JOHN YANG: 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 wildlife smoke affects more people across the country, the consequences for the millions of Americans without easy access to a respiratory specialist.

WOMAN: 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 solely here once a month, your asthma flares usually don't come along when he's here.

JOHN YANG: And it artists gives her Brief But Spectacular take on telling the stories of New York City's unclaimed dead.

(BREAK) JOHN YANG: Good evening.

I'm John Yang.

First 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 the triple digit temperatures and difficult terrain are complicating firefighting efforts.

And of the East extreme weather of a different sort, a sudden torrential downpour lead to flash flooding that swept cars off a road in Bucks County outside Philadelphia.

The bodies of four people have been recovered and three people are missing including a two-year old and a nine-month old.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left the hospital today after an overnight stay doctor said he was in excellent health.

Netanyahu who's 73 was hospitalized Saturday after a dizzy spell at his home, doctor said it was likely dehydration.

Doctors didn't plant a small monitor to watch his heart rhythm.

The physicians called it 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 seventh time Wimbledon champion in five sets that went almost five full hours.

When Djokovic won his first Wimbledon in 2011, Alcatraz was eight years old.

And actress and singer Jane Birkin has died.

Although born in London, she found lasting fame in France where she was the 1960s and 1970s It girl.

She appeared in more than 70 films the first in 1965 the last just two years ago.

As a model and trendsetter, she inspired the luxury Birkin handbag.

Her musical and romantic relationship with French singer Serge Gainsbourg produced many hits including in 1969 to 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.

(BREAK) JOHN YANG: 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 on Monday and Russia is threatening to pull out of it.

As Ali Rogin reports that's raising fears about global food security all over again.

ALI ROGIN: On the Black Sea, a rare point of cooperation between two nations at war, Ukraine has shipped nearly 33 million metric tons of gain, oil and other products since the start of the conflict, all things to the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

Once touted as a miracle in wartime.

ANTONIO GUTERRES, Secretary-General, United Nations: Today, there is a beacon on the Black Sea.

A beacon of hope, a beacon of possibility, a beacon of relief.

ALI ROGIN: The groundbreaking deal has been renewed three times since its first signing, but it may not be renewed again.

Russia has also slowed the pace of shipments by delaying ship inspections.

Ukrainian grain once left idle in silos and greeneries before the deal now sits waiting on board dozens of vessels in the waters off Turkey.

Russia is threatening to end its cooperation all together.

It claims the UN hasn't done enough to facilitate its own exports of food and fertilizer, but President Vladimir Putin is not ruling out a possible return.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, Russian President (through translator): 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 the steel.

ALI ROGIN: Russia has been exporting record amounts of wheat in the last year.

While Ukrainian officials report their grain exports have dwindled, but the deals impacts extend beyond Eastern Europe.

URSULA VON DER LEYDEN, President, European Commission: 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 scorch.

And the world is watching.

ALI ROGIN: 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 were 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, which has a presence in East Africa.

SHASHWAT SARAF, International Rescue Committee: Any amount of food that leaves the Ukrainian ports and comes to the global market is food in the market.

Food sitting in the -- 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 ROGIN: But that stability remains elusive as the deals expiration date inches closer, with no renewal in place.

For more on what's at stake, I'm joined by Susannah Savage with POLITICO Europe.

Susannah, 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 Adviser Jake Sullivan today, here's what he had to say, JAKE SULLIVAN, National Security Adviser: 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 ROGIN: So in terms of scenarios, what does your reporting tell you is likely to happen?

SUSANNAH SAVAGE, POLITICO: 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 of the deal and then renewed it.

But this time feels very different.

But regardless of whether it actually efficient 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 works a different routes to get its grain out of the country.

So it's essentially preparing for this deal not to continue.

ALI ROGIN: And you just said that this time seems different.

And Russia may not renew, why does it seem different?

SUSANNAH SAVAGE: 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 benefits from the deal by which it means that it's not it seeing it -- Russia claims that it had there are too many obstacles to its own food and fertilizer exports.

And therefore it doesn't want to continue with it.

It's really doubled down on those threats.

The amount of shipments coming out of the under the initiative has plummeted.

There hasn't been a new vessel of registered under the name since the end of June for example, Ukraine, sorry, the U.N. and the E.U.

have even tried to come up with compromise offers to try and keep Russia in the deal, or which have been rejected.

So I think that's one of the signals that this is different this time.

ALI ROGIN: One of the things that Russia had wanted was additional sanctions relief, they did get some relief for their exports.

But they said that 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 we're those sorts of concessions ever on the table in terms of this round of negotiations.

SUSANNAH SAVAGE: Well, the E.U.

has previously carved out exemptions in terms of its sanctions on Russia, to enable its food and fertilizer exports.

And this time, what the E.U.

and the U.N. have offered is to carve out an exemption essentially to allow Russia's main agricultural bank to function under the SWIFT international payment system.

Russia has rejected that concession or that compromise.

I don't think beyond that.

There are further, you know, I don't think it's on the cards to further change sanctions, to appease Russia, because as far as the West is concerned, its sanctions do not target food or fertilizer exports.

And Russia is getting both these exports out of the country.

ALI ROGIN: You mentioned the Plan B's that Ukraine is working on what are those?

SUSANNAH SAVAGE: So, I mean, 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 pass through the Black Sea for any damages or extra costs they may incur if the black sheet and blacks initiative isn't extended.

Because getting insurance at the moment is obviously very difficult.

It's also looking at extending the amount of grain shipments that pass through the Danube River.

And 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 ROGIN: And Susannah, assuming this deal is not renewed, what then happens in terms of market reaction as well as immediate supply?

SUSANNAH SAVAGE: Well, I think, you know, the market this isn't we're not looking at the same scenario as we were last February when Russia invaded Ukraine blockaded the Black Sea.

And we saw exports plummet to almost zero and a big market reaction.

I think the market has adjusted to having slightly less Ukrainian product in the market, but also to, you know, these other export routes that 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 and given Ukraine time to adapt.

But 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 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 if 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 ROGIN: Susannah Savage with POLITICAL Europe, thank you so much for your time.

SUSANNAH SAVAGE: Thank you very much.

JOHN YANG: Smoke from the record setting Canadian wildfires is again making the air hazardous to breed 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 Walton Penny Copeland the small town of Hayden, Colorado has been home for five decades, set high in the Rocky Mountains.

They're that much closer to the deep blue skies and puffy white clouds.

WALT COPELAND, Hayden, Colorado: Maybe take a bunch of deep breaths.

WOMAN: Don't cheat, don't cheat.

WALT COPELAND: I don't cheat.

I didn't.

JOHN YANG: Three years ago, they were comfortably settled into retired life when Walt began having breathing problems.

WALT COPELAND: I was having a checkup after my heart valve.

Once a year I'd go for a checkup and they found a little spot on my left lung.

It was kind of cloudy.

JOHN YANG: He was diagnosed with pneumonitis inflammation of the lung tissue also called farmer's lung.

WALT COPELAND: There's hundreds of different types of a farmer's lung which mold, sawdust.

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 scar.

Nothing showed up.

JOHN YANG: 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 checkups meant a round trip drive up eight to 10 hours.

WALT COPELAND: 10 hours for a 15-minute visit.

That's why we always waited for him to come up.

Let him do the driving.

JOHN YANG: You've done enough driving over the years.

WALT COPELAND: Yeah, I have.

I have.

JOHN YANG: Instead, the pulmonologist comes to him.

DR. JAMES HOYT, Pulmonologist, UCHealth: No sign of a flare up.

WALT COPELAND: Not yet.

Not that I've seen.

JOHN YANG: once a month Dr. James Hoyt of UC 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 nine hours of patient appointments over two consecutive days.

180 miles each way with a 1,300 foot elevation change.

Dr. Heights been making this monthly trip for the last decade.

JAMES HOYT: It's about 4000 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 but I've only for weather not made it once.

JOHN YANG: For hundreds of Dr. Hoyt's patients across Northwestern Colorado in southern Wyoming, it's a life changer.

Walt Copeland gets to his appointments and 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 pulmonologist.

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 as 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 led to pulmonologist retiring early or changing specialties.

JAMES HOYT: There were two really hard times and the first time was when it first came and 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 healthcare 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 YANG: Climate change plays a role to helping make wildfires bigger and more intense and the air more hazardous debris.

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 could leave a trail of people headed to doctor's offices, urgent care clinics, and emergency rooms with respiratory problems.

Copeland's wife, Penny has asthma.

PENNY COPELAND, Hayden, Colorado: 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 and 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's it.

JENNIFER STOWELL, Boston University, School of Public Health: 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 YANG: Jennifer Stoll 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 on accustomed to it.

What's the effect on health on public health?

JENNIFER STOWELL: a lot of that depends on you know what is burned and, and how far it gets.

It affects people who already have sensitivities and generally the big one is respiratory that we would expect.

Say for instance, if I had asthma, and I had, you know, a significant exposure to wildfire smoke, the likelihood that I would show up at an ER because of my asthma is probably about 8 percent more likely on a day that I'm exposed to smoke than on day one I'm not exposed.

JOHN YANG: And that Stowell says means more hospital visits.

JENNIFER STOWELL: The important thing for people to know is to remain indoors if you can, especially if you look at the airport malady 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 YANG: Penny Copeland doesn't need a researcher to tell her what the shortage of respiratory specialist means.

Every time her asthma gets bad, she feels it.

PENNY COPELAND: 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 YANG: And the asthma doesn't pay attention to Dr. Hoyt's schedule.

PENNY COPELAND: No, it does not.

JOHN YANG: And 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.

RYAN LARSON, Clinic Operations Director, UCHealth: We started recruiting in January 2023.

And we're looking to have a full time provider starting next summer, July 2024.

JOHN YANG: And how hard is that?

RYAN LARSON: So far it's been pretty hard.

We've had a few quite a few candidates come through but no one's been a great fit for the community.

WALT COPELAND: I've walked out of the office setting my car and called him for an appointment and we don't have his appointment schedule ready yet so it's okay I'll call back later than when I do they say it's filled up.

JOHN YANG: And as Dr. Hoyt's limited appointments become harder to get, Walt and Penny Copeland hold their breath, waiting for the right candidate to fill the gap.

New York City's Hart Island sits between the Bronx and Long Island.

It's home to the city's potter's field, the final resting place for more than a million unclaimed bodies.

In 2018 artists Melinda Hunt launched the Hart Island Project.

She's mapped the entire island and posted online 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.

MELINDA HUNT, President, The Hart Island Project: 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, its 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 has 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.

So she was the first family member that I ever took to Hart 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 YANG: You can watch more Brief But Spectacular videos online at pbs.org/newshour/brief.

Also online right now, look at the 988 suicide hotlines, first year challenges and successes.

All that and more is on our website 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 how effective are they?

I'm John Yang.

For all of my colleagues, thanks for joining us.

Have a good week.