PBS News Hour

GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz.

On the "News Hour" tonight: The Department of Government Efficiency that aimed to slash budgets under Elon Musk takes on a new shape.

GEOFF BENNETT: Food banks nationwide feel the pressure from rising food prices and cutbacks to government benefits.

AMNA NAWAZ: And we speak to Taiwan's deputy foreign minister about fears that U.S.

support is waning while the threat from China is rising.

CHEN MING-CHI, Taiwanese Deputy Foreign Minister: We have to face two situations.

One is a D-Day situation.

The other one is a day-to-day situation.

(BREAK) GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "News Hour."

President Trump said today there's been progress in the U.S.-backed effort to end the war in Ukraine.

He said an initial plan has been, as he put it, fine-tuned, and that only a few points of disagreement remain.

AMNA NAWAZ: European officials tell the "News Hour" that the most contentious issues that remain include whether Ukraine would give up territory to Russia.

Trump says he's dispatching two envoys to build on recent talks in Geneva.

Special envoy Steve Witkoff will meet with Vladimir Putin in Moscow, and Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll will confer with the Ukrainians after meeting with Russian officials in Abu Dhabi today.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was hoping for a direct meeting with President Trump.

In his nightly address, he said there has been some progress made on the U.S.

peace proposal.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, Ukrainian President (through translator): The principles in this document can be developed into deeper agreements, and it is in our shared interest that security is real.

I count on continued active cooperation with the American side and President Trump.

Much depends on the United States, because it's America's strength that Russia takes most seriously.

AMNA NAWAZ: As today's talks unfolded, Russia launched a massive drone and missile strike on Ukraine, killing at least seven people in the capital, Kyiv.

Ukraine responded with drone strikes of its own on Russia.

Israel, meanwhile, says it received another set of human remains today, but it's unclear if they belong to one of the three remaining deceased hostages in Gaza.

The handover from Hamas to the Red Cross is just the latest under the fragile cease-fire that took effect last month.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the remains will be taken for forensic testing to be identified.

Meanwhile in Gaza, heavy winter rains have turned roads into rivers.

Tent encampments now sit on swamps of mud and sewage water.

Palestinians blame their miserable conditions on both Israel and Hamas.

ASSMAA FAYAD, Displaced Gazan (through translator): All the tents are destroyed.

Our tents are made of fabric.

Where is Hamas?

Where are the people to see this rain and how our children are drowning?

There's nothing for us to wear, no clothes to put on.

They need to find a solution for us.

AMNA NAWAZ: Aid agencies say they're worried the rainy winter months will only worsen the humanitarian situation on the ground with supplies already running short.

The U.N.

says close to two million Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced from their homes, with most living in tents or shelters.

Nigeria's president says the remaining 24 schoolgirls who were abducted from a school last week have been rescued.

A total of 25 girls were taken by armed assailants in northwestern Kebbi state, though one escaped the same day.

No details were provided on how the other 24 were saved.

It comes amid a number of other such attacks in Nigeria, including a raid on Friday in which more than 300 students and staff were taken from a Catholic school in North Central Niger state; 50 students managed to escape, though the rest remaining captivity.

In France, authorities have arrested four more people in connection with the jewel heist at the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Officials say two men and two women from the Paris region have been detained for questioning over last month's robbery at the world's most visited museum.

Prosecutors did not say what role they may have played in the theft.

Four other suspects have already been detained and face preliminary charges.

The stolen jewelry is valued at more than $100 million and has not yet been recovered.

The FBI is requesting interviews with a number of Democratic lawmakers who appeared in a video telling U.S.

troops to defy unlawful orders.

It signals a possible second investigation stemming from the video.

And it comes a day after the Pentagon said it's reviewing Arizona Senator Mark Kelly for potential violations of military law.

In a statement, four of the lawmakers involved said that -- quote -- "President Trump is using the FBI as a tool to intimidate and harass members of Congress."

Those featured in the video have all served in either the military or intelligence community.

The mayor of the nation's capital said today she will not seek reelection next November.

MURIEL BOWSER (D), Mayor of Washington, D.C.

: But, today, with a grateful heart, I am announcing that I will not seek a fourth term.

AMNA NAWAZ: Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser made the announcement in a video posted to social media.

The longtime Democratic mayor has found herself in a tight spot in recent months after President Trump ordered a federal crackdown on the Capitol to fight crime.

She's had to balance demands from the White House with concerns among residents that she hasn't pushed back hard enough on the president's actions.

Republican Senator Jim Justice and his wife have agreed to pay nearly $5.2 million in overdue taxes.

The settlement was disclosed just hours after the Justice Department sued the couple, alleging they -- quote -- "have neglected or refused to make full payment" for taxes dating back to 2009.

Once dubbed the only billionaire in West Virginia, Justice has seen his net worth dwindle to, as Forbes magazine put it, less than zero.

The former two-term governor owns dozens of businesses, but has faced a series of challenges in recent years over debts and unpaid bills.

In Texas, parts of the Houston area are clearing up from a tornado that swept through yesterday, damaging dozens of homes.

A fire engine's camera captured the moment the firefighters had to take shelter in a resident's garage.

The storm damaged more than 100 homes, with roofs blown off, trees uprooted, and debris scattered across yards and roads.

No one was reported injured.

The weather system hitting the South also delayed hundreds of flights today just as Thanksgiving holiday travel is ramping up.

On Wall Street today, stocks climbed sharply higher amid hopes for a coming interest rate cut.

The Dow Jones industrial average jumped more than 600 points on the day.

The Nasdaq added around 150 points.

The S&P 500 also ended firmly in positive territory.

At the White House today, President Trump took part in a Thanksgiving tradition and a bit of political point-scoring ahead of Thursday's holiday.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: (OFF-MIKE) pardon.

(CHEERING) AMNA NAWAZ: The president officially pardoned a 50-pound turkey named Gobble in the Rose Garden this afternoon.

The modern-day version of the event goes back to 1989 and then-President George H.W.

Bush.

In his remarks, President Trump joked about sending the turkeys to a prison in El Salvador and claimed that Thanksgiving meal prices are falling, despite some evidence to the contrary.

Another Turkey, Waddle, was notably absent from the ceremony.

And the oldest resident of the San Diego Zoo has died.

Gramma, the Galapagos tortoise, was believed to be 141 years old.

She was born in the wild and came to San Diego around 1930 from the Bronx Zoo.

Gramma lived through two World Wars, 20 U.S.

presidents and generations of visitors.

Her caretaker said she was the queen of the zoo with a sweet personality and a love of romaine lettuce and cactus fruit.

Galapagos tortoises can live for over a century in the wild and nearly double that in captivity.

Gramma will surely be missed.

Still to come on the "News Hour": how artificial intelligence is reshaping the college experience; a new investigation reveals a key component of American car batteries is poisoning communities in Africa; and an upcoming documentary spotlights the civilian toll of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

GEOFF BENNETT: Now to some news about DOGE, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

The blunt-force operation Elon Musk and President Trump used to target federal agencies and spending earlier this year is now dismantled itself.

Reuters reported this week that the government's top personnel official says the entity no longer exists.

That's months ahead of its planned end date.

For more, we're joined now by our Lisa Desjardins.

Lisa, it's always great to see you.

So what do we actually know at this point?

Does DOGE exist in any real form?

LISA DESJARDINS: It is at least disassembled, but like so much with DOGE, it is murky and it seems almost unnecessarily murky.

Let's talk about that Reuters report.

It came out a couple of days ago.

They quoted the head of personnel for the U.S.

government, who said DOGE does not exist.

But then we saw this from DOGE on the Internet social media yesterday, saying: "As usual, this is fake news from Reuters."

Just last week,it goes on to say, that DOGE was operating, terminating contracts.

Now, I have been asking DOGE and the Office of Personnel Management for days for response, including on social media, asking, hoping they would respond to me that way.

Have not heard anything, except the Office of Personnel Management did refer me to those -- the comments from their director.

And this is it from Scott Kupor on X. He wrote: "The truth is that DOGE may not have centralized leadership, but the principles of DOGE remain alive."

What does that mysterious statement mean?

To me, the interpretation there is that, in fact, DOGE is no longer its own entity with its own sort of independent abilities, but instead is dispersed.

It has had officers throughout different agencies, and we will see each agency may go forward as they want.

But when Elon Musk launched DOGE, it had an end date of July next year.

So it looks like what's actually happening here is all of this is wrapping up much sooner.

And one big clue may be from President Trump himself, who now speaks about DOGE in the past tense.

GEOFF BENNETT: You have tried to track what DOGE actually accomplished.

What are the hard numbers?

LISA DESJARDINS: This is so important.

This was such a part of what this country went through.

First of all, let's look at the savings as we know them.

This comes from the Congressional Budget Office.

The initial goal for DOGE to save money from Elon Musk was $2 trillion.

Later, he said $1 trillion.

Here's what DOGE claims it has saved so far on its so-called wall of receipts, looking at that today, $214 billion.

You run the numbers there.

That's about 3 percent of the total federal budget.

That's not nothing.

That is a lot of money.

But I have to remind viewers that we have reported, our producers and others, and so has the Associated Press, that those initial savings reported by DOGE really were not backed up for the facts.

We haven't been able to go through that number yet.

In all, we also were told, I just got the numbers from DOGE, that they say 300,000 federal workers are no longer with the federal government.

But, listen, most of that is from people who left through attrition or took early retirement.

So, in the end, DOGE mainly leaves with disruption and not so much from their efforts decreasing the size of government.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, zooming out, has the Trump administration actually reduced overall government spending?

LISA DESJARDINS: No.

Let's take a quick look.

Here's how much the government spent, according to the CBO in the last fiscal year.

First of all, in 2024, $6.7 trillion in outlays.

But then let's look at fiscal year 2025, which Trump has overseen much of, $7 trillion, so about the same.

The deficit, also from 2025 to 2024, has been about the same.

The real problems are still unaddressed, Social Security, Medicare, and the debt itself, no one talking about it.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, originally, DOGE lived in Congress through the Oversight Committee before it became an executive branch entity.

Are Republicans still carrying this idea, this ethos with them?

LISA DESJARDINS: The House Subcommittee for DOGE has been an important part of DOGE.Who heads that subcommittee?

Marjorie Taylor Greene.

She has now announced she's leaving Congress at the beginning of January.

I asked her office and also have asked House Oversight what's going to happen to that subcommittee.

I haven't gotten a response yet.

It still exists.

We don't know whether they will be flexing their muscles as much as they have in the future.

GEOFF BENNETT: Lisa Desjardins, thanks so much.

LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.

AMNA NAWAZ: As the holiday season begins, food banks across the nation are still struggling to keep up with the need.

That's partly fueled by the disruption in SNAP benefits during the government shutdown.

But, as William Brangham reports, there will be more restrictions and cutbacks coming.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The supplies at food banks nationwide are already low, but, as they have been telling us, demand for their assistance is still climbing.

We spoke with the head of a few of them around the country as the shutdown came to a close.

ERIC COOPER, President and CEO, San Antonio Food Bank: It's been a rough 2025.

We have received a reduction in the amount of food that we have been getting year over year when it comes to federal programs.

Although we're struggling to make sure that we have the supply, we want to make sure that anyone in need knows we can help.

JEFF MARLOW, CEO, Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma: Even before this announcement of the government shutdown and SNAP not being funded as of November 1, we had consistently seen an increase across our service area of 27 percent to 30 percent of neighbor visits to our agency partners in our service area.

That just put even more strain on an already weakened system.

LAUREN CONIGLIARO, St.

Leo's Food Pantry: Six months ago, we were giving you enough food for your whole household.

Now we're giving you half of the food, and you start to feed every member of that household with half the food.

CAROLINE HISSONG, We Don't Waste: All of our nonprofit partners that we distribute food to have pretty much just been requesting more food.

If they come to us and they're typically picking up 10,000 servings of food per week, they're hoping to get 15,000 servings per week.

And multiply that by 110 nonprofits,and we're looking at massive numbers of food that's being requested.

ALEXANDER MOORE, Chief Development Officer, D.C.

Central Kitchen: We prepare about 17,000 meals a day across Washington, D.C.

We have already increased our daily production of healthy meals by about 500 daily meals so far this month.

And we have frontline partners all across the city that are reporting 50 to 100 percent increases in turnout.

IRIS SHARP, Co-Director, FAST Blackfeet Food Pantry: We're a Native-led nonprofit organization that's based on the Blackfeet tribal community.

Really, the last couple of weeks of October, we were really just stressed.

To be honest, we were just stressed.

As of right now, we're about $54,000 over budget.

We're having to look into our emergency contingency funding to cover those funds.

ERIC COOPER: For food banks, we have depleted our inventory.

We have distributed the food that we have, as we should.

But now we have got to continue.

And so the restoration of that is going to be on the private side, because I just don't see the public side stepping up right now.

JEFF MARLOW: We lose money seven to eight months of the year.

And this is our time of the year to make money just so we can break even.

And we are having to make a call just to ask people to give above and beyond, so we can have food on the tables right now in this crisis that government created.

IRIS SHARP: This isn't the first time our nation, our tribal nation has experienced food insecurity at the hands of the federal government.

It's not unfamiliar to us, but that's kind of made us really tap into our community, and how can we really gather in a way that we haven't had to?

ALEXANDER MOORE: When the chips are down, it's emergency food providers like D.C.

Central Kitchen, like many of our partners, who are asked to find ways to do more even when we're already at capacity.

And that's the challenge before us right now.

And that's exactly what we have to do.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: While food stamp benefits are flowing again for now, the massive Republican tax-and-spending law signed by President Trump this summer contains perhaps the biggest looming cut to food assistance and America's social safety net in decades.

Millions of Americans could soon find themselves without assistance starting very soon.

For more on what this means, we are joined by Adam Chandler.

He's a journalist and author of the book "99% Perspiration: A New Working History of the American Way of Life."

Adam Chandler, thank you so much for being here.

You have argued that the way we talk about SNAP and food stamps and this kind of assistance is broken and misinformed.

What do you mean by that?

ADAM CHANDLER, Author: Thanks so much for having me, William.

As we just saw from that footage, people who rely on SNAP and even food banks are people from all walks of life in America.Talking about old and young, rural and urban.The percentage of households that enroll in SNAP, by proportion, are higher in rural areas.

So there are a lot of perceptions politically that certain people like to promote in talking about the need that we have.

But the reality is that SNAP encompasses huge percentages of Americans from every corner of the country.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I mean, Republicans have always argued that SNAP is rife with fraud, that it's too expensive, that it's illegally being used by undocumented immigrants.

Here's how the secretary of agriculture, Brooke Rollins, described the SNAP program recently.

BROOKE ROLLINS, U.S.

Secretary of Agriculture: This has sort of shined a light on a program that, especially under the last administration, has just become so bloated, so broken, so dysfunctional, so corrupt that it is astonishing when you dig in.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: How accurate is that characterization overall?

ADAM CHANDLER: Well, overall, it's not terribly accurate.

I would point to a congressional report from April that points out that fraud is generally pretty rare in SNAP.

There are errors, just like in any major government program, but the idea that this is a program that's being completely taken advantage of by people is absurd, in and of itself.

The idea that people who basically receive $6 a day, which is the average SNAP allocation, are somehow not wanting to work or living high on the hog is just something that is undercut by the reality of who uses SNAP, what the demographics are.

These are, by and large, people who are either under the age of 18 or over the age of 60.

These are people who are often working full-time hours.

So the thought that this is not being used by working people is unserious.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: As I mentioned, the GOP's huge tax-and-spending bill that passed this summer is going to make some fundamental changes to food assistance.

What are those changes?

ADAM CHANDLER: It's a great question.

What's important to think about is, first of all, how difficult it already is to apply for SNAP.

You constantly have to recertify that you're searching for work or that you're doing whatever the various requirements are -- and it varies from state to state -- to remain on the rolls of SNAP.

What this new bill does is expand the requirements.

It requires that you have 80 hours a month of work or job training or volunteering.

And that might not sound like a lot to the average American, but think about some of the people who are receiving SNAP.

These are often caregivers, single parents, people who are taking care of families.

And so to step out of the roles that they currently inhabit in their lives and pursue different sort of requirements to stay on SNAP is an onerous benefit to an already difficult process.

We have a broken disability program that requires months and sometimes years of waiting to have claims handled in a timely fashion.

So these are all obstacles that already exist in the system.

And this is going to make it more difficult for people to enroll in SNAP.

The CBO, the Congressional Budget Office, already suggests that over two million people will drop off of SNAP in the next few years because of these requirements.

Another thing that the Big Beautiful Bill does for SNAP is, it gives states less power to waive work requirements in areas with fewer jobs.

So we're talking about rural households, which enroll in SNAP more than urban households.

We're talking about areas that don't have a lot of jobs sometimes.

And what it allowed local government to do was offer SNAP to people who can't find jobs because there aren't jobs in their area.

And this makes it more difficult for people to stay on SNAP who need to stay on SNAP because there just isn't the opportunity in their part of the country.

And that's an important thing to realize when we talk about SNAP because the way that it's often framed is people not wanting to work.

And the reality is, there aren't these great jobs out there that often cover the basics; 44 percent of jobs in America are low-wage jobs, and 60 percent of Americans are already living paycheck to paycheck.

So the idea that SNAP is the one thing keeping people from working is a silly idea in and of itself too.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, that is writer and author Adam Chandler.

Thank you so much for being here.

ADAM CHANDLER: Thank you for having me.

GEOFF BENNETT: President Trump this week spoke with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, and the Chinese government said Xi outlined what it called China's principled position on Taiwan.

The self-governing democracy of 23 million residents has never been part of communist China, but Beijing considers it a breakaway province.

Nick Schifrin recently sat down with Taiwan's deputy foreign minister at the Halifax International Security Forum to talk about the relationship with the U.S.

and why Taiwan is so focused on the fate of Ukraine.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Ukraine is fighting what it considers an existential battle, on the front line an in Geneva conference rooms.

And even those half-a-world away are watching, for they too face a much larger neighbor challenging their sovereignty.

CHEN MING-CHI, Taiwanese Deputy Foreign Minister: We don't want to have the aggressor having their way.

So we have to work together to support this whole cause.

That's very important for us.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Chen Ming-chi is Taiwan's deputy foreign minister.

We spoke this weekend at the Halifax International Security Forum just as the U.S.

pushed Kyiv to agree to a U.S.-drafted peace plan.

CHEN MING-CHI: That plan have global implications.

We are watching that closely.

In Taiwan, I think the most important thing is to strengthen our defense capabilities, so work with our allies, work with our like-minded partners, so as to provide better deterrence.

It's better to deter any aggressor beforehand, rather than in the middle of the prolonged war.

NICK SCHIFRIN: President Trump has said repeatedly that Xi Jinping has promised not to invade Taiwan during Trump's term.

Has the U.S.

ever communicated that to Taipei formally?

CHEN MING-CHI: We don't make any speculation on that.

We don't base our defense idea, concept on any empty promise.

NICK SCHIFRIN: China's People's Liberation Army has launched one of the fastest military modernizations in world history.

The U.S.

says the buildup is custom-designed to prevent U.S.

forces to come to Taiwan's rescue, as demonstrated in these propaganda videos, and to be able to invade Taiwan by 2027.

CHEN MING-CHI: We have to face two situations.

One is a D-Day situation.

The other one is a day-to-day situation.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Invasion or pressure?

CHEN MING-CHI: Yes.

So we have to deal with both.

If we fail to meet the challenge from the air, on the water, our people will lose confidence in the -- our own defense.

But we have to invest.

We have to strengthen that part.

NICK SCHIFRIN: For Taiwan, U.S.

weapons have long been essential.

Last week, the Trump administration approved the first weapons sale of this term, $700 million of the same air defense system that protects Washington.

And the week before, the U.S.

approved $330 million worth of aircraft parts.

But the Trump administration has so far chosen to sell Taiwan's military new weapons and parts, rather than draw down from U.S.

stocks to deliver them faster.

It also recently downgraded U.S.-Taiwan defense talks.

And, this year, President Lai Ching-te did not transit the U.S., as his predecessor did during the first year of the first Trump administration.

Do you fear that President Trump is sacrificing support for Taiwan in order to hold out for a deal with Beijing?

CHEN MING-CHI: Not at all.

We are very solid about our bilateral relations in terms of security.

Of course, trade-wise, it's another issue.

Your president is a tough negotiator, and ours is -- also have to protect our own interests.

NICK SCHIFRIN: The U.S.

is threatening to tariff Taiwanese-built semiconductors, the world's most advanced.

And, right now, U.S.

tariffs on Taiwan's exports are still 20 percent.

That's a threat to Taiwan's economy, just as the U.S.

demands Taiwan spend more on defense than Taiwan says it's capable of.

But Taiwan recently got a big boost from Japan's new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi who earlier this month said a Chinese assault on Taiwan would lead to a Japanese response.

SANAE TAKAICHI, Japanese Prime Minister (through translator): If China were to deploy battleships and involve the use of force, I believe this could be deemed a situation threatening Japan's survival.

NICK SCHIFRIN: China's consul general in Osaka, Japan, posted on X -- quote -- "We have no choice but to cut off that dirty neck that has lunged at us."

It was later deleted.

But China's foreign minister said Takaichi had crossed a red line.

And on yesterday's call between Xi Jinping and President Trump, Xi outlined China's -- quote -- "principled position" on Taiwan.

It was the first time a Chinese leader framed Taiwan for the U.S.

in the context of World War II with a reference to Japan.

Why do you think Beijing has reacted so strongly to what she said?

CHEN MING-CHI: China is overreacting to the whole situation, their aggressive behavior, not only in the Taiwan Strait, in the East China Sea, in the South China Sea.

So China is a party to be blamed.

I think it's -- they are good at twisting reality.

So it's them who provoked.

NICK SCHIFRIN: President Lai Ching-te recently almost trolled Beijing.

He was eating Japanese sushi after China stopped Japanese fish imports.

CHEN MING-CHI: Yes.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Bottom line, though, how important would Japan be if China were to invade or blockade Taiwan?

CHEN MING-CHI: Oh, very important.

I think any country, any democracy's support matter to Taiwan's defense.

See what happened in Ukraine.

We learned a lesson that we have to work together with our line-minded partner for that, never believing the CCP's propaganda.

They just cannot peacefully coexist with democracies.

This is about competition between democracy and authoritarianism.

NICK SCHIFRIN: And in that competition, Taiwan wants a fellow democracy, also seemingly outmatched by its neighbor, to win.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Nick Schifrin.

AMNA NAWAZ: This year's senior class at universities across the country is the first to have spent nearly its entire college career in the age of generative A.I., a type of artificial intelligence that can create new content like text and images.

As the technology improves, it's harder to distinguish from human work, and it's shaking academia to its core with some very big questions.

Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro has the story for our series Rethinking College.

MEGAN FRITTS, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Arkansas, Little Rock: And the principle of humanity says, treat all people as ends in themselves, never merely as means.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: About two years ago, Megan Fritts, a philosophy professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, began spotting something unusual about her students' writing.

MEGAN FRITTS: You suddenly get an essay or a test answer, some kind of assignment from a student whose normal writing you're familiar with, and you get something back that sort of sounds like an official business document or a piece of technical writing, writing that sounds very highly polished, but very impersonal.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Impersonal because it likely wasn't written by a person.

This was the beginning of a turning point for higher ed, as generative A.I.

had swept through not only her campus, but college campuses across the country.

A survey last year found that 86 percent of college students are now using A.I.

tools like ChatGPT, Claude A.I., and Google Gemini for school work.

The reason generative A.I.

has spread so quickly on college campuses is not hard to understand.

It's transformed tests that used to take hours, even days of writing and revision into something that can be done in mere minutes.

For example, I can ask ChatGPT, write me a 1,000-word essay on the topic of "Is it OK to lie?"

And using a massive amount of data, it predicts and generates sentences on this topic instantly.

Fritts says the impact has been deeply disruptive.

MEGAN FRITTS: If I'm reading the writings of ChatGPT, instead of my students, I have lost the very best tool that I have to see if I am being effective in my capacity as an instructor or not.

BRIAN BERRY, Vice Provost, University of Arkansas, Little Rock: We really need a framework in which people can use these things and innovate while minimizing the risk.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: University policymakers have scrambled to stay ahead.

BRIAN BERRY: I think the realization over the past year-and-a-half is the technology is outpacing our ability to detect it.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Vice provost of research Brian Berry leads one of U.A.

Little Rock's committees tasked with creating clear campus-wide policies on A.I.

BRIAN BERRY: I think it really comes down to us helping students understand what's at risk, helping them understand that, if they use A.I.

in the right way, it's literally the most powerful tool that they have ever been able to use, and it will make huge differences.

But if they use it in the wrong way, it could short-circuit their learning process.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The university is finalizing a policy that lets professors determine what A.I.

use is acceptable in their classrooms, as long as they clearly outline it in their syllabus.

But, for Fritts, who has a strict no-A.I.

policy, identifying it has been complicated and time-consuming.

MEGAN FRITTS: So, Phrasly is one of the softwares that I use.

If I suspect A.I.

use, then the first thing I do is I do use detection softwares.

I actually use eight different detection softwares.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: If her suspicion is confirmed, she does meet with the student.

MEGAN FRITTS: And if they can talk about the thing that they wrote about, then great, but a lot of times they can't.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: It sounds like it's tedious and a lot more work for professors like yourself.

MEGAN FRITTS: It certainly cuts into my life quite a bit.

It at least has sometimes made teaching feel like policing.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: And these detection methods are not foolproof.

Students online say that they're caught in the middle.

WOMAN: I have been falsely accused by my University of using A.I.

to write a paper.

WOMAN: My final paper got detected as 60 percent A.I.

ASHLEY DUNN, Recent Graduate, Louisiana State University: We might be about to find out if I'm going to falsely get kicked out of college for... FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Ashley Dunn was a senior at Louisiana State University when she was accused of using A.I.

to write a short essay for a British literature class after a detection tool flagged her writing last year.

ASHLEY DUNN: And I was like, am I going to fail this class?

Am I going to get a zero?

Every college takes plagiarism and that kind of thing very seriously.

So I was just freaking out.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: After communicating with her professor, Dunn says she was eventually given an A for the assignment, but the response to her on TikTok proves that this is a widespread issue.

ASHLEY DUNN: A lot of people ended up making responses to my video pretty much saying that they had gone through the same thing, but that they didn't really get as lucky, that they ended up either getting zeros or failing the class.

Some people recently have been making videos about, oh, my professor said that my essay was A.I.

because I used an em dash.

But that's just a regular way of writing, especially for a college level.

LORI KENDALL, Professor, The Ohio State University: You're going to be asked to go out and venture into gen A.I.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Not all schools are anti-A.I.

Some are actually looking for ways to embrace it.

Lori Kendall teaches an entrepreneurship class in the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University.

LORI KENDALL: When gen A.I.

came out, I and every other instructor did, oh, great, now what?

Do we allow A.I.?

Do we not allow A.I.?

And the reality is, you know what, they're going to use it anyway.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: She now encourages her students to use A.I.

to critically examine their original work and as a learning aid.

RACHEL GERVAIS, Undergraduate Student, The Ohio State University: A lot of people might use A.I.

just to get assignments done, plagiarism, but I like to use A.I.

just for a deeper understanding.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Rachel Gervais is a first-year student majoring in air transportation.

RACHEL GERVAIS: I will oftentimes use A.I.

to create questions regarding this topic, so I not only get a better understanding of the actual material, but I also can test and see what I need to maybe focus on even more.

LORI KENDALL: If you don't use A.I.

or the next technology that comes along to be more effective, you're not going to be competitive in the job market.

The job market's changing right underneath your feet.

RAVI BELLAMKONDA, Executive Vice President and Provost, The Ohio State University: As the chief academic officer, I get to decide on academic integrity issues, honor code and violations.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Ravi Bellamkonda is executive vice president and provost at Ohio State University.

He says he was struck by one alleged violation last year, a student accused of using A.I.

It was a case of cheating, he says, but it made him think.

RAVI BELLAMKONDA: What if there exists a technology that indeed lets our students produce work of very high quality?

Shouldn't we investigate this a little further?

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Bellamkonda spearheaded Ohio State's new A.I.

fluency initiative, which requires all undergraduate students across academic disciplines learn and use A.I.

tools.

RAVI BELLAMKONDA: The trick is to figure out, like any human interaction with technology, what can be off-loaded to technology and what do we need to add the value to?

Ohio State wants to be at the front of that creation of those rules.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: That's prompted experimentation across the disciplines, like music professor Tina Tallon's A.I.

and music class, which explores innovative uses of the technology.

TINA TALLON, Professor, The Ohio State University: I always start the class by asking them to think about a challenge in their field.

At that point, we're not even talking about A.I.

I just want them to identify something that either they have run up against or that their students or their colleagues have.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: One member of her class, tuba instructor and doctoral student Will Resch (ph), is using A.I.

to analyze airflow into his instrument over thousands of repetitions.

The data will help guide students on how to play the perfect note.

Another, Natalia Morano-Britrago (ph), is a music education grad student studying how babies acquire musical knowledge.

She used to spend hours combing through home recordings of research subjects, listening for moments when parents or caregivers sing or hum around the infant.

Now A.I.

does this for her.

TINA TALLON: If we critically examine the tools that we're engaging with and are actively involved in the development of them, I think we can do some pretty incredible things.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: But, inevitably, these tools also bring major disruption to academia and to the jobs students hope to someday fill.

RAVI BELLAMKONDA: How do we go through a transformative moment like this with the disruptions that it is going to cause, and yet do this in a way that ultimately is additive to us as a society, that it improves our lot as human beings?

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: A question without a clear answer, he says, but one that students should help tackle.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Fred de Sam Lazaro in Columbus, Ohio.

GEOFF BENNETT: You may not know it, but lead is a key element in your car battery and expensive to produce domestically.

So, U.S.

automakers often use recycled lead produced overseas, a practice long framed as an environmental success story.

But a new investigation has found that the recycled lead used by U.S.

auto and battery manufacturers is not safe and is linked to dangerous lead poisoning.

Our Stephanie Sy has more.

STEPHANIE SY: The New York Times and a nonprofit newsroom called The Examination followed the supply chain of U.S.

car batteries over the course of a year to villages in Nigeria where factories recycle lead.

The team was able to test 70 people who live in those villages and agreed to a blood test.

The result, these Nigerians are being poisoned at an alarming rate, with seven out of 10 showing harmful levels of lead in their bodies.

That recycled lead goes into U.S.

cars.

I'm joined now by Peter Goodman, global economics correspondent for The New York Times, who was part of this reporting team.

Peter, thank you so much for sharing your reporting with the "News Hour."

You traveled to a town near Lagos, Nigeria for this story, just got back.

How is lead getting into the community?

And is there any doubt that it can be traced back to these lead recycling factories?

PETER GOODMAN, Global Economics Correspondent, The New York Times: Yes, there's no doubt.

I mean, that's why we did the tests and we had a control group and it's really clear.

So it's a very strange supply chain that we're invited to not think about.

It's effectively invisible to most consumers here in the U.S., but, basically, there are all these batteries that get picked up by this group of people known as the pickers.

They go around Nigeria, they find spent batteries, they buy them, they bring them to these yards, where the breakers use machetes to break apart the plastic casing.

Then they use their bare hands typically to pull out the lead from inside.

And then that lead gets hauled off by truck to a bunch of factories, smelters, in this one town of Ogijo, where we spent most of our time.

And this lead gets put into these really hot furnaces and melted down to liquid form.

And the result of this is noxious clouds, Black smoke, lead dust, a rain of soot landing on people's houses, laundry, dirt that children are playing in.

And everybody in these surrounding communities -- and we're talking about villages that are right next to these factories -- is breathing in this lead.

STEPHANIE SY: Did you see or hear about specific ill health effects, the villages, the children, that they're experiencing?

Did you see that?

PETER GOODMAN: Oh, absolutely.

I mean, it's what people are constantly talking about.

Virtually everywhere we went, people would say, my stomach is constantly hurting.

My child is not sleeping.

They're coughing, sinus infections, distended bellies, relentless headaches.

And we're talking about schools that are set up right alongside these factories where children are having a hard time concentrating.

And all of this is indicative of serious lead poisoning, which causes irreversible brain damage.

STEPHANIE SY: How many U.S.

car batteries are coming from Nigeria or from other developing countries where we may see the same issue?

And talk a little bit more about the opacity of the supply chain for these batteries.

PETER GOODMAN: Yes, it's a really important point.

So, first of all, this is a global phenomenon.

I mean, we went to Nigeria because our reporting partner, The Examination, had mapped out the supply chain there, had enlisted a bunch of independent scientists to do the tests.

We could have gone to a dozen other countries where this is playing out, though Nigeria is the fastest growing source of so-called recycled lead that's being exported to the U.S.

Look, it's a small percentage.

There are large battery manufacturers in the U.S.

and North America more broadly that would much prefer to get hold of spent batteries in the region, recycle them.

It's actually cheaper, in fact, to rely on the domestic supply chain, because the scale is so huge and they already have their plants in place.

But we have had a combination of stricter regulations in the U.S.

that have driven smelters out of business because we don't want lead poisoning in our midst in the United States, combined with growth that has produced demand for lead that's exceeded what the domestic plants can get.

So they have gone out around the world looking for other sources of lead to supplement what they have got.

And Nigeria is one of scores of countries that are now supplying this so-called recycled lead to the U.S.

to be folded in to batteries.

So it's a small component, but it's a growing component.

And to your question about opacity, there are so many different participants involved, there's so many different countries involved that every participant can plausibly deny that it's their responsibility what's happening on the ground to people living next to these smelters in Nigeria.

STEPHANIE SY: You talked to the local king of that village.

And you write beautifully about the dependence on the economy of all of this, saying that this is a village full of people -- quote -- "coaxing sustenance from meager opportunities."

Really paints a picture of the desperation that causes people to extract lead this way and expose themselves knowingly to this toxin.

How do the people feel about it?

Do they want to see change?

I'm sure they don't want to see these factories and these economic opportunities go away.

PETER GOODMAN: They definitely want to see change.

I mean, people are eager to see this pollution minimized.

They want to see equipment that comes in that limits the lead pollution that's reaching their communities, the sort of stuff that we have in our own communities here in the States.

They don't want the plants to be closed, for the simple reason, and I appreciate you're putting the focus on it, that there are a lot of people living there truly hand to mouth.

These are jobs, by the way, that pay people a dollar a day.

I talked to a guy who loaded lead into a shipping container who worked 7:00 a.m.

to 7: 00 p.m.

Monday through Saturday, earned about a dollar a day doing this.

He was among the 70 people we tested.

His levels were very high, along with everyone else who worked in one of these plants.

And even he didn't want these plants closed, because there's so little economic opportunity there.

And that's the story of how the supply chain functions.

It tends to take the dirtiest, most dangerous things and send them to places where leaders will make that bargain.

They will accept things like lead poisoning in exchange for jobs.

STEPHANIE SY: So much more that you dig into in your article in The New York Times.

That is Peter Goodman joining us.

Thank you.

PETER GOODMAN: Thank you so much for having me.

AMNA NAWAZ: The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine is just a few months short of the four-year mark, four years of brutality and carnage fought almost literally inch by inch from World War I-style trenches in the east.

Tonight, PBS' "Frontline" working with the Associated Press will air "2000 Meters to Andriivka," a relentless portrait of life and death on the front lines.

Nick Schifrin spoke with its filmmaker.

NICK SCHIFRIN: In the spring of 2023, with U.S.

support, Ukraine launched a much-anticipated counteroffensive.

It was designed for Ukraine to break through massive Russian defensive lines to try and seize back some of the 20 percent of the country occupied by Russia.

The fighting was often brutal, and it largely failed to achieve Ukraine's own goals, as well as American hopes that Russia could be beaten back.

One of the most intense battles during that counteroffensive took place in the Eastern province of Donetsk, including the village of Andriivka.

That battle is the subject of the new film, "2000 Meters to Andriivka."

The director is Mstyslav Chernov, who won an Oscar and a Pulitzer for his previous film, "20 Days in Mariupol."

Thanks very much.

Welcome to "News Hour."

The film is unflinching.

Almost all of it takes place in a tree line or a forest with two minefields on either side.

That's the only route into Andriivka.

It is a hellscape of World War I-style bleakness, trees stripped bare, explosions everywhere, men dying, only small trenches for protection.

How brutal was that fight?

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV, Director, "2000 Meters to Andriivka": Oh, it was brutal, and not only for Andriivka.

I think Andriivka is an example of that fight.

And you just mentioned that this was believed as a counteroffensive.

It largely failed at that point.

But it's not the right way to say about it.

The right way to say about it is, amazingly, Ukrainians, having less forces, having less military potential, having less support, they still managed to fight back.

I think this film, for me, more and more becomes a film about fighting fear, about real courage that manifests itself in taking on the task that is considered by most of the countries and most of the people as impossible and still doing it.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Why was Andriivka so important to fight for this little village?

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV: In Donbass, there was the city of Bakhmut.

And it was occupied in spring of 2023.

So one of the objectives of the counteroffensive was to liberate that city.

And Andriivka is right on outskirts of Bakhmut.

So taking Andriivka would allow to cut the supplying chain, supplying weapons to occupied Bakhmut and potentially liberate it.

The counteroffensive itself did not reach that goal, but Andriivka was liberated.

NICK SCHIFRIN: A lot of this film is told through helmet cameras.

Why did you choose to do that?

And what does it bring to the storytelling?

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV: For us, it was the medium which would help to bring the audience into the experience of these men, of these civilians, who became soldiers, who were forced to become soldiers by the invasion.

And at its core, this film is also a statement on how the war is terrible and how horrifying, disgusting and unacceptable it is.

And that vision through the camera, through the eyes of the soldiers, through the camera that is on the helmet of a soldier is the best way to communicate that.

NICK SCHIFRIN: The most intimate moments of the film come between the fighting, when you do have a minute to talk to the soldiers.

And one of them, Fedya (ph), the officer who you headed into Andriivka with, said he never wanted to be a soldier.

FEDYA, Ukrainian Soldier (through translator): I never saw myself as a soldier and never wanted to be a soldier.

So I came to fight, not serve.

They are two different things.

NICK SCHIFRIN: "I came to fight, not serve."

Why is that so important for this film and for that larger point that you're making about everyone's motivations?

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV: I mean, this entire film is taking place in that small, tiny forest that is only one-mile-long and as we see the fight unfolding over more than three months.

And Fedya is like a representation of every soldier I meet.

Every soldier I meet in that forest is a volunteer.

Every soldier in that forest has made a decision to go and defend their home because, for them, it's a home invasion.

And he had never seen himself as a soldier.

So it is not a story of soldiers.

It's actually the story of civilians who are just taking on this responsibility to fight for their home.

NICK SCHIFRIN: The sacrifice, of course, wasn't only for soldiers.

It was also for their hometowns, all of society in Ukraine.

And at one point, you leave the fighting and go to the funeral of a soldier who died fighting in Andriivka.

And the soldier's mother tells you, quote: WOMAN (through translator): That's how it is.

Our heroes are all killed.

Heroes don't die.

My God, they will kill all our boys soon, and then who will be left?

NICK SCHIFRIN: What's been the effect on these soldiers' hometowns?

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV: That tragedy is palpable and visible in those communities.

It's devastating.

But, at the same time, I see how much resolve and how much strength is -- that fight is giving to the communities, because, because of these men, because they have made a decision to go and fight, well, these communities still exist.

NICK SCHIFRIN: And, finally, in the time we have left, one of the main moments of this film seems to me this line: "These fields, these forests."

MAN (through translator): These fields, these forests, everything will grow back.

Everything blooms again, grows, and same with all these cities we are fighting for.

Over time, they will be rebuilt.

NICK SCHIFRIN: "And we can begin from scratch."

How does that reflect what Ukraine is fighting for?

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV: That's a dream of every Ukrainian who wakes up every morning or actually wakes up every night because of the bombing, and hopes that all the friends, all the families are alive.

And, sometimes, that's not what happens.

But this is war that also gave such strength to Ukrainian nation and to Ukrainian national idea and national identity.

And every forest does grow back.

Every village will be rebuilt.

That's for sure.

But, for that, there needs to be peace.

And I don't know any human in the world that wants more peace than every Ukrainian.

AMNA NAWAZ: And "Frontline"'s "2000 Meters to Andriivka" premieres tonight right here on PBS at 10:00/9:00 Central.

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.