♪ >> tonight on pbs news weekend, what to have legally and politically for former president trump as he makes his appearance in a manhattan court. one major health insurance company is using ai to deny claims. >> it's hard to find the time and wherewithal to figure out how to appeal. very few do. >> president biden's complicated relationship with the oil and gas street and environmentalists. ♪ >> major funding for pbs news

weekend provided by -- >> for 25 years, consumer cellular's goal has been to communicate and connect. our customer service team can help find a plan for you. ♪ >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour. this program was made possible for the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you.

thank you. >> good evening, i'm john yang. president biden declared a disaster in arkansas this morning, pledging federal resources to help recovery there after severe storms, tornadoes struck across the south, midwest and east cst. cleanup is underway as families pick through the rubble created by confirmed or suspected tornadoes in 10 states. storms level businesses, tore roofs off churches and toppled trees. 26 people have died. in russia, an explosion at a café in st. petersburg killed a prominent pro-war military blogger. a dozen others were injured. russian media reports there have been no claims of responsibility. antony blinken spoke with russia's foreign minister calling for the immediate

release of a wall street journal reporter detained in russia last week as well as another imprisoned american. saudi arabia and other opec oil producers say they will voluntarily cut production from may to the end of '23. the saudi energy ministry called it a precautionary step aimed at stabilizing the market. it's a move that could raise prices at the pump, further straining u.s.audi relations as the world continues to cope with inflation. asa hutchinson says he is running for president. the longtime republican offered himself as an alternative to donald trump, urging the former president to focus on his legal troubles. >> the office is more important th any individual. for the sake of the office of the presidency, i think that is too much of a distraction. >> he says he will formally

announce his run later this month, that would make him the fourth candidate in the republican race. the taliban closed the only radio station in afghanistan run by women. the taliban barred women from most quarters of employment and education beyond the sixth grade. the afghan journalists lost their jobs after the taliban took over in 20 when he won. -- 2021. how ai is being used to deny claims and the biden administration's complex relationship with fossil fuels, to come. >> this is pbs news weekend from weta studios in washington, home of the pbs newshour, weeknights on pbs. >> america enters uncharted waters this week as donald trump

is to appear in a new york court to face the first criminal charges ever brought against a former president. the indictment charges him with 30 counts stemming from hush money payments allegedly made to women ring the 2016 presidential campaign. polling shows him leading the '24 presidential field those of the topics of today's weeken briefing with chuck and sarah longwell, a republican strategist and the founder of the republican accountability packed. chuck, this hearing he will go to on tuesday is a routine procedure called an arraignment. the former president is referring to it as being arrested. chuck: it's a routine proceeding. the defendant appears. enters a pleof not guilty. the indictment is unsealed. he's given a copy.

the judge does some logistics. he or she sets the date for trial or motions. it is a rather brief and uninteresting procedure. john: this is not a routine case. what is a trial ing to look like? what would you imagine a trial would look like? chuck: i hope, in a sense it looks like any other trial for any other person. a fair jury is impaneled, the judge presides in a dignified way and both ses present whatever evidence they choose to present. it's important that whatever judge presides over this treated like any other case, even if we think about it as very different than any other case. john: we mentioned in the intro about some polling. there was a yahoo! news ugov

poll after the indictment came out. it showed trump widening his lead against the santos -- desantis and then well ahead when he was put up against a larger field of candidates. what you make of that? sarah: this is what you would call a rally around trump effect. you've seen every elected republican official come out in defense of trump, all the conservative news sites make vociferous defenses of trump. even has 2024 likely opposing candidates have been out defending him. you will see a temporary bump for trump. the question is, is it a short-term effect? it certainly is, but how short? the length of a gop primary? a week? a lot of that will depend on two factors. one is the quality of donald

trump's opposition. someone like ron desantis figure out how to use this as a political opening to go after trump. unless that happens, and it's also a question of how many other indictments are there? if there is more and you continue to see all the focus and oxygen being absorbed by trump, it creates a dynamic where all the other contenders being supporting cast members in donald trump's drama. there is no other room for them to make an affirmative case for why they should be the '24 nominee and that would be how trump would n this nomination again. john: you had a focus group friday with people who voted for donald trump in '16 and 2020. sarah: people were very upset, angry on trump's behalf. they were saying things like they were more excited to give him money, if there would be a

t-shirt with his mug shot on it. they were likely to buy it. most importantly, they said every single one of them wanted to support him for the 2024 nomination. i haven't had a group of two-time trump voters where everybody has wanted to support donald trump in months. there's been this big opening lately, especially since the '22 midterms were a lot of voters are interested in ron desantis. you usually get a big chunk of the group interested in moving on from trump. believing he had too much baggage. this group was 100% all in on trump. john: federal investigations, his handling of classified documents, his role in january 6, the investigation in georgia about overturning the election. how does this all play together? does one affect another? chuck: yes and no.

sometimes, when there are parallel investigations, prosecutors in different jurisdictions will coordinate work to the extent they are permitted by law. even if that doesn't happen and he's indicted in other places, he simply has to respond and appear in all of them. you would hope there was some level. there may not be. that doesn't help mr. trump in the end. he's indicted in three places, he has to appear in three places, and if he so chooses defend himself in three places. john: among these charges, investigations, he's only been charged in one, do voters differentiate between allegations? do they see one is more serious than another? sarah: it's not as much the voters as it is the right wing media. folks on the right are much more eager to defend this. they think this is the weakest case.

especial politicians on fox news are happy to defend him on this because they don't think it is strong. they will be less happy to defend him potentially on indictment around january 6 or putting pressure on georgia election officials to find votes. those will be tougher for them to defend. i don't think you will see the big, emotional, our democracy is ending rhetoric from many people. right now the voters are taking cues from media and elected officials, all of whom are acting like this is a tremendous miscarriage of justi. john: it is one thing to get an indictment, another to get a conviction. what are the challenges? does trying a former president present special challenges for the prosecution? chuck: all cases do. in order to get an indictment, you have to meet probable cause standard, one of the lowest standards of the law. in order to obtain conviction by

a unanimous jury, you need to be beyond a reasonable doubt, the highest standard in the law. there's a huge golf between probable cause and proof beyond a reasonable doubt. by the way, evidence introduced in court is challenged by the other side, cross-examined and they can bring other witnesses. there's a big difference. good prosecutors don't just indict a case because they can obtain probable cause. they know they are going to have to try the case. our rules, as federal prosecutors, was not to indict a case unless you have a reasonable probability of conviction. there's a big difference between those standards. prosecutors understand they have to meet the more difficult standard in court. john: sarah longwell, chuck rosenberg. interesting week. thanks veryh. ♪

when health insurance companies deny claims, an appeal is not likely. federal data shows companies issued 49 million denials in '21. customers appealed .2 of 1% of them. while some denials come with specifics, most explanations are vague. ally explores how one major company is using ai to assess and often deny claims in bulk. reporter: investigative journalist at pro-public a found cigna uses an automated system to instantly reject claims on medical grounds without opening the customer file. summer accusing it of using the system to help cut cost, which cigna denies. ryan miller worked on this story, maia, thank you for

joining us. explain how the system works. >> when you go to a doctor or see your provider, they will send in a claim to your health insurance plan. they will list the diagnosis they think you have and tests or procedures they want to run. there is a process developed at cigna a decade ago in which they created this code, computer code, algorithm, that says we will approve them if they match certain conditions but if they don't match another condition, let's say a diagnosis, they don't think is worthy of that treatment, then it will be sent to the desk of a medical director, which is a company doctor, and that dr. will be able to quickly sign off on rejecting that claim and saying we are not going to cover it. last year that happened in under two seconds. these medical directors were essentially saying for 50 patients at a time, they

wouldn't even open a file, but they were signing their name often saying, actually this claim is not medally necessary and so we are not going to cover it. >> i want to read from a statement cigna provided. they say this automated progress "allows us to claim quickly and allows directors time to look at more complex reviews." it also says "even denial should not result in out-of-pocket costs for patients who are using in network fighters -- in network providers." >> on the first statement, it's true se of the claims that are processed through the system, which is called pxdx, if they match diagnoses and treatments on the list, if the code sees there is a match, they will be automatically approved. wever, there is about to them that automatically denied. that is what we are focusing on,

the batch of claims which we found, in two months last year exceeded 300,000 claims. not an insignificant amount. to the second point about this should not result in any out-of-pocket costs for patients. unfortunately the reality is, oftentimes when we go to a doctor, nurse or provider, we often have to sign off on a form and in that form we are saying, we will take christmas ability financially for this -- we will take responsibility financially for this, so it often gets shunted onto the patient. >> what kind of treatments are talking about that are getting routinely denied? >> unfortunately, we were looking for a comprehensive list of these claims that processed through the system. we know not all of the claims cigna has ends up going through the system but of those that do we learned vitamin d testing is labeled as part of the system.

autonomic nervous system testing, to test whether your nerves are working well -- oftentimes if you have diabetes or other autoimmune disease, you can have some nerve damage in your fingers and toes. testing to figure that out among other conditions, unfortunately, we could not find a comprehensive list of all the different procedures that are tagged for the system but those were to that we were able to conclude. >> cigna and all insurers in claims denials issues will say there is always the eel process -- the appeal process. what does that look like in reality? >> one in seven claims are denied across the country. health insurance claims. it affects a lot of people. one study found .1% of all people who experience denials actually took it to do a formal appeal. when you are going about your day today, maybe you are facing

illness, a disease, a chronic disease, it's hard to find the time and wherewithal to figure out how to appeal claims. reality is, very few people do. we found through reporting, cigna had a presentation in which they were putting forward the idea to put on autonomic nervous testing through the systemnd in the cost-benefit analysis assessing whether to do this, they assumed 5% of patients would end up appealing this and that was part of the calculation of whether to put this test into this program or to leave it out. reporter: cigna is not the only insurer with an automated system like this. do you have a sense of how prevalt automated systems are righ now in the health system writ large? >> it appears to be prevalent. insurance companies deal wh millions of claims. in order to stay on top of this and maintain efficiency which is what they said, they have turned

to algorithms and computer programs to process claims as quickly and efficiently as possible, is what they say. it seems this kind of technology is prevalent across the industry, although we are still repoing, for other insurance plans, we are trying to confirm that. it seems pretty pervasive. reporter: there was a robust debate happening about the hazards of using ai. where does this conversation fit into the broader debate about utility and hazards of using artificial intelligence? >> great question and one we are posing to regulators right now. the former insurance commissioner of califnia, dave jones, told us in the statutes, you need to have a thorough, fair and objective assessment of patient claims and if a medical director or company doctor for an insurance plan is really

looking at a claim in less than two seconds on average, can you achieve that result? i would pose that question to the lawmakers, regulators, to see where they would stand on that. >> my ml or, thank you for your time. >> thanks for having me. ♪ john: for the second time in the last three weeks, the biden administration moved forward with plans to drill for oil on federally owned lands. 73 million acres, roughly the size of arizona. earlier, the administration approved the controversial willow project in alaska, and $8 million oil drilling venture. ben lafave covers the energy

industry for political. mr. biden said in 2020, no more drilling on federal lands, no more drilling including offshore, no ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, period. what happened? >> we always see candidates running for office promising one thing, most likely intending to do that thing when they get in but as soon as they step foot in the oval office, reality steps and and changes plans. with this latest oil se in the gulf of mexico, biden had to follow the law. these sales are run twice a year. they got away with not having any last year. there time ran out legally and they had to do it this time. john: i read somee they need the revenue for budget reasons? >> drilling for oil, anywhere on public land, the government gets a cut of the proceeds.

the rest goes to conservation efforts. it's a big chunk of change. this last lease sale, wednesday resulted in $264 billion, the highest amount the government's gotten for one of these lease sales since 2014. john: what does this do for environmentalists? >> it's not made it easy. environmentalists were already angry at the administration for willow. this time around, the biden administration did not put out a press release. it shows how sensitive they are to being seen as facilitating oil development. they had to do this to keep the legal promises to the oil industry. in willow, what the administration tries to hew the middle of the road and gets hit by political cars. their relationship has gotten better. they were at each other's throats.

over the past two years, especially with russia's invasion of ukraine, helping to scramble trade flows and commodity markets, the industry, the administratin have been talking more often. i don't think they are in love with each other. there seems to be a grudging respect and a thawing of relationships. john: are there environmental concerns? are therworries about the willow project inlaska? and the gulf of mexico? >> there are for both. alaska, the north slope is in the middle of nowhere. the fear is if we have any big catastrophe other, there's not a lot of emergency management or response nearby. it's not like local fire stations could rush out. the gulf of mexico, we saw the deepwater horizon accident. the gulf of mexico is closer to places that n get emergency teams out. it is still fairly far away.

if you have a big accident, that's a major ecosystem in danger. john: what has the administration done or is doing to fulfill the promise of weaning the s. off fossil fuels or trying? >> after this latest announcement about the gulf of mexico lease, they also announced major conservation efforts. they would allow nonprofits to lease federal lands to keep it in a natural state. last year, we had the inflation reduction a and the bipartisan infrastructure law. those ceded a lot of money to clean, renewable energy innovations and infrastructure. the administration will say we haveo do some fossil fuel stuff to stay within the law and make sure fuel prices don't rise too high for the average family. we are doing things, and the next 5-10 years you will see a major rebalancing of u.s. energy

reply. john: ben lafave, thank you. >> tnk you. ♪ john: online tomoow morning, our livestream of the announcement of the first astronauts chosen to crew an artemis lunar mission, all that and more on pbs.org/newshour. that is pbs news weekend for this sunday. i'm john yang. for all my colleagues, thanks for joining us. have a good week. >> major funding for pbs news weekend has been provided by -- >> for 25 years, consumer cellular has been offering plans designed to help people do more of what they like. our customer service team can help find a plan that fits you. ♪

[captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> 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. ♪

(bright music) - i love easter. it's one of my favorite times of year, full of new life and hope. (bright music) it's a time when food is at the very heart of our celebration. in my family, easter isn't easter without hot cross buns, simnel cake, and of course, roast lamb. as well as showing you how to cook some of my easter favorites... it doesn't get better than this. in these two programs, i'm off to find out how britain's many vibrant christian communities commemorate easter. (bright music) (speaking in foreign language) - why cooking has such an important place. what does that say? - have faith in my cooking. - have faith in my cooking. well, you certainly did have faith in my cooking. (he laughs) - found one! - [mary] and why food is particularly symbolic

at this time of year.