♪ ♪ geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. on the newshour tonight, ukraine steps up its counteroffensive against russia amid increasing aerial attacks. we speak with the top humanitarian official from united nations on the ongoing conflict. the southern baptist convention votes towbar female pastors. and scientists issue increasingly dire warnings about warming oceans and the effects of climate change. >> there has been very little indication that all of the actions that governments and people around the world are taking is it really knocking back the amount of emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere ♪

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more at kendeda fund.org. carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement and the advancement of international peace and security at carnegie.org. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions -- ♪ ♪ ♪ announcer:his 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 period." the u.s. or cream court has

upheld a decades old law on adoptions of nato mayor -- native american children. the law gives preference to native american families. most tribal groups supported it but some republicans and white families say it is illegally based on race. a seven justice majority rejected the challenges. parts of the deep south faced severe weather today after a first round on wednesday. videos show a hail of -- videos show heavy hail in arkansas. the storms are being followed by a heat wave that could send temperatures to 100 degrees from texas to florida. a tropical cyclone lasted a short today in western india and southern pakistan. the story made landfall with winds gusting nearly 90 miles per hour that brought heavy downpours and forced more than 170 5000 people to flee coastal areas.

tides could rise 18 feet in some places. in southern greece rescue researched the message -- the mediterranean after a boat disaster. nearly 80 people drowned but hundreds more are missing. the greek coast guard released images of the batter and fishing boat before it sank on wednesday. up to 750 people were crammed on board. the opposition leader visited survivors today blaming europe's migration rules for the disaster. >> there are huge political responsibilities with the migration policy that europe has been following for years. a migration policy that turns the seas into watery graves. it is time to speak the truth. geoff: greek authorities arrested nine of the survivors today on suspicion they helped organize the voyage. the u.s., south korea and japan have condemned north korea for

firing two short range ballistic missiles today that landed in the sea of japan. the launches came after u.s. and south korean forces completed their latest joint military attacks. -- joint military drills. a scathing report from the british parliament finds boris johnson lied about staff parties during the covid lockdown. the committee of lawmakers says he misled the house on an issue of the greatest importance and did so repeatedly. johnson resigned from parliament last week. the cdc reports a jump in suicides and homicides among the youth of the nation during the pandemic. the suicide rates for adults in their early 20's reached their highest point in more than two 50 years. -- in more than 50 years. factors could include depression and a growing number of guns. president biden has renewed his push to eliminate hidden junk

fees. he hosted executives from airbnb and others today. the comet -- the companies committed to showing actual purchase prices up front. >> i am asking you to adopt all in upfront pricing as well. this is a win for consumers. and proof that our crackdown has momentum. geoff: the president has also called on congress to pass legislation to and surprise fees. retailers on the white house welcomed news today that dockworkers and port operators have agreed to a tentative contract. several disruptions had snarled up operations during more than a year of negotiations. the new contract promises higher wages are 22 thousand workers who handle 40% of the american imports. on wall street stocks moved higher raised on a broad-based rally.

the dow jones industrial average gained 428 points. the nasdaq rose 150 six points. the s&p 500 added 53. we speak of the un's top humanitarian official about the toll of conflicts around the world. an investigation reveals the rampant bar a mental and human rights abuses at sea. and we look at the life of linda jackson. announcer: this is the pbs newshour from w eta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. geoff: the head of the u.n. nuclear watchdog visited europe's largest nuclear plant today near the headlines near a southern ukraine. this power plant is under russian control and uses water from the new program or to cool its reactors. at a major dam was destroyed last week potentially does --

potentially depriving it of the vital water. contingency plans are underway while elsewhere in ukraine a major counteroffensive is taking place. emma murphy reports from the front lines. [gunfire] reporter: they did not start the war but they are committed to ending it. this is ukraine's counteroffensive. heavy weapons for heavy battles. >> yeah! reporter: the fight is hard and complicated with what they are fighting with. this gun is from the 1980's and the ammunition from the 1950's. it is unreliable and the fix is rudimentary. how important is this counteroffensive? >> it is very important because

we need to liberate the occupied territory of ukraine so civilians can be brought back into ukraine. reporter: they hide their treasure well and make its presence felt. they are using heavy artillery to break down russian infantry position. this counteroffensive will not be fast. it will be slow, grinding and a fight for every meter. our tv news spent two days on the front lines with ukrainian forces. [indiscernible] an army made up of professional soldiers and civilians that have become fighters. through fields reminiscent of battles past they showed us the technology that has changed warfare. drones have been crucial to the way this war has been waged and

will be even more important in the counteroffensive. the commander tells me the drones are able to find russian positions up to two miles away and strike their men and machinery. they move on foot because vehicles are a target. at the forward command based drones and artillery are coordinated. what happens here drives the counteroffensive. the base is close to the fighting. missiles fly above continually. surrogate explains how he receives information on the targets from -- sergey explains how he receives information on the targets from the drones. on the armored war, someone has hung akrainian war for soldiers. they know their work may hasten

the end of the war. as we speak, another hit is called for. here they are able to see the results of theirork watching the strikes in real time. but russia has the same power to survey and attack so elaborate trenches leads to western artillery crucial for ukraine survival. pieces like this provided by polin seven months ago. they go out to fire. there is a problem. a russian drone has been spotted. breaking cover risks being hit. they pulled back below the camouflage and hope. while they wait for safer skies, they explain how they work and sleep in that position for days. the ukrainians won't say how many soldiers they have lost but it is thought to be close to 20,000. every soldier knows the counter

assault is much more dangerous than defense. this gun helps us slowly get back our land but insists there is still a need for more weaponry and ammunition. when finally the drone seems to be gone they prepare to recover once more. they know after firing it could be less than five minutes before the russians identify their position and pitch back. they have lost many colleagues that way and they know to take shelter. later the commander sums up the mood of his troops. >> we are all trying our best and we want all of these -- this to finish as soon as possible. reporter: the counteroffensive won't end the war but it will certainly shape the future of it. ♪

geoff: in ukraine floodwaters are receding more than a week after the destruction of a major dam that severely inundated surrounding towns. e damage is evolving into a long-term environmental and humanitarian disaster with our seeking -- far-reaching consequences. thousands have been displaced. ukraine fears losing millions of tons of crops. arvin is the humanitarian affairs chief for the united nations. he joins us to talk about the relief effort in ukraine and other parts of the world. the scale of distraction following the dam collapse is enormous. how is your team on the ground

addressing the men's challenge of providing humanitarian aid to those affected -- addressing the humanitarian challenge of providing aid to those affected? >> we have daily convoys delivering aid. we also help the evacuation of those that need to ee. we are worried about the secondary consequences. 700,000 people have been robbed of sleep drinking water as a result of that catastrophic. -- catastrophe. geoff: last week president zelenskyy was reportedly shocked about the initial failure of the red cross and the u.n. to help after the destruction of the dam. how do you respond? >> i respond by saying i completely understand his frustration. it is a frustration that comes from a leader who has enormous empathy with his people. it is true that sudden -- it is

true that the response to sudden disasters like that, getting aid to the people immediately, is sometimes a frustration. we where there later that day and we have reached 200,000 people so far. geoff: ukraine says russia is shelling bodes trying to evacuate residents from inundated -- shelling boats trying to evacuate residents from inundated areas. as you see it, is russia actively sabotaging the relief effort? >> i don't know the answer to that question. what i do know is that we are seeking access to the other side of the river, to the side which is under russian occupation. we are seeking the understanding of the russian federation as well as ukraine to enable us to

do that. we are standing by ready to cross the river. we have not had access to the many thousands of people across that front, across the line of conflict. geoff: do you expect that to change? you met last week with rushes u.n. ambassador to talk about this -- you met last week with russia's u.n. ambassador rice to talk about this. >> we have discussed putting into play the humanitarian notification system. we are seeking their reaction to our plan. i hope it works. geoff: there is also the domino affect of the floods. it has inundated agricultural areas meaning there will be a likely lower grain export leading to higher prices around the globe and less for people to eat. how is the u.n. planning to

confront that challenge? >> we have an operation in the black sea. orry li about the effect on global food prices and as much as anything on global food availability. we will see the extent of that damage as the waters recede. it is a catastrophe for the world. geoff: a question about the green deal. president putin says he is thinking about walking away from the deal next month when it expires. how real is that possibility? what would convince him to stay? >> my response is the black sea initiative cannot fail. needs of global food security are as keen now as ever. as you know there will be a visit, all six heads of state of

african countries to kyiv and to the russian federation in the next few days. they will be making that message very clear. geoff: you mentioned the african countries. let's shift our focus to sudan. or than half of the population there stands in dire need of humanitarian assistance. billion's of people have been confined to their homes. -- millions of people have been confined to their homes. >> there is nowhere in the world that i am more worried than i am today about sudan. there are just shy of 9 million people in darfur who need humanitarian aid and who have not received any aid since the two monthsf this particular conflict. we have been trying to get aid in there from across the border in chad or from the east and we

have failed to get the necessary assurances from the two militaries to allow us to deliver safely. that is an extraordinary priority for all of us. just under half a million people have left sudan in these 10 weeks to find safety in the neighboring countries. many of those countries are fragile themselves. i am very worried about how it is evolving. and we look to see the african union take the lead in bringing a resolve and ending the conflict as soon as possible. geoff: the tallow band has banned most women from working -- the taliban has banned most women from working for ngo's. you said they were working on guidelines to allow women to get back to work. it has been six months. is there progress? >> we have not seen the guidelines, that is for sure.

promises do not allow women to work. we need to see the reality. and those edicts need to be revoked. what we are doing at the moment in afghanistan is to work all women with women through ngo's. because of the exemptions and exceptions and permissions that we can obtain from the taliban. an exemption does not prove the rule. an exemption still means that women and girls of afghanistan are repressed. we need to seize some sort of -- we need to see some sort of their reentry into the life of their country and that would also mean that the international community can engage to give the people of afghanistan proper

chance. not just through humanitarian aid. but through the help of the economy and through counterterrorism. all the aspects that make the safety of afghanistan important to all of us. geoff: i read where u once said humanitarians could be driven out of business by conflicts. it strikes me that the work your team does now is needed more than eve how do you see it? >> it is terrifying. we have under $60 billion in programs around the world. we have 340 million people around the world that need humanitarian aid. that is equivalent to the third largest country or population in the world. what is needed is for people to stop thinking that war solves the problems of their state. people need to understand that

casual acts of violence have long-term consequences. we say that because we are there on the frontlines that you mentioned. but everyone knows this to be true. this is a common message. geoff: martin griffiths is the humanitarian affairs chief for the united nations. thank you for your time. >> thank you very much. ♪ geoff: the southern baptist convention, the largest protestant denomination has moved dramatically to bar women from holding leadership roles and its charges. the organization voted overwhelmingly yesterday to finalize the expulsion of two churches that have female pastors. it includes saddleback church in california. for the vote, rick warren, one of the biggest and most prominent -- the pastor -- the

former pastor of one of the biggest and most prominent churches. >> the baptist faith and message is for the 32 words. saddleback disagrees with one word. god is 99.999 -- that is 99.9999 -in agreement. geoff: the reverend linda barnes problem has led fern creek baptist church for over 30 years. thank you for being with us. as we mentioned the vote by the southern baptist convention was overwhelming. members voted by a ratio of 9-1 to expel your church and saddleback. albert mohler, president of the southern baptist theological seminary in louisville explain his opposition to female pastors this way. >> it is a matter of biblical

commitment. a commitment to the scripture that unequivocally limits the office of pastor to men. it is an issue of biblical authority. geoff: there are other members that note the roman catholic church also does not allow women to serve as pastors or priests. how do you respond to that? that it is a matter of biblical integrity. >> i certainly believe it is a matter of biblical integrity. however i also know that sphere gives illumination to our hearts and minds and we can interpret the scripture room the holy spirit's leading. i believe the bible is god's perfect word. i believe every word in the bible. but there are passages such as those in first timothy, corinthians that our church would interpret differently then he does. and obviously the majority of the people that attend a convention meeting interpret them.

geoff: why did you want to maintain your membership? there are any number of baptist churches that are thriving that are not affiliated with the southern baptist can --southern baptist convention. >> it has been like family for all of these many years. and we are heavily involved in the women's missionary union in southern baptist life and we like partnering, we like the evangelistic zeal of the southern baptist convention. we like partnering in missions. and therefore we have continued, though we have not agreed on everything, there are many things in which i disagree with different leaders and different pastors but i just believe that we are supposed to be under this great umbrella together because we agree that jesus christ is lord and he is the reason we are here in the first place, to

share the gospel of jesus christ and we ought to be able to be partners together in that. that should not -- not at all divide us. but instead the bible has been used like a weapon from some of these folks. a weapon against those of us that believe it as strongly as they do what we interpret it differently. geoff: on that point, do you see a political aspect to this? there are people that point to what they see is the internal politics. that this boat came on the heels of a devastating report of sexual abuse within the sbc and more broadly there is a wing that wants to reverse what it sees as a liberal draft. >> i wholeheartedly agree that there are internal political maneuverings, deeds done in

darkness in which we won't really understand. the reason i believe that is two years ago, the credentials committee of the southern baptist convention deemed us in friendly cooperation with the convention. and what happened in two years? how can two years ago many of the same committee members want to keep us and then two years after that does side we are no longer in friendly cooperation? and they let me know then by their spokesperson that we were in friendlier cooperation with the southern baptist convention and the message than many of the other churches. so what changed? of course there is some kind of political maneuverings going on. geoff: as i understand it, after you spoke on the floor, a woman from texas brought her daughter over to you and the daughter was weeping. could you share that story? >> what a moment. the child came over.

i had never seen her. she comes to me and is sobbing. i told kurt in my arms. she said she was lottie and she was 14 euros old and at age 11 i knew god called me into ministry. what can i do? her family, her parents are steeped in southern baptist life. we promised her that when she graduates from high school, she can come here as one of our interns and we will help to mentor her as well as having her wonderful parents that we just met who will mentor her as well. we were happy to do that. and wherever we might be as a church at that time we will embrace her. geoff: how do you feel on a personal level? you have been affiliated with fern creek for 40 years and have been serving as pastor for 30 years. i have fellow faith leaders

reject you when you believe in your heart that you were following a calling. how does that feel? >> it is hurtful. there is some righteous indignation in there also because of the hypocrisy i feel is going on. the scene people who have told me to my face what an exemplary church and we wish other southern baptist churches were like you. i have heard that so many times over the years. i did not think this time would ever come in southern baptist life because we are very evangelical, mission minded, conservative. i did not think it would happen to us. geoff: what message does this vote send to women who serve in leadership roles around the church? >> i think it says women, go somewhere else. find a place to serve outside

this denomination. we don't want to deal with you. my message to the world is about jesus christ. that jesus christ is lord and let's do that together male and female. sons and daughters are prophesying. and i do believe that jesus would say to those, woe to you, scribes and pharisees and teachers of the law. you hypocrites. you are not majoring on the right things. you have departed from the most important things. you have neglected the things that god wants you to be doing. i think it is just a sad day. geoff: linda barnes is pastor at fern creek baptist church. thank you for your time. ♪

geoff: the ocean is rapidly heating up hitting record-breaking levels. the national oceanic and atmospheric administration reported this week that ocean surface temperatures sparked in april and may to the highest levels recorded since the 1950's. this could have dangerous consequences for aquatic life, hurricane activity and global weather patterns. to better understand what is happening we spoke with a distinguished scholar at the center for atmospheric research. reporter: welcome back to the newshour and thank you for joining us. the temperature increases have a lot of fol concerned. and sharks -- and charts like this one have gone viral. this one shows mean temperatures from 1982 to 2023 in the north

atlantic sea. the red line is 2023. should that increase concern us? >> indeed. and it is not just the north atlantic. geoff: why are we seeing the increases in what should we understand about them? >> we have written reports every year for a number of years. the oceans as a whole for the top two kilometers of the ocean are the warmest on record. 2022 is the warmest year on record. 2020 was the warmest year before that. global warmer is happening. the other thing playing a major role at the moment is over the last three years we have had la niña conditions, relatively cool conditions. now, we are into el niño conditions, rather warm conditions. there is some pronounced warming

off the west coast of south america, peru and ecuador it is disrupting the fisheries there. it has warmed across that sector. the oceans, the surface of the ocean as a whole is a warmest on record and has been since april, may and into june. and we are running 2/10 of a degree celsius to anything prior to that and substantially above the long-term average. reporter: let's talk about one of the impacts. what do those conditions coming together mean particularly as we move into hurricane season? >> it means that along with the general weathe that goes on, there are hotspots in the ocean coming increasingly intense and frequent. the hotspots attract a lot of

weather activity above them. convection of different kinds. small-scale storms intensify or hurricanes. they move around naturally. it is a little difficult to say exactly where these spots are going to be. but the fact that they are occurring more and more is a part of this overall local warming signature we have. they have real consequences in many ways. reporter: what about the impact of the warmer waters on aquatic life? there were pictures that got a lot of attention recently showing thousands of dead fish washing ashore along the texas gulf coast in recent days. how much of that is attributed to the warmer waters? >> with global warming over 90% of the excess energy being generated every day goes into the oceans. and in the oceans, it warms from the top down.

that means warm water is sitting on top of cold water which is a stable configuration. what we have been able to document is the oceans are becoming more stratified. that means the natural exchanges of air of all kinds including carbon the oxide and oxygen -- carbon dioxide and oxygen are less than what they used to be. in general this is overcome by wave action. by disturbances in the atmosphere. but in conditions where there are no waves or wind to speak of, and i believe that is what happened in the gulf which can also be complicated by nutrient runoff. some pollution in the gulf itself. those conditions come together and create no oxygen conditions for the fish. reporter: big picture, when people see these increases and

temperatures and a catches their attention, they see air temperatures and global sea temperatures at record highs, what should they understand about that? how much of that is attributed to climate change? >> the first part of the year will hold it down. 2023 may not be the warmest year on record. at the moment that is held by 2016 it will be close. but 2020 four is looking as though it will be the warmest year on record. and part of this is el niño. but certainly the relentless increases in temperatures around the world are related to the global warming problem that we have an climate change. reporter: do the increases say to you the rate of climate change is accelerating? >> it is the case. the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere goes up and continues to go up.

close to record levels. there has been little indication that all of the actions that governments and people around the world are taking is knocking back the amount of emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. this is the bottom line as to how the atmosphere is changing and carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that produces global warming. reporter: thank you for your time. ♪ geoff: to a different and darker story of humans on the high seas. world oceans are in many ways lawless places where piracy overfishing, toxic reads on bing and even murder our routine. we have a look at the outlaw oceans and the case of

cold-blood killings on the water. reporter: it started with a lost cell phone found in the back of a taxi cab in fiji. on the phone was video filmed on a ship in the indian ocean showing clearly what seem to be a series of cold-blooded murders. tracing the crime, who the victims in keller's work and who in the end was responsible has been the work of a journalistic collaborative. let's see an expert from their story reported by its head. and a warning, what you are about to see is disturbing. >> a 10 minute slow-motion slaughter caug on camera. the footage had gone viral. interpol had come to me as this is exactly the sort of brutality at ci report on. i could tell the capsized boat was a traditional east african doubt although shooting is being ordered in chinese.

the circumstances surrounding these killings have remained a mystery. no one even reported the incident and no one was doing anything about it. how could such a crime happen and remain untouched? what made offshore violence different and near impossible to solve? a breakthrough came from a private open source intelligence company. they can't -- i contacted them and asked them to help investigate the crime. no one else in the world was doing so. >> my name is duncan copeland. i am the director of tnt. we pieced together from the grainy and shaky footage different areas of the vessel. ♪ we then ran a comparison through our systems and in the end we look at over 3000 photos of around 300 vessels and luckily

we were able to hit on two that matched enough of the features and e in particular that we had a fairly high confidence level. it was called the 101. taiwan was the flag state but it had been licensed by seychelles to operate in its waters. >> it is a complex picture. ships that belong to one country and fly the flag of another with an international crew. this ship belonged to taiwan, one of the largest fleets in the world and had a chinese captain. deckhands from a half dozen different countries. it was part of a notorious fleet operating other doctor under other national flags that allowed it to reach international fishing laws with regular impunity. it was already under the yellow card system of the eu for violations and aggression to smaller vessels.

operating in a pack, the ship had all of the advantages over that patch of ocean. a small dow did not stand a chance. in collaboration with tmt my staff combed thousands of facebook pages and open source images and we were able to identify the culprit if not the cause of the killing. >> this was not piracy attack. in this case the crew interviews seemed to indicate this had been taken to a whole other level by this particular captain. and that he had become very aggressive and very confrontational with other vessels that might be shipping in the region that he wanted to target. >> the captain not only ordered the security guards to fire but at one point took the weapon and fired it himself. it was certainly more than the four people killed that you see

on camera that died that day and more than likely it was closer to 10 or 15. what became obvious to me is were it not for a killing caught on a cell phone camera left carelessly and a taxi in fiji, no one anywhere would've known this had taken place despite dozens of witnesses and troves of evidence. violent crimes occur regularly and with full impunity because the workforce that operates in this space is poor, invisible and has no leverage with the law. it also occurs because there is noequirement under maritime law to report it. no central database for flock -- for logging crimes. and flag registries do not want to have to do anything about it because the legalities of doing so are complex and costly. the old saying is crime is only counted as much as it is -- the

old saying is crime is only countered as much as it is counted. and that is not much. reporter: and joining me now is the head of the outlaw oceans project. we talked eight years ago at this table about this case that you document in this piece. back then the video had recently come to light. you detail this sum but tell us more about why it took so long to get to the bottom of this. >> it is a shocking reality of crimes at sea and typically there is little interest from governments and law enforcement. it is difficult to investigate and evidence is sparse. the jurisdiction is difficult. in this case we had evidence of cell phone footage but it was not clear when, who, and where were the culprits and the

victims. no government wanted to touch it. reporter: and you have no reason to believe this was an isolated case. >> unfortunately not. when you talk to deckhands about egregious crimes, the u.n. in 2009 did a deep investigation of deckhands on the south china sea and found that 49% had witnessed a murder of other crew on board the ships they worked. reporter: almost half. >> this is not unusual. reporter: you do a series of investigative reports and one is that many of these workers on the high seas are indentured or slave like. how does that circumstance come to be? >> this kind of fishing in general is a high labor, though profit industry. lowest middle-class first world

countries do not want to do this work. the manning agencies tend to recruit inland, often illiterate and poor workers. indonesia and philippines are big producers of laborers. they got recruited and spent two years at sea sometimes upwards of three. and they are all debt bonded in the sense that they are recruited and don't have any money so they accrue a debt with the trafficker. the debt is handed over to the captain and they have to work to pay off the debt and that is debt bondage. reporter: there are no hr departments to go to. another episode features a magic pipe. can you explain why shipping companies use it? >> it is usually a 4-5 meter long tube that connects the storage container that holds the dirtiest waste on shipping

vessels. you're supposed to carry and unload when you get into port. it is costly and time-consuming for large ships to do it the right way. the legal way. the solution is you run a magic pipe that goes under the ship and disappears, that is its magic, the sludge into the ocean. it is easy to get away with it because no one is out there looking for it. oil spills are bad but intentional spilling is worse. reporter: your report documents that because there is no overarching governing authority to enforce these rules, that is why these things go on. is there any push to try to create some form of more efficient jurisdiction and enforce these kinds of laws or not? >> the notion of having an international place -- police force, the blue helmets of the

high seas, is not one that carries much traction. there is not really a push for that. there are alternate efforts. all of these ships at some point have to come to land so they are entering ports. those nations if they want can sign onto various agreements that say essentially when any ship comes into your report you will check for these things. there are other decentralized tactics like using satellites to monitor where ships are going and what they are up to and then applying pressure to the market players, the companies that benefit saying you are associated with crimes, are you ok with that? reporter: thank you. >> thank you for having me. ♪ geoff: british actor glenda jackson has died at the age of 87. the two-time oscar-winner had a 23 your second act as a member

of british parliament. she returned to the stage in 2018 winng a tony for her role in tall women. our reporter sat down with jackson to talk to her about both of her remarkable careers. as we look at her passing here is a look at that conversation. >> spits fire and outrage. reporter: it was quite a return. after 23 years away from the theater, jackson took to the stage in 2016 in shakespeare's king lear playing king lear. >> that is one of the endearing things about the theater. i can put it into a kind of immediate contact. you work with people and may not see them for decades. bump into them in the street and there is no time gap. reporter: now 82 jackson as back on broadway for the first time

since 1998 starring in three tall women. it is a play about memory and aging that appealed to jackson partly rol, bse somauet ohiecngs is a rarity. we spoke recently in times square. >> it has been my experience since i first walked onto the stage and got paid for it, that contemporary dramatists find women boring. we are hardly ever the kind of dramatic engine of what they are writing. reporter: why do you think that has been the case? >> you are a man, you tell me? they don't seem to think that being a woman is either interesting or dramatic or challenging or dangerous or any of the things that any woman in the world knows. reporter: has this been a

problem for you in your career, finding roles? >> of course it is a problem, a problem that has not seemed to change. it is amusing to me. it has not shifted. reporter: it is hard to imagine anyone finding jackson boring. beginning in the 19 60's she was a prominent presence on stage and screen on both sides of the atlantic. >> i could never love you. reporter: she reached wide frame -- wide fame in woman in love. she won her first academy award as best actress. her roles playing strong and dynamic women continue to win her fame and awards. >> i am an absolute princess. reporter: this aired on masterpiece theatre. sheon a second oscar for the 1973 film, a touch of class.

in 1980 eight, jackson, a longtime critic of margaret thatcher left acting for what would become a decades long clinical career as a labour party member of the british parliament. >> by far the most dramatic and heinous demonstration of thatcherism was when every shot doorway every night became the bedroom, the living room, the bathroom 4 --. reporter: when you left acting was it because you had done enough? >> good heavens, no, my country was being destroyed. anything i could do that was legal to get margaret thatcher and her government out i was prepared to have a go out. because, everything i have been taught as vices, she said was virtues.

reporter: did you come to feel that you accomplished something meaningful as a politician? >> not as an individual. the idea that you have individual power in that sense is actually not true. you have clear responsibilities towards your own constituents and constituency and that to me was the most interesting part of it. but yes, we did make changes but then along came the iraq war. reporter: one issue she champion, women's rights in the home and workplace. i asked if she was surprised about the force of the #metoo movement now. >> what surprises me is that people are surprised. and my country to women die every week at the hands of their partner not infrequently mail. every week. that is not on the front pages of our newspapers every week.

so this sudden almost cataclysm of surprise, shock, horror, how could this happen -- i don't buy it. i mean, people are deluding themselves. we failed to acknowledge it. we failed to work to eradicate it. it takes more than just being shocked to eradicate it. reporter: for you personally do you have any regrets about having taken the time away from acting to be a politician? >> oh no, it is an inordinate privilege to be a member of parliament. people give you their trust. and they also give you what i regard as their most valuable right in the sense, their votes. and that is a very humbling and privileged experience to have. reporter: now that you are back, do you plan to continue acting?

>> i would hope to. yes, i mean, you know, yes, it is one of the things that has been and is at the moment very essential in my life. if the work is not exciting and daunting as i have been privileged to experience over the last couple of years. reporter: for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown on broadway in new york. ♪ geoff: that is that the newshour for tonight. join us again tomorrow night when we will speak at the miami mayor who jumped into the republican presidential race this week. i am geoff bennett. thank you for spending part of your evenings with us. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- ♪ ♪

the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour including leonard and norma clore buying and patricia you link. >> this is a proud supporter of public television. on a voyage, the world awaits. a world of flavor. diverse destinations. and immersivexperiences. a world of entertainment. and british style. more with the white star service. ♪ >> architect, gatekeeper, mentor, raymondjames financial advisor taylor's advice to have you -- help you live your life. life well planned. >> the ford foundation working

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one giant leap for mankind. hello everyone and welcome to amanpour and company. here is what's coming up. >> whatever documents the president decides to take with him, he has the right to do so. it's an absolute right. >> trump denying the law again. so how should republican competitors react to the serious indictment against him? i ask gop presidential candidate and former arkansas governor asa hutchinson. then, a special report from ukraine's front lines as the counteroffensive tries to advance. also ahead -- >> i believe facebook's product harm children, stoke division, and we can our democracy. >> reporter: as the eu demands