wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. the xfinity 10g network. made for streaming. amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. on the "newshour" tonight, israel pounds gaza with air strikes and orders a "complete siege" of the palestinian enclave in retaliation for the unprecedented terror attacks by hamas. amna: u.s. support for israel is complicated by turmoil in the house of representatives where pressure grows on republians to elect a new speaker. geoff: and maui takes stock of the heritage lost in the devastating wildfires as

communities reopen and indigenous hawaiians face an >> we see sort of disaster after disaster, whether it's fire or flooding or intense drought in the west, that these are going to continue to be issues with indigenous communities. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour been provided by the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour including leonard and norma. >> actually, you don't need vision to do most things in life.

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this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. geoff: welcome to the newshour, a third day of brutal fighting between israelis and palestinians centered on gaza today, and it continues tonight. amna: israel has hammered the region with air strikes and artillery, in retribution for saturday's bloody terror attack by hamas. geoff: israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu says the offensive has only begun, and that the ferocity of israel's reprisals on hamas will, quote, "reverberate with them for generations." an israeli ground invasion of gaza is widely expected to begin in the coming hours and days. amna: already there are staggering death tolls, over 900 israelis dead, and thousands more wounded, while in gaza, nearly 700 palestinians have been killed.

among the dead so far, according to president biden, are 11 americans. special correspondent leila molana-allen is on the ground in israel and begins our coverage. leila: towering plumes of smoke rose over the gaza city skyline. as the middle east woke up to another day of war. airstrikes pounded a refugee camp north of gaza city. moments earlier, this was a bustling supermarket. bulldozers done through the twisted wreckage of daily life as crowds of people searched beneath the rubble for survivors. as schelling devastated the gaza strip, palestinians mourned 17 members of the family killed when their home was destroyed. >> israeli forces hit the building without warning. they did not ask us to evacuate. they did not say anything. suddenly, we heard the airstrike and ran to the building.

we found out that it collapsed entirely. leila: israel's military said it hit more than 1000 targets in the besieged enclave. the attacks eviscerated downtown mosques like this one and left over 120,000 gazans displaced. israel said it leveled the northeastern neighborhood which had been used as a staging ground by hamas. the militant group staged its unprecedented incursion into israel over the weekend. the prime minister of the palestinian authority in the west bank come along at odds with hamas, defended the surprise attack -- west bank, long at odds with hamas, defended the surprise attack. >> the israeli policy of practicing killing, land confiscation, assault on holy sites, and that terrorism and heinous practices of the settlers. leila: benjamin netanyahu responded. >> we have always known who hamas is.

now, the entire world knows. hamas is isis and we will defeat it just like the enlightened world defeated isis. this vile enemy wanted war and it will get war. leila: israel's defense minister validate total siege. >> there will be no electricity, food, water, fuel. everything will be closed. we are fighting against human animals and we are acting accordingly. leila: the israeli military has called upon reservist, pointing to a ground offensive in the days to come. >> cleared southern israel from hamas's militants and our highest priority is to stop the attacks coming out from gaza. while this is going on for two days, nonstop rocket rogers towards population centers, indiscriminately fired so all options are on the table now in order to achieve that end. leila: today, the contested city

of jerusalem was also under threat. air sirens blasted across the city because another barrage of hamas'-- as another barrage of hamas's rockets range down. for the past three days, he and his team have been responding to the attacks and treating injured civilians. he says the strikes are indiscriminate. >> several of our ambulances have come under fire. it is something i have never experienced. i have been a paramedic for over 20 years. leila: hamas's offensive has focused on southern israel. through the night, rockets from gaza continued to fly over the border into israel. in the city this morning, emergency workers cleared the rubble after a rocket hit this apartment building. engulfing nearby cars in flames and destroying building facades including his. >> we heard sirens. we heard explosions without a

break. we heard bombing. the whole house was shaking. thank god nothing happens to us. leila: hundreds were killed over the weekend in the nearby kibbutz after hamas militants attacked an outdoor rave packed with thousands of young people. what was supposed to be a celebration of life became a massacre. this young reveler down the video as she tried to escape the bullets. palestinian militants took dozens of israelis hostage and shot at anyone they saw. hamas's armed wing said it will begin executing hostages if israeli bombardments continue without warning but israel's foreign ministry said negotiations are not on the table. >> we are not negotiating with anyone at this time. we are in a war and i think that this is not the time for negotiation. geoff: the biden administration

is watching all of these developments very closely. and moments ago, i spoke with john kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the national security council. welcome back to the newshour. john: thank you very much for having me. geoff: the u.s. is beating up its presence in the middle east, moving fighter jets to the eastern mediterranean and providing israel with more weapons and ammunition. does that massive response, beyond sending a show of support, does it signal that the u.s. is concerned about the potential for other parts of the region being drawn into this war between israel and hamas? john: what it demonstrates is how seriously we take our national security interests. there's two messages coming out of this. one is reassurance that we have national security interests in the region and we will make sure that we are able to meet those commitments and

two, deterrence. that no other actor, be it a tourist group -- terrorist group, think that this is a good time to take advantage of the violence inside israel for their own ends because their interests are in a michael to that of israel -- inimical to that of israel. israel is a partner and a close one at that so we are sending a message of deterrence. geoff: president biden warned other parties in the region about joining the attack against israel. what is the administration most concerned or worried about? john: we are concerned about making sure that the israeli people and their armed forces have the capabilities and the tools to defend themselves. that is the first order of business. number two is making sure that we get more granular information about americans whose whereabouts are unknown right now. we have 11 families, american families, that are grieving the loss of loved ones. we don't want that number to grow so we are trying to get

more information about them. the other thing we are focused on right now is making sure that we are able to communicate with americans who are in israel. many travel there so that they know that there's resources at the state department and the embassy that they can draw on for more information about the situation where they are and if they want to leave, how to do that. geoff: as they work to learn more information about americans, yesterday, israel's minister for strategic affairs said americans were taken hostage by hamas. he said that definitively. can you confirm that? geoff: we are trying to get more information about americans whose whereabouts are unknown. we have to accept the possibility that at least some of those unaccounted for americans could be held hostage by hamas right now but we just do not have specific information to be able to confirm that. amna: israel said -- geoff: israel said it is not negotiating to get the hostages hamas has.

as the u.s. agree with that with respect to the potential american hostages? john: i will let israel speak for itself. there is no higher priority than the safety and security of americans overseas and we will continue to act in the interest of making sure that americans who are held hostage are wrongfully -- who are wrongfully detained overseas come home with their families. i don't want to break precedent here today. amna: there -- geoff: there are questions about the degree to which iran was directly involved in the attacks over the weekend. iranian security officials helped plan the surprise attack on israel and gave the green light for an assault on sunday. what evidence does the u.s. have of that being true? john: none. young looking hard to see if there is corroborating evidence that proves iran was a participant in these attacks but we just have not seen it and our israeli counterparts have not seen it either.

make no mistake, there is a degree of complicity here. weapons, tools, capabilities, training, so clearly, iran -- there is a complicity here but in terms of the specific series of attacks we have seen in the last 36 hours, we just don't have direct evidence. amna: there are ongoing talks regarding a peace deal and conversations about the u.s. providing security guarantees to saudi arabia and there are observers who say that hamas and iran had a motivation to the rail that deal because it threatens to further isolate them. what does the administration see as the impact of this conflict, of this war on those talks? geoff: too soon -- john: too soon to tell. we think that is good not just for israel and saudi arabia but for us and for everybody who lives in the region. those are decisions that only israel and saudi arabia can make but in working towards it, they will find a better friend than

the united states and we still believe that that is months and months away and that there's still opportunity to pursue that air of clemency, that degree of diplomacy, and we want to see it continue to persist. right now, obviously, right now, the focus has got to be on making sure israel can defend itself. that is squarely where our energies are being applied. amna: u.s. -- geoff: u.s. and israeli officials say none of israel's intelligence purposes have any specific warnings that hamas was going to carry out this spectacular attack by land, by sea, and by air ahead of time. what accounts for that intelligence failure? john: there's going to be a time where we appropriately will take a look at the intel picture and what was missed, by whom, and when. we will do that. i'm sure the israelis will do that but now is not the time. time is to make sure israel can defend itself, that we can get better information about the

americans who are in israel, particularly the ones who are unaccounted for, and also to make sure we are looking after those families who just received the worst possible news that any family can receive about a loved one yesterday and today. we have to make sure they get the support that they need. there will be a time to look at the intel picture. we will do that, they will do that, but right now, we have to stay focused on the task at hand. amna: israel announced its largest ever mobilization, more than 300 thousand army reservist called up in response to these attacks. erases the specter of a wider regional war. how is the biden administration aiming to contend with that alongside the war in ukraine and a rising confrontation with china? john: again, nobody wants to see the war in ukraine go on one day longer. nobody wants to see any of the terrorist attacks and violence we have seen in israel certainly. we are a big enough, powerful enough, economically viable and

vibrant enough country to be able to support multiple national security interests around the world. he mentioned the tensions in the indo pacific clearly that are caused by the prc and we have stations and aircraft and personnel, thousands and thousands of them in the indo pacific who will still be on the task today and tomorrow and next week. we are supporting ukraine as they fight back on russian aggression. that is important, too. that needs to continue. obviously, we are going to stay focused on making sure israel has what it needs. we have a long-standing defense relationship with israel and that will not change going forward. geoff: john kirby as coordinator at the national security council, thank you for your time this evening. amna: one facet of saturday's attacks never seen before on this scale, the taking of hostages by hamas men, women, children, the elderly. dozens, reportedly, kidnapped and forcibly taken to gaza, their locations within the densely-packed enclave unknown. and tonight, hamas is

threatening to execute them. if israel's heart nick schifrin -- if israel does not give warning. nick schifrin spoke with two women now enduring the horror of missing loved ones. nick: on saturday, the family was torn apart. >> i was awake. i was supposed to give her food when we heard the first bombing in my kibbutz. i thought it is a regular bombing we have each couple of months there. but then we understand it is bigger and then after 15 minutes, we heard shootings and people are voicing "come, come" in arabic. three minutes after that, we heard them outside of our bedroom. they just opened the window and put their hand inside my

bedroom. my husband before when we heard them, we had a signal that said you are keeping the door. i am with the child. when they put their hand to open the window, he pushed them to the other side and gave me a look to go away so i took my daughter, my one month old daughter, with no shoes, no phone. my husband was left with a lot of people and i ran away. i ran inside of bushes so they would not see me. they were shooting at me and my daughter. we hid inside the shed and i heard voices near so i took things like bones that you put flowers in and empty ones and i put them on me with buckets of sand for the garden and hide behind a washing machine.

but then after a while, she was sleeping, but then inside, she started crying after a while. so then it's when i understand that i have to go outside of the shed but there's much more bombing and shooting over there. actually, they saved me. they had a camera around the house and they could see i am not one of them so they can see i am with a child. they open up the house for the child and we were in that house for 27 hours. they were bombing 27 hours and they are still bombing now and there are still families over there and missing people. my husband is missing. please, if someone sees him, he has a tattoo of a feather. he's white. he has brown hair blue eyes. i'm looking for him. we have a lot of bodies.

they did not find him. i quite hope he is kidnapped to gaza. it's not a great hope but if i think of the hours that were since the bombing, it's too much time for him so i hope he was kidnapped. geoff: can you tell me about your husband? nick: -- >> he is a good person. he liked the quiet. he always liked the quiet. he is a great filmmaker and he is a great friend. he was my best friend. we were 10.5 years together. we waited a long time for this child. so i hope he will come back and see her. nick: i have an infant daughter

at home. i can only imagine how terrifying this has been for you as a new mother. >> yes, it was very hard for me to keep him calm and quiet because every time she cried, we were getting shootings. every time shia cried, the bombing was doubled. it is like a prize to kill the baby. we did not have nothing to give her. we did not have water so she had to go to a hospital because when she came, the baby was white. she had to take oxygen. >> that whole time, you had no formula. >> now, after 27 hours of not eating, the hospital wrote that she had -- she was so dehydrated that she cried with no tears. >> at the same time, 20 miles

away, hamas gunmen were going house to house. they kidnapped five members of the same family. an 80-year-old, her son-in-law, and her three teenage grandchildren. >> we know the next few hours were horrifying, that hamas burned the majority of the kibbutz and slaughtered most of the people there, that the people who survived were taken hostage. what we understand one day after was that we got video of my 12-year-old cousin being held hostage by hamas and we believe he is in gaza. >> he said at least publicly there is no intention to negotiate for the release of israelis being held hostage inside gaza. you want them to negotiate? >> whatever it takes to get them home. >> her house has been burned.

her faith comes from her daughter. how is she doing now? >> she is good. she is strong. she is strong. she is a strong kid. her color came back. she started eating last night so she's now ok. she's giving me faith and i feel that she is not dead. this is what i feel. they did not find his body and i can feel his soul is not talking to me as if he is dying -- as if he is not in this world. he is sending me messages. "you fool. don't cry. i am here." but i still cry. nick: we are thinking about you and praying for you and your family. >> thank you so much. ♪

geoff: in the day's other headlines, people across western afghanistan struggled for a third day to find anyone who lived through a catastrophic earthquake. the magnitude 6.3 quake ravaged the area around herat on saturday. entire villages vanished, and official counts reported 4000 dead and injured. the lifeless body of a child pulled from her father's protective embrace. afghans near the quake's epicenter are digging through the rubble with shovels and their bare hands looking for survivors while carrying the what used to be a village is now a wasteland. the earthquake destroyed everything in in sight and flattened mud brick homes in these remote villages in western afghanistan. leaving survivors to mourn and search for loved ones. >> i lost five members of my family and also five members of

my uncles family. in total, we have lost 23 people who have been martyred. >> we had another aftershock so people have panicked again. nick: this is the director of the international rescue committee. correct homes out of bricks. it's basic so they are very vulnerable to any shock. everything has collapsed. a complete disappearance of villages and houses in all these locations is almost like nothing is there anymore. nick: the quake devastated a country already burned -- burdened by a crippling humanitarian crisis. aid is in short supply. international programs severely underfunded are diverting the little they have left toward quake relief. >> we were preparing ourselves for winterization and unfortunately, we have been hit by this crisis. we do not have funds to cover

needs. if you compare the past three years to this year, we have almost triple the needs in afghanistan so we are always stretched. geoff: overstretched and overwhelmed as rescue efforts shift to burials. the smallest coffins, also the heaviest. a senior official of afghanistan's ruling taliban visited the province today. the regime said they aim to ensure immediate and equitable delivery of aid. officials in northeastern india report the death toll from last week's floods has risen to 74 people, with 100 still missing. authorities have recovered 34 bodies in sikkim state, since a dam broke last week. 40 others have been found downstream in west bengal state. india's air force says it rescued scores of tourists today, as weather conditions began to clear. here at home, former house speaker kevin mccarthy now says he'd serve in that post again if his fellow republicans want him.

he was ousted last week, and initially said he would not compete for the job again. today, he was asked by a reporter if there's any way he would be a candidate. >> that's a decision by the conference. i'll allow the conference to make whatever decision. whether i'm speaker or not, i'm a member of this body. i know what history has had and i can lead in any position it is. geoff: republican congressmen steve scalise and jim jordan have entered the race for speaker. former president trump has endorsed jordan. a vote could come wednesday. in the 2024 presidential race, robert f. kennedy jr. announced today he's ending his bid for the democratic nomination and will run as an independent. he had so far failed to make much headway against president biden. in philadelphia, kennedy said he's making a new declaration of independence. >> i can stand before you as every leader should stand before you, free of partisan allegiance. free from the backroom deals. servant only to my conscience to

my creator, and to you. geoff: kennedy has become known for anti-vaccine views and ties to far-right figures. today, his siblings denounced his campaign, saying he may share their father's name but not his values. harvard professor claudia goldin has claimed this year's nobel prize in economics for research on women in the workforce. her decades-long body of work has helped show causes of the gender gap in pay and labor force participation. in boston today, she talked of trying to show that her field goes beyond finance. >> economics is about people, it's about inequality, it's about the female labor force, it's about health, it's about economic development, it's about wellbeing. geoff: goldin is the just third woman to win the economics prize. and, on wall street: the israel-hamas war pushed oil

prices more than 3 and a-half dollars higher. -- 3.5 dollars higher, but stocks rallied on signs that the federal reserve may pause interest rate hikes. the dow jones industrial average gained 197 points to close at 33,604. the nasdaq rose nearly 53 points. the s&p 500 added 27. still to come on the "newshour", the maui wildfires highlight the difficulty of preserving native heritage in the face of climate change. and simone biles becomes the most decorated gymnast in history at the world championships. >> this is the pbs newshour from weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: the house of representatives is devoid of leadership and pressure is mounting on republicans to elect a speaker because of the need to approve aid not only for ukraine

but now for israel as well. here to break down the stakes are amy walter of the cook political report with amy walter and tamara keith of npr. >> there's still no full-time speaker of the house but the two declared candidates so far have expressed solidarity with israel and pledged their support after that brutal attack by hamas. here's how the chairman of the house foreign affairs committee weighed in on the issue today. i look at the world and all the threats that are out there and what kind of message are we sending to our adversaries when we cannot govern, when we are dysfunctional, when we don't even have a speaker of the house? i think it sends a terrible message. amna: does any of this change the urgency of their need to elect a new speaker? amy: in theory, yes. they could also get this done this week. they are planning on having a vote by wednesday or thursday for a speaker. the problem is nobody has the votes.

and we will see after tonight when they have their first sort of get together since this broke over the weekend if there is any momentum, if there is something that could bring the element of the party that were unhappy with mccarthy and those who were happy with mccarthy together for an alternative view. also heard in the opening here about former speaker mccarthy being open to the possibility. the reality for the speaker election has much more in terms of what the members are focusing on. it is much less about what it is sending to the world, the message it is sending to the rest of the world, or the impact even on a to israel and its much more about the immediate including what it means for funding of the government which is going to run out in november and the rules for how another speaker could be ousted.

that is where their focus is right now. amna: how are you looking at this? tamara: mccarthy stepped into the vacuum of leadership today and gave a five-point plan on israel and said, you know, the majority of republicans wanted me to continue to be speaker so you almost can add him to the other two candidates and none of them, as amy says, at the moment, have 217 votes to be speaker. they are under increased pressure to fix this to do something to end the chaos. it's not clear how they get out of it although i will say john kirby, in a briefing that he just held with reporters, said that in terms of aid for israel, there is a standing relationship , standing appropriations, so that may not be the thing that has the urgency. getting intelligence briefings to the leader of the house, now, that is something that has some

urgency. amna: what about aid for ukraine? tamara: it's not clear how this will affect that. the white house is still trying to figure that out. kirby again said that there is an urgent need for aid for ukraine. one question that i had coming into this leadership battle is will the candidates for speaker commit to not bringing ukraine aid up to the floor? there is a large bipartisan group of lawmakers who support aid for ukraine's war effort. there is a small, vocal, and overlapping with those who voted with kevin mccarthy out group of republicans who don't want that ukraine aid to get a vote and the speaker controls the floor. amna: what about where the american public is right now? there is majority support for supporting ukraine in their war against russia but we have seen american support declining to continue arming ukraine as the u.s. now gets involved on another front now which is supporting israel. where is the amick in public on

that? amy: there will be an initial rallying around israel. this is a very special relationship that america and many americans have with israel so i think that will be where we are initially but for the public, what is happening overseas is really something they don't see as affecting their day-to-day lives, especially when it comes to politics. they are much more interested in what is happening domestically. when what is happening overseas impacts them domestically, that is when we start to see the engagement, like you were talking about back in 2008, 2009, the overwhelming frustration with the war in afghanistan and iraq. we are not at that point right now but certainly, what you see for a republican party is very much divided on the question of ukrainian aid and maybe that is not a good way to say it. i don't know that they are that divided. i think that the majority of republicans on capitol hill,

elected officials, want to see more aid going to ukraine but there is a strong enough faction that is stopping that and that includes some members of the republican party who are running for president. >> you heard john kirby tell jeff earlier -- geoff earlier that the administration is prepared to handle all of these multiple fronts, the war in ukraine, countering china, and now israel. do they have the political capital and the consensus to do all of that? tamara: president biden said he was going to give a major address on ukraine to try to make the case to the american people that this is something that they should still care about and should still be invested in. now, he may have to give a major address on israel and ukraine. as i was looking into sort of the approach to that speech, i talked to a number of allies of the white house who said that

president biden had not really made the case to the american people. he had sort of been quiet on ukraine for a domestic audience and that that was a mistake. now, you have yet another front here. one thing that is important to point out, a big difference between iraq and afghanistan is there are not u.s. boots on the ground and that is a very big inference. and something that the white house has not exactly driven home. amna: this is the battle. we are going to see these lines drawn up theoretically if we have a trump and biden rematch between an america first and america's place is as a global leader. this is also something that is dividing the republican presidential primary. this is the case that nikki haley makes, saying we have to be as strong as we are in ukraine as we are in israel, as we are in china. the united states, when there is a vacuum, bad things fill it. the united states as a global leader is in critically -- is critically important. you will hear the case being

made by republicans regardless of where they are on ukraine that an unsafe world and a border that is obviously -- we have a significant problem at the border in terms of the u.s. border, sorry, the southern border of the united states, making that link between here is where the scariness across the world can come in through our southern border. that makes the u.s. unsafe. expect to see much more linkage between immigration, what we call immigration reform, and what is happening overseas. amna: we did see a number of the candidates for the republican nomination weighing in on this. nikki haley has those foreign credentials to some degree. mr. trump laying the blame solidly at the feet of president biden. does this change the republican side of the equation and how does the white house plan to counter that? tamara: claiming president biden is a really easy move which is why we saw pretty much every single republican presidential candidate go that direction new

saw rnc chairwoman mcdaniel saying this moment is an opportunity for republicans. it is a potential area of contrast. it also harkens back to 2015- 2016 when there were a couple of terrorist attacks, when the primary side when it had not jelled yet. former president trump came out in a very strong way, and for a muslim dan which seemed anathema to many americans but helped cement his lead in the republican primary. it came back in a moment where he's making much of the same rhetorical case. amna: you are seeing some of the same things this year as well. always good to see you both. thank you so much. >> you are welcome.

amna: on this in the rosalyn with -- on this indigenous people stay, i spoke with rosalyn lapierre. welcome to the news hour, and thank you for joining us. rosalyn: thank you for having me. amna: so there's been a lot of reporting on the native hawaiian history and the heritage and the community that was lost in those devastating wildfires all these weeks later. how are you thinking about all of that, about what was lost and also what rebuilding looks like moving forward? rosalyn: well, i think that there's still in my mind significant coverage of when people talk about the history of lauhina and maui of focusing story.n the settler colonial

it is a significant loss of historic buildings and churches. and again, that's more settler colonial history. one of the things that has gotten some coverage, but not as much as it could, is the native of native hawaiian and native history of that region. it is a place that the native hawaiians have viewed for a very long time as a sacred place, a sacred area. it is a place where they have divine entities live there. and it is also a place that's important to their history because it is a place where their royal family chose to live and made their first capital as part of the hawaiian kingdom. amna: there is so much focus on the history, but also on the the community that lives there today, the native hawaiian communities who call that area home. when you talk to them and you hear their concerns, what are they chiefly concerned about right now in terms of how the process for moving forward has

been unfolding? rosalyn: so one of the biggest concerns, of course, is the restoration process, right? the rebuilding process and how to what extent native hawaiian communities is going to be part of that, that process, part of the discussion and the decision making and to what extent there is going to be an effort to put them first and to put their what they think is important first, for example, restoring, again, their sacred sites, restoring their historic places before there's an effort to sort of restore the settler colonial history of that particular area. [00:10:42][39.0] amna: [00:10:43] you know, -- restore the settler colonial history of that particular area. amna: you know, there's also been some reporting on this decades long fight for sovereignty, hawaiian sovereignty having been renewed as a result of of the devastation from the fires that indigenous activists have been arguing that the only way to preserve this land that is sacred to them is to restore hawaii to a self-sufficient, self-governing island. have you heard that sort of renewed conversation? rosalyn: yes. and the conversation around sovereignty has been a really long conversation in hawaii.

but one of the things that they do have sort of unity on is that it should be hawaiian voices that are, again, being heard. and in terms of the history of not just maui, but the entire hawaiian islands, you know, it does have a dark past in terms of the united states coming and as a colonial power, basically taking over the islands and taking them by force from the hawaiian kingdom. and so that's very much part of their history, but also their passion in terms of the way that they view their role in the future and wanting to be heard. amna: we know the role that climate change played in driving

as bad as they were.making them- and you write often about this intersection of climate change and its impact on communities and in particular for indigenous communities. what, in your mind is important for us to keep in mind as we cover these stories, as we know we'll continue to cover? rosalyn: the growing climate crisis is really impacting indigenous communities. we see sort of disaster after disaster, whether it's fire or flooding or intense drought in the west, that these are going to continue to be issues with indigenous communities.

and i think that one of the things to be reminded of is that, you know, the land in the landscape is extremely important to indigenous people. you know, it's very much part of our food and our food systems. it's very much part of our sacred lands and sacred landscapes. amna: thank you. it is a pleasure speaking to you. rosalyn: thank you for having me on tonight. geoff: simone biles has made history with an incredible comeback after a two-year hiatus, cementing her "goat" status by becoming the most decorated gymnast of all time this weekend. biles competed in the world artistic gymnastic championships in belgium, where she took home four gold medals. that brings her to a total of 37 medals between world championships and the olympics. biles won two of those medals

this weekend in the balance beam and bar events. to discuss biles' return to competition, we're joined by christine brennan of usa today. it is always great to see you. simone biles is now the most decorated gymnast in history, male or female, 37 medals, a whopping 27 of which are gold. have we ever seen anything like this in any sport, especially given all that simone biles has overcome? christine: all the things she has had to deal with, being a survivor of the most horrific sexual abuse scandal in sports history domestic or international, larry nassar horrors, being abused in that way. being someone who has we know from two years ago went through the twisties, getting lost in the air, the mental block, to the point she had to withdraw from several events at the tokyo olympics. being 26 years old, having lived

through all of that, and coming back to have a week of her life athletically in terms of the physical prowess that we know she has had going all the way back to the rio olympics and going back 10 years ago to the first world championship. the ability to put that altogether in a sport that is truly a high wire act. everything she does, be it an incredible highflying act exercise. all the other exercises that are just literally a middle meter -- millimeter one way or the other. it turns out to be something that is obviously, you cannot come back from and yet time and again, she was not only good, she was great, the greatest of all time proving once again, showing us once again just how great she can be. geoff: how did she do it?

the physical feed is one thing but in many ways -- feat is one thing, but the mental feat is another. how did that feel her success? -- fuel her success? christine: it was the mental approach. it was things like visualization and having quotes she would read back to herself and positive thoughts, talking as she did in every press availability at the world championships about her therapist and seeing her therapist while she was there and talking openly about something that even 10, 15 years ago, maybe even five years ago, athletes would have been reticent to discuss, the issue of mental health, needing help, wanting to talk to someone about that. she has been so open. what a role model she is for kids and young people and anyone really around the world. male, female, anyone, in terms of looking at your mental health. trying to basically take everything that she remembered about the tokyo olympics a

little bit more than two years ago and move that out of her head so that she could focus on the task at hand. that is no small feat because it was such a devastating time for her at those olympic games in 2021. she was just vilified on social media and talked about that with other social media sites away from the top of her phone. she has talked about wanting to just focus on what she cares about and interestingly, she talks about going meet by meet. she's not going to try to tell us what she's trying to do may be in the next year. she is looking from one meat to the next, step-by-step -- meet to the next, step-by-step. she has conditioned herself to understand this is how she could achieve her best in the arena by being at her best with her mental health. geoff: let's talk about her performance in the arena because

her balance beam routine on sunday was near-perfect. all this precision. she is the one to beat. christine: we throw around goat a lot. but there's no doubt that simone biles is the goat, the greatest of all time in genetics. she's 26. she was 16. this was a little kid sport. we have seen in part because of simone biles and in part because of the push and the understanding of the abuse whether it would be the horrors of larry nasser or the physical pounding the body takes of a young child, young girl, young boy, etc., is now becoming a sport for people who are a little bit older and simone has led the way there, too. that is the veteran status that she has now. that is savvy which is also

allowing her to achieve greatness, not necessarily pushing the envelope every moment. knowing she is the best ever. just play it smart in key moments to win these old metals and to show herself that she is back and she can compete at this high level. geoff: what about competing in the paris on the text? has she said anything about that? christine: they are in july of next year. that is a whole different set of pressure because that's many more as you well know, so many more reporters, so many more questions, all the promos come all the commercials come all the things she will be asked to do, she will have to say no a lot because what she learned from tokyo, she will try and take this to paris. my sense is she will be in paris at the age of 27. she would be by far the most talked about athlete going into those olympics but as she has said, she's not going to make

that decision. she's going to listen to her body and even more important, listen to her mind as she goes through these next two months. geoff: thank you so much for your time. we appreciate it. christine: thank you. ♪ amna: an update now it has largely gained control in the south while thousands of israelis have been evacuated from towns in gaza. 11 americans are among 900 people killed in israel. nearly 700 people have been reported dead in gaza but the death is expected to rise. we return to layla malan allen in tel aviv where it is the middle of the night going into a fourth day of what will surely be more brutal fighting. good to see you. you traveled earlier today to some of those towns near the

gaza strip that sustained most of the damage from those attacks. tell us about that. what did you see there? leila: i did. earlier in the program, we heard from the idf saying no negotiation, no backing down, and that is certainly what i saw him security forces on the way down. you start to drive south from tel aviv and you see smoke rising across the fields but everywhere, sniper checkpoints, lots of tanks piling up. they are ready. they are not backing down, but the people are exhausted, terrified. people in these towns have long faced rocket barrages all the time but they normally see that as being the limit so when they started, they thought that was all this was going to be and it was not. they faced horrific attack after horrific attack and they suddenly feel really jeopardized in their safety and perhaps they cannot be protected in the way they thought they could. everything is closed with hundreds of thousands of people living in them. we did find one shop that was open and we asked the shopkeeper

why. he said people have to eat. we are not going to starve just because of what is going on but even inside, every 10 to 15 minutes, sirens going off, everybody crowds into safe spaces, every building has some sort of concrete room and you go in and the thud of the rockets. they are terrified and exhausted. i spoke to one young woman. her husband is a police officer and she is terrified for him. she lost five of her friends in the attack on the rave. she is absolutely despairing. all over these towns, people are really terrified and they do not know what is going to come. amna: heartbreaking stories everywhere you turn. earlier this summer, you were reporting from the occupied west bank as clashes were increasing between palestinians and israelis. have you been in touch with any of those folks? what are you hearing from them? leila: i have stayed in touch with some of them. the main thing we are hearing from so many parents, from families on both sides of this

conflict, so terrified about what could emerge from this violence and at that point when i was reporting earlier in the summer, everybody was so worried about the west bank and had been so focused on that violence there. others and fathers on both sides very worried this could escalate, that there could be another war, a third intifada. seeing this coming from the other part where palestinians live, people really concerned. their kids are getting called up to fight on both sides and people are worried this violence could escalate out of control. amna: i have to ask, how real is the threat that you are hearing on the ground, the concern that this could actually expand, the fighting could grow outside of these borders? leila: well, i spent a long time living in lebanon and i reported on hezbollah extensively. i spent some time looking at their weapons caches earlier this year and it's money middle until -- it's money mental. they are currently staying hands-off, saying they will not get involved unless there is a

land invasion, ground invasion of the gaza strip but that could turn into a two front war for israel. amna: thank you. geoff: you can find more coverage of the israel-gaza war and other stories online at pbs.org/newshour and on our social media accounts. amna: join us again tomorrow night for the latest on that conflict. in the meantime, that is the newshour for tonight. geoff: thanks for joining us. have a good evening. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> architect, beekeeper, mentor. a raymondjames financial advisor taylor's advice to help you live your life, life well planned.

>> the kendeda fund, committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work through investments in transformative leaders and ideas. more at the website -- kendedafund.org. supported by the macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org . and with the ongoing support of these institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

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wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. the xfinity 10g network. made for streaming. hello, everyone. welcome to "amanpour & co." >> a vote for women's rights in iron and around the world as the nobel peace prize goes to jailed activist narges mohammadi. we have that exclusive report and we look back at some of christiane's reporting on the iranian women fighting for tir