Biden pledges support to hurricane-hit Puerto Rico: ‘All of America is with you’ – as it happened

• President tours damage from Hurricane Fiona two weeks ago
• Sign up to receive First Thing - our daily briefing by email

As Puerto Rico prepares for Joe Biden's visit this afternoon, a grassroots collective known as Queremos Sol (we want sun) has published an open letter (in Spanish) in the La Perla online daily urging the president to not waste federal taxpayer dollars on rebuilding the storm vulnerable fossil fuel dependent grid.

As you know, the absence of electricity after Hurricane Maria caused thousands of deaths. Now, two weeks after Hurricane Fiona, several deaths related to the lack of electricity have been documented. To a large extent, these deaths could have been prevented.