LISA DESJARDINS: Good evening.

I'm Lisa Desjardins.

Geoff Bennett and Amna Nawaz are away.

On the "News Hour" tonight: A new report shows a dramatic rise in homelessness across the United States, with the increase being especially high among families.

Then: Syria's future remains uncertain, as the forces that overthrew the Assad government must deal with those loyal to his regime and risk further sectarian rifts.

SIMONA FOLTYN: These patrols deploy every night in an effort to consolidate control over the city of Latakia, which used to be Assad's bastion of support, and the situation here remains quite tense.

LISA DESJARDINS: And we examine the rising dangers of house fires and how to prevent and counteract them, especially at this time of the year.

(BREAK) LISA DESJARDINS: Welcome to the "News Hour."

Homelessness in America reached record high numbers earlier this year.

A government report out today reveals that, last January, the number of people experiencing homelessness shot up by 18 percent to roughly 770,000, as counted on a single night.

The annual survey published by the Department of Housing and Urban Development pointed to a list of intensifying economic problems, rising housing costs and the migrant influx in some cities among them.

To understand more about what's behind this rise, I'm joined by Shaun Donovan, CEO and president of Enterprise Community Partners and former secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Shaun, this is an eye-popping report in many ways.

It's about where things stood earlier this year.

And I want to start with one particular dynamic, the role of the migrant crisis.

How and where did that affect homelessness in this country?

SHAUN DONOVAN, Former U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary: Well, Lisa, first of all, thank you for having me on.

And it is tragic news, the largest increase we have ever seen in homelessness since we started recording these numbers.

And specifically to your question, there's certainly no question that the rise in the number of migrant families in the U.S. did contribute to this, particularly in some of the places where we saw the biggest increases, places like New York City or Massachusetts, Chicago, Denver.

But I think what's really stunning about these numbers is how broad the challenge is.

We saw 18 states reach record levels, including places like Kansas, Alaska, Utah, places -- Idaho is another one -- places where there isn't a significant influx of migrants.

And so there's a much bigger story here about record levels of housing costs, both for owning and renting, higher than -- somebody like me, who has been doing this for a long time for 30 years, I have never seen the affordable housing crisis this bad.

LISA DESJARDINS: One thing that also stands out in this report is a particularly vulnerable population, kids.

I want to look at some of the statistics that they found.

First of all, they found, for families and children, one of the largest increases in homelessness, families, a 39 percent spike in 2024 from 2023.

And on that January night that they surveyed, they found 150,000 children experiencing in -- homelessness.

And in shelters, the number of unaccompanied children has reached record numbers.

Why is it that you think right now our nation's children are being disproportionately affected and seeing this rise in vulnerability to homelessness?

SHAUN DONOVAN: Well, Lisa, as you can imagine, as a parent myself, families will do everything possible to try to avoid ending up on the streets or in shelter.

They will move in with relatives.

They will do anything they can.

And I think this 39 percent increase in families with children experiencing homelessness is the single most tragic part of the report.

And I think it's really a reflection that, increasingly, in this country, you can hold down a full-time job or even, in a couple, two full-time jobs and still not be able to afford housing.

Estimates are that about half of all people experiencing homelessness are working.

And so we have to recognize that this is a housing crisis that is affecting everyone in our society, but, most acutely, those of our neighbors who end up sleeping on the streets or in shelters.

LISA DESJARDINS: There are some real sirens in this report, as you're saying, but these were numbers from January.

Can you talk about what may have happened since then that kind of puts these numbers in a different perspective?

SHAUN DONOVAN: Well, Lisa, the first thing I would say is, it isn't just this year.

This was an 18 percent increase, but it comes on the heels of a 12 percent increase last year in these numbers, so roughly a third increase over two years.

Both of those were record increases in homelessness that we have seen.

So what I think has begun to change in this country really is two things.

One is that we had a Supreme Court decision this past summer in a case that for the first time really allowed communities to criminalize homelessness, and I'm deeply concerned about this.

We know that ticketing someone, putting them in jail because they don't have anywhere to go not only is counterproductive in the short term.

In the long term, it actually increases homelessness, because, as you can imagine, if you have a criminal conviction, much harder to find housing, harder to find a job.

And we know from the evidence that this is counterproductive.

But I'm concerned the frustration levels are rising.

More and more communities are seeing increases in homelessness.

The other thing I would say, though, on a more hopeful note, is, our housing crisis has reached such a scale of proportion that we're seeing more and more bipartisanship around the need to solve our housing crisis, to build more affordable housing, to build more different kinds of housing from homeownership to rental and everything in between.

And so that, I think, is really a hopeful sign.

We do know how to solve homelessness.

We have made progress in this country.

And, in particular, even among these bleak numbers this year, we saw a 7.5 percent decrease in the number of veterans who are sleeping on our streets or in shelter.

And so we can take that example of what works and we can scale it and really begin to reverse the tide of these tragic numbers.

LISA DESJARDINS: And I know from those who put the report out that they think that the migrant surge has in fact quelled since the Biden administration's policies have changed over the summer.

So, we will see what next year's report looks like.

Shaun Donovan, thank you so much for talking with us.

SHAUN DONOVAN: Thank you, Lisa.

Happy holidays.

LISA DESJARDINS: We start the day's other headlines with the deepening political crisis in South Korea.

The country's Parliament has voted to impeach acting President Han Duck-soo.

Today's vote is the nation's second impeachment in just two weeks.

It comes after Han decided against appointing three judges to the court reviewing the previous impeachment of his predecessor.

President Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached on December 14 after his decision to declare martial law earlier this month.

That decision set off a series of events that has left the nation in turmoil, and it leaves the deputy prime minister and finance minister, Choi Sang-mok, in charge.

The White House now says it too sees indication that a Russian air defense system may be to blame for an Azerbaijani airliner crash this week, echoing preliminary findings by Azerbaijani officials.

The flight was heading from Azerbaijan's capital of Baku to the Russian republic of Chechnya, when it turned toward Kazakstan and crashed while trying to land.

In Azerbaijan, the first funeral took place today for one of the 38 people killed; 29 others survived with injuries.

For its part, Russian officials say fog and the threat of a Ukrainian drone strike prevented the flight from landing at its initial destination.

Turning to the Middle East, Palestinian health officials say Israeli soldiers raided and burned one of the last functioning hospitals in Northern Gaza today, after forcing many staff members and patients from the facility.

The Kamal Adwan Hospital is located in Beit Lahia, where Israeli soldiers have been fighting and offensive against Hamas militants.

This footage shows the hospital earlier this month.

Israel claims militants were using it as a base.

Staff members deny that and say the hospital has been hit several times recently by Israeli strikes.

Also, in Northern Gaza, U.S. officials confirmed they pushed for a retraction of a recent famine warning for the area.

It was issued by the U.S.-funded Famine Early Warning System this week, and blamed Israel's -- quote -- "near-total blockade of food and water."

The U.S. ambassador to Israel criticized that report, saying it didn't account for rapidly changing circumstances on the ground and included out-of-date numbers.

The U.S. Agency for International Development, which funds the group, said it found discrepancies in the data and asked for greater review.

Meantime, the Yemen main international airport reopened today after Israeli airstrikes hit the facility.

At least three people were reported killed in yesterday's attack.

Israel says it was targeting infrastructure used by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who had been firing projectiles at Israel for several days.

The head of the World Health Organization had been about to board a flight when the missiles struck.

One member of his plane's crew was injured.

Meantime, in Tel Aviv, rocket sirens rang out earlier this morning as the Houthis responded to Israel's attacks.

The Israeli military said it intercepted a missile fired by the group.

In New York, word of an indictment in a disturbing crime, the death of a woman who was lit on fire and burned to death in a subway last weekend.

Police say Sebastian Zapeta identified himself in photos and surveillance video of the incident during questioning.

Prosecutors say he lit the woman on fire at Brooklyn's Coney Island station Sunday morning and then watched as she burned.

Zapeta was indicted on multiple counts of murder, as well as arson.

Prosecutors said the charges were the toughest they could bring.

ERIC GONZALEZ, Brooklyn, New York, District Attorney: Murder in the first degree carries the possibility of life without parole.

It's the most serious statute in New York state law.

And my office is very confident about the evidence in this case and our ability to hold Zapeta accountable for his dastardly deeds.

LISA DESJARDINS: Federal officials say the 33-year-old is from Guatemala and entered the U.S. illegally.

He remains jailed.

The victim has not been identified.

On Wall Street today, stocks ended up lower to wrap up the holiday-shortened week.

The Dow Jones industrial average snapped a five-session winning streak, falling more than 300 points.

The Nasdaq sank nearly 300 points on the day.

The S&P 500 also ended firmly in the negative territory.

And we have two passings to tell you about this evening.

The first, legendary sports anchor Greg Gumbel has passed away.

In a statement released by his employer, CBS, his family said he leaves behind a legacy of love, inspiration and dedication to over 50 extraordinary years in the sports broadcast industry, and his iconic voice will never be forgotten.

Gumbel was best known for his work as a play-by-play announcer and studio host over a career that also included a stint at NBC.

He covered basketball, the NFL and the Olympics, among others.

Greg Gumbel was 78 years old.

And the oldest living survivor of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor has passed away.

When he was 22 years old, Warren Upton was stationed aboard the USS Utah on that fateful morning of December 7, 1941.

Years later, Upton told the Associated Press that he was shaving when he first felt the torpedo strike.

He then swam ashore to safety.

His passing leaves just 15 military personnel still alive who were there that day out of an estimated 87,000.

Warren Upton was 105 years old.

Still to come on the "News Hour": David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart weigh in on the week's and the year's political headlines; we explore Beyonce's foray into country music, which has deep African and African American roots; and a look back at 2024 through the camera lens from photographers whose images defined the year.

Unrest is brewing in Syria's coastal plains, home to the fallen Assad family's Alawite sect.

Earlier this week, a group of regime loyalists staged an ambush on the now-governing rebel forces, killing 14.

With the Islamic Shia Alawite sect making up only 10 percent of the population, local officials are trying to keep tensions from boiling over.

Simona Foltyn reports from the coastal town of Latakia.

SIMONA FOLTYN: A show of force in the city of Latakia in the heartland of Bashar al-Assad's Alawite sect.

These Sunni fighters are from Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, the rebels turned rulers of Syria.

They are part of General Security, a heavily armed police force whose job it is to secure areas retaken from Assad's forces.

The former government was quickly toppled, but scores of loyalists remain on the run.

These patrols deploy every night in an effort to consolidate control over the city of Latakia, which used to be Assad's bastion of support.

And the situation here remains quite tense.

Assad's enablers are often arrested on these missions.

Abu Ayoub leads these sensitive operations and didn't want to reveal his face, nor his real name.

ABU AYOUB, Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham General Security (through translator): We arrest them immediately, so that there's no sabotage and panic.

We're working with the people to arrest them and bring them to account.

We're following up on any tips and act on anything that threatens our security, people and lands.

God willing, we will deal with it.

SIMONA FOLTYN: Abu Ayoub's men are treading a fine line.

On the one hand, they must heed people's calls for justice and arrest those with blood on their hands.

At the same time, they must shield the Alawite minority from arbitrary retaliation.

Already, videos of revenge attacks have stoked fears that sectarian tensions are beginning to spiral out of control.

In this video, a Sunni fighter appears to threaten the Alawite community, calling them Shabiha, the word for Assad's shadowy militia.

MAN (through translator): To the Alawite Shabiha in Latakia, the land is not yours.

Either you defect or we will rip you apart.

SIMONA FOLTYN: We couldn't independently verify the man's affiliation, but showed the video to Abu Ayoub.

ABU AYOUB (through translator): This is individual behavior.

Maybe he doesn't even belong to any faction.

SIMONA FOLTYN: The commander is adamant that HTS General Security is not responsible for acts of sectarian violence.

ABU AYOUB (through translator): There are some criminals who try to spread panic among the people so that it reflects poorly on us.

They say we have come to kill the people here, take the people's houses and wealth.

But it's not like that.

To the contrary, we're trying to ensure people can live in safety so that they feel reassured.

SIMONA FOLTYN: Despite these efforts, tensions are boiling over.

SIMONA FOLTYN: One night, gunfire echoed through Latakia's streets, spreading fear of escalation.

The next morning, we found dozens of spent bullet casings scattered across the square in the Azhari neighborhood.

A restaurant was ransacked in the attack.

Its manager, Nabih Badour, told us it all began when fighters cursed a man for being Alawite.

NABIH BADOUR, Restaurant Manager (through translator): The problem began when they asked a young man on the street, "Are you Sunni or Alawite?"

He said he was Alawite.

They said, "Screw you and the Alawites."

SIMONA FOLTYN: An altercation followed, and, minutes later, a heavily armed force stormed the restaurant.

NABIH BADOUR (through translator): After five minutes they came with machine guns, with live bullets.

They entered the restaurant.

They arrested three people, covered their heads and packed them into cars.

We tried to ask who they were, but it was forbidden to speak.

They put them in cars and took them.

SIMONA FOLTYN: This is one of the men taken into custody.

He asked us to hide his identity, in fear of retribution.

MAN (through translator): At gunpoint, they took us out of the cafe.

They beat us.

They blindfolded us and made us lie down, face to the ground.

They beat us and called us pigs.

SIMONA FOLTYN: A slur used for Assad's supporters.

He was then taken to a base for a few hours, accused of selling alcohol and drugs, and questioned about his sectarian identity.

Bruised, humiliated and angry, he no longer feels safe in his own city.

MAN (through translator): We are a minority, and we are being targeted.

They are always provoking us and coming at us.

After what I saw yesterday, the way they came and pointed their guns at us, the way they insulted and beat us, I don't feel safe at all.

SIMONA FOLTYN: Witnesses we spoke to pinned the blame on HTS General Security.

And, before long, that's exactly who turned up to mend the rifts.

While we were reporting, a commander arrive to assess the aftermath and offer compensation.

We were granted permission to film the meeting.

RASHEED AL AHMED, Commander, Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham General Security (through translator): Whoever did this doesn't belong to us.

There are people who use the name of General Security and do things in our name.

We have arrested those responsible and we will bear the cost of what happened at the cafeteria.

SIMONA FOLTYN: The crowd listened politely, but it's clear that many here eye their new rulers with apprehension.

With every new security breach, the window of opportunity to build trust is closing.

Pleas for cooperation may soon fall on deaf ears.

RASHEED AL AHMED (through translator): We don't want what happened yesterday to be repeated.

Any armed groups you see that's not the police or General Security, please notify us.

SIMONA FOLTYN: We couldn't independently confirm who carried out the specific attack, whether or not the transgression came from within HTS' own ranks.

The incident raises questions whether Syria's new authorities can impose order.

RASHEED AL AHMED (through translator): After the fall of the regime, many civilians took hold of the weapons in the city, and they dressed in military clothes, and they are exploiting the security situation and speaking on behalf of the military factions.

SIMONA FOLTYN: Rebel authorities want to get these weapons off the street, and they want it to happen fast, before elements of the former government can mount an insurgency.

They have offered a general amnesty to former soldiers and policemen.

Hundreds line up every morning as part of a demobilization process.

They patiently wait their turn for a chance at being absolved of the regime's crimes.

The process runs like a well-oiled machine.

Names are recorded, photos taken, old I.D.s and weapons confiscated.

KHALED AHMED, Police Officer (through translator): The applicants come here.

We receive the weapon.

We write down the type of and the serial number of the weapon.

SIMONA FOLTYN: The names are entered into a database.

The men then receive a new temporary I.D.

card, confirming their dismissal from the former security forces.

It allows them to move freely through checkpoints.

Anyone who doesn't voluntarily submit to this process could potentially become a wanted man.

MAHMOUD ABDELHAI, Police Officer (through translator): Whoever doesn't come to take the temporary I.D.

bears the responsibility for that decision.

Maybe he has perpetrated crimes and is hiding from being pursued by authorities.

So we advise anyone who hasn't committed crimes to do the settlement.

SIMONA FOLTYN: But temporary I.D.

card holders are still subject to investigation.

The more complicated process of separating war criminals from ordinary foot soldiers has yet to begin.

MAHMOUD ABDELHAI (through translator): Every person who has proven to have committed crimes against the Syrian people will be punished.

SIMONA FOLTYN: Only a few Alawites benefited from Assad's rule.

The majority were deliberately pushed into abject poverty, which left them with little choice but to join the security forces to feed their families.

Tens of thousands of men who used to work for the former security forces have been left without a job and without an income.

They have come here to clear their names, in hope of being reappointed to their former positions.

But what will happen to them remains very much uncertain.

Many here see their dismissal as an injustice, one they expect to be rectified.

Qahtan Salameh served as a doctor in the police for more than 20 years and wants his job back.

QAHTAN SALAMEH, Former Police Officer (through translator): We want to rebuild our country, of course.

We were technicians.

We had nothing to do with military operations.

We were doctors.

We remained far from these matters.

SIMONA FOLTYN: HTS is short on manpower and desperately needs to boost its ranks to secure and govern the country.

But vetting former regime members will take time, a luxury the new government does not have.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Simona Foltyn in Latakia, Syria.

LISA DESJARDINS: If you're not sorry to say goodbye to 2024 and its turbulent politics, you are far from alone.

New polling shows that Americans are feeling deeply fatigued.

To take a look back at this week's news and the political year, we turn to the analysis of Brooks and Capehart.

That's New York Times columnist David Brooks, and Jonathan Capehart, associate editor for The Washington Post.

Gentlemen, thank you.

A pleasure to be here with you.

Let's start with the clemency by President Biden earlier this week.

He reverted the sentences on death row, of 37 death row inmates.

They will now be serving life in prison.

David, at one point, you were a defender of the death penalty.

How do you see this particular clemency?

DAVID BROOKS: Yes, I was a supporter because I used to be a police reporter and the families of the victims that I covered wanted it.

And I thought they should get the satisfaction of the justice.

But I have since become an opponent, in part because so many cases of wrongful conviction.

And there was this "Texas Monthly" story that showed that a case where somebody had been executed for a homicide arson, it was probably wrongly convicted.

So I just thought, we just don't know enough.

And so I'm glad President Biden did what he did about the ending of the death row.

I'm generally glad about the clemencies, though I think it was a little broad.

There are some cases in there, one of the worst judicial scandals in Pennsylvania of a guy who took bribes from for-profit prisons and then sentenced juveniles to earn revenue for those prisons.

That was one of the worst scandals.

And he got at clemency, which I don't think is deserved.

But, in general, I think Biden did the right thing.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: No, I agree.

And the one thing people should understand is, particularly with President Biden pulling people off death row, he did not set them free.

They are still in jail for life without the possibility of parole.

So it's still -- they're still enduring a harsh sentence for the crimes they committed.

LISA DESJARDINS: Now I want to turn to something we saw in the last couple of days.

We have had a big conversation obviously this year about immigration.

This is now a conversation within the Trump universe, as we saw one of Trump's inner circle members, Vivek Ramaswamy, took to social media in a post talking about immigrant values, the values of his family and defending them and saying that they were better in fact some of the other American values.

He's saying the work ethic is there for immigrants.

Now, this took off.

This lit a fire in the MAGA community over immigration.

David, is this -- this is an example of Republican Party at crossroads still.You said last week that you think Trump has some good instincts on immigration, but what does this say about the party?

Is the party shifting or is Ramaswamy going to have to shift?

DAVID BROOKS: No, this is the core tension in the MAGA movement.

Basically, Trump took a party which was a dynamist party, free markets, capitalism, lots of technology, lots of progress, lots of immigration, the free movement of free people and free products, and he imposed upon it a reactionary, let's take care of ourselves.

So there are these two intellectual tendencies within the party, which is, we need immigrants because we want to have the best companies in the world, but we also have to take care of ourselves.

And a lot of the people who voted for Trump have been left behind by the go-go change the last 20 years.

And so you see these two tendencies within the party.

And so I think we're going to see this kind of tension not only on immigration, but on trade, on tariffs, on housing policy, economic regulation.

This is the central split.

And I'm more on the Ramaswamy-Elon Musk side.

But I have to say they're unbelievably condescending in the way they express themselves, by calling people ignorant, Ramaswamy saying you people don't know how to raise your kids, basically, and making the cardinal error, which always triggers me.

In his little tweet, he said, more math tutors, less sleepovers.

If you want to give your kids something cognitively demanding, don't send them to a math tutor.

Send them to sleepover with 12-year-old kids.

That's cognitively demanding.

LISA DESJARDINS: Are you going to defend Vivek Ramaswamy?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: I'm not going to defend him, but I will say that what, he has done he has ignited, I think, a bigger conversation, even bigger than what David is talking about.

There's that.

But there's also this.

I think what he's -- what's erupted is a conversation about experts and expertise.

For the longest time, we have seen those two things, experts and expertise, downgraded.

And it reminded me of something that President Clinton told me when I interviewed him last month.

He said politics is the only business in which you can prove your authenticity by not knowing anything.

And so, if Vivek has a problem with where our culture is right now, perhaps he should look in the mirror he's holding up that his own party is looking at now at war with each other.

Maybe the way to solve some of the problems that he's talking about is that if they actually start talking more genuinely from a policy perspective about the issues facing the country.

And the country does need the experts and their expertise who come to this country, get a solid education, and then, because of our broken immigration system, have to take all that knowledge that they learned here and bring it back home.

LISA DESJARDINS: Jonathan, you just said this sparks an even bigger conversation.

What do you mean by that?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Well, the bigger conversation, leave aside the cultural issue, but also -- but immigration.

Like, we need to have more people in this country who are able to do the jobs that are here, but who also bring the values that reinforce American values.

LISA DESJARDINS: How did we get here to a point where we have a labor shortage, we have declining birth rates, and yet we have this even kind of this force that's opposed to even legal immigration?

DAVID BROOKS: Yes.

Well we have had record numbers of immigrations for 20 or 30 years.

And... LISA DESJARDINS: And that's what -- you think that's what it is, just the... DAVID BROOKS: I think, if you want to have an American populace that supports immigration, you have to control your borders.

We have seen that in Germany.

We have seen that all around the world.

And so the fact that it seems out of control to people, a lot of people say, what's going on here?

And then we have had, frankly, immigration policies that allow those of us in the educated class to have cheap labor, but a lot of people who are working and competing for those people for those jobs, they feel we are ignoring the plight of them as other people come in and take their jobs.

And so there's a class angle here.

But -- so you have got to secure the border if you want the American people to support immigration.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: And I hear that.

But what we're about to see, if you listen to Tom Homan, the incoming border czar for Donald Trump, part of that solution is separating families again, deporting families if they don't want to be separated.

That's not where we should be going as a country.

LISA DESJARDINS: He's saying he would give them the choice, either you are in detention together or you would have to choose to separate.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: That's no -- but that's no choice.

That's no choice at all, not for those families.

That's why they're living in fear right now.

LISA DESJARDINS: This is a difficult discussion after a turbulent year for conversation Americans have been having.

And, as I referenced, we had an Associated Press poll, Associated Press/NORC poll that found, you will be shocked, two-thirds of Americans are downshifting and moving away from how much attention they're paying to political news right now.

Jonathan Capehart, you are not only an important broadcaster on this desk, but you also happen to host your own show on MSNBC.

What do you think this means?

Is this a change in how people may approach Trump 2.0 or is this just sort of a normal post-election mental health break?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Well, let me tell you, Lisa, as an expert in this who -- we all saw this coming.

We have been through it.

We went through it in '16.

We went through it in '20.

So we knew that, after the election, no matter what happened, our ratings would fall.

Mine have fallen.

I am not ashamed to say that.

And we chalk that up to exhaustion.

It's been a long two years.

We chalk that up to people just needing a break, to your point.

People need a break.

They will come back after Inauguration Day.

That is guaranteed because there's going to be a lot happening in this country that is going to demand their attention and they're going to want to know.

They will come back.

LISA DESJARDINS: You know -- and you said it.

I also have a newsletter called "Here's the Deal."

We asked the political word of the year.

Overwhelmingly, the choice was exhaustion.

So I want to ask the two of you, what do you think the political word is for you as we look back as -- in our last few minutes?

DAVID BROOKS: I have to say, I'm thrilled by the decline in viewership for political news.

We're over politicized in this country.

People go to politics for a sense of belonging, for a sense of righteousness.

You should go to other -- you should go to your friends for those things.

You're asking more of politics than politics can bear.

My word for the year is chastened.

For those of us who oppose Donald Trump, we should be chastened because of the plurality of the American people thought we were wrong.

If you're a worshiper of the European social welfare model, you should be chastened, because that's falling apart.

If you hated Bibi Netanyahu, you should be a little chastened, because he took down Hamas and Hezbollah and Assad.

So there's a lot of reason for humility at the end of this year.

LISA DESJARDINS: Jonathan.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: I have no word because there are too many words.

So I will just leave it at that.

LISA DESJARDINS: You can give us several.

We have got a minute remaining.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Well, I mean, humility, which I have used a couple of election nights, to say we need to be humble, those of us in our profession, because we don't know what the voters have to say.

I have to say that, after this past election, not - - I'm not wild about what the voters have to say, but chastened is a good word.

Exhausted is a good word.

There's so many good words.

LISA DESJARDINS: You know, we gave our readers a choice.

Exhaustion was one.

Shift was another.

And I toyed around with another, men, because I think we talked a lot about men as a voting group, different types of men, Black men, Hispanic men, men in a way we hadn't before.

But I think, in the end, I am not shocked, as you would not be, I think, that exhaustion was in fact where our readers ended up.

But no one's exhausted from this conversation.

(LAUGHTER) LISA DESJARDINS: Thank you all for joining us.

And I really hope that you have a wonderful rest of your holidays, David Brooks, Jonathan Capehart.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Thanks.

Same to you.

DAVID BROOKS: Nine minutes of us every week is enough.

(LAUGHTER) LISA DESJARDINS: Oh, we need more.

More.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: That's a word, enough.

LISA DESJARDINS: This is a time of year when families gather from across the country.

But with that also comes a heightened risk of fires inside the home.

There are more home fires in December than any other month.

The vast majority of those blazes, though, can be prevented with some simple steps, like the kind you learn from firefighter and paramedic Jason Patton of Riviera Beach Fire Rescue in Florida.

He runs the wildly popular and irreverent YouTube channel Fire Department Chronicles.

JASON PATTON, Riviera Beach Fire Rescue: Making sure that your family knows what to do in the case of any emergency, but especially a house fire, is just as important as anything else that we can talk about.

And, by the way, you actually have to practice it.

LISA DESJARDINS: Our William Brangham recently spoke with Patton to get some fire safety tips.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Jason, such a great pleasure to have you on the "News Hour."

Help me understand this.

Why is December such a big month for fires?

I mean, is it because we're dragging dry, flammable trees into our houses and putting them next to our fireplaces?

JASON PATTON: It definitely -- that definitely doesn't help.

But it's mainly because you're having more people together, or more cooking, but also, during the winter months, it is getting colder.

So more people are turning on their heaters or they're bringing space heaters into the house.

And, sometimes, we don't create the best practices when it comes to those space heaters.

So, increased cold months on top of sometimes overloading the extension cords that we're using, all of those things can contribute to increased fires.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So what are some best practices?

Like, if you're going into someone's typical Christmas, overcrowded, bunch of relatives squawking at each other, what -- when you're looking around the rooms and thinking about that, what are best practices?

JASON PATTON: Any time you're going to have space heaters in the home, you want to make sure that there's nothing next to it.

You want to make sure there's no blankets, it's not close to couches or anything like that.

If you are going to cook in your home, please make sure that you have some type of fire extinguisher in the kitchen.

We very much encourage that on every floor of your home, because fires can start anywhere, and then smoke detectors.

Smoke detectors are massive.

The big thing about smoke detectors is, fires spread so quickly through homes today that it is so important that you are alerted, especially if you're sleeping, as quickly as possible, so you and your family members can get out of the house.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I have actually read that the amount of time, when that smoke detector goes off, that you have to get out of your house is much shorter now than it was even 20, 30 years ago.

Why is that?

JASON PATTON: Because of the types of items that are inside of the homes.

You know, 30 years ago, most items, most of your furniture, the things that you were bringing into your home, they were made of your typical flammable items, but now plastics.

Plastics and polyesters are infiltrated into our homes, because they look great and they're easier and cheaper to create.

So they're spreading so much faster.

They ignite because they're going to be made of petroleum.

You got about somewhere to the three to four minutes, sometimes even less, to be able to escape your home.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Wow.

What about those fire blankets that I have seen all over Instagram, people recommending them?

Are those a good idea?

JASON PATTON: Absolutely, listen, especially when it comes to kitchen fires.

If it's just a typical item that's on fire, then an ABC extinguisher, which is very much recommended for 99 percent of homes, that will work perfectly.

But if it's a grease fire, ABC can work.

But the best thing to do is smother those.

The worst thing you can do with a grease fire is water.

When people put water on the fires, water, once it hits that, it instantly boils and expands 1,700 times its original size.

So you essentially make a small bomb inside of your kitchen and you throw flammable grease balls all over the place.

So, a blanket or -- a fire blanket, fire blanket, specifically, or just putting the lid back on the pot if you're able to do that and wait for it to cool down.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Is there a general rule that you would counsel people to say, OK, a fire has broken out in my house, I myself can deal with this with smothering or with an extinguisher, or when I should just say, this is beyond my pay grade and get out?

JASON PATTON: I would say, for anybody, if at any point in time you think, I don't think I can handle this, call 911, get the family out of the house as fast as possible.

As we said, it spreads so incredibly quickly, even when it comes to dry, dry trees, Christmas trees, if you're ever bored, Google that, you will see how quickly that can explode.

But when it comes to -- or as quickly it can spread.

But when it comes to these kitchen fires or any fire in your house, if at any point in time you think, I can't do this, grab your family, get out.

The average response time for firefighters is four to six minutes.

So we have enough time to be able to get there and hopefully stop that fire from spreading throughout your house, but you are the number one most important thing.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: You often talk about on your channel the fire escape plan.

What is that and why is it important?

How does a family make one?

JASON PATTON: So it's something that you do on a normal day without an emergency.

It's finding a place, teaching your young ones or even your teenagers, whomever it is, how to get out of the house as safely as possible, and try to think up the most scenarios.

I live in a three-story townhome.

If my second floor is on fire, how does my daughter get out of her window?

How do we get escape ladders or whatever it is?

But the most important thing is practicing it, having somewhere outside to meet.

Because, when we show up as firefighters, the first thing we're going to ask, even dispatch is, is there anyone left in the home?

And it's very easy to point at a mailbox or a tree that's outside, and one, two, three, four, everybody is outside.

But practicing it is so important.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: What about all those holiday decorations that are crowded into our house?

Are there any -- beyond those incredibly flammable Christmas trees, which, as you say, if you have seen them on YouTube going up, it's tremendous pyrotechnics.

What about those other things that we have got in our house?

Anything else there we should be worried about?

JASON PATTON: It's really Christmas lights.

That's the big thing.

And, obviously, candles, as long as they aren't next to anything, they're going to be totally fine.

Don't put candles anywhere near anything that can burn.

But it's -- the number one thing when it comes to Christmas lights is, don't overload your extensions.

Don't overload any cords or any plugs that you're plugging into.

They're safe 99 percent of the time.

But when we overload them, we put a lot of additional power or currency run - - or current running through the extensions.

And that's what tends to catch them on fire.

And make sure you don't have blankets or anything laying on top of the cords themselves, which can create additional heat and start fires.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, that is Jason Patton of the wonderful Fire Department Chronicles YouTube channel.

Thank you so much for all this great advice.

JASON PATTON: Thank you.

LISA DESJARDINS: The audience ratings for Netflix's Christmas Day football games peaked during the halftime show.

No coincidence, that show featured a performance by Beyonce, proving her massive audience appeal.

Earlier this year, she became the first Black woman to hit number one on Billboard's country music list with her line dance worthy bop "Texas Hold 'Em."

The song brought a new audience to the genre.

And, as Amna Nawaz explains in a story we first aired earlier this year, it reminded music fans of country music's deep African and African American roots.

AMNA NAWAZ: Like many looking for connection during the pandemic, 47-year-old Marie Moring took her love of dance to TikTok, despite the protests of her daughter, Patience Hall.

MARIE MORING, TikTok Creator: Hopped on TikTok after my daughters told me not to, because it was for the younger generation, but I had to prove them wrong.

AMNA NAWAZ: Mother and daughter soon teamed up online.

Tell me about the typical kind of dances you do.

MARIE MORING: For me, in -- particularly, it's the upbeat, funky, move your body in this rhythmic fashion, old-school kind of '90s hip-hop.

AMNA NAWAZ: But, last week, the duo stepped into a new genre, a country song, courtesy of Beyonce.

MARIE MORING: I said, oh, we're doing country now, Beyonce?

(LAUGHTER) AMNA NAWAZ: The song, "Texas Hold 'Em," is one of two new country singles she released off her upcoming album.

MARIE MORING: Why not country?

I started thinking about my mother and my grandmother and my great-grandmother, who are all in Texas, who gave me an upbringing of summers in the country.

PATIENCE HALL, TikTok Creator: Just to hear that cowgirl attitude, it really made me want to jump into it too.

AMNA NAWAZ: Can I tell you my favorite part of your dance?

MARIE MORING: What's that?

AMNA NAWAZ: The finger pistols.

MARIE MORING: Hey.

JASMINE JENNINGS, TikTok Creator: I don't know how you dance the country music.

So I just made it my own, like a lot of people are, and had fun with it.

AMNA NAWAZ: Thirty-year-old Jasmine Jennings is a professional dancer in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

She created her own line dance to "Texas Hold 'em," which now has over 10 million views.

JASMINE JENNINGS: It blew up pretty fast.

I was surprised that a lot of people enjoyed what I did.

So someone asked me to make a less complicated version of that.

So I did, and that one blew up a little bit.

And then someone said, OK, now do a musical theater version, which I have never done musical theater.

So I had to do a little bit of research on that one.

And so it's just kind of growing.

I have seen people belly dancing.

I have seen people river dancing to that song.

It's sparking a lot of creativity and challenging people to move to music that they typically wouldn't.

AMNA NAWAZ: While some Beyonce fans turn to country through her new tracks, longtime country music fan Vinnie "Doc" Coletti was drawn to "Texas Hold 'em"'s opening chords played on his favorite instrument.

VINNIE "DOC" COLETTI, Country Music Fan: I mean, the first thing that stood out to me was the banjo intro.

I recognized what that was right away.

That was definitely like a low-tune fretless banjo.

And I was fascinated, to me, to hear, especially from Beyonce.

AMNA NAWAZ: Coletti shared the songs on a country music subreddit, a message board devoted to the genre that he moderates.

And he says while most of the response was positive, some questioned why Beyonce would step into country and why the songs were getting so much attention.

Would you expect to see some kind of backlash?

I mean, I know country music is famously, especially modernly, overwhelmingly white, largely male.

VINNIE "DOC" COLETTI: There has definitely been a little bit of backlash, which is more gatekeeping than anything.

But there are always people who think that she's intruding on the white space music as a Black woman.

And I have seen a few posts like that.

ALICE RANDALL, Author, "My Black Country: A Journey Through Country Music's Black Past, Present, and Future": Without Black influences, country is folk music.

AMNA NAWAZ: Alice Randall is widely recognized as the first Black woman to co-write a number one country hit.

ALICE RANDALL: Black people have been in country abidingly since the beginning of the genre.

For example, the banjo has a long and complex history, but that history begins in Africa.

The kind of bent note open-throated singing that we hear in country or even the sound of the steel guitar, these sounds have their aesthetic origins in Africa.

AMNA NAWAZ: Randall spent over 40 years as a songwriter in Nashville.

Her new book, "My Black Country," unpacks the erasure of country music's Black roots and the industry's exclusion of Black artists for decades.

Even today, a country music radio station in Oklahoma initially refused to play Beyonce's songs.

ALICE RANDALL: Beyonce has blasted through the intended and not-intended boundaries, the cultural redlining, and she has ascended to a height no other Black woman has ascended to in country.

This is a tribute to her own genius, and it spotlights the genius that came before.

AMNA NAWAZ: A path forged by trailblazers like Charley Pride and DeFord Bailey and, more recently, Darius Rucker, Rissi Palmer, and Brittney Spencer, work that Randall argues allows the music to reach a wider audience, an audience that, thanks to Beyonce, now includes Marie and Patience.

MARIE MORING: We have been digging into country music.

Like, people are sharing more artists.

AMNA NAWAZ: I guess the big question is, does this mean we're going to be seeing more country music dances on your TikTok?

MARIE MORING: Listen, I'm invested.

PATIENCE HALL: Right.

MARIE MORING: We got boots.

PATIENCE HALL: I was just about to say, we went to the Target, and we got our -- we got our country hats.

We got our boots.

We got our attire.

MARIE MORING: Yes.

PATIENCE HALL: So, we're ready for anything.

MARIE MORING: We're ready.

LISA DESJARDINS: As 2024 comes to a close, we take a look back now at some of the year's biggest stories through the images of photojournalists.

We spoke with four photographers who documented the presidential campaign, the protests over the war in Gaza, the Paris Olympics, and much more.

BRANDON BELL, Staff Photographer, Getty Images: This year, when I think about my coverage, I think about the resilience of the human spirit to keep moving in the midst of trial and tribulation.

My name is Brandon Bell.

And I'm a staff photographer for Getty Images based in Austin, Texas.

MARTIN BUREAU, Photo Editor in Chief, Agence France-Presse: My name is Martin Bureau.

I'm the photo editor in chief for Agence France-Presse for France.

EVAN VUCCI, Chief Photographer, Associated Press: My name is Evan Vucci.

I am the chief photographer for the Associated Press in Washington.

GABRIELLA GREGOR SPLAVER, Freelance Photojournalist: My name is Gabriella Gregor Splaver, and I am a freelance photojournalist.

I graduated from Columbia, where I was a student photojournalist for The Columbia Daily Spectator.

Shortly after October 7, there were immediately protests on our campus.

Literally, it was wake up, go cover the encampment as long as I can, go back home, go to sleep, and do it again.

We were able to, like, navigate certain parts of the encampment and cover things in ways that I think a lot of the outside press were there couldn't.

And that moment, I was like, OK, what can I bring to the table that all of these other experienced photojournalists around me maybe can't?

So, for me, it was, I know this community, and I know the difference between what is happening right now and all these other students that are walking to class or what it was like two weeks ago.

You know, on the one hand, as a photojournalist, you're supposed to be covering these things unbiasedly and what's actually occurring.

But at the same time, as a student of Columbia, I know the person who's sitting in that tent.

I know the person who's in that building.

And I'm surrounded by a lot of my peers.

I really wanted to capture kind of almost a student's perspective of what was unfolding.

EVAN VUCCI: I had a sense when I was having conversations with other journalists and things like, that I was like, man, I think that he might win this.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. President-Elect: Look what happened.

EVAN VUCCI: When the shots rang out, I knew immediately it was going to be one of the biggest things I will ever cover.

And, in that moment, it was my job as a photojournalist to show you the world through my eyes.

People ask me all the time, do you think that image changed anything?

And I push back on it.

I say, people have very real issues that they're voting about.

And people are out there and they're struggling, man.

People are hurt in this country.

And for people to say that one image changed how a particular person would vote, I feel is just way, way too shortsighted and not accurate at all.

I went straight from the assassination attempt in Butler directly to the Republican National Convention.

And then I traveled to the first joint event between Vance and Trump.

From there, I get on the plane and I'm heading back to D.C. And I get a text message that says, hey, President Biden just announced that he's dropping out of the race, and you're the pool photographer in the Oval Office tomorrow.

I will always look at that weeklong stretch of my career as probably being the most difficult and the most challenging thing I have ever been through in this business.

BRANDON BELL: This is the first election cycle that I have done.

I'm more curious about people in the crowd.

How are they responding to this certain candidate?

How are they feeling?

Someone once told me, don't show me what people are doing.

I want you to show me how they're feeling.

A lot of my mentality and focus has been, what does it mean for me as a journalist to put aside my own biases and thoughts at times and just focus on what's before me?

I can humbly look back now and say that my assessment of the outcome was completely wrong.

When I was at Harris events, I mean, they were electric.

At the concession speech, it almost seemed like people had come together to accept the fate, to be together.

Even as a journalist, it was hard being around the weight of emotion and feeling of so many people just in unity kind of have, like, their dreams almost kind of just snuffed right beneath them.

MARTIN BUREAU: I was part of the organizing team of this Olympic Games in Paris 2024.

Those ones were the 10th edition for me.

We had been working harder for more than a year before, especially for the Opening Ceremony.

Usually, we cover a ceremony with a dozen photographers.

For this one, we have 48.

The pressure was high.

We are playing at home, so we couldn't fail.

This whole city was brought in our pictures.

Beach volley, when you have the Eiffel Tower in the background, it's completely different.

To have the equestrian in Versailles with the castle in the backdrop, it's fantastic.

To have the BMX looks like riding on the Obelisk, it's fantastic.

To have the road cycling coming up in Montmartre in front of the Moulin Rouge, it's fantastic.

To have the swimming in the Seine was a real challenge.

I was very happy to see this moment, and it was quite a difficult moment for me, but a nice souvenir.

It was such a nice event to cover with fantastic images that will stay longer.

BRANDON BELL: In covering the border.

It can be very easy, I think, for me and for others to be tempted with trying to photograph in a way that meets the current story.

My job is to show people the reality from all sides of what's happening on the ground and allow them for themselves to look at the emotions, the feelings, look at the truth and decide what's true for them and versus not.

GABRIELLA GREGOR SPLAVER: I, like, always kind of assumed that things that were happening in the world were always completely covered, and because there's so many, not only photographers, but also people with cell phones, that nothing gets missed or lost in between the lines.

But covering this, I think, kind of showed me that that's not always the case.

EVAN VUCCI: Things are so incredibly busy that we haven't had a chance to really exhale and think about the coverage of the last year, because, as photographers, we're still out there doing the job.

We're still out there working every day and planning and getting ready for what is sure to be a really busy year.

LISA DESJARDINS: Finally tonight, the week comes to a close with a furry fugitive still on the loose in New Orleans.

His name is Scrim.

He's a 17-pound white-haired terrier mutt who's repeatedly eluded capture since his first escape in April.

He's become a bit of a folk hero to some in the Crescent City for his dogged desire to remain free.

One of the last times he was seen was in this unverified video from this week, which was posted on Instagram.

Scrim was last captured in October briefly, before leaping out of the second-story window of his shelter home in mid-November.

A Nest doorbell caught that renegade in the act.

He's been on the run ever since.

MICHELLE CHERAMIE, Zeus' Rescues: Pretty good at what I do, but Scrim has proven to be the best that -- I have ever seen, and I would venture to say the best out there as far as escaping capture goes.

LISA DESJARDINS: It was Michelle Cheramie's animal shelter where Scrim was last kept.

She and others have relentlessly pursued the pup.

Some have employed thermal sensors, night-vision, nets and tranquilizers, but Scrim, the Houdini hound, has escaped them at every turn.

In doing so, he's inspired tattoos, merchandise, and even a song for his fighting spirit.

Rescuers are concerned for his safety, though.

And, of course, we hope he's OK too.

Remember, there's a lot more online, including a special holiday edition of "PBS News Weekly."

We revisit some of our favorite pieces from our art and culture series, Canvas, from 2024.

That's on our YouTube page.

And be sure to watch "Washington Week With The Atlantic" tonight on PBS.

Award-winning journalist George Packer joins moderator Jeffrey Goldberg for a special conversation about the future of the American democratic experiment.

And that's the "News Hour" for tonight.

I'm Lisa Desjardins.

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