captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for saturday, may 9: as unemployment nbers rise, more states move towards reopening businesses; a new push for absentee voting in the wake of ntvid-19 concerns; and stu in china with a message to share. xt opbwsho wnd. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the cheryl and philip milstein family. rosalind 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 aberica, we eve taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of tof y. mutualerica financial group, retirement services and investments. additional support has been provided by: and by tporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like u. thank you. >> sreenivasan: good evening, and thanks for joining us. state by state, the country is beginning to face the reality of a slow recovery ahead from the covid-19 pandemic. companies are nsidering ways ng workers back, but the unemployment re is staggering. whether you are here in new york, where there is still a strict lockdown order, or in an area reopening, this is a challenging time let's get started with today's top news. ( razor buzzing ) cases of covid-19 continue to slow in most of the country. >> feels good after two months. >> sreenivasan: there were more reopenings of barbershops,

salons, restaurants and public spaces, but the rules differ state by state. in new york, where a lockdown remains for much of the state, governor andrew cuomo said hoatspitalns, new cases and deaths from the virus dropped again today. buhit cuomo said threeren have died from a new syndrome associated with covid-19, and there are 73 repors d cases. >> ire an inflammation of ths,e blood vesshich can heart.ause problems with their >> sreenivasan: cuomo said parents need to be vigilank while new yalth officials work with the c.d.c. to tigate this new syndrome nationwide, there have now been more than 77,000 deaths from covid-19 and more than 1.2 million confirmed cases. also today, after reports that the trump administration shelved guidance fm the centers for disease control and prevenon on how to reopen the country, the white house sued a statement from the director of the c.d.c., robert redfield, thatpl said th was "was in

draft form and had not been vetted." in europe and russia today, world leaders continued to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of world war ii. russian president vladimir putin laid a wreath at the tomb of the unknowsoier in a celebration at was scaled back dramatically due to the coronavirus pandemic. as infections continue to rise-- there are nearl200,000 confirmed cases in russia-- a massive military parade on red square was canceled. but in neighboring belarus,es ent alexander lukashenko refused to cancel celebrations and presided over a parade today in minsk. lukashenko has refused to impose any lockdown rules in belarus, calling the pandemic a" psychosis." but the country has reported at least 21,000 cases, a figure observers believe is an underestimate. in italy, ence ther of the obal pmipein rome were today for takeaway drinks, but officials warned that social distancing tmust be maintain prevent a resurgence in coronavirus cases. in south ko tre mayor of

seoul closed more than 2,000 nightclubs just one week after dozens of new coronavirus cases were connected to people o attended clubs last week.an magioy horn of the duo siegfried and roy died yesterday from complications related to covid-19. the german-born horn teamed up with his longte partner, siegfried fischbacher, in 1957, and their magiact played inla vegas for decades. their shows closed after their white tir attacked horn during a performance in 2003. his partner, siegfried, said," day, the world has lost one of the greats of magic, but i have lost my best friend." horn was 75 years old. little richard, one of the founding fathers of rock and roll who helped define the genre in the950s, died today. ♪ ♪ >> sreenivasan: with hits like" tutti frutti," "good golly miss molly," a "long tall sally," little richard mixed together boogie, rhythm and blues, and te his energet sound. born richard wayne penniman in

1932 in man, grgia, little richard sang at a nearby church as a boy and explored r&b, blues, andountry before landing his first record deal in 1951. known for anhis pounding and howling voice, little richard's music attracted fans both black g and white durtime of segregation in the united states. little richard sold more than 30 womillion corddwide, and his music has been covered by artists like the beatles, the kinks, and elvis costello. little richard was 87 years old. >> sreenivasan: for the latest national and international news and a peek at mars from the home of a nasa scientist, visit www.pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: with just six months until november's presidenti election, states across the country are trying to determine how they will safely collect and count ballots during a national health emergency. for many states, that means reevaluating in-person versus absentee voting. just yesterday, california governor gavin newsom announced that the entire state would be asked to vote by mail in mbe nor election. but for states like connecticut,

with a long history of in-person voting, the push to vote by mail remains a complicated task. newshour weekend's christopher booker has more. wrongey tell me i'm in th line.>> reporter: the scenes frm wisconsin's rece election did not sit well with connecticut secretarof state denise merrill. >> that was a turning point in my discussions with both the governor. leadership and the nobody wants to look like milwaukee, frankly. and that can happen pretty easily. >> reporter: after democratic governor tone evers' executive order that delayed the state election by two months was overturned by the supreme court, polling places if they wanted to cast a ballot. 52 people who worked the polls or voted on april 7ave tested positive for covid-19, arr situation l does not want to duplicate in her state. >> you know, people are just waki up to the fact that they may be asked to vote either in a cuarprti py rl y laconcerinn, and jeopardize tr health.

and i think the milwaukee situatvan really gnized people because it was all over television, and people were home watching it. >> reporter: but hoping to minimize in-person voting in connecticut will not be an easy task. with voting laws dating back to the state's 1818 constitution, the rules to votebsentee or by mail in the state nicknamed "the constitution state" are restrictive. each voter has to aply for an absentee ballot, which they will receive only if they neat mete one of six predetermined excuses, including military service or illness. coordination to secretary merrill, only 5% to 8% of connecticut voters vote by mail. the rest it in person. >> we wif would hav change almost everything in what we do e in order to get a vote by mail system. this issue of health has never come up before but it does point to the weaknesseof our inability to be flexible in these things. >> expect to see similar things in a lot of the east coast states. te>> rep audrey klein is the national policy director for

"vote at home" ap non that advocates for absentee voting. whto are states doin address voting in response to the coronavirus pandemic? >> it depends on where you're living. your voting experience varies we were telling states that they needed to make large structal or infrastructure-type cision two weeks ago. w so, you knowre going to start seeing places that may want to go full vote by mail. bmaybe they won'e tiebl. >> reporter: andthis is why there's such a patchwork of coronvirus election ps. nevada just decided it would mail ballots to each voter, while states like michigan recently eliminated its excuse criteria, making ever eligible to vote by mail. what is it that do to voter turnout? are you able see correlation.

>> yes, absolutely, it's prety clear from the data not only does it up turnout in big election, but you actually see a larger increase when you get off-year elections.ot races or >> reporter: klein says this is no more evident than in corado, one of five states in the countrythat automatically mails each regtered voter a ballot where, she says, 95% ofir voters mail thote in or drop it off at a blot box. m colorabe on to something. outside the state, vote by mail continues to gain natt.ional supp a recent studfrom the pew research center found 70% of respondent favod voting by mal if they want to. what is holding up an expansion of the absentee is system in connecticut? thethere's a big appetite in public. i think it's the legislators who are not so anxious to face things. >> we areacing almost a $1 billion deficit by the end of june. she says she has a number of

worries about expanding access to absentee ballots. >> voter fraught fraud has been a huge issue in connpaecticut, icularly in our cities. that's something that has to be looked at pup and our towns andi already have a difficult enough time handling votes we'r. actually gett when you have absentee ballots, their credentials are proper and they're voting. these are a lot of things going on that wre expecting volunteers to handle. so we have to be cautious. >> reporter: voter fraud say major talk point for those ainst expanding vote by mail. on april 8, president trump tweeted that republicans shouldd fight very hen it comes to etatewide mail-in voting. democrats clamoring for it. tremendous potential fovor fraud and for whatever reason doesn't work out equal wl for republicans. voter fraud comes up white often. you have seen rampant voter fraud in connecticut? >> oh, absolutely not. i mean, fore peoto complain about absentee ballot fraud in connecticut is really kind of usdiculous. bewe have so many processes in place. first you have to mate

they have to fill it out, mail it back to the clerk. mails theallot to the person, which is in a double envelope. you have to put it in an inside envelope and then in an outside envelope t protect their anonymy. and then you mail it black back. the cle and during all this process, the clerk has to note every step of the way our electronic voter registry. >> reporter: secretary merrill says there's lite evidence that there is widespread voterfr d in connecticut. you can point to specific connecticut? voter fraud in >> i don't eye don't have them on me. but we deal with these every aear. we end up havinot of kind of quirky election issues that i don't particularly find coincidental. but it's something we need address. >> reporter: the critics of expanded vote by mail often cite voter fraud. is there evidence that when i increase the access to vote by mail, fraeaud incrs? >> no. >> reporter: none? there's no evidence? >> none whatsoever.

nowhere. it does not exist. >> reporter: on monday, secretary merrill released her plan to mail absentee ballo applications to every registered voter. but this still does not mean every connecticut voter can vote by mail. unless the governor inteyervene, ill still have to qualify under one of the six excuses. >> the only thing we can do right now, because the legislature is not in session, would be an executive ordeer frm overnor, which i have asked him to look at. >> that should be a discussion in full session. that can't be an exeti orde that can't be the secretary of state doing it on her own. that the governor will, indeed, >> not at this point, and we have been very clear. in fact, minutes before i got on with you, we were very clear with the governor's legal counsel that that is not something any of us are supptive of at this pont. reporter: so if he does issue an executive order, there will be resistance. >> there will be a situation, yes. >> sreenivasan: thi >> sreenivasan: this w connecticut secretary of state

denise merrill laid out her prosal for safe, secure an accessible voting for the upcoming primary and general elections in 2020. christopher booker joins me now from his home in westchester, sos, what does the governor think about the plan? >> well, aft secretary merrill released her plan on monday, the governor, during his daily press briefing, did say he believes he can issue an executive order for august primary. now, this was the primat initially was scheduled for april, then was postponed for june, and then med again to august. however, he followed up and said he's not sure whate can do about the novembeelection. and he would like the state legislature to decide. what they're really ingoo single provision within these lists of excuses-- illness. can you be excused from appearing in person to vote beuse of yourr of contracting the coronavirus? : what about the potential for fraud? are there other things that people who oppose this are concerned abou? >> there's little evidence that increases the likelihood of

fraud. but they do cite cost because it costs money to sd ballots to people. it costs money to send applications for ballots to people. now as states-- and conticut is one of them-- face historic economic downturns, there's a realut question a tax revenues. thties and states are getting fewer dollars aseconomy slows down. >> sreenivasan: even if money was not an object and we were able to print everything out and get it in the mail, that takes time. >> it does. and states are basially going to have to start making plans now for november. states will need to prepare for how they proches alle ballots. erey're anticipating a historic nuf mail-in ballots. for instance, just thipast weio, michigan had an elect that was done by mail, which they received 99% of mail-in ballots. and what's most interesting is participation rates doubled for these may elections. usually partication rates are really, l real for these types of elections. these were local municipality elections. and what audrey klein is most

worried about, states like and michigan tha will have historic numbers of mail-in ballots and won't be able to process these ballots on election night, particularly those states that will be crucial for the 2020 election. >> sivasan: all right, newshour's christopher booker, thank you so much. >> thank you. pandemic continueske aronavirus toll on the first responders and health care workers who remain on the front lines across the countr among those impacted a filipino americans who, in states like california and new yorkmake up at least 20% of the nursing workforce. joining me n is propublica reporter nina martin, who says the toll of covid-19n filipino health care workers has ft many in the community reeling. inna martin, thanks for jo us. first, i want to start by e ving-- give us a scale of how it is affecting lipino communities, how integral they are in american health care. >> the filipino health care

community is an incredibly important part of the infrastructure of the health care system in the u.s. it has been, especially the nursmmunity, going back for decades. but filipinos are a really important part of the larger health care system, too. they're doctors, they're-- they're occupational therapists, physical therapists. they work in health care se nursing homes around the u.s. d an analysis at propublica of recent census fdata and that one in four n of adults, filipinose new york, new jersey area are in the , health care indust some aspect of the health care industry, which is a staggering number if you think about it. nurses, filipinos are more like mefour-- four as likely to be nurses as any other immigrants in the u.s. and so, what you have is an immigrant community that was

recrted, trained and recruit to come to the u.s. to fill nursing shortages at-- at different times in our history. they settled here, they had immigrated and brought family members in, and those family members very often have become health care workers emselves. so, all of these reasons kind of explain why filipino families in particular have become so deeply rooted in the health care industry in the u.s. and why, in a place like new york that's, you knowthe epicenter of the covid epidemic, it turns out they're also at extreme risk being exposed to the virus and rates.g ck and dying at high >> sreenivasan: what about the ripple effectspeo all of the le that they live with, their family members? is there any way to get an idea othf ho is spreading in that community? >> i think it's hard.

as we know, one of the-- one of the really-- one of the-- the shortcomings of the data collection at the moment is that we just don't have very good da aut health care workers who are dying. we don't have very good data abisout racialrities amongst people who are dying still, in many places. asians tend to be lumped together into the group of sian" as opposed to filipino versus chinese versus korean versus south asian. so, the numbers aren't great, but what we know anecdotally i that there's just huge amounts of ripple effects throughout the communities. and so, even when people themselves are not getting sick and-- and dying, their family members very often are. >> sreenivasan: this story, one of the intriguing parts of your story was that these people are going through this and feeling the effects of it while xenophobia is on the rise.

>> i think that, as we know, asians in many parts of the countavrybeen scapegoated by the trump administration, and-- and supporters have been calling the virus, the coronavirus, the-- the "chinese virus." and thloere have been of-- there have been a big uptick in hate icidents against asians in general. and filipino americans have been targeted along with everyone else. at the same time-- even before covid, obviously-- there was a big uptick in anti-immigration rhetorimpc byhe t administration-- you know, sort of saber rattling around de-naturalizi people, for example. and so, that creates a oblem, as well, because the nurses that we're-- and the doctors and-- and the workers that we're most-- they're in the moste

vulnerable settings. they're doing critical care. they're at the bedside. they are unable to social distance. and-- and they're often been doing it without adequate p.p.e., without adequate protections in place. and they-- they are perhaps feeling unable to protest because of fear. there are a lot of filipinos who have immigration visas in process who are in great fear of speaking out and hurting the chances of other-- of other people in the family to immigrate. >> sreenivasan: nina martin of propublica, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you so much for havin me. stay safe, bye >> sreenasan: in february, schools in china moved classes online in the wake of covid-19.

in rnent weeks, some schools china's largest cities began to reopen. newshour weekendpecial correspondent karla murthy spoke to a teacher in china about how she's managed to keep her students engleaged at home w helping them process the world outside. >> rellporter: loredana giove has been an educator for 25 years. she's an academic consultant, a teacher trainer, and works at an internat where she's been teaching middle school kids remotely for nearly three months. soyou've been in this situation for a while now. what advice do you have for teachers here in the states? >> do not assign them o many tasks. assign projects, but a long- termroject that they can develop across, you know, a certain amount of time-- days, weeks-- that is meaningful. >> reporter: one of the first projects she assigned was an art project to create cards and videos to support the people of wuhan where the coronavirus outbreak began. >> from there, it just snowballed. >> reporter: e idea spread to

dozen other schools around china. >> so many cards, so many posters, so many videos. it was just overwhelmi p. thisject just moved from project wuhan into project worlusd benow basically they're all infected. we'r, saying, ok're safe here in china now, but right now italoty, spain and manr countries are suffering. >> reporter: how did doing this projtsect impact your stud >> their empathy is coming out so beautifully. kids go to schoo they learnhe stress of being tested all the time, the assignments,he homework. but we forget that we need to build empathy in our snts, in our kids because nowadays what's missing-- it's thy. >> reporter: she says but while her students were creating their artwork, they were also dealing with news of racist attacks and discrimination against chinese peopwhle abroad o arbeg blamed for the disease. >> they are so affected by that. and these are kids that will

eventually go to study abroad, so can you imagine how they feel right now? >> like, my first reaction was afrai then, i got a bit angry. >> reporteab 14-year-old la li is one of giovanelli's students. >> i think those acts are not fair to asian people, and they are not reasonable. >> we used to be together. >> reporter: so, for her art project, she got her classmates together and made a video, a message to the world. >> this is a situation we all do not want to see since most chinese do not carry the virus. >> humans are not equal to the virus.no >> we ara virus. >> no need to hide away from asians. >> ( sesaking in ch ) >> the virus doesn't separate us. but panic does. >> people were getting a lack of information, and people were panicking too much, i think. hewell, i basically want t, to raise people's awareness.

>> no discrimination >> no discrimination. >> no discrimination. >> no discrimination. >> no discrimination. >> no discrimination. just me. >> just me. >> and you.ou. >> we can solve the problem together! ( speaking in chinese ) >> ( speaking in chinese ) >> ( speaking in chinese ) >> we are together. ( speaking in chinese ) >> ( speaking in chinese ) >> ( speaking in chinese ) >> (peaking in chinese ) >> i think, at this hard periodo wed work together in helping each other to fight the virus but not blaming each other. >> sreenivasan: that's all for this edition of pbs newshour weeken for the latest news updates

visit w.pbs.org/newshour. i'm hari sre fivasan. than watching. stay healthy and have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media accs oup at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the chyl and philip milstein family. rosalind p. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. charles rosenblum. we try to live in the moment, to not mss what's right in front of us.

at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow cahelp you make the most of today. mutual ofca ame financial group, retirement services andt innts. >> when it comes to wireless, consumer cellular givs its customerhe choice. our no-contract plans give you as much or as little talk, text and data as you want. and our u.s.-based customer service team is on-hand to help. to learn more, go to www.consumercellul.tv. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broaedcasting, a priv corporation funded by the american people. butions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. you're watchi

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