PBS News Hour

GEOFF BENNETT

Good evening, I'm Geoff Bennett. Tonight on "PBS News Weekend," the latest on the deadly shooting at a nightclub in Colorado Springs. Then Climate Solutions, Oslo, Norway's unique approach to controlling the city's carbon emissions. And our weekend spotlight shines on acclaimed artist Kadir Nelson.

KADIR NELSON

The work that I've created is I intend for it to remind people of the better parts of themselves than I think that kind of I've done my job as an artist.

GEOFF BENNETT

All that and the day's headlines on tonight's "PBS News Weekend." (BREAK) Good evening. There is shock and grief tonight in Colorado Springs after a gunman opened fire late last night inside a gay nightclub. At this hour, five people are dead. 25 more are wounded. There's a suspect in custody identified by police today as a 22-year-old male. Several firearms including a long rifle were recovered at the scene. Police praise the actions of at least two patrons who subdued the suspect within minutes. People inside the nightclub last night are mourning the lives lost and what it means for the LGBTQ community. JOSHUA THURMAN,

Nightclub Patron

It's a place of welcoming, a place of peace. A place for us to be ourselves and, you now, look this what are we going to do?

GEOFF BENNETT

The club is calling the shooting a hate attack. Local officials say the motive is under investigation. For the latest from Colorado Springs, we're joined by Hayley Sanchez of Colorado Public Radio. Thanks for being with us. HAYLEY SANCHEZ,

Colorado Public Radio

Thank you for having me.

GEOFF BENNETT

And Hayley, Colorado Governor Jared Polis, as you will know he said in a statement today, quote, every state resource is available to local law enforcement and that he is eternally grateful for the brave individuals who blocked the gunman. You spent the day reporting at the scene. What do officials know about what transpired?

HAYLEY SANCHEZ

What we know right now is that five people have died and 25 people are injured. That's a little bit more than what we originally thought. The gunman is named Anderson Lee Aldrich, he's 22 years old, and he entered Club Q just before midnight on Sunday and shot people with a rifle. Two people at the club fought with the gunman and stopped him from shooting anyone else and he was arrested within minutes. We don't know the motive behind the shooting. Of course Club Q has called it a hate crime but authorities have not yet confirmed that. And there are still a few victims being treated at nearby hospitals.

GEOFF BENNETT

Hayley you live in Colorado Springs you grew up there. What are you hearing from people in the community today?

HAYLEY SANCHEZ

It's just really heartbreaking. I think Club Q is about one of two gay clubs in Colorado Springs. So it's sad that people went there seeking community. People have been gathering outside of the site leaving flowers and signs. One of my colleagues met with a chaplain and former police officer who was playing a bugle at the site and he said his partner and him and thought about going to the club last night decided against it but they have friends who work and perform there and they're still worried about those folks. There will be vigils later this afternoon, and this evening, and there was a church service where they honored it's an LGBTQ friendly church and they did honor some victims at their regular Sunday service.

GEOFF BENNETT

Hayley Sanchez with Colorado Public Radio Hayley, thanks for sharing your reporting with us.

HAYLEY SANCHEZ

Thank you so much

GEOFF BENNETT

And today's other headlines, the UN Climate Summit COP27 came to a close today with a breakthrough deal. The creation of a fund that will help the world's poorest nations recover financially from future climate disasters. But major questions remain about who exactly will pay for the fund and how it will operate. A committee of 24 nations is set to discuss those questions over the next year. Donald Trump is back on Twitter though the former president says he won't use the platform. Mr. Trump has been banned since January 2021. The attack on the U.S. Capitol for continually spreading lies about the 2020 election. New CEO Elon Musk reinstated Mr. Trump's personal account after conducting a Twitter poll. And western New York continues to dig out from record snowfall today, as this historic snow storm blows through the region. The heaviest snowfall today rolled in from Lake Ontario, sparing the Buffalo metro area where over six feet of snow has already fallen. New York Governor Kathy Hochul says hundreds of people have been rescued and two people have died from cardiac events. The FIFA World Cup which has been mired in controversy for months kicked off today in Qatar. It's the first time ever the global tournament has been held in the Middle East. But the host nation would not prevail in today's opening match, falling to Ecuador two to nothing and becoming the first ever host country to lose its opening game in World Cup history. And President Biden turns 80 years old today. No president has ever served in the office into his 80s. The White House says the President celebrated his birthday with a family brunch hosted by the First Lady. And still to come on "PBS News weekend," a look at the city of Oslo solution to curbing carbon emissions and my conversation with award winning artist Kadir Nelson. (BREAK) And today's weekend briefing we are taking stock of this major moment in political history. This past week, former President Donald Trump launched a third bid for the White House as he faces multiple federal and state investigations that says Democrats is a generational shift in House leadership. Speaker Nancy Pelosi who was 82 years old, announced that she will not seek reelection to leadership. Her heir apparent New York Congressman Hakeem Jeffries is 52. Beverly Gage is here to help us put this all in perspective. She's a professor of history and American Studies at Yale University. It's good to have you with us. So what's your assessment of this moment having a twice impeached former president who tried to overturn an election he lost, running again for the White House, combined with the rise of copycat candidates who endorse his anti-democratic tactics? BEVERLY GAGE,

Yale University

Well, we definitely haven't seen this one before in American history, I can say that much officially as a historian, although the mere fact of running again is not actually so strange in American history before the 1970s. We have lots of candidates who would lose, run again as their party's nomination, pry again and often lose again. We haven't seen that so much since we went to a popular primary system in the 1970s. So there are some precedents for what we've been seeing, but not too many for the very particular person who is Donald Trump.

GEOFF BENNETT

Is there anything in American history that can speak to this moment in GOP politics?

BEVERLY GAGE

Well, I think we're really seeing something like a war for the soul of the GOP at the moment. I mean, we have some pretty distinct factions, who are going to be presenting pretty distinct candidates, I think, in the GOP primary. Trump, of course, being one of them. One of the big outstanding questions is how many others there will be if the rest of the Republican Party and particularly the Republican establishment, which does not like Trump and does not want to see Trump win again, are going to come together around any particular candidate. It reminds me a little bit of what happened in 1964, when there was a really powerful faction behind Barry Goldwater as the Conservative candidate. There were lots of establishment Republicans who did not want him as the candidate and there was a real floor fight because that's how you picked your presidential candidates in 1964 over what the future of the party itself was going to be.

GEOFF BENNETT

On the Democratic side there is this as we said, a generational shift happening in House Democratic leadership. It strikes me that institutional traditions can be a real impediment to a younger generation especially in a place like Congress where power is built on seniority that takes years to accrue.

BEVERLY GAGE

Right at the moment, we have a whole generation really, in some ways two generations of Republican, but democratic, especially politicians that have been waiting for their moment in the sun. Pelosi, stepping aside for the Democrats is really going to make that kind of generational shift possible. And as you say, there are lots of aspects of the ways we structure our politics that tend to favor people who are older, people who stay in office longer, quite famously, the white South when it was in the Democratic Party really consolidated, its hold on the Senate in particular, because it had so many members who just went back year after year and term after term, and ended up with a lot of concentrated power. So this is a big moment for lots of Democrats who have been waiting to play some really major leadership role.

GEOFF BENNETT

President Biden, as we have this conversation, he turns 80 today, and there are some who are questioning how old is too old for him to be running for reelection. But Democrats don't exactly have a generational star waiting in the wings to rocket to power.

BEVERLY GAGE

That does seem to be the case. And it would be incredibly unusual, not again, entirely unprecedented, but extremely unusual for Biden, in fact, to step aside after one term, we have a couple of examples. Harry Truman could have technically run again, Lyndon Johnson, of course, stepped aside, but each of them had had more than one term in the presidency, because their predecessors had died in office. So we don't have so many examples of people who are voluntary, one termers, and I'd be pretty surprised if Biden does that in the end.

GEOFF BENNETT

Dr. Beverly Gage is a professor of history and American Studies at Yale University. So great to speak with you. Thanks for being with us.

BEVERLY GAGE

Great, thanks so much.

GEOFF BENNETT

As the UN's climate summit wrapped up in Egypt, today, negotiators made headway on some issues but stalled when it came to cutting global emissions. That's with a recent report showing the burning of fossil fuels is on track to rise by 1 percent by the end of this year. We're going to take a look now at a country on track to be nearly emission free by the year 2030. That's Oslo, Norway. Every year the capital city calculates how much emission producing activity will contribute to greenhouse gases, and then implements a carbon budget to keep those levels low. This past week Lisa Desjardins spoke with Heidi Sorenson, the director of Oslo's climate agency.

LISA DESJARDINS

Hi, Oslo has been able to significantly reduce your emissions in just about two decades. The big question is how and then the more specific question is, industries aren't forced to comply? So why are they? HEIDI SORENSEN, Climate Agency Director,

Oslo Norway

I think one of the reason is that they got this climate budget going. That was important because we actually have every year's budget telling what has to be done by whom, when and when needed at what budgetary cost. So there was a way of getting from just policy targets and words into concrete action and results.

LISA DESJARDINS

It sounds like it was sort of a broad statements weren't enough, you had to target by specific parts of your society and say, here's what you have to do. How did that work?

HEIDI SORENSEN

It works that the municipality every year, put forward this carbon climate budget, and every entity in that community has been become stakeholders in the climate budget and know actually what to do. And three times a year, they want -- they must report to the climate agency, how are they doing with their climate measures, so we can adjust, see if they have to do other things and get into dialogue when things aren't getting difficult. So we have been able to reduce and our aim is to reduce the climate emission by like 5 percent on 2030.

LISA DESJARDINS

I know part of this too, is that in order to get city contracts, for example, some industries had to meet those targets. They weren't forced to do it. But if they wanted the city's business, they had to show they were cutting emissions. You know, ideas like that are pretty controversial here in America, in part because of the idea of sacrifice government involvement. Was this controversial at first in Oslo and what to most citizens they're thinking of it right now.

HEIDI SORENSEN

Some measures were controversial were first introduced, but no a majority of the population thinks that the climate measures has given them a better city. I'd like to see for all I think it's the one of the things that was where we were able to get the business on board was the way we have to use public procurement as an very active tool to get around and get reduced carbon emissions. So we have been able to develop technologies such as zero emission construction sites, that actually has been removed quite a lot of the emissions from Oslo.

LISA DESJARDINS

How are you doing with that goal? That's an ambitious goal you had, 95 percent emissions reductions by 2030. Where are you? Are you on track?

HEIDI SORENSEN

We are not on -- not fully on track. Our lead calculation says that we will reach 62 percent by 2030, with the measures we have identified and adopted so far. So we still have a long way to go. But we are quite optimistic, there are definitely a possibility that we will be able to reach those 95 percent. There are eight more years to go.

LISA DESJARDINS

You've done better than national leaders in this country and global leaders around the world who just can't seem to agree on goals. Do you think cities should be the ones leading the way here on climate?

HEIDI SORENSEN

I think cities are leading on climate. I think many American cities do wonderful things as well. And, frankly speaking, the people living in cities are often more progressive and want to do see concrete action, and be a part of developing solutions. And I think that's necessary. And what they need the most is to demonstrate that actually combating climate change will create a better city and a better life for everyone.

LISA DESJARDINS

And one last question, climate news is often distressing continues to be distressing. I've spoken to some of our politicians here who almost seem to be disengaging, almost a sense that perhaps they can't fight where we are with climate right now. How do you answer those fears that perhaps we've gone too far already?

HEIDI SORENSEN

They have definitely gone far. But there are also definitely a way to move forward. So we can have less damage from climate change than we otherwise would have. But the most important thing, I think, is that climate issues has been about sacrifice and sacrifice. I think we should start looking upon climate -- combating climate change as a way of creating better lives for everyone. Because that is the core of it. If you combat climate change, we actually create better lives for everyone.

LISA DESJARDINS

I know that's been the experience. They're in Oslo, and Heidi Sorenson, thank you so much for telling us about it.

HEIDI SORENSEN

Thank you for having me.

GEOFF BENNETT

Finally tonight, it's time for our weekend spotlight with acclaimed artist Kadir Nelson. Perhaps you've seen his work featured on the cover of The New Yorker magazine, or hanging in the U.S. House of Representatives lining the walls of a museum or gallery, or popping off the pages of one of his more than 30 children's books. Kadir Nelson's work is unmistakable. His oil painting superlative. His rich palette and exceptional technique evoke both modern urban realism and masterly works of turn of the century American painters. I spoke with Kadir Nelson while he was in Washington DC for the unveiling of his portrait of humanitarian chef Jose Andres at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery. He explained how he sought to capture Andres, whose World Central Kitchen serves hot meals around the globe, to people in areas hard hit by natural disasters and conflict.

KADIR NELSON

Well, my idea was to show or depict Jose Andres and his environment being the activist that is the philanthropist, an incredible chef, and how all of that has kind of come together in his world, what he emphasizes that he wants to feed the people familiar food, he looks at food in a way that's very -- it's very intimate, very personal. And it's a way to not only sustain people, but to uplift people, to carry them through these difficult moments that they're faced with.

GEOFF BENNETT

Can you walk us through your technique? I mean, how do you envision something like this in your mind's eye? And actually bring it to fruition? How do you make this happen?

KADIR NELSON

Well, first, I had to meet Jose and his family and try to get to know him to understand him and his mission. And what's important to him, I think we were having dinner of all things. And he mentioned that his mother was like a force of nature. And I thought it was really interesting because Jose often shows up after this force of nature has occurred. So I thought that it would be a really good idea to depict Jose kind of showing up after this storm has occurred.

GEOFF BENNETT

You started drawing and painting at a fairly young age and it was your uncle and a high school art teacher who taught you technique, is that right?

KADIR NELSON

My uncle Mike, who lives in Maryland, he essentially identified my gift at a very young age and encouraged my parents to support it. So my uncle gave me a lot of instruction, art instruction. My mother and my father, they gave me a lot of art materials to work with. When I got to high school, I was kind of further ahead than a lot of kids, because I had that instruction at a very early age, and I think really helped propel me forward into the world of art.

GEOFF BENNETT

Let's look at two more of your works. This is Sweet Liberty, and Distant Summer. And what strikes me about these two is the play on patriotism.

KADIR NELSON

So the one on the left, Distant Summer seemed like it was very appropriate for that moment because I did this painting during the pandemic. So it was really my take on what it would be like for kids experiencing social distancing during the pandemic, one of the last images. For 2020 I did was have this one, Sweet Liberty, which was released around the time of the very controversial election in November 2020. And they end up becoming somewhat patriotic, because of course, they're red, white and blue. But the one on the right is specifically very patriotic, because it's a commentary on the election.

GEOFF BENNETT

How do you describe your style?

KADIR NELSON

You know, I think it's very difficult for me to describe my style. I think what's identifiable is my palette. And then also, I would say, a lot of my work is figurative, and it's emotional. All of that plays into or is heightened by the tools that I use lighting, composition, color, and so forth. So it's hard to describe my style, but I think it's pretty identifiable.

GEOFF BENNETT

And this was the cover of Rolling Stone in the summer of 2020, inspired by the famous Stella Qua painting. And at the center of your piece, you have this heroic African American woman, with a flag bandana around her neck, and a little boy, what was the intention, the idea behind that?

KADIR NELSON

I'd heard someone describe my work is very American, I think is very true. It's certainly a theme that often comes up in my work. Of course, being in America, as an African American, I think very much informs my work. And I think a lot of it kind of came to a head during the pandemic when, you know, a lot of my work used to be very historical, and then became more contemporary as I began doing paintings that were set in real time. So shortly after George Floyd was murdered, and an all of the protests began happening all around us, it made a lot of sense to create artwork that spoke to that moment. And that's where this painting came from.

GEOFF BENNETT

You mentioned the pandemic, let's look at after the storm, because this is really a celebration of the human spirit, connected to the pandemic.

KADIR NELSON

This painting was done right at the beginning of the pandemic, when we all thought we were going to be kind of shuttered in for only two weeks. And I felt that it was very important to create a painting that was kind of full of light, and celebrated humanity. And in a moment when I think the intimacy of social contact was missing in our lives, because we were all you know, in quarantine, and kind of not really able to hug one another shake hands. For me, it was like creating an image that gave people some sense of security, reminder of humanity and something to look forward to, to kind of carry us through that moment.

GEOFF BENNETT

Your work hangs in museums and hangs in galleries, you are sought after by collectors, but your art is also very accessible. You do album covers have done album covers, too, there was Drake's album cover. And then you also did an album cover from Michael Jackson. What was the story behind the one from Michael Jackson?

KADIR NELSON

You know, I'd done a painting that hung in the recording studio in Los Angeles that used to be owned by Marvin Gaye. And the man that was kind of refurbishing this studio, wanted to make it a shrine to Marvin Gaye. So I did a whole bunch of paintings of Marvin Gaye. Michael Jackson actually recorded there. And he would often go to the studio just to look at the paintings and you know, also record you know, so he saw the paintings and called me and asked me if I could do one for him. But, you know, bigger.

GEOFF BENNETT

Michael Jackson wanted you to do what you had done for Marvin Gaye, but bigger is better.

KADIR NELSON

Yes, that's right. That's right. Unfortunately, he passed away before I could really get going on it but I end up doing the painting anyway for the guy that owned the studio and then Drake ended up later recording there and saw those paintings and thought, you know, I would be a good fit to create the artwork for his album cover, as you see it.

GEOFF BENNETT

When is art most effective?

KADIR NELSON

I think art is most effective when it stirs something up inside of people. The work that I create, I intend for it to remind people of the better parts of themselves, because I feel that if you see something that reminds you of something that is beautiful about yourself, or Integris, or something that is that reminds you of your inner strength and pushes you to move in that direction, then I think that I've kind of I've done my job as an artist to, to, you know, for that purpose.

GEOFF BENNETT

Kadir Nelson, I appreciate you appreciate your time, and thanks so much for coming in.

KADIR NELSON

Thank you so much for having me.

GEOFF BENNETT

He's a singular talent. And that is our program for tonight. I'm Geoff Bennett. For all of us here at "PBS News Weekend, thanks for spending part of your Sunday with us. Have a great week.