GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz.

On the "News Hour" tonight: Israel launches a large-scale operation in the occupied West Bank targeting what it says are Palestinian militants.

GEOFF BENNETT: Kamala Harris begins a bus tour through the swing state of Georgia, while the Trump campaign comes under scrutiny for clashing with Arlington National Cemetery staff at the sacred burial site.

AMNA NAWAZ: And, in a new book, former National Security Adviser H.R.

McMaster recounts his time in a tumultuous Trump White House.

LT. GEN. H.R.

MCMASTER (RET.

), Former U.S. National Security Adviser: Yes, it was chaotic.

And it was less than harmonious, I guess I should say.

But I think we worked through a lot of that tension.

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

Israel launched what it calls a counterterrorism operation in the West Bank, with hundreds of troops raiding the flash point city of Jenin and other areas of the occupied territory.

AMNA NAWAZ: At least 10 Palestinians have been killed in the raids either by airstrikes or in gun battles on the ground.

Israel has carried out near-daily raids in the West Bank since Hamas' October 7 attack, but this latest operation marks a significant escalation.

In the dark hours of the night, Israeli bulldozers moved into the West Bank by land, tearing up roads in the city of Tulkarm and followed by an armored convoy.

Across the occupied territory, Israeli forces attacked by air, Israel says, targeting suspected militant strongholds.

And by the morning, hundreds of Israeli troops entered on foot.

Patrolling now-crumbled streets in the largest raid on the West Bank in months, among the dead, two of Masoud Naaja's three children.

From his hospital stretcher, he said an airstrike hit his family's home in the al-Fara'a refugee camp.

MASOUD NAAJA, West Bank Resident (through translator): In seconds, very fast, we felt like something came down on us from the sky and there was an explosion.

I was unaware of what was going on.

When I put my hand to my chest, it was all shrapnel and in blood.

AMNA NAWAZ: The Israeli military said its forces had begun the first stage of a -- quote -- "counterterrorism operation" in three areas, Tulkarm, al-Fara'a refugee camp and the city of Jenin, saying they confiscated large quantities of weapons, arrested five suspected militants and killed at least 10 more.

Israel's foreign minister said the goal was to -- quote -- "dismantle Islamic Iranian terror infrastructures established there."

Hamas, meanwhile, called for his followers to -- quote -- "escalate all forms of resistance and confront the occupation and its settlers everywhere in our occupied land."

All this against the backdrop of surging Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank in recent months.

Just this afternoon, the U.S. government announced new sanctions against one Israeli NGO for its support of that extremist settler violence.

Since the October 7 Hamas attacks, when more than 1, 100 Israelis were killed, more than 600 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed, according to the U.N. Humanitarian Affairs Office.

That's in addition to the more than 40,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza so far.

Israel's campaign against Hamas continued there today, with strikes in Deir al Balah and Khan Yunis killing 20, including three children, according to Palestinian officials.

And to the north, a third Israeli front.

The IDF released footage today claiming to hit Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, where border tensions have persisted for months.

Palestinians in Beirut reacted to today's West Bank raid and what it means for the greater region.

ALI TOUFIC AL-RIFAI, Supervisor, Mar Elias Palestinian Refugee Camp (through translator): We see what is happening in the West Bank as an attack on the Palestinian people and their national rights, considering that the Israeli extremists are trying to displace the population and making the Palestinians live in a state of permanent tension.

AMNA NAWAZ: For a perspective on all of this now, we turn to Daniel Byman.

He's a professor at Georgetown University and the author of "A High Price: The Triumphs and Failures of Israeli Counterterrorism."

Professor, you heard the Israeli foreign minister there say the goal here is to dismantle the Islamic Iranian infrastructures in the West Bank.

Who is he talking about?

What are the groups that we know are operating from there that threaten Israel?

DANIEL BYMAN, Georgetown University: The West Bank is home to a number of different Palestinian groups.

Islamic Jihad, Hamas both have a presence there.

And the -- but the biggest problem for Israel in recent years have been smaller groups that are really not affiliated with any of the major organizations often composed of local individuals, and places like Jenin have been hotbeds for these groups.

AMNA NAWAZ: And what do we know about those groups?

Have they been able to launch strikes into Israel?

DANIEL BYMAN: For the most part, they haven't attacked within Israel.

Their efforts have been concentrated at times on Israeli troops, but especially going after Israeli settlements on the West Bank.

AMNA NAWAZ: But what about the way in which Israel has gone in here?

We saw the combination of airstrikes and ground battles and also bulldozing roads and communities.

Why those tactics?

DANIEL BYMAN: So, Israel in the past has relied primarily on the Palestinian Authority, the government or, I should say, the de facto government in the West Bank, that has run it in conjunction with Israel.

And their security forces have become weaker.

Israel has over time ignored them.

So, Israeli officials are deciding to take action their own because they feel the Palestinian security forces won't do so.

To do that, though, these groups are often deep in the West Bank.

They're in neighborhoods that are certainly hostile to Israel.

And Israeli forces are afraid of improvised explosive devices.

They're afraid of snipers.

And so they often go in with these massive armored bulldozers that detonate IEDs before they can hurt people.

They are basically sniper-proof.

But at the same time, they're incredibly destructive.

They shield Israeli forces, but they destroy Palestinian neighborhoods.

And the much larger Israeli efforts are ways to control the territory more, to go after the arms caches, to have a better chance of arresting or killing individuals.

But it is a far more destructive, intrusive approach.

AMNA NAWAZ: Professor, the ongoing violence and the increase in violence in the West Bank hasn't gotten as much attention, obviously, as Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza.

But when you pull back, it's worth reminding folks the West Bank has been under Israeli military occupation for decades.

It's home to some 500,000 Israeli settlers and settlements largely deemed illegal or illegitimate by the international community.

How does all of that factor into this increase in violence we have seen recently there?

DANIEL BYMAN: So, the West Bank is far more sensitive politically for Israel than Gaza.

When Israel left Gaza in 2005, it was something that there were only a few small Israeli settlements there.

It was controversial.

But at the time, it was nothing like the controversy in the West Bank.

And the Israeli settlement numbers have grown.

Their political power has grown.

You have members of the current government that are actively arming the settlers or otherwise supporting them.

And the settlers themselves have been responsible for a lot of violence on Palestinian communities, at times pushing them out of their land, at times simply harassing them.

So, the dynamics are quite different than they are in Gaza.

AMNA NAWAZ: In just about the minute-and-a-half I have left, this is now essentially a third front for Israel here.

The war in Gaza continues.

We know they're trading fire with Hezbollah forces across their northern border.

Can Israeli forces sustain a fight on all three fronts?

DANIEL BYMAN: So, the violence in the West Bank is far less in terms of the requirements for Israeli forces than what was needed in Gaza in the past.

And since the Israeli operations in Gaza, while still considerable, are not comparable to their peak six months ago, Israel does have some spare capacity.

Also, a lot of what has been used in the West Bank has been police forces, often obviously paramilitary forces.

So the West Bank requirements are real, but they're not overwhelming.

On the other hand, if there were a conflict with Hezbollah and Lebanon, that would be far more demanding than any of these conflicts.

And that -- it would be very difficult for Israel to sustain conflicts in the West Bank, especially Gaza, at the same time.

AMNA NAWAZ: That is Georgetown University Professor Daniel Byman joining us tonight.

Professor, thank you very much for your time.

We appreciate it.

DANIEL BYMAN: My pleasure.

AMNA NAWAZ: The day's other headlines take us to Ukraine, where a Russian missile struck President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's hometown of Kryvyi Rih.

Eight people were injured as the city held a day of mourning for four people killed the day before.

Russia's stepped-up aerial attacks this week come as Ukrainian battalions push further across the Russian border into Kursk.

Officials there are installing bomb shelters to protect against Ukrainian strikes, and residents can't believe the war has come so close.

SVETLANA RODIONOVA, Displaced Kursk Resident (through translator): Life has changed unexpectedly, like in a dream, you know?

Sometimes, you even catch yourself thinking, is it really true?

Could it really have happened?

Well, it turns out that it did.

AMNA NAWAZ: CIA Deputy Director David Cohen said today that Russian President Vladimir Putin will try to take back territory in Kursk from Ukraine.

But speaking at a national security industry conference, Cohen called that -- quote -- "a difficult fight."

Here in the U.S., the Supreme Court has left on hold a Biden administration plan to cut billions of dollars in student debt.

Some Republican-led states are also working to block those loan forgiveness efforts.

Last year, the Supreme Court rejected a proposal that would have canceled more than $400 billion in loans.

The administration countered with a more tailored approach.

This new plan would cap the amount people have to repay, from 10 percent of their incomes down to 5 percent, and loans of $12,000 or less would be canceled after 10 years.

Sarah Palin has won her bid for a new trial against The New York Times.

A federal appeals court ruled today that a judge in her 2022 trial was wrong to dismiss the case while the jury was still deliberating.

The former Alaska governor accused the paper of defamation after it incorrectly linked her to a mass shooting in a 2017 editorial.

The Times later corrected the mistake.

This case could force the Supreme Court to revisit its ruling in The New York Times v. Sullivan case, which set a high bar for public figures to prove defamation.

A jury in Nevada has found a former Las Vegas politician guilty of murder in the death of an investigative journalist who wrote critical articles about him.

WOMAN: Guilty of first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon, victim 60 years of age or older.

AMNA NAWAZ: Robert Telles shook his head as the verdict was read in court.

He's been jailed without bail since his arrest in 2022, shortly after reporter Jeff German was found stabbed to death near his home.

Telles had denied killing German, saying he had been framed.

He faces up to life in prison without parole.

A suffocating heat wave that gripped the Upper Midwest earlier this week has now moved east.

A large chunk of the mid-Atlantic was under a heat advisory today, while a more severe excessive heat warning was issued in Philadelphia.

Humidity there made it feel as high as 105 degrees.

Dozens of schools closed early for a second day.

Meanwhile, in Michigan, crews worked to restore power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses after severe storms swept through last night.

The nation's green energy sector added jobs at more than twice the rate of the rest of the economy in 2023.

The Energy Department said today that employment in the clean energy sector, including wind, solar and nuclear power, rose by 142,000, up 4.2 percent from the year before.

That is more than double the broader U.S. job growth rate of 2 percent.

Overall, the energy sector added 250,000 total jobs last year.

More than half of those came from clean energy.

On Wall Street today, stocks ended lower as investors braced for a major earnings report from A.I.

giant Nvidia.

The Dow Jones industrial average slipped nearly 160 points.

The Nasdaq gave back nearly 200 points, or more than 1 percent.

The S&P 500 also ended lower on the day.

And it was 10 years ago today that rocked by a sartorial scandal, prompted by then-President Barack Obama's choice of clothing.

BARACK OBAMA, Former President of the United States: Good afternoon, everybody.

I want to say a few words on a number of topics and take a few questions before the long Labor Day weekend.

AMNA NAWAZ: And, indeed, many had questions about Mr. Obama's tan suit.

In a government town where dark suits seemed to be standard issue, critics saw the outfit as fundamentally unserious.

But the look has since made a comeback, like when Vice President Kamala Harris wore tan at the DNC, and then there's Donald Trump and the suit he wore to the June debate against President Biden.

Trump is distributing pieces of the suit to supporters if they buy enough of his digital trading cards.

Still to come on the "News Hour": Chicagoans work to counter the national narrative that their city is a hotbed of violence; the U.S. surgeon general warns of the increased stress parents are under today; and the Paralympic Games kick off with much fanfare and increased interest from around the world.

GEOFF BENNETT: Vice President Kamala Harris launched a two-day swing through Georgia today.

It's her seventh trip to the state this year, and it ends with a rally in Savannah.

AMNA NAWAZ: Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump spent the past 24 hours posting across social media platforms, including various grievances and conspiracy theories.

Laura Barron-Lopez reports.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: In their first joint visit to Georgia, Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Governor Tim Walz, embarked on a bus tour through the Peach State.

The goal, hold on to the battleground state that Biden narrowly won in 2020.

Before joining Harris in Georgia, Walz spoke to the International Association of Firefighters in Boston.

GOV.

TIM WALZ (D-MN), Vice Presidential Candidate: When Republicans used to talk about freedom, they meant it.

They meant it.

Not anymore.

These guys over there, they want government to have the freedom to invade every corner of your life, from our union halls to our kids' schools, even our doctor's office.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Harris and Walz have blasted Donald Trump for the Project 2025 agenda crafted by the former president's allies.

GOV.

TIM WALZ: Donald Trump trying to hide from that Project 2025 plan.

They're going to use it.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: In a new campaign ad targeting battleground states and Trump's home market in Palm Beach, Harris doubled down.

NARRATOR: Donald Trump may try to deny it, but those are Donald Trump's plans.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: Well, revenge does take time, I will say that.

And, sometimes, revenge can be justified.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Meanwhile, Trump's running mate, Ohio Senator J.D.

Vance, hit the trail in Erie, Pennsylvania, today.

SEN. J.D.

VANCE (R-OH), Vice Presidential Candidate: Is it a good idea to give Kamala Harris a promotion?

AUDIENCE: No!

SEN. J.D.

VANCE: No, we're going to do what Donald Trump loves to do to people who don't do their jobs.

You are fired, Kamala Harris.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Trump himself has largely limited his campaigning to friendly interviews.

In a conversation with TV personality Dr. Phil McGraw, he again lied about the 2020 election results.

DONALD TRUMP: I look at California.

I gave a speech.

I had so -- I had a crowd so big.

I said there's no way I could lose California, but automatically they mark it down if you're a Republican as a loss, that you lose by five million votes.

I said, five million votes?

I guarantee, if Jesus came down and was the vote counter, I would win California, OK?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Tuesday evening, Trump ranted on TRUTH Social that his own Justice Department appointees rigged the 2020 election against him.

On Monday, Trump attended a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, an event which spiraled into controversy after NPR reported Trump's campaign staff had an altercation with cemetery officials over photographer access.

NPR reporter Quil Lawrence broke the news of the incident.

QUIL LAWRENCE, National Public Radio: Well in advance of the visit, they had been told that there would not be allowed to bring a personal outside photographer to Section 60, which is where most of the Iraq and Afghanistan casualties are buried.

And when they arrived, an official from Arlington National Cemetery approached them to say, no, you can't bring a videographer or photographer into Section 60.

And that person was verbally abused and pushed aside.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: In a statement, Arlington National Cemetery said it "can confirm there was an incident and a report was filed.

Federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army national military cemetery."

Trump's team denied the characterization of the incident.

But Lawrence said the rules are in place for a reason.

QUIL LAWRENCE: In one of the photos that's widely circulating and being used by the Trump campaign, former President Trump is with family members of a fallen soldier.

But to the left and the right of that soldier's grave, you can see two other tombstones.

And it seems fairly clear that neither of those families has given consent for the Trump campaign to use these photographs.

And that's incredibly painful for these families.

And many of them are still grieving the loss of their loved one.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Laura Barron-Lopez.

GEOFF BENNETT: As the presidential campaign heats up, a new book looks back at Donald Trump's first administration with a focus on foreign policy and national security.

It's written by Lieutenant General H.R.

McMaster, a three-star general who served with distinction in the 1991 Gulf War and the Iraq War, and who also served for 13 months as Mr. Trump's national security adviser.

McMaster's book is "At War With Ourselves: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House."

And I spoke with him earlier today.

H.R.

McMaster, welcome to the "News Hour."

What was your intention in joining the Trump administration back in 2017?

What were you hoping to achieve?

LT. GEN. H.R.

MCMASTER (RET.

), Former U.S. National Security Adviser: Well, first, to serve the elected president.

As I write in the book, this was my sixth commander in chief.

I had taken the oath of service when I was a 17-year-old on the plane at West Point.

And so what I wanted to do is help, in President Trump's case, what everybody knew would be a disruptive president, disrupt what needed to be disrupted in the area of national security and in foreign policy.

And, Geoff, I have been on the receiving end of a lot of policies and strategies developed in Washington that really made little sense to me in places like Kabul, Afghanistan, or Baghdad, Iraq.

And I thought this was an opportunity to help advance American interests and to help promote American security.

GEOFF BENNETT: You write in the book about navigating the competing interests within Trump's inner circle in the early days, to include then-White House adviser Steve Bannon, who's now serving a federal prison term on contempt charges, as well as then Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

And you say that they viewed Trump as dangerous and seemed to construe their roles as if Trump was an emergency and that anyone abetting him was an adversary.

When I read that, that word dangerous stood out to me.

Dangerous in what ways?

LT. GEN. H.R.

MCMASTER (RET.

): Well, I think that they were afraid that the president, because of his disruptive nature, would be overly disruptive and put into place policies that may be cut against U.S. interests.

But my experience was, Geoff, whenever you could give the president multiple options, best analysis, obviously, and information, but multiple options, it's in the comparison of those options, that he could look at the long-term costs and consequences and make decisions that oftentimes cut against his predilections.

Other members of the Cabinet and other White House officials, what they really wanted to do is either control the president or, in the case of some, who came in with their own agendas, they didn't want to give multiple options.

They wanted to manipulate decisions consistent with their agenda.

And as a historian and a historian who had written about the Vietnam War and how decisions were made in the Lyndon Johnson administration, I realized that this was not unprecedented.

This kind of infighting, this is not something new, and I did my best to try to transcend it.

And I succeeded to some extent, and I failed to a certain extent.

GEOFF BENNETT: That manipulation that you talk about, you describe meetings in the Oval Office as exercises in competitive sycophancy.

How did that undermine the functioning of the White House and the presidency?

LT. GEN. H.R.

MCMASTER (RET.

): So that was early in my time as national security adviser.

And I looked around, I said, this isn't going to work.

And I began to limit who's in the meeting based on the purpose of the meeting and to provide the president with information the way he likes to receive information, and to also structure the venue.

But on one occasion, we went to Camp David, for example, to get away from all distractions and help the president focus on a really important decision involving Afghanistan and the South Asia strategy.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, on that front, you write that you had key differences with Mr. Trump on major foreign policy issues, which you enumerate as the allies, the authoritarians, and Afghanistan.

Trump thought that some U.S. allies were freeloaders.

He embraced some authoritarian leaders that you despised and distrusted.

And you pushed for a more significant commitment in Afghanistan.

And you have said that Donald Trump bears some responsibility for that chaotic U.S. withdrawal, that same withdrawal that he attacks the Biden administration for.

Tell me more about that.

LT. GEN. H.R.

MCMASTER (RET.

): On Afghanistan, this is an example of one of the themes in the book of the president being very capable of evolving his understanding of a situation and then coming to a completely different conclusion.

And he put into place, I believe, in August of 2017 -- and it's actually worth going back to read that speech that he gave -- the first sustainable, reasoned approach to the war in Afghanistan and more broadly to South Asia.

But, sadly, he abandoned that approach and I think actually recreated a lot of the deficiencies of the Obama administration with the timeline for withdrawal and talking to the Taliban without the Afghan government present.

And that was kind of a setup for the Biden administration's failures.

But the Biden administration did not have to adhere to that.

Remember, the Biden administration said, well, we had to adhere to Trump's policies.

I think that might be the only area where they felt so obligated, right?

GEOFF BENNETT: Yes, that was their public line, yes.

LT. GEN. H.R.

MCMASTER (RET.

): Exactly, yes.

GEOFF BENNETT: Another theme in the book, you write about your perception that Trump often sought the praise and approval of strongman foreign leaders like Vladimir Putin, the Philippines former President Duterte, so that he could be seen similarly as a strong leader.

Tell me more about that.

LT. GEN. H.R.

MCMASTER (RET.

): In that first year of the Trump administration, I relate the story of really imposing more sanctions on Russian entities and individuals than the previous eight years of the Obama administration, the provision of lethal assistance to Ukrainians.

But President Trump really always had faith in his ability to make a big deal, right?

And I think he fell into the same kind of trap with Putin that George W. Bush did, President Obama did remember the reset strategy, and then even President Biden when he went to Geneva and thought that maybe they could have a meeting of the minds.

And so my message -- and I relate this in the book -- is, I would remind the president, hey, this guy is the best liar, best deceiver in the world.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, you say that you observe in the book that you wished Trump could separate the issue of Russian election meddling from the legitimacy of his presidency... LT. GEN. H.R.

MCMASTER (RET.

): Yes.

GEOFF BENNETT: ... why has he been so unable to make that kind of distinction?

LT. GEN. H.R.

MCMASTER (RET.

): Well, you have to think, when he came into office, right, there was this cloud of so-called collusion, which was proved to be false, right, on the part of the campaign.

And he had the Mueller investigation.

That created kind of a sense of beleaguerment for him.

And what he would do is conflate three distinct, but kind of related questions of, hey, did they attack the election and try to undermine our democratic process?

Heck, yes, they did.

That's what the Russians do, right?

There's the great book by Thomas Rid called "Active Measures."

They have been doing this kind of thing, the Soviets, going all the way back to the '30s.

But the second, related question is, do they care who wins?

I really don't think the Russians give a damn who wins our elections, right?

GEOFF BENNETT: The chaos is the point.

LT. GEN. H.R.

MCMASTER (RET.

): The chaos is the point.

And what they want is, they want large numbers of Americans to doubt the legitimacy of the result.

I think the president tended to conflate those questions.

And I wish he had said this, that, heck, yes they did, and we're going to impose costs on them, and we're going to defend our democratic principles and institutions and processes and -- but, at the same time, acknowledge that obviously it did not affect the legitimacy of his presidency or his election.

That's what Russia wants.

And that's why the president's election denial was terrible in 2020.

And that's why others on the other side of the political spectrum who denied the legitimacy election in 2016, it's a gift to Putin.

GEOFF BENNETT: This book arrives at a timely moment, just as many Americans are starting to consider whether Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris would make a better commander in chief.

Would a second Trump term, in your estimation, be poised to properly address the range of foreign policy challenges we face as we stand so close potentially to regional wars in the Middle East and the South China Sea?

LT. GEN. H.R.

MCMASTER (RET.

): Yes, that's for readers to decide.

You have got the information in the book.

And I think, in some of the areas where President Trump has been consistent, yes, I think he would advance American interests.

I think a great example is in the area of energy security.

I think we have tremendous potential in our country to really loosen the grip of authoritarians on energy supplies internationally.

And then I think that where else he's been consistent is burden-sharing, right?

That's a good theme, reciprocity in trade.

So I go through all of these in the book.

Those are all positive.

GEOFF BENNETT: You said you would not serve in a second Trump administration if he's reelected.

Why not?

LT. GEN. H.R.

MCMASTER (RET.

): Well, I will tell you, Geoff, I would serve in any administration where I think I could make a difference.

I think now, with President Trump, I can't make a difference with him.

We just got kind of used up in that process.

And I think I was at peace with that.

But I think the main theme, though, Geoff, is that I think we got a lot done in that first year that everybody was describing -- remember, the word chaos was used in like almost every headline.

And, yes, it was chaotic.

And it was less than harmonious, I guess I should say.

But I think we worked through a lot of that tension and we put in place, I think, some really important and long overdue correctives to previous unwise policies.

GEOFF BENNETT: H.R.

McMaster.

The book is "At War With Ourselves: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House."

It is an intriguing read.

Thanks for being here.

LT. GEN. H.R.

MCMASTER (RET.

): Well... GEOFF BENNETT: We appreciate it.

LT. GEN. H.R.

MCMASTER (RET.

): Oh, thanks for the opportunity to be with you, Geoff.

Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: Chicago has one of the highest rates of gun deaths of any major city in the country.

And some on the front lines say that's rooted in a history of racism, violence and inequality dating back generations.

Judy Woodruff reports from Chicago as part of her ongoing series America at a Crossroads.

DAMARION SPANN, Tour Guide, My Block My Hood My City: This is where Martin Luther King lived and worked while he stayed here in Chicago.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Sixteen-year-old Damarion Spann is giving a tour of North Lawndale, the West Chicago neighborhood where he grew up.

DAMARION SPANN: While he stayed here in Chicago, Martin Luther King was struck by a rock from a white mob, and he stated that he never experienced so much hatred as he did here in Chicago.

JUDY WOODRUFF: It's a different story from what's typically told of this area, where the life expectancy is roughly 12 years shorter than the wealthy downtown Loop neighborhood, where unemployment is nearly twice as high as the rest of the city and the crime rate is nearly three times higher than the citywide average.

DAMARION SPANN: Starting in pre-K, we have all heard the narrative of the violence that happens in North Lawndale.

But once you get to explore and see the community more, you start to understand the rich history of the community, Chicago is looked at as violent, and that's not fear to the students and to the adults who are actually working against that narrative and who's pushing for positive things.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Do you feel, as someone who's grown up in this city, that your concerns are heard by the politicians?

DAMARION SPANN: A national point of view, I don't think students from our community get heard at all.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: What's going on in Chicago?

JUDY WOODRUFF: Indeed, conservative media and former President Trump focus on the ongoing violence in Chicago, an example, they argue, of the failure of cities led by Democrats.

WOMAN: And Chicago turned into a war zone.

At least 53 people were shot, 11 of them killed.

JEANINE PIRRO, FOX News Anchor: It is time to demonize them, and it is time to send them to jail.

LADY SANDERS, Program Manager, My Block My Hood My City: They only broadcast the bad.

Like, North Lawndale is way more than what they portray on the news.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Lady Sanders helps organize these youth-led tours of North Lawndale for a nonprofit called My Block My Hood My City.

She says the tours introduce outsiders to this misunderstood neighborhood and give youth a productive outlet.

LADY SANDERS: They become more confident because it's their neighborhood, and people are coming to see them talk about where they're from and what they see every day.

JUDY WOODRUFF: With 77 so-called community areas in all, neighborhood identity is a fundamental aspect life in Chicago, the country's most segregated big city.

North Lawndale, like many South and West Side Chicago neighborhoods, is majority-Black.

Much of this segregation can be traced to the Great Migration of a century ago.

Black Americans from the Jim Crow South moved north, seeking greater opportunities, but what they found was not the segregation imposed by Jim Crow, but new and different barriers.

FRANKLIN COSEY-GAY, Director, University of Chicago Medicine Violence Recovery Program: Ida B.

Wells, who was a noted activist, journalist, said Chicago was beginning to rival the Jim Crow South in its treatment of the Negro.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Franklin Cosey-Gay directs the University of Chicago Medicine's Violence Recovery Program, and he researches the economic, social and historic causes of gun violence in the city.

He points to over a century of racist violence against Black Chicagoans and housing discrimination that has helped create the situation today.

FRANKLIN COSEY-GAY: We're talking about a $3 billion to $4 billion wealth gap between white Chicagoans and Black Chicagoans that's directly tied to the inability to develop equity from housing.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Cosey-Gay recalls that, in 1919, during the Red Summer, when Black Americans across the country were terrorized, 23 Black Chicagoans were killed and hundreds more were injured in this city; 15 white Chicagoans were also killed in the violence.

And between 1917 and 1921, 58 Black Chicagoans were firebombed in their homes.

FRANKLIN COSEY-GAY: Not one person was arrested for those house bombings.

What we begin to see is that physical violence was being used to constrain the movement of African Americans.

JUDY WOODRUFF: In the coming decades, that physical violence would morph into discriminatory housing policies.

Restrictive housing covenants kept Black renters out.

So-called redlining by financial institutions, in concert with the federal government, limited Black Chicagoans' ability to access loans for homes and businesses.

And unable to get mortgages, they were forced into predatory contracts to buy houses at exorbitant prices, with high interest rates and harsh eviction clauses that made it nearly impossible for many to build equity or actually own their home.

Later, highways were built through Black neighborhoods.

And then came the construction and later the demolition of tens of thousands of units of public housing.

FRANKLIN COSEY-GAY: Some of the fundamental things that help keep people safe are the ability to provide social support for each other, their ability to have beliefs on what they think their community should look like, and their ability to use their collective power to enforce those beliefs.

What you're doing is that you're disrupting the very things in terms of how people can support each other, which creates conditions for violence.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Cosey-Gay says, instead of addressing these root causes of gun violence within communities like North Lawndale, the city of Chicago has tried to manage it mainly through more policing, and that hasn't worked.

FRANKLIN COSEY-GAY: It is basically a process that keeps repeating itself.

It has a new face.

The United States government in itself is complicit, and we need to address that.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Damarion Spann worries about police interactions in North Lawndale, where 70 percent of men aged 17 to 45 have criminal records.

Have you had encounters yourself with the police?

DAMARION SPANN: I had an encounter with an officer.

It wasn't a good encounter, yelling in your face, pushing you around, threatening to arrest you if you don't listen to their orders.

The police is set to serve and protect, but I really don't agree with that motto.

PASTOR PHIL JACKSON, Firehouse Community Arts Center of Chicago: You have history of politicians for years who have downplayed or ignored these impoverished areas.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Pastor Phil Jackson runs the Firehouse Community Arts Center in North Lawndale, an organization trying to reduce gun violence in the community and help residents process trauma.

PASTOR PHIL JACKSON: A lot of companies and factories have left, so it takes a politician to take a chance, which might seem like a black hole to others, to invest in a neighborhood.

It seems like pulling teeth sometimes with different powers that be to make that happen.

There are a lot of people who try to make things happen and work, but there's a lot of systems in place that seem to pull back.

JUDY WOODRUFF: I mean, there are folks who look at what's going on in inner-city Chicago... PASTOR PHIL JACKSON: Yes.

JUDY WOODRUFF: ... and say -- they almost throw their hands up.

PASTOR PHIL JACKSON: Yes.

JUDY WOODRUFF: They have kind of written off this part of the country.

PASTOR PHIL JACKSON: Yes.

Yes.

Folks who've been in this neighborhood 50, 60 years, they stayed and weathered the storm, weathered situations, weathered hurt in their own life.

So even though things look so repetitive and so notorious and so heartbreaking, there are people on the ground that are making a difference.

JAHMAL COLE, Founder, My Block My Hood My City: I don't want to be killed, but all my heroes doing the work that I do have been killed, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Robert Kennedy.

JUDY WOODRUFF: In 2015, Jahmal Cole founded the nonprofit My Block My Hood My City to try to deal with the epidemic of gun violence between young people here.

He says he loves connecting with the community, including on his occasional runs.

JAHMAL COLE: A lot of our students, they have been to 15 funerals by the time they were in ninth grade.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Cole, 41, was out running two years ago when he heard gunshots.

JAHMAL COLE: I thought a tire popped, because you don't feel getting shot.

I was, like, bleeding really bad.

You think you're going to die.

You ain't going to see your kids no more, your wife, your family.

Yes, it's traumatizing.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Cole's organization takes a holistic approach to dealing with gun violence, trying to build community through block cleanup events, expose young people to opportunities through field trips to parts of the city they have never seen, give scholarships to local students, and pay tour guides like Damarion Spann.

JAHMAL COLE: The purpose really is, like, to just leave a love and build relationships with youth and keep them alive.

How can we wrap around you and make sure we get you to college?

If it is health care, OK, how can we help you with that?

Is it mental health?

There's no -- barely any counselors in schools.

JUDY WOODRUFF: What do you say to those folks who look at what's going on in inner-city Chicago and say, yes, it's really bad, they need to stop using so many guns, a lot of this is their own responsibility, their own fault?

JAHMAL COLE: I would challenge them to put themselves in a position of hearing gunshots every day, the position of having parents abuse drugs, the position of being afraid.

I'm sorry.

I'm getting emotional thinking about it.

It's not fair.

It's not fair that people say that, because it's like they don't know what it's like to be in these kids' shoes.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The young people, I mean, do they have a sense that the country cares about them?

JAHMAL COLE: Oh, no.

Yes, they don't -- no, the judge doesn't care about them.

That's what they tell me all the time.

The judge doesn't want to hear my story.

How am I going to listen to a teacher when I don't have health insurance and I'm sleeping on the train?

JUDY WOODRUFF: Cole says this neighborhood needs help, more government funding, economic investment and social services.

But after generations of neglect, disinvestment, and discrimination, he acknowledges change also has to come from within the community.

JAHMAL COLE: There needs to be 1,000 things done to reduce gun violence in Chicago, and a third of that might be legislative.

I think the best thing for people to do is to ask themselves, what's something simple I can do that will make a difference on my block?

JUDY WOODRUFF: Damarion Spann is trying to do that, but says he also wants to do more to try to change the whole system.

DAMARION SPANN: What I want to do is go to college and receive my degree in political science, eventually come back and run for alderperson for the North Lawndale community, start on more of a local level, alderperson, mayor.

Then I want to go to like a federal level, presidential.

JUDY WOODRUFF: You might want to run for president one day?

DAMARION SPANN: Yes.

JUDY WOODRUFF: That takes a lot of self-confidence.

DAMARION SPANN: A black boy coming from the North Lawndale community is expected to do the very least.

So I want to do the very most and prove everyone that doubted those Black boys that's coming from the community and show them that it is possible.

JUDY WOODRUFF: For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Judy Woodruff in Chicago, Illinois.

GEOFF BENNETT: As most parents can attest, raising children can be challenging.

But, today, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an advisory, saying it's even more difficult now and it's time to recognize the stress and mental health toll associated with parenting is a serious public health concern for the kids.

The surgeon general joins us now to talk about his concerns and his recommendations.

It's so great to have you here.

Welcome back to the "News Hour."

DR. VIVEK MURTHY, U.S.

Surgeon General: Well, thank you so much, Geoff.

GEOFF BENNETT: So there is a baseline level of stress and worry that comes alongside the many joys of parenting, but what's different about the kinds of stress that you -- that you're warning about now?

DR. VIVEK MURTHY: Well parenting has always been challenging.

And, to be clear -- and I say this is a parent myself -- parenting is full of joy and meaning and purpose, but it also can be quite stressful.

And I have experienced that a lot myself as a parent.

What really struck me as I was doing work on youth mental health and talking to families around the country was recognizing how many parents were struggling as well.

And as I dug into the data around this, I found that 48 percent, nearly half of parents are saying that most days they feel completely overwhelmed by stress.

Now, that is an extraordinary number that should raise alarms for all of us.

The other thing that's important to recognize is, parents are also struggling with disproportionate levels of loneliness and isolation.

So about 65 percent of parents say that they're lonely.

And that includes actually over 75 percent of single parents.

And stress is tough on its own.

When you compound it with loneliness, it can really take a toll on the mental health and well-being of parents.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, what are the specific stressors?

What are the challenges that this generation of parents are facing in particular?

DR. VIVEK MURTHY: So, thy -- some of the traditional ones that all generations have faced, worrying about a kid's safety, worrying about how to manage the teenage years, which aren't easy, and financial worries as well.

But there are some new ones that this generation is contending with that my parents, for example, didn't have to deal with.

How do you manage social media and phones?

How do you manage the mental health crisis that kids are facing in terms of depression and anxiety, as well as the loneliness epidemic that's hit kids particularly hard?

We're also hearing that the scourge of gun violence is particularly affecting kids, as well as their parents.

More than half of our children are worried about a school shooting taking place.

But you compound all of this, Geoff, with the fact that we are living in a time where the culture of comparison has become intensified, particularly by social media.

And so parents are looking online.

They're seeing parents who to their eye have perfect lives, who aren't struggling with any of the challenges they're dealing with, and they're feeling even more inadequate about their life.

GEOFF BENNETT: You mentioned how the mental health of parents and caregivers is inextricably linked to the mental health of children.

What are the implications?

DR. VIVEK MURTHY: Well, if we want to address the youth mental health crisis in America, part of that has to involve supporting parents.

When parents struggle with their mental health, that has negative implications on the mental health of kids.

And all of us have a vested interest in ensuring that kids are well.

They are the future of society.

And so the work of parenting is directly linked to the future of society.

It's why we all have an interest in investing in parental well-being.

GEOFF BENNETT: How much of this is tied to the pandemic and the way that we live now, where there's such a blending for a lot of people between work life and home life?

DR. VIVEK MURTHY: Well, I think the pandemic certainly created an increase in stress in many parents' lives.

I so viscerally remember what it was like to have to homeschool our kids during that time, on top of work, and how challenging all of that was.

And I think we're still living with some of the after-effects of that stress.

But the pandemic also changed how we live our lives.

I think, in some ways, being able to do hybrid work was helpful for some parents, as it gave them the flexibility to be able to be there for meal times, for example, at dinner, or being able to be there to pick up their kids, or be there during the day if their child needed something.

But I think being available all the time, maybe via video or whatever remote means, maybe your choice, that also creates additional stresses for parents because it can create this expectation that you're available all the time.

And so one of the things that's really important in the workplace is to have a culture where we -- leaders understand what the stresses are that parents are managing, where they have policies that support parents, like predictable schedules, so that parents can schedule and balance work and home, and where there's also some degree of flexibility so that if issues come up, like a sick child, a parent has the ability to respond in that scenario and care for their family without worrying that they're going to suffer at work.

GEOFF BENNETT: What are some other big picture recommendations to address this crippling level of stress that so many parents face?

DR. VIVEK MURTHY: So, fundamentally, we need a culture shift in how we value parenting.

We need to see parenting for what it is, which is essential for the well-being of society.

And we have to use that shift to then power change in three areas, in policies, in programs, and in individual practices.

We talked actually a little bit about programs.

These are some things that workplaces can do differently.

And health care systems can also focus more on screening parents in particular for mental health struggles.

But when -- at a policy level, we have got to do a lot more there.

We have got to invest in paid leave, so parents can be with a child who's sick, for example.

We have got to make childcare more affordable, make mental health care more accessible, and address the harms of social media, which is a major worry for parents, who are navigating much of that on their own.

But, finally, I don't want people to lose sight of what we can do as individuals, because the truth is, all of us have parents in our life.

Most of us do.

And when we reach out to those parents, when we help them with basic errands, when they -- when we offer to just babysit their kids even for 15 or 20 minutes, so they can just sit down and take a breath or take a shower or get a meal, those are incredibly important moments, where we not only provide assistance, but we remind parents that they aren't alone.

The truth is, parenting is and has always really been a team sport.

It's only in relatively recent years that we have come to put this pressure on parents where they feel that they have got to do all of it by themselves; otherwise, they're failing as parents.

And the truth is, we need each other.

We need fellow parents.

We need friends.

We need family.

We need neighborhoods and communities that support parenting.

And if we do, then kids, parents and all of us will be better off.

GEOFF BENNETT: Parenting is a team sport, is what I hear you saying.

(LAUGHTER) DR. VIVEK MURTHY: Absolutely.

Absolutely.

GEOFF BENNETT: U.S.

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, thanks so much for being here.

DR. VIVEK MURTHY: Thanks so much, Geoff.

AMNA NAWAZ: The 2024 Paris Paralympic Games kicked off today with an Opening Ceremony in the heart of Paris that featured aerial displays, dancers and a major spectacle attended by more than 60,000 people.

Thousands of athletes with disabilities are preparing for what promises to be a stunning display of athleticism over 11 days.

Stephanie Sy has more.

STEPHANIE SY: More than 4,400 athletes from around the world will take center stage in the French capital to compete for 549 medals in 22 sports, including wheelchair fencing, blind soccer, and much more.

The games are a testament to human ability and the capacity to thrive despite physical, mental, or intellectual impairments.

And for the next 11 days, we see athletes push their bodies and their minds to the limits in the quest for gold.

Joining us to talk about the Games is Rudy Garcia-Tolson, a four-time Paralympian, five-time Paralympic medalist and program manager at the Challenged Athletes Foundation.

Rudy, it's a pleasure to have you on the "News Hour."

So the Opening Ceremonies have concluded and now the Games begin.

It seems like there has been a real effort in the messaging around these Games to say, let's stop focusing on disability and focus on winning and competition, like we would with any other athletes.

Are you seeing that shift?

RUDY GARCIA-TOLSON, Challenged Athletes Foundation: Absolutely.

Over the past 20 years, the Paralympic movement has grown tremendously.

The understanding that, although we may have a physical disability, we want you to pay attention to the athletic achievements that we're all here to watch.

And being part of a Paralympic team, obviously, these Paralympic athletes from around the world have overcome a lot, especially with their physical challenge.

But when you're watching the Games here this week, we want you to put aside a disability and focus on the achievements of sport.

And I think that's what we're here to do.

STEPHANIE SY: And how is Team USA looking going into these Games, Rudy?

I know they haven't historically been at the top of the medal count for the Paralympics and that the Chinese are always a big rival for the overall medal count.

RUDY GARCIA-TOLSON: The Chinese Paralympic Committee has done a tremendous job with having one of the best Paralympic teams every summer.

For the past four or five Paralympic Games, the Chinese have been number one in the medal count by a lot.

But that doesn't count -- we're not going to count out the USA.

The United States, we have a very young team.

We also have a few veterans who have been around for five or six Paralympic Games.

And we're looking good to be in top three in the medal count.

But it still just shows you the amount of support that we have received as Paralympic athletes here in the United States.

One of the most popular stories is that the Olympic Committee changed your name to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, which is something that us Paralympic athletes have been fighting for over 20 years.

And I really do believe the support and the attention for Paralympic athletes have tremendously increased.

But I think the benchmark will be here when the Paralympics and Olympics come to Los Angeles in four short years.

STEPHANIE SY: So, when it comes to the resources that go into training Paralympic athletes, the coaching, the facilities, it sounds like you still feel that fall short with -- compared to the support given to able-bodied Olympians.

RUDY GARCIA-TOLSON: You know, I would say it's a movement where we're always striving for better.

And although the United States has -- the United States Paralympic team has one of the best support systems in the world, we're always looking to improve.

And the support that us athletes receive to train and have facilities has increased tremendously across the country.

There are a number of Paralympic training sites where individuals can go and focus on their training.

But I think one of the most important changes that we have seen over the last few years is the medal bonuses that athletes will receive.

Now Paralympic athletes will receive the same amount financially that our Olympic teammates receive, which really speaks volume to how the public and their organizations are coming around to understand that Paralympic athletes train just as hard as any of our Olympic teammates.

And I think we're going to see that here in the next two weeks in Paris.

STEPHANIE SY: And that certainly shows in the ticket sales.

I understand that more than two million tickets to Paralympic events have sold in Paris.

That will make it among the largest Paralympic audiences, I believe, in history, speaking of which, Rudy, I understand you yourself have competed and won in four different Olympics in swimming, as well in running, without legs.

So I have to ask you this.

What impact did it have on your life to train, compete and win at the Paralympics?

RUDY GARCIA-TOLSON: Well, being in the pursuit of going to the Paralympics has been a dream of mine since I was 6 years old, shortly after I had my legs amputated through the knee.

And when I got my legs amputated, I got my first pair of prosthetics, the first sport I got into was swimming.

I love swimming because I could take my legs off.

But I was known as the boy with no legs on my swim team.

And I wanted to prove them wrong.

So my first goal was to beat kids with legs.

And from that one goal sent me on a path of competition and really getting to the Paralympic elite level.

And I think a lot of the Paralympians in Paris today have overcome similar challenges, where they're looked at as different.

But when they get out on the playing field or in the pool or on the track, they really show that they have amazing talent and that sometimes in life we go through challenges, whether you can see them or not.

We're all human.

We're all the same.

We have good days and bad days.

And I think the message we want to get across to the general public is that, whether you have a good day or a bad day, whether you're facing challenges -- sometimes, you can't see them.

Sometimes, you can see them in my case.

It's always, always, always important to remain positive and have that attitude of, yes, I can.

And when you have a support team, when you have individuals around you supporting you, encouraging you, the sky is the limit.

STEPHANIE SY: I think a lot of us needed to hear that message.

Rudy Garcia-Tolson with the Challenged Athletes Foundation, thanks so much.

RUDY GARCIA-TOLSON: Thank you for having me.

AMNA NAWAZ: And we will have much more coverage of the Paralympics online.

On our YouTube page right now, three things you need to know about this year's Paralympic Games, including how they first began in the mid-1900s.

GEOFF BENNETT: And that is the "News Hour" for tonight.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz.

On behalf of the entire "News Hour" team, thank you for joining us.