October 8, 2020 - PBS NewsHour full episode

One of the Senate seats in play this November is that of Maine’s senior senator, Republican Susan Collins, who has long nurtured a reputation as bipartisan. But during the Trump era, her favor has fallen with some of Maine's fiercely independent voters. Now Collins is in the fight of her political career against Democratic challenger Sara Gideon. Lisa Desjardins reports.

Questions of how and when to hold the remaining U.S. presidential debates dominated the campaign Thursday, with President Trump insisting he won’t participate in a virtual face-off, and former Vice President Joe Biden declining to postpone the debate schedule. The controversy erupted a day after their vice presidential running mates met in their only debate of the campaign. Amna Nawaz reports.

A day after Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris faced off in their only debate, the schedule for the remaining presidential debates was thrown into disarray. In light of President Trump’s COVID-19 infection, the Commission on Presidential Debates converted the second event to virtual format, which displeased Trump. Judy Woodruff talks to Lisa Desjardins and Yamiche Alcindor.

Cases of COVID-19 are continuing to climb in many parts of the country -- including in Washington, D.C., where President Trump’s infection and those of numerous White House insiders have been a source of serious concern recently. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at NIH, joins Judy Woodruff to discuss the latest on the pandemic.

The FBI says it has broken up an alleged plot by violent extremists in Michigan to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and overthrow the state government. The shocking revelation included details of a plan to storm the state capitol that started to take shape after this summer's heated political battles regarding the pandemic. John Yang reports and talks to Michigan's attorney general, Dana Nessel.

In our news wrap Thursday, Hurricane Delta has regained strength to become a Category 3 storm, with sustained winds of 115 miles per hour. It’s expected to make landfall near Lake Charles, Louisiana, which suffered major damage from Hurricane Laura in August. Also, new COVID-19 infections worldwide jumped by nearly 339,000 in just the past 24 hours -- the greatest increase yet.

In Afghanistan, the Taliban have welcomed an announcement by President Trump that all U.S. troops should leave the country by the end of the year. But there are questions about how that declaration was received by the U.S. military -- and by American and Afghan negotiators currently in the midst of peace talks. Nick Schifrin joins Judy Woodruff to discuss.

Fighting has broken out between two former Soviet republics, Azerbaijan and Armenia, over Nagorno Karabakh, an enclave of ethnic Armenians. Hundreds of lives have been lost since the violence started on September 27th, but with most of the world distracted by the pandemic, the conflict has received little attention. Special correspondent Simon Ostrovsky reports on what could become a regional war.