September 18, 2020 - PBS NewsHour full episode

President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden campaigned Friday in Minnesota -- a state Trump lost narrowly in 2016. They both visited the state's northern region, where voters are expressing concern over the economy, racial unrest and health care. Known as the "Iron Range," it was a Democratic stronghold but has moved right in recent years. Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports.

The Trump administration is going ahead with plans to ban two popular Chinese social media apps. Starting Sunday, Americans will no longer be able to download TikTok or WeChat from Apple or Google app stores, although current versions of TikTok will still be usable. What are the concerns motivating the policy? Nick Thompson, editor-in-chief of WIRED Magazine, joins William Brangham to discuss.

The United States will soon enter its 20th year of fighting in Afghanistan. Nearly 3,600 American troops have died there, as well as hundreds of thousands of Afghans. But Afghanistan was at war decades before the U.S. invaded after 9/11. Can newly begun talks between the country’s government and Taliban insurgents, brokered by the U.S., finally usher in an era of peace? Nick Schifrin reports.

Where do healers find comfort? For some U.S. doctors and caregivers, the answer is in music. Jeffrey Brown went to Newton, Massachusetts, recently to see how medical professionals are regenerating their spirits -- and becoming better providers in the process. It’s part of our ongoing arts and culture coverage, Canvas.

In our news wrap Friday, the CDC rescinded guidance that discouraged coronavirus testing for people who have no symptoms. The New York Times reported officials at the Department of Health and Human Services had posted the language on the CDC website over scientists’ objections. Also, China stepped up military drills near Taiwan, in a major show of force against a U.S. envoy’s visit to Taipei.

Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week in politics, including President Trump’s vaccine rhetoric, the administration’s political manipulation of science, Joe Biden’s campaign message for working-class voters and Trump’s approach to U.S. history education.

This Friday represents the 23rd in which we have paid tribute to casualties of the coronavirus pandemic. As the U.S. approaches another sad threshold -- that of 200,000 deaths from COVID-19 -- we remember five more of those lost. Judy Woodruff has their stories.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who long stood for women’s rights issues and became the court’s second female justice, died Friday at her home in Washington. She died at the age of 87 of complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer.