on the ground don't have the choice to adapt to circumstances so they go from a to b and it is very easy for the ukrainians to raid them. and then finally, the morale,

ukrainians saying, moralee is too hard, 3 to 1. like i said last week, it's time to trust the policy and we've been ramping it up but you look at what the russians have to say, you talked about it earlier in the program, who knows where that will lead but that seems like a plausible out to me, declare victory and go home. >> woodruff: its hard to be patient when we're watching these pictures, these stories we're hearing. do i want to ask you about how president biden himself was doing. grinnell poll, 37% approve, when you ask people what about the specifics of the administration's policy, namely, should we be sending armed forces, 70% say no. that's the president's policy. should we provide weapons, 72%

say yes. that's president's policy. enforce the no-fly zone, 52%, small majority says that is the president's policy. so there is a contradiction. what do we make of all this? >> capehart: this is what drives merazy about public opinion polls which go beyond just tell me what you think about the president's overall job approval rating. when you get into specific things how is he doing with the war folks aren't following the war and specific policy things like we are. so i co discount, how you handle the war. specific things troops weapons and other things, it shows that the american people are with the president and the president has his finger on the pulse of where the american people want to be on the war with ukraine. and all of this will change if putin does the unthinkable. chemical weapons or use a

nuclear device. >> woodruff: all bets are off if that happens. >> brooks: if you ask the american people, what are the president's policy towards beautiful sunsets, 85% will say no i disagree with president biden's view of beautiful sunsets. it's nothing more than a measure of partisanship. the question is if we are really in trouble as jonathan mentioned, we get to another step in this war could we ooun five after 9/11, george w. bush's approvability rating was like 92%, something insanely high. could we ever imane that ain? it's very hard to imagine that and that means we're just not as resilient a country as we were when you could get beyond party labels. >> woodruff: but it is -- it is notable, that there is agreement with the policy, just as you say, not when you attach

president biden's name to it the supreme court confirmation hearings this week, it was almost jonathan a tale of -- it was as if two nominees were sitting there, judge ketanji brown jackson, if you listen to the democrats you would think it was a sprel qualified woman, to throirch republicans she's soft on crime, she tends to give lenient sentences to people who have engaged in child abuse. what did you make of the senators, of the prose, of the nominee? >> capehart: how much time do we have judy? i know we don't have a lot of time. it was as if we were watching yes, the supreme court nomination hearings of ketanji brown jackson but also a relitigation of the supreme court confirmation hearings for justice carc kavanaugh.

the republicans did all they could to tear her down, ge little her experience, call her everything but a child of god, telling a mother that she is thought just soft on crime, but is fine with people pedaling in child pornography. it was just appalling. and i think that what senator booker, who is even more loquacious than i am, his oration that made her cry, i would have cried, if my inlaws and my mother weren't also sitting in the living room as we watched this. when i saw her wiping away the tears i felt that in my bones. because i understood where that

emotion was coming there. you know, in the black community we call everyone brother and sister. that brother over there, that sister over there. and it really wasn't until watching that, that i really understood what that meant. i'm about three years older than judge ketanji brown jackson. i'm an only child. i don't know her. i've never met her. but watching her sit there, looking at that picture right now, i felt as if i was watching a relative go through hell. and to have senator booker remind her but remind the country of why she's there, how hard she worked, how qualified she is, and to not let anyone rob her of her joy, how important that was. she loves her country. she's interviewing for a job she's always wanted and yet we had people there just trashing her in ways, we work so hard as african americans to get to these spots and to stay in these

spots. and to have to jump through these hoops and be questioned by people who aren't even at our level. but yet that's what we have to do to get in the tent, get a seat at the table and then keep that seat. >> woodruff: what did you make of it? >> brooks: well, moved by that. you know, we have a group of republican senators who are not really senators. they're cable tv hosts and they use these hearings as an occasion to drag up whatever issue is popular with tucker. and so whether it is what is a woman or whatever it is going to be, they're going to ask her about that. they're not going to ask her about judicial philosoph they're not going to ask about temperament, they're going to ask what the issue of the moment is. and it reached its apogee by ted cruz, going back to being a

smuck, and he goes back and checks how he's doing on twitter. it's the perfect cycle of nar nr ciccis. her position that there should not be mandatory minimums for people who simply possess some child pornography is actually the standard position, they do something terrible but they shouldn't get a five year minimum because they are not fundamentally criminals. that is mccarthy's case. but judge poly treats her like she's soft on child abuse. that is just a distortion of the record. >> woodruff: well, we let that sink in as we turn finally to the interview that lisa desjardins just had with jane mayer and that is connected to

the supreme court, the wife of clarence thomas, ginni thomas, new information text that she shared with the white house chief of staff mark meadows urging the warehouse to overturn the -- work to overturn the election. >> capehart: overturn a tbree an fair election. this came after she granted that interview where she said she was at the january 6th rally, she was at the rally. i think that the january 6th committee needs to caught her in. have her come in, and testify about these things, and i say that because yes, she's married to justice thomas. but it's not justice thomas who is sending these text messages. it was not justice thomas who was at the january 6th rally. we need to know that justice thomas is not the principal. but the spouse should be called in, ginni thomas should be called in to explain what are these text messages, what is

this about? you know jane mayer is the preeminent expert on this and when she said she talked to folks who said that ginni thomas and justice thomas crossed a line i want to know how far that line, how far over that line they've gone. >> woodruff: how do you see it? >> brooks: calls up the decore of the system, and we've seen these codes be trashed. i'd say ginni thomas trashtd those codes, how a justice or a justice's wife reacts on this. jane, i want to ask jane when your spouse has an interest you've got to recuse. that word interest does that mean financial interest or psychological interest? it seems to me justice thomas has a psychological interest, there are a lot of interests so i'd want to ask jane that question about whether it really went over the line.

>> woodruff: and that's a question we don't have the chance to ask here. we're going to have to wait a few days to look at that. but we'll try to figure it out in the next few days. david brooks, jonathan capehart thanks so much >> woodruff: as we reported, president biden and the european union today announced new plans to enable europe to become less dependent on russian oil and gas. but those are efforts that will take a lot more money and far more time to execute. for now, the russian invasion has opened up much larger questions over our dependence on fossil fuels, and the need to develop cleaner renewable energy. science correspondent miles o'brien reports on how and why geothermal energy is attracting new interest. >> reporter: there's a lot of heat beneath our feet, and that's pretty obvious here,

near the salton sea in california's imperial valley. >> these are really world renowned mud pots that occur naturally. >> reporter: hot water and carbon dioxide create mini- volcanoes at the davis schrimpf mud pots. >> they just come up in different areas. they all go dormant and come up somewhere else. >> reporter: they sit right in the middle of one of the largest geothermal generation fields in the world. it's renewable, sustainable and carbon-free, so exploring new wayso tap into this resource is now a very hot field. what are we seeing here? >> so here, we're looking at some of our production wells. >> reporter: billy thomas is a senior geoscientist at berkshire hathaway's cal energy project. he shod me some of the 25 wells, and 10 power plants, which together generate 345 megawatts-- enough to power

more than 300,000 homes. but, he says, they are only scratching the subsurface. >> this field has a lot of potential. >> reporter: geothermal heat comes from the molten core of our planet-- which, at more than 10,000 degrees fahrenheit, is as hot as the surface of the sun. as the heat radiates up, it gradually cools. here, they drilled wells between 2,000 feet and two miles deep, where the temperature is only about 600 degrees fahrenheit. very salty, very hot water, called brine, along with steam, race upward. the steam spins turbines, producing electricity, and the brine is injected back into the ground, where it is reheated by the earth-- replenishing the reservoir. is this kind of managed well, more or less infinitely sustainable? >> yes, we've-- we've had the

benefit here of actually operating for, you know, some of these fields, up to 40 years, and we really have a very robust reservoir, where we don't see a lot of the decline. so we really have a good system set in place right now to really make this a sustainable renewable baseload energy. >> reporter: "baseload," meaning 24/7, 365-- steady production that wind and solar cannot provide. geothermal is an emerging dark horse in the race to a stable zero-carbon electrical grid, >> the last couple of decades have seen about a 25% growth worldwide. >> reporter: geologist amanda kolker is program manager for geothermal technologies, at the national renewable energy laboratory in golden, colorado. >> the technology that we're using today really hasn't changed substantially. there have been little, incremental kind of optimization improvements. it's a really exciting time because we are getting a lot more, i think, innovative ideas in the geothermal sector than we have for decades.

>> reporter: one of the surprising innovations? geothermal wells can also be a great source of minerals. >> so we just drilled two wells. >> reporter: jim turner is chief operating officer of the u.s. division of australia- based controlled thermal resources. he walked me through the 50 megawatt geothermal power plant the company is building in the imperial valley. the salty brine rising from the wells contains almost the entire periodic table of elements, and turner says the rocketing demand for electric cars has made it profitable to extract and sell lithium. do you have any projections about how much lithium you might be able to produce? >> we'll produce about 20,000 metric tons a year of lithium product. >> reporter: that would be about 8% of the current global production-- four times more than the u.s. provides today. that's a ne bonus, isn't it? >> it is. it is a very good bonus.

in the past, it just didn't have enough value to warrant the cost of money to develop, build a plant and operate it, to be able to sell the lithium compounds. >> reporter: the rock beneath is naturally fractured and permeable. this is the end of the famous san andreas fault. >> the types of resources that you need to produce power are not available everywhere within drillable depths, just at this stage, not economic, to produce steam from extremely deep wells. >> reporter: but that could be changing at the forge project in utah. here, the department of energy is piloting a technique called enhanced geothermal systems-- or e.g.s. the plan is to drill two deep wells into low permeable hot rock; fracture the rock in between the wells to create a reservoir; and then pump water into the cracks. it returns to the surface piping hot. the notion is making for some strange bed-fellows. oil and gas industry veterans

are now drilling for hot rock instead of black gold. >> what we want to prove is a single well e.g.s. system. >> reporter: petroleum engineer cindy taff is a 35-year veteran of the oil business. now she is chief operating officer of houston-based sage geosystems. the company is hoping to reduce the cost of e.g.s. near mcallen, texas, they are testing a single well alternative for harvesting heat from hot dry rock. they drill down, and then horizontally-- from here, fracturing the sedimentary rock in between. cold water is pumped down through the cracks. now hot enough to generate power, the water heads up to the turbine in a concentric pipe in the very same well. the oil and gas industry has fracked in sedimentary rock for years, and we know how to mitigate induced seismicity. and quite frankly, the rock is so soft, you usually don't get to do seismicity in sedimentary

rock. >> reporter: still, the well is ringed by seismic monitoring sites. geothermal fracking has triggered earthquakes in the past. this one in south korea in 2017 made news, causing 135 injuries. >> we don'need stimulation for most geothermal. where we do do stimulation, i think we can, you know, be smart about avoiding zones of seismic risk. >> reporter: the shale fracking boom has driven a lot of innovation in the drilling business. in houston, a small company called particle drilling is partnering with a big play, n.o.v., to help push drilling technology into a geothermal era. the bit they are developing fires 12 million ball bearings a minute out of four nozzles. jim schiller is c.e.o. of particle. >> it obliterates the rock. what you get out of some very fine cuttings and every once in

a while, a bigger piece. what we envision was always a three to five times improvement, as we've combined our bits between nov and particle and all. we're seeing that. >> reporter: tony pink is chief technology officer of n.o.v. he says it costs about $100,000 a day to run a typical drilling rig. >> we're at that tipping point. and so if we can make that jump from 60 foot an hour to 80, to 100, then we move that economic needle, that you get geothermal anywhere. >> reporter: geothermal anywhere. it's an enticing prospect. the path to zero-carbon may well take us on a journey toward the center of the earth. for the pbs newshour, i'm miles o'brien in houston. >> woodruff: since russia invaded ukraine two months ago, people around the world have

been seeking innovate ways to support the ukrainian people facing the horrors of war. pbs wisconsin's marisa wosjic reports on how one artisan's fundraising effort has garnered much more traction than she thought possible. >> i remember i was sitting and watching the news, and i was so mad and i was hurt, and i was upset and i was feeling helpless. >> reporter: christiana gorchynsky trapani wanted to take action, as she saw images of russian forces brutally attack ukraine and its people. >> i was talking to my family, and i was like, i need to do something with this anger. >> reporter: as a second- generation ukrainian, her mission was personal: to raise money for ukrainians on the front lines. >> i knew i wanted to do something to help, and so, i igured, well, i know how to make candles, with a candle company. let's use this to help. >> reporter: owner of a small artisan shop in northeast wisconsin called door county candle company, she began making candles with blue and gold wax, the colors of the ukrainian flag. >> so i wrote a post on

facebook, and i was like, i just did a little preview, that "i'm going to be launching a fundraiser tomorrow. stay tuned." we woke up and we're like, oh my god, 1,000. okay, 2,000. okay, 3,000. >> reporter: in a matter of two weeks, the orders reached 20,000. >> that's like what we typically would sell in a year. >> reporter: 20,000 candles, to be made in this small shop, by hand. >> i think i cry every day just hearing the stories, and i could cry now. it's just, it-- because it means so much, and it means that so many people want to help. >> reporter: moved by the news and christiana's energy, volunteers in the community have turned out in support-- including christiana's father. >> i have to be here. i have to help. >> reporter: when he's not doing 12-hour shifts as an e.r. physician, he's doing 12-hour shifts helping his daughter. >> my parents immigrated from ukraine right after world war ii and i was rais ukrainian.

in fact, i spoke ukrainian until first grade. >> reporter: he and christiana's mother passed the language onto their kids. >> i learned ukrainian before i learned english, and that's how i talk to my grandparents-- only in ukrainian. it's kept me really close to my culture and my heritage. >> reporter: when she heard the news of the russian invasion, christiana's maternal grandmother flash-backed to life in ukraine during world war ii. >> she just started to cry and shake, and just relive war when she was a kid. and it was just-- it was... i never thought that something like that could happen in 2022. >> it's just heartbreaking. it's an absolute catastrophe. what's going on? it's world war ii all over again. that's what it is. and in fact, my wife's mom has memories of, you know, things that happened during the war and as a child, and she was there.

and it's just brought tears to her eyes. she's just-- she's in total disbelief. she's at home right now here, and she's stickering bags and doing things. she's 82 years old, and she's helping out as well. so it's all hands on deck. >> reporter:ll of the profits made from selling the ukraine candle are being donated to a ukrainian nonprofit. >> it's called razom for ukraine. it's helping provide bandages and tourniquets and medical supplies to those that are in ukraine and need it most. and so our first donation was for $125,000, which was incredible. i mean, a lot of tears were flowing after that. so that's the first of many donation installments that we're going to make. i really thought we'd only sell like 100. i really didn't think we'd sell more. >> i still laugh when christina said, you know, if i could sell 300 candles, i'd be so happy. well, you know, that that ship has sailed. so we're-- we're so-- we're so proud of her. it's-- we never expected this kind of a response. never.

>> reporter: the outpour of support eclipses any expectations christiana could have imagined. >> a lot of good comes out of evil. ( speaking ukrainian ) glory to ukraine, glory to its heroes. >> we're providing light in the darkness. ( speaking ukrainian ) >> reporter: for pbs newshour, i'm marisa wojcik in door county, wisconsin. >> woodruff: so heartening to see. and, tune into pbs this weekend for a conversation about democracy and the legacy of benjamin franklin. i spoke with filmmaker ken burns, former secretary of state condoleeza rice, and ambassador to china, nick burns. check your local pbs listings for times. and that is the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again here on monday evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe, and have a good weekend.

>> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> fidelity wealth management. >> consumer cellular. >> bnsf railway. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world. at www.hewlett.org.

>> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions 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. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by mea access group at wgbh hee

to "amanpour & company." here's what's coming up. >> president putin has made a big mistake. >> allies demonstrate their unity exactly one month after russia invades ukraine as president joe biden joins an emergency nato meeting in brussels, the secretary general jens stoltenberg joins me on what weapons her providing caravans and warns to russia over wmd. for a naturized citizen to have the opportunity to represent this amazing country abroad and to be a part of history is moving. >> remembering a titan on the international stage.