January 10, 2025 - PBS News Hour full episode

On Monday, President Biden will give a farewell speech at the State Department focused on his foreign policy legacy. Ahead of that address, Nick Schifrin sat down with one of the key architects of Biden's foreign policy, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, to discuss his time in the administration and the incoming Trump administration's unconventional foreign policy tactics.

In a matter of days, one of the most popular social media apps in the country could pull the plug if the Supreme Court doesn’t grant it a legal reprieve. Concerns about TikTok's Chinese ownership led Congress to pass a law that would ban it in the United States unless its parent company sells it. John Yang discussed more with PBS News Supreme Court analyst Marcia Coyle and NPR's Bobby Allyn.

President-elect Donald Trump was sentenced in New York, months after a jury found him guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business documents to cover up an extramarital affair. The judge granted Trump an unconditional discharge, a sentence that affirms he’s a convicted felon, but one where he will face no further penalties, fines or any time in jail. William Brangham reports.

In our news wrap Friday, Venezuelan President Maduro was sworn in for a third term following a disputed election, the White House extended protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans and El Salvadorans living in the U.S., the Israeli military struck targets in Yemen after Houthis launched drones at Israel and the Biden administration announced sanctions against Russia's energy sector.

Prolonged drought and powerful Santa Ana winds set up extreme conditions that have fueled the devastating wildfires in the Los Angeles area. Those conditions were compounded by climate change. According to NOAA and NASA, the ten warmest years on record have all occurred in the past decade. Geoff Bennett and Daniel Schmidt of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies discussed the implications.

Firefighters are making some progress in the battle against a series of catastrophic wildfires in the Los Angeles area. More than 10,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed and at least 10 people have been killed. There's still danger ahead as winds are expected to pick up once again this weekend. Stephanie Sy reports.

New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post associate editor Jonathan Capehart join Geoff Bennett to discuss the week in politics, including President-elect Trump's sentencing in New York, Trump's comments about claiming Greenland and the Panama Canal and the state funeral for President Carter.