john: tonight on pbs news weekend, israel steps up ground operations in gaza against hamas, desperate palestinians search for aid and safety, and hundreds of thousands of israelis are still displaced. >> i wish god will have mercy on

us and the war stops. >> when i came here and it's the first time, i just cried, because i don't know h long it's going to be. john: then, why pharmacy chains are closing stores and some workers are going on strike. and, how to protect your personal data and what some states are doing to help. ♪ >> major funding for pbs news weekend has been provided by -- >> this is a pocket dial. with consumer cellular you get nationwide coverage with no contract. it is kind of our thing. have a nice day. ♪ >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions.

and friends of the newshour. ♪ >> this program was de possible by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ john: good evening. i'm john yang. as the israeli military presence in gaza grows, so too, it appears, is the desperation among the residents of the besieged palestinian enclave. the israeli defense force said it sent more ground troops into gaza and that in the previous 24 hours, it struck more than 450 militant targets, including hamas command centers and platforms for launching anti-tank missiles. meanwhile, internet and phone

service has come back for much of gaza after israeli strikes had knocked it out on friday. once again tonight, leila molana-allen is in israel for us. reporter: in southern gaza, as desperation grows, what little aid is getting through is at risk of theft. at this united nations warehouse in khan younis, it was every man and child for themselves. the u.n. agency for palestinian refugees called it a sign of a breakdown in civil order, after three weeks under siege. at this nearby refugee camp, families are living on next to nothing. rami al-erqan shares one tent with his wife and six children. >> i wish god will have mercy on us and the war stops. we reached a state where we wish we had died under the rubble

just to find some rest. our life is torture. reporter: on sunday, the nasser hospital in khan younis received its first truckload of supplies since the war ben. the palestinian red cross said it was one of ten truckfuls of aid, which passed throh the rafah border crossing two days earlier. the israeli defense forces kept up its air campaign, releasing video of what it said were expanded ground operations inside gaza. the idf has warned gazans to evacuate the north. but civilians sheltering at the al-quds hospital in gaza city say they have nowhere to go. >> since saturday oct 7 we've been here, we have received six warnings to evacuate the hospital. we told them, "identify safe places and we will leave the hospital." there's no safe place, not in the south, nor in the whole of gaza. reporter: on cnn's "state of the union" this morning, national security adviser jake sullivan said he has been asking his israeli counterparts hard

questions about civilian casualties behind closed doors. jake sullivan: hamas is making life extremely difficult for israel by taking civilians as human shields and by putting their roet infrastructure and terrorist infrastructure among civilians. that creates an added burden for israel, but it does not lessen israel's responsibility, under international humanitarian law, to distinguish between terrorists and civilians and to protect the lives of innocent people. and that is the overwhelming majority of the people in gaza. reporter: the war is also uprooting israeli civilians. ye'ela malka and her family were forced to evacuate their home in the northern town of kiryat shimona, near the lebanese border, after increasing exchanges of fire with hezbollah militants. they've been living in a single hotel room since wednesday, with no idea when they'll be allowed back home. >> it's not easy. when i came here and it's the

first time, i just cried, because i don't know how long it's going to be. we still don't know how long we will be here. but we hope it will done quickly. reporter: a hope and prayer shared by all those caught in this war. for pbs news weekend i'm leila molana-allen in jerusalem. john: last night we brought you the story of an american citizen, haneen okal, and her 3 small children, who are stuck in gaza. her family tells us they were able to reach her today for the first time since friday, and that she and the children are alive, but still struggling for food and water, and still unable to leave. against the backdrop of israel's war on hamas, former president donald trump has renewed his vow to reinstate his ban on travelers from mostly muslim countries entering the united states. trump, who dominates the race for the republican presidential nomination, spoke in las vegas. trump: we had a travel ban that was very restrictive to certain countries where they want to

send people that hate us into our country. so, if you don't mind, we'll have it again, ok? is that ok? john: the white house responded quickly, calling trump's ban vile and un-american. fans have lost a friend. matthew perry, the emmy-nominated actor in the ensemble cast of the hit 90's sitcom "friends," was found dead last night at his home in los angeles. on the long-running sitcom "friends," matthew perry portrayed the wittily sarcastic chandler bing, a role that allowed him to deliver some of the series' most memorable lines. the show followed a group of young professionals living in new york. it became an instant classic, running for 10 seasons on nbc, and catapulting the entire cast to stardom. matthew perry: well, i loved chandler. i loved the show and i also knew, remember this, because it's going to be the best time of your life. john: after the show left the air in 2004, perry showed his range with dramatic roles, like white house lawyer joe quincy on

"the west wing." he had leading parts in the blockbuster fis "fools rush in" and "the whole nine yards." but behind the professional success was personal turmoil. in his 2022 memoir "friends, lovers, and the big terrible thing," perry candidly described his decades-long struggle with substance misuse. his chronic alcohol and drug use led to multiple stints in rehab and life-threatening medical complications. after overcoming his addictions, perry wanted to support others on their journey to sobriety, in 2013 converting his malibu beach home into a sober living facility. matthew perry: the best thing about me, bar none, is if somebody comes up to me and says, i can't stop drinking, can you help me? i can say yes and follow up and do it. when i die, i don't want "friends" to be the first thing that's mentioned.

i want that to be the first thing to mention. john: in 2021, perry and his castmates got back together for a reunion special on hbo max. there was nostalgia and a celebration of the show's newfound popularity among younger audiences. >> he was one of my favorite characters. his sense of humor. i grew up watching him. john: on social media tod, perry is being mourned by co-stars and co-workers. on x, formerly called twitter, the official friends account called perry "a true gift to us all." he was also remembered by fans including former childhood classmate, canadian prime minister justin trudeau, who posted, "thanks for all the laughs, matthew." the cause of matthew perry's death is being investigated. he was just 54 years old.

acss the united states, at least 3 people are dead and more than 40 injured in multiple mass shooting incidents across this weekend. four people, two of them students, were shot today near georgia state university in atlanta. in chicago, a gunman fired into a crowd at a halloween party saturday night, injuring 15. one person was shot dead at an indianapolis house party. and, in the tampa neighborhood of ybor city, gunfire erupted between two groups during a halloween celebration. two people died. 18 were hurt. so far this year, there have been 577 incidents in which four or more people have been shot . that's nearly two a day. and, in lewiston, maine, on the sunday after the worst mass killing in the state's history, residents attended church services and gathered to express their grief and to reflect. last night, there was a vigil in nearby lisbon falls. a similar event is planned for tonight in lewiston. it's an opportunity for residents to come together after days of fear and anxiety. still to come on pbs news weekend, what some states are doing to protect your personal data. and, the story of unicef's halloween fundraiser and how it's changing with the times.

♪ >> this is pbs news weekend from weta studios in washington. john: finding a neighborhood pharmacist is becoming increasingly challenging. over the past two years, the nation's three biggest pharmacy chains with brick and mortar stores, cvs, walgreens, and rite aid, which has filed for bankruptcy, have either closed or announced plans to close hundreds of stores. and at many of the remaining locations, pharmacy workers say working conditions have gotten worse. that's led to unannounced walkouts, and this coming week, a planned walkout at walgreens nationwide. tom murphy is the associated press, national health writer. tom, i know you've been talking to pharmacists at walgreens and elsewhere. what are they telling you about why they're taking these job actions? tom: well, the biggest thing

they're stressing is this isn't about money. ey're not seeking more pay. they just need more help behind the counter. that's what they tell me. they've been stressed, especially by all the vaccines they have to give now, especially in the fall when you have covid shots and flu shots and pneumonia vaccines coming into your store every day. they want more help behind the counter because they said their main job is obviously filling and checking prescriptions and every time you have to break away from that to do a vaccine, it puts more stress on the main job. a lot of times there's only one pharmacist behind the counter, and they can't break away for a bathroom break or the pharmacy has to close. they're also being asked to do a lot more with health care. a lot of them help people quit smoking or monitor their blood sugar. so they need help with these tasks in order to do their main job, which is filling prescriptions and checking them for accuracy. chain stores tend to operate with one pharmacist on duty instead of having overlapping shifts or multiple pharmacists on duty. and that means the pharmacist can't leave the counter because you can't operate a pharmacy without a pharmacist on duty.

john: what do the chain stores say in response to this? tom: they say they are listening to their concerns. walgreen's, for instance, has opened a bunch of processing centers around the country to process a lot of the chronic prescriptions that patients get regularly, which will take workload off the store pharmacists. cvs is doing some things, too, but so far the pharmacists have not seen enough to alleviate their concerns. john: how much is the changing economics of the pharmacy industry, i mean, we've seen sort of great expansion now, retraction, the rise of pharmacy by mail. how much of that has led to these these problems? tom: all those factors have definitely contributed to the problem. the biggest one is pharmacies just don't get a lot money for the prescriptions they fill, so they're left with what's called a thin margin. so they have to make money elsewhere and vaccines uh can be lucrative for them. the other problem is that

they've added a lot of stores 15, 20 years ago to get closer to the consumer. and then amazon got much closer to the consumer and it is taking business away from what's called the front of their stores, which is the area outside the pharmacy where a lot of their consumer goods are sold. john: what's the effect on the consumer of all of this? tom: with the consumer, there can be really long waits for prescriptions. you could come into the drugstore and find that the drugstore is temporarily closed because there isn't a pharmacist on duty. it also exacerbates problems with drug shortages. i had a pharmacist tell me that one day last fall, he took 100 phone calls during the day just for shortages of amoxicillin and adderall. john: with so many physical stores closing, are we in danger of having neighborhoods where there is no nearby pharmacy? tom: that's always a risk, especially in poorer neighborhoods that have a lot of medicaid patients, because they just don't make a lot of money for the drugstore. so financially, it might not make much sense for the drugstores to stay open in some of those neighborhoods.

john: and what about rural areas? are there concerns about pharmacies disappearing in rural areas? tom: yeah, it is a different dynamic. instead of a drugstore being a few blocks away, a pharmacy desert in rural areas is considered. a drugstore is maybe five miles away. but that is a problem. and rite aid was actually trying to address it earlier this year with a really small program where they opened many stores in so-called pharmacy deserts near areas where there aren't a lo of pharmacies. john: you mentioned walgreens setting up these distribution centers to handle aot of the prescriptions. is it getting to the point where we really don't need a brick and mortar pharmacy? tom: not quite, because pharmacists play a really valuable role in talking to people about their medicines and making sure that they have the right dose or talking to them about side effects and how to manage those or just seeing how they're feeling. and if you're at a processing center filling a prescription and not talking to the customer, you lose that. so there's still a lot of value

for those brick and mortar stores. john: tom murphy of the associated press, thank you very much. tom: thanks for having me. i appreciate it. ♪ john: you may not be aware of it, but right now there are companies out there that are making money off of your personal data.

data that you likely never agreed to share, real time location spending habits and private financial information. these data brokers say the information allows service providers to make our lives easier by personalizing their products. but privacy advocates say it's collected from our devices, smartphones and wearables like fitbits without our permission, and that once it's collected, it is not properly secured. there's no one single all encompassing federal law encompassing, regulating data brokers. so more and more state legislatures are acting. 13 states now have comprehensive data privacy laws, in effect or soon to take effect. earlier this month, california governor gavin newsom signed a bill called the delete act, the consumer protection advocates say is a groundbreaking advance in privacy right. emory roe is policy counsel for private privacy rights clearinghouse, whichdvised california lawmakers on the bill. tell us what the delete act does and why it's considered such a big advance by privacy advocates.

>> so these consumer privacy laws that are coming online are almost all following the california model, which, though there are some variations, are based around the idea that you can go to a business and say, hey, tell me whainformation you have about me. please don't share that information and maybe delete that information if i want you to delete it. and businesses have to comply with that. [20.5s] //

but what about those hundreds or thousands of businesses out there that are buying and selling your information that you have never heard of. if you wanted to exercise your consumer rights against these businesses, you have to, one, know that they exist, which is difficult already. then you're faced with the actual monumental task of exercising your rights. so you go to this registry and there's 600 registered brokers in california. then, of course, once you exercise your privacy rights, there's nothing to stop that broker from turning around and then immediately collecting your information again and selling it from some other third party. so the delete act takes the existing requirements in california that data brokers register with the attorney general and it for one, it moves that registration requirement to the california privacy protection agency as oppos to the attorney general's office, a dedicated privacy enforcer. but most importantly, it requires the agency to, and by 2026, at least create a mechanism that will allow any of us to go to the agency's website and in a few minutes for free for anyone with disabilities, require that every single broker that's on that list delete all of your personal information. they have to delete your information every 45 days and then have to stop selling or sharing your information for all of time into the future until you decide otherwise. john: what is the enforcement mechanism?

>> privacy laws, are onlas good as the enforcement mechanisms and it. so the california consumer privacy act last year created the new california privacy protection agency, the only dedicated privacy protection agency in the country. so they're going to have the ability to go into data okers and make sure that they're deleting information when they're required to delete and make sure they're registered when they're required to register. additionally, the delete act doubles the fines for non registration increases the , amount of information that brokers to provide every year when they register with the agency, and it also includes auditing requirements. john: the head of the trade group of data brokers, obviously, they opposed this bill and they say that one of the things this is thiis going to give a big boost to big platforms like like google and meta who collect a lot of information but don't sell it. so they're not touched by this. what do you say to that? >> the california consumer privacy act already exists and

it works fairly well when it comes to businesses that have a direct relationship with you. you can go to those businesses and you can exercise your ccpa rights without the fear that they're going to turn around and immediately start collecting your information from some other third party and selling it after the fact. that's not the case of data brokers. john: thi summer the head of , the consumer protection finance bureau said the they were going to start rulemaking on data brokers. but givethe nature of federal law right now, what can they actually do? >> there's reason to be optimistic about the cfpb's rulemaking on data brokers. it's certainly long overdue and it's desperately needed. federal policy work is in a really tough place right now. it's -- california, other states are demonstrating the goals of federalism by innovating in legislature when, you know, able to get bills actually over to the governor's desk signed into law, when, you know, we've faced tougher barriers, let's say federally. john: the california law doesn't take effect until 2026 for people who don't live in california, who don't live in one of the states with a comprehensive data privacy law, what advice do you give them? how can they protect themselves? >> unfortunately data brokers , are an area where where

consumers have very little control. there are some private services you can use out there that attempt to frankly do what the delete act promises. there are consumer privacy services that will allow you to pay them to repeatedly send deletion reques or opt out requests to data brokers. but there are some fundamental limitations that would really limit how effective that those sort of delete services can be. so unfortunately, as you know, with everything where there, there is still a need for legislative in a regulatory solution. there's precious little that consumers can do to avoid the reach of data brokers right now. john: thank you very much. >> thank you. ♪ john: for decades, going trick-or-treating has meant more to children across america than just collecting candy for themselves. it's also meant collecting nickels, dimes and quarters for children in crisis around the world. ali rogin tells us how trick or treat for unicef began, and how it's changed. reporter: it's one of the most

recognizable fundraisers in the country. >> my oldest and most significant memory is trick or treating for unicef with all of my brothers and sisters. reporter: and a mainstay of halloween for generations of americans. >> when your doorbell rings and you hear "trick or treat for unicef" won't you help the children help the children? reporter: public figures from first ladies to the bewitched and brady bunch casts to singer sammy davis junior and supermodel heidi klum have taken up the cause. the little orange boxes were many children's first encounter with giving back. unicef usa president and ceo michael nyenhuis was one of them. >> i was a boy growing up in owatonna, minnesota, and i had my little cardboard box and went door to door and it awakened in me something that said, hey, you know, there's a bigger world out there and i can do something about it. reporter: it all began around 1950 when a philadelphia school teacher and her husband, a presbyterian minister, got the idea to turn trick-or-treating into charity. with the blessings of unicef,

they spread the word and children began collecting loose change in milk cartons. it was a way to do good, during a holiday that for much of its history was about being bad. lesley bannatyne is a historian who has written extensively about halloween. >> during the 1920's, 1930's, and 1940's, halloween tricks were getting a little bit more intense and became more like vandalism, setting fires, breaking windows. reporter: in the 1950's, there were psa's encouraging kids to ask for treats, instead of doing tricks. >> a donald duck cartoon that came out in 1952 called "trick or treat" that taught kids and adults the good and bad ways to trick or treat. do not put fireworks in a treat bag, for example. put candy. but the final and i think most important straw was unicef. it became a charitable act as well as a fun act. reporter: charitable acts that

have never been so important, says nyenhuis. >> there are actually more children displaced from their homes because of conflict and climate change today than at any time in the history of the planet and helping out through trick or treat for unicef is a way to do it in a fun way. reporter: and now trick-or-treat for unicef is changing, too. during the pandemic, unicef discontinued the cardboard boxes. the campaign is now a month long and digital, with online fundraisers and print-out qr codes for kids and adults alike during the holiday. >> this is a moment to feel incredibly grateful for what we have, for our safety and security. and out of that gratitude, turn around and help out. reporter: as unicef says, putting some meaning in your halloweening. for pbs news weekend, i'm ali rogin. ♪

john: and that is pbs news weekend for this sunday. i'm john yang. for all of my colleagues, thanks for joining us. have a good week. ♪ >> major funding for pbs news weekend has been provided by -- >> with consumer cellular, you get nationwide coverage with no contract. it is kind of our thing. have a nice day. ♪ >> and the ongoing support of these individuals and 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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♪ -hello! [ laughs ] -tonig-[ laughing ] hey.lk"... -...the incomparable rock and roll hall of famer elvis costello. -we must keep meeting like this. [ laughs ] -i know. what's going on? -he sits down with grammy- and pulitzer prize-winning musician rhiannon giddens... -what is it about you that you got --