John: Tonight on pbs news weekend -- in Charlotte, North Carolina, a second day of arrests by a surge of border patrol agents in "Operation Charlotte's web."

Then, the provision in the bill that ended the government shutdown that may threaten the U.S.

Hemp industry's future.

And, a barista who's served coffee in a small northern Italian town since World War II and is still going strong.

>> I have customers who are now grandparents and come in with their grand children saying do you remember when there was a dance floor outside, when there was a juke box and pinball machines?

Those were different times.

Now they're only memories.

♪ > major funding for the pbs news weekend has been provided by -- ♪ >> The ongoing support of these individuals and institutions.

Nd friends of the news hour.

♪ >> This program was made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

♪ John: Good evening.

I'm John yang.

It's been a second day of "Operation Charlotte's web" -- that's what the department of homeland security is calling the surge of federal officers into Charlotte, North Carolina, to crackdown on illegal immigration.

Masked agents have made arrests outside businesses and on front yards of homes.

One honduran-born U.S.

Citizen was stopped twice yesterday.

They smashed his car window, forced him out of the vehicle and threw him to the ground.

He was released only after he showed proof of his citizenship.

In a Charlotte enclave of immigrant residents, hundreds protested the administration's expansion of raids into another city and state both led by Democrats.

Border patrol commander Gregory bovino said Saturday was a "Record day" wit81 arrests.

Residents are bracing for more.

>> The impact it's having on us is that a lot of people are afraid to go outside.

It's terrifying to pretty much know that at any moment a federal agent can just come out and abuse you just because of the way you look.

John: Meanwhile, the Pentagon is sending home hundreds of National Guard troops that president trump had deployed to Portland and Chicago.

In southern California, the forecast is for more rain today.

But storms eased overnight allowing officials to lift mandatory evacuation orders.

Residents woke up to fallen trees and rising waters.

The risk of mudslides persists, and officials urge people to drive slowly and be aware of debris.

At least two deaths have been reported, and one child is still missing.

The U.S.

Navy's most advanced aircraft carrier -- the uss Gerald R. Ford -- arrived in the caribbean today, marking the largest build up of U.S.

Firepower in the region in generations.

It comes just days after president trump said he has "Sort of" made up his mind what he'll do in Venezuela, raising questions about what's next in the region.

Mr.

Trump and Venezuelan president Nicolas maduro are engaged in a war of words, and, since September the U.S.

Military has struck 21 boats in international water as part of an anti-drug campaign.

At least 80 people have been killed.

Ukrainian president volodomyr zelenskyy says 1200 Ukrainian prisoners could soon be returning home, as talks with Russia to resume prisoner exchanges are progressing.

Overnight, Russian drones damaged Ukraine's energy infrastructure in odesa, while Ukraine struck a major oil refinery in Russia's samara region.

In an associated press interview, Finnish president Alexander stubb said he didn't expect a ceasefire anytime soon, and urged Europe to maintain its support for Ukraine.

>> I'm not very optimistic about achieving a ceasefire or the beginning of peace negotiations, at least this year.

I mean perhaps if we get something going by february-march that would be good.

John: Stubb also said president trump and European leaders need to step up pressure on Russia to achieve peace.

Chilean voters went to the polls today for the presidential election and chose between four leading candidates choosing among who was toughest on crime and immigration.

There was a December runoff because none would be likely to get the majority needed to win.

The wildcard was a surge of new voters.

A new law makes voting mandatory and those who do not are subject to fines of $100.

This weekend is the halfway point for the 30th annual U.N.

Climate summit known as cop30.

Delegates from nearly 200 countries are meeting in belem, Brazil, on the edge of the Amazon rainforest, the world's largest.

In a report issued just days before the meeting began, the u.n.

's world meteorological organization said 2025 is on track to be among the three warmest years on record.

It said the planet's average temperature in the first eight months of the year was nearing the limit for warming set 10 years ago in the landmark Paris climate accords.

New York Times international climate reporter somini sangupta has just returned from cop30.

Somini, one former U.N.

Climate chief was quoted as saying that asking what agreement is going to come out of this meeting is the wrong question.

So what is the goal?

What are they trying to do at this time?

Somini: I think primarily they're trying to keep the idea of international climate cooperation alive, but also the delegates who are meeting in belem have a couple of things that they want to get done.

They want to see to what extent are countries keeping the commitments that they've made.

And they want to address one of the main demands from the global south, from developing countries, which is financial, assistance in transitioning their economies to renewables and financial assistance to adapt to the damages of climate change.

So money is one of the big goals here.

Let's see how that goes.

John: You talk about international cooperation.

There is no senior U.S.

Official down there.

You've got a president who is once again withdrawing from the Paris accords, who talks about fossil fuels and says that climate change is a con job.

What effect is that having on on what's going on down there?

Somini: I think it is significant that the united States has not sent senior officials to participate in the actual negotiations.

But what is far more significant is what the United States is actually doing in the world, not only has the trump administration for the second time pulled out of the Paris accords, what you're seeing in the second trump administration is really a doubling down on fossil fuel expansion.

As you've noticed, the trump administration has used oil and gas exports from the U.S.

As a diplomatic and trade cudgel.

John: There is a U.S.

Delegation there, part is governor Gavin Newsom of California.

What role are they playing?

Somini: Gavin Newsom came to cop on the second day of the negotiations.

He of course is not part of the official negotiations, but he was there to have bilaterals with a number of other states and other countries.

I think he was trying to send a message that he can be the reliable partner.

For the world, especially with California being such a large economy, but to be honest, over the last couple decades, the U.S.

Hasn't been a reliable partner on climate diplomacy.

It has gone back and forth long before the trump administration.

So to some extent, the fact that the U.S.

As a national government is not participating could simply just let the other countries get on with business.

John: One group that is participating, or at least is there in large numbers, are indigenous people.

What role are they playing?

Somini: Yeah, it's very, very notable.

The large robust presence of indigenous people, not only from Brazil, but from all over Latin America.

They're there to make the case that you cannot talk about the protection of nature, the protection of forests without having them at the table.

Technically, they are of course not at the table.

It's nation states.

Negotiating with each other.

But they have been on panel discussions, they have given, lots of talks.

They have been in protests both inside and outside.

It is extremely meaningful to the indigenous people I spoke to for them to really have a strong and robust presence and try to shape the conversation.

John: It appears that the limits for warming that was set in Paris is going to be exceeded.

What's the significance of that?

Somini: When the Paris agreement was signed 10 years ago the arc of average global temperature rise was something like close to 4°c by the end of this decade.

That arc of warming has curved downwards.

We are somewhere around 2.7°c.

In other words, between now, between the start of the industrial era and the end of this century, the global average temperature is projected to go up by around 2.7°c.

That's not great.

That raises all the more the absolute imperative to reduce emissions as quickly as possible.

John: Somini sangupta of the new York Times, thank you very much.

Somini: Thank you for having me.

John: Still to come on "Pbs news weekend" -- a Georgia town with lingering questions more than a year after a toxic chemical fire.

And, Italy's oldest barista turns 101.

♪ announcer: This is the pbs news weekend from the David M. Rubenstein studio at weta in Washington, home of the pbs news hour weeknights on pbs.

♪ John: The legislation congress passed this past week to reopen the government included a provision banning intoxicating products made out of the hemp plant.

Hemp is a type of cannabis, just like marijuana, but has a lower level of the psychoactive element thc.

Because of that, hemp hasn't been as strictly regulated as marijuana.

Critics say that allows the manufacture of synthetic thc products that can be more intoxicating than marijuana.

But others warn that the new limits could kill a growing industry and hurt U.S.

Hemp farmers.

Ali rogin spoke with manisha Krishnan, senior culture editor at "Wired."

Ali: Thank you so much for joining us.

So just to set the record on some terms we're gonna be using, there's hemp, and then there's what people call marijuana or weed.

They're both derivations of the same cannabis sativa plant, but they are regulated differently.

Why is that?

Manisha: So cannabis or weed essentially is federally illegal and it contains delta 9, which is the psychoactive ingredient that gets people high.

Hemp, on the other hand, comes from the same plant, but it contains very low levels of delta 9.

And it was legalized under the 2018 farm bill.

However, hemp does contain other psychoactive ingredients, including delta 8, including thca.

And so what happened when the farm bill was passed was it created this market for delta 8 products, for psychoactive products that were derived from hemp.

Ali: And so how does that difference in regulation lead to what critics have called a dangerous loophole?

Manisha: So essentially what happened with the loophole was it created this market for all of these hemp-derived psychoactive products.

And these products are not regulated by the fda.

So something like delta 8 gummies or drinks, they're not regulated.

And in that sense, we don't necessarily know what's being put into them.

There could be extra chemicals and things of that nature that are put into that.

And I think that's why some people are arguing that we should have better regulation.

We don't necessarily know what's being in them.

They're not all tested with rigor.

And so some of the adverse reports that have come about have been in relation to like dizziness, nausea.

There haven't really been a lot of deaths as far as I know that have been linked to delta a product.

Ali: Tell us about the industry, though, that has really blossomed since this legalization was included in this 2018 farm bill.

It seems like the hemp industry really has taken off in this country.

Manisha: Yeah.

So I mean, in 2023, there were about $2.7 billion in sales from these hemp derived psychoactive products.

And then there's also the CBD market.

CBD is not psychoactive, but it is quite popular.

People use it for things like insomnia and anxiety.

And it's also given sort of a new crop to farmers.

So Kentucky, for example, is a big hemp producer.

And so I think there's a lot of sort of different industries that have grown because of the farm bill.

And these products tend to thrive the most in states that do not have legal cannabis.

Ali: Now that this ban is going into place, do you think we're gonna see a similar dynamic happen with the hemp industry that we've seen with cannabis, where states have been softening their laws, so you really have a different patchwork of regulations around these products.

Manisha: There are all ready a lot of states that have their own regulations around hemp, just like there are a lot states that have legal cannabis.

But I think what's interesting is that the majority of Americans do support legal cannabis and I feel like right now the hemp industry is sort of looking at this not just as a ban, but potentially as an opportunity to table legislation that would properly regulate these psychoactive hemp products at a federal level.

Ali: Some opponents of this legislation were saying, you know, the better way to deal with this is just to weed out the bad actors, to put in more enforcement, not necessarily ban it.

Manisha: I think that there's an argument to be made that, you know, why can't the fda simply go in and regulate the hemp industry and the hemp products that already exist?

I think maybe it's a little bit harder because it was tucked into this farm bill and it became this loophole that a lot of people didn't anticipate.

It sort of created this cottage industry that people didn't anticipate.

So I think now potentially with enough lobbying, there's an opportunity to sort of go back and fix that.

Ali: And what's gonna happen to the thc products derived from hemp that are currently on shelves, available in breweries around the country, that kind of thing?

Manisha: I think it'll sort of depend like it will depend on what the state laws are if a state already has regulations around hemp, then in that state, there may still continue to be sales.

However, it will make it a lot harder to do business with other states to sort of cross state lines.

Banking is another potential huge issue when something becomes federally illegal like this.

Ali: Manisha Krishnan with "Wired."

Thank you so much.

Manisha: Thank you.

♪ ohn: On a September morning last year, a chemical fire at a Conyers, Georgia facility operated by bio-lab.

To make chlorine for swimming pools and hot tubs, sent a toxic cloud over the area.

A Georgia public radio podcast called manufacturing danger: The bio-lab story, examined that day, what led up to it and the immediate aftermath.

>> That Sunday, 7:00 in the morning, they're banging on our door.

You got to evacuate.

What?

You've got to get out there's a , fire.

So we're thinking, okay.

They'll have it under control by 5:00.

So we go to the church and we sat at church for all those hours.

So finally we realized we can't go home.

John: Now a second season of the podcast hears from whistleblowers and looks at the health consequences residents are experiencing a year later and what could have been done to prevent it.

Georgia public broadcasting's Pamela Kirkland reported and hosts both seasons of the podcast.

Pam, walk us through what happened that morning in Conyers.

Pam: September 29, 2024, two bio-lab employees call 911 because they realized there's a chemical reaction happening in the building.

That turns into a fire, and later that day, that fire produces a toxic chemical plume that spreads over Conyers and the surrounding area.

For those of you who don't know, Conyers is a suburb of Atlanta, so it's about 30 minutes away.

And people were complaining about a haze and a smell of chlorine for days afterwards.

The fire and the plume triggered evacuations, shelter-in-place orders.

And you heard from Jean Sadler earlier.

She's one of those who was forced to evacuate.

She lived in Conyers for about 50 years and says that she suffered health issues as a result of the fire.

John: You followed some of those residents you just talked about.

What are some of their stories?

Pam:chelle Garcia is another person that I've been in touch with for about a year.

She's a retired nurse practitioner and actually knows a lot about chemicals on her own.

But she talked about how she used to have asthma.

It's been under control for about decade.

But in the days and weeks after the fire, those asthma symptoms came back.

And it got so bad that her voice, she called it her bio-lab voice because it was so raspy.

She went to speech therapy for it after an ent examined her and said that while they couldn't attribute what she was suffering from to the fire, they could say that there was some damage to her vocal cords.

So she's been on different medications since and in therapy trying to improve that.

And residents have talked about a number of different symptoms, but you hear patterns.

A lot of people complained about migraines.

Shortness of breath, irritation, things like that, things that would be symptomatic of chlorine exposure.

John: In one of the episodes of the podcast, you play a 911 tape from the day of the fire.

We hear someone on that tape say, "It's always bio-lab."

What did you learn about the history of that facility and previous incidents of that facilities?

Pam: Looking into bio-lab's record, we found fires in 2004.

We found another fire in 2015 that prompted some voluntary evacuations, one in 2016 where several firefighters were injured, and another one in 2020 that produced a chemical plume.

Now, the most recent fire, 2024, the company's come under a lot of scrutiny because of its history.

And there've been a lot questions as to how this could happen.

So many times because the details between them have been so similar.

It's always a chemical that's supposed to stay dry, gets wet, a chemical reaction occurs, and it sparks a fire or a large plume of chemical smoke.

So osha and the EPA have oversight over companies like this, companies that store large quantities of chemicals.

But what we found is that there's a regulatory gap.

So the chemical that bio-lab stores is not under the same kind of oversight that a chemical like chlorine would be or other more serious chemicals that we're a little more familiar with.

We're talking about something called tcca, which is involved in making products that clean pools and spas.

So it's a little bit more obscure than your everyday chlorine.

John: Are there lessons here for other communities that may have these facilities in them?

Pam: So I think the biggest takeaway residents would say is that there should be a plan in place.

There were a lot of questions on the local level about how county officials responded to this, how the city of Conyers responded to the bio-lab fire.

As there were 19,000 evacuations, 70,000 people were told to shelter in place, but that day, it was so hard to get out and to get to safety that you were almost stuck.

You were underneath the plume, even though you didn't wanna be.

What we've also seen is this network of communities that have come together.

East palestine, Ohio, the train derailment that happened there in 2023, there were actually residents from there that came to Conyers just to show solidarity and say, hey, we've been through a chemical disaster.

If you have any questions, you can ask us.

If on the federal, state, local level we're not getting the help and support that we need, at least we can build this network for each other.

John: One of the agencies that investigated this was the U.S.

Chemical safety board.

The administration wants to zero that out.

They want to eliminate that.

What effect would that have on towns like Conyers and other places that may have similar facilities?

Pam: So a lot of the details about what happened that day on 2024, came from the U.S.

September 29, chemical safety board's investigations.

They've produced two updates thus far, but we don't have the final investigation quite yet.

We still don't a cause of the fire, actually.

And so agencies like the EPA and osha take what the csb does very seriously because they are kind of that independent watchdog.

They can make recommendations.

They can't actually force a company to change how they store chemicals, for example, but they can make suggestions.

They've been suggesting that that regulatory gap that we talked about a little bit earlier be closed for decades.

Without the csb, you don't really have another agency that investigates chemical accidents like this.

Their job is to be a watchdog over the osha and EPA.

And yet in the budget request for fiscal year 2026 it says that osha and EPA can do the job that the csb is doing.

So I think we really wouldn't know a lot about what happened here in this case, in the case of east palestine, Ohio, and other chemical disasters that we've seen over the years if the csp is no longer investigating.

John: Pamela Kirkland of Georgia public broadcasting.

Thank you very much.

Pamela Kirkland: Thank you for having me.

♪ ohn: Finally tonight, Italy's oldest barista.

From 7:00 in the morning until 7:00 in the evening, Anna possi does what she's been doing for more than 80 years brewing espressos and serving coffees.

>> I have customers who are now grandparents and come in with their grandchildren saying Anna, do you remember when there was a dance floor outside, when there was a jukebox and pinball machines?

Those were different times.

Now they are only memories.

John: She first did this sort of job at the end of World War II when she went to work in her uncles' restaurants.

In 1958, possi and her husband opened bar centrale in the small town of nebbiuno on the shores of lake maggiore in northern Italy.

Since her husband died in 1974, she's been on her own.

>> It's a bit like a family here, you know, it doesn't feel like a bar to me it feels like a meeting place.

People come in, some come to run an errand, others come and ask me, do me a favor, could you get your daughter who works in the town hall to bring me my identity card?

Sure.

I'll come and get it tomorrow.

Then there's the other one who says please, if you see the doctor, get me a referral, I'll leave you the prescription.

All right.

I'm always available for everyone.

John: Possi plans to remain available.

She has no intention of retiring.

She's among the growing number of Italians who are centenarians - - the vast majority of them women.

Today is possi's 101st birthday.

♪ John: That is pbs news weekend for this I'm John yang.

Sunday.

For all of my colleagues, thanks for joining us.

Have a good week.

♪ >> Major funding for the pbs news weekend has been provided by -- >> In 1995 two friends set out to make wireless coverage accessible for all.

With no long-term contracts, nationwide coverage and hundred percent u.s.-based customer support.

U.S.

Cellular.

Freedom calls.

♪ >> The ongoing support of these individuals and institutions.

♪ >> This program was made possible 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.]