Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday presides over the certification of the very election in which she was defeated by Donald Trump. In a video message, Harris described her role as a “sacred obligation” to ensure the peaceful transfer of power. Four years ago, an angry mob of Trump supporters attacked the Capitol to try to block the very process that will now return him to the White House. A conversation with Peter Loge, director of the GW School of Media and Public Affairs who also leads the Project on Ethics in Political Communication.

U.S. President Joe Biden officially blocked Nippon Steel's proposed $14.9-billion purchase of U.S. Steel Friday over national security issues, dealing a fatal blow to the contentious merger plan with the Japanese company. Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel blasted the decision, saying Biden cited no credible evidence to support the national security claim and vowed to sue. We speak with Scott Laing, a professor at the School of Management, University at Buffalo.

FBI investigators are looking to see if two separate attacks in the U.S. on New Year’s Day are linked. So far, the FBI says early indications from the investigation into one of the attacks pointed to a scenario U.S. law enforcement and security officials have long feared – a plot at least inspired by the Islamic State terror group. We spoke with organized crime expert Daniel Brunner, a retired FBI Special Agent and now CEO of the Brunner Sierra Group.

Russian natural gas exports via Soviet-era pipelines running through Ukraine to Europe were halted in the early hours of Wednesday as a transit deal expired. Moscow and Kyiv failed to reach an agreement to continue the flows. Ukraine now faces the loss of some $800 million a year in transit fees from Russia, while Gazprom will lose close to $5 billion in gas sales. We talk to Sergey Sanovich a Hoover Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.

The U.N. Human Rights Office says Israel’s attacks on and around hospitals have pushed health care to the brink of collapse and may have violated international law. Israel has dismissed the allegations from U.N. bodies. Israel’s army detained the director of one of northern Gaza’s last functioning hospitals. The Israeli military has accused Hamas of using hospitals as command centers for military operations and said people Israel detained were suspected militants. The war continues, as negotiators continue to work on a deal to release the remaining Hamas held hostages. Linda Gradstein provides perspective from Jerusalem.

President Joe Biden has directed that January 9 will be a National Day of Mourning throughout the United States for former President Jimmy Carter who died Sunday at age 100. The Georgia peanut farmer who as U.S. president struggled with the Iran hostage crisis, brokered peace between Israel and Egypt and later received the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work. For insights on his legacy, we speak with VOA Correspondent Kane Farabaugh who covered the former president for 17 years.

South Korea’s opposition-controlled National Assembly has voted to impeach acting President Han Duck-soo. The assembly approved the impeachment motion in a 192-0 vote on Friday. Governing party lawmakers boycotted the vote. Han, who is also prime minister, had been acting leader after President Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached by the assembly over his short-lived imposition of martial law earlier this month. We talk with Victor Cha, president of the Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department and Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Thousands of workers are facing an unsettling reality heading into 2025. After years of working from the comfort of home, they're being told it’s time to return to the office full-time for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic. We talk with Evan Starr a professor of management & organization at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland.

Lights, music and Christmas decorations light up the spirits in parts of the world struggling with conflict. While many of the world’s trouble revolves around religion, we talk with someone who says there’s more commonality among the world’s major religions than there is difference. We’re joined by Harvard Divinity School professor of comparative theology Francis X. Clooney.

Famine is reported to be spreading in Sudan amid relentless war between the military and a notorious paramilitary group that devastated the country and created the world’s largest displacement crisis. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, The or IPC -- a global hunger monitor Tuesday said it detected famine in five areas, including in Sudan’s largest displacement camp, in North Darfur province, where famine was found for the first time in August. A conversation with Michelle Gavin, senior fellow for Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.