September 6, 2021 - PBS NewsHour full episode

New Jersey, New York and other Northeastern states continued cleaning up in the aftermath of the Ida storm system. At least 50 deaths from Virginia to Massachusetts have been linked with the storms. In Louisiana, at least 13 deaths have been connected to Ida and hundreds of thousands are still without power as new thunderstorms are complicating efforts. Community correspondent Roby Chavez reports.

In our news wrap Monday, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department will "continue to protect those seeking to obtain or provide reproductive health services" as federal prosecutors try to find ways to challenge Texas' abortion ban. Federal unemployment aid put in place in 2020 to ease COVID's impact expired Labor Day. Caldor Fire evacuees were able to return to South Lake Tahoe.

A senior State Department official confirmed the United States evacuated four Americans from Afghanistan and relocated them to a nearby country in the first known U.S. overland extraction since the August 31 withdrawal deadline. As Ali Rogin reports, that comes as Taliban fighters claim to have seized the country's last pocket of resistance.

When the summer of 2021 began, COVID-19 seemed to be on the retreat in most of the U.S. President Joe Biden talked about celebrating America's "independence" from the virus on July 4. But the delta variant has changed the game. On memorial day, the U.S. was averaging about 21,000 new cases a day. Now, it's at about 160,000 daily. Hospitalizations and deaths are rising too. Stephanie Sy reports.

As Afghans figure out how to get on with their lives, fears abound that the new Taliban government will crack down on local business and commerce. The Taliban takeover could cripple Afghan farmers in the middle of their harvest, in a country where agriculture is the lifeblood of rural communities and is Afghanistan’s largest export business. Special correspondent Mike Cerre reports.

This week, the PBS NewsHour is marking the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks with stories examining some of the ways that day transformed the nation and the world. Amna Nawaz begins our coverage with a look at the effect on millions of American Muslims.

As the PBS NewsHour reported earlier, the federal government's weekly unemployment payments expired Monday for almost 9 million Americans. Yamiche Alcindor has a broader look at the administration's efforts to expand the nation's social safety net for those battling poverty and hunger in the midst of a pandemic.

NPR’s Tamara Keith and Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report join John Yang to discuss the latest political news, including the federal increase in SNAP benefits, the child tax credit, Texas’ abortion law and how it could impact midterm elections.

Vietnamese American chef Tu David Phu traces his culinary influences back to his family's unspoken history of war. He says food preferences often mirror people's perceptions of other cultures and prejudices. Tonight, he gives us his Brief But Spectacular take on the memory of food. It's part of our arts and culture series, CANVAS.