PBS News Hour - Full Show - January 7, 2026 - PBS News Hour full episode

Episode Date: January 8, 2026

Wednesday on the News Hour, a woman is shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, igniting protests in a city targeted by the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. U.S. forces seize two more tankers linked to Venezuela as part of President Trump's plan to take control of the nation's oil industry. Plus, communities struggle to rebuild, one year after the devastating Los Angeles fires. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Good evening. I'm Jeff Bennett. And I'm Amna Nawaz. On the news hour tonight, a woman is shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, igniting protests in a city targeted by the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. I have a message for ICE. To ICE, get the f*** out of Minneapolis. U.S. forces sees two more tankers linked to Venezuela. As part of President Trump's plan to take control of the nation's oil industry. And California communities struggle to rebuild one year after the devastating Los Angeles fires. It's better than it was a year ago in the sense that it doesn't look horrible, but you're reminded of what you've lost.

Welcome to the NewsHour. State and local officials in Minneapolis are outraged tonight after an immigration and customs enforcement agent shot and killed a woman there. Federal officials accused that woman of trying to run over officers with a vehicle claiming the shooting was in self-defense. The city's mayor says the video tells a different story. Liz Landers starts our coverage and a warning the video in this report is disturbing. The incident unfolded in seconds. A maroon SUV approach. by a federal law enforcement vehicle. Agents telling the female driver to get out of her car. Pulling on the door handle, the SUV reverses then moves forward. Shame!

Shots are fired, and the vehicle barrels into parked cars across the street. Shocked bystanders rushed to the car to try and provide aid. The driver, whom Minnesota officials identified as a 37-year-old woman, was killed. Dude, you shot her! A Minnesota senator said she was a U.S. citizen. At an event along the Texas border, Homeland Security Secretary Christine Nome said the ICE agent acted in necessary self-defense. It was an act of domestic terrorism. A woman attacked them and those surrounding them and attempted to run them over and ram them with her vehicle. An officer of ours acted quickly and defensively shot to protect himself and the people around him.

The president also weighed in from social media. It is a horrible thing to watch, Trump said. The woman screaming was obviously a professional agitator, and the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing, and resisting, who then violently, willfully and viciously ran over the ICE officer. No officer appeared to be run over, but some who saw the video from a different angle, including the president, argued the ICE officer's life was in danger from the vehicle. A witness who saw the shooting unfold said he saw it differently. My interpretation at the time and still is that the person is trying to get away and there was definitely space to get to drive forward without hitting anybody. I did not think that at the time I did not even think there was a risk of her hitting anybody. They're sewing chaos on our streets and in this case quite literally killing people. Minneapolis's Democratic mayor Jacob Frye shared that doubt.

They are already trying to spin this as an action of self-defense. Having seen the video of myself, I want to tell everybody directly. That is bull-h-h-h. Today's shooting comes as Minnesota faces a massive immigration crackdown, with plans to deploy some 2,000 agents and officers. DHS called it, quote, the largest immigration operation ever, and it is tied in part to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents. Minnesota has the biggest Somali-American population in the country.

Mayor Fry had these words for the growing immigration enforcement presence in the city. And I have a message for ICE. To ICE, get the fuck out of Minneapolis. Hundreds gathered at the scene, and angry protesters heckled agents. The residential neighborhood where the shooting occurred, just a mile or so from where George Floyd was killed by police. in 2020. Minneapolis has long been a target of President Trump since that time during his first term when riots and protests broke out in the city after Floyd's murder.

Minnesota's governor Tim Wall said this was a pattern from the Trump administration. Do not take debate. Do not allow them to deploy federal troops into here. Do not allow them to invoke the Insurrection Act. Do not allow them to declare martial law. Do not allow them to lie about the security and the decency of this state the Minnesota Star Tribune is now reporting that the mother of the woman who was killed has identified her as Renee Nicole Good. For more, we're joined now by Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara. Thank you for being with us. And you said just yesterday that the way ICE had carried out their operations, the intense emotions surrounding all of this made unrest or a tragedy almost inevitable. And now that is precisely

what has happened. How do you square that warning with what unfolded? Well, you know, unfortunately, the reality of conducting law enforcement is every time our police officers leave the station and go out into the street, there is risk that something tragic can happen. And we know very clearly, as I have been saying for several weeks, is there is a very heightened risk when activity is being conducted, enforcement activity is being conducted on the street when, you know,

situations are very tense and things are very emotionally charged. And so that's why I just think it's very important that we ensure that an investigation occur transparently. I think we owe that to the deceased person and their

family, as well as to the community who clearly you know, have been very concerned, and there's just been a lot of questions, not so much specifically about whether or not federal law enforcement, federal laws are enforced, but more specifically how that enforcement is being conducted. Well, based on what you have seen and learned so far, what is your assessment of what transpired in that fatal shooting? So the information that I have is very preliminary.

and is, you know, the same as what is available in open sources. But I can tell you this much in my career as a police officer for many decades now, law enforcement training has been trying to de-escalate whenever possible and trying to avoid getting police officers into these types of situations with drivers who are taking off and trying to prevent situations where law enforcement may be in the path of a vehicle, trying to avoid these things in the first place. And so that has very clearly been, you know, where professional law enforcement has been going in this country for many years.

It's your officers who've had to deal with the immediate aftermath of all of this. What's the plan for how you intend to handle protests and demonstrations in the days ahead? Well, our officers have been doing an incredible job day and night around the clock, and it's been heightened for the last several weeks. And quite frankly, many times our officers come to scenes trying to protect life, trying to preserve the peace, and they often then become the object of people's hate and vitriol and frustration over how things are happening in the street. So we will continue to be staffed up. We'll be ready to go around the clock. But more importantly, we are asking everyone in our community and all of our public officials to please allow people

to exercise their right to peaceably assemble and express frustrations, but express those frustrations lawfully and peacefully and not further subject this community to destruction or any further tragedy. Today was a tragedy. Let's be clear. I don't think no matter which side you're on, the loss of a human life is a tragedy. And in this type of situation, no one wins. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara. Thanks again for your time this evening. We appreciate it.

Thank you. For more analysis, I'm joined now by John Sanwegg, who served as acting ICE director under President Obama. John, welcome back to the show. Thanks for being with us. Yeah, thanks for having me. So as you've seen, DHS is saying that the ICE agent here was acting in self-defense.

the mayor of Minneapolis, others have dismissed that after they saw the video. Have you yourself watched the video? What's your assessment of what happened here? I think the videos, I've seen two videos now, and I think both of them raised troubling questions here. But I think what concerns me is this rush to judgment. Really on both sides, but I did find the DHS statement particularly irresponsible. This requires an investigation. The video certainly raises concerns as to whether or not the officer had a reasonable basis

to believe his life or the life of his fellow agents were in. you know, either serious danger of death or bodily injury, but, you know, these videos are not, like, they're not the entire story, and they can be misleading. And so I think what would concern me is that we're, you know, we have all these people making these immediate rushes to judgment without first conducting a formal investigation, getting the facts we need, and then drawing our conclusions based on a thorough assessment of what exactly happened. You mentioned that DHS statement. It was very long in detail, definitively coming out in defense of the ICE agent's actions. What questions do you think need to be answered now to figure out what exactly happened here?

Well, Anna, first of all, I'll tell you, I spent five years at DHS working for a secretary, and whenever something like this happens, the initial information you get is just not accurate. You get all sort of people doing their best to provide, you know, quickly information to the department's leadership, and just unfortunately, it just tends not to be, you know, you get this misleading or wrong information in the outset. So I, you know, I think that what's frustrating in part and where I find that statement really irresponsible is that you know better when you're in those positions to make rush snap judgments based on that initial reporting. But secondly, the videos, you know, certainly raised all sorts of questions,

including where was the officer located as the car started to take off, right? What caused the officer to get into that position? What was the distance between the officer and the driver, the vehicle, or the vehicle itself, right? What angle did the bullets come in? These are all questions that are going to form that basis. Now, the analysis is from that of the agent himself. did he have a reasonable basis to believe that his life or his, you know, fellow agent's lives

were in jeopardy, right? That's the critical question. But, you know, again, although those videos absolutely raised troubling questions, and I think call all the more reason for us to have an investigation, they're not alone sufficient. We're going to need to get more data than that to draw any real conclusions. As you know, DHS often points out that ICE agents operating in Minneapolis and other places face protesters and people videotaping them. There's also been concerns about how quickly ICE has been staffing up to meet the demands of the president's mass deportation campaign, does any of that, you think, potentially play a role here? No, absolutely.

I mean, one of the big questions I have here is how experienced was this particular agent engaged in the shooting, right? Was this one of the new hires? We know a couple of things. We know the departments lowered the standards for hiring advice agents. We know they've shortened the training. So I think critical questions here will be, did any of that have an impact or play a role in this shooting or really in any of the use of force incidents?

At the end of the day, this is about training. This is about training and experience, right? And when you're putting officers on the street where you've lowered the standards and you've shortened the training, you increase dramatically the risks of incidents like this. And I'll say one other things, too, is that this mass deportation mission, it's created a supercharged environment. And the tactics that ISIS had to adopt as a result of, you know, the administration's call for them to increase the number of arrests has created more vulnerabilities for the agents

themselves and raised the tensions. And I do think, unfortunately, that climate, that climate where we have these agents confronting these protesters and there's aggression and this kind of zero tolerance towards anybody who obstructs or gets in the way of the ICE mission, you know, certainly that kind of plays a role here as well. But again, this is why we need an investigation. We need to interview the officers involved. And all of that will inform what happened here and what do we need to do differently to prevent something like this happening in the future. All right. That is former acting ICE director, John Sanweck, joining us tonight. Thank you.

Always good to speak with you. Thank you very much. The Trump administration escalated its pressure on and control of Venezuelan oil today, seizing two oil tankers and declaring it intends to, quote, indefinitely sell the country's oil. Nick Schiffran reports. A middle of the night capture in the Caribbean. The U.S. military posted this video of U.S. forces seizing the Sofia, a sanctioned Panama-flag supertanker carrying Venezuelan oil.

Just hours before, U.S. forces seized another tanker they'd been pursuing for two weeks after it slipped through the U.S. Caribbean quarantine. The Marinera recently changed its name and claimed to be Russian flagged, and Russian TV showed this footage from its deck. A Russian ship and submarine provided an escort, but did nothing to stop the U.S. capture. It's a tale of two tankers and of global U.S. pressure on Venezuela's most valuable asset. The U.S. military said the Sophia sailed without its transponder, part of a Venezuelan shadow fleet, and is now being escorted to the U.S. The Marinera met its fate about 5,000 miles away just south of Iceland with the help of British armed forces.

The U.S. envisions total control over the extraction and sale of Venezuelan oil forever, starting with crude already produced, as Energy Secretary Chris Wright laid out today. We're going to market the crude coming out of Venezuela, first this backed-up stored oil, and then indefinitely going forward, we will sell the production that comes out of Venezuela into the marketplace. Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world, which the U.S. helped extract beginning a century ago. But the country only produces a fraction of its capacity. And Venezuela's former leader, Hugo Chavez, kicked out some U.S. and other foreign energy companies.

In the long run, create the conditions that the major American companies that were there before, maybe that weren't there before but want to be there, will go in. The resources are immense. This should be a wealthy, prosperous, peaceful energy powerhouse. That's the plan. The U.S. is essentially declaring domestic legal rights over a foreign state without being the official occupying power or declaring itself the sovereign power. So we're in a very unusual place here, and it's not entirely clear what that means. Ian Rolby is founder and CEO of the non-profit auxilium worldwide and focuses on maritime security. Previously, the oil industry in Venezuela had been nationalized and run by Pedevesa,

the state-owned oil company. This is now sounding like the U.S. government is, going to serve as the state-owned oil company or overseer of extraction. It is unclear, though, what this actually means in practice and whether actual oil companies are really part of this plan or not. That's because the U.S. cannot yet guarantee a Venezuela in which American companies feel confident to spend billions in necessary investment. There needs to be a degree of stability for oil extraction and for a marketplace participation,

and that is not right now what we see on the ground in the reality of Venezuela. To try and speed up investment, today White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt said the U.S. would roll back Venezuelan sanctions selectively. We obviously have a maximum leverage over the interim authorities in Venezuela right now, and the president has made it very clear that this is a country within the United States, the Western Hemisphere, close by the United States, that is no longer going to be sending illegal drugs to the United States of America. The other Western Hemisphere target of the Trump administration this week,

Greenland. The world's largest island has been part of the Kingdom of Denmark since 1721. Today, it's a self-governing territory inside the NATO ally. It is also geographically in the Americas and a critical missile defense site, the shortest route between the United States and Russia. And it's rich in rare earth minerals and potential offshore oil and gas. Which is why last night the White House released a statement that included, quote, the president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and, of course, utilizing the U.S. military is always an option at the commander-in-chief's disposal.

Today, the U.S.'s top diplomat emphasized diplomacy. If the president identifies a threat to the national security of the United States, every president retains the option to address it through military means. As a diplomat, which is what I am now, and what we work on, we always prefer to settle it in different ways. The threat has sparked enormous European concern, but also criticism, as voiced today by European Council President Antonio Costa. The European Union cannot accept violations of the international law, whether in Cyprus, Latin

America, Greenland, Ukraine or Gaza. The U.S. has long considered NATO the world's most successful alliance. But the White House today had to reiterate its support for Article 5 to our Liz Landers. We're always going to be there for NATO, even if they have not done right by the United States of America. And so once again, President Trump disrupted global relations, only to try and provide reassurance. But the alliance is today skeptical and still worried. For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Nick Schifrin.

And NewsHour has learned senior administration officials today told members of Congress the proceeds from the sale of Venezuelan oil would not go into the U.S. Treasury, but to private banks. That's according to five bipartisan congressional officials who spoke to our Lisa Desjardin and Nick Schifrin. The Energy Department today acknowledged the money would go into, quote, globally recognized banks to guarantee the legitimacy and integrity of the ultimate distribution of proceeds. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNN the funds would go to, quote, the interim authorities in Venezuela. However, the White House disputed our reporting and told us no final decisions have been made.

We start the day's other headlines with the growing political tensions over fraud schemes in the state of Minnesota. No, you all continue to fail. We've done nothing. You've had to gavel, Mr. Comer. We barely do hearings on anything that actually affects change. At a sometimes contentious hearing on Capitol Hill today, the House Oversight Committee heard from Republican state lawmakers who claimed that state officials resisted effort to

to address systemic financial wrongdoing. Committee Chairman, Republican James Comer, said the fraud was rampant. Minnesota's social services, which are funded by you, the American taxpayer, are being ripped off. The breadth and depth of this fraud is breathtaking. And I fear that this is just the tip of the iceberg. The issue has become a lightning rod for President Trump and many top Republicans who point to the involvement of members of Minnesota's Somali community in carrying out pandemic-era fraud schemes.

Today, Democratic Representative Summer Lee pushed back. Republicans have cherry-picked a blue state and an immigrant population vulnerable to demonize. To be clear, Minnesota is not the only state with a fraud problem. To truly tackle waste, fraud, and abuse, we need to approach the issue with a scalpel, not a mallet. Minnesota Governor Tim Walls called today's proceedings a show hearing. Chairman Comer has threatened to subpoena walls as well as Attorney General Keith Ellison to force them to testify about the ongoing probe in their state.

A GOP spokesperson said today that neither Democrat has confirmed that they'll attend a hearing scheduled for February, though they still have several weeks to do so. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is calling for a special session of the state's legislature in April to redraw its congressional maps. At a news conference today, DeSantis said the session is aimed at getting out ahead of a Supreme Court ruling that bars discrimination in voting systems. The governor says at least one or two districts in Florida could be affected. The state joins a nationwide redistricting effort ahead of this year's midterm elections. Republicans currently hold 20 of Florida's 28 congressional seats. Nick Reiner's arraignment hearing and the killing of his parents was delayed today after his high-profile attorney was replaced. by a public defender. Alan Jackson did not say why he asked the court to leave the case.

His departure comes as Reiner faces two counts of first-degree murder in the debts last month of actor-director Rob Reiner and his photographer wife Michelle Singer Reiner. Nick Reiner has not entered a plea and is being held without bail. A new arraignment hearing is scheduled for February. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is shutting down with its final edition due in May. The family-owned company that runs the paper, Block Communications, pointed to mounting losses, saying it's lost $350 million over the past 20 years. It also cited a recent court ruling that would have required the paper to operate under what it called an outdated labor contract. In a statement, the company said it's proud of its service to the

city, adding, quote, we deeply regret the impact this decision will have on Pittsburgh and the surrounding region. Overseas, Iran's military chief is warning of preemptive military action against what he called rhetoric against the Islamic Republic. His comments come as economic protests intensify across the country, including this demonstration in the southern Iranian port city of Bandarabas. In recent days, President Trump has said the U.S. is, quote, locked and loaded if Iran kills protesters. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also praised those demonstrating. Today, Army Commander Amir Hatami warned the two leaders against intervening in Iranian

affairs. Today there are no doubts about the hostility of the U.S. President and the criminal Prime Minister of Israel toward the Iranian nation. They allow themselves to meddle in this internal affair of ours. They tweet, they talk, they've been enemies throughout history. Separately today, Iran's government began paying its citizens around $7 U.S. dollars a month to help offset the rising costs of everyday essentials. But the nation's shopkeepers warn that prices are continuing to rise. Back in this country, Warner Brothers Discovery is rejecting the latest takeover bid from Paramount.

Instead, the company is telling shareholders to stick with a plan to sell its streaming and studio businesses to rival Netflix for about $72 billion. dollars. The announcement is the latest roadblock for Paramount boss David Ellison and his billionaire father, Larry Ellison, who'd offered to provide around $40 billion in financing for the deal. Warner Brothers' shares ended slightly higher after the news. Elsewhere on Wall Street, stocks ended mixed. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 466 points. The NASDAQ managed a slight gain of nearly 40 points. The S&P 500 ended lower for the first time in four sessions. Still to come. NewsHour, we speak with Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries and Republican Don Bacon, the long rebuilding process one year after the devastating Los Angeles fires.

And new dietary guidelines are set to bring changes for school lunches and the food industry at large. This is the PBS News Hour from the David M. Rubenstein studio at WETA in Washington, headquarters of PBS News. Let's get two views now from Capitol Hill on the day's developments. First up, Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, leader of the House Democrats. I spoke with him this afternoon and started by asking his assessment of what happened in Minneapolis today. There is no evidence that has been presented to justify the shooting of an unarmed woman resulting in her unnecessary death. The Justice Nome, the so-called Secretary of Homeland Security, is a stone-cold liar who has zero credibility on this issue or on any other issue.

And what we need, as I believe the governor has indicated, is a full and complete investigation. This rogue ICE agent who pulled the trigger should be criminally investigated to the full extent of the law, including for demonstrating a depraved indifference to human life. As you know, there are ICE officers deployed in multiple places across the country as part of the president's immigration crackdown. What's the role for federal lawmakers like you to ensure that justice is served here in Minneapolis, but also that this doesn't happen in any other community? Well, the president's extreme immigration policies have been a complete and total failure.

That's why the American people across the country have been rejecting them, the President promised that the Department of Homeland Security and ICE would be targeting violent felons. They're not targeting violent felons. They are targeting and deporting. In some cases, American citizens, and certainly individuals who have been part of these communities in some cases for decades. And Congress should step forward and reassertion. our authority. Unfortunately, Republicans who control the House and the Senate temporarily for the time being have functioned like a reckless rubber stamp for Donald Trump's extreme agenda as opposed to being part of a separate and co-equal branch of government.

I want to ask you too about our other big story today, which is the escalation related to Venezuela. We saw U.S. forces seize two more Venezuelan oil tankers. We also saw the U.S. Energy Secretary say that the U.S. will control Venezuelan oil sales indefinitely. In any of the briefings you have received on Venezuela, have you gotten a clear sense of what the U.S. mission is in Venezuela and the timeline for how long will be involved there? The briefings have been unpersuasive and have left me and other members of Congress

with more questions than answers. It's not clear what the strategy is moving forward. The one thing I do know is that the future of Venezuela should be decided by the Venezuelan people. nobody else. It doesn't appear that the Trump administration has a plan to effectuate that. We also know that this notion that the United States is going to run Venezuela is completely and totally ridiculous. The Trump administration doesn't even know how to run the United States of America effectively. We also need to step forward as a Congress to ensure legislatively that no additional military action is taken absent explicit congressional authorization.

We know the Constitution is very clear that the power to declare war, matters of war and peace, are solely within the jurisdiction of the Congress, the Article I branch of government, and this out-of-control administration needs to be reigned in. Well, as you know, the White House has argued that they did not need congressional approval for what they called targeted and limited military action in Venezuela. And you've seen since the president and other officials have threatened more unilateral action in other nations, Colombia and Cuba and not. Mexico and Greenland. And on that, my colleague Lisa Desjardin asked House Speaker Mike Johnson

today, if military force in Greenland requires congressional approval, he said it depends on what that is. He went on to say, Congress has a responsibility to declare war. I think there is no scenario where we'd be at war with Greenland. What do you say to that? The Republican majority has been nothing but compliant as it relates to Donald Trump's extreme agenda. And so I don't expect that we'd hear anything out of Republican leadership. But what we do know is that whether it's aggression that's militarily executed against Greenland or Panama or Colombia or Mexico or any other country in the Western Hemisphere, it requires explicit congressional authorization.

As it relates to the situation in Venezuela, let's be clear about something. This was not a law enforcement operation. We've heard all manner of different excuses. as to why they've gone into Venezuela. First, we heard it was about narco-trafficking. Then we heard it was about the fact that we needed to expel the Chinese, the Russians, and the Iranians. Then we heard that, well, this is about oil.

I mean, at the end of the day, what is clear is that it appears to be a power grab by the administration without any plan to prevent us as a country from getting involved in another endless foreign war that cost the lives of American men and women in uniform. Leader Jeffries, if you believe the military action was unconstitutional, as you seem to be indicating here, what can you do about it? I mean, the president has lamented earlier in this week to other Republicans

that he was worried Democrats would try to impeach him if they lose in the upcoming midterms. Would you try to do that? Well, what we have to do is deal with the issue that's in front of us, right now, and that's to make sure that no further military action can be taken without explicit congressional approval by introducing a war powers resolution that we believe has a chance to pass the United States House of Representatives if we can secure just a handful of Republicans to join our effort and reassert congressional authority on behalf of the American people

to prevent the expenditure of billions, if not trillions of dollars in another failed foreign war. Do you believe you have Republican support for that? We certainly have the support of Congressman Thomas Massey from Kentucky. We had gotten the support in a previous effort to restrain the administration on the Venezuela issue from Congressman Don Bacon, and we're hopeful that we can secure the support of just a few more Republicans. And if, in fact, we do that, then the House can act.

And we know that the Senate is planning to act on a war powers resolution tomorrow that has a chance of passing that chamber as well. Later, Jeffries, a lot more to talk about with health care subsidies, the funding deadline ahead. We hope you come back so we can cover those topics as well. That is House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, joining us tonight. Thank you much. Look forward to it. And for a perspective from the other side of the aisle,

we turn now to Congressman Don Bacon, whom Leader Jeffreys mentioned. I spoke with the Nebraska Republican and retired Air Force Brigadier General earlier today. Congressman Don Bacon, welcome to the News Hour. Thank you. On the matter of Venezuela, you were among the lawmakers briefed today by the administration on the Maduro operation. Did you get the answers you needed? And what outstanding questions do you still have about how the White House is approaching Venezuela? Maybe two parts to my answer.

First part, they gave us details of the operation. It was extraordinarily complicated, lots of moving parts, special forces, 150 different aircraft, and it had to be synchronized to the minute or to the second almost in many cases. And it was brilliantly performed and executed by our military. So a lot of pride as a 30-year Air Force guy. Now the bigger question, what do we do now? And I would say the administration is vague right now, what to do next. I worry that we're propping up the vice president who did not win the election.

She was part of the illegitimate government with Maduro. She's part of the Maduro's team. Now there were elections in Venezuela, and a guy named by Gonzales won handily, almost 70 to 30 percent, right? A huge win. And Machado, what was the person supposed to be on the ballot, but her name was taken off by Maduro, Maduro and then Gonzalez ran under the spot, these should be the people that we should be looking to running the government down the road. If this is a short-term time frame to have the Vice President Rodriguez in, okay, I understand it, but the long-term plan should be trying to get Venezuela

to their rightfully elected leaders. I think there's been too much emphasis by the administration on oil. I think most Americans don't see regime change. should be, you know, defended by talking about getting their oil and controlling their oil. It should be more about putting the rightful people in charge. And then we can let the oil industry take care of itself. On the matter of the timeline, what some lawmakers took away from today's briefing was that there is now this roadmap for a years-long American presence in Venezuela. So that, in other words, after Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. may be nation-building again. Was that your impression?

Well, it was vague. I'll say that. There was not a lot of detail about how long we're going to try to get the rightfully elected leaders. They talked about different phases. But the eventual, the last phase is to put in the rightfully elected people, make it get a legitimate government put back in. But there was a lot of detail on timing on that. I do think most Americans do not want to run Venezuela. Big picture, the president has put Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Iran, Greenland on notice. You've described the notion of taking over Greenland by the U.S. military as appalling and really dumb. Zooming out, do you see a strategic through line here, or is this just the administration governing by pressure point and provocation? Well, we don't want to be the bully, and I think to some degree we're coming off that way. Venezuela is a unique situation because we had Maduro.

Columbia, you know, it's maybe a little bit of a problem because a lot of the country. Cocaine is coming out of there, but the government is rightfully elected. I've met the president of Mexico in Mexico City this summer, and she wants to work with our country to beat these cartels, and there's ways we can do it. But she does not want American forces in Mexico. She doesn't want American air power going after them, but she could use our intelligence. Now, this thing with Greenland is appalling. They are in NATO. They govern themselves, so they're under the protection of Denmark.

Denmark's a NATO ally. We used to have five bases in Greenland. We have one right now. Greenland would welcome our friendly request to have more basing rights there, to do more mining and economic investment in Greenland. They would love that. But threatening Greenland is counterproductive.

It's counterproductive to Denmark. And by the way, all the European countries see it and they hate it. And these are our allies. NATO is the best alliance in the history of mankind. Do you think President Trump's Greenland threats are part of a broader effort within the administration to dismantle NATO, something that he has talked openly about? Well, they surely undervalue NATO. Now, one of the things that stands out at me is there's a lot of talk about, you know, United States should control the Western Hemisphere, spheres of influence.

Europe and Russia, you guys can fight it out, and Europe and China will have, you know, the Asia sphere of influence. Well, this is 1800s type of thinking, and it went away in 1939, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. And after World War II, we realized fears of influence, we're better than that. America is the leader of the free world. We can't do it by ourselves. We're going to have good friends. We can't counter Russia, China, Iran on our own. But with our allies, we can.

Given that this is such a foundational and existential issue, why aren't more Republicans speaking up like you are? I'm not sure about, I think, well, a lot of them tell me, Don, it's better to talk privately with the White House. Of course, I don't have President Trump on my speed dial. I have a different view. I mean, I had someone tell me yesterday, I respect him. Don, if you were in a company, would you do this publicly? You'd just go and have a private chat. And I go, yeah, I would if I'm in a company.

When I'm in a military unit, I did the same thing. But I'm a representative of the 2nd District of Nebraska. I represent 700,000 people. I want the constituents to know that some of the stuff is unacceptable, but it's particularly Greenland, right? Our voters deserve to know where we stand on this. Congressman Don Bacon, Republican from Nebraska, good to speak with you. Thanks for making time for us. Thank you.

Today marks one year since wildfires set parts of Los Angeles. Angeles ablaze, killing 31 people, and there's still anger and pain over the response to those fires. Just yesterday, the chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department admitted that a report on the department's response had been watered down to ease criticism of top brass, including decisions made initially about staffing and deployment. In two of the hardest-hit areas, Altadena and the Pacific Palisades, residents are grappling with the long process of trying to rebuild their homes and their country.

communities. Stephanie Sy has our report on what life is like now. In the Pacific Palisades, the scale of rebuilding hasn't come close to the scale of destruction. The number of rebuilding projects underway is in the low hundreds, but more than 6,000 structures were burned in this area a year ago when a ferocious wind-wipped fire consumed some of the most expensive real estate in the country. It was chaos, but weird chaos like war. Peggy Holter, a former TV news producer, is no stranger to conflict zones. She never imagined she'd see her own city, its schools, houses of worship, and neighborhoods in Embers. Lots of people were leaving their cars, and there were piles of just rubble. It was horrible. It was like

the apocalypse. She's one of the more than 100,000 Angelinos who were displaced by the fires last January. So your place was right here. Right here on the corner. The News Hour first met Holter a few weeks after the fires. Her townhouse, which she bought in 1977, reduced to rubble. It just seems like there's a blank in my future. In June, an Army Corps of Engineer crew cleared the wreckage from her condominium complex. Today, going back to the site, Holter wonders at how quickly nature rebounded. When rebuilding for the majority of displaced fire victims has been slow, held up by a web of bureaucracy, insurance claim delays, and rising material and labor costs. Construction is starting to speed up. 14 percent of homes destroyed here have received rebuilding permits, according to a

recent LA Times analysis. We have really, really, really made progress. Holter's Homeowners Association is planning to apply for a permit in coming months. What's it like to be at this spot a year on? It's better than it was a year ago in the sense that it doesn't look horrible. You know, it's kind of serene in its own way. But you're reminded of what you've lost. Holter suspects some of those losses could have been avoided. She is one of more than 3,000 Palisades fire victims now suing for alleged failures by state and city agencies. The reason I felt that it was important to be part of it is that it's important for the city and the county and the state to know that they can't be sloppy about stuff like this.

They allege the fact that a major reservoir which serves the palisades was offline undergoing repairs affected firefighting capabilities, just as demand was overwhelming water supplies. I was furious as was everyone because how can you have something like that with a 115 million gallons of water in it and then have it be empty. The lawsuit also alleges firefighters failed to follow proper procedures after containing an earlier fire set by an arsonist in a state park. It reignited six days later. Our town burned for days after that fire. was rekindled. It's almost more enraging to understand that maybe there could have been some anticipation of it. Recently, questions have swirled around whether state policies protecting endangered

plants may have hampered firefighters, preventing them from bringing in bulldozers to fully extinguish the initial fire. State officials have repeatedly denied those claims. We are kind of just left to fend for ourselves, you know. Meanwhile, in Altadena, about 35 miles east of the Pacific Palisades, survivors of the Eaton fire, like Emeka Shakura, are also critical of the early response. I would think in this country that there would be a greater response to this level of disaster. The unincorporated city relied on L.A. County and city resources when hurricane force winds blew the fire's embers from the San Gabriel Mountains into Altadena's heart.

The evacuation orders didn't go out in West Altadena until five hours after the flames began to threaten the area. Chikura and his father Anoche owned a store selling African goods that burned down. Today it's just an empty lot. What do you think you missed the most about the shop, you know? Just the ambience. The ambiance. But the community spirit of their shop, called Rhythms of the Village, lives on.

distributed supplies to fire victims and the festivals and drumming circles they once held at the store continued this past year at different temporary venues the drumming is the heartbeat of the community the heartbeat you know here in Altadena more than 9,000 structures were burned but the eaten fire threatened much more than that and for the last year residents have been fighting for this community's history and identity since the In 1960s, Altadena represented an opportunity for black families. Less restrictive redlining laws meant home ownership and the creation of generational wealth.

Alta Dina was almost 42 percent African American. That was what was closing the wealth gap for us here. In 2023, about 80 percent of black Altadena's own their homes, nearly double the national average. But even before the fires, the black population had dropped to 20 percent, with gentrification and rising home values. Concerns about unscrupulous investors taking over are the talk of the town these days. People capitalize on devastation is bad, you know. And some residents fear the disaster worsened inequalities. A recent study found nearly seven and ten of severely fire

damaged homes in Altadena show no signs of rebuilding, with black and Asian homeowners most likely to remained stalled. Everybody I know, you know, was impacted by this. So even if you kept your home, you have Survivors Guild. Chakura's home was spared by the fire. But even getting his shop up and running has been tough. Lease prices for commercial spaces have shot up. Can you not afford to rent a store or retail space because of that fact? I think so. I have to weigh that up and see if it's sustainable for me to reopen and pay double what I was paying. He's raised more than $100,000 through GoFundMe and is seeing if they can get support from non-profits.

On a place where black businesses maybe weren't as strong as they once were, it's important for us to have a presence. So us being here, you know, even though we welcome everybody, our people felt like, oh, that's our own, that's our place. At least he says that heartbeat remains strong. With music, a central rallying cry. Strength is also something that Peggy Holter eventually found in herself. Having had no insurance at the time of the fire, she did not get a payout to replace her belongings.

But a year out, as we're talking, a change in outlook. This stuff is not so important now. Your whole face just lit up because you realize something. Yeah, that's true. Well, I think the lesson is your happiness doesn't depend on things. It's pretty simple, really. But you realize when it's all taken away, you're still going to be very happy. The condo complex is still an estimated two years from being rebuilt.

And this time it's being designed with all new fire-resistant materials. For the PBS News Hour, I'm Stephanie Tsai in Los Angeles. The Trump administration released new dietary guidelines today that will shape everything from school lunches to medical advice. The new guidance puts a bigger emphasis on eating more protein and dairy, something health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has long sought. But the administration also held on to some traditional and mainstream guidelines. William Brigham has more.

Jeff, during a press conference at the White House, Secretary Kennedy literally turned that traditional food pyramid upside down to mirror what he and other Trump officials said Americans should eat. That's significantly more protein in dairy, numerous servings of fruits and vegetables and other healthy fats, all of that at the top, and fewer whole grains down at the bottom. Some of the other specific recommendations? Less added sugar.

Children should not eat added sugars until they are 10 years old. Three servings of dairy a day, including whole milk rather than low fat. Fewer processed foods, period, and controversially, it removed recommendations to limit alcohol consumption. These guidelines are updated every five years, and Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, said today's guidance had one basic principle. Thankfully, the solution is simple and should be non-controversial. Eat real food. We are finally putting real food back at the center of the American diet. Real food that nourishes the body, restores health, fuels energy, and builds strength.

But these new recommendations are getting mixed reviews from nutrition experts and medical associations. So to help break down this new guidance, we are joined again by Lindsay Smith-Taley. She's a nutrition epidemiologist and co-director of the Global Food Research Program at UNC Chapel Hill. Lindsay, so nice to have you back on the program. Let's get your overall broad brush take on these guidelines. What do you like? What don't you like? Thank you so much for having me. I think there's a lot to like in these guidelines and also a number of items to be concerned about.

In terms of what to like, I think the overall focus on eating real food is great and really landmark progress in the U.S. where we know that the majority of our diets come from ultra-processed foods that are linked to an array of chronic diseases. And so having this very clear, simple guidance to eat real food, I think is enormously helpful, both for policymakers and for your everyday consumer. On the other hand, the guidelines also contain a number of items, such as the increased recommendation for meat and dairy and the elimination of the alcohol guideline that are quite concerning. It's striking to me that the idea that the federal government is only now saying

to people, eat real food, like, how is it that we have to be? taken this long to say something so simple? I think there are a number of reasons. First of all, from a scientific perspective, it's only been in about the last decade or so that we've really thought of food in this particular way, where we're looking at almost a non-nutritional dimension, processing. How is the food actually made and packaged and distributed? So that is new.

I think the other thing that is the reason why we haven't done this before is conflicts of interest. So when you look at who is on the dietary guideline scientific committee, you know, you and who funds their research. In the past, those scientists have been funded by organizations that produce ultra-processed foods. And I think that has a lot to do with what kind of guidelines you see in the previous guidelines and then also today. So I want to double back to what you were saying before

about what seems to be a real heavy focus on meat and dairy. If you just look at that pyramid itself on the upper left corner, it's chicken and beef and steak and cheese and hamburger. Where do you think that is coming from? And what is it that troubles you about that? Yeah, absolutely. So I think there are two things that are troubling to me about that. The first is that this is really in conflict with what the recent dietary guidelines committee

of scientists recommended. And also that this is something that could potentially be very harmful for the environment because we know that beef production in particular is responsible for the majority of food-related environmental harms. So that's part one. And then I think the second thing that goes along with what I was saying earlier about conflicts of interest is that RFK Jr., one of his main stances that we were also excited about, is that he promised to get rid of conflicts of interest from the dietary guidelines,

things like this ultra-processed food conflict of interest that I was talking about earlier. But what we see when we look at the scientists who created this report is that the majority of them have recent financial ties to the beef and dairy industries. And so we still have the same question of, is this actually based in gold standard scientific evidence, or is this essentially food industry propaganda that is kind of coming from the federal government? Secretary Rawlins in that announcement today said that this guidance will have a particularly big impact on school lunches, what's served to children in schools. How so? So right now, school lunches have no guidelines around their processing levels. And so this guideline at a very high level, this guideline of eating real foods, could have profound effects because the majority of school lunches are coming from ready to eat, ready to heat, and highly processed sources.

And then I think the other major shift in the guideline is really on added sugar. The government was actually just in the process for the first time of implementing an added sugar guideline. But this new recommendation is much more strict than previous recommendations. And so if it gets implemented in schools, we can imagine. and seeing things like reductions in sweetened flavored milks, for example, or all the refined grains that are in school lunches. All right, Lindsay Smith, Talley, of the UNC Chapel Hill. Always great to talk to you.

Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me. And that's the News Hour for tonight. I'm Jeff Bennett. And I'm Amna Nawaz. On behalf of the entire NewsHour team, thank you for joining us.