AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: Israeli forces push deeper into Gaza, as airstrikes threaten hospitals where tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians shelter alongside the wounded.

AMNA NAWAZ: The war between Hamas and Israel leads to more displays of antisemitism, from a mob at a Russian airport to threats on college campuses in the U.S. GEOFF BENNETT: And patients and families search for answers amid a prolonged nationwide shortage of ADHD medicine.

ERIN FOX, University of Utah: These are low-cost drugs.

And so, when a drug company has a shortage, it doesn't really hurt their bottom line.

And so there's not a tremendous amount of incentive to fix the problem.

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

We are entering the fourth week of war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, as Israel's air campaign continues and the death toll mounts.

GEOFF BENNETT: Israel is now fighting Hamas on the ground in Gaza, with troops moving methodically in the northern end of the strip, while, in the south, more than a million Gazans await aid.

Leila Molana-Allen again starts our coverage.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: For the fourth day straight, tanks and armored vehicles rolled into Gaza as part of Israel's growing ground offensive.

At his first press conference since the October 7 terror attacks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated that Israel will not consider a cease-fire.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, Israeli Prime Minister: Calls for a cease-fire are calls for Israel to surrender to Hamas, to surrender to terrorism, to surrender to barbarism.

That will not happen.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: And Israel's longest-serving premier said he will not resign, despite growing anger at his government among Israelis.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: The only thing I intend to have resign is Hamas.

We're going to resign them to the dustbin of history.

That's my goal.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: A goal apparent over Gaza City today, its skyline still filled with explosions, including in areas near the city's largest hospitals.

The Palestinian Red Crescent yesterday released video from inside al-Quds Hospital after a nearby Israeli rocket attack.

Areas near Al Shifa Hospital have also been hit in recent Israeli airstrikes.

Israel says Hamas hides one of its main military command centers beneath the hospital.

But Al Shifa is also home to 50,000 displaced Palestinians.

Nearby streets are becoming tent cities, with their own food and clothes stalls.

MOHAMMED MAAROUF, Displaced Palestinian (through translator): Now the Israelis say that they will hit Al Shifa.

The threats do not frighten us.

Let them launch airstrikes as much as they want.

We are all martyrs in the end.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: The conflict has already exacted an excruciating toll on civilians, with thousands dead, even the most vulnerable.

So far, more than 3,000 children have been killed, according to Save the Children.

That's more than the total number of children killed annually in conflict zones since 2019.

South of the city, Israeli tanks today temporarily blocked Salah al-Din, Gaza's main north-south highway.

A local journalist recorded this video as a tank appeared to open fire on a civilian car, killing three people.

Palestinian residents say the route was blocked for over an hour, complicating Gazans' already-fraught efforts to move south.

"NewsHour" producer Shams Odeh was there.

SHAMS ODEH: The Israelis asked all the people a few days ago to leave Gaza to the south.

Now the Israeli army cut the way at all between the north and the south.

Any car crossing now to Gaza, they attack and target the car.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: But Gazans who escaped to the south from Israel's military campaign in the north found no protection there.

This school in the town of Al-Mughraqa used to be a safe haven, now shattered after a nearby bombing, the youngest ones left with whatever they could carry, as crowds crammed into one truck preparing to flee without anywhere to go.

MAN (through translator): There are almost 2,000 of us here.

We've been here for two days with missiles thrown over our heads.

We are evacuating again.

We don't know where to go.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: In Israel, artillery positions and military encampments roll out along the Gaza border.

The IDF has confirmed its troops are now on the ground fighting inside Gaza.

We can hear small-arms fire, the sound of constant airstrikes landing, behind me, smoke rising from towns in the northern part of the strip, as the air force continues its unrelenting bombardment.

Today, Israel said it killed four members of Hamas, and Israeli forces are expanding their military campaign, gradually building up forces to eliminate pockets of resistance and destroy enemy infrastructure.

This soldier is part of an IDF team that has been searching the border area for Hamas explosives and booby-traps to clear the way as ground forces move in.

As the operation expands, their task will only get more complicated.

MAN: I think one of the biggest threats is explosive ordnance set there to harm our teams moving forward.

So that could be in open terrain.

It could be in built terrain.

It could be underground terrain.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Three weeks later, bomb squads are also still working on safely detonating and removing thousands of potentially live explosives left over after the brutal Hamas attacks on farming villages and at a music festival, where nearly 300 young people were killed and dozens kidnapped.

MAN: We found an enormous amount of explosives, ordnance.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Meirav Leshem-Gonen's 23-year-old daughter, Romi, was at that party.

As rockets began to rain in from Gaza that morning, Romi stayed on the phone with her mom for hours, desperately trying to escape the terrorists who had invaded the festival site.

The friend trying to drive them home was killed.

Then her best friend was shot dead next to her.

MEIRAV LESHEM-GONEN, Family Member of Hostage: At 10:14, I got the most horrifying phone call I could get.

She was calling me and crying, saying: "Mommy, I was shot.

I'm bleeding.

I'm afraid I'm going to die."

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Since October 7, they have heard nothing.

But Meirav and her four other kids are working night and day to find Romi and bring her home.

Like many families of the hostages, she's angry and terrified that the government and army have launched a war on Gaza by land and air while their loved ones are still trapped inside.

MEIRAV LESHEM-GONEN: It's frightening just to think they're widening the maneuver, and my daughter is there, not just my daughter, other people, babies, small kids.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: One hostage was freed today during the ground invasion.

Israeli soldier Ori Megidish has been reunited with her family.

More releases are expected as the ground mission continues.

Meanwhile, Israeli security forces are cracking down throughout the West Bank.

The Israel Defense Forces released video of an overnight raid in the northern city of Jenin.

Four Palestinians were killed and many more injured.

And violence against Israelis is also spreading.

In East Jerusalem, Israeli police said an officer was stabbed by a Palestinian.

And even far from the front lines, in the Dagestan region of Russia, a mob stormed an airport after a flight from Israel landed in the mostly Muslim region on Sunday.

Hundreds pushed their way into the airport searching for Jews, in a sinister echo of pogroms past.

And harassment and violence are increasing against both Jews and Muslims everywhere as the world watches this escalating war, Geoff.

GEOFF BENNETT: Leila, I know that you have spent the past few days reporting along the border with Gaza ever since the intensified ground raids started.

What more can you tell us about how they're playing out?

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: I have ever since Friday night, when they announced that they were increasing their ground operation in Gaza.

Now, of course, what's happening from the air, we can all see, these unrelenting airstrikes on Gaza, smoke constantly rising.

I have been down on that border, the sound every half-minute of something being sent there, either artillery fire or an airstrike, and then, of course, smoke rising from the buildings in front of us.

Now, in terms of what's happening with the ground forces that have gone in, it was very difficult to get information at the beginning.

We are now hearing more.

It does seem that, at the beginning of the weekend, they were focusing on this northeastern corner of Gaza, trying to move through there, trying to get past the border fence.

We know there were fights, hand-to-hand fights there with Hamas terrorists on that border fence.

And by today, they have now reached Gaza City on the ground there.

We know that they blocked the top of that vital artery through Gaza today for a while.

Now, I was speaking to a couple of soldiers that had just come back over the border from fighting in Gaza this weekend.

What they were saying is, they're incredibly worried about two things, firstly, of course, these tunnels, hundreds of miles of tunnels underneath Gaza that Hamas are using.

And, secondly, when they come out, often from behind the tank and attack, they then move into this densely packed environment in Gaza, one of the most densely packed environments in the world.

And it's then urban warfare.

So they're facing multiple threats.

They have had their first few casualties yesterday and today.

GEOFF BENNETT: And as we saw in your report, Leila, the prime minister held a press conference today.

He was asked if he would step down by a reporter.

He refused to do so.

Give us a sense, though, of the public opinion and how that might affect his political standing.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Well, there are three issues here.

Of course, the first is people in the country so incredibly angry that Mr. Security, as Netanyahu was known, could have allowed this to happen in the first place, this massive intelligence failure.

Secondly, at the end of last year with this election, Netanyahu made a deal with some very right-wing elements to form a government, and many people feel that that split in society, those divisions are what distracted the security forces of the government from this threat that was coming.

And thirdly now, families of these hostages absolutely furious with him that these ground raids are happening, these huge air assaults happening while their families are still inside Gaza.

Now, he has apologized about the intelligence failure, but he said that he is going to go forward with this war.

And we all suspect that he hopes that, if he wins this war, all that will be forgotten and he will be the hero of Israel again.

GEOFF BENNETT: Leila Molana-Allen, reporting tonight in Tel Aviv.

Leila, thank you.

As we reported, Israel is now advancing into Gaza Strip, but should it pursue more limited goals that avoid causing even more civilian casualties?

Nick Schifrin picks up our coverage from here.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Geoff, a U.S. official tells me that Israel's ground invasion plans -- quote - - "changed" to use -- quote -- "more methodical tactics," compared to their original plans.

President Biden and U.S. military officials with experience fighting in urban environments, such as Mosul against ISIS, have been urging Israel to think through the consequences of their actions, not only on Gazans, but also on efforts to release 230 hostages, deliver humanitarian aid, and prevent regional war.

As of now, we have seen relatively limited Israel ground incursions into Gaza in at least three places, the northwest and northeast corners and Central Gaza.

But Israel's air campaign has been relentless, turning parts of Northern Gaza into moonscapes.

For more on this, we get two perspectives.

Retired Major General Yaakov Amidror was national security adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after a 36-year career in the Israeli Defense Force.

He's now a distinguished fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America.

And Frederic Wehrey had a 20-year career in the U.S. Air Force focused on the Middle East.

He's now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Thank you very much to both of you.

Welcome to "PBS NewsHour."

Yaakov Amidror, let me start with you.

Do you see different tactics in Israel's ground invasion so far in these early days than, one, Israel indicated they might be, but also different tactics than Israel has used in the past?

MAJ. GEN. YAAKOV AMIDROR (RET.

), Former Israeli National Security Adviser: The tactics that we are using now are the tactics that had been learned for many years.

I'm sure that, with some experts from America, which have more experience in urban area like Fallujah in Mosul, it will not be one can go into -- immediately into the center of Gaza.

It will be more forces around it and slowly, slowly squeeze in.

And we are using the superiority in firepower to do it slowly.

And whenever there is a need, we know to stop, to use the air force, the artillery and other tools that we have.

So, in a way, we have time, and we are using it for minimizing the number of casualties in our side and to reduce the number of civilians that might be killed if we will rush in with huge forces.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Frederic Wehrey, is that what you see, a kind of slow operation from the IDF to try and avoid both Israeli casualties, but also civilian casualties in Gaza on the ground?

LT. COL. FREDERIC WEHREY (RET.

), U.S. Air Force: Well, it certainly seems to be deliberate and gradualist from the Israeli perspective.

And, again, they're avoiding committing all their forces at once.

You have to remember they need to prepare the battlefield in terms of gathering intelligence.

They're incredibly concerned about the difficulty of this urban environment.

And we have to talk about the tunnel infrastructure.

Hamas is deeply entrenched underground, and that's a very difficult environment.

They are, I think, also concerned about scaling this operation to avoid giving Hezbollah and Iran a pretext to escalate.

But, again, as you mentioned, the airstrikes have been anything but gradualist.

I mean, they have been devastating, relentless.

And, of course, civilians have paid a huge toll for this indiscriminate bombing.

And I will just add the sort of gradual squeezing, what we're talking about is a siege, really.

NICK SCHIFRIN: My colleague Leila Molana-Allen asked Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer about this very topic, about Israeli military actions in Gaza.

This is what he said earlier today.

RON DERMER, Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs: Israel had to come up with a battle plan in a very short amount of time.

So, in the process that we're coming up with our battle plan, we're also having American input into it.

So they have been part of that process.

So we're in a theater now where you have many, many fewer civilians there, and that's enabled us to minimize civilian casualties and focus on killing the terrorists, which we are doing.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Yaakov Amidror, is that what you see, that there was no battle plan for invading Gaza, and Israel is trying to reduce civilian casualties by moving that population south?

MAJ. GEN. YAAKOV AMIDROR: The -- we are asking the population of North Gaza to move to the south, an area which was designated as safe haven.

And the majority of the population moved to this area.

Hamas is doing everything to stop the people from being evacuated themselves into this area.

And Hamas is doing everything to maximize the number of civilians that will be killed in the Palestinian side, because this is the - - allow him to apply to the international media, to the international community, saying that civilians are suffering from the Israeli attack.

We never had in mind a need to reconquer Gaza.

We understood that we have to deal with Hamas.

And only after the 7th of October, when we understood that this is something which the organization is barbarian, we decided that this operation will be unlike all the other operations in the Gaza Strip.

It will be a one in which we will go after the Hamas and distract it inside Gaza.

And for that, you have to occupy the vast majority of the Gaza Strip.

You want to destroy Hamas completely.

It will not exist as a military organization anymore, not in Gaza and not anywhere else.

And we will do whatever is needed for that.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Frederic Wehrey, you hear the goals there.

Israeli officials have been very clear, eliminate Hamas' ability to launch any kind of military operation, but also eliminate Hamas' political ability to run Gaza.

Do you believe Israel can accomplish those goals?

LT. COL. FREDERIC WEHREY: No, to put it bluntly.

I mean, this is the stated objective.

It's emotionally satisfying.

We have to recall the tenor of the moment.

There's a desire for revenge.

There's obviously political considerations for the prime minister, Israeli prime minister, to do something for his own political survival.

But you're talking about eradicating a deeply entrenched movement, a social entity, an entity that has its grip over Gaza.

And so I think the end state will not be the complete elimination, but some variation of this where Israel can claim a modicum of success.

And I do want to emphasize here that the real center of gravity for this threat to Israel is not Hamas, per se.

It's not Hamas' infrastructure, missiles, support from Iran, the tunnels.

It's really the problems of Gaza, the occupation, and that's not going to be resolved militarily.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Yaakov Amidror, do you think this can be resolved militarily?

Respond to what Fred Wehrey just said.

MAJ. GEN. YAAKOV AMIDROR: I don't agree, not about the facts and not about the consequences.

Gaza is not under occupation.

And I don't agree about the consequences.

If we will be in Gaza, we will kill Gaza -- we will kill the majority of the commanders, if not all of them.

We will destroy all the facilities which belong to Hamas.

Of course, Hamas is an organization with charity and schools might remain in Gaza, but no any ability to attack Israel.

And Israel is not leaving in the area.

None of its military capability will be revived after the operation, after the war in Gaza, because we will not let it happen.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Frederic Wehrey, given that determination that you just heard from Israel, what are the consequences for how long this war will last and how difficult it will be?

LT. COL. FREDERIC WEHREY: Well, Israeli officials recently said that this could be a yearlong operation.

I mean, you're looking at something much longer if it proceeds in the way that it's been described by your guest.

I mean, you're looking at regime change and occupation.

And history shows that that doesn't work out well, that once organizations are decimated, something emerges to take their place.

And so we're talking about a massive problem.

And I think it's very easy to focus on the infrastructure, to talk about reducing capability.

But it's quite another to talk about replacing an entire governance structure in this tremendously problematic area that has been a wellspring for grievances and radicalization.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Frederic Wehrey, Yaakov Amidror, thank you very much to you both.

MAJ. GEN. YAAKOV AMIDROR: Thank you very much for the opportunity.

AMNA NAWAZ: In the day's other headlines: Illinois landlord Joseph Czuba pleaded not guilty to murder and hate crime charges in a court in Joliet.

he's accused of fatally stabbing his tenant, a 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy named Wadea Al-Fayoume, and seriously injuring Wadea's mother earlier this month.

Authorities say Czuba targeted them because of their Muslim faith in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war.

General Motors has reached a tentative deal with the United Auto Workers union just days after Ford and Stellantis did the same.

The agreement should bring an end to the six-week strike.

All three automakers settled on four-year contracts with 25 percent wage increases and cost-of-living adjustments, but the deals still must be ratified by UAW members.

Businesses and schools in Lewiston, Maine, began gradually reopening today.

It's been five days since 18 people were killed in the deadliest mass shooting in the state's history.

More than 1,000 people gathered for a town vigil last night to remember the victims.

Mourners held candles as religious leaders spoke of the community's pain and healing.

REV.

TODD LITTLE, First United Pentecostal Church: What has happened here may shape our growth.

And we will not be defined by the tragedies that have happened here.

Fear, anxiety, and trepidation will not dictate our present or our future.

AMNA NAWAZ: The suspected gunman was found dead on Friday of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Investigators are still searching for a motive.

Soccer's governing body of FIFA is banning Luis Rubiales, the former president of the Spanish Soccer Federation, from all soccer activities for three years.

Rubiales forcibly kissed a player on the lips during the Women's World Cup trophy ceremony in August.

The scandal exposed a pattern of rampant sexism in women's soccer.

Rubiales also faces a criminal investigation for sexual assault.

The FDA sounded a warning today that certain WanaBana pureed fruit pouches contain dangerously high levels of lead.

The apple cinnamon pouches were linked to four lead poisoning cases involving children in North Carolina, prompting a nationwide recall.

Lead is toxic and can damage a child's brain and nervous system and can also slow their development.

And stocks rallied on Wall Street today.

The Dow Jones industrial average surged 511 points to close at 32929.

The Nasdaq rose 146 points.

And the S&P 500 added 49.

Still to come on the "NewsHour": President Biden issues executive orders to manage the risks of artificial intelligence; a prolonged shortage of ADHD medicine puts a strain on patients and families; and Tamara Keith and Amy Walter analyze the latest shakeups among presidential contenders.

The mob surging through an airport in Russia this weekend searching for Jewish passengers on a flight from Israel is the latest example of rising antisemitism globally.

And here in the U.S., fears are also rising among Jewish Americans, as reports of antisemitic incidents have increased since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

In response, the White House is unveiling new plans to combat antisemitic attacks at schools and college campuses.

White House correspondent Laura Barron-Lopez joins us now for more.

Laura, good to see you.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Good to be here.

AMNA NAWAZ: Now, we have reported antisemitism has been on the rise, even before that October 7 Hamas attack that killed 1,400 Israelis.

Reports of it since then have been increasing.

You talked to some experts about this.

What are they saying?

Where are we seeing this?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: So, to start off, Amna, the FBI released, as you noted, annual hate crime statistics earlier this month, and it showed that, between 2021 and 2022, antisemitic hate crimes rose 36 percent, and antisemitism accounted for over half of all reported religious-based hate crimes.

But in recent days, since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, there have been multiple incidents that anti-hate groups are very concerned about.

Namely, this past weekend, at Cornell University, police had to be stationed outside of the Center for Jewish Living because of posts online that threatened Jewish students, specifically saying that they should be shot, calling Jewish students pigs.

And the threats were referred to the FBI and condemned forcefully by Cornell's president.

In addition to that, George Washington University saw some broadcasting of antisemitic statements, "From the river to the sea," on the side of buildings.

And then, most recently, in Montauk, New York, police are investigating swastika graffiti.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, the White House has unveiled a new plan today they say will combat this rise in antisemitic incidents we're seeing.

What does the plan entail?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: So, White House officials said today that this is in response to a -- quote - - "alarming rise" of antisemitic incidents across campuses.

And so what this action does is, it directs the Justice Department and the DHS to partner with campus law enforcement, to work with them, help them -- help track hate-related rhetoric across campuses.

DHS, Homeland Security, cybersecurity experts, specifically, will be helping schools monitor an increase of not just the rhetoric, but also potential threats.

And then administration officials are meeting with Jewish American groups today and Jewish students later this week.

Now, we should note, Amna, that these tools can also be used for other hate rhetoric that we're seeing, including against Arabs and Muslims on campuses.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, as we know, the ADL, the Anti-Defamation League, has been tracking this for years, right, also liaising with communities, Jewish communities, here in America and abroad.

You spoke to some folks from the ADL.

What did they tell you about what they're seeing right now?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: I spoke to Oren Segal, who's the vice president for ADL's Center on Extremism.

And he gave us an update on the number of antisemitic incidents that are being reported to the group.

OREN SEGAL, Anti-Defamation League: We have been tracking a nearly 400 percent increase in antisemitic incidents being reported to us.

That's vandalism, harassment, and assault.

And that's in comparison to the same time frame the previous year.

The Jewish community feels vulnerable right now.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: That's something -- that same sentiment is something that the CEO of the National Council of -- excuse me -- of Jewish women, Sheila Katz, reiterated to me.

She said that, when she posted on X, also known as Twitter, that Jews aren't feeling safe right now, that she was met with vitriol, that she actually received threats of assault and rape directed at her.

She met with second gentleman Douglas Emhoff today, as well as Secretary of Education Cardona.

And she told them that she feels as though they're witnessing the normalization of antisemitism.

She said that everyone at the meeting, including those administration officials, felt as though what we're seeing right now is something that has never been seen before in terms of antisemitism in the United States.

AMNA NAWAZ: I want to underscore something you reported earlier on, the message that was projected at George Washington University, also, this chant we have seen resurface at some protests, "From the river to the sea."

That's essentially calling for the eradication of the state of Israel.

What are the experts who are tracking this tell you about seeing that out in public in this way?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: So, some of them say that, of course, this is people taking advantage of the Middle East conflict to spread antisemitism, but they also attribute this, especially Oren Segal, to a lack of education.

OREN SEGAL: What really troubles me, and I spend a lot of time in dark spaces, is when people don't even recognize what antisemitism is, when they don't even understand or recognize how one is supporting a violent terrorist organization.

To me, that's why it's critical to have education, because, clearly, what we're seeing on college campuses is telling us, it's needed.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: I also spoke to a research analyst with the Southern Poverty Law Center, Alon Milwicki, and he said that he's tracking a sharp increase in antisemitism, antisemitic incidents.

He says seeing swastikas is something that unfortunately is common, but the difference now is that we're seeing more and more of swatting against synagogues and against other Jewish institutions.

Swatting is bomb threats being called into these institutions.

And he also gave this very striking example, Amna, where he said that he's taught history for years at universities, and he also said that a lack of knowledge about the Holocaust is what he thinks contributes to antisemitism, that when he would ask students whether or not they had ever heard of Auschwitz, which is, of course, we know, one of -- was the largest extermination, concentration camps during the Holocaust, and only a handful would raise their hands.

So this is something that, of course, we're going to continue tracking, but, again, he attributed it to a failure in the education system, and not necessarily to these students specifically.

AMNA NAWAZ: Laura Barron-Lopez, our White House correspondent, thank you for this important reporting.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: President Joe Biden today signed the government's first executive order to establish new standards and rules for the use of artificial intelligence.

It's a wide-ranging set of rules and recommendations to address concerns about national security, privacy, equity,and the labor market.

Some of the key components include creating new safety and security standards for A.I., requiring testing and assurances that A.I.

cannot be used to produce biological or nuclear weapons, protecting consumer privacy by developing guidelines for federal agencies, and advancing equity in civil rights to prevent algorithmic discrimination.

To take a closer look at these changes, we're joined now by Nicol Turner Lee, director of the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution.

Thanks so much for being with us.

NICOL TURNER LEE, Brookings Institution: Oh, thanks for having me.

GEOFF BENNETT: Now, this executive order, as you well know, it requires developers, that they put their A.I.

models through testing and then submit those test results to the federal government.

How much of a difference will that make, given that this only applies to future technology, and what's already on the market is already extraordinarily powerful?

NICOL TURNER LEE: The technologies that have already been deployed, I think, are the ones that we're really concerned about.

And so future-proofing emerging technology is going to be important, but the rigorous testing and the impact assessment and the red teaming that the White House potentially wants us to undergo may be something that may put us behind on some of the outcomes that we're currently experiencing with existing technologies today.

GEOFF BENNETT: The order also requires that the most advanced artificial intelligence products be tested to assure that they can't be used in the development of biological weapons or nuclear weapons.

Help us understand what the government is concerned about in terms of the range of threats on that front.

NICOL TURNER LEE: We have often talked about this race to A.I.

And I think this is coming true more and more, particularly as we see these developments across the world, where we're seeing technological advances being integrated into traditional military stances.

What that means is, in the United States, we have to get a handle on this.

That means ensuring that our allies, as well as our competitors, are not developing weapons or tools that embed A.I.

in ways that we cannot actually fight.

It's really important that people see this A.I.

order as one that involves the general public.

But, most importantly, it's about protecting our borders and ensuring that we're not allowing in what could potentially become fateful tools that are relying upon technological vulnerabilities to actually succeed in acts of war.

GEOFF BENNETT: In his remarks before signing the executive order today at the White House, the president spoke about A.I.

's ability to create convincing disinformation.

JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: With A.I., fraudsters can take a three-second - - and you all know this -- three-second recording of your voice.

I have watched one of me on a couple of... (LAUGHTER) JOE BIDEN: I said, when the hell did I say that?

But all kidding aside, three-second recording of your voice and generate an impersonation.

Everyone has a right to know when audio they're hearing or video they're watching is generated or altered by A.I.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, what the president is talking about those are known as deepfakes.

And so this executive order calls for the Department of Commerce to come up with standards for watermarking A.I.-generated content, so that everybody knows it was created by artificial intelligence.

It's one thing for the Commerce Department to recommend standards.

It's quite another thing for the federal government to enforce those standards.

How would that work?

Or is there any provision for enforcement?

NICOL TURNER LEE: Well, the challenge right now in the executive order is that it's a nonbinding agreement.

The hope is that Congress will see the equal importance of this type of intervention in ways that they will actually pass really great legislation.

In light of a presidential election coming up and the possibility of manipulation when it comes to face, voice, and other biometric features, the convincing nature of technology, particularly with generative A.I., it calls upon this action.

So the president made joke about somebody impersonating him.

Well, there's a lot of us that could be impersonated, and that can have very, very detrimental results, particularly as we head into our election period.

GEOFF BENNETT: We know that artificial intelligence can absorb human biases in the training data.

And the executive order directs federal agencies to use their existing authority to prevent discrimination in areas like housing, education, and employment.

How so?

NICOL TURNER LEE: One of the things that we don't realize as users of the Internet is that these technologies treat us as products, right?

We're the commodities.

We are the subject of why these technologies work so well.

And what that means is that the data that it's constantly scraping is not only the data that belongs to each of us individually, but it's the data that belongs to the context and the historical periods in which that data was actually generated.

So, bias shows up.

It shows up along racial lines, gender lines, shows up in terms of distinguishing our sexual orientation.

The bottom line is, this data is coming from somewhere, and it's coming from our community, as well as our person.

It's really important, for the many years that we have fought for civil rights laws and human rights, that we not allow technologies to come in and change the nature of that game.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, on that point, how do the recommendations and requirements in today's executive order, how do they square with A.I.

standards across the rest of the world?

NICOL TURNER LEE: Compared to the European Union, for example, they have very prescriptive regulation, not just values and norms.

They have those, but they have actually taken the time to come up with things like a national data privacy standard to think about A.I.

use in high-risk categories, like credit or housing or education or employment.

I'm excited that the United States has finally gotten into this game and gotten to the party.

We're a little late, but it does mean that we are paying attention to the E.U.

and other places that have put in place A.I.

regulation.

But this right here is not regulation, my friend.

This is something that is definitely going to need the will of Congress to get things done.

GEOFF BENNETT: Nicol Turner Lee is director of the center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution.

It was a real pleasure to speak with you.

Thanks for your time.

NICOL TURNER LEE: Thank you for having me.

AMNA NAWAZ: Since the pandemic eased, millions of Americans have had to deal with a number of drug shortages.

For those with ADHD, it's been an especially difficult year, as they and their families have struggled to get through ordinary daily routines.

Stephanie Sy has the story.

MAN: Thank you for calling your H-E-B pharmacy.

STEPHANIE SY: Every month, Brett Haile calls all of the pharmacies near his Conroe, Texas, home.

BRETT HAILE, ADHD Patient: Hi.

I'm looking for Vyvanse.

STEPHANIE SY: Searching for the medication both he and his 15-year-old rely on to treat their ADHD.

WOMAN: Most of them are on back border.

Let me see.

STEPHANIE SY: Haile has been scrambling for months.

BRETT HAILE: One pharmacy actually, like, scoffed when I asked, as if I had asked an absurd question.

STEPHANIE SY: That's because, for over a year now, there's been a nationwide shortage of medications, like Vyvanse, Adderall and Ritalin, which treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

ERIN FOX, University of Utah: Initially, it was a labor issue, but you would expect that would resolve pretty quickly.

STEPHANIE SY: Since then, there have been few answers, says the University of Utah's Erin Fox.

ERIN FOX: The majority of details around drug manufacturing, including the country that it was made in, the factory that it was made in, and how much product that they're actually making, all of that is allowed to be a trade secret.

STEPHANIE SY: Stimulant medications are controlled substances and tightly regulated because of their high potential for abuse.

The Drug Enforcement Administration sets limits for how much the industry can make.

But in an August public letter, the DEA and the Food and Drug Administration called on manufacturers to increase production, saying they weren't making as much as they could.

ERIN FOX: Because we don't have visibility into how much raw material the DEA gives each company, and we don't have visibility into the amount that each company is making, it's very hard to figure out.

STEPHANIE SY: What is clear, demand for stimulants is up.

During the pandemic, the percentage of people who had a prescription filled rose by more than 10 percent among some adults and teens.

And manufacturers haven't kept up.

BRETT HAILE: I stopped taking my medicine entirely.

When Brett Haile couldn't find Vyvanse, he decided to save what medication he had at home for his nonbinary child, Jet.

Since we're on the same medication, the same dosage, I could use my reserves, and they were able to go to school medicated because of that.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have had enough pills to keep going.

JET HAILE, ADHD Patient: If I didn't have my medication, I probably wouldn't be able to pass my classes.

STEPHANIE SY: Without Vyvanse, Jet Haile cannot stay on task.

JET HAILE: Because I wouldn't be able to focus on what the teachers were saying, so I wouldn't be, like, learning any of it.

STEPHANIE SY: Dad Brett did his best without his medicine, but was easily distracted.

BRETT HAILE: When I'm driving down the road, my attention drifts, and I then physically drift into the lane next to me.

And, once, I was only a couple of feet from the car in that lane.

Or I will look up, and the brake lights are on the car in front of me, and I have to slam on the brakes to keep from hitting them.

STEPHANIE SY: Weekends can be tough, when Jet foregoes their medicine.

JET HAILE: I feel like I just can't focus on anything.

It feels hard to move and stuff like that.

BRETT HAILE: Jet is much more irritable.

One of their main responsibilities is just emptying the dishwasher, and that's a small task that doesn't require a lot of energy, but it feels monumental to them when they don't have their medicine.

STEPHANIE SY: About 10 percent of kids and teens have ADHD; 62 percent of them take medication for it.

CR.

CESAR SOUTULLO, University of Texas Health Houston: What the medicines do is, they increase the dopamine availability in parts of the brain that are in charge of focusing and also completing tasks.

STEPHANIE SY: Dr. Cesar Soutullo directs the ADHD outpatient program at UTHealth Houston.

CR.

CESAR SOUTULLO: They also impact the dopamine in parts of the brain that are in charge of stopping you before you act, so, impulsivity.

MARA MOODY: I need my Adderall.

It's a necessity in order to get through day-to-day tasks.

STEPHANIE SY: Nineteen-year-old Mara Moody has been taking ADHD medication since she was 8.

MARA MOODY: I was always fidgeting, and that annoyed a lot of people.

They viewed me as some hyper kid who was really weird.

STEPHANIE SY: She's managed her symptoms with medication, but, in the last year she's gone up to two weeks without it.

MARA MOODY: There was a lot of stress and frustration, and I felt like I couldn't go about my day-to-day activities or behave how I prefer to behave.

ERIN MOODY, Mother: The thing that affects her the most is the emotional regulation.

STEPHANIE SY: Erin Moody is Mara's mom.

ERIN MOODY: When she gets frustrated, she shuts down.

So, then we're at a standstill, and we can't get homework done.

We can't get chores done.

We can't get ready on time.

STEPHANIE SY: When she hasn't been able to take her medication, how do you see that impacting the family as a whole?

ERIN MOODY: Anyone who's having emotional problems affects a family dynamic.

And there are times when we just need to shut everything down and just talk through the situation and kind of take some deep breaths and reset.

STEPHANIE SY: I can see just the fact that you got emotional then, that it's been a tough year with the shortage.

ERIN MOODY: Yes.

STEPHANIE SY: Like, people don't... ERIN MOODY: I think ADHD is a tough condition to deal with even on medications, with therapy, with psychiatric help, with accommodations.

STEPHANIE SY: Without medication, it's that much harder.

Mara started college this fall and hopes the monthly hunt for her prescription will get easier.

MARA MOODY: I used to have a list of probably about 20 different pharmacies that we would have to call around to.

STEPHANIE SY: When patients have to try multiple pharmacies, that means doctors like Cesar Soutullo are scrambling too.

CR.

CESAR SOUTULLO: When I write a prescription, and it's not available in this particular pharmacy, they cannot just transfer the prescription.

I have to write a new prescription, send it to the second pharmacy.

And then, if the second pharmacy runs out, I have to rewrite the prescription, send it to the third pharmacy.

It's a lot of hours that I just waste, I would say waste, writing prescriptions.

STEPHANIE SY: At the start of his day, Soutullo already had a backlog.

CR.

CESAR SOUTULLO: I have like five prescription requests from the pharmacy, eight patient calls, and then another five patient calls requesting a renewal of medications.

STEPHANIE SY: Because the medications are controlled substances, distributors place strict limits on supplies to pharmacies, making them even more difficult to keep in stock, says Fox.

ERIN FOX: There are restrictions related to the opioid settlements that don't let the pharmacies buy as much as they need to fill the prescriptions that they have.

I really feel like the pendulum has swung very far to really limit access, even if you have legitimate prescriptions.

STEPHANIE SY: Mara Moody says some pharmacists have questioned if she has a real need for the prescription.

MARA MOODY: One of the things that has hurt me the most is the amount of people who kind of made me feel like I'm an addict.

And a lot of pharmacists are really distrustful of that, even though I have been on ADHD medications for the vast majority of my life.

STEPHANIE SY: Moody knows people who have even turned to the black market when they could not fill their script.

MARA MOODY: I have definitely had friends who have chosen to buy street Adderall just to kind of get through the days.

STEPHANIE SY: You have friends that have ADHD that, because of the shortage, have had to do that?

MARA MOODY: Yes.

Yes.

And not only is that just incredibly unfortunate and messed up, but it's dangerous.

STEPHANIE SY: As Mara and millions of others with ADHD across the country continue to struggle, Erin Fox says the economics of these medications mean there's no quick end in sight.

ERIN FOX: These are low-cost drugs.

And so when a drug company has a shortage, it doesn't really hurt their bottom line.

And so there's not a tremendous amount of incentive to fix the problem.

WOMAN: Thank you for calling CVS pharmacy.

STEPHANIE SY: And so Brett Haile will likely be calling pharmacies for the foreseeable future.

WOMAN: How can I help you?

BRETT HAILE: Hi.

I'm looking for Vyvanse.

STEPHANIE SY: For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Stephanie Sy.

GEOFF BENNETT: The 2024 presidential field is continuing to take shape.

Former Vice President Mike Pence exits the Republican race, and President Biden gets a new Democratic challenger.

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

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

It's great to see you both.

So, Mike Pence is out of the race.

He staked his entire campaign on Iowa.

He was making overtures to white evangelicals, his natural base of support.

But he was never able to gain any traction.

You could argue his departure, Amy, doesn't really change the contours of the race.

But what does it signal?

AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: It shows that there just is not much appetite in the Republican electorate for an anti-Trump candidate, or at least someone who openly criticizes Donald Trump, especially when that person also happened to be in the administration as the vice president.

It also goes to what we know about campaigns since the beginning of time.

When you run out of money, there's just not much more you can do.

Now, some of these candidates are having trouble raising money, but they have a super PAC that has an ability to spend.

They can raise it in different ways and spend it in different ways.

GEOFF BENNETT: And Pence never had that?

AMY WALTER: And Pence doesn't have -- didn't have that same level of super PAC support, and his own personal fund-raising was problematic.

So, the other thing it means is, when we look to the debate stage in a week, yes, the third Republican debate that will also not feature Donald Trump once again, there's one less voice on the stage willing to criticize Donald Trump.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, Tam, meantime, Nikki Haley, the former U.S. ambassador, she is ascendant, according to the latest NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom, which is out today.

She's risen to a tie with Ron DeSantis.

They're both tied 16 percentage points.

What this poll doesn't show is that she's up 10 percentage points since August, and DeSantis is actually down three.

So she has the momentum.

TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio: Well, and this is -- this is her moment.

She is a former ambassador to the U.N. She's someone who is very comfortable talking about foreign policy.

And with what's happened in Israel, that has given her an opportunity to really make a distinction between herself and some of the other Republican candidates.

And I will say that Ron DeSantis' super PAC, which is basically his campaign, has been attacking her in ads, saying she's too close to China, and sort of attacking her on her foreign policy positions.

She stands out in this field as someone who is a more traditional conservative Republican, more traditional defense hawk type of Republican, certainly in contrast to someone like President Trump.

So, she is -- she's sort of getting all of the anti-Trump people who are concerned about the U.S. continuing to be a leader in the world, because Trump, for instance, has questioned the need for NATO, has praised Putin, has praised Hezbollah, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

AMY WALTER: Yes.

And that is, I think, fundamentally the challenge for Nikki Haley getting much farther, which is, she's picking up those voters who already are very committed to a non-Trump choice.

Sometimes, they're called never-Trumpers, or they are folks maybe who did vote for Trump in the past, but don't want to vote for Trump again.

So she's consolidating that group of voters, but that's still not enough.

You need to be able to win over the voters who say, I like Donald Trump, I have supported Donald Trump, but I'm open to an alternative.

And that's what that poll finds, is that, even if Ron DeSantis dropped out today, a good 40 percent of his voters said they would support Donald Trump.

And so he is able to move into those voters looking for an alternative, but not someone who is as critical of Donald Trump.

They still like Donald Trump.

So it is -- this needle that she has to thread is very, very challenging.

GEOFF BENNETT: Let's talk about the Democrats, namely, President Joe Biden.

He drew a primary challenger this past week from Congressman Dean Phillips.

You could argue that Dean Phillips' candidacy doesn't pose much of a threat to Joe Biden right now, but in many ways it does symbolically, in that Dean Phillips being in this race, Tam, raises more questions about Joe Biden's age and all of those things that the campaign would rather not talk about.

How are they dealing with this?

TAMARA KEITH: Well, Dean Phillips is in fact raising all of those questions and is in a way in this race as a vessel for concerns of Democrats about President Biden's age.

He gives them, Democratic voters, a place to go.

The way that the Democratic Party and the campaign are dealing with it are, for instance, he is staking a lot of his campaign on running in New Hampshire, which is a state that has been basically punished by the Democratic National Committee, because it kept its primary early.

What this means is that he is staking a bunch of his campaign on a state where he cannot win any delegates and where he could actually be punished by the party for running in that state, though what that would do is create headlines, of course.

And after the first sentence, you would have the second sentence that says he potentially maybe won a state where Joe Biden wasn't on the ballot and where he will get no delegates.

GEOFF BENNETT: The U.S. approach, the administration's approach to Israel, Amy, is also a point of contention among some Democrats, both in terms of policy and in terms of rhetoric, namely, President Biden's response to our Laura Barron-Lopez's question in the Rose Garden this past week, where he said he had no confidence in the death toll coming out of Gaza.

He said -- quote -- "I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed."

Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal said on "Meet the Press" yesterday that the American people are quite far away, that was the phrase she used, from Biden and Congress.

Based on your research, based on your analysis, is that the case?

And how does the White House account for that?

AMY WALTER: Right.

I think, overall, if you look at -- and this was a poll taken about a week-and-a-half ago - - do you think that -- are your sympathies more with Israelis or Palestinians, overall, 61 percent say Israelis.

Even among Democrats, though, it's 48 percent, with 22 percent saying Palestinians and another 30 percent saying don't know.

So, if Pramila Jayapal is thinking about the Democratic base, that may be correct, that it's not as strong as it is in the electorate overall.

But now look at another crisis in the world, which is in Ukraine.

And, there, you have actually more disagreement among Republicans about the importance of Ukraine to the United States, that the way - - this is a Quinnipiac poll -- do you think that supporting Ukraine is in the national interest of the United States?

Republicans, just 49 percent say yes, 44 percent say no, compared to 87 percent of Democrats, 63 percent of independents.

In other words, we're looking at two world crises, one in Israel and Gaza, one in Ukraine, that does divide the two parties internally, even as one party will support the other part of the world almost completely.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, Tam, there's a headline in The Post today that says, "The White House scrambles to repair relations with Arab and Muslim Americans."

Based on your reporting, how is the White House doing that?

TAMARA KEITH: The president's rhetoric about the conflict has changed.

He has gotten tougher on Israel, has raised more loudly his concerns that he had previously raised privately with the Israelis about ensuring the safety of civilians in Gaza.

But it is a real concern.

Michigan is a state that was decided by fewer than 200,000 votes.

And the Arab American community is quite large there.

GEOFF BENNETT: Tamara Keith and Amy Walter, always great to speak with you.

TAMARA KEITH: Thanks.

AMY WALTER: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: Remember, there is more coverage online, including a look at the complex challenges health care workers are facing in a post-pandemic society.

That's at PBS.org/NewsHour.

AMNA NAWAZ: 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.