wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. the xfinity 10g network. made for streaming. ♪ geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on the "newshour" tonight, former president donald trump wins iowa as voters face freezing temperatures to caucus in the first electoral contest of the 2024 campaign.

geoff: the actions of iranian-backed groups in the middle east raise the threat of drawing the united states into a wider regional conflict. amna: and, the politics of immigration become deadly. a woman and two children drown trying to enter the country, while a standoff between texas and federal officials escalates. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour been provided by. ♪ the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions, and friends of the newshour, including leonard and norma and judy and peter foundation. the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting

institutions to promote a better world at hewlett.org. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and 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. ♪ geoff: welcome to the newshour. donald trump has won the iowa caucuses. amna: the associated press provides election results to newshour and has called the race for the former president less than half an hour after the caucuses began. early results at this moment

show former president trump had 54% of the vote in so far. here is a look at where the other candidates stand. former president trump with a clear lead, over 54.4% of the votes in these caucuses. that is with just 3% of the expected vote in so far. lisa desjardins is there with the latest. tell us what you are seeing and what you are learning from early returns. lisa: west des moines, this is one of the biggest caucus sites in one of the biggest counties in the contest. behind me, they have a huge turnout. it is hard to compare to previous years because there have been reapportionment. you see folks preparing to vote in different precinct sites. they have been voting on chair and secretary and soon they will put in the paper ballots with a single name on it, that will determine who their vote is.

they will begin the counting process. the results so far are largely from rural counties where there are smaller precinct sites and faster counts happening. a major precinct like this will take longer. this is more of a purple area, so we did expect early results to favor former president trump but the associated press sees enough to say he will win overall. eric trump, the president's son, spoke and governor nikki haley was supposed to speak, but as folks, haley supporters were supposed to see her, but haley herself was not here for speaking for her said she was delayed. amna: we may see some of these numbers fluctuate over the course of the evening and we have more results coming in. this is already such a clear, huge lead for former president trump so far, enough that he is called the winter.

the record cold was a huge issue for the caucuses today. as you talk to folks on the ground, what are they saying about what drove them out to brace the temperatures and come out to caucus? lisa: this is are critical moment in the story of this election and we are at a central point. i don't think we know what these numbers will tell us because the margin between former president trump and whoever is number two, is critical. nikki haley's folks tell me she will outperform expectations. she was at 2% this summer so that is something she will probably talk a lot about. i have been talking to undecided voters and folks i have met and one undecided voter was going between desantis and trump. she told me tonight she decided to vote for president trump but she went out to vote for the caucus and her car didn't start.

she lives in a rural area and decided to head back in a not show up. i think there will be questions if the margin is smaller than trump expected. was there an issue with the weather or rural voters? we will see where everyone else shows up for haley and desantis. the numbers for desantis will be critical for how much further he goes from now. geoff: one of the many people you have been talking to on the ground. amna: you have spent a few days on the ground talking to folks. lisa: love it here. amna: we want to go to a report filed earlier to tell us more about the voters in iowa. lisa: this is not normal. the 2024 iowa caucuses probably won't be remembered for any speech, debate, or slogan, but instead, for this. a weeklong arctic blast with record-setting snowfall, powerful gusts, and wind chill readings in the 40's below zero.

it all choked campaigns to a near-halt at one point. and when candidates did return, the storm still took center stage. >> when everyone talks about the weather, it will be so tough -- >> are you ready to brave the cold and make your voices heard tonight? >> my southern skin has struggled, but i will tell you, y'all are taking it to a whole new level. lisa: the weather is just one piece of an extra weird election cycle. >> we're in iowa. lisa: one candidate, a former president named donald trump, leads in iowa polls by roughly 30 points. >> ask yourselves, who does the radical the left and the washington swamp fear more? nikki haley, ron desanctimonious, or president donald j. trump? i can tell you right now. lisa: it's not clear if this is a competitive contest. but if it is, there is only one question. trump, or, as his two main opponents argue, not trump?

>> donald trump, if he is the nominee, the whole election is going to be about legal issues. criminal trials. >> i agree with a lot of his policies. but rightly or wrongly, chaos follows him. you know i'm right. chaos follows him. lisa: but so does deep support. >> there's no other ones, as far as i'm concerned. i've been a trump supporter ever since he walked on the escalator 2015. >> he is a man that stands behind his word. you will get the job done. >> i think iowans favor trump, i really do. he is still the leader. he is, in my opinion, the greatest president of all time. lisa: working mom valerie sutton means that. she's the latest generation to run her family's over 100-year-old greenhouse, west of des moines. trump's america first push, to her, made the world safer, and the american economy stronger.

sutton sees his main challengers, florida governor ron desantis and former u.n. ambassador nikki haley, falling short. >> what i think about nikki haley and ron desantis is that they are politicians. and that is another thing that i really like about trump, is that he's a businessman. and i think that the government needs to be run like a business. lisa: her business is in dallas county, critical territory where des moines suburbs meet some of rural central iowa. one of the fastest growing places in the country. trump won the 2016 general election here by 10 points, but in 2020, his margin was just two points. it is a national harbinger. and if either desantis or haley has any chance to make gains in iowa, it will be in a county like dallas. >> this is my dad's family. lisa: that's happening with dennis mandsager, a former naval officer, and his wife sherrie, a retired teacher, both republicans for haley. >> the first thing that really

caught my attention was her position on ukraine. i'm deeply concerned about that conflict, and i definitely think we need to support ukraine. >> i like nikki's position on abortion, which is more liberal than our governor's. lisa: sherrie and dennis each voted for president trump in 2020, and they know he leads the gop race now. >> i would not vote for him again. i would go with a third party candidate versus trump. and i would never vote for biden. lisa: why? why a third party candidate now? >> i don't like his attitude, of how he has to always degrade people. he's always calling people names. and as a teacher, you teach your kids, students, not to do that. lisa: in iowa, even supporters of his opponents ask about trump. >> why haven't you gone directly after him? >> what do you mean by going directly after? lisa: that's 75-year-old chris garcia, a second generation mexican american who's lived in and around dallas county his

whole life, and plans to caucus for desantis. >> he united florida, and he did a good job of it. but - and you know what he does? he does what he tells you he's going to do. lisa: garcia voted for president trump in 2020, and would support him again if he wins the nomination. but he has reservations. >> he says some things that, i don't know where he's getting it from. i think he talks out his side of his mouth before he realizes what he says. lisa: it's desantis who's essentially bet it all in iowa, both in time and money. a bet that's paid off in some cases. >> his canvassers came out to my house, and i kind of live out, so it's kind of like, they made this effort to call on me, and i talked to them, and i told him i would give him a chance. lisa: but it is haley who has risen, with help from some trump republicans. >> i've been a trump guy. and you know, if he wasn't so

divisive, i'd be a trump guy again. but nikki haley's got similar thoughts. lisa: and also from never trumpers who like her. >> but i'm actually a democrat, that changed my registration, to be republican so i could caucus for her. lisa: that is the strange political landscape of iowa in 2024. a few candidates hustling to shake as many hands as possible, but who still can't match the draw of a single trump event. kelley koch chairs dallas county's gop, and says her purple county is still trump country. >> initially, i think a lot of people were naive that the maga grip was so deep they didn't really feel that way. as we march closer to caucus, there's been a rise up, and one by one, you see these candidates not polling, not getting traction and they leave. and i think they underestimated the maga grip. lisa: iowa likes surprises.

huckabee in 2008, santorum in 2012. but this year, the weather has shocked, with trump clearly aware of turnout risks. >> you can't sit home. if you're sick as a dog, you say, "darling, i gotta make it." even if you vote and then pass away, it's worth it, remember. lisa: indeed, some, like this trump supporter, may not vote. >> i'm thinking about it. you know, just depends on the weather and stuff like that, too. so we'll have to wait and see. lisa: millions of dollars, and a year of campaigning. but it is the air above iowa that could determine if republicans have a real race for president. amna: that was lisa reporting from iowa. you can find more details and analysis of iowa caucuses on our website and during special coverage later tonight on pbs. ♪

geoff: the same deep freeze that's put iowa on ice has millions of other americans in its grip, as well. most of the country shivered through a long day of power outages and flight cancellations, with at least 6 deaths blamed on the weather. william brangham has our report. william: snow removal crews are braving bitter arctic temperatures to clear the way for the iowa caucuses tonight. but they're not alone. across the country, at least 150 million people faced wind chill or dangerous cold advisories over the weekend and into today. apart from the east and west coasts, every region of the country is dealing with temperatures below freezing. in great falls, montana, the wind chill dipped to 40 below zero, and even fire trucks froze over. cory reeves, the city's mayor, knows how dangerous these temperatures can be. >> it's bitter, bitter cold. in fact, it's deadly if people

stay out in this weather too long and they're not dressed appropriately, things to that nature. william: that risk is especially high for vulnerable groups. >> almost every neighborhood has elderly people living in their neighborhoods around here. and i think it's imperative that we be good neighbors. we stop over. we just make sure that they have the supplies they need, that they have heat. william: in oregon, high winds, snow, and ice left close to 100,000 customers without power in the portland metro area. lake effect snow brought whiteout conditions to buffalo, new york, this weekend. the nfl playoff between the bills and the pittsburgh steelers was postponed from sunday to this afternoon. and with highmark stadium under more than two feet of snow, the bills hired fans to help shovel out the stands. and some even got a free ride. >> we're going all the way this time. william: further south, the intensity of this blast has taken many by surprise. states like tennessee and

arkansas are facing snowy roads and freezing temperatures. the frigid air stretched down into texas, initially prompting fears of a repeat of 2021, when millions lost power and hundreds died. while texas' grid seemed to be holding up so far, wind chills aren't expected to let up any time soon. for the pbs newshour, i'm william brangham. geoff: in the day's other headlines, hamas released video that purportedly showed the bodies of two israeli hostages. they were identified as yossi sharabi and itai svirsky. the two were seen sunday in an earlier hamas video, pleading for a ceasefire. the israeli defense minister said today that option is off the table. >> the release of hostages will only happen as a result of military pressure. hamas is severely beaten by israeli forces. all that's left for them is to lash out at the sensitive nerves of israeli society through psychological abuse.

geoff: a third hostage, noa argamani, was seen alive in today's video. she said the others were killed by airstrikes. the israelis flatly denied it. it's unclear under what conditions either video was recorded. at the same time, the gaza health ministry reported the palestinian death toll to date has topped 24,000. u.n. agencies are warning of widespread famine and disease in gaza without more humanitarian aid. they blame continued fighting, too few border crossings, and slow inspections of aid trucks. the mounting desperation was evident sunday, when thousands of palestinians swarmed trucks that did manage to get to a gaza beach. some climbed onto the vehicles, trying to get food. >> this massive amount of people has come here for flour. some will die, some will faint, some will get hit. everyone is just focused on feeding his family. each one of them is ready to die as long as he gets a bag of flour. geoff: overall, u.n. officials

say less than a quarter of aid convoys have reached northern gaza this month. in israel, a car-ramming attack north of tel aviv killed one person and injured 12 today. police say at least two palestinians drove into pedestrians and then stabbed several people. the suspects were arrested and are believed to be from the occupied west bank. for a second day, houthi rebels in yemen have fired on a ship in nearby waters. a missile hit a u.s.-owned cargo vessel today in the gulf of aden. the u.s. military's central command reported no injuries or significant damage. an american destroyer was targeted sunday, despite last week's u.s. air strikes on houthi sites. ukraine's military says it has struck a key blow against russian forces, shooting down an early-warning radar plane and a command-and-control plane. that comes as kyiv is laboring to keep the world's focus on the war. at the same time, in geneva today, united nations officials said there's severe competition for humanitarian help for ukraine. >> we are deliberately reducing

the amount of money we are asking for, not because we think the needs are diminishing or the war is getting any better for the people of ukraine, but because we need to prioritize. geoff: more than six million people have fled ukraine during nearly 2 years of war. another four million are internally displaced. the u.n. children's agency, unicef, reports nearly 100,000 children in western afghanistan are in dire need, three months after powerful earthquakes. u.n. officials estimate 21,000 homes were destroyed, leaving families to endure the harsh winter in temporary shelters. many health facilities and schools were also demolished. in guatemala, a progressive politician has officially been sworn in as the new president. the ceremony took lace shortly after midnight after opponents delayed his oath taken by 10 years -- 10 hours. he endured an effort to derail

his inauguration. >>'s transcendental day, this fills me with deep honor to assume this high responsibility, demonstrating that our democracy has the strength to resist down through unity and trust, we can transform the political landscape. geoff: he has promised to tackle corruption and poverty. defense secretary lloyd austin was released from a hospital today. he had been treated for two weeks after complications from prostate cancer surgery but failed to tell president biden or public for days. doctors say his prognosis is excellent. communities across the country celebrated martin luther king jr. day with parades, prayer and service. president biden loaded boxes with fresh fruit and the vice president was the keynote speaker at an event in south carolina. dr. king would be 95 years old

today. still to come on the "newshour," tamara keith and amy walter weigh in on the iowa caucuses. why a $100 million donation is a game changer for historically black colleges and universities and a new book dispels myths about human evolution, and the female body's role in it. ♪ >> this is the pbs newshour from w eta studios in washington, and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism. amna: the u.s. consulate in erbil in northern iraq came under fire tonight, and iran's revolutionary guard corps claimed responsibility, according to iranian state media. it's just the latest in a series of attacks by iranian and iranian-backed militia across the region since hamas attacked israel on october 7th, and israel launched its response in gaza. hezbollah in lebanon and the israel defense forces have traded barrages, while the houthis in yemen have lobbed missiles toward israel, and continue attacking ships in the red sea and gulf of aden.

for more on iran's objectives and influence, we turn to karim sadjadpour, senior fellow at the carnegie endowment for international peace. before we get into the details of some of these groups and their relationship with iran, what is iran's objective? what is the use and strategy? karim: i would argue since 1979, there have been few governments in the world that have had a more clear and consistent grand strategy over the last four or five decades. there are three pillars to the strategy. number one, iran is intent on a very the united states from the middle east -- evicting the united states from the middle east. they are intent on replacing israel with palestine and they want to defeat the u.s. led world order. i would argue iran and its regional process -- proxies shared these objectives.

amna: proxy militias give them some degree of deniability. they claimed responsibility for the attack on the u.s. consulate in northern iraq quickly. what does that say to you? karim: iran is often a pretty good judge of u.s. resolve. the fact that they are publicly claiming credits for tax on u.s. outposts in the region probably means they don't fear conflict with the united states because they know the biden administration is intent on trying to avert conflict in the region. in some ways that bolden's iran. amna: they back hezbollah in lebanon and the houthis in yemen. how is their relationship with those groups different and how is it the same? karim: hezbollah is the crown jewel of the iranian revolution,

the most powerful of iran's proxies and part of iran's revolutionary guard. it is a subsidiary of the iranian state. the houthis are being trained by hezbollah. over the last decade their relationship with iran has grown much closer. at the end of the day, iran doesn't micromanage these proxies, doesn't call up hezbollah or the houthis or she'll a militias in iraq and tell them what to do on a daily basis. but they macro-manage those groups. those groups share strategic objectives about trying to evict america from the middle east. amna: we have seen a ramping up of houthi attacks and hezbollah attacks. is that coordinated through iran in any way and could they call them off if they needed to? karim: there is no doubt it is being coordinated with the

iranian government. the leader of hezbollah has said all of hezbollah's funding comes from iran. a giant chunk of houthi funding comes from iran. hamas' military budget, 80% comes from iran. this is a charity to these products -- not charity to these proxies. this comes with major strings attached. if iran orders its proxies to cease attacks on u.s. interests in israel, i expect they would do so right away. amna: talk about the domestic pressure iranian leadership is under. karim: the regime is deeply unpopular. it is essentially socially authoritarian police state with a failing economy. few iranians want to continue to live under the islamic republic. the reality is, as long as this

iranian regime remains in power, there will never be real, meaningful stability in the middle east because this is a regime which really thrives with regional instability. the countries we have talked about, yemen, syria, lebanon, iraq, gaza, these are failing states. iran is more effectively figured out how to pill -- phil power vacuums. it thrives on instability and so do its proxies. amna: that is karim sadjadpour, senior fellow at the carnegie endowment for international peace. good to speak with you. ♪ geoff: let's dive back into the big political story of the night, the iowa caucuses and the official start of the republican nominating process. for some analysis, i'm joined by

amy walter of the cook political report with amy walter, tamara keith of npr. the top line at this point is that donald trump has won the iowa caucuses but all night we will look at voter surveys to learn more about who went out to her caucus come who they voted for and why. one of the takeaways from white evangelical voters looking at the poll results, 58% of those voters broke for donald trump. which in some ways is no surprise but what do you see? >> i see the next number, 18% for ron desantis. he was the candidate that got the sub part of the evangelical movement -- the support of the evangelical movement. one example is the head above well profile -- of a high profile church. getting his endorsement used to mean you would carry the vote. ted cruz, he endorsed mike huckabee and others who did well with evangelicals.

that didn't matter this time. it is also a good 30 points better than donald trump did in 2016 with evangelical voters. >> ron desantis was the choice of the evangelical establishment. this tells you what we have seen taking shape, which is that evangelical voters support trump. they just do. that is certainly a shift from the discomfort they had when he was first running. but he has delivered a lot of wins for evangelical voters. geoff: looking at voters who identify as conservative, 62% of that voting block chose donald trump. if you look at voters who identify as moderate, donald trump according to this is winning 44% of that group. it depends on how people view being moderate. >> the theories of the case for ron desantis, as we said early

on, he is i will consolidate the evangelical vote, which is traditionally the winning strategy in iowa, and i will run to donald trump's right. that didn't pay off, the evangelical and he didn't do well with conservative voters. nikki haley understood her lane, which is i will do better with these sort of traditional republicans. we would call them country club republicans, chamber of commerce republicans. that is probably who these moderates are. they live in the suburbs. probably more upscale. she lost them but didn't lose them to the degree that the santos lost the can -- desantis lost the conservatives. geoff: i above voters rejected trump eight years ago and he has the benefit of running as the de facto incumbent, but he spent the last few years consolidating support among the kind of voters

who vote for him. >> it is not just iowa. this is a reflection of the fact that this is donald trump's republican party. in a number of primaries, they are winner take all. get above 51% and he wins all of the delegates. a lot of the delicate math as we move further out into the primary contest favors the incumbent or favors someone who functions as the incumbent. he has stacked state parties with supporters. he did that when running with reelection and continues that to now. there are lots of structural challenges for anyone, even if it does at head-to-head, say nikki haley again donald trump, she has a lot of structural challenges because of the fact that this is trump's party. surveys.et's dive into the voters with no college degree, donald trump 62%.

but voters with a college degree, he is taking 35% of that group. that was supposed to be the folks going to nikki haley. >> she divided the vote with ron desantis. if you add up desantis and haley, that gets you to 52 percent. the majority of college-educated voters picked someone other than donald trump, but it is an improvement over where he was in 2016. i think he was in the 20's with those same college voters. but among voters with no college degree, look at that. crushes, 62% of the vote there. no one else is close. for nikki haley, we talked about the lane where she did decent but not well enough to overcome trump. those are the kinds of voters she needs to win. i'm sure by much stronger margins. if she is going to win in new hampshire and basically win

moderates outright, win college voters outright. geoff: the iowa caucus-goers work asked how important it is to vote for a nominee who could win in november. of that group 56% of those folks were trump supporters, which is interesting given that he lost the 2020 election and republicans underperformed in midterm cycles on his watch. >> also given that he has been indicted multiple times and faces a series of trials, potentially even during the election. nikki haley was making a very strong case for herself as the most electable candidate. she said, look at these head-to-head polls with joe biden. i am more electable than these other guys. these voters went out and said in iowa, we think donald trump is more electable than you. we don't believe the polls. for someone who is making a case , a big part of her whole case

was about electability, to have such a large share of caucus-goers say trump is the electable one, we want him, that is a real issue. >> it is not just in iowa. we have seen this in national polls for a while, that trump is seen by republicans as the most electable candidate. it goes back to how trump got elected in the first place. in 2016, so many republicans we spoke to would say, i'm voting for donald trump this time. everybody says he is not electable, he can't win the general election but they told me john mccain was going to win in 2008 so i had to vote for him and they told me he met romney was the strongest candidate in 2012. the pundits and establishment were wrong. donald trump is electable and they will stick with at this time around. geoff: do you agree joe biden was legitimately elected? which he was. nikki haley voters, 45%. desantis 19% and you see the rest. >> this is not surprising.

nikki haley is clearly attracting all of the voters who believe joe biden was legitimately elected. what is interesting, desantis and trump both are in the teens with the share of voters who think joe biden was legitimately elected. >> yes, and she will now get pegged as being the candidate that is the anti-trump candidate, not the candidate with the broadest appeal. >> that could hurt her among the republicans. geoff: thank you both. >> you are welcome. ♪ amna: following the death of three migrants, including two children, in the rio grande along the southern border, a dispute between texas state and u.s. federal officials has intensified. laura barron-lopez has more. laura: the children and a woman drowned while attempting to cross into eagle pass, texas, at

a section of the border recently seized by texas governor greg abbott. texas officials physically barred federal border patrol agents from entering shelby park, where they tried to respond to a distress call, according to the homeland security department. the texas military department said the migrants had already drowned by the time border patrol agents requested access, calling claims that agents were stopped from saving the migrants' lives "wholly inaccurate." joining me to discuss is democratic congressman henry cuellar, who represents a nearby texas border district. i should note that republican -- thank you for joining the newshour. i should note your colleague republican congressman tony gonzales, who represents eagle pass, declined our invitation for an interview. your district neighbors eagle pass. what have you heard from state and federal officials about the deaths of the migrants? laura: if the state would -- >> if the state would not have kicked out the border patrol

agent and removed equipment like the scope truck they had come of the scope truck is a key element they use to make sure they survey the border, the river, and i think that would have played an important role when they got the distress call. now, because of the state action, the governor's action, what is happening now? the state is defending on deflecting on what happened. if they would have allowed border patrol to do their work, we wouldn't be talking about the story except may be a mother and an eight-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy would have drowned. laura: homeland security is now threatening legal action if border patrol is not granted access to shelby park in eagle pass. i want your reaction to governor abbott and his tweet last night. texas governor greg abbott

pushed back on you, and blamed president biden for the drownings. specifically saying "the fact is , the deaths are because of biden's open border magnet." what's your response to abbott? >> we heard the same type of defense and deflection during the uvalde situation. then something else happened contrary to what the state said. we are seeing the same thing here. we would not be here if the governor were not given the instruction last week to kick out border patrol agent's, remove their equipment to monitor the river. we wouldn't be here talking about that but he is doing everything, what i call lone ranger tactics, instead of communicating and coordinating with border patrol, he is kicking out the very agency that is empowered under federal law to stop illegal migration, to

provide humanitarian relief, in this situation. and here we are. here we are. we would not be talking about this if the governor would not have taken this action. i feel bad for the men and women, the guards that are there because if you look at it, they have two bosses. they have the governor and the president. the president has the federal guards. we are now playing a game where we should be working together with the state of texas. laura: you are talking about national guard troops stationed at shelby park. migrant crossings surged in december, then they dropped again this month, specifically in eagle pass. you are sometimes at odds with your own party on immigration. is there more you think that president biden could do to mitigate crossings at the border? >> absolutely.

look. you know me. i have been able to talk about what the president should be doing and they need to get this out of the way. the numbers have gone down not because of the governor's actions. it is not because of, we added a border wall or buoys. it is simple. the mexicans started doing their job in the southern part and there is always a correlation. if mexico does its job and slow down the numbers, instead of having 10,000, 12,000 people per day, we have 2800, 3100 per day. that is what is happening. it is a combination of things but we have to take this cofactor where people think they can take a very dangerous trek and cut through the border and ask for asylum. the bottom line is, the migrants need to realize they can't make this dangerous route. when you put your kids in a

dangerous situation like this mother did, and i understand people are desperate but you can't do this. you can see people die when they take this dangerous route. ura: senate negotiators are working on a potential border deal. it would potentially be attached to funding for israel and ukraine and would include more money for border patrol as well as significantly, possibly changing asylum law. it senate passes this, do you have any hope the house gop would take it up considering republican leadership has said they would likely reject it? >> it is interesting, i don't think they have read the text. i'm trying to keep communication on what the senate is doing. i saw what the republican leaders said, including speaker johnson, when they said they would reject it. they will wait for trump to get elected president. seriously? there is a crisis and you are going to wait to see if a person

gets elected president? if there is a crisis we should be voting on this. keep in mind, the last two years we have added 2.4 billion dollars, a 50% increase, except for two republicans that are still in the house, every republican voted for adding money the last two appropriations bills. now they are saying it isn't good enough. either it is a crisis or it doesn't, but you can't be against a bill they haven't even personally seen. laura: congressman, thank you for your time tonight. >> thank you so much. ♪ geoff: the united negro college fund has received a $100 million grant to help increase endowments for historically black colleges and universities. the donation from lilly endowment. inc. is the single

largest unrestricted private grant the organization has ever received in its 80-year history, and its sole purpose is to increase funding for each of its 37 member institutions. we're joined now by michael lomax, president and ceo. uncf. you for being here. >> it's great to be here. geoff: you have called this grant a game changer for hbcus because until now, hbcus haven't had shared endowments. how do you intend to leverage this? >> there is a big issue here. hbcu endowments are significantly lower than non-hbcus. if you add up the endowments of all 102 hbcus, you get to about $4 billion. harvard has a $50 billion endowment. we have to close the gap. we have to close the wealth gap for these institutions.

a handful of institutions keep getting all the money because they are well-known brands. where you and i went to college, howard and spellman, there are 90 some odd others that really need support. so one of the ways we felt that we could begin to break that cycle, but help everybody, was by creating a pool endowment for the 37 members, private institutions that are the members of the unc f. we are raising money and we just got this $100 million from lilly, which will be the foundation of a $370 million pool endowment. why a pooled endowment? because if you have $10 million you can't make good investments but if you have $370 million to invest, you can get professionals to work with you on it and over time, the endowment will grow. we aren't going to let anybody take the money out. only spend a certain percentage

of it every year that they have earned in the prior 12 months. geoff: hbcus punch above their weight. they represent 3% of all institutions of higher education but produce nearly 20% of black college graduates, 40% of black engineers, 50% of black lawyers, 80% of black judges. these are beacons of opportunity. what are the added value of hbcus these days especially in light of the supreme court striking down affirmative action and college admissions and the conservative backlash to teaching about race in schools? >> institutions have been doing the hard work for over a century and a half. it is long overdue that they could get the recognition they could -- are getting today. they are getting more attention and more young people want to attend these institutions but we have to realize the students who come most to hbcus are low

income, first-generation students. they have to have additional financial support to cover the cost of attending a private institution or even a public one. so we are trying to say to this country, black colleges and their students don't want to hand out. they want to hand up. they want someone to help them by investing in them and there will be a tremendous return on the investment. you used the term we use all the time, punching above their weight. they have been doing more with less. it is about time they get to do more with more. geoff: higher enrollment presents challenges for these hbcus, many dealing with housing shortages and others trying to improve facilities and infrastructure to stay competitive and keep pace with demand. what do you hear from college leaders about how they are dealing with those challenges? >> the hardest thing about being a college president is that you have to spend a lot of time

doing what i do, raising money. the same time, they have to ensure they are doing what their primary purpose is, which is to provide a competitive education for young people. and to do it in a supportive and embracing environment. we saw recently in the issues around, since october 7, that this isn't just something that affects black students. it affects a lot of other students, jewish students on predominantly white campuses. the sense that these institutions are not really there for them. that they are there on sufferance inter -- instead of merit. there is a challenge for a lot of american higher education that they have become so exclusive that the people they are therefore, to serve, don't feel a sense of connection. what we know about hbcus is that

they do create warm, supportive, nurturing environments and those first-generation black students whose families don't have a lot of tradition of sending people to college, they are not viewed as outsiders, they are viewed as the reason for the institution. given that, there is a challenge for us to raise more dollars, to support more students. that is why endowments are so important. i will say something about this, we have a $1 billion capital campaign underway. geoff: where are you? >> over $550 million. we are moving more rapidly than we thought. because i think there is a greater understanding of the value of the work we do. the $100 million from lilly endowment is a good housekeeping seal of approval. i just need another $450 million and i will meet my floor. but it is a floor, not a ceiling. geoff: i wish you the best in that endeavor.

michael, thank you for being with us. >> thank you. ♪ amna: we often talk about human origins as the evolution of man. but what if we saw it as the evolution of woman? a new book argues for a better understanding of our beginnings with critical implications for our present. jeffrey brown explains for our arts and culture series, canvas. jeffrey: where do we come from? how did we evolve into the beings and bodies we are today? it's a story that continues to fascinate at the american museum of natural history in new york, -- >> human origins. >> where cat bohannon first came as a child. and now, with a call for a new way of looking at human development. >> we have a lot of stories about the evolution of mammals. we especially have a lot of stories about the evolution of humanity and its possible past. but weirdly, in so many of these stories, the female is, at best,

a side character. you know what i mean? but increasingly in many different disciplines, whether it's anthropology or in biology, we're putting that female back in the picture. and that actually changes how we tell that story. jeffrey: bohannon tells the story in "eve: how the female body drove 200 million years of human evolution." in fact, with personal whimsy as well as scientific data, she writes of many "eves," starting with a creature she nicknames "morgie," perhaps the first-ever breast-feeder. >> it's delightful, that the reason someone like me might have breasts is because there is this little weaselly creature 200 million years ago, living under the literal feet of dinosaurs, and she starts lactating. and that's why, right? so that's just fun. jeffrey: and she gives us other "eves," who bring tools, language, and a whole lot more into the tale of the human species as a whole. >> it's really rewarding, to remember how deeply ancient these things are. you know, that the body is in

many ways a unit of time, right? with different things that arrive at different points in time. you know, that this human brain is incredibly recent. right? and that my digestive system is incredibly ancient. these eves are meant to give us a way into where these features of our bodies might have come from, and how that story still shapes how we live in them today. jeffrey:for bohannon, whose phd research was in cognitive psychology and literature, a fundamental problem anexample of how hominins and early humans learned to problem-solve is in childbirth. you say we're one of the worst, we are terrible at it. >> oh, yeah. jeffrey: and yet, we populate the globe. >> absolutely. and we do that by having behavioral workarounds, which is that deep human story. it's kind of what we're always doing. we're always finding behavioral workarounds for the limitations of our body. jeffrey: she took us a long way back -- >> how you doing, luce? how's it hangin? jeffrey: to "lucy," the version of her on display.

all bones here are actually casts. the actual lucy, of the species australopithecus afarensis, was discovered in present day ethiopia in 1967. her focus is lucy's pelvis. >> really good scientists determine she had a similar problem that we do, she had the obstetric dilemma. she had big babies and had a hard time of getting out of a small pelvic opening. >> which a lot of women relate to. >> i did that twice. i am good. but the thing is, that story, that starts at least 3.2 million years ago. and the current theory is that actually lucy probably had a midwife. jeffrey: lucy had a midwife? >> lucy had a midwife. she was small, she was furry, she was very chimpy. but she had a midwife, because she had difficult births that needed help. and in that moment of

vulnerability, you know, to get them out. yeah, yeah, yeah. and that's a big part of our success story, which we don't normally talk about, but yeah. jeffrey: bohannon loves that famous first scene of stanley kubrick's "2001: a space odyssey." but she wants us to focus less on conflict, more on gynecology. and how a focus on evolution of the female body can change how we think of the development of other traits, such as language. >> we assume there are these grand moments where language arrives, usually about hunting, shouting directions. jeffrey: yeah, isn't that the standard story about -- >> it's a common story, it's a common story. but remember that all of these are language users, because all of these communicate, all these mixed sex members of a group. and when you look at the evolution of language in terms of its developmental path, it becomes a childhood story very quickly. most of the time that is happening with the mother. in part because breastfeeding,

this is when we're, you're connected, literally connected many hours a day to a face which is communicating with you at those critical moments of brain development. jeffrey: bohannon's book, which synthesizes the work of hundreds of scientists, many of them women, raises numerous such examples. but it also raises critical implications for women's health today, and addresses the so-called "male norm" that has traditionally guided medical science. >> for a very long time in biology and biomedical research, we mostly studied male subjects. that's how we control for estrus, the messiness of that hormonal cycle, was just taking them literally out of the equation. and we're only just starting to finally rectify that. this is kind of a paradigm shift, kind of a sea change. and we don't entirely know what of biological sex differences are going to deeply matter. yet we will know the more we study it. jeffrey: we still don't know. >> absolutely not. but the excellent scientists all around the world are doing that work

right now. which is why this book can even exist. jeffrey: she points to the growing awareness of different responses by women and men to opioids, for example, and the need for better guidelines to distinguish between them. >> because we live in the bodies we do, that have this, that have this deep evolutionary time, our health is affected by how well we understand that history. our medicine is shaped by how well we're able to incorporate better knowledge about literally what these things are. and what we are is made of where we came from, because that's how evolution works. jeffrey: deep time, down to the present day, in a still developing story of evolution. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown at the american museum of natural history in new york. ♪

geoff: remember to stay with us for live coverage of the iowa caucus results starting tonight at 11:00 p.m. eastern. amna: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. we will see you later tonight. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by. ♪ >> architect. beekeeper. mentor. a raymondjames financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life well planned. ♪ >> a proud supporter of public television. on a voyage with cunard, the world awaits. a world of flavor. diverse destinations. immersive experiences. a world of leisure. and british style.

all with cunard's white star service. ♪ >> the kendeda fund, committed to enhancing restorative justice and meaning will work through investments in transformative leaders and ideas. more at kendeda fund.org. supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at mac found.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. ♪

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