♪ geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on the "newshour" tonight, the international criminal court issues an arrest warrant for russian president vladimir putin for war crimes in ukraine. geoff: the faa investigates a series of near-collisions on airport runways. amna: and, a new stripped-down version of the classic play "a doll's house" brings jessica chastain back to broadway. >> it feels like you're incredibly exposed as an actor because you're not given, you're not able to hide behind anything. ♪ >> 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 kathy and paul anderson. >> you don't need vision to do most things in life. yes, i'm legally blind and yes, i'm 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 that is driving the technology forward. people who know, know bdo. ♪ >> the john s. and phil knight foundation. more at kf.org. ♪

>> and friends of the newshour. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your views or -- to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. amna: good evening and welcome to the "newshour." a whipsaw week for the banking industry has come to an end amid nagging fears and calls for action. president biden asked congress today to authorize tougher penalties for executives of failed banks. geoff: meantime, the parent company of silicon valley bank filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. the sudden collapse of that tech-focused bank last friday touched off the turmoil that's kept markets off balance all week. amna: wall street had rallied on

thursday, but the optimism faded today. the dow jones industrial average lost 384 points, 1%, to close below 31,862. the nasdaq also fell .75%. the s&p 500 was down nearly 1.1%. the international criminal court targeted russian president vladimir putin today with an arrest warrant. it alleges he's responsible for illegal deportions of children from ukraine. the kremlin called the warrant "outrageous and unacceptable." russia does not recognize the court's jurisdiction, nor does the united states. russia's defense ministry has announced it will honor the fighter pilots who intercepted a u.s. drone over the black sea this week. the unmanned craft crashed off the crimean coast. pentagon video released thursday showed a russian plane dumping fuel on the drone. after a second pass, there was visible damage to its propeller. published res poy e u.s.

justice department is investigating china's bytedance, the owner of tiktok, over surveillance of americans. bytedance has acknowledged u.s. journalists and others were targeted using tiktok data. it says it fired those responsible. today's reports came as britain and new zealand joined the u.s. in barring tiktok from government phones. china argued against the bans. >> we call on the countries concerned to recognize the objective facts, effectively respect the market economy and the principle of fair competition, and stop generalizing t concept of national security. amna: the biden administration has ordered all federal agencies to delete tiktok from government-issued devices. congress, the u.s. military, and more than half of all u.s. states have taken similar steps. in france, chaos engulfed paris a day after the government raised the retirement age from 62 to 64 without parliamentary approval. marches and rallies filled the streets all day. the government defended its actions and unions vowed to

force a reversal, with neither side showing any sign of stepping back. >> we are carrying out this reform, which is difficult, which is not popular. there is no majority of french people who support it and we are perfectly aware of it. >> the cgt union calls for a massive movement. that's the only thing that will get them to back down. when they start seeing the financial impact, they'll go and cry on macron's shoulder. amna: after nightfall, protesters and police faced off in the elegant place de concorde. police fired tear gas after some in the crowd threw fireworks and paving stones. back in this country, the environmental protection agency warned states to stop blocking deliveries of hazardous waste from the train derailment site in east palestine, ohio. several states have tried to halt the shipments of contaminated soil and wastewater to certified storage sites. the epa says any such move would likely violate federal law.

there is word that actor lance reddick has passed away. his publicist said he died this morning of natural causes. he was known for his work in the tv series such as "the wire." he was 60 years old. on this st. patrick's day, celebrations around the world turned streets into seas of green. in dublin, ireland, that included aliens in saucers followed by dancing aliens. in savannah, georgia, revelers in green t-shirts thronged the 199th version of the city's annual parade. and at the white house, the irish prime minister met with president biden. outside, the white house fountain flowed green today. and, a former australian pro surfer set a new record today for the world's longest surfing session. blake johnston rode some 600 waves at a sydney beach for more than 40 hours. hundreds of supporters cheered

the feat that raised money for youth mental health initiatives. still to come on the "newshour," new evidence gives weight to the idea that covid came from natural origins. what one man hopes to achieve with a billion-dollar donation for conservative causes. david brooks and jonathan capehart discuss the week's top political stories. 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. geoff: the international criminal court's decision to issue an arrest warrant for russian president vladimir putin today marks the first time in history that the icc has indicted a head of state from a permanent member of the u.n. security council, and is the most dramatic step taken to try and hold russia accountable for the war in ukraine.

nick schifrin begins our coverage. nick: of all russian crimes committed in ukraine -- mass graves, cities reduced to rubble, buildings that were sheltering women and children and housing families destroyed -- the icc chose a crime that russia has celebrated. at a massive pro-war rally last month, the hosts showed off ukrainian children. the stadium watched propaganda of the children in their hometown mariupol that was destroyed by russian soldiers, and then hugging their supposed savior, who'd helped force them at gunpoint across the border to russia. russian tv has shown ukrainian children, stolen from their homeland, receiving russian documents. and it's been blessed by the very top. last month, president russian vladimir putin told presidential commissioner for children's rights maria lvova-belova, russia was saving children from eastern ukraine.

>> the tragedy that is happening in donbas affects our young children. unfortunately, that's true, during the blatant aggression in donbas against our people. of course, children have suffered. nick: today, the icc indicted putin and lvova-belova. >> it is forbidden by international law for occupying powers to transfer civilians from the territory they live in to other territories. children enjoy special protection under the geneva convention. >> from some of the testimonies and also analytical reports and what we hear from the people, there is an attempt to indoctrinate those kids. nick: talia humanyuk is the founding member of the reckoning project. for "vanity fair," she and her team documented families whose children were kidnapped and then returned, including yevhen mezhevyi. >> i put the children on the bus, hugged and kissed them. >> one man said he would be returned in seven years. people said five or seven years.

>> they asked me again, do you want to join a foster family or an orphanage? nick: tonight, ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy called the indictment "historic." >> separating children from their families, depriving them of any opportunity to contact their relative throwing them in remote regions -- all this is an obvious state policy of russia. nick: so, could president putin end up being arrested and put on trial by the international criminal court? david scheffer was u.s. ambassador at large for crimes issues during the clinton administration. he's now a visiting senior fellow at the council on foreign relations. welcome. a senior official in the administration told me today this would be the most consequential prosecution of international justice since the nuremberg trials of nazi leaders. why do you think this announcement is significant? nick: bear in mind that

indicting or issuing an arrest warrant against the head of state is always going to be a very significant development in international criminal justice, and it has been done before over the last 30 years. many senior leaders, top leaders of countries have actually been indicted and brought to justice before international criminal tribunals. even before the icc, gaddafi of libya -- they were indicted while in power, but the consequence which is what mr. putin now faces is that it does delegitimize the individual. certainly as an international pariah, but even domestically, it starts to erode at that person's power domestically. i think it will be interesting to watch how this affects the russian opposition within russia with respect to mr. p

utin's own fate. which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] nick: do you think this could lead to his arrest? nick: i do think 10, 15 years from now, perhaps mr. putin will not literally be in political power in russia. at that point, his exposure is even greater, and the opposition, if they seize power, they will see it to their advantage actually turn him over to the hague. we saw that in the balkans with respect to mr. melissa. so, yeah, it is different stakes. it is russia. it is a nuclear power. we have to be careful on that scale, but it is not improbable

that he would someday, may many years from now actually face justice. nick: the kremlin responded by pointing out it is not a signatory to the icc, and therefore, an arrest is nolan void. what legal argument does the icc make to arrest a head of state that is not a signatory? david: the state's parties to the own statute agree that sovereign immunity, head of state immunity does not apply with respect to those that are issued, subject to arrest warrants by the court. in this case, ukraine is not a state party to the court, but under the terms of the statute of the icc, it has invited the icc to actually have jurisdiction with respect to the russian vasion of ukraine and the various atrocity crimes related there. there is jurisdiction for

genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. in this case, mr. putin would not have the defensive of state -- the defense of head of state immunity because i is an international court. that is not in effect before the international criminal court. nick: in some ways, today's charges narrow. the story that aired before we started focused on the fact it is the deportation of children from occupied territory. the icc had been considering charges against russia for indiscriminate bombing against civilian targets. what is the significance of the icc choosing this charge? david: this charge is actually low hanging fruit because they have been so transparent and self-incriminating in russia about what they are doing with the ukrainian children. it's self-admitted by the

leadership of russia. particularly, these two individuals who are named today in the arrest warrants. but, this will only be the beginning because other crimes such as knocking out the power grid during the winter for the civilian population, the missile strikes throughout ukraine hitting the civilian population, and cultural sites, etc. all of that is to come. this is the first of what i would predict is a good number of arrest warrants that would name putin, but also other individuals of the leadership. whether it be the foreign ministry, the defense ministry, and the military forces at the command level. nick: we will have to leave it there. thank you very much. david: thank you. ♪ geoff: u.s. airports have seen

an uptick in near-collisions involving commercial planes. a problem prompting the faa to call for a safety summit, launching a review of safety standards and procedures with the goal of preventing catastrophe. at airports across the country, one close call after another. the latest just outside washington, d.c. at reagan national airport earlier this month, when a republic airways plane took a wrong turn, crossing the path of a united airlines jet just as it was about to take off. prompting alarm at air traffic control. >> united 2003, cancel takeoff clearance. >> aborting takeoff. aborting takeoff. geoff: six other recent near-misses are now being investigated by the federal government, including at new york's jfk when an american airlines plane crossed the runway as a delta flight was taking off. in honolulu, when a united flight crossed the runway as a cargo plane was about to land. and in austin, texas, when two planes came within 100 feet of eachther as one was landing

and the other taking off. last month, senators pressed acting faa administrator billy nolen on the spate of near-collisions. >> what can we do to make sure that doesn't happen again? >> it is not what we would expect to have happened, but when we think about how we train both our controllers and our pilots, the system works as it is designed to avert what you say could have been a horrific outcome. geoff: and this week, the faa convened a safety summit with aviation leaders and labor groups to figure out where the problems lie. >> we are particularly concerned because we have seen an uptick in serious close calls that we must address together. geoff: aviation correspondent miles o'brien joins us now. can we say for certain whether the number of near collisions is on the rise or is it possible we are just paying more attention? miles: we are certainly paying

more attention and that is a good thing for all of us. that ultimately is what leads to safety. just because we don't have an accident doesn't mean we don't have safety. looking at the numbers, the faa classifies these by severity. the top two most severe incidents are incidents where near collision almost happened or there was a potential for one. if you look back over airline operations since about 2016, there have been a handful of categories. the most severe one, there has been three over the past couple of years. the fact we are dealing with three dozen or more in the first quarter indicate something is going on here. geoff: what are some of the factors that they will be looking at as they delve into these investigations? miles: one of the things they will be looking at is the

aviation industry post-covid. in the midst of the pandemic, there were lots of retirements, layoffs. as the flying public has returned to the skies almost with a vengeance, we have a lot of new people both in the cockpits, the cabins, the air traffic control towers, and the people driving the vehicles that push and pull the airplanes and service them. we have a junior rocracy going on which is not good. in january, we had the massive computer meltdown which shut down the system for quite a while. we have repeated cases of unruly passengers, problems on board these aircraft. there has been concerns about 5g cellular commucations interfering with the navigations. you have a system that is stressed and may be does not have the most experienced people

dealing with it at the moment. geoff: the faa says that air travel is safe. the american aviation system hasn't had a fatal airliner crash in nearly a decade. still what can be done to , improve the situational awareness for pilots and air traffic controllers? miles: the faa has tried to make this a focus. they have done things like change the way they marked the runways and the taxiways. flashing lights indicating where an active runway may be. the charts we receive as pilots indicate so-called hotspots at airports where there is difficulty. a couple of airports, atlanta and dallas-fort worth, have built these concrete so-called end around taxiways which makes it possible for airliners to get to where they are going without crossing an active runway. that obviously creates auch safer situation, but t one they just built in atlanta cost $81 million.

not every airport has that flexibility to do that. a place like boston logan airport which has all kinds of intersecting runways does not have the turf to build extra taxiways space. geoff: to your point, we have an aviation system that has grown rapidly, but the number of runways in airports has not. the last new major airport in this country was opened in 1995, denver international. is it at all practical to imagine building new airports? miles: it is tough in this country. just think about china for a moment. they plan to build 200 airports over the next 15 yrs. that would double the number of airports they have, but they don't have a messy democracy to contend with. it is difficult to start bulldozing new places to create new airports and new runways in this country. there's all kinds of permitting process and neighbors who don't like this idea. we should point out that are more than 5000 airports in the united states, public use airports.

some of them are pretty small but there are quite a few that are either military or civilian that are large and underutilized. if we move some of the traffic there, that might solve some of this problem. here's a dirty little secret. the airlines do not like this idea. a couple of dozen airports that get a tremendous amount of traffic funneled into them, and they don't necessarily want to open up new airports which opens up the possibility of new competitors, making it more difficult for them to make a buck. geoff: miles o'brien, thanks so much. miles: you are welcome, geoff. ♪ geoff: newly-discovered genetic sampling from wuhan, china provides stronger evidence that covid-19 moved from animals into humans back in 2019, but the origins of the virus remain uncertain. john yang has the latest.

john: almost from the beginning of the pandemic, the debate over its origin focused on two theories. that there was a natural source, that humans were first infected by a wild animal, or that the virus leaked from a lab. scientists say the natural transmission theory has been strengthened by new genetic evidence from the market in wuhan, china, where there was a big covid outbreak in december 2019. samples known to have the virus have been found to also have animal genetic material, much of it from the common racoon dog, a small animal related to foxes. katherine wu first reported this in "the atlantic," where she is a staff writer. she also has a phd in microbiology. what is it that these scientists found that points them in the direction of a wild animal being the source? >> this is another clue

strengthening the case of a natural origin for this virus which is the case for so many other viruses. being able to extract genetic material from both the virus and an animal known to be susceptible to the virus as is the case for the raccoon dog is a good indication that infection of that animal may have happened at the market at the time the pandemic began. that is not exactly a smoking gun. the strongest evidence for a true natural origin would be able to find evidence of a live infected animal. having a swab that has virus in it that was taken from an animal's mouth or nose. or maybe being able to find an infected raccoon dog in the wild now. that is not quite the case here but it is pretty close. knowing there already were viral samples at the market and knowing that raccoon dogs can pass this virus helps bring that story together. now we know the virus and the raccoon dog organ so close proximity that they could get

these swabs with genetic material from both. that is pretty much like finding fingerprints of a crime suspect at the scene of the crime. john: why is this coming out now, three years after the pandemic started? katherine: it is an incredibly important question and i don't have a perfect answer for you. the reason we are getting this analysis now is the researchers that did the new analysis were piggybacking off of samples collected by chinese researchers early on in the pandemic in january and later of 2020. those researchers did originally analyze the samples and posted a version of a study that had yet been published with peer review in february of last year. that analysis did not actually point to wild animals as a possible host for the virus. the raw data for that analysis was not made available at the time. now more than a year later, researchers have been able to get their hands on that raw data

which seems to have been uploaded to a server recently and reanalyzed it and have been able to extract genetic sequences that point to the presence of a wild animal in those same samples. this is old sampling, but a new interpretation, new analysis that is providing us with new clues. john: in recent weeks, we have the u.s. intelligence community, the energy department come out and say they think it was coming from a lab. we don't know how they reached that conclusion and they acknowledged it was with a low degree of certainty. is this evidence going to be enough to convince the people who think it came from a lab? katherine: i honestly suspect probably not. i hope that some people wilbe swayed but at think we have to strike the balance. this is great evidence. this is a new clue bolstering the natural origin hypothesis but it is not a slamdunk evidence i suspect a lot of people have been looking for to

push them in one direction or the other. there is a reaction especially online from people who are more in favor of the lab idea, saying this is not the end of the story. the researchers have also yet to publish a full analysis and release the data. i think a lot of people will want to get their hands on that raw data. there's a big question about why it took so long for that raw data to be uploaded and it has subsequently been removed from the same server. it is not yet clear when it will reappear. the world health organization has called for all data to be made available, but it's unclear if there will be more of a trickle like this that could clinch the case or not. john: why is it so important we figure out where this virus came from? katherine: great question and i think there are multiple reasons. one, it would help us better understand the nature of the virus that we are still grappling with, that is still causing immense suffering around the world. it would ideally help us prevent

future outbreaks that are this devastating. we know that most outbreaks of infectious disease in our recent and very far past have been caused by wild animals passing the virus to us. that is not the fault of wild animals necessarily. we are constantly encroaching on their spaces. we are eating them, trading them,reeding them, selling them, using their ferc, using other materials from them. those relationships are not always managed well. if it turns out to be not a natural origin and it turns out to be related to a lab, that warrants action too. this is a call upon us to change our practices to make sure outbreaks of this nature do not happen in the future. how do we stop that if we don't know how the worst ones started? katherine: thank you very much. ♪ amna: last august, conservative

activist leonard leo received the largest political donation of all time, $1.6 billion. before that, leo was known for his role in reshaping the supreme court. now, we are learning more about how he is using this massive pot of cash. our lisa dejardins has more. lisa: this is an example of so-called dark money, which is not new, but has not been seen on this scale. here's how that worked. first, a tycoon gave the $1.6 billion to a trust, marble freedom trust, run by leonard leo. the trust sends money to another fund with charitable 501(c)(3) status. that in turn passes millions on to political and cultural groups. none of that was public until it was reported by "propublica" and others last year. "propublica's" latest story lays out how this cash is building a new kind of conservative universe. andrea bernstein is one of the authors and joins me now. your team found this promotional

video from leo explaining his approach. >> i spent close to 30 years, if not more, helping to build the conservative legal movement. and at some point or another, you know, i just said to myself, well, if this can work for law, why can't it work for lots of other areas of american culture and american life where things are really messed up right now? lisa: american culture, american life. what does your reporting say he means there? andrea: what is so fascinating, he is someone that works behind the scenes but was very much responsible, played a pivotal role in installing the 6-3 super majority in the u.s. supreme court. a court that recently overturned roe v. wade and made other consequential decisions. leonard leo was critical in creating the network that enabled that to happen.

now what he's looking to do is expand that outward. it is not just talking about law, but law, politics, culture and media, and bringing conservative values to all of those areas and creating a pipeline of individuals who can go and work in organizations, government advancing conservative causes. lisa: what is his agenda or his hopes, and is he affecting the overall conservative agenda? andrea: absolutely. almost everybody i speak with, both people who oppose his views and support him, feel he has been pivotal, key in creating a culture where it is much harder to obtain an abortion. where in some states, it can be more difficult to vote. where he has ideas that pulled back on federal regulation. these are all causes he support and many people do.

he is someone who has created a pipeline in their legal world of judges and lawyers who have pushed these ideas. now as we have reported and found out, he's worked on this group which is elevating people all across society to work for conservative ideas. given the influence he had in the legal world and the fact he has now controls $1.6 billion at least in dark money, which was the largest political donation in u.s. history, this is someone to be taken seriously as someone who can really affect change in these areas. lisa: his group did not want to comment on this story when reached out. speaking to other conservatives about this, they told me this is something the left has been doing for a long time. is this new or different? andrea: one of the things that leo has said is because he feels the left is outrunning him. when we spoke to left-leaning

groups, they admire the holistic approach. this was somebody who was really thinking and seeing soup to nuts about how to crea a long-range agenda for conservative change. given the change he's already made and been responsible for, we felt this was something very much worth taking seriously and watching. lisa: what do you think this says about the future of dark money and politics in general? andrea: everybody we spoke with for this story was lamenting the way systems have become broken. the way partisanship and just division has seeped into the political system and how difficult it is to combat that because the sources of money are now so far the people and the causes they support. of course, that is on both sides. but one of the things we know is now here is leonard leo with this enormous political contribution and poised to

continue his push to make big changes in american life. lisa: someone to be taken seriously and an important topic we take seriously. andrea, thank you for your time. andrea: thank you. always great to be with you. ♪ amna: this week, government leaders work to safeguard the u.s. banking industry, u.s.-russia tensions heat up, and three years after the covid lockdown, many americans are asking, are we better prepared for the next viral threat? for analysis, brooks and capehart. that's "new york times" columnist david brooks, and jonathan capehart, associate editor for "the washington post." welcome to you both. let's start with the banking industry, david, because after the failure of two u.s. banks, we all the administration step in very quickly. assured depositors they would be made whole.

11 banks have stepped in to shore up another bank out of san francisco. the anxiety is not gone yet. david: if you look at mr. dow jones, very unhappy. the markets are volatile. there are two immediate things. the first is this bank informed its investment strategy in a low interest rate environment which is what we've had for 40 years in which we no longer have. a bank that invests a disproportionate amount of money and treasury will suffer because they will not keep up with inflation. when you get to a high interest, things begin to break. the financial system is breaking but the other thing that can break is the budget. we have borrowed and browed assuming interest rates are low. they will no longer be low. inflation will be here for a good chunk of a while. your payments on the debt become massive on the federal level. the second thing is what we have

been so quick to act if this were called a different bank? my answer would be no. the venture capitalists who invest in this bank, people who they invested in, put money in this bank, they created a narrative that is medium-sized bank, if it went under, the whole economy would go under. once they created that narrative, which may not have been true, more or less, the fed had to act. if i were a populist, i would be jumping all over this thing because silicon valley bank gets bailed out, really? it seems to be tailor-made for our friend, donald trump. amna: to that point, the biggest crisis the administration -- question the initiation has faced, would you do this for other banks? did they set a bad precedent here? jonathan: we will find out. if they were named any other bank, with the government jump in?

the other problem with silicon valley bank, it was basically only a tech center bank. its holdings were not diversified. you could blame them for not being prepared for what came. but, it does raise the question of whether the administration would be forced to do it again? that is something we don't quite know yet. we will get a better idea when the fed meets. there is a story that came out just before we came on on cnbc, that the fed chairman could possibly raise rates a quarter of a percentage point. there are other experts saying if you do that, you will bring about a recession. the one thing i take away from what happened, what's happening with these banks, these are not isolated incidents. one thing impacts another. so, we don't know what's going to happen really. amna: we will have to keep following it.

thank you for your insights on that. i want to talk about overseas because it was a big week when it comes to russia's war in ukraine. no signs of the war slowing. there are questions about possible escalation here. we saw that video with the russian jet that forced down a u.s. surveillance grown. now,: and slovakia providing fighter jets to ukraine. amidst all of this, you have gop candidates and other republicans openly saying this is not our fight, we should not be involved. ron desantis had th to say. "while the u.s. has many vital national interests, becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between ukraine and russia is not one of them." david, that is one of the leading candidates for republican nomination for president. is that where republican foreign policy is headed? david: half of it. it has become a marker of are you a populist or conservative?

i would say to ron desantis, we are spending tens of billions of dolls. we have already destroyed half the russian military. what could be a tter investment than that? it seems to me a cra policy. while donald trump and ron desantis and some of the populists at places like the claremont institute, they are on that side, they don't have much power. if you look at the republicans who have power, the minority leader office of the u.s. senate, the intelligence committee, those republicans are saying they are not doing it hard enough. i have been doing -- a l ot of conservatives in congress, they really run the foreign policy world of the republican party. they're quite aggressive. we need to stick up for zelenskyy, ukraine needs to win this war. their resolve is increasing. amna: how do you see it? jonathan: that is great news to hear. this ratcheting up of the

rhetoric among republicans, particularly governor desantis, is very concerning because there cannot be any daylight between america's resolve, america's commitment to ukraine and offending ukraine. i have set it at this table many times. the president says that all the time. this is a battle between democracy and autocracy. democracy must win. the fact the more traditional conservatives are fullbore behind ukraine in congress is the best news i have heard. amna: is that true also in the house? you saw the deals that kevin mccarthy had to cut. go ahead. >> it is the same deal. you've got people who are really involved in foreign policy by and large saying we need more. you look at the presidential campaign -- mike pence, we need to be more aggressive. nikki haley, we need to be more aggressive. a lot of people were uninfluenced by the reagan era.

the second thing that has happened here across the party, the populists are saying we cannot worry about russia, we need to worry about china. i think the republican party as a whole has leapt into a chinese cold war may too fast. you can say we were a little too innocent about where china was headed 10 years ago. we may be a little too warrior like in dealing with china now. our relationship with china is so complicated. the ultra cold war posture we are dealing with china may be a little too simplistic. amna: i want to note this week, three years ago was when the covid lockdowns began. the appropriate sigh and eye roll. it is hard to believe that is when all the hand sanitizing, caloric swiping everything down -- we thought we might be home a few weeks. crazy to think back. jonathan, we are a different country today than we were three years ago. how have we changed? jonathan: i think we have

changed a lot. the one thing about isolation when we all had to not just wipe down everything, but stay home and stay away from our loved ones, is that it was a moment of self reflection. i think a lot of people have decided there are things about the before times that they didn't like. things about their jobs they didn't like. things about their lives they didn't like and that they wanted to change. that if we got out of this, if we got back to normal, we would change. just look at where we are. folks are talking about four day work weeks, three day work weeks. people are leaving professions they were in because they realized i didn't like the way i was treated or how hard i had to work just to get by. i will go someplace else where i am treated well, i am respected, my wages are higher and i get to spend time with my family or my loved ones. i think that is a healthy place for us to be. i think we are just at the beginning of the conversation

because i think in terms of worklife and professions, we are all trying to figure out how does this new normal work. amna: what do you think? david: i made those really -- resolutions to not go back to my before life and now i have gone back. so, over scheduling, over commitment. so, i'm guilty. i think things have changed. i can walk our viewers down through downtown d.c. it does not look the same as it did. downtown new york, a lot of the downtowns have not recovered so people really have moved. i think the mental health effects on young people in particular are long-standing and that is reflective when you talk to teachers. the ability to concentrate. the final thing i would say is i don't think we have memorialized the one million americans who have died enough. president biden, a day before inauguration, he had that ceremony. we need to do that more. there are one million households who lost somebody.

i think we still have not quite faced the emotional leftovers of that. amna: three years later, we are dealing with it still. we've got about a minute or so left. we have arrived at my favorite time of the year which is march madness. the ncaa basketball tournament. i have to ask both of you, are you cheering for anyone? do you have a cinderella team? >> i cheer on the men's side, indiana and marquette. i always cheer for them. they gave me an honorary degree. [laughter] the cinderellas like duke, they never win anything. amna: who speaks for duke, right? on the women's side, i am going for villanova. >> i hate uconn. amna: there will be mail. >> they win too much. amna: jonathan? jonathan: the only cinderella i am rooting for is the one in the ruby slippers. [laughter] amna: on that note, jonathan

capehart, david brooks, always good to see you. thank you. >> thanks, amna. ♪ geoff: "a doll's house," the classic 19th-century play by henrik ibsen, featuring one of the most iconic characters in theater history, nora helmer, a young wife and mother who is forced to question everything in her highly-structured life. it's now getting a new broadway adaptation starring one of today's biggest stars, jessica chastain. jeffrey brown has the story for our arts and culture series, canvas. >> it feels like you're incredibly exposed as an actor because you're not given -- you're not able to hide behind anything. jeffrey: in "a doll's house," jessica chastain takes on a famous character in a new way.

in a stripped-down, no props or period costumes production, envisioned by director jamie lloyd. chastain recalls an early meeting to talk about his approach. >> he mentioned something about no props. i was like, what do you mean? and it was very difficult for me to even imagine. the play as written begins with her eating cookies, right? and then in the very first scene, her husband torvald asks her, you look guilty, have you been eating cookies? and she says, no, i would never do that to you. jeffrey: but you have no cookies. >> there's no cookies. i'm not miming eating cookies, there's just no cookies. i said to jamie, how -- i don't understand how to do this. like, we say in the very first scene that i'm not honest, i swear that i would never do that to my husband, and the audience has just seen that i have. we're not given that opportunity to do that now. and he goes, you'll do it in the acting. i'm like, oh, my god. >> when i saw that clip with my face on it, i thought for a second you were proud of me. jeffrey: for chastain, it's just

the latest in a string of high-wire, attention-getting, often award-winning roles, including an oscar for best actress last year in "the eyes of tammy faye." ♪ and a recent screen actor's guild award for the series, "george and tammy." >> i know certainty freaks you guys out, but it's 100. jeffrey: she's been a top hollywood star at least since 2012's "zero dark thirty," but her love of acting began on stage growing up in northern california. in rehearsal here, she began to find her nora, a young wife and mother kept in place by society's strict rules of behavior, who suddenly faces a crisis that forces her to see the world anew, and make decisions that will change her and others forever. it's an old story, but says chastain, still plenty relevant. >> she is playing within the system to try to get what she needs. and that's ibsen. i mean, that's 1879.

he's incredible what he wrote back then. on paper, the obvious version is this poor woman who's been victimized. but also i wanted to say, how is she participating in it? and how scary it is because we all participate. it's not even necessarily associated to one gender. jeffrey: the original play has been adapted by playwright amy herzog, a co-writer on the recent tv series, "scenes from a marriage." >> if i don't leave right now, i'm never going to. jeffrey: in which chastain also starred, alongside oscar isaac, in a story of another troubled marriage. herzog credits ibsen as a major influence on her own writing. here, she sought only to pare down language and scenes, matching the pared-down style of the production, to bare the essential quality of the characters. >> sit down. this could take a while. >> i tried to dial up the ways nora was in control of the situation.

so even if she's playing, you know, innocent or playing a victim or playing helpless, it is still a choice she's making. and she is still sort of and in significant ways the director and stage manager of the proceedings, even if she gets what she wants by playing a sort of traditional woman. jeffrey: you saw that in the original? >> absolutely. jeffrey: because i'm not sure that's the way everybody reads it or has seen it in the past. >> i think you're right. but i don't think that's because it's not there. i think it's just the way the play has been received as this kind of feminist polemic has flattened some of the subtleties of the original. jeffrey: chastain says she wanted to avoid presenting a polemic or ted talk argument. the unusual staging helped. even before the play starts, she sitslone on stage, looking at us. you don't have the props, you're often sitting in a chair. where does the energy come from? >> it comes from the audience. this is a whole different way of

working for me because in the theater, you create, like, the fourth wall, right? and in some sense, i had fear of the audience. i was nervous, i felt like they were an obstacle to what i needed to do. jeffrey: this is youn the past in the theater? >> the past. even though i had started in the theater and i'd done a lot of it, i was aware of every cough, i was aware of every single person who opened up their food and started eating, or their phones were going off. and i felt it all almost like an assault. and in this production, it's been fascinating because i feel the exact opposite. jeffrey: what is it that you get from acting? >> there's an immediate intimacy with acting. i find that in many cases, even if we pretend we're not, we're all sensitive beings that are very tender and have a lot of emotions. and some people work very hard to protect themselves and put up this wall, right? and we see that on the subway,

we see it, you know, talking to people sometimes at a coffee shop, how are you doing today? fine, thank you, how are you? fine, thank you. but we're never really connecting on an intimate level with strangers. and acting really changes that for me. i mean, i show up on a set, could be someone i've never met before, and there's an immediate connection and openness, and we're not allowed to be guarded around each other. jeffrey: in addition to her acting, chastain is known for her activism on behalf of women in hollywood on issues such as pay equity and beyond. when we met, her mind was very much on the ongoing women-led protests in iran. when you think about having all this choice now about what you do, what's important to you? >> i'm drawn to characters that see women as three-dimensional human beings. so, that could mean that they do complicated things.

they can subvert the stertypical gender roles, which is very interesting to me because i find anything that pushes the status quo of what a woman is supposed to be or supposed to do -- that, i think, is a step forward. because we've always accepted men as being able to do multiple things. and i think we need to see women also as human beings. so that's what i'm drawn to, characters that treat women as human beings. jeffrey: simple as that. >> simple as that. actually, it sounds so easy, doesn't it? but, i think with some people, it's still not super easy. jeffrey: jessica chastain inhabits "a doll's house" through june 10. for the pbs "newshour," i'm jeffrey brown on broadway. amna: remember, there is much more online, including a list of four things you should know about the epa's proposal to limit so-called forever

chemicals in drinking water. be sure to join our own william brangham who is filling on "washington week" tonight. he and a panel of journalists will discuss the ripple effects of recent bank failures and the growing political divide over support for ukraine. that's tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on pbs. check your local listings. geoff: and watch pbs news weekend tomorrow for a look at how the rising cost of veterinary care is creating hardships for pet owners. >> this is dobby. dobby came and injured. she's had to have her hips replaced. hi! >> an injured dog arrived in an animal control truck. the owner suspected it was hit by a car when theyere out of town. >> he broke the chain and was wandering around. he was surrendered because they couldn't afford. >> it does happen often. it seems like the only option. i know i don't have money

to take my dog to the vet and the only option is taking it to the shelter. geoff: that's tomorrow on pbs news weekend. and that is the "newshour." i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on behalf of the entire "newshour" team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- ♪ >> moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. ♪ >> and with the ongoing support of these individualsnd institutions. and friends of the newshour, including kathy and paul

anderson, and camilla and george smith. the walton family foundation, working for solutns to protect water during climate changes so people and nature can thrive together. the william and flora hewlitt foundation. supporting institutions to promote a better world. ♪ >> 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 performed by the

national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.]

♪ hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour & company." here's what's coming up. >> america's relative power is not what it was 20 years ago. >> navigating a new world order. my conversation with stephen hadley, the national security adviser for president george w. bush. we discuss the current threats facing the united states and their roots 20 years after the iraq war. then -- >> that work remains my life and it's my salvation. >> from "amadeus" to the white lotus the oscar-winning actor f. murray abraham tells me about his incredible career and why he's coming back to mozart for "the pmagic flute." also ahead three years after the

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