February 19, 2021 - PBS NewsHour full episode

In our news wrap Friday, the White House confirmed the arctic storm has set back COVID-19 vaccine shipments, the U.S. is once again part of the Paris climate accord, the U.S. began allowing the first of thousands of asylum seekers from Mexico, President Biden appealed to the world’s democracies to tackle new challenges, and U.S. Capitol police force suspended six officers after the Jan. 6 attack.

Native Americans have been among the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, but a history of medical mistreatment has led some Indigenous leaders to brace for challenges in vaccinating their communities. Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports on those efforts.

New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week in politics, including Republican infighting, the legacy of Rush Limbaugh and President Biden's first month in office.

Trumpet player, composer and jazz ambassador Wynton Marsalis is one of the country’s leading cultural figures. He is again meeting the moment with music, writing and recording his new composition "The Democracy! Suite" amid the pandemic. Jeffrey Brown has the story as part of our arts and culture series, "CANVAS."

A video posted by a female U.S. Marine about sexual assault in the military rocketed across the internet and into a Pentagon press-briefing room Friday. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin promised to take additional steps to stop such violence. But as Nick Schifrin reports, sexual assault in the military continues to rise and individual families continue to be ripped apart.

As the death toll from the pandemic nears 500,000 in the United States, we take a moment to remember and pay tribute to five remarkable people who have lost their lives to COVID-19.