♪ laura: tonight on "pbs news weekend." a new report dissects u.s. secret service actions and missteps during the capitol attack on january 6. following donald trump's attacks on kamala harris' race, a look at black identity and the history of race in politics.

and, as demand for copper and lithium grows, the increase in mining is posing new threats to native communities here and around the world. >> these kind of places shouldn't be lost, because if it's lost, it's lost forever and it will never come back. ♪ >> major funding for "pbs news weekend" has been provided by. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the news hour.

this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station by viewers like you. thank you. laura: good evening. i'm laura barron-lopez. john yang is away. concerns of a wider conflict in the middle east are escalating. today, iran said in a statement that it will exact "severe" revenge at the appropriate time. this after an attack in its capital killed a visiting hamas leader. iran blames israel and the u.s. the veiled threats are prompting the pentagon to send additional navy destroyers to the middle east. in the occupied west bank, israeli defense forces said it killed another hamas leader today. the idf hit a car that it says held the leader and four other palestinian militants on their way to carry out an attack. the defense department revoked a controversial plea deal that took the death penalty off the table for the accused mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.

in a memo, defense secretary lloyd austin said responsibility for the decision should be left with him, not the official appoind to oversee the cases. prosecutors initially struck deals with khalid sheikh mohammed and two of his accused accomplices, over concerns some evidence gathered through torture would not be admissible in court. the victims of the devastating wildfires on maui could soon get help to rebuild. hawaii's governor announced a settlement friday worth more than $4 billion. it would pay out the families of the more than 100 people killed and the thousands displaced last august. the massive fire remains under investigation nearly one year later. the settlement needs to be finalized in court before the victims may receive payment. olympian simone biles is living up to her nickname as one of the greatest of all time. the gymnast earned her seventh gold medal -- and 10th overall -- in paris today during the women's vault final. later in the day, team usa picked up another gold in the

pool. swimmer katie ledecky raced past the competition for the women's 800 meter freestyle. this is her ninth gold in four olympic games. still to come on "pbs news weekend." the history of racial identity in american politics. and the impact of mining on indigenous communities in the u.s. and around the world. >> this is "pbs news weekend," from weta studios in washington, home of the pbs news hour, weeknights on pbs. laura: the secret service is in the hot seat again. this time over its actions before and on january 6. a new report lays out several thingsfrom detecting a viable pe bomb within 20 feet of kamala harris to reporting signs of potential violence.

like rally-goer's wearing ballistic helmets, body armor and other military grade equipment. joining us is a washington post reporter thank you for it your time -- thank you for your time. this report says secret service officials never testified before the house committee investigating january 6 and this report seems to leave more questions than it does answers. what are your main takeaways from it? >> we knew some time ago there had been a pipe bomb outside both the rnc special offices on capitol hill and the dnc minutes before kamala harris would be coming out. she was spirited out of the building. it was known at the time -- this makes it official. it is no longer just reporters learning it from their sources. it is actually the government affirming this.

a pipe bomb investigation by the fbi and u.s. attorney's office in d.c. has been one of the most labor-intensive investigations in recent memory. most labor-intensive for one that did not reach an answer. the fbi has still not discovered who were the people or persons who laid this potential explosive that could have gone off in both locations in the minutes before the capital was actually breached and its security line was pressed through by protesters and supporters of donald trump's that day after they stormed away from his rally into where the capitol, as he urged them to do. laura: you have a new exclusive out about a secret investigation into whether donald trump received cash from the egyptian president. allegedly, if you could walk us

through, exactly how did $10 million possibly get from the government of egypt to then- president-elect donald trump. >> what was jaw-dropping for u.s. government investigators, federal prosecutors was the cia in early 2017 alerted the department of justice that they had credible intelligence from an informant and corroborated by additional intelligence gathering that the ejection president had plans in late 2016 to basically inject or illegally give $10 million to donald trump's reelection efforts. he essentially wanted to help donald trump get elected and he would do this with $10 million under the table. investigators looked and looked to figure out if this intelligence was true. could they figure out if the money was ever spirited to donald trump? did he accept a bribe?

the problem was although they found a cairo bank had made a bizarre withdrawal of cash, exactly matching the intelligence, $10 million pulled out of essentially the egypt and cia'sccount, just as intelligence suggested, found this withdrawal of cash stuffed into duffel bags five days before donald trump -- investigators wanted to get donald trump's bank records to determine, did that money from cairo -- $10 million in u.s. bills -- did it landed donald trump's accounts? the u.s. attorney basically said no, i will not let you subpoena those records. you do not have enough evidence to do that. very suspicious of this request.

expressed doubts about whether or not this case was justified. in the end, prosecutors throughout their hands. they said they could not do this investigation without that information. they were despondent because they felt they had a lot of evidence suggesting this could be true and they were never allowed to find out if it was. laura: that is pretty stunning. egypt has been in the news a lot lately mainly because democratic senator bob menendez was convicted last month for acting as a -- foreign agent for egypt. is there a possible pattern of egypt's efforts of trying to influence u.s. politicians? >> the key linchpin in all of this is egypt's general intelligence agency. the president's cia. this is an important spy network

that he has relied on to pressure and push his agenda especially in the united states. what menendez's trial showed is that intelligence services top officials reaching out and making friends with menendez and trying to steer him to push specific things that were important to the egyptian president on the world stage. and went so far as menendez actually giving them important information that was pretty sensitive about the pleas of our government in egypt that was sensitive information. it went so far that he took a lot of money from people who were operating at egypt's bidding and he was accused of being a foreign agent of that country. the general intelligence service , the egyptian president's cia, was the entity that u.s.

intelligence said would be used to spirit this money to donald trump. the general intelligence service account is where that bizarre $10 million cash withdrawal came from. laura: thank you for your time. >> thank you. ♪ laura: earlier this week, speaking to a gathering of black journalist, former president donald trump question kamala harris' racial identity. mr. trump: now she wants to be known as black. is she indian or black? i respect either one but she obviously does not. she was indian all the way and then all this time she made a turn and she became a black person. laura: it is not the first time mr. trump and republicans have

accused a politician of not knowing their own race or ethnicity. they were not natural born american citizens. the founding director of the center for the study of race and democracy at the university of texas at austin. he is also an author. i want to first note that back in 2020, donald trump's campaign spokesperson said the kamala harris is a black woman and pointed to donations that trump had made to her earlier campaigns as evidence that he is not racist. again, these are not the first instances of trump questioning harris' identity and her race. what is behind this? >> i think this is a long-standing tradition of questioning the citizenship, authenticity of black political figures.

when we think about kamala harris in this context, what black is doing is really talking to his own base. he is talking to white voters who are aggrieved by this idea, which is false, that they are being replaced by people of color. sometimes they feel they are being replaced by jews. there is this racist, anti-semitic strain that he is tapping into buy things she does not know if you want to be south asian, she does not know if she wants to be black. he is signaling to his followers that this is the coming wave that i am here to protect you against. laura: as you noted, donald trump is not the only white politician to question the identity of people of color or try to define who is or is not really black. how far does this go back? what is the history of this? >> the history of questioning people's racial identity goes

back -- in certain context african-americans who were mixed race try to get there rights legally acknowledged by courts. in this country we really have a one drop rule, whether your mother or father was white, you were legally defined as black as a species of property who could not be willed to any estates, who could not run for public office, who could not sit on juries. we fast-forward to the 20th and 21st century, as we know there are a lot of african-americans of mixed race heritage but are still identified as black. kamala harris went to howard university, a historically black college, she is in alpha kappa alpha, part of the design nine african-american sororities and fraternities. she has lived her life as a black woman. the move to undermine the

authentic experience of black people plays out different context. in this context, it is a denial that a black woman could be president of the united states. that racial and gender barrier of one of the last symbolic barriers that we have to break. laura: i wanted to ask you about a survey that dates back to 2022. it found that races vary -- it found that 76% of black americans say being black is extremely or very important to how they think about themselves. what happens to black americans when someone who is in a leading position like donald trump just openly russians who is or is not black? >> i think it makes black americans think about the solidarity of their shared history. in certain ways, trump and these allegations against kamala harris, just like the allegations against barack obama

that he was not an american citizen, or a distraction. a nobel prize-winning writer reminds us that racism is a distraction from the work we need to do. right now all of the reaction that we are seeing is the black community is solidly behind the vice president but also other groups are, as well. it is having the opposite effect. i do not think it is intended to be directed to black people. laura: when i covered the 2019 democratic primary, even democratic primary voters said to me they were not sure if the country was ready for a woman president or a woman of color to be president. do you think it is different now? >> yes. the country is always battling between two stories it is telling itself. one story is a reconstructionist story that celebrates multiracial democracy. the other is a redemion next

story that is about fear, anxiety, a racial caste system that subordinates black people, people of color, jews, people who are otherized in our society . the election of barack obama in 2008 opened up this third reconstruction period in the united states for we have been pushing for an embrace of multiracial democracy yet that redemption is forces are still there as we saw with the vice president's run to be the first black woman president and first south asian president. we find strength in the difference and diversity within our country. laura: professor of the university o texas at austin, thank you for your time. >> thank you. ♪ laura: from computers to car

batteries, minerals extracted from the earth help power many of our devices. what about the communities whose land is at the center of acquiring these minerals? just this week the arizona governor halted plans to transport uranium through navajo nation after the tribe raised concerns about how it could affect the reservation. our reporter reports on the fight between companies seeking minerals from the lands and the indigenous tribes fighting to preserve them. >> for members of the apaches tribes, the campground outside phoenix is the site of sacred ceremonies and the resting place for many ancestors. >> this is the home of our deities. >> it is also home to billions of pounds of copper, making it valuable to ning companies. earlier this year in federal court ruled in favor of developers looking to extract copper from deep underground. >> they have to think this

through. there will not be copper here forever. once it is all gone, then it is contaminated forever. >> mineral mining has become a booming industry across the country and the world. as the demand for electric vehicles and batteries -- rises so does the need to ramp up the supply of minerals needed to make them. in recent years demand for nickel, lithium and copper has grown exponentially. between 2021 and 2023 the price from one ton of lithium in u.s. marketnearly tripled, reaching a high of $46,000 per ton last year. >> everything we see, touch and feel in our modern life comes from minerals. that is everything from the computers we are talking on to the chairs we are sitting in. even everything down to our smartphones comes from minerals. >> rick is a senior advisor to the pain institute for public

policy at the colorado school of mines. >> minerals are necessary for the energy transition. the one people talk about the most, they are most focused on our lithium and graphite. the demand is soaring primarily because of electric vehicles. >> he said more than 300 new lithium mines worldwide are necessary to keep pace with the demand for electric vehicles. the biden administration has prioritized a transition to renewable energy, setting a goal for half of new cars to be hybrid -- >> some say the green future is coming at the expense of indigenous communities whose historic plan surround many of the reservoirs where the minerals come from. >> companies plowing ahead with mining projects without consulting with those communities. >> she is the executive director of the surge coalition, an organization that advocates for

indigenous peoples environmental rights. she said mineral mining can risk endangering the communities. >> it introduces pollution, surge of various diseases, respiratory issues, cardiovascular problems, cancer. it also leaves behind profound social impacts, including drug use, alcoholism. >> one study found a connection between the 2006 oil boom in montana and north dakota and a tax against native americans. the rate of violent victimization which includes rape, assault and robbery increased 23% among native people in the six years after it started. in the surrounding counties that did not produce oil, such violence decreased by 11%. today u.s. mining is regulated but a 19th-century law

encouraged by the federal government displacing indigenous people. in 2011 the u.s. adopted they dented nations declaration of the rights of indigenous peoples which requires consent before starting a project on native lands. some legal experts say it does not go far enough. >> there is a need to reassess the procedures so that are updated in light of current international standards. >> he is a senior attorney in the indian lot resource center. >> we are starting to see measures for the purpose of underlining rights -- for the purpose of paving the way with mining activities. >> it is a trend he said is happening around the globe. in the so-called lithium triangle, argentina, chile and bolivia, indigenous communities

sit on 60% of the world's lithium supply. p announced his plan to take control of the lithium supply and partnering with mining companies. >> our challenge is to make sure our country transrms into the number 1 producer of lithium in the world, increasing wealth, development and distributing it justly. >> some native leaders are skeptical about his approach. >> what he proposes is a responsible. he is not asking the indigenous people. this tone from the chilean state to the indigenous people is constant. it is not happening only now. >> he represents tribes in the lithium triangle and says mining companies employ tactics to bypass laws and access the white gold below. companies are required to perform tests to determine prefectural -- potential environment a harm. >> they are not able to realize

what is going on. they are not informed. they have no access to information. as a result the permit is granted to a company. >> some indigenous communities are fighting back. last summer hundreds of tribal members took to the streets in argentina to protest mining in their territories. >> it is looting. it is plundering. an irreversible damage to the mother earth. >> some argue mineral mining will help address the climate crisis by moving away from fossil fuels, rick sd it also creates an ethical dilemma with major consequences. >> indigenous people are going to be the most impacted by sourcing these critical minerals needed for a successful energy transition. if we do not mine the minerals they will be the most impacted by climate change. >> they believe there are more sustainable alternatives.

the u.s. could avoid producing new mines by making use of the thousand abandoned uranium mines across indian country were energy resources he says already best. none of that work can be done without buy in from out indigenous communities. >> there is no possible pathway without the support and partnership and hopefully leadership from tribal communities and tribal nations. >> that collaboration is nonnegotiable. >> indigenous peoples are not necessarily opposed to the transition or the outlook in general. indigenous peoples are opposed to violating rights. destroying their way of life and harming their prices landscapes that define who we are as people's. >> in arizona, they continue the traditions of their ancestors ile he is still able. >> these places should not be lost. if it gets lost, it is lost forever and will never come back. >> for future generations of a

patchy tribes, the fear could soon become a reality -- apache tribes, the fear could soon become a reality. ♪ laura: that is our program for tonight. i am laura barron-lopez. for all of my colleagues, thank you for joining us. see you tomorrow. >> major funding for "pbs news weekend" has been provided by. >> consumer cellular, this is sam. how can i help you? >> this is a pocket dial. >> i thought i would let you know that with consumer cellular you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that is kind of our thing. have a nice day. ♪ >> 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. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] ♪ >> you arere

>>barrington: we're taking a road trip from new mexico to d.c.. >>katerra: three educators from different walks of life. >>robin: we are interviewing folks in education, trying to discover the meaning of expanding student success. >>katerra: what development do we have as educators to share with these kids? >>karen: they see themselves in the communities that they live in, and guess what? they do much better on the academic performance. >>robin: i am committed so that the whole child is cared for.