August 27, 2020 - PBS NewsHour full episode

Parts of Louisiana and Texas spent Thursday assessing damage from Hurricane Laura. Wreckage is spread for miles inland, more than 700,000 people have no power and at least four people have been killed. Outside the Louisiana city of Lake Charles, a giant plume of toxic smoke rose from a chemical plant that caught fire. Judy Woodruff talks to Tom Hoefer, communications director for Calcasieu Parish.

Three days after Kenosha police shot Jacob Blake, who is Black, shockwaves are still reverberating and details still emerging. Wisconsin’s attorney general said that police first used a Taser on Blake, who was reportedly shot less than three minutes after police arrived on the scene. Outrage has erupted in Kenosha, around the country and into the world of professional sports. John Yang reports.

On Night 3 of the Republican National Convention, speakers reiterated their argument that the soul of America is at stake during this election. Vice President Pence delivered his keynote address before a mostly unmasked crowd at Baltimore’s Fort McHenry, hailing the federal response to the pandemic. The programming also emphasized themes of patriotism and national security. Amna Nawaz reports.

The Republican National Convention concludes Thursday night with President Trump accepting his party’s nomination for a second term. In an unprecedented move, his speech will take place at the White House -- usually kept separate from political campaigning. Meanwhile, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris made their own vocal appearances. Yamiche Alcindor and Lisa Desjardins join Judy Woodruff to discuss.

Ahead of the Republican National Convention’s final night, on which President Trump will accept his party’s nomination for a second term, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows joins Judy Woodruff to discuss the message he believes is being shared at the RNC, his views on athlete protests of police violence and why he’s not worried that he’s transmitting coronavirus by not wearing a mask.

A new report out from UNICEF, the United Nations children’s agency, says that at the global height of the pandemic, nearly half a billion children could not access remote learning during lockdowns. Distance education is even harder for hundreds of thousands of children living in dire conditions, such as those at this Ugandan refugee camp. Special correspondent Isabel Nakirya reports from Kampala.

In our news wrap Thursday, a white supremacist who killed 51 people at two New Zealand mosques was sentenced to life in prison without parole. The mass shootings happened in March 2019. Also, the death toll from two days of flash flooding in Afghanistan has now topped 150. Heavy downpours triggered mudslides that collapsed homes, and rescuers are still looking for signs of life beneath the mud.

As President Trump formally accepts the Republican nomination for a second term in office, we take a look back at how he went from real estate and reality TV to president of the United States -- and what he has done since then. Yamiche Alcindor reports.