i'm william brangham. john yang is away.ion's farewell to former president jimmy carter began today in his home state of georgia, launching six days of memorial events for the 39th president. carter died last sunday at the age of 100, after spending over a year in hospice care at home. today, the carter family, joined by crowds of mourners, came together to honor the life and legacy of the nation's longest living president. >> a place of healing, transformed into a memorial. flags flew at half staff at the phoebe sumter medical center in americus, georgia this morning, the start of a long, goodbye salute to a global icon. as the ceremony began, georgia state troopers cleared the way. secret service agents who had protected the president served as pallbearers, accompanying his casket out the doors and then gently placing it into the hearse. crowds gathered in the frigid morning air to pay their respects. spectators of all ages, coming out to say goodbye to georgia's own. as the motorcade crept along rural backroads, it made a

amna: all right, our william brangham, thank you so much. william brangham: thanks, amna.return to the confirmation of pete hegseth. for another perspective, were joined by democratic senator tammy duckworth who also serves on the senate armed services committee. thank you for being with us. you were when the democratic senators who confronted pete hegseth for his past comments, today he argued that his critiques were actually tied to instances where he says he saw standards lowered. how do you interpret that explanation? sen. duckworth: well, it doesn't hold any water because the standards have not been lowered. the standards are the standards. and, frankly, he tried to make today's hearing about whether or not women are qualified to serve in combat, when really today's hearing was about whether or not pete hegseth is qualified to be secretary of defense. and he couldn't even answer the most basic questions i asked of him, like name a country that's in asean, one of the most significant economic alliances in the indo-pacific. and he couldn't even mention a single one. so

that's why, as william brangham reports, carter's work promoting global public health is being remembered as a core piece of his legacy. william: the carter center's efforts spanned more than 80 countries and helped bring about the eradication of diseases, the delivery of life saving drugs to far-flung areas, and to focus on improving mental health care. to examine this work that was so important to jimmy carter, we are joined again by dr. peter hotez. he's co-director of the texas children's hospital center for vaccine development and dean of the national school of tropical medicine at baylor college of medicine. he worked with jimmy carter on neglected tropical diseases. dr. hotez, great to have you back on the program. when you look at jimmy carter's legacy on this front, with regards to global public health, what stands out the most to you? dr. hotez: i think, for me, it's the fact that the president really hit home for for the world that health is a fundamental human right. just like people have a fundamental right to access to food, water, and shelter, they also have a fundamental r

william brangham reporting from new york city. thank you.you. ♪ geoff: in a matter of days one of the most popular social media apps in the country could be forced to pull the plug if the supreme court doesn't grant it a legal reprieve. john yang is here to explore tiktok's legal battle. reporter: while the justices heard arguments over the looming tiktok ban insoutside some inflr on the steps to livestream their support for the platform. there are more than 170 million tiktok users in the united states and in last year's presidential campaign both campaigns used it to court younger voters. congress passed a law banning it on january 19 unless its parent company sells it. bobby allen covers technology g for npr and marcia coyle is our supreme court analyst. what does this law do on the 19th? the tiktok lawyer said that it would go dark. >> on january 19 apple and google will be forced to remove tiktok from app store's meaning new users cannot download it and bytedance cannot send software updates. and web hosting services will have to sever

william brangham has more on the rising demand for these drugs, which are part of a class of medicationsout one and 80 u.s. adults now say they have taken a glp-1. but amid all the excitement about the efficacy, some experts also say it is important to keep in mind some of the drug's limits, their cost, and to better understand where they belong in the nation's long fight against obesity. for a check on where this all stands we are joined by an assistant professor of medicine at harvard medical school and a clinical endocrinologist who specializes in medical weight management. so nice to have you on the program. you prescribed these drugs to some of your patients. from your perspective, what do they do, how effective are they, especially at helping people lose weight? >> thank you very much for having me. it is a pleasure to be on the show. i also want to mention i do not have any conflicts of interest. in terms of how these medications work and how effective they are, a lot of times what i will hear is patients using the same words to describe how they work. so people will tell me that

our william brangham has been following all the criminal investigations into the president-elect and joins us now. this is jack smith saying he is confident that he could have convicted trump but was blocked by a long-standing doj policy prohibiting the prosecution of a sitting president. what else did he have to say? william: federal prosecutors always say, as a general rule, that if we could have gone to trial we would have been able to convict the defendant. federal prosecutors by their nature do not indict people they do not have a great deal of confidence that they could win against. but, that said, this report is a summary. it is an encapsulation of all of the evidence his indictments have shown over the last year. there's nothing new in here. they are simply alleging donald trump new -- knew the 2020 election was lost, that joe biden beat him, that there was no widespread fraud, and refused to accept the results and then engaged in an unprecedented criminal effort to overturn the results of the election to attain power. the report details all the many ways we have talked about