geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on the "news hour" tonight, president trump meets with republican members of congress to move his agenda forward as he uses tough tactics against latin america. geoff: financial markets drop as a new chinese artificial intelligence start-up shakes up the industry. amna: and 80 years after the liberation of auschwitz, an effort to preserve even the

smallest of links to the youngest of victims. >> preserving these objects, this evidence is about preserving the memory of the victims of the crime, preserving their identity often. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by -- >> on an american cruise lines journey, along the legendary mississippi river, travelers explore civil war battlefields and historic riverside towns. a board fleet of american riverboats, you can experience local culture and cuisine, and discover the music and history of the mighty mississippi. american cruise lines, proud sponsor of pbs news hour. >> the ongoing support of these

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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." the trump administration ended week one with a friday night mass firing of more than a dozen lead inspectors of government oversight, a weekend uptick of immigration arrests, and a day-long fight over deportations and tariffs with colombia. amna: president trump is meeting tonight with house republicans at his golf resort in miami. moments ago, he addressed the gop lawmakers as they gathered for their annual strategy retreat. >> if we do our job over the next 21 months, not only will house republicans bee reelected and expand our majority, we will submit a national governing coalition that will preserve american freedom for generations to come. amna: congressional correspondent lisa desjardins is

in miami at the republican retreat and joins us now. tell us what you are hearing from those house republicans. are they all firmly behind the president's actions? lisa: the sense here is they are. publicly, republicans are telling me even his most controversial ideas. what is happening somewhat behind the scenes is there some discomfort for some members for some ideas including cubans and venezuelans that have temporary status, which is an issue here in miami. members have problems of the way president trump proceeded seem to be influencing him behind the scenes, not criticizing him. he has basically a wide grace period from his own party to do what he will right now as they watch him. i asked speaker johnson a few hours ago about president trump's announcement that he may want to dismantle fema, as well as his firings of those inspectors general.

and johnson defended both of those moves as a sign of what he calls a new era in government. >> when the president says he wants to make the government more efficient and government, and we say we want to limit the size and scope, it means everything is on the table for reevaluation. this is a new moment for us to reevaluate everything the federal government does. lisa: now, essentially, what we have is not just a party of donald trump, but the congress for now of donald trump. it really is more than symbolic that house republicans are meeting here at his resort. trump staff the profit both politically and financially from this retreat. amna: this is a critical time for republicans' larger agenda so what are they discussing at this retreat specifically? lisa: i have been to many of these retreats and i don't think i've ever been to one where decisions like this have such high dollar figures and such high reaching effects. let's look at this massive

fiscal goals that republicans have. first, they want to extend the trump tax cuts. that has a price tag of some $4 trillion and could affect every american either way. most every american. they also want to add to that a host of other tax cuts. trump on the campaign trail raised exempting tipped wages from tax cuts. what i have seen and other reporters have obtained is a menu of over 200 kinds of actions related to this tax cut agenda. that includes how you might pay for those tax cuts. going along with that, there are also some hurdles that republicans face as well, including fiscal deadlines coming up quickly including the funding of government. they also need the house and senate to agree on an outline for spending. deficits are climbing, about $700 billion the first three month of this year. these ideas, cuts to medicaid, are tough politically.

they all have to agree and these are not easy things. amna: what is needed to get all of that done? lisa: ok. we will talk about this a few times but let me go through this first of all. the first step for republicans is they have to pass a budget, a framework of spending. if you look at today, you look at exactly what that outline would be, you start today and you look at january 27, today. then, the first major deadline, the first fiscal deadline coming up march 14 is when they have to figure out how to fund all of government no less. then, speaker johnson has announced before that major deadline, he wants to have a budget for the following year from his party. and the congress will not be here all of february so there's only three weeks really remaining to get these things done. a reminder that they are down or will be down soon to just a single vote majority in the

house so this is a very difficult business and they are working on it here. amna: lisa reporting for miami tonight. thank you. lisa: you're welcome. ♪ geoff: today in bogota, colombia, the u.s. embassy cancelled appointments for colombians hoping to get visas to enter the united states. the move was the trump administration's response to short-lived resistance by the colombian government to accept u.s. deportation flights over the weekend. that public spat could be a sign for how the trump administration will move forward with its latin america strategy. nick schifrin is here following this. give us a sense of what unfolded this past weekend and an update of where things stand right now. nick: outside the u.s. embassy in bogota, colombians picked up

this piece of paper saying their appointments were canceled due to "the colombian government's refusal to accept re-appreciation -- repatriation flights of colombian nationals." those planes on military planes began late last week. the trump administration says colombia initially agreed to receive colombian deportees but after some brazilian deportees arrived in handcuffs or reports of poor conditions on the plane, that is when the colombian president announced publicly that colombia would not receive them until they received dignity and respect. in reply to that, president trump threatened 25% tariffs that could rise to 50%, travel bans, visa revocation's. in reply to that, petro called his own tariffs and called president trump an and slaver who was going to wipe out the human species because of greed. that is what he said.

what he did was cave. the government says he will not allow these deportation flights to leave the u.s. on military planes and land in colombia. trump said the visa restrictions would go into effect and remained in place until the first plane lands and that is why we saw those lines. geoff: why did the colombian president reversed course? nick: he's a former marxist fighter who fought the biden administration over narcotics policy. a clash with trump was inevitable colombia is economically vulnerable. the u.s. is colombia's largest trading partner, 25% tariffs would have destroyed colombia's economy. the exports are flour, crude oil and coffee. colombia is one of come if not one of the most important partners of the u.s. in the region. former senior biden officials tell us petro cooperated with them on deportation flights as long as those flights were

commercial or charter flights. for the last 20 years, the u.s. and colombia have worked closely together, including military to military cooperation focused on regional security. biden officials told me they received cooperation on their priorities so they tolerated the president's outbursts, something that trump is not willing to do. geoff: what does this suggest about the trump administration's latin america strategy? nick: from ongoing conversations with mexico, about the panama canal, even in greenland across the western hemisphere, they wanted to make sure that countries understood that they must cooperate with president trump's priorities. according to ryan berg of the center for strategic and international studies. >> the trump administration wanted to set the tone for other countries that were looking closely to see how this would play out. mexico was looking closely, guatemala was looking closely, panama was looking closely to see if the trump administration

would back down. which is why they were willing to threaten such high tariffs and such measures. nick: trump's critics tell me that these tactics will be counterproductive. they could lead to less cooperation in the region and that could make inroads into the u.s.'s global and regional, most important competitor, and that is beijing, says the former mexican ambassador to the u.s. >> the u.s. historically threw its weight around the hemisphere in 20th century terms, the trump doctrine, my way or the highway. a doctrine rehash. this may backfire because it may push countries in the hemisphere that have already embraced china because china is its number one trading partner today to sort of run into the arms of beijing. it could be counterproductive. nick: we will see how this goes

beginning this weekend when secretary of state marco rubio makes the first cabinet trip internationally to panama. geoff: nick schifrin, thanks to you as always. nick: thank you. ♪ amna: the day's other headlines start in the middle east. israel allowed hundreds of thousands of palestinians to return to northern gaza today after a two-day delay. gazans were ordered to move south early in the war, stoking fears they'd never be allowed to return home. in gaza today, rare scenes of glee. seven-year-old retal subuh excited to return home after 15 months of war. >> i'm happy that i get to go back home to gaza city and back to school. amna: some 200,000 palestinians made the trek north today by foot, carriage and car to reunite with their homes and their loved ones.

that includes mahmoud and ibrahim al-atout, twins separated for more than a year as the fighting destroyed everything around them. the return is bittersweet. north gaza lies in ruins and many heading back today, like salem badawi, say their homes are destroyed. >> we want to go back home. we're tired, we're depressed, but there is no house to go back to. it's charred and burnt down, along with the land and trees around it. we don't know what we're going to do. amna: palestinians were ready to head north saturday, but israel held up their return, saying hamas violated the ceasefire agreement by not releasing civilian hostage arbel yehoud over the weekend. yesterday, hamas agreed to release yehoud in the next swap. >> the list from hamas matches israel's intelligence. amna: it all comes as israel confirmed today that eight of

the 33 hostages set to be exchanged in phase one of the ceasefire deal are dead. israel says the next set of hostages is expected to be released on thursday. also today, the trump administration kicked off his second week in the white house with a flurry of activity including his top team. this evening, scott bessent was confirmed as treasury secretary. and president donald trump's newly sworn in defense secretary pete hegseth arrived at the pentagon this morning for his first day on the job. he said trump plans to sign a flurry of new executive orders focused on the u.s. military and vowed to continue support for trump's immigration policies after the pentagon sent 1500 troops and other resources to the border last week. >> we've helped move forward troops, put in more barriers and also to ensure mass deportation, support of mass deportations in support of the president's objective.

that is something the defense department absolutely will continue to do. amna: meantime, the air force says it will keep the storied tuskegee airmen in its curriculum for new recruits, along with the women's airforce service pilots, or wasps. over the weekend, authorities had removed materials that featured these groups. officials say it was only a temporary delay in order to purge diversity mentions from its training programs. the acting u.s. attorney in washington is reportedly opening an internal review of the justice department's january 6 prosecutions. according to multiple outlets, ed martin, who was appointed by trump, has ordered prosecutors to turn over all files related to the decision to charge hundreds of defendants with felony obstruction offenses. this follows a supreme court decision last year which found the department had overstepped its reach in bringing such charges. also today, the justice department fired more than a dozen employees who worked on criminal investigations of the

president. this included career prosecutors who worked on special counsel jack smith's team. a federal judge now says stewart rhodes and other members of the far-right group, the oath keepers, are no longer barred from visiting washington, d.c. and the u.s. capitol. it comes just three days after judge amit mehta imposed the restriction. mehta concluded that president trump's decision to commute their prison sentences also released them from court supervision. rhodes was spotted at the u.s. capitol last week, just a day after his release from prison, where he was serving an 18-year sentence for seditious conspiracy. a 3.8-magnitude earthquake shook northern new england this morning. the u.s. geological survey says the quake struck roughly six miles off the coast of southern maine at a depth of about eight miles. officials say it could be felt across the region and as far away as pennsylvania. earthquakes in the eastern u.s. are less frequent than those out west, but are typically felt across a much broader area.

there have been no reports of injuries or significant damage. in southern california, a weekend of downpours is giving firefighters a much-needed break after weeks of dry and windy conditions. but, the rain has actually caused a new problem. ash, mud and other debris in the fire zones are sliding onto huge stretches of roads, like here in topanga canyon. meteorologists say hilly areas freshly scorched by wildfires are far more susceptible to toxic runoff. landslides even caused a part of the famous pacific coast highway to shut down. fire officials say all the major blazes in the los angeles area are now more than 90% contained. on wall street today, stocks ended mixed as new competition from china in the ai field rattled the tech sector. the dow jones industrial average managed a gain of nearly 300 points. but the nasdaq sank 600 points, weighed down by a nearly 17%

drop from ai heavyweight nvidia. the s&p 500 also ended sharply lower on the day. and, the global community has been honoring international holocaust remembrance day. the occasion marks the moment 80 years ago when soviet troops liberated the auschwitz-birkenau concentration camp, where more than one million jews were murdered. ♪ in ukraine, president volodymyr zelenskyy, who is jewish, laid a candle for the ukrainian jews massacred by the nazis. in paris, french president emmanuel macron visited a memorial to the 76,000 jews who were deported from france between 1942 and 1944. in budapest, mourners remembered the nearly half a million hungarian jews killed in auschwitz, more than any other nationality. and world leaders joined survivors at a ceremony at auschwitz itself today.

we'll have a deeper look at that later in the broadcast. still to come on the "news hour," fear spreads in immigrant communities as raids and deportations escalate. new concerns about government fraud and ethics after president trump fires more than a dozen independent watchdogs. and tamara keith and amy walter break down the latest political headlines. >> this is the "pbs news hour" from the david m. rubenstein studio at weta in washington, and in the west at the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. geoff: a new china-based artificial intelligence startup is shaking up an industry known for its rapid innovation. it's called deepseek and its biggest advantage, analysts say, is that it can operate at a lower cost than american ai models like chatgpt. it's already the top download in the apple store, sudden

popularity that's disrupting markets, especially the tech-focused nasdaq, and it's raising lots of national security questions about china's progress amid a global race to develop advanced artificial intelligence. gerrit de vynck is a tech reporter for "the washington post." thank you for being here. gerrit: of course. geoff: explain for the unfamiliar, what is deepseek, this new chinese based ai startup that is the source of such consternation in silicon valley? gerrit: people are may be familiar with openai or the maker of chatgpt. maybe they've used other ai tools from other big tech or american companies to help them write a resume or write a wedding speech or even help them with emails at work, during the generate images. deepseek is a small chinese company that makes a product similar to chatgpt. it is a chatbot you can have a conversation with. you can ask it to generate all kinds of writing, you can do

research on it. the big reason why people are so freaked out about it here in silicon valley and in political and national security circles as well is that people have seen ai as something that is very expensive to do. you need to put a lot of money into it. tens, even hundreds of millions of dollars in order to train ai software to be as capable as the leading ai programs like chatgpt. and according to these chinese researchers who work at deepseek, they have found ways to do it much more efficiently. meaning they can produce very highly capable ai software at a fraction of the cost of what american companies have been spending. geoff: deepseek says it took them only two months and less than $6 million to create this model it uses, which raises the question, washington banned the export of advanced technology to china so it could not have an upper hand in the u.s.-china battle for tech supremacy. how did china make an end run

around that? gerrit: the way you make something like chatgpt's you take a huge amount of data and yo run it through a bunch of really advanced computer chips, most of which are made by the u.s. company nvidia. those computer chips are really expensive and everyone has been scrambling for them. the goal of slowing down the chinese ai industry, the biden administration put strict controls on next boarding those chips to china.; there has been a quite a bit of reporting. the biden administration before leaving office admitted that chinese companies were still able to find ways to buy chips either through buying them through 30 countries or smuggling them in. geoff: the deepseek app surged to the top of the iphone download chart shortly after it was released and i suppose that raises national security concerns given all the hammering about tiktok and now this other chinese app. gerrit: it is quite interesting.

regular people can download this app. they can use it and they're all kinds of concerns if you are putting your data into deepseek, it will go into a chinese company. i think people should think twice about using this app. if you use an american app, they are also locking your data but maybe you are more comfortable using an american company than a chinese one. what's even more interesting is that deepseek is actually made their technology available on the internet for anyone to download. yes, there is an app, there's a website you can use deepseek just like you might use chatgpt. if you have a business and want to use ai technology to make your own business or your own app more capable, you can just use deepseek's technology and configure it and see how it works for yourself. so, there's concerns that have used deepseek, maybe it is censored and not given you answers about tiananmen square or other controversial aspects

from a chinese perspective. but, if you download their software, you can use it yourself and it is not censored at all. geoff: there are some reports today that the panic over this has been overblown, at least to the degree it has been reflected in the markets. what do you make of that and whehat are the overall implications for the marketplace? gerrit: you mentioned the $6 million number and i want to contrast that with the number of $500 billion, the goal that openai has in terms of investing in building out new ai data centers and buying computer chips. this was an announcement they made alongside president trump on his first real day in office. he was very excited, very keen to showcase that this money was going to be spent here in america. suddenly, we now are asking questions such as do you really need that amount of money to build advanced ai? that is really the question the tech industry is dealing with. there are different opinions.

some people say it is not that bad. even if you find more efficient ways of making ai software, having a lot of computer chips, having a lot of money will still give you an advantage in the long run so you can do even more with it. that is really the question we will see answered over the next few weeks and months. geoff: gerrit de vynck, thank you for being with us. gerrit: any time. ♪ amna: one of the biggest questions as trump's second term begins is just how wide and quickly his administration will conduct mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. as we reported earlier, those operations got underway this weekend in chicago and other cities around the country. stephanie sy has our report. stephanie: as part of a nationwide enforcement blitz that resulted in nearly 1000

arrests on sunday, president trump's border czar tom homan was on the ground in chicago. in an interview aired yesterday, homan said the priority was nabbing people with criminal records. >> if you're in the country illegally, you're on the table because it's not ok to, you know, violate the laws of this country. you got to remember, every time you enter this country illegally, you violated a crime under title viii, the united states code 1325, it's a crime. stephanie: other federal agencies like the drug enforcement administration and the fbi were involved in arrests with immigration customs enforcement in states like california, colorado, texas, arizona, and georgia. in chicago, immigrant enclaves were on edge. on the city's northwest side, non-profit onward house provides support services for migrants, including this woman. she says she came to the u.s. from mexico with her family a year ago to flee gang violence. >> i am terrified if they catch me or my husband because then my kids will be all alone in this

country. i have given my children phone numbers of people they can call if something were to happen to us. i am praying to god it doesn't. stephanie: she says she's had trouble finding a lawyer to help her file an asylum application. even under biden, routes to claim asylum status were narrowed. trump has moved to suspend asylum completely. >> we can't set foot inside our country. that's why we asked the u.s. government for help, so they can assist us, so we don't have to go back because the gangs were going to kill my kids, kill me and my husband. >> i think there's a lot of fear out there right now. stephanie: emilio araujo says onward house has been a key service provider for many of the more than 50,000 migrants that arrived in chicago since the summer of 2022. many seeking asylum after being bussed from the southern border. but in recent months, it's been preparing its clients for what to do if they are approached by law enforcement.

>> getting out information like know your rights, information connecting with families and make sure that they have a plan in case, you know, they are arrested or detained or anything like that. and it really the safety piece is where we're at right now, is we need to make sure people are safe so that they can continue to live their lives and build from there. stephanie: during the biden years, safe spaces for undocumented migrants included churches and schools. the trump administration says those so-called sensitive areas thwart law enforcement and reversed the policy on trump's first day in office. >> i want families to be assured that our schools are safe. stephanie: but administrators from chicago public schools said they won't coordinate with ice and agents could not enter the school without a criminal warrant. >> there is complete alignment here between our state, city and district and so there are laws to protect. stephanie: on friday, school officials at a southside elementary school refused to allow agents that they thought were with ice into the school. they turned out to be secret

service officers, unrelated to immigration enforcement. school officials said fear of children being swept up in the dragnet drove the mistaken claim. lawrence benito is with the illinois coalition for immigrant and refugee rights. he says the illinois trust act and chicago's welcoming city ordinance currently prevent police from coordinating with ice on any civil immigration enforcement, but worries so-called sanctuary laws are under threat. >> we're asking people to make their voices heard, make sure that their elected officials know that this is not the america that they want to see happen, because i just don't see how they get to the scale that they're talking about without tearing families apart without tearing mixed families apart, where you have maybe undocumented parents and citizen children. what are we going to do in those situations? stephanie: recent ice

enforcement actions have already come under fire. in newark, new jersey, federal agents reportedly arrested undocumented people and questioned u.s. citizens, including a veteran last thursday at a seafood distributor. local officials accuse the agents of entering the business without a warrant. >> we have a constitution of the united states that we want to uphold. we have this for a very specific reason to guard us against illegal trespass like this. stephanie: even before trump took office, ice raids under the biden administration were taking place, including in newark, where 33 undocumented immigrants were arrested in december. back in illinois, governor j.b. pritzker said he supports deporting criminals, and said local law enforcement would cooperate with federal officials when there was a signed warrant. but he's worried about others that might be get swept up in the process. >> they are going after people who are law-abiding, who are holding down jobs, who have

families here, who may have been here for a decade or two decades. these are our friends and neighbors. why are we going after them? stephanie: chicago restaurant owner sam sanchez says foreign-born workers have been indispensable to his industry and like governor pritzker, he supports a pathway to legal status for long-time residents. >> the need of construction workers, the need for agriculture, farming, hospitality, hotels. i mean, senior care. this is the workforce we need. stephanie: nevertheless, sanchez, who met last month with tom homan, says he supports the administration's approach to deporting migrants, acknowledging there may be collateral damage. >> we need law and order in this country, law and order in the city to see it prosper. but unfortunately, if he has to knock on doors, he will take grandma and grandpa too if they are here undocumented. and i believe him. i think what everybody wants is to deport the criminals, secure the border and make us safe.

stephanie: but on the streets of chicago, safe is the last thing that many residents feel now. for the "pbs news hour," i'm stephanie sy. ♪ geoff: in another sweeping move of his second term, president trump has fired more than a dozen inspectors general, the non-partisan watch dogs appointed to protect against abuses of power, waste and mismanagement across federal agencies. our white house correspondent laura barron-lopez has more on the impact of this purge. laura: the wave of dismissals began on friday night and span various government agencies, including the department of defense and department of health and human services. even some members of the president's party are suggesting the firings violate federal law, which requires congress to receive at least 30 days notice and reasons for removal. mark greenblatt, who was fired

from his post as inspector general of the interior department, told the "news hour" earlier that he was heartbroken when he received notice of his firing friday night. >> the biggest fear that i have is, frankly, is the politicization of the inspector general community. i think this should send up some some red flags for the american taxpayer. we have to make sure that the mechanism of the inspectors general is independent and apolitical. laura: to discuss the impact of this decision, i'm joined by glenn fine, former inspector general for the department of justice in the clinton, bush and obama administrations. and he served as acting inspector general of the defense department during president trump's first term until trump fired him. thank you so much for joining. to start, why are inspectors general so essential to providing checks and balances for the federal government? glenn: thank you for having me. inspectors general are crucial to detecting and deterring waste, fraud and abuse, promoting the economy,

efficiency and effectiveness of federal agencies, and preventing misconduct. they are established by the specter general act of 1978 and they are supposed to be independent and objective units located within each federal agency to do their critically important mission. they return money to the federal treasury. they determine misconduct. they also let the taxpayers know how the dollars are being spent so it is important to support these independent and objective watchdogs. laura: could firing these watchdogs imperil holding the government accountable? glenn: it could. it's important they be viewed as a political and not tied to one party or another. so historically, they have remained when the administrations have changed and they are rarely fired. after 1978, the first time there was a change in administration, president reagan did treat them like other political appointees. he removed them, but there was a cry in congress. since then, presidents have

rarely fired inspectors general. maybe one or two or a few he were there but not this mass firing. the mass firing potentially undermines their independence, their effectiveness and trust that they are actually doing the jobs without regard to political considerations. laura: i want to get your thoughts on something that hannibal ware, the inspector general for the small business administration, said on friday. he was also terminated and wrote a letter saying we don't believe the actions taken are legally sufficient because they did not adhere to the 30 day window. can you explain this more and are there any options or paths of recourse for the inspectors general or congress? glenn: the inspector general act requires the president, if he wants to remove an inspector general, to give the reasons why 30 days in advance to congress. the reasons have to be

substantive rationale with a detailed and case specific reasons. that amendment was passed in 2022. it's ordered to give congress notice of the removal of an inspector general. it does not prevent the president from removing an ig, but describes the process by which needs to be followed. that apparently did not happen. congress did not get that notice. laura: you served throughout four different administrations. over the weekend, president trump said that firing the ig's was a very common thing to do. a white house official told news hour that the fired ig's are partisan bureaucrats who no longer deserve to serve in these appointed positions. what is your response to the administration? glenn: it is not a common thing to do, as i mentioned. after the transition from president -- to president reagan, it has not happened on a mass basis.

i don't consider them bureaucrats. some were appointed by trump, summer leaders of the ig community, some issued hard-hitting reports against both administrations. they have many -- many of them have done a good job. and that is the rationale for the 30 day notice with the specific reasons, case-specific reasons why the president is removing an inspector general. wastr fraude and abuse should not be a partisan issue. both sides of the aisle rely on inspectors general. for important reports and for information. it is important that they be viewed as independent and aggressive and they not be chilled in their ability to find misconduct and report on misconduct regardless of the administration. laura: what would you say to taxpayers, the american public about why they should care about these firings of inspectors general? glenn: i think inspectors

general are some of the most important public servants you have not heard of. people are hearing about them now. they return money to the treasury. that inter waste, fraud and abuse. they are not a panacea. there surely is waste, fraud and abuse in the government but they are an important part of rooting it out, reducing it and holding officials to account. they should be relied on. it is important they be viewed as apolitical. the inspector general act says they must be selected without regard to political affiliation and that is what gives them their credibility and trust. we are doing their job effectively and without fear of favor. laura: glenn fine, thank you for joining the news hour. glenn: thank you for having me. ♪ geoff: after a relentless pace his first week in office, president trump shows no sign of slowing down, kicking off week two by signing a new slew of executive orders earlier today.

here to help us keep tabs on the the president's rapid policy rollout and more, we're joined by our politics monday duo. that's amy walter of "the cook political report with amy walter," and tamara keith of npr. it is good to see you both as always. donald trump is rapidly remaking the federal government as we know it. he's expected to sign to sign two more executive orders today, one that prohibits transgender americans from serving in the military. the other would eliminate diversity programs in the armed forces. tam, how does the trump administration view these initial days and what does all of this suggest about how the next two years will go, going into the midterm? tamara: those are definitely two different questions. president trump in his remarks today to house republicans was very clear, he was taking a victory lap. you might as well put of the mission accomplished better already because he's talking about what he's done in the last week like he's already succeeded in everything he set out to do. one thing that is very clear from all these exec actions, these are largely things that he talked about in the campaign.

these are largely things he talked about in his campaign speeches which were very long and sometimes seemed like a sidetracks but even the sidetracks are getting executive actions at this point. he is following through on what he promised to do. all of this is being done through executive action. yes, there are legal challenges. there will be more legal challenges. there will be some friction to his ability to get things done. however, executive action is much easier. all you need is a sharpie, much easier than getting congress to do the big things that he wants congress to be able to do. that is a much more challenging lift. whether they are able to do that with these very narrow margins is a question of what these next two years are like. after those two years, there's a whole new presidential campaign happening. geoff: is this the trump americans voted for? that is what the white house said. there has been some polling that suggests while americans support

the ends, they may not support all of the means. amy: this is what is so interesting, especially in these past, i don't know, last 10 years or so. that the first few weeks of a president, a new president administration, they do these executive orders which is basically undoing the last president's executive orders. when i lined up what did president biden do in his first 40 days in office or first weeks in office compared to where trump is, new could look at -- you could look at one negating the other. on building the wall, support for the w.h.o., support for transgender americans and diversity and equity. it is literally, when one side wins, they believe they have a mandate to basically null and void the last four years. we also know that instead of

saying what america voted for is this side went way too much ■ovr here so we will bring it back to the center. they tend to go way off on the other side which gives the party out of power and opportunity to say you took this one step too far. that is what will be fascinating to watch for the next two years. tam is right. so much needs to be done substantively through the legislative process, but on issues like tariffs and immigration, we've only seen the beginnings of this. we have no idea how this will play out over the next week. nonetheless, these next couple of years. geoff: this sort of 12 hour trade war between the u.s. and colombia over the weekend, it fits this well-worn pattern where donald trump effectively solves the problem he helped create. in this instance, it was ending military planes to colombia with the migrants on them. pick apart that strategy for us and what it shows us.

tamara: this is a classic trump dominance strategy, where he comes out and he gets into a fight and the fight is not necessarily one that needed to happen. in this case, landing rights for aircraft are the kind of thing that are negotiated at a pretty low level by diplomats. but, that is boring. and doing things quietly and diplomatically is not the way that trump leads, particularly on the world stage. he likes to go big. he likes to make a lot of noise. he wants the fight, and he wants that fight to send a signal. colombia is not just any country, it is actually a u.s. ally and had received many flights of deportees before these that set off this kerfuffle. so, this is sending a signal that even u.s. allies, or maybe

especially u.s. allies, there's a new sheriff in town. geoff: democrats are trying to find their footing the minorityin -- in. how are they balancing opposition to trump's policies while trying to find ways to collaborate with him on the issues were democrats felix posed like immigration? amy: on immigration, who have already seen a significant number of democrats support legislation that went through the house and through the senate. that is being tougher on folks who are here illegally. you are not hearing a unified voice, a unified outcry among democrats about what is happening right now in many of these major cities with deportations. it is unclear if that is going to continue as these deportations start to ramp up or if they start to bring u.s. citizens into that net. i think the most important thing for democrats to realize though is they are in the minority.

when you are out of power, you are out of power. the reality is they now can really just simply react to what is happening based on what republicans are doing. and their strategy going forward in many ways is going to be a reaction to what the republican party did. four years from now or three years from now or a year from now when the presidential race really begins, that is when the democratic messaging really begins. who do democrats want to be? what do they want their message to be? you don't have an opposition party leader like they do in so many other countries. it is really the nominee of the party who becomes that messenger and that is going to be a long time from now. tamara: there is this dnc chair election coming up. that will not solve all of this for democrats. they have a lot to figure out and they are very much not speaking with one voice in congress. geoff: tamara keith and amy

walter, thanks to you both. ♪ amna: survivors of the holocaust gathered at one of the scenes of the nazis' gravest crimes today -- the extermination camp at auschwitz-birkenau in poland on this 80th anniversary of its liberation. of the more than six million jews murdered by the nazis, 1.1 million were killed at auschwitz, and among them, nearly a quarter million were children. many of the survivors there today were but children when they were marched through the camp on little feet, wearing little shoes. now, a project to preserve those shoes is renewing attention on the war's smallest victims. here's special correspondent malcolm brabant. malcolm: behind guard towers and disconnected electrified barbed-wire fences, dedicated restorers are working with great

tenderness in a place synonymous with unspeakable cruelty. >> time is our main enemy here. malcolm: historian marcin noras has been working for two years, preserving shoes belonging to the extermination camp's youngest victims. >> the leather itself is pretty resilient when it comes to the passage of time. metal, however, is our main issue. metal starts corroding. that corrosion triggers the degradation process as in everything else. malcolm: although auschwitz was turned into a museum a year after being liberated by the soviet red army in january 1945, it remains a crime scene. >> basically, we are dealing with evidence of a crime. this is the philosophy adopted by the museum that this is evidence of a crime. one of the largest crimes in world history. malcolm: the conservators are working on 8000 children's shoes, a fraction of the 120,000 in the auschwitz collection. >> preserving these objects.

this evidence is about preserving the memory of the victims of the crime, preserving their identity. malcolm: in all, one of the half million children were murdered during the holocaust. 235,000 perished here. at auschwitz, birkenau . frequently, children were the first to be exterminated because the nazis believed they were too weak to be forced to work and were a waste of food. 80 years ago, the air here was heavy with the stench of death, but not anymore. over time, the ashes of the children have been absorbed into the earth, and they are beneath my feet. and beneath the feet of millions who walk past this drawing of an orchestra, serenading slave laborers herded beneath the sign, "work sets you free." the victims of auschwitz have no graves. the only tangible evidence of their earthly pres a possessions the germans

confiscated as they ordered the jews to take a shower. we're not allowed to film the exhibit of human hair, but the suitcases and baskets and shoes provide a tenuous link with the six million who perished in the holocaust. >> i feel very responsible about these objects. it's a feeling closer to my sense of ethics and responsibility. malcolm: art historian heloise bourgois, from bordeaux in france, was drawn to poland by her interest in the plight of displaced people. >> we want to connect issues with the identity of the person because that's the beautiful part of it. the ugly part of it is that we don't have the identities of the person. malcolm: but on very rare occasions, they do find a link. this shoe belonged to six-year-old amos steinberg from prague in the czech republic who was murdered with his mother in 1944. his father ludvig, who was deported to auschwitz on an earlier transport, survived the war and became a school principal in israel.

>> most of those shoes come from hungary. malcolm: in just eight weeks in 1944, some 425,000 jews were deported to auschwitz from hungary. the gas chambers were so busy, that these hungarians waited their turn in the trees by crematorium four. >> sometimes, we can tell there is like the brand or the manufacturer written. and so we can tell, oh, that comes from a region close to budapest. malcolm: the conservators may not know the identities of the children whose shoes survived, but this is the man directly responsible for their deaths. adolf eichmann was one of the architects of hitler's final solution and personally directed the deportation of hungarian jews before fleeing to argentina after the war. eichmann was abducted by mossad, and taken to israel where he went on trial in 1961.

>> i am not guilty. malcolm: eichmann was found guilty of crimes a thanged rudolph hoss, the commandant of auschwitz, on the right, also went to the gallows, but josef mengele, known as the angel of death, in the center, fled to south america after the war and escaped justice. this chimney stack is all that remains of mengele's clinic where he conducted inhumane medical experiments, especially on twins. this wooden shack is evidence of the nazis' determination to wipe out the jewish people. here, nurses used poison here to murder children too young to wear shoes. >> it means distance is right way to go but it does not remove my emotions.

malcolm: the conservation project is due to finish in april, but not before every shoe has been weighed and then photographed by coordinator mirek maciaszczyk. >> you need to keep a certain separation while working with objects such as children's shoes. when you've got a shoe in your nd belonging to a child of 10 or 8 or younger, it's easy to let emotions get the better of you. but then, we can't work. we're here to conserve, to take care of these shoes, to preserve them for future generations. malcolm: here are some more faces of jewish children who lost their shoes and their lives in auschwitz. ♪ they were murdered after participating in an opera in the terezin concentration camp in what was czechoslovakia. this is a nazi propaganda film, shot after the germans tricked the red cross into believing that terezin was a spa town, where jewish prisoners were well

treated. do you think it will be possible these days to eradicate 6 million people the way the jews were in the second world war? >> is a very difficult question. i would have to think about it. malcolm: with social media and everything else. >> i think it would be very much possible to repeat the holocaust because i think propaganda is now more potent than it ever was. you mentioned social media as a factor of preventing propaganda, but i think in the past 10 years, if they taught us anything, is that social media is also the perfect medium for propaganda. malcolm: as noras says, appearances can be deceptive. this mural looks reassuring, but it's in a barrack that provided temporary shelter for so many children before they were gassed. it's preserved to remind the world of two words -- never again. for the "pbs news hour," i'm malcolm brabant in auschwitz birkenau. ♪

geoff: and join us again here tomorrow night when we will have a look at efforts to end diversity and inclusion programs in the military. and that's 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 -- >> a proud supporter of public television. on a voyage, the world awaits. a world of flavor, diverse destinations, and immersive experiences. a world of leisure and british style. all with white star service. ♪ >> in 1995, two friends set out

to make wireless coverage accessible to all. with no long-term contracts, nationwide converge, and 100% u.s. customer support. consumer cellular, freedom calls. ♪ >> the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org. 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. ♪

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hello, everyone and welcome to amanpour & co. here is what is coming up. clinton didn't listen. will trump, will marco rubio? that is what we need to see. >> the trump administration pledges to be the most pro- israel in history. i asked former state departnt