September 25, 2020 - PBS NewsHour full episode

In our news wrap Friday, Breonna Taylor’s family demanded Louisville officials release transcripts from grand jury proceedings over whether to charge police in her death. Kentucky’s attorney general said officers had acted in self-defense, after Taylor’s boyfriend fired first. Also, the U.S. federal government has executed a Black inmate for the first time in nearly 20 years.

This year’s presidential election faces unprecedented challenges, between the pandemic and President Trump’s efforts to sow doubt about the integrity of voting by mail -- and whether he would accept an election loss. Is American democracy positioned to handle the threat? William Brangham talks to Barton Gellman, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The Atlantic, which recently covered the story.

The government of Afghanistan and the Taliban are in the early stages of negotiations representing the most significant attempt yet to deliver peace. Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. special envoy for Afghan reconciliation, signed an agreement with the Taliban in February that led to the talks. But violence between the government and the Taliban remains high. Khalilzad joins Nick Schifrin to discuss.

As the election approaches, the country feels culturally and politically divided. Some of the starkest differences are between rural and urban areas. Now, a singer-songwriter from Western Kentucky is hoping her music can help Americans to find some common ground. Jeffrey Brown reports as part of our American Creators series and our ongoing arts and culture coverage, Canvas.

The NewsHour has been honoring victims of the coronavirus pandemic for six months. With the number of American lives lost now over 200,000, we share the stories of five more.

During his first term, President Trump has rolled back or weakened more than 100 environmental regulations. On Friday, his administration moved to open up the country’s largest national forest for development. Alaska’s Tongass National Forest has been called “America’s Amazon,” and it absorbs about 8 percent of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions. Amna Nawaz talks to The New York Times’ Coral Davenport.

Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week in politics, including the legacy of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the battle over filling her Supreme Court seat, President Trump’s continuing rhetoric about the integrity of voting by mail and concerns over election confusion or dissent.