♪ william: tonight on pbs news weekend, the future of u.s.-china relations, as biden meets with xi jinping for the last time in office. then, severe drought has sparked blazes in a region of the country not used to wildfires. >> the northeast over the last ten yeas has been known for its historic flooding and now we're dealing with a parched and in some areas, scorched earth situation. and it's a roll of the dice as

to which one it will be at this point. william: and the dangerous and sometimes deadly work done by environmental activists around the world. ♪ >> 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 from viewers like you. thank you. william: good evening, i'm william brangham. john yang is away. israeli troops have reached their deepest point inside lebanon, since israel invaded its neighboring nation six weeks ago. at least six lebanese were killed, including children, when an israeli airstrike hit a village in eastern lebanon. the country's health ministry says two medics were also killed in strikes that hit southern beirut. the idf maintains the strikes were meant to destroy hezbollah infrastructure. displaceresidents searched through the debris for what's left of their possessions. >> one cannot deny that there are memories in that building, memories of my own children. and i really wish that i can actually take one simple picture of them when they were young. i did not take anything outside of that home, because i didn't

expect at all that this will be an israeli target, not for one second. william: in the northern gaza strip today, an israeli strike killed at least 10 people living and a school turned shelter for displaced families. gazan health officials say rescue efforts were ongoing to find any survivors still trapped under the rubble. a patient in california is being treated for a new memorial serious form of mpox. the california department of public health says the patient recently traveled to eastern africa, but is now being treated at home. officials say the risk to the public remains low. president elect is making more cabinet appointments as his transiti plows ahead. late today, he tapped chris wright to run the department of energy. wright is currently a fossil fuel executive and was a donor to trump's campaign. trump also announced friday night that karole leavitt will become his white house press

secretary. at 27, she'll be the youngest and first person from generaon z to hold that position. prosecutors in new york allege that music mogul sean combs is trying to obstruct justice from his jail cell. he's awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. filings made in manhattan allege that combs asked family members to reach out and to try to sway public opinion. a $50 million bail hearing is scheduled for next week. in the only -- and the only knockout in last night's mike tyson-jake paul boxing spectacle was to netflix's ability to stream a live event. former heavyweight champ mike tyson, who's nealy 60 years old, fought 27 year old internet star jake paul. the much-hyped event was marred when netflix's feed stalled and glitched for viewers around the world. in the end, paul beat tyson by unanimous decision of the judges. still to come on pbs news weekend, the role of climate

change in the outbreak of wildfires in the northeast. and the deadly work of environmental activists around the world. ♪ >> this is pbs news weekend from the david m rubenstein studio at weta in washington, home of the pbs news hour, weeknights on pbs. william: today in lima, peru, president biden is meeting for the third and final time during his term with chinese leader xi jinping. the leaders of the two superpowers sat down together, as biden prepares to hanthe reins of this tense, but consequential, relationship back to president-elect trump. their sit-down was on the sidelines of the asia-pacific economic cooperation summit, known as apec. nick schifrin is there now. very good to see you. could you tell us a bit about this meeting? what was the biden administration's goal?

nick: u.s. officials described the meeting as a way to take stock of ways to manage the competition between the u.s. and china, increasing military to military and communications and working together on ai, fentanyl , and climate. the top of the agenda is where u.s. and china do not agree. the top of that list is taiwan. last month we saw a chinese military practice in assaulting the island in response to a speech by taiwan's new president who beijing calls a separatist. officials say the conflict in taiwan remains the most significant risk for the u.s. and the world. u.s. officials say biden will bring up china's ongoing support for russia's defense industrial base, which is allowing russia to continue its efforts in ukraine, and perhaps most immediately, the u.s. is also bringing up what u.s. officials call a chinese hack of american tillich medications firms that

have -- telecommunications firms that have led to the compromise of at least one phone to an advisor of president-elect trump, and chinese being inside the system that those firms have built for law enforcement agencies. the u.s. is not expecting any breakthroughs on any of those issues. william: how do the chinese respond to those allegations about that hack? what are their goals with this meeting? nick: china calls the u.s. claims of a hack disinformation. they accuse the u.s. of inserting computer code to "frame china." china highlights badly needed for structure development -- infrastructure development here and across the south, including in peru, inaugurating what would be the second largest port on the ocean. the chinese say latin america is not in anyone's backyard. that is a direct dig at the u.s. xi jinping personally ties latin

and chinese cultures together and says they are the future. >> this is my third visit to peru. the profound accumulation of ancient civilizations has endowed china and peru with wisdom and broad mindedness and enabled us to see clearly the direction of history and follow the trend of the times. nick: the u.s. argues that port is worth a lot less than the $6 billion of foreign direct investment that the u.s. makes in peru. biden also warned peru's president not to accept any "nontransparent deals." there are concerns about the transparency of the deal over that port. i spoke to peru's ambassador in washington, and he told me "the u.s. needs to pay more attention to the continent. we are receiving interest from other parts of the world. someonehas to make the investment." he acknowledged the u.s. concern about china, but said our

solution is more in american investment -- is more american investment, not less chinese investment. peru officials need chinese investment. william: in two months, president-elect trump will inherent all -- will inherit all these issues. do you have a sense from trump's nominees thus far how the trump administration might handle china? nick: trump himself has worn he will impose a 60% tariff on all chinese goods, and that will spark beijing to retaliate and perhaps create a trade war. as for those picks, they are very important. trump's pick for secretary of state, senator rubio, has called for military and economically tougher posture on beijing. they would need to lift those sanctions if the u.s. top diplomat were to ever fly into china. trump's pick for national security adviser has said the u.s. is in a cold war with the chinese communist party. that suggests that the second

trump administration will be as confrontational as the first was, but we saw tension between the pro-business and national security crowd in the first trump administration, and perhaps we will see it again. one example, elon musk, a senior advisor essentially to president-elect trump, he is very close to chinese leaders and creates teslas in china. we will see what that tug and pulls end up with in the new administration. william: this being the last meeting between xi and biden, are there any aspects of the biden administration's efforts that will endure beyond his term? nick: u.s. officials hope so. they cite one example during the trump administration which expanded the quad, that is japan, the u.s., india, and australia, and have increased the amount of cooperation between those four countries.

they believe they have created an institutionalized relationship between the united states, japan, and south korea. they predict that the trump administration will expand on that. as secretary of state antony blinken said here in peru. sec. blinken: we we strengthened and wove together our alliances and partnerships in new ways to advance an increasingly shared vision for a future that is more free, more prosperous, more resilient, more connected. nick: it is those relationships that both the trump administration and biden administration have used to respond to china's aggressiveness in the region. whether any biden administration efforts survive the trump administration will be up to the new team. william: that is our nick schifrin in lima, peru. thank you so much. during their meeting today, xi

told president biden that china's goal of a stable, healthy relationship with the u.s. is unchanged following the presidential election. xi said he is "ready to work with the incoming trump administration and manage differences to benefit both nations." ♪ for years, wildfires across the american west have served as an urgent reminder of the threat posed by extreme weather, which is often made worse by climate change. but over the last few weeks, nearly 3,000 miles across the country, fires have engulfed parts of the hudson valley, stretching between new york and new jersey, sending smoke into new york city, reducing air quity and turning the skyline a hazy gray. often driven by high winds, the nearly 5,000cre jennings creek fire has gained ground because

of an unusually severe drought occurring on the east coast. hilary howard is a climate change reporter for the new york times. hilary: i mentioned how this region is in the middle of an awful drought, but out that this fire initially start and how did it get so bad? hilary: we don't know how the fire initially started, because it is in an area that is quite rugged and mountainous, and firefighters have simply been trying to contain the blaze over the past week so that it does not spread further. they are not able to get to the source because it is so impassable. the cause is under investigation. william: this is not a region used to wildfires. do they have the fire crews and personnel to attack this as needed? hilary: from what i understand, it is all hands on deck. volunteer firefighters are joining up with state professionals, emergency

workers. it is taking anyone with anyone -- anyone with any sort of training at this point. william: this is a big agricultural area. some of my colleagues talked with a farmer down in west milford, new jersey. here is what he had to say about how dry it is. >> we have seen more than 40 days without real meaningful rain. we had won a week ago, which gave us a bit of hope, but nothing since then. the 40 days has dried out both reservoirs, our local pond, and our underground storage tanks where we collect rainwater. we are finding we have to turn to the wells now because the surface water has disappeared. william: how much has this drought exacerbated this fire? hilary: dry conditions or drought, they are the reason for th fire, or the reason the fire spreads so rapidly. it starts with global warming. and if you break it down very

simply, the earth is getting hotter. so on one end of the spectrum, hot air holds more moisture, so when it rains, it pours, and therefore floods. but when there is a high-pressure system in place, which is what the situation is in the northeast right now, and it's impossible to rain, that same hot air sucks up all the moisture from the ground and the vegetation and just takes ready-made -- makes ready-made fuel for these fires to spread. william: how are people dealing with it? if you are not used to it -- if you grew up in the pacific northwest, you are used to fires and how to prepare. how have those been dealing with this? hilary: we are learning on the fly. it is important if you are on social media to follow, if you

are in new york city, the office of emergency management. you can sign up to get you alerts on your cell phone. there are facebook community groups that alert you to when the air quality will be bad. there is an app that the epa puts out called air now where you can plug in your zip code and find out if the air is healthy to be outside. there is lots of software and internet tricks in order to stay cognizant of what is going on. in terms of how not to start a fire yourself, it is common sense. i was at a press conference with governor phil murphy the other day, and it sounds really simple, but if you have a wood burning stove or outdoor fire ashes, when you dispose of them, you put them in a closed container. you certainly don't discard the cigarette outside. you don't hand a lighter over to your child. you don't mess with fireworks. it is common sense at this point.

you certainly don't have a campfire outside right now. a burn ban is in place in new jersey and new york for that very reason. william: what did these wildfires occurring in the northeast tell us about the ongoing struggle against climate change? hilary: that it is completely unpredictable. the northeast over the last 10 years has been known for its historic flooding and its general saturation of the earth. and now we e dealing with a parched, and in some areas, scorched earth situation. it's a roll of the dice as to which one it will be at this point. william: hilary howard of the new york times, thanks for talking with us. hilary: thank you. ♪ william: the united nations climate change conference - cop 29 -- is underway in azerbaijan. leaders at this year's meeting are being pressed to address - among other things - the rising

threats to environmentalists and defenders of human rights. ali rogin looks at the challenges facing these activists around the world. ali: close to 200 people died defending the environment in 2023. that's according to a new report by global witness, a uk based environmental watchdog and advocacy group. latin america accounted for 85% of the documented killings. and for a second year in a row, colombia is the most dangerous place for activists. but experts say the lack of data from other parts of the world is obscuring a more pervasive trend. jonila: filipino environmental defenders are experiencing various forms of attacks, such as from terrorist tagging, vilification, surveillance, intimidations, up to abductions, killings and having trumped up charges. nonhle: to do this kind of a work, i don't feel safe at all in south africa because there's quite a lot of death

threats that is pointing at me. now, those death threats, i know that are not just empty threats. are real because i've already experienced seeing our comrades being assassinated in the struggle of defending the land. jenifer: i have a very good, close friend who has been, you know, in and out of court because she was defending her area from being logged. and, you know, slap is here and there, slapping everybody. nonhle: we are being silenced to make sure that you cannot question development. we've been put our lives in the line of being killed because of asking that question. jenifer: the last green lands are always at the indigenous communities' territories, and we are defending that with our lives. there's been too many negotiations.

there are pledges already, but there is just very little action, real action that's done. for us, the communities, we have very little to say. we are not on the table, the negotiation table. jonila: as women environmental defenders, we have this additional threat that we feel. for example, when we were abducted, they threatened to sexually assault us. >> we need something put in place so we can protect the human rights defenders. but if there's no person that is collecting this data, it would be like life as usual. ali: laura furones is a senior adviser at global witness and the lead author of the report. laura, thank you so much for joining us. first of all, let's talk about the killings in latin america, particularly colombia. what do we know about those murders there?

laura: well, what we know is that for 12 years now, ever since global witness started recording murders around the world, colombia has continued to emerge as one of the most dangerous countries, if not the most dangerous. our data in 2023, in fact, tells us that colombia as country number one with 40% of all global killings recorded in ju that one single country. so obviously a very alarming sort of background of violence in the country that defenders have to suffer day in and day out. ali: and we mentioned that many of those defenders are indigenous persons and women. why do they tend to be such a large majority of these killings? laura: well, indigenous peoples in particular are disproportionately attacked, and that, again, is true every year. obviously, indigenous peoples are quite literally at the front line of the defense. they're trying to protect the territories, the natural resources that often in places that are really far away from any protection from the state,

there's invasions of their lands. every year around between 40 and 45% of killings are of indigenous peoples, which is which is quite telling given that they only make up 5% to 6% of the global population. and in terms of women, women are also subject to really vicious violence because they have to they have to endure all the attacks that their male counterparts suffer, but also gender specific violence, obviously, including sexual violence, harassment, threats to the families and so on. ali: one of the features of this report is that there are parts of the world that simply do not report these data in detail. what do we know about those parts of the world, specifically countries in africa and asia? laura: well, the problem is precisely what we don't know about them. and, you know, our data shows that 85% of the global killings happened in latin america. that obviously speaks to a very clear reality of violence in the region. but that doesn't mean at all that being aefender in africa or asia is any safer.

in fact, we're really worried about growing trends of attacks, but also criminalization and other forms of reprisals. and it's really hard to access data for all sorts of reasons. you know, it's hard to document the cases when, you know, people trying to do so may be risking their own lives. ali: and what nes to change about the protection of these defenders? are there any countries in which protections exist? laura: there are protection mechanisms in many countries, but sadly, the large majority of them are not working as effectively as they should be working. in fact, a substantial number of our killings that we record happened to defenders who were under some kind of protection mechanism that obviously didn't work. so we do need those mechanisms really badly, but we also need them to be ]effective and so on, because otherwise what we're seeing is that they're sadly not preventing the loss of lives. ali: the environmentalists we talked to said that conferences

like cop are unlikely to change any of their realities and that often their voices are missing from negotiations. do you agree with that and what needs to change? laura: well, we have been very actively advocating for an increased presence of indigenous people, suffer attendance. local communities, because i would agree that for way too long they've been sidelined. we treated all the knowledge as, you know, something that is a nice to have thing rather than something that really is at the forefront of the, you know, everything we know about climate change. we also know this and science has told us very clearly that indigenous peoples live in areas that have better conservation outcomes, than any other areas. so obviously it's them who should be leading us into fighting this climate change. ali: and what can countries like the united states do to add pressure here? laura: the u.s. has a very important role to play in protecting defenders, on the one hand, because they have the power to legislate and they have

the power to legislate about what u.s. companies are doing abroad. often what we see is that attacks happen when companies sort of invade lands or come into lands without any consultation or consent from local communities. the u.s. government has a really powerful and important role to play in terms of regulating. they also have the ability of protecting defenders through all sorts of mechanisms that they can put in place. anything fm taking defenders into the u.s. when they need some respite and when they're in immediate threat, to working together with all the other sort of global north countries to make sure that corporate behavior is not what we've seen for way too long. ali: laura furones with global witness. thank you so much. laura: my pleasure. thank you for having us. ♪ william: that is our program for tonight. i'm william brangham.

for all of my colleagues, thank you so much for joining us. we'll see you tomorrow. >> mor funding for a pbs news week and has been provided by -- >> consumer cellular, how may i help you? this is a pocket dial. well, thought i would let you know 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.

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-i didn't know that much about the constitution. i was very anti constitution. ♪♪ i had a pretty negative view of it because i'm like, "why are we listening to all these old men that lived in the 1700s?" but as i grew more engrossed in the history of it, i realized that some of the ideals were very beautiful.