GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz.

On the "News Hour" tonight: Devastating Los Angeles wildfires burn thousands of homes and buildings, force residents to flee and stretch emergency resources to their limit.

GEOFF BENNETT: Former President Jimmy Carter's life and legacy are remembered, as he's honored with a state funeral at the Washington National Cathedral.

JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: Make every minute of our time here on Earth count.

That's the definition of a good life, a life Jimmy Carter lived during his 100 years.

AMNA NAWAZ: And we examine how U.S. foreign aid does and does not help promote food security in sub-Saharan Africa.

AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "News Hour."

Firefighters continue to battle multiple major fires today in Los Angeles, with much of the county under a red flag warning.

At least five people have been killed, a number of officials expect to rise, and 180,000 people are currently under evacuation orders.

GEOFF BENNETT: The fires that started on Tuesday are now among the most destructive in California state history.

More than 2,000 buildings and structures have already been destroyed.

Stephanie Sy is on the ground and has this report.

STEPHANIE SY: This is your street.

ROOSEVELT PULLEM, Fire Victim: This is it.

STEPHANIE SY: The scenes along 86-year-old Roosevelt Pullem's Altadena street were apocalyptic, as we drove him back to his house today.

The site of its remains overwhelmed him.

He recalled where he was when the flames started approaching, working on one of his cars.

ROOSEVELT PULLEM: This was my lady.

STEPHANIE SY: That house was home for nearly 40 years.

ROOSEVELT PULLEM: That was my peach tree.

STEPHANIE SY: As the sun rose this morning over Los Angeles, thick smoke filled the air and the scale of devastation became clear.

Today, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said the damage was catastrophic.

ROBERT LUNA, Los Angeles County, California, Sheriff: Some of them looked like a bomb was dropped in them, where we will be able to bring in canines and other things to help us hopefully not discover too many fatalities.

That's our prayer.

STEPHANIE SY: Winds subsided enough Wednesday and overnight to allow firefighters to attack from the sky, dropping water and retardant in the burning hills and mountain ranges that semicircle Los Angeles.

But dangerous wildfires continue to burn across L.A. County.

Today, the city's mayor, Karen Bass, responded to criticism that fire hydrants used to fight the massive Palisades Fire ran dry.

KAREN BASS (D), Mayor of Los Angeles, California: The fire hydrants are not constructed to deal with this type of massive devastation and that the number one problem especially was the fact that we weren't able to do the air support because of the winds.

And so, of course, I am absolutely frustrated by that.

STEPHANIE SY: Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said extreme fire behavior is still possible.

KRISTIN CROWLEY, Los Angeles City, California, Fire Chief: Today, it is absolutely imperative that as we move into day three of this firestorm, all members of our Los Angeles community maintain vigilance.

STEPHANIE SY: A new fire Wednesday in the Hollywood Hills forced more mandatory evacuations, but firefighters made headway with the blaze and the order was later lifted.

Today, President Biden addressed the fires from Washington.

JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: I also want everyone in Southern California to know we're going to keep at it.

We're sticking with this.

We're going to continue to spend -- sending everything, literally every resource we can find that's appropriate to help the governor and the first responders.

STEPHANIE SY: In Pasadena, the Convention Center has become a clearinghouse of calamity.

This is where hundreds of evacuees of the Eaton Fire ended up when they had nowhere else to go.

NAKIA RHODES, Fire Victim: As far as I know, my house is totally engulfed, based on the fact that, on both ends of the streets, both the houses were on fire.

STEPHANIE SY: Nakia Rhodes and her two daughters among them.

They had little time to flee and no warning.

NAKIA RHODES: I could see flames rolling down the hills.

I could see it rolling up the hills.

I could see them going left.

I could see them going right.

I seen everything the wind was doing to the fire.

And I'm wondering, why isn't anyone telling us to evacuate?

STEPHANIE SY: It sounds like you have reason for some frustration at officials right now.

NAKIA RHODES: I do.

I do.

They failed me twice.

They failed me by not telling me to leave my house with my daughter and my little baby.

And nobody's telling me anything, except for there's a cot in the other room.

STEPHANIE SY: Seventeen-year-old Destiny is a senior at Pasadena High School.

DESTINY RHODES, Fire Victim: Since the power was out, we had no way to see.

Like, we couldn't look it up on our phones because we had no power and no Internet.

NAKIA RHODES: Yes, we couldn't watch the news.

DESTINY RHODES: We couldn't watch the news.

So we had no idea what was happening.

And all we saw was fire and red.

STEPHANIE SY: Longtime Altadena residents Pattie and Bruce Brown have survived previous wildfire scares, but this one was different.

PATTIE BROWN, Fire Victim: We always rode it out.

This time, it was different because we had to leave.

It's the first time we have ever been to a shelter in our life.

STEPHANIE SY: They were able to save their dog, Captain, but they don't yet know how their beloved and one-of-a-kind house fared.

BRUCE BROWN, Fire Victim: We live in a house built from 1936 to 1941 by industrial arts teacher, so it's all handmade.

All the light fixtures, everything in it are all handmade.

So if it burns down, you can't replace it.

STEPHANIE SY: Back at the burnt-out shell that was Roosevelt Pullem's house, he sits through still-smoldering ashes.

He left his wallet around here.

ROOSEVELT PULLEM: All my things for driving, my VA health care I.D.

card.

STEPHANIE SY: He has insurance, but worries that it may not be enough to rebuild in an area where home prices have skyrocketed since he and his late wife first moved in.

For Pullem, like so many, starting over here may not be an option.

For now, he's staying at the convention center, and he's far from alone.

The Korean War vet calls himself a survivor.

ROOSEVELT PULLEM: I have been through a lot, and that's all I kept thinking.

I can get through this, and that's what I'm thinking now.

STEPHANIE SY: Here in Altadena, you can see that conditions have improved since I was here 24 hours ago.

The smoke has somewhat cleared.

You can still smell it in the air, but you're starting to see some blue sky.

You're also continuing to see flames like the ones behind me and smoldering wreckage.

This area is still completely closed to residents, many of whom have tried to go back to their houses, but have been turned away.

They did, however, let media come through this area to assess the damage today.

We drove throughout the streets.

There were some streets where all of the houses on a block would be burned down, but across the street, houses would remain intact.

Sadly, I have to report that Nakia Rhodes duplex is just across the street from where I'm standing.

We introduced you to her in the piece.

And her suspicions did turn out to be correct.

There is no structure there standing, including her home and everything in it -- Geoff.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, Steph, I know you have spoken to dozens of people who've had to evacuate, people who've lost their homes.

What are the immediate challenges for them moving forward?

STEPHANIE SY: The challenges are immense, Geoff, because people who live in L.A. will say this.

Wildfires, when they hit houses, are kind of like earthquakes.

You have little to no warning.

And so we have spoken to a lot of people who lost their homes, did not get an emergency alert text on their phone, and only fled when they had to, when the flames and sparks were upon them.

And so they had the clothes on their backs.

In some cases, like Roosevelt, who you met in the piece, they didn't have time to get their wallet or even a phone.

And so they are navigating insurance companies trying to book hotels, trying to get cash out of the bank.

Roosevelt is an 86-year-old heart patient who has medications needs and he can't get the prescriptions filled.

And so that is what people are facing.

And a lot of folks have come up to us and wondered, where are the FEMA officials?

Where can we get help?

What do we do?

We have never been through this before, so a ton of challenges.

GEOFF BENNETT: How disruptive have the fires been for the rest of L.A. County broadly?

STEPHANIE SY: These major fires are positioned in sort of a semicircle around Los Angeles.

So you have the fire on the coast up there in the Palisades, and then you have this fire in the San Gabriel Valley, which is inland.

And, in between you have the Hollywood Hills, which were in flames yesterday.

And those have been put out.

But as a result, Hollywood production companies and studio lots have been closed.

Many school districts, including Los Angeles Unified, which is the second largest school district in the country, was shut down today.

Traffic is snarled in many areas here in Altadena.

Streets are closed.

They have even postponed award ceremonies and considering postponing some major sporting events here.

So it is quite disruptive for many Angelenos.

GEOFF BENNETT: And at this hour, how much have the current major fires been contained?

STEPHANIE SY: The way that officials described it in an earlier press conference is, they have been able to stall forward progress of the flames.

In other words, the fires aren't growing rapidly, but they are still burning out of control and there is zero percent containment in the major fires that we have been talking about, the Eaton Canyon fire, which is where I am, and the Palisades Fire, which continues to burn.

So tens of thousands of people remain under evacuation orders here.

GEOFF BENNETT: Stephanie Sy reporting tonight from Altadena, California.

Stephanie, our thanks to you and your team there.

STEPHANIE SY: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, a number of questions remain about the response to these deadly wildfires.

Let's look at some of those now with Juliette Kayyem, a former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, now at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Juliette, let's talk about some of the conversation and questions around water usage first.

You heard Stephanie Sy reporting there about these moments when hydrants were going dry just as firefighters were trying to use them to fight the flames.

What do we know about the municipal water system, about the role it's meant to play in these efforts, and what happened here?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, Former U.S. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary: So we know - - what we know is that no city is built for a municipal water system to deliver assistance during what's essentially a wildland fire.

This is the challenge that Los Angeles is facing now.

You have a WUI.

It's called wildland-urban interface.

The best way to fight a wildland fire is by using helicopters and dropping water on it.

We don't have that capacity now because of the winds and because you're in populated areas.

So they're essentially doing hand-to-hand combat.

The sort of metropolitan municipal water system is not built for that kind of capacity.

So, basically, what happened is, there's enough water.

This has nothing to do with the supply of water.

It has to do with the pressure in the system.

Everyone was grabbing it at the same time.

So it's not able to refill.

And that is why you heard about, well, there was no water in the hydrants.

Actually, there was water.

There wasn't enough pressure to deliver that water to hilly areas like the Pacific Palisades, which is essentially sort of a cliff area over the ocean.

It's been remedied, but that happened also in Maui.

It's happened in other major fires.

These systems are not built for wildland fires.

AMNA NAWAZ: In another kind of response here, we saw president-elect Trump point blame directly at the California governor, Gavin Newsom, falsely claiming that Newsom had failed to sign a water restoration declaration.

You tweeted about that, saying this.

You said: "In all my years in and studying disaster management, I have never seen a president-elect blame a jurisdiction while the disaster was still out of control.

It distracts, is cruel to first responders and victims, and could impede effective response."

What did you mean by that?

How could it impede the response?

JULIETTE KAYYEM: Because this is the president-elect.

Half the nation voted for him.

They are going to believe what he says.

In the moments that we're in, there will be time for blame.

There will be time for assessment.

There will be time for legal challenges, as well as hopefully building changes.

Right now, you're just trying to protect life and protect the life of firefighters.

One way you protect life is, people listen to their local authorities.

That is, do they evacuate or do they not evacuate?

Do they stay put?

Where should they go?

All the things that, all the complaints that you're hearing now, to the extent that you don't want to put a population at war with its local jurisdiction, as Donald Trump did by his implication that this is someone's fault, someone's direct fault, is dangerous.

And I -- look, there are -- this fire didn't just happen this week.

This has been decades, centuries of building Los Angeles as it was built, with no requirements on homeowners about how they build, no capacity to deal with major fires if you did not have helicopter capacity.

We are seeing a century of public policy not adapting to climate change.

It's not a single governor's fault or a single mayor's fault, no matter how much you might want to nitpick particular things.

And Cal Fire, there's no fire department more able to deal with a wildland urban fire like we're dealing with now, and they are overwhelmed.

So it's not really about their own capacity either.

AMNA NAWAZ: Juliette, there was also this question about potential budget cuts.

We know the L.A. fire chief seemed to warn last month that a decision to cut or trim part of her department's budget could affect fire prevention plans.

What do you make of that and could that have an impact here?

JULIETTE KAYYEM: It could in the future.

And I think the mayor is right to say that she's going to readdress the budget.

That narrative also was used for political purposes, people who might run against the mayor.

Basically, the budget as it now is, is $50 million higher than it was last year.

That's just the facts of the case.

The issue that is being questioned is future budget, in particular in relation to union negotiations.

So, if you just sort of drop in and want to look at a budget sheet, it might suggest that the fire department is worse off in the future.

That's just simply because they're in budget negotiations.

Anyone who's dealt with government budgets knows how this works.

But, right now, the capacity was not impacted by any budget changes.

If you're looking for blame, the blame is the wind.

I have to be honest with you.

It is pushing embers from house to house, so there's no way to stop this fire.

And it is not -- it is causing -- or it is stopping the ability to use the one tool that is going to put these fires under control, which is being able to water-drop from helicopters.

That is going to start now, has started a little bit now.

But that is the horror that this is, that the wind is just basically working against everyone in Los Angeles right now.

AMNA NAWAZ: Juliette Kayyem, formerly of the Department of Homeland Security, now with the Harvard Kennedy School.

Juliette, thank you.

Almost good to speak with you.

JULIETTE KAYYEM: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: We start the day's other headlines with a fast-moving and uncertain situation in Venezuela.

Aides to opposition leader Maria Corina Machado say she was arrested today while leaving an anti-government protest in the capital of Caracas.

Machado had emerged from months of hiding to address supporters.

It was part of a last-ditch effort to stop the swearing-in of President Nicolas Maduro for a third six year term scheduled for tomorrow.

Chaotic scenes followed, with Machado escorted through a crowd wearing a helmet.

Her aides say she was then detained, but government officials deny this.

A video later emerged of her saying she is safe, though her supporters say the video was coerced.

This afternoon, the White House said it condemns any attempts by Maduro's government to intimidate the opposition.

Turning now to the Middle East, Lebanon's Parliament elected a new president today, filling a post that's been vacant for more than two years.

(APPLAUSE) AMNA NAWAZ: Lawmakers erupted in applause after Army Commander Joseph Aoun won the majority of votes after 13 prior attempts to select a leader.

Aoun was widely seen as the preferred choice of the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.

Experts say that Lebanon will need international assistance as it seeks to rebuild after 14 months of fighting between Israel and the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah.

Addressing Parliament today, Aoun said his win marks a new phase in Lebanon's history.

JOSEPH AOUN, Lebanese President (through translator): My pledge is to exercise my role as commander in chief to invest in the army, control our borders, fight terrorism, respect the truce with Israel, and prevent Israeli attacks on Lebanese territory.

AMNA NAWAZ: The next government will be tasked with implementing the cease-fire agreement that ended the Israel-Hezbollah war and it faces an economic crisis that's gripped the nation for the past six years.

In Gaza, meanwhile, health officials said today that the death toll from the Israel-Hamas war has now topped 46,000 people.

Of those, more than half were women and children.

But officials don't say how many were fighters and how many were civilians.

That comes as Israel attacked several places across Gaza, including an overnight strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp.

Witnesses say children were among the dead.

Israel continues to blame Hamas, which hides in residential areas, for civilian deaths.

In Germany, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced details today of another $500 million in security aid to Ukraine.

Austin and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy used their final meeting to urge the incoming Trump administration to continue supporting Ukraine's war effort.

Zelenskyy said a new chapter would begin for Ukraine's European allies when Trump takes office in less than two weeks.

Austin, meanwhile, urged European nations to stand strong in the face of Russian aggression.

LLOYD AUSTIN, U.S. Secretary of Defense: And if we flinch, you can count on Putin to push further and punch harder.

Ukraine's survival is on the line.

But so is the security of Europe, the United States, and the world.

If tyrants learn that aggression pays, we will only invite even more aggression, chaos, and war.

AMNA NAWAZ: The Biden administration still has nearly $4 billion in funding to provide arms to Ukraine.

Barring any further announcements, it would be up to president-elect Trump to continue sending that aid.

But he has signaled a potential shift in America's support for Ukraine once in office.

New York's highest court rejected president-elect Trump's request to block his sentencing in his hush money case.

It's scheduled for tomorrow morning in Manhattan.

Trump's hopes for a last-minute delay now lie in the hands of the Supreme Court.

His lawyers filed an emergency bid there yesterday.

Prosecutors pushed back, saying there's no reason for the court to intervene.

It's not clear when the justices may weigh in.

Trump was convicted last may on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

He denies all wrongdoing.

A winter storm is hammering parts of the Southern U.S., where even small amounts of snowfall can disrupt everyday life.

More than 80 million Americans spent the day under some sort of winter weather advisory from the plains of New Mexico all the way to the Carolinas.

This morning, residents in the Dallas-Fort Worth area woke up to a slick mixture of snow, sleet and freezing rain.

Schools closed for someone million students across North Texas and Oklahoma.

And more than 2000 flights were canceled nationwide.

Forecasters say the snow will continue to pile up through the end of the week.

In Antarctica, an international team of scientists say they have drilled through almost two miles of bedrock to reach some of the world's oldest ice.

The researchers say the ice core is at least 1.2 million years old.

It includes ash layers from volcanic eruptions, as well as bubbles of air breathed by our human ancestors a million years ago.

They hope that analysis of the ice will show how the Earth's atmosphere and climate have changed over time and provide clues into how human activity affects the climate today.

Still to come on the "News Hour": Republican lawmakers take early steps to implement Donald Trump's legislative agenda; and we examine the effectiveness of U.S. foreign aid meant to promote food security.

GEOFF BENNETT: Today marked a national day of mourning for the funeral of the late President Jimmy Carter.

AMNA NAWAZ: But it was also a day to remember and celebrate the life and legacy of the nation's 39th president, a man who only served one term, but who forged an enduring legacy as a selfless humanitarian and a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Here's Laura Barron-Lopez with more.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: President Jimmy Carter's final journey home.

With the morning sun beaming down on the East Front of the U.S. Capitol, the late president's casket made its way to Washington's National Cathedral for the high honors and solemn ceremony of his state funeral.

Soaring hymns echoed through the grand space.

Thousands gathered in the pews for the culmination of more than a week of tributes for the soft-spoken Southern Democrat.

Speakers celebrated Carter's deep faith, honored his military service as a naval lieutenant, and saluted his devotion to service more than politics.

His grandson, Joshua: JOSHUA CARTER, Grandson of Jimmy Carter: My grandfather spent the entire time I have known him helping those at need.

He built houses for people that needed homes.

He eliminated diseases in forgotten places.

He waged peace anywhere in the world wherever he saw a chance.

He loved people.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Another of his grandsons, Jason, remembered the life of a humble and decent man.

JASON CARTER, Grandson of Jimmy Carter: In my 49 years, I never perceived a difference between his public face and his private one.

He was the same person no matter who he was with or where he was.

And, for me, that's the definition of integrity.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: That integrity united Washington, if only for a moment.

All five of the nation's living presidents attended the service to celebrate Carter's life, the so-called presidents club, three Democrats and two Republicans, including president-elect Donald Trump.

Trump shook the hand of his former vice president, Mike Pence, a notable exchange is the two have not interacted publicly for four years after Pence refused Trump's demand to reject the 2020 election results.

Trump sat shoulder to shoulder with President Barack Obama, even sharing a laugh.

As one of his final acts in the waning days of his own term in office, President Joe Biden celebrated Carter, his longtime friend.

JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: To make every minute of our time here on Earth count, that's the definition of a good life, a life Jimmy Carter lived during his 100 years.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: And the president credited Carter for valuing character over power.

JOE BIDEN: Jimmy Carter's friendship taught me, and through his life taught me, that strength of character is more than title or the power we hold.

We have an obligation to give hate no safe harbor and to stand up to what my dad used to say is the greatest sin of all, the abuse of power.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Alongside Biden, Carter was the only other one-term Democratic president in the last 50 years.

Former top White House aide Stuart Eizenstat spoke of redemption for his friend.

STUART EIZENSTAT, Former Carter White House Domestic Policy Adviser: The test of American presidents is not the number of years they serve, but the duration of their accomplishments.

By this measure, Jimmy Carter was among the most consequential one-term presidents in American history.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: There were even words from those dear to Carter whom he outlived.

Ted Mondale, reading on behalf of his late father, Walter Mondale, honored a legacy that could now be threatened by the incoming president.

TED MONDALE, Son of Walter Mondale: In many ways, he laid the foundation for future presidents to come to grips with climate change.

Some thought he was crazy to fight so hard to pass these laws, but he was dead right.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: There was also bipartisan praise that often eluded Carter when he occupied the Oval Office, including a eulogy from Carter's predecessor, Republican President Gerald Ford, delivered by his son.

STEVEN FORD, Son of Gerald Ford: "By fate of a brief season, Jimmy Carter and I were rivals, but for the many wonderful years that followed, friendship bonded us as no two presidents since John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

As for myself, Jimmy, I'm looking forward to our reunion.

We have much to catch up on.

Thank you Mr. President.

Welcome home, old friend."

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: After the service, Carter's casket journeyed back to Georgia, where the family held a private funeral at Maranatha Baptist Church, where Carter taught Sunday school for decades, his birthplace of Plains, Georgia, now also his final resting place.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Laura Barron-Lopez.

GEOFF BENNETT: And for more now in the life and legacy of President Carter, we're joined by our own Judy Woodruff, who has covered Jimmy Carter since before he was elected president.

AMNA NAWAZ: Also presidential historian Barbara Perry from the Miller Center at the University of Virginia.

GEOFF BENNETT: And Stuart Eizenstat, who was domestic policy adviser to President Carter and, as you heard, spoke at the funeral today.

With a welcome to all of you, I want to start there, Stuart Eizenstat, with you.

Your remarks at the funeral service today, you said you sought to redeem the Carter presidency and reframe the public understanding of it, that, in your view, his accomplishments were more enduring than most modern presidents.

What inspired you to have that as your message today?

STUART EIZENSTAT: Because it's always rankled me that people say he's the best ex-president we have had.

And that's probably true.

But that is an implicit way of saying, but he wasn't a successful president.

And I meant by redeeming that it's now time, after the election loss we suffered, for sure, and after over 40 years, 10 times more time than he spent in the White House, to take a real look at what he did.

And what he did was extraordinary.

We got 70 percent of our legislation through.

We made the country go from energy dependence to energy security.

He was a great environmental president, a great civil rights president, appointing more Blacks and women to senior positions than all 38 presidents before him.

In foreign policy, his combination of human rights and hard power, building up our military, really helped end the Cold War.

Camp David is, to my mind, the greatest single presidential act of diplomacy in American history, without -- that's all forgotten.

So it's now time to go back and take a look.

I tried to do that in my book" President Carter: The White House Years," but this gave me a unique opportunity to talk to a nationwide and worldwide audience.

AMNA NAWAZ: Judy, as Geoff mentioned, you covered Mr. Carter before he was president.

JUDY WOODRUFF: I did.

AMNA NAWAZ: You covered him as president in the White House.

You have interviewed Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter.

You were at the cathedral today as well.

What was it like to cover him, not just those years in the White House, but the many years of service after?

JUDY WOODRUFF: It was exhausting.

(LAUGHTER) JUDY WOODRUFF: Because this was a man -- and you have got a sense of that from listening to Stu just now -- who wanted to do everything, tried to do so many things during his time as governor, during his time as president, and certainly during his time post-presidency.

He had many things on his agenda, from reorganizing government in Georgia and then in Washington, energy policy, certainly the international policy.

He wanted government to work more efficiently.

He wanted the budget to be in better shape.

He was working -- he worked on diversity.

He was -- it was as if -- what is the saying in the Bible, idle hands are a devil's workshop.

His hands were never idle.

There was always something.

And I know once-, I will just tell you, Amna, I interviewed him about a decade ago.

It was at his office at the Carter Center in Atlanta.

And I asked him, I said, well, how are you spending your spare time?

And he proceeded to list 10 or 12 things.

He was involved in teaching Sunday school, building homes for Habitat for Humanity, bird watching, peacemaking, and on and on and on.

That was who Jimmy Carter was.

GEOFF BENNETT: Barbara Perry, we heard President Biden eulogize his longtime friend today.

And he talked about what he saw as his basic -- his enduring attribute, which was character, that he refused to let his power, his ambition erode his inherent goodness.

How did that strike you?

BARBARA PERRY, Director, University of Virginia Miller Center: Well, what struck me was that the current president, soon-to-be outgoing president, used the term character, and he said it three times.

And we know from Joe Biden's ways of speechmaking that, when he says a word three times, he really means it.

And I think we know what he means by the contrast.

And I also noted that Andrew Young, in giving his homily for his dear friend Jimmy Carter, said that Martin Luther King had commented that character was when you can bring together antitheses and that, for Jimmy Carter, as it was for Dr. King, it was a strong mind, but a soft heart, and that that was part of his character.

And that's what we see both, I think, in foreign policy, as well as in domestic policy.

STUART EIZENSTAT: May I mention one thing on character?

You can judge a character of people when you suffer loss.

How do you handle loss?

We suffered a devastating loss in 1980.

And he told us the very day after we lost, the next morning: "Get your chins off the ground.

We're going to have the best transition out ever."

And what did we do?

We got Stephen Breyer confirmed by the Senate, on his way to the Supreme Court.

We got the Superfund bill for chemical waste passed.

We got the Alaska lands bill, which doubled the entire national park system, and we got the hostages released, all as a lame-duck president.

So, rather than sulk and feel depressed, he said, we're going to make this the best two-and-a-half months anybody's ever had after they voted out.

AMNA NAWAZ: Stu, can I ask, though?

You mentioned the sort of duration of the accomplishments.

In this particular moment, we saw how he led with decency, reached across the aisle, had friendships with political rivals, waged peace in the Middle East and normalizing relations with China.

We're at a hyperpartisan moment in America right now and a hot war in the Middle East and rising tensions with China.

Is there a sense some of those accomplishments are being undone?

STUART EIZENSTAT: Well, there's always that potential.

Things, however, that won't be undone, we still have normalized relations with China, as tense as they are.

We have a Middle East that is on fire, but a Middle East on which people built on his Camp David and each -- of Israel's history with the Abraham Accords.

And I would predict here, sitting here, that within, I would think, a year or two, the Saudis will also normalize.

So I think that many of the things he's done are really lasting.

And let me give you two that would be unexpected.

One is, he created the whole Office of Inspector Generals to root out fraud, waste and abuse.

Just this last week, Michael Horowitz, the inspector general for Justice, issued a very important report about what was happening in the Trump administration.

And the other is the special counsel legislation.

That has endured.

It's -- the form of it somewhat changed, but the notion of having an independent counsel to look at wrongdoing.

So all the ethics laws that we have, every single one, lobbying restrictions, gift restrictions, disclosure of assets, all of those things, civil service, they're all enduring.

They're still here.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, on that point, I mean, what aspects of the Carter presidency or post-presidency can leaders look to and learn lessons from?

And, of course, we should mention that his partnership with Rosalynn Carter was most impactful.

BARBARA PERRY: Well, certainly.

And, as I pointed out, that the Ford eulogy by Steven Ford from his dad was that both of those men, Jerry and Jimmy, married up.

So that's my first piece of advice to any people who would want to be president at some point.

If you are going to marry, man or woman, or et cetera, make sure you marry up.

That's always a great partnership.

I think the other thing I'd like to point to would be not only in the post-presidency, this model of the modern post-presidency of making your life -- giving your life to the world, giving your life to helping the world and the country to be better.

And then I'd also say diversity.

I know that D has gotten -- that D words, gotten a bad connotation of late.

But I think it's important, as the ambassador said, to look back at Jimmy Carter and think about what he did for the federal judiciary,more women, more minorities.

He actually had an affirmative action program for the lower federal bench.

And it's unfortunate that he didn't get to put a person on the Supreme Court, but he did put Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer on the lower federal courts.

And that was their entree to the U.S. Supreme Court.

AMNA NAWAZ: Judy, where, to you, does Jimmy Carter sit in the context of modern presidents?

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, he sits apart in many ways, because he was a peanut farmer from rural Georgia who rose, I think, as Andy Young said today, Ambassador Andy Young said, how unlikely it is that someone would come from a place of population 200-and-something to the presidency of the United States, so, unlikely, but remarkable in many ways, because of everything we have been discussing here, all the things he tried to do.

And I would say the force of his moral character, who he was, that morality, his faith, his deep faith, his belief that he wanted -- something drove him every day to want to make life better for the American people, for every - - and after he was president, for everybody on Earth.

That is an incredible ambition for someone to have.

And that's what drove him for a century.

BARBARA PERRY: A life well-lived.

STUART EIZENSTAT: You know, another thing that he changed was, the first lady, she... AMNA NAWAZ: Stu, we may have to leave it there.

I'm so sorry.

We're out of time.

I know we could speak for many more minutes.

But, Stu Eizenstat, Judy Woodruff and Barbara Perry, we thank you so much for being here today.

STUART EIZENSTAT: Thanks for having us.

GEOFF BENNETT: The Republican majority closes out the first week of the new Congress ready to push through president-elect Donald Trump's agenda and on the cusp of passing its first bill.

Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins is here to unpack the bill itself and the broader message it sends.

Lisa, it's always good to see you.

So, this first bill is the Laken Riley Act, named for the Georgia nursing student murdered by an undocumented immigrant in 2024.

What does this bill do and could it become law?

LISA DESJARDINS: It could well become law.

In fact, a Senate key vote that happened just a few hours ago received 84 votes.

That doesn't mean it will get that in the end.

But let's talk about what this bill does, first of all.

It does have significant meaning and potential effects.

Among them, this bill would make it mandatory to detain any undocumented immigrant who is arrested for theft.

That includes burglary, larceny, shoplifting.

It also would allow states, attorneys general primarily, to sue over federal immigration policy, if they believe immigration policy is threatening their state.

That would completely change federal law.

And it's not completely clear how the constitutional boundaries would work there.

Now, one reason this could become law, it already passed the House easily, with dozens of Democrats supporting this as well.

But because it needs 60 votes in the Senate, it needs Democratic support finally.

The large vote we had today was in large part because Democrats said they want to amend it.

They're hoping to do that next week.

But look at these eight Democratic senators that we are watching in particular who all may vote yes in the end on this bill.

Now, while this bill does have a tremendous amount of support and it is a big immigration and security push from Republicans, there are ardent opponents who say it goes way too far, that it could lead to mass, sweeping deportations of people for shoplifting.

It has due process concerns, they say.

There will be a very big debate next week.

GEOFF BENNETT: All right.

Last night, President Trump met with Senate Republicans.

I know you spoke with some members after that.

What did you learn?

LISA DESJARDINS: It was fascinating, Geoff.

In that room, President Trump, president-elect Trump now, sat for two hours with Republican senators.

They emerged that room really exuberant.

You know, we know these moments.

They're excited.

They don't have to do the hard part yet.

But they are convinced that they are going to change how things work in Washington and that they're going to do it very quickly.

So I also very quickly am going over the many topics that they covered and that I received as part of my reporting about this meeting.

Let me take you through some of these things, because they're all important.

First of all, President -- former president-elect Trump does want to do one big giant Trump agenda bill.

We will be talking about that if it's able to occur.

It is a risk, because he would need virtually every Republican in the House and almost all of them in the Senate to do it.

Now, something that came up a lot that Senate sources told me about was Canada.

We have been talking about other countries here, but the idea that president-elect Trump is serious about pressuring Canada with terrorists and other trade tactics.

He's really ramping up his talk about how he interacts with our neighbor to the north.

In addition, Panama Canal, that is something that has been talked about and it's something that for many people has came out of the blue, but today we saw a House member introduce a bill that would give president-elect Trump the ability to actually negotiate or attempt to negotiate with Panama.

They say they don't want to sell the canal.

But as part of this, senators who I regard generally as serious brought that up, also brought up the idea of Greenland as part of the meeting yesterday.

This is stuff we didn't expect to talk about, but I'm raising it now because it was regarded seriously in the meeting by Senate Republicans yesterday with president-elect Trump.

Finally, day one, Senate Republicans left that meeting saying they expect not just some executive orders on day one, but more than they had expected, that president-elect Trump said he's going to spend a lot of time on immigration on day one.

GEOFF BENNETT: And the president-elect's nominees will start testifying before the U.S. Senate next week as part of their confirmation hearings?

What more can we expect?

LISA DESJARDINS: That's right.

Let's show three of them.

That'll be some of them, high-profile ones.

Marco Rubio for secretary of state, Pam Bondi, attorney general, Pete Hegseth, Department of Defense.

All of them have their hearings, but, Geoff, we're going to see actually perhaps more confirmation hearings next week than we ever have before, at least eight in one single day.

So stay tuned.

GEOFF BENNETT: All right, Lisa Desjardins, our thanks to you, as always.

LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.

AMNA NAWAZ: One of the biggest challenges facing sub-Saharan African nations is how to help farmers withstand climate and economic headwinds and produce food for a growing population.

The U.S. Agency for International Development last year granted about $33 billion for projects across the world.

But critics say its results have fallen well short, with most aid dollars going to U.S.-based companies, with little involvement by locally led groups closest to the problem.

In his final report examining foreign aid, Fred de Sam Lazaro looks at two such food start-ups in the West African nation of Ghana.

It's part of his series Agents for Change.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: It's still early in the growing season, but Faith Mawuko is guardedly optimistic about this season's yield from her 1,000 mango trees.

You expect a bumper harvest this year?

FAITH MAWUKO, Mango Farmer: Yes, I do.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: What could make that not happen?

FAITH MAWUKO: The weather, the climate.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Like most Ghanaian farmers, she's at the mercy of market and increasingly unpredictable weather.

Farmers here depend on rain.

Few have irrigation systems.

FAITH MAWUKO: The climate also plays a major role during the fruiting, the flowering.

If you're unable to get enough rain, we get a lot of the fruit getting aborted.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: That's what happened last year to mango farmers in Latin America, where widespread flooding reduced production by up to 80 percent.

To Nikki Okrah, that's created an opportunity here in Ghana's eastern region.

Those Latin American farmers sell most of their mangoes in the United States.

NIKKI OKRAH, Founder, Chaku Foods: You have the U.S. market, where millions of tons of dried mangoes and other products are consumed.

Then you need to get those mangoes from somewhere else.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Okrah's nonprofit, called Chaku Foods, agreed to purchase Mawuko's entire crop this year, a big relief for the farmer, since the price is locked in and should yield a profit.

Without this guarantee, her mangoes would go to the market at harvest time, where, ironically, a bumper harvest lowers prices.

Okrah's company will track the progress of Mawuko's and dozens of other client farms all the way to harvest, using geospatial mapping and data gathered through drone and satellite images.

It helps manage the climate risk, she says, and can reassure prospective buyers, especially a promising new American one.

So you would like to see mangoes from here wind up on a shelf at Trader Joe's?

NIKKI OKRAH: Yes.

Yes, exactly.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: From harvest to processing, there are still many steps before these mangoes hit store shelves, but Chaku Foods has a verbal agreement with a Trader Joe's supplier, the culmination of a vision Okrah had when she returned to Ghana in 2021.

NIKKI OKRAH: I think part of it's in the blood.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Born in Ghana and raised in the U.S., Okrah holds degrees from Northwestern and Harvard.

She left a corporate career and moved here to focus on creating wealth for smallholder farmers like her ancestors.

NIKKI OKRAH: There's an abundance of wealth and opportunity above the land and in this space.

We can have billions of dollars not going to waste and postharvest loss, but actually going to markets.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: That's a goal shared by the U.S. government, which has granted hundreds of millions of dollars to help farmers across the developing world.

But very little of that money goes to local start-ups like Chaku Foods.

The grants, tens of millions of dollars and up, have reporting and accounting requirements well beyond their capacity.

NIKKI OKRAH: So much of our time is on the ground, in the field.

And committing hours and time to really go through the paperwork, answer the questions are some of the things that maybe keep us from fully integrating into that system.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: So, most local nongovernment groups or start-ups in food, health care or other services must settle for small subcontracting roles with the large international agencies and private U.S.-based companies that receive the vast majority of U.S. development aid contracts.

ALLOYSIUS ATTAH, Co-Founder, Farmerline: We have never contracted directly to USAID.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Alloysius Attah started a company called Farmerline in 2013.

It provides a range of services to a wide spectrum of small farmers, on this day, conducting a seminar for a women's group on how to improve soil conditions.

Farmerline digitizes financial records for client farmers and links them with merchants it has vetted to ensure they get reliable seeds and other inputs.

And it purchases their harvests, selling them to larger agribusinesses.

You midwife for the farmers, essentially link them up with buyers.

ALLOYSIUS ATTAH: Right.

Exactly.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Over its 12 years, the group reports it has grown to serve 2.2 million client farmers in 50 countries, scale that Attah says would be much greater with access to U.S. aid funds.

ALLOYSIUS ATTAH: We're just not trusted with the resources.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: What he sees as a lack of trust is reflected in the strict guidelines of federal government grant applications, intended to ensure accountability and protect against corruption.

ALLOYSIUS ATTAH: Corruption is everywhere.

But it's -- you know, corruption is not just for locally led organizations or, like, developing countries.

It is everywhere.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The large aid contractors are experts in federal procurement, he and other critics say, but their administrative overhead, travel and consultant fees consume most of the award dollars.

And to improve their chances of being awarded grants, Attah says these companies approach groups like his early in the process, proposing to write them in as local partners.

ALLOYSIUS ATTAH: It is exploitation.

They get your content, they get your knowledge, not just your knowledge, the actual pictures to write the application, your videos, your impact reports.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: When the grant is awarded, he says, the local partner is cut out.

ALLOYSIUS ATTAH: We have experienced that like 1,000 times.

And it's like -- it's almost like you meet a girl and then you're very excited.

The person leads you on, you pour your heart in, then they just, like, ghost you.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Other Africa-based aid groups echo the complaints against the large USAID contractors, but say they fear doing so publicly would jeopardize any future prospects for work.

We invited the largest aid company, Chemonics, to respond to the allegations.

They declined, as did as the main trade association of aid implementing companies.

SAMANTHA POWER, USAID Administrator: The status quo is tough to shift.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: USAID Administrator Samantha Power also declined our request for an interview.

She pledged in 2021 to increase the share of grants going to local groups to 25 percent by 2025 and 50 percent by 2030.

That percentage, which began near 7 percent at the time, has crept up to near 10 percent, still well short of the localization target.

J. BRIAN ATWOOD, Former USAID Administrator: That's got to change.

I mean, that just has to change.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Brian Atwood was USAID administrator under President Clinton.

And what's going to trigger that change?

J. BRIAN ATWOOD: Well, I think the way the contracts are written in the first place is -- it's got to happen.

It's got to be a policy change that starts from the top.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: He says, in almost all cases, USAID pays contractors in full for work done, whether or not they deliver results, and a significant number do not.

That's not surprising to Atwood, who says development work is complex, with few clear-cut answers.

But he says the agency should be allowed to embrace some risk in pursuit of ideas that work.

J. BRIAN ATWOOD: It's got to be a learning agency.

It's got to have the flexibility if a program isn't working to move the money around to something that is working.

And that flexibility doesn't exist either once you have signed a contract.

So there has to be escape clauses in these contracts as well.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: While no one knows exactly what will come under the next Trump administration, Atwood says foreign aid has long enjoyed bipartisan support, seen as a national security priority by many Republicans.

And, he notes, Project 2025, the conservative Heritage Foundations blueprint for the second Trump term, has endorsed the idea of locally led development, even as it proposes significant cutbacks overall in foreign aid.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Fred de Sam Lazaro in Washington.

AMNA NAWAZ: And Fred's reporting is a partnership with the Under-Told Stories Project at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.

And he joins me now to discuss more of his reporting.

So, Fred, as you noted, USAID Administrator Samantha Power declined to participate in your reports.

Has there been any response from the agency since?

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: We did hear, Amna, from a USAID spokesperson taking issue with a comment made by Walter Kerr of Unlock Aid, and issuing a statement that said it was incorrect to state that only 10 percent of USAID's total assistance funding reaches local communities, meaning in the countries targeted.

And the statement goes on that -- quote - - "This grossly misstates USAID's work, which reaches hundreds of millions of people around the globe every year."

Well, there's no dispute about reaching a lot of people.

It is close to $40 billion, after all.

When it comes to the number taking issue with how much money is actually spent locally, there is a lot of opacity.

It's a very elastic number, depending on who is interpreting it.

We asked the agency to furnish one that they thought would be more accurate, but have not heard back.

What is not in dispute among most experts is that the majority of USAID funds go to contracts with large international agencies, which have high overhead that consume a lot of the dollars.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, Fred, a number of the critics you have featured paint a portrait of a very impersonal, very corrupt system.

Is it that simple?

Is that all it is?

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: You know, nobody disputes that there are hundreds, thousands of people who work for the agency and work indeed for these implementer companies who are dedicated professionals, domain experts in what they're trying to deal with.

The criticism, I think, is off a system that's process-bound, that is inflexible, and that distorts and detracts from getting much better results than would be possible given the amount of money that's being spent.

AMNA NAWAZ: So what are the alternatives here to this status quo that can get better results, better efficiency without compromising transparency and control of abuse and corruption?

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: You know, we have heard a number of ideas.

We just heard from Brian Atwood, who said it would be nice if the agency were given some flexibility to course-correct.

If something's not working, experiment with something that might have a better crack at solving a problem in whatever endeavor is being undertaken.

Another example that one has heard is about a model where the government incentivizes the private sector to come up with that magic seed that will be drought-resistant, and you can get a better crop, for example.

Just incentivize the private sector to come up with innovation.

That's what happened with Operation Warp Speed, and it gave us a COVID vaccine in record short time.

AMNA NAWAZ: Fred de Sam Lazaro, thank you so much for your reporting.

It's always good to speak with you.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Thank you, Amna.

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.