GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening.

I'm Geoff Bennet Amna Nawaz i On the "News across Gaza, amid continued exchanges of fire across the Lebanese border, raising fears of a widening conflict.

The challenges the ongoing legal cases agai 2024 campaign.

And fake or mislabeled content linked to the of times, sparking concerns about the information war online.

VALERIE WIRTSCHAFTER, Brookings Institution: This is really, I think, an emotionally reso conflict on both sides.

And so we see that there is sort of this c confirming evidence.

(BREAK) GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome the "NewsHour."

We learned today that a 70-year-old woman with U.S. citizenship who was thought to have been taken to Gaza as a hostage by Hamas on October 7 was actually killed during the initial attack.

That's accor Meantime, Israel continued its assault on Gaza today amid an escalating war of words between Israel and Hezbollah.

Stephanie Sy has the story.

STEPHANIE SY: An early The flames of war burn on in Central Gaza.

As the Israeli offensive against Hamas continues, grieving families to bury the dead.

SADI BARAKA, Cemetery Wo cemetery, and, here, they are being buried.

Today or tomorrow will be the last day of burial in the cemetery, be is almost full.

STEPHANIE SY: So airstrikes.

In Khan Yunis, the YARA SHANAN, Displaced From Gaza City (through translator): We we we found something falling over our heads.

We didn't have any Hamas members or anything, if I wish we hadn't come to Khan Yunis.

I wish we had stayed in Gaza City STEPHANIE SY: In Rafah, the 20 and injured 55 Palestinians.

As the airstrikes rain down, Israeli troops battle Hamas on the ground.

Hamas released this video of its militants firing on Israeli military vehicles.

Amidst the fighting, 129 hostages remain captive in Gaza.

Today, a kibbutz in Israel announced that an Israeli-American citizen, Judith Weinstein Haggai, thought to have been a hostage, was actually killed on October 7, along with her husband.

Their bodies are Meanwhile, the IDF released video showing what it called widespread stri Lebanon in response to Hezbollah's firing of rockets and missiles into Northern Israel.

The Hamas-allied movement is backed by Iran.

LT. COL. PETER LERNER Iran is defi STEPHANIE SY: Today, Israel intercepted a drone above Haifa that took off from Lebanon.

Last night, Benny Gantz, a member of the war cabinet, said they were ready to engage.

BENNY GANTZ, Israeli War Cabinet Minister (through translator): The situation on Israel' northern border demands change.

The stopwatch for a diplomatic solution is If the world and the Lebanese government don't act in order northern residents and to distance Hezbollah from the border, the IDF will do it.

STEPHANIE SY: A Hezbollah deputy said they were prepared to escalate the fighting.

SHEIKH NAIM KASSEM, Hezbollah Deputy Chief (through translator): Hezbollah and the resistance in Lebanon are making great sacrifices in support of Gaza an We are making the sacrifices that the battle requires, and they are great, but we are also repelling a great danger.

We are ready for more whenever necessar We are not intimidated by threats or warnings.

We in the field are clear that we are part of this battle.

STEPHANIE SY: A battle that threatens to expand For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Stephanie Sy.

GEOFF BENNETT: We're going to keep our focus on the r Middle East as tensions with Iran increase.

For that, we turn to Paul Salem, the president and CEO of the Middl That's a Washington-based nonpartisan think tank.

Thank you for being with us.

Mr. Salem, how d minister, current member of Israel's war cabinet, who is clearly warning about the potential for military escalation against Hezbollah?

PAUL SALEM, President and CEO, Middle East Israel and Hezbollah from the first day of Recent reporting indicated that the U.S. talked Israel down from a preemptive attack on Hezbollah early in those days.

This tension is coming back center stage.

And the Israelis have made it very clear to the Americans and to the world so me resolution to parts of the situation on their northern border with Hezbollah and Lebanon.

Otherwise, t GEOFF BENNETT: Is Israel capable of starting and maintaining a two- PAUL SALEM: Yes, I believe it is capable of doing that.

Obviously, that would take a lot of manpower and a lot of effort.

I think, particularly as they maybe transition their war in Gaza to a more focuse targeted campaign, they might have the capacity to open a second front.

But the challenge is that Hezbollah has so much firepower that it could unleash on Israeli economic infrastructure, civilian infrastructure, the energy infrastructure, including offshore gas operations that the calculation is really not so much can they wage a war as, rather, can they bear the brunt and the cost of such a war?

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, tell us more about Hezbollah's military capabil What kind of damage could it potentially inflict on I PAUL SALEM: The last war between Israel and Hezbollah was in 2006, so 17 years ago.

But, since then, Iran has resupplied Hezbollah with a much larger and a much more accurate arsenal of missiles, estimated to be well more than 100,000 missiles.

These are positioned in various parts of the country.

And they are -- because many of them are precision missiles, according to r from the U.S. or Israel or elsewhere, that they are able to target very critical infrastructure in Israel, as well as civilian infrastructure as well.

And although Israel has an effective Iron Dome defense system, that can catch a large number of missiles, but certainly not all.

GEOFF BENNETT: Does Hezbollah, in your estimation, What is it trying to signal with these strikes?

PAUL SALEM: Hezbollah definitely does not He zbollah has made it clear after the Hamas attacks on Israel and after the Israeli attacks on Gaza that it will maintain a limited level of engagement or hostility across the border.

In their telling, it is to pin down some of the Israeli forces in the north in order to relieve, as it were, their allies.

And, indeed, they are their allies, Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

But they have also made it clear that they do not want a full-scale escalation or a fu war.

Israel also probably doe The U.S. as well does not want it.

So, all the parties, I think, are scrambling to find a way war.

GEOFF BENNET U.S. appears determined to find a long-term political solution to the Isra In your view, is that even possible right now?

PAUL SALEM: For the Israel-Hamas conflic that is certainly a very, very complicated and difficult pathway forward.

It's noteworthy to say that the American governments and the Israeli governments are on opposite pages.

The current Israeli go right wing, their plan is to basically consolidate their occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, whereas the American plan is to get over the Gaza war and move towards open negotiation towards a two-state solution, so really very different trajectories there.

GEOFF BENNETT: What would the U.S. role be if -- and we should emphasize the word if -- this war between Israel and Hamas escalates into a wider regional conflict?

PAUL SALEM: Well, the U.S. has already made it clear that that is something it does not want to see happen.

U.S. diplomats, led by Mr. A is the most likely place where the conflict could spread, in order to negotiate between the Israelis and Hezbollah to avoid a second front to this war, which would be a front between Israel and Lebanon.

Yemen and the Houthi movement there, which is also allied with Ir where there's been attacks from the Houthis on shipping along the Red Sea.

So far, it's been fairly limited.

The U.S. has led a naval operat So that is largely, I would say, being managed.

It's noteworthy that escalation has not reached the Persian Gulf itself, of the world's energy is exported from.

So far, that remains to be the case.

GEOFF BENNETT: Paul Salem is presid Thank you for your insights this evening.

PAUL SALEM: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: In the day's other headlines: Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley today sought to clarify comments she made last night about the Civil War.

At a campaign event in New Hampshire, the former South Carolina governor was asked what she thought caused the war.

She did not mention slavery in her re question noted.

NIKKI HALEY basically how government was going to run.

The freedoms and what people could and couldn't do.

MAN: In the year 2023, it's astonishing to mentioning the word slavery.

NIKKI HALEY: What do you GEOFF BENNETT: Following backlash, Haley clarified her remarks today at a New Hampshire hall.

NIKKI HALEY: We know that.

that's unquestio We know the Civil War was about slavery.

But it was also more than that.

It was about the freedoms of every individual.

It was about the role of government.

GEOFF BENNETT: Haley is trying to close the her and former President Donald Trump.

And she has less than a month before that A federal judge has accepted Georgia's newly redrawn voting districts that favor Repu He said state legislators fully complied with his order to create more majority-Black voting districts.

The judge's ap The fight over redistricting was sparked by Democrats whittling away at the GOP's dominance in Georgia over past election cycles.

Huge surf battered the West Coast and Hawaii today, bringing coas areas.

Dangerous waves High surf warnings were issued for parts of Northern California, where waves were expected to surge as high as 40 feet in some areas.

Residents flocked to a beach in Santa Cruz county for a firsthand look.

Parts of Northern and Central Europe are underwater tonight after heavy rain caused rivers to overflow.

Hundreds of The Elbe River there is nearly 13 feet above its normal level Meantime, in Hungary, residents and tourists in Budapest are grappling with flooding from the Danube River.

It overflowed after SANDOR ESZTERGALYOS, Hungarian Tourist (through translator): We're standing next to Europe's biggest river, which can carry away flash floods in the summer so fast we don't even notice.

But now the weat in the winter.

GEOFF BENNET But authorities warned it will take some time before water l U.S. and Mexican officials have agreed to strengthen their cooperation to curb record levels of migration.

Their pledge comes a day after for high-level talks on the issue.

They plan to hold another round of discuss Meantime, a caravan of some 6,000 migrants continues the long journey by foot Mexico toward the U.S. border.

Starting today, independent lawyers will now prosecute cases of sexual as major crimes in the U.S. military.

The mandate comes from a new law aimed at addressing in the Armed Services.

It arose from concerns that so are protecting alleged perpetrators.

In economic news, the U.S. job market cooled Th e Labor Department reported weekly jobless claims rose to 218,000.

That's an increase of 12,000 from the previous week.

But the four-week average of claims fell by 250 to 212,000.

And trading was light on Wall Street today.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 53 points to close at 377 The Nasdaq fell four points.

The S&P 500 added two.

And still to come on the "NewsHour": ballot meas and change the future of elections; U.S. oil production reaches a record high during the hottest year in world history; and high demand for weight loss drugs outstrips supply and prompts concerns about their use.

While Donald Trump holds a decisive lead in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, his 2024 calendar will be full of legal challenges and court appearances.

In four major criminal cases, the former president faces 91 felony counts, and two key civil cases could cost him millions of dollars in damages.

To help bring us up to speed on where these legal troubles stand and their potentia on his campaign, we're joined by NPR justice correspondent Carrie Johnson.

Carrie, welcome back to the "NewsHour."

CARRIE JOHNSON, NPR: Thanks for GE OFF BENNETT: So, before we talk a I want to ask you about the Michigan Supreme Court rejecting an effort to remove him from that state's 2024 primary ballot under the Constitution's so-called Insurrection Clause.

How did that court take into account Donald Trump's actions on January 6?

And how did the outcome differ from the Colorado case?

CARRIE JOHNSON: Yes, this was an important decision from the Michigan Supr but it was a procedural one.

The High Court in that state left open from the general election ballot, but allowed his name to continue on the Republican Party ballot for the primary.

And they decided that on procedural grounds.

They did not get to the substance of whether the former presi and should be booted off the ballot for that reason.

And that's one key difference between what the Michigan High Court Court did in Colorado.

In Colorado, of course, we had te stified was a U.S. Capitol Police officer who talked about the violence he suffered on January 6, 2021 at the Capitol.

And that court basically found that Trump should be kicked off the ballot of Colorado.

The Republican P Court, to hear that case.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, Donald Trump f Let's start with the special counsel Jack Smith's election interference case.

Yesterday, he filed a motion trying to block Donald Trump from injecting politics into the case.

Tell us more CARRIE JOHNSON: That case, of course, had been D.C., just a few steps away from the U.S. Capitol.

But everything's on pause, Geoff, while the former president appea or not he has lifetime immunity from federal prosecution for acts he committed while he was in the White House.

And so we're w January.

And, eventua But the special prosecutor, Jack Smith, has asked the trial court judge to consider blo Trump from presenting certain kinds of evidence in the case when it finally does happen.

The special counsel seems to be worried that Trump is going to make all kinds of arguments about vindictive prosecution and allege that current President Joe Biden has directed the Justice Department to go after him.

And the special counsel says those arguments th e jury, and Trump should not be allowed to argue those things before a jury.

GEOFF BENNETT: And Donald Trump is also facing a federal indictment for illegally ho on to and mishandling sensitive national security documents at his Mar-a-Lago club.

Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump nominee, has scheduled that trial to start on May 20.

But how likely is it that it starts next spring or, for that matter, even before Election Day?

CARRIE JOHNS As you mentioned, in that both sides are going back and forth on now with the judge.

The judge has kind of tapped the brakes in terms of all of that classified materials.

We know, for instance, the former president in a bathroom at Mar-a-Lago.

The question is how much of Ju dge Cannon has directed both sides in that case to submit a possible jury questionnaire by the end of February.

But a lot of people, May, maybe past the election too.

GEOFF BENNETT: And then shifting our foc case, as I understand it, there is no start date for that trial just yet.

But Donald Trump's attorneys are trying to get the case tossed on First Amendment grounds?

Is that right?

CARRIE JOHNS Trump's lawy 6 violence at the Capitol and the aftermath should be protected by the First Amendment.

Of course, Geoff, other courts and other cities have totally disregarded that argument by the former president.

But his attorn The district attorney in Fulton County wants Trump to go to trial in August of next year That seems unlikely, given the sprawling RICO nature of that case, though.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, Carrie, Donald Trump is also facing verdicts in two civil cases in New York.

What should CARRIE JOHNSON: Sure.

In January, Judg the Trump Organization, which Donald Trump calls the corporate death penalty hanging over him there.

And then the writer E. She's seeking millions of dollars in money damages against him.

GEOFF BENNETT: NPR's Carrie Johnson.

Carrie, thanks so much for Do nald Trump.

CARRIE JOHNS Happy to be here.

Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: The 2024 race for the White House will take up a lot of time, attention, and money over the next 11 months.

But, as Lisa Desjardins explains, other vo presidential campaign and our daily lives.

LISA DESJARDINS: Activists around the country are teeing up stat of issues in 2024.

Watching all of them has been Reid Wilson, state-level news and policy, also friend of the "NewsHour."

OK, Reid, I can imagine some people hearing this will be like, OK, state no t the most, let's say, scintillating topic.

But, actually, can you help us understand how big an become?

REID WILSON, the most expensive political campaign that LI SA DESJARDINS: Really?

REID WILSON: And we're seeing the same level of spending in a lot of other states on issues where t big corporations have billions of dollars at stake.

LISA DESJARDINS: These are niche issues sometimes, li ke we have seen with abortion especially.

We have seen, when abortion is on the ballot or perce been turning out.

That includes in Ohio in Constitution, enshrining abortion rights there.

So I want to ask you, in 2024, what do you see for the la in states?

REID WILSON: marriage bans were on the ballot in 11 states during a presidential year.

In 2024, we're likely to see abortion-related ballot measures on the ballot in about a states.

And that inc We could see abortion rights measures on the ballot.

We will see an abortion restriction measure on the ballo Now, a lot of these are still collecting signatures, so we're not 100 perce going to be on the ballot.

But it's very clear that ab in front of voters is a really good way to do... (CROSSTALK) LISA DESJARD For many, it is policy, but REID WILSON: Well, sure.

It's politic the ballot box since Roe v. Wade was struck down.

And I'm including in states like Montana, Kansas, and Kentucky And those are very red states.

If they can get this issue in fr LISA DESJARDINS: We have also seen in this political era elections them ballot.

What do you se REID WILSON: Yes, there are a wide variety of election-related measures that are out there circulating right now.

The most popular are measu That is, a voter gets to pick four or five candidates who would advance to a election and then pick among four or five, regardless of party.

Only two states allow ranked-choice voting now, Alaska and Maine, but it's going to be on the ballot this year in Nevada and Oregon.

And it may be on the ballot in places like Colora Alaska, as a matter of fact, is trying to roll back their ranked-choice voting.

Some other measures, independent redistricting committees, are likely to be on the ballot in Ohio, changing the way that they draw their congressional district lines, and then things like no-fault absentee voting, which is going to be on the ballot in Connecticut.

We think of Connecticut as a very liberal state.

Well, you can't get an absentee ballot t states.

LISA DESJARD one.

In Californi voters will get to weigh in on maybe a new large expense about housing and mental health.

What's going on?

REID WILSON: this year that would -- now goes to voters in March.

Voters will be asked to approve $6.4 billion in bonds to pay for housing for those with mental health challenges or substance use disorder, and focused, by the way, on veterans as well.

I mean, home as well.

This represe housing, into treatment.

It would spend m treating those with some issues that are keeping them on the streets.

LISA DESJARDINS: And all of this direct democracy, we will see what the voters say.

Thank you so much, Reid Wilson.

REID WILSON: Thanks, Lisa.

GEOFF BENNETT: As the year comes to a close, gas prices in the U.S. are at their lowest point of 2023.

And, not coincidentally, Wi lliam Brangham looks at what's behind the big changes and the implications.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Geoff, the average price of gas is $3.12 a gallon.

That is far below the nearly $4.00-a-gallon highs we saw this fall.

At the same time, the U.S. is producing an unprecedented amount of oil, some 13.5 million barrels a day.

Moreover, big energy compani the Permian Basin in Texas and in New Mexico.

Exxon plans to buy shale giant Pioneer Natural Resources for nearly $60 billion, and Chevron plans to buy Hess for $53 billion.

This record production of oil and these big mergers come at the very same time when the U.S. government is trying to wean the nation off of fossil fuels, because using them is dangerously warming the planet.

Clifford Krauss is the national energy correspondent for Th Cliff, great to have you back on the program.

Explain to us, how did we get here from this plummeting oil marke to now these record highs?

CLIFFORD KRAUSS, The New York Re ally, the story begins about 15 years ago with fracking, right, where, suddenly, the United States became a production powerhouse.

And it's had its ups and downs, but, in the last year or so, there has been almost an unprecedented increase in production, actually the most since 2014.

And so at this point, the United States, as you mentioned, is producing about 13.5 million barrels a day, and we're heading towards 14 million barrels a day.

That is more oil than any country in the world.

That is a record for the United States, and it may well be the record for any co in the world.

And we are n member of OPEC, save Saudi Arabia.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And is that just a functio Is it as simple as that?

CLIFFORD KRAUSS: No, it isn' Actually, it's very interesting.

The very lar They don't want to repeat the mistakes of the past, where they would pump a lot of oil when prices were high, only to see the price collapse.

And, of course, that's what they don't want to see.

So, while they have been disciplined, the smaller compan mostly, they are basically pressing on the gas, so to speak.

And we're producing more oil from these small producers.

And this looks like it will continue.

Actually, what happened was, with the Russian invasion of Uk the commodities, but especially oil and gas, went up, these companies got a signal from the market to start pumping more.

And that's exactly what they have done.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: As you ment all of this domestic production also responsible for the drop in gas prices, which I take it also came as a bit of a surprise?

CLIFFORD KRAUSS: It is.

There's an abundance of oil go But also remember that our gas prices are linked with global oil prices.

And those prices are going down for a variety of reasons, both demand and supply.

Demand from China and Europe has been low.

Production is not only up in the United States.

It's up in Canada, Guyana, Brazil, and a few other pr So although OPEC Plus is cutting back on the production, that is more than compensated by the United States and other producers that are not in OPEC.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Let's talk a little bit about these two big mergers.

Are these, as some critics argue, the last gasp of the fossil fuel industry tryin squeeze every last profit?

Or is it a bet by these companies for a bright, Or is it something else?

CLIFFORD KRAUSS: Yes, I se I mean, the oil companies realize -- and this is not just our oil comp oil companies, but the international state-owned oil companies -- that probably oil demand in the United States and the world is going to plateau and come down.

And so the cheapest barrels are the barrels that will survive on the market.

Saudi Arabia is the cheapest.

Actually, the Permian Basin is pretty c And when these companies consolidate and merge, because of the economics of scale -- the of scale, they are actually saving themselves money and thereby squeezing more profit from their production.

By the way, the Exxon deal is for the The Chevron deal is to get a piece of the action in Guyana, which is the fastest-growing oil province in the world.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: As I mentioned at the beginning, di rectly at odds with the Biden administration's desire to use less oil and to use less gas and to use more renewables.

How does -- how do we as a nation square that seeming co CLIFFORD KRAUSS: That's a tough one, because the United States has two goals, and these goals conflict.

One goal is geopolitical and to take -- basi countries that were dependent on Russia, also to keep our gasoline prices low, so -- to try to fight inflation.

But at the same ti How you do those two things at once is a contradiction.

The Republicans are attacking this administration for making a war on oil, even though our oil production is at record levels.

But it's hard to see this administration say producer in the world, when you want environmentalists and young voters to vote Democratic.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: That is the essential contradiction right there.

CLIFFORD KRAUSS: Yes, it is.

WILLIAM BRAN Thank you so much.

CLIFFORD KRA GEOFF BENNETT: The Israel-Hamas war is nearing its third month, and, this week, Gaza's telecommunications company once again announced a communications blackout.

But there is another front in this war, and it's taking place on our scre Fake or mislabeled content linked to the war has been viewed online millions of times.

To explore this issue, Amna spoke earlier with Shayan Sardarizadeh, a senior journalist with BBC monitoring's disinformation team, and Valerie Wirtschafter, a fellow studying technology and foreign policy at the Brookings Institution.

AMNA NAWAZ: Thank you to you both for joining us.

We really appreciate it.

Valerie, I want to start wit You have looked at mis What is different about this work when it comes to this specific conflict?

VALERIE WIRTSCHAFTER, Brookings Institution: I think what's different here is that this is really, I think, an emotionally resonant conflict on both And so we see that there is sort of this confirmation bias, this ability to kind of just discount confirming evidence.

All of those things, I AMNA NAWAZ: And the reach, Valerie, just is really frightening.

Video that claimed to be 7, that was seen 30 million times.

There was the fake claims about a 5-month-old Palestinia that people were claiming was a doll.

That went viral.

It was publi I mean, does the global interest in gets spread even faster?

VALERIE WIRT The boring stuff, the truth when we can get to the bottom of things, that's far less resonant, I think.

And so when AMNA NAWAZ: Shayan, you have the near-impossible job of trying to verify some of these videos, to debunk the disinformation that's out there and verify what you can.

We have seen in this war too just images from other places, images from Syria, for example, being passed off as something that was unfolding in Gaza.

How do you even begin to verify what's real and what's not?

SHAYAN SARDARIZADEH, BBC Verify: It's not an easy task that is being posted and has been posted since this conflict began on the And, obviously, the nature of this conflict is a little bit different to, say, the conflict that we're seeing in Ukraine or, before that, the conflict in Syria.

This is a conflict that's been going on for decades and decades and decades and decades.

People have already sort of jumped into this with sort of their minds completely made up.

And, already, they assume that they're in an information war and they have to win it at any cost, at any cost, even if it means denying that a 5-month-old Palestinian baby was actually a real baby, and not a doll, and his mother, who was just showing that baby to photographers in grief, was not faking it.

Or that a 16-year-old Israeli teenager whose parents were killed in front of him in a kibbutz near the border with Gaza on the 7th of October is not a crisis actor and is not basically holding his laughter in front of cameras as he's giving an interview recounting how he saw his parents get killed in their house in front of his own eyes.

AMNA NAWAZ: Valerie, how does the origin of some of this disinformation matter in this conflict?

I'm thinking The Israel Defense Forces shared a list that was post They said it was a list of Hamas members, a schedule for them guarding Israeli hostages.

It was actually a calendar in which the days of the week were listed in Arabic.

But that video was reported on widely by a number of other news organizations.

It's coming through official channels.

How does that change the nature of t VALERIE WIRTSCHAFTER: I think it creates sort of just an immediate ability to purveyor of information who is in the region, on the ground.

Potentially, given the destruction and the violence in this conflict, there are so few people that are actually on the ground, those that are on the ground actually do have kind of a vested interest in the information space.

And so we can see it with the IDF and the calendar examp in conspiracies or misleading information.

Journalists who want to get into Gaza have to go with the IDF.

That's maybe innocuous.

Maybe it's just to review foot like that, but it's immediately sort of ability to dismiss, given past -- whether it's massaging the truth, completely fabricating things, or sort of seeding alternative narratives, it's immediately disqualifying as well.

On the other side of the coin, of course, Hamas, I think, has on journalists.

Why -- from the Israeli Israeli cause, why believe them now?

And so I think that that's a really AMNA NAWAZ: Valerie, what's the real-world impact of as widely and as quickly as it does?

VALERIE WIRTSCHAFTER: Maybe an example is the best way to answer that question looking at the kind of aftermath and ambiguity around the hospital bombing kind of earlier in the conflict, sort of there was a knee-jerk reaction to kind of cover this event.

All the information wasn't known.

Mainstream media outlets jumped on it, of course.

Protests erupted, and then several diplomatic meetings were canceled as a In this conflict, conversation and those types of high-level communications are so important, but it wasn't allowed to move forward simply because protests and sort of the unwillingness of governance to engage after that event.

And the challenge, of course, with that event is that it was very unclear wh There was not a lot of on-the-ground reporting at all at the time.

And then, in the aftermath, more information was pieced together.

AMNA NAWAZ: Shayan, I have said before this war is extremely online.

And were it not for social media and a lot of online platforms, you have to think about what we wouldn't see when it comes to both the October 7 attacks and also what's been unfolding on the ground in Gaza.

With people getting so much information and so much co what they should do, how they should view all of this in sorting out what's real from what's not?

SHAYAN SARDA It's not an easy question for me.

It's not an easy quest who just wants to go online and see what's going on.

It's important to just, first of all, to be careful about the source Who's saying this?

How biased are t What type of narrative are they Just have a look at their profil Again, they might have hundreds of thousan they actually pushing a certain narrative, a certain agenda?

Or are they somebody who's genuinely or an outlet who's genuinely trying to tell the story of the conflict without putting any personal bias into it?

See whether this video that has got 10 million views, has it been reported anywhere else?

Has any of the journalists who are either in Israel or in Gaza mentioned this, referred to it?

Try and foll eyewitnesses who have reliably posted videos from what's happening on the ground on several occasions before this particular video.

So, if you see something that is incredibly true.

It also does It just mean If you're not 100 percent, the best thing to do is just not share it.

AMNA NAWAZ: I'm so grateful to both of you for the work you do to make sure the facts get out there.

Shayan Sardarizadeh and Valerie Wi GEOFF BENNETT: One of the biggest health stories of this past year is the surge in demand for popular weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy.

In fact, those drugs are in such demand, there's a nationwide shortage of t Pharmaceutical companies are scrambling to keep up.

Ali Rogin has a look at the demand and the ques drugs.

ALI ROGIN: G meets the medical definition of obesity.

And, in 22 states, at least 35 percent of Midwest.

Medications, patients looking for sustainable weight loss, but they also raise questions related to high costs, insurance coverage and long-term effectiveness.

Depending on the drug and insurance, they can cost patients thousands of dollars a year to stay on them.

And research suggests peop To help look at some of these concerns, I'm joined by Katherine Saunders.

She's an assistant professor of clinical medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and specialist in obesity and weight-related medical complications at New York Presbyterian Hospital.

Dr. Saunders, thank you so much for joining us.

You prescribe these medications to your own pa You come up with detailed treatment plans.

And I want to talk about all of Wh y have these medications An d does it have to do with the medical community's rethinking of what factors contribu in some cases?

DR. KATHERINE SA Yes, so two One is that, medications were associated with 5 percent to 10 percent total body weight loss, which is absolutely what we consider to be clinically significant.

If you think about any diet or any behavioral intervention b weight loss, on average, 3 to 5, 5 to 10 was pretty good back then.

But the medications that have come out over the last few years are considerably more effective, at 15 percent and now upwards of 22 percent.

So, one is the increase in efficacy in the studies and effectiveness that we're seeing among our patients.

And two is that there's gr management for the vast majority of people to effectively lose weight and then, more importantly, keep that weight off long term.

ALI ROGIN: And what are some of DR .

KATHERINE SA Our typical patient has lost and gained weight so many times over the years that they come to us saying: I have been so successful in so many other aspects of my life, and I just absolutely cannot lose weight and keep it off.

So, for somebody like that, who has had a very difficult time losing we intervention, the risk-benefit profile is really different.

So if you take a look at nausea, reflux, constipation, se eing with GLP-1-type medications.

It's a different risk-benefit profile.

We can absolutely do so much in terms of those side effects.

So the hype candidates.

But those si obesity related to so many other health complications, for each person, it's an individual decision.

ALI ROGIN: You have talked about the importance of coming up with a detailed treatment plan with your patients, looking with them to see if other interventions might work before medi is considered.

Why are those And are you concerned that DR. KATHERINE SA There is such a tendency that we're seei with obesity and say, oh, I have a medication that can finally help you lose weight.

Here's a prescription for one of the medications without the appropriate education and support and the associated required lifestyle interventions like diet exercise, behavioral change that are really necessary for comprehensive obesity treatment.

So, it's really not just about one medication to as many people as can be taking this medication.

It's really about seeing each patient as an individual, doing a very thorough evaluation of everything in their history, everything in their medical conditions that are leading to weight gain, everything preventing weight loss, and then optimizing lifestyle.

ALI ROGIN: There's been a lot of talk about people who want to pursue these drugs to reach a goal weight, and then are planning to get off the drugs and sustain that goal weight with diet and exercise.

What is your take on that approach?

Is that sustainable?

DR. KATHERINE SA This is a really hot t Obesity is a chronic disease, meaning that it doesn't just go away, me unfortunately, right now can't cure it.

Maybe, one day in our lifetime, we will But if you think about other chronic dise like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, people who have these conditions that are not managed by lifestyle intervention alone, expect to start a medication and expect to stay on that medication long term.

So if they stop that medication, their bl their blood sugar goes up.

And we expect that With obesity, there's been t and that it's such a massive industry that's really preying on very vulnerable individua who are looking for a quick fix or something that can cure their obesity.

We're not there yet.

So, right no the need to take that medication long term.

If you take a look at their SURMOUNT-4 trial, which this trial showed that, when people stopped taking Zepbound, they regained about two-thirds of their body weight over the next several months.

ALI ROGIN: We mentioned that there are shortages In your opinion, what needs to change about the availability of these drugs, as well as access to them?

Because even DR. KATHERINE SA So we have a It's not enough that we We need better coverage.

We need the prices to be low And we need more providers who know how t It's interesting that Ozempic, which we were using before Wegovy came out in 2021, there really weren't supply issues until Wegovy hit the market.

Wegovy and Ozempic are the same compound, just marketed for weight versus diabet And as soon as Wegovy was FDA-approved and people realized that Ozempic was the same medication, we started to see shortages.

So, now that Zepbound is approved -- this -- the medication Mounjaro is the same medication.

And so Eli Lilly is concerned about shortages of both of the medications, and they opened new facilities in order to increase supply, so that we don't see what we have been seeing with Wegovy and the Ozempic shortages.

But the demand is just so high that it's a big problem.

ALI ROGIN: A big problem and a very hot topic.

Dr. Katherine Saunders with Weill Cornell Medicine and New Y thank you so much for your time.

DR. KATHERINE SA GEOFF BENNETT: Andres Gonzalez is a conductor, musician, and advocate for youth music education.

He was trained from a young age through El Sistema, a highly regarded music program in Venezuela, before moving to the U.S.

He has played for several orchestras across the country and mentors at Play On Philly, providing music education to underserved students in the Philadelphia area.

Tonight, he ANDRES GONZALEZ, Musician and Teacher: For me, making music is joyful.

When we become professionals in music, we forget that part, the joyful part.

I grew up in El Sistema project in Venezuela.

It's is a free tuition program in classical music classes, and ensemble experience to children in the country.

My mom and my dad was also part of El Sistema.

And I start conducting my first performance right of the children's orchestra in my hometown.

My dad taught me the conductor protocol, Being part of El Sistema for so many years, that's my family.

The same group of kids, we were playing together for over 20 years.

When I moved to the U.S., I started looking for community-based music progra found that Play On Philly was also looking for a new music director.

Play On Philly is an organization that provides transformative music training experiences to children in the area of Philadelphia.

POP's mission mirrors El Sistema advocacy It felt like it was an extension of my work in Venezuela.

Over 90 percent of the students identify as a student of color, and we as a community of color have been lacking access to this type of education historically.

There are so many barriers that have created lack of access to this type of education, not only in the U.S., in the entire world.

One of the ways that we are removing music training in orchestra and ensemble setting.

The most capable teachers in the city are teaching our students every week.

We also provide instrument loans at no cost for our families and also private lessons.

When I see a student gain confidence after a performance, I feel very rewarded as an educator and as a conductor that all the effort that we put throughout the preparation, it paid off.

Access to mu but also for the people around them, like their family, like their peers.

They can translate that into life skills.

You need to dedicate a lot of time to learn to play the violin, for example.

You need to develop patience.

It's really hard to play every single note on tune, for example.

So those are skills that you learn through the music.

We want them to see their life in a different way through th My name is Andres Gonzalez, and this is my Brief But Spectacular take on how music empowers communities.

GEOFF BENNET And while you are there, you can also see stunning new images captured by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.

You can see more on our An d that's the "NewsHour" for tonight.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

Thanks for spendin with us.