PBS News Hour

December 8, 2024 - PBS News Weekend full episode

Sunday on PBS News Weekend, a lightning offensive by Syrian rebels ends a half-century of iron rule by the Assad regime. Then, a documentary details how governments use commercial spyware to monitor their own citizens. Plus, a StoryCorps tale of small gestures that mean a great deal in two lives.

A student and teacher connect over small acts of kindness

2m 58s

In 1958, when John Cruitt’s mother died, his third-grade teacher made a small gesture of kindness that meant a great deal to him. In this animated feature from our partners at StoryCorps, he sat down with Cecile Doyle decades later to tell her how that gesture changed his life — and in the process made a difference in her life as well.

Previews + Extras

  • How governments use spyware to monitor citizens’ phones: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    How governments use spyware to monitor citizens’ phones

    S2024 E344 - 7m 16s

    This past week, the White House detailed the scope of a massive Chinese hacking campaign that reaped information from American cell phone networks. But an HBO original documentary, “Surveilled,” says some governments use commercial spyware to monitor their own citizens. To learn more, John Yang speaks with Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Ronan Farrow, who produced the documentary.

  • Half-century of iron rule ends as rebels seize Syria: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Half-century of iron rule ends as rebels seize Syria

    S2024 E344 - 8m 24s

    For more than half a century, Syria had been ruled with an iron fist by the Assad regime. It all came to an end this weekend with lightning speed, as rebels took control of the capital city of Damascus, and with it, the country. What lies ahead now for Syria and the Middle East is an open question. Hassan Hassan, founder and editor in chief of New Lines magazine, joins John Yang to discuss.

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