♪ john: tonight on pbs news weekend. israel's assassination of the head of hezbollah marks a major escalation in their hostilities. then, the rising death toll from hurricane helene, as the massive storm causes record-breaking flooding across the southeast. and how schools are coping with the end of pandemic era funding. >> there are districts that are in pretty good shape right now and some that are really not. so, unless taxpayers are willing to increase taxes substantially in states, they don't have $190 billion to fill in here.

♪ major funding for pbs news weekend has been provided by -- and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the news hour. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs stion from viewers like you. thank you.

john: good evening, i'm john yang. we are following two big stories tonight, the rising change of rockets and bombs between israel and hezbollah and the rising death toll from hurricane helene. we begin in the middle east, where israel's assassination of the hezbollah leader is reverberating across the region, raising fears of retaliation from iran and a wider war. tonight, nick schifrin is in tel aviv. nick: this evening, southern beirut is still smoldering. after what residents called the most intense bombing in nearly 20 years, on a cluster of high rises and the bunker beneath them, killing hassan nasrallah, hezbollah's leader for more than three decades. e group confirmed his death on its tv channel after the israel defense forces posted on social media, "hassan nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorize the world."

israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. pm netanyahu: at the start of the week i came to the conclusion that the intense blows the israeli military struck hezbollah with in the past days, these blows will not be enough. nasrallah's assassination was an essential condition to achieving the goals we set. nick: nasrallah was hezbollah's commander and communicator in chief. his charisma made him powerful in lebanon, and one of the middle east's most influential figures. he inspired shia followers with fiery speeches, and the sacrifice of his own son fighting israel. even if, for years, he only spoke remotely. for iran, hezbollah became its key proxy, and nasrallah anchored its axis of resistance. a close confidant of iran's supreme leader, ayatollah khameini. in tehran today, the regime's supporters vowed revenge. >> we have heard the message clearly, with the killing of

nasrallah. israel will be destroyed, israel is finished for sure, the oppressor israel will go. nick: but in southern beirut, the smoke hasn't yet cleared, and residents are beginning an overwhelming cleanup. many have fled. 100,0000 just in the last week, some from lebanon to syria, despite its civil war. they're too scared to spend the night in their southern lebanon homes. so they sleep outside, longing for a safer present, and future. >> may god protect the people who were displaced from their homes and those who fled the south and all the areas affected by the war, may god protect them. nick: tonight president biden called nasrallah's death a measure of justice, but added the u.s. aim was to de-escalate the ongoing conflicts in gaza and lebanon through diplomatic means. but tonight the means we are seeing from both sides are military strikes and rocket attacks. john: what is this going to do

to hezbollah, taking out nasrallah? nick: it will have an enormous impact. tonight the defense minister called his death "the most important targeted strike since the founding of israel." he was the commander-in-chief of hezbollah, eracting real pain from israel over the past 30 plus years, including a war in 2006, all the way to last year's decision to link the wars between hezbollah and israel with the ongoing fighting between israel and hamas in gaza. he was also the communicator in chief. he was able to create that fierce following that we talked about. and in fact that following was so fierce it will take time for any leader to fill his shoes. for iran, he was an excellent return on investment. taking a bite out of israel on multiple occasions, helping iran and syria -- helping iran in

syria when it was not so popular, and also becoming the real anger for iran's access of resistance -- anchor for iran's axis of resistance. >> anything that affects the stability of has below will affect the stability of that axis, so it will have impact. even in the medium-term am will be organized, they will regroup. there will be new leaders emerging. in the interim, given the shakeup in the organization, givethe role nasrallah played in terms of the command and control decision-making, i will expect more role or more control by the irgc force inside has below, especially in the military seen. nick: part of what we expect is for iran and hezbollah to decide how to strike back after

nasrallah's killing. john: i know you have a broad range of sources in the region. the people you are talking to, what do they expect will happen now? nick: prediction is difficult, especially about the future. u.s. officials insist this is a pivot point. publicly they want the pivot point to be toward diplomacy. that looks like has below agreeing -- like hezbollah agreeing to security council resolution 1701, moving back from the border, behind the river that is 18 miles from the border. a senior u.s. official tonight tells me that privately they actually believe this is an opportunity to "dismantled the biggest of their proxies and free lebanon of their political and armed stranglehold." in other words, get rid ofr at least severely diminish hezbollah in lebanon.

going back last week to those pager attack's, the walkie-talkie attacks, the decimating of the senior military leadership, so the diplomatic goal in the short-term might be achievable, but that long-term more ambitious goal is not. >> it is in my opinion a short window of opportunity right now, where hezbollah feels israeli weight and it will take time to reorganize and they will be amenable to the de-linking, but in terms of eliminating hezbollah, hezbollah is much more powerful than hamas. nick: it's not clear whether the u.s. or anyone else has a partner in beirut who would be willing and able to try to take hezbollah's military power on. john: will this have any effect

on the war in gaza? nick: u.s. officials certainly hope it does, that if there is some kind of reduction in violence in lebanon, they can reduce the violence in gaza, and that big statement by the g-7, by president biden, by french president macron about the cease-fire in lebanon, directly linked to the cease-fire in gaza. the israeli operation in gaza continues. the israeli military said it has not finished what it's trying to do. the israeli prime minister said he was undergoing still mopping up operations. it is not clear that any reduction or change in lebanon could lead to a direct change in gaza. john: nick schifrin in tel aviv. thanks to you and cameraman eric o'connor. nick: thanks, john. ♪ john: hurricane helene's death

toll has climbed to at least 50 across 5 states from florida to virginia. remnants of the massive storm are causing record flooding across the southeast, submerging roads and entire towns. more than 3 million people are without power. in eastern tennessee, thousands of people were ordered to go to higher ground because of a potential dam collapse, but officials say the danger has passed. special correspondent christopher booker is in florida's big bend region, where helene made landfall. christopher, it has been about 48 hours since landfall. what is the situation now? christopher: we are in taylor county, just along a river in a small town a lump big bend of florida's gulf coast. the story here was not wind, but water. the river behind me rose, the storm surge pushing through the town. it is almost like someone shook a snow globe and spread everyone's belongings all over town. utility crews are working. there are bulldozers pushing

debris out of the way, but it's clear the cleanup will take a long time. john: how are the communities responded? -- responding? christopher: earlier today we went to a town called cedar key and met with a woman there who said she is worried about residents returning. >> they want to come back and some are coming back to nothing and some are coming back to no water, no sewage and no safety. so we have to provide these services as soon as possible, but now we will have to invent things. christopher: cedar key is a town of about 700 people. the mayor is worried what people will be coming back to, because now there is debris everywhere. there are wires everywhere. the town has largely been destroyed. the worry about wires is if they are able to return ellipticity to the town, it could start a fire, but there is no water, so if there's a fire, they're not going to be able to fight it. now cedar key is a town that

knows hurricanes. in the last 13 months they've had 3. in 2023 they had hurricane adalia, this past august they had hurricane debbie, but hurricane helene is much different, much more powerful, and did a lot more damage, and it's clear that this town is really in for a long road and it's not clear if they'll be able to walk that and who's going to walk it with them. john: christopher booker in the big bend region of florida. thank you very much. christopher: thank you. ♪ john: in tonight's other headlines, the vice presidential candidates were campaigning in battleground states today -- days before they meet for a debate. republicvan senator jd vance held two events in pennsylvania. in monroeville, vance participated in a townhall hosted by lance wallnau, a controversial evangelical leader who claims to be a prophet and defended the january 6th assault on the u.s. capitol. vance hit on a familiar issue, immigration.

>> american resources and american compassion have to go first to american citizens, and we have to build our country up to a strong place, and that's what allows us to be helpful a compassionate towards other people. right now our country is disintegrating from the inside. john: democratic vice presidential candidate tim walz was in michigan, stopping at a voter registration event before attending the football game between the university of minnesota and the university of michigan. in ukraine, two separate drone attacks in the northeastern part of the country killed nearly a dozen people. russian forces hit a medical center in sumy, prompting the evacuation of residents of an assisted living facility. that's when the second drone attack hit. nine people were killed and at least 21 others injured. attacks in the region have ramped up since august, when ukrainian troops moved into russia. sumy is only 20 miles from the russian border. space-x launched a mission to rescue the two astronauts stuck

on the international space station. to make room for them, there were only two astronauts aboard instead of the usual complement of four. suni williams and butch wilmore were supposed to be in space for only eight days this summer, but concerns about the boeing starliner meant they won't return to earth aboard the space-x craft until late february, eight months later than scheduled. still to come on pbs news weekend, the choices schools face when pandemic era funding runs out at the end of the month. and, new, wearable technology takes us into the minds of babies. ♪ >> this is pbs news weekend from the david m rubenstein studio at weta in washington, home of the pbs news hour, weeknights on pbs. john: as september comes to a close, public schools across the country are finding themselves at the edge of a federal funding cliff. ali rogin explains. ali: in the throes of the

pandemic, congress passed three acts totaling $190 billion in aid for the elementary and secondary school emergency relief fund. the money was meant to tackle education problems brought on by the pandemic, including learning loss and crown sent -- and chronic absenteeism. the last of the funds will run out in just a few days, and some district will need to slash jobs and cut programs. we spoke with principles in georgia and ohio. >> i hate to see the funds go because one of the things that we used the funds for that i think nobody pushes anymore is enrichment. we are able to get back to our community in a sense -- give back to our community in a sense. we had camps, photography, robotics. >> we were able to hire tutors to be here during the school day, so we would pull kids to meet with them, to get them

caught up. >> it was a breath of fresh air for educators to have access to funds to do some of the things that we can't really do without funding. >> what it comes down to is you have to figure out what has to end. and so you prioritize things and you go from there. ali: for more on what schools have planned, we are joined by the director of georgetown university's edunomics lab, a research center that studies education finance policy. thank you for being here. we heard from a few principals about howheir schools spent the money, but give us a sense of what schools around the country have been using these funds for. >> the money came in the form of a blank check. a lot of districts put money into facilities, hired new people. often we saw more counselors and nurses, social workers. some gave out pay raises. some stood up tutoring programs,

summer school programs. some used it to prevent budget cuts that might have otherwise been happening. we really saw the whole range of decisions out there. ali: do you have a sense of who was helped the most by these funds? >> the money did have stabilizing effect on school districts, so when the pandemic hit we saw a lot of enrollment gaps, enrollment declines. normal districts would have to right size the districts, cut some programs and schools. the money helped prevent that. then we saw inflation and many districts could use the money to hold onto their staff and do pay raises. i think that was a benefit. overall across the country we saw some modest improvement in math and reading, which was welcome improvement given that math and reading took a hit during the pandemic. we have not fully recovered from that. some improvements in attendance,

again, attendance is not where it was before the pandemic. a lot of different effects out there. ali: how is the sunsetting of this fund going to be affecting these schools? ali: >> they don't have to go back to the way things were before, but most districts were cutting labor expenses. that means cutting people or trying to stall salaries, things like that. a lot of districts also paid for vendors, whether those were for apps or for safety or security, landscaping, facilities, hvac, you name it. many of those will likely be ending. parents should expect that maybe they will see fewer staff in their schools in this coming year than in previous years. i think different districts will

make different choices. ali: these funds were meant to address some of the impacts of the pandemic, which included learning loss, absenteeism, things that don't seem to have gone away. what is the extent of the problem is as they exist now -- problems as they exist now versus when they were initially allocated? >> in some districts the progress is oppressive. in others the student scores have continued to decline, attendance has continued to fall. some entire states we have seen a lot more progress than in others. so it is really uneven right now. that is one of the more difficult things, is families have to check in with the district to see what happens next. the money goes away, are we still going to see more improvement in reading and math? otherwise these students will be affected for the rest of their lives. ali: this brings up another water issue. this was always meant to be a

temporary infusion. would you say some schools have overextended themselves in using these funds for things they would always have additional expenses for, but now the source of the funding has gone away? >> it depends on the district. some are in good shape and some are not. high poverty, urban districts, large districts got a lot more money per student than more affluent districts. so they just have a bigger part of their budget now disappearing. they made different choices. some were careful not to bring on too many more staff or commit to recurring raises, and the ones did. some districts have simultaneously lost a lot of students. that is a compounding financial effect. ali: congress is unlikely to approve any extension of this aid, even though the white house been pushing for some extension. the white house is saying it is now time for state and local officials to carry this baton

and work to fill up the gaps that will be left by this fund ceasing to exist. how do you anticipate state and local administrators to respond to that call? >> school district leaders don't usually see one-time money. usually the money becomes permanent money. many of them acted accordingly. now we are hearing this message that states ought to pick up the tab going forward, which sends that message again, don't worry, someone will fill in the holes. but states don't have the money. the federal government can operate on a deficit with debt, but states generally cannot. unless taxpayers are willing to increase taxes substantially in states, they don't have $190 billion to fill in in. that is what is creating the conditions for skull districts. -- for school districts.

ali: thank you so much for breaking this down for us. >> happy to be here. ♪ john: when a baby fusses or cries, exhausted parents may wish they could know what's going on inside their baby's brain. now scientists hope clues could come with the help of a wearable brain imaging device. it looks like a cap and can track cognitive functions. and one day it may help identify early signs of autism or adhd. itv science correspondent martin stew has the story. martin: it is easy enough to tell when babies like victor are not happy, not so easy to know exactly why. they can't talk to tell us what is going on inside their head, and brain scans until now have often involved full sedation and an mri. that is where this wearable

scanner comes in. the cap has lots of these hexagons that shine light into the head and measure how much light reflects back off the brain. by seeing the differences in levels that reflect, we can map where brain activity is happening. the beams, whilst completely harmless, are illuminating. by comparing brain activity with and without social stimulation, scientists observed different levels of activity in the prrontal cortex, suggesting babies as young as five months old are already becoming emotionally intelgent. >> so one of the things we see is much greater activation in social situations, those areas of the brain are more active when babies are watching people singing or talking then when they are looking at toys. >> that is interesting because they cannot talk to us. you pick up on these cues. it's so interesting to see it lit up and how the brain lights

up. martin: victor is nearing his first birthday, but the kit is light enough to work on babies as young as one month, mapping different ages and conditions. what is the potential in the future? >> one thing we hope to do is use this in infants. you have a family history of autism or adhd, that might help us think about what kinds of support children might need. martin: scientists say the opportunities are endless, but are offering no promises. they will work out how to get your baby to sleep through. john: that was martin stew of independent television news. ♪ now on the news instagram page, more from special correspondent

christopher booker in florida on the aftermath of hurricane helene. all that and more is on the news hour instagram page. and that is pbs news weekend for this saturday. on sunday, 46 years after protections for pregnant workers became law, how far they have come and how far they still have to go. i'm john yang. for all of my colleagues, thanks for joining us. see you tomorrow. >> major funding for pbs news weekend has been provided by -- >> consumer cellular, how may i help you? this is a pocket dial. well, somebody's pocket, thought i would let you know with consumer cellular you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that is kind of our thing. have a nice day. ♪ >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. this program was made possible

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