♪ geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on "the newshour" tonight... the federal government takes extraordinary steps to shore up the banking industry after the collapse of two separate banks spark fears of a crisis. geoff: president biden approves a controversial oil drilling project in alaska. amna: and... despite a wet winter in the west, persistent drought and overdevelopment cause record low water levels for tens of millions of americans. ortega: we have two calamities, the megadrought. and we have the calamity created by the state legislature which permitted dry lot subdivisions. they're building homes with no water. ♪

>> major funding for "the pbs newshour" has been provided by -- ♪ and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions, and friends of "the newshour," including -- leonard and norma klorfine, and koo and patricia yuan. the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world. at hewlett.org. ♪ ♪

this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. amna: good evening and welcome to "the newshour." regional banks took a beating today, suffering their deepest losses on the stock market in years. geoff: it follows the failure of two major banks, and after the government's top financial authorities spent the weekend taking action to shore up confidence around the larger banking system. no other bank failed today. but the pain is hardly over for certain banks. economics correspondent paul solman reports. paul: markets opened this morning, and investors promptly dumped bank stocks, despite president biden's efforts to reassure customers and investors. pres. biden: americans can have confidence that the banking system is safe.

your deposits will be there when you need them. paul: damage control after the largest u.s. banking failure since the 2008 financial crisis. on friday, regulators shuttered the silicon valley bank -- svb -- and promised that insured depositors would have access to their money today. but that left uninsured depositors with large accounts to pay their employees desperate. lindsey michelides, who runs the startup strongsuit, said she wouldn't be able to pay her employees or even feed her own family. on abc, she elaborated. lindsey: we have people who just bought their first house, and they're scared of how are they going to make their mortgage payment? and are they going to lose their job? paul: so yesterday, the government extended its promise to all depositors, insured or not. now a bit of basic context. banks take deposits, on which they pay interest. and then lend out the money at a higher rate but depositors can now withdraw their money in a

heartbeat, while the loans can't be recalled or sold off that quickly. until yesterday, depositors at silicon valley, and every other bank in america, had their deposits insured, but only up to $250,000 per person in most cases. problem was, almost half of all u.s. bank accounts are greater than $250,000 and thus uninsured. in svb, uninsured money was almost 98% of all deposits. that works so long as depositors believe the bank has enough cash in the vault. and the banks are forced by regulators to keep a cushion of reserves, in supposedly super safe u.s. treasury bonds. but as interest rates have soared, those bonds have lost value, and therefore banks don't have the cushion they once did. what happened last week is that depotors like billionaire investor peter theil pulled their companies' money out of svb, which triggered a bank run

not unlike during the financial crisis or the great depression --frightened depositors determined to take theironey and run. which is why treasury secretary janet yellen and fed chief jay powell and the fdic announced yesterday that the government will now reimburse the uninsured depositors, to reassure the likes of you and me and prevent a nationwide run. that came as a big relief to people like lindsay. the government also threw a lifeline to customers of signature bank, which regulators shut down over the weekend. but some customers remained skeptical. allyn: i'm coming here to see if i have to close my accounts or not. hopefully the bank will be bought by another bank and i can keep my accounts here. but if they're not or if there's any question, i want to empty my accounts and bring them to another bank. paul: and as some customers lined up outside silicon valley bank today, trading was halted in roughly a dozen other banks

. for "the pbs newshour," this is paul solman reporting. geoff: as you can see from the reaction today, plenty of questions remain about the government's action and the potential fallout from the collapse of these two banks. simon johnson is closely following this. he's a former chief economist of the international monetary fund and a professor at mit's sloan school of management. and anat admati is professor of economics at stanford'business school. she has written extensively about the banking system. welcome to you both. simon, government agencies taking emergency measures to backstop the financial system after the collapse of two banks sounds eerily reminiscent of what happened 15 years ago. how is this different? simon: let's hope this is different and we don't get the serious repercussions we experience in 2008 and 2009. i think we are looking at relatively small banks that had

bad assets, a lot of scared depositors, there was a run on those banks and people started to say who is next? what dominoes could fall? the government stepped in this weekend and has attempted to stop the panic and i think so far they have been effective. geoff: the government's expansive response here, do think that will be enough? anat: we don't know for sure because there are a lot of hidden losses in the system. if you put a lot of backstops on it, you will stem at least some runs but a lot of deposit accounts are very large. they are very finicky and they could run. when they raised the insurance limit to infinity, people will stay, that's what they did during the financial crisis. geoff: if the government says we are going to guarantee deposits

above the established $250,000 threshold doesn't that in some way reward irresponsible behavior? what is the point of think risk management at all if the federal government is gog to backstop it? simon: i think what rewards responsible risk management is when you keep the management on and protect equity quarters. that's not what happened over the weekend. silicon valley bank and the other bank that failed, management has been removed and the equity holders have gone to zero. the question of depositors is different i think. particularly in the modern world, when silicon valley bank on thursday, about a third of their deposit base tried to withdraw on the same buness day. that is a digital economy phenomenon, i think, the intensity of that kind of run. i think it is time to ensure all deposits. i understand not everyone is ready to go there, but when you do that, you stop anybody's

incentive to move to another bank. there has to be very strong supervision and high capital requirements and effective regulation and we struggled on all of those the last 15 years. geoff: anat, the blame game in washington is underway, lawmakers pointing to what happened in 2018 under e trump administration, would some of the dodd frank regulations were rolled back for midsized banks. in your view, what does responsible, practical regulation look like for regional, community, midsized banks? anat: they always say the small banks are not a problem then they are a problem, all banks are a problem when they are run with basically leaving the down side to others much more than they need to be. you can have a bloated system in that way where everything is fine until it is not.

what simon just mentioned, and what i've been advocating for, is a lot more of what they call capital but you have to be careful is not thought of as cash reserves held on the sideline, but as equity funding coming from investors that care about the dine side -- the downside. right now there's too little care about the downside in the private sector and when it comes, they run to the government. geoff: will this change the way the fed calculates the next rate hike? simon: i think so. we will have to see how the rest of the week plays out. a couple of problems for the fed -- one is is their raising of interest rates caused this problem. why the regulators did not flag that is an issue. are there problems because people couldn't make payroll or will credit become more shy under the circumstances? that will have to be factored into decision-making. geoff: how do regular people

know if there bank is well-managed, if they happen to have their money stored with small, regional banks? anat: that is a great question, because we don't. we want to trust it is taking care of, and the job of people taking care of it, just like ensuring our safety on the roads, is the policeman, or in this case the supervisors and regulators. they are supposed to know assets are down and there are a lot of uninsured deposits in this bank. the key to all of it is effective regulation. we just didn't have that. geoff: what is effective regulation look like? simon: i think the cornerstone of effective regulation is to have a strong levels of equity, and real equity, not fake equity. real equity that condemns or losses. silicon valley bank did not have enough equity. a $200 billion bank running on a

couple billion dollars of equity. that doesn't work. that's how you get panic. you get the equity right, larger buffers, more resilient buffers, and you have to have sensible regulation about how much risk is a bank like that allowed to take? silicon valley bank we know took a lot of risk. funnily enough, by buying government bonds, but long government bonds, very exposed. they were paying more in deposits, the value of the assets is less, they have no equity, that's the realization people came to last week. there's to come at the bank has gone completely because they cannot find enough liquidity to match their rate -- match their withdrawals. geoff: what is the ripple effect for the tech sector? anat: the tech sector got saved because they wanted to make payroll and the government didn't want panic so they could breathe a little easier in terms of their deposits.

the tech sector funds itself in all kinds of ways and the bank is not usually how they find themselves bit they go to venture capital. the tech sector has its own problems. this banking part of it is just a wake-up call on the fragility of banking, basically. the bank couldn't raise equity, there was a huge flag. it was for the regulators and supervisors to know that was an accident waiting to happen. geoff: anat and simon, thank you for your insights. anat: thank you. ♪ amna: in the day's other headlines -- wall street sidestepped major losses in the wake of the weekend bank failures, even as bank shares took a hit.

the dow jones industrial average was down 90 points to close at 31,819. the nasdaq rose 50 points. the s&p 500 slipped 6. new winter storms are bearing down tonight on both u.s. coasts. swaths of california were flooded in a weekend storm, and things could get even worse with more rain and snow. meanwhile, the northeast and new england face a late-season nor'easter that could bring heavy snow into wednesday. new york governor kathy hochul is urging people to be prepared. gov. hochul: there is no reason in the world to have plans to be out tomorrow. today is the day you get ready. do everything you need to do. stock up on the groceries stock up on the batteries, stock up on making sure you got enough chargers. everything you're gonna need. amna: in new hampshire, the storm is already disrupting local elections set for tuesday. nearly 20 communities have postponed the voting. the u.s. and south korea have launched their biggest joint military drills in years, provoking furious protests from north korea.

to make its point, the north said this image showed a cruise missile being test-fired from one of its submarines on sunday. the u.s./south korean exercises include computer simulation and combined field trainings. they're expected to last 11 days. australia will buy as many as 5 nuclear-powered attack submarines from the united states to counter china's growing naval reach. the announcement came today as president biden met with the australian and british prime ministers in san diego. as part of the deal, the u.s. navy will also visit australian ports more often for training purposes. china's new premier talked up economic revival today by trying to reassure the private sector. li qiang is a close ally of president xi jinping. he made s public debut after 3 years of strict pandemic measures that have clouded china's economic outlook. mr. li: the environment for

private business will get better and better, and their development room will get broader and broader. we will create a level playing field for all kinds of business entities and furer support private enterprises in growing and thriving. amna china has set an annual growth target of 5 percent, its lowest in nearly 30 years. the country's economy grew just 3 percent last year. in ukraine, russian forces kept hammering today at the ruined eastern city of bakhmut. ukraine's overall commander reported the situation at bakhmut is difficult, but said his troops are repelling all assaults. in washington, the institute for the study of war said its assessment is that russia's offensive has stalled. iran now says more than 22,000 protesters arrested in recent months have been pardoned. today's statement could not be confirmed, but it may provide the first details on the spe of the government's crackdown on dissent. demonstrations swept iran starting last september.

they were sparked by the death of 22-year-old mahsa amini in police custody. and, back in this country -- an fbi survey finds hate crimes surged more than 11.5 percent in 2021 from the year before. reported incidents topped 9,000. nearly two-thirds involved racial, ethnic and ancestral bias. the fbi says religion and sexual orientation accounted for the rest. still to come on "the newshour"... ioessss ng wovleer how the rise of sports betting could place student athletes in difficult positions... "everything everywhere all at once" wins big at the academy awards... plus much more. >> this is "the pbs newshour" from weta studios in washington, and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: the biden administration

has officially approved a controversial oil drilling project in alaska known as willow. the project, from oil giant conocophillips, is expected to produce some 600 million barrels of crude oil over the next three decades. supporters hail the energy and jobs it would create in alaska. opponents have said it would dangerously accelerate emissions and the climate crisis. the administration's decision comes after it announced a limit on oil drilling across 16 million acres in alaska and the arctic ocean. for a closer look, i'm joined by liz ruskin, washington correspondent for alaska public media. welcome and thanks for joining us. the administration did approve this willow project, not the entire project. explain that -- what did they decide? liz: the administration approved three drilling pads, it comes to about 219 wells. conocophillips originally asked for five drilling pads and about

250 wells. this is slightly less, but basically -- you know, in conocophillips's favor. amna: the biden administration has been met with support from people across alaska, including senator murkowski, she tweeted "huge needed victory for all alaska." when you look at folks on the ground there, who else has been pushing for this to be green lit and why? liz: pretty much the whole alaska political and business establishment. the entire legislature, the whole congressional delegation, including alaska's new congresswoman mary peltola, a democrat. organized labor alaska native , leaders. the oil industry has been on decline in alaska for a long time, and this project would bring up to $10 billion to the state and local governments. people on the north slope, they

are primarily indigenous. they say oil revenues will help sustain them and their new fiat culture. amna: environmentalists have been fighting this the entire way. after the decision, an official from the national resources defense council called this a grievous miscount -- grievous mistake, and set this "sets back the climate fight and emboldens an industry hell-bent on destroying the planet." are any seeing this scaled-back approval as a welcomed compromise? liz: the scale back approval was expected in part because the federal agencies had recommended three drilling pads. this was not a surprise. against this project are a lot of environmental groups, climate activists, and a lot of young voters who have stepped up the

pressure on social media in recent weeks, really quite quickly. and also the city and tribe of the community closest to where the drilling would be. while the north slope as a whole supports the willow project the , community closest to where the drilling would be have significant opposition. amna: this is the president who promised to avoid from oil and not allow any drilling on federal lands. how is the white house spotting to that criticism? liz: conocophillips has had these leases since 1999, so this isn't new leasing on federal land, these are old leases. when a company has leases, they have -- you know, the government cannot take those away without compensation of some kind. the white house says they didn't

have free reign to do whatever they wanted. amna: is there a legal challenge ahead? we've heard from environmental groups they will continue to fight this willow project. what should we expect next? liz: absolutely, everyone expects there to be another legal challenge. there's already been one which is why this is a re-approval. but everyone expects there to be another lawsuit filed shortly. amna: that is liz ruskin from alaska public media. thank you for your time. liz: thank you. ♪ geoff: despite a rainy and snowy winter out west, lake powell and lake mead, the reservoirs that provide water for 40 million americans, are at record low levels due to the ongoing megadrought. arizona is set to lose over 20 percent of its colorado river water allotment this year alone,

and as stephanie sy reports, that's leaving communities across the state scrambling to find alternatives. stephanie: karen nabity built her dream house in the rio verde foothills, an unincorporated area outside phoenix, with gorgeous mountain views, lower taxes, and no paved roads. karen: so we're collecting rainwater off the roof, and this is the water we're using to flush our toilets. stephanie: there's also no municipal water supply. the luckyes are s rtitsll yield. karen has for years paid haulers to bring water from the closest city, scottsdale, every six , underground tankn an 70% of our water in the tank. stephanie: and you think it'll be another two or three months before you need to refill the tank? karen: yeah, because we're being really conservative. stephanie: on the city of

january 1, scottsdale cut them karen -- cut them off. karen: we have over a thousand people without a source of water for their homes right now. and tha's just absurd that we're having to live like we're camping in our homes. mayor ortega: we have two calamities, the megadrought. and we have the calamity created by the state legislature which permitted dry lot subdivisions. they're building homes with no water. stephanie: scottsdale mayor david ortega says he made the decision to protect his own constituents in a time of severe, persistent drought. mayor ortega: this is why the noise from rio verde was so minuscule compared to what i deal with every day. into the other mayors deal in phoenix, mesa and so forth. so it is a race. stephanie: scottsdale's population of 250,000 relies on the colorado river for the majority of its water and the mayor is preparingor the federal government to cut up to 40% of the city's current allotment in the next year. mayor ortega: the entire state

of arizona and scottsdale in particular are going to have to go on a water diet. stephanie: the colorado river is in crisis. sarah: we're talking about water not running in the colorado river, potentially below lake powell, which is the grand canyon. stephanie: sarah porter, the director of the kyl center for water policy at arizona state university, sums up the problem. sarah: we're in the most serious situation we've ever been in, and it's really, truly serious . we're seeing, you know, hotter and drier conditions persistently in the upper rockies where the water that flows in the colorado river comes from. also, we have the problem of overallocation and, you know, a fully developed use by all the different entitlement holders. stephanie: the bureau of reclamation, which in 2021 made its first declaration of a colorado river shortage, is refereeing the water battles in the west, forcing states to come up with a plan to reduce water

use to avoid the “catastrophic collapse” of the whole system. sarah: it's too difficult in a few short months to get to another multi-state, binational agreement. i think federal action imore likely. karen: we asked had your well gone dry and over 50 people said yes. stephanie: the troubles rio verde foothills residents face show how quickly cooperation can turn to conflict. and the colorado river isn't the only pain point. years of urban development on the outskirts of phoenix have depleted groundwater. sarah: we now have two groundwater basins where the state is saying there's not enough groundwater for any more development that depends on groundwater. stephanie: one of those basins feeds the city of buckeye, 35 miles west of phoenix. it's a rapidly expanding city with a current population of more than 100,000. in recent years, buckeye has

been flooded with developers but a report released earlier this year by arizona's department of water resources found the city may not have enough supply to support its planned growth. mayor orsborn: they're spot on with the idea that if we continue to just grow off of groundwater without replenishing the water in the basin and bringing in new water resources, that we'll have problems in the future. stephanie: like the scottsdale mayor, bucye mayor eric orsborn is on a race to find more water supplies. he says the current supply is enough to continue to grow buckeye for two decades. but some residents are getting nervous. kathi kucharski moved to buckeye in 2021. kathi: i blindly said people are not going to keep building homes and building homes when there isn't any water. what scares me about that are the developers that are

developing all of this. have they done their due diligence to make sure there's a 100 year water supply like people claim they're supposed to be? stephanie: as in other pts of the west, urban growth is competing with agriculture for the shrinking water supply in arizona. caywood farms in pinal county, has had a year of plentiful rain but the last two summers were brutal. they didn't receive their usual allotment of water from the nearby gila river due to drought, forcing them to shut down production entirely. nancy: when we go around the corner -- stephanie: nancy caywood, a third generation farmer, says they'vhad to pivot to make ends meet. farm tours have brought in some new revenue. nancy: agriculture has been in this area since who knows when -- it's been here for so many years. and you know, you're sitting there and it's snowing where you live and you're eating a salad. guess what? it came out of arizona. stephanie: some farmers in

arizona have already sold their land. others have taken up what are called buy and dry offers, to leave their fields unplanted, thereby giving up their water. nancy wants to keep farming. growing food and feed, she says, should take priority over urban development. nancy: agriculture is freedom. agriculture is food safety. stephanie: asu's sarah porter says that arizona's farmers and municipalities are taking the steps needed to allow for continued growth. sarah: it's a tough point. nobody likes it. there's lots of fighting and finger pointing and name calling. but the problem that we're really facing is a very solvable problem. stephanie: the solutions, porter says, include what arizona's big cities are already doing -- up cycling water, reclaiming it, conserving it, and moving it to where it's really needed. whether that includes the rio verde foothills where karen nabity is using buckets of rainwater to flush your toilet remains in question.

what does the future look like for you here? karen: i don't know. the glass is half full of water. [laughter] and for me, i feel like we will end up with a solution. but i wish that we could get the politicians to stop playing politics. and let's talk about water and just get this done. stephanie: but it's not done. the politicians have still not reed on a plan to get water to the rio verde foothills. for "the pbs newshour," i'm stephanie sy. ♪ geoff: lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are pressing federal banking regulators after the collapse of silicon valley bank and signature bank. our congressional correspondent lisa desjardins has been following it all and joins us now with a check-in.

good to see you. the president this morning called for stronger banking regulations in that speech. what has been the response from congress? lisa: no surprise we have a divided response. to take you through, there are a few like senator bnde ersaers wh -- trump administration, they got rid of too much regulation, he wants more back. but more people like alex padilla are saying let's figure out who was to blame. some like senator tim scott, who is the top republican on the banking committee, are simply saying we need to find out what happened. congress is at a moment with the finger in the air. there will be a debate over is it the regulators to blame or the regulations? one bipartisan thing we should watch, interest in twitter, and the idea that a bank might be going under might have accelerated things in a way never happened before. i think congress will look at

that. geoff: we are more than two months into this new congress. how are you holding up? [laughter] lisa: so far good. sa: i've been tracking the bills, the vast majority, all that one have come out of the house. 39 bills. let's talk about what the house republicans have been doing with their time in power. they passed a number of bills on china and one bill that was anti-socialism. those were bipartisan issues. more of what they passed have been partisan. abortion, for example, a couple of items there. a bill on censorship defined in republican terms, that was a dividing line. there's also been the largest number of bills house republicans have passed so far, on covid. they have taken interesting approaches. i want to run through some of the bills out of the house. some we don't not -- we do not expect to move forward.

first, they would like to end all national emergencies immediately. president biden is moving to end those in may. also a bill that would send federal workers back to the office. republicans say you should not be working from home anymo. here is one i think could end up becoming law -- they would like to end the noncitizen vaccination requirement for people flying into the country. one that could become laws a bill that would declassify everything intelligence agencies know about the wuhan lab and if covid started there. that passed unanimously in both chambers and we're looking to see if president biden will make that public. geoff: let's talk about the senate, there are some health-related absences on the democratic side. what does that mean for the majority and what they can accomplish? lisa: it's almost impossible to get anything through, including regulation or deregulation of banks because the majority is so

narrow. there's not even a technical majority for the democrats because we have two senators out, dianne feinstein of california, recovering from shingles, and also senator john fetterman, who is recovering from depression and his stroke last year. two senators out is usually not a big deal t when we your majority is one senator, democrat have to be careful. so far it hasn't affected his news and part of that is because republicans have had absences, senators who have had covid and their leader, which mcconnell, out last week because he had a fall. geoff: what is the latest with his condition? it's been five days since he suffered that fall. lisa: senator mcconnell is 81 years old so a lot of people are paying attention. he was just released from the hospital today. he was not released to go home, he was released to inpatient rehab. he suffered a concussion.

they also discovered a fracture in his rib. he is going to inpatient rehab. we don't know what kind of rehab but he is not yet going to return to the senate and we will be watching carefully. he's not just a leader in name, he determines how senate republicans operate. geoff: can i ask you about china? we've been talking abouthow that might be the one area of bipartisan cooperation. the special committee on china. what are they focused on? lisa: they are focused on the chinese communist party. i think they will take a couple of approaches, one on economics and one on security. it is a serious committee. they are hoping to legislate. not just for show, to investigate, just to have a conversation on china. it is probably the area of the most bipartisan agreement in the house so far. geoff: lisa, thank you. lisa: you are welcome. ♪

amna: brackets are set for the men's and women's ncaa tournament -- meaning march madness is officially here, and with it the billions of dollars in bets on the games. we recently reported on sports betting companies partnering with universities to promote their brands on campus, and the threats it poses for students, many of whom are under the legal betting age. but it turns out problems are even more acute for student athletes. paul solman is back with our latest report. this story is a partnership with the shirley povich center for sports journalism and the howard center for investigative journalism, both at the university of maryland's merrill college of journalism. smith: so you're telling me we can win the game and i can make money? >> yeah. smith: no-brainer. paul: in 1994, decades before the supreme court overturned a ban on college sports betting, arizona state university star

point guard stevin smith was paid $20,000 by a gambler to make sure his team didn't win by more than 6 points. smith: i just scored 39 points and we won the game. just all about winning. as long as you winning, nobody ever suspect nothing. paul: smith was eventually caught, however, went to prison. his fall is featured in the netflix series bad sport. his justification at the time? smith: we were making the school all that money and we did not get compensated at all. paul: that is, money universities receive, mainly from tv deals and advertisers, not a dime of which, until recently, went to players. these days, star college athletes can make serious money. ♪ through name, image and likeness sponsorship deals. but with sports betting now

legalized in many states, student athletes no longer have to fix games to become vilified. for example, in the state of ohio, where sports gambling became legal in january the , university of dayton basketball team lost a heartbreaker after leading big at halftime. accusations, presumably by gamblers who lost bets, promptly followed. "you are reading games for sure, what a chump. hope you get caught." but there was no evidence of foul play. at a press conference, coach anthony grant recoiled at the new gambling environment. coach grant: it could really change the landscape of what college sports is all about. and when we have people that make it about themlves and attack kids because of their own agenda, it sickens me. paul: the ohio state gambling regulator has now threatened to ban anyone who attacks athletes

online. trever: irrespective of gambling, the pressure on these kids to perform is immense. paul: trever wright helps run rules compliance at the nearby university of cincinnati. trever: i'm really worried that now, because it's legal in ohio and students of the university and general public, you know, are gambling on the university of cincinnati basketball and football games and other events, that now they're publicly going to come out via social media or just in the crowd in general and say, you cost me money. and what does that do to the mental health of that athlete? paul: now the ncaa prohibits its athletes from betting and warns athletes about gambling during and after their college careers. clint: it's really challenging just to keep up with. paul: the ncaa compliance chief. clint: from a state by state level, they're kind of legalizing the activity and then after the fact, trying to adjust to that and put in place a lot more regulation and integrity efforts. our primary concerns are twofold. one would be the health and well-being of our student

athletes and then second fold , would be the integrity of our competitions. paul: and there's actually another concern, which is why the ncaa helps pay for former english pro rugby player mark potter to scare student-athletes straight by confessing his story, including his near suicide. mark: i drove down the road, sat on a train station bridge and tried to psych myself up to jump off in front of one. paul: because potter was a compulsive gambler, as some 6% of all gamblers but,. -- templars become. at an even much higher rate are college-age gamblers, first time away from home, maybe drinking too much. and athletes are several times more likely still to become addicted, says potter. for lots of reasons. mark: whether you feel like you have more sporting knowledge, whether you are using the competitive drivers and your almost will to win to try and succeed at it. whether you are trying to replicate what you're not getting out of your sport.

paul: potter shared his own story recentlyt the university of cincinnati. : mark -- mark: i got injured. and that is honestly one of the worst things that ever happened to me. paul: in just his second year as a rugby pro, at 19, potter sustained a series of injuries that kept him off the field. hurt, bored, gambling became his way to replace the competitive high. within a few short years -- mark: i was 24 and i was 70 grand in debt. i had no job at the end of the year, no prospect of another contract and i suddenly got an irish girl pregnant who lived in a different country. paul: he moved to ireland, started a family, and vowed the betting was behind him. but it wasn't. mark: it started to become more and more unmanageable. i had to hide it from her. i used to have a house phone, and i used to pull the cord slightly out of the wall before i went to practice because i didn't want people ringing her asking her for money when i wasn't there and i couldn't answer it. paul: the money for household finances was going toward bets, until one day --

mark: repo man came to our house and gave us an eviction notice, i hadn't paid our mortgage for months. and she didn't know. i owed $6,000 of a mortgage and i had $42 in my bank accounts. paul: the story becomes ever more harrowing. potter was arrested, ostracized, but even that didn't deter him. mark: i went into my town and i sold my wife's engagement ring and all of my kids toys for $500. i had to. i literally couldn't stop myself from doing it. and i did it fully assuming i was going to win the money to pay it back. paul: okay, enough. you get it by now. as did the student athletes, though we weren't allowed to shoot interviews, or show their faces. but off camera, they were blown away, especially with pawning the kids'oys. potter eventually reconciled with his family. after years of rehab, this is his ongoing therapy. mark: ultimately my sports career was a failed one, and it was a failed one because of what was going on in the background. so the next best thing from that is to be able to provide

information that other athletes don't have to go down the same route. paul: but why is a former english rugby star focusing on america? paul: it's a country that's 320 million peopl 50 states, with no regulation or different regulation. paul: paul buck founded the firm potter works for. paul: it feels like this is a country where we should be spending most of our time from a prevention point of view, because it feels like we're where we're needed the most. paul: the company promotes education through lived experience, like buck's, once a banker and such a problem gambler himself, he actually tried to commit suicide. paul: on that day in december 2011, i felt that the world would be a better place without me, you know? be that my wife, be that my kids, be that my employer, be that my friends. that's how low a place it can take you if gamblingoes get hold of you. paul: via buck's firm, potter was brought to cincinnati not just by the ncaa, but by european gambling giant entain. so you're a gambling company

that's doing education. are you just protecting yourself? protecting your image? martin: no. we're doing education to achieve long term sustainability of these markets. so we're protecting the industry, that is right. but we're also protecting customers, our customers, the industry wide customers as well as the public at large. paul: by trying to scare the most vulnerable among us straight. because in a free fall free market, college kids need all the protection they can get. for "the pbs newshour," paul solman in cincinnati. ♪ geoff:ed tbe aevening of wins for many asian and asian-american artists, with "everything everywhere all at once" sweeping up many of the honors. while blockbuster films mostly

lost out, there were also wins for smaller productions like the international film "all quiet on the western front." william brangham has more on the annual celebration of film for our arts and culture series, canvas. [applause] william: it was a historic evening for "everything everywhere all at once," the film took home seven oscars, including three of the four acting oscars and best picture. the film tells the story of a chinese immigrant family and mother-daughter relationship via a martial arts extravaganza. it became a breakout for what has been called a multi-verse drama to. -- dramedy. it also took best screenplay and best director. >> genius emerges from the

collective and we are all products of our context. we are all descendants of something and someone. michelle: for all the little girls and boys who look like me watching tonight, this is a beacon of hope and possibilities. william: michelle yeoh became the first asian woman to win an oscar for best actress, for her role in "everything everywhere all at once," and the first person of color to receive the award in 20 years since halle berry won it. >> they say stories like this only happen the movies. i cannot believe it is happening to me. this is the american dream. william: the same film relaunched the career of actor ke huy quan, after a decades long hiatus offscreen.

he won for best supporting actor. in an emotional moment, he later reunited with harrison ford, whom he costarred with in the 1984 film indiana jones and the temple of doom. only moments later, emily curtis onest -- jamie lee curtis one best supporting actress for the fi, dedicating her award to her solitude -- hollywood royalty and oscar-nominated parents, tony curtis and janet lee. but her win came at the cost of angela bassett who was a fan favorite for her performance in lack panther: wakanda forever. >> thank you to the academy for recognizing the superhero that is a black woman. william: ruth carter did take home the award for koskinen design that made her the first black woman to win two oscars. this doctor went to brendan fraser, who also had a long period offscreen, he tearfully accepted h role in the whale.

there were performances of nominated songs throughout the night by stars rihanna, la gaga and diane warren, best original song went to the song from the film rrr, the first song from an indian film to win the category. the documentary short oscar went to the elephant whisperers, also the first indian film to when in its category. >> thank you to the academy for not being mortally offended by the words women and talking. william: while no women were nominated for director this year, sarah polley did take on the oscar for best adapted screenplay for the film she directed, women talking, aced on the book of the same name. the documentary navalny, about russian opposition leader alexei navalny in the plot to assassinate him, when the oscar for document refute your. for germany, all quite on the western front novel, took home

four awards percent of a taqueria, production design, original score and best international film. it was a big night for indie films overall, but blockbusters like avatar and top gun were the films that finally lured viewers back into movie theaters. so does last night's oscars change in any fundamental way, how hollywood goes about making movies? for some perspective, we're joined by justin chang, film critic at the l.a. times. welcome back to the newshour. a very big night for asian and asian american moviemakers last night. what you make of "everything everywhere all at once" sweeping up so much of last night's gold? justin: thanks for having me. i think "everything everywhere all at once" is a milestone, it cannot be taken lightly or denied. i personally wish it were a better movie. it's funny, in writing about the movie, i said i don't think it is remotely the best picture of the year, but in a way it is the

movie of my year in a lot of people's year. this was a movie that people loved and hated, it was extremely divisive. and i am very much of two minds about the film. but watching the movie win a remarkable seven oscars last night, i was thrilled by michelle yeoh's win, i was very moved by quan's speech, not a surprise but a delight nonetheless there was something , very significant about scrappy movie about asian family winning 7 oscars, something remarkable about that. i was disappointed that some really excellent films like "tar," "banshees" and "fabelmans" got zero between them. we can talk about this as were flexion that they were not as big of a commercial success. i think that's a shame because seven oscars for one movie and for that will be to be "everything everywhere is

disproportionate and does reflect the diversity and quality of delivery of year in cinema. lliam: on diversity, hollywood in the oscars have been trying to honor films about and by people who are more representative of our diverse country.oes change the way movies get made going forward? when you look at who is in front of the camera in that film and what it is about, doesn't change things in a fundamental way? justin: it absolutely does. apart from my feelings or anyone's feelings about the movie, love or hate it, it does change that. michelle yeoh said in her speech, for every little boy and girl who looks like me. it's not just decision-makers but for talented people who maybe pursue career dreams and think they have what it takes. how exactly this will change anything, that remains to be

seen. we sometimes seen people can be very token is stick about this kind of thing. they say if we have a perfunctory kind of representation, we've done our due diligence. that's not good. nobody needs that kind of representation. you also have to look at past best picture winners like parasite, moonlight. the definition of what a best picture can be is changing and i think that is encouraging in terms of what types of stories are being still abraded and who is telling those stories. william: indeed it is a remarkable tableau we saw on stage last night. as i mentioned, while they did not get as much love from the oscars, to very big blockbusters did seemingly break that frozen reluctance all of us pandemic-weary moviegoers rethrougarhe awend d gone u wis far as moviegoing? justin: i certainly hope so.

i feel safer in a movie theater now. i still mask up in theaters but i feel like it is an activity -- i feel like there is a hunger to get back to theaters. it is worth noting that even though it wasn't technically a studio blockbuster, "everything everywhere" developed its cachet and devotion in the industry partially because it was a huge success. a low-budget movie that made many times what his budget was. that's a success story in itself. it remains to be seen. from what i understand, this coming year -- with the pandemic in 20, you had "top gun" and ", avatar" but they were still holding back inventory. ihink this year the studios will be back in what they hope to be prepared to make full force. but i also hope that doesn't slight the great films i think

are worthy of oscar recognition and the benefit from this kind of attention, which is movies that premiered film to stovall's, from other countries, documentaries. -- from eared at film festivals, from other countries, documentaries. william: justin, great to have you back on. thank you so much. justin: thank you for having me. amna: as part of our ongoing arts coverage, we recently spoke with some of the now-oscar winners, including actress michelle yeoh and sarah polley, the screenwriter and director of "women talking." you can watch those conversations online at pbs.org/newshour. geoff: that's the newshour for tonight. amna: on behalf of the team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- ♪ >> actually, you don't need

vision to do most things in life. yes, i am legally blind, and yes i am responsible for the user interface. data visualization. if i can see it and understand it quickly, anyone can. it is exciting to be part of a team driving technology forward. i think that's the most rewarding thing. people who know, know bdo. >> the kendeda fund, committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work through investments in transformative leaders and ideas. more at kendedafund.org. ♪ supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org. and with the ongoing support of these institutions -- ♪

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"amanpour" ♪ hello, everyone. welcome to "amanpour & company." here's what's coming up. >> we are always going to stand up for the rights of our citizens who are wrongfully detained. >> the world reacts to christiane's conversation from inside iran's notorious prison. and exposing the truth behind the lies, the political and media implications of the damning lawsuit against fox news. also ahead, why the covid lab leak theory shouldn't be dismissed. >> understanding what went wrong must be the foundation of our efforts to shore up our vulnerabilities. >> hari sreenivasan speaks to insider jamie