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headlines in the presidential campaign, on this day sandwiched between two debates. >> if you guys come out, we're going to pull off an upset here, too. >> reporter: as bernie sanders campaigned in gainesville, florida, he offered a sunny outlook. he's hoping his upset win over hillary clinton in michigan will boost him in key states that vote next tuesday. the democrats debated in miami last night, and clashed on immigration. >> i think our best chance was in 2007, when ted kennedy led the charge on comprehensive immigration reform. we have republican support. we had a president willing to sign it. i voted for that bill. senator sanders voted against it. just think, imagine where we would be today if we had achieved comprehensive immigration reform nine years ago. >> well, when we talk about eforts to assist immigrants, secretary clinton prevailed upon the governor of new york, elliot spitzer, who wanted to do the right thing and provide driver's license to these who were undocumented, she said don't do it, and new york state still does not do it. >> reporter: clinton was confronted about her handling of e-mails as secretary of state, and the ongoing fbi investigation. univision moderator jorge ramos asked if it might derail her campaign. >> if you get indicted would you going to drop out? >> oh, for goodness -- that's not going to happen. i'm not even answering that question. >> reporter: and, as he has before, sanders also declined to take up the question. >> climate change threatens the whole planet, 47 million people live in poverty. i'm going to focus on the issues facing the working families of tis country. >> reporter: republicans moved into miami today for their debate tonight. ted cruz touted a timely endorsement from utah senator mike lee, the first from any of his senate colleagues. >> there is a big difference between platitudes and a plan. ted is that difference. there is a big difference between slogans and substance. and ted is that difference. >> reporter: the endorsement comes as cruz is trying to consolidate the g.o.p.'s anti- donald trump forces behind him. today the republican frontrunner again went after cruz, saying he's unelectable. but most of the focus was on trump's appearance last night on cnn, and his latest broadside at islam. >> do you think islam is at war with the west? >> i think islam hates us. there is something-- there is something there that is a tremendous hatred there. there's a tremendous hatred. we have to get to the bottom of it. there's an unbelievable hatred of us. >> reporter: the tone of trump rallies also drew new attention, when a man was charged with punching a protester in fayetteville, north carolina last night-- even as police appeared to be removing the protester. as for marco rubio, he told msnbc last night, that he now regrets some of the cruder volleys he's fired at trump. >> that's not something i'm entirely proud of. my kids were embarrassed by it, and you know? if i had to do it again, i wouldn't, but not on the other charges. >> reporter: the florida senator faces a do-or-die contest in his home state on tuesday, where new polls show trump with a strong lead. another new survey puts governor john kasich ahead in his home state, ohio. he picked up endorsements today from the "cleveland plain dealer" and ohio state university football coach, urban meyer. for the pbs newshour, i'm john yang. >> sreenivasan: we'll hear from reporters on the ground in two of next tuesday's battleground states, after the news summary. in the day's other news, president obama weighed in on the presidential race, and said republican leaders can't blame him for the rise of donald trump. he spoke after meeting with canadian prime minister justin trudeau, and he said years of hard-line opposition to his policies set the stage for what he called "the republican crack- up." >> there are thoughtful conservatives who are troubled by this, who are troubled by the direction of their party. i think it is very important for them to reflect on what it is about the politics they've engaged in that allows the circus we have been seeing to transpire. >> sreenivasan: the president also said he'll announce a nominee soon for the u.s. supreme court. senate republicans say they won't consider any nominee during this election year. an intelligence windfall may be coming, in the fight against the islamic state group. british and german news organizations reported today they've received a trove of files naming isis fighters and their backgrounds. as darshna soni of independent television news reports, it puts the militants on the defensive. >> reporter: in recent weeks the group has suffered a series of setbacks and now another blow, one which will affect the morale of its foreign fighters and which will provide the security services with new intelligence on the group. leaked by an isis defector, 22,000 documents containing the names and personal details of around 1,700 foreign fighters the documents are in effect the entrance questionnaires for would be recruits, thought to be from a border crossing in syria. they list details such as date of birth, home address and even blood group. >> it tells you who vouched for you inside isis to get you in and so if you broke that down by different european countries, it would allow you to understand who key recruits were in certain places. that's quite significant. >> reporter: the documents show that the recruits were asked to list previous jihadi experience and to choose what role they'd like to play, including suicide bomber. but the real value is in revealing networks, key recruiters and the links between them. the files have been published at a time when isis has suffered a number of setbacks. it has lost big chunks of territory and access to oil revenues. one of its most senior commanders, abu omar al-shashani has reportedly been seriously injured. and its chemical weapons chief captured by american special forces. added to that, 66 fighters defected to the fsa in northern syria. but analysts warn of exaggerating their decline. according to the institute of the study of war, isis may have faced territorial losses in february in syria and iraq, but it made gains elsewhere. it strengthened its presence in libya around sirte and the group reached further afield with attacks or arrests in nations across the region. the documents may not immediately affect the ability and influence of isis on the ground, but the fact that they've been leaked will affect the reputation of an organization for whom propaganda is everything. >> sreenivasan: german federal police say they're now in possession of some of the material, and it appears genuine. migrants kept pouring into greece today from turkey, as an agreement loomed that could send them back. rescue crews were out early near the island of lesbos. their arrivals added to the more than 40,000 people now stranded in greece. meanwhile, in brussels, some in the european union complained the e.u. is giving up too much to win turkey's cooperation >> i think it's highly questionable if turkey's government takes overñr an opposition newspaper and three days later confronts the european union with a wish list and is rewarded. i question whether we're throwing us and our values overboard and what one should think of that. >> sreenivasan: under the draft deal, turkey would get more than $6 billion in aid, plus fast- track discussions on its bid to join the european union. pope francis imposed new financial regulations today for canonizing saints, amid allegations of mismanagement and corruption. exposes in italy have reported that contracts for verifying sainthood go to a favored few, and the overall cost averages $550,000. they also found the accounts used for that process are largely unregulated. now, an administrator will oversee each case. back in this country, heavy rain in northern louisiana has left three dead, including a six- year-old girl. up to 18 inches fell in some places, forcing 1,000 people to leave their homes. in shreveport, there was heavy flooding along the red river. and elsewhere, social media video captured fish swimming and thrashing around in flooded streets. at least four other states are affected, with more rain to come this week. wall street had a relatively quiet day, the dow jones industrial average lost five points to close at 16,995. the nasdaq fell 12 points, and the s&p 500 added a fraction. still to come on the newshour: election strategies for winning ohio and florida. the obama doctrine: an in-depth look at the 44th president's foreign policy. making sense of historically low interest-rates. why poland's influence is key to solving the migrant crisis. and much more. >> sreenivasan: there are two states critical to any modern presidential election: the battlegrounds of ohio and florida. 2016 may be breaking all kinds of rules, but they remain crucial in this primary. we turn now to adam smith, political editor at the "tampa bay times." and michelle everhart, political reporter for the "columbus dispatch." first, let's talk about the folks for whom these are must-win states. adam, i want to start with you. marco rubio has banked almost his entire campaign on florida. >> well, yeah, interestingly, he didn't do much in florida until very, very recently. i think he was running sort of a national campaign focused on earned media nationally as opposed to sort of protecting his home turf and has only been in the last couple of weeks when he's focused on florida which clearly isñi must-win. >> sreenivasan: avme adam, thiss a must state where many republicans already voted and some are penalized for trump in the last couple of weeks. >> you hearñr that. in more and more cycle, people are voting early so more than half of votes will be cast by tuesday which means you can't have a last-minute spurt of momentum. you have to be banking votes early and that was occurring when donald trump was running. you hear a lot of voters complaining about marco rubio disappointing them the with his getting in the gutter, doing the school yard bickering with donald trump. >> sreenivasan: michelle, for you, it's the governor. governor kasich has banked a lot on hopefully winning his home state. >> yes, this is the change in the ball game for him. this is where he plans to win. if he doesn't win, he says he's going to stay here in ohio. so he is spending a lot of time here this week. they are spending about $2 million in ads from his super pac. so this is definitely a must-win state for him. >> sreenivasan: let's also talk about one of the endorsements he received. urban myers, osu football coach, for the rest of the country watching, they say why is that significant? but in ohio, ohio state football coaches matter. >> absolutely. i heard somebody describe it as ohio state is a religion in ohio, so it's also interesting because donald trump last week when necessary town talked about urban meyer said nice things about him and urban said he wasn't going to get involved in politics and this morning the kasich campaign drops this video with urban meyer talking about how he was endorsingñi him. >> sreenivasan: adam, what about the rest of the republican field in the state in how have you seen the campaign activity? i assume your tv is plugged full of political ads? >> yeah, i think it's probably the case in ohio, too,. this is really the last-ditch effort by the "establishment" in the party to send all guns-a-blazing to crunches. a lot of ads by super pac of marco rubio. ted cruz was hinting and saying they were going to be going in and trying to knock marco rubio out, oddly enough, in florida, but that seems to be more of a head fake than anything else. they've not spent any money. >> sreenivasan: michelle everhart, what about the other republican candidates in ohio besides kasich who has a presence there? >> we are seeing a lot of trump ads but not any rubio or cruz ads. they're not trying to make a play for ohio. so it's mainly between trump and kasich. trump spent about $1 million so far here in ads. >> sreenivasan: adam, i want to ask about the democratic contest between the support hillary clinton already has there and the inroads bernie sanders might be making. >> yeah, they're actually both in the state today, but that has been especially for bernie sanders. he's not stepped foot in florida for any kind of campaigning this entire cycle. one of the big differences is both ohio and florida are winner take all for their delegates. on the republican side, there is not much gain in trying to campaign if you're in third place and have very little chance of winning at all. but on the democratic side, hillary clinton looks like she's way, way ahead. she's got deep, deep roots in florida. but bernie sanders will walk away with some delegates out of the state. >> sreenivasan: michelle everhart, what about the democratic activity in ohio. >> we saw former president bill clinton here in columbia, he had a couple of stops and went to dayton.ñr we saw bernie sanders a couple of times. i think in 2008, hillary clinton won, so i think she's hoping to kind of carry that feared to this year, but, you know, the polls are showing her up, but we also saw what happened with the polls in michigan where he was way up there and didn't walk awe way with a win. >> sreenivasan: i also want to ask both of you what's on the voters minds. you're on the ground there, be, energy explorationle. in ohio. but mostly the same people are anxious and the economic statistics may show one thing but people in their pocketbooks may feel a different thing. >> sreenivasan: michelle michelw about ohioans. >> it's the economy that affects them the most, will they be able to pay the mortgage or have a job, that's what they're concerned about. people are frustrated they're not getting the hours they want, the job they want. i think that's what played into some of the donald trump love or interest in people, they want somebody different, they want something new. they don't see what's been happening as working. >> sreenivasan: michelle everhart, political reporter and adam, thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> sreenivasan: now, a broad, yet intimate look at how president obama views america's role in the world. it comes from "the atlantic's" jeffrey goldberg, who sat down for hours of interviews with the president for his cover story, "the obama doctrine," out today. judy woodruff begins our conversation with how mr. obama's foreign policy is seen. >> one of the interesting caricatures of president obama is that he doesn't believe the u.s. is indispensable. you hear that from his critics all the time, that he's a retrenchment president, he's a withdrawal president, a declinist. i think that's wrong. i think he understands that america is indispensable to the smooth functioning of global affairs. i think he might be the first president who sometimes resents that role. who looks at our allies and thinks these guys need to pay for something once in a while, these guys need to do more than they're doing. he is also a person who is more hesitant than the average president to use force, specifically in the middle east. now there's a contradiction here. at the core of his presidency, which is that the president who his critics believe is almost a pacifist in some kind of way, a declinist, is also the greatest terrorist hunter in the history of the presidency. >> woodruff: do any of the critics get it right? because on the right, republicans are saying this is a president who is weak, he's feckless, he doesn't believe in america's strength; and on the left, you've got some liberals saying he's been too inclined to use force, to use drones, and he doesn't care enough about humanitarian crises. >> what he does that annoys people on the right is that he has set a very high threshold for what constitutes a direct national security threat to the united states. the people on the left understand him to be a ruthless hunter of terrorists, right. they have that- they have that right. but i think the right gets it wrong. they have this caricature of this kind of feckless president who doesn't defend the united states. for instance, they talk about isis as if we're not currently fighting isis. but the u.s. is deeply engaged in that fight, and that of course comes from president obama.an >> woodruff: you frame much of this remarkable article based on all these interviews, six hours you spent talking with him just about foreign policy, around the middle east. and to a large degree, his decision not to intervene in syria. going back to the announcement that he was drawing a red line. >> a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. that would change my calculus. >> woodruff: if assad used chemical weapons, the u.s. would do something, and then he turned around and didn't do something. do you come away from that understanding why he is so averse to the u.s. getting more involved in syria? >> to take one step back, i think he's drawn two conclusions about the middle east. one is that it's not fixable by the united states. he's also come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter that much. because we become mainly energy independent. this region just matters less and less. and what happened in that red line moment was the whole apparatus, the whole national security apparatus was moving toward enforcement of that red line. and at the very last moment, he kind of threw up his hands and said, 'you know what, i don't want to do this.' i think he believes that to be a hinge moment of his presidency. >> woodruff: the critical narrative of his foreign policy approach is that that's- that's the great failure of president obama when it comes to dealing with the world. >> that moment, when he decided not to take unilateral action, to throw it to congress and sort of put a pause on everything. that was a very proud moment for him. >> i will seek authorization for the use of force from the american people's representatives in congress. >> the moment that a lot of people think was his weakest moment as president, he is recasting as his proudest moment, or the moment where he showed true leadership. he believed that if he had gone into syria in 2013, the whole of his second term would have been eaten up, consumed by the syrian civil war. and he looked at the situation in iraq with george w. bush as kind of a proof of that. >> woodruff: on the other hand, you have now the growth metastasizing of isis in syria, you have this horrendous humanitarian crisis in syria. doesn't that undermine what he believes? >> without endorsing this view, i would say that his view is that a, he is fighting isis, because isis does represent- unlike the assad regime in his mind, isis represents a direct national security threat to the united states because they kill american citizens. the refugee thing, i think, is the one that has sent them reeling a bit, especially because the european allies are begging the united states for more intervention. so the gamble he's made is that not intervening in syria has saved america from untold crises and terrible crises and loss of life. and there's a very good chance that he's correct, and in 10 years, we'll all say, "wow, that was really clever of him to stay back." there's a non-negligible chance, there's a reasonable chance also that he's made a terrible mistake, and that by not intervening earlier, he has let this civil war metastasize and affect not only the middle east but even our european allies. >> woodruff: connected to that is what you describe as his willingness to just basically upend the way america has approached its friends and enemies in the rest of the middle east. saudi arabia, iran, he's staked a lot on this iran nuclear deal, he's prepared to stand up to the saudis. where's that come from? >> he, like a lot of americans i think, looks at saudi arabia and says, 'wait a second, 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 came from saudi arabia. there were no iranians on those planes.' and he looks at saudi arabia and its traditional export of extreme models of islam to other parts of the world. and there's another central pillar of our foreign policy in the middle east, which is that since 1979, iran is our primary foe. and he just looks at it and says, 'wait, iran, not great-' there's this caricature that he has a romantic view of what iran is going to become; i don't think that's necessarily true. but what he does look at is saudi arabia and sees it playing an unhelpful role in both the middle east and in world islam. >> woodruff: when it comes to israel, the palestinians, the perception is that he's been way too tough on israel, that his well-known difficult relationship with prime minister netanyahu, that he hasn't been tough enough on the palestinians. and he's dealing with pretty significant personal animosity from netanyahu. >> this is one of the strangest relationships, the toxicity never sort of drains from this relationship. you have in benjamin netanyahu a guy who came to america literally to subvert president obama's marquee foreign policy goal. obama won that battle, but he'll never forget what netanyahu did. from netanyahu's perspective, obama is hopelessly naive about the realities of the middle east. >> woodruff: china. it seems he's been able to deal with china. he has a pretty clear sense of where he thinks the u.s. is headed. >> china represents a threat and an opportunity, i think, in his mind. this goes to his general predisposition to dealing more with asia and less with the middle east. this is the pivot to asia. >> woodruff: but he clearly hasn't been able to pivot as much as he would have liked. >> well this is the point- once i- i turned to him once, because i like movies as much as he does, and i know that he's a fan of the godfather movies, there's a moment when michael corleone, who's trying to be legitimate, realizes that the mob will always have him, is pulling him back. and he says, "just when i-" and i mention this scene, michael corleone says, "just when i thought i was out," and obama finished the sentence, "they pull you back in." and i think that's the way he understands the middle east. which is, there are things to be done, important things to be done in asia and latin america and africa in particular, in his mind, right. which is, by the way, most of humanity. and if i get sucked, if the united states gets sucked further into the middle east and its- the quicksand in the middle east, there's only so much bandwidth. >> woodruff: if you listen to the republican candidates, you hear nothing but a relentless criticism of this president, that america's much worse off under president obama. what have you seen in talking to him and trying to understand him, to contrast with that? >> you know, whether you agree with president obama's world view or not, if you read this article in the atlantic, you'll see that he's trying to reason his way through a set of very complicated challenges to the united states. i don't see anything resembling that kind of mature reasoning process going on in the debate we're having around foreign policy. on the republican side you have people talking about carpet bombing and committing war crimes and reinstituting torture. on the democratic side too, you have one of the two candidates has shown zero interest in actually thinking about foreign policy. i'm obviously talking about bernie sanders. there's no doubt in my mind that president obama does a lot of hard thinking about how to best manage the united states' role in the world. he might reach the wrong conclusions, and we don't know. we don't know yet. we might not know for 5 or 10 or 15 or 20 years. but there is a process in place in his head, where he's dealing with things in non-bumper sticker terms. the problem for obama is that none of his foreign policy ideas can fit on a bumper sticker. the problem in the campaign is that all of the foreign policy ideas fit on a bumper sticker. that's the split. atmosphere of slow economic >> sreenivasan: in a global atmosphere of slow economic growth and very low interest rates, the european central bank today dropping its key rate to zero. and others in recent weeks having gone even lower, dipping into negative territory. some economists and financial analysts have begun to ask if the trend has gone too far, lasted too long, and done too little good, paul solman tracked one of those analysts down, as well as a little down-home music with an economics bent. it's all part of his weekly series, "making sense," which airs every thursday on the newshour. >> welcome back to merle hazard's macro policy barn dance! >> reporter: from country crooner merle hazard, an homage to the old tv show hee-haw. >> hey alison, when do you think interest rates are going up again? >> well, that's a question you're gonna have to ask yellen. >> hey alison, when do you think interest rates are going up again? >> reporter: she means janet yellen, of course, chair of the federal reserve, which meets next week on a question that grips markets, businesses, consumers, even governments, or as hazard, a nashville money manager in real life, with the help of grammy winners alison brown and tammy rogers king, puts it: >> ♪ how long how long will interest rates stay low? ♪ that's the question, the whole world wants to know ♪ how long how long will interest rates stay low? ♪ it seems like if they're going up, they're going pretty slow ♪ >> reporter: and so next week's policy question: will the fed hike interest rates even just a smidgen, as it did in december, or leave them alone? >> ♪ if you could predict it, you could make a lot of dough >> reporter: now if merle's musical approach strikes you as a tad cornpone, be advised that one of the world's great experts on interest rates, mohamed el- erian, dubbed it both "brilliant" and timely. look, says el-erian... >> we are on a road right now that has been characterized by two things: enormous central bank intervention-- not because they wanted to, but because they felt they had to. and secondly, low but stable growth. and that road is coming to an end. >> ♪ our country's central bank is really scared, that's plain ♪ to see when everything is leveraged, raising rates is misery; ♪ but keeping rates too low, too long, would cause us pain and ♪ sorrow there is no easy option in a land of constant borrow ♪ >> reporter: the fed, america's central bank, has kept interest rates rock-bottom low, by buying up treasury bonds, mortgage bonds, all sorts of i.o.u.'s. the low rates were meant to induce spending and investment. >> mortgage rates are among the lowest they've been in generations. >> reporter: and yes, economic growth has been steady ever since the great recession receded. steady, but slow. >> we've been in a period where growth has been very sluggish. the so-called 'new normal,' where we don't bounce back, we end up below potential consistently. >> reporter: el-erian popularized the term "the new normal" while helping run pimco, the world's largest bond investor. but his new book, "the only game in town," argues that the new normal may be coming to a bitter end. >> how long will central banks continue to experiment? because, at some point, when you experiment too much, the collateral damage and the unintended consequences exceed the benefits. >> reporter: the experiment of near-zero interest rates, that is, which might have induced not just investments but risky investments with cheap borrowed money, which could lead to market bubbles that then begin to burst. >> like, for example, we all wake up and we find that the stock market is down 10%. >> reporter: or, it's down 20% percent, or it's down 30% percent. >> and then we become more cautious, and we drag the economy down not just low growth, recession. >> reporter: and that's why they've raised interest rates, even a little bit? >> absolutely. and that's why they haven't rushed in earlier in the year, when we had financial volatility to calm everything down immediately. in the past, they always used to rush in with nice, calming statements, saying, 'don't worry, i've got your back. we are your bff, markets. we are your best friends forever!' they haven't done this this time. >> reporter: just the opposite. janet yellen has actually said, although she wasn't yellin' but, but, pretty loud, for a central banker, actually, in saying, 'hey, there are risks everywhere!' >> absolutely. and she went to congress and said, 'you know what? you have to help us. >> some of the burden should also be on congress. >> we can't do it on our own. >> reporter: by "help," el- erian, means government spending on, say, infrastructure, as he has pressed president obama to do in america, to stimulate slow-growing economies. or as merle hazard puts it: >> ♪ central banks around the world, not only in the states ♪ are each at work on lengthy slumps, their countries' ♪ tragic fates; legislatures will not spend to ♪ give sufficient boost lower interest rates are all ♪ that's left to get their countries juiced. >> the big tragedy is that we have pushed central banks to be the only game in town. >> reporter: the name of his book, and central thesis about central banks. >> up to the financial crisis, they got blamed for being asleep at the wheel. too little regulation, too little supervision, you allowed banks to take irresponsible risk. >> reporter: that was a fair charge, though! >> it was a fair charge. then they stepped in and saved us. they averted a multi-year depression that would have not only harmed this generation, but future generations. >> reporter: but by 2010, the new normal had begun to establish itself. time, says el-erian, for the fed to stop goosing the economy and hand off economic policy to the politicians. >> this was no longer about averting a depression. no longer about normalizing financial markets. and the politicians were paralyzed by political dysfunction. >> the bill is not passed. >> reporter: gridlock and thus, el-erian thinks, insufficient spending and investment. >> ♪ recovery has been long and slow, the crisis wounds are deep >> and that's where we are today. >> ♪ so until we see inflation, money's likely to be cheap >> reporter: and this is also why central bankers and economists root for something that was long anathema, that is, inflation, because that would be an indication that people are spending and investing. >> yes. and, they hope that that inflation is good inflation in a sense that it's driven by higher wages. because, when you get inflation from higher wages, you also get higher consumption. higher demand. >> reporter: but, i'm old enough to remember when what we were worried about was wage price inflation! wages would go up, and then prices would go up, and it would spiral out of control. >> yes. i'm old enough to remember those days, i'm old enough to remember when banks wanted your deposits. i'm old enough to remember things that were conventional wisdom, and that today have been replaced by improbables. and that speaks to why the road we're on is coming to an end. the system is signaling day in and day out it cannot continue like this. >> reporter: and that's why the fed is in such a quandary these days, causing merle hazard among many others to ask: >> ♪ how long how long 'til we really start to grow? ♪ interest rates are goin' up, but they're go-in'... pret-ty ... slow..... ♪ >> reporter: for the pbs newshour, this is economics correspondent paul solman. >> sreenivasan: now a different type of music, we hear from song wrier josh ritter about the doubt he feels on stage. ♪ it's getting colder now ♪ the nights are getting crisp i >> i have been writing songs and playing music for almost 20 years. i began in my childhood bedroom. moved to open mics and then playing with other artists. now i play my own shows around the world. i've always thought of myself with a h healthy, grown career. ♪ she said, give me your badself ♪ ♪ make a stand and i can move the world ♪ñi ♪ >> i make the music i want to make with the people i want to make it. with my family and i live a comfortable life. enjoy this time, they say,hié's all happening for you. yet, at the strangest moments, i find it impossible to do anything of the sort. in the middle of a show, sometimes in the middle of a clause, i find i'm worrying my audience will realize i'm a fake and my music has been a fake, causing a slow hemorrhage of myself, never to return. or will they be kinder, stay beautiful to the end shake their heads as atrail down the street. what about the band? the people i work with? it starts out with joy from the very moment joy is abundant. i'm trying to remember why i'm an artist, i am many other things as well -- a father, partner, brother, son, friend, all roles i will play even if the bottom falls out of my career. i think about my heros, neil young and knotters who followed their own inspiration making some of their finest, ad adventurous work without assurance it would be appreciated. self doubt is a very persistent and difficult feeling to overcome. often i find it impossible to write because of it. nothing feels correct, nothing feels new. perhaps i don't have anything to share so i shouldn't say anything at all. i try to surround myself with the unfamiliar, books and music i don't normally listen to.çó at those moments when i'm losing joy to mediocrity, self-delusion and doubt, i'm trying to open up my heart to the future. i have no idea what will happen in my life, i don't know about the next album, show or song. all i know is with the future comes the chance of many great and wonderful things to happen. it is to that future i must turn. it's hard work, but i'm trying hard. ♪ home ♪ home ♪ home, coming home, coming >> sreenivasan: we'll be back with a look at why formerly communist nations are leading the effort to seal europe's borders. but first, take this moment to hear from your local pbs stat >> sreenivasan: as thousands of migrants and refugees sit stranded in greece, former communist countries are leading the drive for europe to seal its external borders. their tough stance, along with a refusal to accept any refugees, has divided and potentially destabilized europe. one of the most influential countries is poland, which is now seeing demonstrations against its right-wing government. malcolm brabant reports. >> reporter: this was an energetic display sustained by poland's government regardingly western europe as increasingly authoritarian. but the biggest protest since polandñi joined the e.u., there was complaintçó the el tray conservative administration was helping destabilize europe. >> seems they entered the union andñi took support. and now they try not to give back anything, which is very not fair, you know. >> reporter:ñi among other former soviet bloc nations poland joined the e.u. as part of the e.u. e expansion in 2004. in george w. bush's administration, poland symbolized the new europe. since then portion land became the largest recipient of e.u. development funds. this new train transformed what was previously a backward nation but along with other former communist countries, poland adopted a hardlineñi approach, refusing to share the union's migrant burden. >> if we believe in solidarity and the european union, not only a bank that offers a big account and we can take big money from them, but we should also think about the crisis that is going on here and we should support refugees. >> reporter: right now with moreñr than 100,000 migrants having entered europe in the first two months of the year, the e.u.'s foundations are being rocked to the core. greece which is least equipped to handle the flow is in danger of being cut off from the rest of europe and transformed into a giant refugee camp as migrants find more and more obstacles in their way as they try to reach the north. europe's greatest achievement is on the verge of disintegrating. this leading foreign affairs analyst monitors the activities of the former communist states, known collectively as the vishigrad group. >> they would be happy to see greece being sealed off from the rest of the e.u. because that would seem to them asñi the solution of their problems. >> reporter: after appearing on one of poland's main political programs, a senior parl] governing partyxd defended its policies. >> the group is acting toñi protect the european union, we don't want to divide europe by inner borders and border controls but want to enforce the external borders of the e.u. this is, by theçó way, what the e.u. commission wants. the goal is to do it efficiently. >> reporter: a key part in poland's refugees, this is a profoundly roman catholic country. 98% of the people are cath lifnlgt ever since the holocaust, poland has been populated almost entirely by white christians. one of the country's ultra right policies wants to keep it that way by building a wall on poland's eastern plank if necessary. >> in their political correctness, germans led by angela merkel made an ill considered invitation to millions of muslims, inviting muslims to christian countries. these are two different worlds. >> reporter: but islam has had a small presence in poland 600 years ago. their community leader believes the current polish attitude toward migrants will suffer. >> half of the ports, britain has millions of ports. they needed to live in a better way, so they left. today, somebody needs them and needs to come here. they will understand sooner or later. (singing) >> reporter: ode to joy, the european anthem ended the rally in dance. spiritual anthem of the polish solidarity movement which inspired them. e.u. countries have been warned not to take unilateral action over the refugee crisis but his homeland doesn't appear to be listening. the pbs "newshour", malcolm brabant in poland. >> sreenivasan: you can find all of malcolm brabant's reporting for us on the refugee crisis and its fallout on our website, at pbs.org/newshour. also online, researchers in japan have discovered a species of bacteria that munches on one of the most abundant forms of plastic on earth. commonly found in soda bottles and potato chip bags, this plastic normally takes five to ten years to degrade on its own. these bacteria could do the job in six weeks, scientists say. read more about how this microbe might reduce global waste. and polish photographer josef schulz traveled europe to capture the curious beauty in some of the continent's abandoned border checkpoints. see a gallery of those photos on our homepage. all that and more is on our web site, pbs.org/newshour. tune in later tonight, on charlie rose: marissa mayer discusses the way forward for an embattled yahoo! and i'm hari sreenivasan. join us online, and again here tomorrow evening, with mark shields and david brooks. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your financial future. >> the lemelson foundation. committed to improving lives through invention. in the u.s. and developing countries. on the web at lemelson.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 sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org this is "nightly business report." with tyler mathisen and sue herera. fighting words. the government says apple's rhetoric is false and it should open an encrypted iphone used by a california gunman. rally fizzles. the european central bank cut rates and stocks take off. then the air came out of the balloon. so what happened? and muscling up. why general motors thinks a legendary brand is ready to roar again. all that and more for thursday, march 10th. good evening and welcome. tyler mathisen is on assignment tonight. the justice department filed its latest response in the fight over encryption, calling apple's rhetoric false and corrosive. the government wants apple to

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