NICK SCHIFRIN: Good evening.

I'm Nick Schifrin.

Geoff Bennett and Amna Nawaz are away.

Tonight on the "NewsHour": finally free.

The first set of Israeli and foreign hostages and Palestinian prisoners are released during a four-day pause.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, Israeli Prime Minister (through translator): I emphasize to you, the families, and to you, the citizens of Israel, we are committed to the return of all our hostages.

This is one of the goals of the war.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Then, parents of young athletes who suffered repeated head injuries speak out about the risks they wish they had known earlier.

And it's Friday.

Jonathan Capehart and Eliana Johnson weigh in on the week's headlines.

(BREAK) NICK SCHIFRIN: Welcome to the "NewsHour."

Seven weeks of captivity, seven weeks of worry for the families of some hostages is now over.

Today, Hamas released 13 Israelis and 11 Thai and Filipino workers kidnapped in the October 7 terrorist attack.

In exchange, seven weeks of war in Gaza is now on pause.

Israel silenced the guns and allowed more humanitarian aid to reach Gaza.

The hostages range from 4 to 85 years old.

And, tonight, they are receiving medical care surrounded by their families.

Tonight, the sounds of freedom, horns and rousing cheers.

The first Red Cross trucks carrying released hostages arrived at the Rafah Crossing in Egypt, women and children loaded into buses that crossed into Israel to be reunited with their families after 49 days of the captivity.

Among the released, 85-year-old Yafa Ader, mother to three, great-grandmother to seven.

On October the 7th, she was abducted from kibbutz Nir Oz and paraded through Gaza City.

Her oldest grandson is still a hostage.

Also released, the Monder family, 78-year-old Ruthi, 58-year-old Keren, and 9-year-old Ohad.

The Asher family, seen here being kidnapped, mother Doron and daughters 4-year-old Raz and 2-year-old Raz Aviv, and Danielle Aloni and her 5-year-old daughter, Emilia.

There are so many released children, the hospitals receiving them are trying to create an atmosphere that feels like home.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the release and said it was just the beginning.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, Israeli Prime Minister (through translator): Each and every one of them is a whole world, but I emphasize to you, the families and to you, the citizens of Israel, we are committed to the return of all our hostages.

This is one of the goals of the war, and we are committed to achieving all the goals of the war.

NICK SCHIFRIN: President Biden welcomed the news from Nantucket.

JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: We also will not stop until we get these hostages brought home and an answer to their whereabouts.

I remain in personal contact with the leaders of Qatar, Egypt and Israel to make sure this stays on track and every aspect of the deal is implemented.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Part of the deal was the release of 10 Thai and one Filipino worker kidnapped by Hamas, and 33 Palestinians who had been detained at Israel's Ofer Prison in the West Bank; 150 will eventually be freed.

Israel's security forces used tear gas to disperse those waiting to see the exchange, but some finished their long wait at home.

Palestinian Sawsan Bkeer's daughter Marah had been jailed in Israel for eight years.

When the October 7 attacks took place, she was moved into solitary confinement.

SAWSAN BKEER, Mother of Palestinian Prisoner (through translator): I'm happy.

These tears are tears of joy.

Do what it means that Marah has not been with us for eight years?

I have been trying to cry for a month now and was not able to.

It just happened now.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh pledged to respect the deal as long as it remained mutual.

ISMAIL HANIYEH, Chairman, Hamas Political Bureau (through translator): The movement affirms its commitment to implement the agreement and making it successful, as long as the enemy commits to implementing it.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Israel's part of that implementation quiet.

This morning, the sun rose for the first time in 49 days without the drones buzzing overhead or airstrikes hammering the ground.

Many displaced Palestinians hope to return to their homes.

AHMAD WAEL, Gaza Strip Resident (through translator): I am now very happy.

I feel at ease.

I'm going back to my home.

Our hearts are rested, especially that there is a four-day official cease-fire, better than returning to live in tents.

I'm very tired from sitting there without any food or water.

There at home, we can live.

We drink tea, making bread using the fire in the oven.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But the IDF today delivered a clear warning in Arabic to Gazans displaced in the south: Don't go north.

And Israeli troops enforced that warning by opening fire on Palestinians trying to move north.

Tanks also guarded the evacuation route.

The final condition of today's deal, more humanitarian aid.

Egypt said tens of thousands of gallons of fuel and 200 aid trucks will now be allowed to enter Gaza each day while the truce holds.

But the U.N. today warned, even that was only a fraction of what's needed.

JENS LAERKE, U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: We hope the agreement between Israel and Hamas now enforced will bring respite to the people of Gaza.

And Israel and some relief to the hostages and detainees who will be released and to their families.

We hope it allows grieving families to honor their dead and bury them with dignity.

And we hope that this humanitarian pause leads to a longer-term humanitarian cease-fire for the benefit of the people of Gaza, Israel and beyond.

NICK SCHIFRIN: The hostages who were released face immense mental and, for some, physical trauma.

Earlier today, I spoke with Professor Hagai Levine, the head of the medical and resilience team for the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, part of the team meeting the hostages who once again are free.

Professor, let me just begin by asking you, how are they doing?

HAGAI LEVINE, Hostages and Missing Families Forum: We know, for some of the hostages that were released today, two women already arrived here.

Some of them spoke with their families.

And I know, from one of the families that the grandmother sounds well over the phone.

And we saw some picture of them walking, which is encouraging.

However, the recovery process is going to be long.

They will be needing not only mental and physical support, but also to be examined to rule out any specific medical problems.

We know -- for some of them, I know their medical profile.

I know that they have severe chronic illnesses that probably were not properly treated.

So they still need to be examined, and, on parallel, over 200 innocent people still being held by the Hamas, and they are not receiving the proper medical care and psychological care for recovery.

Tonight, we really hope that this week all of them will be either released or, for the very least, receive a Red Cross visit to examine and treat them.

NICK SCHIFRIN: How are you approaching the treatment overall as different groups of hostages are going to different hospitals?

HAGAI LEVINE: So the principles of the care should be personal, professional and patient.

So, in any case, it's better to be separate in several hospitals.

So I know that, in one hospital, they are preparing for the release of people that came to work in Israel from Thailand and the Philippines.

They have translators.

They have the food that is needed.

The family members of them, of some of them are there to treat them with culturally tailored treatment for them.

And here at Wolfson, mainly for elderly women, so the team was prepared to give them the exact care that they need.

NICK SCHIFRIN: These are people who have been presumably kept underground in tunnels and very difficult conditions.

What do they need mentally to begin to understand the trauma they have been through and begin to recover from it?

HAGAI LEVINE: So we need to help them to get back control over their lives.

They were very passive and afraid over the last seven weeks.

It start with the surprise with the October 7 massacre.

Some of them have seen their beloved murdered or their house burned.

They don't know the atrocities that happened.

We will need to see how we deliver the bad news to them.

And they did not have any control of their life.

Now we need to help them to be active again, to become humans again by making the choices.

But it will -- going to be step by step.

We need to help them gain back trust in humanity, because to have this kind of experience is very, very difficult for anyone.

That's why the family members are so important, to feel the support for people they know well.

Unfortunately, for some of them, the family members are still captive in Gaza or were murdered.

So that's another thing that is very difficult.

I want to look at the positive side.

I met with Judith Raanan and Yocheved Lifshitz, who were released several weeks ago.

And I was amazed by their resilience and ability to recover.

So I hope we will see similar things now that, with the help of the medical teams, the psychologists and the social workers and the families, that the released hostages will be able to recover, and as much as possible and as quickly as possible.

Again, unfortunately, for those who are still captive, they cannot even start the recovery process.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Do they also need a specific environment, open spaces, green, that they presumably haven't seen for seven weeks?

HAGAI LEVINE: Well, yes, they have been underground and did not see the sunlight, did not have a place to do some physical activity, did not have the social encounters they need.

Maybe some of them miss the most the pets, OK?

So, that's why pets were allowed to be brought to the hospital.

Each one of them will have to choose what is the most appropriate place for them.

And I must tell you, our colleagues all around the world, with the amazing support we get from people all around the world, it's very encouraging for the families and now for the hostages.

I'm sure that, when they realize that so many people in the world care about them and want them to be healthy and well, that is very helpful for the recovery.

NICK SCHIFRIN: As you said, you have met recently with hostages who were released in previous rounds.

What advice did they give you in order to try and help those who are being released today?

HAGAI LEVINE: The first advice was to keep away from the journalists, from the media.

That's actually what they told me, because, again, they want to tell the story, but it's difficult for them to be in a crowded place.

They are sensitive.

And, of course, they may need their anonymity.

They became famous all around the world.

I hope that politicians and all kinds of other figures will not try to come and to take photos with them, et cetera, because they want, most of them, just to come back to their normal life.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Dr. Hagai Levine, the head of the medical and resilience team for the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, thank you very much.

Twelve of the 13 Israeli hostages released from Gaza today were kidnapped from one kibbutz, Nir Oz.

One out of four of Nir Oz's residents were kidnapped or killed; 79-year-old Chaim Peri was kidnapped from there.

He remains a hostage.

His daughter, Noam Peri, joins us now.

Thank you very much, Noam.

Welcome to the "NewsHour" again.

How are you feeling today, your father remaining in captivity, but so many of these people from Nir Oz freed?

NOAM PERI, Daughter of Hamas Hostage: It's a day of mixed feelings, of course.

I'm thrilled with everyone I see that -- I know most of those people and been waiting to see them.

I'm sure their families are waiting to have them just in those very moments that we talk.

But, obviously, we still wait and worry very much about my father, who's currently not included in this deal, and many others as well.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Have you been able to talk with any of the families whose family members have been released today?

NOAM PERI: Not yet.

We have been texting together, the families, this whole very tense day, and wishing them the best and wishing them to see their family members.

So, we're waiting now for hours.

NICK SCHIFRIN: We can only imagine what you're all going through.

About a month ago, we had you on the show.

You were talking to my colleague Amna Nawaz, and you said that you had received a sign of life of your father from a hostage who had just been released, Yocheved Lifshitz.

Have you received any new updates about your father's condition since then?

NOAM PERI: So, no.

Since then, we had no signal and no sign of life.

And it has been very, very long seven weeks now since my father was kidnapped from his home.

And it's very hard to think him, how he survives these seven weeks, 50 days.

I don't know, every hour, it's very hard to think about it.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Do you have faith?

Do you have a sense, perhaps, that he's OK in there?

NOAM PERI: Definitely, I have faith.

I know he -- I hope and I know he is a strong man mentally.

He's a brave man.

But he's also not young anymore.

He's almost 80.

He's going to celebrate his 80s birthday in April.

He suffers from heart disease and has undergone two surgeries.

He's dependent on medications.

Two days ago, some reporters have been taken down the tunnel underground under the Shifa Hospital in Gaza.

And these reporters were, I think, probably most of them, men of 30 or 40 years old.

And they have reported that, after an hour, one hour in those tunnels, they had -- it was hard to breathe.

And the conditions were terrible.

I'm thinking how an 80-year-old man can survive there for seven weeks.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Over the next three to four days, about 50 women and children are scheduled to be released.

There's a formula after that for one day of pause, another 10 women and children to be released.

Do you have faith that, after that, this cease-fire will hold and your father will indeed be on the list?

NOAM PERI: I'm crossing my fingers every hour now that the cease-fire would hold and we will see every day people coming out of there, people that shouldn't have been there from the beginning, and definitely should not be there for even one more day.

And, yes, I hope.

I hope this will hold on and I hope we will see all children, women come out, and then obviously that I'm hoping that we will see my father and the other elderly like him going out of there.

And we will not rest for a moment until this happens.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Some Israeli officials oppose this pause, because Hamas, of course, will use it to regroup, restrengthen perhaps.

What do you say to that argument?

NOAM PERI: I say, I think this is one of our strengths as a society that we put lives in the first place.

There is no other priority than to save lives.

And some -- I think that our enemies think it's a weakness, but it's not.

It's a strength.

It's a strength of the Israeli society.

And I think the voices that talk against it are a minority.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Noam Peri joining us from Israel tonight, thank you very much.

NOAM PERI: Thank you.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Today's deal between Israel and Hamas was mediated by Qatar.

And I'm now joined by Dr. Majed bin Mohammed Al Ansari, adviser to the prime minister of Qatar and official spokesperson for the Qatari foreign minister.

Sir, thank you very much.

Welcome to the "NewsHour."

Has this day, bottom line, gone as smoothly as you hoped it would?

MAJED BIN MOHAMMED AL ANSARI, Qatari Foreign Ministry Spokesman: Thank you for having me.

Of course, it's always a difficult and very frustrating operation when you're working on such difficult campaigns.

But I can gladly say that all that we wanted to accomplish today was done.

The people who were supposed to be reunited with their families are now home and in a safe place and with their families from both sides.

And that's what makes it all worth it.

NICK SCHIFRIN: The steps that we saw today, the Israelis who were released by Hamas into the ICRC and brought into Israel, the prisoners that Israel has released and sent back to their families on the West Bank, are those steps that you have confirmed that can happen again tomorrow?

And have the list been confirmed already?

MAJED BIN MOHAMMED AL ANSARI: We are working on that right now.

Obviously, as I said, it's a very difficult process, very delicate process.

It includes a lot of moving parts on the ground.

I can confirm at this moment that we have shared this on both sides.

But we believe that both sides are committed to the humanitarian pause and to the process which we agreed upon.

So we are hopeful that we will see the same releases that we say -- saw today tomorrow.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Can you give us any insight into the Americans who might be released?

MAJED BIN MOHAMMED AL ANSARI: I can't share, of course, any details on that right now.

We are working day to day, so we get the lists for each day.

And we distribute them to both sides, and we get the OK from both sides.

And that's how it works.

And we don't have the lists for tomorrow.

But what I can tell you is that there is a commitment on both sides.

NICK SCHIFRIN: As you mentioned, Hamas was not able to deliver even a list of the 90 to 100 or so women and children that we believe to be hostage inside Gaza.

American officials have said there are other groups, including criminal groups, who might have some of these hostages.

What does that mean?

Is it possible to even get these 90 to 100 women and children out?

MAJED BIN MOHAMMED AL ANSARI: Of course, it's a war zone.

And, as you know, Nick, when there is a conflict of such magnitude, moving on the ground, getting information the ground is always very difficult in all respects.

So we are hoping that through the period of time we have established right here for four days, that would allow people on the ground in Gaza to collect information and to provide that information.

NICK SCHIFRIN: And finally, sir, some of your Israeli and American critics call you both the firefighter and the arsonist.

They thank you for your help this week.

But they say your hosting Hamas' leadership in Doha and delivering money to Gaza in cash helps give Hamas political stature and, frankly, the money that Hamas used to build a terrorist infrastructure.

What do you say to those critics?

MAJED BIN MOHAMMED AL ANSARI: We have taken a lot of heat, Nick, I can tell you.

And there is a lot of disinformation about this information that is knowingly misleading by people who want to sabotage the mediation effort.

We have been working on mediation between Hamas and Israel since 2006.

This is not a new occurrence.

I can tell you very clearly -- and this is known by both parties -- that all the aid that was going into Gaza was going through Israel, through Israeli banks, through Israeli companies, and through the Israeli crossing.

So, any accusation against my country that we were aiding Hamas, the same accusation should be held to the Israelis, who were part of this aid process.

And, obviously, that doesn't make any sense.

We were doing this as part of an agreement between Israel, us and the Palestinian Authority to make sure that life is sustainable in Gaza, that there is hope for the people in Gaza, and that we could de-escalate and we could be an active mediator.

There is a lot of propaganda used to demonize my country, but this will not deter us from playing our role as a peace facilitator and mediator on this.

Regardless of how much we will take as heat on this, we can tell you that, for us, this is something that we believe in, that we think it's part of our raison d'etre for our country and our mandate as a country.

And no matter how difficult the discussions are, we will keep having them.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Dr. Majed bin Mohammed Al Ansari, thank you very much, sir.

MAJED BIN MOHAMMED AL ANSARI: Thank you.

NICK SCHIFRIN: In the days of other headlines: A wave of walkouts across Europe hit Amazon on this Black Friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

Earlier today, more than 1,000 Amazon workers in Britain joined the job action.

It's part of a long-running dispute over pay and working conditions.

STUART RICHARDS, Senior Organizer, GMB Trade Union: In the protest here, we have got people joining us from Germany, from the U.S., from Italy.

There are also Spanish workers that are out on strike today.

This is now a global wakeup call for Amazon.

They can't keep ignoring the concerns of these workers and the workers in warehouses right across the world.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Organizers said the Amazon strikes are planned to last through Cyber Monday.

Meanwhile, in Washington state, more than 400 Macy's employees walked off the job today at selected stores over safety concerns and pay demands.

They're expected to return to work before Monday.

In the Russian-Ukraine war, fighting escalated in key areas as both sides try to make gains before the worst of winter sets in.

Russian forces in occupied Crimea claim they shot down dozens of Ukrainian drones overnight.

And Ukraine's military said it blunted heavy new assaults on Avdiivka, north of Donetsk.

Russians have been trying to capture it for two months.

A tense calm has returned today in Dublin, Ireland, after anti-immigrant rioting.

It began Thursday when three children were stabbed outside of school.

Police arrested a suspect, who is still unidentified, but rumors spread he was a foreigner.

With that, far right protesters stormed the streets, burning buses, battling police and looting stores.

Officers arrested 34 people.

And, today, the prime minister condemned the violence.

LEO VARADKAR, Irish Prime Minister: Yesterday, we experienced two terrible attacks.

The first was an attack on innocent children, the second an attack on our society and the rule of law.

I want to say to a nation that is unsettled and afraid, this is not who we are, this is not who we want to be.

NICK SCHIFRIN: The violence came amid rising tensions over asylum seekers in Ireland, as elsewhere in Europe.

The double amputee Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius was granted parole today in South Africa.

He fatally shot his girlfriend in his apartment 10 years ago at the height of his worldwide fame.

Pistorius said he thought an intruder had broken in, but he was convicted of murder and sentenced to 13 years in prison.

He's scheduled to be released on January 5.

And on Wall Street, trading was shortened to a half-day for the holiday weekend.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 117 points to close at 35390.

The Nasdaq fell 15 points.

The S&P 500 added two points.

Still to come on the "NewsHour": residents of Lewiston, Maine, reflect on how a mass shooting changed their community; Jonathan Capehart and Eliana Johnson on U.S. support for Israel and Ukraine; plus much more.

For years, researchers have studied the effects that repeated blows to the head have on athletes in pro football, hockey, soccer and other sports.

Now, as John Yang tells us, they're turning their attention to players who start as early as grade school.

JOHN YANG: Researchers at Boston University are conducting the first major study of CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, in athletes who died before their 30th birthday.

CTE is the degenerative brain disease linked to repeated hits to the head.

Researchers recently released findings based on the study of the brains of 152 athletes; 63 of them, more than 40 percent, had CTE; 48 of them played football, most of them no higher than high school or college.

Some started playing tackle football when they were as young as 6.

The main sports for others in the study included hockey, soccer and wrestling.

Some of the parents of these young athletes told The New York Times about the changes they saw in their children.

MAN: His whole person started to change.

WOMAN: It was an abrupt change.

He just was -- he was a different person.

MAN: He wasn't the same kid.

MAN: He became unrecognizable.

MAN: Just a fragment of himself.

WOMAN: He wasn't Wyatt.

MAN: Then we couldn't figure it out.

MAN: And, unfortunately, we couldn't recognize possibly what was happening with him until it was too late.

JOHN YANG: That video is part of an interactive story on The New York Times Web site.

Times reporter John Branch worked on the project.

John, we heard those parents talk about these changes that they saw, this unrecognizable children.

Did any of them make the connection to football?

JOHN BRANCH, The New York Times: Yes, most of them did not, and that's not uncommon.

I think it's because they're so young that they weren't assuming that that was the cause of their problems.

These kids were 18, 19, maybe into their early 20s.

And so kids are going through a lot of changes at that time anyway.

So, they wondered if they were just typical changes that we see for if the kids were now using drugs or alcohol, maybe even just running in with the wrong crowd.

They couldn't make sense of it, unfortunately, really until it was too late.

JOHN YANG: And not only couldn't the parents not make sense of it.

Some of the athletes couldn't make sense of it.

JOHN BRANCH: Yes, that's right.

I mean, one of the clips I believe you played was the Bramwell family.

And Wyatt Bramwell did not tell anybody this until he recorded a video before his suicide, which -- in which he said that he had heard voices in his head, demons in his head, that his life had been a living hell because of what he assumed or the concussions that he had absorbed over several years of youth and high school football.

JOHN YANG: CTE, of course, can't be diagnosed until after death.

They can examine the brain after death.

These parents sent -- donated their children's brains for research because they were seeking answers.

What was their reaction when they got the confirmation that, yes, their children -- their child had CTE?

JOHN BRANCH: Yes, I think reactions are really mixed, of course.

I think there's a little bit of horror and regret.

They think, oh, my gosh, what have I done to my child?

What did I do to my child?

What could we have done to prevent this?

For the most part, they're the ones who (AUDIO GAP) their kids into football.

Some of them coached their kids in football.

And now to find out that they had died and that they had CTE tells them that what -- all the things that they thought that they were doing right for their kids may have actually been one of the causes of death for their kids.

Also, when they get the diagnosis, there is a strange bit of relief because of all the answers that they could not quite get or find, they were searching through doctors or therapists.

Now they know that there's a scientific explanation, at least in their minds, for what happened to their children.

JOHN YANG: You talk about how -- what they could have done differently.

You also ask the parents, if, knowing what they know now, they would have still had their child or let their child play football.

The first couple we're going to hear from are the parents of Hunter Foraker, who played at Dartmouth and died when he was 25.

MAN: If we have the knowledge today, Hunter would have never played football, period.

If I have a grandson, he will not play football.

It's not worth the risk.

WOMAN: When I drive by a football field and see these young kids in helmets and pads, it just -- it just breaks my heart.

WOMAN: Delaying the onset of contact is what I would have championed.

And I still love football.

We still have a son that plays football.

MAN: Does it hurt that I lost my son?

One hundred percent, it does.

But if you were to ask me today how I feel, like I said, I have grandsons now that love football and are playing contact football before high school, I would be willing to say that I would do it again.

JOHN YANG: That last couple, we should note, is the parents of Meiko Locksley.

And his father, Michael Locksley, is the head football coach at the University of Maryland.

Interesting division there, some saying, I would never have let my child play football, others saying, my grandchildren are playing tackle football.

What do you make of that?

JOHN BRANCH: Yes, Michael Locksley is a fascinating case, because he coaches football.

He coaches 100 young men to play this game, knowing that his son had CTE.

And to Michael and to many of these others, it's a strange calculation, an impossible calculation between risk and reward.

While many of us might say, oh, of course, we would never let our kids play football, knowing that they might end up with CTE, families, even these families, are a little bit more torn than that,because they wonder -- or they look at all the rewards that football can offer, the things like the camaraderie, the physical fitness, the sense of community, especially in small towns in America.

They don't want their kids to be ostracized in certain places for not playing football or not being part of it.

They love the game.

And so they're trying to balance those kinds of rewards for the risk.

And the tricky thing with CTE is, we don't know exactly what the risks are.

We don't know if a child who plays high school football has a one in a hundred chance of developing CTE, or is it one in 20, or is it one in 10?

To some, no matter what the risk is, that's too much.

But to others, they're trying to figure out where that lies and what's best for their own children.

JOHN YANG: Do you think this is going to lead to changes in youth football, or is the sort of the cultural pull of football in America just too great?

JOHN BRANCH: Yes, it's an interesting question.

I think (AUDIO GAP) having a conversation.

And I think there's a push more and more for having these conversations about whether children, especially before high school, should play tackle football.

The researchers behind this believe that there's a correlation between the number of years that somebody plays tackle football and the likelihood of them getting CTE.

And most kids never go on to college and certainly not out of the pros.

They would like to see that number limited by at least not having people play or kids play tackle football until, say, high school.

In the case of Wyatt Bramwell, who took his own life at age 18, he played 10 years of tackle football.

Would it have been different had he played three years, only in high school?

We don't know exactly, but that's the kind of limitations that I think a lot of people would like to see and we're going to be talking about in the next few years.

JOHN YANG: John Branch of The New York Times on an important subject to be talking about, thank you very much.

JOHN BRANCH: Thank you.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Tomorrow marks one month since a mass shooter murdered 18 people and injured 13 others in Lewiston, Maine.

This week, an investigative commission established by Maine Governor Janet Mills requested the power to subpoena witnesses as part of their work.

PBS member station Maine Public recently brought together members of the Lewiston community as they lean on each other in the wake of shared tragedy.

Here are excerpts from that program, "Love Lewiston," hosted by Jennifer Rooks.

JENNIFER ROOKS, Maine Public: We already know there are these skyrocketing rates of anxiety, depression, suicide among our young people.

And I can only imagine that having this happen in your community, to have this happen in your state, do you pretend this didn't happen and go about your life trying to push it away?

Do you acknowledge it and move on?

REBECCA HOFFMAN, Maine Health: My biggest advice would be is not to push it away, not to push those feelings away, but really to lean into them and to let yourself experience them.

This event is not something we can ignore.

It's going to be woven into the fabric of who we are as a community, but we also want to weave in courage.

We want to weave in hope.

We want to weave in healing into that fabric.

And so dealing with this as a trauma allows us to weave in those beautiful experiences of hope and healing and courage that we are also seeing right now.

JENNIFER ROOKS: Four of those killed were deaf.

They were at a bar with a big group of friends.

How do you move your community to a place of feeling safe again, given that?

KEVIN BOHLIN, ASL Family Trainer (through interpreter): For many, many years, the word access has been a huge issue.

So, with that initial reaction about the tragedy in Lewiston that Wednesday night, some of the deaf community did not understand what was going on, because captioning was not clear on the televisions.

That next morning, some of us woke up, and, honestly, we made this connection that there was a possibility that members of our deaf community had been there in Lewiston and had been a part of this situation.

At that point, the news recordings were not clear.

Information had been cut off.

The interpreter was not on screen.

Later on that day, on Thursday, there was a deaf interpreter on the television, and that was very powerful.

That gave us a lot of access and information.

We finally could see what was going on.

Our local representatives are asking questions.

The White House is asking questions.

A lot of local organizations are banding together to have healthy conversations, and so, yes, tragic.

At the same time, it is raising the awareness.

REV.

FRANK STRASBURGER (RET.

), Episcopal Priest: If we don't do anything about guns, how do we have any confidence that what happened here two weeks ago won't happen again and again and again?

Do we really care more about our guns than we do our neighbors and our kids?

JIM HANDY, Retired Lewiston Legislator: We do need commonsense gun safety.

I have been a long time advocate for that.

And it goes beyond banning assault weapons.

It goes back to limiting the size of magazines.

It goes to background checks.

It goes to increasing our mental health workers, so that they can be along with law enforcement and deal with those kinds of situations as they arise.

RAND MAKER, Lincoln County, Maine, Chief Deputy Sheriff: Mental health is a huge problem in the state of Maine.

It's underfunded.

This isn't a job for law enforcement.

It's a job that community social workers can manage, but we don't have enough of them.

The issue with weapons, I think it's an issue that we have got to find consensus, we have got compromise.

If we go to each one of our silos, we're not going to solve this problem and we will be back here again.

JENNIFER ROOKS: January 3, you're back in the Statehouse.

STATE SEN. PEGGY ROTUNDO (D-ME): Right.

JENNIFER ROOKS: How does this change your priorities?

What do you do now?

STATE SEN. PEGGY ROTUNDO: I am totally determined that we will honor the lives that have been lost by moving forward on policy areas that will prevent such tragedies again in the future.

This experience has shaken everyone to the core, and I think you will see people in support of gun safety measures that perhaps are not there yet.

JENNIFER ROOKS: Having come here from a place where there's war, where there's insecurity, coming to a city that you believed was safe and has been safe for your family, as you listen to this conversation, what are you thinking?

FATUMA HUSSEIN, Immigrant Resource Center of Maine: Many of us from my community are coming from war-torn countries, and what we see is trauma after trauma after trauma.

In a country that has laws and a sense of peace, how does it happen?

And what can be done?

Because I am feeling like maybe this is not the place that you were seeking for safety.

JENNIFER ROOKS: Given that we're -- and everyone in this community is really the walking wounded, how do we move forward?

REV.

THOMAS BROWN, Episcopal Bishop of Maine: I would say that we have to talk about the power of forgiveness and that some of us may not yet be there, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be talking about it.

Every spiritual and religious tradition in the world has resources for this.

And that's a powerful way for -- not for the hole in our heart to be repaired immediately, but for it to begin.

JENNIFER ROOKS: When you say forgiveness, what do you mean?

REV.

THOMAS BROWN: I mean trusting that holding on to anger or hate or a sense of why is not going to be helpful to us in the long term to move forward, so letting go, trusting that there is a higher power.

Some of us refer to that higher power as God.

I think that there's great power in trusting that, together, we can let go of this pain and move forward.

NICK SCHIFRIN: (AUDIO GAP) "A Maine Calling Special" on our Web site, PBS.org/NewsHour.

The Biden administration's foreign policy efforts are once again in the spotlight, as U.S. officials push for more hostages to be released by Hamas.

On that and what's ahead in the Republican presidential primary, we turn to the analysis of Capehart and Johnson.

That's Jonathan Capehart, associate editor for The Washington Post, and Eliana Johnson, editor in chief of The Washington Free Beacon.

David Brooks is away.

Thanks, guys, very much.

Great to see you.

Happy day after Thanksgiving.

Jonathan Capehart, I wonder if we could look at Biden's policy overall for Israel.

How do you rate it right now?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Well, first, today is a great day that we have seen some hostages of the couple hundred who have been held hostage in Gaza be released.

And that is primarily the efforts of the United States, Qatar, Israel, but really the president of the United States pushing really hard to get to some kind of situation where hostages could be released, there could be a pause in the fighting, so that humanitarian relief could get inside Gaza for the people who desperately need it, the Palestinians who desperately need it.

It doesn't mean that this is by any means over or that there aren't more pitfalls to come.

But with that incentive in the pause, meaning, if 10 more hostages are released, there will be an extra day in the pause, it is my hope that that does indeed happen and that this pause lasts longer than the four initial days.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Eliana Johnson, what do you think President Biden should be focusing on, either this pause or relief into Gaza or the release of U.S. hostages?

ELIANA JOHNSON, Editor in Chief, The Washington Free Beacon: I wish it was an either/or question, and I could give you a simple answer.

But the president has to be under enormous pressure to secure the release of the American hostages.

He has indicated that he does not even know the location of all the American hostages.

And, today, we saw the release of 13 hostages.

None of them were Americans.

And I do think he's under enormous pressure.

He's got to get some American hostages out in this deal.

And, going forward, he's coming under huge pressure from the left flank of the Democratic Party to pressure Israel to stop its war.

And from my vantage point, the president has to resist that pressure and allow Israel to continue the war at the end of this pause.

It is worth noting Hamas has already violated the terms of this agreement.

The Red Cross was supposed to be permitted to see and evaluate the hostages.

They were not permitted to do so.

Civilians were not to return to the north of Gaza for their own protection.

And Hamas is encouraging them to do so.

And so I think President Biden has got to give Israel the green light, when it wants to do so, to resume this war.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Jonathan, let's think about that, resisting pressure.

There is a lot of pressure on the left, some of it generational, but not all of it, to call for a cease-fire.

That is not something that many members of the Democratic Party have followed.

And yet there are calls for the president to basically rein in the Israelis even more.

Can he resist that pressure?

Should he resist that pressure?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: He can resist that pressure.

He will resist that pressure.

And he should resist that pressure.

Look, I would say to my friends, my Democratic friends, that we have to remember that President Biden is president of the United States, not the president of Israel.

He has no control over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

He can strongly suggest.

He can strongly talk to him behind the scenes, more strongly than the words he uses, the president uses in public.

But President Biden is doing absolutely everything he can to encourage a small-D democratic nation, which has its own national security interests, to act in the best interests of small-D democratic values.

And I would also say to my Democratic friends and to others, you got to remember, for all the talk about President Biden being oh so old and he's too old for the job, well, his 36 years in the Senate, eight years as vice president of the United States is coming in handy right now, when we most need it.

This is the time when President Biden is at his best.

He knows what he's doing.

And I just wish that Democrats in general and the American public in particular would give him the grace and give him the room to exert American will and American pressure as much as he can on a situation that is infinitely more complex than a lot of his critics give it credit for.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Eliana Johnson, when it comes to the power of the purse, the president has asked for some $60 billion for Ukraine aid, tying that to $14 billion for Israel.

Is that effort to tie Ukraine and Israel aid dead or still alive in Congress?

ELIANA JOHNSON: The Ukraine aid in particular is controversial among Republicans.

I personally wish it wasn't, but it is.

And we have had Democrats come forward and say, Republicans had wanted to tie additional money for the border.

And it currently is in this bill.

And that is controversial among the Democrats.

And so my guess is that, ultimately, the Senate may come under pressure to split this bill into pieces.

Right now, it is the Israel money, the Ukraine money and these border security measures.

I can't predict what will happen with that bill, but there are parts of it, the Ukraine bill controversial on the right -- the Ukraine money controversial on the right, and the border security money controversial among Democrats.

So, I think it's going to be a tough sell.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Jonathan Capehart, let's switch over to Republican politics.

Basic question, can anybody stop Trump?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Right now, no.

He is, what, last I saw, 20 or 30 points ahead of Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley, who are battling for number two.

But, Nick, what I really think we're looking at right now is, we're looking at poll numbers that show Donald Trump far and away the front-runner for the Republican nomination.

What I'm looking for is, what happens on the night of the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primaries when those poll numbers give way to actual votes?

And Donald Trump will be in trouble if his actual vote totals, his actual vote margin, assuming he comes in first place, is dramatically smaller than the huge leads we see he has over Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley.

And I think for the folks who are battling it out for number two, the person with the wind at her -- wind in her sails and at her back is Nikki Haley.

From the infighting we're seeing in Ron DeSantis' camp, the slide he's experiencing might be inexorable.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Eliana Johnson, is Iowa a must-win or at least a must proving that you have got some positive momentum for Ron DeSantis?

And is New Hampshire the must-win or proving that you're gaining positive momentum for Nikki Haley?

ELIANA JOHNSON: Iowa is a must win for Ron DeSantis.

He has staked so much energy on that state.

And I do think he's got to win there to keep his campaign alive.

These guys are not running for understudy or second place.

They're running to displace former President Donald Trump and to win this nomination.

And by the same token, I think Nikki Haley has to win one of these early states.

She's performing best in New Hampshire.

I think Chris Christie has to drop out of this race for her to do that.

His voters are likely to go to her.

And a win in New Hampshire would set her up nicely for her home state of South Carolina, which comes next.

Of course, Donald Trump remains the strong front-runner, but we have seen crazier things happen.

Never say never.

There's another debate, at least one more, between now and then.

And poll after poll shows that Republicans might say they support Trump, but they also say they're open to other candidates.

So we will have to see what happens.

NICK SCHIFRIN: I have 40 seconds left, and I will say that I am grateful on this Thanksgiving for my family and their support.

So, each of you have 20 seconds.

Jonathan Capehart, what are you grateful for?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Nick, I am grateful for science.

On Sunday, I tested positive for COVID, so I have been at home since -- since Sunday.

And three years ago right now, the nation was listening to ambulance sirens, hearing about hospitals that were overflowing with people who had come down with coronavirus, folks who were intubated, folks who passed away without being able to see their family.

And because of science, I got a positive COVID diagnosis, and the -- what, the most major thing that I have had to deal with were sniffles.

I'm thankful for science.

NICK SCHIFRIN: And we are thankful that you are feeling relatively well.

Eliana, you got about 20, 30 seconds.

ELIANA JOHNSON: Nick, I'm with you.

I'm grateful for my family, and particularly watching these excruciating scenes of families in Israel.

I pray for the return of their small children, many under the age of 5.

I'm grateful for the health, safety and security of my daughter and to live in what hopefully still is the greatest country in the world.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Eliana Johnson, Jonathan Capehart, thank you very much to you both.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Thanks Nick.

ELIANA JOHNSON: Thank you.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Finally tonight: The longtime journalist who wrote the column "Tilting at Windmills," Charles Peters, often called the godfather of neoliberalism, died Thursday at his home in Washington.

Peters was once a campaign staffer for John F. Kennedy and later an executive at the Peace Corps.

He was also the founding editor of the small "Washington Monthly" political journal.

Judy Woodruff sat down with Peters in 2017 to discuss how, for decades, he challenged the core beliefs of both liberals and conservatives.

JUDY WOODRUFF: You launched a magazine in the late 1960s, you said, because you wanted to look at what the federal government was doing right, and what it was doing wrong, how it could do better.

But you soon expanded that to look at the whole country.

CHARLES PETERS, Founder, "Washington Monthly": We felt we had to get into those broader cultural issues.

But the main thing that happened was the snobbery that began with the anti-war movement.

That was, I think, one of two really bad things that's happened to divide the country.

The other was the growth of greed or the -- and the conspicuous consumption that fueled the greed.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Snobbery.

CHARLES PETERS: Yes.

JUDY WOODRUFF: It's not a word that's thrown out a lot.

CHARLES PETERS: Yes.

JUDY WOODRUFF: What did you -- who do you mean by it, and what happened?

CHARLES PETERS: In the anti-war movement, there was a feeling that the people who were against the war were morally superior to those who were for the war.

Well, I was against the war, but I understood there were an awful lot of good people who believed in the war.

That's when I began to worry about what was going wrong with the anti-war movement, even though I was part of the anti-war movement.

JUDY WOODRUFF: You point out a number of ways in which the country, for all of its progress, has gone downhill.

CHARLES PETERS: Yes.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And another way is, you cite the greed that you saw crop up among people in Washington who came here originally to do public service, but then that changed.

CHARLES PETERS: Even though it contained that element of snobbery, that was also a beautiful element of idealism in the anti-war movement.

But that gradually changed in the '70s.

I think part of it was simply these people were getting older.

The V.W.

Beetle was no longer the adequate car.

They had to get the station wagon to the -- and then they had to get the house.

But then they got the house, and then they got -- it had to be a larger house, and it had to have a workout room, and it had to have a home office, and it had to have walk-in closets and state-of-the-art bathroom and kitchen.

And, suddenly, people were into thinking they needed a lot of money.

And then they forgot about the wages paid to the worker.

They became concerned with increasing their dividends, meaning increasing profits.

And when they read about a plant closing, well, that might increase profit, you know?

And we have got to watch those wages, because wages take away from profit.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Charles Peters was also the author of five books on politics and history.

He was 96 years old.

Be sure to tune in to "Washington Week with The Atlantic" tonight on PBS.

Our very own Lisa Desjardins and her panel discuss the challenges that Speaker Mike Johnson will face when Congress returns next week.

And watch "PBS News Weekend" tomorrow for a look at the controversial legacy of Charles Curtis, the only Native American to serve as U.S. vice president.

And that's the "NewsHour" for tonight.

I'm Nick Schifrin.

For all of us at the "PBS NewsHour," have a great weekend.