September 4, 2019 - PBS NewsHour full episode

The Amazon is the world’s largest rainforest and a critical line of defense against climate change. But it’s been steadily deforested since the 1970s, with nearly 20 percent of its land area wiped out. This year, pervasive forest fires destroyed vast expanses of rainforest, and Brazil’s growing agribusiness is poised to transform more into farmland. Amna Nawaz reports from Mato Grosso, Brazil.

Catastrophic damage from Hurricane Dorian is putting natural disasters, and their potential connection to climate change, front and center in the U.S., but gun safety and a flood of Republican congressional retirements are also occupying public attention. Chris Buskirk of American Greatness and Colleen Nelson of the Kansas City Star join Judy Woodruff to discuss the politics of the three topics.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam has announced the formal withdrawal of a bill that would have allowed Hong Kong residents to be extradited to mainland China for trials. The proposal sparked months of large-scale demonstrations that sometimes turned violent. But as Nick Schifrin reports, protesters’ reactions were largely negative, with pro-democracy advocates saying it’s too little, too late.

Now that Hurricane Dorian has finally receded from the Bahamas, relief organizations are able to step in. Susan Mangicaro is heading up that effort for the International Medical Corps, a nonprofit group of volunteer doctors and nurses who deliver emergency health care and other services. Mangicaro talks to Judy Woodruff via Skype from Orlando before she heads for the Bahamas.

With less than two months until the deadline for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union, the course ahead for the separation appears no clearer. On Wednesday, British lawmakers passed a law to prevent Prime Minister Boris Johnson from executing a no-deal Brexit -- a measure supported by members of Johnson’s own party whom he had exiled. Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports.

The seven people killed in a mass shooting in Odessa, Texas, over the Labor Day weekend ranged in age from 15 to 57. They were parents and siblings, a truck driver, a mail carrier and an Army veteran, and they were going about their lives when they became victims of a random deadly episode of violence. Judy Woodruff remembers them, in the words of their families and friends.