GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: Brutal fighting continues in Gaza, including outside a hospital where thousands of civilians remain caught in the crossfire.

GEOFF BENNETT: The Supreme Court adopts a code of ethics, responding to criticism over undisclosed perks for some justices.

AMNA NAWAZ: And the United States' health care system reckons with a mass departure of nurses over the increasing stresses and strains of the job.

DR. SARAH PLETCHER, Houston Methodist Hospital: We want to provide better care and do it sustainably and, wherever possible, we can give time back to the bedside team, so they have more time to look after the patients that need them on a shift.

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

Gaza's health care system and its central hospital are in collapse more than five weeks since the Hamas terror attacks that sparked this war.

Those who can still leave Northern Gaza are now streaming south.

GEOFF BENNETT: Leila Molana-Allen again starts our coverage, after spending much of the day in Gaza with the Israel Defense Forces.

An editorial note: The IDF reviewed the video that "NewsHour" recorded in Gaza, they say, for the operational security.

The IDF had no editorial role in this story prior to its broadcast.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: There are no roads left here.

As we cross the border into Gaza, leaving the same dirt track hordes of Hamas terrorists used to invade Israeli towns on October 7, the landscape becomes little more than dust.

Towns in this area were flattened as Israeli troops fought Hamas militants in the early weeks of the war.

We were given access to embed with the IDF inside Gaza, subject to Israeli military restrictions.

So that's the border over there.

LT. COL. GILAD PASTERNAK, Brigade Commander, Israeli Defense Forces: Yes, you can see the border.

You can see all the kibbutzes that have been attacked.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: The IDF believes Juhor ad-Dik, a farming village once home to 5,000 people, was a key planning and staging outpost for the attacks.

LT. COL. GILAD PASTERNAK: A lot of outposts and a lot of anti-tank missiles that we found over here.

And many houses was booby-trapped with wires that exploded before the IDF soldiers could get inside.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Gilad says this is just one the many locations where tunnels have already been found and capped, but they know that they're connected to hundreds of miles more beneath the strip.

LT. COL. GILAD PASTERNAK: We're speaking about hundreds of open holes and tunnels that Hamas has built in the ground Hamas has built during the years in order to make all of Gaza a huge terror compound.

Only in this village, we found five pit holes, three main tunnels under civilians houses.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: They say they can't show us these tunnels because there's a risk there are still active fighters inside.

LT. COL. GILAD PASTERNAK: Each tunnel has a different purpose.

For example, the tunnels we found here what we call closing tunnels, closing to the border, close to the IDF soldiers, in order to infiltrate them or to flank them in beneath and to strike them.

It's very likely to say that we are standing right now above tunnels we haven't found yet.

But we're to find it sooner or later.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: It's hard to believe anyone could live here again.

The scale of the destruction here and in so many other villages along Gaza's border with Israel is complete.

Every house is gutted.

The U.N.s humanitarian office says 45 percent of Gaza's homes have already been damaged or completely destroyed.

As we roll further inside the strip, the navigator tracks the terrain through the sights of this armored vehicle, a wasteland of twisted metal and dirt, almost unrecognizable as an area where thousands of people once lived.

Suddenly, an urgent call on the radio.

A soldier has been wounded at the location we're headed to.

The team has just been told that one of the soldiers securing the humanitarian corridor has been shot in the neck, perhaps by a sniper.

They're trying to organize a evacuation by helicopter.

LT. COL. GILAD PASTERNAK: We're connected between the wounded soldier, the chopper, and in the car.

The convoy is making its way with the casualty on it toward the border.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Ahead, emerging over the crest of a military outpost, Gazan civilians on foot weighed down not by the meager bags they carry, but by weeks of constant fear and devastating loss.

As Israel continues its bombardment of Gaza by air and by land, behind me, you can see hundreds of Gazan civilians trying to evacuate down the main north-south highway.

They're weary and hungry, and, in the background, you can hear gunfire, which the Israeli military tells us is Hamas militants fighting with Israeli soldiers as they try to stop civilians evacuating.

Soldiers take cover to secure the passage.

The IDF call out regularly in both Hebrew and English, hoping to find hostages hidden in the crowds and signal to them to come out.

Four-hour daily combat pauses for evacuations have been agreed.

There's no sign of them yet.

Abu Shady says his community has suffered beyond imagining and now faces a long walk into the unknown.

ABU SHADY EL-HAYEK, Displaced Gazan (through translator): We have no food or water and we are displaced from our home.

Our building was destroyed with our belongings inside.

I'm fleeing with no clothes.

We are all without clothes and don't know what to do.

What can we do?

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: What condition are the Gazan civilians that you're seeing crossing here in?

LT. COL. GILAD PASTERNAK: I think that the people over here know that they have an opportunity to protect their lives.

They are waiting for them on the southern part of the strip with havens, with tents, with water, with food.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: These people hope and have been told that by fleeing south they may lose their homes, but they will save their lives.

But Gazans who have already reached the south say the bombardment there is nearly as bad and the living conditions unbearable.

Anwar fears the worst is yet to come.

ANWAR ABU AL-TARABISH, Displaced From Al Shifa Hospital (through translator): I was in Al Shifa Hospital.

I was expecting it to be a safe place for us and other citizens.

But it was not a safe place.

This place is not safe either.

There is bombing everywhere.

There was no mercy.

These are mass massacres.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: The IDF says it's doing its best to minimize casualties, but has no choice but to eradicate Hamas, in spite of the civilian toll.

Israelis, often at odds over internal politics, are almost universally united over this war, which they see as a fight for their country's very survival.

Gazans caught in the crossfire will soon have no country left.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Leila Molana-Allen on Salah al-Din Street, the Gaza Strip.

AMNA NAWAZ: Israel says, underneath Gaza's main hospital, Al Shifa, is a Hamas military command center.

Today, President Biden warned Israel to be - - quote -- "less intrusive" in its operations there.

Nick Schifrin reports on the legal arguments over whether the hospital and what's underneath it are legitimate military targets, even as hundreds of patients and medical staff remain inside facing dire conditions.

NICK SCHIFRIN: They were already the most vulnerable, and now they are helpless, babies in Gaza's Al Shifa Hospital born so prematurely they needed incubators to survive.

But, today, they're warmed only by each other after the generators that powered the incubators ran out of fuel.

Four were already orphans delivered by a Caesarean section after their mothers had died, said Dr. Medhat Abbas, a spokesman for the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

DR. MEDHAT ABBAS, Gaza Health Ministry: This aluminum foil is just kept around the babies to protect them from the cold weather.

Without having proper temperature for them, they immediately die.

I hope, I hope that they will remain alive, despite the disaster in which this hospital is passing through.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Death is on the mind of everyone inside Shifa these days, where the hallways are lined with the injured.

The doctors have no food or water.

And the WHO said today Shifa was no longer functioning as a hospital.

FRANCOISE BOUCHET-SAULNIER, Doctors Without Borders: There's no space for humanitarian negotiation in this conflict, which is unprecedented for us.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Francoise Bouchet-Saulnier is the senior legal adviser for international humanitarian law at Doctors Without Borders, which she joined 35 years ago.

FRANCOISE BOUCHET-SAULNIER: There's no drugs, no anesthesia, nothing.

There's no water.

So this, imposing a siege, a complete siege on humanitarian relief is a violation of humanitarian law.

COL. PNINA SHARVIT BARUCH (RET.

), Israeli Defense Forces: Hamas is using this fuel to fight us.

It's only logical that, if there is no way to make sure that this fuel will get to the hospital, Israel will be supplying fuel to its enemies to fight against it.

It won't get to the hospitals anyway.

And that I don't think -- the law doesn't say that you have to do that.

The law has a logic.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Retired Colonel Pnina Sharvit Baruch was a legal adviser to the Israeli Defense Forces and is now with the Institute for National Security Studies.

For Israel, Shifa is not just a hospital.

Israeli, U.S. intelligence and reporters who have been called to meetings by Hamas officials in the hospital say it is a Hamas headquarters.

REAR ADM. DANIEL HAGARI, Spokesperson, Israeli Defense Forces (through translator): Hamas has turned hospitals into command-and-control centers.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Last month, top Israeli military spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari showed what he called an illustration of Hamas' tunnels under Shifa Hospital.

REAR ADM. DANIEL HAGARI: Hamas uses Shifa Hospital as a shield for Hamas terror infrastructure.

Hamas wages war from hospitals.

NICK SCHIFRIN: That's an allegation that Hamas quickly denied.

SALAMA MAROUF, Hamas Government Media Office: The Israelis have failed to provide a single piece of evidence to prove that this facility has tunnels underneath or any command center underneath.

NICK SCHIFRIN: And no matter what's underneath, international humanitarian law protects the hospital's doctors and patients, says Bouchet-Saulnier.

FRANCOISE BOUCHET-SAULNIER: The hospital cannot lose this protection if some patients and doctors remains inside.

I mean that the parties are not relieved of their duty to take all precautions to ensure that the military advantage they will obtain through pursuing their attack will not affect the patient, the doctors and the civilian in a way that is disproportionate with the military advantage.

REAR ADM. DANIEL HAGARI: We're now entering into the area of the hospital where we had found the evidence.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But Israel argues the military advantage is vital and Hamas hides its military assets in multiple hospitals.

Today, Hagari visited the Rantisi Hospital and showed what he called evidence of Hamas fighters, motorcycles they used on October 7 and where they kept hostages.

REAR ADM. DANIEL HAGARI: A woman, clothes and a rope, a rope next to the legs.

And look above this.

Look above it.

It's a baby bottle.

COL. PNINA SHARVIT BARUCH: Well, hospitals have special protected status under international humanitarian law, but they can lose the status when they are actually used by the enemy forces.

You still need to give an advance warning telling the enemy to stop the military use before attacking the hospital.

But if the enemy continues to do so, then a hospital can also become a lawful military target.

NICK SCHIFRIN: An active-duty Israeli military legal adviser told "PBS NewsHour" today it had provided -- quote -- "more than ample warning," including by speaking directly to hospital administrators, opening corridors so civilians who had been living on the Shifa compound could leave, and delaying its ground operation.

But it's not only questions of law.

Israel must also take into account international political pressure, including from its most important ally today.

JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: It's my hope and expectation that there will be less intrusive action relative to the hospital.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Tonight, Israel surrounds the hospital.

As it decides what to do next, there are still thousands of Gazans living on the Shifa compound who could be caught in the crossfire.

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

AMNA NAWAZ: In the day's other news: Donald Trump Jr. returned to testifying in the civil fraud trial targeting the family business.

This time, he appeared as a leadoff witness for the defense to refute allegations of inflating property values in financial documents.

The state maintains that Trump secured loans and deals with fraudulent claims.

Former President Trump's older sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, died overnight at her home in New York.

She had been a federal judge and was a longtime confidant of her brother.

But, in 2020, recordings emerged of her saying of Mr. Trump -- quote -- "He has no principles.

You can't trust him."

Maryanne Trump Barry was 86 years old.

In campaign 2024 news, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott is the latest to leave the Republican presidential field.

He announced it last night on FOX after struggling to gain any ground in the race.

SEN. TIM SCOTT (R-SC), Presidential Candidate: I think the voters, who are the most remarkable people on the planet, have been really clear that they're telling me, not now, Tim.

And so I'm going to respect the voters and I'm going to hold on and keep working really hard and look forward to another opportunity.

AMNA NAWAZ: Scott did not endorse any of the other hopefuls, but some of his top donors switched their support to fellow South Carolinian Nikki Haley.

For now, former President Trump still dominates the GOP field.

In Russia, state media issued, then withdrew alerts that Russian troops were pulling back in Southern Ukraine.

The alerts said the Russians were regrouping east of the Dnipro River.

They were treated last year from areas west of the river.

Moscow said later the reports were false and it blamed disinformation from Ukraine.

Kyiv denied that.

Two more cities in India joined New Delhi today as places that currently have the world's most polluted air.

Smoke from fireworks from Diwali, the Hindu festival of light, added to crop burning and to auto exhaust.

Heavy haze in New Delhi gave it the top spot for poor air quality.

But people in Mumbai and Kolkata also faced hazardous conditions as those cities made the top 10.

POONAM MEHTA, India Resident (through translator): The air is so polluted that it is difficult to move from one place to another.

It doesn't feel like we are breathing fresh air when we step in the morning.

There is so much pollution that there is just smog wherever we look.

AMNA NAWAZ: Toxic air quality in Northern India is an annual problem, as cold air traps pollutants close to the ground.

In economic news, South Korean automaker Hyundai announced a 25 percent wage hike by 2028 at its non-union plants in the U.S. That matches what the United Auto Workers' union won in its tentative contract agreement with Detroit's Big Three.

Toyota and Honda already announced their own wage hikes.

And on Wall Street, stocks had a mixed Monday.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 54 points to close at 34337.

The Nasdaq fell 30 points, and the S&P 500 slipped three.

Still to come on the "NewsHour": Donald Trump's campaign rhetoric raises concerns about violence and the future of democracy; Tamara Keith and Amy Walter break down the latest political headlines; tensions rise in the United Kingdom amid large-scale protests over the Israel-Hamas war; plus much more.

The nine justices of the Supreme Court handed down a surprise unanimous decision today, binding themselves to a new code of ethics.

Here's how they explained it, writing: "The absence of a code has led in recent years to the misunderstanding that the justices of this court, unlike other jurists in this country, regard themselves as unrestricted by any ethics rules.

To dispel this misunderstanding, we are issuing this code."

To unpack the court's new rules, we welcome Kathleen Clark, a law professor with Washington University in St. Louis specializing in legal and government ethics.

Professor Clark, put this moment in context for us.

For the first time in the court's 234-year history, it's adopting a code of ethics.

How big a deal is this?

KATHLEEN CLARK, Washington University of Saint Louis: This is not a very big deal.

It does show that the Supreme Court can read the room.

It knew that it had to do something to address the political and ethics crisis that it finds itself in.

But in terms of substance, this new code does very little.

And it provides no new mechanisms for holding justices accountable when they violate the rules.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, let's tick through some of that public pressure from the reporting that has been laid out.

And I do want to take a moment to, in particular, note the many reports by ProPublica breaking news on this front over the last seven months.

You're seeing a few of those stories right there.

They raised concerns over donor influence, failure to disclose gifts, failure to recuse from certain cases.

So, Professor Clark, does any of this -- is any of this addressed by the new code?

KATHLEEN CLARK: This new code addresses none of that.

It doesn't address donor influence.

It doesn't address what will happen when justices fail to disclose gifts.

It does address the recusal problem by saying, nothing will change.

It views recusal as a decision for an individual justice.

And if a justice fails to recuse, the court won't do anything about it.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, you have read through the whole code now.

What does it do?

And if it doesn't do anything, why do you think all nine justices signed onto it?

KATHLEEN CLARK: I believe that the justices, all presidentially nominated and confirmed by the Senate, are, in that sense, politicians.

And they realize that the court is in some jeopardy, in some political jeopardy, because of the scandals uncovered by ProPublica and other journalists.

So they felt pressure to take some sort of action, perhaps to stave off Congress from taking action and imposing an actual ethics code that would provide accountability.

So, I think that this should be seen really as a political document, as a way of addressing a political problem that the court had.

AMNA NAWAZ: You mentioned that congressional pressure.

One of those who has been calling for Congress to impose and enforce a code of ethics is Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse.

He tweeted some of his concerns, which get to a point you raised earlier about enforceability.

He said: "The question is enforcement.

Where do you file a complaint?

Who reviews it?

How does fact-finding occur?

Who compares what happened to what's allowed?

That is where the rubber hits the road."

So, Professor Clark, do I hear you saying none of that is addressed in this code and there is potentially still a role for Congress here?

KATHLEEN CLARK: Oh, there's definitely a role for Congress here.

And, yes, this code is utterly silent.

It's basically a failure to address those really important questions of who is it that will hold justices accountable, and how will they be held accountable?

And if I could just add one thing, ironically, the court touts the fact that it imposes mandatory ethics training on the court's employees.

It does not impose mandatory ethics training on the justices.

And that's where the failure has been.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, here's the question, because we have heard some of the justices publicly say they support a code of ethics.

We have recently heard just earlier this fall from Justices Coney Barrett and Elena Kagan.

Here's what they had to say then.

AMY CONEY BARRETT, U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice: I think it would be a good idea for us to do it, particularly so that we can communicate to the public exactly what it is that we're doing in a clearer way than perhaps we have been able to do so far.

ELENA KAGAN, U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice: It would help in our own compliance with the rules.

And it would, I think, go far in persuading other people that we were adhering to the highest standards of conduct.

AMNA NAWAZ: Professor Clark, do you think there was a divide or there is a divide among the justices on how this should be addressed?

KATHLEEN CLARK: I don't -- I'm not privy to the justices' conversations among themselves, but you could hear in both of those quotations a concern with public perception.

And that, I think, is the bottom line about this new code.

It's a way of addressing public perception, rather than addressing the heart of the problem, which is a lack of accountability.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, when it comes to public perception, we know the court has suffered a decline in public trust, like a lot of American institutions, in recent years.

Does this code help at all with that trust and building it back up?

KATHLEEN CLARK: I don't believe so.

I believe what would actually help matters for the Supreme Court is for it to adopt an accountability mechanism, something like what has been suggested by, I think, Professor Stephen Vladeck and others, an inspector general, some kind of mechanism for investigating allegations of wrongdoing or violations, and as a way of actually holding justices accountable when they fail to get the law.

AMNA NAWAZ: That is Kathleen Clark, law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, joining us tonight.

Professor Clark, thank you.

We appreciate your time.

KATHLEEN CLARK: Thank you very much.

AMNA NAWAZ: Former President Donald Trump attacked his political opponents in a speech over the weekend that historians say echoed authoritarian leaders.

New York University historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat joins me now to discuss.

So, Ruth, this was a speech delivered in New Hampshire.

It was meant to mark Veterans Day.

For anyone who missed it, here is just part of what Mr. Trump had to say.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: We will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country, that lie and steal and cheat on elections, and will do anything possible, they will do anything, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America and to destroy the American dream.

AMNA NAWAZ: Ruth, there is very specific language in there that caught a number of historians' attention, including yours, also the word vermin in particular.

What stood out to you from his remarks?

RUTH BEN-GHIAT, NYU History Professional: So, since the fascists, authoritarians always want to do two things -- they want to change the way that people see violence, making it into something necessary and patriotic and even morally righteous, and they want to change the way people see their targets.

And so they use dehumanizing language.

And former President Trump is doing both.

He's been using his rallies since 2015 to shift the idea of violence into something positive.

And now he's starting to use dehumanizing rhetoric, all these groups who live like vermin.

And this is what the original fascists did.

Hitler started talking about Jews as parasites in 1920.

So by the time he got in 1933, Germans had been exposed to this dehumanizing rhetoric for 13 years.

And Mussolini literally talked about rats.

After he had become dictator in 1927, he said, we need to kill rats who are bringing infectious diseases and Bolshevism from the east.

And so this matches up with Trump talking about immigrants bringing disease and other such things.

So this is very dangerous rhetoric with a very precise fascist history.

AMNA NAWAZ: Ruth, we have seen him and heard him previously mimic other Nazi propaganda.

He previously referred to undocumented immigrants as poisoning the blood of our country.

My team and I ran a very preliminary search.

And we could not find, in the last several years, he's been on a national stage, Mr. Trump using that kind of language before.

Is this a hardening and a ramping up of that language?

And why do you think we're seeing that now?

RUTH BEN-GHIAT: Yes, so he -- as I said, there's a two-part thing that authoritarians do.

First, they change the view of violence.

And Mr. Trump, since 2015, he started saying at his rallies, using his rallies and campaign events for radicalizing people.

And he started saying, oh, in the old days, you used to hurt people.

The problem is, Americans don't hurt each other anymore.

So now he's going into a new phase of openly dehumanizing his targets so that will lessen the taboos in the future.

And we see that, in 2025, he's got plans for mass deportations, mass imprisonments and giant camps.

So you need people to be less sensitive about violence, either committing it themselves or tolerating it.

And I see that as his -- the reason he's using this dehumanizing rhetoric now, to prepare people.

AMNA NAWAZ: He also called himself in those remarks a very proud election denier.

It's been three years since he lost that 2020 contest.

And we know he's still not conceded.

And we know also where the majority of Republicans and Republican-leaning voters stand in recent polls as recently as August; 69 percent of Republicans and Republican leaders say that Mr. Biden's win was not legitimate.

So, Ruth, what's the resonance of that lie and also the fact that Mr. Trump is embracing that now, saying he's very proud to be an election denier?

RUTH BEN-GHIAT: This is part of being much more overt about becoming an authoritarian and transforming America into some version of autocracy, because the endgame of election denial is actually to convince Americans that elections shouldn't be the way they choose their leaders, they're too unreliable.

And we're beginning to see this with his allies.

Michael Flynn said we shouldn't -- elections, we might not even have one.

Tommy Tuberville, the senator, said let's not even have elections, or the talk about America is never -- pure democracy doesn't work.

All of this is part of a campaign of, you could call it mass reeducation of Americans to want forms of authoritarian rule that Trump will give.

AMNA NAWAZ: Ruth, very briefly, if you can, we know we have heard from Mr. Trump's defenders in the past that you should not take what he says literally, that he often speaks off the cuff.

What do you make of that?

RUTH BEN-GHIAT: In all cases of history that I have studied in my book "Strongmen," people did not take the various Hitlers and Mussolinis seriously until it was too late.

AMNA NAWAZ: That is New York University historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat joining us tonight.

Ruth, thank you for your time.

GEOFF BENNETT: Another government funding showdown on Capitol Hill, a shrinking Republican 2024 field, and a critical meeting with China.

Time for a check-in with our Politics Monday team.

That's Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report With Amy Walter and Tamara Keith of NPR.

It's good to see you both.

So, we have got another government funding deadline.

This latest one is on Friday night.

Speaker Mike Johnson has unveiled this fairly complex two-tiered funding mechanism.

Tam, what's the White House view of it?

TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio: They don't like it.

That is very clear.

Whether the president would ultimately sign it if it made it to his desk, well, that's also not clear.

It's not clear that it'll get to his desk.

And what the president has said is that he's waiting to see essentially what the House can come up with.

The challenge over in the House is that, as with basically every funding bill ever, hard right Republicans are peeling off.

And so Democratic votes would be needed.

And it's uncertain at this point whether Democrats are going to give them those votes that they need.

But the White House is just like, do we really need more cliffs?

This two-tiered system would just mean that there are more chances for government shutdown early next year.

GEOFF BENNETT: Amy, at least seven House Republicans have come out against Speaker Johnson's plan.

But Democrats, according to our Lisa Desjardins, one House Democratic leadership source she spoke to says that they're leaning towards supporting it.

AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: Yes.

Yes.

GEOFF BENNETT: And Chuck Schumer said that he was pleased that Johnson has moved away from the far right flank within the House Republican Conference.

Does Johnson have room to maneuver in a way that his predecessor did not?

AMY WALTER: For now, yes.

And there's a sense that he's able to do what McCarthy did and then got punished for it, which is use Democratic votes to actually get this short-term funding over the finish line.

But how many more times will they allow him to do this is the question?

Because, as Tam pointed out, all this does is kick this down the road until January and February.

Now, January and February are also in the middle of an election year.

We will be in the middle of presidential primaries.

Theoretically, once we get into an election year, folks want a little more certainty.

But what we have seen thus far from Republicans in the House is, a certain group of them, they are more than willing to do the sorts of things that previous Republicans in an election year would never allow, something like a government shutdown or at least a so-called fiscal cliff situation happening so close to an election.

GEOFF BENNETT: You mentioned the 2024 race.

Senator Tim Scott, as you both know, suspended his campaign.

Here's what he said last night on FOX: SEN. TIM SCOTT (R-SC), Presidential Candidate: I love America more today than I did on May 22.

But when I go back to Iowa, it will not be as a presidential candidate.

I am suspending my campaign.

I think the voters, who are the most remarkable people on the planet, have been really clear that they're telling me, not now, Tim.

GEOFF BENNETT: So that announcement reportedly took a number of his aides and donors by surprise.

Tam, it's fairly clear that there's no appetite among the Trump base for Senator Scott's so-called happy warrior strategy.

TAMARA KEITH: Well, I mean, there's no appetite among the Trump base for anyone that isn't Trump.

But, in fact, yes, Senator Scott brought this optimistic message at a time when it just doesn't seem like a lot of Republican base voters are looking for optimism.

And he also is someone who is an evangelical Christian, wore his religion his sleeve, which in past cycles would have been really helpful in a place like Iowa.

But Senator Scott just wasn't able to gain any traction.

And part of that is just that no one has been able to gain any traction against Trump.

And there is some wisdom in getting out early if you want to have a political future.

And he does seem like someone who may want to run for president again down the line or certainly hasn't said anything that would make him unattractive as a vice presidential pick.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, let's talk about Nikki Haley, because she is poaching donors from her Republican rivals.

Her team just announced a $10 million ad buy in Iowa and New Hampshire to give her an advantage over Ron DeSantis.

Is she the Trump alternative?

Is that clear yet?

AMY WALTER: Well, she's in second place now in New Hampshire, in her home state of South Carolina.

Again, this is before Tim Scott dropped out, but he was so low in the polls that he wasn't taking much of the vote anyway.

And then, in Iowa, she's tied for second with Ron DeSantis.

So she can make her -- a pretty good case that she is the person that people who want to vote for someone other than Donald Trump should rally around.

Her challenge right now is that she has been unable to get voters who like Donald Trump, but are maybe looking for an alternative, on her team.

Ron DeSantis has been better able to pick off some of those voters.

What she's been able to do is really rally around, I would call them maybe the old-style Republicans, many of whom don't want to see Trump as the nominee, many of whom who would like to maybe go back to the previous types of nominees in the Reagan-Bush sort of era.

So she's been able to straddle in her own political life the Trump and establishment sort of relationship.

But in the primary thus far, she's not been able to win over enough of those Trump voters.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, Tam, we should say that you were in San Francisco tonight to cover this week's major meeting between President Biden and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.

The White House is fairly clear there's no major announcements expected, no deliverables.

What's the goal for this summit?

I guess they're not using the word summit.

It's more of a meeting between the two leaders.

What's the goal?

TAMARA KEITH: I think they are now using the word summit.

It's about a half-day of meetings, and the goal is essentially to reopen communications.

It's kind of amazing to think about this, but President Biden and President Xi have not spoken in a year.

And during that year, there was the balloon, the spy balloon, that the U.S. shot down over the ocean after it flew across America or floated across America.

And in a private fund-raiser, President Biden referred to President Xi as a dictator.

Things have been tense.

And, essentially, what the White House is saying is that the goal here is to reduce those tensions, resume conversation, so that they can have intense diplomacy about intense competition to avoid that tipping into conflict, which no one wants.

GEOFF BENNETT: And they're hoping to counter China as an economic competitor, even though they might not say that publicly, in many ways to shore up the U.S. economy.

And looking at the economic numbers on paper, unemployment, historic lows, you have got rising wages, a strong economic growth, but none of that seems to really be translating into President Biden's poll numbers.

Why is that?

AMY WALTER: It does not, in part because, if you ask voters what is their number one concern, it's rising prices.

And even as they say, I'm glad that I don't have to worry about finding a job, or maybe I even got a little bump in my salary, it's not translating to my day-to-day costs.

So the challenge that Biden has is, what's really important to people at this moment in time when they think about the economy, it's the cost of stuff.

Now, this broader conversation about China, though, is important, especially since, on some of the issues like tariffs, this is a president who is keeping in line with former President Trump about sort of keeping pressure on China, focusing a lot on bringing manufacturing and other jobs, keeping them in the United States.

GEOFF BENNETT: Amy Walter and Tamara Keith, thanks, as always.

AMY WALTER: You're welcome.

TAMARA KEITH: You're welcome.

AMNA NAWAZ: In a day of political upheaval, Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak brought back former Prime Minister David Cameron as his foreign secretary.

And Sunak fired Home Secretary Suella Braverman after critics claimed her remarks contributed to violence during pro-Palestinian marches this weekend.

The British government is also pledging to crack down on antisemitism, which has surged across Europe since the October 7 Hamas attacks in Israel.

From London, special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports.

(CHANTING) MALCOLM BRABANT: According to police, 300,000 marched 105 years to the day the First World War ended, Armistice Day.

PROTESTERS: Cease-fire now!

Cease-fire now!

TAIBA RAJAB, Protester: There's no need to eradicate the whole of Palestine.

And basically what they have done is, they're just ethnic cleansing and pushing everyone out.

And that's not OK. NAZ AKCHAR, Protester: I can't see children being killed, a genocide that's going on in Palestine, the war crimes that have been committed by the IDF.

And everyone, the -- all the governments are complicit in this.

SAM SIDDIQI, Protester: To be honest, I'm just extremely disappointed in most of the governments around the world.

I think the reaction to what's happening in Gaza is pretty disgusting.

It's not a case of, if you are looking negatively at the Israeli state, I don't think you're antisemitic.

MALCOLM BRABANT: This is the biggest pro-Palestinian demonstration since October 7.

Britain's home secretary wanted London's police chief to ban it and lambasted him when he refused to do so.

The police argued that the threat of trouble wasn't serious enough to warrant a ban.

And that judgment call is now going to be put to the test.

Clashes involving right-wing nationalists threatened to disrupt the traditional salute to Britain's war dead.

The nationalists said they wanted to defend the Cenotaph from Palestinian supporters and were furious at being thwarted by police.

PROTESTERS: You're not English.

You're not English.

You're not English anymore.

MALCOLM BRABANT: The two-minute silence of the 11th hour was observed peacefully beneath the statue of Winston Churchill, as a handful of Britons signalled their support for hostages held by Hamas.

Organizer Mark Birbeck: MARK BIRBECK, Pro-Israel Advocate: We have families in this country where the kids are unable to wear their signs of their religion to school.

How does that honor the memory of the people who fought for freedom?

PROTESTER: From the river to the sea!

PROTESTERS: Palestine will be free!

MALCOLM BRABANT: The government is considering outlawing this chant because it implies wiping Israel off the map.

The police say they're looking to arrest this group.

PROTESTER (through translator): Khaybar, Khaybar, O Jews, the army of the Muhammad will return.

MALCOLM BRABANT: The antisemitic chant threatens Jews with the return of Mohammed's army.

Police are also hunting a group who intimidated worshipers outside a London synagogue.

But the police and some senior government ministers blame the home secretary, Suella Braverman, for whipping up hatred before the demonstration.

SUELLA BRAVERMAN, Former British Home Secretary: Thousands of people take to the streets following the massacre of Jewish people, the single largest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust, chanting for the erasure of Israel from the map.

To my mind, there's only one way to describe those marches.

They are hate marches.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Although Prime Minister Rishi Sunak sacked Braverman for her strident language, protecting Britain's Jewish community is paramount.

RISHI SUNAK, British Prime Minister: We will not stand for the hatred and antisemitism we have seen on our streets.

PARLIAMENT MEMBERS: Hear, hear.

RISHI SUNAK: It sickens me to think that British Jews are looking over their shoulder in this country.

PARLIAMENT MEMBERS: Hear, hear.

MALCOLM BRABANT: According to the European Union, antisemitism has not been this bad since the 1930s.

In Paris, Stars of David stenciled on buildings resurrected memories of Nazi tactics to identify Jews.

MARIE, Jewish Resident of Paris (through translator): I'm crying because I'm going to again feel the hatred that was there when we were kids.

I don't understand it.

MALCOLM BRABANT: In Germany, the government has warned that antisemitic attacks risk transporting the country back to its most horrific times.

In Denmark, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen led last week's commemoration of Kristallnacht, when, in 1938, the Nazis launched a pogrom against Jews across Germany and Austria.

After the torchlit procession, Denmark's chief rabbi was assaulted and now wants to meet his assailant to try to prevent further attacks on the nation's Jews.

AVISHAY GAZIEL, Jewish Community Leader: It's actually more difficult to be Jewish in Denmark in 2023 than it was in 1943.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Jewish activist Avishay Gaziel: AVISHAY GAZIEL: And I know it sounds maybe a bit bizarre, but, in 1943, the enemy was visible.

The faith of a Jew was actually much more predictable.

Now we are in an unknown level of risk.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Gaziel is referring to incidents like this encounter on Kristallnacht between Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and a Hamas supporter.

WOMAN (through translator): It's my people who are getting killed.

LARS LOKKE RASMUSSEN, Danish Foreign Minister (through translator): But aren't you also very angry about the terror attack Hamas carried out on October 7?

WOMAN (through translator): No, I'm really not.

I am very happy that Hamas made that decision ON October 7.

We have been in a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) since 1948.

LARS LOKKE RASMUSSEN (through translator): This is where I simply don't understand you.

Well, anyway, have a nice evening.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Adding to the tension is a video about Hamas' hostages by a Danish Palestinian influencer called Armani (ph).

"There are still people down there who have not been done," he says.

"But 250," he says, "that's not too bad."

"OK," he says, "joking aside, condolences for all those lives that have not yet been taken."

What do you fear is going to happen?

AVISHAY GAZIEL: I cannot see how this -- all this hatred we see around in demonstrations, how it channels itself to anything else than violence.

PROTESTER: Killers.

Death to all the Jews!

AVISHAY GAZIEL: I honestly cannot see how we tamp it down.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Saturday's demonstration passed the headquarters of Britain's secret intelligence service MI6, whose agents are trying to prevent the fury generated by the Gaza conflict from turning deadly.

Britain's current terrorism threat is classified as substantial, which means an attack is likely.

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

GEOFF BENNETT: There are more than five million nurses in this country, and a recent survey found that nearly a third are seriously thinking of quitting, which would be a devastating blow for patients and hospitals.

Tonight, William Brangham starts the series about efforts to turn the tide called Critical Care: The Future of Nursing.

It's a collaboration with the Global Health Reporting Center, including support from the Pulitzer Center.

ASHLEY ARBILO, Nurse, Houston Methodist Hospital: Would you like a coffee, Alfredo?

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Ashley Arbilo is fueling up before the start of her shift at Houston Methodist Hospital.

She's one of more than 8,000 nurses in this hospital network.

But as busy as it is now, she says it's nothing like it was during the height of the pandemic.

ASHLEY ARBILO: People were getting burnt out.

Nurses were falling from COVID after treating patients with COVID.

I saw staff being burdened from kind of the workload, and the assignments were just insane with how many patients were coming in.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Did that change your mind about wanting to stay in this field?

ASHLEY ARBILO: It did.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Caroline Mascarenhas, a former nurse here, was a hospital V.P.

when the pandemic threw her into crisis mode.

CAROLINE MASCARENHAS, Houston Methodist Cypress Hospital: It was a very trying time.

It took an emotional toll, it took a spiritual toll, and it took a physical toll as well.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: But even as the need grew, the supply of willing workers shrank.

ASHLEY ARBILO: A lot of my friends left for travel assignments.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Because the pay was so much better?

ASHLEY ARBILO: Yes, during the pandemic.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Two years in, nurses were quitting at more than seven times the rate they were before COVID-19.

Across the U.S., more than 100,000 nurses quit the profession during the pandemic.

Many others left for new jobs, which put hospitals in a tough position.

Pregnant and overworked, Ashley Arbilo was on the verge of doing the same.

ASHLEY ARBILO: And I was thinking about leaving.

I had talked to one of my former managers and directors, and they were like, please don't leave the system.

We may have something for you.

Very good.

You will see me pop up on your television.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And this is where she landed, Houston Methodist's new virtual nursing unit, where Arbilo offers up direct patient care from afar to patients in eight different hospitals.

ASHLEY ARBILO: Good morning.

Can you hear and see me?

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: She takes medical histories, asks and answers questions and helps with intake and discharge, all remotely.

ASHLEY ARBILO: Very good.

So, in just a second, I will populate that paperwork here on my screen, so you can follow along with me.

And if you have any questions or concerns, just let me know, OK?

And, sometimes, they do ask, like, are you really a nurse?

And I'm like, yes, I have my badge on.

I'm really a nurse.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: What, you -- meaning they wondering whether you're a real human being or whether you're actually a nurse?

ASHLEY ARBILO: Yes.

Yes.

(LAUGHTER) ASHLEY ARBILO: I have gotten questions like, are you real?

I'm like, yes, I'm real.

(LAUGHTER) ASHLEY ARBILO: I'm real.

I'm not A.I.-generated.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I have a pulse.

ASHLEY ARBILO: I do have a pulse.

I have a badge on.

I'm a registered nurse with tons of experience.

I'm here to help you and answer any questions.

DR. SARAH PLETCHER, Houston Methodist Hospital: It's really the engine room and the control room that represents our whole virtual health system.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Dr. Sarah Pletcher oversees this daily operation.

DR. SARAH PLETCHER: So you see staff here that are doing more than monitoring.

They're also providing direct, engaged care.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Philosophically, is this about improving patient care?

Is this about handling lesser staff?

DR. SARAH PLETCHER: I mean, the rationale is, We Want to provide better care and do it sustainably and, wherever possible, we can give time back to the bedside team, so they have more time to look after the patients that need them on a shift.

Looks like you have got a patient on main eight ready for discharge.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: According to the hospital's analysis, each time Arbilo walks a patient through intake or discharge, it gives 25 to 30 minutes of time back to the bedside nurse.

So, the idea was that these are the things that the bedside nurses would most like to not have to do and felt like they were interrupting their direct care of a patient, so let's do those virtually.

DR. SARAH PLETCHER: That's right.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The launch of a virtual nurse corps was just one part of Houston Methodist's plan to hold on to and to rebuild its staff.

The hospital stopped hiring temporary or travel nurses.

At one point, there had been more than 200 working here.

For nurses who remained, they offered flexible schedules, more choice of assignments, and higher pay.

CAROLINE MASCARENHAS: I would say the second quarter of last year is when we started seeing the reverting back to normalization.

And this past year, we really normalized.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Today, staff turnover is right back to where it was before the pandemic.

But that experience is not universal.

The state of Texas projects that, over the next decade, it will take an additional 57,000 registered nurses to meet patient needs.

And while Texas is in a worse position than most, this is a nationwide shortage, with a projected shortfall of nearly half-a-million nurses in the next two years.

DIANE SANTA MARIA, Cizik School of Nursing, UTHealth Houston: We have been in crisis for years.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The woman whose face is on that bus, DIANE Santa Maria, has been dean of the Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth in Houston since 2018.

DIANE SANTA MARIA: Even before the pandemic hit, the average age of a nurse was about 55.

So they were already sort of hitting that range where we were going to see multiple people retiring over the next couple of years.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The exodus of older experienced nurses creates higher demand for new ones.

But, nationwide, the number of nursing students has also been falling since early in the pandemic.

It was down more than 15 percent last year, hitting a 10-year low.

To help those who are enrolled, the Cizik school has added tutoring programs to help students graduate and it's doubled scholarships to entice others in.

DIANE SANTA MARIA: We have still have a long way to go until we reach our goal of making undergraduate education free.

But it's a step in the right direction.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The state has taken its own steps too, from loan forgiveness to funding research projects done by young nurses.

At the same time, there's a shortage of nursing faculty, which forced schools here to turn away more than 10,000 qualified applicants last year.

This, too, is a nationwide trend.

DIANE SANTA MARIA: In order to be nurse faculty, you still have to be a nurse, and then you have to go and get additional doctoral training, which is about 1 percent of nurses.

So it's a very small pool of people.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: There's no short-term fix, especially when the overall shortage is driving up salaries for nurses with advanced degrees, who make more at the bedside than in the classroom.

Those who do teach say the next generation of nurses can already see its own value.

ELDA RAMIREZ, Cizik School of Nursing, UTHealth Houston: These kids, they're the future, and they're just going to do it their way.

The old ways don't work for them.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Elda Ramirez is not just a professor here, but an emergency room nurse in two county hospitals.

ELDA RAMIREZ: I'm happy because finally there's this new generation of people that are going to go, I'm not going to tolerate that.

They're going to say, no, you're not going to pay me that much money.

No, I'm not going to tolerate those hours.

No, I'm not going to only work night shift.

They're saying, no, if you need me that bad, let's talk.

That's what we need.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In the meantime, we can expect to see more hospitals like Houston Methodist trying to do more with less.

DR. SARAH PLETCHER: So you see here that she's able to provide this care for 16 patients at one time.

ASHLEY ARBILO: And then it looks like you already have an active MyChart account.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: If that technology helps nurses stay in the profession, all the better.

It sounds like this shift means you got to stay in a career that you loved, but was taxing for your life.

ASHLEY ARBILO: I have told a lot of my colleagues, like, this is probably the best sort of job I could even dream up for a nurse.

I'm still using my knowledge and skills, while also kind of balancing my home life and making sure, like, I'm mentally present and OK. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: A balance that has been hard to find since a virus threw our health care world off-kilter.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm William Brangham in Houston, Texas.

AMNA NAWAZ: Remember, there is a lot more online, including a story about the shortest ever recorded Marine, standing at 4'7'', and the challenges he faces.

That is on our Instagram at "NewsHour."

GEOFF BENNETT: And join us again here tomorrow night, when we explore how some Jewish Americans are grappling with the Israel-Hamas war.

And that's 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.