PBS NewsHour

With only a few days left until Election Day, what paths do President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden have to victory? Either candidate would need to accumulate 270 votes in the Electoral College to secure the presidency. NPR’s Domenico Montanaro joins Judy Woodruff to discuss the electoral map, battleground states and potential demographic changes from 2016.

How do President Trump and Joe Biden plan to leverage their final four days before voting concludes? Both candidates turned their attention to the Midwest on Friday, but they have a flurry of additional stops to make prior to Election Day. Yamiche Alcindor and Lisa Desjardins join Judy Woodruff to discuss closing messages, campaign priorities and which states look to be the most competitive.

While the coronavirus surges again in the U.S., it is also raging in Europe -- and nowhere worse than Belgium, which is now the continent’s worst hot spot. The southern, French-speaking Wallonia region is being hit particularly hard. Special correspondent Lucy Hough reports from Liege, where intensive care beds are filling up and hospital admissions have been doubling every eight days.

Arizona has emerged as a surprising battleground state in this year’s presidential election, considering President Trump beat Hillary Clinton there by 3.5 percent in 2016. Latinos make up a quarter of the state’s eligible voters -- and while polls indicate most of them are supporting Joe Biden, Latinos in Arizona are not a completely united voting bloc. Stephanie Sy reports.

As the final weekend before Election Day dawns, the candidates are packing in rallies and other campaign events to try to win voter support in critical states. The focus was on the Midwest on Friday, with President Trump and Joe Biden both visiting Wisconsin -- a state setting single-day records for COVID-19 infections and deaths. Yamiche Alcindor reports.

Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week in politics, including the closing campaign strategies of President Trump and Joe Biden, the potential influence of the Supreme Court with the addition of Justice Amy Coney Barrett and predictions for election results.

U.S. border authorities are allegedly violating an agreement by sending minors into Mexico even if they come from other Central American countries. A new report finds that at least 200 children have been sent to Mexico over the past eight months, although they do not have family there and should have been sent home instead. The New York Times’ Caitlin Dickerson joins Amna Nawaz to discuss.

Once again, the NewsHour pauses to remember a few of the Americans who have lost their lives in the coronavirus pandemic.

In our news wrap Friday, an earthquake rattled parts of Turkey and Greece, killing at least 19 people and injuring more than 700. The tremor knocked down buildings and triggered a small tsunami. Also, an investigation into Australia’s devastating wildfire season concludes that conditions will only get worse due to climate change and that the country needs to overhaul its fire response.

In the American West, there has been little relief from a record-breaking fire season that has burned more than 5 million acres. Maggie Mullen of the Mountain West News Bureau in Wyoming, Cassandra Profita of Oregon Public Broadcasting and Sharon McNary of Southern California Public Radio join Judy Woodruff to discuss the remarkable destruction they have covered in their states.

How are state and local governments verifying the accuracy of the vote in this critical election year? One approach designed to simplify a major challenge for election officials as the ballots arrive is the risk-limiting audit, which enables double-checking only a sample of paper ballots to make sure they match electronic results. Miles O’Brien reports.

Although most national attention is focused on the races for president and Congress, policies and agendas at the state and local levels are on the ballot as well. Voters across the country are considering ballot measures about racism and election reform, among others -- as well as who should represent them in their own state legislatures. Reid Wilson of The Hill joins Amna Nawaz to discuss.

As Election Day nears, protecting American voters and election systems from foreign disinformation is a daily struggle. The government and private companies have significantly stepped up their ability to expose disinformation from Russia, China and Iran since 2016, but these nations are still exploiting internal American fissures and vulnerabilities as the election looms. Nick Schifrin reports.

The last major economic report before Election Day indicates a 7.4 percent growth rate in economic output during the year’s third quarter. It’s a sharp rebound from the record plunge of the previous quarter, and the fastest pace since World War II. But economists point to federal stimulus as a key driver -- and that’s running out. The Washington Post’s David Lynch joins Judy Woodruff to discuss.

The Supreme Court is playing a key role in the 2020 election in these final days of the campaign. Just this week, it handed down rulings on absentee ballot deadlines in three crucial battleground states: North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Daniel Bush joins John Yang to discuss what the Pennsylvania decision means for voters, election officials and when we might have the state’s results.

With U.S. intelligence officials united in their assessment that American adversaries are trying to influence the presidential election, can voters be assured of its integrity? William Evanina is the top U.S. counterintelligence official charged with combating foreign attacks on American electoral systems. He joins Nick Schifrin to discuss why he feels confident the country is prepared.

In our news wrap Thursday, remnants of Hurricane Zeta raced across the southern U.S., leaving widespread damage, power outages and at least six people dead. The governor of Louisiana, where the storm made landfall Wednesday, urged caution as cleanup efforts begin. Also, the most powerful typhoon to hit Vietnam in 20 years has killed 35 people and left dozens missing amid flooding and landslides.

With Election Day in less than a week, the Trump and Biden campaigns are increasingly holding events in the same battleground states, on the same days. At a Thursday rally in Tampa, Florida, President Trump continued to downplay the national surge in COVID-19 cases, while former Vice President Joe Biden urged residents of the state’s Broward County to vote. Yamiche Alcindor reports.

In our news wrap Wednesday, demonstrators in Poland gathered for a seventh straight day over a court ruling that banned abortions of fetuses, even ones with severe abnormalities. The nationwide strike is a rare show of opposition in a country long influenced by the Roman Catholic Church. Also, officials in France and Germany announced new restrictions in response to rising coronavirus infections.

With Election Day in less than a week, how is the final campaign sprint playing out across the country -- especially in key battleground states? Judy Woodruff talks to Tom Hudson of WLRN Public Radio in Florida, Alex Samuels of The Texas Tribune and Zoe Clark of NPR member station Michigan Radio, about what issues are resonating with voters and the surge in early ballots cast.