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. xfinity internet. made for streaming. amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. on the "news hour" tonight, hurricane milton leaves a path of destruction across florida and millions without power as officials assess the damage. >> most of the weather has cleared but there are still a range of hazards that are out there. we've got down power lines, flood waters that are still rising in some of the rivers. amna: the political battle for control of the u.s. senate. we look at the races that could determine if the chamber flips hands. geoff: and cross-border attacks escalate between israel and hezbollah in southern lebanon,

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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 "news hour." more than three million customers are without power tonight after hurricane milton blew through florida and caused widespread flooding along its west coast and inland. amna: the hurricane, and its fierce winds, cut a path of destruction across many cities and towns. at least six people were killed. but the very worst fears around storm surge were avoided. william brangham begins our coverage with this report. william: this is milton's path of destruction. the massive hurricane tore across florida overnight and today after making landfall near siesta key in sarasota county. it came ashore as a category 3 storm, with 120 mile an hour

winds. first responders across the state worked overnight and through the day, rescuing people stranded by flood waters, and from homes damaged by debris and falling trees. in pinellas county, water rescue crews worked for hours, saving hundreds of people who'd been trapped in an apartment complex inundated with flood water. as bad as it was in some areas, florida governor ron desantis said the state had avoided some of the more catastrophic scenarios predicted. >> the storm was significant, but thankfully this was not the worst case scenario. the storm did weaken before landfall, and the storm surge, as initially reported, has not been as significant overall as what was observed for hurricane helene. william: still, milton did plenty of damage. in lakeland, 20 miles from the coast, residents in this mobile home community were not told to evacuate, and by the time they

realized how bad the flooding was, it was too late. manual mejia biked out of the flood. his girlfriend is still back in their home, but safe. >> they were saying it was going to head more towards the lake area, more down. so i'm like, we don't need to get out. we'll be all right. but then all of a sudden, the hurricane just had its own mind, came back to us, and it was too late to get out. i wasn't expecting it to be that bad, but they were hitting very strong and being in a mobile home and really hit really strong. but the winds, like every single time there was a powerful wind, you could feel it in the mobile home just shaking. william: carlos mar, whose mobile home was flooded with a foot of water, was rescued by boat this morning, reunited with his loved ones, including his younger sister, angeline. so you left your big brother here all by himself? >> yeah, because my mom, my mom, we couldn't take him because he didn't have some space in the car. william: i see.

so you got to get out. but your brother had to stay. but he's ok now, which is good. >> i'm happy for that, that god saved him. william: even before it made landfall, milton's fierce winds set off at least 27 tornadoes. including on florida's east coast, destroying homes and killing several people in st. lucie county. milton avoided a direct hit on the much larger city of tampa, but in just one day, deluged the region with more than a month's worth of rain. >> i feel like i see rapids in the river, which is bananas. william: the hillsborough river swelled to four times its usual level. submerging entire roads and businesses. >> born and raised here, never seen anything like this. william: in st. petersburg, milton's high winds sent a construction crane crashing into a nearby building. and shredded the roof of tropicana field baseball stadium. usually home to the tampa bay

devil rays, last night it was used as a staging area for first responders. in washington, president biden pledged to help the state cleanup and rebuild. >> there's going to be a need for significant amounts of money. i think congress should move as rapidly as they can, particularly on the most immediate need, which is small business. william: as it churned across the state, milton downed power lines and transformers, sparking fires and leaving more than 3 million floridians in the dark. the storm moved off florida near cape canaveral as a category one early this morning after pummeling communities on the eastern shoreline. several residents in sarasota, where the storm surge appeared to peak around eight to 10 feet, have begun returning to assess the damage. >> this is the second time for us. we had helene came by. we had everything cleaned up and then all of a sudden this comes around. we've got our fingers crossed, we're praying to the lord that he answered our prayers and is going to give us a break. >> sounded like a train.

it was pretty rough. a lot of damage around the houses, but most of the houses, i think, did pretty good. shockingly. william: so there is clearly a sense of relief in certain spots here, but there's a lot of work to be done to still understand just how severe the damage is across this state. amna. amna: william, it was clearly such a powerful storm, and as you reported there, a lot of damage. but in terms of physical damage and loss of life, it doesn't seem to have been as bad as many were anticipating, thank goodness. why is that? what should we understand? william: well, there were several reasons for that. number one, the storm shifted slightly south of tampa, so it didn't hit a major metropolitan area. secondly, the surge that did come in wasn't as big as meteorologists had projected. i mean they were talking yesterday at 12 to 15 feet potentially. it ended up only being about three to five. there's some complex meteorological reasons for that. there was actually what's called a reverse surge that happened that pulled some of the water back from the shoreline at the moment of impact.

that's also good. it's also true that it seems a lot of people here heard the warnings. they heard the governor. they heard their local officials. they heard the president of the united states saying this is a big storm and if you have a chance to, get out of here. so people drove north. they drove west. when we flew in, we saw the airport was crowded with flights leaving florida and the orlando area. so this, as we reported, was one of the largest evacuations that has happened in this state's history. so, those factors i think all contributed to the fact that, it is very rare to be able to do for a major storm like this, it's nice to be able to report some good news that this wasn't as bad as people had anticipated it would be. amna: at the same time as we saw in your report there, there were so many people in some of those low lying mobile home communities where they did see quite a bit of flooding. what's ahead for them? william: that's right. we visited several of those mobile home communities today. we tried to go further out to the coast, but a lot of the major highways were flooded out

and inaccessible to us, so we're about 20 miles from the coast and we saw several of those small communities. and those are communities that traditionally public officials worry a great deal about because they're often in low lying areas, the structures that are in those communities are not as robust from a construction standpoint. they're not fixed to the ground like a traditional house is with its foundation. and because they are often populated by people who don't have as much money and are somewhat at the fringe of our society, they're placed in places that are just not as safe, and they tend to flood more, and they're often more polluted, and that's what we saw here. couple that, all of those factors, with the enormous amount of rain that fell on the state. as we reported, they got almost a month's worth of rain in just over a day or so here. you put all of those factors together and these communities are the ones that flooded the most, and we saw several examples of that right where we're standing here. communities that didn't have the wind rip their roofs off, which

is traditionally what happens in storms like this, but water that fell to the ground and flooded upwards and damaged their homes. amna: that's our william brangham reporting tonight from lakeland, florida. william, thank you to you and the team. william: thanks, amna. geoff: for a closer look at the federal response to hurricanes milton and helene, we're joined now by keith turi, acting associate administrator for response and recovery at fema. thanks for being with us. milton is now the second major hurricane to make landfall over the past two weeks. what is needed most on the ground right now? keith: the storm did pass through overnight and most of the weather has cleared but there is still a range of hazards that are out there. we have downed power lines, floodwaters that are still rising, and of course issues like power outages and things like that. we are focused. primarily on keeping people safe. officials are out making sure the roads are clear and it is

safe to be in the neighborhoods. they will let people know when they can come back. the key thing right now is making sure everyone follows the directions and stays safe the next couple days before we get into recovery mode. geoff: a question about fema's capacity. according to the new york times as of monday just 9% of fema personnel were able to respond to hurricane milton. is that affecting the relief you can provide? keith: no. we have the resources we need. we have a primary cadre of folks that do disaster response. but we also have many other layers of resources. we have other parts of our workforce that have the ability to search disaster response. we have other federal agencies we can bring in and many other partners we can bring together. we have the resources we need both from a financial standpoint and a personnel stand point to handle. geoff: parts of the southeast are still struggling to recover from hurricane helene, especially

folks who live in the mountainous part of north carolina. what is fema doing to help those folks? keith: we have been working with the state of north carolina since before the state made impact. our team has in working 24/7 on the ground with the officials in north carolina and local officials to provide a range of types of support. we have disaster assistance available for folks to register for to get financial assistance and access to hotel rooms. we are working with them to bring commodities in and be able to move that forward to people who need access. we are doing things like helping bring in comfort stations where there are showers and other places where people can do laundry as they need to. a whole range of activities are ongoing while we are also focused on bringing back the water, the power, helping repair roads. a lot of work still to be done but fema is working hard with all of our partners to support

those people impacted as they move through this response. geoff: we have covered this past week the problems caused by the proliferation of misinformation and disinformation surrounding the federal response. how has that complicated the work that fema is doing right now? keith: it definitely makes it more difficult. at the end of the day we are here to help people. the men and women of fema have dedicated their careers to helping people when they need us. lot them to come for us and be able to register for assistance and get help. if information is being shared that they are not going to get help for that fema is confiscating supplies, that creates an environment that is not conducive to those recovery efforts. some of these people have lost loved ones and their homes. it is not helpful when they are being provided information that is inaccurate.

we have a response page on our website you can get the real information on what fema does and does not do and we are not going to be deterred. geoff: for those americans who may have found themselves in the storm's path, how do they get in touch with fema? keith: you can register at disasterassistance.gov. you can go to the fema app call 1-800-631-6632. that will start the process of fema being able to help identify what your needs are and refer you to others or provide you direct financial assistance. geoff: fema's keith turi, thank you so much for being with us. we appreciate it. keith: thank you. ♪ vanessa: i'm vanessa ruiz in for stephanie sy with the latest headlines. our top story, the death toll

from hurricane milton has risen to at least 11. about 3 million people remain without power. one person is dead and 12 remain trapped this evening within a former colorado goldmine. in elevator at the tourist attraction in the mountains west of colorado springs malfunctioned at 500 feet below the earth's surface. the mine itself did not collapse. nine people have been rescued so far. in the middle east palestinian officials say an israeli airstrike has displaced many in gaza and killed at least 27 people today. authorities say a child and seven women were among those killed. and they warn the death toll could rise. >> children were playing in the school yard. they opened a school upstairs to tutor them just two days ago, then these missiles drop. the mother who went to get dough from the bakery to feed her children, i found her lying on the floor.

vanessa: the israeli military says it targeted a militant command and control center located inside the school. ukraine's parliament approved its largest wartime tax hike, aimed at funding the country's fight against russia. it comes as president volodymyr zelenskyy visits leaders across europe to discuss his so-called victory plan, which he has not yet made public. zelenskyy began in london, where he met with british prime minister keir starmer. the two were later joined by nato's secretary general. afterward, zelenskyy traveled to paris for a meeting with president emmanuel macron. he's also due to visit rome and berlin. meantime, a ukrainian official said today that journalist victoria roshchyna has died in russian detention. she disappeared in august of last year after traveling to russian-controlled east ukraine for a report. the circumstances of her arrest and her death have not been made public.

roshchyna received the courage in journalism award from the international women's media foundation for her reporting from east ukraine in 2022. she would have turned 28 years old this month. here in the u.s., new data out today showed the number of americans filing for unemployment benefits last week jumped to 258,000. that's the most since august of 2023. meantime, inflation eased last month to 2.4%, its lowest rate since early 2021. separately, the social security administration announced a cost of living adjustment of 2.5% for next year. t.d. bank has agreed to pay $3 billion in a settlement with u.s. authorities over money-laundering. attorney general merrick garland announced today that the bank pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering. it's the largest penalty ever imposed on a bank for violating such laws. prosecutors say lax practices

made it convenient for criminals to move hundreds of millions of dollars over the years through t.d. bank accounts. in nobel news, south korean poet and novelist han kang won the literature prize today. the nobel committee hailed han's writing for its intensity -- saying her body of work, quote: "confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life." han has won numerous prizes in south korea over the years. but the world perhaps knows her best for her mystifying novel "the vegetarian" -- published in 2007, and translated into english nearly a decade later. "the vegetarian" earned han -- and her translator -- the international booker prize. she spoke about writing novels when she accepted that award, back in 2016. >> writing novels is a way of questioning for me, and i just

try to complete my questions through the process of my writing. geoff: han is the first writer from south korea, and the first asian woman ever, to receive the literature prize. it's the end of an era for men's tennis. one of the game's all-time greats, rafael nadal, is calling it a career, saying today that he will retire after the davis cup in november. nadal announced his decision on social media, saying that injuries had finally caught up with him. >> the reality is that it has been some difficult years, these last two, especially. it is obviously a difficult decision, one that has taken me some time to make. but in this life, everything has a beginning and an end. geoff: the 38-year-old spaniard leaves behind an incredible legacy, 22 grand slam singles titles. finally, a passing of note.

ethel kennedy, the widow of robert f. kennedy, has died. much like her late husband, ethel kennedy made social justice her life's work. and she remained active in organizations like the special olympics. she was the matriarch to a branch of the kennedy family tree that included her 11 children, plus dozens of grand and great-grandchildren. kennedy also endured deep personal tragedy, losing her -- tragedy seeing both her , husband and brother-in-law, president john f. kennedy, killed by gunmen. two of her sons died young, as well. in a statement, the kennedy family said, we are comforted in knowing she is reunited with the love of her life, our father, robert f. kennedy. ethel kennedy was 96 years old. still to come on the "news hour," the shifting u.s. stance on israel's operations targeting hezbollah. the winner of the nobel prize in chemistry on how his work could transform our lives. and new installations at museums and galleries blur the lines between art and science.

>> this is the "pbs news hour" from the david m. rubenstein studio at weta in washington, and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: former president donald trump today made big promises to the american auto industry at the detroit economic club. while team harris embraced new campaign strategies. laura barron-lopez reports. laura: former president donald trump spoke to the detroit economic club for almost two hours today. >> the four-year long nightmare for the american auto worker ends the day i take the oath of office, january 20. it ends. laura: without saying how he would pay for it, trump pitched new tax incentives for american automakers and tax breaks for gas-powered car owners. >> we will make interest on car loans fully deductible. laura: in a rambling speech,

trump called his opponent kamala harris stupid, promised higher tariffs, and claimed detroit and the auto industry were failing. >> it's a failing industry just like we're a failing country, you know, we're a nation in decline, i hope you know that, doesn't make me feel good to say it. >> today, it's the same story. the job killer in chief is once again back in michigan to do what he does best. laura: in a harris campaign call ahead of trump's speech, united auto workers president shawn fain slammed the former president's economic record. >> he talks a big game, he's all talk, that's what he is, but he's no action. his record was defined by plant closings, job loss, and union busting. laura: harris and her running mate tim walz are continuing their push to reach voters in new places. >> you're probably surprised to see world of warcraft on the vice president's twitch channel, but we are looking to bring a new style of campaign rally to twitch, with the coach himself, tim w's in chat, walz. laura: a walz rally in arizona

last night streamed alongside the twitch user known as preheat while he played the popular online game world of warcraft. but harris is still using familiar tactics and faces. former president barack obama will make his first appearance on the campaign trail tonight in pittsburgh, and former president bill clinton is hitting southern states this weekend. for the pbs "news hour," i'm laura barron-lopez. amna: this november, it's not just the presidency that's up for grabs. a handful of races could determine control of the u.s. senate. democrats currently hold a razor thin majority but are facing tough challenges in some key states this election cycle. lisa desjardins is here now with a look at the senate landscape. good to see you. let's look at the big picture. democrats control the senate. what the republicans need to do -- what do republicans need to do to win control? lisa: not a lot actually. let's look at a mental map. right now the u.s. senate, 51 democrats and independents who vote with them to organize and 49 republicans.

a close margin. if the republicans net one seat, as there again the senate would , become a 50-50 place and whoever controls the white house would control the senate. if the republicans gain two seats, it would flip to 51 republicans, a margin of two. now, we have to talk not just about the plus two, but how republicans could get it. let's look and actual map. on the ballot this election, 34 senate seats, they all are. if you are in one of those states you are probably getting more mail than anyone else. if you look at this, 23 of those blue states, those are being defended by democrats. if you are looking for republican pickups, one on the board, west virginia. right now that is senator joe manchin's seat, but it is expected to flip as he retires. so that is plus one for republicans right there. where would they get another

one? let's look at seven other competitive senate seats in play. these are democrat seats right now. all of these are competitive races, some more than others. these are places where democrats are on defense and where republicans think they have pickup opportunities. bottom line, republicans have a lot of paths to taking over the senate. democrats have to be nearly perfect to keep it. amna: when you look at the races, how are they looking? lisa: there is a spectrum. let's go through four of the key races. in arizona on the left. if you look at the polls, he is up by seven to 13 point. democrats feel good about that seat, but going to the next one in michigan, alyssa slotkin, another open seat. closer, five to six points. sherrod brown, an incumbent in ohio, that is right now a virtual tie. and then in montana, senator jon tester right now polls have him behind, outside the margin of error for the most part.

republicans believe that will be a sure pickup for them. what happens on the presidential ticket will have a big impact on all of these races, for sure. amna: let's take a deeper look. we saw some debates and some of those this week. the most recent was last night in arizona. what stands out to you? lisa: what a fascinating political state. this is the open seat kyrsten sinema is leaving behind as she retires. the republican is the trump surrogate kari lake who lost the race for governor in 2022. one of the reasons democrats think they are doing so well is abortion. it is on the ballot in november. it is something ruben gallego the congressman brought to the debate last night. here is one of their exchanges. he is trying to pin down lake, who has had different ways of talking about her abortion stance. used to be much more conservative. >> i would codify roe. it is absolutely abhorrent that my 15-month-old daughter has less rights and control of her body than her mother. the reason we need to codify

this because people like kari lake are the ones that make this a dangerous situation. >> i understand how difficult these choices may be, and we have the choice as arizonans to decide what our abortion law will be. it will be up to us, we will decide in november when we go cast our ballot. ruben gallego wants to take that choice away from us. lisa: that is not an answer on where she stands. she pushed back on immigration and election denialism. she would not say 2022 michigan is another open seat. alyssa slotkin is doing well, running ahead of kamala harris in that race ahead of former congressman mike rogers. that is one democrats are eyeing. if kamala harris has more of a problem nationally, alyssa slotkin could have a problem as well in michigan. amna: what about in montana? the best potential chance for republicans to flip a seat? lisa: it is. if republicans can't flip this seat, i think democrats will keep the senate for sure.

this has been a tough race for democrats, and always has been for democrats, at least in modern times. jon tester is running against former navy seal and someone who is a businessman running a very good campaign. a lot of money in this race. in the debate earlier this week one of the big issues they brought up was immigration. here is how he went on the attack. >> i'm a pro immigration guy. i've welcomed dozens of folks here to work for our companies and brought friends in this country but coming the right way, legal is the right way to do it. we've seen happen last 3.5 years is a humanitarian disgrace, it's a national security disgrace. and the democrats chose to let it happen. lisa: tester responded by distancing himself from president biden and criticizing republicans for not supporting the potential border compromise earlier this year. >> i'll be the first to tell you that president biden has not done a good job on the southern border. it could have been passed six or eight months ago, but the bottom line is that tim sheehy, before it was even released to read, said nope, not going to support that cause his party bosses told him that's what we need to do.

lisa: republican senate source i talked to today that would like tester to lose says you cannot count him out. amna: is there any chance for democrats to flip a republican seat? lisa: texas and ted cruz. they have a good candidate who they think can make it a close race. it is a long shot. there is also potential in florida, also a long shot. nebraska, the longest long shot, an independent who is not a democrat is giving deb fischer some nervousness. those are long shots, they are not expected. but the presidential race could change the equation. amna: less than a month ago. -- to go. lisa desjardins, thank you so much. ♪ geoff: the united nations today

said its peacekeeping forces in southern lebanon came under attack today by israeli forces. israel invaded the south last month to press its military campaign against hezbollah militants. the u.n. peacekeeping force, which goes by its acronym unifil in lebanon, is charged with keeping the border between lebanon and israel quiet, and demilitarized on the lebanese side. as special correspondent leila molana-allen tells us, the prospects for either are further away every day. leila: shock in the international community today as israeli tanks fired on two u.n. peacekeeper bases in southern lebanon. two soldiers were injured. elsewhere along the southern border, fighting raged between idf soldiers and hezbollah forces. 10,000 peacekeepers from 50 u.n. nations are stationed here in the far southern coastal town of naqoura, with bases dotted along what's called the blue line. for nearly two decades, unifil has tried to implement the u.n.

resolution that aims to keep peace along this febrile border. in calmer times, unifil troops work to assist the local community here, and distribute aid when necessary. but for the past two weeks, they've been trapped under intense shelling and small arms fire from both sides. u.n. resolution 1701 was a key part of ending the last major conflict between israel and lebanon in 2006. it had three key provisions, that hezbollah would lay down its weapons and withdraw behind the litani river. in its place, the lebanese armed forces would become the official authority in south lebanon. and in return, israel would respect the blue line, the border drawn up between the two countries. in the years since, none of the parties has respected or fulfilled its obligations. hezbollah has continued to grow its weapons arsenal. the lebanese army never built its power or armament to the point where it could become that authority. and hezbollah has launched daily

incursions into lebanese airspace and waters. tensions have been building since israel asked the irish unifil contingent to pull back last week. they refused. idf troops dug in just meters from the unifil base. hezbollah accused israel of using the peacekeepers as human shields. today's attacks are a significant escalation. the u.n. security council called an urgent meeting to discuss. ireland's foreign minister, the country with the biggest peacekeeper contingent, condemned the attack. andrea tenenti, unifil's spokesperson based at the headquarters fired upon today, called the idf's attacks a grave violation of international law. >> shelling has been ongoing between them and hezbollah with our base in between. it's also important to remind the parties that it's their obligations to ensure the security and safety of our troops.

and that's something we have been reminding them. the shelling continued. leila: the idf says that it is taking care of its responsibility to preserve the safety of u.n. peacekeepers there by telling them to leave for their own security in the same way it says it's protecting people in lebanon by telling them to leave their homes. what's your response to that? >> it's definitely very, very alarming, and more than alarming, because this is a sovereign country. and troops from other countries inside lebanese territory is a violation of the territory. we still have to be present. we are trying to de-conflict situations where we are there to try to prevent escalation of the conflict. also assisting local communities with medical activities, but also bringing supply, water, etc., which is very much needed at this point because there are thousands of people stranded as stuck in the south with very little in terms of water or food. leila: many people internationally will be watching this conflict and wondering, there's a lebanese army, the lebanese armed forces, why are they not on the front lines? >> the issue with the lebanese army, they're extremely

committed. and also they are very well received by the population in lebanon. they also have a lot of difficulties in terms of capacities and capabilities. it's important for the international community to understand how relevant it is to support the lebanese army and to bring a large number of troops equipped and trained to the south to bring back state authority. and we can assist in the implementation, but we need a serious commitment from both sides. and at the moment, we do not have it. but we need it right now. we need it right now because every day the situation is deteriorating. not only in the south, in lebanon and in the region. leila: u.n. workers and peacekeepers were once a red line for the international community. but over the past year, as some parties to the conflict have challenged the un's legitimacy, those lines have blurred. multiple u.n. officials voiced frustration to the "news hour" that respect for international humanitarian law and u.n. authority are on the verge of collapse.

the u.n. and its peacekeepers are in an impossible position. their mandate means they can't fight. so if they stay put, and these attacks continue, they'll be sitting ducks. if they leave, what could be the international community's last chance to stop this conflict in its tracks goes with them. nearly 20 years after the world came together to find a lasting resolution, the same old battle lines have exploded into a war already more bitter and bloody than the last. for the pbs "news hour," i'm leila molana-allen in yarzeh, lebanon. geoff: and to discuss how the u.s. is responding to israel's campaign in lebanon, and what israel's goals are, we bring in nick schifrin, who just returned from a trip to israel. it is great to have you back at the desk. so what does israel say it is trying to achieve? nick: they say they are trying to bring back some 60,000-plus residents who have been displaced since october eighth. and to achieve that israel says

it has to move hezbollah special forces back a couple miles from the border at the very least. they say they have to move forces back a couple miles from the border it is really officials say that is where the political solution 1701, which requires has to remove its forces behind the river, which is on average 16 or 17 miles from the border. other israeli officials say this is an opportunity to do something bigger. prime minister benjamin netanyahu told lebanese people to quote, take their country back. that suggests a political weakening of hezbollah that some israeli officials are after. we have seen in expanding of the israeli military operation. airstrikes that are massive along the border creating that kind of huge devastation that you see. the israeli military has called

for evacuations for a quarter of the country including areas way north of the lepton he river. that has led the u.s. administration being concerned. israel invaded lebanon in 1982, describing it as a military operation. it took them 18 years to leave. geoff: where does this leave u.s. policy? nick: u.s. officials are worried about mission creep and those airstrikes. the state department spokesman said yesterday that southern lebanon could not turn into the situation in gaza. u.s. officials across multiple agencies acknowledged to me they have changed their priority when it comes to lebanon. two weeks ago antony blinken said israel must choose diplomacy over war. one is the path of diplomacy. getting a ceasefire along the

border between israel and lebanon, one that allows people from both countries to safely return to their homes. the other path leads to conflict the united states has made clear along with the g7, european union, partners in the gulf, so many other regions that we believe the way forward is through diplomacy, not conflict. >> then israel killed hassan nasrallah and u.s. officials decided this was an opportunity to weaken hezbollah in lebanon and weaken iran's access across the region. that is why you have a shift, support of limited military operation into southern lebanon and you get the language you got from matt miller, the state department spokesman yesterday, talking about degrading hezbollah militarily. >> we want to get to a

diplomatic resolution of the situation on the ground has changed from where we were two weeks ago and we hope this change in situation on the ground will change hezbollah's calculation, ultimately. we hope that hezbollah is degraded enough that they are less of a force in lebanese politics and that they agree to withdraw back up above the litani river so 1701 can be implemented. >> part of the u.s. effort will be to get lebanon's parties to elect a new president. they have not done that since late 2022. there remains the concern about mission creep, whether israel sticks to the plan of limited operation which the u.s. describes as proximity to the border. it remains to be seen. geoff: nick schifrin, thank you as always. amna: this year's nobel prize in chemistry went to scientists, three david baker, john jumper, and demis hassabis, for their groundbreaking work using

artificial intelligence to advance biomedical and protein research. the ai model they developed, called alphafold, uses databases with hundreds of thousands of protein structures and millions of protein sequences, to predict and even design protein structures. speeding up a months or years-long process, to mere hours or even minutes. alphafold was rolled out just four years ago, and has since been cited in scientific studies more than 20,000 times. joining us now from london, is demis hassabis co-founder and ceo of google deepmind and recipient of the nobel prize in chemistry. congratulations, and welcome. demis: thank you so much. great to be here. amna: first and foremost, what you do think when you heard the news? demis: i was totally stunned to be honest, and it has not even sunk in really 24 hours later. so it's just feels very surreal. amna: so i'm going to try here

in simplest terms, which is not simple at all, but to condense the work you and your colleagues have done it. basically, you and your colleague john jumper discovered new and powerful ways to not only decode, but also design proteins using artificial intelligence. i'm not even going to try to understand the details of your work, but in terms of application, how could this impact future development of things like medicine and vaccines? what does it mean? demis: well proteins are the kind of building blocks of life, really. all the functions of your body are kind of supported by proteins. and it is really important to understand their structure, that 3d structure, so that you can understand and function as they have. and so that's what alphafold, our program, does. it predicts that 3d structure, just from the genetic sequence and it will be really important for things like drug discovery and understanding disease. amna: there's one scientist who reacted to the news of your award by calling your work the holy grail, in terms of what it's been able to do. do you agree with that characterization? demis: well, it's very nice of them to say so.

i mean, it's certainly a grand challenge. i mean, the reason that i sort of -- i think it kind of caught my attention is it's been a kind of grand challenge of biology for the last 50 years. so people have been predicting since the 1970's that this should be possible. but until now, no one has been able to do it to an accuracy high enough that it's useful for biologists and medical experts. amna: so, just in the way of background, you co-founded deepmind back in 2010, but before that i was interested to read you designed video games. before that, you were a chess prodigy. you were once even ranked the second highest player in the world under the age of 14. how did those endeavors, chess and gaming, feed into this work today? demis: well, it's actually there's a connection all the way through my career, and i've done different things. so, it's because of gaming and chess that i got started to think about thinking. and i was trying to improve my own thought processes, as you do when you're playing chess for, you know, the junior teams and

the national junior teams and things like that. i was playing it very professionally. and part of that training, you also use chess computers, very early chess computers in the 1980's, they were actually physical blocks of plastic that you had to press the keys on. and i was sort of intrigued by the fact that someone had programmed this inanimate object to actually play chess and play chess well, and that's what got me into ai. then i studied neuroscience as well as computer science and tried to understand better how the power of brains work, and how intelligence is produced, and the mechanisms behind it. and then finally that all comes together with the work we do in ai. amna: as you well know, one of your fellow laureates this year as a man named geoffrey hinton, who was often called the godfather of ai. he resigned from google last year, and he's really been sounding the alarm on what he says are the potential dangers here, that, as he puts it, he worries that the overall consequences of this might be systems that are more intelligent than us, that might eventually take control. do you share that concern? demis: you know, i've known

geoff, we've been colleagues for many, many years, and he's a fantastic scientist. my view is sort of more moderate than that. i feel like, and of course, i work my whole life on ai because i think it's going to be unbelievably beneficial to humanity and to society. you know, alphafold is just i think the first expression of that. and, you know, i think we can go on next to try and cure many terrible diseases. i think it can help with climate crisis, new materials, new energy sources, new mathematics. i think ai is going to accelerate scientific discovery, medical discovery across the board. so those are just some of the benefits i think ai is going to bring and why i've worked my whole life on ai. so it's going to be this huge, transformative technology. but as with any new powerful technology, and perhaps i will be the most powerful, it comes with risks, attendant risks as well, and unknowns. and some of those are to do with

controllability, understanding these systems, interpreting what they do, and how to manage them, you know, what are the values we want these systems to have, we want to use them for, how do we want to deploy them. and some of these questions are technical in nature, technical challenges, and others are more societal and need discussion with the whole of society and civil society, academia, as well as the tech companies and industrial labs, and also government. and i've been encouraging all of those debates to happen. it is great that we are starting to see those things happen. and i think given enough time and effort, we will solve these challenges. and i'm a big believer in human ingenuity. but we need to start discussing and researching those things now. amna: that is demis hassabis, co-founder and ceo of google deepmind and recipient of this year's nobel prize in chemistry. thank you, and congratulations again. demis: thank you very much. ♪

geoff: in 2011, some 60 art institutions in southern california got together to create a region-wide art collaboration known as pacific standard time. pst art is now on its third iteration, and it's an enormous undertaking, the largest art event in the nation this fall. senior arts correspondent jeffrey brown sampled some of it for our arts and culture series, canvas. jeffrey: everywhere you look, light amid the darkness. illuminated manuscripts. glowing, even shimmering objects. most from medieval times. a few created by contemporary artists. all part of an exhibition at the getty museum in los angeles called lumen, the art and science of light. and the wording of that subtitle is critical. katherine fleming is president and ceo of the getty trust. >> art and science may, at first blush, look like things that don't go together.

but actually, they do. these are both modalities of thought or of expression that are concerned with some of the most profound and basic questions. so what we thought might be a kind of juxtaposition of tension has actually proven to be one of tremendous overlap and compatibility. jeffrey: in fact, lumen and seven other exhibitions at the getty are just part of an enormous project that encompasses more than 70 museums, galleries, and public spaces all over southern california, featuring some 800 artists this fall and into the winter. all brought together under the title, "pst art, art and science collide." the getty took the lead and provided some $20 million in grants to institutions large and small, to curate their own exhibitions. >> to have all of these different entities working on a common theme, but in their own way. there's just the theme, and then all of the people who are

participating approach it from their own vector. and i think that's what makes it so incredibly rich. jeffrey: there was a wide range of responses, among them, the natural history museum takes a new look at old ways of exhibiting the natural world. commissioning contemporary artists to reframe dioramas. at the huntington, an exhibition called "storm cloud" shows how the industrial revolution changed life, and how artists and writers captured the environmental and other impacts. self-help graphics and art, a community arts center, presents "sinks," looking at land contamination in present-day los angeles. and the hammer museum features more than 20 leading artists in "breathe," just one of a number of exhibitions focused on climate change. >> all of these things sort of reflect a zeitgeist of fear that we have drifted too far away from the world of which we're a part.

and the hope of showing a way to reconnect to it. jeffrey: at the brand library and art center in glendale, a direct connection, between artists and scientists from nasa's jet propulsion laboratory, for an exhibition titled "blended worlds, experiments in interplanetary imagination." collaborations that bring together science and art, to see the world, make that worlds, a little differently. as in this work conceived by sculptor david bowen working with scientists and jpl data systems architect rishi verma. >> one of the questions we had, maybe the seed of a question, was, how do we bridge a gap of 140 million miles between mars and the earth? and if we were to bridge that, what would that look like? what would that feel like? >> what does that wind on mars

look like? that's what i wanted to know. jeffrey: a simple question. >> yeah, yeah. just, ok, so then how can we show that? jeffrey: the result is called tele-present wind, a sculpture in which we see earth-bound grass stalks from the plains of minnesota swaying in the wind of mars, or at least, from tiny motors using data of actual wind speeds on the surface of mars, gathered by the perseverance rover. verma's job, to transform and analyze data gathered from mars. bowen's, to bring the data to life. >> i would call it like a hybrid mash up. i wouldn't say that this is like -- obviously there's not grasses like this growing on mars, right? we're taking something familiar, we're taking this very unfamiliar landscape and kind of mashing it into this hybrid of something you would never see, but hopefully has sort of a familiarity to it that kind of helps you think, oh, that's what the wind is doing. >> i've been so used to looking at the data in terms of numbers and printouts and graphs on the computer.

and here was the data "alive" in front of me. it was absolutely magical. jeffrey: that's pretty cool >> definitely. jeffrey: so if you look at this, is this art or science. >> this is definitely art. >> it's definitely science to me. >> no, i was too strong. i think it's a mix. i'll own that. >> that's the beauty of it, it's these different disciplines coming together. so it's the same thing. but we're looking at it from two different perspectives. jeffrey: also in the "pretty cool" realm, a solo exhibition called "open" at moca geffen, of work by icelandic-danish artist olafur eliasson, a leading contemporary figure who often uses light, shadows, and elements of the natural world as materials. >> so it looks like a big sun, but it's cluttered with the trash. jeffrey: he asks us to look anew, as in this large kaleidoscope, with beautiful, or

trashy, strands floating through it. >> art in that way is sort of about exploration, exploratory, like investigating something. what does it mean to actually look at something? and in that way, i think art and science can go hand in hand. when i make a kaleidoscope with mirrors that people can almost disappear in, it's a little bit of a science experiment, if you want. jeffrey: it's also a way of grasping something that can feel very abstract and far away, like climate change. these paintings were made through mixing paint with large pieces of glacial ice. as the ice melts, it "paints" its own work. >> it's interesting for me to say to people, well, here's an opportunity to maybe explore the boundaries of what you normally see. what is imagination? are we good at imagining things? sometimes things are hard to understand, like the climate crisis. maybe we should work a little

bit on our imagination to better understand what is on the periphery of what i can actually imagine, in order to deal with it. jeffrey: with so many exhibitions across such a large region, "pst art" is likely impossible for any one person to take in as a whole. but there's plenty of opportunity to choose your science, your art, your combination of both, old, new, and into the future. for the pbs "news hour," i'm jeffrey brown in los angeles. ♪ amna: and that's the "news hour" for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. thanks for spending part of your evening with us. >> major funding for the "pbs news hour" has been provided by. >> on an american cruise lines journey, along the legendary

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