May 11, 2022 - PBS NewsHour full episode

As wildfires continue to rage in the western United States, we look at how these increasingly common events are affecting the people in the midst of them. Lucy Walker is a documentary filmmaker whose most recent work, "Bring Your Own Brigade," follows residents after the disastrous Camp Fire in California. She offers her Brief But Spectacular take on the power of documentary filmmaking.

Republicans in the U.S. Senate blocked efforts on Wednesday to enshrine abortion rights into federal law. Democrats fell well short of the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster on codifying abortion access, with Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin joining all Republicans in voting against the Women’s Health Protection Act. Lisa Desjardins joins Judy Woodruff from the U.S. Capitol with more.

President Biden on Wednesday highlighted how the war in Ukraine is raising food prices globally as previously neutral countries increasingly seek to join the defensive umbrella of NATO. This as Ukraine's counter-offensive around Kharkiv has pushed close to the Russian border, and as Russian missiles again struck Odessa in an effort to stop the flow of Western weapons. Nick Schifrin reports.

Israeli troops on Wednesday reportedly shot dead Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh during a West Bank raid. The 51-year-old Palestinian-American journalist was a household name across the Middle East for her coverage of the conflict. Josef Federman, Associated Press news director for Israel, the Palestinian territories and Jordan, joins John Yang to discuss.

As the death toll from the coronavirus nears 1 million Americans, we’ve been exploring why the u.S. Suffered such a terrible loss, especially when compared to other nations similar to us. While there are many reasons for this, one of them is that many Americans have not wanted to be vaccinated. William Brangham reports.

New CDC data released Wednesday indicates that deaths from drug overdoses in the U.S. reached a record-high last year. More than 107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2021, the highest annual death toll ever recorded. Deaths from fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine rose sharply. Dr. Nora Volkow, the National Institute On Drug Abuse director, joins Geoff Bennett to discuss.