captiong sponsored by wnet >> mitchell: on this edition for sunday, may 3: cautious optimism as the country bins to ease lockdowns. the trwnickle mpact of covid-19 on iowa's farme. and dancing to a beat of their own. next on "pbs newshour weekend." >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by:be ard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the cheryl and philip milstein family. rosalind p. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. charles rosenblum. try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in

front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. >> consumer cellular offers no contract wireless plans that are designed to help you do more of the things you enjoy, whether you're a talr, texter, browser, photographer or a bit of everything. our u.s.-br ased customervice team is here to find a plan that fits you. to learn more, go to www.consumercellular.tv. additional support has been provided by: antid by the corpo for public broadcating, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your you.station from viewers like thank you. >> mitchell: good evening and thank you for joining us. ay has been more than 100 since the first case of covid-19 was reported in the united states. weeks of stay-at-me orders have followed. the global pandemic is slowing, but not everywhere. in some places restrictions are

easing, buthe debate over how and when to reopen coinues. let's get started with today's top news: as parts of the country and the economy begin to reopen, the trump administration is taking a wait and see position on new nancial aid. white house economic adviser larrkudlow said today the administration wants to see how the more than $3 trillion already allocated affect the country before authorizing morep ding. >> we're trying to work through this. i don't want to rule in or out anything right now. we are in discussions internally and with leading members of congress. >> mitchell: new york governor andrew omo invited governors from nearby states to join him online at his daily news conference today. all focused on working together to meet their reopening and health care needs. >> we're gng to form a consortium withur seven northeast partner states, which buy about $5 billion dollars in

equipment and supplies that will increase our market power when we're buying. >> we can wait for the national stockpile, we can wait for that plane to land from ina, let's see what we can do ourselves much stronger together.e i wouldn't mind having some of going forward, thank you for sharing that with connecticut going forward. tchell: in other par the country, protesters demanding reopening of businesses and elimination of restrictions showed up agai throughout the weekend. some wore face masks-- others did not and called for governors to drop face mask requirements. in ohio, governor mike dewine rescinded his order mandating customers wear masks in stes. >> people were not going to accept the government telling them what to do. >> mitchell: white house coronavirus response coordinator dr. deborah birx warned that the demonstrators she saw-- standing should to shoulder-- at

michigan's state capitol on thursday put many others at risk. >> let us in! >> it's devastatingly worrisome toe personally, because if they go home and infect their grandmother or grandfather who has a co-morbid condition, and they have a serious orut unfortunateme, they will feel gu rilty for tt of their lives. so we need to protect each other at the insame time we're vo our discontent. >> mitchel money from the res act has been distributed to many small businesses across the country, and while it's helped, some owners sat it's time to ck to work. i recently spoke with ben and high rise bakery in jefferson city, missouri. up only since mid-march, but tomorrow will open the doors and get back to business as consciously as they can. >> we obviously wa to keep the social distancing guidelines of six feet apart. so we've taken tables out of both dining rooms in order to,

to keep that space. the other guidelines were things inlike, you know, just lim our capacity. we're probably looking at less than half of our capacity. we're gonna, we're gonna try to put a few extra tables outside, and then we're-- we will alecbe wearing prve equipment, masks and gloves, while we're serving. you know, we're not gonna require patrons to come in with those on, but we will be wearing those. >> mitchell: ben, if you could describe your town a little bit and the onomic impact that's been felt there. >> i don't know the exact populaf tionr town. it's in that 30,000-40,000 person range. it's not been good. there are a few-- i know of a few peopamle to do thetype of thing that i do that won't be reopening their doors. some of them completely closed down., my businesses would say wee en doing 25% of our normal revenues. oo mitchell: and when you do open your on monday, what are you expecting to see?

o do you expect customersme in, sit down, order a meal and >> we do.dining in? we've actually got some people want to-- people want to get out. they want to get back to normal. it's a little bit different in our small town. we haven't seen the number of cases that they have in places likesnew york or seattle, pla like that. >> mitchell: and how do your staff fee e they all coming back? >> for the most part, everybody. through the whole thing.ith me we've been offering curbside and delivery and things like that. i guess everybody's a little apprehensive, but all that's ally done is made us make sure that everybody is comfortable and that our that our employees are comfortable as well. >> mitchell: and why have you made the decision to open up on monday? you don't have to. you could wait a little bit longer. why now? >> it's out of a necessity. we can't sustain like this forever. in fact, i'd say we probably

wouldn't want to try to do this for very much longer. it's tough. you know, it's a tough decision. it's, it's... we, we, we don't take it lightly for sure. we, we need tbe open so that we can gerate revenue so that can pay our taxes, so that the state can turn around and pay taxes to the federal government. i mean, that's how thr , that's how conomy works. we're, we're kind of dipping our toe in and see where it tak us. >> mitchell: what do you say to critics that say you're just openouing up too soon,hould wait longer? >> um, well, there is an gument there. there's an argument both ways. our, our little town, we're spread out as it is. and we don't, v just don't e... like i said, we don't have the number of ases around us. so it makes us feel a ittle bit mocomfortable. and there is a, there is a, a want from the public. people are ready to get out and get somewhat back to normal. >> mitchell: ben huhman, thank >> mitchell: while parts of the

united states and europe are easing lockdowns, new coronavirus infections are still growing in some in britain, hundreds of covid- 19-related deaths are still being reported each day. the u.k.'s death toll-- now more than 28,000-- is nearing italy's, once the epicenter of the outbreak in europe. in russia, the confirmed number of new covid-19 cases surpassed 10,000 today, a stark jump from a week that officials said was partly due to increased testing. and in india, 2,600 new covd-19 teses were reptoday, a new daily record. most of india's 1.3 billion people remain under lockdown restrictions that have been in place r more than five weeks, but less affected areas will have some strictions eased is week. south korea's military reported today that noh korean soldiers fired into a guard post along the two tocountries' bordey. south korean soldiers responded cease fire broadcast.a no casualties were reported on

either side of the most heavily fortified border in thgworld. followhe incident, secretary of state mike pompeo said that the uniteesstates belithe initial shots fired were accidental. for more on the escalation between north and south korea and the latest on the global pandemic, visit pbs.g/newshour. >> mitchll: former vice president and democratic candide for president joe biden, continues toace an allegation of sexual assault from tara reade, who worked for him 27 yearssego in biden's te office. biden denied the allegations in televi ionerviews over the past two days. yesterday the associated press published a story focused on reade's recollection of a written reporthe says exists, but does not possess. alexandra jaffe,orne of the auof that piece, joins us now from washington, d.c., with the latest othis still developing story. a lot's happened since joe biden

first publicly spoke aboute' reallegation and your a.p. report interviewing reade. since then, reade has said me of the reporting in your interview isn't wholly accurate. give us a quick tick tock of everything that's happened since your interview came out. >> sure. when i spoke with her, i tried to get, sort of, her trclarify whet she filed a full report and what the report said. and shefi told me that shd only an intake form. so she basically just filled out a form with some basic information abouofherself in her ice. and within that intake form, she did not use theraords "sexual ment" or "assault." she said that she described an incident in wch she was asked to serve drinks at a fundraiser because joe biden liked her legs, and the retaliatn th she experienced after that. she was too scarede the me that words "sexual harassment" and was not that specific. in the, sort of, day since we >> mitchell: yeah, and that's something that she is sticking to atthe moment. anhis isn't the first time that a.p.'s interviewed her. you also spoke to her back in 2019. why is this the first time we're

hearing about those interviews? >> the april of 2019 interviews one of whom was part of ourrs, investigative team, trying to vet these claims back when tarac firsame forwaranalleged that joe biden sexually harassed her.or that was bshe came forward with the allegation of assault. and we didn't end up publishing a story on, sort of, that exhaustive vetting process because we simply cld not corimroborate her c >> mitchell: have you found anyone further that will corroborate these stories? >> i can tell you i've spoken with two people who spoke to me anonymously out of concern for theimir , one of whom said that tara expressed to her about a decade after the incident that she aswas sexually hd by her boss in washington. another woman told me that tara did indeed tell her at the time that she was sexually assaulted by her boss in washington. but those were, sort of, itonymous sources. and without any n proof, it's tough to say. >> mitchell: what's coming out of the biden camp? what are you hearing from them? and what about those records from the university of delaware?

will we see th anytime soon? >> i think that this has brought renewed focus on joe bid's papers, which remain, sort of, locked away at university of laware. he has refused to call for them to be released. the university has said they are not going to release them until two years after joe biden exits public life. anspeaking with the biden campaign, you know, they're not weighing in on this. and they're staying quiet and letting, sort of, the vice presidefrnt's commentay speak for themselves. >> mitchell: so, tell me, how are republicans in the trump administration responding to all of the noise that's going on about this story? >> republicans have seized o this as evidence that both democratand the media are treating this with hypocrisy, that they have not gone after because it gejots at two arguments for republicans: one, that democrats aren't consistent on this question of character. that's a central sort of focus and argument for joe biden that he has a stronger char tter than donamp. and two, republicans frequely raise doubts about the media, any questions about the media's coverage. and this really gets at that question as well. >> mitchell: thank you so much for your time. >> thank youor having me. m

chell: earlier this week president trump issued an executive order under the defense production act classifying me processing plants as "critical infrastructure" and ordering them to stay open. still, many have been forced to close their doors due to covid- 19, pacting not just the mea producers, but the entire food chain, frofarmers who raise hogs to grain farmers who help feed them. newshour weekend's melanie saltzman has more. >> this first group of pigs needs to be started to market in about two weeks. >> reporter: rob stout is a fourth generation hog farmer in southeast iowa. raises 4,000 pigs at any given time, selling about 11,000 each year. >> it's a ocess that has ted nine months before, before we get them to the marketplace. can't shut off the supply of

pigs, because those pigs were conceived a long, long time ago. we got caught in the pandemic. it's, it's hitting us. basically... i'm going into savings or just borrowing more money at the bank to cover the cost. >> reporter: hog prices dropped by roughly half because of a sharpue decline in demando restaurant closures and major disruptiopl in processing ts. tyson foods, one of the top pork procssors in the u.s., warned "the food supply chain is breaking," and "millions of poundsil of meat"disappear from it. >> i mean, a pig isn't useful to anyone unless itan be processed into pork. >> reporter: mike paustian is the president of the iowa pork producers association. he's also hog farmer himself. >> we're estimating that as many as 40,00pigs per day are not gointo market that normally would be.rt ununately some farmers are going to be faced with, you know, the heart breaking decision to perhaps have to euthanize some of their animals.

>> the coronavirus pandemic has really unleashed a cascade ofic dilt economic issues. >> reporter: neil hamilton is the emef ritus directore agricultural law center at drake university. >> iowa riculture came into this pandemic in a fairly precarious situation. we were suffering the consequences of a very difficult trade war that had been that had dried up a number of our foreign markets. a lot of faers were really on the edge. >> reporter: he also notes that producers in the food chain are all interconnected, so a hit to one part of the chain impacts every. >> with meat in particular, you have not just the production of ee animals, but you have demand for what they eat. and all of those things are tied together., and there is less demand for livestock, there's also lhes demand foreeds that feed them. it's a little bit like an acy dent on the freeat kind of slows down traffic, and then the effects are rippled all

the way back through the system. >> it takes a t of generations build a farm, and it only takes one eventike this to potentially le a farm, so i hope that doesn't happen to me. >> reporter: sam bennett, a sixth generation famer, is part of that system. he has 2,000 acres of crs: half corn and half soybea. >> those soybeans are made into hog feed, for the most part. and with the processing plants for hogs closing left and right, the demand for soymeal for hog feed idrastically cut. alfalfa was planted this spring at the smeame ti i was planting oats. >> repter: newshour weekend featured sam bennett last year. he was demonstrating for other farmers how to improve the health of their soil by diversifying the crops they grew, he told us about his hopes for the future of his farm >> i'm not borrowing this land from my dad, or my grandpa, i'm borrowing it from my kids, and my grdkids. it's my responsibility to leave this land in better shape than i found it. >> repo been since we met?ngs

>> comparatively, things were good when we talked last. things have gotten pretty tough recently, especially with the lack of demand for all of our products that we grow. >> reporter: when we meebennett lastar he was growing the very crop that he's now having trouble selling for a profit. bennett sa soybean prices dropped by 25% since the pandemic began, and the price of corn-- tied to ethanol and energy 25% as well.pped about this is largely due to the fact ltat people have been sheered in place and stopped driving. >> things don't look very good for the fute. my cash flow for this year looks like $100,000 less than it would have beeyn when i talked to bankers this winter about securing loans for farming this year. >> reporter: for now, bennett is gohiing to try to storgrains for as long as they can, hoping prices improve. but managing existing crops is only half the problem for iowa farmers right now, because they just began planting next year's crop this week.

>> i've invested probably $40la0,000, just to a crop this year, and it looks like right now we're going to plant a crop for no profit. >> there's an old saying that it takes five years to make up one yeas sses, and that's probably, could easily be true here >> reporter: farmer mike helland grows corn and soybeans. how much are y investing right w in next season's crop? >> a tremendous amoud of money-- ith. >> reporter: newshour weekend also featured helland last year, when he described to us how hard it was for him to make a living as a farmer. all of our costs keep going up. as a farmer, you never get a yocost of living increase just have to be more efficient with the same machinery, or the same manpowe same hours. >> reporter: helland says he's lost $100,000 in the last month alone. he says the pandemic could have long term impacts. >> we're kind of looking towards retiri here in the next few years, and this is kind of maybe

putting a hold on a lot of retireicment plans. affects the younger generation, too, because those are jobs that don't become availablif people don't tire. >> reporter: and in the meantime this week, you just keep plantin>>g. ou keep working, take care of the things you can take care of, and try not to worry about the things that you really don't have any control over.d ather and markets are two of those things. >> mitchell: last summer newshour weekend spoke with new yorknc city and choreographer reggie "regg roc" gray abo helped pioneer called "flexn." now, almost a year later, new york's performance spaces have been shut down, but that doesn't mean gray and his fellow dancers have stopped creating. neewshour weekend's ivette feliciano has more ta>> we love the sge. we love being in a place where it's full of-- full of people when everyone's around us. it'sve that give and receel,

you know? we're just waiting for that moment again to happen, so we , n, you knpress our creative, freedom within our movement. >> reporter: reggie"regg roc" gray and his dance troupe, dream ring, may not be appearing on stage any ti soon, but they've found a new venue online as part of a new digital art series, "up ose," presented by new york city art center, th. dream ring's new work is calle"" revelationf proverbs," a callback to the bible verses gray was reading when the shed commissioned the piece. >> oddly enough, i was actually reading proverbs. they're these short sayings of just wisdom. and then you think about revelation, that's what it feels like right now in the sense of your loneliness, right? of your-- of you being quarantined in a place and it's, like, okay, well, i can't go outside because i'm scaredi'm nervous, i don't want to get caught up, i might have-i mit have a pre-existing condition. like, no one knows what's going on. so like th-- there's this spiritual awakening where it's like, okay, well, i have

something here to create within. and how do we bring this out? >> reporter: were you guys able was it all done online? >> it definitely was all done online. the d cancee up with their own ideas. they come up with their way of doing things. and we got on a zoom call, we just stouarted talking what's happening right now. what's it feel like, you know what i'm saying? are you are you working out more? like, what is happening in your life thfoat's for the good an the bad? what are your pros and cons? and they started to put it in their movement. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: anviwhat kind of nments are your dancers performing in? >> kitchens, living rooms, bathrooms. ( laugh ) ans here i guess it feke a story could be told. everybody got their beids and their all messed up. though.s-- it's all good, like, it's-- it's liberating, actually. >> reporter: what are some of your thoughts about ng performance art during the time >> it's nothing liforming live, 'cause you really need that human exchange. you really want that feeling.

digitally, it feels like it takes the soul a bit, but it's still there. you know, we have to use what we have. wee actually using social media for what it's meant to be used for. ( laghughs ) art is something to bring everyone together and to not let art die out, we have to use our tenology. we have to use our ways of conneing through the airwaves, through video, you know, to make something worthwhile, so people can look at something and be so people can look at some-- someone and say, "hey, well, i can do that." or, "i can make this." you know, "i don't have to just lay in many bed aldabe depressed or be scared about what's happening." be creative. work out. do things you've never done before. cook recipes. i've become a chef lately. ( laughs ) i did not know i could cook this good until i started cooking-- quarantined.- until i was i've-- i've really started, like, follong recipes and coing a i'm like, "oh, well! i can actually cook!" now is the time to get whutever you had nd just let it flourish. ♪ ♪

>> mitchell: and finally, another installment of our series "the nenormal," in which we feature your stories about how you're living now. toaght, we head to califor to meet an artist working in an unusual medium. newshour weekend's christopher booker has details. >> reporter: the artwork of joanne bolton is the byproduct of creativity and dog ownership. >> when i started the artwork i was looking around for something i might like to do when i retire, and we had a new dog and i was walking around the neighbhood. i don't know what time of year it was, seeds and everything were on the ground. i picked him up and thought, these are free." these? >> reporter: free, and in the hands of bolton, rather fantastic. owlsofrnstructed om flowerin petals, ball made of

leaves, or cats with pine-cone tails. >> these are all-- i have like five or d swers of these leaves that have been pressed so i can use them over and over >> reporter: boltates her images on top of a black, velvet sheet, and then takes a photograph. right now she says she's not sure what she wants to do with all of the work, but at least during this time, our socially distanced te, she says she is keeping really busy. >> my son kept saying, "you can do this, you've got all this time." and i'm saying to him, it's no different from another day for . i mean, i've definitely stepped up making things, but whais different is that it's given me more focus. and actually more empathy. i mean, i hopit changes everybody for a long time. d i hope we-- we're able to stay isolated long enough to make it worthwhile.

>> mitchell: that's all for this edition of "pbs newshour weekend." for the latest news updates visit pbs.org/newshour. i'm karina mitchell. ks for watching. have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs wpossible by:d is made sue and edgar wachenheim iii.

the cheryl and philip milstein family. osalind p. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. charles rosenblum. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of morrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retement services and investments. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like u. thank you. you're watching pbs.

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- [jeff] when you think of australia, wh comes to mind? white sand, surf, and crystal clear waters?s yup, it at. but like most places on earth, if you travel the back roads, you see something else. - that is impressive. that's like out of indiana jones right there man. - [jeff] you see a side of theountry that isn't putting on a show. it isn't trying, it just does what it does. this part of australia doesn't see many international tourists. and because of that, a journey here meansa you'll havavel experience that's about as honest as it gets. - i've never seen anything like this that's just off the side of the road randomly. (thunder rumbling) - [jeff] wheyou travel, the world becomes a smaller place. f when you explore wiends that share a love of photography, destinations come to life. we tell the stories of travel with our cameras. capturing some of the most beautiful locations on earth.