September 29, 2021 - PBS NewsHour full episode

The White House and key congressional Democrats spent this Wednesday trying to figure out how to secure enough votes in the U.S. House to pass a trillion-dollar infrastructure bill Thursday, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi had promised. But some House progressives are still holding out — unsatisfied by the status of the reconciliation bill. Yamiche Alcindor and Amna Nawaz discuss.

YouTube on Wednesday announced it will remove videos that spread false information about the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine and any other commonly used vaccines. Accounts associated with several prominent figures — such as Robert Kennedy Jr. — who spread false claims, will also be removed. William Brangham discusses the move with Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former FDA commissioner.

There's no business like show business, but for 18 months during the pandemic, Broadway theaters had virtually no business at all. Jeffrey Brown recently visited the theater district's artisans who are making sure Broadway puts its best face forward and comes back to life. It's part of our arts and culture series, CANVAS.

The reconciliation bill that may potentially hold up the passing of a separate infrastructure package could put trillions towards climate, health care, and other domestic initiatives. But moderate Democrats, progressives and Republicans are all divided on it. Amna Nawaz gets perspective from Capitol Hill with Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the number two Democrat in the Senate.

In our news wrap Wednesday, Gen. Mark Milley blamed years of bad decisions behind the failures of the U.S. exit from Afghanistan during the second day of a House hearing with military leaders. The Biden administration says North Korea's latest missile test is "destabilizing" and poses a regional threat. Japan's former foreign minister Fumio Kishida is now in line to become prime minister.

As President Biden's economic agenda takes shape on Capitol Hill, Amna Nawaz discusses its potential implications with Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize winning economist. He was senior vice president and chief economist at the World Bank and teaches at Columbia University. And Michael Strain, director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute and Bloomberg opinion columnist.

California's famous giant sequoias can live for thousands of years. But the KNP Complex Fire is just 11 percent contained, and is burning across nearly 50,000 acres, including treasured groves in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Another fire is also blazing in Sequoia National Forest to the south. Special correspondent Cat Wise got a first-hand look on a recent media tour with officials.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed moving 23 animals and plants off the endangered species list, declaring them extinct. Perhaps the most well-known of the species deemed gone forever is the ivory-billed woodpecker. These extinctions are part of an accelerating crisis driven by human actions. John Yang and Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, discuss.