♪ geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on the "newshour" tonight. for the first time in the war, civilians trapped in gaza --including some americans -- are allowed to cross into egypt. geoff: pakistan's government

issues an ultimatum to over one million afghan refugees to leave the country or face forced deportation. amna: and former republican congressman adam kinzinger reflects on the current state of his party and the future of american democracy. adam: i consider there to be one issue on the ballot in 2024 -- it's do you believe in democracy or not? ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by. ♪ >> leading our economy for 160

years. bsnf, the engine that connects us. ♪ >> the walton family foundation. working for solutions to protect water during climate change so people and nature can thrive together. supported by the john d,\. and catherine t macarthur foundation. 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 by viewers like you. thank you. amna: welcome to the newshour. the first group of around 1000 civilians, including

americans, are leaving gaza today after more than three weeks under israeli bombardment following the hamas terror attacks. president biden said there would be more americans leaving in the coming days. geoff: the deal struck among several nations also allows people badly wounded in gaza to be taken for treatment in egypt. but that brief respite was only that, as the war continues between israel and hamas. leila molana-allen again starts our coverage. leila: after nearly a month of brutal war, the first palestinians allowed to leave gaza crossed into egypt. egyptian television show the moment some of the evacuees stepped off the bus to safety. among those allowed out, hundreds of foreign passport holders and some of the severely injured. but for many that waited desperately at the gate this morning, the future was unknown. >> we are relying on god and

hoping we get out. it is still our country and we feel sad for it, for its destruction, for our friends and loved ones. if it was not for what happened, we would not leave it. leila: the home they are trying to leave is becoming less recognizable by the hour. for the second day, the idf pounded the refugee camp amidst another communication blackout. the casualties from the strikes are in the hundreds. residents dug through the rubble of an apartment building on their hands and knees, one made a lift of a family member he lost. >> i lost my whole family, 15 of them. they were innocent, just staying in the camp. what did they do? they were innocent and kind. it is literally a massacre. complete description -- complete description. leila: dozens of militants

hiding among the civilians. one of them a senior hamas commander involved in the october 7 terror's attack. the idf released video of what they claimed was an interrogation of the home mass terrorists involved in the attacks describing what he did in detail. the newshour cannot confirm under what conditions the prisoner was held or why he spoke. >> we checked a house and heard that sound of young children. i shot and he shot. we shot at the door. >> until when? >> until we did not hear noise anymore. leila: the israel defense forces say they have attacked 11,000 targets in gaza since the war began, which they say are linked to hamas. the army is intensifying aerial salt and ground raids. at a briefing in tel aviv, the idf spokesman said israeli

troops engaged in a battle in a building last night. >> terrorists fired at our forces in the area. hamas used that structure as a sanctuary. in this case, talking about the deliberate use of a civilian structure near a school, medical center and government offices. leila: the funeral for a fallen soldier in that raid was held in jerusalem today. israel said 11 troops have been killed in action since the start of their ground invasion. on another front, israel announced today a navy missile -- the red sea. the idf that it shot down and aerial threat in the area last night, supposedly seen in this amateur video. that is after it intercepted missile and drone attacks fired by rebels in yemen. in washington, antony blinken met with -- saudi arabia has

called for an immediate cease-fire in gaza, which is secretary antony blinken set is off the table. back in gaza, the devastation is unrelenting. this refugee camp south of gaza city was among the idf's targets yesterday. >> they struck. i came over and this whole building came down. no warning or anything. leila: this man says his kids were playing soccer in the streets when the airstrike hit. he found a small body while frantically searching but cannot tell if the child is his. the blast rendered this child unrecognizable. for the pbs newshour, i am leila milan allen. geoff: intelligence services in israel are being faulted, along with the netanyahu government, for missing the signals that hamas was preparing to launch

its attack on leila now has a october 7. conversation with a former israeli spy chief, efraim halevy, who ran the mossad -- israel's foreign intelligence service -- during the second palestinian uprising in the early 2000s. leila: thank you so much for being with us. i want to start by asking you about the attacks. what seems from the outside as this huge failure on the part of the israeli security forces. what do you think happened? efraim: i was surprised myself. i am not part of the political level. i want to wait until the facts come out. it is not the first time we have had an intelligence failure. this is a much more compelling story. the consequences, much.

more serious. a war against foreign countries. the intensity of the event is much more, in many ways, than any other. leila: let me ask you about that enemy. what is your assessment of how hamas has grown, particularly since the withdrawal from gaza in 2005 to become what they are now? efraim: the nature of the leadership changed. the founder of the movement was a spiritual leader. we had what was called mowing the lawn. every now and then you have a confrontation, you mow the lawn, you bring the grass down to another level and that it begins to grow and it grows and

changing the types of movement. you are reaching a point where each time you succeed in damaging the leadership, you find a new leadership, which is probably more extreme than the leadership that has been cast aside. leila: the attitude now since the attacks from the israeli military seems to be enough of mowing the lawn. now is the time to eradicate hamas completely. is that possible? efraim: i do not want to be a prophet and say it is impossible but i think it is extremely difficult to do. leila: benjamin netanyahu has been criticized widely for not keeping iran safe. he said he is running this war and he will win it. do you think he can recover in public opinion? efraim: the moments we are speaking of, the ratings are very low. i do believe there are many

people in his own party who have reached the conclusion that it is very dangerous to allow him to continue for any long period. of time he is living in a world that is not reality. he wants to get up and say i won the war. what will people say the day after? leila: on the hostages, what do you think about that strategy of being so militarily involved while there are more than 220 people stuck inside gaza? efraim: it is a serious problem. the question of hostages is a delicate question in israel. the last time there was a hostage exchange, all the leaders of hamas -- it is a very , very difficult decision to take.

if the press were to go through the same kind of exercise again and know that by doing so you are preparing the next round, all intents and purposes, that is not a good deal. leila: a lot of public opinion is turning against israel now when it was very much in the country's favor after the horrific terror attacks. what do you think the strategy is here? if israel loses the war of international opinion but wins by ground war, will that be enough for the future? efraim: it would be wise -- for a moment, get into a room, close the door and shut out the noise from outside for several hours

in order to determine which way we are going. in the end, what kind of -- do we give to the israeli public at the end of the day? will it be a military victory, period? what happens next? what i am very concerned about is in the end, we don't have a viable solution for gaza. leila: after the terror attacks, we saw iranian foreign minister touring countries eventually to build support like a work cabinet. what is your assessment right now of what this iranian leadership wants in terms of who they are funding and how the are going about that and what their reaction to this war against hamas is going to be? efraim: the way iran is reacting , yes, the intention has risen.

areas in the north of been evacuated. i do not think that ir todayan is into -- ira todayn is interested in having a major confrontation because iran wants to take what it has gained with the relationship with saudi arabia and it was to capitalize on it, it was to solidify it. probably, they know that saudi arabia would not be interested in a big flareup. leila: even if the war in gaza stopped today, the red cross says up to 40% of homes in gaza have been destroyed. at the moment, over 8000 palestinians killed, 3005

hundred palestinian children killed inside gaza. it will take years to rebuild. what is the future in terms of reconstructing after this? efraim: with all due respect to the country, i do not think that anybody in the israeli hierarchy these days is giving much attention to what you said just now. we are going to try to win the war by decapitating hamas as much as we can. what happens 40 or 50 years from now, we will not have to be around to deal with it. people do not think that much into the future. in the end, we will have to change the disc in the brain and think differently. leila: thank you so much. efraim: thank you.

♪ amna: in the day's other headlines, donald trump jr. testified in new york, in the civil fraud case against the family's real estate business. he entered a manhattan courthouse this afternoon. under oath, he maintained he had little to do with financial practices that allegedly involved inflating asset values. his brother eric, co-manager of "the trump organization," is set to testify tomorrow. the u.s. supreme court has heard another case involving former president trump. in arguments today, a california man said he wants to trademark the phrase "trump too small" and put it on t-shirts. he said it's about free speech. federal officials said that can't happen without mr. trump's consent. the court will decide by next summer. federal prosecutors in new york today accused sam bankman-fried

of building a "pyramid of deceit" at his failed cryptocurrency exchange. he allegedly defrauded ftx customers and investors of $10 billion -- charges he denies. in closing arguments to the jury, one prosecutor said, "he told a story, and he lied to you." the defense argued the government unfairly painted bankman-fried as a monster. the federal reserve is leaving a key short-term interest rate unchanged, again. the decision today marked the second time in a row that policymakers held steady. fed chair jerome powell said they're taking a wait-and-see approach on whether current rates will cut inflation to the fed's 2% goal. chair powell: i think we are seeing the effects of all the hiking we did last year, and this year we're seeing it. it takes time. we know that, and you can't rush it. so doing this, slowing down is giving us i think a better sense of how much more we need to do, if we need to do more. amna: inflation at the consumer level is down sharply from last

year's peak, but still running at nearly twice the fed's goal. six democratic mayors are pressing president biden for greater federal help to handle thousands of migrants. in a new letter, the mayors of denver, chicago, el paso, houston, los angeles and new york complain of, "little to no coordination, support or resources." they call for $5 billion in federal funds, nearly three times what the president has proposed. republican congressman ken buck announced today he won't seek a sixth term, and he complained the party has abandoned its mission. the colorado conservative said too many republican leaders are still lying about the 2020 election results and the january 6 attack on the u.s. capitol. >> it is impossible for the republican party to confront our problems and offer a course correction for the future while being obsessively fixated on retribution and vengeance for

contrived injustices of the past. this trend among republicans is a significant departure from the enduring principles of conservatism. amna: buck opposed opening an impeachment inquiry into joe biden. also today, a texas republican said she will retire after next year after nearly 30 years in congress. the nation's infant mortality rate has hit its highest level in two decades. the cdc reports the rate climbed 3% in 2022 after falling for years. deaths rose sharply among white and native american infants, newborn boys and babies born at 37 weeks or earlier. the cause is unclear, but rsv and flu infections could be factors. overall, death rates among black and native american infants remain the highest. toyota will raise wages and benefits for its non-union factory workers in the u.s. today's announcement comes after the united auto workers union won sharply higher pay from

ford, gm and stellantis. toyota's hourly workers at the top of the pay scale will see 9% raises. and, on wall street, stocks rallied after the federal reserve's statement on interest rates. the dow jones industrial average gained 221 points to close at 33,274. the nasdaq rose 210 points, 1.6%. the s&p 500 was up just over 1%. still to come on the "newshour." former republican congressman adam kinzinger on divisions within the gop. caribbean nations call on king charles to provide reparations for the u.k.'s history of slavery. new york's former deputy mayor opens up about the challenges of living with als. plus much more. ♪ >> this is the pbs newshour from weta studios in washington and from the west from the walter

cronkite school of journalism from arizona state university. geoff: following the 2021 u.s. withdrawal from afghanistan and subsequent taliban takeover, hundreds of thousands of afghans sought safe haven in pakistan. many had spent years working with the u.s. and afghan government, and fled a taliban crackdown. but as nick schifrin reports, today they are on the run again, after pakistan began implementing its threat to deport more than a million undocumented afghan refugees. nick: it was supposed to be the refuge. an afghan family's home in the capital. this week it was torn down by the government they hoped would keep them safe. afghans and pakistan bear the burden of again being uprooted. 100,000 have loaded everything they own onto buses, forced to return to their home country. many are resisting this move that would be far too dangerous.

>> the telegram wants to kill my mom. nick: he was a human rights activist in afghanistan under the u.s.-backed government. last year, she even protested the taliban after their takeover. after this demonstration, the taliban arrested her and tortured her. since taking over, afghanistan -- blocked nearly all female education and many female careers. >> i have a dream that i came to pakistan and i studied but now i cannot. i cannot continue my education here. they do not allow a woman to get

an education. nick: how scared are you right now? how scared is your family? >> it is really hard. it is really hard for everyone. nick: that is because pakistan's deportation threat has sparked the crackdown. police have arrested hundreds of afghans, no matter their documentation status. >> in september the cops came to our place twice. they threatened us that the next time we come we will deport you. >> we have seen that people are getting arrested. whatever the document. nick: he is the ceo of a pakistani human rights organization focused on refugees. why do you believe pakistan is

pushing these undocumented afghans out? >> after almost 10 years, pakistan has to highest number of terrorist attacks in the year 2023. nick: the terrorist tipping point apparently came after tw attackso in late september that killed or injured 100. nothing to do with the afghans who fought and then fled the taliban and now have no refuge. the united states left afghanistan, some argue abandoned, people like you. do you feel abandoned again? >> i have been beaten up and tortured. i came here to secure a better future for my daughters but no one has helped me. i feel like all my emails go to the sky. i feel like the u.n. and the government have failed to help me other is the legitimate government in afghanistan. i wonder if there is space for me and my kids in any country. nick: it is no wonder that after

abandonment by her government, the americans and her neighbors whether anyone will listen. for the pbs newshour, i am nick schifrin. ♪ geoff: former illinois congressman adam kinzinger was first elected to congress in 2010. and in the 12 years he served in the house, he had a front row seat to the changes within the republican party. his personal evolution, as well as the gop's, is the focus of his new book, "renegade: defending democracy and liberty in our divided country." adam kinzinger joins us now. thank you for being with us. adam: good to be with you. geoff: you are now one of the most prominent republican critics of donald trump but what strikes me is that in the book you said you felt some

responsibility for january 6 and the rise of extremism within the republican. in what ways? adam: if you just walk out and write something and you are trying to use it as a warning, which is what i wanted this book to be, i do not think it serves any point -- i played a perfect role in all of this. it is perfect to acknowledge her own mistakes. i look at maybe not with donald trump himself in terms of enabling him -- i voted against the first impeachment and i should not have -- there have been times with the republican party in its early phases of this nationalism or populism played with fire and let that fire get out of control. i was more than happy to take the benefits of it, good fundraising numbers and kept my head down when they got out of control. it is important to recognize that so people can have a way out if they find themselves as someone who helped enable trump

or where we are at some point. geoff: you also conceded there was some political calculation in being the first to come out so forcefully against donald trump. you wrote in the beginning i thought there was no way this would last, no way it would just be just me. for you this has been a lonely fight. why? adam: there is a lot of cowardice. i do not mean that as a pejorative attack for no reason just to be mean. people, i think, more than they fear death, they fear being kicked out of the tribe and losing an identity. if you stand up to someone like donald trump and violate this intense feeling of a party, you will lose votes, lose your identity as a member of congress -- some people love carrying that around -- and you will be kicked out of republican tribe. that tribal alliance or affiliation carries not just into your political tribe but

the friends you have in the church you go to and everything else. there were people hoping i would succeed and liz cheney would succeed but they did not want to be on the frontlines of that. i am happy to have done that. i have no regrets in standing up and that is why i continue to do it but it needed to be more than me and liz cheney. unfortunately there are too many people who continued to say that donald trump did nothing wrong. geoff: you said you would vote for joe biden in 2024 if donald trump is the republican nominee. do you still consider yourself to be a republican? adam: i am not willing to give up the title yet because i have not changed. i am generally, with the exception with how something things change with age and you mature, i have the same belief system i have always had. someone has to fight for the gop. this country has two political parties, one is very sick. one healthy party can keep democracy going for a little bit

but you ultimately need to get back to two and we need people to stay in and fight for the republican party but i will not hold my nose and vote for people who are anti-constitutional. i consider there to be one issue on the ballot in 2024 -- do you believe in democracy or not? without a democracy none of these issues matter because we will not have a different discussion about things. geoff: at the moment donald trump is polling higher than all of his rivals combined. the house, after a protracted and bitter battle, elevated an ultraconservative trump allied member to serve as house speaker. is there a path back to moderation for the gop and is that something the party wants? adam: i do not know if the party wants it. there is a path through a bunch of lost elections or an awakening of some sort. i do not see how an awakening would happen, but it has happened before in history.

i think there is a possibility but we are not at that moment. geoff: let's talk about your service on the january 6 committee. you were reluctant, i think it is there to say resistant to serve on that committee. why? adam: i did not want to do it because i do it would be life-changing. it would put my family at risk. it would put my life at risk because i knew how angry everybody was and how serious life-and-death politics are at this moment but i knew i could not say no. i have a young son, he is two years old and someday when i am sitting him down and talking to him about morals and telling him to do the right thing when it is hard, if i did not do the right thing when it was hard i would have no moral authority. geoff: i know speaking to you previously about how you learned about your political assignment and i wonder if you could share that story. adam: [laughter] i had a suspicion once kevin mccarthy told the other republican members from the committee -- i talked to jamie raskin who asked me and others

if i would be willing to serve on the committee and i said i do not want to do it but i cannot say no. i wake up one morning and i found out on a sunday show that nancy pelosi had announced me as a new member of the committee and then proceeded to call me and asked me. thankfully, i made the decision to do it anyway but you see how nancy pelosi works at a time like that. geoff: on a serious note, you wrote about the criticism you received after serving on the committee including a letter you received from a cousin of yours who accused you of treason, a word for you has deeper residents given your military experience and public service. how did that criticism affect you? adam: it is funny. in the last 10 months, when i got out of congress i really started to understand the impact of things like that and what they had on me. when you are in the middle of it, you are just operating, acting. to pretend it did not have an impact would be dishonest.

my goal for this book is to give people an honest look into my public service, the sacrifice that public service generally has and the impact. geoff: the book is "renegade: defending democracy and liberty in our divided country." its author is adam kinzinger. thank you for your time. adam: you bet. thank you. ♪ amna: during a visit to kenya, britain's king charles has stopped short of apologizing for his nation's repression of independence fighters 70 years ago. but the new monarch is under severe pressure because of written's -- britain's imperial past. caribbean nations are calling on charles to dig into his $2 billion personal fortune and pay compensation for the royal family's slave trading past. special correspondent malcolm brabant reports.

malcolm: britain's imperial state crown, that charles the third wore after his coronation, is supposed to represent the king's moral authority over his subjects in the united kingdom, as well as former colonies which have retained the monarch as their head of state. but as charles strives to bolster the monarchy's relevance in the 21st century, he has been undermined by revelations that the symbol of his sovereignty is stained by the blood of slaves. >> the british royal family are deeply entangled in the transatlantic chattel slave trade. malcolm: professor robert beckford's field is social justice and he has been investigating links between major institutions and slavery. >> they signed the first charter that allowed privateers to go into africa, into the west indies, and traffic hundreds of thousands of enslaved people. they made huge profits from it. malcolm: a document recently emerged, showing that in 1689, king william iii excepted shares worth $300,000 in today's values in the slave trading royal

african company. the donor was edward colston, the company's deputy governor, who made a fortune from trafficking 80,000 africans to the americas. three years ago, anti racism activists tore down his statue in his home city of bristol. faced with proof of the crown's ties to slavery, king charles has promised to support researchers by opening up the royal family's archives. >> this provides them with a redemptive moment, an opportunity to do what no royal family has ever done before in the history of britain to acknowledge that much of their wealth is linked to the trafficking, enslavement and genocide of african people, and the opportunity to apologize for that and to pay reparations. this could be a huge turning point, not only in terms of british history, but in terms of world history. malcolm: one year after his accession, king charles is under increasing pressure to apologize and pay reparations to caribbean islands which generated huge wealth from slave plantations

and are now impoverished. >> we want to encourage the royal family. we are interested in all of the institutions, governments, families that have benefited, they must come forward. malcolm: arley gill heads the authority seeking reparations for the island of grenada. another major institution targeted by gill is lloyds of london, the insurance exchange which profited from indemnifying the slave fleets. >> reparations is not charity. it is actually making amends. malcolm: according to the united kingdoms national archives british ships transported , roughly 3 million slaves across the atlantic ocean before the trade was outlawed in the early 19th century. a study commissioned by the american society for international law, together with the university of the west indies, calculates that britain's slave debt amounts to $23 trillion. the caribbean islands are going after british institutions with

slavery connections because the u.k. government is refusing to engage. >> so i want to ask the prime minister today if he will offer a full and meaningful apology for our country's role in slavery and colonialism and commit to reiterate justice in the act. >> well, no, no, no, mr. speaker. well, i think our focus should now be on doing is, of course, understanding our history in all its parts, not running away from it. but right now, making sure that we have a society which is inclusive and tolerant of people from all backgrounds. but trying to unpick all history is not the right way forward and it's not something that we will focus our energies on. >> rishi sunak is on the wrong side of history, and that must be made absolutely clear. malcolm: dealing with britain's colonial past is a tightrope walk for king charles. in nairobi last night, he expressed remorse for britain's brutality towards kenyans during an insurgency in the 1950's.

>> the wrongdoings of the past are a cause of the greatest sorrow and the deepest regret. there were abhorrent and unjustifiable acts of violence committed against kenyans as they waged, as you said at the united nations, a painful struggle to independence and sovereignty, and for that, there can be no excuse. malcolm: but the king stopped short of issuing an apology, which begs the question, just how far will he go when it comes to slavery? the owners of this relatively modest dwelling in south england are trying to lead by example. retired doctor tom trevelyan is a descendant of merchants who owned more than 1000 slaves in grenada and lived in this mansion. >> i did say to myself, i have done nothing. it's not that i am apologizing for something i'd done. i'm apologizing for something that my ancestors did because of the difference that it makes to

the people who have been harmed. malcolm: earlier this year trevelyan and other members of , his family went to granita -- grenada to apologize in person. his wife anita works with other families trying to atone for the misdeeds of their ancestors. >> everybody in this country who's lived here has, in one way or another, benefited from the prosperity that the slave trade brought to this country, which enabled everything to be built on. it is just important to realize that without that dreadful trade, i mean, we've all eaten sugar, we've all eaten chocolate, we've all got cotton. where's it come from in the beginning? malcolm: the trevelyan's niece laura, a former bbc foreign correspondent, has gone further by donating $120,000 to establish an education fund in grenada. are there other families who are reluctant to follow your path because they're afraid that they're going to lose their wealth? >> absolutely. and that was a debate that happened within my family. i mean, within mine, there isn't wealth to lose, really.

i mean, there is money and a, you know, good middle class lifestyles for sure, but not hundreds of millions of pounds. people who have that kind of generational wealth, i think, are concerned about the consequences. the consequences of being sued. malcolm: most jamaicans are descended from one million slaves who made fortunes for british plantations' owners. their island, the second poorest nation in the americas, is demanding compensation from britain and is on track to become a republic by dumping prince william's father as head of state. >> reparations come now. >> it is one of these tales you see bandied around a lot. you know, i think it's called generational trauma. malcolm: after being a journalist in britain, nick davis is carving out a second career in jamaica making artisan chocolate. >> you only have to look at the murder rates of societies in the

caribbean. it's a thing which was done to us, which has been passed on from generation to generation. we are literally killing ourselves. and that is because of this constant lack of resources, lack of opportunity. malcolm: do you think reparations, if they were to happen in your lifetime, would make any difference to you? >> this is a tricky one. as a community, we don't realize that what happened during the period of enslavement was our holocaust. when people tell you you need to get on with it, it's in the past, you don't realize how traumatic that is and how damaging that is to your very being. malcolm: do you think that he personally should dig into his personal fortune and pay reparations? >> that's the only way as an economic entity is to dig into your own profit from this genocide and make recompense. and i'd expect king charles to do just that.

malcolm: so the caribbean is hoping charles will follow the lead of other british slave owning families, because it will pile pressure on the uk government to do the same. for pbs newshour, i am malcolm brabant in london. ♪ geoff: some 30,000 americans have been diagnosed with "als" -- a rare neuro-degenerative condition also known as "lou gehrig's disease." as researchers work toward a cure, one patient is raising millions for the cause while he also reckons with his own mortality. judy woodruff reports as part of our series "disability reframed." judy: the highline in new york represents a rebirth for the city in the 21st century. >> the highline was an abandoned freight line. judy: that sat dormant for

decades before the city's former deputy mayor, dan doctoroff, led a project to transform the area into a 6-acre park and green space. it is one of the hundreds of projects across new york that bears his fingerprints, from the hudson yards neighborhood, to the new yankee stadium, and the world trade center. >> i've always been a pretty good juggler, doing multiple things at the same time. >> he made things possible. he gave people hope. judy: former new york city mayor michael bloomberg says the man he asked to join his team in 2002 transformed parts of the city. >> dan was a role model. one of the great things about dan is he shows what's possible and then the city is big enough to accommodate plenty of people who will then go and try. judy: but now, doctoroff faces his most daunting challenge yet:

in 2021, he was diagnosed with als. also known as lou gehrig's disease, als -- these days, doctoroff, who spent much of his life focusing on what came next, is forced to reckon with the present. >> i've always been somebody who focuses on the future, so much so that i never really enjoyed anything i achieved because it was always on to the next thing. but when i was diagnosed, i stopped thinking about the future a lot. and i really don't think about the cause of the disease. i live more day to day. judy: how has your daily life

changed? the daily routine of your life. how has that changed? >> i can't really do a lot of things that i love to do, like biking, walking, things that require a lot of physical exertion. but i've learned to adapt. judy: that adaptation includes an exercise routine to make sure his body can make it through the day. a cough assist machine to help clear his lungs morning and night, and a regimen of 20 pills a day. doctoroff still maintains a busy , albeit scaled-back, schedule. he rides a vespa motorbike around his upper west side neighborhood to meetings. but most of his effort is focused on target als, his nonprofit raising money for als

research. doctoroff founded the organization in 2013, long before his own diagnosis, but after his father, and then his uncle both died of als. >> my most important legacy will be making a contribution to eradicating als because it is so personal. one in 400 people are going to get the disease if we don't find treatments. judy: a fundraising goal of 250 million dollars, which at the time of our interview was more than 90% complete. much of the current cutting edge research on als happens here at johns hopkins university in baltimore, at a center run by dr. jeffrey rothstein. rothstein himself diagnosed doctoroff, and works with hundreds of men and women who have the disease. >> als patients are america. there's a full range of what i see in my clinic, from top

athletes to brilliant attorneys to couch potatoes. when it comes to this disease, no one's, in this sense, unique. they suffer from a disease that's robbing their ability to move, walk and breathe and speak. judy: als, discovered in the late 19th century, lou gehrig comes along. 82 years ago, he died of als. since then, how much progress has been made in understanding and treating this disease? >> an enormous amount of progress and understanding that the disease has occurred. we know the different inherited forms of the disease. we know the genes that and many of the inherited forms. we know a lot about how those gene defects actually lead to injury to the nervous system. the more common sporadic form, which is about 90% of als, we also know much about the pathways. that, however, has not been converted into very effective drugs. so lots of science is known, but converting science into drugs is a far greater challenge. judy: a challenge that doctorof

f's organization is hoping to bridge. >> there was no coupling or no good coupling between pharma, pharmaceutical companies and academics. that was what dan really did in a great way. he brought us together in novel ways, and provided unique funding to bring pharma and academics together in collaborative units. >> could benefit from using a speech assist device like google or siri. judy: lora clawson is director of als clinical services at johns hopkins. the facility offers treatment therapies and therapeutic drugs, among a range of services. >> once the patient is diagnosed, they're referred into the multidisciplinary clinic where they're evaluated by a multitude of specialists. we also sign them into a database to screen them for any clinical research trials that we have. judy: but even clinical trials can only hope to slow progression of als. >> it's devastating to hear the

nature of this disease. the functional living needs that they have -- feeding, dressing, bathing, being able to mount the courage to get out of bed in the morning, it's difficult. judy: a picture of that courage is 80-year-old fred carlson. the 30-year-army veteran and former marathon runner was diagnosed with als in 2008, but has defied the odds. >> it's rough and you have to adjust your whole life to everything. like i'm in a wheelchair all the time now. and the only relief i get is maybe transferring to a recliner. so just sitting being confined to a wheelchair is tough. i look on the positive side and try to enjoy life as much as i can. judy: carlson gives credit to others, including his service dog marley, but especially, his wife of 52 years, mary jo.

>> i have to rely on her quite a bit. >> which after 52 years of marriage is hard. it's hard for fred that he has to rely on me to do everything. and i think there are times where he sees things to be done and he wants to do them, but he can't. so then it goes on my list. judy: what would you say to someone who's watching this right now and wondering? >> they say that normal progression of our lifespan is 2 to 5 years after diagnosis. but that's not true. i've been on this journey for 14 years. als is different for everybody. and, you know, take it one day at a time and live life to the fullest. judy: which is what dan doctoroff plans on doing, with his expanding family. >> i was diagnosed the same weekend as my first granddaughter was born.

i just revel in her presence and . judy: he now has a second grandchild and he said he is not thinking about the future anymore. >> i'm going to do everything i can to extend my life, even if it's going on a permanent ventilator, the feeding tube, being paralyzed, and only being able to communicate with my eyes. i will take that option because i want to live. i want to see them grow up. and i think i can contribute even as i get sicker. judy: and squeeze every bit of life that there is. >> every bit of life and do it day by day. judy: days he is savoring more than ever. for the pbs newshour, i am judy woodruff in new york city. ♪

amna: megan fernandes is a writer and assistant professor at lafayette college in pennsylvania, where she teaches courses on poetry and environmental writing. tonight, she shares her "brief but spectacular" take on humor and humiliation in poetry. megan: the first time i read a piece of poetry that moved me was, i had two books in my house. one was a book by kahlil gibran and the other was emily dickinson. and she was very diminutive almost, and like creaturely. and kahlil gibran was like very ceremonial, and i think somewhere in between i found a space where i could say really grand things, but about really small creaturely feelings. ♪ megan: we're gonna be hearing a poem called "do you sell dignity

here?" from my forthcoming book, i do everything i'm told. there's somebody in this, in this audience right now whose heart is broken, has been broken, is about to be broken. this is for you. the piece is about humor and humiliation and that feeling of being sort of at the rock bottom, at the bottom of the world, looking up and thinking there is nowhere further i can go down. at the grocery store, i ask where they sell dignity. and the clerk says, sorry, what did you say? i explain that i'm looking for dignity, having lost so much in the last year, and was wondering if it was neatly placed by the baking powder or perhaps refrigerated with the perishables given its fragile shelflife. and yes, i really did ask this partly because i was being funny and trying to make a friend, but also i would've taken a hug or any acknowledgement that i'm a person who can laugh at myself despite walking with that odd angle of defeat. so the thing about humiliation is that it's really easy to dwell and get indulgent in that space because doom is very romantic. so it's always a good idea to bring humor in early on and sort

of check yourself because humor is humanizing and it helps us sort of, kind of remain in a space of authenticity and lightness. children have no dignity and i really admire that about them. i love their ruthless response to injustices, their desire to feed birds in the park, to grieve the sea, their right to be tired in public. do you sell dignity here? i asked one last time and then tell 'em how it went down. how i had lost mine in bushwick of all places near a building covered in glass and white girl gentrifiers, having their white girl epiphany such bad coming of age trash. jesus. all my parents' sacrifices for this. for what? is this why i came here from africa? they would say over my flat body, hopefully in the shape of a shrug, i am undignified. i think that a sense of humor is a really high form of intelligence and it's a way of sort of moving through dark spaces and it gives humiliation a lot more dimensionality. whereas usually there's a sense of like, social banishment when

we feel humiliated. humor is like deeply humanizing in those moments. i want everything as cheap and damaged as this feeling. when we go low -- when they go low, we go hike, a president's wife said. i go low, some days i go so low, you cannot tell me from the animals we sell, from the hard grain my body has become. my name is megan fernandez and this is my brief but spectacular take on humor and humiliation in poetry. amna: and you can watch more brief but spectacular videos online at pbs.org/newshour/brief. also online right now, we explore the traditions behind dia de los muertos, or day of the dead, the mexican holiday celebrated on november 1 and november 2 that honors loved ones who have died. that's on pbs.org/newshour. geoff: join us tomorrow night when we will have a look at the escalating violence driving hundreds of palestinians in the west bank from their homes. that is the newshour for tonight.

i am geoff bennett. amna: i am amna nawaz. on behalf of the newshour team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding has been provided by. the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour, including jim and nancy and kathy and paul anderson. >> consumer cellular. how can i help you? this is a pocket dial. with consumer cellular, you get nationwide coverage with no contract. have a nice day. >> these are people who are trying to change the world. positive energy that energizes me. i am helping others every day. people who know know bdo. >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the front lines of social change

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>> hello, everyone, and welcome to amanpour & company . here is what is coming up. a massive blast rocks refugee camp in northern gaza. i speak to a former palestinian peace negotiator. and then agony for hostages kidnapped for