PBS News Hour

Barely a week after Bashar al-Assad fled the country he destroyed, Syrians welcomed the first Friday prayers. There are many unanswered questions about this new Syria, but one thing is for certain, there is unfettered jubilation. Special correspondent Leila Molana-Allen reports from Aleppo.

She has painted portraits of Michelle Obama and Breonna Taylor. But much of Amy Sherald’s work is about filling in absent images of everyday Americans. Senior arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown talks with the artist and takes us to the first major exhibition covering her career for our arts and culture series, CANVAS.

Turkey announced it would reopen its embassy in Damascus after closing it 12 years ago as Bashar al-Assad began the murderous campaign against his own people. Turkey and Syria's other neighbors could play a critical role in rebuilding the country. Amna Nawaz discussed more with Ambassador James Jeffrey. He served during the Trump administration as a special representative for Syria engagement.

New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus join Amna Nawaz to discuss the week in politics, including FBI Director Christopher Wray’s announcement that he will be stepping down, what to expect from the FBI under Kash Patel and what Trump voters are expecting from his second term.

The murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has revealed a simmering anger with the American healthcare system in the spotlight. William Brangham discussed more with Wendell Potter. He spent decades working for the health insurance company, Cigna, before leaving and dedicating his career to reform.

In our news wrap Friday, consulting firm McKinsey and Company will pay $650 million to settle a federal investigation into its work for the opioids maker Purdue Pharma, the state of Texas has sued a doctor in New York for mailing abortion pills to a patient in the Dallas area and Russia launched a barrage today of 200 drones and nearly 100 cruise and ballistic missiles all across Ukraine.

New data from the CDC shows a drop in drug overdose deaths, down nearly 17 percent compared year-over-year. The annual death toll dropped from approximately 113,000 to just over 94,000. It’s a rare bit of good news after decades of rising fatalities. Overdose deaths have nearly quadrupled since 2002 and spiked to record highs during the pandemic. Amna Nawaz discussed more with Brian Mann of NPR.

Longtime court sketch artist Bill Hennessy, who captured history with his sketchbook for more than 40 years died on Monday at the age of 67. Hennessy took us where cameras could not. He offered the first draft of high-profile legal moments, from the Clinton impeachment, trials at Guantanamo Bay and arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Assad legacy is one of horror with hundreds of thousands dead and millions displaced or in exile. Perhaps nothing illustrates the depths of the depravity more than the archipelago of prisons and torture centers where tens of thousands were killed by the regime. Special correspondent Leila Molana-Allen takes us inside some of these now-liberated facilities as Syrians search for answers.

President Biden announced he's commuting the prison sentences of some 1,500 people and issuing pardons to 39 others convicted of nonviolent crimes. That marks the largest number of commutations by a president in a single day. Lisa Desjardins discussed more with Mark Osler, a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis and an expert on presidential clemency.

President-elect Trump said he is willing to enlist the military to deport migrants and is open to new detention camps to facilitate those deportations. The comments are the latest on his key campaign pledge, mounting the largest deportation operation in American history. Stephanie Sy reports from Colorado, a state that found itself at the center of the immigration debate during the campaign.

Longtime court sketch artist Bill Hennessy Jr. dies