February 26, 2021 - PBS NewsHour full episode

In our news wrap Friday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is nearing approval of a third COVID vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson for emergency use as COVID cases begin rising. Also, more than 300 girls are missing in Nigeria after the latest school abduction, and NASA renamed its Washington headquarters in honor of the agency’s first Black female engineer.

The last 24 hours have seen two major foreign policy developments. Overnight, the Biden administration launched its first known airstrike of Iranian-backed militias in Syria, and Friday, the U.S. intelligence community released a damning report tying Saudi Arabia's crown prince to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Nick Schifrin joins Judy Woodruff to discuss the latest.

This week marks a turning point at one of the nation's premier newspapers. Washington Post Executive Editor Marty Baron is stepping down on Sunday after eight years at the Post and more than four decades in the news business. His departure comes during a week when his paper won four George Polk Awards for its coverage. Baron joins Judy Woodruff to discuss the state of American journalism.

Marshaling the power of their office and the resources of the federal government to help Americans in the wake of a natural disaster is a key responsibility of a president. That brought President Biden on Friday to Texas, which is still recovering from a rare winter blast this month. Amna Nawaz reports.

New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week in politics, including passing a COVID relief bill without a minimum wage increase, the prospects for President Biden’s Cabinet nominations, and the Conservative Political Action Conference.

This week the nation reached a grim milestone as the pandemic death count surpassed 500,000 in the United States. We take a moment to remember five remarkable individuals who lost their lives to COVID-19.

The February pick for our ‘Now Read This’ book club was “Interior Chinatown," winner of the 2020 National Book Award. It’s a funny and biting satire of stereotypes of Asian Americans in popular culture. The book's author, Charles Yu, also writes for television, including the HBO show, “Westworld.” Jeffrey Brown spoke with Yu for our ongoing arts and culture series, "CANVAS."