♪ amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff bennett is on assignment. on the newshour tonight -- in a white house visit with the king of jordan, president trump doubles down on his plan to take over gaza and push out palestinians. we examine the long-term effects of the trump administration's plans to cut medical research funding.

and how students and teachers whose schools were destroyed by the california wildfires are finding ways to keep learning. >> sure, we lost our building, but we still have each other. and i think that that has been a huge factor in students being able to move forward. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour, including kathy and paul anderson and camilla and george smith. >> the charles f kettering foundation, working to advance inclusive democracies. learn more at kettering.org. >> fostering informed and

engaged communities. mourad kf -- more at kf.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. amna: welcome to the newshour. the fate of the ceasefire in gaza appears fragile tonight after israel today threatened to restart the war unless hamas releases all israeli hostages by saturday.

the overall fate of gaza was the focus on an oval office meeting between president trump and jordan's king abdullah, in which trump vowed to “take” the enclave. nick schifrin reports. reporter: tonight on the outskirts of gaza, israeli troops are once again, preparing for war. hamas is threatening to delay an upcoming hostage release, because it says israel is withholding tents. so today, prime minister benjamin netanyahu replied with his own threat. >> if hamas does not return our hostages by saturday noon, the ceasefire will end, and the military will return to intense fighting until hamas is finally defeated. reporter: the hamas-israel agreement facilitated by the biden and trump administrations called for the gradual release of hostages over months. the new deadline was first set by president trump after he saw the condition of released israeli hostages. >> they're emaciated.

they look like holocaust survivors. so i don't want to do two and then we do another two in another week and then we do four in three weeks. no, no. they either have them out by saturday at 12:00, or all bets are off. reporter: trump spoke in the oval office with jordanian king abdullah and reiterated his vision of u.s. ownership over gaza. >> we don't have to buy. there's nothing to buy. we will have gaza. >> what is that? >> no reason to buy. there is nothing to buy. it's gaza. it's it's a war-torn area. we're going to take it. we're going to hold it. we're going to cherish it. >> mr. president, take it under what authority? it's sovereign territory. >> under u.s. authority. reporter: egypt's foreign minister is in washington, and egyptian officials tell pbs newshour they are developing an “alternative” proposal, no displacement of gazans, local gazans with no political affiliation would provide both security and governance, with the hope of transitioning to the palestinian authority. on “x” this afternoon, king

abdullah wrote, “i reiterated jordan's steadfast position against the displacement of palestinians in gaza and the west bank. forcing them to leave would be a war crime." but today, president trump said all gazans would choose to leave, and jordan and egypt would accept them. >> i believe we'll have a parcel of land in jordan, i believe, we'll have a parcel of land in egypt. they don't want to be there. they have no alternative. when they have no alternative, not one person will want to stay where they are. nobody wants to stay there. they're living in hell. reporter: in gaza's jabalia refugee camp, the massouds might be living in the rubble, but they say they're not going anywhere. >> we reject displacement, even if we continue living on rubble, the rubble of our homes, the rubble of our ancestors, the homes of our ancestors, our country -- our country that is dear to our hearts. reporter: more than half of gaza's two million people are children. today, jordan promised to

evacuate 2,000 of the sickest, apparently convincing president trump to drop previous threats against jordan and egypt. >> mr. president, would you still consider withholding aid to those countries if they don't accept your plans to accept your -- >> well, i don't want to say that because we've had such a good relationship and we're doing so well just in the short time that we've been talking. i don't have to threaten with money. we do. we contribute a lot of money to jordan and to egypt, by the way, a lot to both. but i don't have to threaten that. i don't think -- i think we're above that. i do believe we're above that. reporter: trump's proposal has shocked the middle east, and is perhaps impossible to execute. but what it has done, put regional leaders on the spot to publicly come up with their own plan. for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin. amna: the day's other headlines start with an american teacher who's heading home after three

and a half years in russian detention. the u.s. envoy for hostages posted this photo today of marc fogel enjoying his newfound freedom. officials say fogel was handed over in an exchange that they described as a diplomatic thaw with moscow. it's not clear what the u.s. side of the bargain entailed. fogel's arrest in 2021 sparked calls for his release. he was serving a 14-year prison sentence after being found with a small amount of medically-prescribed marijuana. at the white house today, president trump celebrated fogel's release, saying it bodes well for future talks on ending the war in ukraine. >> we were treated very nicely by russia, actually. i hope that's the beginning of a relationship where we can end that war and millions of people can stop being killed. amna: those comments came during an extended joint-appearance by trump and elon musk in the oval office. the billionaire businessman defended the efforts of his department of government

efficiency, or doge. that work has led to numerous lawsuits and pushback from democratic lawmakers and other groups. 27 religious groups are suing the trump administration over a policy that makes it easier for immigration agents to carry out arrests at places of worship. plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit range from the mennonite church, to the central conference of american rabbis, to unitarian universalists and more. the groups say their congregations are "experiencing decreases in worship attendance" due to fear of immigration enforcement action. they argue that violates their religious freedom, including the ability to minister to migrants. the trump administration has not yet responded. longtime trump ally steve bannon pleaded guilty today to defrauding donors in a private effort to build a wall along the u.s. southern border. bannon called the case political persecution as he left the courthouse. as part of his plea agreement, bannon will avoid jail time.

but he's barred from holding leadership roles in any nonprofits or charitable organizations in new york. this marks bannon's second criminal conviction. he spent four months in prison last year for defying a subpoena in the congressional investigation of the january 6th attacks. jd vance used his first major policy speech as vice president to warn against what he called the excessive regulation of artificial intelligence. he made the comments at the ai action summit in paris, where more than 60 countries, including china, signed an agreement to promote responsible ai development, but the united states and the uk were not among those signing. instead, vance told world leaders that a hands-off approach to the new technology is the best way to ensure growth. >> we need international regulatory regimes that fosters the creation of ai technology rather than strangles it. and we need our european friends in particular to look to this new frontier with optimism, rather than trepidation.

amna: at that same paris summit, openai boss sam altman dismissed elon musk's offer to buy the chatgpt maker, calling the idea ridiculous. altman added the company is not for sale. a consortium led by musk said yesterday that it has offered more than $97 billion for the nonprofit that controls open ai. it's just the latest in a long running battle between the two men, who helped start open ai back in 2015 before parting ways. in north carolina, one of the largest military bases in the world once again bears its controversial former name, fort bragg. it was renamed fort liberty in 2023 as part of a broader effort by the biden administration to remove names that honored confederate leaders. the original namesake, braxton bragg, was a confederate general who owned a plantation where he enslaved african-americans. yesterday, u.s. secretary of defense pete hegseth restored

the bragg name, but now says it's in honor of world war two hero private first class ronald bragg. in so doing, hegseth got around a law prohibiting the military from naming a base after a confederate leader. a parade of winter storms is marching across the country this week, making travel treacherous and burying millions under snow. 60 million americans are under some form of winter advisory, as two winter storms threaten to bring snow, sleet, and freezing rain from denver to delaware. many areas in the south will see heavy rain and severe thunderstorms. a third storm comes onshore on the west coast starting thursday. snow is already piling up in parts of the tennessee valley, the appalachians, and the mid-atlantic, where virginia's governor declared a state of emergency. a record number of people tuned in to watch the philadelphia eagles trounce the kansas city chiefs in sunday's super bowl. nielsen data out today showed an

average of 127.7 million viewers across tv and streaming platforms. that beats last year's title game by more than 3%. and it's the second year in a row that the super bowl has seen record viewership. kendrick lamar's halftime show also set a record, with more than 133 million people watching. on wall street today, stocks ended mixed after fed chair jerome powell struck a cautious tone on interest rates in congressional testimony. the dow jones industrial average added more than 120 points on the day. the nasdaq went in the other direction, losing about 70 points. the s&p 500 ended virtually flat. and now, the mutt, the myth, the legend -- scrim, the famous fugitive dog of new orleans, has been captured again. michelle cheramie, who runs a local animal shelter, posted an image of the white terrier mix in her arms, on a leash, and no longer on the lam. scrim has a history of escapes and a talent for not being kept for long.

he was captured in october for the first time, but soon chewed a hole through a window screen and jumped from the second story of a house to freedom. the renegade pup eluded pursuit for months, becoming an unlikey folk hero and online sensation. his current caretakers hope he stays in one place this time. still to come on the newshour -- the global ramifications of the u.s. withholding aids funding. new york city's mayor cheers the justice department's order to drop his corruption charges. and democratic senator andy kim on why he thinks the nation is nearing a constitutional crisis. ♪ >> this is the pbs hour from the david m. rubinstein studio and weta in washington and from the

west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: the trump administration recently announced that the national institutes of health, or the nih, will make big changes in the way it funds researchers. white house officials say they will save $4 billion by capping so-called indirect costs or what you might think of as traditional operating expenses -- that's funding universities receive on top of money for direct research. those can range from 30% to 70% in additional funds. the administration wants to cap that at 15%. scientists say the move will have a huge effect on their work. we spoke to medical researchers to hear what they had to say. >> hi, my name is carol lebond, and i am a professor of molecular biosciences at northwestern university. >> i'm dr. rachel hardiman, and i'm the blue cross endowed professor of health and racial equity at the university of minnesota school of public health and the founding director of the center for anti-racism research for health equity at the university of minnesota. >> my name's theodore iwashina. i'm an icu physician and professor of medicine and health policy at johns hopkins

university in baltimore. >> so, in science, you can think of direct costs as one specific to a particular research project, the chemicals and the cells and the salaries of the researchers. but then there are the indirect costs of maintaining and replacing equipment, ordering, bookkeeping, handling hazard waste, and compliance with government regulations. >> the nih decision to shift the indirect costs has an impact on myself and my colleagues and many researchers across the country. because what it means is that a smaller percentage of funding is flowing into our universities, into our institutions to help do some very simple things like keep the lights on, make sure we have paper and printers and supplies. >> all projects of every scientist are being affected. so take any particular area of research you want, let's say, pediatric cancer. this would amount to a 15% to 20% decrease in funding for studying that.

if it continues like this, it's going to lead to layoffs. so people are going to lose their jobs. >> all the support staff, all the suppliers, all the other folks who keep the buildings running, keep the labs running, keep the hospital running, who depend on the downstream benefits of these nih funding -- and it's not just taking money away from the scientists, it's taking money away from the working people who make these universities often the largest employer in their state. >> for those who are not in the research world, it's very easy to think it's not a big deal or that these costs are sort of a luxury for universities, but they really are critically important part of how we are able to do our best work and are able to hire the best folks to do that work alongside us. >> a lot of our work right now is about trying to understand pneumonia and how to help people recover from pneumonia. that work all depends on really intensive computation and the ability to do advanced

statistical models. and that all depends on tools that are funded by nih indirect costs. there are no indirect costs flowing. we can't keep the computers running. if we can't keep the computers running, we can't do the science that we're doing. >> i think one place where you're seeing the most immediate effect is on the trainees who are the future of science in this country. many are right now questioning the viability of being a scientist in the u.s. going forward. and who knows how many will end up abandoning their scientific careers, moving to another country, which could lead to further brain-drain from the u.s. this will severely hurt america's leadership and competitiveness in the world. >> if we're supposed to work without buildings, without computers, without centrifuges, there's no way to get that done from someone else. what's at stake here is the biomedical and health research. amna: for more on all of this, let's turn to dr. david skorton, president and ceo of the association of american medical colleges. dr. skorton, thank you for

joining us. >> thanks for having me. it's a pleasure. you sure did a good interview with those folks you talked to them, they covered a lot of this ground, these are real costs, there are reimbursements for real costs, and that's quite a bit of the story. amna: your organization represents 150 medical schools, nearly 500 academic health systems, big picture if those indirect funds are kept, what is your concern about what happens to medical research in america? >> i want to focus on the downstream effect -- the most important downstream effect is people depending on the results of this research for better diagnosis, for better treatment and actual peers, our neighbors, all of us will suffer from the lack of the march of science, if we cannot do the science. as the researchers you are

interviewed have indicated, these are real costs -- they are a reimbursement for real costs. they will cause us to do less research. as important as it is to the researchers in the universities, the most important negative effect of this would be that people just like us would not benefit from the advances of medical science. amna: tell us more, what are you hearing from your members across the country? what kind of decisions are they having to make about future research or how they do their work because of this potential cap? >> these are difficult, heartbreaking decisions. how do you make up for tens of millions of dollars of real costs, audited reimbursements that could all of a sudden be very arbitrarily taken away? they are worried about all the things they have to do to make ends meet at the university. make no mistake about it,

not paying these reimbursed -- these reimbursable costs will cause research operations to stop. the lights will go out, the people will be let go, and these advances will not occur in people at the other end will not get the lifesaving benefits of medical research. amna: critics will point out even a 15% cap is higher than private research grants, many of whom cap costs at 10%, they also argue taxpayers don't need to be the ones putting the majority of the overhead cost here, here's how one person, jay greene from the center of education policy at the heritage foundation put it, he wrote, it is unseemly universities with billions in endowments are hounding taxpayers to pay for every pencil and administrator partially devoted to producing research. cutting overhead will allow more research and produce waste. -- reduce waste. is there truth to what he is saying? >> it is apples and oranges and

other things that are now similar, and with all and respect to that individual, they do not work in the research world. the direct costs of grants do not incur all the costs of research. december 1. number two foundations operate by different rules in the federal government. some of the costs not allowed has direct costs can be allowed on some foundation grants. you can find on our website aanc.org a page that goes over this, when you make up for these differences, when you are doing apples to apples comparisons, there's not that much difference. in terms of the endowments, having been a university president twice, i can tell you this is really apples oranges -- those endowments serve other functions that have to do with the education and research and other things in the institution not based on reimbursement of

research grants from the federal government. the federal government has a long-standing process to do this. i want to give you one example from my own practice if we have time -- i practiced for decades caring for young people, teenagers and young adults with congenital heart disease. the commonest birth defect. some of those for those who have down syndrome. down syndrome as a group has a higher chance of alzheimer's disease than general population. in 2018, there was a study done to begin to understand why some down syndrome patients are really at risk for dementia and others are not. this would have enormous benefits not just for down syndrome patients, but also for those who are worried about dementia and are we not all worried about it? that was founded during -- funded during president trump's first term and a lot of medical advances were made.

part of his legacy. his critically important that we do not savage our ability to do medical research. amna: dr. david skorton, president and ceo of the association of american medical colleges. thank you for joining us. we appreciate your time. >> thank you, amna. amna: a scathing report by the acting inspector general of usaid, the agency almost completely dismantled in the first weeks of the second trump administration, says thousands of tons of food set to ship are liable to spoil, that more than $8 billion in money yet to be disbursed now has no oversight, nor personnel to put it to use, and it also says an exception for some lifesaving age is

leading to confusion. but more than 20 years ago, under another republican president, george w. bush, the u.s. became the leader in one form of life-saving aid, fighting hiv/aids around the world. stephanie sy has the story. reporter: the bush initiative is called pepfar, or president's emergency plan for aids relief. it was the largest health commitment ever made by a nation to combat a single disease. it has saved 25 million lives, but the trump administration's cuts in foreign aid has thrown this initiative into a tailspin. a few days after the white house announced it was pausing foreign aid for 90 days, the state department granted a waiver that allows the continuation of life-saving hiv treatment. but global health advocates say the waivers are not being implemented adequately and don't address prevention efforts. with me to discuss the shift in hiv funding is angeli achrekar, a deputy executive director at un aids, which helps coordinate the global fight against aids

and provides services in 55 countries. thank you so much for joining the news hour. i want to start with, who is being the worst impacted by this foreign aid freeze when it comes to the global fight against hiv/aids? >> the people most impacted by this freeze are the people served at the country level in the community is, the 20.6 million people pepfar supports on life-saving treatment, those are the people we are talking about, mother's, babies, fathers, adults, these are 20.6 million people on lifesaving services, these are the people most affected. reporter: are you hearing about people that i cannot access for example the antivirals that are so crucial for people living with aids, especially pregnant mothers? >> because the paws have so quickly -- pause happened so

quickly, services have come to an abrupt stop. we are seeing doctors and community health workers and laboratory in's and people that provide these services not working and not in clinics. we have seen clinics themselves nonfunctioning during this freeze. it's caused a lot of devastation across the globe. reporter: and that's just a few weeks after freezing aid, just a few days after, lifesaving aid was issued a reprieve by secretary of state marco rubio, he said the freeze would not apply to life-saving hiv treatment. how much has that helped? >> what was really important -- this was a really a positive step by secretary rubio -- this included everything from testing to treatment itself, to the

arv's, lifesaving dedication is required to making sure prevention of mother to child transmission and make sure babies are born hiv free. the problem we are seeing however is that waiver for those critical life-saving interventions has to be implemented across the globe. that's what we are seeing -- where we are seeing real challenges and some real disruption in services at the moment. >> even if treatment and testing are spared from the chopping block, what about prevention services and care? >> was not covered in the waiver is equally important. prevention services are not covered. except for prep for pregnant and breast-feeding women. we need to make sure that prevention services for all people, especially adolescent girls and young women and marginalized populations, especially for those that are most at risk, every year, we are

seeing 1.3 million new hiv infections. without prevention, we will never get to end aids as a public health threat by 2030. those goals we are all after will not be achieved. reporter: i understand your group has looked at what could happen if the u.s. were to completely cease funding the global fight against hiv/aids. talk about the potential consequences. >> if pepfar were stopped completely, we would be talking about a tenfold increase in the number of aids deaths, going from 630,000 deaths per year to over 6.3 million people dying from aids. we are talking about if it were halted, we are talking about going to 8.7 million additional new infections in the

next 45 years. -- four to five years. that is a major movement in the wrong direction. reporter: angeli achrekar, with un aids, thank you. >> thanks so much. ♪ amna: let's return to our ongoing coverage now of the wildfires that tore through southern california last month. amid all the devastation, thousands of children also had their education disrupted. at least a dozen schools were burned or so badly damaged that kids can't return any time soon. william brangham recently spent time with teachers and students from one elementary school in altadena, california, to better understand how educators keep moving forward in the middle of a disaster zone. reporter: parents rush to get

kids on the bus. students are graded as they head into class. it has the look and feel of a normal school day for this elementary school in altadena, california. but it's not. because this is rosebud today. what was once a small charter school is now an unrecognizable pile of twisted metal, ash and rubble. it is one of the more than 9000 buildings that were consumed by the massive eaton fire a month ago. melted desks, a charred water fountain, worked playground equipment -- warped playground equipment are a few hints of what this place used to be. >> it burned down january in the middle of the night. my house is literally one mile from the school, and it also burned. >> good morning. reporter: shawn brown runs

rosebud elementary. >> had about 35 students who lost their homes, burned completely down. >> out of how many? >> out of 175. that's a big percentage of kids. and the pattern of roughly 29 -- we had another roughl 29 students who were displaced. we are scrambling to find somewhere to go. reporter: so how do you instill a sense of security and safety for kids who had both stolen from them by these fires? that have begun offering mental health services for kids. but simply having them return to class was a big step. >> the goal was to make sure that they get back together in person and see each other, and sure we lost our building but we still have each other and i think that that has been a huge factor in students being able to move forward. >> went outside and checked and we saw the fire getting bigger

and my mom said we should leave. reporter: with nowhere to gather a few weeks ago they started buzzing students nearly one hour away to a donated event space in south los angeles, its owners a local education foundation called sola helps convert the space into several classrooms. >> we are here in this building because my school burned down in the fire. reporter: 9-year-old zachary jefferson's home and school went up in flames in a matter of hours. >> do you remember when you found out about your school burning down? how did you hear that news? >> i just came down the stairs one day and my mom was like crying, why are you crying? our house and my school burned down, i was crying, too. i felt sad. reporter: lauren young also lost her home. >> our house is gone. reporter: she filmed this the day after her family was forced to evacuate. >> that is our house.

reporter: young's five-year-old son in london is a kindergartner at rosebud. she wants the 4-year-old to go as well when he is old enough. >> i really feel like london was driving there. he is to himself a lot so to see them flourish at school and have so many friends of all ages, not just his class, it felt like more than a school for us. it's my second home almost. reporter: since the fire, young and the boys have been living like so many evacuees, staying in four different hotels in as many weeks. throughout, she's tried to protect them from the full scale of what's been lost. >> london has asked to see our house and to see the school. that is something i don't think i will let him do. reporter: he just think that's going to be too jarring for him? >> yeah, for now i think him

knowing what happened and those kind of shielding him from the actual images of it, i think is best. reporter: but when students are willing to share, handling those conversations often falls to teachers like laura chavez. she grew up in altadena. she teaches fourth grade. and like so many of her students, lost her home in the fire as well. >> the town that i grew up in, i'm going to get emotional -- you can't, it's not there. it was something out of a movie. it was apocalyptic. reporter: how do you talk to the kids about the fires? do you talk to them about it? >> yes. i wanted to make sure that they knew that i was just like them. it happened to me, and it's ok to share, and i just let them tell me all about how they lost their dinosaurs or their favorite shoes -- all of the things in their toys.

reporter: shawn brown says this week, this will be located again to another temporary location. >> from your face with a disaster like this, it does not sound like there's some kind of a textbook that you pull let a bishop to say that there is -- this is what you do on day one or daytime, how did you figure all this out? >> had to figure it out because i knew that the kids needed, their families need it -- needed us to help navigate the situation. that was kind of my main focus. what are we going to do with these kids? we have to get them back in school and make sure they are ok. reporter: when his family fled, zachary jefferson grabbed a basketball and his best sneakers. despite everything he and his family have lost, the fires have also given him some perspective. >> in the bus drives, sometimes i see homeless people and i think, how are they living? they never had a home.

so i still feel sad once in a while. i think about the stuff i've lost. but i still try to get through and learn. reporter: getting through it and learning. it's a mission that rosebud and many other schools in the region are now trying to accomplish. for the pbs news hour, i'm william brangham in altadena, california. ♪ amna: stay with us. coming up on the newshour, we speak with the director of "nickel boys," an oscar-nominated movie filmed from the character's point of view. but first, this week, the department of justice directed federal prosecutors to drop corruption charges against new york mayor eric adams. adams was indicted in september on five counts, which include accepting bribes and illegal foreign campaign contributions in exchange for his influence as mayor.

our white house correspondent laura barron-lopez has more. reporter: amna, that justice department order comes after mayor eric adams curried favor with president trump for months, including dining with him in florida. today, adams addressed the move by the justice department. >> so, let me be clear, i never ask anyone to break the law on my behalf or on behalf of my campaign. never and i absolutely never traded my power as an elected official for any personal benefit. reporter: joining me now to discuss the implications of this order is jessica roth, former federal prosecutor for the southern district of new york and professor at the cardozo school of law. jessica, thanks so much for joining. to start, what's your reaction to this doj order? >> this is a highly unusual situation, to put it mildly. it is very unusual for the deputy attorney general to direct prosecutors and a u.s.

attorney's office to drop a case that has already been indicted, and the memo that contains that direction says a number of things that are highly, highly disturbing. reporter: yeah, i want to talk about that memo in it to prosecutors acting us deputy attorney general emil bowe said the case should be dismissed because it restricts mayor adams' ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime that both claims escalated under president biden, both also cited adams' re-election campaign. jessica, these look like expressly political reasons for dropping this case. what do you make of them? >> yes, they do come across as expressly political reasons, and that's exactly the opposite about how decisions about who shall be prosecuted should be made. and that's part of why decisions about whether cases should proceed or ordinarily left to the professional judgment of the prosecutors who investigated the case and charged it, and why the

more political actors at main justice who have the most contact with the white house, they generally do not play a role in making those decisions. the memo that contains this direction to dismiss the case makes very clear that the decision has nothing to do with the merits of the case, and nothing to do with the strength of the evidence, or with the validity of the legal theories. instead, what it says essentially is that mayor adams is a political ally, and he is expedient to the president in pursuing his immigration agenda, and for that reason, the charges should be dismissed. although it also says that the charges should be re-evaluated following the november 25 mayoral election by the u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york, the permanent u.s. attorney, when and if that person is sworn in, and that the charges should be dismissed without prejudice, meaning that they could be re-filed at some later date. and so, that holds over mayor

adams' head the possibility that the charges could be restarted if in fact he does not comport himself in a way that is viewed favorably by the president and the leadership at the department of justice. reporter: mayor adams has repeatedly accused prosecutors of bringing the corruption charges against him for his criticisms of the biden administration's immigration policies, but just last month, the southern district of new york attorney danielle sassoon defended her case, saying that they have concrete evidence of crimes -- her office declined to respond to a newshour request about what may come next, but ultimately, what can happen to the southern district of new york's reputation for independence here? >> well, i think the reputation could take a very large hit here, if in fact they carry through on this dismissal, and to be clear, at the end of the day, it is up to the attorney general and his deputy whether or not the charges will be dismissed. the u.s. attorney's office will not be able to prevent that from happening. but i do think that it will take

a reputational hit, depending on how this is handled before the judges in the southern district of new york, who have for many decades placed a great deal of stock in the word of the u.s. attorney's office, including when the u.s. attorney says that they stand behind the case. and because of these very clear political reasons for dismissing the case, i think that the department of justice as a whole is going to be viewed differently from the judges in the southern district and elsewhere around the country as we're seeing in many of these cases right now, where the department of justice is standing up and taking positions that really go fly in the face of the facts and the law in many cases, and the tradition of prosecutorial independence. reporter: jessica roth, former federal prosecutor with the southern district of new york, thank you for your time. >> thank you. ♪

amna: with democrats in the minority, they're searching for ways to serve as a check on republican power in congress and at the white house. andy kim entered the u.s. senate late last year after spending his entire working life in government service at usaid, the u.s. state department, national security council and the u.s. house. this weekend, the new jersey democrat declared the country to be on the cusp of a constitutional crisis. senator kim joins us now from capitol hill. welcome. thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me. amna: what does it mean to you to be on the cusp of a constitutional crisis? what does that mean? >> that means right now we are already in a place where the trump administration is engaging in lawless activity through unilateral executive branch actions rather than coming through congress, we see the efforts of firing or putting on administered of leave employees that are now lawsuits there.

one thing i'm concerned about is i'm not sure that this executive branch and this administration will follow the law even when given a court order to do so, given that vice president -- the vice president's statements about how they feel they don't need to follow through on the orders of these judges, this deeply alarming. that would be a full-blown constitutional crisis. amna: when it comes to the administration ignoring court orders or acting outside the constitution or usurping congressional powers, the question the democrats get asked a lot is, what can you do? here exactly as one house democratic leader hakeem jeffries had to say on friday. take a listen. >> they control the house, the senate, and the presidency. it's their government, what leverage do we actually have? amna: what's the answer to that question, what leverage do democrats have? >> immediately after the election in november, a number of the senators met with state's in the capitol and on through

what steps we plan to take when it comes to legislation and brainstorm the different things we expected to see given the research we've done on project 2025 which has become their playbook, and so far they are having great effect, for instance the first trump administration, they lost 80% of their cases. i worked at usaid, i have a lot of colleagues still there from my old days, we were able to get inside information about what is happening and we are feeding that into our investigative work and oversight work. when it comes to legislation, we have seen in the past how poorly the republicans especially in the house are at governing, i've seen speaker mike johnson work in person and i will tell you it is not impressive, they need democrats for a lot of legislation to get passed and those are the ones we are pushing on moving forward. amna: the court battle will take a while to play out, and terms

of what democrats can do, how far are you willing to go? you mentioned that working with republicans as much to help pass legislation, are you willing to shut down the government to make your point? >> the republicans are the ones that control whether or not the government shuts down, that's the point hakeem jeffries wanted to get across, they control the house and senate, that is on them. they have not been able to pass any resolution or budget on their own over the past two years. amna: you could help force a shutdown, are democrats willing to do that? >> it's about whether or not they are actually engaged in a bipartisan effort to be able to move forward. if we do this, we need to make sure we have assurances that we won't see the continued actions like what we are seeing with elon musk, these funding freezes, that's what the american people deserve and that's what they want. i just did a town hall less over

1000 people -- last night was over 1000 people and people were horrified about these actions happening. i worked through multiple government shutdowns and that is the last thing that we want. what we are seeing now is trump already trying to shut down the government and dismantled it. that's what the american people need to see, just the lawlessness involved in that type of unilateral action. amna: on the usaid issue, we have seen democratic lawmakers and federal workers here outside the building protesting. there are some senior democrats who say this is exactly the fight president trump wants. david axelrod said when you talk about because the first thing people say is cut for an aide -- cut foreign aid. i guess the question is, are democrats taking the bait from trump on this? >> i think it's important that we pushed back across the board. when it comes to usaid, we set the record straight.

0.5% of our government budget. there's a reason why usaid is in the reagan bill. . he was a strong supporter of development and humanitarian assistance being part of our tools alongside diplomacy and military. marco rubio when he was a senator was a strong supporter and said usaid is not charity, that this is a part of our national interests and national security. that is the kind of information the american people need to hear about this. i am pushing forward on that because i used to work there. other democratic leaders will lean in on fema and the department of education and other aspects. each of us can engage until the story to the american people. amna: are you confident the american people are aware of this issue, we did not see a lot of protests to usaid is actually being shut down, we have seen ramping up of immigration arrests and we have nothing -- we have not seen many protests to that, even to

the pardoning of january 6 rioters, which was not popular when people were asked about it and pulling but it was done anyway. do you think the american people are seeing these issues the same way that you are? >> they are more and more so, the average american when they hear about cuts to government spending, they will say that sounds reasonable, but, when you actually explain what is behind that, on the funding freezes take effect, meals on wheels for seniors are hungry and are food insecure or childcare -- those are specific things that the american people say no, that is not what we are on board with. amna: senator kaine, thank you. -- kim, thank you. good to speak with you. >> yeah, thank you. amna: and now to our ongoing arts and culture series, "canvas." it's not every day that a director's debut feature film

earns an academy award nomination for best picture. but that's what's happened for ramell ross and the movie "nickel boys." senior arts correspondent jeffrey brown spoke with ross about his distinctive style. >> elwood, look at me sign. reporter: in the film "nickel boys" -- it is we who are asked to load. forced to look at the world through the eyes of two young black men living in an often brutal time and place in the jim crow south. the camera perspective is from the point of view of the characters themselves, not us looking at them. director remail ross -- ramell >> you are aligning the subjectivity of the audience to

the character to get to the truth. reporter: the film is based on the 2019 novel "nickel boys." who based his fiction on a grim reality. the real life dozier school for boys. a reform school run by the state of florida from 1900 to 2011 finally close after hundreds of black men came forward to tell of abuse, including floggings, forced labor and forensic anthropologists covered human remains in unmarked graves. how did ross see his role? >> have to give it to cinema and see what it wants to do with it which is often different from what language wants to do with it or lend language. -- linguistic language. >> what's cinema wants to do with her, that's an interesting term. >> i went to interesting to the character with mykael wright are of course and figure out what is the most visceral -- the most open ended and the most unconscious way, ephemeral way

and visible way to convey the information? reporter: working with cowriter jocelyn barnes and cinematographer joe mover a, draws give cinematic life to two young men in 1960's florida, with the civil-rights movement in the background, rampant racism in their faces. the unusual point of view perspective required creating special camara -- camera rigs placed around the actors. to capture their lines of sight and movement. including the small but important movements when ross calls the epic eyes catching around the room, a balloon hitting a ceiling fan. a tv report by a space exploration. >> the subjectivity of a young black boy, and you know any time in which outside he is treated on the street differently from the relationship he has now to

the television and the technological advances. yet it is just a woman in a boys life. reporter: it's almost a way of giving him us to the last days themselves. >> to give them the camera and let them save for the audience to see with them, to give them moments of grace and moments of poetry. it was super meaningful to point to the fact that the stories are less about their death and more about their life. reporter: his first obsession was basketball. a 6'6" guard that played at georgetown university and professionally abroad, he had dreams of the mba. injuries forced him to change his life. he turned to photography in film. are there similarities between

basketball and filmmaking? >> there are some very literal overlaps about the way that space is analyzed by the point of view. i play point guard or dribbling down the floor, you are using your body to control a space, it's about prediction and time dilation. is very point of view, dribbling down the court. it's about analysis and to filmmaking most often you are considering the scene but you are also allowing for the spontaneous to happen within a very control -- controlled and specific outcome. it's about space. spatial intelligence essentially. reporter: so your obsession with basketball and the camera have come together. >> what making photographs, i was like, i found the perfect transition. reporter: his best work known to date is "hill country -- halo county this morning, this evening."

which also made it evident the camera can tell a story, embedding itself in a rural alabama community and focus on young black men. in both films, he says he's challenging the long history of how blacks have been portrayed and thus seen. >> i see myself telling the story of the production of likeness -- blackness. the relationship between race and the camera. i like to call it the cat ran the photograph -- the technology of racism. you have an idea that people are inferior but how do you prove that? how do you prove race? it is not true. but you can photograph people with this nefarious idea in mind and handed to people that have no relationship to those folks, and setting the right with this idea and probing it with an image. >> you are in a sense of birding that image.

>> yeah. giving it more context. i would like to say i've never seen a black man but may you have only seen a black man. blackness is a paradox enforced by the camera. it is true and not true. you diluted. you make sure it is reflexive and understand the steps. you don't take it for granted. reporter: "nickel boys" vies for two oscars, best picture and best adaptive screenplay on march 2. i'm jeffrey brown in new york. amna: a terrific conversation with jeff brown. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. on behalf of the entire newshour team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the pbs newshour 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 entertainment. and british style. all with cunard's white star service. ♪ >> carnegie corporation of new york, working to reduce political polarization for education, democracy and peace. more information at carnegie.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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