Stories of the Week | PBS NewsHour Podcast | PBS

Of the 50,000 new HIV infections in the U.S. each year, more than one in four affect young people ages 13 to 24, more than half of whom don't know they're infected. Hari Sreenivasan talks to Science magazine's Jon Cohen about this continuing epidemic and the cultural hurdles that make talking about sex and protection difficult.

In Syria's civil war, a third party fights for autonomy against Syrian rebels and Assad's government troops: Syria's Kurds. Turkey's own Kurd population watches, and tensions increase, especially for those sympathetic to the PKK, who have waged insurgencies for freedom. Margaret Warner reports.

Jennifer Fitzgerald's family and friends have been greatly impacted by superstorm Sandy, and though she immediately got involved in relief efforts in her Staten Island community, she felt that her poetry would be another way to reach a much larger audience and explain the physical and emotional impact Sandy had on New York.

In addition to arresting activists, the Iranian government has also targeted the people who would defend them and tell their stories. Reporting in affiliation with the Center for Investigative Reporting and KQED, Spencer Michels looks at cases of Iranian attorneys and journalists charged with acting against national security.

Jeffrey Brown and NewsHour political analysts Mark Shields and David Brooks discuss the week's top political news, including the U.S. role in an evolving and conflicted Middle East, President Obama's trip to Asia, criticism of Ambassador Susan Rice, Jesse Jackson Jr.'s resignation and what they are thankful for in U.S. politics.

The violence in Syria's 20-month conflict has moved eastward, closer to Turkey's border, and more players have entered the ring, including Syrian Kurds fighting against rebel forces. Ray Suarez talks to Margaret Warner from Istanbul about the price of the war for Turkey and the country's request for aid from the U.S.

A group of Palestinians who surged toward a Gaza border fence were met by Israeli troops who opened fire. The incident left one Palestinian man dead and 19 other wounded. A top Hamas official says the shooting will not affect the cease-fire with Israel that took effect earlier this week.

After a successful stint as the primary mediator to negotiate a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi took additional presidential powers, leading to protests largely led by non-Islamic groups. George Washington University's Nathan Brown talks with Ray Suarez about what motivated Morsi's actions.

When elected in June, Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi was a symbol of the change from dictatorship to burgeoning democracy. But as Morsi granted himself sweeping powers he deemed necessary to prevent old regime figures from halting progress, Egyptians didn't stand idly by. Jeffrey Brown reports on the latest protests.

Backed by Theodore Roosevelt, Edward Curtis set out in 1900 to document the lives of Native Americans. Over the next 30 years, he took more than 40,000 pictures and 10,000 audio recordings. Jeffrey Brown talks to Pulitzer Prize winner Timothy Egan about his new biography about Curtis, "Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher."

Many Americans will head to the mall after Thanksgiving dinner to snag retail deals once reserved for the early morning of "Black Friday." But as retailers fear a sluggish consumer spending holiday season, more are opening on the actual holiday. Hari Sreenivasan talks to Barney Jopson of The Financial Times.

Sleep deprivation can cause serious health and cognitive problems in humans. In short, it can make us fat, sick and stupid. But why do humans need so much sleep? Science correspondent Miles O'Brien talks to scientists on the cutting edge of sleep research and asks if there's any way humans might evolve into getting by with less.

Two years after a rig operated by British Petroleum exploded, spilling oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the company agreed to plead guilty to felony charges and is expected to pay $4.5 billion in fines. Jeffrey Brown talks to ProPublica's Abrahm Lustgarten and John Young, president of Jefferson Parish, La., for their reactions.

Diana Reed, a 56-year-old Tennessee woman who was caretaker for her husband Wayne, died suddenly of fungal meningitis after receiving tainted steroids for neck pain. Cases like Reed's have put regulatory oversight on compounding pharmacies into question, with the FDA saying it needs more authority to help keep consumers safe.

With more than 20 Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip and at least 10 Palestinians dead -- including a Hamas military official who topped Israel's wanted list -- the latest violence has inflamed longstanding tensions between Israel and Palestinians. Ray Suarez talks to Times of London's Sheera Frenkel from Jerusalem.