September 30, 2021 - PBS NewsHour full episode

In our news wrap Thursday, the number of suicides in the active-duty U.S. military rose 15 percent last year — to 580. The Biden administration is rolling out a more lenient approach to immigration enforcement. U.S. senators attacked Facebook over findings that its Instagram platform can harm teenagers' mental health. The stock market closed out a month of stark downturns.

As Democrats work to reach an agreement on trillions of dollars of government spending, the fate of the reconciliation bill's final cost — and the passage of the president's overall legislative agenda — largely hinges on support from two key, influential Democratic senators: West Virginia's Joe Manchin and Arizona's Kyrsten Sinema. Lisa Desjardins and Stephanie Sy break down their stances.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued its most urgent appeal for pregnant individuals to get the COVID-19 vaccine. New CDC data shows that pregnant people are twice as likely to be hospitalized due to the virus. Just 32% of pregnant Americans are currently vaccinated, and the racial disparities are stark. Amna Nawaz explores the issue with gynecologist Dr. Joia Crear-Perry.

"Too big to fail" was a phrase used during the global financial crisis for large companies so over-extended that their collapse could cripple global finance. China is now trying to take a too-big company with too much debt, and manage its failure. The company is a real estate giant called "Evergrande". Nick Schifrin has more.

The Southeast African nation of Mozambique is being terrorized by "Al Shabaab," an ISIS-affiliated insurgency that has killed 3,000 people and displaced many more. With the support of the Pulitzer Center, special correspondent Neha Wadekar and filmmaker Ed Ram report from Mozambique on the drivers of this conflict.

It is the famous lightbulb-going-off story every school kid learns: How James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the structure of DNA, cementing their place in scientific history. But as William Brangham explains, a new book titled "The Secret of Life" paints a more troubling picture of how this famous discovery came about, and why scientist Rosalind Franklin also deserved credit.