♪ amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. on the "newshour" tonight -- firefighters in and around los angeles struggle to control multiple raging wildfires fueled by high winds and forcing tens of thousands to evacuate. amna: the united states announces another aid package to ukraine, as the war grinds on.

geoff: and we speak with transportation secretary pete buttigieg about the outgoing biden administration's efforts to improve the nation's infrastructure. >> the bottom line is fixing america's transportation systems is the right thing to do. we're doing it beause it's the right thing to do, and i think there will be more and more appreciation for that over time, as well. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by -- >> qnod is a proud supporter of public television. on a voyage with qnod, a world of weights. a world of flavors, diverse destinations, and immersive experiences. a world of pleasure and british style.

all with white star service. ♪ >> the charles f kettering foundation, working to advance inclusive democracies. learn more at kettering.org. ♪ >> the judy and peter blum kovler foundation, upholding freedom by strengthening democracies at home and abroad. the walton family foundation, working for solutions to protect water during climate change so people and nature can thrive together. supported by the john d. and catherine t macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just and peaceful world. more information at macfound.or g. 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. geoff: welcome to the newshour. fast-moving wildfires in the los angeles area have created extreme conditions for millions of people and are being blamed for at least two deaths. amna: as of this evening, there are about 400,000 homes without power and more than 100,000 people evacuated because of four different fires. stephanie sy is there and has this report. reporter: across the los angeles region, the skies were covered in smoke as fast growing wildfires spread from winds that gusted to nearly 100 miles per hour. pat and cal abe evacuated from their home in santa monica last night, near where the palisades fire raged. >> definitely a very scary feeling, ominous. and, you know, i heard lots of

explosions and flames up above us on the canyon wall. it's just devastating. reporter: this fire destroyed an estimated 1,000 structures, including a high school, as thousands of residents raced to escape amid heavy traffic. winds were so strong that firefighting aircraft had to be grounded on tuesday night. earlier today, flights were back in the air as winds decreased according to l.a. mayor karen bass. but gusty conditions are expected to resume, with a red flag warning in the region through tomorrow night. local officials said fires were responsible for at least two deaths and a high number of serious injuries, and los angeles fire department chief kristin crowley warned that emergency services were stretched to the limit. >> we are absolutely not out of danger yet, with the strong winds that continue to push through the city and the county

today, i will tell you, we are all committed to our first responders, our firefighters will remain focused on protecting lives and property. reporter: the palisades fire is just one of several fires, mostly uncontained, in and around los angeles. in all, they have prompted the evacuation of more than 100,000 residents, a number that has been growing all day. >> we're in santa monica right now at a friend's house. and certainly as they started extending the evacuations down into santa monica, you know, and then you have to start thinking, okay, well, where are we going to go now? reporter: in the foothills of northeast los angeles near pasadena, the eaton fire started tuesday evening and grew quickly, prompting emergency evacuations. staff at one senior center had to push dozens of residents down the road to escape. and a nearby synagogue in pasadena caught fire and was destroyed. the eaton fire has now spread to more than 10,600 acres. >> what we saw here in the last

24 hours is unprecedented. reporter: president joe biden and california governor gavin newsom received a briefing on the fires in santa monica and pledged additional department of defense resources to fight the fires. >> we're prepared to do anything and everything as long as it takes to contain these fires and help reconstruct. make sure it gets back to normal. reporter: governor newsom said the state had received every resource it had asked for from the federal government, including a major disaster declaration. >> we had prepositioned assets this weekend in anticipation of these weather events. the complexity of multiple fires of the likelihood these weather events, this wind event will continue over the course of the next many days. reporter: president-elect trump blamed newsom's policies in a social media post, saying he prioritized a fish species over distributing more water. a claim that governor newsom's office called fiction and dismissed as politics. as thousands of firefighters worked to contain the blazes,

county officials urged residents to conserve water for a system that they described as being pushed to the extreme. there were also reports that firefighters had encountered dry fire hydrants. >> we're fighting a wildfire with urban water systems, and that is really challenging. reporter: phil brock's home is just across the street from the mandatory evacuation zone. >> we see fires every year. you come to this spot to look and say, “jesus, another fire. >> yeah. >> but i've never had anything where people have thought that this area would need to evacuate. the santa monica canyon would need to evacuate. that's incomprehensible to me. reporter: here in altadena, the california sun has been blotted out by a field of gray that surrounds us. we are in the fire evacuation warning zone. there is a lot of activity around us, including fire engines that are going to attack

the fire on the mountain. you can see behind me even a structure that is in flames. i understand that structure, the fire there has been put out several times today but there are embers flying all around us and it continues to reignite. this continues to be a dangerous situation and very personal for those of us who grew up in this area, almost everyone i've spoken to who has evacuated has lost a home in this fire -- a friend of mine lost their family home here in altadena just minutes away and they said their entire neighborhood is going. amna: just devastating story after devastating story there. we have heard from officials as you have reported about how they are struggling to both slow and contain these fires. what more have you learned about the strain on their resources? reporter: as they said in a new conference earlier today -- news conference earlier today, emergency responders are

stretched to capacity. that there is the issue of firefighting. even though cal fire is prepositioned at this time of year, you have multiple active fires burning that are threatening life, limb, and property. things got so bad last night here in altadena as the eaton fire which i am close to flared up, that they put out a column social media for after -- for off-duty firefighters to report to duty. then there is the issue of water capacity. we have heard reports of firefighters going to hook up to fire hydrants that went dry. they said at the press conference that at least in the palisades fire case, they just ran out of water to address the demand and were not able to recharge quickly enough. but those questions will be important to be asked on the next couple of days. amna: california is no stranger

to bad wildfires, but the conditions around these fires in the start of the palisades fire seem unexpectedly bad, tell us more about that. reporter: as somebody who grew up here, it is not unusual to see fires in malibu every several years. there was a major fire there in 2018, it has to do with the topography as well as the santa ana winds which gust up to 50 mph. typically at this time of year. what is unusual is how severe the wind event has been. had family and friends reporting 80 mph. winds, 100 mph. gusts. that is highly unusual and makes it difficult to fight these fires. the fires themselves are blown by the santa anas and they cannot get aircraft and tankers to attack the fires from the sky. that part seems unusual. the other thing we are talking about is over 100 homes in altadena here that have been

burnt. they are highly populated areas in the san gabriel valley. amna: stephanie, thank you to you when the team, please stay safe. reporter: thank you. geoff: let's turn now to pasadena fire chief chad augustine. thanks for being with us, and we should say that you are primarily focused on fighting the eaton fire. what's the situation on the ground? >> yeah, the last about 18 hours have been really dynamic. we're preparing for a widespread wind event, but the devastating wildfires that broke out last night were incredible, and we had really a wind driven fire with 70 to 80 mile an hour wind gusts with spawning numbers two -- spawning embers two plus miles ahead of the fire, and we quickly were losing potentially hundreds of homes and thousands of acres were burning. so it was a really busy night for crews. geoff: is there enough water to fight these fires?

the water systems were not equipped to sustain the kind of water usage at the moment -- that kind of water usage at the moment. >> yeah, that's a great question. and so a lot of our water systems are old, up to 100 years old or more, and a lot of them rely on gravity feed. we did have a short period of time last night when we had a loss of power, which did impact our water supply, but that was quickly resolved. and, really, we could have had almost unlimited water with 70 mile an hour wind gusts and ember spotting, you know, embers past two to three miles. you had fires on multiple blocks ahead of where there was, you know, and buildings on fire. so it was such a challenge for our firefighting crews. geoff: how are the wind gusts limiting the air resources to fight those fires? >> thank goodness. this morning, throughout the day, actually, they've been continuing to settle down. and so we've been able to put aircraft, both helicopters and airplanes, in the air, and doing water drops over the last two to

three hours. geoff: you've got for fires burn once, all of l.a. county is under threat, how do you decide to deploy already strange resources -- strained resources? >> yeah, the great thing about california is our mass mutual aid system, and we are sharing resources up and down the state, really, all summer and all fall. and in this instance, we have, you know, about a dozen agencies just within la county assisting each other. and then we ordered up 60 strike teams from all up and down the state and even arizona, because we recognize that none of us has enough resources. geoff: what more resources do you need? >> what we needed yesterday was many more fire engines. and what will be helpful today is, as we're getting up to about 10 aircraft overhead, doing water drops, retardant, and then we can use hand crews and fire instance to really get a

containment line, and we can stop the ford progress of this -- the forward progress of this fire. and then equally important is, as that wind starts to die down, we have way less erratic fire behavior, and we can actually predict where that fire is going to be spread in. -- to be spreading. geoff: have you ever seen a fire this bad in your career? >> this is as bad as i've ever seen. and of course, as a fire chief, the responsibility of overseeing public safety for such a beautiful town. just a week ago, we were celebrating the parade and that -- and the rose bowl game. and so while there was such pride in the city, here we are a week later with mass devastation. so, really tough for myself and our city leadership, but also proud of the hard work of that everybody has come together to do. and it was last night. there was some really heroic efforts by our law enforcement and firefighters, as they were pulling people out of burning buildings and rescuing them. and those are the things that really, you know, we lost a lot of buildings, but a lot of laps -- a lot of lives were saved

last night. geoff: what's the best case scenario in terms of getting this fire is contained? >> yeah, the best case scenario is over the next 24 to 48 hours, the winds continue to die down, and we get more aircraft in here and more fire crews, and then we get a good scratch perimeter all around this fire. we contain it, and then we start really getting down the hot spots, and then we're in a much better position. but those erratic winds really made a bad situation worse last night with the wind driven fire. geoff: pasadena fire chief chad augustine, thank you so much for joining us, good luck to you and the crew around the affected area. >> thank you so much. ♪ geoff: we start the day's other headlines with president-elect donald trump's latest legal battles, with just days to go before his inauguration. the department of justice says it plans to release special counsel jack smith's findings on

mr. trump's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, it's unclear exactly when. but the doj says smith's report on the classified documents case will remain under wraps for now. separately, mr. trump is now asking the u.s. supreme court to call off his sentencing by judge juan merchan in his new york hush money case, set for this friday. it's his third attempt this week to delay sentencing. mr. trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. there's been international pushback over president-elect trump's recent comments about taking control of greenland. speaking to the press yesterday, mr. trump said he would not rule out using military force to take over the arctic island, which is rich in natural resources. during his first term, mr. trump pressed his aids to explore ways to buy greenland, which is a semi-autonomous territory of denmark. today, greenland's finance minister met with his danish counterpart in copenhagen, where he pushed back on such an idea. >> greenland is not for sale.

we have said that, all of us, and it will never be for sale. and i can reiterate that it will never be up for discussion. geoff: outgoing secretary of state antony blinken also dismissed the idea today. >> the idea expressed about greenland is obviously not a good one. but maybe more important, it's obviously one that's not going to happen, so we probably shouldn't waste a lot of time talking about it. geoff: denmark is a longtime ally of the u.s. and a founding member of nato. and greenland itself is home to a large u.s. military base. the israeli military says it's recovered the body of a hostage inside an underground tunnel in gaza. youssef al ziyadne was taken, along with three of his 19 children, when hamas attacked israel in october, 2023. two of them were later released. the discovery of the 53-year-old's body comes as israel and hamas are considering

a ceasefire deal. that would free the remaining 100 or so hostages and stop the fighting in gaza. israeli officials are investigating whether the remains of a second body recovered today are that of al ziyadne's son, hamzah. an italian journalist who was detained in iran for three weeks was freed today. cecilia sala arrived back in rome this afternoon, where she was greeted by her boyfriend, and reunited with her parents. the 29-year-old was accused of violating laws of the islamic republic while visiting on a journalist visa last month. italian commentators have speculated that her detainment could have been related to the arrest of an iranian businessman just days earlier. he allegedly supplied drone technology to iran that was used to kill three u.s. servicemembers last year, and he remains in italian custody. extremely cold weather is gripping much of the country, with temperatures dipping below 30 degrees in places as far

south as atlanta and el paso. some areas farther north saw single digits. and there's another winter storm brewing that's due to sweep from texas to the carolinas in the days ahead. more than 40 million people are under some form of winter weather alert. dallas, texas is bracing for several inches of snow, more than it typically sees in an entire year. the state's governor warned people to stay safe, especially on the roads. >> i cannot emphasize enough to my fellow texans, listen, we're not used to driving on ice and snow. we're not used to driving in conditions like this. be careful, be cautious. make sure that you're protecting your own life. if you do get out on the road, drive safely. geoff earlier this week, dangerous conditions caused by the last winter storm led to fatalities in multiple states, including virginia, north carolina, and kansas. on wall street today, stocks ended mixed. the dow jones industrial average added about 100 points. the nasdaq slipped 10 points, so little change on the day.

the s&p 500 meanwhile managed a slight gain. still to come on the "newshour" -- syria's formerly empowered alawite minority faces an uncertain future after the fall of assad. and we look at whether u.s. foreign aid meant to improve health care is being used effectively. ♪ >> this is the pbs news hour from the david m rubinstein studio at w eta in washington, and from the walter cronkite school of journalism. ♪ amna: with less than two weeks left in office, the biden administration is announcing its final shipment of weapons for ukraine, the administration believes nearly all of this 500 $1 million worth of weapons will arrive before the inauguration of donald trump. ukraine's envoy today said they will aim to negotiate an end to the war within trump's first 100 days in office.

next, tell us more about what exactly the biden administration ascending in the latest round of eight -- of aid. reporter: it's a packet with about $500 billion. among the weapons is longer-range weapons of ukraine has used inside russia. to hit key russian infrastructure. as well as artillery shells. this is the final money congress has appropriated for ukraine for drawn down u.s. stocks that can be replenished to the u.s. military. ukraine needs all the help it can get. just today, russian missiles hit an apartment complex and industrial facility and the debris hit a tram and a train, killing more than 13 and wounding more than 60. amna: this war now grants on into another year, what exactly is the state of play on the front lines? >> administration officials see this as a glass half-full, they

believe ukraine is holding the line and russia is making small gains but at great costs. . more than 1500 casualties every single day on the russian side. but analysts we talked to see a ukraine that is barely holding on and really faces fundamental problems for which there are no easy answers. let's look at the front in the east. russia has made recent gains. analysts have feared the fall of this city for months. it could have a knocked down effect across the donbas region. ukraine's lines are holding but ukraine does not have answers to fundamental questions that really surround a shortage of manpower. since retired colonel hamilton -- says retired colonel hamilton. >> they are losing several square kilometers or more a day. that's been going on for about a year. the main reason is they are just

outmanned on the front lines. the second part of it is the training. it's not long enough and intense enough. the third problem is what we call forced deployment. how they are using the newly mobilized soldiers. when they are doing is forming new brigades and brand-new units and giving them new equipment and sending them into the frontline. >> that means that nearly mobilized brigades are not as effective as they need to be. another part of the front we should highlight is inside of russia and that is kursk. it's been losing some of what it cap should be a good it can hold on -- some of what it took. it can hold on until future negotiations. amna: president-elect trump has promised to accelerate those negotiations, what does the future of policy look like in ukraine? >> trump's ukraine envoy said his goal was a solid,

sustainable solution to the war in ukraine within 100 days of inauguration. he himself has called for ukraine to receive some kind of security guarantees in the future in order to prevent ukraine from being invaded again. by russia after whatever negotiation takes place. yesterday trump suggested he would reverse decades of u.s. policy that called for an open door to european countries to join nato, so long as they'd met nato criteria, when he suggested he would not let ukraine join nato, echoing the russian argument for why ukraine should not join. >> russia has somebody right on their doorstep and i could understand their feeling about that. reporter: the trump team will have a choice, event want wants ukraine to have the most leverage at the negotiating table, it will have to increase weapons to ukraine as well as most importantly lift restrictions of how deep u.s. weapons can be fired into ukraine, says robert hamilton.

>> is not sufficient to change the outcome of the war but i think is necessary unless ukraine is allowed to do that, i think we are in a position where their position will continue to a room -- to erode. >> that is what ukraine is worried about fighting this war of attrition with less support from the u.s. down and has now -- than it has now. amna: thank you very much. ♪ geoff: the tenure of pete buttigieg atop the department of transportation is coming to an end this month at a critical juncture for many of the industries the agency oversees. the former presidential candidate and mayor of south bend, indiana spent much of the biden administration juggling crises in the rail and airline industries, navigating a high stakes transition to electric vehicles, and overseeing the distribution of billions of dollars in funding from president biden's infrastructure bill. i spoke with him as he prepares

to leave office. welcome back to the newshour. >> thank you for having me on. geoff: you spent your final week has transportation secretary touring the country and touting the biden administration's policy achievements. how do you see the infrastructure investments shaping the future of transportation in particular in this country? >> i think the bottom line is we are living the condition of america's transportation systems much better than we found them and a big part of that is through the projects we are fronting through president biden's infrastructure package. the number stands at 66,000 and counting in terms of projects getting support, more than 10,000 of those are complete. many of those are entering into construction. we are creating a lot of jobs or we are at it and making our transportation systems better and safer. it's not happening overnight. the better part of this decade will continue to unfold with improvements made possible by the work we did during our four years here. geoff: president biden in a new

interview with usa today says he regrets the slowness of the rollout and historians will talk about how great the impact was but it did not have any immediate impact on people's lives. he continues, i think we would've been better off had we been able to go much harder in getting these projects on the ground quicker. how does that strike you? >> i think what he's getting at is the nature of the beast. some of the most significant projects being funded will span multiple presidencies. you don't always get the credit for that upfront. i think we are already seeing some transformational effects not just from the thousands of projects but from the jobs that have been created. when i was mayor, the number of people getting apprenticeships and getting jobs that we see today would've been thinkable. is not the same as the -- that's not the same as the

project being complete. we have faced structural factors that have made it hard to do projects as quickly as we wanted. we have tripled the pace of getting grant agreements done as a department compared to the last administration. we have cut the time for some of the most obligated environmental permitting processes, by some measures in half. but there's more to do to get these projects done. our country has more to do. geoff: $7 billion being allocated for a -- for electric vehicle charging stations. only 40 stations built nationwide so far. $42 billion aimed at expanding broadband internet service. and has not connected a single household. why not? >> the electric vehicle program was designed to put most chargers in in 2026, 2027, but the first few are up and running. we are talking about a transformation to the way that american vehicles have been fueled and supported the likes of which we have not seen in 100 years. we make some specific intentional choices like making

sure we did that with made in america chargers versus getting the cheapest equipment available from china. that was the right thing to do. over time, we will see that number will continue. we have doubled to about 200,000 on president biden's watch, chargers, and i believe we will meet or exceed president biden's targets of having half a million chargers of by the end of this decade. geoff: big picture question, we have seen democrats e -- expend significant capital that has not yielded benefits or electoral gains, what does that say about the relationship between policy achievements and mortar perception -- voter perception? >> sometimes it takes time to get credit for good policies. when i was first entering public life, the affordable care act was something that was just killing us in 2010.

by the time i got here to washington, it was something that even republicans would say that they would try to protect -- not sure whether i would believe them but that is what they say. it takes time sometimes for a policy achievements to be fully felt. it is especially true on something like infrastructure. some of the projects we are working on our projects that will span multiple presidencies. you think about the hudson river tunnel, that is something that represents one of the biggest public works projects of our time in america and will go well into the 2030's. we have thousands of projects that are already complete. people are increasingly seeing the benefits of the. -- it. many legislators who voted against it among congressional republicans are now trying to collect credit for the projects getting done. that tells me that doing those good projects was good policy and good politics. geoff: does it raise questions about the political strategy behind pursuing these ambitious

agendas of voters in real time -- if voters in real time are not responding to the programs and policies designed to help them? >> there are hundreds of factors affecting a given political moment or election outcome, you don't want to over read one or another. fixing america's transportation systems is the right thing to do. we are doing it because it's the right thing to do. i think there will be more appreciation for that over time as well. geoff: why do you think democrats struggled to gain traction in this -- struggled to gain traction in this last election? seemingly on issues that propelled donald trump in the white house. >> according to camping rules, i can't get into campaigns and elections while i am in a federal capacity. what i will say is, in addition to continuing to do good work, we have got to recognize credit does not give it self out and we need to continue making sure we can connect the dots between a decision made in washington and

how your life is different whether it is what you are paying for a dozen eggs or you have a safe way to get to work or what is like to be an airline passenger. we made a lot of major improvements on all of those friends -- those fronts. i'm certain we are leaving american transportation better than we found it. but there's always more work to do. we are an -- in an radically different information environment. we have not had this much information coming out of. in my lifetime in many ways, we have not been less informed. the editorial function of separating fact from fiction and helping to establish one of the most important things that a citizen deserves to know -- that function is on his back feet right now in a world where some guy in the internet cannot be treated like they have just as much credibility as someone who is holding themselves to the highest ethical standards of

journalism. sorting through that in many ways will be the project of our time. that matter is not just politically but societal -- political but societal and something i hope i continue to be involved in, as i have tried to use my time in this role not just to drive good policy work but to help americans understand what it means to them. geoff: was the most surprising lesson you learned during your time in office? >> there are so many different ways to get results. while we knew that getting federal funding i would be a big part of how we can make people's lives better, i found there are a lot of other tools that made a big difference, too, take airline consumer protection, some of that we were able to do with rules and enforcement. a lot of what printed the airlines to change the way they treat passengers was us doing a lot of work around transparency, empowering people with more information on websites so they knew what they could demand of an airline and what an airline was promising. it's one among many examples that i find about the different tools and levers that exist in a place like washington to get

results for people. i was really surprised that even in a divided and polarized country and divided and polarized washington, it was possible to get a lot of good work done across the aisle. geoff: with your tenure as transportation secretary coming to a close, do you see yourself continuing in public service, perhaps another run at elected office? >> i know what i care about, i care about things like making sure that infrastructure and technology make people better off. i care about places like where i grew up and the industrial midwest continuing to grow economically, to thrive, to find a new in the 21st century. i care about the condition of our democracy and what kind of society we live in. i care about it in any way now that we have three euros at home that have more at stake than any of us. i don't know what it will exactly look like to work on those things -- whether that is in or out of public life or

office but i will find a way to work on those things. geoff: secretary pete buttigieg, thanks for joining us. we appreciate it. ♪ amna: as syria emerges from decades of dictatorship, syrians in the assad family's ancestral home of latakia province are both overjoyed and anxious. assad and his family are alawite, an offshoot of shia islam, and the people of his former region fear the new sunni-controlled government will target them, both for their religious affiliation, as well as the region's historic support for the regime. leila molana-allen reports now from qardaha, the assad's hometown in latakia, and now a crumbling vestige of the regime. reporter: empty shoes and fallen pedestals as exterior rules and rebuilds from the rapid fall of the family who ruled this

country with an iron fist for half a century. in the homeland of the enormous president that staunchly watched over this junction for decades has been cut off at the ankles. children shriek and delight -- in delight on the streets while the elders wait nervously for what comes next. as bashar al-assad's tightly controlled empire unravels, we are visiting the heart of it. the assad family village. like the properties across the country, there are signs it was hastily abandoned. but the house isn't empty. this is the once palatial garden of where he was born. now people realize he is not coming back. reporter: a bitter winter is

already underway. in every room, locals have come to strip away whatever can be burned. the window frames, shutters, ripped to pieces and piled into a waiting taxi. a the young boy watches as his father and uncle hack branches in the ruins of the garden. this place has the air of martial law about it. neighbors watch curiously from the street as the now useless web of security cameras sits idle. on the road, the once illustrious tomb of assad's father is the symbol of a rebel advance. cheering rebel fighters set the tomb ablaze. by the entrance, a message. to the trash pile of history. the stronghold of a regime that once seemed undefeatable lies in ruins, but the legacy of the

decades of rule marks aspects of daily life here. the hollow boom of airstrikes on the highway, taking up syria's naval bases and ports while no one is really in charge. while the world plays politics, residents here are more concerned about making it through the winter. he watched for years as a select few rebels and wealth and status while the rest of her sect starved. >> we hit rock bottom and nobody cared about us or our needs. whenever we asked for help, the regime blamed u.s. sanctions. but how distinctions work? some were living life to the fullest while some were living in the lowest of the low. reporter: she wanted a free syria for all.

she criticized the regime for failing to provide red and decent salaries. the authorities quickly arrived at her door and made their choice clear. >> everything we said was taken against us more than any other sect. it was forbidden for us to say our opinion or claim rights. if we do so, we might just disappear one day. reporter: wrapped in a winter coat, as she shivers, she spends the assad name through gritted teeth. >> this is what we never dared to say outline -- out loud. they are a mafia. why did he sacrifice the lives of all those innocent people for 14 years? he betrayed us all. how is he going to protect us? reporter: for decades, they formed the backbone of the military and political control. this minority of around 2.5 one million syrians filled

two thirds of the army senior ranks after assad seized power in 1971. as the civil war spirals, his son increasingly dictated their support with threads rather than enticements. back me, or the country's sunni muslims will slaughter you. many thought they were projected by the regime. but the streets tell a different story. one of entrenched poverty, neglect, and controlled through fear. some hope the new government will be good for everyone but even within her own family they disagree. he fought for years as a lieutenant in the desert against militants from isis, al qaeda, and the precursor group.

some of the same fighters will be leading the new government. he fears retribution. >> it is a terrorist organization. now they are called hts and they just change into civilian clothes. are they extremists? we have started to fear these people did not come just to destroy the assad regime. but also to destroy us. reporter: the 27-year-old spent has have life -- spent half his life protecting his family. now he fears new oppressors under a different name. >> we learned to be silent. we are not used to talking about politics. even when we saw things that were wrong, we kept quiet. we do not want to be under another dictator's rule or terrorist organization. reporter: i asked him what he thinks about the guarantees it will have full amnesty as

they build a stay with rights for all syrians. he is not convinced. >> we are afraid of what might happen in the future. now all the cameras are focused on syria. but it will be forgotten in a few months. we need international supervision to make sure. reporter: his fears have proved justified. attacks and surrounding villages have left dozens dead and injured and neighborhoods in pieces. the memory of atrocity runs the -- runs deep here. this area is an example of syria's pluralism, linking neighborhoods living side-by-side. more crumbling walls and bitter cold in the shacks, after decades of living without. across the border to turkey for safety and to try to find work --

they crossed the border to turkey for safety and to try to find work. >> there's no want to help my husband get medications. our life was tragic. even now there is so much poverty. reporter: they have carried the legacy of the outside cruelty their entire life -- assad cruelty their entire life. arrested and brutally tortured. now their abusers where different uniforms. >> the russian army was walking on the streets terrifying everyone. people were heading their children from them. no one dared to go out. they invaded our house several times at 3:00 a.m. they stole everything and turn the house upside down. they took my husband and put a gun to his chest. reporter: they are glad they left. they could not bear to enjoy what they have in these

difficult years. >> my kids want to come back, but they can't afford to. whenever they can, they send us money. they barely have enough for themselves. reporter: there is hope for the first time in decades. but in the face of so much hardship, the harsh reality is it could take years for daily life here to improve. as we leave, a crowd of children runs into our path. a fierce game of soccer underway with their latest prize, the toppled statue's goldplated head now rolling in the dirt. for the pbs news hour, latakia, syria. ♪ geoff: the vast majority of foreign aid that's administered by the u.s. agency for

international development goes through middlemen, international aid agencies, or u.s.-based private cormpanies that then distribute the assistance. critics say the system leaves out many deserving locally-led startups and non-government groups. in the second of three reports, fred de sam lazaro explores the field of health care. it's part of his ongoing series, "agents for change." reporter: for most people in africa, getting medical care is a nightmare. it takes hours, even days, to reach a clinic or hospital so many people must rely on pharmacies, most of them small and family-owned, like the one kingsley wills runs in the small ghanaian town of tafo akyem. >> we are running out of things. reporter: for years, it was a struggle for him, too, inventory wasn't moving and when vendors came to collect payment, he had special instructions to staff. >> when they come, tell them i'm

not around. >> you had to hide from your suppliers because -- >> yeah, from your suppliers because there's no money to pay. reporter: then he was alerted to a company called m-pharma, started by gregory rockson, which has an unusual offer to pharmacies, it stocks their shelves and owns the entire inventory. >> think of it as leasing their shelf spaces to mpharma. we make money if you make money. if you don't make money, we don't make money. reporter: 33-year-old rockson returned to his native ghana ten years ago and decided to put his education in america and denmark to use improving health care and technology to carefully stock the small drug stores. >> we built a team of data scientists and analysts that could actually take consumption data from these pharmacies in order to be able to do better planning. reporter: mpharma now has a network of some 850 affiliated pharmacies in nine african countries. its software monitors what's moving or what's needed in any

store and can quickly deliver from warehouses like the one in ghana's capital, accra. beyond pharmaceuticals, mpharma added services, creating health centers, with nurses on staffand doctors on standby. so, when rosemary hammond came in with a splitting headache one recent morning, nurse patience ayitey checked her vitals and saw fit to double check with one of the 30 mpharma doctors available online. so far, there's no added cost for the clinical services, which are covered by revenues from drug sales. >> it costs us $350 a month, including the salary we pay for the nurse, the fractional cost of the doctor, because the doctor doesn't have to be physically located at the site. reporter: he says his costs are a fraction of those at the extensive government built network of community health

facilities, these so called chps compounds, many built with usaid funds, have struggled, barely operational for a lack of resources, staff and volunteers, says rockson. >> there was no business model that would allow these chps compounds to actually stand on their own. and in an era where government budgets, because of massive debt burdens, are already under pressure, the first things to get cut are social services. and that's what we are seeing. reporter: it's one example critics cite of how the system of u.s. foreign aid favors international aid contractors, mainly u.s. based private companies, which have scant knowledge of local conditions and little collaboration with local groups. >> so much aid has been poured into developing countries like ghana and most african countries with little to account for.

i think if you talk to the average ghanaian, you know, i think they do not know that the american people are sending them anything. reporter: eugene boadu works for a ghanaian start up called m-pedigree, which is tackling another of the continent's major health care problems, counterfeit drugs. >> some of the estimates of the un statistics show that it is more profitable to counterfeit medicine than it is to sell narcotic drugs. so we are talking about really significant margins here. reporter: to combat this, he says, most international donors have paid to set up hotlines ghanaians can call if they've had adverse reactions to drugs they've purchased. the problem with this approach, boadu says, few african consumers use mobile apps or call centers, and it's too late. the product is already circulating in the market, much harder and much more expensive to track down. >> that's trying to solve a problem in the most in the most inefficient and the most

ridiculous of ways. reporter: his company devised a simpler solution, preventing fake products from entering the supply chain in the first place . it produces unique, one-time-use codes slapped on every product when it leaves the factory. a customer scratches off the code at the point of purchase and texts it to a toll-free number. in seconds, manufacturer and production date confirm the product is legit. and the whole transaction leaves a digital footprint. >> they know exactly where you are and how to reach you. >> exactly. reporter: useful in case of a recall due to a manufacturing defect, for example. m-pedigree has expanded to 12 african countries. nigeria, perhaps the worst affected by fake drugs, mandates the system, which is paid for by a small fee imposed on the drug companies. >> nigeria has brought down its counterfeiting problem from

somewhere around a staggering 65% to 70% depending on the data you're looking at, to last we checked under 10%. and we think that should be the paradigm. reporter: a paradigm that could scale enormously, he says, if his company had access to some of those international aid dollars. but, he and mpharma's rockson complain they're shut out. >> it is pretty hard for a local organization like mpharma to bid and win any usaid projects. reporter: those grant applications are hundreds of pages long, with contracts tens to hundreds of million dollars in scope and local startups aren't staffed to deal with the exhaustive accounting and reporting requirements. that leaves some 90 plus percent of all usaid grants off-limits to anyone outside a small circle of contractors, many based in washington. >> the u.s. congress, the general accountability office, the omb, inspectors general -- inspectors general. reporter: brian atwood is a

former usaid administrator. he says a lot of people are looking over the agency for every cent of the 30+ billion dollars it disburses each year. >> and it is taxpayers' money that you're using. so you have to be very careful. >> this is fear of corruption? >> fear of corruption, no question. reporter: he says a chronically under staffed agency is forced to outsource to contractors familiar with the complex process. but mpharma's rockson sees corruption in a status quo, where large private contractors work mostly within inefficient government systems in countries targeted for help. >> so the american taxpayer, you've said, is abetting a lot of corruption. >> exactly. you have people that move from usaid with the inside knowledge to join these big development contractors with the inside knowledge on how you win these bids. reporter: usaid administrator samantha power declined our invitation to appear in this

report. in 2021, when she took office she pledged to increase the number of dollars that would go to locally led efforts to 20 5% by 2025 and 50% by 2030. nearly four years on, that percentage has barely reached double digits. the agency has moved to simplify the application process and build capacity in local groups so they can apply for its grants, and that has so far made discernible progress in central america, says atwood. >> something like 1800 direct assistance grants have been offered to local organizations. and as a direct consequence of that investment, the migration from those countries has gone down considerably. that investment has really paid off. reporter: whether such initiatives continue in the new trump administration is unknown at this point, but significantly, atwood says, the effort in central america had the support of senator marco rubio, nominated to be the next secretary of state.

for the pbs newshour, i'm fred de sam lazaro in washington. geoff: fred's reporting is a partnership with the under-told stories project at the university of st. thomas in minnesota. amna: americans lined up at the u.s. capitol today to pay their respects to former president jimmy carter. the 39th president lay in state at the capitol rotunda for a second day ahead of his state funeral tomorrow. geoff: the service will take place in the morning at the washington national cathedral. we'll be here with live coverage. >> is being remembered for his presidency and what he achieved

after his presidency. many looked up to him. >> he's always been a hero of mine. >> he's always been a great man. >> he was a great humanitarian. reporter: a pbs new special. remembering jimmy carter. thursday, january 9, at 9:00 p.m. eastern. amna: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. thanks for spending part of your evening with us. >> travelers experience the maritime heritage and culture of the maine coast and new england islands. our fleet of small cruise ships explore american landscapes, seaside villages and historic harbors, where you can experience local customs and cuisine. american cruise lines. a proud sponsor of pbs news hour. ♪

friends of the newshour, including jim and nancy building, and the robert and virginia schiller foundation. the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. funding for america at a crossroads was provided by -- and with the ongoing support of these individuals an institutions. -- and institutions. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> this program was made

possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

. hello, everyone. welcome to "amanpour & company." here's what's coming up. >> we attest once again to the inner and spiritual strength of our nation. >> remembering jimmy carter. as funeral services begin in washington, former adviser stuart eizenstat tells me what he thinks everyone has