amna: good evening and welcome. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. on the “newshour” tonight, scientists at the u.n. issue a stark warning about climate change, saying it's now or never for taking the drastic steps needed to prevent catastrophe. amna: former president trump faces a potential grand jury indictment on charges stemming from a hush money payment to a porn star. geoff: and, 20 years later, american marines and their families reflect on the invasion of iraq and its lingering impact on their lives. >> i had to find it within me and start making the hard choices of facing myself, finding help, doing whatever i had to do to get healthy again. ♪

>> 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." the williaand flora hewlett foundation, for more than 50 years advancing ideas and supporting instituations to promote a better world. at hewlett.org. ♪

this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. geoff: welcome to the “newshour.” scientists warned today that climate change is warming the planet to the point where it is causing irreversible damage in some parts of the world. amna: the new report from the united nations intergovernmental panel on climate change, or ipcc, found that witn a decade, the world is likely to miss its goal of holding global warming to 1.5 degrees celsius or 2.7 degrees fahrenheit. if or when the planet reaches that level, scientists say earth will pass tipping points that will lead to catastrophic environmental damage, including dangerous sea level rise, entire species going extinct, and even greater suffering in many nations, especially the poorest.

u.n. secretary general antonio guterres said the time to act is now. >> humity is on thin ice, and that eyes is melting fast. the rate of temperature rise in the la century is the highest in 2000 years. concentrations of carbon dioxide are at their highest in at least 2 million years. the climate time bomb is ticking. amna: for a closer look at the report and what can be done to change the direction the planet is headed, i'm joined by katharine hayhoe, climate scientist at texas tech university and chief scientist for the nature conservancy. welcome back. that is rong language from antonio guterres there, saying humanity is on thin ice, the climate time bomb is ticking. this is about as dire and urgent a report and a warning as we have heard. why now? katharine: it is completely justified. we scientists have been warning

about the impacts of climate change on humans, and all life on this planet, for decades. yet our carbon emissions continue to rise. as the report says, the window of opportunity we have to make decisions that will lead us to a better future is closing rapidly. amna: that increase in global average temperature you have been trying to keep the 1.5 degrees celsius, some refer to as the tipping point, we seem to be hurtling towards that right now. as we cross that threshold, if we are to cross that threshold, help us understand what does that mean for life onarth? for our kids, grandkids, how will their lives be different? katharine: 1.5 degrees is not a magic threshold or a tipping point. it is a goal we set ourselves knowing that the science is very clear. every bit of warming matters. every little bit that the planet warms carries additional costs with it.

so, how much do we need to do? as much as possible, as soon as possible, because we will all benefit from that action. amna: and if we don't, what looks different here on earth? katharine: we're already seeing the impacts today in the way climate change is loading the weather dies against us. we have always had floods and droughts and hurricanes and heat waves, but in a warming world they are getting stronger and more dangerous, and they are impacting onhe bus but particularly affecting those who are vulnerable and marginalized the most. the warmer the world gets, the more it endangers our food supply, our water supply, the safety of our homes, our own health, our economy and supply chains, the natural environment every aspect of life on earth, including our life on earth, is at risk the warmer this planet gets. amna: this report says in order to shift course we need to slash greenhouse gases in half by 2030 and stop adding carbon dioxide

to the atmosphere altogether by the early 2050's. do you see that happening? katharine: it is possible. if we have the will to do so, we can accomplish it. but the problem we have today is we still -- many of us -- do not really understand how this issue affects us here and now. and we don't understand that the majority of the solutions we need are already in our hands. that is what the ipcc report makes very clear, that these changes are already affecting us, our homes, our food, our water, our economy, our cities, our states. and the solutions, efficiency, clean energy, investing in nature, adapting and building resilience -- many of those solutions are here today as well. the only question at this point is what are we waiting for? if we wanted to accomplish this, we could. amna: there are some who say they had been worse productions,

that there could be a warming of four degrees or more sooner, which now looks unliky. some will be looking at this and say, could these productions be wrong as well? katharine: the previous productions were not wrong. the uncertainty is us. the predictions are for what will happen depending on the choices we make. prior to the paris agreement in 2015, the world was heading towards a future that was between four to five degrees celsius warmer than today. you might say, well, that does not sound that bad, it's four o r five degrees warmer. but think of it in terms of the human body. the temperature of the planet has been astable as that of the human body over the course of human civilization. if our body is running a fever of one or two degrees celsius, or four to six degrees celsius, that is life-threatening. we have already, thanks to the paris agreement, reduced the amount of change we can expect

by policies enacted by at leas one degree. but we still need more, because every bit of warming carries a costs with it. amna: these warnings have been coming for decades, so i am curious why you think it is the climate threat has resided in many people's minds as a future threat, not necessarily an imminent one. katharine: for many of us it is because we have not seen the impacts with our own eyes. we have heard about them. we know what is happening to polar bears, antarctica, or ice sheets, but we are not seeing it here and now. well, that has changed. over the last year at least one in three americans have been personally affected by climate change. we might live somewhere where hurricanes are getting stronger, wild fires burning greater areas, where the summer is dominated by record-breaking heat waves. climate change no longer a future issue, it is right here where we live, it is right now, and the time to fix it is also here and now.

amna: that is katharine hayhoe, climate scientist and chief scientist for the nature conservancy. thank you for joining us. katharine: thank you so much for having me. ♪ geoff: in the day's other headlines, a new report estimates somalia's longest drought on record killed 43,000 people last year, and half may have been children under the age of five. u.n. agencies released the study by british scientists today. it focused on somalia and neighboring ethiopia and kenya, where sidry years have caused severe food and water shortages. the study forecasts at least 18,000 more drought-related deaths in the first half of this year. the financial world endured another tense day. trading in first republic bank pshares had to be halted several times. the stock fell nearly 50%

despite a $30 billion rescue by major u.s. banks. european bank stocks generally leveled out after swiss regulators brokered a takeover of credit suisse by ubs. shares in credit suisse tumbled nearly 60%. in france, the government survived no-confidence votes today over hiking the retirement age from 62 to 64 without parliament's approval. but president emmanuel macron still faced another day of strikes and protests. walkouts by waste disposal workers kept garbage piling up in paris. union members demanded that the government reverse course. >> president macron is going to realize that the country is in opposition, there are many employees on strike, that a very large majority of public opinion is against his social regression in this pension reform, and he must listen to employees. geoff: a new round of nationwide strikes and protests is set for thursday. israel is facing new criticism after its finance minister

declared that there is no such thing as a palestinian people. that drew condemnation today from the european union and other leaders. separately, israeli ofcials are pushing ahead with part of a plan to overhaul its judicial system, despite protests. in a sunday phone call, president biden urged prime minister benjamin netanyahu to compromise on the overhaul. the u.s. charged today that all sides in ethiopia's two-year war committed war crimes, including murder, rape, and ethnic cleansing. the conflict pitted the tplf rebels in tigray against the ethiopian and eritrean armies. an estimated half million civilians were killed. today's announcement did not mention penalties. instead, secretary of state tony blinken called for the factions to police themselves. >> in terms of what happens next in ethiopia, including what process they establish to provide for justice, for accountability, we'll see. i don't think that's been determined. geoff: the ethiopian war ended with a cease-fire last november.

so far, all sides have denied allegations of war crimes. a federal jury in washington has convicted four people associated with the oath keepers militia in the january 6 attack on the u.s. capitol. they were found guilty today of conspiracy and obstruction. two other defendants were acquitted. six oath keepers had already been convicted of the more serious charge of seditious conspiracy. president biden today issued his first veto. he rejected a bill to prohibit federal retirement plan managers from considering climate change or social justice when making investment decisions. republicans favor the ban, but don't have the votes to override the veto. amazon will cut another 9000 jobs in the next few weeks. today's announcement adds to 18,000 workers already slated for layoffs. the tech giant's workforce had doubled during the pandemic. and on wall street, financial stocks joined a broad advance. the dow jones industrial average gained 382 points, more than 1%,

to close at 32,244. the nasdaq rose 45 points. the s&p 500 added 35. still to come on the “newshour”" chinese president xi jinping visits vladimir putin in moscow. can the takeover of credit suisse calm the banking sector? and how a new claim about the iran hostage crisis changes the history of the carter presidency. >> 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: this week might bring an historic and high-stakes moment, what would be the first-ever indictment of a former president. former president donald trump says he expects to be arrested this week on possible charges from the manhattan district attorney, related to the stormy daniels case. lisa desjardins has been following this and other trump cases and joins me now. let's start with this of manhattan case.

what we need to know and where is it now? lisa: we are about to enter another complicated road trip in this country so let's set up a roadmap starting with the local manhattan case with the powerful district attorney there. this case centers around $130,000 paid to stephanie clifford, also known as stormy daniels. allegedly that was hushoney, and that is what the charges would be about if they come, for covering up an affair. two kinds of charges we will be looking for. one, bookkeeping, whether trump and his organization falsely claim t something else. two, campaign finance, whether the money was used for a campaign purpose, his reputation. as we are waiting for this indictment, which could come anytime, we have heard from trump and w more and more leading republicans, what they are doing in defending him is goinon offense against the osecutor, saying he has corrupted bias. >> stop going after people because you have political differences. >> it just feels like a

politically charged prosecution here. >> like other soros-funded prosecutors, they weaponize their office to impose a political agenda on society. lisa: that was the message up and down from republicans, not about trump but about the prosecutor. but democrats and legal scholars say no, charges would be justified and they scoff at the idea that this is politics. >> i think it's clear that they were ting to cover up the campaign finance benefit. there's a campaign finance violation there. so, if you've got a case that's supported by the law and the facts, it's not really fair to say that it's political. it would be political not to bring the case. why should a former president get special treatment different than everybody else? lisa: there are a lot of details about this case. there is debate whether it would be a weak or strong case.

we are talking about that first because that is the charge we expect first today, tomorrow, wednesday possible. amna: it is one of several investigations of course around former president trump. remind us where the other probes are unfolding and what we need to know. lisa: even for us, we cover this all the time, it can be dizzying. think of them in terms of location and the types of prosecutors involved. let's start in fulton county, georgia. this is the next case we expect perhaps in terms of time this is a local case for fulton county. the question is did president trump try to overturn the 2020 results in georgia? charges could include things like eleion felonies, racketeering. this is the case we talked about the grand jury meeting on pick the grand jury filed this report indicates to the prosecutor two months ago. we are waiting for the prosecutor to make her decision and that is expected soon. that is the fulton county,

georgia case. there is a national case that is also incredible he high-stakes. the department of justice has a counsel looking into two different kinds of cases. declassified documents found at mar-a-lago and elsewhere. then also, the 2020 ection, whether president trump had a role. that means possible charges include things like document mishandlin which sometimes could be a misdemeanor, all the way to insurrection itself. a timeline for that is unclear. the special prosecutor has an open-ended charge, but there is some reporting that the idea is this would likely happen before 2024. of course former president trump is a candida for 2024. that is national department of justice case. one more case, this will be the last one. new york state is investiging the trump organization. the question from the attorney general new york state, did the trump organization lie to lenders? this is about the organization,

the business. this is a civil case, so this would not send anye to jail. however, the results of this could be the trump business could be banned from new york. trial in that case is set for november. so, think of this in terms of, we have three major potential criminal cases, and we have one civil case that would really affect former president trump's business. he is defending himself on all fronts and we are seeing increasingly republicans ratchet up the rhetoric as well. amna: you hinted at that earlier . this is not just about the president, it is the party and from the republicans. what are you hearing? lisa: i think we are headed to potentially another dangerous back-and-forth in our corridors of power. today we saw two very powerful house committees ask for communications from the department of justice to the prosecutor in manhattan about this case we are waiting for the indictment on. that is part of the oversight mission, but then what you are setting up is house republicans versus the current department of justice and the current

prosecutor, each accusing the other of being political. there are questions of whether they can step in there. also, this is republican primary ramp up season. what happens to former president trump in these cases will very likely affect the republican primary significantly. finally there are security concerns here. i don't have to tell you, we were both there on january 6. president trump has asked for protests over this potential indictment. there is increased security, heightened awareness in new york, and i am told that the u.s. capitol. a little bit of awareness, nothing much yet, but it is on the radar and people are nervous to see what could happen and how supporters of president trump react. amna: high-stakes indeed. lisa desjardins covering it all, thank you. lisa: you are welcome. ♪ geoff: chinese president xi jinping arrived in moscow today for a three-day state visit to

russia. relations between the two countries have grown closer over the past year, as china's imports of russian oil have increased, and both countries seek to undercut the u.s. on the world stage. nick schifrin has the story. nick: they call each other dear, old friends. and in their 40th meeting, chinese president xi jinping labeled russian president vladimir putin his partner in war and peace. >> china attaches great importance to china-russia relations. because we areach other's biggesneighboring countries, as well as strategic partners. nick: the two men share authoritarian recipes for power, and a mutual desire to upend u.s. influence. china remains one of the biggest buyers of russian energy. chinese companies are providing russia with parts essential to maintain russian weapons. the two countries conduct joint military exercises.

and since the war in ukraine began, china has neither endorsed, nor condemned it. beijing's new peace plan calls for upholding ukraine's sovereignty, but not for russian troops to withdraw, an approach putin endorsed today. >> we know that you proceed from the principles of justice and observance of the fundamental provisions of international law, of indivisible security for all countries. nick: but today, secretary of state antony blinken rejected in advance any call for a ceasefire. >>: for a cease-fire that does not include the removal of russian forces from ukrainian territory would effectively be supporting russian confluence. it would recognize russia seizing a sovereign territory by force. it would enable pressure to further entrench positions in ukraine. nick: this weekend, putin tried to show just how entrenched his position in ukraine already is. in a staged and scripted nighttime visit, russian tv showed him speaking to residents of mariupol.

never mind the daytime view, a city nearly obliterated by russian troops. this weekend putin also visited russian-occupied crimea, including what russian media described as a children's center, one day after putin became an indicted war criminal for allegedly overseeing the forced deportation of ukrainian children. in part because of those war crimes, putin and russia a increasingly isolated. but today's visit came with an endorsement from the leader of the world's second largest economy, and military. >> thanks to your strong leadership, russia has achieved significant success in reaching prosperity and well-ing of the country. i am sure that the people of russia will support you in your best efforts. nick: beijing cast xi as a peacemaker, and he's pected to speak with ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy following his trip to moscow. so, what is driving the increased level of cooperation between russia and china? for that, we turn to sasha kovalev, a senior fellow at the

carnegie endowment for international peace, who joins us from geneva. sasha, welcome to "newshour." thanks very much. firstly, how important is it for putin to get this visit from xi? sasha: it is very important because china, over the course of the last 12-plus months, has turned into a major supporter of russia. it's the major market for russian hydrocarbons and the major source of cash for putin's war chest. it's the major source of imports, including dual use imports and civilian chips that enable putin's war economy going. when china stands next to your behind you, you can say that you are not isolated. nick: so i want to drill down into what china is sending to russia. but first, let's get the other side. how does xi jinping see the importance of the relationship between beijing and moscow right now? sasha: i think what xi jinping's

relationship with russia was always important. russia is an important source of raw materials, and russia is the only like-minded authoritarian state on the u.n. security council among permanent members. but what also colors his perspective now is this view that the u.s.-china relationship is going off the cliff. it's continued confrontation that gets worse. and here, russia as a junior partner is a very valuable asset. nick: and that is the case, especially as president biden sees the wor, or at least paints the world in terms of democracy versus authoritarianism, right? sasha: that's absolutely right. that's the depiction that helps to bring russia and china closer together, particularly since both are quite obsessed about what they see the u.s. democracy promotion effort. both xi jinping and putin see themselves vulnerable at home, and they definitely want to join hands to push back against u.s. hegemony. nick: senior u.s. officials are particularly worried about right now if china were to decide to

send weapons openly to russia. but how do you see china already supporting russia's war in ukraine? sasha: i think that providing cash by opening its market for russian hydrocarbons is very important because soldiers need to be paid and all of the military procurements also need to be covered. but also, china provides the civilian chips and also some of the components of russian arms, like radarand surface to air missiles, and many other arms and russian weapons that are used on the battlefield in ukraine. nick: and are these supply chainshat are going from china to russia, are they long established? because u.s. officials have repeatedly said that beijing hasn't made the overt decision to arm russia. sasha: these are long established relationship. these are not ready weapons that are complete. these are just components. but these are ties from sanctioned chinese entities to sanctioned russian entities that go back years and years.

we don't see evidence that china has already provided some significant amount of weapons that will be lethal and that will be used on the battlefield. nick: as i mentioned before, beijing portrays xi jinping as a peacemaker in this visit as part of a diplomatic effort to try and end the war in ukraine. how much of this visit is really about that effort? sasha: right now, the mood in kiev and in moscow is, give war a chance. china perfectly gets it. and for beijing, its diplomatic effort is just more a tool to push back against western criticism that it's leaning too much in support of vladimir putin's war. and at the same time, it provides a justification for xi pjinping to go to moscow to engage putin on a state visit, but that needs to be coupled with outreach to president zelenskyy, which will also happen, but in a separate phone call rather than a full fledged visit. nick: and finally, we expect a

joint statement out of this trip from both leaders. what should we be looking out for? sasha: the language might be a little bit guarded, but it cannot mask that the relationship is getting deeper. it's increasingly asymmetric. the terms are dictated by china and that the primary target that they have in mind as their opponent are the united states of america. there will be some documents that are the underwater part of the iceberg. for example, decisions to sell secretive russian military technology like surface to air systems, s-500, or the most advanced russian fighter jets to china that both moscow and beijing feel is not the right time to publicize that, given the war and the negative optics. but it's ok to start implementing them and go public about that months from now and maybe even years from now. nick: sasha gabuev of the carnegie endowment for inteational peace, thank you very much. sasha: thank you for having me.

♪ geoff: 10 days after the collapse of silicon valley bank and emergency measures from the federal government to stabilize the system, key parts of the banking industry are still reeling and anxious. this weekend, switzerland's largest bank agreed to buy out its rival credit suisse for a fraction of its market value. and there were new efforts today to help stabilize first republic bank we are joined by roben farazad, host of public radio's full disclosure. it is great to see you. let's talk about the demise of credit suisse. overnight a 167-year-old institution is dead, sold in a fire sale to its biggest rival. why should americans care what is happening with credit suites, and what does all of this suggest about the stability of the global banking system? roben: granted this was the c

student of international investing, and yet it was a student of investment banking, and that is all interconnected with the other banks. after we had experienced what we did here with silicon valley and that little mini bank panic, all eyes looked across the atlantic for weak players. that is just the way this works in social media. what about this guy and that guy? show us your ballasts -- balance sheet. and they realized credit suisse could not stand on its own two feet. in europe, there was a lot of pressure to force a merger. you saw something like that wit j.p. morgan and bear stearns in 2008 when it was bought for $2 a share. this was largely to telegraph we are on top of this crisis as well. and yet all eyes again are back on the united states. geoff: let's talk about the mystic banks, because j.p. morgan is reportedly involving first republic on the steps.

you have new york community bank agreeing to buy certificate chunks of signature bank. for the last 15 years regulators have been focused on banks deemed too big to fail. were they blinded to the potential threat posed by these smaller regional lenders? roben: in fairness, the smaller regional lenders, these sub regional banks if you will, they were able to fly somewhat under the radar because of this deregulation, this impulse you had in 2017 and 2018. the cry was, we can't make money with these owners dodd frank rules, give us a break. donald trump was president, everybody had forgotten about 2008, when in truth there was another risk coming down the pike. it was not about rolling subprime debt and toxic assets, it was about interest rates risks and being pretty with grabbing yield. it is something that is amazing to people that a bank that was so big and flush with deposits and so reputable as silicon valley bank to blink, and

everyone is asking where the regulators, when in reality they flew under the radar. geoff: the decision by the federal government to make all of those depositors whole, even the folks who had well above the $250,000 amount that's insured by the fdic, it sets a precedent. is -- why not insure all the deposits? roben: nobody knows what it will cost. is not like everyone will get together and write a $30 trillion check or transfer payment to the banking system. i do not know the number above $250,000, but the percentage of overall u.s. deposits that are uninsured. but the telegraphing of it might be enough, especially in this era of zell, twitter, going on your phone and moving something from a regional bank to a too big to fail bank, to forestall that, to calm down.

it's not toxicity or malfeasance. it's inside baseball. might there be a run on my bank? if enough people echo that, the fear becomes reality. the fed wanted to put a psychological wall in front of that. i know i mixed 3000 metaphors, but i tried to explain this to my parents and relatives who call, and that is where we are right now. geoff: what is the fed to do, and what are they going to do next? up until now they had to balance growth and inflation. now they have to navigate growth, inflation, and the financial stability of the banking sector. how does that work? roben: and it is not like you have two interest rates, one for hospitality and real estate speculation and another one for the banks. you have backdoor facilities with the fed and the challenges, and we will help you warehouse bonds and if you need ample liquidy. the fed's balance sheet is swelling real-time with this. up until three weeks ago it was

laser focused on inflation, and that is very hard to do when you have a banking crisis. now there are concerns that if they come out and do not hike rates people will be like, that is worse than hiking by .25 points. maybe they know something we don't know. the steady hand theory, that was at least today's wall street digest. who knows what people will romance tomorrow or the day after. it is a treacherously difficult thing to do, and a function of unprecedented meals we have that the -- unprecedented stimulus we have. geoff: the bottom line in plain english. do people have reason to be concerned? roben: if you are above $250,000. it is not because were daddy were box, but you might have working capital, it makes sense to read the fine print. oftentimes if it is a joint account with a spouse you are protected. do not transfer first and ask questions later. very rarely in history have depositors taken a haircut. the system does not want there to be an overall run on the

system and you do not need to lose sleep over it. geoff: roben farzad following it all, thank you so much. roben: thank you, geoff. ♪ amna: tonight, we begin a series looking back at the u.s. invasion of iraq, 20 years later. the attacks began march 20, 2003, in a thuerous hail of airstrikes on baghdad. soon, american troops would race across the desert from kuwait toward the iraqi capital. special correspondent mike cerre was embedded with the marines of fox company, second battalion, fifth marines, known as fox two five. they would help take baghdad, and return to iraq on subsequent deployments. mike has stayed in touch with many of those marines and their families, and tonight he begins our coverage, which will stretch over the coming weeks, with this look at fox two five then, and now.

mike: still teenagers 20 years ago, most of these marines enlisted right after 9/11, straight out of high school, for what became the largest military operation in the war against terror. >> my husband said it seems like every generation has to do this, and this is this generation's battle. mike: do you think the rest of the country fully appreciates -- >> no, they don't have a clue. >> we are going to fix it up on the plane. mike: as a reporter, and a marine veteran of vietnam, i embedded with fox company 2nd battalion 5th marines in 2003, both to report on the wafor abc news and to chronicle how much another generation of americans would likely be changed by a war. >> as we're now moving and trying to penetrate into southern iraq as fast as we can. >> as you hear from mike cerre, it is now a full-scale invasion.

mike: any abstract notions of war these marines might have had quickly turned into their reality of war, as one of the first american units to invade iraq in march, 2003. >> we came over with 206 and i want to go home with 206. if we don't have to get decisively engaged that's fine with me. mike: first sergeant ed smith was fox two five's senior enlisted man and one of the few with previous combat experience. he delayed his scheduled retirement to accompany his unit to iraq. on their final push to baghdad, first sergeant ed smith was fox two five's first and only fatality, during the unit's first of several deployments to iraq over the next five years. >> i think it affects me more now in my adult fe than it did obviously when i was eight. because i couldn't really process it, being so young.

mike: his daughter, shelby smith, and other gold star families who lost a relative in iraq, don't need anniversaries to remind them of the sacrifices made in iraq. >> but for people who do not know what personally, and it hasn't affected them personally, i think the war probably never crosses their mind. mike: shelby smith is continuing her father's legacy as a police officer, like the new career he had already started prior to his delayed retirement from the marines. >> 20 years is a lontime to heal and to process things. there's times at work, you know, i feel close to him there because i imagine him doing the same things that i'm doing, you know, and i can feel him next to me sometimes. i think he's keeping me safe. i'm really happy to have been able to follow in his footsteps. mike: others i've re-connected with over the years have had to deal with less obvious injuries. >> don't sweat the small stuff, mike.

this is what started it all. mike: i first met former cpl mike elliot reading this pop psychology book for teenagers while in his foxhole, wearing a chemical protection suit. >> this was some bathroom material at home. it's called don't sweat the small stuff. the main part, simple ways to keep yourself cool in stressful times. mike: michael elliott was one of the first members of the unit to enter a veterans administration residential program for ptsd. the va believes more than one in four iraq war vets have or will experience varying degrees of ptsd. he has since earned a counseling degree and has helped other montana vets deal with their ptsd through wilderness programs. >> about a week ago, i had a sniper get real close to me. you never know out here. the first couple of months we saw ied's every day. mike: former navy corpsman sal chavez, fox two five's medic, has tried some of the newer,

alternative ptsd therapies, to help him deal with some of his most intense iraq memories. this is a virtual reality reenactment of a roadside ambush when their first sergeant was killed. >> everything was on fire, it was loud, rounds being shot off, you could feel the percussions of all of the explosions. mike: how do you feel in your body right now watching this? >> intense. so i had to find it within me and start making the hard choices and facing myself, finding help, doing whatever i had to do to get healthy again. mike: others have not as been successful. more members of fox two five have since died from suicide than were killed in combat. all three had been diagnosed with ptsd.

since their homecoming after the 2003 invasion, most of these marines have resumed their lives interrupted by war, and now have families and civilian careers. >> it did help us that the country was unified behind us. we felt after 9/11 that everyone wanted to go and get the bad guys, and that we had a lot of support from our country, which is way different than my father-in-law and my uncle served in vietnam. mike: former sergeant ryan smith learned of his acceptance to college in his first letter to home after reaching baghdad in april 2003. >> i never thought i had a chance of getting in but hopefully we get out in time for me to start in september. mike: he went on to ucla law school and is now a corporate attorney near newport beach california. >> after getting out of the marine corps i struggled making social connections, struggled interacting with people who had not served in the military.

i felt i had a chip on my shoulder, that the average civilian couldn't understand what me and my friends had gone through. mike: as far removed from war as his personal and professional life are today, some memories from his iraq experience are still inescapable. >> we've got a vehicle coming. we got a tracer? mike: the same day that their first sergeant was killed, the unit was involved in a civilian tragedy at a road block that killed 10 iraqis, some of them children. it was later determined to be a fog of war accident. >> i think yesterday was the defining moment in my life. after yesterday and the day before, i think there's no more curiosity. i think people have seen the horrors of combat and no one looks forward to any more of that. mike: i can remember coming up to you that morning afterwards, and you were certainly a bit rocked back on your heels, and

you said you had had enough of war. >> you didn't think about innocent people and children getting in the line of fire. and once that happened, it shattered whatever noble vision i had of war, or romanticized vision of war. and it really dawned on me that war is a dirty, ugly business. mike: did your feengs about the war change while you were in it, or did take a period of time to evolve afterwards? >> a lot of us took a more nuanced approach towards the war after that and realizing that we did what we were told to do. and we served our country. and we're proud that we stood up when we were asked to serve and that we stood shoulder to shoulder with some of the best people i've er met in my life. and some of the finest americans. but at the end of the day, you look how the iq war ended, and it does make you question, what was that all for?

mike: whatever their personal feelings about the war 20 years later, they all share what former chief justice oliver wendell holmes called the incommunicable experience of war when, their hearts were touched by fire. for the "pbs newshour," this is mike cerre. amna: tomorrow we'll continue our look at the war and its aftermath through the eyes of two iraqi families. ♪ geoff: in the summer of 1980, a prominent republican, close to ronald reagan's campaign, sought to sabotage then-president jimmy carter's re-election by asking middle eastern leaders to get a message to the iranians: keep the american hostages until after the election and the reagan administration will give you a better deal. that stunning reporting this weekend by the "new york times"

is prompting a re-thinking of presidential history. jonathan alter details jimmy carter's presidency and re-election bid in his book, "his very best, jimmy carter, a life." thank you for being with us. this reporting that there was in fact a secret effort by the reagan campaign t sabotage the carter campaign by urging the iranians to hold the hostages until after that year's presidential election, how does that fundamentally change our understanding of american history and of the carter presidency? jonathan: this is a pretty big deal. because what you have is the campaign of a candidate for president who is prolonging the captivity of americans at the u.s. embassy in tehran in order to achieve a political victory. now, the deal itself has not

been completely nailed down. but there is considerable circumstantial evidence th this took place. and this latest story is just another piece of that evidence. but it has been accumulating over the years. this was rumored at the time. there was a congressional investigation in 1992 that said there was quite a bit of suggestive evidence, but no smoking gun. and in the time since then, there have been really two major disclosures that have led credence to this. but it's an extremely unpatriotic move by ronald reagan's campaign manager and later his director of the cia. as far as whether the hostages would have been released before the election, whether jimmy carter would have won, that is unknowable. jimmy carter believes so, and the polls were much closer than

the final result in the weeks just before the election. it turned out to be a landslide. but there were a number of other factors in 1980, including a wretched economy. so we cannot know for sure that if this had not happened, history would be different. but we do know for sure that there was a plot by the reagan campaign to do carter dirty. geoff: let me ask you more about that. because a new york times, peter baker and his reporting, stresses there is no evidence ronald reagan knew about this effort, or that william casey directed it. you wrote a piece this weekend where you say not only is the reporting credible, but that you in your own reporting have encountered information that is even more incriminating. tell us about that. jonathan: right. this is all in my book, my biography of jimmy carter. but what happened geoff is that the question of whether there was a so-called october surprise turned on a very, very specific

thing in 1992 when it was being investigated by congressman leigh hamilton on capitol hill. and the question was whether william casey, this was reagan's campaign manager and later cia director, whether he left a meeting in london and went to madrid to meet with four iranian representatives of the ayatollah to discuss a deal. now, those four iranians say casey did leave london and visited madrid in the summer of 1980 not long before the election. but for a long time there was no proof of that. and then just eight, nine years ago now, a document surced in president bush's senior's library, where the united states ambassador in spain said in a cable, william casey heret shi -

- here this week. we're not sure why. at pretty much established he was there for a meeting. i have something else in my book that is also very relevant, and that is that a banker and diplomat whose name was joseph reed, who later became ambassador to morocco and head of protocol for reagan, i came across a letter he wrote to his family in which he said, i'm proud of my role in preventing the hostages from being released before the election, so that jimmy carter would not get credit for that. that is a pretty sick thing, when you think about it. these 52 americans are being held in captivity, and you have people very close to reagan, whether reagan himself new or not we do not know, but people very close to reagan were definitely trying to do this. whether they completed a deal or not is unclear. the original deal would be that

if the iranians waited to release the hostages until after the election, which they did, that reagan would unfreeze their assets and give them arms. it turned out that it was carter who negotiated the release of the hostages. although, and this was extraordinary when it came across this, remember iran contra, where we shipped arms to the iranians. that was in 1986. this was in 1981, just a couple months after our citizens are released. at that point, the reagan administration is already shipping arms to its enemy in iran through the israelis. so it's quite possible that this was a payoff for the decision by the iranian government to not release the hostages before the

election, which would of course have aided jimmy carter's election efforts. geoff: gary sick, who was the expert for jimmy carter's team, he spoke with my colleague john yang yesterday, and said this reporting basically backs up what they believed to have been the case. you know former president carter, you have interviewed him. what did he think and how might he view this reporting? jonathan: so, i think that this reporting will be yet more evidence of what both president carter and rosalynn carter expressed to me, which is that they have very strong suspicions that william casey cut a deal with the iranians, whether directly or through intermediaries. but they have suspected this for many years and they have had good reason to do so. geoff: jonathan alter, thank you so much for your time and for

your insights. appreciate it. jonathan: thanks, geoff. ♪ amna: tonight, we're revisiting the brief but spectacular take by choreographer and dancer, stuart hodes, who died last week at the age of 98. he took his first dance lesson after a distinguished stint as an air force aviator during world war ii. he was still dancing two years ago when the newshour featured his memoir, on stage with martha graham. here now is another look at a life well lived and beautifully danced. >> well, i'96. how are you supposed to feel at 96? a lot of people don't live that long and i'm here. death doesn't bother me. i don't rely think it ever bothered me. when i was 19, your age, i was flying combat missions andhey were shooting at me.

i didn't like being shot at, who the heck would, but the idea of dying was not like, oh my god, am i dying? -- i might die. i still don't feel that way about it. when the time to die, i'll be quite content to understand or to experience whatever comes next. or, if nothing, that. i guess i've been a dancer most of my life. although it was really foolish to become a dancer, but i did it anyway. i started at the age of 20 and the last performance i had was four years ago, i was 92. flew b-17's in world war ii. that was the time when you flew in the cockpit and you felt the whole country was up there with you. i knew i loved flying. i had to solo first. you have to fly the plane

yourself. and the planbecame an extension of my body. and i was crazy about it. and after the war, i had the same experience hitting dance. i loved it. i felt that dancing and flying were two ways of getting to the same state. people don't understand how flying and dancing can be similar, but they do something to you. i think anything that you do with every particle of yourself can be wonderful and it can make you forget the world. it's magic. how the heck am i supposed to describe it? something happens. it takes everything you've got. and for that, for those brief moments that you're dancing, you're transported. you're in another world. you sense nothing but that moment. when it hits you, you want more. i can't imagine dancing outside of being completely myself.

i never liked my own dancing because i was too conscious of my own flaws. well, i wanted to be perfect. i think all dancers do. when i watch old videos of myself today, i think i'm not as bad as i thought i was. sometimes i like them. i still see the flaws, but i don't expect to perfect anymore. so, why make a fuss about it? my name is stuart hodes, and this is my bef but spectacular take on magic time. done? you got a big editing job, don't you? >> that was perfect. it was great. >> it's gonna be terrible. amna: of course our thoughts are with all of stuart hodes family and friends. you can watch more brief but spectacular videos online at

pbs.org/newshour/brief. and that's the "newshour" for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. thank you for being with us. have a great evening. >> 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'm responsible for the user database. data visualization. if i can see it and understand quickly, anyone can. it is exciting to be part of a team driving the 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. 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.] >> y

hello everyone and welcome to "amanpour & company" here is what is coming up. >> the international criminal court has issued two warrants of arrest. >> wanted man. the international criminal court issues an arrest warrant for russian president vladimir putin for allegedly deporting ukrainian children to russia. then -- >> the days of iraq acting as an outlaw state are coming to an end. >> the iraq invasion 20 years on. harrowing images of the human impact with the claimed photographer and iraq born artist. then, missing in mexico. vestigative journalist penny lee ramirez dives into