♪ geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. tonight on "pbs news weekend"... power crisis -- as people in puerto rico continue to suffer without water and electricity, we get the latest from the island in the wake of hurricane fiona. >> we have communities, three or four feet of water right now with dead animals and water that is septic already. so it can't be pumped out. it's just a huge mess. geoff: then... border fight -- a new lawsuit alleges florida's governor violated the civil rights of migrants when they were flown to martha's vineyard earlier this month. and... climate coitment -- we look at big oil and gas companies' claims they're investing in green energy and helping to

fight climate change. those stories and the day's headlines on tonight's "pbs news weekend." ♪ >> major funding for "pbs news weekend" has been provided by -- >> for 2years, consumer cellular's goal has been to provide wireless service that helps people communicate and connect. we offer a variety of no contract plans, and our u.s.-based customer service team can find one that fits you. toearn more, visit consumercellular.tv. ♪ >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions -- ♪ and friends of "the newshour." ♪

this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. geoff: good evening, it's good to be with you. as we come on the air, florida and parts of the gulf coast are bracing for the impacts of tropical storm ian. florida is already under a state of emergency, and nasa has again called off its artemis moon launch, scheduled for next week, as the storm approaches. forecasters expect the storm to rapidly intensify this weekend, saying it could grow to a category 3 hurricane. meantime, the remnants of hurricane fiona made landfall along canada's east coast early today. the storm battered the shoreline with winds reaching up to 110 miles-per-hour in some places. downed trees and power lines have left hundreds of thousands of canadians without electricity.

fiona is expected to be the strongest storm the country has seen in decades. we will have more on fiona's ongoing toll on puerto rico later in the broadcast. until last night, there were only three major league baseball players to hit 700 home runs in their career. last night, albert pujols of the st. louis cardinals now joins those ranks. pujols sent two home runs into the stands against the l.a. dodgers on friday. when he hit number 700, the entire stadium celebrated. pujols joins babe ruth, hank aaron, and bar bonds in the record books. tennis legend roger federer has played his final match as a pro. federer lost in a doubles match in the laver cup in london yesterday, playing alongside his longtime rival and friend, rafael nadal. when the match ended, federer hugged nadal, and through tears, thanked his family, fans, and the tennis greats who came before him and competed alongside him during his storied

career. roger: just everybody. too many people to thank. it has just been incredible. my god. a fantastic night. thank you everybody. geoff: federer is a 20-time grand slam champion. onlyadal and novak djokovic have more. at the white house last night, president biden surprised singer elton john with the national humanities medal for his legacy in music and activism. john was performing in a special concert for teachers, nurses, frontline workers, and lgbtq advocates. elton john had not performed at the white house since 1998. and, two passings of note... legendary ja musician pharoah sanders has died. the saxophonist was revered for pushing the boundaries of his instrument. sanders was also famous for his collaborations with john coltrane in the 1960's. he was 81-years-old.

and, actress louise fletcher has also died. she won an oscar for her role as nurse ratched opposite jack nicholson in the 1975 film adaptation of "o flew over the cuckoo's nest." because of fletcher's portrayal of the cold, calculating, tyrannical nurse, nurse ratched is considered one of the greatest screen villains of all time. fletcher was 88. still to come on "pbs news weekend"... florida's governor is hit with a lawsuit after allegedly misleading migrants into flying to martha's vineyard this month. and evaluating the fossil fuel industry's claims they're helping fight climate change. >> this is "pbs news weekend" from weta studios in washington, home of the "pbs newshour," weeknights on pbs. geoff: people in puerto rico continue to struggle in the aftermath of hurricane fiona. power outages are widespread, flooding washed out roads and toppled homes, and residents are frustrated and scared.

we heard from people on different sides of the island about how they're coping. on the southwest side of the island, banana trees snapped in half, a mangrove forest where jeanette lives with her granddaughter, could not absorb water fast enough to protect the area from flooding. >> when the water came in, it had nowhere to go, so it tilted up in this area to the point where the water here could easily have been four feet, running into the neighborhood and onto the road. a road that had never been flooded in its life. this time it did flood. it is sad to see hard-working people who have lost their homes, lost their belongin. they tell me no one from the government has come to give them any kind of help and it has been several days. geoff: luis lost nearly everything. he had to evacuate two of his children in the middle of the night as rain from the storm

took over his house. >> i got water in my house and everything was damaged, everything. the fridge, all of the furniture, it damaged everything. that is musical equipment, that is a dance floor, all of it filled with at lea two feet of water. all these containers at the bottom were destroyed. here we are trying to do everything you can do and save everything i can. geoff: luisa is a community on the northeast of the isld known for itsich afro puerto rican heritage. until today, it was not eligible for individual disaster aid from fema. >> the water has not come down yet. we have communities in three or four feet of water right now. with dead animals, water that is septic already, it cannot be pumped out. it is a huge mess. geoff: tonya runs a nonprofit focused on health inequities.

her team of volunteers was hard at work putting together care packages of food for residents she says are desperately needed. >> our governor is assaying supplies -- is saying supplies were enough and to not bring supplies because it is a logistical probl. while we have communities underwater. those kinds of cruelty and how you treat the emergency and lack of sensitivity from elected officials. geoff: for more on the ground, i am joid by the caribbean correspondent for the associated press, who has been covering fiona and the island's recovery. thank you for being with us. >> thank you for having me. geoff: more than half of puerto rico is still without power more than five days after fiona struck. what are you seeing on the ground? >> immense frustraon. people have already been through

hurricane maria, and after that storm, some people were up to a year without power. this time they were not expecting that. fiona, there was a historic amounts of rain, but the wind was not a problem. no one expected to be without power six days after the storm. 290,000 clients without water. more than five days after the storm, no power, no water, long lines for diesel, long lines for gas, for food. some people feel like they are reliving maria. geoff: puerto rico's electrical grid was taken over by a private company called luma lt year but i understand they have not been clear about the status of what is ppening. give us a sense of what is going on. >> it is hard to say. i spoke with an expert yesterday, an electrical generic expert and professor, and he said he doesn't understand what the delay is, why there is not

more power restored several days after the storm. a lot of people are feeling that frustration. when you go to press conferences, feels like they are evading the questions and not asking them directly. we have not been given any details about the extent of the damage or what exactly has been damaged. there is sort of up and down, one day -- for two days they announced a vast majority of people would have power. people were believing them, but i the second day, you have annoyed people who realize the power restoration was far off. we don't have an estimate of what fiona did. we know the southern part of the island has been the hardest hit. central areas as well. there are about 50,000 clients of luma that live there. the government said today it would take some time for power

to be restored in those areas but no one has given a more definite date, except to say it will not be months or years. geoff: what about the federal response? fema has said they had more resources and were better prepared to respond to fiona than they were to maria. maria was a more powerful storm. why have there been so many issues with the federal response? >> i think overall people have been satisfied for now. it remains to be seen how quickly the island recovers, but fema early on a sent hundreds of additional crews to puerto rico. with president obama did and compared to former president -- president biden compared to former president trump, some people say they've seen a faster response. the president did declare an emergency disaster declaration and major disaster declaration that allows for more federal assistance. when the major disaster

declaration was declared, it did not cover several of the hardest hit eunice appellees. -- municipalities. that has changed. hopefully help will be coming in soon. i know some neighborhoods have already seen fema crews coming through a meeting with people and asking about the extent of damage to homes. geoff: i want to draw you out a bit more on the frustration you say you are hearing from people. because it's not just fiona, there was maria, there were earthquakes in 2020. the island has grappled with the pandemic. there is obviously a sense of frustration that you spoke to, but also a sense of resilience, i would imagine. >> there is, but i think puerto ricans are tired of hearing that word. they don't want to be resilient, they just want to have a working power grid. resilience is a word that was thrown aroun after maria because they went through incredibly tough times. and again with fiona, people

going through a similar situation, but they don't need to be resilient, they don't want to be resilient. what they want is a government that clearly tells them what the damage was, where it was, how long it will take to repair and more than anything, there was this role expectation that puerto rico was going to bounceback faster from fiona and maria, and that was a big frustration. more than anything, people are feeling that even after fiona, even after the recovery phase, noth will change, and it remains to be seen, the 2024 elections, but many people feel it is the same thing over and over with nothing changing. geoff: a good point, people are tired of needing to be resilient when they want the resources they deserve as texting citizens. thank you so much for being with us. >> thank you. ♪

geoff: the political fight over the migrants sent to martha's vineyard last week on flights arranged by florida governor ron desantis is now a legal one. desantis has been slapped with a class action lawsu for flying roughly 50 people from texas to martha's vineyard without food, shelter, or resources planned. the migrants' arrival to the island was unannounced, and the suit says that desantis and other individuals defrauded vulnerable immigrants to advance a political agenda. the nonprot group lawyers for civil rights, which represents more than 30 of the migrants, alleges in the lawsuit that governor desantis lured the migrants under false pretenses. oren sellstrom is one of the attorneys involved in the lawsuit and he joins us now. thanks for being with us. how did your organization come to represe these migrants and where did the idea for this class action lawsuit originate? oren: well, we began receiving calls about the situation within

hours of the plane touching down on martha's vineyard. people on the island in the community recoized that the people who had just landed were going to need a lot of assistance, certainly some of the necessities like food and shelter, but that there were also serious legal implications. and so at lawyers for civil rights, we were on the ground in martha's vineyard the next morning and really worked around the clock since then to make sure and protect our clients' legal rights. that started with making sure that their individual immigration cases were not prejudiced by this stunt that had been pulled by governor desantis. but at the same time, we recognized that there were significant civil rights implications and that our clients' civil rights had been violated and that there needed to be a lawsuit brought to remedy that. geoff: and looking at the filing, the suit alleges that several dozen migrants were gathered by a woman, and this is

a quote, "to sign a document in order to receive a $10 mcdonald's gift card," and that this woman didn't explain what the document stated and at the document wasn't completely translated into spanish. tell us more about that and give us a sense of what these migrants were promised before they got on the plane. oren: it was really insidious the way that governor desantis' accomplices on the ground in texas worked to gain our clients' trust and then to induce them into this flight. you know, you have to remember that this is a very vulnerable group of individuals already who had fled violence in their home country, who had -- most of them traveled largely by foot across central america and mexico to reach our borders, really saw the united states as a place of refuge and came and presented themselves to federal immigration authorities, were released, and it was then that these folks that were working with governor desantis started

really preying on that vulnerability. geoff: a texas sheriff, as you well know, has launched a criminal investigation into these martha's vineyard flights. your work, of course, focuses on the civil side. you mentioned earlier that their rights were violated, that there are civil rights violations. detail what you consider those to be. oren: our federal constitution protects against illegal seizure, against deprivation of liberty. it guarantees due process and equal protection. we believe all of those rights were violated by this fraudulent inducement. it's also a case of a state interferg in federal immigration authority. and so we have claims based on that as well. but really, it all boils down to this idea that there was fraud and deceit, that our clients were promised jobs, they were promised educational opportunities for their children would be waiting for them at their destination. and it was all deceit and

trickery. geoff: governor ron desantis makes the case, he makes the political argument that these so-called sanctuary jurisdictions, these sanctuary cities, are only feeling a small fraction of what border towns deal with every day as a result of illegal immigration. take a listen to what he said in a press conference earlier this past week. gov. desantis: they don't want to have to pay any type of cost on this. and don't forget, this is an island that advertised to be sanctuary. and they said they didn't have the resources to keep to take 50. well, just imagine how all these other places across our country are having to be do. geoff: so what do you make of that argument? oren: first of all, the idea that this is a conversation that can be started by this kind of political stunt that treats individuals as objects, as political props, is wrong. if we're going to have this conversation about immigration and immigration reform in this

country, it has to start from a place of humanity, of recognizing that people are people and that they're the lived experiences of our clients have to be front and center. but in terms of the actual reception to the migrants when they arrived on martha's vineyard, there was an outpouring of support from the island community and from the commonwealth of massachusetts in general. we here in ts state value people and treat them with the dignity and respect that they deserve. geoff: what are you hoping to achieve with this lawsuit? oren: we want to hold the perpetrators of this stunt accountable, but mostly what our clients told us is we don't want this to happen again to anyone else. they tell us about the feeling of abandonment that they felt when they realized when they stepped off the plane, that everything that had been promised to them was a lie,

essentially -- that feeling of abandonment, that feeling of despair. they've told us over and over again, we don't want anyone else to have to go through that. and that is the prime purpose of the lawsuit. geoff: oren sellstrom is an attorney with the nonprofit group lawyers for civil rights. thanks so much for being with us. oren: thank you for having me. ♪ geoff: to prevent catastrophic increases in global temperatures, international groups say there should be no new investment in fossil fuel projects. the world's biggest energy companies support those goals publicly, but their spending and lobbying suggest they have no ans of slowing down oil and gas development. correspondent ali rogin explores new data showing a disconnect between what major industry players are saying and doing. >> the roads to carbon neutral. ali: on tv, social media and

across the internet... >> our renewables business is part of the world's energy transition. ali: ads for oil and gas companies promoting everything except oil and gas. >> keeping vehicles moving on the road to net-zero. >> investing in lower-carbon technologies. and exploring renewable fuels of the future. ali: the climate action advocacy group influence map studied over 3000 ads and other public marketing materials from the top five oil and gas companies in 2021. 60 percent of those had at least one claim about how the companies were helping fight climate change. but only twelve percent of those companies' spending this year is dedicated to those types of activities. faye: this is how companies are pitchi themselves to the public. ali: influence map analyst faye holder wrote the report. faye: there's this real mismatch between what the companies are suggesting they're doing and what they're actually doing. and if we brought that more in alignment, we would expect to see a lot more spend on genuinely low rbon

alternatives. ali: and influence map says its estimates are conservative. they relied on companies' financial disclosures, which holder says are not always transparent. faye: it's really hard to figure out even with that 12% that we had in the report, how much of that is actually going towards things like renewables the -- like renewables. ali: the united tions' intergovernmental panel on climate change recommends substantial reduction in overall fossil fuel use to limit future global warming to less than 2 degrees celsius. that's the go of the paris climate agreement, which the united states rejoined last year. to achieve that, the global energy sector must stop new fossil fuel projects now, in order to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. that's according to the international energy agency. it's a vision that companies embrace publicly... >> becoming a net zero emissions business by 2050. ali: ...but contradict privately. influence map's analysis found

that four of the top five companies plan to increase oil and gas production over the next five years. and they've made that clear to lawmakers. gretchen: the government should continue to advance the approval d permitting of otherwise ready oil and gas projects. darren: in the near term, the answer is straightforward. if we want to reduce prices, we need to increase supply. ali: the need for more oil and gas reflects several realities says ryan kellogg, professor at the university of chicago, who studies the economics of energy. first, renable energy isn't as readily available as oil and gas. ryan: the issue with low emission energy or zero emission energy is trying to deliver both reliability and sort of low expense at the same time. it's that combination that's really difficult and something we haven't really done yet as a society. ali: and energy companies have to answer to shareholders. ryan: if i'm a fossil fuel company, i'm not going to invest in these technologies if i don't

make money doing it. and that's certainly not what my shareholders are going to want me to do. ali: those priorities are laid out in new internal documents from the energy companies, released by democrats on the house oversight committee. in a 2020 memo, shell urged employees not to give the impression that shell is willing to take actions that do not make business sense. it also asked employees not to imply that net-zero emissions is a sll goal or target and that shell has no immediate plans to move to net-zero emissions in the next 10-20 years. a 2019 exxon memo suggested avoiding language that would commit the industry to enhanced climate-related governance. when asked for comment, a shell spokesperson said the company has invested billions of dollars to transform its portfolio and accelerate a net-zero future, and that by 2025, half of total expenditures will be on low and zero-carbon products. the company also said the documents released by house democrats are actually evidence

of shell's efforts to set aggressive targets, evolve its portfolio and meaningfully participate in the ongoing energy transition. an exxon mobil spokesman criticized influence map's report, saying a selective study without context is a deliberate attempt to generate a narrative. but influence map isn't alone in its conclusions. at least four state attorneys general have ongoing lawsuits against oil and gas companies citing misleading claims about climate change. faye: we've seen the regulation of advertising famously be used to try to curb the sinformation and propaganda coming out of the tobacco industry. ali: but those sorts of regulations take decades to put in place. and activists and international organizations say more needs to be done now, to avert climate disaster. for "pbs news weekend," i'm ali rogin. ♪ geoff: that is our program for

tonight. i'm geoff bennett. for all of us at "pbs news weekend," thanks for spending part of your saturday with us. >> major funding for "pbs news weekend" has been provided by -- ♪ and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions -- ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.]

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