December 16, 2024 - PBS News Hour full episode

Yuma County, Arizona, is known as the "Winter Salad Bowl Capital." From lettuce to cilantro to broccoli, the region produces almost all the leafy green vegetables consumed in the U.S. during winter months. Farmers there rely on the nearby Colorado River and as the West contends with drought and a changing climate, they've had to adapt. Stephanie Sy reports.

During a press conference Monday, President-elect Trump discussed how CEOs and business leaders from Wall Street to Silicon Valley are rushing to meet with him and build personal relationships in the weeks before his inauguration. Trump took note of just how different a tone it has been compared to 2016. To break down why, Geoff Bennett spoke with Brian Schwartz of The Wall Street Journal.

President-elect Trump settled a defamation lawsuit with ABC News for $15 million. That suit followed a segment in which George Stephanopolous inaccurately said Trump had been found liable for raping writer E. Jean Carrol when in fact, he had been found liable in a civil case for sexual abuse. Amna Nawaz discussed more with New York Times reporter David Enrich.

For the first time since he fled the country he ruled with an iron fist and a willingness to kill his own people to hold power, Bashar al-Assad was heard from. In a statement from exile in Moscow, Assad claimed he did not want to leave Syria but was evacuated by Russia after he left Damascus for his family's heartland near the coast. Special correspondent Leila Molana-Allen reports from Latakia.

In 2011, as the Arab Spring took hold across the Middle East, the seeds of Syria's revolution were sown by students and young people in the city of Daraa. Special correspondent Simona Foltyn reports on how the city that fostered the uprising is celebrating the deposing of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

In our news wrap Monday, officials in the French territory of Mayotte say the worst storm in almost a century has devastated the archipelago, health officials in Gaza say more than 45,000 Palestinians have now been killed since the start of the Israel-Hamas war and Ukrainian and U.S. military officials say some North Korean troops were killed or wounded while fighting alongside Russian forces.

Two people were killed and six others injured at a private school in Madison, Wisconsin, on Monday. The suspected shooter, also found dead at the scene, was identified by officials as a 17-year-old female student at the school. Authorities are now investigating her motive as another American community is reeling from mass gun violence. Amna Nawaz reports.

NPR’s Tamara Keith and Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter join Geoff Bennett to discuss the latest political news, including President-elect Trump's Cabinet picks meeting with senators on Capitol Hill, how Trump's team is preparing for his “Day 1” agenda and what the public is expecting from his second term.