♪ john: tonight on "pbs news weekend," former fema

administrator craig fugate on the lessons learned from this summer's extreme weather, and the future of disaster management in the united states. then, why artificial intelligence is at the center of the ongoing hollywood strikes. and a look at the rise in young people participating in shooting sports and the concerns it raises. >> there's so much more to it than the gun aspect of it. it's the team, it's the mental, it's the physical, it's the resilience of shooting and coming back and showing up. ♪ >> major funding for pbs news weekend has been provided by -- >> consumer cellular, how may i help you? this is a pocket dial. well, somebody's pocket, thought i would let you know that with consumer cellular, you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that is kind of our thing. have a nice day.

♪ >> and with the ongoing support of these iividuals 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. john: good evening. i'm john yang. president biden and the first lady got a firsthand look today at the damage hurricane idalia left behind in northern florida. they surveyed the devastation by helicopter, toured hard-hit ve oak, florida, on and were briefed by federal and local

officials on recovery efforts. the bidens were joined by florida republican senator rick scott, but governor ron desantis was notably absent. an aide to desantis, who's running for the republican presidential nomination, said that the logistics of a meeting with the president would interrupt recovery operations. a week after landing the first spacecraft near the moon's south pole, india is setting its sights on the sun. this morning, india launched a spacecraft that's to travel nearly 1-million miles over 125 days to a point in space that willive it a clear view of the sun. there, it's to study the sun's upper atmosphere and other phenomena like solar winds. and two passings of note. politician and diplomat bill richardson died last night. he was a 2-term governor of new mexico and was in the u.s. house for 14 years. during the clinton administration, richardson was energy secretary and u.n. ambassador. in recent years, as a private citizen, he negotiated the

release of americans wrongly held in places like north korea and russia. wnba star brittney griner's family publicly thanked richardson after her release last year from a russian prison. bill richardson was 75. and, "parrotheads" may be raising a margarita tonight to honor singer-songwriter jimmy buffett, who died last night. buffett parlayed a laid-back island vibe into a multimillion-dollar business empire that includes restaurants, resort hotels and a clothing line. his music offered island escapism, reminding listeners there's always an open spot at the bar. his 1977 breakthrough hit song was "margaritaville," whose easy, carribean rhthym is a portrait of a beach bum drinking the day away. >> ♪ wasting away again and margaritaville yes i am i am searching for my lost shaker of salt

some people think that there is a woman to blame but i know it's my own damn fault ♪ ♪ john: jimmy buffett was 76 years old. still to come on "pbs news weekend," a look how artificial intelligence is an issue in the hollywood writers and actors strikes. and re young americans are taking up shooting sports. ♪ >> this is pbs news weekend, from weta studios in washington, home of the pbs newshour, weeknights on pbs. john: so far this year, the federal emergency management agency, better known as fema, has had to respond to a record number of billion-dollar weather-related disasters. and that doesn't count other events, like the maui ldfires. what's more, in recent years fema has been called on for duties beyond hurricanes,

tornadoes or other extreme weather. they've distributed covid vaccines, sheltered migrant children at the southern border, and helped settle afghans who came to the united states after the taliban takeover. and everytime fema responds to events like hurricane idalia and the maui wildfires, that response is scrutinized. craig fugate was the fema administrator for just about the entire obama administration, from 2009 to 2017. i know you are in a part of florida that felt the effects of idalia. how did you guys fair? >> we were engaged. the coastal communities with storm surge and now power outages across a lot of florida, so is the power is coming back on, things are getting better for some, and others have lost everything. where i and out at, we were on the outskirts. john: we had the maui wildfires d hurricane idalia in less

than one month. it seems the events are becoming more frequent and severe. how would you describe the state of emergency response right now? >> it is perpetual. you used to have one big disaster every decade. now it seems like we are having them on a much more frequent basis, and i think the challenge is, it is no longer geographically just the usual suspects. you are seeing now we, which has not seen this type of disaster and its history. you are seen flooding and rainfall events in parts of the country that have never experienced it. as we have seen in the south in florida, we are seeing more rapid intensification in the hurricanes, and that in turn is leading us to see more impacts from the storms. john: as we noted an introduction, fema is being asked to do more things, set up code vaccination centers, help with afghans who came to the u.s., should those things be

something fema should be doing or is fema overstretched in those areas? >> go back to the aftermath of hurricane katrina, where congress identified fema as one of its crisis management agencies, so while fema is best well-known tadministering response to natural hazards that result in disasters, it does have the authority to respond at the request of the president or other federal agencies to coordinate responses, so it is really about funding and how long it is taking us to recover from the existing disasters. people talk about fema's mission . go back and look at the authorizing language, passed after hurricane katrina, it does not speak to just natural hazards but hazards at the request of federal agency or the president's directions, fema has that approval. john: the biden administration asked for a total of $16 million more for fema.

shouldn't we be thinking about different ways of funding fema? >> we have actually started that. this goes back to 2011, when we faced hurricane irene, and we had less than $300 million in the relief fund. at that time, the then director and then speaker of the house got together and agreed to fund fema at higr levels above the top line of the budget so that they could ensure that all the recurring risks we are seeing that fema was funded. with the more recent frequency of disasters, and having to come in mid-year for supplementals, we may need congress to think about that top line and give more headroom in the budget so they are not having to deal with these issues as we go into the peak of hurricane season. john: i know you were the florida emergency manager for a while, who should be responsible for preparing communities who have a high risk of extreme weather?

is that response ability of the federal government or should state and local officials play a role in that, too? >> this is a shared responsibility. the preparedness, everything from evacuations to getting communities ready, starts at the lower level, but another major impact with the outcome of these disasters is the use of building clothes -- building codes and planning to make sure cities are built to where they are resilient from disasters. if you look at the imagery from the hurricanes, you are seeing homes side-by-side, where one is destroyed on the other is in good shape. that comes down to when was it built and under what code? that is things state and local governments regulate, but it has an impact on the federal taxpayer when it comes to recovering from disasters. john: shouldjohn: the private sector be more involved in not only preparing communities but responding to disasters? >> i learned this back in florida that it is really about partnership.

a lot of utilities are privately owned or in co-ops. the quicker they get power to bat, the less cost it is to federal taxpayer. the quicker busess is open, are able to provide goods and services, and it reduces the demand for the federal government to support that for the states. we call this the whole of community. we had to stop looking at government as the only person or entity that responded to disasters. look at all the volunteer organizations, but for every business that gets backup, for every compy that gets their employees taking care of and starts back that process of getting communities in the recovery mode help reduce the impacts and cost of disaster of recovery. john: craig fugate, thank you very much. >> thank you for having me. ♪ john: on this labor day weekend,

hollywood production remains shut down by two strikes. and as ali rogin reports, one issue is a big factor in both labor disputes. ali: the screenwriters strike has persisted for more than 120 days with no end in sight. actors joined the writers on the picket line this july, striking against the alliance of motion picture and television producers. it's the first dual strike of both hollywood actors and screenwriters in more than six decades and has brought many film and tv productions to a halt. at the heart of these negotiations is figuring out the role of artificial intelligence in hollywood. jules roscoe is a reporter at vice motherboard, specifically focusing on the convergence issues of labor and tech. jules, thank you so much for joining us. explain to me how the issue of ai is playing a role in these strikes. jules: a.i. is one of the two main issues that these writers and actors are focusing on because it is an absolutely new frontier for them when it comes to negotiations, and they're

asking for better regulation on how it's used in the entertainment industry so that they don't get replaced entirely. ali: what are some of their concerns about the current state of regulation and how their likenesses, their voices might be used in the future if a.i. goes without additional regulations? jules: there are currently no regulations, especially when it comes to the contracts between the writers and the actors and the studios. currently, studios are looking to push more and more ai into the entertainment industry because it is cheaper for them to use a.i. than to have actual humans creating this content. and what actors and writers are asking for is regulations for writers, and in particular, how a.i. interacts with them in the writers room and how it's monetized by studios. ali: right. so let's talk a little bit more about how ai is currently being used and how are these actors and writers concerned that it might be used in the future? jules: currently, ai, especially in writers rooms, is being used

to generate new pilot ideas for new shows or to rework a script such that it can be used by a studio without having to have a writer in the room when the the script is being filmed. in relation to actors a lot actors have expressed concerns, especially background actors, about having their bodies 3d scanned and having those scans be used and manipulated by artificial intelligence to fill out the backgrounds of scenes and essentially replace them as a work force. ali: another issue that actors and writers have cited is their work being used to train ai. it's a process called machine learning. tell us a little more about that and how their concerns play into what they're asking for now? jules: machine learning is essentially the process. when you have a computer program that is designed to track patterns and detect patterns in a large set of information or data. and the way that you train this program is you give it a large set of information and you ask it to detect a certain pattern,

and then you grade how accurately it's detected, the pattern you've asked it to detect. the computer program can improve its performance based on number of trials and number of times, hence the term machine learning. the crux of this matter when it comes to the writers and actors strike is that the large sets of data come from the content that writers and actors have generated, and they have not been compensated for any ai training that has been done on that data. ali: it seems like the issues that we're talking about have a lot of applications in other industries. how is the strike? how is this conversation going to be affecting other industries in the future? jules: i think this is absolutely going to set a precedent when it comes to how i -- how ai interacts with the workforce on many, many different levels in many different fields. you think about news, you think about media, you think about education. all of those are fies where i -- ai can have a significant impact because it works faster, because it's able to generate more content. and the regulations that we're going to see hopefully come out of this strike are going to pact those industries as well. so this absolutely does set a

precedent. ali: andastly, in the time we have left, what do we know about what the studios are saying about the demands of actors and writers? jules: studios have, for the most part, especially over a long period of the summer, been unresponsive. there was a point where studios told actors and writers that theidemands for ai are just unreasonable and that instead of having any sort of regulation, they would propose to have pregular meetings to talk about advancements in technology, which is not what the writers have been asking for at all. writers understand that ai is unavoidable. it is the next technological frontier. they're not asking for it to be excluded fully from the writers room. what they're asking for is better regulations on when and how it's used and studios were largely unresponsive to that. but recently, in august, studios have proposed a little bit of a transition where they won't consider material literary material, which means that i -- that ai will not be able to get a writing credit for any material that is used in shows or films.

and that means that writers have a better shot at keeping their jobs and getting paid for their work. ali: jules roscoe with vice motherboard, thank you so much for joining us. jules: thank you very much. ♪ john: for decades, using and owning guns has sparked debate in america. but every year millions of americans use guns recreationally, not just for hunting, but also for target sports like skeet and trapshooting. special corresponent meggan thompson tells us that a growing number of young people are jumping in to shooting sports. we should warn you that this story includes the sound of gunfire. ♪ >> it is 8:00 on a june morning in western minnesota. after paying respects to the american flag, hundreds of high school athletes head out for one of their last competitions of the season. [gunfire]

>> they're facing off in minnesota's trap shooting championship. over the course of nine days, more than 8,000 teenagers will compete. across the country, youth shooting sports have exploded in popularity over the last decade. >> got a cc15 right here. >> organizers claim it's now one of the fastest-growing high school sports and that this is the world's largest shooting sport event. >> do the best you can do. have a good time. >> randal baker and michelle jacklitch coach the 28-member team from wayzata high school, one of the best in the state. the conditions are good today - almost no wind. baker says the team's off to a good start. >> good enough to be on top at the end of the day. >> wayzata high school serves a well-to-do suburban area west of minneapolis. many of the team's families hunt or already have guns at home. we attended the team's last practice before the big competition. >> before you call for the target, that gun should be on your face for half a second. >> there are three main shooting sports involving a shotgun and a clay target.

today the team is practicing "trap." a squad of five shooters stands at stations on the trap field. a voice-activated thrower placed 16 yards away flings the bright orange clay discs into the air. >> right when the person before me fires, i take a deep breath, put it up, exhale partly, hold it, and i'll call pull. >> pull! >> today, and during competition, they'll get 100 shots. >> i love, love trap shooting. i can't even express it. it's a totally different feeling getting up on that line. >> rising senior xena heimbecher has been on the team since seventh grade. unlike most school sports, girls and boys shoot together, although they're scored separately. on this team, some of the strongest shooters are the girls. >> it allows me to do something that most ople don't expect. most people don't even know what it is. >> it's not about whether you're female or male. you can be tall, you can be short. that's one of the beautiful things about this sport. >> i'm more like the nerdy gamer kind of person.

>> rising senior allison plymate is another one of the team's talented shooters. she says the sport's helped teach her to be mentally strong. >> a big part of it is just keeping in the right headspace and staying focused. i used to be a sore loser, and now i've learned to brush it off and keep going, which is exactly what happened today. >> after missing four shots in her third round, she shook it off and shot a perfect fourth round. >> our goal is to get as many kids as possible outdoors. >> john nelson is the president of the u.s.a. clay target league, which organizes the competitions. in the early 2000's, the previous president, jim sable, noticed the average age at his local gun club was over 55, so he started teams at three local high schools, including wayzata. soon there were dozens of teams across minnesota. >> the high school league started in 2012 and then, with funding from cabela's, the outdoor recreation retailer, john nelson and sable began launching clay target teams in other states.

>> in our early days, there was a lot of pushback simply in saying, thank you, no thanks. and we'll close the door real quick after you leave. >> and why? >> well, i think the perception of kids, guns and schools, that that is a negative perception. but it's also we're talking to an audience at doesn't know much about shooting sports. >> but over the last ten years nelson has navigated that pushback. the high school league now operates in 35 states. this past spring, there were more than 1500 teams and 34,000 athletes. hundreds more compete in college and homeschool programs. >> we've had more than a quarter of a million student athletes through this program. and we have never had a reported injury. >> that's because, nelson says, safety is taken extremely seriously. no one can participate until they've completed a gun safety certification program. on each field at wayzata's practice, a parent-volunteer watches to make sure the students are following the rules. >> unloaded.

uncased. pointed down is important. >> recent graduate madi schultz is wayzata's top shooter. >> this is your action. >> when the action is open, the gun is unable to fire. >> the only time we close it is when it's actually, it's our turn to shoot. >> schultz says, athletes must carry the gun straight up or straight down, never pointed at a person. they must wear ear protection, safety glasses and closed-toe shoes. guns are prohibited on school grounds, and all practices are held at off-campus gun ranges. >> safety is the first priority today. >> safety protocols were on full display at the big competition, but evidence of america's political battle over gun rights was not. nelson says the league makes a point of staying out of politics. but one the event's 20 sponsors was the national rifle association, which made donations worth more than $2.7 million to youth and college programs across the country in 2021.

the nra's political arm is known for aggressive lobbying against virtually all gun-control and its involvement here doesn't sit well with kris brown, the president of brady, one of the nation's oldest gun-control advocacy groups. >> for an organization like the nra that is curbed to more guns in all hands, regardless of the consequences, attempting simply to arm more young people with firearms, or are we actually allowing young people to be informed about the true risks, and benefits of firearms. >> brown says she's not opposed to youth shooting sports. but she points to cdc data showing that firearms are now the leading cause of death for young people, accounting for about 20% of childhood deaths in 2020 and 2021. >> the reality is a gun in the home, including something that you take home from this kind of

sporting event is much more likely to harm you or someone in your household than to be able to be used in self-defense. and the nra does not well communicate that risk. >> in an email to "pbs news weekend," an nra spokesman called safety the "bedrock" of its mission, adding that its goal "is to support the future of the shooting sports and traditions." by promoting this sport and having more kids taking guns home with them, how is that not making the situation more dangerous? >> our goal is to is to try to get those kids to understand how dangerous a firearm can be. if they are in an environment where a firearm comes to, i can assure you that one of the kids in our league will make sure that that firearm is unloaded. >> i can understand the controversy. absolutely. >> xena heimbecher says she's gotten some strong reactions when she tells people she's on a shooting team. >> i think a lot of that is a lack of understanding. there's so much more to it than

the gun aspect of it. it's the team, it's the mental, it's the physical, it's the resilience of shooting and coming back and showing up. >> and that's exactly what heimbecher and her teammates did at the big competition. as the long day finally wound down, they anxiously waited for the final results to come in. >> alright. conference 2, first place, female average goes to madi schultz of wayzata high school. [applause] >> schultz was the only female to shoot a perfect 100, a feat that earned her 3 medals. xena heimbecher earned a medal. allison plymate too. and the team as a whole won two first-place trophies, finishing the day exhausted, but full of pride. for "pbs news weekend," i'm megan thompson in alexandria, minnesota. ♪

john: now online, a look at the largest loch ness monster hunting expedition in half a century. all that and more is on our website, pbs.org/newshour. and that is "pbs news weekend" for this saturday. i'm john yang. for all of my colleagues, thanks for joining us. see u tomorrow. >> major funding for the pbs news weekend has been provided by -- >> consumer cellular, how may i help you? this is a pocket dial. well, thought i would let you know with consumer cellular, you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that is kind of our thing. have a nice day. ♪ >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for

public broadcasting and by contributions from your local pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ >> you

♪ ♪ nancy: these are the darkest of times for europe and indeed the rest of the world.