October 4, 2021 - PBS NewsHour full episode

NPR’s Tamara Keith and Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report join Judy Woodruff to discuss the latest political news, including Senate Republicans’ standoff with President Joe Biden over the debt ceiling, continued Democratic infighting over the infrastructure and spending bills, and the hot-button issues at stake in the Supreme Court this term.

The South Asian art form known as Sufi music has a centuries old tradition built on poetry and mysticism coupled with specific instruments, meters and repetition. Brooklyn-based Pakistani musician Arooj Aftab’s neo-Sufism is steeped in that tradition — yet also refuses to let others define her work. Special correspondent Tom Casciato has our story as part of our arts and culture series, CANVAS.

A high stakes standoff between President Joe Biden and Senate Republicans is unfolding in Washington over the country's debt limit. It comes just two weeks before the United States is set to default on its debt, which could trigger damaging economic consequences for the entire country. Biden on Monday called Republicans' position "dangerous." Yamiche Alcindor joins Judy Woodruff with more.

In our news wrap Monday, United Nations officials condemned Libya for a violent crackdown on migrants trying to sail to Europe. In the U.S., the Biden administration reversed a Trump-era ban on abortion referrals by family planning clinics that receive federal funding. Americans David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian won the 2021 Nobel Prize in medicine for discovering temperature and touch receptors.

The Biden administration on Monday unveiled its long awaited approach to trade relations with China. U.S. trade representative Katherine Tai said she would restart trade talks with Beijing, but maintain most Trump-era tariffs on china. Nick Schifrin explains.

Federal and state investigators are focusing on a 41-year-old pipeline as the cause of a massive oil spill off the Southern California coast. The 126,000 gallon oil spill is threatening wildlife and prompting a robust cleanup effort in the Pacific Ocean. But as Stephanie Sy reports, the scale and scope of the damage remains unclear.

The “Pandora Papers," written by a worldwide consortium of journalists, reveal how world leaders and the mega-rich can hide billions of dollars in secret offshore accounts, which investigators say drain money from government treasuries and can undermine national security. Nick Schifrin talks to Drew Sullivan, co-founder and editor of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, or OCCRP.

The Supreme Court returned to the courtroom Monday morning to hear its first oral arguments of the new term in-person. The cases set for argument this term could make it one of the most contentious in many years. Marcia Coyle, chief Washington correspondent for The National Law Journal, was one of the two dozen reporters in the courtroom and joins John Yang with more.

Facebook and its group of apps and social media platforms like WhatsApp and Instagram were down most of Monday. The outages come on the eve of another difficult congressional hearing for the social media giant. The cause of the outages still has not been explained. Sheera Frenkel of The New York Times reports on Facebook extensively and joins William Brangham to discuss.