captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for saturday, november 10: wildfires rage in no and southern california, forcing tens of thousands to flee; the vote count continues across several states where key races are too close to call; and in our signature segment, milan's musical rest home, where the beat still goes on. next on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. seton melvin. the cheryl and philip milstein family. dr. p. roy vagelos and diana t. vagelos. the j.p.b. foundation. rosalind p. walter.

barbara hope zkerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're 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 yo from the tisch wnet studios at lincoln center inew york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening, and thanks for joining us. three major fires continue to burn out of control in california, where firefighters nge battling to save homes and lives duigh winds and drought conditions. at least nine people have died. their bodies were found in butte county, north of sacramento. it's the location of the camp fire, one of mosdestructive in the state's history, where close to 7,000 homes and businesses reve burned. the fi almost completely wiped out the town of paradise, and hundreds of thousands of

residents in the area have fled. about 500 miles south, near los angeles, the woolsey and hill fires have burned more than 70,000 acres and forced at least a quarter of a million people to evacuate. last night, a fire department helicopter captured the massive woolsey fire as th advanced over ridge line above malibu and toward the pacific coast highway. sharon mcnary is a reporter at vuthern california public radio and joins me n skype from oak park, california. sharon, tell me what have you been reporting on this morning? what have you seen so far tod? >> i have seen just a lot of destruction, a lot t areas being burned out. there's a very famous park, malibu creek state park, burned over. its visitor's center is lost. the freeway, the 101, a large artery over los angeles. that is burned over. you can see the burned timbers.

i'm sitting over one and the smell of wood and stucco. and just the general vibe of people being evacuated and some staying behind, just-- there's a procession of people driving up d down the street just to look at the burned out houses. you know, it's kind o a combination of good neighbor, can i help, and just looky-loo. >> sreenivasan: also, i want to ask about the mask that you've got on right nowth what i air quality like as you travel through these places. >> well, where i am right now, this is one of the earliest places that burned early friday morning, so the air qlity here is pretty good. but down in calabasas, closer to malibu, you need this mask because you get particles in your lungs, and if you breathe it long enough, you just fetrl like you'ring to breathe a

sponge. st up the road from the area that was having a vigil last night to grieve for tho who were victims of the mass ?urder earlier this week. what happened the >> it's kind of a double whammy for this community. the family reunification center for that incident turned in an evacuation center for the fire that followed. >> sreenivasan: so you had peop that were grieving combined with people who were evacuees. >> there are people who have been affected by the shooting who have also been evacuated byi homes, absolutely. >> sreenivasan: but putt this c some geograprspective for people who are not familiar with malibu or calabassas, this up from theoad from the famous beaches and life guard shacks we are used toheeeing. >> t 101 freeway connects greater los angeles to ventura, and along that way are all these very nice communities. ad it'that's burning. it's the 101, maybe 30 miles outside of los angeles, and into

the sea, which is malibu. as this fireone from the freeway, the 10 1, about 30, 40 miles to the ocean. and it's just burned a whole ton of houses close to the ocean. >> sreenivasan: finally, i want to ask, theresident tweeted this morning that he was basically putting the blame on a lot of this on poor forest management. what's the response bee from california leadership on this? they willimagin request the president do some actual research on the kind of forestanagement that california has done. the area that's burned is not particularly foresty. it's brush. it's classic brushfire territory. if there's a vulnerability here, it's the peoplwho live in this area who have built in the wild land urban interface, and notfo thst and its management itself. >> sreenivasan: all right, mcna, reporter southern

california public radio joining us via skype. >> too close to in a politically divided america the results of the midterm elections ar not surprisingly, very, very count. in in florida today, the secretary of state ordered machine recounts in three races, including for u.s. senate and governor. for more on what's next there and in key races in georgia and arizona, we turn now to miles parks, a reporter for 's washington desk who is covering the vote counts and possible recounts along with charges and counter-charges about possible fraud. he joins us now from washington, d.c. miles, here we are, several days after the election, and the is continuing in state after state. georgia, let's start there. >> year, absolutely, hari. so, georgia is really interesting case where we've got two candidates kind of living in two separate universes. we've got republican brian kemp, who is secretary of state. he has resigned his post as secretary of state, an basically begun a celebration tour, talking as if he has won thn. elect whereas democrat stacey abrams has not yet conceded.

yet tosociated press has call this race, and votes are still coming in. basically, brian kmp is saying that the vote margin is much too large to possibly trigger this automatic recount or an automatic runoff election, whereas the abrams campaign i saying provisional ballotses are still being counted. some absentee ballots in some rt of the state are still coming in. they're even saying they're already buying tv ads in preparation for a runoff election, even though that seems a little premature at this point.ho >> sreenivasanfar away from that threshold is the vote count in georgia? >> at this point, it was about n ,000. brian kemp's leadacey abrams was about 63,000, but stacey abrams doesn't need to make up that toake up the lead. all she needs to do, what her campaign sayne, is about 26,000 votes would fut into the place wher a recount would be triggered. and 24,000-excuse me, 26,000

votes would trigger a runoff election, whereas 24,000 votes netting 24,000 votes would trigger a recount. >> sreenivasan: let's talk about arizona, a hotly contested race there. >> yeah, absolutely. ill have yet to be counted,s but democrat krrsten sinema. has taken over a slight lead over republican martha mcsally. what's really interesting here nt you're not seeing this t turn into a super-partisan battle yet. the governor, who was tejust elon tuesday, came out with a statement and said basically, we want t this process continue. we want democracy to work as it should. ant all the votes to be counted before we name a winner. and there's been no talk of funny business on either side. they're just letting thevotes come in. a lot of votes in arizona are vote by mail ballots so the take a lot longer to count than traditional da-of voting. >> sreenivasan: finally, florida, multiple races. this is almost a flashback to 2000, recount, recount, lawyersu

countes. >> yeah, absolutely. we're seeing three staipt wide races at this point going to a recount, which is really interesting. this is the first stailt wide recount for stawide office in florida's history. you've got the commissioner oflt agrie, which no one is talking about at this point, headed to a recount. and the two case rac we have been following closely really for much of this year, the governor's race between democrat andrew gillum, and republican ron desantis has no cross the arreshold under this half a percentage pointn that would trigger an automatic recount. and then the senate race is even closer than that. right now, democrat bill nelson trails republican rick scott by less than r a quar a percentage point, which would not only trigger anma auc machine recount, but in florida, by florida state law, if you under that quarter percentage point it it triggers an automatic hand count.

>> sreenivasan: miles park, thank you foroik join us. mo thank you, hari. >> sreenivasan: toow is the 100th anniversary of the end of world war i, and leaders of dozens of countries are in france this weekend to honor the who died. today, president trump met with french president emmanuel macron in paris. trump spard tensions at the beginning of his trip by tweeting criticism of macron for calling for european army, writing "perhaps europe should first pay its fair share of nato." e,in a joint press confere macron said he was proposing increased european defense spending in alignment with trump's wishes for greater european participation in nato. mr. trump was scheduled to visit the aisne marne american y today where u.s. troop are buried, but had to cancel due to bad weather. a u.s. delegation including hief of staff john kel attended. the president is scheduled to ad ttdinner tonight and a armistice day ceremony at the arc de triomphe on sunday morning before returning to the u.s. tomorrow night. thousands of central american migcirants left mexic early this morning. the members of a weeks-long caravan walk used specially-

deso ignated metrains to get to the northern part of the city. the migrants will need to travel 600 more miles to the nearest u.s. border crossing in mcallen, texas. yesterday, president trump issuentd a proclamation that we into effect today denying asylum claims by anyone not entering through official ports of entry on the mexican border. migrants who enter the country illegally through oer parts of he border risk immediate deportation and will be denied asylum rights. the a.c.l.u. has filed suit in federal court to block the presidential proclamation. from democrats eyeing trump's tax retu of trump, read about ten key lawmakers in the new congress on our web site at www.pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: in the lead-up to the election, pbs newshour weekend's ivette feliciano visited the state of frida, where one of the key issues on the ballot was not over leadership in the state but

whether or not some one and a half million people with prior thfelonies would be give right to vote. people like neil volz, a member of the floridaights restoration coalition, who lobbied to have their voting rights restored. >> we come from a place of understanding the issues personally. >> neil volz, the group's political director is aormer republican congressional staffer and lobbyist. in 2006, he pleadeduilty in a congressional bribery case, and received a felony nviction for conspiracy. >> we fight the good fight on behalf of the million-plus family members and friends and directly impacted people in the state of florida who know firsthand what it's like to walh around w a felony conviction and try and get a job or try ane housing or any of the collateral consequences that ultimately come along with aen se like that. >> reporter: what would it mean to have your voting rights restored? i mean, for me, it would be the ability to be a full citizen in my community >> sreenivasan: the initiative, which was amendment four, passed overwhelmingly on election dayis

myrna pereeputy director at the brennan center's democracy program ew york university and leader of the centers voting rights and electi project. she joins me here in the studio. let's talk a little bit about what happened in the midterms. we've had a few dayto digest this. it kind of seems like it's, depending on who you are, youk thout increasing access or .ou think about voter suppression, rig it depends on how you talk about it. let's talk in a couple ofca differenegories. first, north carolina and kansas approved vot i.d. requirements. what does that mean? >> north carolina and arkansas are two states where the political forces in those states have for years, for years been icying to push really, really regressive and resve photo id. laws. and while those two laws passed, i'm heartened by a couple of things. one, in both of those states, the numbers that passed were well bel 8-92%, which to me means that americans who would be unaffected by twsse ,

americans who have this kind of identification, still voted on behalf of their neighbors and eir citizens who don't. also, both of those laws allow for opportunities to lobby theur legisl to make sure that the lawrt enacti.d. requirements, exemption requirements, and other policies that may blunt the law. >> sreenivasan: yeah, let's talk also about the ripple effects of what happened in florida. i mean, this was an enoou state, huge population with prior criminal families.s is there the pility that other states are going to model themselves after this? >> so n we only have kentucky and iowa. if you want to count virginia cause virginia's constitution allows for permanent dinfranchisement, you can. but right now, iowa and kentucky are the only stat sing it doesn't what you did, it doesn't matter how long ago it was you did it, itn' doesmatter how old you were, you lose your right to vote forever. unless the governme decides to pardon you.

i think what florida demonstrates is we are a country that believes in not writing people off. if someone is living and working amongst us and has obligations and spnts, they should all have the ability to decide the direction that our c is going. and it's been super, super exciting to see people from all walks of life come together and vote for florida's amendment. and i ery much believe that the people in iowa and kentucky share the same centiment. >> sreenivasan: let's talk about a couple of other states, nevada and michigan, automatic voter registration. w significant is that? what does it do? >> it's very exciting. automatic voter registration means that when somebody is attempting to register to vote, the presumption is if they're eligible, they're going to be gistered to vote. >> sreenivasan: you have to opt out. >> you have to opt out. that's exactly rig and also that the information is going to be electrorecally transfto the election office, rather than messing with pieces of paper that someone

to then go in and measure. it's a really exciting measure because it's got something forev ybody. if you're someone who wants access and wants more people participating, well, it's opt out, right. you're going to be ristered unless you say you don't. if you want your government to be workinmore efficiently, you're not going to be messing with all these pens and papers entry. if you're someone who wants thel to be cleaner, the fact that it's transferring information from one place to another place and not someone who has to decipher somkeeone's chscratch on a voter registration form, you'll getne clear rolls. >> myrna perez, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> sreenivasan: it's said that" old soldiers never die, they just fade away." but what about old musicians? if they're lucky, they just keep on playing. that's in fact what's happening in milan, italy, at a ment home built especially for musicians. newshour weekend special corrpondent chris livesay ha our story from a place where

the music nevestops. ( music ) >> reporter: meet raimondo campisi, a renowned pianist who's spent his fe performing around the globe. at 70 years old, he's not playing inside a traditional concert hall. ( music ends, applause ) this is casa verdi, a retirement home for musicians in milan, italy. ( opera singg, piano ) its founder was none other than the 19th-century italian composer, giuseppe verdi. blockbuster itions such as la traviata, rigoletto and otello helped him amass a fortune he would use to build the neo-gothic mansion from the ground up just before he died in 1901. his royalties would keep the lights on for decades more, providing food, lodging anded mal treatment for musicians who, as verdi put it, were "not favored by fortune or who, when they were young, did not possess the virtue of saving."

>> ( translated ): all i do is play piano and spend money. thieves don't waste their time with me because they won't find any money. n verdi had people like mend whcaen he founde verdi. >> reporter: a pianist like her son, campisi's mother was also a resident. >> ( translated ): she passed away three years ago. when my mother lived here, i didn't know the place very well because i was always passing through. and i didn't know how great it was, with all these concerts and musicians. >> reporter: verdi called this retirement home the finest of his life's work, and, walking through these halls, you start to understand why. it's impossie to go anywhere thout hearing the sound of music. ( opera singing ) you also see musical references in every corner. in one room, verdi's own piano. door handles are modeled after

lyres, and keyboard-inspired arches look like they could play a song. every aesthetic detail tailor-made for a house full of musicians and painstakingly designed by verdi. the maestro himself is here, too; he's entombed in the courtyard. today, there are roughly 60 residents. unlike in verdi's day, they receive state pensions and pay rent on a sliding scale, according to their means. the retirement home welcomes people of all nationalities and bathckgrounds. ere's only one requirement: they must have been professional musicians. successful applicants have access to ongoing concerts, music rooms, 15 pianos, harps, gramophones and, perhaps most important, the company of their peers. ( applause ) >> reporter: bissy roman, now 93, says music literally kept

her world war ii.ia during your townas occupied by the nazis. >> by the nazis. >> reporter: and nevertheless, you were sll able to play piano? >>eporter: after the war, roman went on to teach piano and vocal performance around the world, including for 12 years at new york university. ( singing ) and sh be's still surround young musicians. since 1993, the rs irement home so rented rooms to music students. the elderly get companionship, and the students say they get free lessonon music and life. >> it's amazing that we can doc muanh them.

we c sing with the old people. you are walking, and, "oh, you wa to sing together." and, "yes, let's sing together!" >> "but do you know that song?" "yeah!" ( laughter ) sic, singning continue >> reporter: casa verdi's asistencet always been guaranteed. royalties from verdi's 27 operas kept the home afloat until the 1950s. then, his musicntered the public domain, becoming free to everyone. that left casa verdi witho vital funding, says roberto ruozi, the president of the verdi foundation. >> fortunately, the administrators of the house invested this money in... especially in apartments, buildings. so, now, we have more than 100 apartments that we rent to

people. and with the rentals, we finance the house. >> reporter: ruozi also credits major c financitributions over the decades from titans of l music, such as luciano pavarotti and the heirs of arturo toscanini. >> it is really a miracle that casa verdi is still open and works very well, without any big problems, especially from the finaial point of view. >> reporter: to date, casa verdi has hosted more than 1,500 residents and always has a waiting list. what's your favorite thing about living here? >> i feel protected. i feel that i am home with people like me who gave thei s,fe to the music. ( music conclupplause )

>> this is "p newshour weekend," saturday. >> sreenivasan: turkey shared augsdio recordelated to the killing of journalist jamal khashoggi with leaders in saudi arabia, the u.s. and eurean countries. that's according to comments made today by turkish president tayyip erdogan. khashoggi was a vocal critic of the crown prince, mohammed bin salman. after initially denying any involvement, the saudi government admitted khashoggi was ed in a premeditated operation. erdogan did not give details of the nature of the tapes but said saudi arabia, the u.s., german britain and france have all heard the recordings. sri lanka's presidentouissolved the ry's parliament last night and called for new elections. president maithripala sirisena attempted to replace the current prime minister in late october, but he still has not left offic the current parliament refused to recognize the new prime minister. sri lanka's supreme court is

expected to rule on the constitutionality of president sinase actions in the coming weeks. the democratic republic of congo is now facing the worst ebola outbreak in its history. last night, thcountry's health nister said an estimated 198 people he died since august, and there are now 319 confirmed and probable cases.re onse efforts have been complicated by the current conflict in congo, where aid workers have been threatened and attacked by militants. u.n. peacekeepers say they will increase efforts to protect aid workers. the health minister noted that despite the grim figures, more than 27,000 people have been vaccinated against ebola. the death toll fr a suicide bombing at a hotel in somalia is now more than 50 people, including seven terrorists. the attackers stormed the building after detonating multiple car bombs near the hotel's protective wall. al-shabab, the islamic extremist rebel group, claimed responsibility for yesterday's attack. more than 100 people were wounded.

captioning sponsored by wnet capytioned media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by:

bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. seton melvin. the cheryl and philip milstein family. dr. p. roy vagelos and diana t. vagelos. the j.p.b. foundation. rosalind p. walter. bar rcorporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. t's why we're yo 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. be more. pbs.

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