LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Good evening.

I'm Laura Barron-Lopez.

Geoff Bennett and on Amna Nawaz are away.

On the "News Hour" tonight: Russia escalates its assault on Ukraine, drawing criticism from President Trump and complicating U.S. efforts to broker a peace deal.

We hear from a handful of Democratic candidates who are launching primary bids in hopes of charting a new path forward for a party in disarray.

And major charity organizations face an uncertain future after the Trump administration halted foreign aid.

CHARLES KENNY, Center for Global Development: We're going to have to start from scratch.

And that -- I hope that the funding is resumed in full tomorrow, but, even if it were, this damage is permanent.

(BREAK) LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Welcome to the "News Hour."

Russia is escalating its bombing campaign against Ukraine with a massive drone attack hitting cities and towns overnight and into this morning.

In the past week alone, 30 Ukrainians have been killed and more than 163 injured.

That's prompted President Trump to lash out at Russian President Vladimir Putin, but also Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as diplomacy stalls and violence rages.

A late night for Ukraine, as flames and sirens broke through the darkness.

Overnight, Russia sent the biggest drone attack of the entire war so far.

Ukrainian Air Force officials say more than 355 drones came from Russia last night and the night before 298 drones, plus almost 69 missiles.

Today, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the attacks made it clear Russian President Vladimir Putin didn't want to end the war.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, Ukrainian President (through translator): All the more so as Russian strikes are becoming increasingly brazen, over 900 attack drones launched against Ukraine in just three days, along with ballistic and cruise missiles.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: On Sunday outside of Kyiv, Ivan and Liubov Fedorenko's home was destroyed.

LIUBOV FEDORENKO, Kyiv, Ukraine, Resident (through translator): Thank God we had no children at home.

Yesterday, I was trying to persuade my daughter to come to us.

After, all she lives on the eighth floor in Kyiv and here it's the ground floor.

She said: "No, Mom, I'm not coming."

And thank God she didn't come because the rocket hit on the side where the children's rooms were.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Moscow's Defense Ministry says they have shot down more than 100 Ukrainian drones.

And flights to Moscow were diverted on Sunday and Monday.

On the tarmac yesterday, President Trump said he was losing patience with Russian President Putin.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: I don't know what the hell happened to Putin.

I have known him a long time.

Always gotten along with him, but he's sending rockets into cities and killing people.

And I don't like it at all, OK?

We're in the middle of talking and he's shooting rockets into Kyiv and other cities.

I don't like it at all.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: But the president dodged questions about what changes he's willing to make, such as sanctions on Russia or military assistance to Ukraine.

QUESTION: Mr. President, what do you want to do about that?

DONALD TRUMP: And I'm not surprised.

I'm very surprised.

We will see what we're going to do.

What, am I going to tell you?

You're the fake news aren't you?

You're totally fake.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Later, on social media, the president posted that Putin "has gone absolutely crazy" and had harsh words for Ukraine's President Zelenskyy, writing: "Everything out of his mouth causes problems.

I don't like it and it better stop."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed Russia was retaliating against Ukrainian strikes and called President Trump's words an emotional reaction.

DONALD TRUMP: I will prevent World War III.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: From the early days of the presidential campaign, Trump said he alone could end the violence on day one.

DONALD TRUMP: Before I even arrive at the Oval Office shortly after we win the presidency, we win, all of us together are going to win, I will have the horrible war between Russia and Ukraine settled.

I know them both.

I will get it settled.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: But, four months later, progress is elusive.

President Trump and Putin spoke on the phone just last week and Trump said cease-fire talks were imminent.

Russian and Ukrainian officials recently met in Turkey for their first in-person talk since 2022.

And Trump has sent high-level officials to speak to Putin like envoy Steve Witkoff.

Many Republicans in Congress have been advocates for Ukraine, but have largely deferred to Trump.

Now cracks are appearing in that united front.

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley made a direct plea on social media, asking the president to take action, at least sanctions.

For perspective on the latest Russian attacks against Ukraine, we turn to retired Army Colonel Robert Hamilton.

He spent much of his career focused on the former Soviet Union and is now head of research for the Foreign Policy Research Institute's Eurasia Program.

Colonel Hamilton, thank you so much for joining the "News Hour."

COL. ROBERT HAMILTON (RET.

), Foreign Policy Research Institute: Thank you for the invitation.

Glad to be with you.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: So, President Trump talked to Russian President Putin about a week ago, and yet there's been this steady increase in Russian drone attacks on Ukraine.

Why is this happening?

COL. ROBERT HAMILTON (RET.

): So I think there's two reasons, Laura.

I think part of it is negotiating behavior, right?

I think the Russians understand, after the face-to-face meeting with the Ukrainian delegation in Turkey and also after the Trump-Putin call, that negotiations are likely, that they are likely to be pressured into direct negotiations to include the U.S., so that would be U.S.-Russia-Ukraine.

And part of this is negotiating behavior.

It's sort of establishing a position, staking out a position in advance of negotiations, by raising the level of military activity in Ukraine.

And part of it, I think, is, frankly, to deflect from the fact that the ground war is not going as well for Russia as I think a lot of the narrative in international and particularly Western media would have us believe.

Since November of last year, Russian territorial gains in Ukraine have declined month on month pretty significantly and pretty steadily, and their casualties per square kilometer gained have risen pretty significantly.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: As Russia is escalating its attacks, President Trump said this weekend that he thinks Putin has gone -- quote -- "crazy" and that he doesn't like the attacks, but he also said that he has gotten along with President Putin in the past.

Do these comments have any effect on Putin whatsoever?

COL. ROBERT HAMILTON (RET.

): I think maybe at the margins, right?

I think Putin is walking a fairly thin line.

So he wants to delay negotiations as long as possible, because I think Putin believes he can outlast the West and, without Western support, Ukraine will not be able to win the war.

It's likely that that's correct.

Ukraine won't be able to win the war without Western support, but the cutoff in Western support and especially U.S. support does not necessarily mean Ukraine will lose the war.

So, on the one hand, this is Putin trying to kick the can down the road, essentially, extend the timeline until negotiations start.

But, on the other, again, this is negotiating behavior.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Meanwhile, Germany's new chancellor said today that his country and other major allies are no longer imposing any range restrictions on weapons supplied to Ukraine as it fights Russia's invasion.

And in the past, U.S. had placed restrictions on how far into Russia Ukraine could fire U.S. made missiles.

And U.S. and the allies in the past have followed those restrictions.

How big of a deal is this possible change?

COL. ROBERT HAMILTON (RET.

): So I think it would be a really big deal if two conditions hold.

One, if -- Germany has been very tight-lipped, at least the Merz government has been very tight-lipped about whether it has or will supply Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine.

If it does, the Taurus has a range of 500 kilometers.

It's a very long range.

It's longer, for instance, than U.S. ATACMS, which is a ground-launched missile.

And so if Germany supplies Taurus missiles to Ukraine, and if Germany, the U.K., France, and the U.S., and U.S. is critical here, if they all, in conjunction with each other, lift the restrictions on Ukraine's using those weapons to strike deep into Russia, then it's very significant.

The reason I say the U.S. is critical is, my understanding is that U.S. support is critical for the guidance systems of even non-U.S. missiles.

In other words, without U.S. support and acquiescence, even the SCALP Storm Shadow and potentially the Taurus missiles will not be as accurate and effective as they would be if the U.S. provided the support for the guidance systems.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: In the past week, there's also been increased talk of sanctions, including from Europe.

What are they considering and are they serious about potential sanctions on Russia?

COL. ROBERT HAMILTON (RET.

): So, a new European round of sanctions, my understanding, has been approved.

I'm not sure if it's been applied yet, but the E.U.

has approved a new round of sanctions on Russia.

These are essentially a moderate escalation of the sanctions that are already in place.

I think the critical thing, and the main reason or the main means by which Russia is still able to make money and support its economy throughout this war, is by the shadow fleet, the fleet of oil tackers that are unregistered and uninsured.

But the shadow fleet is able to deliver Russian oil.

Some of our partners and allies, particularly in the Baltics, have seized some of these Russian tankers, these shadow fleet tankers over the last month or two.

If Ukraine's partners get serious about interdicting or even removing the shadow fleet altogether, then that would have a serious effect.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Here in the U.S., Republican leadership in Congress is also threatening sanctions of their own with a bipartisan bill that would, in addition to sanctions, put a 500 percent tariff on goods imported from countries that buy Russian oil.

Do you think Congress should move forward with these sanctions or that they have to wait to get signal of approval from President Trump?

COL. ROBERT HAMILTON (RET.

): No, Congress can absolutely move forward with sanctions on its own.

It did that in the first Trump administration.

In the first Trump administration, Congress passed sanctions on Russia explicitly for the reason that essentially they didn't trust the White House to keep sanctions in place.

And so Congress passed sanctions that then only Congress can remove.

And that could happen this time as well.

And I think it would be a positive step if it did.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: That's Colonel Robert Hamilton of the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

Thank you for your time.

COL. ROBERT HAMILTON (RET.

): Thank you.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: We start the day's other headlines in the U.K. Police in Liverpool have arrested a 53-year-old British man after a car drove into a crowd of fans as they celebrated their team's Premier League championship victory.

Footage from the scene shows emergency crews tending to the wounded.

Police say 27 people are being treated in the hospital.

Officials do not believe it was an act of terrorism.

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the scenes from the city appalling.

Tens of thousands of fans were celebrating Liverpool's record-tying 20th Premier League title.

The team issued a statement saying its thoughts and prayers are with those who have been affected by this serious incident.

Health officials in Gaza say the latest round of Israeli airstrikes killed at least 52 people overnight and into today; 36 of those deaths were reported in a single attack on a school turned shelter in Gaza City.

Israel says militants were operating from the building.

Meantime, the World Food Program says it has more aid trucks standing by to enter the territory.

And a U.S.-backed group that's tasked with taking over aid distribution says it's moving ahead with operations after its executive director resigned last night.

Supply started trickling in last week following an Israeli blockade that lasted nearly three months.

But so far, aid efforts have been slow to reach those in need.

ISSA MAAROUF, Displaced Gazan (through translator): They tell you that aid is coming in, but it doesn't reach us.

What can I tell you?

It's just a drop in the ocean.

It's not enough.

We only hear about it, but we don't see it.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Also today, groups of ultra-nationalist Israeli Jews paraded through the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, at times chanting anti-Arab slogans.

It's part of an annual march that marks Israel's conquest of the eastern part of the city.

The march often leads to violence, and witnesses say clashes broke out in the afternoon.

Israeli police say they arrested a number of people.

European officials say there's a new impetus to restart trade talks with the United States after President Trump pushed back the start of tariffs on E.U.

imports.

U.S. markets are closed today, but European shares rose on the news.

Trump's 50 percent tariffs are now due to take effect July 9, rather than June 1, as he initially threatened on Friday.

The delay came after a call Trump had yesterday with the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

Discussions were set to begin immediately, with talks planned between the E.U.

trade commissioner and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Separately, President Trump says he's considering taking $3 billion of grant money from Harvard and distributing it instead to trade schools across the country.

He made the threat in a social media posts early today, writing: "What a great investment that would be for the USA."

It's the latest escalation in the Trump administration's ongoing battle with the Ivy League school.

On Friday, a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump's bid to prevent Harvard from enrolling international students.

The Trump administration is trying to force Harvard to provide information on foreign students at the school, which Harvard is refusing to do.

Also today, President Trump says he's pardoning a former Virginia sheriff who was convicted of federal bribery charges.

Scott Jenkins was the sheriff of Culpeper County in Northern Virginia.

In December, he was convicted of accepting more than $70,000 from local businessmen in exchange for positions within his department.

He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and was set to report to jail tomorrow.

But in a social media post, Trump said he was unjustly treated, writing -- quote -- "This sheriff is a victim of an overzealous Biden Department of Justice and doesn't deserve to spend a single day in jail."

Authorities in South Carolina said today that 10 people were shot during a fight on a charter boat this weekend.

The shooting happened late last night in Little River, about 20 miles Northeast of Myrtle Beach.

Local police say no one has died, but some of the wounded are in critical but stable condition.

Detectives are trying to identify those responsible and say there is no larger threat to the local community.

No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.

Commemorations have been taking place across the nation to mark the Memorial Day holiday.

President Trump led tributes to fallen soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery this morning, laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

He called them America's best and bravest and said we revere their incredible legacy.

Elsewhere, the day was marked with parades like this one in Brooklyn, New York.

Memorial Day was first to be established in the wake of the Civil War and was originally called Decoration Day.

In 1971, it officially became a national holiday and was redesignated as Memorial Day.

And a passing of note tonight.

Former New York Congressman Charles Rangel has died.

The Democrat from Harlem served on Capitol Hill for nearly half-a-century.

Over 23 congressional terms, he was a powerful force in American politics and a staunch advocate for liberal causes.

FMR.

REP. CHARLES RANGEL (D-NY): The government has responsibility to take care of people, but that's what makes Democrats different from you Republicans.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: In his distinctive raspy voice, Rangel rarely pulled punches in his often contentious debates with Republicans, including on this program.

Prior to his time in office, he served in the military, earning a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star during the Korean War.

After winning his seat in 1970, he went on to become a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus and the first African American to be chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee.

But he was forced to give up that position in 2010, when he was censured in the House for accepting corporate-sponsored trips to the Caribbean.

Speaking on the House floor, he told colleagues that history would be his ultimate judge.

FMR.

REP. CHARLES RANGEL: I know in my heart that I'm not going to be judged by this Congress, but I'm going to be judged by my life, my activities, my contributions to society.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: His family says Rangel died at a hospital in Harlem today.

Charlie Rangel was 94 years old.

Still to come on the "News Hour," Amy Walter and Jasmine Wright break down the latest political headlines; a new book on the Russian mercenary group that became so powerful, it threatened Putin; and on this Memorial Day, the life and legacy of a Japanese-American World War II veteran.

Congress may be out this week, but lawmakers will likely hear from constituents about President Trump's big domestic policy bill passed by House Republicans.

It now heads to the Senate, where it's already facing an uphill battle.

Joining me to discuss this and more of the day's political news is Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report With Amy Walter and Jasmine Wright of NOTUS.

Thank you so much, both of you, for joining us today.

So let's first dive into the big reconciliation party-line bill.

We have seen Senate Republicans already raising some concerns about this package, which the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates will cost the U.S. more than $3 trillion.

Here's Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky.

SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): I think the cuts currently in the bill are wimpy and anemic, but I still would support the bill even with wimpy and anemic cuts if they weren't going to explode the debt.

The problem is, the math doesn't add up.

There's got to be someone left in Washington who thinks debt is wrong and deficits are wrong.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Jasmine, you have been reporting on this for NOTUS, you have been talking to Senate Republicans, what are you hearing from them, especially about the Medicaid and SNAP parts of the package?

JASMINE WRIGHT, NOTUS: Yes.

Well, I think, fundamentally, they're going to be concerned about the top line.

Yes, there are specific factions of the Republican Party over on the Senate who want to see less cuts for Medicaid, Medicare.

They want to see more for some others.

But fundamentally it's going to be about reducing the deficit.

Does this bill go far enough?

Does it make too many cuts or does it make not enough?

Rand Paul is not alone in his beliefs.

With him is Senator Ron Johnson, partially Senator Josh Hawley, Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina.

There are multiple senators.

Remember, they can only lose three votes, really.

There are multiple senators who feel like this bill does not do enough to reduce the deficit and in fact adds to the deficit.

So they're going to talk about those more minute changes that have to happen in Social Security and Medicaid when it comes to differentiating themselves from that original bill.

But, fundamentally, Laura, this is about the top line and a lot of Republican senators do not like what they have been given.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Yes, so the cost of the bill could ultimately be what tanks it in the Senate or means that they have to make significant changes.

But, Amy, Democrats seem to think they have a potential winning message on the Medicaid element of the bill.

Tell me, do you see that potentially working when they're talking to constituents?

AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: Well, this is the real challenge that Republicans have right now.

They have the internal challenges, keeping the party together, not just in the Senate and getting a bill through the Senate.

But, remember, it then has to come back to the House for final passage if there are changes, which it sounds very much like we will see changes on the Senate side, so keeping that internal coalition together.

But then they have to message to an external audience, to, of course, voters about what's in this bill.

Democrats pretty much have one message, and it is this is going to cut Medicaid and health care for millions of people who need it.

What Republicans are saying is, no, it won't, it's going to make sure -- we make sure to take care of those who are the neediest; the only people who will lose Medicaid are people who are either on it fraudulently, they're here illegally and getting these benefits or they haven't worked enough and so that we're requiring them a certain number of work hours in order to be able to get this.

Both sides are going to show you polling that says their message is really resonating with voters.

As I said, we will see once voters get this message from both of them, but I think what Democrats have going for them is the fact that they just get to repeat this over and over again, while Republicans are trapped right now trying to appease their own members and then at the same time trying to sell this message.

JASMINE WRIGHT: Also trying to appease Donald Trump, right?

AMY WALTER: Well... (CROSSTALK) JASMINE WRIGHT: Because we know it's always the audience of one, a little bit different when it comes to the Senate than versus the House.

AMY WALTER: Yes.

JASMINE WRIGHT: But, still, audience of one.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: I want to talk about the president's continued attacks on the judiciary.

And he specifically was -- as threats have been increasing to judges, which The Wall Street Journal is reporting, and they're considering potentially their own security details due to these threats.

Just this morning on TRUTH Social, the president in a post, as he was saying happy Memorial Day, again was attacking judges, calling them "USA-hating judges who suffer from an ideology that is sick."

And the president was attacking judges specifically who say that he is going too far in potentially weakening due process rights, Amy.

I know that the president still has his base on immigration, on his agenda items there, but could he potentially be losing some voters, could Republicans lose some voters and hear from them when they go back home on the issue of threats to due process rights?

AMY WALTER: They may.

Here's the thing.

Many of those judges that he's criticizing were appointed by Republican presidents, so this isn't just simply liberals going against this president.

I think the challenge right now that Donald Trump has with those voters who supported him in this last election, but maybe aren't fully bought in, is they see Donald Trump in a transactional way.

He said he was going to make my life a little bit better, he was going to lower costs for me, there are things he does that I don't really like, but I'm willing to accept those for the change in my own economic certainty.

That has yet to come either.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: And, as Republicans are fighting internally over their big reconciliation package, we also want to talk about what is happening with Democrats.

The Democratic Party is still figuring out how to meet this moment.

And we spoke to three Democrats, all launching first-time bids for national office in 2026 about what they think their party needs to do to win.

STATE SEN. MALLORY MCMORROW (D-MI): I'm Mallory McMorrow.

I'm from Royal Oak, Michigan, and I'm running for United States Senate.

JAKE RAKOV (D), California Congressional Candidate: My name is Jake Rakov.

I am -- live in Studio City, and I'm running for the 32nd Congressional District in California.

KAT ABUGHAZALEH (D), Illinois Congressional Candidate: I'm Kat Abughazaleh.

I'm from Chicago, and I'm running for Congress in the 9th District of Illinois.

MALLORY MCMORROW: It is not enough to say Democrats are not in power right now, but just vote for us hard enough in the midterms.

People want to see that you feel what they're feeling, that you feel the fear and anxiety and frustration and anger.

KAT ABUGHAZALEH: Every single authoritarian movement thrives when the opposition party refuses to actually stand up to them.

Anyone that's taken a middle school history class knows that appeasement isn't effective.

JAKE RAKOV: My opponent, Brad Sherman, has been in office for almost 30 years.

He's in his 15th term.

He was elected in 1996, when I was 8 years old.

I think people who have been in power for that long and have so checked out of the district as he has is why we got Trump twice.

And so I'm running against him to bring a new generation to Congress to actually show those people who left our party that we are still a party of progress and still a party that's going to work for them.

KAT ABUGHAZALEH: A lot of Congress didn't grow up with school shooting drills.

They don't worry about out-of-pocket expenses.

They probably own their homes.

And that's not the case for most of Gen Z. MALLORY MCMORROW: The idea that you can't afford to buy a house, that you don't have job security, that you may not have health care, that you may not be able to afford the things that came easier to our parents is a reality for me.

That means that I respond very differently than perhaps some members of my party who have been in office for many more years, who have come up in a very different time.

KAT ABUGHAZALEH: And that the strategy is to stand back, hands off until 2026 and hope enough people get hurt that they will vote Democrat in the midterms, that's not only morally repugnant.

You are banking on people being hurt by this administration.

But it's also stupid, because you're letting Trump dismantle this country.

JAKE RAKOV: We all knew he was going to be a chaotic, he was going to be unstable, he was going to do power grabs.

And to see how slowly they were to respond in the first few months, I think, upset a lot of our base and a lot of other Democratic voters who looked around and said, what are you doing?

Do something.

Do anything.

MALLORY MCMORROW: This is about approach.

Are you somebody who fights or are you somebody who sits back?

Are you active or are you passive?

Do you have the ability to break through, meet people where they are and talk to people in a real, human way?

And that is my lane.

I know how to break through.

I know how to communicate with people.

JAKE RAKOV: We have to have these conversations in our safest districts.

We have to be able to fight amongst ourselves and have this discussion as Democrats where we know we're going to talk to our base and be strongest before we can even go into a swing district and hope of converting people and bringing back in people into the party that left us.

KAT ABUGHAZALEH: Democrats need to stop reacting to Republicans and just get back to basic humanity.

We should all be agreeing, both parties, that the baseline is housing, groceries and health care with money left over.

It's just common sense that, in the richest country in the world, in what many consider the greatest country in the world, that we should be taking care of our citizens.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Jasmine, you just heard one of the Democrats running saying Democrats need to be active, not passive.

Are Democrats meeting the demands that their voters are placing on them when it comes to confronting President Trump?

JASMINE WRIGHT: I mean, every Democratic voter I have talked to for the last three months would tell you no, quite frankly.

A lot of times, they call them feckless.

A lot of times, they say that they're not meeting this moment, which to them requires a really strong Democratic Party pushing back against what Donald Trump is doing.

Now, I think that the reality is that there's not a lot basically that Democrats can do because they are not in the majority on both chambers, but still voters want them to feel like they are doing something.

I think what I noticed in that video one is that all of those people were very young.

I mean, I'm young, but they were young too, right?

And I think it's a reflection of this conversation that's going on in Washington and beyond about the age of some of these Democratic leaders, particularly the ones that have been passing away in office.

But also it's trying to harness this energy that's saying that these Democrats in office are not doing enough for you.

I will do something for you.

But the reality is, is that the waiting -- the game right now for Democrats is about waiting to see what happens with Donald Trump.

And even though that young politician said that that was immoral...

I think that is quite honestly the Democratic playbook right now.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Amy, with 30 seconds left, what did you make of those?

AMY WALTER: Yes.

The get caught trying is what you hear a lot from Democratic base voters.

I know, I get the intellectual argument that we can't pass anything as Democrats because we're in the minority.

But that doesn't mean that you can't show that you are actively finding ways to push back against the administration.

And, look, I think Mallory McMorrow put it very well.

She said that the split in the party now, it's no longer ideological.

It's really about who's a fighter and who's more passive.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Amy Wright -- sorry.

(LAUGHTER) LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Amy Walter, Jasmine Wright... AMY WALTER: Wait.

I love that.

We could work really well together.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Thank you so much for your reporting and insights.

JASMINE WRIGHT: You're welcome.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: One of the first major policy changes of the second Trump administration was a significant cut to foreign aid.

That eventually included effectively dissolving the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, the primary organization that distributed funding for aid across the globe.

Deema Zein reports on how one major recipient of USAID funding is grappling with the impact.

DEEMA ZEIN: On a rural hillside in Southwest Honduras, farmer Isidro Lopez (ph) is installing his own water delivery system.

Drip irrigation linked to this reservoir allows Lopez to support his family year-round in this drought-stricken region.

But the work of farmers like him is now on hold.

JULIO CESAR COLL, Asomaincupaco (through translator): The impact of the halt in USAID funding is really tremendous.

We have lost projects that guarantee food security for families who can't otherwise put food on the table.

DEEMA ZEIN: Julio Cesar Coll runs Asomaincupaco, the organization supporting Lopez's work.

JULIO CESAR COLL (through translator): These are communities in which poverty will increase.

These are communities where young people are going to lose opportunities or end up living in an eternal cycle of poverty and most probably end up immigrating.

DEEMA ZEIN: It's just one of more than 1,000 local partners that work with international humanitarian agency Catholic Relief Services, or CRS.

Today, the organization works in over 120 countries with both faith-based and secular nonprofits.

CRS was one of the largest recipients of USAID funding, which made up nearly two-thirds of its total budget.

That money was used to distribute lifesaving food aid, prevent the spread of infectious disease, and run community development programs.

SEAN CALLAHAN, President and CEO, Catholic Relief Services: The shock to the system right now with the massive level of the cuts is unprecedented in the time that I have been working.

DEEMA ZEIN: Sean Callahan is the group's CEO and says their local partners were also shocked.

SEAN CALLAHAN: Wow, this is a real shame.

Why are they doing it?

They also said, if the U.S. doesn't want migrants, why would you stop investing here so that people can -- so it seemed a little counterintuitive to many of the local people.

DEEMA ZEIN: And the funding cuts impacted both long- and short-term programs.

SEAN CALLAHAN: We had over 130,000 metric tons of American food sitting in warehouses overseas, and we couldn't distribute it.

Vaccines, polio vaccines for kids, we had them in the clinic.

We couldn't give them out.

Treatment for HIV and AIDS, at first, some of that was frozen, so we can't give antiviral therapy to a mother or a child.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: USAID is really corrupt.

I'll tell you, it's corrupt.

DEEMA ZEIN: By February, the Trump administration had largely shut down USAID and later suspended billions of dollars in foreign aid contracts.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said -- quote - - "Lifesaving programs could continue," but many of those programs have been canceled.

In a statement to the "News Hour" a State Department spokesperson said: "U.S. foreign assistance will be transformed into a short-term, targeted and transactional force that fiercely prioritizes America's interests.

Ensuring we have the right mix of programs requires an agile approach.

We will continue to make changes as needed."

CHARLES KENNY, Center for Global Development: I think the best evidence that USAID works is how quickly people started dying when it went away.

DEEMA ZEIN: Charles Kenny is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development.

CHARLES KENNY: We also know that U.S. assistance gets where it's meant to get to because we track it really carefully.

That's not to say there's no fraud and there's no abuse in the system.

And there certainly have been failed aid programs over time.

But the portfolio, if you look at the record as a whole, of U.S. assistance for this fraction of a percentage of the federal budget, I think it shows a massive success.

DEEMA ZEIN: In 2023, the U.S. government spent about 70 billion on foreign aid, or just about 1 percent of the federal budget.

But now, Kenny says, the longstanding relationships that aid organizations like CRS formed with local partners will suffer, organizations like the Justice, Development and Peace Initiative in Northeast Nigeria.

In 2017, with CRS support, the group expanded their scope to emergency humanitarian work as a response to civilians fleeing militant group Boko Haram.

REV.

VINCENT OKOYE, Executive Director, Justice, Development and Peace Initiative: I actually fear for the future because it would mean that all the gains with the humanitarian interventions and the targeted programs, if they are not sustained, we will lose all that progress, and I'm afraid of what it will lead to.

DEEMA ZEIN: Father Vincent Okoye is the initiative's executive director.

REV.

VINCENT OKOYE: If people do not have food to eat, they are going to die.

If those children who are malnourished are not able to get the nutritious supplements that they need to help them to recover, we will lose lives.

And so it's actually a matter of life and death.

DEEMA ZEIN: And the administration's decision, Charles Kenny says, will be hard to reverse.

CHARLES KENNY: It's not just, OK, Congress decides that we need to refinance, we do need to fund education programs worldwide.

There won't be the people there who know how to run a USAID program in those areas.

We're going to have to start from scratch.

And that -- I hope that the funding is resumed in full tomorrow, but, even if it were, this damage is permanent.

DEEMA ZEIN: And one that Callahan says runs counter to American values.

SEAN CALLAHAN: We can build fences and build borders and reinforce it.

I prefer that we build bridges.

That's what a great nation is, is someone who shows the generosity in spirit they have.

It's not someone who says, I'm only going to help my family.

DEEMA ZEIN: What's your biggest fear for CRS and for all these communities that you have been helping?

SEAN CALLAHAN: That people will start feeling that Americans don't care anymore, that we have stopped caring for other people.

That puts us in a very weakened position around the world.

The American ethos will be lost and it will take many, many years to build that up.

We have earned this reputation over many, many years.

It'd be a shame if we destroyed it in a very few number of months.

DEEMA ZEIN: For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Deema Zein.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Over the past decade, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's top henchmen was the man behind Russia's most notorious mercenary forces.

Yevgeny Prigozhin was Putin's confidant, enforcer and the mastermind of the paramilitary Wagner Group, once a trusted ally of the Kremlin.

His fate took a dramatic turn, ending in a mysterious plane crash.

A new book delves deep into the rise and fall of Prigozhin in Putin's Russia.

Nick Schifrin recently sat down with the author.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Long ago, the sledgehammer was an icon of Soviet industry.

But in Vladimir Putin's Russia, it's been transformed into a symbol of savagery and an emblem of Russian resurgence, thanks to the now notorious paramilitary group Wagner.

Wagner was born out of St. Petersburg, where Vladimir Putin rose in politics and first met Yevgeny Prigozhin, the man who had become known as Putin's chef, across Africa, to the digital battlefield of the 2016 election, to Eastern Ukraine.

Wagner and Prigozhin became not only mercenary soldiers.

They projected Russian power as an integral instrument for Putin's confrontation with the West and attempt to reshape the world order.

That is the story told in "Putin's Sledgehammer: The Wagner Group and Russia's Collapse into Mercenary Chaos" by Candace Rondeaux, who joins me here.

Candace Rondeaux, thanks very much.

Welcome to the "News Hour."

CANDACE RONDEAUX, Author, "Putin's Sledgehammer: The Wagner Group and Russia's Collapse into Mercenary Chaos": Thank you.

NICK SCHIFRIN: You write that Wagner became an advertisement for a more muscular Russia, one determined to rewrite the rules of the international order to its advantage.

How so?

CANDACE RONDEAUX: Well, in a couple different ways.

The Wagner Group really reshaped Russia's image as a great power, made it sort of more -- look more agile, more powerful than perhaps it really is.

Most importantly, it gave the sense that Russia could reach anywhere at any time.

And what it really showed was that Vladimir Putin's sort of way of war or vision of way of war was something that was saleable, marketable, something that would appeal to strongman dictatorships.

And, today, it's still as a viable option available to anybody who wants to consolidate power.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Take us back to the beginning.

How did you end up living in, as you write, a run-down student dorm in St. Petersburg in the mid-'90s, the very same place that launched Putin in the 1990s, we look at him back there, and launched Yevgeny Prigozhin?

CANDACE RONDEAUX: Yes, the young deputy mayor.

I went there as an exchange student.

It was my final year of college.

I'd studied Russian since I was 14 years old, so it'd been a big part of my life.

And this is 1995-'96.

And Putin is actually kind of the right-hand man for the mayor at the time.

This is the time when you're seeing, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and sort of the remaking of Russia, oil, gas, guns the export of weapons are the big-ticket items for Russia's economy and its exports.

There's a revival of those industries.

And, at the same time, there's this kind of marriage of convenience that happens between the mafia, the former KGB, the sort of security agencies, and then this kind of class of veterans who'd come back from Afghanistan and were really out of sorts.

That kind of marriage led to the rise of this kind of network of sort of mafia-infused mercenary networks.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Out of that scene, someone like Prigozhin could meet someone like Putin, right?

CANDACE RONDEAUX: Yes, that's right.

I mean, Prigozhin is a marketing genius.

This is a guy who takes a hot dog stand, builds it into an empire of kiosks, and then builds it sort of a restaurant empire, basically.

He becomes a caterer to Vladimir Putin and to the Kremlin.

And, ultimately, he finds a way to kind of become the favorite, right, of Putin.

At that time, Russia was also changing the way it dealt with the world.

And, most notably, the turning point is the Russian-Georgian war of 2008, where you had this five-day clash between Russian forces, Georgian forces.

Russia won, but kind of barely.

It revealed the weakness of the conventional military force.

There's an effort to privatize the military, at least part of the military.

And that's when Prigozhin starts to pick up all these defense contracts.

He becomes the caterer to the military.

Fast-forward to 2011, when Putin is on the rails politically, right?

He's coming back.

He's trying to make a comeback as president.

And there's massive protests all across Moscow, all across St. Petersburg.

And it's Prigozhin who steps in with an online social media campaign, pro-Putin, anti-Navalny, anti-West, anti-Clinton.

And he uses the Internet Research Agency.

That's the first instance where you see it consolidated.

He was not only given permission, I think he was probably encouraged to work on behalf of Russia's interest, in particular, the Kremlin's interest.

NICK SCHIFRIN: You write that Putin needed to counter the U.S. and NATO influence, but do so on the cheap without direct confrontation and with plausible deniability.

How did Wagner, how did the mercenaries play into that?

CANDACE RONDEAUX: Yes, this is crucial to understand about sort of the emergence of the Wagner Group.

Russia was never prepared and still to this day would have challenges facing off against the United States and against the NATO alliance.

Putin understood this intrinsically, and the ways in which Russia was not prepared to really go head on against NATO.

What Wagner did was solve that problem.

It created a pathway for indirect confrontation, for deception operations.

They were deployed essentially as a sort of contingent force, first to Crimea, Donbass, and then eventually to Syria.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Right.

CANDACE RONDEAUX: And this was all done under the cover of the idea that they were a private military security company.

Now, in reality, of course, they were very attached to state enterprises.

Without those enterprises, there would be no Wagner Group.

This is essentially the army of Russia's state enterprises.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Fast-forward to the full-scale invasion in 2022.

Ukraine is, as you put it, where Wagner comes out of the shadows, major part of the actual fighting in Eastern Ukraine,so both essential to what Putin was trying to achieve, but also was Prigozhin's downfall.

CANDACE RONDEAUX: The more he came out of the shadows, the less useful he was for this grand deception that Putin was trying to kind of foist on the world, which is that we're not at war.

It's a special military operation.

But, in Donbass, once he finally -- once Prigozhin finally kind of marches on Bakhmut, this epic battle, hundreds of guys dying each day on each side, the more he beats his chest, the more he becomes a liability for Vladimir Putin.

You cannot overstate the connection between the war crimes that the Wagner Group is committing, not just in Bakhmut, but across parts of Eastern Donbass, and Putin's kind of fear that that too would become a political liability and would make it difficult to negotiate a way out.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Prigozhin launches his coup.

He dies in a fiery praying crash.

But does that mean that the Kremlin stops the work he's doing?

CANDACE RONDEAUX: Oh, by no means.

This force is transforming into what we now know is the Africa Corps or the Expeditionary Corps, the same guys, same commanders, same command structure, just a new label, new name, and a little bit more control.

That's just one part of Wagner's transformation, but another part that people don't know much about is, they have been very keen and part of these sabotage operations that we have been seeing in Poland.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Across Europe.

CANDACE RONDEAUX: Across Europe.

NICK SCHIFRIN: So, you end the book with this point, that whether Wagner remains a potent global force and a model for other adventurous authoritarians will depend on whether international efforts to expose and prosecute Russian paramilitaries gain traction.

Why, in your opinion, is accountability the best way to confront this?

CANDACE RONDEAUX: When you have accountability for atrocities, the number one thing it does is, create this kind of barrier, this kind of risk aversion.

And I think what we're seeing now, we have seen one prosecution of a Wagner-affiliated fighter in Finland.

There is an appetite in Europe to push back against this, this idea of hybrid warfare, right, actors who look to be private, but in actual fact are working on behalf of the state.

I think the more we work for accountability, we sort of do, I think, justice for victims of war crimes in Ukraine, Syria, elsewhere, the more this will be a prophylactic against anybody trying this again, we hope.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Candace Rondeaux.

The book is "Putin's Sledgehammer: The Wagner Group and Russia's Collapse into Mercenary Chaos."

Thank you very much.

CANDACE RONDEAUX: Thank you.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: On this Memorial Day, we turn to the life and legacy of Yukio Kawamoto, a Japanese American World War II veteran who served his country under almost unthinkable circumstances and then spent a lifetime building bridges between the two cultures he called his own.

Amna Nawaz has the story for our ongoing series, Race Matters.

AMNA NAWAZ: You have a treasure trope of memories.

An archive of artifacts, from ceremonial honors.

DON KAWAMOTO, Son of Yukio Kawamoto: It's not everybody gets a Gold Medal, you know?

AMNA NAWAZ: No.

AMNA NAWAZ: To symbols of service.

SHERIN FERGUSON, Daughter of Yukio Kawamoto: It's his dog tag.

AMNA NAWAZ: So this was hanging in your house growing up?

BRIAN KAWAMOTO, Son of Yukio Kawamoto: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: To presidential mementos.

From President Johnson to your father, as a note of appreciation.

For siblings Brian, Dawn and Sherin, the collection is a preservation and a celebration of their father, Yukio Kawamoto's life.

BRIAN KAWAMOTO: He really had an interest in saying, when people understand one another, they put their differences aside and they can see the best in one another.

And that's what became this lifelong journey.

AMNA NAWAZ: Born in Berkeley, California in 1919, Kawamoto was the son of immigrants from Hiroshima, Japan, his father a handyman and his mother a Japanese teacher.

He straddled his Japanese heritage and his all-American identity, the Boy Scout who went to Cal Berkeley to study engineering.

But during his senior year in 1941... NARRATOR: Tragic and terrible was the scene of destruction.

AMNA NAWAZ: ... a surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

It brought war to America and suspicion and repression to Japanese Americans.

SUSAN KAMEI, University of Southern California: The sense for the Japanese American community was that this was this avalanche of hatred against them.

AMNA NAWAZ: Susan Kamei is a professor of history at USC.

SUSAN KAMEI: This message of we need to round them up, we need to get them out because we fear them, they're dangerous, they're the enemy was what was propagated throughout the United States.

AMNA NAWAZ: Within hours of the bombing, President Roosevelt invoked the Alien Enemies Act, arresting thousands of Japanese citizens in the U.S. Two months later, he signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the forced relocation and incarceration of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans in 10 remote camps across the country.

SUSAN KAMEI: The logic was that, even though these were immigrants here in the United States that chose to have their lives be in America and their children who are American-born citizens who knew nothing else except life as a U.S. citizen would be, as a function of their race, more loyal to Japan than to the United States.

AMNA NAWAZ: Kawamoto's parents, both American citizens, were sent to the Topaz internment camp in Delta, Utah.

And Kawamoto, just two months shy of graduation and with valuable language skills, was drafted.

SHERIN FERGUSON: He didn't have any choice in the matter and that's one of the things that he said.

Shou ga nai is kind of like a Japanese saying that it is what it is.

AMNA NAWAZ: That's what he would say when you ask him about that time.

BRIAN KAWAMOTO: Yes.

He would say shou ga nai.

SHERIN FERGUSON: Yes, shou ga nai.

Can't be helped.

AMNA NAWAZ: In the Pacific, Kawamoto served his country in a military intelligence unit, translating documents and interrogating Japanese prisoners of war.

Meanwhile, back home, his own parents were imprisoned by his country.

I think a lot of people would struggle to understand how someone in that situation squares those two realities.

BRIAN KAWAMOTO: It's part cultural.

The Japanese, they don't talk a lot about those kind of bitter things, but I know he said it troubled him.

AMNA NAWAZ: A letter discovered in their father's belongings offered insight.

Kawamoto sent it to The Topaz Times from the South Pacific, saying in part -- quote -- "There are still a great many Americans who are real Americans and who think and behave according to the American creed.

We must maintain this faith to see this through."

DON KAWAMOTO: He was an American citizen, and a loyal American citizen, and so I think he felt an obligation to fight for his country.

He blamed the government, not the American people, for what happened.

AMNA NAWAZ: His children describe a modest man, even when interviewed for the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress in 2003.

YUKIO KAWAMOTO, World War II Veteran: As far as the military part is concerned, I was no hero, but I did do my best under trying circumstances.

It was my parents in the camps.

AMNA NAWAZ: In 1945, as those camps began to close, Kawamoto moved his parents back to Berkeley after three years of detention.

Postwar life meant marriage to Sayoko Omori, whom he met in Japan, and a move for their young family across the country to Washington, D.C. BRIAN KAWAMOTO: In the early '60s, it was still a reasonable amount of racial hostility towards Japanese Americans, and that's why he moved.

AMNA NAWAZ: There, he found a new way to serve his nation, becoming the very first and the only full-time Japanese interpreter at the U.S. State Department, a former soldier now working to wage peace.

DON KAWAMOTO: You know, his lifelong goal was to smooth relationships between Japan and the United States, so I think that was a constant driving force for him in his job.

AMNA NAWAZ: The boy from Berkeley once forced to prove his patriotism years later found himself standing beside the president of the United States, and even representing the U.S. in the country his parents left behind.

His lifetime of service recognized in 2010 with a Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award in the United States.

But among all the items chronicling his long life of service, one stands out, a football score from the infamous 1982 last-second game-winning Cal Berkeley play to beat rival Stanford.

ANNOUNCER: The Bears have won!

AMNA NAWAZ: Hold on.

So in your father's library, wherever this was, he's got photos of himself with presidents and dignitaries and winning photos and this photo of a football game score.

DON KAWAMOTO: It was pretty important to him.

AMNA NAWAZ: In 2009, Kawamoto returned to campus for the graduation ceremony he was denied 67 years earlier.

In 2018, a devastating loss when cancer claimed the life of his eldest son, Craig.

The very next year, Kawamoto passed away at the age of 99.

He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.

Four years later, his wife was laid to rest at his side.

For decades, his family, kids and grandkids have been the keepers of Yukio Kawamoto's story.

Today, as they watch the Alien Enemies Act invoked once again, 80 years after it changed their father's life, they want more people to hear it.

BRIAN KAWAMOTO: I don't want to sound too political here, but I do see some warning signs on the horizon.

And let's face it, people of color, immigrants, whether they're here legally or not, are being deported.

So I think it's a scary time for a lot of people.

And, hopefully, the system as it was set up by our forefathers will be a sufficient check and balance so that it doesn't go too far.

AMNA NAWAZ: One of the many lessons they learned from their father.

YUKIO KAWAMOTO: I think a lot of the troubles we have in the world is through sheer ignorance.

So I think we should make every effort to understand different peoples and different cultures and develop understanding between these countries to maintain the best of relations as much as we can.

BRIAN KAWAMOTO: There's another saying called ganbatte.

And ganbatte means persevere.

And he would say that to me in a number of contexts growing up, that you need to persevere in the face of all of this adversity.

And if you have faith in your fellow Americans, hopefully the right thing will be done.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: And that's the "News Hour" for tonight.

I'm Laura Barron-Lopez.

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