PBS News Hour

Newly-elected House members won’t take their seats until January but they are on Capitol Hill this week for congressional orientation. Republican Congressman-elect Rob Bresnahan is among them. He flipped his district in the northeast corner of Pennsylvania from blue to red. Bresnahan joined Geoff Bennett to discuss more.

When Centurion was founded, it was the first group of its kind working to overturn wrongful convictions for people facing execution or life. Decades later, the work continues and its story is being told by its founder and novelist John Grisham. Jeffrey Brown reports for our series, Art in Action, exploring the intersection of art and democracy and for our arts and culture coverage, CANVAS.

As President-elect Trump’s team is taking shape, we’re learning more about who will take the lead on energy, climate and the environment. The first announcement on that front is Lee Zeldin, a former GOP congressman who will head the Environmental Protection Agency. Trump has called climate change a “scam” and says addressing it hurts business. William Brangham discussed more with Coral Davenport.

A second Donald Trump administration is taking shape, one new appointee at a time. Tuesday, the president-elect tapped more of his closest allies to fill some of the government’s top posts. Among them is Sen. Marco Rubio, putting Trump’s one-time foe on track to becoming the first Latino to serve as the nation’s top diplomat. Laura Barrón-López reports.

President Biden met Israeli President Isaac Herzog in the Oval Office and reaffirmed his administration’s 'ironclad’ commitment to Israel. The Israeli government says Hamas is still holding 101 hostages in Gaza and Herzog said the war would continue until the hostages return home. Nick Schifrin discussed more with Dalia Cusnir, the sister-in-law of two hostages.

The 119th Congress will have several members whose elections made history. One of them is Representative-elect Sarah McBride, a state senator who won Delaware’s at-large seat in the House. She will become the first openly transgender member of the United States Congress. McBride joined Amna Nawaz to discuss more.

In cities and towns across the country, the nation’s oldest veterans group, Veterans of Foreign Wars, provides spaces for war veterans to connect and socialize. But as their numbers dwindle, the VFW seeks to expand its ranks by looking to a new generation. Stephanie Sy reports.

An independent famine review committee affiliated with the United Nations declared that across northern Gaza, starvation, malnutrition and excess mortality, are “rapidly increasing” and “famine thresholds may have already been crossed or else will be in the near future.” Nick Schifrin discussed more with Jan Egeland, a longtime diplomat and humanitarian who recently traveled to Gaza.

President-elect Trump is quickly picking the people he wants to advise him when he enters the White House again, including who he has chosen to lead his campaign promise of mass deportation. Trump announced Tom Homan will be his “border czar” and Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner, is expected to be his deputy chief of staff for policy. White House Correspondent Laura Barrón-López reports.

An Idaho state court will hear arguments in a case brought by four women who allege they were denied emergency care because of the state’s abortion laws, which are some of the most restrictive in the nation. The women argue the law's medical exceptions are too narrow to protect the health of pregnant patients. Amna Nawaz discussed more with Jennifer Adkins and Marc Hearron.

In our news wrap Monday, crews are battling blazes on both coasts as brush fires have broken out around New Jersey fueled by bone-dry conditions, larger wildfires rage in California though crews are making progress, Zelenskyy says Ukrainian forces are holding back enemy troops in Russia's Kursk region and Haiti's international airport shut down after gangs opened fire at a flight trying to land.

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 analysis of Democrats' losses in last week's election and the new Trump team taking shape.