yeganeh torbati, julie davis, lisa desjardins, we thank you. >> okay, thank you. >> thanks, judy. >> woodruff: last night, we brought you a look at the brutal civil war ravaging south sudan, and the lives it has scarred. tonight, another calamity afflicting south sudan: a famine, caused by drought-- and man. the united nations estimates 40% of the country's people are at risk. again in partnership with the pulitzer center on crisis reporting, special correspondent jane ferguson reports. >> reporter: she studies with focus and poise. rebecca looks like a typical student next to her classmates in thoahnom school, in a remote area of south sudan, but few of them have been through what she has endured. her family fled for their lives when government soldiers raided their village. they survived by hiding in swamps for two weeks. >> ( translated ): when we fled our village, we were 28 people, when we got here, we were 24. two were shot and two died of hunger. >> reporter: one of those who died was her 13-year-old sister. rebecca watched her grow weak and starve to death. >> ( translated ):

ken dilanian, julie davis, thank you so much, two of the best reporters on the beat. joining me at the table, jen palmieri. eli stokols, reporter for the "wall street journal." michael allen, special assistant to president george w. bush, reminding me what a pill i was in some meetings. joins me today with his great perspective. eli, i want to start with you, though, because this question of legal jeopardy is a real one. i mean, michael and i worked in a white house staff that came under investigation from special prosecutor pat fitzgerald looking into the leak of valerie plame's name and i didn't have clearance at the time that her name was disclosed so i was never wrapped up in it, but i ended up handling all the press around it because i wasn't. what is it doing to this white house -- i can't imagine this white house more paralyzed but is this serious legal question hanging over them? is it creating more paralysis? >> yeah, they seem spooked, just watchi ining sean spicer the la couple days, he doesn't want to answer questions or say anything referring reporters to

on set with me this morning, david hoffey, former chief of staff to paul ryan, julie hirschfield davis and eli stoeckels. david, we don't have a cbo score, we know this thing was just just posted last night. many lawmakers i spoke to one in the last hour hadn't read it himself. why is it paul ryan, your old boss, wants to get this thing through so, so quickly, given how important it is? >> well, a couple of things. first of all, the only really new thing from this week is the $8 billion that was added. actually last week they had the meadows-macarthur amendment. it's not as if everything is new if there. there's a new piece which is not all that elaborate frankly. part of the reason they want to move quickly is because they are now deeply into moving forward on the fiscal year '17 and they have to start fiscal year '18. both because they have to get to those appropriations, the senate will vote today on finishing up the funding for fiscal year '17. they haven't started for fiscal year '18 and want to use the budget of fy '18 to start tax reform. they're bunching some big things up and

nbc's peter alexander and "the new york times'" julie hershfield davis. thanks for being with us. i want to bring in my friend, republican congressman peter ki king. thank you for being with me. usually you and i see each other when we're both on delayed flights between new york and d.c. nice to see you here on tv. >> yeah. >> tell me why if the comey -- and you and i know the same people who would say the same thing, that it is very typical and very in line with jim comey that you probably know now for decad decades, i served with in the bush administration, to be a note taker, be the kind of investigator who takes note after any interaction. i mean, let me put it to you, though, do you question there are notes, that the memos exist? >> i assume there's a memo, i assume there's notes. i've known james comey for years. the most part i've gotten as far as i know a very good relationship with him. i have serious questions about what's happening right now. the reason i say that is first of all, if this is as serious as it's being implied, then jim comey had an obligation to report it

. >> we explore it all, with julie hirschfeld davis, of the new york times, michael scherer of time magazine, alexis simendinger of real clear politics. and manu raju of cnn. >> celebrating 50 years, this is "washington week." >> funding is provided by... ♪[music] >> their leadership is instinctive. they understand the challenges of today. and research the technologies of tomorrow. some call them veterans. we call them part of our team. >> additional funding is provided by... newman's own foundation. donating all profits from newman's own products to charity and nourishing the common good. the yuen foundation. committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you! once again, live from washington, moderator robert costa. >> good evening. just as donald trump was taking off for his first presidential trip, two big stories broke that have up-ended the white house. the new york times is reporting that president trump told russian foreign minister, sergei laf rof, that firi

the new fiscal year starts on july first. ( mark ) police have released dash-cam video as police officers are beaten during a brawl near the u-c davisnnual picnic day, but the video has just been released. you can see a van pulls up and multiple fights break out as soon as the door opens. police say they were kicked and punched while showing their badges and weapons. they were hospitalized for their injuries. the davis police chief says a witness turned in this video... and they are hoping more come forward. ( mark ) three men were arrested for the fight. their lawyers say the officers are at fault. the city of davis has hired a former sacramento county sheriff to investigate exactly what happened. ( darya ) a judge in pennsylvania has overruled a district attorney's decision not to charge an amtrak engineer for a deadly train derailment. 8 people were killed when the train deraile

july 1914, the government ordered new york, philadelphia, chicago stock exchanges closed. they remain closed until november. imagine that happening today. the war was affecting americans from the very beginning. one thing richard harding davis told his readers you news you get from great britain is biased, it is propaganda and wrong. however the base, point britain is making that germany is committing terrible atrocities in europe. don't believe what the british are telling you. believe what american reporters see with our own ice. we'll talk about that in a little bit. wooded drove wilson may have given a speech in august of 1914 he asked american people to remain neutral in fact an indeed. the american people completely ignored him. the american people were pro-allied from the start as i open to show you here. that doesn't mean the american people wanted to be involved in the war but they clearly saw germany, austria hungary aggressors. wilson also defined american neutrality in a very interesting way. he could have said that american neutrality means no trade with either side, which is what some socialists in the united states wanted him to do. he could also have said, that american neutrality means that if you you trade