April 24, 2024 - PBS NewsHour full episode

After Russia attacked Ukraine in 2022, some 20,000 Ukrainian children were forcefully transferred to Russia. As the city of Mariupol was being surrounded by Russian troops, the head of a Christian orphanage decided to take matters into his own hands to get 19 children to safety. With support from the Pulitzer Center, special correspondent Simon Ostrovsky reports.

It’s been 25 years since 12 students and one teacher were killed in the Columbine massacre in Littleton, Colorado. It was the largest mass killing at a high school in U.S. history at the time. But since then, school shootings have grown to higher levels. Amna Nawaz discussed more with Tom Mauser, whose son, Daniel, was killed at Columbine that day.

The FDA says samples of milk taken from grocery stores have tested positive for remnants of the bird flu virus that has infected dairy cows. But the agency says it's confident the milk in stores is safe. It suggests the virus is spreading more prevalently among dairy herds than previously thought. Geoff Bennett discussed more with Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo of the Pandemic Center at Brown University.

President Biden signed the massive foreign aid package after months of delay amid Republican opposition. The $95 billion measure includes assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. Lisa Desjardins reports on what happens next.

In our news wrap Wednesday, Secretary of State Blinken arrived in China for three days of talks aimed at stabilizing relations, Hamas released video of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an American-Israeli hostage who was abducted on Oct. 7, Arizona's Republican-led House voted to repeal the state's near-total ban on abortions and the Biden administration issued new protections for airline travelers.

It was a charged atmosphere at the Supreme Court as justices heard arguments in a major abortion case. The court looked at whether a federal law requiring hospitals to provide abortion care in emergencies would apply to states with strict bans. More than two dozen states ban or severely restrict abortion and six states have no health exceptions. Geoff Bennett discussed the case with Sarah Varney.

Issues such as inequality, gender identity and education have become the subjects of national debate, with the focus often on what elected leaders in Washington say and do about them. Yet many of these issues play out on the local level in communities with their own histories and challenges. Judy Woodruff traveled to one such community in North Carolina for her series, America at a Crossroads.