PBS News Hour - Full Show - December 25, 2025 - PBS News Hour full episode

Episode Date: December 26, 2025

Thursday on the News Hour, torrential rains inundate California, causing destructive floods and mudslides. Author Irin Carmon joins the News Hour's podcast to talk about her new book on how women are navigating post-Roe America. Plus, as children open presents from that special visitor from the North Pole, we look at how Santa Claus has evolved over the centuries. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Good evening. I'm William Brangham. Jeff Bennett and Omnavaz are away. On the news hour tonight, torrential rains inundate California, causing destructive floods and mudslides. Author Earin Carmon on how her new book on how women are navigating post-Roe America. And as children open gifts from the North Pole, we look at how Santa Claus has evolved over the centuries. St. Nicholas is this embodiment of generosity, of unmerited favor, to which you add a fantasy, a midnight gift-bringer from someplace enormously exotic. Welcome to the News Hour. A powerful storm battered California, triggering much. Floodslides, severe flooding, and multiple evacuations. At least three people were killed, including a sheriff's deputy.

It's a record-setting Christmas Day for rain in the Golden State, and more is coming tomorrow. Officials are warning travelers to reconsider holiday travel plans as dangerous conditions may only get worse. As floodwaters engulf a home in San Bernardino County, a rescue helicopter lands to evacuate the family that stranded up on the roof. Tim Needham filmed this incredible scene. We saw there were a bunch of emergency lights down at the end of the road, and we walked as far as we could without getting swept up in the water, and saw that there were people that my neighbors were on top of their roof,

three people on top of the roof, just sitting there and waiting. Similar scenes played out across Southern California today and yesterday. Roads turning treacherous with mud and debris forcing the shutdown, of major highways. On hillsides badly burned by the massive fires earlier this year, a deluge like this can loosen the soil even faster, making conditions even more dangerous. In the canyon areas here, we have very steep terrain, and we have the creek here behind us.

So the burn scar, it doesn't give water the chance to saturate into the ground. Northern parts of the state were also slammed with heavy rains and wind that triggered mudslides in multiple communities. And in the mountains, huge amounts of snow blanketing the Sierra Nevada's. In Wrightwood, a ski resort town in the San Bernardino Mountains, officials issued a shelter-in-place warning for residents who didn't evacuate and now must watch as muddy waters course through their town. There's a little low bridge there.

That's the one that's completely covered, had a car in it, and that's gone now. This colossal downpour, triggered by a storm known as an atmosphere. Spiric River also knocked out power earlier today for nearly 150,000 people. These conditions prompted California governor, Democrat Gavin Newsom, to declare a state of emergency in multiple counties with the National Guard on standby. As this humid subtropical air from California blows across the country, much of the U.S. was unseasonably warm on this holiday, with temperatures in some parts of the Midwest and south, 15 to 30 degrees warmer than normal, making Christmas for millions feel more like spring.

In the day's other headlines, Ukraine's president Volodomir Zelensky said he had a very good conversation with top U.S. negotiators about ending the war with Russia. Zelensky's call with special envoy Steve Whitkoff and President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, comes days after he said he was open to withdrawing troops and creating a deal. militarized zone in his country's east. It's not clear whether Russia will agree to that proposal, which must also go to Ukrainian voters in a referendum. Turning to the Vatican on this Christmas, Pope Leo, during his first Christmas Day sermon as pontiff, condemned the treatment of Palestinians in Gaza and called for an end to all wars around the world.

Fragile is the flesh of diverse. Fragile is the flesh of divine. defenseless populations, tried by so many wars ongoing or concluded, leaving behind rubble and open wounds. Leo led Mass inside St. Peter's Basilica, and then addressed a rain-soaked crowd from the Lodgea, overlooking the square. He called on leaders to find peace through dialogue, and he offered a variety of blessings. English, Merry Christmas! May the peace of Christ reign in your hearts and your hearts and and in your families.

Unlike his predecessor, Leo, who is the first U.S. Pope, offered Christmas greetings in multiple languages, including in English. Around the world, there were more Christmas celebrations, some full of unique holiday cheer, others coming amid challenge and hardship. Air sirens briefly interrupted the bells and songs of carolers in Ukraine's capital, Kiev,

as a Russian drone flew overhead. The celebration with traditional costumes and Christmas stars went on undeterred. And in Bethlehem, where Christians believed Jesus was born, Christmas Mass and festivities were held for the first time in more than two years since the war in Gaza began. Back here at home, it was also the final Christmas Mass

for Cardinal Timothy Dolan at New York City's St. Patrick's Cathedral. And one very lucky powerball player in Arkansas is having a very Merry Christmas, indeed, having won the $1.8 billion jackpot. Get those tickets out. Let's play that first number up. The Grand Prize win last night ended a nearly four-month streak without one. All that time without a winner drove the jackpot to near record levels.

This was the second largest U.S. lottery jackpot ever. If the winner opts for the one-time lump sum cash payout, that would earn them before taxes about $835 million. Still to come on the news hour, a new generation of smaller plug-in solar panels grows in popularity in the U.S. A new fellowship honors the work of aging, lifetime jazz musicians with financial support. Photographers Derek and Beverly Joubert described their 40 years. of capturing dazzling images of wildlife in Africa. This is the PBS News Hour from the David M. Rubenstein studio at WETA in Washington, headquarters of PBS News.

We turn now to our video podcast, Settle In. Amna Nawaz recently spoke with Irin Carmon, the journalist behind the book The Notorious RBG, as well as a new book about pregnancy called Unbearable. It tells the stories of five women in New York and Alabama as they navigate a new post-row landscape. Here's an excerpt of that conversation. The women in my book, most of them,

some of them are pregnant more than once throughout the course of the book. Most of them actually are not looking to end their pregnancies. They want to keep their pregnancies. They want to raise their children. But as I report on in the book and as I tell their stories, which unspole over the course of before, during, and after pregnancy, the way that American medicine and law has been set up has profoundly limited and harmed and cruelly treated

too many people who find themselves in these situations, whether that's needing miscarriage care, whether that's having respectful and safe birth care, or whether that's seeking to end of pregnancy. The fascinating thing about the stories as you share them is that even when you expect things to unfold in a certain way, because of someone's socioeconomic status or because of where they live, some of these same things and same challenges and same treatments ring true even there. And I'm going to unpack all of that. I want to talk to you about some of those silos you mentioned there too. But I have to put to you this one line when you were talking about why you wanted to write this book in the very first few pages because this stuck with me.

You said what's clear to me from my years of reporting and my own experiences is how incomplete our story of American reproduction has been and how much has been unexpressed, hidden, or taken for granted. The incomplete part stuck with me. What did you mean by that? Well, first of all, we can't have too many stories about what this profoundly life-changing experience can do. I think for me, when I, the real inspiration for writing this book, the actual moment, even though in some ways I was leading up to it in my entire career of reporting, was being pregnant. I was six months pregnant for the second time when Roe v. Wade was overturned with the Dobbs decision, and I was eight months pregnant when the decision was finalized. And for me, one of the stories that I wanted to tell, I was covering the decision as a reporter in New York Magazine. I was writing about all the implications for policy and for law and the dynamics of the

decision and the holding. But I was also feeling in my bones what it would mean for this profound change in American law and life, how it would actually affect people. And I did not need an abortion. I did not seek an abortion. I was really excited to be pregnant. But I also found myself thinking, why hasn't anybody talked about how, what an enormous physical and grave undertaking pregnancy can be in the context of even when you want to

and what it might mean to force this on someone. I don't think nobody talked about it, but for me it was something that I felt in my bones. I felt it in my blood. I could feel like in the extra heart that was beating inside of me, that there was a profound erasure from that opinion in particular and from the way Alito wrote about it of the seriousness of pregnancy, regardless of the circumstances you find yourself in. One of the parts that I thought was incomplete and inexpressed is that you might think of yourself, unexpressed, is that you might think of yourself as never needing this kind of care, right?

And there are women in the book who are right about who never thought they would be in this situation. Right. And find themselves seeking a kind of care that is stigmatized, that is illegal, that is secret, or that they will be punished for one way or another. And so it felt like the best way to tell that story was, to, I started a little bit by weaving in my own personal story, even though in many ways it's not an extraordinary one. But I think the very fact that for me as a married, white, upper middle class, privileged woman who literally reports on this for a living, the feelings that I

had of being made to feel smaller or less than a fully adult human and control of my own decisions during my pregnancy were so instructive for me because I thought, like, what, what chance does anybody who doesn't have all of this going for them have in the system that says at the moment you become pregnant, you have fewer constitutional rights, you have fewer rights of autonomy in medicine, you will be treated like, to quote one of the women in my book, a child animal. And that's not to diminish the fact that my pregnancies and many other people's pregnancies were deeply joyful and I was excited about them. But that's not a reason to diminish the individual pregnant person's humanity.

for that full conversation and more episodes check out our video podcast settle in or on youtube or wherever you get your podcasts for years solar power at home was mostly limited to people who own their rooftops and could afford the upfront cost of putting panels up there but that's changing as a new generation of small plug-in systems are making clean energy more accessible our report which first aired on PBS News Weekend comes from Laura Kaivans, a PBS station KQED in San Francisco. Agnes Chan is a retired teacher in Berkeley, California. She wanted to install solar panels on her home, but was limited by her fixed income budget. I've looked for a long time and even consulted my roofer, but there's no way that I can afford that. So she found a cheaper workaround and is one of the newest adopters of plug-in solar.

She hopes to rein in bills that run into the hundreds, even with a thermostat set to 60. It's a great house that I have lived in for over 35 years, but there's no way to insulate it. So I'm shivering in my own house. Instead of tens of thousands of dollars for rooftop solar, Chan's setup costs $400 and took less than an hour to install. This is the app which will show me how much the panel is generating. And rather than taking a decade or so to pay it back, it will likely take her two to three years. We are systematically removing the barriers. Cora Striker co-leads the nonprofit

that provided Chan with her panels. They bring plug-in solar to renters, people in multifamily housing, and other Americans shut out of rooftop systems. These things are modular. They're tiny. You can put them just about anywhere. You can add on as time goes on. So it's less big upfront investment all at once. Introducing Gizmo Powers, patented mobile electricity... From plug-in carports to balconies, entrepreneurs are investing in this emerging market. Now that you've seen the possibilities for installations in various scenarios...

But there's a major hurdle to widespread adoption. In most of the U.S., it's not legal to just set up these systems and plug them in as envisioned. Our next topic on the agenda, so-called plug-in solar. At a recent online forum hosted by California's utility regular, Eamann Hoffman, who works for the state's largest utility, PG&E, said customers must comply with regulations and pay fees as if they were setting up a rooftop system. Utilities say that helps them manage energy supply and demand. But plug-in solar advocates say their systems should have a simpler registration process.

This is the world headquarters of Brooks Engineering. We asked an independent expert to weigh in. So these panels were from early 1980s. Bill Brooks is an electrical engineer who, specialized in solar for 37 years. He helped write California's code that governs how solar connects to the grid. There's 78 solar panels. I call it my solar garden. He says there are risks to plug in solar.

If the product didn't have the proper certifications, then there would be the possibility that somebody could energize a down power line that could injure a lineman. But Brooks says the barriers can be overcome by updating existing tools. This is a microinverter used in things like plug-in solar and it has a certification and we have the National Electrical Code. When these safeguards are in place, Brooks doesn't see a need for a lengthy or costly registration. And he says independent organizations are working on a safety standard for the technology. We drop ship this to our customers.

But plug-in solar companies and their customers aren't waiting for regulators. Here's the instructions. Bay Area resident Joe Tenenbaum considered rooftop solar when his electricity bills started rising. A good amount of sun, even from the morning on, and then it's going to move. But it would require replacing the roof, too, and costs quickly ballooned. And we don't own this house. This is my parents' home. My wife and kids and I moved in with them when my mom got sick. It's not feasible for them to make $100,000 investment in a rooftop system, and it isn't either for us. I'm excited about that. Tenenbaum liked the idea that they'd be able to take their panels with them if they moved.

Wow. I feel how light that is. For $1,600, he bought an 800-watt DIY kit from Craftstrom. All right. Should we build it? He liked how they built safety measures into their technology. The company also advises customers to register their systems. The panels won't power the whole house, but will keep Tenenbaum's refrigerator humming and small appliances charged. He expects to save 5 to 10% on his monthly utility bill. We can grow with your energy.

Grassstrom co-founders and brothers Michael and Stephen Scherer say demand for plug-in solar is growing. Especially here in California, people are telling us about the time of use rates that double as they come home and actually use power. And then the second motivation is becoming part of the Green Revolution. House Bill 340. Legislators across the country are taking note. We know they're safe just because they've been doing this for three or four years now, and it's worked out well in Europe. Earlier this year, Utah passed the first legislation nationwide that will allow plug-in solar, with no registration, when certain safety standards and codes are set. Similar legislation is in the works in several other states, including New York, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Vermont.

My panel is producing 645 watts per hour. As for Agnes Chan in California, she's hoping to stay warmer this winter. I expect to be comfortable instead of shivering in my own house, wearing a down jacket and a blanket to watch TV. Even if everyone in the U.S. had these panels. Plug-in solar could only cover a slice of national energy demand. But experts say every bit of renewable energy counts. Big moment here. I'm very excited about this new system.

Just unboxing it felt like opening up a gift. We have solar. That's all there is to it. For PBS News Weekend, I'm Laura Clivens in Northern California. from the North Pole, okay? This Christmas Day, many good boys and girls welcomed that familiar visitor last night, the jolly man in the red suit with a sleigh full of gifts.

But that white-bearded figure that we all recognize as Santa Claus, he is a relatively modern creation shaped over centuries. Stephanie Syr recently talked with an author who unwraps the surprising history of Old St. Nick. That author is Jerry Boller, and his book, Santa Claus, a biography. traces how the legend of our favorite bearded gift giver evolved over centuries. Jerry, it's such a pleasure to have you on the news hour. So I want to hop right into it.

Is Santa Claus, and I quote from the book, a figure of mythology or a creature of literature or a tool of a clever capitalist? He is a wonderful myth about 1,700 years old, American in renovation and largely a conspiracy by families. So it changes over time. St. Nicholas was an actual 4th century bishop. What was he most known for? At the time of his life, he was known for generosity. But when he died, a cult grew up around him inside Christianity that made him the most influential, popular male saint on the Christian calendar. He was the patron saint of so many things, but probably his most famous miracle in the Middle Ages was his resurrection of three murdered boys who had been chopped up and put in a pickle barrel. He discovered this and put them all together again.

So he becomes the patron saint of children, and thus around maybe the 12th century, he was someone who parents and the church said came on December 6th to bring presents for good little girls and boys to leave something in their shoe. So, Jerry, it sounds like there's this darker side of the Santa Claus legend to talk about here that a lot of people are unaware of. Well, in the 1500s, when Protestants abolished the cult of saints, parents had to have some kind of magical gift bringer. They still wanted that aspect. In many places, they turned to the Christ child. In French, you call it Le Petit Jesu, in German, it be Das Christkindle. The Christ Child is certainly a great Christian symbol, but he lacked two things that St. Nicholas had had. One, the baby is obviously not going to carry a big sack. And two, he's not scary.

And St. Nicholas could scare kids into good behavior. So what happened in Germany and in Northern Europe was that the Christ Child started becoming accompanied by scary helpers. They carried a whip or switches or a chain. In Austria, of course, we have Crampus, which looks exactly like the devil. So he's one of those scary helpers. So this goes back to your first answer, which is there was this conspiracy of families. Are they basically at the root of the Santa Claus that we know today? Well, a number of New York poets and thinkers and rich landowners wanted to make St. Nicholas the bearer of good things

and also a bit of a threat to bad kids. The first poem that takes St. Nicholas out of his Catholic bishop's uniform and puts him in a fur-trimmed red robe is called a children's friend in the 1820s. It's a poem that describes this Christmas Eve Midnight Gift-Bringer who comes equipped with a reindeer-powered sleigh. The next year, Clement Clark Moore, takes that sleigh, multiplies the reindeer, and writes a poem for his family. And the poem you're referring to there is Twas the Night Before Christmas. A Visit from St. Nicholas. And it goes viral, as it were. It's adopted by families first in the northeastern United States, then it spreads to Canada and throughout the rest of America.

So in other words, there's sort of this amalgamation of traditions that are folded in and layered on. That's the nature of Christmas. Christmas is very adaptive. By 1900, Santa is pretty much. much set though except with the addition of Rudolph in 1939 and despite all kinds of efforts by Hollywood and commerce to make him in their image he's remained pretty stable since then why do you think the legend of Santa Claus has endured for centuries? Because it is so valuable to families. St. Nicholas is this embodiment of

generosity of unmerited favor, to which you add a fantasy, a midnight gift bringer from someplace enormously exotic, powered by reindeer for crying out loud. It serves to give kids an idea of fantasy, of generosity. So as long as families continue to love Santa Claus, it doesn't matter what Wall Street or any particular denomination happens to be for or against him. That is Jerry Bowler, the author of Santa Claus, a biography. Thank you so much for joining us. Happy holidays. My pleasure and Merry Christmas.

Unless you're a real jazz aficionado, you might only know a handful of the greats. Louis Armstrong or Duke Gellington, Coltrane, or Miles. But there is a legion of players who've worked their entire lives playing this music, many of them doing so with very little fanfare. While they've earned the respect and gratitude of their peers, many have struggled to earn a living. A new fellowship honors them and helps lend support in their later years. Jeffrey Brown reprises this story for our arts and culture series, Canvas.

So here it is. At 68 years young, New Orleans born and raised jazz drummer, Herlin Riley is ready to bring a smile with his tambourine. Back a band on stage. From childhood to today, practicing, performing, teaching. He's worked hard to make a life in jazz, including playing with the likes of giants such as Winton Marsalis and Ahmad Jamal. It takes commitment. It takes commitment and also to be, to recognize where you stand of the people who are around you, your peers.

Am I good enough that I can make a living? Am I good enough to be accepted? Am I good enough that I can, I'll be getting the phone calls to make a living? Because you don't always know. You don't always know. But I tell my students all the time that if you go into music for any other thing other than the passion and the love of it, you should do something else. At a recent concert at New York City Winery, Riley performed as part of the inaugural class

of the Jazz Legacy's Fellowship, 20 musicians, all 62 and older. The fellowship comes with $100,000 to use as the musicians want. For creative projects they always hope to take on, or for housing, medical, and other personal needs. The four-year program is funded by the Mellon Foundation, with the record also an underwriter of PBS News in partnership with the Jazz Foundation of America. And honors seasoned jazz musicians who may not have achieved huge popular success, but have continued to work and contribute to the art form they love.

Another Jazz Legacy's fellow, 90-year-old pianist Valerie Capers. Ninety-year-old, that's ridiculous. It's ridiculous, but you're still doing all these things. So you're not stopping anything. Oh no. Still at it, but remembering well the early days. My challenges in jazz are to, as you say, to move into it and to be able to maintain myself for this, well, you're right, quite a period of time. Nine since age six, Capers studied classical music at the New York Institute. for the education of the blind.

But she also fell in love with jazz. Her father was a friend of Fats Waller. And she recalls having to hide her new passion from her piano teacher. She had no use for dealing with anything that would be jazz or that would be anything like that. Anything but classical. That's right.

None whatsoever. He presented up taking Saturday classes at Juilliard to get her jazz fill. It was exciting just to be around who were playing this music that I just loved and enjoyed so much. The music brought smiles and laughter and energy when you would play the music. They would just enjoy it.

Capers went on to a long career, including leading a trio, playing with the likes of Gizzi Gillespie and decades of teaching. Another veteran pianist and newly minted fellow, 80-year-old George Pables. George Cables. The native New Yorker grew up seeing Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, and John Coltrane, and was hooked. Hearing the music is one thing.

Seeing it and being there while it's being made and watching an iconic figure like Thelonious Monk is something else. Through the years, Cables has played with jazz legends, including Sonny Rollins and Dexter Gordon. But his career hasn't been without obstacles, not only keeping up a working routine, but dealing with serious health problems,

including a liver kidney transplant and the amputation of a leg. They were there, things that I had to go through in order to do the things that I want to do. This kind of thing, and the music is a wonderful thing to be involved with this music, with jazz, especially because it's a living music. It's always changing.

But, you know, the business is kind of difficult, So it's good to know that there may be fewer things to worry about or to be as concerned about as I may have been. I feel like the music industry can be a bit agist. We've heard time and time again important jazz musicians who shifted the sound, who passed away, poor, struggling, had to do a go-fund me, you know, to put them to rest in a proper way, and that always breaks my heart.

Melanie Charles is a jazz singer, flutist composer, and producer. At 37, she's a generation or two younger than the 20 fellows. But she says she was honored to be on the selection committee of professional musicians and scholars that picked the first group. You will have cult following. You'll go to Russia and people will know all your albums. But you're going to go home and you just might struggle financially. You might not be able to pay your rent or your mortgage.

Or you might have an album that you want to finish. that you want to finish, your life's work, that you've never been able to have the budget to make it happen. A protege of 87-year-old jazz bassist Reggie Workman, who was her teacher in college and one of the 20 musicians selected. Charles says a common thread among the fellows is their commitment to the next generations. A lot of the jazz masters, you find that in the career, they're always hiring younger musicians. Why is that? Because they understand that that fresh sound is so important to pushing the music for. forward and it keeps them bright and fresh. In fact, several of the band members playing with Valerie Capers at this performance were

musicians she's taught. Oh, I get tremendous satisfaction because it's, it's almost like parenthood in a sense, because you are passing on to, uh, to others that are close to you who have spent time with you. George Cable says this fellowship has energized him. He's writing your music, collecting and organizing older works into one volume. So you're 80 years old, you're still writing music, and you're still performing music. That's what I do. That's my life, and that actually, that gives me breath.

That gives me life, that gives me energy. That makes life worthwhile and meaningful. For drummer and tambourine man, Hurlin Riley, who, too, intends to play on. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thanks for the PBS News Hour. I'm Jeffrey Brown in New York. For more than 40 years, Beverly and Derek Joubert have lived with, photographed, and filmed African wildlife.

Their work documents not just the majesty of the African continent, but also the host of threats, often man-made, confronting the animals and the wilderness. Their new book is Wild Eye, A Life in Photographs. In a story that aired first on PBS News Weekend, John Yang spoke with the story. the Joubert, photographer and conservationist Beverly and filmmaker Derek. He asked them why they chose to publish a retrospective now. It's really important to be able to look back and see what life was for us then and for, you know, all the animals and where we are today. And of course we are losing at an alarming rate, everything from the cats to elephants and landscape. So we thought if we could bring a piece together that truly is celebrating these

animals and hope that everybody will want to try and protect them. I think that's true, you know, I think that it's a time now for us to all reflect on what was and then determine what's going to be. What are the threats that you see? Well, we've seen quite a lot of poaching threat. We've seen overhunting in a lot of places. It seems like Africa more and more has becoming this forgotten place that people are so involved in their lives in the rest of the world that the future of wildlife is off the agenda how did you decide how did you pick which images went into the book that was a challenge I can tell you going through 40 years of photography the image really needed to tell a story some of the images are a little harder

to look at but they are telling a powerful story and and so that's how how we selected. Not every image will go on a wall, but they're important to be able to tell the story of Africa's wildlife. I also think that some of the storytelling that was chosen through these images, spoke more about moments before the image was taken

and what's going to happen after the image was taken. So these are not just snapshots in time. These are indicators or reflections of a story that's going on. and so draw the audience of the viewer in. Let's talk a little bit about that by looking at some of the pictures. First, there's a leopard in a bow-about tree.

And in the book, in the caption, you've given this leopard a name. Do you often do that with the animals you photograph? When we're out there, you know, we'll spend two to three years with the animals that we're filming. So, yes, we do if we get to know an animal. This particular leopard, we got to know very well

because it was the mother to a... little leopard that we stayed with for four years. And the little leopard we stayed with for four years is the front cover of the book, Wilde. And I think there are a couple of more functions of actually naming these things. We give them characters, or rather we reveal their characters. If it's just leopard number F-125, there's no characterization there. But these are real personalities, and I think that we do them a disservice by not at least giving them a face shot and winning your heart.

But one of the importance about her up in that Beirab tree is that Beirab tree is more than 2,000 years old. So it's not only about protecting her as one of the cat species, but it's by protecting the land so you can protect everything else, all the biodiversity and the fauna and flora. The next photo is of a lion cub, and it really is sort of almost a star photo. You've got that rainbow perfectly placed behind this cub. Talk about that, about how you get the right image you want. Frame it and also just that, that get it from the right perspective.

It's always a challenge to get the right image. I mean, I take thousands of images that would never be perfect in my eyes or in Derek's eyes. But this particular one line was observing the rest of the pride. And so it meant that we could move around. And as we moved around with our vehicle, we could position the rainbow exactly behind this little one. Of course, there's some tension within this image, because while the rainbow is perfectly positioned for Beverly's lens, it's not positioned perfectly for mine. And so there's dialogue in the vehicle as, can you go forward about two feet? I'm going, no, why would I do that?

You're a filmmaker, Derek, just exactly. And so we've always got to, you know, weigh that up and balance that and our lives. Then the next photo is of lions and trees. And you say it's unusual to find lions and trees. It is. Some areas the lions have started adapting and going up trees. But the problem is they're not like a leopard. They can't go straight up a tree trunk.

They can't lock their ankles like a leopard can. So it's a challenge for them. So this was a beautiful reclining tree, so it was easy for them to get up. I've heard both of you say that you're big cat people. Talk about that. Well, Beverly has a wild side to her. No, when we came out of university, our very first assignment out there, even though we were researchers then, was studying lions.

And so that got into our DNA. and we studied lions for 35 years. Somewhere along the line, we found cameras and we started photographing and filming them as well. And we just keep coming back because that's where we feel most in balance, I guess. Yeah, and, you know, over a 60-year period, they've declined by 95% and that's all the big cats.

And so leopards have this beautiful skin and we need to speak out for them because everybody, you know, would like to acquire one of their skins. And with so few left in Africa, we feel like we need to be their ambassadors. And of course, you don't just photograph big cats. You also photograph other animals. We've got these zebras. In the book, you say these zebras are actually going someplace.

These zebras, I mean, it's quite an unusual situation. So when the rains come, they go to one of the harshest places, which is a salt pan, called the Makadi-Kadi-Salt pan. And they're going there because they need minerals. So as the rains come and all the pans fill up, they go there, they spend a couple of months there, they build their bodies with all the minerals, and then they come back.

So they are migrating in that image. And I think an image like this is exactly what I was talking about earlier on, John. It talks about who, so these zebras are in the what, and in what landscape. So there's the stalks of the reeds in their perfect habitat for them because it matches and and speaks to architecturally what a zebra is and then what next? Why would they be wading through the water to go to water? And I think the best photographs end with a question mark. Not just the beauty, but also some of the violence of life in inland Africa.

A photograph of a lion battle with an elephant. and then you also capture the kill. And you said that this kill took days because the elephant is so large. I mean, I find this image difficult to look at, but what was it to watch that, to be there while that was going on? So the first image, that is a female cow,

and that happened at two in the morning. So that is a challenge, you know, on its own. I remember shouting out to Derek here to wake up and start filming and I start, you know, taking the photographs. And she was about 21 years old, nine lines in the Pride, and it was opportunistic. They, we were the first to ever capture lines trying to bring down an elephant. And this particular image was a story of hope for us, because she fought for her life for at least a half an hour.

And she did get away. So these two images together play light and dark. They play hope and desperation and despair. And so the female that Beverly is talking about did actually get up and run off. She had a will to live. And this older bull in this image gave up up. And that was a long grueling couple of days for us to sit and film and photograph through. But the way that we get through that is we fortify ourselves with the knowledge that we didn't play a role in.

we're silent observers within this and this is going on up and down through Africa behind us one way the other we can't intervene we can't interfere we can't change that destiny for these animals but what we can do is use our tools our cameras to bring that to audiences so there's a better understanding of the the facets and nuances of nature otherwise we go down a self-generating sense that that everything out there is Disneyland, and I think it's good for people to know that there's a harsh side to Africa as well. You've been at this 40 years, hundreds of photographs in this book.

Is there an image you're still chasing, an image you want to capture that you haven't yet? There's always an image I'm still chasing. I don't quite know what it is because I need to be open to, you know, whatever comes our way. But the images definitely need to be preserving and protecting wildlife in Africa. And I think that's the journey, isn't it? It's not necessarily caring about where you're going to end up, but being open to the steps along the journey as they present themselves to you. Yeah.

Derek and Beverly Joubert, thank you very much. Just amazing pictures. Thank you very, very much. Thank you, John. Really appreciate it. At the start of this year, the community of Altadena, California, was among those devastated by wildfire. Gina Clayton Johnson is the founder of Essie Justice Group, and she lost her home and countless family treasures. In this brief but spectacular from earlier this year, she shares her reflections on loss, resilience, and rebuilding.

I was felt like Altadino was my little secret because whenever I would tell anyone where I was from, no one knew where I was talking about. Altadina was a place where traditionally a lot of black folks could go and find that they could buy land because of redlining and other realities. My parents actually bought a home there in the early 1980s. It was a wonderful place to be from. The Altadena Eaton Fire burned down my home, my parents' home, my kids' school, and something like 9,500 structures or more in Altadena. And it's devastating.

The day that the fire started was a really windy day. We got a call from the school around 3 o'clock saying that the power had gone out and to come pick up the kids. At 11 p.m. that night, we drove away. because we decided we wanted to be somewhere with power in the morning. We were not evacuated. We did not receive in a warning, a text message, a call. So we went to our friend's house and then came the news that our house had burned down. I called my aunt and I said, is there any way that we can come stay with you?

She lives in Atlanta. During other hard moments of my life, my first phone call is my parents. But they had just lost their home. They're in their 70s. I have always been curious about who I come from and why I'm where I am. Memory happens because it can attach itself to pictures and to things that we use to tell those stories.

I had my great-grandmother's plates. Her mother's name was Cassie White, and that sharecropping farm where my great-grandmother grew up, That was where Cassie White lived and worked her days. She liked to knit, and this was, like, her art. And I had them hanging with her picture on our wall, and, like, and that's gone. To zoom out and to understand that this is a black community with multiple generations of history, of artifact.

The fact that that's gone is something I'm still processing. My five-year-old daughter said, you know, Mama, I know how to not be sad. If you just think about something else for a little bit, you won't be sad anymore. My son, who, like, is masterful at destroying everything, he said, Mama, I'm going to fix our house. It meant something.

Askiya, my daughter, she wanted for Christmas. She wanted this, like, mermaid castle. So she was fully in love with this thing. You know, she said, oh, my, the mermaid castle is burned. I know what I'll do. Next year, I'm going to ask Santa for another one. It's stuff like that where I'm just like, okay, like, yeah, let's go. We can do this. Well, we'll ask Santa for another one. It's harder in certain ways to do all of this with these little kids, but in other ways it's such a gift, you know, because they're teaching us something. It's burned

And also, there's an end to that sentence that doesn't have to feel, that can feel full of possibility. My name is Gina Clayton Johnson, and this is my brief but spectacular take on putting the pieces back together. You can watch more brief but spectacular videos online at pbs.org slash news hour slash brief. The Rockettes are one of the most iconic dance groups

in the country, and they're celebrating a big, anniversary this year. The news hours Julia Griffin explains. In New York City this time of year, holiday cheer and twinkling lights are easy to spot. But of all that shimmers, perhaps nothing sparkles more than 36 rhinestone rockettes high kicking their way through the Radio City Christmas spectacular. The longest running precision dance company in America, the Rockettes are not only celebrating the holiday season this year, but also 100 years. on stage. Founded in St. Louis in 1925, the troop was originally known as the Missouri Rockets, but by 1933, they'd moved to New York, settled into their Radio City Music Hall home,

and launched the annual Christmas Spectacular, changing their name to the now-famous Rockettes along the way. A mainstay of American entertainment, the Rockettes have performed at presidential inaugurations, Super Bowls, and countless lightings of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree. Today, the company is 84 members strong. 36 dancers grace the stage each show, kicking some 200 times each before the curtain closes. Some members dance with the group for more than a decade. It's just really a magical thing being a racquet.

Radio City Christmas Spectacular Director and choreographer Julie Baranam was a rockette herself for 13 years and knows what it takes to grace the Radio City stage. I think it takes incredible dancing, number one, and a willingness to work harder than you've probably ever worked at any other job in your life. because it's, you have to really want to look like everybody else and put in the time and effort to do the precision work. That precision work, a sharp, synchronized mixture of jazz, tap, and ballet is a style almost unique unto itself,

and one that binds Rockettes past and present in a unique sisterhood. Joining this legacy that's been inspiring audiences for generations is just so special and it's such an honor. Current Rockettes Audrey MacDonald and Courtney Crane grew up in Louisiana together. This is my fifth season, but experiencing it now through her eyes and her first season, it's like really magical for me and special for me. For 11-year veteran Megan Kelly Crocko, a core memory was learning one of the numbers that has been in the show since 1933. When I first learned Pretty of the Wooden Soldiers, 11 years ago, I had, that was my moment of, oh my gosh, I'm a rockhead. So many women have done this number before me, and now I get to do it, and I get to share this with the people I love.

and inspire more generations of future Rockettes out there. And over the years, the Rockettes have shared secrets on how to keep the friendships strong. For the Rocket Hookup, our right hand is high on the woman next to us, and then our left hand is low, and we never touch. That's the last thing you want to be doing is, you know, hitting your neighbor while we're doing these kicks. That's a good way to lose friends.

This year to mark the group Centennial, the Six Avenue Street Sign outside Radio City Music Hall was renamed, Rockettes Way and Once a rocket, always a rocket. More than 500 past and present Rockettes from all 50 states and several countries celebrated the troops' legacy on opening night. Radio City has a unique ability of really

honoring the women that came before us and paying tribute to the past while incorporating all of the modern day things. And we remain today to be the world's most famous dance troupe. And so it's just extraordinary. For PBS News, wishing you, a high-kicking, happy new year. I'm Julia Griffin. Finally tonight, we continue our tradition of holiday music brought to us by members of the U.S. military. From our News Hour holiday archives, enjoy this rendition of the Christmas classic Jingle Bells.

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way Oh, what fun it is to ride in the fifties of a seven day Hey Jingle bells, jingle all the way Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh dashing through the snow In one horse Open sleigh

Oh, the fields we go Laughing all the way Bells on pop tales We're making spirits ride What fun it is to write And sing a slaying song tonight Ow! Jingle bells

Jingle jingle, jingle all the way Oh, what fun it is to ride And I feel yourself to celebrate Jingle bells Jingle, jingle, jingle all the way Oh, what fun it is to ride And I want to shop and say I'm going to say

snow, in a one horse only slain, O'er the fields we go, laughing, laughing, laughing. Bells on bobtails ring, making spirits bright. What fun it is to write and sing a slanging song tonight! Oh! Jingle bells! Jingle bells! Jingle all the way!

Oh, what fun it is to ride in a 57 Chevrolet. Jingle bells, jingle, jingle, jingle all the way. Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one horse, in a one horse, open slate. And that is the news hour for tonight. Brangham. On behalf of the Whole NewsHour team, thank you so much for joining us. We hope you have had a Merry Christmas. Good night.