i'm amna nawaz. geoff: i'm geoff bennett. firefighters in and around los angeles struggled to control multiple raging wildfires, fueled by high wind and forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate. amna: the united states announces another eight package

to ukraine as the war grinds on. geoff: we speak with transportation secretary pete buttigieg about the outgoing biden administration's attempts to improve the nation's infrastructure. >> the bottom line is improving the nation's transportation systems is the right thing to do, and i think that will be more appreciation for that over time as well. >> major funding for "the pbs newshour" has been provided by -- >> cunard is a witha world of fe destinations, and immersive experiences, a world of leisure and british style, all with

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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 news hour." 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 100 homes without power and more than 400 homes evacuated. stephanie: across the los angeles region, the skies were covered in smoke as fast-growing wildfires spread from wind that gusted to nearly 100 miles per hour. pat and callie evacuated from their home last night near where the palisades fire raised. >> definitely very scary,

feeling ominous. heard lots of explosions and flames up above us on the canyon wall. just devastating. >> this fire destroyed an estimated 1000 structures, including a high school as thousands of residents raised to escape amid heavy traffic. winds were so strong that firefighting aircraft had to be grounded tuesday night. earlier today, flights were back in the air as wind decreased according to l.a. mayor karen bass, but gusty conditions are expected to resume soon with a red flag warning in the region through tomorrow night. local officials said firefighters were responsible for at least two deaths and a high number of serious injuries. in los angeles, the fire department chief 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 county today, i will tell you we are all committed to our first responders and firefighters who remain focused on fighting the fires. >> i have prompted the evacuation of more than 100,000 residents, a number that has been growing all day. >> we are in santa monica right now at a friend's house, and they started extending evacuations down into santa monica, and then you have to start thinking of, where are we going to go now? >> in the foothills of northeast los angeles, 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 spread to more than 10,006 hundred acres.

>> what we saw in the last 24 hours is unprecedented. >> president joe biden and california governor gavin newsom received a briefing on the fires in santa monica and pledged an department defense resources -- pledged additional department of defense resources to fight the fire. governor newsom said the state had received every resource at asked for from the government, including a major disaster declaration. >> the complexity of multiple fires, the likelihood these weather events will continue over the next few days. >> president trump blamed newsom's policies, saying he prioritized a fish species over distributing more water, a claim the governor's office called fiction and dismissed as politics. as thousands of firefighters

worked to contain the blazers, officials asked residents to work to conserve water for a system they described as being pushed to the extreme. there were also reports firefighters had encountered dry fire hydrants. phil's home is just across the street from the mandatory evacuation zone. >> we see fires every year. people come to the spot and look and say, jesus, another fire, but i have never had anything where people thought that this area would need to evacuate, that the santa monica canyon would need to evacuate. that is incomprehensible to me. >> 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. behind me, a structure is in flames. i understand the fire there has been put out several times today, but there are embers flying all around us, and it continues to reignite, so this continues to be a dangerous situation and very personal for those of us who grew up in the area. almost everybody i have spoken to know somebody who has either evacuated or has lost a home in this fire. i recently found out that a friend of mine lost her family home just minutes away, and they said their entire neighborhood is gone. amna: devastating story after devastating story. we heard from officials about how they are struggling to contain these fires. what more have you learned about the strain on their resources? >> emergency first responders are stretch to capacity.

then there is the issue of firefighting. even though calfire is generally pre-positioned in southern california, at this time of year, you have multiple active fires burning that are threatening life, limb, and property, so the first priority for those firefighters will be to preserve life, but things got so bad last night here in altadena, as the eaton fire flared up, that they put out a call on social media for off-duty firefighters in the los angeles area to report to duty. then there is the issue of water capacity. they said at the press conference that at least in the palisades fire case, they 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 in the next couple of days. amna: as you know, california is

no stranger to bad wildfires, but the conditions around these wildfires on the start of the palisades fire seem unexpectedly bad. tell us more about that. >> as somebody who grew up here, it is not unusual to see fires in malibu every several years. there was a major fire in 2018. it has to do with the typography as well as the santa ana winds, which do gust up to 50 miles an hour typically at this time of year. what is unusual is how severe that wind event has been. i had family and friends reporting 80 mile-per-hour wind, up to 100 mph gust. that is unusual and makes it difficult for them to fight these fires because the fires themselves are blown by the center and is, and then they cannot get aircraft and air tankers to attack the fires from the sky. that part seems unusual.

amna: thank you to you and the team. please stay safe. geoff: let's turn now to pasadena fire chief chad augustine. thanks for being with us. we should set you are primarily focused on fighting the eaton fire. what is the situation on the ground? >> the last about 18 hours have been really dynamic. we are preparing for a widespread wind event, but the devastating wildfires that broke out last night were incredible. we had 78 mile-per-hour wind gusts, and we quickly were losing potentially hundreds of homes and thousands of acres were burning, so it was a really busy night for cruise. geoff: is there enough water to fight these fires? as i understand it, the water

systems were not designed to sustain this kind of usage. >> a lot of our water systems are 100 years old or more, and a lot of them rely on gravity. we did have a short time last night when we had a loss of power which did impact our water supply, but that was quickly resolved. we could have had almost unlimited water. with 70 mile-per-hour wind gusts and embers cast two or 3 miles -- you have fires on multiple blocks ahead where there was dirt and buildings on fire, so it was such a challenge for firefighting crews. geoff: how are those wind gusts limiting the air resources available? >> thank goodness, this morning and throughout the day they have been continuing to settle down, so we have been able to put helicopters and airplanes in the

air and water drops over the last two to three hours. geoff: all of l.a. county is under threat. how do you decide to deploy already-strained -- already strained resources? >> the great thing about california is our mass mutual aid system. we are sharing resources up and down the state all summer and fall fall, and in this instance, we have about a dozen agencies just within l.a. county assisting each other, and then we ordered up 60 strike teams from 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. what will be helpful today as we get about 10 aircraft in the air during water drops, retardant, and then we could use aircrews to get a containment line and

stop the forward progress of this fire. equally important is as the wind starts to die down, we have way less erratic fire behavior. geoff: have you ever seen a fire this bad in your career? >> this is as bad as i have seen, and s fire chief, i have the responsibility for overseeing the safety of such a beautiful town. while there was such pride in the city, here we are a week later with mass devastation, so really tough for myself and city leadership, but also proud of the hard work that everybody has come together to do. last night, there were some really heroic efforts by law enforcement and firefighters as they were pulling people out of burning buildings and rescuing them, and those are the things that we lost a lot of buildings, but a lot of lives were saved

last night. geoff: what is the best scenario in terms of getting fires contained? >> the best case scenario is that wind continues to die down and we get more aircraft and fire crews, and we get a good perimeter around this fire containing, and we start really hitting down the hotspots and then we are in a much better position, but those aromatic wind -- those erratic winds really made a bad situation worse. geoff: thanks for taking time to join us. our best to you and your crew and all those in the affected areas. >> thank you so much. vanessa: updating our top story, the death toll from wildfires in the los angeles area has risen to at least five.

officials say the city is surrounded by six separate fires. four of them are 0% contained. in the day's other headlines, president-elect donald trump's latest legal battles continue. the department of justice says it plans to release special counsel jack smith's findings on trump's efforts to overturn the result of the 2020 election. it is unclear exactly when, but the doj says smith's report on the classified documents case will remain under wraps for now. separately, trump is asking the u.s. supreme court to call off his sentencing in his new york hush money case set for this friday. it is his third attempt this week to delay sentencing. there has been international pushback over trump's recent comments about taking control of greenland. yesterday, 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, trump

pressed his aides to find ways to buy greenland, which is a semi-autonomous territory of denmark, a u.s. ally and member of nato. the u.s. finance minister met with his danish counterpart and push back on such an idea. >> agreement is not for sale. we have said that, all of us, and it will never be for sale, and i can't reiterate that it will never be up for discussion. vanessa: outgoing u.s. secretary of state antony blinken also dismissed the idea today while on a trip to paris. the israeli military says it has recovered the body of a hostage inside an underground tunnel in gaza. he was taken along with three of his 19 children went hamas attack israel in 2023. two of them were later released. israel and hamas are considering

a cease-fire deal that would free the remaining hostages and stop the fighting in gaza. it officials are investigating if the remains of a second body recovered are that of a man's son. a journalist who was detained in iraq was free today. she arrived back in rome this afternoon and 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 to be said 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. service members last year and remains in italian custody. extremely cold weather is gripping much of the country with temperatures dipping below 30 in places as far south as atlanta and el paso. some areas farther north saw

single digits. and there is another winter storm brewing that is due to sweep from texas to the carolinas in the days ahead. more than 30 million people are under some form of winter weather alert. the texas governor warned people to stay safe, especially on the roads. >> i cannot emphasize enough to my fellow texans, we are not used to driving on ice and snow. we are not used to driving in conditions like this. be careful. be cautious. make sure you are protecting your own life. if you do get out on the road, drive safely. vanessa: dallas is bracing for seven inches of snow, more than it typically sees in an entire year. still to come, syria's formerly empowered minority faces an uncertain future after the fall of assad. and we examine if u.s. foreign aid meant to increase health

care is being used effectively. >> this is "the pbs newshour," from the david m. rubinstein studio at the university of washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: with less than two weeks in office, the biden administration is announcing its final shipment of weapons for ukraine. the administration believes nearly all of this 500 million dollars worth of weapons will arrive before the inauguration of donald trump. ukraine envoy today said they will aim to negotiate an end to the war within trump's first 100 days in office. tell us more about what exactly the biden administration is sending? nick: the biden administration is announcing its 56th weapons package for ukraine. among these weapons were some of the longer-range weapons ukrainians used inside russia. you see ed hickey russian

infrastructure as well as artillery shells. officials say this is the final money congress has appropriated for ukraine were drawn down u.s. stocks that can be replenished to the u.s. military. frankly, ukraine needs all the help it can get. just today in zaporizhzhia, 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 six people. amna: as the war grinds on into another year, what is the state of play? nick: administration officials who see this as a glass half-full believe ukraine is holding the line and that russia is making small gains but at great cost. 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 that really faces fundamental problems for which there are no easy answers.

let's look at the front specifically in the east in the donbas. russia has made recent gains, and analysts fear that it could have a knock on effect across the donbas. so far, ukraine's lines are holding, but ukraine does not have answers to fundamental questions that surround a shortage of manpower, says retired colonel robert hamilton of the foreign policy. >> they are losing ground, hundreds of meters to seven square kilometers or more a day. that has been going on about a year, and the main reason is they are just outmanned on the front lines. the second part is the training. it is not long enough or intense enough. the third problem is what we would call for's employment, how they are using these newly mobilized soldiers. they are using new brigades, forming brand-new units, giving the new equipment and sending

them to the front line. nick: that means these newly mobilized brigades are not as effective as they need to be. another problem we should highlight is inside of russia, and that is kursk. ukraine invaded the territory in august and has been losing some of what it captured but this week he operations with hope it can hold on to at least part of it in order to have it as a chip in future negotiations. amna: what about those negotiations? president-elect trump has promised to accelerate those. what does the future look like? nick: president-elect trump's envoy said his goal was a solid, sustainable solution to the war in ukraine within 100 days of inauguration. kellogg himself has called for ukraine to receive security guarantee is in the future in order to prevent ukraine from being invaded again by russia after whatever negotiation takes place, but yesterday, trump

suggested he would reverse the decades of u.s. policy that called for an open door to european countries to join nato so long as they met nato criteria. when trump suggested he would not let ukraine join nato, echoing the russian argument for why ukraine should not join. >> russia has somebody ride on their doorstep and i can understand how they are feeling about that. >> the bottom line is the trump team will have a choice. if it 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. >> it's not sufficient to change the outcome of the war, but i think it is necessary. unless ukraine is allowed to do that, i think we are in a position where their position will continue to erode. >> that is why ukraine is

worried about fighting this war of attrition with less support than it has been. geoff: the tenure of pete buttigieg atop the department of transportation is coming to an end this month. the former presidential candidate and mayor of south bend, indiana, spent much of the biden administration juggling crisis -- crises in the rail and airline industries, navigating a high-stakes transition to electric vehicles and overseeing the distribution of millions of dollars of funding in president biden's infrastructure bill. you have spent your final weeks as transportation secretary touring the country, touting the binder 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 leaving the condition of america's transportation systems much better than we found them, and a big part of that is the projects we are funding through president biden's infrastructure package. the number now stands at 66000 and counting in terms of projects getting support. more than 10,000 are complete. we are creating a lot of jobs while we are at it, making our transportation systems better and safer. it is not happening overnight. geoff: president biden in a new interview with "usa today" said he regrets the slowness of the infrastructure rollout. he said 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 have been a hell of a lot better off had we been able to go much harder at getting some of these

projects in the ground quicker." what do you make of that? >> i think what he is getting at is the nature of the beast where some of the most significant projects that are being funded are going to stand multiple presidencies. you don't always get the credit for that upfront. i think that we are already seeing some transformational effects, not just from the thousands of projects that are complete, but all the jobs that have been created. i was back in south bend not long ago where when i was mayor, the number of people joining trades and getting jobs that they have seen today would have been unbelievable. we faced a lot lot of structural factors that have made it hard to do projects as quickly as we wanted. we have made a lot of progress against that and tripled the pace of getting grant agreements done compared to the last administration, cut the time for some of the most complicated environmental permitting processes. by some measures, we cut it in

half, but there is more to do to get these projects are done, and our country has more to do. geoff: $7 billion being allocated for electrical charging stations. $32 billion aimed at expanding broadband internet service has not connected a single household. why not? >> the electric vehicle charger program was designed to put most chargers in in 2026-2020 seven, but the first few are already up and running. we are talking about a transformation to the way american vehicles have been fueled and supported, the likes of which we have not seen in 100 years, and we made some specific, intentional choices, like making sure we did that with made in america chargers versus getting the cheapest equipment available from china. i think that was the right thing to do. over time, we will see that that number will continue. we have already doubled the number of publicly available chargers on president biden's

watch, and i believe we will meet or exceed his target of having half a billion up by the end of this decade. geoff: we have seen democrats expend significant political capital aimed at passing legislation to help middle-class americans that has not yielded direct political benefit or electoral gains. what does that say about the relationship between policy achievements and voter perception? >> sometimes it takes time to get credit for good policy. i think about 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 they would try to protect. not sure i would believe them, but that's what they said. it takes time sometimes for a policy achievement to be fully felled, and that is especially true on something like infrastructure where, again, some of the projects we are

working on will span multiple presidencies. i think about the hudson river tunnel. that represents one of the biggest public works projects of our time in america and will go well into the 2030's. again, we have thousands of projects already complete. one thing i have noted is even many legislators who voted against it among congressional republicans are now trying to collect credit for the project. 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 if voters in real time do not seem to be responding to the programs and policies that are designed to help them? >> when there are hundreds of actors affecting a given political moment or election outcome, you don't want to over read one or another. the bottom line is fixing

america's transportation systems is the right thing to do. we are doing it because it is the right thing to do, and i think there will be more appreciation for that over time as well. geoff: why do you think democrats struggled to gain traction this last election and what more needs to be done to go on the offensive on issues that seemingly propelled donald trump back into the white house? >> according to an payables, i cannot get into campaigns and elections while i am in a federal capacity, but i will say in addition to continuing to do good work, we have to recognize that credit does not give itself out. we have to continue making sure that we connect the dots between a decision made in a big, white building in washington, d.c., and how your life is better, if it is what you are paying four dozen eggs or if you have a safe place to go to work or what it is like to be an airline passenger. we have made a lot of improvements on all those fronts. i am certain we are leaving every form of american

transportation better than we found it, but there is always more work to do, and we are just in a radically different information environment than we were just a few years ago. we have never had more information coming at us, and yet in my lifetime, in many ways, we have never been less informed. the editorial function helping to separate fact from fiction is helping to establish the most important things citizens need to know -- that function is on his back foot right now, in a world where some guy on the internet can be treated as though they have as much credibility as someone holding themselves to the highest ethical standards in journalism. sorting through that in many ways i think will be the project of your time that matters not just politically but societally and something i hope to continue to be involved in just as i have tried to use my time in this role not just to try politics, but to help americans. geoff: what is the most

surprising lesson you have learned during her time in politics? >> there are so many ways to get results. we do federal funding was going to be a big part of making people's lives better, i found there were other ways as well. take airline consumer protection. some of that we were able to do with rules and enforcement, but a lot of what prompted airlines to change the way they treat passengers was us doing a lot of work just around transparency, empowering people with more information so they knew what they could demand of an airline and what an airline was promising. just one of many examples i found about the different tools and levers that exist in a place like washington to get results for people. the other thing i would say i was really surprised by was even in a divided and polarized country and a divided and polarized washington, it was possible to get a lot of good work done across the aisle. geoff: with your 10 transportation secretary coming to a close, do you see yourself

continuing in public service? >> i don't know. i know what i care about. things like infrastructure and technology making people better off. i care about places that i -- places like where i grew up in the industrial midwest continuing to thrive and find a new future in the 21st century. i care about the condition of our democracy and what kind of society we live in, and i care about it in a whole new way now that justin and i have three-year-olds at home. i don't know what it will exactly look like to work on those things, if that is in or out of public life or public office, but i will find a way to work on those things. geoff: you certainly have your hands full with those three-year-olds. thanks for joining us here. we appreciate it. >> thanks. appreciate it. amna: as syria emerges from

decades of dictatorship, syrians in the assad family's ancestral home are both overjoyed and anxious. the people 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 of the regime. >> empty shoes and fallen pedestals as syria reels 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 assad sect, the enormous statue that sternly watch over this central junction for decades, has been cut off at the ankles. children shriek in delight at

the heady, unfamiliar feeling of freedom on the streets while there cautious elders wait nervously for what comes next. as bashar al-assad's tightly controlled empire unravels, we are visiting the very heart of it, the assad's family village, thrown open the heavy iron gates of the family home. there were signs it was hastily abandoned, but the house is not empty. this is the once palatial garden of the house where bashar al-assad was born, and all people realized he is not coming back. they have taken some of the furniture for firewood. >> in every room, locals have come to strip away whatever can be burned. the window frames, shutters, pitch and cupboards ripped to pieces and piled into a waiting taxi. a young boy watches as his father and uncle pat branches off the leafy trees in the ruins

of the garden. this place has the error of martial law about it. neighbors watch on curiously from the streets as the now useless web of security cameras sits idle. down the road, the once illustrious tomb of bashar's father is a symbol of the rebel advance. by the entrance, a message, damning assad to the trash pile of history. the legacy of the decades of misrule marks every aspect of daily life here. as we drive along the coastal highway, the hollow boom of airstrikes. the israeli army is taken the opportunity to take out syria's naval bases while no one is really in charge, but while the

world plays politics, residents are more concerned about making it through the winter. summer watch for years as a select few reveled in wealth and status while the rest of her sect starved. >> we hit rock bottom, and no one cared about us for our needs. whenever we ask for help, the regime blamed u.s. sanctions, but how does sanctions work? did they choose favorites? because we saw luxurious cars and people were living their lives to the fullest while others were living the lowest of the low. >> she wanted a free syria for all and often criticized the regime for failing to provide bread and decent salaries. the authorities arrived at her door and quickly made her choice clear. >> everything we said was taken against us, more than any other sect. it was forbidden for us to say our opinion or criticize or even claim any of our rights, and if

we do so, we might just disappear one day. >> wrapped in a winter coat as she shivers, she spits the aside name -- the assad name. >> this is what we never dared to say out loud. they are a mafia. why did he sacrifice the lives of all those innocent people for 14 years? he could not even protect himself and betrayed us all. how was he going to protect us? >> for decades, when people here formed the backbone of a sawed's military and political control. this minority filled 2/3 of the army's senior ranks after assad seized power in 1991. as the civil war spiraled, his son increasingly dictated their support with threats rather than enticements. "back to me over the country's

sunni muslims" -- all of whom the regime labeled terrorists -- "will slaughter you." the residential back streets here tell a different story, one of entrenched poverty, neglect, and control through fear. she hopes the new government will be good for everyone, but even within her own family, they disagree. many men here try to flee forced conscription, but her son fought for years as a first lieutenant against militants from isis, al qaeda, and the precursor group. some of those same fighters will now be leading the new government. >> it is a terrorist organization. now they are called ags, and they just change into civilian clothes. we are afraid of their ideology. are they extremists? we have started to fear these people did not come just to

destroy the assad regime but also to destroy us. >> 27-year-old document -- 27-year-old ahmed has spent his life fighting but now fears new oppressors under a different name. >> we learn to be silent. we are not used to talking about politics. even when we saw things that were wrong, we kept quiet. we don't want to be under another dictator's rule or another terrorist organization. >> i asked what he thinks about the guarantees of full amnesty as they build a state of 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. >> his fears have proved

justified. attacks in surrounding villages have left dozens of dead and injured and neighborhoods in pieces. the memory of years of atrocities runs deep here. with bashar and his family safe in moscow, those seen as aiding his reign bear the brunt. this road links a la white and sunni neighborhoods living side-by-side. the legacy of decades of living without. she has not seen her four children in more than a decade. they stole across the border to turkey early on in the civil war for safety and to try to find work. >> i suffered a lot after they left. my husband is sick, and there's no one to help him or get medications. our life is tragic. even now, there's so much poverty. >> they have carried the legacy of the assads' cruelty and their entire lives.

he was accused of being a member of the muslim brotherhood, they believe because he is sunni. the harassment did not stop under bashar. >> the russian army was walking in the streets terrifying everyone. people were hiding their children from them. no one dared go out. they stole everything and turned the house upside down. they took my husband and put a gun to his chest. >> they are glad they left. they could not bear for them to endure what they have. >> my kids want to come back, but they cannot afford to. >> there is proof in the first time for decades that in the face of so much hardship, the

harsh reality as it could take years for daily life to improve. as we leave, a crowd of children is in our path with their latest price -- prize, the head of the toppled statue, no rolling in the dirt. geoff: the vast majority of foreign aid administered by the u.s. agency of international development goes through middlemen. critics say the system leaves out many deserving locally led startups and nongovernment groups. we explore the field of health

care as part of an ongoing series, agents for change. >> for most people in africa, getting medical care is a nightmare. it takes hours, even days to reach a clinic or hospital. many people must rely on pharmacies, most small and family-owned. for years, it was a struggle for him, too. inventory was not moving, and when vendors came to collect payment, he had special instructions to staff. >> this was completely empty. >> then he was alerted to a company started by gregory roxanne which has an unusual offer to pharmacies. it stocks their shelves and owns the entire inventory.

>> think of it as we make money if you make money. if you don't make money, we don't make any. we built a team of data scientists and analysts that could take consumption data from these pharmacies in order to do better planning. >> pharma now has an affiliate in nine different african countries and software monitors what is moving or what is needed in any given store and can quickly deliver from warehouses. beyond pharmaceuticals, services creating health centers with nurses on staff and doctors on standby, so when rosemary

hammond came in with a splitting headache one recent morning, they saw fit to double check with one of the doctors available online. so far, there has been no added cost for the pentacle services which are covered by sales. >> it costs us $350 a month, including the salary we pay to the nurse, the fractional cost of the doctor because the doctor does not have to be physically located at the site. >> he says his costs are a fraction of those at the expense of government-built network of community health facilities, many built with usaid funds that have struggled, barely operational for a lack of resources, staff, and volunteers. >> there was no business model that would allow these compounds

to actually stand on their own. 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. >> it is one example critics site of how 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 canadian -- the average ghanaean, they know. >> and start up is tackling another of the continent's major health care problems -- counterfeit drugs.

>> it is more profitable than it is to sell narcotic drugs, so we are talking about significant burdens here. >> to combat this, he says most international donors have paid to set up hotlines that can be called if they have had -- if they have adverse reactions to drugs they have purchased. the problem with this approach he says is few africans use mobile apps or call centers and it is too late. the product is already circulating in the market, much harder and much more expensive to track down. >> try to solve the problem in the most inefficient and the most ridiculous of ways. >> this company provides a solution, preventing them from entering the drug trade in the first place. it prevents unique one-time use codes slept 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, manufacture and production confirm the product is legit and the transaction leaves a digital footprint. >> they know exactly where you are and how to reach your back on >> exactly. >> useful in case of a recall for a manufacturing defect, for example. it 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. last we checked, under 10% and we think that should be the paradigm. >> a paradigm that could scale enormously, he says, if his company had access to some of those international aid dollars, but he and and pharma's rocks

and complain they are shut out. >> it is pretty hard for an organization to bid and win. >> those grant applications are hundreds of pages long with contracts tends to hundreds of millions of dollars in scope and local startups are not staffed to deal with the exhaustive reporting and accounting requirements, leaving some 96%-plus of limit to anyone outside a circle of contractors, many based in washington. >> u.s. congress, general accountability office, inspectors general. >> a former usaid administrator says a lot of people are looking over the agency's shoulder every cent of the $30 billion-plus it dispenses each year. >> you have to be very careful. >> this is fear of corruption. >> fear of corruption, no question.

>> he says a chronically understaffed agency is forced to comply with the process, but the contractor sees corruption in the status quo were mostly private contractors work within systems and countries targeted for help. >> the american taxpayer, you have said, is abetting at of corruption? >> exactly. you have people who move from the usaid with inside knowledge to join these development contractors with inside knowledge on how you win these bets. >> usaid administrator samantha power declined to comment on the report. when she took office, she pledged to increase the number of dollars that would go to locally led efforts. 25% by 2025 and 50% by 2030. nearly 30 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 grants. that has -- they have so far made discernible progress in latin america. >> something like 1800 direct assistance grants have been offered to local organizations, and as a direct consequence of that investment, the migration coming from those countries has gone down considerably. that investment has paid off. >> if such initiatives can continue in the new trump administration is unknown at this point, but significantly, he says the efforts have the support of senator marco rubio, nominated to be the next secretary of state. 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 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 and we will be here with live coverage. >> president jimmy carter is being remembered for what he accomplished as president but also for what he achieved following his presidency. many looked up to him. >> he has always been a hero of mine. >> he was a good man, decent. >> he was a great humanitarian who set an example for all of us. >> a pbs new special, "remembering jimmy carter." amna: and that is "the newshour"

for tonight. >> major funding for "the pbs newshour" has been provided by -- >> travelers experience the american time -- the maritime heritage and culture. 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 -- proud sponsor of "pbs newshour." >> friends of "the newshour," including jim and nancy build their and the robert and virginia schiller foundation. the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change on the frontline.

funding for america at a crossroads was 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. >> this is "pbs newshour" west

from the david m. rubinstein studio at the university of washington and from walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.]

(bright regal music) - cooking is really at its best when it's shared. oh, wow. so i'm off to visit inspiring communities across the country to see how food brings them together. that's a bit of all right. - oh yeah! - exploring some exciting places. extraordinary, it's huge, isn't it? - look at that. beautiful. - i can think of no better place to be. while sharing mouthwatering recipes of my own.