geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on the “news hour” tonight, devastating los angeles wildfires burn thousands of homes and buildings, force residents to flee, and stretch emergency resources to their limit. geoff: former president jimmy carter's life and legacy are remembered as he's honored with a state funeral at the washington national cathedral.

>> to make every minute of our time here on earth count, that's the definition of a good life, the life jimmy carter lived during his 100 years. amna: and we examine how u.s. foreign aid does, and does not, help promote food security in sub-saharan africa. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs "news hour" has been provided by. >> on an american cruise lines journey, along the colombia and snake rivers, travelers retrace the route forged by lewis and clark more than 200 years ago. american cruise line's fleet of modern riverboats travel through american landscapes to historic landmarks, where you can experience local customs and

cuisine. american cruise lines, proud sponsor of "pbs news hour." >> carnegie corporation of new york, working to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for education, democracy, and peace. more information at carnegie.org. 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. amna: welcome to the “news hour.” firefighters continue to battle multiple major fires today in los angeles, with much of the county under a red flag warning. at least five people have been killed, a number officials expect to rise, and 180,000 people are currently under evacuation orders. geoff: the fires that started on tuesday are now among the most destructive in california state history. more than 2000 buildings and structures have already been destroyed. stephanie sy is on-the-ground and has this report. stephanie: the scenes along this altered oona street were apocalyptic as we drove him back to his house today. the sight of its remains overwhelmed him.

he recalled where he was when the flames started approaching. working on one of his cars. that house was home for nearly 40 years. >> that was my peachtree. stephanie: as the sun rose this morning over los angeles, thick smoke filled the air and the scale of devastation became clear. today, los angeles county sheriff said the damage was catastrophic. >> some of them looked like a bomb was dropped in them we will be able to bring in k-9's and other things to help us hopefully discover not too many fatalities. stephanie: the winds subsided enough wednesday and overnight to allow firefighters to attack from the sky, dropping water in retardant in the burning hills and mountain ranges that semi circle los angeles. but dangerous wildfires continue to burn across l.a. county. today the city's mayor karen

bass responded to criticism that fire hydrants used to fight the massive palisades fire ran dry. >> the fire hydrants are not constructed to deal with this type of massive devastation and the number one problem especially was the fact that we were not able to do the air support because of the winds. and so of course i am absolutely frustrated by that. stephanie: the los angeles fire chief said extreme fire behavior is still possible. >> today it is absolutely imperative that as we move into day three of this firestorm, all members of our los angeles community maintain vigilance. stephanie: a new fire wednesday in the hollywood hills forced more mandatory evacuations but firefighters made headway with the blaze can the order was later lifted. today president biden adjust the fires from washington. >> i want everyone in southern

california to know we are going to get add -- keep at it. we are going to continue to send you literally every resource we can find that is appropriate to help the governor and the first responders. stephanie: in pasadena, the convention center has become a clearinghouse of calamity. this is where hundreds of evacuees of the eaton fire ended up when they had nowhere else to go. >> as far as i know my house is totally engulfed based on the fact that on both ends of the street both of the houses were on fire. stephanie: she and her two daughters among them had little time to flee and no warning. >> i could see flames rolling down and up the hills. i could see them going left and right. i saw everything the wind was doing to the fire and i am wondering why isn't anyone telling us to evacuate. stephanie: it sounds like you have reason for some frustration at officials right now. >> i do.

they failed me twice. they failed me by not telling me to leave my house with my daughter and my little baby, and nobody is telling me anything except for there is a cot in the other room. stephanie: 17-year-old destiny is a senior at pasadena high school. >> since the power was out we had no way to see. we could not look it up on our phones because we had no power and no internet. we could not watch the news. so we had no idea what was happening and always always fire and red. stephanie: long time altadena residents have survived previous wildfires scares but this one was different. >> we always wrote it out. this time was different because we had to leave. first time we have been to a shelter in our lives. stephanie: they were able to save their dog, but they don't yet know how their beloved and one-of-a-kind house fared. >> we live in a house built from 1936 to 1941 by industrial arts

teachers, so it is all handmade. everything in it was all handmade. so, if it burns down, you can't replace it. stephanie: back at the burnt out shell that was roosevelt's house, he sifts trhrough still-smoldering ashes. he left his wallet around here. >> all of the things, my v.a. i.d. stephanie: he has insurance but worries it may not be enough in an area where home prices have skyrocketed. for him, like so many, starting over here may not be an option. for now he is saying at the convention center, and he is far from alone. the korean war vet calls himself a survivor. >> i have been through a lot. that is what i kept thinking. i can get through this. and that is what i am thinking now. stephanie: here in altadena, you can see that conditions have

improved since i was here 24 hours ago. the smoke has somewhat cleared. you can still smell it in the air, but you're starting to see some blue sky. you're also continuing to see flames like the ones behind me and smoldering wreckage. this area is still completely closed to residents, many of whom have tried to go back to their houses but have been turned away. they did, however, let media come through this area to assess the damage today. we drove throughout the streets. there were some streets where all of the houses on a block would be burned down, but across the street houses would remain intact. sadly, i have to report that nakia rhodes' duplex is just across the street from where i'm standing. we introduced you to her in the piece and her suspicions did turn out to be correct. there is no structure there standing, including her home and everything in it. geoff?

geoff: and steph, i know you've spoken to dozens of people who've had to evacuate, people who've lost their homes. what are the immediate challenges for them moving forward? stephanie: the challenges are immense, geoff, because people who live in l.a. will say this. wildfires, when they hit houses, are kind of like earthquakes. when they hit you have little to no warning. and so we have spoken to a lot of people who lost their homes, did not get an emergency alert text on their phone and only fled when they had to, when the flames and sparks were upon them and so they had the clothes on their backs. in some cases, like roosevelt, who you met in the piece, they didn't have time to get their wallet or even a phone. and so they are navigating insurance companies trying to book hotels, trying to get cash out of the bank. roosevelt is an 86-year-old heart patient who has medication needs and he can't get the prescriptions filled. and so that is what people are

facing and a lot of folks have come up to us and wondered, where are the fema officials, where can we get help? what do we do? we've never been through this before. so, a ton of challenges. geoff: how disruptive have the fires been for the rest of l.a. county broadly? stephanie: these major fires are positioned in sort of a semicircle around los angeles, so you have the fire on the coast up there in the palisades, and then you have this fire in the san gabriel valley, which is inland, and in between you have the hollywood hills, which were in flames yesterday and those have been put out, but as a result, hollywood production companies and studio lots have been closed. many school districts, including los angeles unified, which is the second largest school district in the country, was shut down today. traffic is snarled in many areas here in altadena. streets are closed. they have even postponed award ceremonies and considering postponing some major sporting events here, so it is quite

disruptive for many angelenos. geoff: and at this hour, how much have the current major fires been contained? stephanie: the way that officials described it in an earlier press conference as they have been able to stall forward progress of the flames. in other words, the fires aren't growing rapidly, but they are still burning out of control, and there is 0% containment in the major fires that we've been talking about, the eaton canyon fire, which is where i am, and the palisades fire, which continues to burn. so tens of thousands of people remain under evacuation orders here. geoff: stephanie sy reporting tonight from altadena, california. stephanie, our thanks to you and your team there. stephanie: thank you. amna: a number of questions remain about the response to these deadly wildfires. let's look at some of those with juliette kayyem, a former assistant secretary at the department of homeland security. now at the harvard kennedy school. let's talk about some of the conversation in questions around water usage. you heard in the report about

these moments when hydrants were going dry as firefighters were trying to use them to fight the flames. what do we know about the municipal water system and the role it is meant to play in these efforts and what happened? juliette: what we know is that no city is built for a municipal water system to deliver assistance during what is essentially a wildland fire. this is the challenge los angeles is facing now. you have a wildland urban interface. the best way to fight a wildland fire is by using helicopters and dropping water on it. we don't have that capacity now because of the winds and because you are in populated areas so they are essentially doing hand-to-hand combat. the metropolitan municipal water system is not built for that kind of capacity. so basically what happened is there is enough water. it has nothing to do with the supply of water. it has to do with the pressure in the system. everyone was grabbing at the same time, so it was not able to

refill. that is why you heard there was no water any hydrants. there was water, there was not enough pressure to deliver the water to the hilly areas like the pacific palisades which is essentially a cliff area over the ocean. it has been remedied. that happened in maui and in other major fires. these systems are not built for wildland fires. amna: we saw president elect trump blame directly the california governor gavin newsom, falsely claiming newsom had failed to sign a water restoration declaration. you said it all my years in and studying disaster management i have never seen a president-elect blame a jurisdiction while the disaster was still out of control. it is cruel to first responders and victims and could impede effective response. what did you mean by that? how could impede the response? juliette: half the nation voted

for him and they are going to believe what he says. in the moment that we are in, there will be time for blame and assessment and legal challenges as well as hopefully building changes. right now we are just trying to protect life and the life of firefighters. one way you protect life is people listen to their local authorities. that is do they evacuate or do they not evacuate. all of the complaints you are hearing now. to the extent that you do not want to put a population at war with its local jurisdiction as donald trump did by his implication that this -- it is dangerous. this fire did not just happen this week. this has been decades, centuries of building los angeles as it was built with no requirements on homeowners about how they build, no capacity to deal with major fires if you did not have

helicopter capacity. we are seeing a century of public policy not adapting to climate change. it is not a single person's fault no matter how much you might want to nitpick particular things. and there is no fire department more able to deal with a wildland urban fire like we are dealing with now than calfire, a nd they are overwhelmed. so it is not about their capacity either. amna: there was also a question about budget cuts. the l.a. mayor warned that -- what do you make of that and could that have an impact here? juliette: it could in the future and i think the mayor is right to say that she will readdress the budget. that narrative was also used for political purposes. people who might run against the mayor. the budget as it now is his $50

million higher than was last year. the issue being questioned is future budgets in particular in relation to union negotiations. if you just drop in and want to look at a budget sheet it might suggest the fire department is worse off in the future simply because our budget negotiations. anyone who has dealt with this knows how it works. right now the capacity was not impacted by any budget changes. if you are looking for blame, the blame is the wind. i have to be honest with you. it is pushing embers from house to house. so there is no way to stop this fire. and it is stopping the ability to use the one tool that is going to put these fires under control which is being able to water dropped from helicopters. that has now started a little bit but that is the horror that this is, that the wind is

working against everyone in los angeles right now. amna: juliette kayyem formerly of the department of homeland security now with the harvard kennedy school, thank you. always good to speak with you. ♪ we start the day's other headlines with a fast-moving, and uncertain situation in venezuela. aides to opposition leader maria corina machado say she was arrested today while leaving an anti-government protest in the capital, caracas. machado had emerged from months of hiding to address supporters. it was part of a last-ditch effort to stop the swearing-in of president nicolas maduro for a third, six-year term, scheduled for tomorrow. chaotic scenes followed, with machado escorted through a crowd wearing a helmet. her aides say she was then detained, but government officials deny this. a video later emerged of her

saying she's safe, though her supporters say the video was coerced. this afternoon the white house said it condemns any attempts by maduro's government to intimidate the opposition. turning now to the middle east, lebanon's parliament elected a new president today, filling a post that had been vacant for more than two years. lawmakers erupted in applause after army commander joseph aoun won the majority of votes, after 13 prior attempts to select a leader. aoun was widely seen as the preferred choice of the u.s. and saudi arabia. experts say lebanon will need international assistance as it seeks to rebuild after 14 months of fighting between israel and the lebanon-based militant group hezbollah. addressing parliament today, aoun said his win marks a new phase in lebanon's history. >> my pledge is to exercise my

role as commander-in-chief to invest in the army, control our borders, fight terrorism, respect the truce with israel, and prevent israeli attacks on lebanese territory. amna: the next government will be tasked with implementing the ceasefire agreement that ended the israel-hezbollah war. and it faces an economic crisis that has gripped the nation for the past six years. in gaza, health officials said today that the death toll from the israel-hamas war has now topped 46,000 people. of those, more than half were women and children. but officials do not say how many were fighters, and how many were civilians. that comes as israel attacked several places across gaza, including an overnight strike on the nuseirat refugee camp. witnesses say children were among the dead. israel continues to blame hamas, which hides in residential areas, for civilian deaths. in germany, u.s. defense secretary lloyd austin announced details today of another $500 million in security aid to

ukraine. austin and president volodymyr zelenskyy used their final meeting to urge the incoming trump administration to continue supporting ukraine's war effort. zelenskyy said a new chapter would begin for ukraine's european allies, when trump takes office in less than two weeks. austin, meanwhile, urged european nations to stand strong in the face of russian aggression. >> if we flinch, you can count on putin to push further and punch harder. ukraine's survival is on the line. but so is the security of europe, the united states, and the world. if tyrants learn that aggression pays, we will only invite even more aggression, chaos, and war. amna: the biden administration still has nearly $4 billion in funding to provide arms to ukraine. barring any further announcements, it would be up to president-elect trump to continue sending that aid. but he has signaled a potential

shift in america's support for ukraine once in office. new york's highest court rejected president-elect donald trump's request to block his sentencing in his hush money case. it's scheduled for tomorrow morning, in manhattan. trump's hopes for a last-minute delay now lie in the hands of the supreme court. his lawyers filed an emergency bid there yesterday. prosecutors pushed back, saying there's no reason for the court to intervene. it's not clear when the justices may weigh in. trump was convicted last may on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. a winter storm is hammering southern parts of the u.s. were even small amounts of snowfall can disrupt daily life. more than 80 million americans spent the day under some sort of winter weather advisory, from the plains of new mexico, all the way to the carolinas. this morning, residents in the dallas-fort worth area woke up to a slick mixture of snow,

sleet and freezing rain. schools closed for some one million students across north texas and oklahoma. and more than 2000 flights were cancelled nationwide. forecasters say the snow will continue to pile up through the end of the week. in antarctica, an international team of scientists say they've drilled through almost two miles of bedrock to reach some of the world's oldest ice. the researchers say the ice core is at least 1.2 million years old. it includes ash layers from volcanic eruptions, as well as bubbles of air breathed by our human ancestors a million years ago. they hope that analysis of the ice will show how the earth's atmosphere and climate have changed over time, and provide clues into how human activity affects the climate today. still to come on the "news hour," republicans lawmakers take early steps to implement donald trump's legislative agenda. and we examine the effectiveness of u.s. foreign aid meant to promote food security.

>> this is the pbs "news hour" from the david m. rubenstein studio at weta in washington, and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. geoff: today marked a national day of mourning for the funeral and burial of the late president jimmy carter. amna: but it was also a day to remember and celebrate the life and legacy of the nation's 39th president, a man who served only one term, but who forged an enduring legacy as a selfless humanitarian, and a winner of the nobel peace prize. here's laura barron-lopez with more. >> ready! step! ready! step! laura: president jimmy carter's final journey home. with the morning sun beaming down on the east front of the u.s. capitol, the late president's casket made its way to washington's national cathedral for the high honors, and solemn ceremony, of his

state funeral. soaring hymns echoed through the grand space. thousands gathered in the pews for the culmination of more than a week of tributes for the soft-spoken southern democrat. speakers celebrated carter's deep faith, honored his military service as a naval lieutenant, and saluted his devotion to service more than politics. his grandson, joshua. >> my grandfather spent the entire time i've known him helping those in need. he built houses for people who needed homes. he eliminated diseases in forgotten places. he waged peace anywhere in the world. wherever he saw a chance, he loved people. laura: another of his grandsons, jason, remembered the life of a humble and decent man.

>> in my 49 years, i never perceived a difference between his public face and his private one. he was the same person, no matter who he was with or where he was. and for me, that's the definition of integrity. laura: that integrity united washington, if only for a moment. all five of the nation's living presidents attended the service to celebrate carter's life. the so-called presidents club, three democrats and two republicans, including president-elect donald trump. trump shook the hand of his former vice president, mike pence, a notable exchange as the two have not interacted publicly for four years after pence refused trump's demand to reject the 2020 election results. trump sat shoulder to shoulder with president barack obama, even sharing a laugh. as one of his final acts in the waning days of his own term in office, president joe biden

celebrated carter, his longtime friend. >> to make every minute of our time here on earth count, that's the definition of a good life, the life jimmy carter lived during his 100 years. laura: and the president credited carter for valuing character over power. >> jimmy carter's friendship taught me, and through his life, taught me the strength of character is more than title, or the power we hold. you know, we have an obligation to give hate no safe harbor, and to stand up, to what my dad used to say was the greatest sin of all, the abuse of power. laura: alongside biden, carter was the only other one-term democratic president in the last 50 years. former top white house aide stuart eizenstat spoke of

redemption for his friend. >> the test of american presidents is not the number of years they serve, but the duration of their accomplishments. by this measure, jimmy carter was among the most consequential one-term presidents in american history. laura: there were even words from those dear to carter whom he outlived. ted mondale, reading on behalf of his late father walter mondale, honored a legacy that could now be threatened by the incoming president. >> in many ways, he laid the foundation for future presidents to come to grips with climate change. some thought he was crazy to fight so hard to pass these laws. but he was dead right. laura: there was also bipartisan praise that often eluded carter when he occupied the oval office. including a eulogy from carter's predecessor, republican president gerald ford, delivered by his son.

>> by fate of a brief season, jimmy carter and i were rivals. but, for the many wonderful years that followed, friendship bonded us as no two presidents since john adams and thomas jefferson. as for myself, jimmy, i'm looking forward to our reunion. we have much to catch up on. thank you, mr. president. welcome home, old friend. laura: after the service, carter's casket journeyed back to georgia, where the family held a private funeral at maranatha baptist church, where carter taught sunday school for decades. his birthplace of plains, georgia, now, also his final resting place. for the pbs "news hour," i'm laura barron-lopez. geoff: for more on the life and legacy of president carter, we're joined by our own judy

woodruff, who has covered jimmy carter since before he was elected president. amna: also presidential historian barbara perry, from the miller center at the university of virginia. geoff: and stuart eizenstat, who was domestic policy adviser to president carter and, as you heard, spoke at the funeral today. welcome to all of you. your remarks at the funeral service today, you said you sought to redeem the carter presidency and reframe the public understanding of it. in your view, his accomplishment were more enduring than most modern presidents. what inspired you to have that as your message today? stuart: it has always rankled me that people say he is the best ex-president we have had, and that is probably true, but that is an implicit way of saying he was not a successful president. i meant by redeeming that it is now time after the election loss we suffered for sure, and after over 40 years 10 times more time

than he spent in the white house, to take a real look at what he did. what he did was extraordinary. we got 70% of our legislature through. we made the company go -- country go from energy dependence of energy security. he was a great environmental president, a great civil rights president, employing more blacks and women to senior positions than all 38 presidents before. his combination of human rights and hard power, building up our military, really helped to end of the cold war. camp david is, to my mind, the greatest single presidential act of diplomacy in american history. that is all forgotten. it is now time to go back and take a look. i tried to do that in my book. but this gave me a unique opportunity to talk to a nationwide and worldwide audience. amna: as mentioned, you covered mr. carter before he was president, you covered him as president, you interviewed jimmy and rosalynn carter.

you were at the cathedral today as well. what was it like to cover him not just those years in the white house, but the many years of service after? judy: it was exhausting. [laughter] because this was a man -- and you just got a sense of that -- who wanted to do everything, tried to do so many things during his time as governor, during his time as president, and certainly during his time post-presidency. he had many things on his agenda from reorganizing government in georgia and washington, energy policy, certainly the international policy. he wanted government to work more efficiently. he wanted the budget to be in better shape. he worked on diversity. it was as if boyd is he saying in the bible, idle hands are the devil's workshop. his hands were never idle. there was always something. i interviewed him about a decade ago at his office at the carter

center atlanta and i asked him, how are you spending your spare time? he proceeded to list 10 or 12 things he was involved in. teaching sunday school, building homes for habitat for humanity, birdwatching, peacemaking, and on and on. that is who jimmy carter was. geoff: we heard president biden eulogize his longtime friend today. he talked about what he saw as his enduring attribute was character, that he refused to let his power, his ambition in your his inherent goodness. how did that strike you? barbara: what struck me was that the current president, soon outgoing president, used the term character and he said it three times. and we know from joe biden's ways of speechmaking that when he says a word three times, he really means it. and i think we know what he really means by the contrast. i also noted that andrew young, in giving his homily for his dear friend jimmy carter, said

that martin luther king had commented that character was when you can bring together antitheses and that for jimmy carter, as it was for dr. king, it was a strong mind but a soft heart. and that that was part of his character. that is what we see both i think in foreign policy and domestic. stuart: may i mention one thing on character? you can judge the character of people when you suffer loss. how do you handle loss? we suffered a devastating loss in 1980 and he told us the very day after we lost, the next morning, get your chins off the ground, we are going to have the best transition ever. and what did we do? we got stephen breyer confirmed by the senate on his way to the supreme court. we got the superfund bill for chemical waste past. we got the alaska lands bill which doubled the entire national park system. and we got the hostages released. paul is a lame-duck president. so rather than sulk and feel

depressed, he said we are going to make this the best 2.5 months anybody has ever had after they voted him out. amna: you mentioned the duration of the accomplishments. in this particular moment, we saw how he led with decency, reached across the aisle, had friendships with political aisles, -- we're at a hyper-partisan moment in america and a hot war in the middle east and rising tensions with china. is there a sense that some of those compliments are being undone? stuart: there is always that potential. we still have normalized relations with china, as tense as they are. we have a middle east that is on fire, but a middle east in which people built on his abraham accords. and i will predict sitting here that within a year or two, the saudis will also normalize.

i think many of the things he has done a really lasting. let me give you two that would be one expected. one is he created the entire office of inspector general's to root out fraud, waste and abuse. just this last week the inspector general for justice issued a very important report about what was happening in the trump administration. and the other is a special counsel legislation. that has endured. the form of it has somewhat changed but the notion of having an independent counsel to look at wrongdoing. so all the ethics laws we have, every single one we have, lobby restrictions, gift restrictions, disclosure of assets, all of those things, they are all enduring and still here. geoff: on that point, what aspects of the carter presidency or post-presidency can leaders look to and learn lessons from? of course we should mention that

his partnership with rosalynn carter was most impactful. judy: certainly. and as i pointed out, the eulogy by stephen ford from his dad was that both of those men, jerry and jimmy, married up. that is my first piece of advice to any people who would want to be president at some point. if you are going to marry, man or woman, etc., always marry up. i think the other thing i would like to point to would be not only in the post-presidency, this model of the post-presidency of making your life, giving your life to the world. giving your life to helping the world and the country to be better. and then i would also say diversity. i know that the d word has gotten a bad connotation of late, but it is important to look back at jimmy carter and think about what he did for the federal judiciary. more women, more minorities.

he actually had an affirmative action program for the lower federal bench, and it is unfortunate he did not get to put a person on the supreme court, but he did put ruth bader ginsburg and stephen breyer on the lower federal courts, and that was their entree to the u.s. supreme court. amna: where to you does jimmy carter sit in the context of modern presidents? judy: he sits apart in many ways. peanut farmer from rural georgia who rose, as andy young said today, how unlikely it is that someone would come from a place population 200-something to the presidency. so, unlikely, but remarkable in many ways because of everything we have been discussing here, all the things he tried to do. and i would say the force of his moral character, who he was. that morality, his deep faith, his belief that something drove him every day to want to make

life better for the american people. and after he was president, for everybody on earth. that is an incredible ambition for someone to have and that is what drove him for a century. amna: we may have to leave it there, i am so sorry, we are out of time. but we thank you so much for being here. stuart: thanks for having us. ♪ geoff: the republican majority closes out the first week of the new congress, ready to push through president-elect donald trump's agenda and on the cusp of passing its first bill. congressional correspondent lisa desjardins is here to unpack the bill itself, and the broader message it sends. it is always good to see you. this first bill is the laken riley act named for the juror --

the georgia nursing student murdered in 2024. what does this bill do and couldn't become law? lisa: it could. a senate key vote that happened a few hours ago received 84 votes. it doesn't mean that will get that in the end, but let's talk about what this bill will do. it has significant meaning and potential effects. among them, this bill would make it mandatory to detain any undocumented immigrant who was arrested for theft, that includes burglary, larceny, shoplifting. it would also allow states attorneys general to sue over federal immigration policy. they believe immigration policy is threatening their state. that would completely change federal law and it is not completely clear how the constitutional boundaries would work. one reason this could become law, it already passed the house easily with dozens of democrats supporting this as well. but because it needs 60 votes in the senate, it needs democratic

support finally. the vote we had today was in large part because democrats say they want to amend it. look at these eight democratic senators we are watching who all may vote yes in the end on this bill. while this bill has a tremendous amount of support, and it is a big immigration and security push from republicans, there are ardent opponents who say it goes way too far, that it could lead to mass sweeping deportations of people for shoplifting. it has due process concerns they say. there will be a big debate next week. geoff: last night president trump met with senate republicans. what did you learn? lisa: it was fascinating. in that room president-elect trump sat for two hours with republican senators. in that room they were exuberant. they are excited. they have not had to do the hard part yet but they are convinced they are going to change how things work in washington and they are going to do it very

quickly. quickly i am going to go over what they covered and what i received as part of my reporting. they are all important. first of all, president-elect trump wants to do one big giant trump agenda bill. we will talk about that. it is a risk, because you would need virtually every republican in the house and almost all in the senate to do it. something that came up a lot that senate sources told me about was canada. we have been talking about other countries, with the idea that trump is serious about pressuring canada with tariffs and other trade tactics. he is really ramping up his talk about how he interacts with our neighbor to the north. in addition, the panama canal, that is something that has been talked about and is something that for many people came out of the blue. but today we saw a house member introduce a bill that would give trump the ability to actually negotiate or attempt to negotiate with panama. they say they do not want to sell the canal. but senators who i regard

generally as serious brought that up and the idea of greenland. this is stuff we did not expect to talk about but i am raising it now because it was regarded seriously in the meeting by senate republicans yesterday with trump. day one, senate republicans left that meeting saying they expect not just some executive orders on day one, but more than they had expected. that trump said he will spend a lot of time on immigration on day one. geoff: and his nominees will start testifying next week as part of their confirmation hearings. lisa: let's show three of them, some of the high-profile ones. marco rubio, pam bondi, pete hegseth. all of them have their hearings. we're going to see perhaps more confirmation hearings next week than we ever have before, at least eight in a single day. so stay tuned. geoff: lisa desjardins, our

thanks to you as always. ♪ amna: one of the biggest challenges facing sub-saharan african nations is how to help farmers withstand climate and economic headwinds and produce food for a growing population. the u.s. agency for international development last year granted about $33 billion for projects across the world. but critics say its results have fallen well short, with most aid dollars going to u.s.-based companies, with little involvement by locally-led groups closest to the problem. in his final report examining foreign aid, fred de sam lazaro looks at two such food startups in the west african nation of ghana. it's part of his series, agents for change. fred: it's still early in the growing season, but faith mawuko is guardedly optimistic about this season's yield from her 1000 mango trees. you expect a bumper harvest this year?

>> yes, i do. fred: what could make that not happen? >> the weather, the climate. fred: like most ghanaian farmers, she's at the mercy of market and increasingly unpredictable weather. farmers here depend on rain, few have irrigation systems. >> the climate, it also plays a major role during the fruiting, the flowering. if we don't get enough rain we get a lot of fruit getting aborted. fred: that's what happened last year to mango farmers in latin america, where widespread flooding reduced production by up to 80%. to nikki okrah, that's created an opportunity here in ghana's eastern region. those latin american farmers sell most of their mangoes in the united states. >> you have, you know, the u.s. market where millions of tons of dried mangoes and other products are consumed. then you need to get those mangoes from somewhere else. fred: okrah's non-profit, called chaku foods, agreed to purchase mawuko's entire crop this year, a big relief for the farmer

since the price is locked in and should yield a profit. without this guarantee, her mangoes would go to the market at harvest time where, ironically, a bumper harvest lowers prices. okrah's company will track the progress of mawuko's and dozens of other client farms all the way to harvest, using geospatial mapping and data gathered through drone and satellite images. it helps manage the climate risk, she says, and can reassure prospective buyers, especially a promising new american one. so you'd like to see mangoes from here wind up on a shelf at trader joe's? >> yes. yeah, exactly. fred: from harvest to processing, there are still many steps before these mangos hit store shelves, but chaku foods has a verbal agreement with a trader joe's supplier, the culmination of a vision okrah had when she returned to ghana

in 2021. >> i think part of it's in the blood. fred: born in ghana and raised in the u.s., okrah holds degrees from northwestern and harvard. she left a corporate career and moved here to focus on creating wealth for smallholder farmers like her ancestors. >> there's an abundance of wealth and opportunity above the land and in this space. we can have billions of dollars not going to waste and postharvest loss, but actually going to markets. fred: that's a goal shared by the u.s. government, which has granted hundreds of millions of dollars to help farmers across the developing world. but very little of that money goes to local start-ups, like chaku foods. the grants, tens of millions of dollars and up, have reporting and accounting requirements well beyond their capacity. >> so much of our time is on the ground in the field and, you know, committing hours and time to really go through the paperwork, answer the questions , are some of the things that maybe keep us from fully integrating into that system. fred: so, most local

non-government groups or startups in food, health care or other services must settle for small sub-contracting roles with the large international agencies and private, u.s.-based companies that receive the vast majority of u.s. development aid contracts. >> we've never contracted directly to usaid. fred: alloysius attah started a company called farmerline in 2013. it provides a range of services to a wide spectrum of small farmers. on this day, conducting a seminar for a women's group on how to improve soil conditions. farmerline links client farmers to merchants it has vetted to insure good quality seeds and other inputs. and it purchases their harvests, selling them to larger agribusinesses. you midwife for the farmers, link them up with buyers. >> exactly.

fred: in its 10 years, the group has grown to have 2.2 million client farmers in 50 countries, scale that he says would be much greater with access to u.s. aid funds. >> we're just not trusted with the resources. fred: guidelines of federal -- fred: what he sees as a lack of trust is reflected in the strict guidelines of federal government grant applications, intended to ensure accountability and protect against corruption. >> corruption is everywhere. you know, corruption is not just for locally led organizations or like developing countries. it is everywhere. fred: the large aid contractors are experts in federal procurement, he and other critics say, but after administrative overhead, travel and consultant fees consume most of the award dollars. and, to improve their chances of being awarded grants, he says these companies approach groups like his early in the process, proposing to write them in as local partners. >> it is exploitation. they get your content, they get your knowledge, not just your knowledge, the actual pictures to write the application, your videos, your impact reports. fred: when the grant is awarded, he says, the local partner is

cut out. >> we've experienced that like a thousand times. it's almost like you meet a girl and then you're very excited. the person leads you on, you pour your heart in, then they just, like, ghost you. fred: other africa-based aid groups echo such complaints against the large usaid contractors, saying they feared doing so publicly would jeopardize any future prospects for work. we invited the largest aid company, chemonics, to respond to the allegations. they declined, as did as the main trade association of aid implementing companies. >> the status quo is tough to shift. fred: usaid administrator samantha also declined our request for an interview. she pledged in 2021 to increase the share of grants going to local groups to 25% by 2025, and 50% by 2030. that percentage, which began near 7% at the time, has crept up to near 10%, still well short of the localization target. >> that's got to change.

i mean, that just has to change. fred: brian atwood was usaid administrator under president clinton. and what's going to trigger that change? >> well, i think the way the contracts are written in the first place. it's gotta happen, it's got to be a policy change that starts from the top. fred: he says in almost all cases, usaid pays contractors in full for work done, whether or not they deliver results, and a significant number do not. that's not surprising to atwood, who says development work is complex, with few clear cut answers. but he says the agency should be allowed to embrace some risk in pursuit of ideas that work. >> it's got to be a learning agency. it's got to have the flexibility if a program isn't working to move the money around to something that is working. and that flexibility doesn't exist either once you've signed a contract. so there has to be escape clauses in these contracts as well. fred: while no one knows exactly

what will come under the next trump administration, atwood says foreign aid has long enjoyed bipartisan support, seen as a national security priority by many republicans. and, he notes, project 2025, the conservative heritage foundation's blueprint for the second trump term, has endorsed the idea of locally led development, even as it proposes significant cutbacks overall in foreign aid. for the pbs "news hour," this is fred de sam lazaro in washington. amna: fred's reporting is a partnership with the under-told stories project at the university of st. thomas in minnesota. and he joins me now to discuss more of his reporting. so fred, as you noted, usaid administrator samantha power declined to participate in your reports. has there been any response from the agency since? fred: we did hear from a usaid spokesperson taking issue with a comment made by walter kerr of

unlock aid, and issuing a statement that said it was incorrect to state that only 10% of usaid's total assistance funding reaches local communities, meaning in the countries targeted. and the statement goes on that this grossly misstates usaid's work, which reaches hundreds of millions of people around the globe every year. well, there's no dispute about reaching a lot of people. it is close to $40 billion, after all. when it comes to the number, taking issue with how much money is actually spent locally, there is a lot of opacity. it's a very elastic number depending on who is interpreting it. we asked the agency to furnish one that they thought would be more accurate but have not heard back. what is not in dispute among most experts is that the majority of usaid funds go to contracts with large international agencies which have high overhead that consume a lot of the dollars. amna: well fred, a number of the critics you featured paint a

portrait of a very impersonal, very corrupt system. is it that simple? is that all it is? fred: you know, nobody disputes that there are hundreds, thousands of people who work for the agency and work indeed for these implementer companies who are dedicated professionals, domain experts in what they're trying to deal with. the criticism, i think, is of a system that's process bound, that is inflexible, and that distorts and detracts from getting much better results than would be possible given the amount of money that's being spent. amna: so what are the alternatives here to this status quo that can get better results, better efficiency without compromising transparency and control of abuse and corruption? fred: you know, we heard a number of ideas. we just heard from brian atwood, who said it would be nice if the agency were given some flexibility to course correct. if something's not working, experiment with something that might have a better crack at solving a problem in whatever

endeavor is being undertaken. another example that one has heard is about a model where the government incentivizes the private sector to come up with that magic seed that will be drought resistant and you can get a better crop, for example. just incentivize the private sector to come up with innovation. that's what happened with operation warp speed, and it gave us a covid vaccine in record short time. amna: fred to sam lazarro, thank you so much for your reporting. it's always good to speak with you. fred: thank you, amna. geoff: and that is the "news hour" for tonight. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on behalf of the entire "news hour" team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the pbs "news hour" has been provided by. >> cunard is a proud supporter of public television. on a voyage with cunard, the world awaits. a world of flavor, diverse destinations, and immersive experiences.

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hello, everyone, and welcome to amanpour & company pictures what is coming up. terrifying seems as devastating wildfires bear down on l.a., forcing thousands to flee their homes. then. with trump missing mass deportations on day one, i speak to the outgoing secretary of homeland security, alejandra mayorkas, on his record