GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz.

On the "News Hour" tonight: President Trump tries to convince global business leaders to invest in the U.S. by promising lower taxes and threatening tariffs if they don't.

GEOFF BENNETT: A federal judge blocks President Trump's order to end birthright citizenship, calling the move blatantly unconstitutional.

AMNA NAWAZ: And amid a tense cease-fire, residents of Southern Lebanon take stock of the destruction from Israeli airstrikes and occupation of the border region.

ZARIFA HAZIMA, Displaced (through translator): We were happy there.

I used to love to work in my garden, but they destroyed it.

What was in the house?

Nothing.

(BREAK) AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "News Hour."

President Trump made his first major foray of the second administration the world stage today, delivering a virtual speech and taking questions from business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

GEOFF BENNETT: The president hit many of the same themes as in his inauguration address on Monday.

Before an audience comprised of world leaders and top businesspeople, he railed against the European Union, again threatened to levy major tariffs on adversaries and allies alike, ruminated on global energy markets, and spoke of his hopes to end the war in Ukraine, which will enter its fourth year next month.

Lisa Desjardins starts our coverage.

MAN: The president of the United States.

LISA DESJARDINS: At the Davos World Economic Forum, President Trump's virtual reintroduction on the world stage.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: Come make your product in America and we will give you among the lowest taxes of any nation on Earth.

LISA DESJARDINS: The president had clear instructions for other world leaders.

DONALD TRUMP: If you don't make your product in America, which is your prerogative, then, very simply, you will have to pay a tariff, differing amounts, but a tariff.

LISA DESJARDINS: And a list of demands.

DONALD TRUMP: Saudi Arabia will be investing at least $600 billion in America, but I will be asking the crown prince, who's a fantastic guy, to round it out to around $1 trillion.

LISA DESJARDINS: More money, lower prices.

DONALD TRUMP: And I'm also going to ask Saudi Arabia and OPEC to bring down the cost of oil.

LISA DESJARDINS: And a higher spending bar for NATO countries.

DONALD TRUMP: I'm also going to ask all NATO nations to increase defense spending to 5 percent of GDP, which is what it should have been years ago.

LISA DESJARDINS: While at home, on the Resolute Desk, a new batch of freshly signed executive orders, among them, declassifying files on the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. Mr. Trump also signed pardons for 23 anti-abortion activists and created a cryptocurrency advisory council.

Asked about the Ukraine war, he said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is ready to talk with Vladimir Putin.

DONALD TRUMP: He's ready to negotiate a deal.

He'd like to stop.

He's somebody that lost a lot of soldiers, and so did Russia, lost a lot.

Russia lost more soldiers.

They lost 800,000 soldiers.

Would you say that's a lot?

I'd say it's a lot.

LISA DESJARDINS: The night before, Trump appeared in a wide-ranging interview from the Oval Office with FOX News' Sean Hannity.

DONALD TRUMP: FEMA is going to be a whole big discussion very shortly, because I'd rather see the states take care of their own problems.

LISA DESJARDINS: Trump said he wants a new approach to federal disaster aid, sharply limiting it.

DONALD TRUMP: I love Oklahoma, but you know what?

If they get hit with a tornado or something, let Oklahoma fix it.

You don't need -- and then the federal government can help them out with the money.

LISA DESJARDINS: He singled out California, reeling from ongoing wildfires, threatening to cut off aid and asserting that releasing water from Northern California would help, which local officials say is flat wrong.

DONALD TRUMP: I don't think we should give California anything until they let water flow down into there... SEAN HANNITY, FOX News Anchor: From the north to the south.

LISA DESJARDINS: Meanwhile, nomination mobilization.

Former Congressman John Ratcliffe was sworn in as the CIA's new director soon after his Senate confirmation today, while defense secretary-designate Pete Hegseth narrowly won a key procedural vote in the Senate.

Senators Collins and Murkowski voted against him, citing concerns about his experience and views on women in the military.

But Hegseth is expected to get enough support to pass his confirmation vote tomorrow.

From Democrats, some sharp pushback to one other nominee.

Russell Vought is poised to direct the Office of Management and Budget and has strong conservative backing.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer singled out his nomination today.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): This guy is almost -- he's probably at the very top of the list in terms of how dangerous he is to working people and to America.

Mr. Vought is the godfather of the ultra-right.

He is the chief cook and bottle washer for Project 2025, which would decimate the lives of so many Americans.

LISA DESJARDINS: As for the Trump agenda, today a first barrier.

A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump executive order to end birthright citizenship, saying it is blatantly unconstitutional.

That is not yet dissuading some Republicans in Congress who propose to codify Trump's birthright idea.

REP. BRIAN BABIN (R-TX): This opportunity will not come again, at least not for a long, long time.

LISA DESJARDINS: In Washington, a sense of the opportunity and concerns around a fast-moving new presidency.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Lisa Desjardins.

GEOFF BENNETT: And let's dive a little deeper into what we heard from President Trump at Davos today.

David Wessel is a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution.

Welcome back to the program.

DAVID WESSEL, Brookings Institution: Good to be here.

GEOFF BENNETT: So President Trump speaking to the Davos elite, among other things, he blasted European regulation and trade policies.

Your assessment of his speech and how do you think it landed in the room?

DAVID WESSEL: Well, it seemed like a speech designed to appeal to an American audience, our tough president telling our allies what they need to do.

He was giving instructions left and right.

It was typical Trump, a bit of hyperbole.

He accused Canada of running a $200 billion to $250 billion trade deficit with the United States.

The actual number is $45 billion.

And I wasn't in the room, but I can't imagine -- I don't think they were surprised, but these are the people who prosper from globalization.

And he was basically making the case, America first.

GEOFF BENNETT: The carrot-and-stick approach that he thinks will help solve inflation and also fund his massive tax cut proposals... telling business leaders, manufacture your goods in the U.S., or else, or else pay this tariff, how do you think that strategy will play out?

DAVID WESSEL: Well, we will see.

A lot of it depends on the specifics.

How much is he going to impose tariffs?

On whom?

What will the exemptions be?

And, importantly, what will be the retaliation from our trading partners?

The Canadians and Mexicans have already talked about that.

So it may help some domestic manufacturers, but hurt them in their exporting role.

I don't see how it lowers inflation.

It's -- the only question is, how much does it raise inflation?

And I think it's kind of what -- we have to see how much of this is threat and how much is he really going to do?

But, as you know, he has a lot of authority.

The president has a lot of authority on tariffs, not so much on taxes.

For that, he needs Congress.

GEOFF BENNETT: He also seemed to link energy policy and oil production to inflation.

Does he have that right?

DAVID WESSEL: Well, he has the right to link anything he wants.

But energy prices are actually a relatively small part of the consumer basket, about 6 or 7 percent.

And over the last year, energy prices and the price of petroleum products has actually been a negative.

It's been drawing down inflation.

The U.S. is producing more oil than it consumes.

It is producing 20 percent more oil today than it did when President Trump left office.

So it seems a bit overstated.

GEOFF BENNETT: I should have said, is he accurate, not does he have that right?

But... DAVID WESSEL: And also, like, climate change seems to be off the table altogether in his world.

GEOFF BENNETT: Yes, absolutely.

He also said he would demand lower interest rates from the Fed and likewise ask Saudi Arabia to lower its oil prices.

The next Fed meeting is January 29.

It's expected to hold rates steady.

What influence can he have on either of those fronts?

DAVID WESSEL: I don't think he can have much influence.

Obviously, if the U.S. produces more oil, it's a world market for oil, it might lower prices.

The Saudis have played this game for a long time.

If you want prices to go down, you produce more.

Not sure American producers are going to be happy with lower oil prices.

As far as the Fed goes, I think it's all bluster until he gets his chance to replace Jay Powell in May of 2026.

Until then, the Fed will, I think, stand up to him.

GEOFF BENNETT: You think so?

DAVID WESSEL: Yes.

GEOFF BENNETT: All right, David Wessel, thanks so much for being with us.

DAVID WESSEL: You're welcome.

AMNA NAWAZ: Let's turn now to Nick Schifrin on the foreign policy aspects of the president's Davos discussion.

Nick, good to see you.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Thanks, Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: So we have been talking about this.

The president hit on a lot of different points, a lot of different regions.

Specifically, on Ukraine, what did he have to say?

NICK SCHIFRIN: Senior administration officials have told me that Ukraine is one of, if not the top priority for this administration.

And President Trump has consistently said that his priority is to end the war and what he called the killing fields of Ukraine.

DONALD TRUMP: I have seen pictures of what's taking place.

It's a carnage, and we really have to stop that war.

That war is horrible.

And I'm not talking economy.

I'm not talking economics.

I'm not talking about natural resources.

I'm just talking about there's so many young people being killed in this war.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Now, today, as Lisa noted, he said that Zelenskyy was ready to make a deal, but it wasn't clear whether Putin was and that he wanted to see Putin -- quote -- "immediately."

So, how do you get Russia to agree to a deal?

It has become increasingly clear that Ukraine on the battlefield cannot put enough pressure on the Russian military to create pressure on Putin.

Senior Trump officials tell me that they believe it's more effective to pressure Putin economically or via China.

And for the first time last night, we saw that Trump himself said he was willing to use economic pressure.

He wrote on TRUTH Social - - quote -- "If we don't make a deal, and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of taxes, tariffs and sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States and various other participating countries."

Now, Russia doesn't sell very much to the U.S. anymore, Amna.

But the bottom line is, he is threatening or appears to be threatening the Russian economy.

And the best way to do that is to attack the lifeblood of the Russian economy, and that is oil exports.

The Biden administration only used that tool at the end because they were worried about raising gas prices.

There is a lot of room for sanctions on Russian oil to expand.

And Trump also said, as we have been talking about with David Wessel, that he wanted to see increased production of oil to lower prices, and that would reduce the revenue that Russia could use to fight in Ukraine.

AMNA NAWAZ: Even if he can get to a cease-fire, previous cease-fires between Ukraine and Russia have been broken.

How does the Trump team overcome that history?

NICK SCHIFRIN: As part of any negotiation, Trump officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the national security adviser, Mike Waltz, have said that Ukraine needs a security guarantee moving forward politically, so that President Zelenskyy can actually sell any kind of deal to his people, but also to deter Russia from launching another war in the future.

Now, what does that mean?

That means some kind of long-term security assistance, actual weapons, presumably coming from the United States to Ukraine, but it also includes troops inside Ukraine to actually enforce any kind of cease-fire detail.

And a senior official who's been working on Ukraine confirms to me that the Trump administration and European governments have been talking about sending European troops into Ukraine to try and enforce a cease-fire.

They would not be NATO troops.

They would be individual European troops to do that.

Now, that's a long way from now, and there's a lot of doubt that Putin will accept any offer on the table, whether or not from Trump or Ukraine at all.

Just today, we heard from Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, saying -- quote -- "We remain ready for mutually respectful dialogue.

This dialogue was maintained between the two presidents during Trump's first presidency.

We are waiting for signals which have not come yet."

So, Russia saying something, but clearly not playing their hand as to whether they're really ready for peace yet.

AMNA NAWAZ: Waiting for signals.

We will see.

Nick Schifrin, thank you very much.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: We begin the day's other headlines in California, where firefighters are battling new fires in the Los Angeles area.

The Laguna Fire sprang up today in Ventura County, west of L.A., prompting evacuations.

Meantime in the mountains north of Los Angeles, the fast-moving Hughes Fire has grown to nearly 16 square miles.

It's currently less than 20 percent contained.

No homes or structures have been reported burned, but more than 50,000 people remain under evacuation orders and warnings.

Weather officials say high winds and low humidity will keep the risk of fire critical through tomorrow morning, although firefighters have expressed some optimism.

ANTHONY MARRONE, Los Angeles County, California, Fire Chief: The situation remains dynamic and the fire remains a difficult fire to contain, although we are getting the upper hand.

AMNA NAWAZ: Los Angeles is still reeling from two other blazes, the Palisades and Eaton fires.

Those erupted earlier this month, killing at least 28 people.

The Eaton Fire is now nearly contained.

Today, California lawmakers passed a $2.5 billion aid package to help the city recover from the fires.

OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and the family who owns it will pay up to $7.4 billion to settle lawsuits stemming from the opioid crisis.

In today's deal, Purdue agreed to pay nearly $900 million.

The Sackler family itself will pay upwards of $6.5 billion and give up ownership of the company.

That is $500 million more than a previous deal, which was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court last year.

But unlike the previous deal, this one does not make the Sacklers immune from future lawsuits.

The new settlement still needs court approval.

In the U.K., a judge sentenced a teenager today to more than 50 years in prison for stabbing three girls to death at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class last summer.

Video shown in court captured Axel Rudakubana approaching the studio in Southport, England, where he killed the girls ages 6, 7, and 9.

He also injured 10 other people.

The judge said Rudakubana wanted to -- quote -- "carry out mass murder of innocent, happy young girls."

But he couldn't impose life without parole because Rudakubana was a minor at the time of the attack.

The International Criminal Court's top prosecutor is seeking arrest warrants for two Taliban leaders over the repression of women in Afghanistan.

The Taliban has cracked down on women's rights since taking back control of the country in 2021.

Laws there bar women from jobs, most public spaces and education beyond the sixth grade.

Today, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said gender-based persecution by the Taliban's supreme leader and the head of Afghanistan's Supreme Court amount to crimes against humanity.

KARIM KHAN, Prosecutor, International Criminal Court: Our action signals the status quo for women and girls in Afghanistan is not acceptable.

Afghan survivors, in particular, women and girls, deserve accountability before a court of law.

AMNA NAWAZ: The application for the arrest warrants still needs a judge's approval to take effect.

In Thailand, marriage equality is now the law of the land.

A historic bill took effect today granting LGBTQ+ people the same marital rights as heterosexual couples.

By the end of the day, some 1,800 same-sex couples across Thailand had tied the knot.

That includes nearly 200 who registered their unions during a day-long celebration at a Bangkok shopping mall.

Thailand is the first country in Southeast Asia to legalize same-sex marriage and the third place in all of Asia after Taiwan and Nepal.

On Wall Street, stocks rose after those comments from President Trump about lower interest rates and oil prices.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained more than 400 points, or nearly 1 percent.

The Nasdaq added 44 points on the day.

The S&P 500 closed at a new all-time high.

And the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and sciences announced its Oscar nominations this morning.

WOMAN: "Emilia Perez."

AMNA NAWAZ: The musical "Emilia Perez" about transgender identity leads with 13 nominations.

That's the most ever for a non-English language film and includes a best actress nomination for Karla Sofia Gascon, making her the first openly trans actor ever nominated.

Another musical, "Wicked," followed with 10 nominations, as did postwar epic "The Brutalist."

This year's announcement had been delayed twice due to the fires ravaging Los Angeles.

The 97th Academy Awards ceremony is set to air in early March.

Still to come on the "News Hour": judges who oversaw the trials of January 6 rioters express frustrations with the president's pardons; the small team of people behind an app giving Californians lifesaving updates about the wildfires; and how one county in Ohio is making major strides to reduce infant mortality.

As we have reported, a federal judge today temporarily blocked President Trump's executive order to end birthright citizenship, the first legal test for the president amid his flurry of week one immigration actions.

Birthright citizenship was enshrined in the Constitution in 1868 and upheld in a landmark Supreme Court ruling in 1898 in the case of a young Chinese American cook named Wong Kim Ark.

Today, nearly two dozen states are suing President Trump over his order to end it.

Washington state is one of them.

And Attorney General Nick Brown joins me now.

Attorney General Brown, welcome to the "News Hour."

Thanks for joining us.

NICK BROWN, Washington Attorney General: Thank you for having me.

AMNA NAWAZ: So let's begin with that news today of the federal judge in Seattle temporarily blocking President Trump's executive order and calling it blatantly unconstitutional.

What's your reaction to that ruling?

NICK BROWN: Well, we're obviously very happy with the judge's ruling today.

Washington brought a case, along with Arizona, Oregon, and Illinois, to challenge that executive order.

We brought a complaint and temporary restraining order.

And to hear the judge from the bench say today that it was blatantly unconstitutional, to say that in his four decades since being appointed by President Reagan that he has never seen something so obviously illegal was very heartening and reaffirmed that we need to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

And it's the first step of many to come, but really happy with the team's effort and the collaboration with other attorney generals.

AMNA NAWAZ: Do you take today's ruling as any kind of indication of what could come in your case?

NICK BROWN: Well, we have certainly got a long way to go.

This is only a temporary restraining order, but it has really important impact.

Effectively, nationwide, the Department of Justice and many other agencies in the federal government are ordered to put their pens down and cannot take any action from enforcing or implementing this executive order.

So they have to stop.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, the clause at the heart of all this is something that's enshrined in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

It reads this way.

It says: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States."

Now, as you have seen, this Trump administration is arguing that people born to parents in this country illegally have always been excluded from this because, as they argue, they are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.

Why, in your view, is that legally wrong?

NICK BROWN: Well, their argument is really a fringe theory that is not well supported and has been sort of an outlier in the common understanding of the 14th Amendment, in part because the Supreme Court ruled on this matter in the case that you referenced earlier.

And this has been the common understanding of our Supreme Court, of Congress, of every prior president up until Donald Trump.

This is the understanding of what it means to be an American, that, if you're born here in this country, that you are an American.

The provision about subject to the laws thereof has really been used, tried to be manipulated to change that common understanding.

And the judge today in our court really got to the heart of it.

Essentially, what the United States is arguing, if you take their argument to its fullest extent, is that people born to undocumented people in the United States would not be subject to the laws and jurisdiction of the United States.

So, if an undocumented person was charged with a crime, they wouldn't be subject to the jurisdiction of this state.

And it's just kind of an absurd legal theory.

I understand the Trump administration will continue to advance that one, but we feel really confident in the legal precedent and this own Supreme Court's ruling that we will be affirmed all the way up the chain.

AMNA NAWAZ: It's worth pointing out too it wouldn't just impact children born to undocumented residents.

It's also children born to some people who are here with temporary legal status of some kind, on student visas or tourists or on temporary protected status.

Have you taken stock?

Do you know how many people could be impacted in your state or across the country?

NICK BROWN: Well, we think, in every given year, there's approximately about 7,000 people who this might impact.

And, across the country, we're talking in the hundreds of thousands.

And it has a direct impact on those individuals, really attempting to erase their citizenship, their identity.

It really leaves them in this uncertain place of perhaps not being a citizen of any country.

And we could not stand that.

It also has a direct impact on states specifically who are responsible for the well-being of people in their state and the financial obligation that Washington and other states across the country would face if the federal government stepped out of their co-responsibility would be significant.

I also think it's really important that people understand where this provision of the 14th Amendment came from.

It came in the wake of perhaps the most infamous Supreme Court decision in United States history, the Dred Scott decision in 1857.

And the 14th Amendment reaffirmed that people here in this United States that are born in this United States are Americans.

And, initially, it was brought forth to defend newly freed Black Americans.

And that has been the understanding of this country for so long.

And there are many countries in the world that have some version of birthright citizenship.

I have seen the president time and time again say, we're the only country in the world that does that.

He's wrong, like he's wrong about so many things.

And we need to defend the Constitution of the United States.

And that's what this case and the other cases are trying to do.

AMNA NAWAZ: Even if this does not succeed in the courts for the Trump administration, I wonder what you think about just the fact that this is now a conversation that's being had, that courts are forced to contend with it, you and other states are forced to legally defend it.

Does all of that have some kind of an impact?

NICK BROWN: Our hope is that we don't have to spend so much energy and resources focused on this type of work.

But it is very important to defend everyone in our states, defend their right to be an American.

And so we will take every action by the president as it comes, do our own analysis and evaluation.

But we have so many things that we do on behalf of the people of our states that have nothing to do with Donald Trump.

And we continue to do the day-to-day work in these agencies.

But we cannot be dissuaded or deterred by illegal and unjust and, frankly, un-American actions by the president of the United States.

AMNA NAWAZ: That's the attorney general of Washington state, Nick Brown, joining us tonight.

Attorney General Brown, thank you.

It was good to speak with you.

NICK BROWN: Thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

GEOFF BENNETT: In the days since President Trump's sweeping clemency of January 6 rioters, the federal courts have been busy processing the dismissals.

But the judges who've spent years overseeing the hundreds of trials are not hiding their frustration.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who sentenced dozens of defendants and also oversaw President Trump's election interference case, criticized the decision in an order, saying -- quote -- "No pardon can change the tragic truth of what happened on January 6, 2021.

It cannot whitewash the blood, feces, and terror that the mob left in its wake."

While fellow U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell wrote -- quote -- "No national injustice occurred here.

Charges were fully supported by evidence.

This court cannot let stand the revisionist myth relayed in this presidential pronouncement."

The comments are some of the first made by judges following the president's decision to grant clemency to more than 1,500 people who were charged for the January 6 attack.

For perspective now, we turn to John Jones.

He's a retired federal judge who was appointed by President George W. Bush and now serves as the president of Dickinson College.

Thanks for being with us.

JOHN E. JONES III, Former Federal Judge: Geoff, good to be with you.

GEOFF BENNETT: You spent nearly two decades on the federal bench.

How do you perceive the impact of these pardons on the judiciary's role in upholding the rule of law and ensuring accountability for actions that undermine democratic institutions?

JOHN E. JONES III: Well, bravo, Geoff, to my former colleagues on the D.C. bench, because judges are not allowed under the code of conduct to make what are called extrajudicial statements about cases.

In other words, Judge Chutkan and Judge Howell can't call a press conference.

They shouldn't, and make statements, but they let their orders do the talking for them.

And you can read directly from their orders and tell that they're pretty anguished about the fact that these folks were pardoned.

They know these cases.

They understand what happened in these cases.

In many cases, they sentenced these people, and they're intimately familiar with the facts.

And they're simply, by their words, not accepting a false narrative that these were -- and I'm quoting the president -- that these were hostages.

GEOFF BENNETT: To your point about the false narrative, Donald Trump has for years now sought to reframe the public's understanding of what transpired on January 6.

He often refers to it as a beautiful day.

Another of the federal judges involved in the convictions said that the real history of that day is captured in the evidence.

Here's what District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said.

She says: "Those records are immutable and represent the truth, no matter how the events of January 6 are described by those charged or their allies."

How does that strike you?

Because we have seen, in this current moment, how the truth can so often bend to the power of perception.

JOHN E. JONES III: Well, that's exactly right.

And it's the old adage, if you say something enough times, people start to believe it.

But let's take the example, Geoff, of these judges.

In the case of a trial -- and many of them went to trial -- that judge sat through the trial and heard all of the evidence in the case, unbiased, impartial, without fear or favor.

The jury made the determination and the judge's job was to make sure the defendant had a fair trial.

Many of them pled guilty, however.

And when a defendant pleads guilty in federal court, there's a presentence report that is very thick and chock full of facts, and the defendant has the right to object to those facts and have a hearing if he or she believes the facts aren't correct.

So, again, these judges are intimately familiar with every shred of evidence in these cases.

And they're simply not buying the fact that these are victims or hostages.

And, in many cases, they know -- and I'm quite sure they know that there is a danger of recidivism, that is, that these defendants may get out and commit crimes.

And we can already see by the defendants' pronouncements, the pardoned individuals, they're far from full of remorse.

And, in fact, some have indicated that they're not going to play by the rules and that there will be retribution for what happened to them.

This all goes into the judges' calculus when they write the orders and make the comments that you very cogently presented.

GEOFF BENNETT: In some instances, the judges have opted to dismiss these cases without prejudice, meaning that they could be refiled hypothetically at some point.

Do you see a universe in which that could happen post-Trump?

JOHN E. JONES III: No, they're not going to be prosecuted again.

Geoff, that's just a statement by the judges, a little bit of a finger in the eye, I guess, maybe for a little psychic enjoyment, darkly enjoying it.

But they're not going to get refiled.

And I suspect that all the judges who would not dismiss with prejudice understood that.

GEOFF BENNETT: Big picture question, how should the judiciary maintain its independence in this moment, where so many Americans view the judicial branch as just another political branch?

JOHN E. JONES III: You know, I have been there and done that.

And I used to joke that, when I was on the bench, I thought my name was changed from Judge John -- from Judge John Jones to Bush-appointed Judge John Jones.

And I surprised some people by actually ruling in cases in a way that was against what folks thought I would do, given who appointed me.

I think that happens every day in the judiciary because judges take an oath.

I think the judiciary, properly operating, has to be a bulwark against the tyranny of the majority, and in this case against -- and it's not adversarial, per se, but if you have a president who doesn't respect the judiciary and who believes that they should bend to his will, the judiciary is going to have to stand up as a co-equal branch of government and call them as according to the facts and the law and the Constitution Without digressing into another topic, you're seeing that today with the birthright citizenship question.

And that's starting to appear on dockets across the country.

It will be very interesting to see how that plays out.

GEOFF BENNETT: Retired federal Judge John Jones, now president of Dickinson College, thanks so much for this enlightening conversation.

We appreciate it.

JOHN E. JONES III: Great to be here, Geoff.

Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: On Sunday, the 60-day window to implement the cease-fire between Lebanon and Israel will close.

As part of the deal, Israeli troops must withdraw from Lebanon and Hezbollah must disarm in a border zone.

But just days from the deadline, Israeli troops remain and Hezbollah's status is unclear in a country that's faced widespread destruction in this latest war.

Simona Foltyn reports from Beirut.

SIMONA FOLTYN: Beirut's southern suburbs are once again in ruins.

After two months of Israeli bombardment, Dahiyeh's residents returned last November to find their homes, shops and lives reduced to rubble.

Husam's apartment block was still standing.

It narrowly escaped an Israeli strike that flattened several high-rise buildings, leaving hundreds of his neighbors homeless.

HUSAM MAZRAANI, Lebanon Resident (through translator): The tyrannical Israeli enemy is sowing lies that there Hezbollah fighters here, but there are only peaceful civilians.

They are destroying the environment that loves the resistance.

SIMONA FOLTYN: The IDF said it hit around 360 -- quote -- "terrorist structures" in Dahiyeh before the cease-fire went into effect on November 27.

These strikes decimated Hezbollah's top echelon, but they also killed scores of civilians and wreaked havoc on civilian infrastructure, which is forbidden under international law.

Dahiyeh is considered a Hezbollah stronghold, but it's also a sprawling suburb, home to around a million people, many of whom support the group.

There's a sense here that Israeli strikes did not just target Hezbollah's leadership and fighters, but also its Shia constituency.

Experts at the American University of Beirut are calling Israel's bombardment of Dahiyeh an urbicide the deliberate obliteration of urban fabric.

Professor Mona Fawaz is part of a team mapping the impact.

MONA FAWAZ, American University of Beirut: We're seeing massive destruction to civilian infrastructure.

That's very clear and certainly much broader than what we saw back in 2006.

SIMONA FOLTYN: During the 2006 war, Israel coined the so-called Dahiyeh Doctrine.

It's a military strategy involving the large-scale destruction of civilian infrastructure to pressure adversaries.

Back then, Israeli jets leveled around 250 multistory residential buildings clustered around the headquarters of Hezbollah.

According to satellite images analyzed by the "News Hour," the latest strikes appear to be scattered across a much wider area.

Fawaz said the goal wasn't just to degrade Hezbollah's military capabilities.

MONA FAWAZ: What we're seeing is also an effort to create a division, on the one hand, between Hezbollah and between the population, and, on the other, also between what's described as Hezbollah's supporters, the Shia community in Lebanon, and the rest of the population.

SIMONA FOLTYN: Israel says it's fighting Hezbollah, not civilians.

Back in September, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the Lebanese people.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, Israeli Prime Minister: For too long, Hezbollah has been using you as human shields.

It placed rockets in your living rooms and missiles in your garage.

Please, get out of harm's way now.

Once our operation is finished, you can come back safely to your homes.

SIMONA FOLTYN: But in Lebanon's south there are barely any homes to return to.

This is what Israel and the State Department called a limited ground incursion.

Israel has razed entire border villages to the ground, and it continued long after the cease-fire went into effect.

This is, or, rather, was, Meiss El Jabal.

In November, the IDF blew up parts of the village.

The demolitions were captured in celebratory videos posted by Israeli soldiers.

From afar, the people of Meiss El Jabal watched in horror.

Zarifa, along with her husband, Moussa, and six children, fled the village last year.

Their house has been damaged, their daughter's bulldozed to the ground.

ZARIFA HAZIMA, Displaced (through translator): We were happy there.

I used to love to work in my garden, but they destroyed it.

What was in the house?

Nothing.

SIMONA FOLTYN: Just days before the deadline to withdraw, the IDF still occupies Lebanon's border towns and has forbidden residents to return.

But the "News Hour" has compared satellite images before and after the war to assess the level of destruction, focusing on these three areas.

This is the neighborhood near the hospital that was detonated by the IDF in early November.

Our analysis shows that 243 buildings have been destroyed, either completely, marked here in red, or partly, marked in pink.

In the village center, 249 buildings have been destroyed, including three mosques and a school.

MONA FAWAZ: The Israeli army tends to target first in villages the historic cores, monuments, buildings that are known to be - - to people, that bring people together.

SIMONA FOLTYN: The pattern is repeated in the adjacent village of Mhaibib, which has been almost completely wiped out.

Around 100 buildings were demolished in a controlled detonation, including an ancient shrine, a cemetery and a mosque.

Mhaibib's destruction was captured in this video.

The IDF says that large-scale demolitions have targeted Hezbollah's tunnel networks, but it has not provided compelling evidence.

Zarifa and Moussa refute the IDF's claims that Hezbollah embeds weapons in civilian homes.

MOUSSA KISHFI, Displaced (through translator): They're saying this so they can bomb people's houses.

They're trying to punish the civilians so they turn on Hezbollah.

ZARIFA HAZIMA (through translator): But they failed.

The more they hit the people, the more they support the resistance.

SIMONA FOLTYN: The fate of Meiss El Jabal is replicated along Lebanon's border with Israel.

Experts say that the objective is to create a depopulated buffer zone.

MONA FAWAZ: The bulldozers are actually bulldozing villages.

And they are actually booby-trapping people's homes, hospitals, public infrastructures.

And then they're basically broadcasting this to the world to see as a sign of their strength, their might.

And, sadly, this is weapons and funding that's coming from U.S. taxpayers.

SIMONA FOLTYN: With the deadline to implement the truce just days away and Hezbollah threatening to resume fighting if Israel doesn't withdraw, there's a risk of more fighting and destruction ahead.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Simona Foltyn in Beirut, Lebanon.

GEOFF BENNETT: Ever since the deadly wildfires began in Los Angeles two weeks ago, residents have largely turned to one app for the most up-to-date information.

It's called Watch Duty.

And Stephanie Sy spoke to two members of the small team who make it possible to make it possible.

STEPHANIE SY: Smoke filled the sky above Sekhar Padmanabhan's Los Angeles home on January 8, winds gusting around him.

Just a day earlier, the Palisades Fire began its deadly march across the Santa Monica mountains.

As a staff reporter for Watch Duty, Padmanabhan had a job to do.

SEKHAR PADMANABHAN, Staff Reporter, Watch Duty: We noticed it and saw it start and we saw it kind of take off, and then we assigned more people because it got bigger and bigger and bigger.

STEPHANIE SY: Watch Duty provides real-time updates and notifications from official sources during wildfires.

The free app has interactive maps allowing users to track evacuation zones, shelter locations, live camera feeds and fire perimeters, as well as information about containment on specific fires.

The core team is small, about 15 paid staff.

The operation also relies on some 200 volunteers.

SEKHAR PADMANABHAN: It was really tough.

We have people sleeping in shifts.

We had people who are up for 24 hours or more.

All of our work is designed to give people as much time as they can -- as we can to give them an informed ability to make decisions.

STEPHANIE SY: During the Palisades and Eaton fires, the app was indispensable, not just for residents, including celebrities like Jimmy Kimmel... JIMMY KIMMEL, Host, "Jimmy Kimmel Live": I downloaded that Watch Duty app.

STEPHANIE SY: ... but also officials.

Watch Duty's map was projected on a wall in Los Angeles' Emergency Operations Center earlier this month.

Shortly after the fires exploded, another blaze threatened homes near Hollywood, not far from where Padmanabhan lives.

SEKHAR PADMANABHAN: That had an evacuation words basically just down the street.

And the helicopters were going above my house and I could hear with the window.

And I was watching it on Watch Duty.

And it was really, it was a surreal experience, because, like, I report on these things, but then it's my place, that, like, OK, where are my cats?

You know, what am I going to do with this?

So it was a real interesting perspective, but also peace of mind, because I knew that we had a number of people reporting on it and that would get the information that I needed, my sister needed, everybody else needed.

STEPHANIE SY: So this is an app you would trust with your own life?

SEKHAR PADMANABHAN: Yes, absolutely.

STEPHANIE SY: At the end of 2024, Watch Duty had nearly three million app users.

Since the Los Angeles area fires broke out, that number has almost doubled.

Software engineer and entrepreneur John Mills co-founded the app in 2021.

JOHN MILLS, Co-Founder, Watch Duty: The sad part is, is, we were ready for this, right?

We didn't know it was going to be so bad.

But I'm glad that we were here and practiced in this.

It's been years and years in the making.

If you look back in time before Watch Duty existed, when I went through my first fire in 2020, the Walbridge Fire, you end up having 15 browser tabs open, and you're trying to piece all this together.

So, the insight was that this needed to be consolidated in one place.

STEPHANIE SY: Shouldn't the government have an app that is dependable and trustworthy and one which fire evacuees can readily reference for reliable information on evacuation and active fire areas?

JOHN MILLS: I mean, sure, that'd be great.

It'd also be great to have more engines, better pay, more water, more infrastructure, better forest management.

So I absolutely think they can do better.

Again, it's just not what the government does very well.

Like, no one talks about any great government Web site.

And I wish that would change.

STEPHANIE SY: We were in Los Angeles County when a massive alert went out to all 10 million residents of Los Angeles County.

That ended up being kind of a false alarm for most people.

But your app did not send out that evacuation alert, from what I understand.

Is that part of human vetting?

JOHN MILLS: Yes, that's correct.

I mean, we don't just let machines or systems blanket send information out blindly.

And when that went out, we saw a lot of the systems around us crashing, whether it was the evacuation software, the L.A. County Web site.

They all went down.

And so everybody came to us.

We were doing about three million users a minute, about 100,000 requests a second.

And so our systems were getting pegged and we were able to stay afloat.

STEPHANIE SY: The organization currently covers fires in 22 states, but it has plans to expand with coverage of other natural disasters like hurricanes.

JOHN MILLS: We're just trying to take our time to understand those environments, right?

We don't have a move fast and break things mentality.

We just need to deliver every day consistently and continue to keep the trust of our community.

STEPHANIE SY: Watch Duty is a nonprofit funded through donations and memberships for premium tools such as tracking air tankers.

But Mills says, for users who simply need lifesaving information from a single source, the app will always be free.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Stephanie Sy.

AMNA NAWAZ: When it comes to infant mortality, the United States ranks 54th in the world.

That's on par with countries like Romania, Hungary and the United Arab Emirates and three times the death rate of Japan, Singapore or Slovenia.

Within the U.S., Ohio is in the bottom 25 percent of all states.

And, within Ohio, Hamilton County was even worse, until it started working on saving newborn lives more than a decade ago.

Today, Hamilton County has improved and is aiming to cut its rate even lower.

Paul Solman went there to find out how they have done it for our coverage of Race Matters.

PAUL SOLMAN: Single mom India Brown says bringing son Makai (ph) into the world two years ago was a near catastrophe.

INDIA BROWN, Mother: Very early, on about 20 weeks through the rest of my pregnancy, I was actually on bed rest.

PAUL SOLMAN: Because her baby seemed about to be born four months early.

INDIA BROWN: I had several hospital stays, several emergency visits just in the middle of night, trying to keep the baby safe, keep him alive, keep him growing.

PAUL SOLMAN: That's that guy over there?

INDIA BROWN: Yes, exactly.

INDIA BROWN: He made it to 40 weeks and he actually wanted to stay longer.

It was really weird.

We were so worried he wouldn't do that.

PAUL SOLMAN: She and her son survived in a historically perilous place for newborns.

MEREDITH SMITH, Executive Director, Cradle Cincinnati: We had the second highest infant mortality rate of a county our size in the nation.

PAUL SOLMAN: That was back in 2011, says Meredith Smith, head of Cradle Cincinnati, an organization created to lead Hamilton County's effort to reduce infant mortality, death within one year of the baby's first heartbeat, first breath.

MEREDITH SMITH: The way that our society is measured is the way that we treat our babies.

So if we have babies dying at an alarming rate, we have a societal problem.

PAUL SOLMAN: In 2011, Hamilton County's rate and Ohio's was well above the national average, with Black babies 3.5 times more likely to die than white babies.

The top cause in the county and the top cause everywhere, what India Brown's baby almost suffered.

DR. PATRICIA GABBE, Ohio State University: Extreme prematurity, which means that baby is not in utero past 28 weeks, past 26 weeks, past 24 weeks.

PAUL SOLMAN: Pat Gabbe is an OB-GYN doctor at Ohio State University.

DR. PATRICIA GABBE: That extreme premature baby, it starts out life with a disadvantage, and two and three times more Black babies are born very, very early as white babies.

And that's where the disparities begin.

PAUL SOLMAN: And so the infant mortality disparity begins there too, because of the health of Black mothers says Dr. Gabbe.

DR. PATRICIA GABBE: They age more prematurely that our white moms, so they have more hypertension, weathering, we call it, from the stress of their living environments.

PAUL SOLMAN: Five years into its project, Cradle Cincinnati decided to focus more narrowly, on the Black infant mortality rate.

MEREDITH SMITH: We must change this rate in order to see success.

As we focus on Black women and their reality, we close the gap.

PAUL SOLMAN: That focus included a massive county outreach to all pregnant moms, getting them to doctor's offices, at-home visits from health care workers, even billboards and social media, but not just to prevent premature births.

MEREDITH SMITH: We have identified three issues that we knew were impacting infant mortality, the three S'es, smoking, spacing and sleep.

PAUL SOLMAN: Smoking, obvious, spacing, having babies more than a year apart to restore the mother's nutritional and internal health, sleeping to prevent accidental death.

But what were the case-by-case particulars?

The county investigated.

GREG KESTERMAN, Hamilton County, Ohio, Health Commissioner: We have interviewers that go out and talk to the moms and dads and the family of that child and learn about the situation that occurred that ultimately resulted in them passing away.

PAUL SOLMAN: Greg Kesterman's County Health Commission tracks every infant death.

He says one area has become increasingly bedeviling, sleeping, now the number two culprit in the county.

We have all heard of SIDS, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, infant death from unexplained causes, but co-sleeping with a baby accounted for most sleep-related deaths in Hamilton.

Wait a minute.

Where I am, that's often considered a very positive thing.

It's called family bed.

Yes, says Kesterman, but: GREG KESTERMAN: We have seen that contribute to infant mortality.

And, unfortunately, every single time, it's a sad, horrible story.

The parent was not intending for it to happen.

I have read instances in our review panels where a mom was holding the baby, sitting on the couch while trying to fall asleep, and the baby slipped through the arms in between the arm of the couch and ultimately passed away.

We know lots of parents work two, three jobs just to make ends meet.

And when that happens, you're super tired at night.

And the last thing you want is your child crying when you're trying to sleep.

And so an easy way often to calm your child down is by holding them or putting them in your bed with you.

You're so much bigger than the infant, and the possibility of suffocating the infant or crushing the child while you're sleeping is very high.

INDIA BROWN: This is your resource map.

PAUL SOLMAN: So how to prevent this?

Cradle Cincinnati's Queens Village program tried a new approach.

MEREDITH SMITH: What we are doing is centering Black women in particular's voice and asking them what they need.

The uniqueness of this model is that, instead of it being how we see fit for you to receive care, we think about how you want to receive care.

And that changes the way we understand caring for people in the U.S., period.

INDIA BROWN: Thinking about yourself is a radical concept as a Black woman.

PAUL SOLMAN: But that's what Queens Village provides to India Brown and other moms.

INDIA BROWN: It's very easy to put yourself on a back burner when you have been taught all your life to be a good daughter, to be a good mother, to be a good wife.

And no one talks about what it means to be a good person to yourself, to be a good human being.

I think that's a really big thing in the identity of a Black woman as a whole.

PAUL SOLMAN: Brown now leads a Queens Village wellness class that shifts the focus.

INDIA BROWN: What are the supports that, if you had them, would make your life easier?

ARIES DEES, Mother: When I'm well, our kids are well.

And I didn't really know that part to being part of the wellness.

I always thought I had to take care of them first, then me.

PAUL SOLMAN: Mothers like Aries Dees with three children, including a 9-month-old daughter.

ARIES DEES: It's teaching me that I have to make sure I'm OK to make sure they're OK. PAUL SOLMAN: Do you think she was safer as a result?

ARIES DEES: I feel so, for sure.

PAUL SOLMAN: How so?

ARIES DEES: Because my mental health is better.

If my mental health wasn't, you know, I mean, I feel like I wouldn't be -- we tend to zone out, not be as much nurturing and caring.

So, because I'm getting that here, I'm able to be more nurturing and caring for her.

PAUL SOLMAN: And so the women here find strength in community, which, in India Brown's case, not only saved her son from an extreme premature birth, but enabled her to sustain him thereafter.

INDIA BROWN: My son actually was diagnosed with failure to thrive at about 4.5 months.

He was not keeping down any food.

And so we couldn't really get nutrition in him and he was losing a lot of weight.

INDIA BROWN: So I was very scared.

And so other moms who had similar experiences could talk to me.

Other medical professionals were in the group.

There's just a lot more support to help you navigate that system and navigate that scary reality of what it looks like to deal with something so scary as, like, will he make it to his first year?

PAUL SOLMAN: As for data, since 2011, Hamilton County's overall infant mortality rate has plummeted from 10.2 deaths per thousand births down to 5.5, the national average.

And the Black rate has fallen by nearly 50 percent, narrowing the racial gap.

As for what I call anecdata, here's Makai Brown Kaiser (ph), walking support for both Cradle Cincinnati and Queens Village, now in 11 locations and expanding.

For the "PBS News Hour," Paul Solman in Cincinnati.

GEOFF BENNETT: And that is the "News Hour" for tonight.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz.

On behalf of the entire "News Hour" team, thank you for joining us.