b captioning sponsoredwnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sundayjune 9: the stalemate in venezuela reaches the five month mark; fighting fire with fire; and in our signature segment, two decades after his hit album" supernatural," carlosantana just released his 25th album, paying tribute to the contint of africa. next on "pbs newshour weekend." >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. seton melvin. the cheryl and philip milstein family. dr. p. roy vagelos and diana t. vagelos. the j.p.b. foundation. rosalind p. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided

by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for publicroadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs statio fthank you.s like you. from the tisch wnet ncudios at n center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thanks for joining us. president trump began his day today disping a "new york times" report that details of friday's u.s.-mexico agreement were "already promised" in discussions between officials that took place months ago. the "times" reported unnamed officials from both countries said the mexican government hadlready pledged to send troops to its southern border in march. president ump tweeted that the report was "false" and "we have been trying to get se of these border actions for a long time..." but didn't get them," ...until our signed agreement

with mexico." the president also tweeted this weekend that mexico has agreed to buy "large quantities of agricultural product" from u.s" farmers "mediately," although he did not say that was part of the new agreement. at a rally last night in tijuana, mexican president andres m supporters that prior to friday's agreement he was prepared to impose retaliatory tariffs on the u.s. >> ( translated ): we celebrate the important agreement of yesterday because it was a very difficult situation, very awkward doing the same and applying tariffs to some products of the united states. >> sreenivasan: foreign minister marcelebrard, who helped negotiate the agreement, told the crowd that mexico has" emerged with our dignity intact." hundreds of thousands of demonstrators marched in hong kong today to prott government-sponsored extradition legislation.l the proposed buld allow residents of hong kong to be extradited to mainland china to face criminal charges. opponents argue thatsthina's legal will not offer the same rights as those in semi-

aunomous hong kong and tha the bill threatens hong kong's legal independence. the demonstrators marched for hours-- ending up afr dark outside governmentffices. police lined the area and reportedly used pepper spray on some protestors. hong kong's government issued a statement sunday night saying the bill would preventong kong from becoming a haven for fugitives and said the government wants to engage with protestors "through calm and rational discussion." the extradition bill is scheduled to be presented to hong kong's legislature on wednesday. shops were closed and streets were empty in sudan today. leaders of the protest movement against the ruling military-led government called for a general strike beginning today-- the first day of the work week there. in khartoum, people lined at up at the few open bakeries and at gas stations.ti the opposion movement is demanding civilian control of sudan's government. last week, security forces killed dozens of protestors who were holding a sit-in. venezuela reopened its border tewith colombia yesterday

four months of blockades and closures of main crossing points. thousands crowded onto roads and bridges to cross into colombian towns where they could purchase food, medicine and goods not available in venezuela. g the venezuelernment of nicolas maduro closed the busy border crossings in february when opposition leader jn guaidó called for international humanitarian aid to be trucked in. the u.s. and dozens er countries are supporting guaidó and ntinue to call for madur to step down. for more on the situation in venzuela, john otis reports venezuela and colombia for n.p.r. and joi us now via skype from bogota colombia. i know you're working on a story now. e border crossing, we've seen or heard of hundreds if not thousands of peoplwanting to get across that border to just get basic goods. >> well, yes, it is quite significant news for desperate venezuelans, bouause when y have the border bridges blocked, they're actually blocked withpi

sh containers, so people couldn't get across the bridge, but they could still get into colombia, and that wou have to use these clandestine food -- footpaths used by drug smugglers. there are rial gangs, and there are quite oftenhootouts, so it's dangerous. they would also have to cross the river that forms the boarder. i was up there recent limp they would wade across the river up to their chest in water. i met won woman bringinher son across the border across the river, and she was bringing himo the boarder to go to a daycare center on the colombian side. she had to cross the river once to drop her son off, then go back to the venezuelan side to work. she'd cross again in the afternoon to pick up her son and go home. that was four timrossing the river. you can see how tough it can get to get intoolombia with those borders officially closed. but now they're opening up again. >> sreenivasan: now, these are venezuelans that have opted to stay there. but there have been an otplow

of venezuelans leaving the country over the past couple years. >> that's correct. the latest figures from the u.n. show that four million venezuelans have left the country. most of those just in the last y fors. the u.n. is calling it the biggest exodus in recent latin american history. these are venezuelans of all stripes from professnals to as station attendants to students looking fetter life, and they've actually become another major lifeline for vends lands who are back in venezuela becaople back in venezuela really depend on u.s. dollars coming back into the country to deal with hyperinflation and 2t high cost of living there. >> gen that situation, i know you had a chance to speak to ortinguaidoó on your rep ip, what does he think is possible? >> well, when i spoke to guaido, pposition forces he represents were involved in neg shitions in --otiations

in norway with the government ou nicolaás . there wasn't much progress being made, and guaido sounded down and out on the whole process. neither side wants to back down. the opposition isaying nicolaás maduro must leave off, and maduro is saying, i'm notgoing anywhere. the military is still supporting maduro. r so it's l stalemate right now. guaidoó is callin more street protests. he keeps calling on maduro the leave office. he's trying to connce military leaders to turn against maduro, but even if they did, if there was some kind of a military coup in venezuela, there is no guarantee that would result in a democratic government. you might have a situation say as in egypt where the military takes over and maintainsro co >> sreenivasan: what happens in the interim? he has his supporters. it doesn't seem to be forcing change. it's been nths now. how long does he think he can continue?

>> the maduro government doesn' seem particularly interested in arresting godid guó, because they could have if they wanted to already. and guaidoó has been barnstormig the country since january when he claimed that nicolaás maduro an an illegitimate president because of fraudlast year's presidential election. he's getting a lot of support a he goes around the country, a lot of people have been comingto ouee him. he does provide a kind of ray of ho for most venezuelans who don't like their current government and they want madtouo eave, but still he's not really showing the way out. he has not been able to -- he wasn't able tou getmanitarian aid in this country. he hasn't been able to turn the litary to turn against maduro. at this stalemate goes on, he's likely l theose some of that popular sport he enjoys. >> sreenivasan: john otis joining us from bogota, colombia. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> sreenivasan: pacific gas and

electric shut off power to more than 20,000 residents in northern california today. the blackouts, the first of the 2019 fire season, are fire safety precautions during a hot, dry, and windyeekend. northwest of sacramento residents were ordered to evacuate yesterday afternoon as the fast-moving "sand fire" spread across nearly 2,000 acres. by sunday afternoon the sand fire was 0% strong winds that fueled the blaze were expected to die down. pg&e was found responsible for the "camp fire" in 2018 that killed 85 people and destroyed 19,000 homes, businesses, and other structures in the area around the norther ocalifornia toparadise. the utility filed for bankruptcy protection in january and is facing at least $30-billion in liability charges from two years of wildfire-caused damages. we'll have more on fire prevention techniques later in the program. reports of gunfire at washinon, d.c.'s annual pride parade late yesterday afternoon caused panic and sent severale people to thspital with minor injuries. people ran through the streets, knocked over barricades and hid in nearby buildings as word spread.

a spokesman for the police department said no shots were fired, but that they did arrestp a man who was session of a gun. for more on california's wildfires and the controversial pohir blackout implemented t weekend visit pbs.org/newshour. 2018 was onef the worst wildfire seasons in u.s. history. tastrophic blazes like t camp fire in northern california destroyed entire cities and killed nearly 100 people. as this years' wildfire season ramps up, a new report from climate central shows how a key prevention strategy has not been used as widely as it could be in fire prone aas in the western u.s. i spoke yesterday via skype with crystal kolden. she's an associate professor of fire sciences at the university of idaho, and the author of a new paper in the journal "fire" on the use of prescribed fire or controlled burns across the u.s. crystal, just so everyone has

kind of an understanding, what's a prescribed burn? how do we have a controlled burn? >> a prescribed buris one that is set intentionally by fire management, and it's very different from the wildfire, whicis unintentional. it's also very different from what some people see on the new during wildfires, which are the burnout operatis or back burns. those are set to try to stop a scfire. a prbed fire is done well ahead of time, trying to remove fuels from an area that cold burn to either prevent or minimize fir. >> sreenivasan: this is something that's been happening for hundreds of years? >> even lger than thatch indigenous people globally and particularly in rth america actually did a lot of prescribed burning, controlled burning lono europeans settled this country. so there's a long history of using fire intentionally in the landscapes and in parts of the u.s. we've been using it in a

managev context for al decades. >> sreenivasan: part of your research, you have maps thatp show a big n how th prescribed burns are used in differntt parts of the cou. in the lower right southeast corner in the united states, they're being used a lot more than in the west, where we rely think of big fires being. >> that's true. the southeastern u.s. states have been using prescribed fire for over eight deades. and they really got going using it because they recognized that it was good for improving their timb production. it was good for industry. it was also really good for game habitat. prescribed fire was one of the way to improve the habitat. they have seen the bener ts of that oe decades since. so they use a lot of prescribed fire in the southeast, millions of acres every single year. in the wt we're not even close to that. >> sreenivasan: why is that? what's the west scared of? whis the policy different in the west than it is in the east? >> there's a lot of reasons. it's really hard to pinpoint

one. in some places it has to do with the air quality concerns. people are not big fans of smoke, of course, and prescribed fire always produces smoke, although there's a fair amount of science that shows that smoke is much less dangerous than wildfire smoke and is much easier to control in terms of length of time that it's imcting people than wildfire smoke. there are other concerns just if termear of fires. there have been instances where prescribed fires have escaped control and become wildfires. and people in the west are not used to seeing a lot of fire on the landscape except forfi wis. it's really different in the southeast. people that have lived in theca southeast for s are sort of used to it. limated tory much acc seeing prescribed fire being used widely in their become yards andirhe communities. the outcome of that is that they sea lot less wild fire. >> sreenivasan: tell me about

the correlation. if you have less fuel, i'm assuming you have less wildfires. so in the southeast, if you can see the correlation between a lot more prescribed burnsa lot less fuel, a lot less out-of-control wifires, is the inverse the case in the west? >> that's what we had 'sprophesized. eally hard to point to a single wildfire or a single prescribed fire and oh, that prescribed fire prevented the wildfire from spreading and becoming a disaster, vice versa, adf wile as bad as it was because there was no spriebed fire. it's really had to they ve that on an individual fire level. what we do with that is across the west and across the southeast and the rest of the country, where d have a lot of prescribed fire reducing fuel and notn evecessarily preventing fire, because fires are always going tot start, bu what's important to recognize is that prescribed fire really just reduces the fuel availkele to hat fire hotter, burn more out of conrtrol, andoduce the

types of negative impacts that we don't want to see, thikengs ousing burning down or worst-case scenari fatalities. so prescribed fire really reduces the chances of a hetastrophe. >> is a kind of national conversation on the policy level about this? if something needs to change, what has to happen o create that change? >> there's a lot of things that have to change. fire agencies at the national level, also at the state and local levels, they all recogniz this. and where they are challenged is that they're stuck very much in a cycle of having to spend all of t bhedget on suppressing wide first in the wes yt. an know, the other challenge is that they really need a lot of support from the public. and that's a key cultural difference between the southeast and the west. tural's enormous cul support for prescribed fire in the southeast, and in the west there's not that support. we have prescribed fire councils all over the country, and there's just not as much

involvement in those prescribed fire councils in th west by the general public. if the public wants to bepr supportive oscribed fire and having it reduce the risk of wildfire, that's one avenue that they can get involved in. they can help try and change some of those policies and to help try and improve the amount of prescribed fire on the landscape. >> sreenivasan: all right. crystal kolden joining us live .ia skype, thank you >> you're welcome. >> sreenivasan: 's a year of anniversaries for famed guitarist carlos santana, and the band that bears his name. later this summer he'll be celebrating 50 years since both the release of the group a first album their legendary performance at woodstock. m but this monks the 20th anniversary of his biggest hit record of all, and he's on the road with a brand-new album released just two days ago. newshour weekend's tom casciato recently sat down with carlos santana at the musician's home base in las vegas, and has our story.

♪ ♪ >> reporter: it wath20 years ago month that carlos santana released what would become one of the biggest hit albums in music history, the grammy-winning classic, "supernatural." this record was a worldwide phenomenon. >> so they tell me, it's like i'm right there with, we got right there with michael jackson "thriller" and the eagles "greatest hits." >> reporter: that's the top of the top in sales. >> that's good company to be with. >> reporter: "supernatural" was a superstar-filled affair. one song was written by and featured lauryn hill. ♪ yo watch the master plan the pastures span ♪ through the streets move the sheep ♪ flipped the beat like the shepherd ♪ >> reporter: dave matthews co-wrote and guested on anothere ♪ you are, that's where i want to be ♪ >> reporter: and, of course, the co-writer and singer of the smash hit "smooth" was rob t omas. ♪ or else forgeout it ♪ ♪o

>> reportecelebrate the 20th anniversary of "supernatural," carlos santana company have embarked on what they're calling the "supernatural now" tour. ♪ ♪r but with o albums to his name, carlos santana has never rested on his laurels. and the new tour is accompanied by a new album. produced by the prolific rick rubin, it's called "africa speaks and carlos santana seessi his new muc as the logical extension of a rhythmic tradition he'sssong been obseed with. eell me about "africa speaks." >> we requested torick rubin. and i presented to him with the weconcept because he said,, what do you want to do?" you know just straight up. i says, "i want to play ythms that they don't play in coachella." rick rubin called me back says, "i'm in, i heard t songs," and we recorded, again, 49 songs in ten days. and these are just like or 14 songs from that batch. ♪ ♪

>> reporter: wow. that's a lot of work. m >> well, see fit wasn't work. i feel like a fire hydrant that it was gushing. not little twinkles of water, we were gushing a lot. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: santana has always been known for infusing his work with sounds that go beyond the fusion of rock and latin music he's known for. in fact he's written that the group "was never a purebred when it came to music. we were always a mutt." ♪ ♪hm and african rhhave always been part of the band's repertoire. in fact the song "jing composed by the famed nigerian percussionist babatunde olatunji, was among the earliest they performed. ♪ ♪ it's a song the band still play ♪ ♪

>> somebody asked me, "if africa speaks what does it say toou?" to me it ss invite people to hope and courage. give them encouragement. because african music has this naked awareness of pure joy. you don't want to cure yourself if you're happy. you only want to hurt yourself when you're unhappy. thto's, you know, nobody goe see a therapist, analyst, psychiatrist when you're happy. >> reporter: where "supernatural" featured a ra of lead vocalists, "africa speaks" has just one: the spanish singer of equatorial-guinean descent: buika. ♪ tina was no deceiver ♪ few were inclined to believe her ♪ aba tina oh who you have there ♪ breakin' down the door it is the first time we ever had a female spirit solely on every song. her singing is a combination of

everything that slove about nione, etta james and tinarn and more. yet she doesn't sound like them♪ ♪ >> reporter: the music has an tarthy sound. but for carlos s, buika's vocals and the rest of the band's performance put his new work on a plane he preo speak of in philosophical terms. >> you know, this music, you get eto this trance. this outside of boerience where you-- you're dancing with absoluteness. it has that... it starts off as a ceremy, but it enters a vortex outside of time and outside of gravity. ♪ ♪ because that's what people go to church or they go to rituals in

haiti or africa. musicians do it really, really,o really you know, a musician can make you feel your absoluteness and then they make you cry and laug when a musician really plays it's like you remember your innocence again. ♪ ♪ >> sreenivasan: on tomorrow's newshour, stone by stone, w rebuilding thington national cathedral following a devastating earthquake. are there lessons for paris' notre dame?at all for this edition of" pbs newshour weekend." i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching. have good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group a.wwgbh acceh.org

>> pbs newshour weekend is made: possible bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. seton melvin. the cheryl and philip milstein family. dr. p. roy vagelos and diana t. vagelos. the j.p.b. foundation. rosalind p. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: for by the corporati public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs

ation from viewers like you. thank you. be more. pbs. (dramatic music)

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