captioning sponsored by wnet >>nreenivasan: on this edit for saturday, april 25:te the last on the coronavirus, as businesses around the globe slowly start to reopen. a look at regime stability in north korea. and, school shutdowns are putting homeless students at risk. next, on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by:rn d and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. ls the cheryl and philip in family. rosalind p. lter. barbara hope zuckerberg. charles rosenblum. we try to live in thmoment, to not miss what's right in front of us.

at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can he you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. additional support has been provided by: tand by the corpo for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. tributions to your pbstation from viewers like you. thank you. >> sreenivasan: this is our sixth weekend bringingm ou the news fmote locations, both here in new york city, where strict socl distancing regulations are in effect, and from across the country. rictions onces, re businesses and gatherings are easing. but for most people, the coronavirus continues to disrupt almost every part of what were o rmal routines. the racest for antibodies and to develop a vaccine goes l,. stach day, lives are being lost. let's gestarted with today's top news.

( honkinay ) it waswo for re-opening businesses in several states today. despite warnings from health officials that it is too soon, georgia, oklahoma, south carolina and alaska are permitting some non-essential busi.sses to open their doors georgia bega reopen non- essential businesses yesterday, including barber shops and gyms, with some restrictions: "personal care businesses" including hair and nail salons in oklahoma were allowed to reopen by appointment only, and under "strict sanitati protocols." in new york, the epicenter of coronavirus cases in the u.s., governor andrew cuomo said thpite an increase in deaths reported today, new hospitalizations for cases of the virus continue to decline. >> we are in fact on the downside of the mountain. i've always been worried about a little tick-up, that there's some evince we're not on the says we're on the decline.e

>> sreenivasan: new york and surrounding states he no plans yet for reopening businesses or lifting restrictions on social gatherings. asnf this afternoon, more t a quarter of all confirmed deaths due to covid-19 worldwide have been in the u.s. the economic fallout from the crisis continues as many binesses have remained closed. president trump signed smgislation authorizing another $320 billion fol business payroll protection funding yesterday. the treasury department announced today that it has distributed an additional $9.5 billion in payments to airlines in payroll assistance. so f, more than $12 billion assistance has been distributed to 93 air carriers. elsewhere around the world, restrictions to halt the spread of coronavirus continue to be relaxed. in italy, health officials announceday that starting may 4, millions of italians will be allowed to return to work. officials also said that free masks will be distributed to nursing homes, which have been hit hard by the pandemic. at one point, italy was the heepicenter of toronavirus

pandemic, and has the highest death toll in europe, with more than 26,000 reported covid-19- related deaths. in india today, officials eased the strict lockdown that has been in place there for a month. neigorhood stores that sell everything from snacks to cell phone data cards are now allowed to open. but, the easing does not apply in areas that have been hot spots for the viru india's lockdown has been particularly hard on the more than 175 million indiansho struggle tlive on less than $2 a day. and in belgium, the prime aministounced a gradual reopening of the country starting may 4. omby early june,bars and restaurants will be allowed to open. but, despite some restrictions being lifted, much of the world lockdown.nder so form of globally, the confirmed death toll for coronavirus is nearly 200,000, according to researchers at hns hopkins. e world health organization is warning that there is insufficient oidence that ple who have recovered from covid-19 are immune from future infection.

several countries have suggested the idea of an "immunity would allow those who have antibodies to return to work sooner. in a scientif brief released today, the global health agency said more research is needed to guarantee the accuracy of an immunity passport, including the validation of tests used to look for coronavirus antibodies. one of brazil's most popular ministers quit in protest yesterday, following president jair bolsonaro'cofiring of the ntry's police chief. justice minister sergio moro, who ma in the country see as an anti-corruption advocate, accused the president of interfering in federal investigations. in a press conference, bolsonaro denied the allegations, saying he had the rig to replace the federal police chief. moro's resignation has rocked e government and sparke prests and calls for bolsonaro to be impeached. another popular official, brazil's health minister, was fired a week ago. he advocated for social distancing measures during the coronarus pandemic, which bolsonaro opposes.

more than 3,500 people have died from covid-19 in brazil. in north korea today, there was still no sign of the countrs leader, kim jong-un. it's not unusual for north korean leaders to disappear from public vi-- sometimes for a significant ceremony last week. that sparked speculation about his health. his last public appearance was april 11. another mystery? the secretive country continues to claim there are zero cases of vid-19 there. joining us today from washington, d.c. is jean lee, director of the korea program at the wilson center. let's start with the humanitarian crisis. how equipped is north korea to deal withomething like the coronavir? >> north korea has such a fragileh heare system. you know, i visited so many hospitals and clinics during my years repeyting there. idn't have heat. they didn't have running water. you know, often, they just had two water basins. it was like something out of a

different century. and so, especially when we talk about something like the portance of hand-washing, they don't have soap, they don't have water, they don'have electricity. and certainly, the last time i was there was in 2017, so it's been a couple of years, but evep the most-to-date hospitals were lacking in antibiotics, lacking in basic supplies. and there was one clinic i went to where the doctor told me that most of their deaths were for something s simple as diarrhea, that they didn't have the d ability to strrhea and that kids would die because they simply couldn't st it. so, i just think about how ill equipped north korea is to deal with a pandic like coronavirus. >> sreenivasan: how believable is it, then, that a country adjacent to china would have no cases at all? >> it's vey hard to believe. i mean, they did take very strict measures and stopped much of the traffic in and out of the untry in january. however, it is the only country

bordering chinthat claims it has no cases. the only other countries that have claimed the cases-- no cases, are either pacific island countries or countries that have a very poor record when it comes to providing pper information. and so, i think we do have to question whether this information ireaccurate. >>ivasan: let's talk a little bit about the rumors from earlier is week, because that's all they are-- it's very hard to get any fact verified from north korea-- but how is kijong-un's health? >> it was such a frenzy of speculation this week, a, at this point, we still don't know. the state of the leader's health is something that is a closel guarded secret. and certaiy, if he is as ill as they say, that would be something that they would keep a closhold on. and i don'think that we will know for quite some time, if ever. you know, this brings me back to 2008 when kim jong-il, his father had suffered a stroke and was in a coma.oo

itseveral weeks before the world found out that he was ill and in aat coma. and was simply because he didn't turn up at a major military d parade. , it's a country that has such a good hold on the flow of information. u know, these-- they are rumors at this point, but, often time-- otentimes in a country like north korea where we have so little access to the government, so little access to reliableinformation, there is a kernel of truth in ese rumors. and so, it is something that we need to pay attention to. i think it reflects the concerns not only inside the country but tside the country, that his health is a factor and that it could lead to a question of stability inside the country. d this somethingty in north kort this time, during a pandemic, when it has been developing nuclear weapons, is not something that any country want >> sreenivasan: if it was true that kim jong-un is gravely ill to the pointf being dead, how would we know? how does the state announce

something like tha >> that is information that only so, we should be very wary that any of the rumors out there are from people who are in a posikntion t. and so, i think that, honestly, we may not have any confirmatn for information like that, if and when it happens, uil north korea releases it publicly. i was at the nosyh korean emba there was no sign that anything on oaterclsththint k nyat a infoation about the state of his health or whether he is truly dead or alive. >> sreenivasan: jean lee, director of the korea program at the woodrow wilson center, thanks so much for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> sreenivasan: for coverage of the coronavirus and othenews in the u.s. and around the world, visit pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: for most of the country, schools and universities have switched to remote learning for the rest of

r.e school y even before the pandemic shut down schools, there were more than 1.5 mlion homele students in the u.s., according to the national center for homeless education. many students relied on school for safety, stability, and even food. how have they been affected by the school clmmures, now so across the nation? newshour weekend's zachary green has our report, whi is part of our ongoing initiative, "chasing the dream: poverty and opportunity in amica." >> reporter: 21-year-old collegl senior jaimeon didn't always think of herself as homeless. orphaned at 15 when her mom died, she found shelter with some aunts, and, finally, an der cousin. but while she was living on- campus at umass lowell, he and his wife had a baby, and their o-bedroom house wasn't big enough to accommodate waldron when school was out of sessi, . >> and i wke, not sure where i was going to live. and then, i dewent to a re director of my building, actually, and he put me in contact with one of the deans at my school. >> reporter: during waron's

sophomore year, that dean helped her get accethpted int massachusetts student housing security pilot. it's a state program that funds year-round campus housing and college students. for the time being, waldron felt secure. she got a job at a local grocern storeven took enough credits that she was on track ta graduaear early this may. but things changed when the coronaviruhit the u.s. and her college campus shut down. abt housing.e was really sure even the housing department wasn't sure about housing because they weren't sure if they would have to have everyone leave or not. and ,, i'm, like-- i was, li emailing people and calling, and no one had any answers. >> reporter: in le march, after spring break, umass lowell htold students who had goe to remain there for the rest of the school year and take courses online. but waldron's status allowed her 260 otheudents with nowhereith

else to go or whose families lived too far away. but waldron's troubles are far from over. >> i now buy more groceries than i ever would have before because i was usieng my meal plan for main meals a day. spending monewoon food that i dn't--idn't plan on spending money on was definitely really hard. >> reporter: waldron is not alone. a 2019 survey of nrly 167,000 college students by the hope center for college, community, and justice found th 17% of respondents described themselves as homeless. that's about 28,000 students. and that was before the pandemic closed student housing around the country. annie ciaraldi is associate dean of students at umass lowell. she says the homeless students she's workd with can only improvise. >> they may be couch-surfing. they may be living in their cars. so, their biggest concerns are, "where am i going to shower? where am i ing laundry? where do i get my food? how am i going to cook food" if they're not, you know, a secure

environment. >> reporter: ciaraldi says that one of the biggest issues currently facing homeless students not living on campus is the loss of everyday resources the college ofotrs. >> af our students who are homeless will shower at our campus rec center, orunill do their y in a residence hall, or will eat in a dining hall. and all those things don't emost for them a. so, if you live in your car, you're trying to figure out where is allhat going to come from? orter: it isn't just homeless college students losing access to school resources across the country, roughly 124,000 public and private elementary and high schools have been shut down due to the covid- 19 pandemic. of the school districts closed, new york city's is the largest. more than 114,000 of its milliol students are hs. one of them is j'marion brown, a 14-year-old hihm school fres. he's lived with his parents and three younger sists at this bronx homeless shelter for four months. since school closed, it's mostly all he sees. >> i stay in my unit the whole tim i don't really, like, leave

unless i'm going to the store. >> inreporterrder to lp homeless students keep up with courseworknlhe o t ye,ew nkordes distributed 16,000 ipads to kids in shelters all over the city. j'marion and his sisters each received one, but, when i spoke with him last month, he said they couldn't use them. like many shelters throughout the city, theirs does not have wi-fi. are you able to ke up with yourssignments at all? >> yesfo, but that's onlthe packs they gave me before school was canceled. all my's other work thn the computers, i can't do it yet. >> reporter: estrella montanez is the residence director at j'marion's shelter, which is part of bronxworks, one of the largest shelter networks in new york city. when i spoke with her in march, she said many students there had fallen behind due to a lack of connectivity. >> there was a lot of anxiety around "what is this going to mean? how is this going to count against us?" some of our families were alsose bein messages, like, from teachers that, you know, "your children are being marked absent because they're not accessing the online-- you know, online

assignments." and it's just, like, there's thing they could do at that point. >> reporter: chris caruso is the executive director for the office of community schools at new york city's department of edation. he says that online absences won't cou against homeless students and that they now have connectivity. >> we knewin it was to take some time to get the distribution chain and get access to the devices to all the students living in shelter. and we have since eliminated that digital divide, and every student in shelter now has a vice. each of these devices is already equip so, the strength of the signal, the wi-fi access point, does not matter at all. literay, you can use these any place, anytepime. >>ter: he says that the city is taking additnal measures to make sure that its most vulnerable students don't fall behind., and we're giving t 250,000 meals each day. four million meals have been given out since schools physically closed. and get grab-and-go breakft, lunch and dinner, but, for many

of our shelters, we're arranging ransportation so tha students and families can get them on-site. >> reporter: in an email, estrella montanez told newshour residence, including j'marion brown, now have ipads with data plans. but she also says that "connectivity is very slow for many" and that some ipads "had to be replaced because the inanterneat tk about a week or more." in a response to newshour weekend, the city'separtment of education said that ty "are aware of isolated instances of connectivity challenges in rtain shelters." they also said that they are "working directly with the department of homeless services, apple, and t-mobile to address individual issues as they arise." meanwhile, back in lowell, massachusetts, associate dean of students, annie ciaraldi, says that since umass lowell closed shop, at least five additional students have come to her to disclose their homeless status. >> thankully, we have a very caring and giving community at umass lowell.

all the time.rk it out but, you kw,y fear is that there are a lot more out there than we know of. i'm-- i'm opositiit. and eventually, we won't be able to-- we won't have the resources to, you know, address them. >> sreenivasan: every year, the privately-funded youth outreach and shelterverganization, nant house, holds a national sleepout to raise awareness and support for homess youth. like most other public events across the country, last ght's sleepout for the first time was a virtual one. and, as c.e.o. and esident kevin ryan told me, the youth they serve are more vulnerable now than ever. kevin i, shelter in plagreat if you have a shelter. what about the populations that you serve? >> well, that's exactly the fear that confronts so many young

people right now. they are often not with an inspiring circle of love around them. some have aged out of foster care. some of th have lost family members. and so, they're desperate for a safe place to shelte oin place. mathe young people covenant house is serving in all 31s cite also medically compromised. they haven't been regularly se so, this is a bit of a perfect storm for so many young people americas.ness across the >> sreenivasan: e you seeing young people come in with the symptoms, the high fevers, the the body aches? >> we are. we've had to repurpose all of our covenant houses to create safe isolation spaces for young people. and whether it's all of the offices that were at the top fshloor of thter in manhattan, or the drop-in center in houston, or the mother -child program in anchorage, alaska, those spaces arell now spaces where we care for sick and symptomatic young people. >> sreenivasan: young people

have a tendency to feel invincible. are they aware that this iana virus thatnfect them just like it can in their grandparents? >> i think that that's certainly more and more the case, especially when young people at covenant house see their friends begito become sick and move over into the wellness spaces or the quarantine units. one of the particularly troubling aspects of the persons.omatic homeless and we're just beginning to see for example, a couple weekends ago in atlanta, the fult county department of health tested all of e young people at covenant house and all of the staff, and tested most of the folks who are using homeless services in atlanta, and found that of the 2,000 pele who were tested, there were more anan 30 who tested positiv

were completely asymptomatic. and that doesn't account for all the stafwho tested positive even though they were asymptomatic. and weeing the same thing in boston. it's very possible in these cities where you have 1,000 or 2,000 or 3,000 people who are accessing the homeless services in cities like new york, where, 55,000 to 60,000 people inside this system, and it is still ve difficult to access tests, it's almost impossib to know what the pervasiveness is or the prevalence f asymptomatic positives. and i suspect it's much higher than we know. >> sreenivasan: so, by working in multiple countries, by having shelters in different locations, you're actually seeing the disparity of testing play out almost rket by market, ovenant house by house. >> oh, that's it. i mean, if-- for example, as i just said, in atlanta, every young person has been tested at covenant house.

morning, it was impossible to get testing if you were and throughout most of the americas-- and that would include nicaragua, guatemala, honduras and mexico-- there's virtually no testing. so, it's a very big challenge for us in trying to make sure that we care for kids. and it makes the use of masks and face shields and gloves and gowns crit important to prevent the spread of the disease. >> sasan: how are you getting p.p.e. to your staff? how are you protecting them during this time? >> well, it's a bit of the wild west. i mean, we are out on the open market, and we're competing with government agencieother for-profit and not-for-profit businesses trying to access supplies. and we've also been purchasing. in fact, we purchased l weeks ago a significant supply of masks. and we were in cpetition, competition with a federal government agency at twe time that w doing that. there's no coordination, so it's really every system for itself. and whacen wss this

equipment, we send it out to our tlaeams, whether that'sa or california or texas or new orleans, and we try to target it in the places where we have the highest prevalence of the virus. th> sreenivasan: one o this that your organization does is the sleepout campaign trying to increase the awareness of homelessness. in this circumstance, what are you trying to get people to do? >> well, this week, we're inviting hundreds of thousands of folks in canada and the united states and mexico and central america to spend a night inside their homes, their apartments, and sleep on the floor, in an act of solidarity with young people who don't have a safe place to be. this is a very scary time for lots of folks who don't have what many of us take for granted, which is a roof over our heads, a bed to sleep on, and some famy supports. >> sreenivasan: kevin, is thsie any kind oer lining from this? what's this sort of optimism in you?ir >> well, the has us

cornered and is pummeling us. it's turned off thts and is tipping andt ripping us. ve has something else in mind altogether. loves stocking grocery shelves. love is making sure that folks who are struggling for survival have high quality health care. love is showing up in emergency rooms. and we see love at covenant house all across the america cause it's chefs and janitors and social workers and doctors and nurses who are s up on the front lines to make sure that folks who are experiencing melessness have access t quality care. s i do think that ther opportunity here for us to be really reflective about this chance that we get once in a lifetime, one hopes, to be love in the world for young people who don't have a safe place to be. covenant house is one of the ways that happens, but it's happening in thousands and across thef ways a country right now, and it's quite breathtaking. >> sreenivasan: kevin ryan,

c.e.o. of covenant house, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you. ♪ ♪ sreenivasan: watch our recent interview with singer-songwriter courtney barnett at bswwrg/newshour. >> sr teenivasat's all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. for the latest news updates, i'm hari sreenivasan.ur. thanks for watching. stay healthy, and ha go captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible b bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the cheryl and philip milstein f arosalind p. walter. braarope zuckerberg. charles rosenblum. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right front of us. at mutual of america, we

believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual america financial group, retirement serves and investments. >> when it comes to wireless, consumer cellular gives its customers the choice. our no-contract plans give you as much or as little talk, text and data as you want. and our u.s.-basecustomer servce team is on-hand to help. to learn more, go to www.consumercellular.tv. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private rporation funded by the american people. and byontributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. you're watching pbs.

announcer: explore new w worlds and new ideas through programs like this, made available for everyone through contributions to youewpbs station from s like you, thank you. john: folk music has been around as long as there have been folks to sing it. folk music is about real people and real lives and the frustration of dissent. it was a time in america when the simple act of gathering together to share experiences united us and helpsing our troubles away. how do you do, i'm john sebastn, and that was me, and this is my music. tonight, we're gonna look back at some of the most pular songs of the folk era. ♪ and we'll go dancing, baby, then you'll see. ♪ ♪ how the magic's in the music and the music's in me, yeah ♪