March 11, 2021 - PBS NewsHour full episode

On a day that President Biden signed a $1.9 trillion COVID aid bill into law, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell joins Judy Woodruff to discuss Republican opposition to the COVID bill, as well as House legislation on election reforms, the Senate filibuster rule, and resistance to vaccinations.

For a perspective on President Biden's historic stimulus bill from a Democrat, Delaware Sen. Chris Coons joins Judy Woodruff to discuss American support for COVID relief, bipartisanship under Biden, and how the impact of the pandemic was "far worse than it needed to be."

In our news wrap Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives opened a drive for the first major gun control measures in 20 years, activists in Myanmar say 12 more protesters were shot dead, China’s ceremonial legislature moved to tighten control over Hong Kong, Prince William denied that the royals harbor racist views, and Mississippi bans transgender athletes joining female sports teams.

It was one year ago when the World Health Organization declared the COVID crisis a pandemic. This was the week shutdowns rapidly escalated, large public gatherings began coming to an end and the country faced the prospect of a very different time ahead. Amna Nawaz brings us personal recollections of how life in the U.S. was transformed and the challenges of this past year.

Japan on Thursday marked another grim anniversary: 10 years since a magnitude 9.0 earthquake off the nation's coast triggered a 130-foot-high tsunami that crashed ashore at more than 500 miles per hour. It killed thousands and triggered a nuclear disaster at a plant in Fukushima. Nick Schifrin looks at that nuclear explosion in detail, and Grace Lee reports from Tokyo on the quake's aftermath.

For teenagers, this year of quarantine and remote school forced an unprecedented experiment in learning and coping. We asked our network of student journalists to reflect on how their worlds changed and what they're looking forward to once the pandemic is over.