AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: Fighting rages around hospitals in Gaza, as civilians shoulder the burden of war and negotiations for the release of hostages continue.

AMNA NAWAZ: Newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson faces his first major challenge, to keep the government open as a shutdown deadline looms.

GEOFF BENNETT: And we speak exclusively with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen about countering China's global influence ahead of a meeting between Presidents Biden and Xi.

JANET YELLEN, U.S. Treasury Secretary: We have a responsibility to the entire world to work together to address global issues.

(BREAK) GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "NewsHour."

A race against time tonight in Northern Gaza, as just one hospital remains operational.

Vulnerable and critical patients are still being treated at several hospitals, locations that the U.S. today said Hamas is using for military purposes.

AMNA NAWAZ: American officials said today that U.S. intelligence shows that Hamas is indeed using patients in those hospitals as human shields, but that the civilians within them must be protected.

The president also said that he believes a deal will be struck to free hostages held in Gaza, including Americans, saying: "Hang in.

We are coming."

Leila Molana-Allen is in Tel Aviv tonight.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: A moment of lightness amid the horror, as children play in Gaza's first winter rains.

But for their parents, like Fayeza, the cold season brings a whole host of new worries in displacement and deprivation.

FAYEZA SROUR, Displaced From Northern Gaza (through translator): Winter is a nightmare.

In the past, I used to wish for the winter to arrive.

But, right now, I pray every day for it not to rain, that we are living in tents, nothing that protects us.

When the rain falls, we will drown.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: As Gazans continue to flee south, trying to escape Israel's ground invasion in the north, the humanitarian crisis for displaced Palestinians only grows.

There is aid trickling slowly into Gaza, but without fuel to power trucks and forklifts, it can't get to those who need it most.

The Al Salam flour mill is the last working mill in Gaza.

And even if there is wheat available to make bread, it can't be baked in large quantities without power.

An Israeli airstrike destroyed more than a dozen homes yesterday in the Jabalia refugee camp in Northern Gaza.

Hamas-affiliated media said more than 30 Palestinians were killed.

At the Al Shifa Hospital complex, dozens of bodies lie waiting.

Gaza's victims find no peace, even in death.

The hospital is now digging mass graves as bodies start to decompose.

The hardest hit are also the youngest.

With no power, incubators have failed.

And more than 30 premature babies are struggling to survive.

Three have already died.

In a statement today, international medical relief organization Doctors Without Borders said bullets were fired into one of their three premises near Al Shifa, where more than 100 of their staff and family members are taking shelter.

DR. FADEL NAIM, Al-Ahli Arab Hospital: The situation in the health system in Gaza is catastrophic.

We can say that the health system collapsed.

In Gaza City, the only functioning hospital Al-Ahli Arab Hospital.

Our hospital is a small hospital.

It's not prepared to be a war or a trauma center.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Dr. Fadel Naim is a surgeon at the Al-Ahli hospital.

It was hit by an explosion October 17 that caused global outrage.

Israel and Hamas traded blame.

With limited connectivity, Dr. Fadel sent us these audio messages from Al-Ahli Hospital.

DR. FADEL NAIM: The central blood bank is in the north and the western part of Gaza around Al Shifa Hospital.

And this area is surrounded by Israeli tankers.

Nobody can reach this area.

Therefore, we have big difficulties.

Many patients died because of bleeding.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: As Israel's ground operations intensify, North Gaza's sole functioning hospital is overburdened and understaffed.

DR. GHASSAN ABU SITTA, Al-Ahli Arab Hospital: We are a small hospital with two operating rooms and three surgeons.

We have no access to neurosurgery and we have over 500 wounded.

So the situation is extremely bleak and we keep getting wave after wave of the wounded.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: DR. Ghassan Abu Sitta is a British-Palestinian plastic surgeon who returned to Gaza to treat the wounded.

He's at Al-Ahli, where we spoke to him over the phone.

DR. GHASSAN ABU SITTA: I continued going back and forth between Ahli and Shifa, trying to decrease the pressure on Shifa Hospital by bringing patients here.

And then Shifa collapsed and this became Gaza's only hospital and became a field hospital for over 500 wounded with very limited resources.

It's been a spiral of unsurmountable difficulties with decreasing resources.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: The White House said today they have intelligence that Gazan militants shelter in hospitals, but said patients must be protected.

In the occupied West Bank, an Israeli drone strike and raid killed at least eight Palestinians.

Mourners took to the streets for the funerals, then reckoning with the destruction wrought by the raid.

Israeli politicians and Knesset members Danny Danon and Ram Ben-Barak published an op-ed calling on other countries to take in Gazan refugees.

Far right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich agreed and said the state of Israel could not accept an independent Gaza, inflaming Palestinian fears of another Nakba, or catastrophe.

Abla Awad was 5 years old during the first Nakba, the Palestinian name for the 1948 founding of the Israeli state, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled and were driven from their homes.

ABLA AWAD, Displaced Palestinian (through translator): I was a little girl, and now we're living the same thing now.

The same thing is happening again.

Ever since I can remember, since I was 5 years old, I have been witnessing wars.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: The U.S. and other countries call for a peaceful two-state solution.

That vision of the future is further than ever from reality.

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

AMNA NAWAZ: In the meantime, on Capitol Hill today, tensions boiled over, just days ahead of a potential government shutdown.

But there's hope of avoiding that, as the House passed its budget Band-Aid to keep funding flowing for a few more months.

Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins is here with me now.

Lisa, good to see you.

LISA DESJARDINS: Good to see you.

AMNA NAWAZ: So tell us about this plan.

What does it do and how did it pass?

LISA DESJARDINS: Well, it passed overwhelmingly just in the past few minutes.

It needed a two-thirds vote to pass because they had to suspend the rules to do it.

Now, let's talk about it.

I know it seems like it's complex, but actually Speaker Johnson's plan is relatively simple.

It's just novel.

Here's what this proposal would do.

It would effectively fund government in two parts.

The noncontroversial, less controversial agencies would be funded through January 19, then others through February 2.

Those agencies, think of things like dealing with immigration, the border, abortion, all of those things that might take a little bit longer.

What is not in this plan, notably, is funding for Ukraine, funding for Israel.

It looks like Congress will go home without dealing with either of those two.

This bill is on track now to move straight to the Senate.

Johnson said this is not what conservatives want.

He knows that.

They wanted spending cuts.

They wanted something for conservatives.

But he said, listen, I have been speaker for three weeks and this is what we needed to do.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): We're not surrendering.

We're fighting, but you have to be wise about choosing the fights.

You got to fight the fights that you can win.

And we're going to.

And you're going to see this House majority stand together on our principle and we're going to do that.

LISA DESJARDINS: Just like former Speaker McCarthy, however, he can be ousted.

And some conservatives who did take out Speaker McCarthy for doing this exact same thing said they're not happy, but they're not yet quite going to move against Johnson.

Here's Bob Good of Virginia.

REP. BOB GOOD (R-VA): We believe he's a conservative.

We believe he's a trustworthy, honest guy.

And he -- we did put him in the game in the fourth quarter when we're down 35-0, so we can't hold him to the same standards as the guy who got us to that 35-0 deficit.

However, we don't expect him to come in and punt on third down, and that's what we think he's doing here.

LISA DESJARDINS: It's definitely football season, but I will use a weather analogy.

This is stormy weather.

This is a rainbow that has appeared.

AMNA NAWAZ: OK, so Speaker Johnson gets it through the House with help from Democrats.

What's ahead in the Senate?

Is that going to pass?

LISA DESJARDINS: Right.

It looks like it could pass in the Senate.

There is a question of timing that I'm going to come back to, but I want to point out something extraordinary that's happened here, an important alignment of leaders.

Let's look at what Speaker Johnson had to do here.

The new speaker had to first align with Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader.

Nearly every Democrat in the House voted for this bill, and they needed those votes.

So then next had to make sure on board were the Senate leaders, Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell.

And, in fact, they are in line, all four of these leaders right now.

Notably, Mitch McConnell sold this bill especially well, telling people this needs to be a win for the new speaker.

It needs to be a sign that we are enforcing this kind of stability, this kind of deal-making.

So let's back this now and hope that this will help us get through other things.

Now, on timing, the issue is, the Senate clock is not good for deadlines.

Any single senator can slow this down.

Rand Paul often likes to threaten this.

He has said he's still considering a slowdown, but usually a deal can be made.

He usually gets something and goes along in the end, but we're watching that.

AMNA NAWAZ: Something Speaker Johnson said, as you reported, really struck me.

He said, you have to fight the fights that you can win.

What are the bigger politics we have to consider here?

LISA DESJARDINS: It is good timing for us because we have a poll that is supposed to come out tomorrow morning, and polling isn't everything, but we thought this showed some important things about today, and we asked and were able to give you two of the results from that tonight that show us what's happening politically.

First of all, we asked people, is it more important for Speaker Mike Johnson to compromise or stand in principle?

And look at that, compromise, 67 percent.

Even as he was saying, we want to stand on principle later, he is compromising now.

And this is enforced by two-thirds of Americans who want him to do that.

Now, there's the other question, of course, over who would have gotten the political blame from all this?

We ask, who would you blame more if there was a shutdown right now?

Americans are generally split on this.

Look at that, 49 percent Republicans in Congress, 43 percent Biden and Democrats.

No shock, if you're a Republican, you blame Democrats and vice versa.

But independents were 50/50.

Basically, both parties had something to lose here.

Behind the scenes, I will say Republicans believe that a shutdown would have made their numbers far worse.

AMNA NAWAZ: It's heartening to see that support for compromise.

And you're seeing some of that compromise moving forward with this plan.

But there were two other events I have to ask you about on Capitol Hill today... LISA DESJARDINS: Right.

AMNA NAWAZ: ... that got a lot of attention, really got into physical confrontations.

Tell us about that.

What happened?

LISA DESJARDINS: Right.

We are at a place where we believe in civil dialogue for all of these serious problems.

But today was a sign that some in Congress have been going the other direction.

First, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy on his way to a meeting this morning in a crowded hallway walked by Representative Tim Burchett of Tennessee, someone who voted to oust him.

Burchett says that McCarthy pushed him, shoved him, in fact gave a shot to the kidneys with his elbow and hurt him.

There was an NPR reporter there who noticed something and said she saw a shove.

And here is what Tim Burchett told us later about his reaction to this.

REP. TIM BURCHETT (R-TN): I just -- it just -- it's one of those deals that you don't -- you just don't expect that kind of thing from an adult, especially the guy that was at one time the third person in line to the White House.

LISA DESJARDINS: Now, I spoke to former Speaker McCarthy about this.

Other reporters did too.

He said he doesn't remember any contact.

He thinks this is a misunderstanding and that certainly he didn't mean anything, it was an accident.

Burchett feels the other way.

Burchett is concerned that McCarthy actually will primary him and that this could be a political problem for him as well.

Now, all of that happened.

And we weren't sure we were going to talk about that until something else happened today in a Senate committee room.

In this room was the head of the Teamsters, Sean O'Brien, and in front of him was Markwayne Mullin, a senator from Oklahoma, a new senator.

These two have a history.

They have tweeted at each other, the teamster president kind of saying, you're not -- you're a fake tough guy, Markwayne Mullin challenging him to a fight in the past.

But here's what happened when Markwayne Mullin brought up that tweet from the Teamsters president.

SEN. MARKWAYNE MULLIN (R-OK): Sir, this is a time.

This is a place, if you want to run your mouth, we can be two consenting adults.

We can finish it here.

SEAN O'BRIEN, General President, Teamsters: OK, that's fine.

Perfect.

SEN. MARKWAYNE MULLIN: You want to do it now?

SEAN O'BRIEN: I'd love to do it right now.

SEN. MARKWAYNE MULLIN: Well, stand your butt up then.

SEAN O'BRIEN: You stand your butt up.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): Oh, hold it.

Stop it.

(CROSSTALK) SEN. MARKWAYNE MULLIN: Is that your solution to every problem?

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: Oh, no, sit down.

Sit down.

(CROSSTALK)' SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: You're a United States senator.

(CROSSTALK) SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: Sit down, please.

LISA DESJARDINS: This would be funny, it'd be a parody if it weren't so serious and we wouldn't have some so many serious problems.

Sanders said, listen, we don't need to add more contempt for Congress.

Clearly, there's individual contempt at this point now.

I think one of the concerns here is that neither of these men right now is backing down and it seems both may benefit politically, as do others from this atmosphere right now.

AMNA NAWAZ: Here's hoping we don't see more of that.

Lisa Desjardins, thank you for your reporting.

LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.

GEOFF BENNETT: In the day's other headlines: House Speaker Mike Johnson officially endorsed former President Donald Trump in his 2024 White House bid.

Johnson had defended Mr. Trump during his first impeachment in 2019 and in his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

He renewed that support on CNBC this morning.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): I have endorsed him wholeheartedly.

Look, I was one of the closest allies that President Trump had in Congress.

He had a phenomenal first term.

I'm all in for President Trump.

MAN: OK. Good.

All right.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON: I think -- I know -- I expect he will be our nominee.

MAN: Yes.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON: And then he's going to win it.

And we have to make Biden a one-term president.

We have to do that.

GEOFF BENNETT: Hours earlier, The New York Times reported that in 2015 Johnson called Mr. Trump a hothead who lacked the character needed for the White House.

The former president will stay on Michigan's presidential primary ballot.

A state judge today rejected argument that Mr. Trump is ineligible under the U.S. Constitution because he engaged in insurrection.

The Minnesota Supreme Court already issued a similar ruling.

Cases are pending in at least two other states.

Inflation eased last month in a further sign that the Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes are working.

The Labor Department reports consumer prices were unchanged from September to October, led in part by falling gasoline prices.

Year over year, prices rose 3.2 percent in October, compared with 12 months earlier.

That was down from an annual increase of 3.7 percent in September.

Illegal border crossings from Mexico have fallen after three months of big increases.

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol says arrests dropped 14 percent in October to just under 189,000.

Officials say one factor may be renewed deportation flights to Venezuela.

The death of a leading LGBTQ figure in Mexico touched off large-scale protests overnight.

Jesus Ociel Baena had been threatened after becoming that country's first openly nonbinary magistrate.

Officials say Baena was found dead at home on Monday.

Thousands turned out in Mexico City last night for a vigil after officials suggested it may have been a suicide.

They demanded a thorough investigation.

ROBERTO MARCIAL VIDAL, LGBTQ+ Activist (through translator): The lives of the LGBTQ population are at rock bottom.

Unfortunately, sometimes, the government silences us so as not to make much turmoil.

There have been killings of several members of the LGBTQ population that have investigated.

GEOFF BENNETT: Baena's partner was also found dead in the home.

Investigators say both had injuries apparently caused by a knife.

There's word that a groundbreaking climate law in the European Union may be substantially watered down.

It's designed to eliminate climate violations by corporations, but the Associated Press reports a revised proposal exempts the entire financial sector.

Europe has the goal of becoming climate-neutral by the year 2050, but businesses and member states have warned of economic fallout.

The Senate Rules Committee adopted a resolution today allowing confirmation of large groups of military promotions all at once.

Alabama Republican Tommy Tuberville has blocked individual votes on hundreds of military promotions to protest a Pentagon abortion policy.

The resolution now goes to the full Senate.

And, on Wall Street, stocks jumped on the upbeat inflation news.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained nearly 490 points to close at 34827.

The Nasdaq rose 326 points.

The S&P 500 jumped 84.

Still to come on the "NewsHour": as the Israel-Hamas war continues, Jewish Americans share how they're viewing the conflict from afar; the latest climate assessment shows the increasing annual cost of climate change for the U.S.; and a new museum in South Carolina aims to honor the untold stories of enslaved Africans through genealogy.

GEOFF BENNETT: This week is an important moment in the strained and often tense relationship between the U.S. and China.

President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet face-to-face in San Francisco on Wednesday as part of the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference, or APEC summit.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is there already and has been meeting with Chinese officials.

I spoke with her a short time ago.

Secretary Yellen, welcome back to the "NewsHour."

JANET YELLEN, U.S. Treasury Secretary: Thank you so much, Geoff.

GEOFF BENNETT: President Biden has repeatedly framed his vision of the world as a struggle between autocracies and democracies.

And he's placed the U.S. in opposition to countries like Russia and China.

Why is engaging with China now the right strategy?

JANET YELLEN: Well, even if we disagree about something as fundamental as democracy versus autocracy, we need to have constructive relationships with one another.

We have a deep economic relationship and financial relationship that is generally beneficial, both to China and the United States, although we insist that it be one that's fair with a level playing field, so that American workers aren't disadvantaged.

But we have a productive competition between the United States and China.

We want to make sure that that continues.

At the same time, we intend to protect our national security.

And it's important for China to understand that we're doing that, that it's really nonnegotiable, but that we try to do it in ways that are targeted, narrow, and not designed to harm the Chinese people broadly or to inhibit their growth.

So there are many areas in which we can and should cooperate, and the meeting is -- the meeting, I'm sure, will address all of these points.

GEOFF BENNETT: And there are those who say that the U.S. should actually sever economic ties with China or decouple our economy from China's.

What do you make of that approach?

JANET YELLEN: I think it would be disastrous for both the United States and China and for the global economy more broadly.

I do not think that we should try to decouple.

I think that would be dangerous and counterproductive.

I visited Beijing a year ago following President Biden's and President Xi's decision that economics and finance are areas where we should regularly communicate.

And I think we have opened up productive channels.

We have established economic and financial working groups that are meeting to try to address these issues constructively.

GEOFF BENNETT: The commerce secretary, Gina Raimondo, has said that U.S. firms have complained to her that China is, in their view, uninvestable, pointing to fines and raids and other actions that have made it too risky to do business there.

How do you see it?

JANET YELLEN: Well, I think China has taken actions against U.S. firms that seem arbitrary and retaliatory.

And it certainly is a concern that I too have heard from American businesses.

At this point, I think China is concerned about this potential exodus of American firms and really seeks to stabilize the relationship and to make sure that it continues to be a welcoming environment for American and other foreign firms in China.

And so an objective of our meeting certainly is to try to address these issues that are of concern to American businesses legitimately.

GEOFF BENNETT: On another matter, you have said that the U.S. government has seen evidence that Chinese firms may be aiding in the flow of equipment to Russia as part of its war effort in Ukraine.

How is the U.S. planning to respond?

JANET YELLEN: We want our Chinese counterpart to be aware that we have detected activity that strongly suggests to us that there are some private Chinese firms that are helping direct military equipment to Russia and that we have great concern about that.

We would -- we're certainly prepared to sanction these firms who are potentially financial institutions that are helping them do this business.

But it would be easiest and best if China takes -- uses the information that we can provide to crack down on this activity themselves.

And I think we have an opportunity to work with the Chinese to counter this evasion.

GEOFF BENNETT: Inflation has fallen significantly from a peak of about 9 percent last summer, and that slowdown extended through October, according to a Labor Department report out today.

How much longer, though, will Americans have to grapple with the dual pressures of high inflation and high interest rates?

JANET YELLEN: Well, it's really critically important that inflation come down.

It's, first and foremost, the Fed's job to accomplish that.

But we're taking complementary actions ourselves, understanding that Americans are really suffering from higher prices.

Fortunately, gas prices now are down about $1.65 off their highs.

The Inflation Reduction Act has lowered health care costs, and more and more drugs are now coming down in price.

We see that inflation is coming down.

And we know that that's something that needs to continue.

GEOFF BENNETT: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen joining us tonight from San Francisco, thanks for your time.

JANET YELLEN: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: Today, in Washington, D.C., tens of thousands of people marched near the Capitol in support of Israel as its war with Hamas enters a second month.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog addressed the crowd in a live feed, and protesters were united, calling for hostages to be released and for rising antisemitism to be condemned.

But some Jewish Americans are torn over how the Israeli government is conducting the war and the number of Palestinians killed in the last five weeks.

William Brangham got a sampling of some different perspectives.

For many Jews in the U.S., this is a raw and emotionally difficult moment, one filled with great sadness and anger and anxiety.

While there's near universal condemnation of Hamas' vicious attack on October 7, Israel's response since then, its full-scale attack on Gaza, on Hamas, and the horrible death it has caused, has exposed divisions within the American Jewish population.

To get some sense of those, we spoke with a range of people with different perspectives.

Rabbi Rachel Timoner leads a reform congregation in Brooklyn, New York.

Davian Gekman is a freshman at Cornell University.

Rabbi Brant Rosen of Tzedek Chicago leads a progressive synagogue.

David P. is an orthodox Jew and lawyer in Chicago who asked we not use his last name.

Rabbi Ilana Garber advises conservative rabbis as part of the Rabbinical Assembly.

And Medea Benjamin is co-founder of the woman-led peace group known as CODEPINK.

One common theme we heard was distress that the initial empathy shown to Israel after October 7 had dissipated and that there's not more consistent coverage and focus on the hostages Hamas took.

RABBI ILANA GARBER, The Rabbinical Assembly: This was an unprovoked war between Israel and Hamas.

Hamas attacked the Jewish people on October 7.

And I feel incredibly sad, incredibly frustrated, incredibly angry.

RABBI BRANT ROSEN, Tzedek Chicago: I think what Hamas did on October 7 was a war crime, in and of itself.

And it was inexcusable.

It should be condemned.

It was horrific.

But I think Israel's response has been so disproportionate.

DAVID P., Attorney: My family has many victims of the Holocaust and my wife's family has many survivors.

And this just had eerie tropes of pogroms and the pre-Holocaust era.

And what came out afterward was even more shocking, because we felt as if antisemitism was just out there in the open.

And the same themes that came out 70 or so years ago were coming out again.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: A more divisive issue is Israel's military response inside the Gaza Strip.

While some are calling for an immediate cease-fire, many Jewish Americans argue that Israel has every right to aggressively counterattack an enemy like Hamas.

RABBI RACHEL TIMONER, Congregation Beth Elohim: I think it is reasonable for Israel to fight to bring home the hostages.

And I think if people are calling for a cease-fire, they ought to be calling upon Hamas to return the hostages as part of what that cease-fire would look like.

And I do not hear that happening so much.

RABBI ILANA GARBER: I think a cease-fire was a great idea, and we had a cease-fire until October 7.

And so I feel like it takes two to tango, and there was a cease-fire.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: While Israel has agreed to temporary pauses in its campaign to encourage civilians to leave certain areas, many American Jews argue, that is not enough.

They believe that the widespread destruction wrought by this counteroffensive, now estimated to have killed over 11,000 civilians, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, is immoral and unjustifiable.

Medea Benjamin is among those leading protests for a cease-fire.

MEDEA BENJAMIN, Co-Founder, CODEPINK: There should absolutely be a cease-fire.

There needs to be a cease-fire.

We can't keep watching this horrific destruction in Gaza, where so many, not only people have been destroyed, but the entire infrastructure, people's homes.

There's going to be nowhere for people to live anymore.

RABBI BRANT ROSEN: I really feel, as a member and a leader in the Jewish community, that this is a moment of deep moral reckoning right now.

And I think it's a test.

It's a test for all of us.

Over 10,000 people have been killed, and those numbers are rising.

Over 4,000 children have been killed, and those numbers are rising.

In such a circumstance, calling for a cease-fire would seem just the most moderate thing to call for.

And the fact that those of us who have been calling for a cease-fire now are considered the ones who are -- quote, unquote -- "supporting terror" and making some kind of radical suggestion, I think, to me is just mind-boggling.

DAVIAN GEKMAN, Student, Cornell University: Israel cannot consider a cease-fire.

You cannot negotiate with terrorists.

You cannot call -- you cannot have a cease-fire with Hamas still there.

I think Israel has and must eliminate Hamas, but it must protect the lives of civilians.

And I think that it needs to operate with more care at times.

DAVID P.: I'm not an expert on human rights, but I know that over 1,000 humans were killed without any provocation in one day.

And when we look at the sort of circumstance, we have to say, how was this started, and has it been remedied yet?

The answer is, it was started by one side, and it has not yet been remedied.

There are over 200 hostages who have not been returned home.

And that is an outrage.

RABBI BRANT ROSEN: I think there have been humanitarian violations on both sides.

What Hamas did on October 7 was a war crime, the killing of civilians.

What Israel is doing and what Israel has done to Gaza in the past, going in militarily and assaulting an imprisoned population, again, over two million people with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide, with tons and tons and tons of bombs, and now going in on the ground, these are war crimes as well.

WOMAN: At Cornell University, the FBI now investigating after threatening statements were posted about Jewish people on an Internet discussion board.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The dramatic rise in antisemitic vitriol and attacks has also been an enormous worry to many American Jews.

RABBI RACHEL TIMONER: I definitely have seen an increase in antisemitism, as I believe has every Jew in the world.

I mean, it is rampant and shocking and stunning the amount of antisemitism that is coming at Jews.

All of my members, they have seen graffiti in their neighborhoods.

We had -- our building was vandalized.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Davian Gekman saw this play out in recent days at Cornell.

DAVIAN GEKMAN: Here on campus, we have had a -- most recently, we had somebody on a discussion forum post that they wanted to bomb our kosher center, they wanted to kill Jews.

There was a very large discussion amongst Jews on campus whether it's safe to even be on campus.

A lot of students had -- went back home the moment that these attacks were revealed.

They did not go to class.

MEDEA BENJAMIN: I have not personally experienced antisemitism, but I have personally experienced tremendous divisions within my own family.

Some members of my family who at one time were more sympathetic to the Palestinians are now not sympathetic at all, and other members of my family who were never sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians, and it was Israel can do no wrong.

So it's that kind of division that I have seen.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Some of those we spoke with still hope for a two-state solution, where peace could be achieved for both Jews and Palestinians.

But, for now, that future seems as remote as it has in decades.

RABBI ILANA GARBER: Right now, I don't know what a resolution looks like.

Every day, every hour, there's something new on the news, and I think, this is the worst it's going to be, or this is the most we will lose life or hope.

Nothing is logical anymore.

Nothing is reasonable.

I think it's going to have to be that everyone wants to work together.

That might be just an ideal dream, but if we want to live as neighbors, then we need to figure this out.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm William Brangham.

GEOFF BENNETT: Much of the focus of this latest Israel-Hamas war is focused on Gaza and the brutal fighting there.

But a larger, more threatening force sits across Israel's northern border, Lebanese Hezbollah.

Special correspondent Simona Foltyn recently sat down with a former top Lebanese intelligence official who not only knows the region well, but is deeply involved in the negotiations over the hostages taken by Hamas.

SIMONA FOLTYN: Southern Lebanon and Northern Israel have seen daily bombardments and skirmishes as the Israeli army and the Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah exchange fire across the border.

It threatens to become a major second front in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Major General Abbas Ibrahim was until recently the head of general security in Lebanon.

Ibrahim helped mediate last year's landmark maritime border deal between Israel and Lebanon, and he's now once again involved in negotiating an exchange of hostages taken by Hamas in return for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

MAJ. GEN. ABBAS IBRAHIM, Former Head of General Security, Lebanon: It's time for a political solution.

So we have to start with exchanging prisoners.

This way, it's going to calm down the situation a little bit.

Then we will start with the political solution.

SIMONA FOLTYN: According to Hamas, around 50 of the 240 hostages taken into Gaza have already been killed amid Israeli bombardment.

At a recent press conference in Beirut, Hamas officials called for a cease-fire to organize a prisoner exchange.

So, was this prisoner swap, do you think that was the main goal behind the attack on October 7?

MAJ. GEN. ABBAS IBRAHIM: One of the main reason for this attack is to have their prisoners out of the jail.

There are some people who spent 30 to 40 years in the prison, and the Israelis still refuse to release them.

SIMONA FOLTYN: Around 5,000 Palestinians are being held in Israeli jails, including 33 women and 170 minors, while more than 1,200 are placed under administrative detention.

Is it just about women and children that are held in Israeli prisons?

Or is it also about Hamas fighters?

MAJ. GEN. ABBAS IBRAHIM: Yes, I believe -- no.

I believe, no, it's not about fighters.

From Hamas side, they are asking for women and children.

So people are working on a humanitarian pause, because they want to put a mechanism for this exchanging prisoners.

SIMONA FOLTYN: But the Israeli government has rejected proposals for a cease-fire and has continued its air and ground assault on Gaza.

The stated military objective of Israel in this war is to eradicate Hamas, to remove it from power in Gaza.

Do you think that this is achievable?

MAJ. GEN. ABBAS IBRAHIM: The core of Hamas as a military group is still very strong.

They are not going to be eliminated.

I want the world to know that this is what happened in 2006 in the south of Lebanon, the same thing.

The Israeli side that, we are going to eliminate Hezbollah.

Look, where is Hezbollah now?

We are in 2023, 17 years past, and Hezbollah becomes a regional power.

SIMONA FOLTYN: In Southern Lebanon, we have seen a steady rise in tit for tat attacks between Israel and Hezbollah.

What do you think is the risk that these tit for tat attacks might escalate into a wider conflict?

MAJ. GEN. ABBAS IBRAHIM: I believe, in this case, Hezbollah is still reasonable.

I don't believe that Hezbollah has the intent to escalate.

No, I believe that what's going on in the region and in the world is in the Israeli's government hand.

I believe that Netanyahu wants the world to be larger.

He wants -- since he has this support, international support, he feels that this is the right moment, historical moment for him to appear as a hero and to get rid or eliminate Hezbollah and Hamas at the same time.

If Israel continues this way, I believe that the region will be in a war.

All the front around Israel will attack Israel.

So we have to stop it.

SIMONA FOLTYN: Is there a red line for Hezbollah at which point they might be forced to escalate things further?

MAJ. GEN. ABBAS IBRAHIM: If Hezbollah, as I believe, think that Hamas become in a weakened position, I believe that they will interfere, or at least they will go up with their retaliation.

SIMONA FOLTYN: Would that be if Hamas specifically asks for support or if Hezbollah fears that Hamas might be destroyed?

MAJ. GEN. ABBAS IBRAHIM: No, I believe they ask for support.

This is the condition.

But I can tell you, after my meeting and my connection, the Hamas military wing is still in a good shape.

The civilians are paying the price.

SIMONA FOLTYN: We have seen widespread, some would even say unconditional, support for Israel.

Some Western nations have even opposed a cease-fire, despite the mounting death toll in Gaza.

How is this perceived in Lebanon and the Arab world?

MAJ. GEN. ABBAS IBRAHIM: Look, Simona, I tell the international community and the United States, the policy that you're following in Gaza or in Palestine, using the double standard, will not work for your interests.

It's working against your interests.

We learn from the America the values.

We learn about democracy.

I graduated from American schools, military school.

I learn a lot.

I cannot find what I believe in, what I learn from the America on the real ground now.

We need to be balanced, or at least not to have a double standard dealing with issues.

SIMONA FOLTYN: A double standard specifically when it comes to condemning the killings of civilians.

While the United States and many Western nations were quick to denounce Hamas' brutal attack on October 7, their criticism of Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza has been much more muted.

MAJ. GEN. ABBAS IBRAHIM: I'm not saying that Israel has to stop against Hamas.

It's a war.

It's a war.

But Hamas' military wing, they have to assume the responsibility, Hamas, but what about the civilian?

Now what's going on is a revenge, revenge on the civilian.

We want the cease-fire to take place.

We have to stop this massacre.

SIMONA FOLTYN: What is your message to the international community and the United States specifically with regard to how this conflict should be ended?

MAJ. GEN. ABBAS IBRAHIM: The Israeli, the war, try to solve the problem, the Palestinian problem, without having the Palestinians on the table.

They want normalization with the Arab country.

And every time, they try to convince us, it's a huge step toward peace.

Which peace?

You have a problem with the Palestinians.

Go solve your problem with the people, not with their neighbors.

It will not work.

We have to go for a political solution now.

If the two states will not work, we can go for one-state solution, for any solution.

Without giving the Palestinians their right or a part of their right, the region will not be stable.

SIMONA FOLTYN: General Abbas Ibrahim, thank you for speaking with the "PBS NewsHour."

MAJ. GEN. ABBAS IBRAHIM: Thank you.

Thank you very much.

AMNA NAWAZ: The nation's fifth national climate assessment was released today, and it shows America is warming faster than the global average, with climate change impacting nearly every facet of American life.

It also found extreme weather events now cost the U.S. roughly $150 billion per year.

Katharine Hayhoe is chief scientist of The Nature Conservancy and distinguished professor at Texas Tech University.

Katharine, welcome back to the "NewsHour."

Let's begin with that climate change trend here in the U.S.

The report says the U.S. is warming about 60 percent faster than the rest of the world as a whole.

Why?

What's driving that?

KATHARINE HAYHOE, Climate Scientist, Texas Tech University: Well, this is no surprise.

We have known that higher latitudes warm faster since the 1890s.

That is not a typo, 1890s.

And that is because tropical regions warm not as fast.

Northern regions warm faster because of the feedbacks in the climate system.

And, overall, the entire globe is warming.

So that means that the higher latitude we are, the greater we are at risk.

And, in fact, Alaska, for example, is warming faster than the rest of the continental U.S. AMNA NAWAZ: I need to ask you about that eye-popping number, annual average costs due to extreme climate events at $150 billion.

That is, for context, tens of billions more than the U.S. has pledged, for example, to Ukraine in its war against Russia, which we know is a huge subject of a funding battle here in D.C. Can we afford -- as a nation, can we afford to keep up with that cost?

KATHARINE HAYHOE: We cannot.

In the 1980s, the U.S. was experiencing, on average, $1 billion weather and climate disaster every four months.

The last 10 years, we have been experiencing one every three weeks or less.

There is no question that climate change is already slowing economic growth, even right where I live in Texas.

Extreme heat this summer slowed our economic growth, according to the Federal Reserve.

But we know that climate solutions present opportunities.

We can't afford not to act.

AMNA NAWAZ: The report also makes clear there is no part of the country that is untouched, right, from this, from extreme heat waves that we have seen in the Southeast, to heavier precipitation in the Northeast and Midwest, coastal communities, of course, dealing with rising sea levels.

You are, I understand, joining us from Arizona tonight, but, as you mentioned, you live in Texas.

Just make this real for us.

How does this show up in daily life on the ground in Texas?

KATHARINE HAYHOE: Well, so often, we refer to climate change as global warming, which references the increase in the average temperature of the entire planet.

But how we as individuals experience it is through what I call global weirding.

In other words, wherever we live, our weather is getting weird.

In Texas, we see hurricanes powering up overnight from tropical storms to Category 3, 4 or 5, dumping way more rain.

Our droughts are more intense and lasting longer.

Our summer heat seems endless.

Out in California, up north in Canada, we see the wildfires and the smoke we experience this summer.

In other places, we see heavy downpours and increases in flash flooding.

Wherever we live, our lives are being touched by how climate change is loading the weather dice against us.

AMNA NAWAZ: The report also says that Americans have to make deeper changes to how they work and how they manage their environments.

Tell us what that looks like on a day-to-day molecular level.

What are those deeper changes that need to be made?

KATHARINE HAYHOE: Well, the good news is, is that we are already moving in the right direction.

We just aren't going nearly fast enough.

So, number one, we need to cut our heat-trapping gas emissions as much as possible as soon as possible through efficiency, clean energy, and some smart agriculture.

Number two, we need to invest in nature to take some of that carbon out of the atmosphere, as well as cleaning up our air and our water and protecting us from flooding and heat.

Number three, we need to prepare, adapt, build resilience to the changes that are already here today, because climate is changing faster than any time in human history.

It is not about saving the planet.

It is about saving us, us humans and many of the other living things that share this planet with us.

We're the ones at risk.

AMNA NAWAZ: That leads me to the bigger picture question here, which is something we have noticed over time.

Has much of the conversation here shifted from how to stop or slow climate change or global warming into, how do we as humans make ourselves more resilient?

How do we survive it?

KATHARINE HAYHOE: Well, we're seeing more discussion and, as the national climate assessment shows, more plans being put in place by cities, by states, by corporations, by organizations to build resilience.

But the report is also crystal clear that, if we don't cut our emissions, we are not going to be able to adapt to what's coming.

So it's not a case of either/or.

We need to be doing all three of those, cutting our emissions, investing in nature and building resilience.

And the more we do, the better off we will be.

AMNA NAWAZ: That is Katharine Hayhoe, chief scientist of The Nature Conservancy, distinguished professor at Texas Tech University.

Katharine, thanks for joining us.

Good to see you.

KATHARINE HAYHOE: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: Digging deeply into family lineage has taken off in recent years, with some estimates putting the number of visits to genealogy Web sites at over 100 million a year.

The newly opened International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, aims to honor untold stories at one of America's most sacred sites.

Part of that effort involves uncovering the past through genealogy.

I went to explore recently for our arts and culture series, Canvas.

DAWN GRAVELY, California Resident: It seems that my family somehow was captured in what is now Nigeria and brought through Jamaica.

GEOFF BENNETT: Californian Dawn Gravely (ph) is among the visitors posing their personal family tree questions in this recording booth for museum researchers to then investigate.

DARIUS BROWN, International African American Museum: The men also had the mitochondrial DNA.

But we just don't pass it on.

Only the women do.

GEOFF BENNETT: The same team also offers instruction about the ins and outs of accessing public records, all while inspiring visitors to glean new meaning from a distant past.

This is all part of the Center for Family History at the International African American Museum.

Museum officials say they have the broadest collection of genealogical records of any institution in the U.S. and one of the most vast in the world.

Some 400 million records are searchable here, including those from before the 1870 census, the first after the Civil War to include African Americans by name.

The legacy of slavery makes it so difficult for so many African Americans to track their family history, certainly before the 20th century.

MALIKA PRYOR-MARTIN, International African American Museum: Yes.

GEOFF BENNETT: And absolutely before the 1870 census.

Where does this museum come in?

MALIKA PRYOR-MARTIN: We have got some big hopes and dreams here at the IAAM.

GEOFF BENNETT: Malika Pryor-Martin, the museum's chief learning and engagement officer, lays out the mission.

MALIKA PRYOR-MARTIN: Help folks break down what we refer to in the genealogy world as that brick wall of 1870.

It's both myth and reality, because the myth, the records are there.

The reality, access is tough.

So, it's natural to think about the kinds of records that you would search for people.

However, in an antebellum period, the overwhelming majority of people of African descent here in the United States or what becomes the United States are not people.

They're considered property.

So we are really interested in investing in digitizing and working and partnering with other institutions to digitize them to make what they digitized available.

GEOFF BENNETT: The museum is situated where Gadsden's Wharf once stood, the site where an estimated 40 percent of all American enslaved Africans arrived in the U.S.

It's estimated that, between 1710 and 1808, upwards of 150,000 captive Africans landed at the many ports throughout the Charleston Harbor, including Gadsden's Wharf.

A memorial garden under the building marks that historic site.

The museum opened in June after 20 years of planning with a number of delays.

Galleries include African Roots, which traces the movement of people of African descent throughout the Atlantic world, American Journeys, which shares stories that shaped U.S. history through the international lens of the African diaspora.

Carolina Gold showcases the impact of enslaved people on South Carolina plantations who helped build the lucrative rice industry, while the Gullah Geechee exhibit looks at contemporary issues facing these descendants of West and Central Africans, who predominantly live in the Lowcountry region of the U.S. and includes this replica of a praise house.

MALIKA PRYOR-MARTIN: It's a spiritual center.

It's a place that's really and truly home away from home.

It's a place where the community can find justice.

So it's really serving as a point of reference and grounding for the sustenance of the entire community.

DARIUS BROWN: Ancestry does the DNA testing.

FamilySearch, they just only deal with records.

GEOFF BENNETT: Twenty-five-year old Darius Brown, an undergraduate at the nearby College of Charleston, is also a research assistant at the museum, running some of the genealogy 101 sessions, while piecing together his own past for the last six years.

He's been able to trace several lines of his family back to the colonial period and reconstructing the population of enslaved people at several South Carolina plantations.

He is also self-publishing a book about his revelations.

You have a picture of members of your family gathered on the day that the Emancipation Proclamation was read to them?

This is phenomenal.

Tell me more about this.

DARIUS BROWN: Old Fort Plantation actually became Camp Saxton.

And, now, Camp Saxton is where their enlistment into the first South Carolina actually took place.

And so I have about 30 relatives that fought in the Civil War, and they actually received their stars and stripes that day at the first reading of the Emancipation Proclamation.

GEOFF BENNETT: And you have photographic evidence of it?

Where did this picture come from?

DARIUS BROWN: During the Port Royal Experiment, different abolitionists were coming down to Beaufort.

They were teaching the people how to read and write for the first time.

They were some of the first African Americans to earn wage labor.

And so a lot of people -- photographers came down and they were taking pictures of the enslaved people.

GEOFF BENNETT: That's extraordinary.

Do you happen to know which of these folks are connected to you?

DARIUS BROWN: I wish I did, but I know that my family is somewhere in there.

(LAUGHTER) GEOFF BENNETT: Yes.

Well, just having the picture is enough.

MALIKA PRYOR-MARTIN: I have had the benefit of knowing my family history.

And, fortunately, it was couched with most folks don't know this stuff, so I had a degree of appreciation and I had a level of awareness that it wasn't common for someone to be able to trace their lineage eight generations.

And for a lot of Americans, that's not even necessarily the easiest thing to do.

GEOFF BENNETT: You can trace your lineage eight generations?

MALIKA PRYOR-MARTIN: Yes, at least on one line.

GEOFF BENNETT: Wow.

Malika Pryor-Martin says the journey of turning over historical stones can reveal much pain, but also joy.

MALIKA PRYOR-MARTIN: There are thousands of those stories, and when we have the opportunity to discover them for ourselves, then we can confirm without question and doubt we're brave, we're smart.

We have the capacity to strategize, to have empathy, to forgive, to fight, I know I have said it already before, but to love.

There's something pretty radical about living under conditions that really aren't built for you to survive, and to still choose to love.

GEOFF BENNETT: Yes.

Yes.

And tracing one's history to that is -- it's unmatched.

MALIKA PRYOR-MARTIN: That's right.

GEOFF BENNETT: Yes.

MALIKA PRYOR-MARTIN: That's right.

GEOFF BENNETT: People keep probing their hunches, intuitions, and presumptions of their past, trying to see if they can pin down where their family roots truly lie.

And that museum is such a resource.

They offer virtual consultations to help point people to records they might not even be aware of as they try to piece together their family history.

AMNA NAWAZ: It's so amazing.

I love the full circle poetry of reclaiming that space and putting it at the Wharf, that museum.

GEOFF BENNETT: It's really something.

AMNA NAWAZ: Such a great story.

And join us again here tomorrow night, when Nick Schifrin will be reporting from the APEC summit in San Francisco, as President Biden meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping for the first time in over a year.

And that is the "NewsHour" for tonight.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

Thanks for spending part of your evening with us.