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

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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: in one 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 daylong 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. pres. trump: if we do our job over the next 21 months, not only will house republicans be reelected and expand our majority. in 2026, we will cement 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. so, lisa, tell us what you're hearing from those house republicans. are they all firmly behind the president's actions? lisa: the sense here, amna, is that they are. certainly, publicly, republicans are all telling me that they back even his most controversial ideas. now, what is happening, though, somewhat behind the scenes is that there is some discomfort for some members on some ideas, including things like cubans and venezuelans who have temporary status. that's an issue here in miami in florida in particular. but members who have problems with the way that president trump has proceeded here seem to be trying to influence him behind the scenes, not criticizing him. overall, he has basically a wide grace period, a very wide berth from his own party to do what he will right now as they watch him. i asked speaker johnson just 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 the sign of what he calls a new era in government. >> when the president says he wants to make the government more efficient and effective, and we say we want to limit the size and scope of government, it means that everything is on the table for reevaluation. this is a new moment for us to reevaluate everything that the federal government does. lisa: now, essentially, what we have here is not just the party of donald trump, but also the congress for now of donald trump. it really is more than symbolic that house republicans are meeting here at his resort. trump stands to profit both politically and financially from this retreat. amna: and, lisa, of course, this is a critical time for republicans' larger agenda. so what are they discussing at this retreat specifically? lisa: you know, i have got to tell you, amna, i have been to many of these retreats, and i don't think i have ever been at one where the decisions here have had such high dollar figures and potentially such high, far-reaching effects to them. so let's look at this sort of massive fiscal goals that

republicans have here at this retreat. 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, whether they're extended or not, most every american. they also want to add to that a host of other tax cuts. remember, trump on the campaign trail raised, for example, exempting tipped wages from tax cuts. well, what we have here, what i have seen and other reporters have obtained, is a list, a menu of over 200 kinds of actions related to this tax cut agenda. that includes also how you might pay for those tax cuts. so, going along with that, though, 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 just the first three months of this year. and some of these ideas, cuts in particular to medicaid, are tough politically, amna. so they really have their work

cut out for them. they all have to agree, and these are not easy things to figure out. amna: lisa, walk us through the timeline here. what's needed to get all of that time? lisa: ok, we're going to 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. so let's talk about what this would look like. if you look at today, you look at exactly what that outline would be, you start today and you look at january 27 today. and 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, that major deadline, that he wants to have a budget for the following year from his party by that last week of february. and what's more is the congress will not be here all of february. so there's only three weeks really remaining to get these things done, amna. and a reminder that they are down or they will be down soon to just a single-vote majority

in the house. so this is a very difficult business and they're working on it here. amna: that's our lisa desjardins reporting from miami, florida, tonight. lisa, thank you. lisa: you're welcome. geoff: today, in bogota, colombia, the u.s. embassy there canceled appointments for colombians hoping to get visas to enter the u.s. 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 the latest. so, nick, give us a sense of what unfolded this past weekend and give us an update on where things stand right now between the u.s. and colombia. nick: geoff, this morning outside the u.s. embassy in bogota, colombians expecting to

pick up their visas instead picked up this piece of paper saying that their appointments were canceled due to -- quote -- "the colombian government's refusal to accept repatriation flights of colombian nationals”n military planes, unlike biden era deportations on commercial or charter planes, began late last week. the trump administration said colombia initially agreed to receive colombian deportees, but after some brazilian deportees you see there arrived in handcuffs or reports of poor conditions on the planes, that's when colombian president gustavo petro announced publicly that colombia would not receive them until they -- quote -- "received dignity and respect.” in reply to that, president trump threatened 25% tariffs that could rise to 50%, travel bans, visa revocations, and enhanced inspections on colombian goods. and in reply to that, petro vowed his own tariffs and called president trump a -- quote -- "enslaver," who was -- quote -- "going to wipe out the human species because of greed.” now, that is what petro said.

what he did was cave. the government now says that it will allow these deportation flights to leave the united states on military planes and land in colombia. trump said the visa restrictions would go into effect and remain in place until that first plane lands, and that's why, geoff, we saw those lines outside the embassy. geoff: why did petro reverse course? was it the threat of the tariffs? nick: well, petro is a former marxist fighter turned leftist politician who fought the biden administration over counter-narcotics policies. so, to a certain extent, a clash with trump was inevitable. but colombia is economically vulnerable, as your question indicated. the u.s. is colombia's largest trading partner, 25%, let alone 50%. tariffs would have destroyed colombia's economy. the exports are flowers, crude oil, and coffee. but the irony is, colombia is one of, if not the most important partners of the united states in the region. former senior biden officials tell me that petro cooperated with them on deportation flights, so long as those flights were commercial or charter flights. and for the last 20 years, the

u.s. and colombia have worked very closely together, including military-to-military cooperation, focused on regional security. biden officials told me they received cooperation their priorities, so they tolerated petro's outbursts, something, geoff, clearly, trump is not d geoff: so what does all of this suggest, nick, about the trump administration's latin america strategy? nick: trump officials say, from their perspective, 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. >> what the trump administration, i think, wanted to do was set the tone for other countries, which were looking very 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.

and i think they didn't want to set that precedent, which is why they were willing to threaten such high tariffs and such coercive measures. nick: but trump's critics, geoff, 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.' global and regional most important competitor, and that is beijing, says former mexican ambassador to the u.s. arturo sarukhan. >> the u.s. historically threw its weight around the hemisphere in sort of what i would call in 21st century or 20th century terms the trump's sinatra doctrine. it's my way or the highway. but there's a sort of a monroe doctrine rehashed, and this at the end of the day 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, and it could be counterproductive.

nick: and we will see how this goes, geoff, beginning this weekend, when secretary of state marco rubio makes the first cabinet trip internationally, and that will be to panama. geoff: all right nick schifrin, our thanks to you, as always. nick: thank you. stephanie: i'm stephanie sy wood news hour west. here are the days latest headlines area 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. amna has our report. amna: in gaza today, rare scenes of grief, 7-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 mahoud and ibrahim al-atut, 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's 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 on saturday, but israel held up their return, saying hamas violated the cease-fire agreement by not releasing civilian hostage arbel yehud over the weekend. yesterday, hamas agreed to release yehud 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 cease-fire deal are dead. israel says the next set of hostages is expected to be released on thursday. amna: also today, the trump administration kicked off its second week with a flurry of activity involving his top team. this evening the senate confirmed scott bessent as mr. trump's treasury secretary. the hedge fund mogul will take a prominent role in implementing the president's economic agenda. 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 trump's immigration policies after the pentagon sent 1,500 troops and other resources to the border last week. pete hegseth, u.s. defense secretary: we 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. stephanie: in the meantime, the air force says it will keep the storied tuskegee airmen in its curriculum for new recruits, along with the women 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. he eliminated di initiatives and troops that were expelled for reviews and covid-19 vaccine will be reinstated to their former rank with full pay. 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 that -- reversed his own decision to bar steward 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. that 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 conspiracies.

in southern california, we can down pours has given 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 run-off. 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 a.i. field rattled the tech sector. the nasdaq sank 600 points, way down by a nearly 17% drop from a.i. heavyweight nvidia. 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 will have a deeper look at that later in the broadcast. still to come, fear spreads in immigrant communities as raise and deportations escalate.

concerns about government fraud and ethics after president trump fires more than a dozen independent watchdogs. in 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 from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. geoff: a new china-based artificial intelligence start-up 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 a.i. 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 artificial intelligence.

gerrit de vynck is a tech reporter for the washington post and joins us now. thanks for being here. gerrit de vynck, tech reporter, the washington post: of course. geoff: so, explain for the unfamiliar, what is deepseek, this new chinese-based a.i. start-up that's the source of such consternation in silicon valley? gerrit de vynck: yes, so i mean, people are maybe familiar with openai or the maker of chatgpt. maybe they have used other a.i. tools from other big tech or american companies to help them write a resume or help them write a wedding speech or maybe even help them with e-mails at work, generate images, that kind of thing. deepseek is just a small chinese company that essentially makes a product very similar to chatgpt. it's a chatbot that you can have a conversation with. you can ask it to generate all kinds of writing. you can sort of do research on it. and the big reason why people are so freaked out about it here in silicon valley and i think in political and national security circles as well is that people have seen a.i. as something that's very expensive to do.

you need to put a lot of money into it, tens and even hundreds of millions of dollars, in order to train a.i. software to be as capable as the leading a.i. programs like chatgpt. and according to these chinese researchers who work at deepseek, they have actually found ways to do it much more efficiently, meaning they can produce very highly capable a.i. software at a fraction of the cost of what american companies have been spending. geoff: right. 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 that it couldn't have an upper hand in the u.s.china battle for tech supremacy. how did china make an end run around that? gerrit de vynck: yes, i mean, the way that you make something like chatgpt is, you take a huge amount of data and you run it through a bunch of really, really advanced computer chips,

most of which are made by u.s. company nvidia. and those computer chips are very expensive, and over the last couple of years everyone's been scrambling for them. and with the goal of sort of slowing down the chinese a.i. industry, the biden administration actually put very strict controls on exporting those chips to china. however, there has been quite a bit of reporting and the biden administration before it left office actually admitted that chinese companies were still able to find ways to get chips either by buying them through third countries or smuggling them in. geoff: and, as we mentioned this app, this deepseek app surged to the top of the iphone download charts shortly after it was released. and i imagine that also raises national security concerns, given all the hand-wringing about tiktok, and now there's this other chinese app. gerrit de vynck: yes, i think it's quite interesting. i mean, regular people can download this app, they can use it.

and there's all sorts of concerns, if you're putting your data into deepseek, it's going to go to a chinese company. i think people should really think twice about maybe using this app, of course, remembering, if you use an american app, they're also logging your data, but maybe you're more comfortable using an american company than a chinese one. but what's i think even more interesting is that deepseek has actually made their technology available on the internet for anyone to download. and so, yes, there is an app, there's a web site that you can use deepseek just like you might use chatgpt. but if you have a business and you want to use a.i. technology to make your own business or your own app more capable, you can just use deepseek's technology and sort of configure it and see how it works for yourself. and so there's concerns that, if you use deepseek, maybe it's censored, it's not going to be giving you answers about tiananmen square or other sort of controversial aspects from a chinese perspective. but if you just download their software, you can use it yourself and it's not censored at all. geoff: there's some reports today that the panic over this has been overblown, at least to the degree that it's been

reflected in the markets. what do you make of that? and what are the overall implications for the global a.i. marketplace? gerrit de vynck: you mentioned that sort of $6 million number. and i want to contrast that number with the number we got last week, which was which was $500 billion, which is the goal that openai has in terms of investing in building out new a.i. data centers and buying computer chips, right? and this was an announcement they made alongside president trump on his first real day in office, very -- he was very ill excited. he was very keen to sort of showcase that this money was going to be spent here in america. and suddenly we now are asking questions such as, do you really need that amount of money to

build advanced a.i.? and so that's really the question that the tech industry is reeling with here. and i think there's different opinions. some people say, well, actually, it's not that bad. even if you find more efficient ways of making a.i. software, having a lot of computer chips, having a lot of money will still give you an advantage in the long run because you can do even more with it. but that's really the question that we're going to sort of see answered over the next few weeks and months here. geoff: gerrit de vynck of the washington post, thanks for being with us. gerrit de vynck: any time. ♪ amna: one of the biggest questions as trump's second term begins is just how wide and how quickly his administration will conduct mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. as we reported earlier, those operations got under way 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 1,000 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. tom homan, white house border czar: if you're in the country illegally, you're on the table, because it's not ok to violate

laws of this country. you got to remember, every time you enter this country illegally, you violated a crime under title 8, 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, nonprofit 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 ask 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. emilio araujo, onward neighborhood house: 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 bused 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. emilio araujo: getting out information like know your rights information, connecting with families, make sure that they have a plan in case they are arrested or detained or anything like that, and, 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. pedro martinez, ceo, chicago public schools: i want families to be assured 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. pedro martinez: there is complete alignment here between our state, our city and our district. stephanie: on friday, school officials at a south side 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 sur 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 accused 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 getting swept up in the process. >> they're 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, and they're often our neighbors and our friends. and 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 longtime residents. sam sanchez, third coast hospitality: the need of construction workers, the need for agriculture, farming, hospitality, hotels, i mean, senior care, these are the workers 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. sam sanchez: 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're 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. those are the nonpartisan watchdogs 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 spanned 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. mark greenblatt, former inspector general, department of interior: the biggest fear that i have is, frankly, is the politicization of the inspector general community. i think this should be -- should send up some red flags for the american taxpayer. we have to make sure that the mechanism of the inspector 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 also served as acting inspector general of the defense department during president trump's first term, until trump fired him. glenn, thank you so much for joining. to start, why are inspector general so essential to providing checks and balances for the federal government? glenn fine, former acting inspector general, department of defense: well, 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 inspector general act of 1978, and they're supposed to be independent and objective units located with each -- within each federal agency to do their critically important mission. they return money to the federal treasury, they deter misconduct, and they also let the taxpayers know how their dollars are being spent. so it's important to support these independent and objective watchdogs. laura: could firing these watchdogs imperil holding the government accountable? glenn fine: it could. it's important that they be viewed as apolitical and not tied to one party or another. so, historically, they have remained when the administrations have changed and they're rarely fired even within the term of an administration. 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 hue and cry in congress. since then, presidents have rarely fired inspectors general, maybe one or two or a few here or there, but not this mass firing. and 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 he wrote a letter saying "we do not believe the actions taken are legally sufficient" because they didn't adhere to that 30-day window. can you explain this more? and are there any options or paths of recourse for the inspectors general or congress? glenn fine: so, 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, and the reasons have to be a substantive rationale with detailed and case-specific reasons. that amendment was passed in 2022 in a bipartisan way, and it's in order to give congress notice of the removal of an inspector general. and it does not prevent the

president from removing an i.g. but it describes the process which must be followed. that apparently didn't happen. congress did not get that notice, and it's important to get that notice. and it doesn't -- that doesn't seem to have happened. laura: and you served throughout four different administrations. over the weekend, president trump said that firing the i.g.s was a -- quote -- "very common thing to do." and a white house official told "news hour" that the fired i.g.s are -- quote -- "partisan bureaucrats" who -- quote -- "no longer deserve to serve in these appointed positions.” what's your response to the administration? glenn fine: 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. they range the gamut, these inspector general. some were appointed by trump. some were leaders of the i.g. community. some have issued hard-hitting reports against both administrations, including the biden administration. so they have -- many of them

have done a good job. and that's the rationale for the 30-day notice with the specific reasons, case-specific reasons, why the president is removing an inspector general. and waste, fraud, and abuse should not be a partisan issue. it is not a partisan issue. both sides of the aisle rely on inspectors general. congress relies on inspectors general for important reports and for information. so it's important that they be viewed as independent and aggressive and that they not be chilled in their ability to find misconduct and report on misconduct regardless of the administration. laura: glenn, what would you say to taxpayers, to the american public about why they should care about these firings of inspectors general? glenn fine: i think inspectors general are some of the most important public servants you haven't heard of. people are hearing about them now. but, as i said, they return money to the treasury. they deter waste, fraud, and abuse. they're not a panacea. there surely is waste, fraud, and abuse in this government.

but inspectors general are an important part of rooting it out, reducing it and holding officials to account. they should be relied on. and it's important that they be viewed as apolitical. in fact, the inspector general act says they must be selected without regard to political affiliation. and that's what gives them their credibility and the trust of the american government that they're doing their job effectively and without fear or favor. laura: glenn fine, thank you for joining the "news hour.” glenn fine: thank you for having me. geoff: after a relentless pace of his first week in office, president trump is kicking off week two by signing a new slew of executive orders. here to help us keep tabs on 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's good to see you both, as always.

so donald trump is rapidly remaking the federal government as we know it. he's expected to sign two more executive orders today. one would prohibit 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, let's say, two years will go going into the midterm? tamara keith, national public radio: yes. and those are definitely two different questions. president trump in his remarks today to house republicans, it was very clear that he was taking a victory lap. you might as well put up the mission accomplished banner already, because he is talking about what he's done in the last week like he has already succeeded at everything he set out to do. one thing is very clear from all of these executive actions. these are largely things that he talked about in the campaign. these are largely things that he talked about in his campaign speeches, which were very long and sometimes seemed like sidetracks, but even the sidetracks are getting executive actions at this point.

so 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. and that is a much more challenging lift. that is -- whether they are able to do that with these very narrow margins is really the question of what the next two years are like and then, after those two years, well, there's a whole new presidential campaign happening. amy: yes. geoff: and, amy, what about that? is this the trump that americans voted for. that's what the white house says, that people shouldn't be surprised. he said he was going to do all of this. amy: they shouldn't be surprised, absolutely. geoff: but there's been some polling that suggests that while americans support the ends, they may not necessarily support all of the means. amy: yes, this is what's so interesting, especially in these past, i don't know, let's call it the last 10 years or so, that the first few weeks of a president -- new president's

administration, they do these executive orders, which are basically just undoing the last president's executive orders. in fact, when i lined up, what did president biden do in his first, say, 40 days in office or first weeks in office compared to where trump is, you could literally just say one is just negating the other on building the wall, on support for the who, on support for transgender americans and diversity and equity. so it is literally, when one side wins, they believe that they have a mandate to basically null and void the last four years. what we also know, though, is that instead of saying, well, what america voted for was they thought this side went way too much over here, so we're going to just bring it back to the center, they tend to then go way off on the other side, which gives the party out of power an

opportunity to say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you took this one step too far. and that's what's going to be fascinating to watch for these next two years. tam's right that so much needs to get done substantively through the legislative process, but on issues like tariffs and immigration, we have only seen the beginnings of this. we have absolutely no idea how this is going to play out over the next week, nonetheless these next couple of years. geoff: and, tam, 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 sending military planes to colombia with the with the migrants on them. pick apart that strategy, that approach for us and what it shows us. tamara: yes, this is a classic trump dominance strategy, where he comes out and he gets in 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 in -- by diplomats, but that's 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 likes the fight. he wants the fight and he wants that fight to send a signal. colombia isn't just any country. it's actually a u.s. ally and had received many flights of deportees before these that set off this kerfuffle. and 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: and, meantime, democrats are trying to find their footing in the minority. how are they balancing opposition to trump's policies while trying to find ways to, in many ways, collaborate with him on the issues where democrats feel exposed, like immigration?

amy: right. so -- and they have. on immigration, you 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're 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's unclear if that's 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're in the minority. when you're out of power, you are out of power. and 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's when the democratic messaging really begins. who do democrats want to be? what do they want their message to be? we don't have an opposition party leader in this country like they do in so many other countries. it's really the nominee of the party who becomes that messenger. and that is going to be a long time from now. tamara: yes, there's this dnc chair election coming up. let's just say that is not going to 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 even. geoff: tamara keith and amy walter, thanks to you both. appreciate it. amy: you're welcome.

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 just children when they were marched through the camp on little feet wearing little shoes. now a project to preserve those shoes is renewing attention 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. marcin noras, historian, auschwitz shoe conservation project: time is our main enemy here. malcolm: historian marcin noras has been working for two years preserving shoes belonging to the extermination camps youngest

victims. marcin noras: 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. marcin noras: 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 8,000 children's shoes, a fraction of the 120,000 in the auschwitz collection. marcin noras: preserving these objects, this evidence is about preserving the memory of the victims of the crime, preserving their identity often. malcolm: in all, 1.5 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. eighty 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 beneath the sign "work sets you free.” the victims of auschwitz have no graves. the only tangible evidence of their earthly presence are the 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 spiritual 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. heloise bourgois: we want to connect issues with the shoes 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 6-year-old amos steinberg from prague in the czech republic, who was murdered with his mother in 1944. his father, ludwig, who was deported to auschwitz on an earlier transport, survived the war and became a school principal in israel. heloise bourgois: mostly, 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 were forced to wait their turn in the trees by crematorium 4. heloise bourgois: 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. >> in the spirit of the indictment, i am not guilty. malcolm: eichmann was found guilty of crimes against the jewish people and hanged.

rudolf hoess, 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. heloise bourgois: i'm sensitive by nature. maybe you can hear from my voice. that means that distance is really the right way to go. but i think it doesn't remove my emotions. malcolm: the 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 have got a shoe in your hand 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 six million people the way the jews in -- during the second world war? marcin noras: it's a very difficult question, honestly. i need to think a little. malcolm: with social media, with all the public pressure and

everything? marcin noras: yes, 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 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 -- >> 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. 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 coverage, 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. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] >> 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.

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