BREAK) JOHN YANG: Tonight on PBS News Weekend, with new strikes on Lebanon and Gaza, we get the latest on Israel's multi front war, then why a program to give undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens a pathway to citizenship is tied up in the courts, and a new book details the fight to push the Pentagon to adapt to climate change.

WOMAN: Adds on to all the other threats we already face, from strategic competition to terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, cyber risks, and now we have the instability of a changing climate that acts as a threat multiplier on top of all those other things.

(BREAK) JOHN YANG: Good evening.

I'm John Yang.

The Pentagon said today it's sending Israel in an advanced missile defense system and the 100 U.S. troops needed to operate it.

The announcement came just hours after Iran warned the United States to keep forces out of Israel.

The move bolsters Israel's protection against a missile barrage like the one Iran launched two weeks ago.

It comes as Israel steps up its assault on Gaza and Lebanon.

In Gaza, late today, at least 13 people died when a tank shelled a school sheltering displaced people.

Overnight in central Gaza, an airstrike killed a family of eight, including six children.

Israel warned people in northern Gaza to leave, but residents say there's nowhere to go, and they're running out of supplies.

In southern Lebanon today, an Israeli air strike on a century old market killed one person and wounded several others.

Israel said it struck more than 200 Hezbollah targets as it told more villages to evacuate.

Doctors in southern Lebanon report an increase in premature births due to stress.

Mothers worry about the effects on newborns.

TAHANI YASSINE, Patient (through translator): It's very difficult on the pregnant mothers listening to war and the noise they listen to because this stresses the baby as well.

If they give birth in that situation, the baby will suffer from stress.

The mother will be depressed and will suffer from health problems.

Maybe the pollution in the air can affect the baby.

If one could not be in the country, they would leave.

JOHN YANG: Late today in central Israel, rescue services say a drone attack injured about 40 people, three of them critically.

It's one of those serious attacks on Israel in a year of war.

Hezbollah has claimed responsibility.

Special correspondent Leila Molana-Allen has been following all of this from Beirut.

Leila, I know there was an unusual bombing in central Beirut on Thursday, and you went to see the aftermath.

What did you see?

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: I did initially, when we were seeing strikes in Beirut, they were all, of course, in the southern suburbs that are run by Hezbollah here.

That has changed in the past week.

We've seen a few strikes in central Beirut, but this series of strikes on Friday.

Really was a new front in this war, an incredibly central area, really just half a mile from where I'm standing right now.

I'm right next to the Lebanese Parliament buildings and several western embassies.

It happened just after eight o'clock at night on Thursday night, and several high rise residential apartment blocks in this area were hit.

One was brought completely to the ground.

12 levels of apartments.

22 people were killed, 120 injured, very severe injuries.

And what made it even worse was that many people who'd evacuated from the south of Lebanon, which is being hit heavily, had come to this area because they thought they were safe there because nobody ever imagined this area would be struck.

The man that Israel says they were trying to target, Wafiq Safa, he survived this attack.

They weren't able to get him.

He wasn't where they thought they were that he would be which, of course, again, raises questions both over how good their intelligence is, but also whether it's legitimate to target this many civilians to be able to get one Hezbollah operative.

The reality for the civilians in that area, desperate grandmothers, mothers, fathers, children killed and wounded.

Parents killed and wounded.

I was walking through the rubble of childhood bedrooms.

The level to which civilians are now suffering and on the run in this country is escalating by the day.

And really, people feel that there's nowhere safe for them to go inside Lebanon.

JOHN YANG: Israel, not only expanding the area where it's bombing, but intensifying the attacks in southern Lebanon.

What's the situation down there?

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: The situation now is really something that looks like a moonscape.

I know these towns and villages in the South of Lebanon very well.

It's a densely populated part of the country, agricultural landscape, huge mix of Shia, Sunni, Christian villages across that southern area, very important agricultural land.

We've now seen today the destruction in Nabatieh, one of the major towns in the south, of more than 100 year old soups there, sukhamis (ph), where all the farmers would come to bring their wares.

Also a century old mosque there as well.

These areas are being completely flattened, and we've seen footage from drones.

It's very hard to access the area because the strikes are happening so heavily, and the IDF have warned that any car driving south now is at risk of being targeting with no permissions made for either the Lebanese Armed Forces or medics or journalists.

The entire population of southern Lebanon, a third of the country has now been asked to leave, told to evacuate, told it's not safe to go home until the IDF says they can.

Now, of course, Lebanon is sovereign territory, but the issue also there is that they are now seeing that their homes have been completely flattened and there will be nothing for them to go back to.

JOHN YANG: In southern Lebanon, some U.N. peacekeepers have been wounded in the fighting.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that they are human shields for Hezbollah and wants them -- says they should be withdrawn.

What's the reaction from the UN?

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: The reaction from the U.N. has been anger and frustration.

So the reason these uniform troops are there.

They've been there nearly 50 years, but in this current iteration, they've been there since 2006 the end of the war between Lebanon and Israel.

They were a key part of ending that war, and they're there for three major reasons.

Firstly, to try and get Hezbollah to lay down their weapons and withdraw further up the country, and to allow the Lebanese armed forces to be the main authority in the South of Lebanon.

What we've seen over the last week is Israeli tanks embedding -- bedding down next to uniform bases and then starting to fire on those bases.

Several peacekeepers have been injured.

They also breached compound, a uniform compound, yesterday and today, and entered inside.

Now, that's completely against international law.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement saying that the U.N. must withdraw its peacekeepers for the risk to their lives.

But they are saying, no, we're here under international mandate.

We're here to try and deconflict.

It's actually your responsibility under this agreement, both for Israel and Lebanon, to keep these peacekeepers safe, and if they withdraw, that's the last chance for any form of international mediation in the south.

So thus far, they're staying there, but they're extremely concerned about the safety of these peacekeepers, because they're not allowed to fight back.

JOHN YANG: The news that the United States is sending the sophisticated missile defense system and the soldiers, the U.S. soldiers, to operate it.

How is it going to complicate things to have us boots on the ground, and sort of the talks about a ceasefire?

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: So firstly, in terms of the missile defense system, that in itself doesn't really complicate this conflict further, in fact, firstly, that's very clearly defensive.

Most people would agree that nobody is looking for Israeli citizens to try and to be injured in this situation.

So providing increased defensive capability to Israel to protect its people, to make it feel less threatened, to ideally mean that it will deescalate its hostilities in Lebanon because its people are safer can only be a good thing.

However, that isn't all that the United States are supplying.

They've just agreed to another $8.7 billion in military aid to Israel, at about half of which will be used for further military procurement.

But then they also said that they're going to give $157 million to Lebanon to deal with the displacement crisis and the damage to the infrastructure.

So we're now in this extremely odd situation where the United States is both funding the bombs which are devastating Lebanon, and then funding the reconstruction and the crisis response.

JOHN YANG: Leila Molana-Allen in Beirut tonight.

Thank you very much.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Thanks.

John.

JOHN YANG: President Biden visited Florida today as residents try to clean up and assess the damage from hurricanes Milton and Helene.

Mr. Biden met with first responders, state officials and Floridians affected by the storms and made an aerial tour of the Tampa-St. Petersburg area.

The President announced $612 million for the state to bolster the electrical grid's ability to withstand extreme weather events, and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said she expects the majority of Floridians to have power restored by Tuesday.

That's less than a week after Milton made landfall.

Vice President Harris was in North Carolina today.

She held a rally at East Carolina University in Greenville and attended a church service where she criticized the people spreading disinformation about federal hurricane relief, including former President Trump.

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. Vice President: Instead of offering hope, there are those who are channeling people's tragedies and sorrows into grievance and hatred, and one may ask why, and I think, sadly, frankly, the motives are quite transparent, to gain some advantage for themselves, to play politics with other people's heartbreak.

And it is unconscionable.

Now is not a time to incite fear.

JOHN YANG: On Fox News, Trump said that as President, he'd use the military to go after what he called internal enemies.

DONALD TRUMP, Former U.S. President: We have two enemies.

We have the outside enemy, and then we have the enemy from within.

And the enemy from within, in my opinion, is more dangerous than China, Russia and all these countries, because if you have a smart president, he can handle them pretty easily.

I handled I got along great with all -- why handled them.

JOHN YANG: And on Saturday, a Nevada man with loaded guns was arrested outside Trump's rally in California.

And an engineering feat for SpaceX in Texas today, after the company's starship vehicle lifted off the booster rocket returned to the launch pad and was captured by giant metal arms that guided it into place.

The achievement brings SpaceX closer to its goal of developing a reusable rocket.

Still to come on PBS News Weekend, the future of a program that would protect undocumented spouses from deportation and how the Pentagon is adapting to the growing threat of climate change.

(BREAK) JOHN YANG: A Biden administration program offering a path to citizenship for up to a half a million undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens is on hold.

That's to give a federal court time to consider a challenge from 16 Republican led states.

The states went to court just four days after the keeping families together.

Program went into effect in August.

They said it essentially grants immigration amnesty to people who are in the country illegally.

A federal court hearing is set for November, 5 Election Day.

Ashley DeAzevedo is president of American Families United, an advocacy group that backs this program.

Ashley tell us how this program works and how it was before, what the spouses of U.S. citizens had to do before?

ASHLEY DEAZEVEDO, President, American Families United: Yeah, thank you for having me.

And what this program did was essentially remove the necessity for a spouse of a U.S. citizen to go to their country of origin for an interview, it did not grant anyone else any type of pathway that didn't exist.

What it did was take people who have been here for over 10 years, married to a U.S. citizen and with no disqualifying criminal background, and allow them to process their paperwork here in the United States.

Before this program was in place, people were forced to go abroad, and sometimes the wait was long, and there was a separation from their spouse, and they even found denials in their home country, and then they were separated and stuck outside of the United States.

So it created a real hardship for American families for spouses like me, to have someone go abroad for this process and then not be able to return home.

JOHN YANG: And some of these spouses have been in the country for a very long time.

ASHLEY DEAZEVEDO: Absolutely.

On average, these spouses have been here 23 years.

So working, contributing to the economy, paying taxes.

You know, they're your neighbors, the people who's, you know, kids your kids play with.

We go to the same churches, shop in the same food stores.

What it is, you know, most people don't realize when you marry a U.S. citizen, you don't automatically get a green card, and you don't automatically become a citizen.

There's a lot of roadblocks and a lot of hurdles in the way, and there are a lot of families that are hurt because of that.

JOHN YANG: Now, there were a lot of people who applied and were approved for this before the court froze things.

People can still apply, but they they're not approving any new applications.

What happens to the people who applied before and were approved before?

ASHLEY DEAZEVEDO: Now they're able to move forward to the next step, so they can apply for their work permit, and then after a certain period of time, I believe it's a year, they can apply for their green card and go through the process, you know, how they would regularly.

JOHN YANG: The opponents of this say that it's mass amnesty.

They say that it encourages illegal immigration.

What do you say to that?

ASHLEY DEAZEVEDO: I mean, that's just silly.

If you think about it, by definition, you have to have been in this country for 10 years as of June 17.

So that's not encouraging anyone to come over the border or come to this country, there was a cut off.

If you were in the country for nine years and 363 days, guess what?

You didn't you - - did not make the cutoff, and it's frustrating.

But no, amnesty, absolutely not.

These are people that already have a pathway.

It's just making it a little bit more simple and removing the hardship on American citizens.

JOHN YANG: And your group is backing this.

Why?

ASHLEY DEAZEVEDO: My group represents 1.1 million U.S. citizens whose spouses face obstacles in overcoming or going through the legal immigration system.

We are the people that are here to shout from the rooftops that it's not like you see on TV or in the movies.

Unfortunately, so many families find themselves separated, living in the shadows in the United States, and this is just something that will make our economy better.

It'll make our neighborhoods safer, and it's the right thing to do.

These are people, again, that have been here, contributing for over a decade at minimum.

JOHN YANG: To apply for this, the people have to go to the government and say, Yes, I am in this country illegally.

You've got a candidate for president right now who's talking about mass deportations.

How does that factor into people's decisions about whether to apply for this?

ASHLEY DEAZEVEDO: It's a real concern.

People have actually decided to wait until after the elections before applying, because it is really scary to hear as an American citizen that your family has a target on its back.

We really do live like second class citizens.

Nobody can understand the trauma and the fear of just day to day life, not knowing if your spouse is going to be taken away, if they're not going to come home, it's hard for regular Americans to understand that thought process and that lifestyle.

So it absolutely is a concern.

But our hope is that people see the opportunity and they continue applying.

We believe that this is on strong legal ground, and it will eventually be successful in the courts, and we'll hope to see some more grants of parole soon.

JOHN YANG: Ashley DeAzevedo, American Families United.

Thank you very much.

ASHLEY DEAZEVEDO: Thank you.

Applause.

JOHN YANG: At a climate conference three years ago, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said no nation can find lasting security without addressing the climate crisis.

That sentiment reflects the Pentagon's three decade evolution on climate change.

Ali Rogin sat down with a former Pentagon official whose new book chronicles that transformation, both as an eyewitness and as a key player.

ALI ROGIN: In 1993 Sherri Goodman became the first ever Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for environmental security.

Since then, she's pushed military and civilian leaders to look at climate change not as a hindrance to the mission, but as a critical component of it.

Her new book is called "Threat multiplier," a phrase she coined to describe how climate change makes every conflict more dangerous.

Sherri Goodman, thank you so much for being here.

Let's talk first about this phrase, threat multiplier.

Why did you come up with it, and why is it such an effective way to describe climate change's effect on security?

SHERRI GOODMAN, Author, "Threat Multiplier": It's a way to communicate to a broader audience the impact of climate change as a force for instability in fragile regions of the world, and how it affects our security globally, that it adds on to all the other threats we already face, from strategic competition to terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, cyber risks, and now we have the instability of a changing climate that acts as a threat multiplier on top of all those other threats.

ALI ROGIN: And you really viewed this evolution through your career, when you started the military was much more focused on its impact on the environment, things like cleaning up waste, mitigating pollution, and over your career, it seems like the military's really shift to be focused on the environment's impact on it.

What has it been like witnessing that evolution?

SHERRI GOODMAN: I've seen the military go from being seen as first environmental laggard to today, being seen as a climate and clean energy leader, and you're correct.

In the 1990s at the end of the Cold War, it was a lot about cleaning up messes in the wake of a new era of stronger environmental practices and working to correct problems of the past, but it's also very much about the future, and the future is all about the changing climate.

So now we see how a changing climate affects the mission, the ability to perform that mission anywhere around the world.

ALI ROGIN: There are a number of hot wars around the world right now, from Sudan to Israel, Gaza to Ukraine, Russia.

How does climate change act as a threat multiplier in those sorts of conflicts?

SHERRI GOODMAN: Well in drought stricken regions of the Middle East and North Africa, climate driven drought sends farmers and herders to the cities where they then can be recruited by terrorist organizations.

So we say it's a Petri dish for terrorism.

In an increasingly open Arctic because of climate change and rising global temperatures, we now have a region where Putin sees this as a toll road for transportation, from ports in Asia to ports in Europe and China, eyes this as a new region with shorter shipping routes.

So this is an era previously characterized by cooperation that is now increasingly about competition.

ALI ROGIN: You've noted how the military has really come around to incorporating climate change into its planning.

What are some instances where they've really done that in impactful ways?

SHERRI GOODMAN: Well, the first I would say, is we now have climate war games happening in every region of the world with every combatant command.

The second dimension of this is we think very seriously about resilience for military bases and for troops, because we can't operate if the base is flooded, or we have to fly the aircraft off in a hurricane because the winds are too strong.

And then third, it's about the energy transition.

How do we move to net zero and still be a militarily effective force.

ALI ROGIN: One of the things that I found the most interesting in the book is how different military bases are becoming their own islands of energy independence and resilience.

Can you talk a little bit about some of those efforts that are taking place base by base?

SHERRI GOODMAN: The military has an effort to be net zero by 2050, and to do that, it's deploying microgrids at many military bases.

And the first military base to become net zero is in Albany, Georgia, and it deployed a microgrid, and it has a waste to energy plant, and it's working with the community to enable it to operate net zero, and, in fact, even share energy into the community.

That's because military bases have to operate even if the power goes down on the larger national grid, there's a requirement to operate for two weeks without power off the grid.

So it's very important to be able to sustain that power in a responsible way.

ALI ROGIN: You witness this evolution of military leaders who are in charge of deploying troops for these massive missions.

What did you see about how the mindset of military leaders changed when it comes to this issue, and how was that achieved.

SHERRI GOODMAN: You know, the U.S. military, in many ways, is a barometer of change in society, and so as we've seen that over many decades and throughout history, racial integration, women in the military, it's not always at the forefront, but neither is it a laggard.

It's sort of in the middle.

And when it starts to lead, it can really because it's very big with a lot of people, like an aircraft carrier, when that finally starts to move, there's a lot of momentum behind it.

So yes, it took a while, but military leaders figured out that this is where they wanted to be.

They don't want to destroy the environment, and they also want to ensure that our troops, our soldiers, sailor, airmen and marine, are protected from all the threats, including the global climate health threats they now face when they further deploy into hotter temperatures and colder temperatures.

ALI ROGIN: You write about how throughout your career, you are often the only woman in the room.

What was that like for you?

And what would your advice be to young women who are looking to get into this field now?

SHERRI GOODMAN: Well, I came of age, you're right, Ali, when there weren't a lot of women in defense, but the doors were opening, and so I kept pushing through them.

And I felt that if I did a good job and I worked on the connections that were needed to advance an important issue, that people would take me seriously and that you could build a coalition of people inside.

I've been a really a change agent from the inside of a very large institution.

And so I want to give young people today, women and men, hope that there are opportunities to have an impact and to have change, even from large institutions.

It takes some staying power, and it takes building that network of people and leaders who are willing to make that change and then make sure it's enduring throughout.

ALI ROGIN: The book, is "Threat multiplier."

Sherri Goodman, thank you so much for joining us.

SHERRI GOODMAN: Thank you, Ali, it's been a pleasure.

JOHN YANG: On the latest edition of PBS News weekly a year after the October 7 attack on Israel, an in depth look at how the wars change the region, all that and more is on the latest edition of PBS News Weekly.

And that is PBS News Weekend for this Sunday.

I'm John Yang, for all of my colleagues, thanks for joining us.

Have a good week.

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