GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: For the first time in the war, civilians trapped in Gaza, including some Americans, are allowed to cross into Egypt.

GEOFF BENNETT: Pakistan's government issues an ultimatum to over one million Afghan refugees to leave the country or face forced deportation.

AMNA NAWAZ: And former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger reflects on the current state of his party and the future of American democracy.

FMR.

REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL): I consider there to be one issue on the ballot in 2024, is, do you believe in democracy or not?

(BREAK) AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "NewsHour."

The first group of around 1,000 civilians, including Americans, are leaving Gaza today after more than three weeks under Israeli bombardment following the Hamas terror attacks.

President Biden said there would be more Americans leaving in the coming days.

GEOFF BENNETT: The deal struck among several nations also allows people badly wounded in Gaza to be taken for treatment in Egypt.

But that brief respite was only that, as the war continues between Israel and Hamas.

Leila Molana-Allen again starts our coverage.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: After nearly a month of brutal war, the first Palestinians allowed to leave Gaza crossed into Egypt.

Egyptian television show the moment some of the evacuees stepped off a bus to safety.

Among those allowed out, hundreds of foreign passport holders and some of the severely injured, but for many that waited desperately at the gate this morning, the future was unknown.

RANIA HUSSEIN, Gaza Strip Resident (through translator): We are relying on God and hoping we get out.

It is still our country, and we feel sad for it, for its destruction, for our friends and loved ones.

If it wasn't for what happened, we would not leave it.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: The home they are trying to leave is becoming less recognizable by the hour.

For the second day, the IDF pounded Gaza's Jabalia refugee camp amid another communications blackout.

Gaza's Health Ministry says the casualties from the strikes are in the hundreds.

Residents dug through the rubble of an apartment building on their hands and knees.

One made a list of the family members he lost.

ABDEL KAREEM RAYAN, Jabalia Refugee Camp (through translator): I lost my whole family, 15 of them.

They were innocent, just staying in the camp.

What did they do?

They were innocent and kind.

It is literally a massacre, complete destruction.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Hamas says the barrage also killed seven hostages.

Israel claims the strikes took out dozens of militants hiding among the civilians, one of them, a senior Hamas commander involved in the October 7 terrorist attacks.

Today, the IDF released video of what they claim is an interrogation with a Hamas terrorist involved in the attacks, describing what he did in detail.

The "NewsHour" cannot confirm under what conditions the prisoner was held or why he spoke.

MAN (through translator): We checked the house and heard the sound of young children in the safe room.

I shot and Ahmad Abu Kamil shot.

We shot at the door.

QUESTION (through translator): Until when?

MAN (through translator): Until we didn't hear noise anymore.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Here in Israel, the Israel Defense Forces confirmed today that they have attacked 11,000 targets in Gaza since the war began, which they say are linked to Hamas.

The army is intensifying it's aerial bombardment and ground raids in Gaza, as troops move further towards Gaza City and the densely packed urban warfare that awaits there.

At a briefing in Tel Aviv, the IDF spokesman said Israeli troops engaged in a battle in a Jabalia building last night.

REAR ADM. DANIEL HAGARI, Spokesperson, Israeli Defense Forces (through translator): Terrorists fired at our forces in the area.

Hamas used that structure, like many others, as a sanctuary, in this case, talking about the deliberate use of a civilian structure near a school, a medical center and government offices.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: The funeral for a fallen soldier in that raid was held in Jerusalem today.

Israel says 11 troops have been killed in action since the start of their ground invasion.

And on another front, Israel announced today it deployed navy missile votes to the Red Sea.

The IDF says it shot down an aerial threat in the area last night, supposedly caught in this amateur video.

That's after it intercepted a missile and drone attack fired by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen yesterday.

In Washington, Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Saudi Arabia's defense minister, Khalid bin Salman.

Saudi Arabia has called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, which Secretary Blinken says is off the table.

Back in Gaza, the devastation is unrelenting.

This refugee camp south of Gaza City was among the IDF's targets yesterday.

AYHAM AL-TARTOORI, Gaza Strip Resident (through translator): I was at the end of the street, and they struck.

I came over and this whole building came down with its residents, no warning or anything.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: This man says his kids are dead were playing soccer in the street when the airstrike hit.

He found a small body while frantically searching the ruins, but can't tell if the child is his.

The blast rendered this child unrecognizable.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Leila Molana-Allen.

GEOFF BENNETT: The intelligence services in Israel are being faulted, along with the Netanyahu government, for missing the signals that Hamas was preparing to launch it's attack on October 7.

Leila now has a conversation with a former Israeli spy chief, Efraim Halevy, who ran the Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence service, during the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Efraim Halevy, thank you so much for being with us.

And I want to start by asking you about the attacks, what seems from the outside this huge intelligence failure on the part of the Israeli security forces and intelligence agencies.

What do you think happened?

EFRAIM HALEVY, Former Mossad Director: Well, the truth of the matter is, I was surprised myself.

I'm not part of the political level, but I want to wait until the facts come out.

It's not the first time we have had an intelligence failure.

I mean, 50 years ago, we had an intelligence failure on the Yom Kippur War.

That was a different story.

This is a much more compelling story.

The consequences are much more serious than was in the Yom Kippur War.

It was a war against foreign countries.

The intensity of this event is much more in many ways than any of the other wars we have had ever.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: So, let me ask you about that enemy that's being fought.

What's your assessment of how Hamas has changed and grown, particularly since the withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, to become what they are now?

EFRAIM HALEVY: The nature of the leadership changed.

And whereas the founder of the movement was a spiritual leader, who ultimately we killed, we then had the what was called mowing the lawn.

Every now and then, you have a confrontation.

You mow the lawn.

You bring the grass down to a lower level.

And then it begins to grow and it grows.

You're also changing the character of the movement.

And you are reaching a point where, each time you succeed in damaging the leadership, you find a new leadership, which is probably more extreme than the leadership that you cast aside.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: The attitude now since the attacks amongst the Israeli military and the Israeli political establishment seems to be that enough of mowing the lawn.

Now is the time to eradicate Hamas completely.

Do you think that's possible?

EFRAIM HALEVY: I don't want to be a prophet and to say it's impossible, but I think it's extremely difficult to do.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Netanyahu has been criticized widely now.

Mr. Security didn't succeed in keeping everyone safe.

He's refused to step down.

He said that he is running this war and he's going to win it.

Do you think that he can recover in public opinion?

EFRAIM HALEVY: It's very dangerous to prophesize.

At the moment that we are speaking, his ratings are very, very low, as you probably know.

But I do believe that there are many people in his own party who have reached a conclusion that it's very dangerous to allow him to continue for any long period of time.

He is living in a world which is not real.

It's not reality.

Let's imagine we win the war and Mr. Netanyahu will get up and say, I won the war.

Maybe it's true he won the war, but what will people say the day after?

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: And on the hostages, what do you think about that strategy of being so intensely militarily involved while there are more than 220 people stuck inside Gaza?

EFRAIM HALEVY: This is a serious problem, because the question of hostages is a very delicate question in Israel.

The last time there was a hostage exchange, all the leaders of the Hamas today were among those people who were released, all of them.

I think it's a very, very difficult decision to take because, this time, A, the number of hostages that the -- they have is very large.

But if the price would be to go through the same kind of exercise again and know that, by doing so, you are preparing the next round, for all intents and purposes, that is not a good deal.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: A lot of public opinion is turning against Israel now, when it was very much in the country's favor after the horrific terror attacks.

What do you think the strategy is here?

And if Israel loses the war of international opinion, but wins the ground war, will that be enough for the future?

EFRAIM HALEVY: I think that it would be wise for the powers that be in Israel who, for a moment, get into a room, close the door and shut out the noise from outside for several hours in order to determine which way we are going and, in the end, where -- what kind of account will we be able to give to the Israeli public at the end of the day?

Is it simply going to be a military victory, period?

And what happens next?

What I am very, very concerned about is that, in the end, we don't have a viable solution for Gaza.

EFRAIM HALEVY: After the terror attacks, we saw the Iranian foreign minister touring countries in the region, essentially to build support, almost like a war cabinet.

What's your assessment right now of what this Iranian leadership wants in terms of who they're funding and how they're going about that and what their reaction to this war against Hamas is going to be?

EFRAIM HALEVY: The way Iran is reacting, the way the head of the Hezbollah is reacting, yes, the tension in the north has risen.

Areas in the north have been evacuated.

I don't belittle this at all.

But, nevertheless, I do not think that Iran today is interested in having a major confrontation at all, because Iran wants to take what it gained with the relationship with Saudi Arabia, and it wants to capitalize on it, and it wants to solidify this.

And, probably, they know that Saudi Arabia, for reasons of its own, would not be interested in a big flare-up in the north.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Even if the war in Gaza stopped today, the International Committee of the Red Cross says up to 40 percent of homes in Gaza have already been destroyed, at the moment, over 8,000 Palestinians killed, 3,500 Palestinian children killed inside Gaza.

It will take years to rebuild.

And that's right on Israel's doorstep.

What's the future there in terms of reconstructing after this?

EFRAIM HALEVY: What I'd like to say, with all due respect to the powers that be in this country, I don't think that anybody in the Israeli hierarchy these days is giving much attention to what you have said just now.

We're now intent on winning the war.

So, we are going to try and win the war.

And for us to win the war is to decapitate Hamas as much as we can.

What will happen in the future, what will happen in 40, 50 years from now, well, we won't be around to have to deal with it.

People don't think so much into the future, as I have been trying to say and talk about.

But I think that, in the end, we will have to change the disk in your brain and think differently on different terms in different ways.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Efraim Halevy, thank you so much.

EFRAIM HALEVY: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: In the day's other headlines: Donald Trump Jr. testified in New York in the civil fraud case against the family's real estate business.

He entered a Manhattan courthouse this afternoon.

Under oath, he maintained he had little to do with financial practices that allegedly involved inflating asset values.

His brother Eric, co-manager of the Trump Organization, is set to testify tomorrow.

The U.S. Supreme Court has heard another case involving former President Trump.

In arguments today, a California man said he wants to trademark the phrase -- quote - - "Trump too small" and put it on T-shirts.

He said it's about free speech.

Federal officials said that can't happen without Mr. Trump's consent.

The court will decide by next summer.

Federal prosecutors in New York today accused Sam Bankman-Fried of building a -- quote -- "pyramid of deceit" at his failed cryptocurrency exchange.

He allegedly defrauded FTX customers and investors of $10 billion, charges he denies.

In closing arguments to the jury, one prosecutor said -- quote -- "He told a story and he lied to you."

The defense argued the government unfairly painted Bankman-Fried as a monster.

The Federal Reserve is leaving a key short-term interest rate unchanged again.

The decision today marked the second time in a row that policymakers held steady.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said they're taking a wait-and-see approach on whether current rates will cut inflation to the fed's 2 percent goal.

JEROME POWELL, Federal Reserve Chairman: I think we are seeing the effects of all the hiking we did last year and this year.

We're seeing it.

It takes time.

We know that.

And you can't rush it.

So, doing -- slowing down is giving us, I think, a better sense of how much more we need to do, if we need to do more.

AMNA NAWAZ: Inflation at the consumer level is down sharply from last year's peak, but still running at nearly twice the fed's goal.

Six Democratic mayors are pressing President Biden for greater federal help to handle thousands of migrants.

In a new letter, the mayors of Denver, Chicago, El Paso, Houston, Los Angeles, and New York complain of -- quote -- "little to no coordination, support or resources."

They call for $5 billion in federal funds nearly three times what the president has proposed.

Republican Congressman Ken Buck announced today he won't seek a sixth term, and he complained the party has abandoned its mission.

The Colorado conservatives said too many Republican leaders are still lying about the 2020 election results and the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

REP. KEN BUCK (R-CO): It is impossible for the Republican Party to confront our problems and offer a course correction for the future while being obsessively fixated on retribution and vengeance for contrived injustices of the past.

This trend among Republicans is a significant departure from the enduring principles of conservatism.

AMNA NAWAZ: Buck opposed opening an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, and he voted to oust Kevin McCarthy as House speaker.

Also today, Texas Republican Kay Granger said she will retire after next year after nearly 30 years in Congress.

The nation's infant mortality rate has hit its highest level in two decades.

The CDC reports the rate climbed 3 percent in 2022 after falling for years.

Deaths rose sharply among white and Native American infants, newborn boys and babies born at 37 weeks or earlier.

The cause is unclear, but RSV and flu infections could be factors.

Overall, death rates among Black and Native American infants remain the highest.

Toyota will raise wages and benefits for its non-union factory workers in the U.S. Today's announcement comes after the United Auto Workers union won sharply higher pay from Ford, GM and Stellantis.

Toyota's hourly workers at the top of the pay scale will see 9 percent raises.

And on Wall Street, stocks rallied after the Federal Reserve's statement on interest rates.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 221 points to close at 33274.

The Nasdaq rose 210 points, or 1.6 percent.

The S&P 500 was up just over 1 percent.

Still to come on the "NewsHour": former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger on divisions within the GOP; Caribbean nations call on King Charles to provide reparations for the U.K.'s history of slavery; New York's former deputy mayor opens up on the challenges of living with ALS; plus much more.

GEOFF BENNETT: Following the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and subsequent Taliban takeover, hundreds of thousands of Afghans sought safe haven in Pakistan.

Many had spent years working with the U.S. and Afghan governments and fled a Taliban crackdown.

But, as Nick Schifrin reports, today, they are on the run again after Pakistan started implementing its threat to deport more than one million undocumented Afghan refugees.

NICK SCHIFRIN: It was supposed to be their refuge, an Afghan family's home in Pakistan's capital.

But, this week, it was torn down by the government they hoped would keep them safe.

And so Afghans in Pakistan bear the burden of again being uprooted; 100,000 have loaded everything they own onto buses, forced to return to their home country.

But many others are resisting this move that would be far too dangerous.

BENAZIR AKHTARI, Daughter of Afghan Human Rights Activist: We have too many problems in Afghanistan.

And the Taliban arrested my mom.

And the Taliban wants to kill my mom.

NICK SCHIFRIN: We spoke today to Benazir and Zohra Akhtari from Islamabad.

Zohra Akhtari was a human rights activist in Afghanistan under the U.S.-backed government.

Last year, she even protested the Taliban after their takeover.

After this demonstration, the Taliban arrested her and tortured her.

Shortly after, they escaped to Pakistan.

Since taking over, Afghanistan's Taliban rulers have persecuted Afghans who worked with the U.S.-backed government and blocked nearly all female education and many female careers.

BENAZIR AKHTARI: I have a dream that I come in Pakistan and continue my lesson and my study, but now I cannot.

I cannot continue my education in here.

And in Pakistan, I also -- in Afghanistan, also, I cannot continue my education, because Taliban don't allow Afghan girls or women to go on some education centers, school or university.

NICK SCHIFRIN: How scared are you right now?

How scared is your family?

BENAZIR AKHTARI: And every time, I am scared, because I am -- I say now come police in my house.

And it's really hard, because I have a fear.

It's really hard for every Afghan that's living in Pakistan.

NICK SCHIFRIN: That's because Pakistan's deportation threat has sparked a crackdown.

Police have arrested hundreds of Afghans, no matter their documentation status.

ZOHRA WAHEDI AKHTARI, Afghan Human Rights Activist (through translator): Since September, the cops have come to our place twice.

They threatened us that: "The next time we come, we will deport you."

We haven't slept a moment.

MUHAMMAD MUDASSAR JAVED, CEO, SHARP-Pakistan: We have seen reports that people are getting arrested, or if you are Afghan, whatever the document, whatever the category you are in.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Muhammad Mudassar Javed is the CEO of SHARP, a Pakistani human rights organization focused on refugees.

Why do you believe Pakistan is pushing these undocumented Afghans out?

MUHAMMAD MUDASSAR JAVED: After almost 10 years, Pakistan has the highest number of terrorist attacks in this year, 2023.

NICK SCHIFRIN: The terrorist tipping point apparently came after two attacks in late September that killed or injured more than 100.

But Pakistan's security fears have nothing to do with the Afghans who fought and then fled the Taliban and now have no refuge.

The United States left Afghanistan, some argue abandoned people like you.

Do you feel abandoned again?

ZOHRA WAHEDI AKHTARI (through translator): I have been beaten up and tortured there.

I came here to secure a better future for my daughters, but no one has helped me.

I feel like all my e-mails go to the sky.

I feel like the U.N. and the government of Pakistan have failed to help me, and there is no legitimate government in Afghanistan.

I wonder if there is some space for me and my kids in any country in this world.

NICK SCHIFRIN: And it is a wonder that, after abandonment by her government, by the Americans, and now her neighbors, whether anyone will listen.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Nick Schifrin.

GEOFF BENNETT: Former Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger was first elected to Congress back in 2010.

And in the 12 years he served in the House, he had a front-row seat to the changes within the Republican Party.

His personal evolution, as well as the GOP's, is the focus of his new book, "Renegade: Defending Democracy and Liberty in Our Divided Country."

And Adam Kinzinger joins us now.

Thank you for being with us.

FMR.

REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL): You bet.

Good to be with you.

Thanks for having me.

GEOFF BENNETT: And you are now one of the most prominent Republican critics of Donald Trump and Trumpism.

But what strikes me is that, in the book, you write that you felt some responsibility for January 6 and the rise of extremism within the Republican Party.

In what ways?

FMR.

REP. ADAM KINZINGER: Yes, I mean, look, I think it's important.

If you just walk out and write something and you're trying to kind of use it as a warning, which is what I wanted this book to be, kind of a road map and a warning of what's wrong with America, I don't think it serves any point to say, like, and I didn't -- and I played a perfect role in all of this.

It's important to acknowledge your own mistakes.

And I look at, maybe not with Donald Trump himself, in terms of enabling him, although I voted against the first impeachment, which I shouldn't have.

And I recognize those things.

But there have been times when the Republican Party, in its kind of early phases of this, like, nationalism or populism, played with fire and let that fire get out of control.

And I was more than happy to take the benefits of it sometimes, which is good fund-raising numbers, and keep my head down when I think it was getting out of control.

So it's important to recognize that, not as a -- but so that people can also have a way out if they find themselves as somebody that kind of helped enable Trump or enable where we are at some point as well.

GEOFF BENNETT: You also concede that there was a bit of political calculation in being the first to come out so forcefully against Donald Trump.

And you write: "In the beginning, I thought there's no way this is going to last, no way it's just going to be just me."

And yet this, for you, has been a lonely fight.

Why?

FMR.

REP. ADAM KINZINGER: Because I think there's a lot of cowardice.

And I guess I don't mean that as just a pejorative attack for no reason, just to be mean.

It's like, it's truly people, I think, fear - - more than they fear death, they fear being kicked out of a tribe, and they fear losing an identity.

And if you stand up against somebody like Donald Trump, and you violate this, like, intense feeling of a party, you're going to lose both.

You're going to lose your identity as a member of Congress.

Some people just love carrying that around.

And you're going to be kicked out of a Republican tribe.

And, as we know, that tribal alliance, so that affiliation, carries now not just into your political job, but the friends you have, the church you go to and everything else.

And I think there are people that were hoping I would succeed and hoping Liz Cheney would succeed, but they just didn't want to be on the front lines of that.

And, unfortunately -- you know, I'm happy to have done it.

I have no regrets in standing up, and that's why I continue to do it.

But it needed to be more than just me and Liz Cheney, because, unfortunately, there's too many people that just continue to say that Donald Trump did nothing wrong.

GEOFF BENNETT: You said that you would vote for Joe Biden in 2024 if Donald Trump is the Republican nominee.

Do you still consider yourself to be a Republican?

FMR.

REP. ADAM KINZINGER: I do, because I'm not willing to give up the title yet, because I haven't changed.

I mean, look, I'm kind of generally, with the exception of how some things change with age and you mature a little bit, generally the -- have the same belief system I always have.

And I think somebody's got to fight for the GOP.

This country has two political parties.

One is very sick right now.

We can have -- one healthy party can keep democracy going for a little bit, but you ultimately have to get back to two.

And we need people to stay in and fight for the Republican Party.

But that doesn't mean that I'm going to hold my nose and vote for people that I know are anti-constitutional, like the GOP.

I voted Democratic last election cycle, and I consider there to be one issue on the ballot in 2024, is, do you believe in democracy or not?

Because, without a democracy, none of these issues matter, because we're not going to be able to even have a different discussion about things.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, at the moment, Donald Trump is polling higher than all of his rivals combined, even with the impeachments and indictments, and, in the House, after a protracted and bitter battle elevated an ultra-conservative, Trump-aligned member to serve as House speaker.

Is there a path back to moderation for the GOP?

And is that something the party even wants?

FMR.

REP. ADAM KINZINGER: Well, I don't know if the party wants it.

There is a path.

That path is either going to be through a bunch of lost elections, or it's going to be through an awakening of some sort.

But I don't necessarily see how an awakening would happen, but they do.

It has happened before in history.

So, yes, I think there's a possibility, but it's just we're not at that moment now.

GEOFF BENNETT: Let's talk about your service on the January 6 Committee, because you were reluctant, I think it's fair to say, resistant initially to serve on that committee.

Why?

FMR.

REP. ADAM KINZINGER: I didn't want to do it, because I knew it would be life-changing.

I knew that it would put my family at risk.

It would put my life at risk, because I knew how angry everybody was, and how serious, life and death, they see politics at this moment.

But I knew I couldn't say no, because I have a young son.

He's 2 years old now.

And I knew that, someday, when I'm sitting him down, talking to him about morals, and telling him to do the right thing, even when it's hard, if I didn't do the right thing when it's hard, I would have no moral authority to tell him that.

GEOFF BENNETT: I know, from having spoken with you previously, about how you learned of your committee assignment.

I wonder if you can share that story.

(LAUGHTER) FMR.

REP. ADAM KINZINGER: Yes, so I kind of had a suspicion once Kevin McCarthy pulled all the Republican - - other Republican members from the committee that I might be asked.

And so I talked to Jamie Raskin, who asked me, and others, if I would be willing to serve on the committee.

And I said: "Look, I don't want to do it, but I can't say no.

I mean, I -- that's where I'm at."

And I wake up one morning and I found out on a Sunday show that Nancy Pelosi had announced me as a new member of the committee, and then proceeded to call me and ask me.

So I didn't have much of a choice.

(LAUGHTER) FMR.

REP. ADAM KINZINGER: Thankfully, I'd made the decision to do it anyway, but you kind of see how Nancy Pelosi works after a time like that.

(LAUGHTER) GEOFF BENNETT: Well, on a serious note, though, you write about the criticism that you received after serving on that committee, including a letter you got from a cousin of yours, who accused you of treason, a word which, for you, has deeper resonance, given your military experience and your public service.

How did that criticism affect you?

FMR.

REP. ADAM KINZINGER: So, it's funny.

In the last 10 months, when I got out of Congress, I really started to understand the impact that things like that had on me, because, when you're in the middle of it, you're just operating, right?

You're just acting.

But I think to pretend like it didn't have an impact would be dishonest.

And my whole goal in this book and everything else is to give people an honest look at my public service, the kind of sacrifice that public service generally has, and the impact that people's words have.

GEOFF BENNETT: The book is "Renegade: Defending Democracy and Liberty in Our Divided Country."

Its author is Adam Kinzinger.

Thanks so much for your time.

FMR.

REP. ADAM KINZINGER: You bet.

Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: During a visit to Kenya, Britain's King Charles has stopped short of apologizing for his nation's repression of independence fighters 70 years ago.

But the new monarch is under severe pressure because of Britain's imperial past.

Caribbean nations are calling on Charles to dig into his $2 billion personal fortune and pay compensation for the royal family's slave-trading past.

Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Britain's imperial state crown that Charles III wore at his coronation is supposed to represent the king's moral authority over his subjects in the United Kingdom, as well as former colonies which have retained the monarch as their head of state.

But, as Charles strives to bolster the monarchy's relevance in the 21st century, he's been undermined by revelations that the symbol of his sovereignty is stained by the blood of slaves.

ROBERT BECKFORD, University of Winchester: The British royal family are deeply entangled in the transatlantic chattel slave trade.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Professor Robert Beckford's field is social justice, and he's been investigating links between major institutions and slavery.

ROBERT BECKFORD: They signed the first charter that allowed privateers to go into Africa, into the West Indies, and traffic hundreds of thousands of enslaved people.

They made huge profits from it.

MALCOLM BRABANT: A document recently emerged showing that, in 1689, King William III accepted shares worth $300,000 in today's values in the slave-trading Royal African Company.

The donor was Edward Colston, the company's deputy governor, who made a fortune from trafficking 80,000 Africans to the Americans.

Three years ago, anti-racism activists tore down Colston's statue in his home city of Bristol.

Faced with growing proof of the crown's ties to slavery, King Charles has promised to support researchers by opening up the royal family's archives.

ROBERT BECKFORD: This provides them with a redemptive moment, an opportunity to do what no royal family has ever done before in the history of Britain, to acknowledge that much of their wealth is linked to the trafficking, enslavement and genocide of African people, and the opportunity to apologize for that and to pay reparation.

This could be a huge turning point, not just only in terms of British history, but in terms of world history.

MALCOLM BRABANT: One year after his accession, King Charles is under increasing pressure to apologize and pay reparations to Caribbean islands, which generated huge wealth from slave plantations and are now impoverished.

ARLEY GILL, Grenada National Reparations Commission: We want to encourage the royal family.

We are interested in all of the institutions, governments, families that have benefited.

They must come forward.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Arley Gill heads the authority seeking reparations to the island of Grenada.

Another major institution targeted by Gill is Lloyd's of London, the insurance exchange which profited from indemnifying the slave fleets.

ARLEY GILL: The reparation is not charity.

It is actually making amends.

MALCOLM BRABANT: According to the United Kingdom's National Archives, British ships transported roughly three million slaves across the Atlantic Ocean before the trade was outlawed in the early 19th century.

A study commissioned by the American Society for International Law, together with the University of the West Indies, calculates that Britain's slave debt amounts to $23 trillion.

The Caribbean islands are going after British institutions with slavery connections because the U.K. government is refusing to engage.

BELL RIBEIRO-ADDY, Labor Party Lawmaker: So, I want to ask the prime minister today if he would offer a full and meaningful apology for our country's role in slavery and colonialism and commit to reparatory justice.

RISHI SUNAK, British Prime Minister: No, Mr. Speaker, what I think our focus should now be on doing is, of course, understanding our history in all its parts, not running away from it, but right now making sure that we have a society which is inclusive and tolerant of people from all backgrounds.

But trying to unpick our history is not the right way forward and it's not something that we will focus our energies on.

ARLEY GILL: Rishi Sunak is on the wrong side of history.

And that must be made absolutely clear.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Dealing with Britain's colonial past is a tightrope walk for King Charles.

In Nairobi last night, he expressed remorse for Britain's brutality towards Kenyans during an insurgency in the 1950s.

KING CHARLES III, United Kingdom: The wrongdoings of the past are a cause of the greatest sorrow and the deepest regret.

There were abhorrent and unjustifiable acts of violence committed against Kenyans as they waged, as you said at the United Nations, a painful struggle for independence and sovereignty.

And, for that, there can be no excuse.

MALCOLM BRABANT: But the king stopped short of issuing an apology, which begs the question, just how far will he go when it comes to slavery?

The owners of this relatively modest dwelling in South England are trying to lead by example.

Retired Dr. Tom Trevelyan is a descendant of merchants who owned more than 1,000 slaves in Grenada and lived in this mansion.

TOM TREVELYAN, Reparations Campaigner: I did say to myself I have done nothing.

It's not that I'm apologizing for something I have done.

I'm apologizing for something that my ancestors did, because of the difference that it makes to the people who have been harmed.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Earlier this year Trevelyan and other members of his family went to Grenada to apologize in person.

His wife, Anita, works with other families trying to atone for the misdeeds of their ancestors.

ANITA TREVELYAN, Reparations Campaigner: Everybody in this country who's lived here has in one way or another benefited from the prosperity that the slave trade brought to this country, which enabled everything to be built on.

And it's just important to realize that, without that dreadful trade -- I mean, we have all eaten sugar.

We have all eaten chocolate.

We have all got cotton.

Where's it come from in the beginning?

LAURA TREVELYAN, Former BBC Foreign Correspondent: We're going to give it.

MALCOLM BRABANT: The Trevelyans' niece Laura, the former BBC foreign correspondent, has gone further by donating $120,000 to establish an education fund in Grenada.

Are there families who are reluctant to follow your path because they're afraid that they're going to lose their wealth?

LAURA TREVELYAN: Absolutely.

And that was a debate that happened within my family.

I mean, within mine, there isn't worth to lose really.

There is money and good middle-class lifestyles, for sure, but not hundreds of millions of pounds.

People who have that kind of generational wealth, I think, are concerned about the consequences, the consequences of being sued.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Most Jamaicans are descended from one million slaves who made fortunes for British plantation owners.

Their island, the second poorest nation in the Americas, is demanding compensation from Britain and is on track to become a republic by dumping Prince William's father as head of state.

PROTESTER: Respect us, man.

Apologize now.

PROTESTER: Reparations time come now.

PROTESTER: We will rebel!

This is living hell!

NICK DAVIS, One One Cacao: It's one of these terms which you see banded around a lot.

I think it's called generational trauma.

MALCOLM BRABANT: After being a journalist in Britain, Nick Davis is carving out a second career in Jamaica, making artisan chocolate.

NICK DAVIS: You only have to look at the murder rates of societies in the Caribbean.

It's a thing which was done to us which has been passed on from generation to generation.

We are literally killing ourselves, and that is because of this constant lack of resources, lack of opportunity.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Do you think reparations, if they were to happen in your lifetime, would make any difference to you?

NICK DAVIS: It's a tricky one.

I think that, as a community, we don't realize that what happened during the period of enslavement was our Holocaust.

When people tell you need to get on with it, it's in the past, realize how traumatic that is and how damaging that is to your very being.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Do you think that he personally should dig into his personal fortune and pay reparations?

ROBERT BECKFORD: That's the only way, as an economic entity, is to dig into your own profits from this genocide and make recompense.

And I'd expect King Charles to do just that.

MALCOLM BRABANT: So, the Caribbean is hoping Charles will follow the lead of other British slave-owning families, because it will pile pressure on the U.K. government to do the same.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Malcolm Brabant in London.

GEOFF BENNETT: Some 30,000 Americans have been diagnosed with ALS, a rare neurodegenerative condition also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

As researchers work toward a cure, one patient is raising millions for the cause, while he also reckons with his own mortality.

Judy Woodruff reports as part of our series Disability Reframed.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The High Line in New York represents a rebirth for the city in the 21st century.

DAN DOCTOROFF, Former New York Deputy Mayor: The High Line was an abandoned freight line.

JUDY WOODRUFF: That sat dormant for decades before the city's former deputy mayor, Dan Doctoroff, led a project to transform the area into a six-acre park and green space.

It is one of the hundreds of projects across New York that bears Doctoroff's fingerprints, from the Hudson Yards neighborhood, to the new Yankee Stadium, and the World Trade Center.

DAN DOCTOROFF: I have always been a pretty good juggler, doing multiple things at the same time.

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (I), Former Mayor of New York: He made things possible.

He gave people hope.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the man he asked to join his team in 2002 transformed parts of the city.

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG: Dan was a role model.

And one of the great things about Dan is, he shows what's possible, and then the city is big enough to accommodate plenty of people who will then go and try.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But now Doctoroff faces his most daunting challenge yet: In 2021, he was diagnosed with ALS.

Also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, ALS erodes nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, weakening muscles, until a person can only blink his eyes.

There is no cure, with a typical life expectancy between two and five years.

These days, Doctoroff, who he says spent much of his life focusing on what came next, is forced to reckon with the present.

DAN DOCTOROFF: I have always been somebody who focuses on the future, so much so that I never really enjoyed anything I achieved, because it was always on to the next thing.

But when I was diagnosed, I stopped thinking about the future a lot.

And I really don't think about the course of the disease.

I live more day to day.

JUDY WOODRUFF: How has your daily life changed?

The daily routine of your life, how has that changed?

DAN DOCTOROFF: I can't do a lot of things that I love to do, like biking, walking, things that require a lot of physical exertion.

But I have learned to adapt.

JUDY WOODRUFF: That adaptation includes an exercise routine to make sure his body can make it through the day, a cough-assist machine to help clear his lungs morning and night, and a regimen of 20 pills a day.

Doctoroff still maintains a busy, albeit scaled-back, schedule.

He now rides a Vespa motorbike around his Upper West Side neighborhood to meetings.

But most of his effort is focused on Target ALS, his nonprofit raising money for ALS research.

Doctoroff founded the organization in 2013, long before his own diagnosis, but after his father and then his uncle both died of ALS.

DAN DOCTOROFF: My most important legacy will be making a contribution to eradicating ALS, because it is so personal.

One in 400 people are going to get the disease if we don't find treatments.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Two years ago, he set a fund-raising goal of $250 million, which at the time of our interview was more than 90 percent complete.

Much of the current cutting-edge research on ALS happens here at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore at a center run by Dr. Jeffrey Rothstein.

Rothstein himself diagnosed Doctoroff and works with hundreds of men and women who have the disease.

DR. JEFFREY ROTHSTEIN, Johns Hopkins University: ALS patients are America.

There's a full range of what I see in my clinic, from top athletes to brilliant attorneys to couch potatoes.

When it comes to this disease, no one's, in a sense, unique.

They suffer from a disease that's robbing their ability to move, walk, and breathe and speak.

JUDY WOODRUFF: ALS, discovered in the late 19th century.

Lou Gehrig comes along; 82 years ago, he died of ALS.

Since then, how much progress has been made in understanding and treating this disease?

DR. JEFFREY ROTHSTEIN: An enormous amount of progress in understanding the disease has occurred.

We know the different inherited forms of the disease.

We know the genes that cause many of the inherited forms.

We know a lot about how the gene defects actually lead to injury to the nervous system, the more common sporadic form, which is about 90 percent of ALS.

We also know much about the pathways.

That, however, has not been converted into very effective drugs.

So, lots of science known, but converting science into drugs is a far greater challenge.

JUDY WOODRUFF: A challenge Doctoroff's organization, Target ALS, is hoping to bridge.

DR. JEFFREY ROTHSTEIN: There was no coupling, or no good coupling, between pharma, pharmaceutical companies, and academics.

That was what Dan really did in a great way.

He brought us together in novel ways, provided unique funding to bring pharma and academics together in collaborative units.

LORA CLAWSON, Johns Hopkins University: Could benefit from using speech assist device like Google or Siri.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Lora Clawson is director of ALS clinical services at Johns Hopkins.

The facility offers treatment therapies and therapeutic drugs, among a range of surfaces.

LORA CLAWSON: Once the patient is diagnosed, they're referred into the multidisciplinary clinic, where they're evaluated by a multitude of specialists.

We also sign them into a database to screen them for any clinical research trials that we have.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But even clinical trials can only hope to slow progression of ALS.

LORA CLAWSON: It's devastating to hear the nature of this disease, the functional living needs that they have.

Feeding, dressing, bathing, being able to mount the courage to get out of bed in the morning is difficult.

JUDY WOODRUFF: A picture of that courage is 80-year-old Fred Carlson.

The 30-year Army veteran and former marathon runner was diagnosed with ALS in 2008, but has defied the odds.

FRED CARLSON, ALS Patient: It's rough.

And you have to adjust your whole life to everything.

Like, I'm in a wheelchair all the time now.

And the only relief I get is maybe transferring to a recliner.

Being confined to a wheelchair is tough, but I look on the positive side and try to enjoy life as much as I can.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Carlson gives credit to others, including his service dog, Marley, but especially his wife of 52 years, Mary Jo.

FRED CARLSON: I have to rely on her quite a bit.

MARY JO CARLSON, Wife of Fred Carlson: Which, after 52 years of marriage, is hard.

It's hard for Fred that he has to rely on me to do everything.

And I think there are times where he sees things to be done and he wants to do them, but he can't.

So then it goes on to my list.

JUDY WOODRUFF: What would you say to someone who's watching this right now and wondering?

FRED CARLSON: They say that normal progression or life span is two to five years after diagnosis, but that's not true.

I have been on this journey for 14 years.

ALS is different for everybody.

And take it one day at a time and live life to the fullest.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Which is what Dan Doctoroff plans on doing with his expanding family.

DAN DOCTOROFF: I was diagnosed the same weekend as my first granddaughter was born.

I just revel in her presence.

JUDY WOODRUFF: He now has a second grandchild and he says he's not thinking about the future anymore.

DAN DOCTOROFF: I'm going to do everything I can to extend my life, even if it's going on a permanent ventilator, feeding tube, being paralyzed and only being able to communicate with my eyes.

I will take that option, because I want to live.

I want to see them grow up.

And I think I can contribute, even as I get sicker.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And squeeze every bit of life that there is.

DAN DOCTOROFF: Totally, every bit of life, and do it day by day.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Days he is savoring more than ever.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Judy Woodruff in New York City.

AMNA NAWAZ: Megan Fernandes is a writer and assistant professor at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, where she teaches courses on poetry and environmental writing.

Tonight, she shares her Brief But Spectacular take on humor and humiliation in poetry.

MEGAN FERNANDES, Lafayette College: The first time I read a piece of poetry that moved me was, I had two books in my house.

One was a book by Kahlil Gibran, and the other was Emily Dickinson.

And she was very diminutive almost and, like, creaturely.

And Kahlil Gibran was, like, very ceremonial.

And I think, somewhere in between, I found a space where I could say really grand things, but about really small, creaturely feelings.

We're going to be hearing a poem called "Do You Sell Dignity Here?"

from my forthcoming book "I Do Everything I'm Told."

There's somebody in this in this audience right now whose heart is broken, has been broken, is about to be broken.

This is for you.

The piece is about humor and humiliation and that feeling of being sort of at the rock bottom, at the bottom of the world, looking up and thinking there's nowhere further I can go down.

At the grocery store, I ask where they sell dignity.

And when the clerk says, sorry, what'd you say, I explain that I'm looking for dignity, having lost so much in the last year.

I was wondering if it was neatly placed by the baking powder or perhaps refrigerated with the perishables, given its fragile shelf life.

And, yes, I really did ask this partly because I was being funny and trying to make a friend, but also I would have taken a hug or any acknowledgement that I'm a person who can laugh at myself, despite walking with that odd angle of defeat.

So the thing about humiliation is that it's really easy to dwell and get indulgent in that space, because doom is very romantic.

So it's always a good idea to bring humor in early on and sort of check yourself, because humor is humanizing and it helps us sort of kind of remain in a space of authenticity and lightness.

Children have no dignity, and I really admire that about them.

I love their ruthless response to injustices, their desire to feed birds in the park, to grieve the sea, their right to be tired in public.

Do you sell dignity here, I asked one last time, and then tell them how it went down, how I had lost mine in Bushwick, of all places, near a building covered in glass, and white girl gentrifiers having their white girl epiphanies, such bad coming-of-age trash.

Jesus, all my parents' sacrifices for this?

For what?

Is this why I came here from Africa?

They would say over my flat body, hopefully, in the shape of a shrug, I am undignified.

I think that a sense of humor is a really high form of intelligence, and it's a way of sort of moving through dark spaces.

And it gives humiliation a lot more dimensionality, whereas, usually, there's a sense of, like, social banishment when we feel humiliated.

Humor is, like, deeply humanizing in those moments.

I want everything as cheap and damaged as this feeling.

When they go low, we go high, a president's wife said.

I go low some days.

I go so low, you cannot tell me from the animals we sell, from the hard grain my body has become.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) MEGAN FERNANDES: Thank you.

My name is Megan Fernandes, and this is my Brief But Spectacular take on humor and humiliation in poetry.

AMNA NAWAZ: And you can watch more Brief But Spectacular videos online at PBS.org/NewsHour/Brief.

Also online right now, we explore the traditions behind Dia de Los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, the Mexican holiday celebrated on November 1 and 2 that honors loved ones who have died.

That is on PBS.org/NewsHour.

GEOFF BENNETT: And join us again here tomorrow night, where we will have a look at the escalating violence driving hundreds of Palestinians in the West Bank from their homes.

And that is the "NewsHour" for tonight.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz.

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