PBS NewsHour

With at least 90 still missing, the death toll from the mudslide in Washington is expected to rise dramatically in the next couple of days. Jeffrey Brown talks to Master Sgt. Chris Martin of the Washington State National Guard about making progress in the systematic and painstaking search for more people.

In our news wrap Thursday, the Philippine government signed a peace agreement with the country’s largest Muslim rebel group to end decades of conflict. The deal creates an autonomous Muslim region in the south. Also, the International Monetary Fund will provide up to $18 billion in loans to Ukraine over the next two years.

Facebook has bought the maker of a virtual reality headset and interface for $2 billion. Economics correspondent Paul Solman profiles the company, Oculus VR, and Hari Sreenivasan talks to Vindu Goel of The New York Times for more on the significance of the deal.

The National Labor Relations Board has made a landmark ruling in favor of football players at Northwestern University who claim they are school employees. Currently the decision only applies to private schools, but it is expected to reverberate more widely. Jeffrey Brown examines the case with Michael McCann of the University of New Hampshire Law School.

Former President Jimmy Carter sits down with Judy Woodruff to discuss Russia’s annexation of Crimea, progress and limitations of working with Israel for the Obama administration and his own commitment to fight discrimination and violence against women and girls around the world. Carter has written his 28th book, “A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence and Power.”

President Obama urged Europeans to rededicate themselves to defending freedom in the face of Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Meanwhile, Ukrainians say they’re ready to put the corruption of ousted President Viktor Yanukovych behind them. Chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Warner looks at the range of challenges to Ukraine’s future, and whether its new leadership is up to the task.

Five days before the March 31 enrollment deadline, the Obama administration says that Americans will have more time to sign up on federal health care exchanges if they’ve begun but can’t finish the process on time. Gwen Ifill talks to Mary Agnes Carey of Kaiser Health News and Ceci Connolly of PricewaterhouseCoopers Health Research Institute for a closer look at the extension and its critics.

In our news wrap Wednesday, the death toll from a mudslide in Washington state rose to 24. Rescue crews combed through debris for signs of any of the scores of people still unaccounted for. Also, a French satellite has spotted more than 100 objects in the Indian Ocean, which a top Malaysian official cites as the “most credible lead” they have found so far in the search for the missing airliner.

In a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, their supporters and other dissenters, an Egyptian court put 638 suspected Islamists on trial for murder or attempted murder during riots last year. A day earlier, more than 500 suspected supporters of ousted President Morsi were sentenced to death by the same judge. Judy Woodruff talks to Michele Dunne of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

In an exclusive interview, chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Warner sits down with acting Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk in Kiev to discuss Western sanctions on Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s long-term intentions and a growing sense of unity among Ukrainians.

The Supreme Court heard arguments in a case brought by two companies run by devoutly religious families. They say that the health care law's requirement that employers’ health insurance plans cover certain contraceptives violates their beliefs. Tim O'Brien from Religion and Ethics Newsweekly offers background, and Marcia Coyle of The National Law Journal joins Judy Woodruff for analysis.

Rescue teams labored on in the rain and over saturated terrain in Oso, Wash., four days since a deadly mudslide struck and the last living survivor was found. As the search continues, questions have arisen about whether the disaster might have been foreseen. Jeffrey Brown interviews Akiko Fujita from ABC News for an update on the efforts.

President Obama announced that he wants Congress to stop the National Security Agency from gathering bulk phone records and holding them for five years. What’s at stake in the president’s push to limit the scope of U.S. surveillance? Gwen Ifill talks to Kate Martin of the Center for National Security Studies and Gary Schmitt of the American Enterprise Institute.

In our news wrap Tuesday, bad weather and rough seas forced the suspension of the hunt for wreckage from Flight 370 in the Indian Ocean. Meanwhile, relatives of the passengers marched on the Malaysian Embassy in Beijing to demand more information. Also, about 6,500 Ukrainian troops left Crimea, and President Obama acknowledged that Russia now controls that region.

Japan said it would relinquish a large cache of weapons-grade plutonium and highly enriched uranium -- enough to build dozens of nuclear weapons -- to the U.S. for disposal, just as a nuclear security summit opens at The Hague. Gwen Ifill assesses the deal with Matthew Bunn of Harvard University.