william: tonight on pbs news weekend, how never of margins in congress and deep polarization nationwide could make governing difficult in the next trump administration. then, why american evangelical christians are such staunch supporters of israel. >> there's an anticipation that the second coming of jesus has something to do with the machinations in the middle east, particularly around israel. william: and one refugee's

desperate journey from his home in war-torn cameroon to a new life in wisconsin. it's>> major funding for pbs news weekend has been provided by -- >> consumer cellular, this is sam. this is a pocket dial. well, thought i would let you know that with consumer cellular you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that's kind of our thing. have a nice day. >> 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 ening. i'm williabrangham. john yang is away. russia launched one of its biggest attacks to date on ukraine today, targeting the country's power grid with over 200 missles and drones. this comes as a senior u.s. official confirmed to pbs news that the u.s. will, for the first time, allow ukraine to fire american-supplied long-range missiles into russia. ukraine has for months asked the biden administration for this permission, arguing it could help them degrade russia's military. but until thou -- until now, those attack missiles were restricted for use only inside ukraine's borders. following today's barrage,

ukrainian officials said russia's attack killed nine people, took out critical energy infrastructure, and will mean temporary power cuts for the entire country tomorrow. moving to the middle east, where an israeli airstrike in lebanon killed a senior hezbollah official. that group confirmed its chief spokesman died in a strike that hit in the center of beirut, an area where many lebanese had fled to, believing it would be safer. separately, israel kept up its bombardment of gaza as it continues its assault on hamas. more than 40 people were killed in strikes in both north and central gaza, including one that t a refugee camp. >> [translated] people go to fetch a loaf of bread from there because they've been displaced, leaving behind their flour and all their belongings. they go there, and people are dying just to get flour. their children can't eat. they can't manage anything. william: pope francis is now

calling for an investigation to determine if israel's attacks over the last year in gaza constitute a genocide. that's according to excerpts released today from a new book of interviews with the pope. it is the first time francis has openly urged such an investigation. he's previously said palestinians and israelis are suffering because of the war. the governor of ohio is denouncing a display of hate in his state this weekend. nearly a dozen masked people marched through the streets of columbus with swastikas, shouting anti-semitic and racist chants. governor mike dewine later released a statement, which said there is no place for hate and bigotry in ohio. an investigation is underway. president biden made history today, becoming the first american president to tour the amazon rainforest. he took an aerial tour of the region, which is threatened by widespread logging, ranching, and mining. the amazon holds massive amounts

of carbon dioxide, and researchers say its continued destruction will exacerbate climate change. this year's presidential election may be over, but as the counting of ballots continues, this looks to be a year of record voter turnout. new numbers from the associated press show that more than 152 million people cast a ballot this year, and that number will only rise as states fish up their final tallies. legendary gymnastics coach bela karolyi has died. he turned team usa into a gymnastics powerhouse over multiple olympic games. >> it was a great moment for the american gymnastics and it shows eir power. william: karolyi defected from romania in 1981, coming to the u.s. with his wife marta. as head coach for team usa, he pushed young gymnasts to their physical and emotional limits, including stars like mary lou retton and kerri strugg. karolyi was later blamed for allowing a culture of abuse to exist, particularly after it was

revealed that team doctor larry nassar h sexually assaulted many young athletes. karolyi maintainted he was unaware of nassar's actions. bela karolyi was 82 years old. still too, on pbs news weekend the deep ties american evangelical christians have to israel. and the desperate journey a refugee from cameroon went through to make wisconsin his new home. >> this is pbs news weekend from the david m. rubenstein studio in vieweta in washington, home of the pbs news hour, weeknights on pbs. william: in a major victory for the incoming president, republicans will now control both houses of congress after the house was called for the gop earlier this week. but this trifecta doesn't guarantee smooth governing. as with trump's first term, narrow margins in the senate and

house could make passing major legislation difficult. so what will it take to govern in this divided time? casey berg is the director of the legislative affairs program at the graduate school of political management at george washington university. it's so good to have you on the program. as we have said, trump now controls both houses of congress. when you couple that, and he has got the white house. couple that also with winning the popular vote. it seems like he has enormous freedom to do what he wants. but that is, as we know, not always how it works out. casey: absolutely. the president, especially one who wins the popular vote, has both chambers of congress in his pocket, he can be incredibly aggressive. and we're expecting president trump to do exactly that. but his powers on the extend as far as the members of congress allow them to go. so as we saw within the first term, he had the united government there, but he was checked a couple of times on

nominations, policy once. and it doesn't just go as smoothly as we think it should given that gop has all the levers of control in terms of governmental power. william: i guess it depends also where you sit on the political spectrum, that's either a feature of the system or that's a bug in the system. casey: exactly. we are taught from our youngest days that we have checks and balances. that's the genius of our system. and that's true too even if every lever of government is controlled by the same party. it's not just as simple as having the same label next to your names and you get what you want. it depends what exactly you're trying to do and how aggressive you're trying to be doing it. william: trump has been announcing several of his cabinet nominees this week. and even within the gop, some of those people are very, very controversial. do these narrow margins likely impact trump's ability to get people in place that he wants? casey: 100%. if you have a divided government or have a small majority,

particularly in the senate who confirms these boats, every -- confirm these folks, every vote matters. you can't afford to lose several senators. and so each senator will try to use this as a lever to try to make sure that the president and their nominees are conforming to what they expect them to do in office. but if you lose just a couple of votes on your side, knowing that democrats are not going to hell. william: and so what is your sense when you, as someone who has looked at political history of america going backwards, what do you imagine unfolding over the just in the short term, but then over the four years of this administration? casey: so right now, i'm watching how much pushback senate republicans are hinting at given the nominations coming forward. and right now, we don't have the specifics of executive orders or what policies they're going to go through. but every indication is right now, including from incoming senate majority leader john thune, that they're in support of the america first trump agenda. but that's all messaging so far

until we get the specifics of exactly what they want to do and how aggressive they want to be. if they start disagreeing with how far the presidenwants to go, then we're going to start to see some pushback william: on that same front, i mean, trump has expressed a very expansive and aggressive use of executive authority. and we know he's got people around him that believe in that. do you foresee the trump administration changing in any fundamental way the balance of powers, these checks and balances? case well, this is a continuing trend, that presidents of both parties have clawed away some of powers that we have historically associated with congress. the power to declare war, to execute foreign activities on other soil. and then just taking a lead in policymaking from the oval office, mostly through executive orders. and it's up to congress to claw that power back, to stop them from going too far, from denying them their executive orders, maybe even going to the courts to make sure that the president

doesn't overreach. but right now, we're not sure how willing congressional majorities, particularly republicans, are going to let president trump go. so now we're going to see round two of this. and now he has experience doing the job and a brand new congress elected on the trump agenda. william: trump also likes to point out, look, he got 75 million votes. the democrats, you know, the harris campaign also says, well, look, we got 72 million votes. you could look at that and say trump is clearly dominant. and you could also look at that and say that is still a narrow division in this country. do you see any potential that the republicans and democrats will actually work together, or do you think that's just a naive fantasy? casey: well, here's the little known secret of capitol hill, is that to get big things done, you necessarily need bipartisan agreement. there's very little that can be done on a simple majority basis, particularly in the senate, unless they throw out the filibuster.

republicans and democrats are going to have to work together. and they have in the past, despite being this overriding narrative of dysfunction, polarization within our levels of government. and so if president trump wants to make big institutional overhauls, they're either going to have to get rid of the filibuster or they're going to have to work with democrats. william: you do hear people say we live in such a polarizing time, but this country has seen even more intense polarization. we came to war with each other once upon a time. does history offer any lessons about the proper role for a leader in a partizan, polarized time? casey: really, power is in the eye of the beholder, particularly for presidents, where the personality, the character of the person often takes over the office itself. and so we can see this going both ways. history has said that we have snapped back from crippling levels of polarization, dangerous levels. but it doesn't have to go that way. in fact, they can often

exacerbate those divisions to their political ends. pointing to the other side and calling th the enemy, making sure that other americans are seen as less than or dangerous. so really, the president can be a unifying force in his rhetoric and what message he tries to send, even what policies he tries to pursue. but it can absolutely go the other way. william: casey burgat of george washington university, thank you so much for your insight. casey: absolutely. thank you. william: president-elect donald trump continues to assemble his cabinet, including those who'll help shape u.s. policy abroad. this past ek, trump nominated former arkansas governor mike huckabee to serve as ambassador to israel. huckabee has for years had a strong pro-israel stance, one

that is deeply rooted in his evangelical christian faith. now this former baptist minister could be integral in shaping u.s. diplomacy in the middle east. yesterday i spoke with daniel hummel. he studies religion in america, and is an honorary research fellow in the history department at the university of wisconsin-madison. i began by asking him to explain the deep connection between evangelical christians and their support for israel. daniel: mike huckabee is an evangelical through and through. he grew up a southern baptist. he was a southern baptist pastor. and in terms of his relationship to israel, since the 1980's he has led about 100 tours of the holy land. and so he has just a deep history of the land that anyone who's paying attention to his his career would know. and that means he has a lot of connections in israel as well with the leadership there, the political leadership, the religious leadership. huckabee has articulated a pretty consistent view of israel

from the 1980's on that really is connected to his faith. and so he will talk about how the land of israel is deeded to the jewish people based on his reading of the bible. religious interest in israel has to do with prophecy. this is often what is most talked about when you talk about evangelicals in israel. and in this view, israel's founding in 1948 was prophetically significant to fulfilled biblical prophecy. so have israel's victories in wars throughout the years. and then there's an anticipation that the second coming of jesus has something to do with the machinations in the middle east, particularly around israel. and this is something huckabee doesn't speak as much about that part of it, but that's also working in the background as well. william: and how widespread are those? those are not just mike huckabee's beliefs. ose represent the beliefs of quite a few million evangelicals in the u.s.. daniel: yes, that's right. and we don't have, you know, great data on exactly which one

of those beliefs evangelicals place the most importance in. but we know from polling that a majority of evangelicals believe that the founding of israel is prophetically significant. a majority of evangelicals believe that the land, as outlined in the biblical text, belongs to the jewish people. evangelicals will say yes to that on the poll. so huckabee represents some majority of rank and file evangelicals. so we're talking in the tens of millions. the largest organized organization on this is christians united for israel. they are a lobby group in washington, d.c. they claim to have over 10 million members. most of those being evangelical christians. so it's certainly a large, large contingent of evangelicals. but there are also millions of evangelicals who would reject a lot of the theological arguments. they mightupport israel for other reasons, including reasons having to do with just sort of american interest in the middle east or shared values or other things. but there's certainly a sense that huckabee is representing in the trump administration if he

gets this positi, a big chunk of rank and file evangelical voters. william: so huckabee's nomination could be seen from trump's perspective as both gratifying to israelis current leaders, the conservative government there, as well as to trump's evangelical base here. it's doing a twofer there. daniel: that's right. and, you know, as i mentioned, huckabee has a lot of connections based just on his extensive work in israel with the current israeli leadership, particularly the more right wing leadership. so netanyahu, you know, represents part of the right. but there's also people further to the right in israel that know huckabee quite well. and huckabee has for a long time now expressed his views that he doesn't believe that the west bank should be anything but israeli territory. he even refuses to even use the word west bank. he calls it the judea and samaria, which are its biblical designations. huckabee has also been very skeptical of the idea of a palestinian people. he thinks that's a sort of made

up category in the 20th century. this iquite a controversial opinion, but among many of the israeli leaders who are currently in power in the government, this is a pretty common view. and so huckabee aligns really well with the current israeli leadership and any future israeli government that is coming out of the right wing of their politics. william: i mean, obviously, there's a lot of people in trump's ear who care about israel, not just evangelicals, but does this worldview, as you are describing it, of huckabee's, give a sense of how he and trump might enact policy vis-à-vis israel and the palestinians? daniel: there is obviously, as we've been talking, there's obviously a tilt toward israel in the relationship and thinking about the broader arab-israeli conflict, the issue of palestinian statehood. there's going to be a tilt toward the israeli perspective on these things from huckabee, for sure. and based on trump's first administration, also from trump. there's also some tension, though. trump is a dealmaker, and

there's a big deal waiting out there with relation to a peace deal between israel and saudi arabia that was seemingly going to happen before october 7 of last year. it's pretty clear, from my reading at least, that that would be a major victory for trump, if he could get some type of broader peace deal between saudi arabia and israel. but to do that peace deal, there's going to have to be some type of meeting in the middle with some of the more extreme views of the israeli right. and that's where it'll be interesting to see how huckabee sort of navigates his own personal views versus the broader interests of the administration and whether or not, because he has these sort of core conservative views, if those can actually create some type of sense of trust with the israeli side. maybe that's an optimistic take where there would be a broader sense of trust and then the ability to create some type of deal, if a deal actually were to

improve the region. but there will be attention. trump is not as ideological as huckabee on some of these views, and yet huckabee will be in most of the rooms where these high level policy and diplomatic conversations are happening. william: daniel hummel of the university of wisconsin, thank you so much for your insights. daniel: it's a pleasure to be with you. william: now, a story about how one man is starting a new life in wisconsin, after a desperate journey from war-torn cameroon. jane mccauley of pbs wisconsin has this report. our cost -- >> he had two choices -- face arrest seeking asylum at the u.s. southern border, or political violence in his home country of camerin.

>> we want our rights to be restored. jane: since 2017, a civil war in cameroon has torn the central african nation apart. thousands of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced. the internal conflict is a remnant of french and british colonization. it's been decades of discriminatory policies from the french speaking government against the countries english speaking regions. more and more, people like him have stood up against the government, risking arrest and torture. his wife and daughter assumed he had died in detention. they didn't know he escaped from nigeria and fled, starting in could door and traveling north through the darien gap, one of the most dangerous places in the world. over thousands of miles, through eight countries, he reached mexico. >> i look like --

there was a lot of police discrimination. jane: his journey was harrowing, taking a toll physically and emotionally. >> i did not talk to my family all the time i was traveling. jane: finally he arrived at the u.s.-mexico border. >> when i thk of what i have been through to get to this point, i can't even find the right words to describe it. when i got to the u.s., i felt relieved. jane: that relief however, turned to regret. >> when they took me to detention, why are they taking me to this place jane: he thought seeking asylum meant being protected in the custody of the united states. instead, he was arrested. >> i have never been to prison, never committed any crime in my life, apart from protesting in

my home country. jane: authorities told him nothing. weeks later he found out he was in a federal detention facility in dodge county, wisconsin. >> this is a humanitarian issue. jane: aaron barbados is director of the university of wisconsin law school immigrant justice clinic. gua says everything changed when he met her. >> they are risking their lives because they have no other choice. we have laws that allow people to seek protection here when they will be or have been persecuted in their home country. jane: seeking asylum is one issue. proving your case is another. his witness accounts a test to the chaos in his country. >> he also wears scars on his body that we were able to demonstrate were linked to the persecution that he suffered from the government. obviously our backgrounds are really different. jane: tony and mark met gua through barbado.

>> but we had so much in cmon, values and belief systems. jane: gua went to live with them after leaving dodge county jail on parole. they became his american parents , giving him a place to call home. >> having gua in our life is a blessing. we have found more family. william: after dark jane: after four long years, his wife stella and then five-year-old daughter ann received their documents to come to the u.s. >> i was like, is this for real? i was in shock. when i saw him i was so happy. >> to make a life in the u.s. after what they have been through is a hard thing. jane: after years of hardship, gua received asylum in 2021. now he is filing for citizenship. stella and ann await their green

cards. in the meantime, it means everything for gua to start a new life in wisconsin. >> it is everything for your family to be happy. i'm looking forward to more amazing things. jane: for pbs news weekend, i'm jane mccauley in madison. ♪ william: now online, how farmers in oklahoma are preparing for what's expected to be one of the driest winter's they have ever faced, and the impact that will likely have on the cotton market. all that and more is on our web sight, pbs.org/news hour. and that's our program for tonight. on monday, a one-on-one interview with national security advisor jake sullivan as he hands the reins to the incoming trump team. i'm william brangham. for all of my colleagues at pbs news, thank you so much for

joining us. we will see you tomorrow. >> major funding for pbs news weekend has been provided by -- 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.] ♪

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