john: tonight on pbs news weekend, growing concerns over global food security, as the wartime deal allowing ukraine to export grain is on the verge of expiring. then, as wildfire smoke affects more people across the country, the consequences for the millions of americans without easy access to a respiratory specialist. >> usually when you have a flare, it's good to be seen by a pulmonologist so they can kind of help you through that and give you more treatment. but when we have a pulmonologist only here once a month, your asthma flares usually don't come along when he's here. john: and, an artist gives her brief but spectacular take on telling the stories of new york city's unclaimed dead. ♪

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this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ john: good evening. i'm john yang. first, the extreme heat, and now wildfires are plaguing parts of the west. in riverside county in southern california, four wildfires have led officials to issue evacuation orders. the blazes have scorched thousands of acres and destroyed several homes. officials say triple-digit temperatures and difficult terrain are complicating fire fighting efforts. and in the east, extreme weather of a different sort. a sudden torrential downpour led to flash flooding that swept cars off a road in bucks county, outside philadelphia. the bodies of four people have been recovered and 3 people are missing, including a two-year-old and a 9-month-old. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu left the hospital today after an overnight stay. doctors said he was in excellent health.

netanyahu, who is 73, was hospitalized saturday after a dizzy spell at his home. doctors said it was likely dehydration. doctors did implant a small monitor to watch his heart rhythm. the physicians called this a routine step. at wimbledon, top-seeded carlos alcaraz beat novak djokovic to win the men's singles championship for the first time. the 20-year-old spaniard beat the 7-time wimbledon champion in five sets that went almost 5 full hours. when djokovic won his first wimbledon in 2011, alcaraz was 8 years old. and actress and singer jane birkinas died. although born in london, she found lasting fame in france, where she was the 1960's and 1970's "it girl." she appeared in more than 70 films, the first in 1965 and the last just two years ago. as a model and trendsetter, she inspired the luxury birkin handba her musical and romantic relationship with french singer serge gainsbourg produced many

hits, including in 1969 the sexually suggestive "je t'aime, moi non plus." jane birkin was 76 years old. still to come on pbs news weekend, what limited access to respiratory specialists means for people living in wildfire areas. and, a brief but spectacular take on telling the stories of new york city's unclaimed dead ♪ >> this is pbs news weekend from weta studios in washington. home to the pbs newshour, eknights on pbs. john: the wartime agreement allowing ukrainian grain shipments to safely navigate russia's blockade was hailed as a beacon of hope when it was reached last summer. it eased a global food crisis and has kept food prices around the world stable ever since. but it's set to expire monday, and russia is threatening to pull out of it. as ali rogin reports, that's raising new fears about global food security.

ali: on the black sea, a rare point of cooperation, between two nations at war. ukraine has shipped nearly 33 million metric tons of grain, oil, and other products since the start of the conflict, all thanks to the black sea grain initiative, once touted as a "miracle" in wtime. >> today, there is a beacon on the black sea. a beacon of hope, a beacon of possibility, a beacon of relief. ali: the groundbreaking deal has been renewed three times since its first signing, but it may not be renewed again. russia haslso slowed the pace of shipments by delaying ship inspections. ukrainian grain once left idle in silos and granaries before the deal, now sits waiting on board dozens of vessels in the waters off turkey. russia is threatening to end its cooperation altogether. it claims the u.n. hasn't done enough to facilitate its own exports of food and fertilizer.

but, president vladimir putin is not ruling out a possible return. putin: we can suspend our participation in the deal. and, if everyone once again says that all the promises they have made to us will be kept let them fulfill these promises, and then, we will immediately rejoin this deal. ali: russia has been exporting record amounts of wheat in the last year, while ukrainian officials report their grain exports have dwindled. but the deal's impacts extend beyond eastern europe. >> the world needs it. russia has a responsibility to prolong it. otherwise, global food insecurity will be the consequence. so now the ball is in president putin's court, and the wor is watching. ali: ukrainian grain feeds 400 million people worldwide, much of it going towards emergency programs in places like yemen, afghanistan, and somalia. the grain deal has also helped to calm global markets. food prices on the rise before

the war started but skyrocketed after russia's invasion. since the global export of ukrainian grain resumed, the markets have stabilized. that's been welcome news to relief organizations like the international rescue committee in east africa. >> any amount of food that leaves the ukrainian boats and comes to the global market is food in the market. food sitting at the port in ukraine does not help anybody. food moves out, it meets the needs of the global market, and it ensures that the global markets are more stable. ali: but that stability remains elusive, as the deal's expiration date inches closer, with no renewal in place. for more on what is at stake i'm , joined by susanna savage with political europe. susanna, thank you so much for joining us. you've been reporting that the ukrainian capital of kyiv basically believes that this deal is already dead. and we also heard from national security advisor jake sullivan today. here's what he had to say.

jake sullivan: look, i can't predict what vladimir putin will do. he has been all over the map. with respect to this initiative over the course of the past many months. it is possible that russia pulls out of it. it is possible they continue. we are prepared for any scenario, and we're working closely with the ukrainians on that. ali: so in terms of scenarios, what does your reporting tell you is likely to happen. >> well, i think that at this stage, russia has given every signal that it does intend to pull out of the deal, and it said this before, it's repeatedly threatened to pull out to the deal and then renewed it. but this time feels very different. but regardless of whether it actually officially extends the deal or not, the deal is essentially not working as it should. the amount of shipments coming out through the initiative have plummeted in recent months. and so ukraine has started to enact plan b and to put into into works a different routes to get its grain out of the country. so it's essentially preparing

for this deal not to continue. ali: and you just said that this time seems different. and russia may not renew. why does it seem different? >> in the past leading up to the renewal, it's tended to slow inspections of shipments, which has and you know to slow shipments, leaving the black sea and with ukrainian grain. but this time, it's really doubled down on the threats to walk away and really stressed the fact that it isn't seeing and benefits from the deal by which it means that it's not. it's saying it's russia claims that it had there are too many obstacles to its own food and fertilizer exports. and therefe it doesn't want to continue with it. it's really doubled down on those threats. the amount of shipments coming out under the initiative has plummeted. there hasn't been a new vessel of registered under the initiative since the end of june, for example, and the u.n. and the eu have even tried to come up with compromise offers to try and keep russia in the deal, which have been rejected. so i think that's one of the signals that this is different this time.

ali: one of the things that russia had wanted was additional sanctions relief. they did get some relief for their exports. but they said at sanctions on the logistical aspects of that kind of trade, including insurance and shipping companies, those sanctions were preventing countries from doing business with them. so were those sorts of concessions ever on the table in terms of this round of negotiations? >> well, the eu has previously carved out exemptions in terms of its sanctions on russia to enable its food and fertilizer exports. and this time, what the eu and the u.n. have offered is to carve out an exemption essentially to allow russia's main agricultural bank to to function under the swift international payment system. russia's rejected that concession or that compromise and i don't think beyond that there are further i don't think , it's on the cards to to further change sanctions to appease russia because as far as the west is concerned, it's -- its sanctions do not target

food or fertilizer exports, and russia is getting both these exports out of the country. ali: you mentioned the plan b's that ukraine is working on what -- on. what are those? >> there's been talk of turkey intervening in the turkish navy escorting ships through the black sea. this has been dismissed by various diplomats and other analysts who say that that just isn't necessary and isn't likely to happen. what ukraine is doing is organizing essentially state insurance. so a $500 million guarantee fund to compensate companies who ships passed through the black

sea for any damages or extra costs they may incur if the black sea and blacksnitiative isn't extended, because getting insurance at the moment is obviously very difficult. it's also looking at extending the amount of grain shipments the past or grain exports that passed through the danube river. there's already a large amount of grain that's exported through solidarity lanes out through europe. but it's trying to extend this using the danube river, and that seems to be a fairly viable option. ali: assuming this deal is not renewed what then happens in terms of market reaction as well as immediate supply? >> i think the market, we're not looking at the same scenario as we were last february, when russia invaded ukraine and blockaded the black sea and we saw exports plummet almost zero and a big market reaction. i think the market has adjusted to having slightly less ukrainian product in the market, but also these other export routes that there have been put in place over the last year, and that's one of the main functions of the black sea grain deal. it has succeeded in given ukraine time to adapt. that said every time we see , volatility or uncertainty over this deal, there is a small market reaction and that has a

big impact for food insecurity insecure countries who are really facing the brunt of the current food crisis and high food prices. so i think we can expect a market reaction of russia walks away from the deal and that will, you know, inflict pain on countries that are really at the sharp end of this and particularly in africa. ali: susanna savage with political europe. thank you so much for your time. >> thank you very much. john: smoke from the record-setting canadian wildfires is again making the air hazardous to breathe this weekend across the northern plains and upper midwest. dealing with this summer smoke is a new experience for many outside the western united states, where it's all too common. and as the smoke triggers breathing problems for many, it also highlights the fact that more than 5 million americans don't have easy access to a respiratory specialist. for walt and penny copeland, the small town of hayden, colorado has been home for 5 decades.

set high in the rocky mountains, they're that much closer to the deep blue skies and puffy white clouds. >> maybe take a bunch of deep breaths. >> don't cheat on your oxygen test. >> i didn't. [laughter] john: three years ago, they were comfortably settled into retired life when walt began having breathing problems. >> i was having a checkup after my heart valve. once a year, i'd go for a checkup. they found a little spot on my left lung that was kind of cloudy. john: he was diagnosed with pneumonitis -- inflammation of the lung tissue, also call farmers lung. >> there's hundreds of different types of farmer's lung, which are mold, sawdust, you know, all kinds of stuff. i grew up with parents who smoked and i worked out at the coal mine and i hauled fuel and stuff like that, but no scarring, nothing showed up. john: retired from long-haul trucking, walt thought he was done with long, regularly scheduled drives. but from his home in hayden,

going to a pulmonologist every three months for check-ups meant a round trip drive of eight to ten hours. >> 10 hours for a 15 minute visit. that's why we always waited for him to come up here. let him do the driving. [laughter] john: you've done enough driving over the years. [laughter] >> i hav john: instead, the pulmonologist comes to him. >> no sign of a flare up? >> not yet, not that i've seen john: once a month, dr. james hoyt of u.c. health, a not-for-profit regional health system, makes the trek to a medical center in steamboat springs from his office in fort collins. during each visit to the ski resort town, he has 9 hours of patient appointments over two consecutive days. 180 miles each way with a 1300 foot elevation change, dr. hoyt's been making this monthly trip for the last decade. >> it's about 4,000 miles a year.

so 40,000 miles, 50,000 miles. and i've gotten one new windshield, one new bumper, a whole new front end when i hit a deer. i've only for weather not made it once. john: for hundreds of hoyt's patients across northwestern colorado and southern wyoming, it's a life-changer. walt copeland gets to his appointments in just a 30-minute drive, usually combining the trip with other errands. many parts of the country, especially the rural west, have limited access to pulmonologists. according to telehealth and prescription discount provider goodrx, more than 5 million americans are more than a one hour drive from a respiratory specialist, living in pulmonology deserts. respiratory specialists have been in high demand in recent years, as an aging population has a higher risk of copd. then came covid-19, and the damage it can do to the lungs of those infected with the virus. burnout from the pandemic has

d to pulmonologists retiring early or changing specialties. >> there were two really hard times. the first time was when it first came and there were 14 or so of us all got in a room and looked at each other and wondered who's going in first, because there were no vaccines, there was ppe that we didn't really know for sure if it worked or not. the second really hard time in covid was when our health care teams were exhausted from 18 months or so of grinding, and there were more than enough vaccines for everyone and patient after patient after patient we took care of was unvaccinated by choice. john: climate change plays a role, too, helping make wildfires bigger and more intense, and the air more hazardous to breathe. last summer, this beautiful vista was obscured by smoke from wildfires in california, oregon, and washington state.

in fact, wildfires can lead to air quality alerts hundreds of miles downwind. and as the fine particulate matter in that smoke drifts across the country, it can leave a trail of people headed to doctors' offices, urgent care clinics, and emergency rooms with respiratory problems. walt copeland's wife, penny, has asthma. >> smoke is one of the things that i am allergic to. so when the valley would fill with smoke, i basically had to stay indoors with the windows closed. it would make it difficult to breathe at night. when you don't get enough air, you can't, you don't function. you just basically have to sit on the couch and that is it. >> over the last few decades, the west has been seeing, you know, this just gradual uptick in the number of fires, how large they are and how severe they are. john: jennifer stowell is a researcher at boston university school of public health. she says wildfire smoke from canada and the western united states will continue to affect

parts of the country unaccustomed to it. what's the effect on health, on public health? >> a lot of that depends on, you know, what is burned and how far it gets. it affects people who already have sensitivities. and generally the big one is respiratory that we would expect. for instance, if i had asthma and i have you know a significant exposure to wildfire smok the likelihood that i would show up at an er because of my asthma is probably about 8% more likely on a day that i'm exposed to smoke than on a day when i'm not exposed. john: and that, stowell says, means more hospital visits. >> the important thing for people to know is to remain indoors if you can. especially if you look at the air quality colors, if it's worse than yellow, you want to stay indoors. if you have underlying conditions like asthma or copd, you want to stay indoors as soon as it gets out of that green area. and if you have to go outside, definitely wear a mask. john: penny copeland doesn't

need a researcher to tell her what the shortage of respiratory specialists means -- every time her asthma gets bad, she feels it. >> usually when you have a flare, it's good to be seen by a pulmonologist so they can kind of help you through that and give you more treatment. but when we have a pulmonologist only here once a month, your asthma flares usually don't come along when he's here. john: and the asthma doesn't pay attention to dr. hoyt's schedule. >> no, it does not. [laughter] john: at uc health's medical center in steamboat springs, clinic operations director ryan larson recognizes the need. he's begun the challenging task of hiring a full-time staff pulmonologist. >> we started recruiting in january 2023. and we're looking to have a full time provider starting next summer, july 2024. john: and how hard is that? >> so far, it's been pretty hard. we have had quite a few candidates come through, but no one's been a great fit for the community. >> i've walked out of the

office, sat in my car and called them for an appointment and i -- and they said i don't have , his appointment schedule ready yet. so i said, ok, i'll call back later. then when i do, they say it's filled up. john: and adr. hoyt's limited appointments become harder to get, walt and penny copeland hold their breath, waiting for the right candidate to come along to fill the gap. ♪ new york city's hart island, -- island sits between the bronx on long island. it is home to the city's potter's field, the final resting place for more than a million unclaimed bodies. in 201artist melinda hunt launched the hart island project, which has mapped the entire island and posted on line profiles for more than 68,000 people buried there. her goal is to tell the stories of the forgotten, and perhaps, give closure to their families. tonight, hunt shares her brief but spectacular take on new york city's family tomb.

>> hart island was part of new york city before the bronx, brooklyn, queens, or staten island, and it was purchased in 1868 by the city of new york. and soon after, they began burying unclaimed bodies there. it's mass graves, but it's really more common graves that are a highly organized grid that allows the city to quickly bury numbers of bodies during periods of epidemics or disasters, most recently covid-19. ♪ for the most part, people who are buried on hart island are identified, and they are with family permission. it is disproportionately low income people of color, but it's also a lot of infants, immigrants, victims of disease, and victims of crime. a city burial in new york city is actually a green burial. in new york city, there are no

other affordable green burial options. so it's actually a very good choice. my first visit was november, 1991. i was there to begin working on a documentary book with photographer joel sternfeld. and from that experience, i became really interested over the years in helping the public to gain access to hart island. after the book came out in 1998, families started contacting me for assistance to visit. i realized how difficult it was for families to even get access to records of their relative being buried there. vicki pavia reached out and said that she wanted to visit hart island for the 40th anniversary of the death of her baby, denise. and so she was the first family

member that i ever took to heart -- heart island in 1994. starting in 2009 working with volunteers, we created an online database of burials. and people were finding their relatives, they would send me stories, and i felt that these stories should really be available to other people. the traveling cloud museum is a social media platform that allows people to tell stories that they've carried around for a long time and not had an opportunity to tell before. when you go into the profile of that person, you are invited to add a story. and once you add a story, it essentially stops the clock of anonymity and pulls them back into the historic record. and so my effort with the hart island project is really to reconnect city cemetery with new york city through storytelling. my name is melinda hunt, and this is my brief but spectacular take on new york city's family tomb.

john: you can watch more brief but spectacular videos online at pbs.org/newshour/brief. now online, a look at the 988 suicide hotline's first year challenges and successes. all that and more is on our web -- pbs.org/newshour. and that is pbs news weekend for this sunday. on monday, tasers are sold to police departments as a less lethal alternative to guns, but how safe and effective are they? i'm john yang. for all my colleagues, thanks for joining us. have a good week. ♪ >> major funding for the "pbs >>enberodevis -- d by no contract wireless plans designed to help people do more of what they like. we can help find the plan that fits you. to learn more, visit consumer cellular.tv. ♪

>> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] ♪

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