♪ anchor: tonight, a federal judge ruled that doge cannot access sensitive records. plans to dismantle usaid are temporarily halted.

we explore the deep roots of dei in this country as a comes under attack. and new clues about the origin of life on earth. >> this is telling us that not just the water but some of the building blocks for life were seeded on earth and other planets. ♪ >> major funding has been provided by -- >> friends set out to make wilder -- wireless coverage accessible to all with no long-term contracts, nationwide coverage, and u.s.-based customer support. consumer cellular, freedom calls. ♪ >> the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions.

and friends. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. anchor: good evening. two courts have set back the trump administration's plans to shrink the federal workforce and reshape the u.s. government. this morning, a federal judge temporarily blocked doge from accessing sensitive treasury department records, including social security numbers and bank accounts of millions of americans. this came after another judge

paused the plan to place more than 2000 employees at usaid on paid leave. it is a setback in trump's efforts to dismantle the global humanitarian agency. one of the two federal employee organizations that suit to solve the plan is the american foreign service association, whose members primarily work abroad. thank you so much for being here. we know that all employees at usaid got a email saying you should be able to access the system again. sources i have spoken with sadie so cannot log into the system and they have no access. where do things stand as you are aware and are the people running what remains of usaid comply with this court order? >> so far i am hearing the same.

they still do not have access to systems. and the public facing website now is dark. anchor: you are going to have another hearing on february 12. what happens between now and then? >> lawyers will be presenting additional evidence. i think the point of the hearing is just to do that. get the judge to say this must stop. let's stop doing the work of the federal government. lit serve the public. anchor: this temporary

restraining order, there is also a stop work order. are they going to be able to do their jobs? >> it is a big problem. humanitarian assistance has stopped. our work promoting economic development opportunities for women and girls. immunization programs. these programs are vital notches just for the country but for americans. anchor: tell me about how your officers abroad are dealing with this. what are they telling you right now about what it is like in the field? >> in the field, there is no work going on.

it is hurting families. anchor: we have seen efforts to remove the presence of the organization here in washington. if these court orders do what you hope you do, is there way to reverse what is already been done? >> it will be a big environment. they took our name off of the building. that is a sign of what the administration wants to do. hopefully we can work with the state department, who we work with all of the time, the come up with a plan forward for what

u.s. policy for international development is and how usaid is a part of that going forward. it is the work that matters. we want to see a presence overseas during vital projects. that promote businesses and economic linkages and market development for americans to tap into overseas. anchor: what do you want americans to know about usaid? >> i think it is important to know that foreign services -- service officers are americans. we are patriots. we come from small towns. we are america. we represent you overseas. that is what i think people do not know. we are really doing this on behalf of you and making these friendships and linkages and

making the world a safe place. that benefits everyone in america. anchor: thank you so much for being here. >> anchor: thank you. president trump is also taking aim at another washington institution, the kennedy center for the performing arts. he said he plans to name himself chairman and fire members of the traditionally bipartisan board of trustees. the president took issue with drag events and said they would stop. the kennedy center said it did not receive any official communications from the white house but that some individual board members received termination notices. trump's signed an executive order to prioritize the resettlement of white south africans in the u.s. he alleged that white south africans are now the target of oppression by the country's

government. claiming a new south african law allows seizure of their land. elon musk has previously criticized the south that -- south african government as antiwhite. in the middle east come the fragile cease-fire between israel and hamas has held up through the latest round of hostage and prisoner exchanges. three israeli hostages were headed over to the retina -- red cross today. benjamin netanyahu said their shocking frailty will not go on address. shortly after the hostages were returned, israel released 183 palestinian prisoners and detainees. seven prisoners convicted of the

most serious crimes will be transferred to egypt. authorities are racing to capture the wreckage of a small commuter plane that crashed off of the coast of alaska. all 10 people aboard were killed. crews are working to recover the victims and the wreckage from the ice before a winter storm hits the area in a matter of hours. still to come, a new book aims to rebrand what it means to be a stay-at-home mom. and how a nasa mission may give us a better understanding of the origins of life on earth. >> this is pbs news weekend, from our studios in washington, home of the pbs news hour. anchor: since president trump returned to the white house, rolling back diversity, equity,

and inclusion initiatives has been at the top of his agenda. he has targeted these programs, dismantling decades of federal antidiscrimination policy. we explored the origins of d.e.i. in america. >> long before it became a household term, there were other efforts to move to equal rights for all americans. some of the earliest when the late 1800s. as southern states enacted jim crow laws, making segregation legal. they helped them look for jobs. in 1866, andrew johnson veto legislation whom.

nearly a century later, black americans was ill facing racism and discrimination. at the height of the movement, jfk became the first president to call for affirmative action. lyndon johnson signed the civil rights act. by the 1990's, a backlash that emerged over affirmative action. voters in california, washington , michigan, and arizona banned its use in a public education and employment.

racial justice was back in the conscience. companies began ending these initiatives after the supreme court banned affirmative action in college admissions. the roots run deep in american history. anchor: earlier i spoke to a professor at usc.

>> i think this is a very particular moment in which those three letters are being scapegoated, the last. everything is being blamed on those three letters. most polling shows that americans believe that diversity is a good thing. they ought to be inclusive environments. the broader ideals remain at the core of america. anchor: why has it become so politicized? >> let's rewind almost five years ago when george floyd was murdered.

we saw it play out on video footage. that forest a reckoning. that was a conversations that most americans did not care to have. what we saw after that was a bit of an allergic reaction. that became legislative. as states across the country began to ban teaching and learning about d.e.i. i do not blame the entire thing on the murder of george floyd. but that certainly marked a pivotal chapter in our nations history. anchor: there are d.e.i. programs that came about big

companies and government entities across the country. >> the intended goal of those efforts was to right wrongs. those efforts were certainly not intended to divide people or force them into two categories. that is the narrative. most of those efforts were the antithesis of that. they intended to bring people together. they intended to help us think about how to make our schools and companies and communities more fair and more inclusive. anchor: president trump announced he would be ridding the federal government of

anything pertaining to d.e.i. certainly we do not yet know the scope of what that means. there is a lot influx. i am wondering from your perspective, what does that mean for americans? >> it is bad for our democracy. it will lead to greater polarization. more divisiveness. lots of people losing their jobs. federal professionals who do d.e.i. work. we have seen an uptick in costly litigation that will cost american taxpayers. one these programs help to protect against these things. anchor: thank you so much for

joining us. >> thanks so much. ♪ anchor: for some women, leaving the workforce to care for children or family is a choice. for others, it is a necessity. she does not think that a career pause means putting aside your professional ambitions. she founded a group dedicated to challenging ideas about stay-at-home motherhood. i recently spoke to her about her new book. >> in 2016i have my first child. when i was rocking with him in the rocking chair, i suddenly felt like i wanted more time with him. i had every intention of

returning to my career. but i started hearing from everyone, are you giving up? did you waste a spot at business school? i was meeting all of these incredible women similar to myself who had clocked in a decade in their career, have very modern relationships with their husbands, were making strategic choices. all of them were at the receiving end of unwelcome commentary like that. i realized we were all facing this very outdated perception of the stay-at-home mother. we never updated for the modern reality of having children. they have access to digital tools and technologies. very few of them are shut in and stagnant like the word implies. they are keeping themselves connected and creative in so many interesting ways. so i started this platform and it has grown since. anchor: choosing to put your career on pause in many cases means putting on pause other

elements of your life. how can women prepare for that shift? >> acknowledging that it is an identity shift. answering the question what you do in this country has come to stand in for who are you? saying i am a stay-at-home mom seems to not convey the ways you are active and interesting. women fear that. you can just say that right now i get to be with my kids. we will see what comes next. that gives you language to walk through life with confidence. it also reaffirms that all of those skills and accomplishments that you gained in your professional life before do not evaporate. >> you talk a lot of your book about how sometimes it is not a choice.

you also write about how i could be a positive in terms of your career. it can actually help you once you are ready to upshift again. >> career pauses are not life pauses. we are still moving forward in many ways. that can make them more sustainable. we are shifting our career to make room for family life. we can make room for what likes us up. new skills learned in caregiving. if you have ever spent a minute with a child. it is the ultimate leadership training ground. we are giving ourselves a chance to deepen our networks in nontraditional ways. explore new interests through volunteering or new hobbies, even if we do not have the same time available to us. anchor: what is your advice to

women who are at the end of this career pause and are ready to return to something else? whatever they were doing before that? >> as soon as they feel that they are ready for something else, i hope they start studying themselves. taking stock of all the ways in which they are can tribute in, participating, volunteering. things that light them up and make them feel proud. it could be advising a friend on their business, volunteering for the school. a woman in north carolina took stock of all the different ways that she was staying engaged. one of the things that popped up was how she coordinated a bus group for a local organization. that revealed a couple of things, that she was really interested in project management and now she was going to roundup her experience with a certification class.

when she went to add to her resume, she was able to look at the bullets that stood out and apply fancy language. that gave her a powerful talking point to be able to convey with confidence how she was committed to this return but also how she had developed experience to her time away. anchor: fascinating. such imported advice for anyone at any stage of their career. thank you so much for being here. >> i am so grateful. ♪ anchor: science is made great progress in telling the story of how earth was formed. volcanic eruption's, plate tectonics, and earthquakes

shaped the landscape. now a mission by nasa to contain an ancient asteroid has revealed that the building blocks of life may have been scattered throughout the solar system years ago. tensions were high at nasa on september 24, 2023, as this capsule hurtled toward earth. >> after an exhilarating streak across the atmosphere, we have parachute deployment. i can hear some applause here. >> while meteorites landowners quite often, the sample was collected after touching down on the surface of an asteroid in space. she is an associate professor at purdue university.

>> asteroids are really like relics from the early solar system. if you think about earth, it is changing all the time. >> are you ready to see the results of the mission? >> it contained water, carbon, nitrogen, and other organic matter. and it held more secrets. this discovery has given momentum to the theory that not only can asteroid destroy life, as it did with the dinosaurs, but it can also spread it. >> we thought that the water on earth could have come from asteroid.

this is telling us that notches the water but some of the building blocks for life were seeded on earth and other planets. >> they are now aiming at a new target. ♪ anchor: that is our program for tonight. for all of our colleagues, thank you for joining us. >> major funding has been provided by -- the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions.

this program was made possible by contributions from your pbs station -- to your pbs station. ♪ >> you are

gates: i'm henry louis gates jr. welcome to "finding your roots." in this episode, we'll meet josé andrés and sean sherman, two chefs who are using their kitchens to help create a better world.