good evening I'm Anna Nawaz and I'm Geoff Bennett on the News Hour tonight as emergency crews rush to contain catastrophic wildfires around Los Angeles residents come to grips with the devastating loss it's a really paralyzing time right now you don't really know which way to go a judge gives Donald Trump no punishment during sentencing in the hush money case that led to the president elect third 34 felony convictions and National Security adviser Jake Sullivan reflects on his time in the Biden White House and weighs in on the incoming Trump administration's unconventional foreign policy tactics Welcome to the News Hour firefighters are making some progress in the battle against a series of catastrophic wildfires around Los Angeles but new blazes have popped up and more than 10,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed at least 10 people have been killed and there's still more danger ahead with winds expected to pick up once again this weekend California governor Gavin Newsome said the state will conduct an inquiry into the many questions about water supply that left some hydrants unusable Stephanie Sai begins our coverage with this on the ground report winds started to ease today giving firefighters a window to continue making progress on fires that burn for a fourth day around Los Angeles the eaten fire Northeast of the city and the Palisades fire to the West are the largest but others have continued to pop up including the Kenneth fire in the San Fernando Valley that fire prompted evacuations last night and burned about a thousand acres before firefighters brought it under control overnight officials warned more than 57,000 structures remain at risk LA mayor Karen bass defended the city's response we are doing everything we can to bring the situation under control and success has been reported that is our number one job to protect people's homes to protect people's businesses and to prepare to rebuild Los Angeles in a much better way but I also knew with the way that the wind was that things could change on a dime on Tuesday Lauren Sinar saw plumes of smoke coming over her house in Malibu she quickly fled with her husband and watched through their security camera as the Flames crept closer and closer before the feed went black she hasn't been back to her property yet but neighbors have sent photos that show what remains of her house it's been a very strange couple of few days um really surreal at times and then other times like just deeply devastating but it hasn't just happened to me it's happened to so many people so with that perspective I think I've been able to sort of carry on but then there are are other moments where I'm like I have nothing like everything we had is gone except for the few stupid things that we grabbed on the way out they've been staying at a hotel trying to figure out what comes next and reflecting on the community they've lost it's a really paralyzing time right now too um you don't really know which way to go one of the things that has really like kind of hurt my heart a little bit is it seems that people view the Palisades in Malibu as just like an enclave for celebrities who can afford to you know use their Millions to rebuild and silly places and go about their lives but my experience of our neighborhood is very different um you know people that have been there their whole lives these are real people that have lost everything um that are going to have a really hard time for the next months and years ahead we are getting our first real look at the extent of the devastation here in Pacific Palisades Tracy Park represents Pacific Palisades in the Los Angeles city council what happened in the Palisades over the last several days was not unpredictable we already know when there's a wildfire event our communication systems go down we already know that during evacuation processes we have traffic bottle necks so to see those same issues repeat in what has now become the most devastating natural disaster in Los Angeles history is incredibly frustrating Park says the LA fire department's budget is inadequate for today's needs we have about the same number of firefighters and fire stations in the city of Los Angeles that we had 60 years ago but our demands for service have tripled there's 4 million people here there's 4 million people in the city of Los Angeles we have about a 100 fire engines and ambulances out of service sitting in the maintenance yard with why why is this the case because they don't have enough mechanics and here in the city of Los Angeles we need at least 62 new fire stations to meet average daily demand in our city not five not 10 not 25 62 I hope that this is a wakeup call to all of the leadership in the city of Los Angeles that this chronic underinvestment in critical infrastructure and Public Safety cannot continue this has got to be our number one priority going forward with more than 150,000 people still under evacuation orders LA County Sheriff Robert Luna said a nighttime curfew would resume tonight in those areas we're not doing this to inconvenience anybody we're doing it to protect the structures the houses that people have left uh because we ordered them to leave and I want them to feel confident uh that we are doing everything we can to secure that at least 20 arrests have been made for looting or thefts already according to the county sheriff and in addition to local law enforcement National Guard troops are now patrolling streets in a briefing today in the Oval Office President Joe Biden got an update on the fires and said his administration is working with president-elect Trump's team they know every single thing we're doing about the the response back in Los Angeles council member Tracy Park laments the future of the Pacific Palisades since many residents especially those who were under or uninsured may never be able to rebuild I think the reality here is the Palisades is probably going to look and feel different that's probably inevitable as people decide whether to rebuild what to rebuild and I think it also raises really important questions for our city about densification in areas that are prone to natural disasters the Palisades are gone that is a direct quote from the councilwoman we introduced you to in the piece and you can see the destruction behind me of course there are a few Pockets even in this neighborhood where miraculously some homes were completely untouched but the councilwoman told us there is not a single Elementary School in the Pacific Pacific Palisades that is still standing she also said there is not a lot to come back to the water is unusable and the air is toxic omna back to you so many layers of Devastation there and Stephanie on top of all this we know California has an insurance crisis essentially how does that play into the rebuilding efforts ahead there are countless residents in the Pacific Palisades that are either not insured at all or underinsured and that's because a lot lot of insurance companies simply refuse to provide fire Insurance to homeowners here knowing this is a high-risk Wildfire area so some residents including the couple we spoke to this morning say that they have a California coordinated insurance plan of Last Resort that is a very expensive plan not everybody has it and they are almost surely not going to recover enough funds to rebuild so that is a real concern what the Pacific Palisades will look like going ahead head uh the councilwoman said to us that Los Angeles did not have the resources to fight this fire alone and they will not have the resources to rebuild and recover alone Stephanie Sai reporting on those devastating wildfires in California Stephanie thank you to you and the team thank you prolonged drought in those powerful Santa Ana winds set up extreme conditions that have fueled those devastating Los Angeles area wildfires conditions compounded by climate climate change and today researchers from Noah and NASA underlined that point releasing analysis showing that 2024 was the hottest year in recorded history dating back almost 200 years the 10 warmest years on record have all occurred in the past decade according to those agencies to break down the report and its implications we're joined by Gavin Schmidt he's the director of the Godard Institute for space studies at Nasa thanks for being with us thank you very much let's talk first about the wildfires because wildfires are uncommon in the winter months so help us understand the conditions the factors that came together uh that contributed to these devastating wildfires out in Los Angeles so fires need a number of ingredients so you need to have fuel uh that's that's going to burn uh you need to have what's called fire weather uh that's the the the dry air uh and the strong winds uh that are most conducive to uh to allowing wildfires to spread and of course you need an ignition Source uh and the climate aspect of this uh is is very much in the uh both in the fuel load and in the fire weather aspects so uh in uh in Southern California uh we used to think of uh uh the the late fall as being Fire season well now Fire season stretches out all year uh because the temperatures and the evaporative draw the drying out of the uh of the land surface um has been increasing as temperatures have increased uh and so the uh the other part of that is is the fuel load uh one of the things that we've been seeing in California is this kind of whiplash between extreme uh wet events like multiple atmospheric Rivers uh at the beginning of last year and then extreme dry events so it hasn't really rained in the in the Los Angeles area for months now and that has led to both a spur of growth when there was water uh and then all of that growth has dried out uh providing like unfortunately a perfect storm uh for uh for fires uh this season and now in the winter time when you get these strong Santa Ana winds coming off the cold mountains into the warm Basin uh those those have provided uh that extra um component of fire weather uh and uh and we're seeing the results if our Baseline is changing in these large scale destructive events are becoming more common what more can we do to mitigate it well I mean we can mitigate things on the long term by reducing the amount of greenhouse gases that we're putting into the atmosphere uh until we do that uh temperatures are going to keep rising and we're going to keep having uh these announcements about record warm years uh and the impacts of that Global mean temperature change on intense rainfall on wildfires on sea level rise on heat waves are going to continue to get worse uh there are local adaptations uh that we can uh that we can do to prevent uh the worst things we can build better uh in the same way that we build better for for earthquakes we can build better uh for fire prone uh environments uh we can try and manage things but uh but a lot of this uh is uh unfortunately um uh kind of beyond our control well as we mentioned NASA and Noah released a study today showing that 2024 was the hottest year on record what story does the data tell and what are the implications well the biggest story is the long-term trends like we have warmed roughly 1 and a half deg Centigrade that's about 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit since the uh late uh 19th century since the the mid 19th century uh that is about halfway to the P scene and the P scene was a period about three million years ago uh when uh it was about three degrees warmer like you know five five degrees Farenheit or warmer and there was no ice in Greenland and the Arctic forests went all the way up to the Arctic ocean and sea level was something like 80 ft higher than today and we have gone up about half that distance uh in just 150 years so uh what our data shows and it's not just our data it's everybody's data is that we are having uh an impact uh on the climate this is not a minor perturbation this is a very big deal indeed and that ongoing Trend that we can see so clearly in the data uh that that kind of really started in the 1960s and has been Relentless and perhaps even increasing uh in in the last few years um is uh abundantly clear quite a warning Gavin Schmidt director of the Godard Institute for space studies at Nasa thanks for being with us thank you very much and we start today's other headlines in Venezuela president Nicolas Maduro was sworn in for a third six-year term Following last year's widely disputed election Maduro took the presidential oath this morning at the legislative Palace in Caracus he declared Victory last summer even though the US and others recognize opposition leader edmundo Gonzalez as the actual winner today Maduro celebrated what he sees as a legitimate extension of his presidency this cons ution is Victorious and Venezuela is at peace this act is possible because Venezuela is fully exercising its National sovereignty its popular sovereignty and its National Independence Maduro swearing in comes a day after key opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was briefly detained during an anti-government protest in Caracus today she posted a video on social media slamming his inauguration today Maduro consolidates a coupet in front of Venezuelans and the world they decided to cross the red line that makes official the violation of the national Constitution they trample on our constitution Maduro today did not put a sash on his chest he put it on his ankle like a shackle that will tighten more and more every day the US has criticized machado's detention and today joined Canada the UK and the European Union in announcing a coordinated round of new sanctions on Venezuela the US also raised the Bounty for maduro's arrest to $25 million the Biden Administration is also extending humanitarian protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans already living in the US they fall under what's called temporary protected status or TPS and today the Department of Homeland Security extended their stay for another 18 months the measure affects about 600,000 Venezuelans plus 200,000 people from El Salvador as well as ukrainians and sudin officials cited political and economic uncertainty the dangers of war and weather related disasters and offering the extensions president-elect Donald Trump tried to scale back such protections during his first term the Israeli military says it struck houthi Rebel Targets in Yemen today it comes a day after the houthis launched drones at Israel smoke was seen rising over Southern parts of the capital sa the houthi said the strikes came as protesters rallied in support of Palestinians in Gaza also oo today the Israeli Army confirmed that a body it recovered from Gaza was that of Hostage Hamza El zadna Israel says the 23-year-old was found in an underground tunnel earlier this week alongside the body of his father Yousef El zadna they were kidnapped together during hamas's October 7th attack the Biden Administration announced new sanctions against Russia's energy sector today hoping to deal a massive blow to its economy over the war in Ukraine the measures punished two of Russia's largest oil and gas companies plus energy officials and entities that do business with Russia they also Target a fleet of more than 180 vessels Moscow has used to evade previous sanctions officials say they're the most significant such measures to date costing Russia billions of dollars per month but they acknowledge it's up to the incoming Trump Administration to keep the sanctions or scrap them more than 80 million Americans are under winter weather alerts tonight as a massive snowstorm pushes across the South in parts of Northwest Arkansas they're digging out from more than six inches of snow officials warned of slippery and potentially dangerous roads from Missouri all the way to Atlanta Georgia children there took advantage of canceled classes by going sledding schools were closed for Millions from Texas through the Carolinas meantime more than 2,000 flights were canceled Nationwide as the storm trudges North and East North Carolina governor Josh Stein warned people that travel could be treacherous the winter storm will likely hit much of our state at this time our greatest concern is road safety the thawing and refreezing of precipitation leads to ice so that everyone needs to be careful on our roads the storm has already dumped more than a Year's worth of snow on cities like Memphis and Little Rock part of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast will also see snow this weekend on Wall Street today a strong jobs report raised worries about the pace of Fed rate cuts as a result the Dow Jones Industrial Average sank nearly 700 points the NASDAQ lost more than 300 points on the day the S&P 500 also ended firmly in negative territory and a violin made by Italian Craftsman Antonio stradavar is estimated to fetch a record price of up to $18 million when it goes to auction next month the yoakim ma stradavarius was craft in 1714 during what's considered the violin Maker's golden period its name comes from two of its prior owners Joseph yoakim and seon Ma both accomplished violinists ma gifted the violin to the New England Conservatory in Boston where he had studied proceeds of the sale will go towards student scholarships still to come on the newsour the US Supreme Court hears arguments on whether Banning Tik Tok violates the First Amendment and David Brooks and Jonathan capart weigh in on the week's political headlines President-elect Donald Trump was sentenced today in New York City months after a New York jury found him guilty of 34 felony counts falsifying business documents to cover up an extramarital fair but judge Juan Maran granted the president elect what's called an unconditional discharge a sentence that affirms he is a convicted felon but faces No Further penalties fines or any time in jail our William brangham was in court in New York this morning and joins us now so William Tell us a little bit more about this unconditional discharge how did Judge Juan Maran explain his rationale for what some are calling a lenient lenient sentence I mean I'm not on one hand this wasn't a surprise the judge had telegraphed this in a memo earlier but yes this is a relatively rare situation to have a defendant convicted of 34 felony convictions and face no jail time no penalties no fines no probation Maran in describing today said that on one hand this was a trial that was very ordinary it unfolded in an ordinary way jury was selected judges I mean the the lawyers gave of their arguments Witnesses were heard a verdict was reached but he said because of the defendant this was an extraordinary trial and sentencing him would be the same mhan said that if Donald Trump had been a regular citizen a regular defendant that he would have likely have faced much harsher punishment for those crimes but because Donald Trump is about to become president of the United States again that comes with enormous protections the judge said those are granted by the Constitution many other courts and most recently interpreted Again by the Supreme Court last year so Marshon argued this was the only course he could really take but he did say those protections given to the president do not excuse the underlying crime let's let's hear a little bit of what he said today to be clear the protections afforded the Office of the President are not a mitigating Factor they do not reduce the seriousness of a crime or justify its Commission in any way the protections are however a legal mandate which pursuant to the rule of law this court must respect and follow it's an interesting clarification there and William we should note that Mr Trump wasn't in the courtroom today the judge had given him the option of dialing in remotely but he was allowed to speak and on the record so what did he say that's right Donald Trump uh connected to the courtroom via video link from maral Lago sitting next to his lawyer and Trump said what he has always said about this case that this was a political Witch Hunt it was a completely rigged case against him he said he is completely innocent of the charges which he argues are completely bogus he denies he ever had a relationship with stormmy Daniels he he again uh falsely blamed collusion between these local prosecutors and the Department of Justice he said notably that the voters had been in the ultimate jury Nationwide and that they had looked at this case and all the other cases against him and they said they Vindicated him here's a little bit of what he had to say it's been a political Witch Hunt it was done to damage my reputation so that I'd lose the election and obviously that didn't work but William even facing no penalties no jail time no fines this isn't necessarily a day that Mr Trump wanted to see happen or thought should happen isn't that right that's exactly right he fought this in every legal Avenue that he could as is his right he appealed it to this judge he appealed it to an appeals court in New York he even appealed it this week to the US Supreme Court which rejected it last night in a 5 to4 vote there was also this very unusual phone call that Donald Trump had with Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alo this week ostensibly this was a call about a job referral for a man who is I guess being considered for a job in the Trump Administration but many government ethics experts say that to have the a sitting Supreme Court Justice on the phone with the president elect on the very same week that he is appealing to them to delay sentencing certainly raises eyebrows again Alo claims that they did not talk about this whatsoever it had not even been filed at that point when Trump had this conversation so yes Trump did not want today to come because until today actually happened Trump was not legally considered a quote uh convicted felon and now he is and that's certainly not any label that an incoming president wants a fix to him right before he enters the White House um the last thing that judge Maran said to Donald Trump today was Sir I wish you godp speed as you assume your second term in office and with that Donald Trump's video link disconnected from the courtroom and that was the end of the day today godp speed indeed William brangham reporting from New York City William thank you thanks om now in a matter of days one of the most popular social media apps in the country could be forced to pull the plug that's if the Supreme Court does doesn't Grant it a legal reprieve John Yang is here to explore Tik tok's legal battle and its looming deadline to cut its ties with China Jeff while the justic has heard arguments over the looming us Tik Tock ban inside the court outside some influencers gathered on the steps to live stream their support for the platform there are more than 170 million Tik Tok users in the United States that's about half the population in last year's presidential campaign both candidates used it to young voters but concerns about its Chinese ownership LED Congress to pass a law that would ban it in the United States on January 19th unless its parent company sells it Bobby Allen covers technology for NPR and Marsha Cole is PBS news Supreme Court analyst Bobby let me start with you what does this law actually do on the 19th the Tik Tock lawyer today kept saying that Tik Tock would go dark is that an overstatement yeah on January 19th Apple and Google will be legally forced to remove Tik Tok from App Stores and that means new users can't download it and bite dance in China will not be able to send the app software updates also web hosting services that provide back-end support for Tik Tok will have to stise that means it's not going to have any Cloud support that's going to be a huge problem for all of the people taking videos commenting trying to use Tik Tok because basically it will [ __ ] Tik tok's infrastructure and Marsha in the arguments today what were the justices focusing on John they were really focused on the the two reasons that Congress and the administration have given uh to justify the law as as is as Bobby just stated it uh that had to do with the fact that the Chinese government through its very close alignment with bite dance the china-based owner of Tik Tock May engage in covert content manipulation as well as its collection of the data of private citizens Americans about 100 77 million Americans and their contacts and use both those to undermine National Security there was also a First Amendment argument wasn't there well actually the guts of this case is whether the law itself violates the First Amendment speech rights of Tik Tock USA and the uh users of Tik Tock they're they're called creators those who put content up on uh Tik Tok um and today during the argument uh it was very interesting because there was a lot of skepticism about the first justification of the Chinese government uh engaging in manipulation covert manipulation of content and whether there actually was a a speech interest here uh to uh look at um as uh some of the justices said and I I'll point in particular to Chief Justice Roberts he said Congress didn't care about the expression on Tik Tock meaning the speech or the ideas on Tik Tock uh Congress didn't want to stop Tik Tock he said what Congress wanted to do was to stop China's control of Tik Tock so he was very skeptical that there was a speech right here also there were justices who did recognize there were speech rights belonging to Tik Tock USA and the users of Tik Tock but they questioned for example um Justice Elena Kagan questioned whether that those speech uh impediments or restrictions were really substantial because the law itself she said really was targeted at uh bite dance and its divestiture were the justices more skeptical of one side or the other did they tip their hand at all about what they might do well I think they were very tough on both sides but I think what resounded most with the justices was that second interest that the government offered for the law the uh collection of the private information of American citizens uh justice Brett Kavanaugh for example he said that's a huge concern now and in the future as the government pointed out that data private data could be used by China uh in the future to Blackmail uh future CIA officers uh it could be used to try to turn certain Americas Americans into spies uh and so I think uh when you looked overall at the arguments that was something that may persuade a majority to very much uphold this law and Bobby if that happens if this law is upheld is there any indication what Tik Tock and its owners would do as the 19th approaches that's really the million-dollar question we don't know Tik Tok and its parent company bite dance are in this really precarious amount of uncertainty right now that if the law is upheld you know president-elect Donald Trump will not yet be in office and you know between January 19th the start date and when Trump is sworn in the 20th there's going to be 24 hours of limbo and I have sources inside of Google and inside of Apple who say look we've heard from our general councils that we're not about to be out of compliance with a federal law on the book so uh they are planning the the two big tech companies to remove Tik Tok on the 19th and I think a big question is even if if the law is upheld Will trump then can he rather extend the deadline how do you this came up in in the court today right how do you extend the deadline on a ban that has already started so um lots lots of unknowns but uh it could get really serious really fast for tiktock and actually at the end of last year the president the president-elect filed a brief in the court asking them to delay this so that he could have time to try to negotiate a deal as he put it uh and is there a chance that he just might if if the law is upheld he just might not enforce it that's a possibility Trump remember was uh the person who started the Tik Tok band movement during his first term but now coming into office he wants to be Tik Tock Savior and it is within the realm of possibility that he instructs his justice department to not enforce this law if you look at the language of the law Congress passed it puts a lot of leeway in the hands of the president the president will be the one uh who will be interpreting and instructing his administration to enforce the law so a lot will come down to what is Trump going to do once he's in office you know regardless of what the high court decides Bobby Allen of NPR Marsha Coyle our Supreme Court analyst for PBS news thank you both very much thanks for having me joh on Monday President Biden will give a farewell speech at the St Department focused on his foreign policy Legacy earlier today Nick schiffren sat down with one of the key architects of that foreign policy National Security adviser Jake Sullivan Jake Sullivan thanks very much welcome back to the new thanks for having me today you're imposing the largest sanctions yet on Russia's energy sector including two of Russia's largest oil producers and ships that constitute Russia's Shadow Fleet that senior officials say will cost Russia billions of dollars per month why are you taking this step now and why why didn't you take it sooner if we had sanctioned Russia's oil 18 months ago at a time when oil prices were high gas prices were high it would have meant a spike at the pump in a way that would have put pain on working people in the United States today oil prices are much lower the oil Market globally is very well supplied and so we have an opportunity to hit Putin in his pocketbook without hitting the American people in theirs what we're giving the incoming team the incoming Administration is real leverage in a negotiation uh as they set up for diplomacy on that diplomacy today the Kremlin said that Putin was open to talking to president-elect Trump last night president-elect Trump said that a meeting was being set up senior officials tell me that you don't know exactly what Russia actually wants out of any negotiation in Ukraine so in that sense is it worthwhile for Trump to have that meeting with Putin as long as Ukraine is determining its Destiny and we are not dict ating Ukraine's Destiny for it then to me diplomacy very much makes sense today's the third inauguration of Nicholas Maduro uh in Venezuela despite the fact he lost the election Administration is announcing new sanctions and visa restrictions on Maduro and his team and increasing the reward for information leading to maduro's arrest or conviction why not also cancel the licenses that allow Chevron and other energy companies to operate in Venezuela that provide the regime much of its money what we're trying to do is take in a approach that really focuses on the Bad actors the individuals who are responsible for the brutality and repression and Sham that was the presidential election last year that form of sanctions targeted sanctions rewards against them uh is the best way to put the pressure on and try to create a circumstance in which positive change comes to Venezuela if the goal is to put pressure on surely the best pressure would be to cut off maduro's main source of income going back multiple administrations we've been squeezing Venezuela economically including in their oil sector that didn't work under President Trump the kinds of sanctions you're talking about which were previously in place didn't have the intended effect Maria Karina Machado the leader of the opposition was quote kidnapped by the regime temporarily yesterday her team said what's your warning to the regime about her safety moving forward we have communicated to the regime that we expect that she will not be harmed you said today that you've taken actions in response to what's known as salt typhoon Chinese hackers who have infiltrated multiple uh American telecommunications companies what actions have you taken in response to that when it comes to punishing China we've taken actions to make it harder for China to actually be able to execute this I would just point out that there are two forms of threat here one is what salt typhoon the other is the placement of disruptive malware on critical infrastructure that could actually lead to physical effects if in fact there was a disruptive or destructive Cyber attack against an energy Grid or a water system or what have you is China today capable of that destructive hit we should be concerned about the possibility that there can be actual disruptive or destructive effects what warning have you given Beijing not to conduct that kind of attack very directly uh at very high levels we have laid out what would unfold from there in ways that I do think the PRC understands uh let's move to the Middle East negotiators are currently trying to get Israel and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire uh in Gaza it would pause the War release Israeli hostages Palestinian detainees and surge humanitarian Aid into Gaza President elect Trump has threaten quote all hell will break out in the Middle East if there isn't a deal before the inauguration the Trump team believes that language has helped accelerate the talks has it well if we get a deal everyone and their mother can take credit for it I'll be happy okay we are close but we are not there yet on Monday night President Biden will give a speech about his foreign policy Legacy so let's talk about that a little bit uh and I want to start uh in Afghanistan do you today sit back and think about how Afghanistan worked out and think maybe I could have done something better on the big question is the United States better off because we are no longer at war in Afghanistan the answer I believe is an emphatic yes this war would be entering its 25th year with Americans fighting and dying in Afghanistan and we are much better off that that is not happening of course I think there were things we could have done differently at the time in the execution but when we decided to actually execute the draw down of the embassy at the time we did not want to accelerate the draw down of the embassy because we didn't want to create a panic that would cause the collapse of the government and now looking back the government collapsed anyway as we said at the time and so therefore the obvious conclusion is even if it runs the risk of inciting that kind of panic you got to go faster let's talk about Legacy in the Middle East a new Lancet study says today that the death toll cited by Palestinian Health authorities 46,000 is actually a dramatic undercount has Israel's response been proportionate first Hamas attacked Israel killed 12200 people the largest Massacre of Jews since the Holocaust then retreated back behind his civilian population used hospitals and schools and other civilian facilities for military purposes now that does not lessen their responsibility to minimize civilian harm for those who say why not just cut off the weapons to Israel and then they'll have to do what you say you've got to remember that sitting in my seat I was watching Israel get attacked not just by Hamas but by Hezbollah by the houthis by the Shia militia groups in Iraq and Syria Israel say seven fronts and directly by Iran itself so no we were not going to leave Israel defenseless against the onslaught of those multiple fronts on Ukraine if you had given Ukraine more weapons before the 2022 2023 winter when Russia was able to seed those defensive lines in the South before Ukraine's counter offensive do you think you might have avoided the war of attrition that Ukraine seems unable to win we gave them what they needed at that time to try to continue to ress the advantage and here's what happened they ran into minefields massive Russian minefields and were never able to get through them those minefields had been seated long before this war even began so obviously we couldn't avoid that we worked at every stage of this war to put the tools in the hands of Brave Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines to be able to defend their country and to try to advance in the face of the Russian defenses and we believe that in doing so we helped save this country and thwart Russia's ambition to wipe it off the mat looking forward president-elect Trump the other day seemed to take the NATO security guarantee off the table is that wise are there other models of security guarantees that you think could create what you've called the just peace for Ukraine the critical point is that you can't really have peace unless you have some degree of confidence that Russia can't just turn around and do this all over again down the road I think if Putin sitting in the Kremlin saw the United States basically say we're done with Ukraine we've given up they're on their own it certainly wouldn't make him more likely to do a deal so you have in the incoming president someone who cares very much about the art of the deal has literally written the book on it and good deals mean leverage leverage means staying power staying power means continuing to support Ukraine you help fashion the foreign policy for the middle class uh to use your phrase um is the fact that the middle class in the election appeared to be more concerned about inflation and didn't choose kamla Harris do you believe that that's assigned that at the very least the argument that you have been making for four years didn't take hold among a certain part of the elector President Biden's investments in our manufacturing and Innovation base his investments in in protecting the United States against unfair Chinese economic practices his protection of American Technology so it can't be used against us by China or any other adversary these are steps that will play out over the course of a decade or more the clock on those and the clock on an election were not entirely align what do you wish you had more time to have accomplished the list of that is very long but I asked myself some just pretty simple questions are our alliances stronger than we found them four years ago yes are our enemies and competitors weaker than when we found them four years ago yes have we kept the United States out of War yes are the basic foundations of American power more robust and resilient today than four years ago yes so I believe we are handing off a very strong hand to the next team Jake solivan thank you very much thank you from a day of Rememberance for President Carter to president-elect Trump being sentenced in court we turn now to the analysis of Brooks and capart that's New York Times columnist David Brooks and Jonathan Kart associate editor for the Washington Post it's good to see you both on this Friday so president-elect Donald Trump received the first ever criminal sentence for a former or incoming American president a so-call unconditional discharge in his criminal hush money case David we are living in this era where the word unprecedented has been worn down to a cliche still what should we make of the fact that Donald Trump will be the first president uh to take office with a Criminal conviction uh well uh you know I thought it was the right solution Trump wanted the whole thing wiped out the court and trial wiped out some of his opponents want him to be go go to jail but you know in in our country respect the will of Voters the presidency under the Constitution least has interpreted by the Supreme Court has protections we do not want to live in a society where presidents face POS possible prosecution for the things they do while in office or even in the periphery of their office and so I thought convicting him making him a felon uh I think he can't own a gun there are few restrictions there uh but not sending him to jail that strick me as as a balance between the needs of the legal system and the needs of our democracy Donald Trump is vowing to appeal this conviction we'll see what comes of that uh but after you know being convicted of 34 felonies there are people who look at this case and they say that you know Donald Trump walks away with a punishment that is less than what one would receive for a speeding ticket look this case this hush money case was the case that everybody said was the crappy case of the four remember Donald Trump was indicted four times and this one was the least important the shakiest and yet it's the one case where Donald Trump was held accountable the one case where he was brought to trial before a jury of his peers in his hometown of New York City and was found guilty 34 times I think that is great punishment what's also great punishment is the sentencing today where the judge said you know you're you're going to be president you're not going to go to jail but you're a convicted felon and so for the rest of his life any story written about him will have to mention the fact that he is a convicted felon if not on the first reference definitely by the second reference and that that is fitting that is right that is just do I wish the other three cases had gone to trial and that he had faced accountability on those yes but this will do it's also striking the the the proximity of the sentencing and the inauguration that on January 10th Donald Trump is a defendant subject to a judge and a jury verdict and 10 days from now he will in many ways become the guardian of the nation's laws as he assumes all the powers of the presidency how does that strike you odd yeah I mean I mean he is he's a precedent Center uh in all sorts of bad ways and so he's I think probably guilty on all these four different cases uh he's someone who doesn't respect the law and so I guess it makes me think if he's someone who regards the presidency as a piece of personal property and is not willing to abide by the code of ethics and the code of law we surround the presidency with uh what's coming in the second term uh and so we shall see but and to that point keep in mind who's going into the justice department with him in this second term the lawyer who was in court with him today for a sentencing all of his per his personal lawyers are in the top positions of the justice department there was that rare show of Independence yesterday from the Supreme Court where we saw the Chief Justice John Roberts and Amy Cony Barrett side with the Liberals in that ruling that allowed the sentencing to move forward it is a risk to read too closely into anyone's Supreme Court ruling that won't stop me from asking the question uh what can we learn if anything about the way the Court ruled in this case and what it suggests about other cases involving Donald Trump well I think John Roberts somebody once said to me he could have been the greatest Supreme Court uh chief justice or one of the greatest in history if he only had a court behind him and he does not so he's sort of a lone operator Amy con Barrett has repeatedly shown some distance sometimes between her and Donald Trump I think if not if the Kavanaugh hearings had not gone the way the hearings Brett Kavanaugh may have shown some difference but especially with con Barrett and Roberts you have justices who are quite willing to not to tow the Trump line every single time well in addition to uh vowing to make good on his campaign promise to make America great again he also apparently the president elect wants to make America bigger uh he has talked about obtaining Greenland from Denmark he wants to reclaim the Panama Canal from Panama he wants to turn Canada into the 51st state this is an addition to wanting to rename the Gul of Mexico it's not clear how serious he is about any of these things of course he talked about trying to take Greenland in the first Administration uh what should we make of any of this Jonathan um this look I'm I'm going to take a page out of Rachel mat's book from the first Trump term which was um don't listen so much to what they say pay attention to what they do so he can talk all sorts of smack about Greenland and Gulf of America America and making Canada the 51st state but until he actually does something if he does try to take Greenland if he does try to re try to rename the Gulf of Gulf of Mexico if he does try to act on these things he's talking about then then I will take him seriously this is the thing I learned from the first Trump term we'll drive ourselves crazy if we react to everything that he says I'm going to pay attention to what he does the outgoing Canadian and prime minister Justin Trudeau in an interview said that this is all of a just all a distraction take a listen to what he said president Trump who's a very skillful negotiator is uh getting people to be somewhat distracted by that uh by that conversation to take away from the conversation around 25% tariffs on oil and gas and electricity and steel and aluminum and lumber and concrete there are plenty of reasons for the US to be interested in Greenland for instance since given all of the the the the mineral resources there and the fact that China dominates um you know rare Earth mineral production but is this a distraction well the talk of invading Greenland is a a distraction like invading Quebec we going to invade Quebec no I don't think so uh and it should be said that Greenland is super more important because of climate change and because a lot of the navigational lanes that go through there but Denmark which has strong influence and Co sort of co- ownership on Greenland they've been wonderful to the US they've made sure all our interests are protected and so we have no beef with Greenland uh same with Panama frankly of course it would be a problem if if the US couldn't use the Panama Canal but Panama has operated completely professionally no bias toward China no bias away from the US uh so as usual there's no problem here Justin Trudeau was absolutely right though these things are to the side the tariffs are real the Tariff proposal that's an actual proposal and declaring a trade war on our two closest allies and neighbors uh is a catac mic policy and whether we actually go ahead and impose tariffs on Canada which like one of our main allies in trading that really what there's a reason Justin Trudeau on the way out is confronting that because that really is the catastrophe in front of us and I wrap up our conversation with your Reflections on the state funeral yesterday for the late President Jimmy Carter some historians have argued uh Jonathan that that Carter was misunderstood and underappreciated how do you see it well that's the beauty of of being out of the White House and having time and history build up uh around you and change the way people look at your presidency and he lived to 100 years old so he got to see 40 years worth of reinterpretation of his presidency while he was still alive I think the funeral the funeral yesterday is like Washington's version of like a real housewives reunion um hearkening back to or or also hearkening back to a more gential time even though Donald Trump was there even though Donald Trump was there but you have all these people who are upholding upholding institutions upholding Civility and honoring honoring a former president who when he left Washington was reviled was not popular at all and yet there in the National Cathedral we saw official Washington and all of his living predecessor predecessors be there to honor him in that way that's right the five current and former presidents all there to honor one of their own Lots of interactions to parse we have a sort of an assemblage of them here we have Mike Pence and Donald Trump trump and Obama uh there was George W bush as he greeted the former president there you see it right there how does all of that strike you boom uh it was like watching one of these Russian novels like oh there's count vonsky is at the ball and so is K vusi and there's Anna Karina she's also here uh so I it was like 30 years of our political lives in one room and you think of all the drama between them and I'm just talking about the clintons uh you know the the the Obamas the all all the interessing the Pence it really was it was like a dramatic novel but there is as Jonathan said a bit of nostalgia as we look back and I try to think I think about this all the time was was the 70s worse or better than now and I would say on matters of uh of crime of divorce rates of societal breakdown the 70s were worse but they did have Republican Senators who would go to Richard Nixon the EV and say you need to resign they did have a political leadership class that is better than our class right now David Brooks and Jonathan capart thanks as always thanks Jeff we sure to watch Washington Week with the Atlantic tonight here on PBS moderator Jeffrey Goldberg in his panel discuss how Donald Trump's recent threats against allies is giving new meaning to America First and on PBS news weekend the chemical found in homes schools and businesses that the EPA now says presents an unreasonable risk to human health and that is the News Hour for tonight I'm Amna Nawaz and I'm geoff Bennett for all of us here at the PBS NewsHour thanks for spending part of your evening with us and have a great weekend