PBS News Hour - Full Show - August 14, 2025 – PBS News Hour full episode

Episode Date: August 15, 2025

Thursday on the News Hour, what Russia likely hopes to get out of President Trump's summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska. Troops and law enforcement ramp up arrests and push homeless people out of public spaces in Washington. Plus, we report from Bangladesh as the closure of USAID halts programs fighting tuberculosis, the deadliest infectious disease worldwide. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Good evening. I'm Amman Vaz. And I'm Jeff Bennett. On the news hour tonight, ahead of President Trump's summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, what Russia likely hopes to get out of the meeting. There is an element that deals with Ukraine, and then there's a lot of interest in discussing the future of the badly damaged U.S.-Russian relations. Troops and law enforcement ramp up arrests and push. homeless people out of public spaces in Washington, D.C., as part of the president's federal takeover of the nation's capital. And we report from Bangladesh as the closure of USAID halts programs fighting tuberculosis, the deadliest infectious disease worldwide.

If it is not controlled within the borders, then it's just going to spread across all over the world. Welcome to the News Hour. It was a day of expectation setting across several nations as President Trump prepares to meet Russia's Vladimir Putin in Alaska tomorrow. Both struck optimistic notes, but their first encounter of Mr. Trump's second term unfolds against the backdrop of Russia's war in Ukraine now in its fourth year. For his part, Ukrainian President Zelensky. continued a tour of European capitals, drumming up support today in London. His fraught relationship with President Trump is no secret, but the two spoke yesterday, alongside many European leaders, in preparation for tomorrow's summit.

As Nick Schifrin reports, the stakes are high and the odds of success may be long. Today in the eastern Ukrainian city of Prokrovsk, a Russian tank obliterated what was already ruins. Rubble pounded further into dust. Making Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky's meeting today with British Prime Minister Kirstarmer more urgent. To discuss security guarantees for Ukraine and more than a billion dollars worth of European weapons. The Europeans have rallied this week to press President Trump. That any deal made with Putin start with a ceasefire, and only Zelensky will decide whether to swap land with Russia.

I think it's going to be very interesting. We're going to find out where everybody's standing. Today, President Trump admitted there's a 25 percent chance the summit could fail, but predicted the meeting would be a pivot point in history. And if it's a bad meeting, it'll end very quickly. And if it's a good meeting, we'll end up getting peace in the pretty near future. Today, Russian President Vladimir Putin embraced the optimistic outlook. The stage we are at with the current American administration, which, as everyone knows, is making,

in my opinion, quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the hostilities. also envisioned normalizing relations with the U.S., including extending the final existing U.S.-Russia arms control treaty set to expire early next year. A cap on the number of Russian and American deployed nuclear warheads. Putin's top foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushikov today went further, saying Friday could expand U.S.-Russia economic ties. An exchange of views is expected on further developing bilateral cooperation, including in the trade in economic sphere, I would like to note that this cooperation has huge and

unfortunately hitherto untapped potential. But U.S. officials tell PBS news hour, while President Trump is interested in those other topics, Friday is focused on ending the war in Ukraine. For more on tomorrow's summit between President Trump and Putin, we turn to Dimitri Trennan, a longtime analyst based in Moscow, who was the head of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Moscow office, and his is now professor at the higher school of economics university. Dmitri Trennan, thanks very much. Welcome back to the news hour.

U.S. officials describe President Trump's goal to me tomorrow as getting a ceasefire from Vladimir Putin and hearing a fundamental idea that Putin is willing to end the war. So is President Putin willing to accept a ceasefire and willing to end the war? Well, I think that from the Russian perspective, the agenda of the meeting in Alaska is much broader. There is an element, a huge element of that, that deals with the plane.

And then there is a lot interest in discussing the future of the badly damaged U.S.-Russian relations. Now, in the Russian thinking, ceasefire is a very important element of the resolution of the conflict. But it cannot be the only element, and it cannot come first. So just to be clear, that position that the ceasefire should not come first is not acceptable to Ukraine. So do you believe that Russia believes that it can make a deal with the United States, even if that deal is unacceptable to Ukraine? Well, Russia is talking, or President Putin will be talking to the President of the United States. And it is a bilateral meeting. And they will discuss a lot of issues, including Ukraine, but this is not at this point.

This is not the place to discuss the situation with the Ukrainians and the Europeans. Even if there were a ceasefire, would President Putin, would Russia be willing to stop where it is today? Russia has declared the entire territories of the new Russia, the four regions in the southeast of Ukraine, as Russia's constitutional territory. And it's a stated goal of Russia to have those territories in full incorporated into the Russian Federation. But again, does Russia expect a conversation with the United States? United States to come up with some kind of deal, including a land swap, that we already know Ukraine will reject.

I think that time will come when Ukraine will have to accept the realities. And I think that Ukraine will recognize at some point the truth that its security and its future existence actually depend on a good relationship with Russia. We've talked about the map. We've talked about these regions. But for Russia, is this really about the map? Is it not more about the nature of Kyiv's future, whether that's the size of the military that it can yield its support from the West or, in fact, its membership in Western institutions? Well, I think it means, well, the territorial issue is part of the bigger picture.

But the bigger picture includes, and I think that this is far more important than any territorial changes. The security aspect for Russia means exactly no NATO membership for Ukraine and no NATO in Ukraine. It means a military force that will not be threatening Russia. You mentioned the threat that Russia sees posed by Ukraine's military. Of course, Ukraine sees the long-term threat posed by Russia's military. President Trump has talked to European leaders about security guarantees for Ukraine, whether that's a level of military support or whether that's punishment on Russia if it were

to launch another full-scale war against Ukraine. is Russia at the point where it could accept some kind of what the West calls security guarantees for Ukraine to make a deal? Well, I think a good security guarantee for Ukraine would be strict neutrality between Russia and NATO. That's the best security guarantee you can think of, which would lead to a correct normal and the productive relationship with Russia, as well as with the West, but excluding the military dimension. As you know, that is an unacceptable position for Ukraine, which says the only guarantee that it can have against Russia

is a robust military with Western support. So is there not a fundamental gap here? That means that there cannot be a long-term deal between Russia and Moscow, regardless of what Donald Trump wants? Well, at this point, I don't think that Ukraine is ready to face up to the realities and the potential future of this conflict. But I'm sure that at some point, they will have to face up to those things and accept the reality. Dimitri Trennan, thank you very much. You're welcome. We start today's other headlines in the Middle East. Israel's far-right finance minister, Betzel Smotrich, announced the approval of a controversial

new settlement in the occupied West Bank that's been on ice for decades. The construction of several thousand housing units would connect one of Israel's largest settlements to Jerusalem, but it would also effectively cut the West Bank in two. The Palestinian government and the UN say this will complicate efforts to reach a two-state solution. Several countries, including France and the UK, have said they'll formally recognize a Palestinian state in September. But Smotrich said today the planned settlement, quote, buries that idea. The time has come to fully apply Israeli sovereignty over Judean, Samaria, the West Bank, to forever remove from the table the idea of dividing the land, and to make sure that by September,

Europe's hypocrite leaders will simply have nothing to recognize. Israeli settlements are considered illegal under international law. Today, a State Department spokesperson said, quote, a stable West Bank keeps Israel secure and is in line with this administration's goal to achieve peace. Tropical storm, Aaron, is gradually getting stronger by tomorrow. It's expected to become the first Atlantic hurricane of the season before intensifying into a category three major hurricane over the weekend. Officials warn Aaron will bring heavy rains and dangerous ocean surf to the northern Caribbean.

Meantime, clear across the globe. Tropical storm POTL hit the southeastern coast of China with heavy rain, leading to closed schools and canceled court proceedings in Hong Kong. Poldel slammed the island of Taiwan as a stronger typhoon yesterday, injuring more than 100 people. One person remains missing after being swept out to sea. Governor Ron DeSantis announced plans today to open a second immigration detention center in the state. The North Florida facility will be dubbed Deportation Depot and will be housed at a vacant state prison west of Jacksonville that can hold up to 2,000 beds. It comes as the

fate of the state's existing makeshift detention center known as Alligator Alcatraz stands before a federal judge built on the protected wetlands of the Everglades at issue as whether that site violates environmental laws. New data today showed wholesale inflation rose unexpectedly last month, a sign that higher prices on store shelves may be soon on the way. That led to a mixed and muted reaction on Wall Street. All three major indices barely budged, starting with the Dow, which lost 11 points. The NASDAQ fell by a hundredth of a percent, while the S&P notched a minimal gain. And tonight we mark a milestone. 90 years ago today, then President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law.

The Great Depression-era program aimed to provide economic stability for older Americans. Fourteen presidents later... So today we celebrate that 90th anniversary of one of the most significant pieces of legislation ever signed into law. The Social Security... President Trump marked the occasion in the Oval Office and claimed he would strengthen Social Security, but his administration has slashed the agency's staffing and alongside Congress hasn't proposed a long-term solution to address its depleting reserves. Today, 69 million people are supported by Social Security. A decade from now, that number is projected to reach 82 million.

By the year 2034, the program isn't expected to have enough money anymore to pay people full benefits. Still to come on the news hour, how countries neighboring Russia have been working to secure their borders. And Texas Democrats who blocked redistricting consider their next move as one special session ends, and the governor threatens to call another. This is the PBS News Hour from the David M. Rubenstein studio at WETA in Washington and in the west from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University. The Trump administration's federal takeover of Washington, D.C. is escalating, with several people arrested at high-profile locations and homeless encampments torn down.

Protests also erupted in the streets last night after the White House said federal agents would patrol around the clock, and the president himself hinted that his month-long crackdown could last even longer. Get off our streets. Get off our streets. Protesters took to the northwest D.C. streets last night. Are you here? You're trying to arresting us in people? What's your promise? What's your goal? Responding to this show of force, federal agents alongside city police, now under federal control, running a checkpoint at a busy intersection. Some residents warned approaching cars to turn away. Police say they arrested 76 people in the district yesterday outpacing last year's daily average

of 56. And the DC police chief said today that information collected during these kinds of traffic stops could now be turned over to federal immigration authorities. It's all part of a federal crackdown in the nation's capital launched by President Trump, citing a crime emergency that the data doesn't fully support. Crime is rampant in D.C. It's rampant in our generally blue-run cities, and they've got to do something about it. Federalizing the D.C. police force carries a 30-day legal limit. The president said

yesterday he may extend that. And this morning, blocks from the White House, another part of the president's plan went into action. Homeless encampments toppled and the people who once sheltered there nowhere in sight. More visible in D.C., national guard troops activated by the president as part of what he calls an anti-crime agenda. For more on the D.C. takeover, we're joined now by Juliette Kayam, former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security. She's now at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Juliet, welcome back. Thanks for joining us.

Thanks for having me. I just want to ask you to react to some of those scenes we just showed. You have federal agents wearing homeland security gear, running a traffic stop with Metropolitan Police, National Guard troops, patrolling high tourist areas like the National Mall. I mean, from your experience, is it clear what the intention and strategy is here? So there's two different pieces of this. One is federal law enforcement agencies, FBI, ICE, H. HSI, Homeland Security Investigations, working with in tandem Washington, D.C. police.

This is, it's unique. It is not clear what the federal agent's authority is. It is not clear whether they have, you know, they can arrest for a petty crime, since that's not a federal crime. And I think there's a lot of confusion about what their authority is. Right now we just see them walking around. The second is what we call presence patrols that is being done by the National Guard. Presence patrols are, we are here, we're an army or a unit that is making its presence known. It is not generally used in the military because there's really no task or purpose for it. There's no mission for it.

It's just simply that we are present. And in both cases, the concern is because the mission isn't clear, ending crime, getting rid of poverty, all of those things are sort of nebulous in terms of what are the tactics that would justify federal involvement, it is not at all clear whether the mission will maintain or you're going to get mission creep over the next couple of days and weeks. Juliet, when the president launched this effort, he talked about ramping up the use of force, right? He said that the D.C. police are now allowed to do, in his words, whatever the hell they want, promising forces, would hit harder now. Does the presence of federal forces, federal agents, somehow allow for more force in these interactions? It doesn't. I mean, and to be clear, there's nothing, there's no change in the laws of what engagement is. If someone spits at a police officer, they're not allowed to shoot them. That is not, that's not permissible. that is not an appropriate response.

The president talks like this as a signal of authority, aggressiveness, and some would even say totalitarianism, or at least the usurption of local control by the executive branch. Where I worry is, of course, with a undefined mission and unclear integration of these forces with these forces with now the National Guard, you will get mistakes. You will get people working and acting outside their authority. You will get responses to First Amendment activities, including lawful protests, that violates

the First Amendment and undermines people's rights to free speech. You're allowed to criticize this activity. And let's just be honest here. This is a lot of people who are now not looking and not investigating. fentany, fentany, and domestic violence, and terrorism. Juliet, the president has said he wants to extend this authority in D.C., possibly even to other cities. What are the implications of that?

Well, there's going to be the legal implications. You know, D.C. is unique. It has a home rule aspect to it. What would be the legal authority for the president to do that? There's also the political issue, of course. Is this an attack on democratically run cities, blue cities, blue cities, and cities? in blue states? And is that the appropriate use of the military or federal law enforcement? But I want to take a step back and say, my concern is this is working? We have decades of

research about what works in this arena, especially in terms of policing. It's community policing, it's outreach to communities. It's engaging people and neighborhoods that might have crime to work with them to minimize crime. This is exactly what D.C. has done. A federal military or federal law enforcement overlay seems many steps away from that. Julia Kayam of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, joining us again tonight. Julia, thank you. Good to speak with you. Thank you.

Thank you. Russian officials have described one of their top priorities at tomorrow's summit between President Trump and Vladimir Putin to be normalizing relations with the U.S. U.S. on topics beyond Ukraine. And that concerns European officials who consider Russia a long-term threat and believe Moscow is producing enough weapons to one-day attack members of NATO, too. Nick Schifrin recently sat down with Estonia's defense minister about the Baltic nation's increasingly fortified border with Russia, a story documented with the help of journalists from the University of British Columbia's global reporting program. This Lithuanian factory is buzzing.

Massive machines. Alongside workers build barriers by the hundreds. They're called dragons teeth, concrete pyramids, each one hundreds of pounds. And more than foot-thick metal rod roadblocks. They're called hedgehogs, a storybook name for a serious purpose. Protection against a Russian invasion, like in Ukraine. It's about the defense of our country and the security of our people. Donatas Yankauskas is the CEO of Jalmesta.

Its barriers might be low tech. But they're highly efficient. The size, weight, and angle of the dragon's teeth stop enemy tanks in their tracks. And in northeast Lithuania, American and Lithuanian troops train fewer than 10 miles from the Belarusian border. Assault one! Where hundreds of dragon's teeth are already glaring at the ready to stop Russian tanks. Lithuania is not alone fearing an attack from neighboring Russia, up the road in eastern Estonia,

the Narva Bridge, 500 feet, separating the European Union on one side from Russia on the far side. And before it, barbed wire, several rows of dragon's teeth and additional massive metal gates, which Estonia began installing earlier this month. It's part of the Baltic Defense Line launched last year, a more than 500-mile-long defense system constructed by Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, along the Russian and Belarusian borders, with thousands of barriers like these in Latvia, hundreds of bunkers seen here being battle tested in Estonia, and miles of anti-tank trenches, all spanning across NATO's historic eastern flank.

Thank you very much. This has been an honor. After years of questioning NATO this summer at the NATO summit in the Hague, President Trump praised the alliance and the other 31 heads of state he just met with who pledged to increase their defense spending to 5 percent of GDP. And I left here differently. I left here saying that these people really love their countries. It's not a rip-off, and we're here to help them protect their country. Fire!

Part of the U.S. is part of the U.S. is part of the U.S. in that protection, a handful of American soldiers deployed in the Baltics, who train on American weapons, like this multiple-launch rocket system in Estonia. Hano Pevker is Estonia's defense minister. Can Estonia rely on President Trump to come to Estonia's defense if attacked by Russia? I believe all the NATO allies can rely on President Trump, because President Trump said very clearly in the Hague that the United States is a a strong ally to everyone.

Dear Pete, thank you. Pevker recently visited Washington to meet Secretary of Defense Pete Heggsett, alongside fellow Baltic defense ministers. The message they heard, the Trump administration is trying to focus on the Indo-Pacific, not Europe. We clearly understand the administration message that they will focus more on the Indo-PAC. So this is not a news, and that also probably means that there will be reduction forces, in Europe. This is also fine. I believe that Europeans have to take more responsibility

and we are doing that. That message echoed to me at the Hague by NATO Secretary General Mark Ruta. We can defend ourselves now, but there is a big risk in three, five, seven years from now without the extra spending. When we take the plans approved by the Russian government, we see that they are ramping up their defense industry, they are also increasing their troops, a number of troops, so they will go up to 1.5 million troops. They will bring to our neighborhood two to nine times more equipment.

It consists from the attack helicopters, armed personal carriers, in front of vehicles, tanks, etc. So my question is very simple, when Russia wants to be in a good relations with the West, why to make these changes? What have you learned from Ukraine that you are applying to your own defense? We have to bring home all the lessons learned from Ukraine. For instance, we had the biggest NATO exercise this year called the Hedgehog,

where we had 18,000 troops in Estonian forests. We also trained combat exercises against the drones or together with the drones. I spoke to a Ukrainian officer recently who played a red team up in the Baltics, pretending to be a Russian drone unit, and NATO troops really struggled, against that red-team Russian drone unit. Do you acknowledge that NATO has a lot to learn? NATO has a lot to learn, of course. We all need to be ready, and this is why we are training.

This is why we are cooperating also with Ukrainians to be better and to be ready to defend and protect our people. We've been under Russian occupation for hundreds of years, and it's just a matter of question when they will come again. Tomas Miloshavis is one of those Lithuanians cooperating with Ukraine by building drones that are already being used on the battlefield. He says Lithuanian history, from subject of the Russian Empire, to Soviet satellite, to independence in 1991, proves the country will always face a threatening neighbor.

The 30-year gap that we have as independent country, it's just a very short, short glimpse in the history that we're having. this civilization battle. The outcome, of course, is up to us. Preparing for that possible battle is a national effort. These aren't soldiers, but ordinary citizens in Lithuania's National Defense Volunteer Forces. For them, Ukraine's a wake-up call.

We need to protect our freedom because there is no one who will come and fight for you as well as you would do. Vladislav Krivile's day job is at a nuclear power plant. He says they have to be ready to defend their own land. You can see that in Ukraine that they're getting all these premises that someone will help them. But in reality, only Ukrainians are responsible for their defense. So it goes the same way for us. And so the Baltics will bolster their defenses, hoping they will not have to fight.

The European war that continues to rage. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Nick Schiffen. We have got to recognize the cards that have been dealt. And we have got to meet fire with fire. That was Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom, throwing down the gauntlet today, saying his state will move forward to redraw congressional maps in his party's favor if Texas Republicans do the same. Texas House Democrats have so far blocked the Republican plan by walking out on a special session that ends tomorrow. But a second special session is set to start the same

day. For insight about whether Democrats will change their strategy moving forward, we're joined now by Texas State Representative Ann Johnson, one of the Democrats who left the state. Thanks for being with Thank you for having me. I appreciate you paying attention to what's happening in Texas because it's not just about affecting Texas. It will impact the entire nation. And the current special session, as we said, ends tomorrow. Governor Abbott says he'll call another one immediately. You and your Democratic colleagues have set conditions for your return. What are they? So, one, we are taking this day by day. And the special session was supposed to go through the middle of next week. And the governor has indicated that he will try to get the speaker and the lieutenant governor to sunny die tomorrow, which means ending that session and taking away the arrest warrants that are effectively on each of our heads effectively. And then it's up to the governor to call the next. And when he calls it, he has to determine what's going to be on the special

session agenda, meaning what does he want to talk about? And you are right. We have successfully stopped the clock. We are attempting to defeat this particular special session call. And it is up to Governor Abbott what he wants to put on next. Personally, as a Democrat, I would like to see us address the issues around public health, around public education, and of course the flooding that has occurred in Central Texas. But Governor Abbott and Texas Republicans have made it clear the only reason they wanted us there in July was to try to steal five congressional seats and effectively determine the outcome of the election before anybody went to vote. And so what we have asked for as Democrats is not only to stop that effort,

but to raise the national awareness around what Governor Abbott and Trump are attempting to do. And I am grateful to see that today, Governor Newsom has indicated that they are going to go to the people of the state of California and ask if they are willing to vote to effectively say what's good for the goose is good for the gander. If Texas wants to take this extraordinary step of mid-decade redistricting, which really violates the spirit of the Texas Constitution, then California will match that energy and effectively fight fire with. fire. And at a time when the balance and having any check on this administration couldn't be more important, I am grateful that blue states are stepping up. So the idea is if California moves forward, that's five seats in California for five seats in Texas potentially. But you've also got Republicans

in Florida, Missouri, possibly Indiana, who are moving forward to claim even more seats. So where does this all end up? Yeah, I mean, this is a terrible political partisan game. I mean, we've not only seen Abbott now say, well, if California does, five, then I want to ask for 10. This is about politicians trying to reinforce their power. I don't know anybody that doesn't hate gerrymandering. We all hate gerrymandering. It's why I repeatedly have offered legislation for an independent commission in Texas to redraw the lines based on the voters and not by politicians. I can't even get that bill to get a hearing in our Republican chambers. Democrats in the United States voted for HR1. An independent commission,

nationwide. Every Democrat voted for it. Republicans refused to support it. And so when people say, well, both sides just do it, no, not really. Democrats support having the voters draw lines and then we compete on fair ideas and fair policy. That's what Republicans are afraid of. Mid-decade redistricting is not a normal thing. They are doing it because they're afraid of the next election. It's up to the people to say Republicans need to stop. I will say one of my favorite things about this conversation is now you have Republican congressmen in blue states try to pass a law that says we shouldn't do mid-degraded redistricting. So they're fine with it when it hurts Democrats. They're not okay with it when it hurts them. And that should tell people everything

they need to know. In fact, one of those congressmen, Mike Lawler of New York, was on this program recently making that point. We also heard from Texas Republican Representative Carl Tepper this week on the program. And he said that he thinks some sort of deal could be worked out. How do see it? Do you see a path toward an agreement? Yeah, there's no deal. It's just stop. I mean, it's up to Texas Republicans. Governor Abbott has not yet called his next special. He has not yet said what we're going to talk about. And so I agree with Representative Depper. I consider him a friend. And I would ask, tone it down and stop the insanity. Don't move forward with this. We all know they actually don't want to do it, but they won't have the courage to step up and say no

to Trump. And so it really is up to them. This is. all on Republicans. Do you want to break the rules? Do you want to break the institution? And don't forget, when Trump called Georgia Republicans and said, hey, boys, I need you to find me almost 12,000 votes. They said, no, sir, that's a line too far. We're not going to do that for you. But when Trump is called Texas and said, hey, boys, I need you to find me five new congressional seats, they said, does July work for you? I am proud as a Texas Democrat. We have stopped that play in July, and here we are now in August. It's up to those same. Texas Republicans? Are you going to do what he asked you to do in violation not only the Texas

Constitution, but 99% of the people that showed up on this bill to testify said, don't do this. We don't want this. This is not good for Texas. And so Texas Republicans are about to prove to people who do they play for. Are they here to serve the interest of Texans? Are they here to serve the interest of partisan extremism? Texas Democratic Representative Ann Johnson, thanks again for being with us. We appreciate it. Thank you. I appreciate you all. Earlier this year, the Trump administration's defunding of USAID brought an abrupt halt to hundreds of global health programs, including those targeting tuberculosis. The disease kills more people than any other infectious agent, more than a million world.

worldwide in 2023. In partnership with the Pulitzer Center, Fred de Sam Lazaro reports from Bangladesh on efforts to contain the fallout. The USAID signs are still all over this 250-bed hospital in Bangladesh's capital city. Inoguated four years ago with state-of-the-art lab equipment, specialized doctors, and wards for the more dangerous MDR, multi-drug-resistant cases. This was considered a model facility in the global effort to eradicate tuberculosis. It's more, more challenge for us. After the closure of USAID, hospital deputy director Dr. Aisha Ahtar says they've had to pull in resources from other sectors of an already stressed public health system.

TB is curable disease and we can prevent them easily. We can take drugs, antibiotics. I defunded our TB drugs everywhere, but not only in this hospital, but all over Bangladesh. Over the past decade, USAID spent more than a hundred million dollars to support Bangladesh's TB program and it's paid off. TB deaths dropped 35% from 73,000 in 2015 to 44,000 in 20203. Bangladesh has made significant strides in containing tuberculosis, but getting to the finish line is a daunting task. amid conditions that are ideal for the infection to spread. Many people suffer from malnutrition, making them vulnerable to infections.

And there is a sheer lack of space in one of the world's most densely populated countries. The early detection is extremely important. Asif Saleh heads the non-government organization Brack, which leads a consortium of 13 groups still fighting TB with remaining support from the government and other international donors, trying to build on earlier successes, particularly in increased early detection, which is critical. In 2001, we had about 27 percent detection rate, and that has gone up dramatically to 82%. Bangladesh's success in TB detection has been because of that, on one hand, there has

been community mobilization, community awareness, and on the other hand, a lot of the new innovations that has come in, you know, like mobile clinics, mobile detection facilities. Mobile testing vans have been deployed in slums and many garment factories, the country's largest industry, densely crowded environments that are ripe for infection. Tuberculosis spreads through the air, attacks the lungs, and can be fatal if left untreated. Portable X-ray machines make the rounds of harder-to-reach rural areas. Theographer Sultana Amin screens 50 to 100 people on any given day, ex-raying lungs and using artificial intelligence to assign scores for each scan for the likelihood of TB.

How many patients come positive for TB in a month? July month 120. 120. 120. TB suspected. So TB suspected means it's likely TB. Right. In this case, she determined a 90-year-old patient had a higher

likelihood of infection. I have coughing, I have an uncomfortable feeling in my chest, and I have fever also. Now only Allah knows what will actually happen. For patients whose x-rays find lesions that may be tuberculosis, this is the start of a journey that will take them next for more accurate testing and accordingly for treatment. The goal is to catch infections early and start patients on a strict six-month course of daily medication, before the disease can spread further. And it's here that many fear progress will stall or worse.

After the Trump administration issued a stop work order in January, detection, treatment, and research efforts like these were scaled back or shut down. Thousands of health workers lost their jobs. Many were employed by the USAID-funded International Center for Diareal and Disease Research, Center officials declined to participate in this report, like many defunded USAID grantees, they cited fear of jeopardizing potential future funding. Oftentimes, whether the foreign grants come or not,

it's very whimsical. These are political decisions. So for that, you need to diversify. You need to have your own independence. That's the big lesson from USAID's demise, says Asif Saleh of Brack, which is considered one model. Now the world's largest NGO operating in 12 developing countries. It relies on foreign aid, but also various businesses that generate revenue for its charitable work.

Medical clinics for paying patients, a commercial bank, retail store for rural craftwork, even a university. Every country needs a thriving social sector. I think Bangladeshi government as well need to think that how some of their own development budget can be used to, where implementation can be done by local NGOs. My project is about to prepare the government to take the responsibility of managing and financing the tuberculosis program. Dr. Nazmal Huda led a now shuttered USAID funded project.

Ironically, one intended to wean this country's TB program off foreign funding. Economic progress in recent years has moved Bangladesh from a less developed to a lower middle-income nation, something that will automatically mean a drop in foreign assistance. It stopped at a very crucial time for the country. There is a process for technology transfer. So whatever we achieved in the last few years, we could not transfer that result to the government. He says the setback not only stalls Bangladesh's path towards self-reliance, but also threatens to reverse progress made, as fewer cases are detected, and many that are diagnosed

do not complete their treatment regimen. It requires long treatment, and if there is interruption, more complexities might happen. For example, in the form of multi-diagreistant tuberculosis. How many patients will have interruption? interrupted therapy? You know, the data, recent data, there is also interruption. Data is not coming, you know, because... So you don't even know because the data has been interrupted as well.

Some estimates are that tens of thousands of patients have seen their treatment stopped. So the full impact of it is not visible as yet because it's early days. Saleh says it's not just Bangladesh that should be concerned about infections that could not emerge in the months and years ahead. If it is not controlled within the borders, then it's just going to spread across all over the world. So we are going to go back to a situation where no country will be immune to these kinds of challenges.

Back in Washington, the Trump administration and congressional leaders have moved to restore some global health programs, including tuberculosis. But experts say many projects already dismantled will be difficult, if not impossible, to quickly restore. For the PBS News Hour, this is Fred de Sam Lazaro in the village of Raipur in Bangladesh. And Fred's reporting is a partnership with the Undertold Stories Project at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. We'll be back shortly, but first take a moment to hear from your local PBS station. It's a chance to offer your support, which helps to keep programs like this one on the air. For those of you staying with us, we bring you an encore from two-time Grammy nominee, Sierra Hull,

who's reached the pinnacle of her bluegrass on her chosen instrument, the mandolin. Special correspondent Tom Kashado has the story of how she got there for our arts and culture series, Canvas. On this night at the Hamilton in Washington, D.C., it's easy enough to hear why 33-year-old Sierra Hull has been six times named the International Bluegrass Association's mandolinist of the year. Not as immediately clear is why Rolling Stone has termed her a rebel of the genre. Usually I'm just kind of searching for sounds and going by field and trying to to to write something that is satisfied.

And indeed, she and her band are right at home with traditional bluegrass sounds. But take the lead single from her latest album, a tiptoe high wire. It's a song called Boom. American songwriter used a pretty non-bluegrassy term for it. They called it funky. Funky? All right. I'll take it.

I'm thinking, I wonder if Sierra Hall, growing up, thought someday people are going to hear me play the mandolin and say, well, that's funky. No, I probably wouldn't have thought about it, honestly. But the song is kind of funky. It's kind of funky. That's the beauty of where I've gotten to more than I would have imagined, just things, that opportunities that have come, unexpected things, because I was so lucky to have some things happen. What's happened to Sierra Hall is extraordinary, though it started out pretty early.

It started out pretty ordinary. We had one of those old bullback mandolins. We call them a taterbug where I'm from. Where she's from is Birds Town, Tennessee, population under 1,000. And I remember learning my first tune. I just connected so deeply to that right away. Were you good right away? I think it was a combination of having some natural ability,

but also being fully obsessed to where every day my dad would come home from work, he was teaching me what he knew at first, and then I was going to these bluegrass jams. The jams took place at a community center where local players would perform for crowds of 20 or 30. And I remember being super tiny in those local bands saying, do you want to get up here and play along with us? I learned so much. They weren't trying to go out and do it professionally. They just loved it. Who were you listening to at that time?

Doyle Lawson and Cricksilver, some of those really harmony-based bluegrass gospel albums. You rock my soul, Lord. You rock my soul, Lord. Then my dad brought home a Tony Rice album called Church Street Blues, and I remember just falling madly in love with that record. It was a cassette tape, actually, and used to drive around in his old Ford truck, and I remember the truck kind of ate the tape, and we were so devastated. But there was one artist in particular who made the biggest impression.

I got my first Allison Krauss album when I was nine years old, and that just kind of lit my world on fire, and it made me go, this is what I want to do. With Krauss as her inspiration, she buckled down in practice, and practiced. And I was lucky to have parents who breathed a lot of love and support into it. You know, if I'd ever get lazy practicing, I remember my dad saying, you've been a little lazy lately.

He hadn't really been practicing too much. He said, well, you know what's going to happen? One of these days, Allison Krause is going to call you to come play, but you're not going to be ready. You wrote Allison Krause a fan letter. Well, I did. She never got it, but it was a school assignment. Write a letter to your hero.

By sheer coincidence, I have a copy of that letter here. Would you mind reading it? Sure. We'll get to the letter. First, Alison Krause was probably the most accomplished woman in bluegrass, already 10 Grammys into a career that has seen her win 27. Sierra Hull was 10. Dear Miss Krales, dear Miss Allison Krause,

my name is Sierra Hull. I'm a very, very big fan of yours. I'm coming to one of your festivals for the first time. I'm Rollfest, North Carolina. I'm bringing my half-sized fiddle for you to sign And so maybe one day I can show my kids how to play, you're my hero. And the idea of going to another state to go to a festival, let alone one Allison Krause was at, just seemed impossibly cool. It got cooler when she was outside the festival playing a song by Mandolin Virtuoso Chris Thiele, who happened by and must have liked what he heard.

I look up and Chris Thiele's right in front of me and he says, holy cow, want to play it together? And I was like, what? And so we went and found a little corner somewhere And he jammed with me for like an hour and a half And he took me backstage to meet my hero And she signed my Biddle Dream Come True, right? And the beginning of a musical friendship

Just two years later Allison would invite Sierra to perform with her On Country's greatest stage, Nashville's grand old opera I've seen a picture of you where you're about 12 And you've got your mandolin And you're with Allison in the band And you're looking at the camera like the cat

who caught the canary. Like, you look like... What would follow was a formal music education fueled by a full scholarship to Boston's Berkeley College of Music, leading to a series of compositions and collaborations that have seen her search out directions

far beyond bluegrass. Among them, ethereal tracks produced by banjo legend, Bela Fleck, jazz funk jamming with guitarist producer Corey Wong. and sophisticated rhythmic explorations with her own band. Rolling Stone calls her a musical force not only in bluegrass, but in various genre circles.

But no matter how intricate the music, her approach remains straightforward. A lot of times I'm just kind of going, what does the lyric demand, what feels good on the instrument? I'll write some sort of crooked crazy thing. Share it with my bandmates, and they're the ones that'll be like, oh yeah, there's that weird bar of three here. And I'm like, okay, great. Does your music have boundaries, do you think?

I don't think so. Those things that I love about all these collaborations I've done, combined with my bluegrass roots, I think it's kind of an inevitable thing. You're going to get a little funky in there. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Tom Cashato in Washington. Now to a story about what Americans wish for the future of the country. At the Smithsonian Museum of American History, a recent time capsule exhibit asked visitors to reflect on their hopes for the next 50 years.

Student reporters Alia Solomon, Diyara Gangaja, and Jaden Hall from PBS News's Journalism Training Program, Student Reporting Labs, bring us the story. And you're here today at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History? Yeah. Amazing. Did you get to write your wish for the future? Yes, I did. Wow. What did you wish for?

World Peace. Here at the Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., Adam Rosen is the director of Civic Season. We have this beautiful mural behind me, designed by 25-year-old Katie Costa from Atlanta, Georgia. I wish that we could respect one another a little more and see the beauty in the beauty. humans as they are even with our differences. I'm just going to agree with her. When the exhibit ends, all the letters will be collected by the Smithsonian's archivists and stored away. Your wish included in a time capsule held by the Smithsonian Institution Archives for 50 years that's going to reopen June

19, 2075. Imagine that. We also then see how do we do as a society moving forward 50 years? Were we able to actually turn the corner on some of these issues? We have so many wishes about curing cancer. Have we gotten closer to curing it. That's what I'm seeing on the wall. All sorts of things that are both beautiful, powerful, emotional. I wish that soldiers, like, don't die in every single war. I wish soldiers could come back, see their families, and, like, explore the world, basically. Alex Edgar is the youth engagement manager at Made by Us, an organization that connects institutions like museums and libraries to young adults. We know that young people are really

civically active and they care a lot about their country and they want to be involved. I wish that anybody who's scared to like do anything and just doesn't have the confidence like to just put themselves out there or just take that risk, I just pray that they can just have that confidence to do that. Whether you're four years old and all you can do is draw a little picture of world peace or you're 90 years old and you're you know sharing life lessons that you've learned, every person could walk up to and say this is for me. we all would treat each other like we are children of God creating in his image and likeness,

and that we would all share our resources and support each other in that way. I wish that our country could be a model for respecting the rights of everyone on our country's soil, no matter how they got here. What I love about this wall is that we have so much more in common with one another than we actually think we do, right?

Do you want safe schools? We want a clean, beautiful, beautiful country and society. Everybody deserves to achieve their goals, strive on what they want. I wish that my kids inherit a good, healthy planet. Young people are the future inheritors of our country, but they're also the leaders of today. We're all responsible for keeping this world peaceful and clean

and making sure that we're just being kind individuals. But I wish that there was no war. I wish that everyone could just be happy and healthy and get along like our children do. For PBS News Student Reporting Labs, we are Alia Solomon, Diargan Gaja, and Jaden Hall in Washington, D.C. And be sure to join us again here tomorrow night when we'll have full coverage of President Trump's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska. And that is the news hour for tonight. I'm Amna Nawaz. Jeff Bennett for all of us here at the PBS NewsHour. Thanks for spending part of your evening with us.