captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for saturday, october 1: russia warns the united states over the war in syria; the strongest hurricane in a decade takes aim in the caribbean; and in our signature segment, the race to save italy's cultural heritage. >> reporter: okay, she hopes this fresco is still there inside the museum because it was on the wall of the museum, and she doesn't know how well it stood up during the earthquake. >> sreenivasan: next on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. judy and josh weston. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the john and helen glessner family trust. supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and

inspires. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we are your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening, and thank for joining us. a warning today from russia to the united states over the intractable civil war in syria. as russia escalated its air strikes on rebel-held parts of aleppo in northern syria, it warned the u.s. against launching counter-attacks on syrian government forces. a russian foreign ministry spokeswoman said attacks on forces loyal to president bashar al assad would lead to" terrible, tectonic consequences" in syria and

across the middle east. the russian spokeswoman added, toppling assad would leave a power vacuum that would be filled by terrorists. one air strike today hit the largest hospital in aleppo, putting the hospital out of service. the united nations says 320 people, a third of whom were children, have been killed in aleppo since a cease-fire brokered by the u.s. and russia fell apart in the past two weeks. secretary of state john kerry said today he continues to press for a diplomatic solution to the war, now in its sixth year. iran is unveiling a long-range, bomb-carrying drone that it claims is a replica of an american model. iranian state-run media today broadcast images of its so- called "thunderbolt," an unmanned drone which, it said, can carry bombs capable of hitting four targets. the drone's range was not specified. iran claims the thunderbolt copies the design of the u.s. sentinel spy drone downed over eastern iran five years ago. the strongest atlantic hurricane in ten years is taking aim on jamaica, cuba and haiti, and is expected to make landfall on

monday. hurricane matthew is bearing winds of more than 145 miles an hour today, centered about 400 miles southeast of jamaica. the caribbean island is on high alert as people hurried to stock up on food and supplies. weather forecasters say jamaica could get up to 25 inches of rain when the hurricane hits. the hurricane skimmed the top of south america today, dropping torrential rains and is blamed for least one death in colombia. cuba declared a state of emergency in its eastern provinces and opened shelters and stocked supplies. after four nights of protests, there was a prayer vigil today in the san diego suburb of el cajon, california, to remember an unarmed black man shot to death by police there this week. police responded tuesday after the sister of 38-year-old alfred olango called 911 to say he was acting erratically and walking in traffic outside a strip mall. olango's family says he had a history of mental illness. video of the incident released by police last night shows an officer shooting olango four

times after police say he was uncooperative and took a shooting stance. el cajon's police chief says olango pointed an object that looked like a gun at the officer, but it was a vaping cigarette device. a federal judge has ordered wisconsin to investigate whether employees at the state's department of motor vehicles are giving eligible voters proper information to obtain a photo i.d. now required to vote in that state. yesterday's order follows a complaint that d.m.v. workers have given incorrect information to people who lack a birth certificate and are trying to obtain a temporary voter i.d. card. the judge has required the state to report back to him by october 7. early voting began this week in wisconsin, which is among 14 states with strict voter i.d. laws or cutbacks in early voting taking effect for the first time in a presidential election after years of court challenges. the obama administration is proposing a new racial category in the u.s. census for people of middle eastern and north african

heritage. people from the region are currently considered "white." the administration advanced the change in a proposal published in the federal register yesterday and invited public comments for 30 days. if approved, the new category could appear on census forms in 2020 and would have implications for discrimination and affirmative action laws. the u.s. fish and wildlife service has added seven species of bees to the endangered species list, a first for any american bees. the seven species of yellow- faced bees are native to hawaii and play a crucial role in pollinating plants on the islands that produce fruits, nuts and vegetables. conservationists say the bees face a growing threat from invasive species and loss of habitat. >> sreenivasan: when it comes to the race for the white house, ohio has always been a bellwether.

no republican has ever won the presidency without winning ohio. no democrat since john f. kennedy has become president without winning ohio. but this year, the stakes may not be as high. to help us understand why, i am joined from washington by "new york times" reporter jonathan martin. jonathan, there was i remember a documentary back in 2006, you know, chronicling "as goes ohio, so goes the nation." what's happening this year? why is this different? >> it's different because of two big factors. number one is the sort of changing nature of the democratic party. it is now built on a coalition that includes less working class white voters and more what's been called a coalition of the ascendant-- younger voter, non-white voters, female voters. and it's more-- it's more affluent now. and ohio is a traditional rust belt state. and that's the other piece of it. the demographices of opponent are more forbidding for

democrats given their current nature today. so if you're hillary clinton, you're going to compete in ohio-- she's not going to pull out of there. in fact, she's going back next week. but it's not essential. so it's just not the sort of quintessential battleground state it has been in years passed because the bottom line is she doesn't need it to get the necessary 270 electoral votes to win the presidency. >> sreenivasan: and donald trump has also started campaigning as one of his main platforms is trade, and that was traditionally something you used to hear from labor and the left. >> right. and that's sort of tied to the demographic piece of this story is that ohio, because it's more of a, you know, white, blue-collar state, is very, you know, easy to go in there if you're a republican and run on the trade issue. look, mitt romney four years ago, sort of a classic chamber of commerce republican, had a

difficult time making inroads in some of those communities like yungzed town, warren, threed orb the more industrial heart land of the state. here you have trump going in there running to the left of a.f.l./c.i.o. on trade and hammering the imexwraigz issue. and the combination of those issues in communities like yungzed town and warren, is very powerful. and it gives traditional democrats there cover to vote for the republican. >> sreenivasan: and as you mentioned, it's not nearly as representative of the rest of the country, and that's a much longer term change. >> that's exactly right. you know, the country is becoming less white. and, obviously, there's a certain pacebaseline of education levels in this country. in ohio it's whiter and less educated than the country at large. so it doesn't quite reflect the america of 2016. this is something, by the way, that o. political veterans, they don't

deny this. it's not easy because they have gotten use to basking in the political spotlight every four years, but they're cognizant of the fact that opponent is not, you know, the sort of same reflection of the country that it was 30 years ago. >> sreenivasan: all right, national political correspondent for the "new york times," jonathan martin joining us from washington today. thanks so much. >> thank you. >> sreenivasan: when a magnitude 6.2 earthquake shook central italy this summer, there were hundreds of deaths, and hundreds of buildings collapsed in towns that date back centuries. rescue efforts continue to this day-- not for survivors, of course, but to save the area's rich cultural heritage. in tonight's signature segment, newshour weekend special correspondent christopher livesay reports, it's a race against time. >> reporter: the lazio region around rome is one of italy's most picturesque, a place where even the smallest mountain

villages can be the home of a medieval church and priceless artwork. it's also one of the country's most seismically active regions. a powerful earthquake here in august caused at least $4.5 billion in damage, according to italy's prime minister. many ancient structures collapsed, and 297 people died. the worst loss of life and damage occurred in amatrice, celebrated as the town of 100 churches, where the clock in the 16th century bell tower stands frozen in time: 3:36 a.m., the moment the earthquake struck. italian relief workers still flood the earthquake zone in and around amatrice, home to more than 4,000 people. some help the residents return to their homes, or, if a structure is deemed unsafe, retrieve personal items like clothes, documents and family portraits. so, they think all of the people in this town are never going to come back because it's going to take 15-20 years to rebuild

everything. and, by that point, they are not going to want to live here anyway because they're afraid of another earthquake happening. other relief workers are part of an elite team, including police and firefighters on an urgent mission to save the area's cultural heritage. they go door to door examining buildings and taking photographs to quickly and methodically account for thousands of works of art in churches, museums and public buildings. so, this is a list of everything that they're saving. they go in and check on the art to see that it's still there, to see that it's in good shape. captain lanfranco disibio is with the tutela del patrimonio culturale, better known as the art squad. set up in the 1960s to battle art and antiques fraud, its role expanded into earthquake crisis response. the art squad was on the ground in amatrice on day one. >> ( translated ): naturally, the first priority was to save human lives. our work to save artwork begins once we know that all the people

in a specific area have been saved or accounted for. apart from their intrinsic historic and artistic value, it's important to save artwork that has an important devotional value to the people in the area that was badly hit. it's important to preserve such works to one day bring them back to their original churches. >> reporter: the process typically starts with the vigili del fuoco, the fire and rescue service, whose members have the training and skills necessary to enter earthquake-damaged buildings still at risk from continuing aftershocks. ciro bolognese is one of their structural engineers. he explained one of their most complicated tasks so far, using drones and robots from a research project called tradr-- funded by the european union-- to record this video inside two of amatrice's most important churches, both partially collapsed. >> we have a clearer idea of what's inside the church, even if we haven't gone inside the church. >> reporter: inside the church of sant'agostino, they could see paintings still hanging on the walls, exposed to the elements.

the video helped firefighters decide on the safest way to remove them. a few days later, firemen were lowered into the church on ropes to carefully lift out the paintings, now being stored with other rescued objects in a nearby warehouse. some art is much harder to save-- for instance, these wall paintings, or frescos, in amatrice's other large church, the basilica of san francesco. the video shows parts of them have crumbled to the ground. bolognese says these images will be used to make three- dimensional models to help the culture ministry come up with a plan to save these structures. is the work you are doing urgent? >> yes. it's urgent because we have to stop the movement of the church. otherwise, with the aftershocks, other parts could collapse, and we want to avoid that. >> reporter: wow. brunella fratoddi is a curator at the municipal museum of amatrice. she's living in a tent and trailer in her garden now

because she's not sure if her house is secure. fratoddi took these photos of the museum, which, like most of the town's historic center, was heavily damaged. it's a painting, one of the most important that they were able to rescue from the museum of amatrice. the art squad was able to save a lot, but not all of the art inside. okay, she hopes this fresco is still there inside the museum because it was on the wall of the museum, and she doesn't know how well it stood up during the earthquake. how does it make you feel to see the art ruined and at risk? >> ( translated ): it cuts straight to the heart. it feels awful knowing that some things i'll never see again and that the town will never be the same again. i hope we can rebuild and retrieve our heritage. >> reporter: and that's exactly what italy's government has vowed-- to rebuild amatrice and the other towns just as they were before, even using the same stones whenever possible. sergio pirozzi is amatrice's

mayor, who was widely quoted the day the earthquake hit, saying"" half the town is gone." today, he's looking to the future with optimism. can the town be reborn? >> ( translated ): sure. just as it was before. i'm hoping, counting on this. so, every piece of plywood has some piece of art being protected from the elements. at this church in l'aquila, a fire brigade engineer showed us some of the techniques used to stabilize the building, like this metal arch bolted inside the apse of the church. these fixes were supposed to be temporary, but they've been in

place for seven years. the church still has no roof. back in amatrice, the lessons learned in l'aquila will be applied to structures like sant' agostino. can this be made more earthquake-resistant so that if a similar earthquake happens in the future, it doesn't happen again? >> yes. when we repair this church using actual national code for buildings, it will be repaired using materials but also providing the reinforced structures. >> reporter: but many italians are skeptical and point to a pair of buildings in amatrice. the first is the police headquarters. following the l'aquila quake in 2009, it was reinforced to make it more quake-resistant. the gray paint and crosses at the top show where steel bars were put in to support the walls. the building is damaged but still standing. the second building is across the street-- this elementary school, which was supposed to have been reinforced, too, but

almost completely collapsed. had the quake struck during the school day instead of 3:00 in the morning, more than 200 children of amatrice could have been at risk. italian authorities are investigating why it and so many other buildings were not more quake-resistant. certain buildings fell down that perhaps shouldn't have, such as the school. what kind of assurances will people have that this kind of thing won't happen again if they come back? >> ( translated ): unlike the u.s., italy's history goes back more than 1,000 years. but it's not so much a question of age; it's about how much money is available. if you study things for a moment, there's a substantial difference between improvement and conforming to code. conforming to code costs a lot of money, just improving a building costs less money. >> reporter: i asked the mayor, in the future, will you implement just improvements or will you conform to code? >> ( translated ): it depends on how much the state wants to spend. reconstruction will happen according to the right resources available.

with the right resources, you can do something. if you don't have the right resources, you can't. >> reporter: before reconstruction begins, the art squad needs to finish its job. so far, it's been able to save about 300 paintings, sculptures and other artworks, but there are still hundreds they haven't reached yet or accounted for in the area. sometimes local people need to be reassured that the art taken away for safekeeping will not be lost or forgotten, and eventually will be returned, like this church caretaker. who's going to look after it, he asks? for museum curator brunella fratoddi, restoring the art treasures is the key to bringing back tourists and the people who called amatrice home. >> ( translated ): amatrice was voted one of the most beautiful towns in italy. its art could be a stimulus to rebuild this city as it was.

>> sreenivasan: read about efforts to expand the rights of farm workers on our web site at www,pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: this week, oxford university researchers released a study that may point to new treatments for people infected with h.i.v., the virus that causes aids. the study looked at young children in south africa with h.i.v. and found that 10% of them never develop symptoms of aids. to discuss the implications of this study, i am joined by skype from oxford, england, by philip goulder, a professor of pediatrics at oxford university, who led the research team. professor, what do these children have that's special? how is it they don't go from h.i.v. on aids? >> well, the interesting thing about these children is that, as you say, they don't progress to the disease through childhood. and children in general with h.i.v., something like 60% without treatment would die in the first two and a half years. so this is quite an unexpected

finding. and we initially looked to see whether this was to do with the immune responses against the virus. and in fact, although they do make quite strong immune responses against the virus, this wasn't the reason they didn't progress. put the reason of that they, in spite of having a lot of virus on board, their immune activation levels are relatively low. so in some senses, they tend to ignore the virus, and as a result, they don't get any disease from it. >> sreenivasan: that's the opposite of what an adult body would do, right? i mean, it would-- our body would attack as much as possible, and you're saying the peace versus the war might be better in thees cases? >> exactly so. the immune system has a very difficult job on its hands, because if you make too weak a response, you run the risk of being killed by a foreign envader, and if you make too strong a response, then the immune response causes a disease on its own account. so finding that perfect middle

line is a very difficult thing for the immune response. and, obviously, the immune system has to deal with all sorts of different pathogens and handle those. and h.i.v. is just one particular virus that it has to deal with. >> sreenivasan: will these children be safe the rest of their lives? will they not develop aids? >> we think some of them, as they transition from childhood into adolesc ents and adulthood, actually do start to make the sort of immune responses that are characteristic of adults. in other words they, try on start to fight the virus. although that tends to bring the virus down, the bad side is the immune system gets more and more activated, and actually, they progress more rapidly. on the other hand, there are still some who can reach adulthood and still remain nonprogressers. >> sreenivasan: tell us does this teach us, what does this teach medicine or even the pharmaceutical industry? do we change our strategy or our

approach? do we try to build different kinds of drugs in the the future that try to mimic what these children are doing naturally? >> i think so. i think we can actually learn a lot from what children can teach us in the different way that they approach dealing with foreign pathogens like h.i.v. and in this instance, obviously, anti-environmental therapy is the mainstay of treatment for the people with h.i.v. and the prognosis for people with h.i.v. has been transformed with the therapy. that being said, the immune response of people with h.i.v. doesn't return to normal, even with successful treatment. so there is still a need per new approaches to try to bring the immune system back to normal so people with h.i.v., even on treatment, don't run risk of so-called non-aids-associated diseases like canceres and cardiovascular disease, to which they're at risk. >> sreenivasan: philip goulder, professor the

pediatrics at oxford university. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> this is pbs newshour weekend, saturday. >> sreenivasan: now to "viewers like you," your chance to comment on our work. last weekend, we brought you the story of dan price, the c.e.o. of gravity payments, a seattle- based credit card servicing company who decided to guarantee a high minimum wage to all his employees-- $70,000 a year. to help pay for that raise, price cut his own salary from $1 million a year to $70,000. chris anderson said:" big shocker-- happy employees who feel like valued team players are more productive and work harder to move the organization forward." remy jagla added: "this actually will work for his company for a few reasons. the main one is that his goal was to live an ethical and balanced life and had no problem living a humble life." and from ed green: "for this guy to actually notice the level of salary inequality in his own company and actually do

something about it is fantastic." but there were those of you who took issue with price's decision. richard laux said: "the cost of living in the locality is what should set the minimum wage. an across the board, mandated minimum wage is not fair." and zack narkin questioned price's decision: "is it really fair that the customer service agent makes the same salary as the c.e.o.? and where is the incentive for promotion within the company if it doesn't come with an increase in pay?" kelly erikson called the decision: "economic suicide." ben o'dell added: "i'm for raising the minimum wage, but this example is absurd. it helped gravity's business because coverage of their decision gave the company a ton of free media exposure." and roberta anderson kirzinger said simply: "wow, please hire me!" as always we welcome your comments at www.pbs.org/newshour, on our facebook page, or tweet us @newshour.

>> sreenivasan: finally, switzerland now hosts the world's highest wind farm. a group of turbines standing 278 feet tall, atop the swiss alps have begun churning, 8,to00 feet above sea level. tomorrow, on the program, the fight for florida's latino vote. that's all for this edition of "pbs newshour weekend." i'm hari sreenivasan. good night. captioning sponsored by wnet media access group at wgbh cess.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made

possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. judy and josh weston. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the john and helen glessner family trust. supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we are your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

>> and our top story, the violent start to the new year in salinas. another shooting victim tonight. >> a 28-year-old man was shot several times in the upper body. >> two shootings in salinas tonight. the most serious happened just before 7:00. >> snipers, helicopters, and a swat team all called in to try and catch the suspects. woman: another shooting in salinas. it is the fifth in less than a week. man: two separate shootings in salinas in less than an hour and just miles apart. >> this park is kind of like the really dangerous place for, like, young people to hang around. usually, you know, every year, you get a couple of shootings that happen down there. >> you can see a body lying there, and i'm a kid, and i'm