captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, the u.s. death tol by far the highest in the world, continues to climb as new hotspots emerge around the country. then, unrest turns to uproar-- protests in minneapolis take a violent turn. we examine the collective trauma of the african american community and potential steps forward. plus, home work: the pandemic forces millis of americans to do their jobs from home, raising questions about the future of the workplace. >> maybe a year or two from now when firms relax and say, look, you can come back into the

office if you like, you can come back in two or three days a week and spend the other couple of days at home. that's, you knowthe promised land, but that's definitely not where we are now. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> life isn't a straight line, and sometimes you can find yourself heading in a new direction. fidelity is here to help you work through the unexpected, with financial planning and advice for today, and tomorrow.

>> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contribions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: the toll of the covid-19 pandemic is on vivid display again tonight.

new numbers paint a stark picture of the cost to the nation, in human and economic terms. john yang begins our coverage. >> yang: it's a death toll of epic proportions. more than 100,000 americans have now lost their lives to the coronavirus. but health officials fear that because of testing shortages and unreported cases, the actual number could be even higher. newspapers from coast to coast marked the somber occasion by honoring the dead with tributes emblazoned across their front pages. president trump acknowledged the toll in a tweet: "we have just reached a very sad milestone. i want to extend my heartfelt sympathy & love for everything that these great people stood for & represent." white house press secretary kayleigh mcenany: >> the president recognized that landmark before we even hit it. the president, that was after all the impetus behind him lowering the flag half staff. the president has said one death

is too many. he takes this very seriously. he's said before this is the hardest part of his presidency. it's something that no one wanted to see happen. >> yang: at least 44 of those deaths have been workers at meatpacking plants. the country's largest meatpacking union estimates more than 3,000 of its workers have been infected by the virus. meanwhile, covid-19 continues to inflict a devastating economic toll as well. the number of people losing jobs since the pandemic began hit nearly 41 million, with today's report that another 2.1 million americans filed for unemployment benefits last week. in washington, the house tried to help, passing a bipartisan bill to make the terms of the paycheck protection program more flexible, to give small businesses more time to take advantage of federal loans. the measure now goes to the senate. as companies slowly re-open their doors, some are looking to hire. but they're trying to do so smartly and safely.

in pasadena, california, an open-air job fair in a parking lot to maintain cial distancing. >> it's for safety and i support everything about the safety and the health of everybody and i am willing to do whatever it takes to keep everybody healthy and safe. i don't mind it at all. >> yang: farther north in california, the solano town center mall in fairfield is back open for business. it's the first indoor mall to re-open in the san francisco bay area, but foot traffic remains light. >> i'm not really worried as long as i keep my distance from anyone. >> yang: in colorado, skiers can hit the slopes again at the arapahoe basin ski area in summitounty. but face masks are required and admittance is capped at 600 skiers a day. >> it's great to get back out for sure. you know i mean it's just getting the legs back from noodles to muscle. >> yang: overseas, covid-19 cases continued to spike i india today with more than 6,500 new infections reported. the country's two-month-old lockdown is scheduled to e on

sunday. spain is in the midst of a 10- day mourning perd for the more than 27,000 lives that country lost to the virus. and in paris, health care workers and hundreds of their supporters protested outside a hospital, to demand better work conditions. >> ( translated ): we are afraid that ultimately public hospitals will collapse. health is everyone's matter, for you and for us, and we need to preserve it. it is one of the pillars of our democracy. >> yang: that comes as the european commission in brussels pledged to be better prepared in the future. it announced plans today to set up a permanent stockpile of essential drugs and medical equipment. >> never again do we want to see our healthcare workers having to choose which patient receives life-saving equipment. >> yang: for the pbs newshour, i'm john yang. >> woodruff: communities in minneapolis are reeling from the

death of george floyd, the bitter relationship many residents feel with law enforcement and how protests have changed over the past day. yamiche alcindor begins our coverage tonight with a report on the latest. then, amna nawaz speaks with a community leader from the twin cities. this reporting is part of our ongoing series, "race matters." >> alcindor: violent protests. a community reeling. and a case that continues to capture the nation. minneapolis in daylight... smoke, still billowing from burnt out buildings... debris scattered on the ground... for a second night, demonstrations broke out over the death of george floyd. and again, there was violence; amid the chaos, one man was shot dead. this afternoon the national guard activate in responsed to unrest. the city has been on edge, when a minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for some

eight minutes. floyd, a black man, had no pulse by the time he was loaded into an ambulance. the 46-year-old later died at a nearby hospital. mayor jacob frey has called for the national guard. today, he acknowledged the city's pain: >> last night is the result of so much built up anger and sadness. anger and sadness that has been ingrained in our black community not just because five minutes of horror, but 400 years. >> alcindor: yesterday, the protests started peaceful. hundreds stood in the streets just south of downtown protesting floyd's death. but pockets of rioting spread. looters broke into a target store, smashed pawn shop windows, and set an auto zone aflame. minneapolis police chief medaria arradondo: >> the vast majority of people that have come together have been doing so peacefully. but there was core group of people who that had really been

focused on causing some destruction. >> alcindor: and, he accepted partial responsibility for the city's pain: >> i know there is currently a deficit of hope in our city. and as i wear this uniform before you i know that this department has contributed to that deficit of hope. >> alcindor: today, white house press secretary kayleigh mcenany said president trump has been briefed on floyd's death by the attorney general and the f.b.i. >> he was very upset by it. it was egregious, appalling, tragic, and it prompted him to pick up the phone, or the chief of staff to pick up the phone, and say we need to expedite what was already an f.b.i. investigation. he wants justice to be served. >> alcindor: that comes as t officer who kneeled on floyd's neck, and the officers who witnessed the incident have been fired. mayor frey has called for them to face charges. across the country, police chiefs in places like houston and los angeles have condemned the officers' actions, and praised arradondo for their dismissal. it comes as police departments have devoted more resources to de-escalation training and building community trust. in the wake of violence, community members and floyd's family have cautioned protesters

to remain nonviolent. today, that was echoed in a prayer vigil nearby the grocery store where floyd was detained. it was led by reverend al sharpton. >> there is a difference between peace and quiet. some people just want quiet. the price for peace is justice. >> alcindor: sharpton urged the community to stay engaged while they mourn. for the pbs newshour, i'm yamiche alcindor. >> nawaz: we take a further look at the events overnight and a sense of what residents of the twin cities are feeling today with tyrone terrill, a long-time community activi and president of the african american leadership council, a local community engagement group. as you well know, the eyes of the country are on minneapolis. people are looking at those images of the unrest overnight, struggling to make sense of it. we heard mayor frey talk about

the anger and sadness. what can you tell us about what unfolded last night in minneapolis and what's happening there now? >> well, what's happening now, and first, thanks for having me, but what's happening now is we want justice, and justice meaning that we want the officer not only terminated, which we got from our two-hour meeting on monday with mayor frey and the chief, but we want the officers charged by our localcounty attorney. we want him to charge these officers, have them arrested, have them put in jail, and ty may make bail, but to serve as any other criminal who commits murder in our city, and mr. floyd was murdered by a minneapolis police officer, and that officer needs to be treated as a criminal that he is. >> nawaz: has what you've seen so far, the swift firing of the four officers, mayor frey publicly calling for charges, we just now had a press conference from the u.s. attorney in minnesota and the f.b.i. saying

it's a top priority, does all of that give you a sense that there will be justice? >> i have a sense of justice from my.s. attorney, erica mcdonald. we spent a lot of time with her in the last six to eight months, so i believe if she gets the right report on her december thank she will find these officer guilty of violating the human rights of mr. floyd, but it's really important that our county attorney does his part. he prosecuted his first officer, which was a black officer, and he is in prison now, for killing somebody. we want the same thing done when a white officer kills a black person from our community. >> nawaz: i need to ask you about the video. there's been a lot of debate an discussion about this over the last just few days. we all know the truth in america. we know that law enforcement disproportionately kills black men, and every time there is a video documenting that

devastating truth, people will think, well, this will change ings, this will help. it doesn't. it keeps happening. i want to ask you, what is the collective impact of video after video documenting this. is it helping, is it leading to change, or is it just contributing to the trauma? >> well, it leads to change, because without video, whether it was steele, mr. floyd, without video, there would be nothing happening, because normally people side on the side of blue, and so the videos are very, very important, because the public firsthand gets to see untampered, the finished product. so people need the video. without the videos, we don't get them fired. the video got him fired. the video got the four officers fired, and so without that video, i keep telling everybody, keep videoing. those videos are very important, and they're the only way that we have chance to get justice.

>> nawaz: it's been called by some as contributing to a collective trauma, especially when there isn't any action to be back of video after video, it can end up making things worse for people in the african american community. do you agree with that? >> well, what has to happen, and i've said this numerous times, president obama had community policing, sick pillars. the seventh pillar or the first pillar should be valuing the humanity of block people as you this white people. if you make a stop in the same way you do a white person, officer would not have done that the a white person. so when you don't value our humanity, you don't value us as humans, and you treat us as animals, and that's the way mr. floyd was treating, he was begging for his mother at the end. it's just painful to even think ... none of us want the die, but to die in that manner,

at the hands of someone that's hired to protect and serve, on the streets he was raised in or as an dull living if minneapolis, it's unheard of. it has to stop. we keep saying on each one. i think as the mother of eric garner said here today, if it had stopped five, six years ago when her son was killed, when he said "i can't breathe," i wouldn't be doing it again today. it's not just going to take black america by all americans saying enough is enough with these kind of killings. >> nawaz: mr. terrill, does this moment in any way feel different to you? >> it doesn't. it doesn't feel different. i understand the pain, but this is a marathon now. after the rallies are gone,

those of us in minneapolis will still have to fight this fight to get a verdict of guilty from our county attorney or from hopefully our u.s. attorney. so this is just the beginning of a long race that many of us will have to endure. but we're going to it, because mr. floyd deserves justice. he doesn't deserve all the other stuff that's going on now, but a 46-year-old man lost his life, but murdered because he was black in america. >> nawaz: that is tyrone terrill, president of the african american leadership council. thank you so much for being with us tonight. >> thank you for having me. >> nawaz: in the day's other news china's national people's congress ratified plans for a national security law to tighten beijing's control over hong kong. the ceremonial legislature's

action means the new law could take effect in september. the proposal has sparked new protests in hong kong. we'll take a closer look, later in the program. back in washington, house democratic leaders shelved a bill to renew surveillance tools. that came after president trump promised a veto. he has linked the foreign intelligence surveillance act, known as fisa, to abuses in the russia invesgation. house speaker nancy pelosi sharply criticized republicans today for following his lead. >> the president said he would veto the bill, so then all of the republicans abandoned their commitment to security, and said that they were going to vote against the bill. this has always been bipartisan. >> woodruff: the bill originally

passed the house with bipartisan support, but was amended in the senate. now, the two chambers will negotiate. house minority leader kevin mccarthy defended republicans' reversal, in light of the veto threat. >> there was a concern that this id, "well, why don't youed, so i pause, and why don't we work on this with the administration?" because i'm not interested in doing some political game, because i believe fisa is very important. and let's solve the concerns and let's make law. >> woodruff: scores of progressive democrats in the house also oppose the surveillance bill. president trump signed an executive order today aimed at social media companies. he accused them of bias against conservatives, and directed federal agencies to consider rolling back their legal liability protections. the president acted after twitter slapped fact-ches on two of his tweets claiming, without proof, that mail-in balloting is re with fraud. a battle over balloting in texas is moving to the federal courts. that's after the all-republican state supreme court blocked mail-in voting for those who

cite fear of the coronavirus. state democrats favor expanded voting-by-mail and say they'll pursue a separate, federal lawsuit. on wall street today, stocks fell as u.s. tensions with china rose. the dow jones industrial average lost 147 points to close at 25,400. the nasdaq fell 43 points, and the s&p 500 gave up six points. and, the boston marathon has been canceled for the first time in its 124-year history, due to the pandemic. the race was already delayed from april to september, but organizers officially scratched it today. instead, runners who verify they ran a marathon on their own, will get a finisher's medal. still to come on the newshour: the head of the safrancisco federal reserve discusses the economic calamity of covid-19. china's government passes a law to exert more control over semi- autonomous hong kong.

we mark how passing one hundred thousand coronavirus deaths will reshape the u.s. and much more. >> woodruff: the economic toll of the pandemic and the shutdowns is growing. more than 40 million people have lost a job so far. the economy is expected to pick up momentum as business re- opens. but there's a growing debate about what more needs to be done. mary daly is the president of the federal reserve bank of san francisco, one of a dozen regional fed banks around the country that help support the economy. mary daly, welcome back to the news hour. so looking at today's report on the number of unemployment

claims filed, some are looking at that and saying, well,we see a slight cline in the numbe of people filing. maybe that's good news. how do you see it? >> well, first, thank you so much of having me. the number of over 40 million really filing for unemployment insurance so far is rely the number to pay attention. to it's an astoundingly large number. then, of course, as we have gotten more people that have been dislocate, displaced on to the uninsurance program, you see a smaller and smaller number filing each week, but it's important to stay focused on that top-line number and not get too, too excited about the declining number of unemployment insurance claims. if you even look beyond unemployment insurance, there are countless people, thousands of people, hundreds of thousands of people who have left the workforce all together because they're not eligible for unemployment insance. this is the single biggest

dislocation we've had in our economy in our recorded history. >> woodruff: you have made this comment that people at the loweend of the income scale, and this came out in a federal reserve report, have been at least twice as likely to be thrown off the rolls, off the worker rolls as anybody else. and in other words, to be suffering in this pandemic. why is that? what does that mean in terms of our ability to get back to where we want to be? >> well, think about -- let's put some faces to the people. this is one of those crises that is being borne most heffley by the peop least prepared to get through it. if you put face to those people, those are people with disability, people with a high school education, people of color, women, people who only just came into the economy and really got their legs under them at the end of the expansion. now they're out again mple. these are individuals that often

occupy high-touch jobs, the jobs that are in service of us in our economy, and so as we sheltered in place, of course, those are the very jobs that are displaced. now, what's rally important as we open up and we see that some of those people are still left behind is we have to go back and make sure all of them are reintegrated into the economy, because we really can't afford as a country the leave any of those people on the sidelines. we need everyone if we're going to get back to the growth rate that we need to move forward. >> woodruff: and what are some of the best ways to do that? as you know, congress is debating how much aid and where the aid should go, whether it should go to the unemployed, whether it should go to small businesses, the chairman of the federal reserve, jerome powell, has said there is a role for the federal government, for congress, particularly among other things in supporting stae and local governments who employ these front-line work ers. how do you see that?

>> i really want to expand our conversation away from trade-offs. i don't think it's state and local or small businesses or the unemployed. it really has to be everyone. i feel really good about what we've done as a nation to get money into the hands of the unemployed really quickly. the ppp program is getting money into the hands of small businesses. states and localities, they're the first line for the communities that we all serve, and they're going to need resource, so as congress looks at this, they're debating, where are the pockets where there is still pain, still suffering, where we still need to treat, and the posh thing is that we're still having a conversation, and then we all recognize that we need a bridge, because it's over the coronavirus, past the pandemic, and the bridge is likely to need to be longer than we thought just two months ago. >> woodruff: and what does that mean exactly in terms of support from washington, because

as we know, states are running out of money. local governments are running out of money. >> what i hear being discussed, and i think we're all listening to the same news as this, but what i hear being discussed is how do we take care of states and localities so they can support healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities, so they can support educational facilities as they figure out how do you deal with educating people from kindergarten all the way through college in a way where you have to social distance, and so i think these are really important conversations, because ultimately, you know, when we get through this, we want to be on the best footing. there are two essential ingredients to doing that well, maintaining the health and safety of our population and ensuring that education and skill training continues so we're going to get past the pandemic, we can really grow and expand and include everyone in the economy with the skills necessary to take the jobs that are created. >> woodruff: in fact, i have read where you have used the

term, you said this pandemic has put a giant magnifying glass on this country's inkities in education -- inequities in education. is this a time when the country can afford to redress that, to do something about that? >> yeah, i think the way i think of it is we can't afford not to. this was something that was not simply about fairness before the coronavirus. it was essential to increasing our potential growth rate, ensuring that the pie grows for our entire economy. we have to include everyone. that's important. it has become more important now when we see that social distancing and other kinds of things are going to be important. if you have a college education, you're much more likely to be working from home. there are jobs that are going to be created that allow all of our citizens to do that, all americans. we need to ensure they have the education that's required, and my view of this is an investment in human capital is one of the greatest investments you can make. it's the most durable.

and that kind of investment is one you can definitely afford to make and is definitely one that will help all of us. >> woodruff: there are also questions, mary daly, about what the fed itself can do. of course, it's already done a lot, a lot of money has been made available to businesses for lending, but i think there's still questions out there about the main street lending program, whether it's goig to reach enough businesses to make a difference. what's your view? >> so again, we're one of many players, right, so the paycheck protection program, that's really mend to treat the small businesses. larger businesses, you know, very large businesses have access to capital markets with other facilities we opened helped settle, and then the main street facility is really targeting those businesses that are bigger than the small businesses and not in the paycheck protection program, and smaller than the very large businesses by giving them access to lending facilities that allow

them to bridge themselves over it. so we'll keep doing what we have been doing, which is put this facility out there, see if there's still pockets of need, pockets of concern, and then do our best within the limits of our power in combination with the treasury to really figure out how to reach those people in need. the main thing that i want to emphasize, though, is the federal reserve is not just opening facilities. we're also supporting the economy through, you know, lowering interest rates, through monetary policy and giving forward guidance that says we're committed to doing that until we've defeated the coronavirus and we're back on track with price stability and full employment. >> woodruff: mary daly, president of the san francisco federal reserve bank. thank you very much. we appreciate it. >> thank you.

>> woodruff: china's moves to impose greater control over hong kong continued today, with a formal legislative process set fortin beijing. in response, the u.s., united kingdom, australia, and canada denounced the move; and the british foreign secretary raised an extraordinary prospect if beijing persists: citizenship for 300,000 hong kongers holding british passports, which date to before the city's handover to china. here's nick schifrin. >> schifrin: this is how hong kong activists say liberty dies; to thunderous applause. (applause) the national people's congress, beijing's rubber-stamp parliament, endorsed a legislative pathway that could effectively end hong kong's special status. the vote was 2,878 to one. in a press conference, china's second highest ranking official said beijing was maintaining security and stability.

>> ( translated ): the decision adopted is designed to ensure the steady and long-term implementation of 'one country, two systems' and hong kong's long-term prosperity and stability. >> schifrin: pro-democracy activists say this is beijing's version of stability-- police slamming a reporter to the ground during yesterday's protests. for more than a century, hong kong has provided its citizens freedoms, including to demonstrate. those freedoms do not exist in mainland china. and pro-democracy advocates fear this legislation, is a death blow. >> to a lot of people, this is at least the beginning of the end of freedom. and now if you take away this essential element of this wonderful city, what would be left? >> schifrin: alvin yeung is a pro-democracy legislator, who's protested against hong kong's pro-beijing government. he says young people started filling hong kong's streets last year to fight an erosion of

freedoms. he says now, they fear they have lost, and are considering leaving. >> and they thought maybe it's time to bring the kids abroad so that their kids will be free from all this fear. >> schifrin: what what can you do? can you really fight this at all? >> well, to be perfectly frank, i would be extremely irresponsible if we if i say there are lots of options. in fact, our options are limited. >> schifrin: the national people's congress did not write the final law. that will be done by the communist party's most senior body later this year. but their authorization to draft e law includes two major changes to hong kong: for the first time it allows" relevant national security organs of the central people's government" to be based in hong kong. and it says any activities that could "subvert state power,"" split the country," or" seriously endanger national securit" will be punished. beijing says those protests last year turned violent and became" homegrown teorism." and beijing argues these

demonstrators were encouraged by the u.s. today foreign ministry spokesman zhao lijan said beijing was pushing back on american interference. >> ( translated ): china will never waver in its determination if anyone insists on jeopardizing the interests of china, china is sure to take all necessary measures to fight back resolutely. >> schifrin: beijing's assertiveness is an attempt to end what the communist party calls the century of humiliation. hong kong used to be part of china. but in the 1800s, foreign powers attacked. and the british forced china to lease the city. in 1997, the british handed the city over. and under a deal known as one country two systems, communist china promised hong kong could keep its british-written laws and independent judiciary. the administration says beijing has not kept its promise, and is debating how to respond. senior administration officials say they are considering sanctions on senior communist party officials, or even ending hong kong's special economic status that's led to 1300 american companies currently based in hong kong. the business community warns the

administration, it's not time to erode that special status yet. >> by introducing this legislation, it doesn't mean that hong kong is suddenly a part of china. hong kong will retain hong kong's individual identity. >> schifrin: craig allen is the president of the u.s./china business council, which advocates for u.s. businesses in mainland china and hong kong. he wants the administration to go slow, but he also warns that american companies, already worried about rising chinese labor costs, could leave hong kong if the city's rule of law is eroded. >> most of those 1300 companies are there because of the rule of law. and if the rule of law is going to be compromised, then hong kong's value from a business perspective is greatly diminished. >> schifrin: some longtime china experts warn beijing could still change its mind about hong kong, if the administration's response is judicious. doug paal is with the carnegie endowment for international peace. >> if we're discriminating in

the way we respond, we can create more debate in china about whether or not xi has chosen the right tools for the >> schifrin: but the pro- democracy protestors who have suffered from hong kong and beijing's crackdown, call that naive, and are asking the u.s. to respond harshly. >> partial sanctions, embargoes or even freeze the separate economic entity in hong kong would also be the weapons for the world to let beijing to know that it's a must to completely stop the implementation of national security law. >> schifrin: president trump says he will announce the u.s.' response, tomorrow. the fate of hong kong as a global hub, is in the balance. for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin. >> woodruff: it is a toll

unimaginable to many before the pandemic started. more than 100,000 americans have died from covid-19 so far. the u.s. now has about a third to get some perspective on this moment, i'm joined by presidential historian michael beschloss. and andy slavitt, former acting administrator of the centers for medicare and medicaid services. he's been a notable health voice about all of this. he hosts a podcast, "in the bubble." welcome to both of you. michael beschloss, to you first. this is a number that's i think almost impossible for us to conceive, this many deaths in such a short time, just matter of three months. is there any calamity in american history? maybe i should ask, what calamity can you compare this to in american history? >> well, this is... even if the deaths did not grow any larger, thisould be one of the great calamities and one of the terrible experiences of american

history that our decent dents will unfortunately be reading about, and you have to go back to the flu pandemic of 1918/1919. that was 670,000 americans who lost their ves, but that was over a century ago, and that was the time before modern medicine. so think that we could suffer losses like this and they may be growing and they may be a lot larger, that's something that's gog to loom very large in american history. it's a somber evening. >> woodruff: andy slavitt, i looked it up. the united states has something like 4.5% of the global population, and yet our number of covid deaths are around 30% of the global number. and yet here we are, the richest country in the worldith some of the most as advanced medicine and science. how could this have happened? >> i think we're going to have a couple of levels of regret.

you know, first i think in advance of covid coming here, not recognizing what was going on in beijing and then in woo han even as we were being warned, not keeping a stockpile ready, not being prepared to contain the virus. you know, those are all things i think that are pretty well-known and i think there are some estimates on lives that could have been saved. i think once they came here, our response was a little bit more hands off and tepid than in other countries around the world. i don't think the federal government wanted to embrace ownership of the challenge as it happened in other parts of the world, and so you even seeing the president come out every day wearing a mask madan enormous difference in taking a little bit of medicine early so that we could have saved some lives, we would have opened up the economy earlier. and today i think we're still in a similar spot where we are

declaring victory in a manner of speaking, deciding that this is over, when the virus is really still here. it's still as deadly. 's still as contagious. so i worry that we continue to make some of the same mistakes. >> woodruff: michael beschloss, how do you compare this president's leadership at this time with the leadership of other presidents who have led this country through war, through pandemics, and the rest of it? >> that's really what you have to compare it to, judy, and here's a case where, you know new york a time of war, a time of great depression, you know, you want a president, first of all, to show empathy, that he understands what's going on. abraham lincoln, at the height of the civil war, so many people were dying, they came to lincoln and they said, "we need to build another cemetery. where do you want it?" and lincoln said, "build it near my summer home so that every single day i see the graves

being dug and i'm reminded of all the casualties that are occurring because of the decisions i was making." people might have said lincoln was making mistakes, but they never doubted that his heart was in it and he was trying to work 140% twork to get this war over as soon as possible. another people expect in a crisis like this is a president to unify the country. that's part of his oath to defend the constitution, to make this a more perfect union. you don't normally in crisis times see a president who is doing any less than, that any less than trying to get americans to come together behind a plan. and the other thing is that in a political year, you know, we've had presidents run for reelection before, 1940, franklin roosevelt was running for a third term at a time that many americans were terrified of a war with japan or journal -- jucial -- germany that might

kill members of their family. rather than trying the get votes, roosevelt said we need to strengthen our defense and have a draft. that lost him votes, but that's what great leaders do in an election year in a time of crisis. >> woodrf: pick up on that andy slavitt. you mentioned masks a moment ago. you mentioned the slowness in some quarters. clearly there are so people who praise president trump for closing the country off to visitors from china. but there's also been a lot of criticism. what else do does one look for at a moment like this from a president at a moment of health crisis. >> well, i think michael has this exactly right. what i think from a communication standpoint, the president probably underestimated and i think still underestimates is american tolerancfor bad news delivered straight. i don't think the public here

expects any more of a mirac than it was expected anywhere in the world. we expected competency, direct, fact, transparent information, and i think if you would have delivered that, look, it's impossible to get an a in this. this is not a crisis he invented. he inherited it, but as david frum said to me, it is easy to get a b. getting a b is a lot about what miked talked about. it's about showing empathy, it's about being transparent. it's about being straight with people. a number of governors have done that and while those day in and day out may not have been as important as some of the things that i mentioned earlier in terms of preventing lives, they would have helped keep this country sustained and kept people through a difficult time and probably for his own political standpoint would have been -- i think you would have been rewarded politically.

>> woodruff: michael beschloss, i want to ask both of you about the american people. how have americans come through crises like this, calamities like this in the past, and what does that say about how we're likely to come through this? >> the good news, judy, is look at all the things we've been through, from valley forge to terrible natural disasters to depressions and wars and all of that. here we are in 2020, the american people have this amazing ability to bind together and to be resilient, even if their leadership is not perfect. so i would say that if history tells us anything, and in my line of work, we think it tells us a lot, it would suggest that the result of this will be assuming that we survive and assuming that the country sticks together, will survive and pros interin a way that might even make this a better society. at the end of world war ii, we came back from europe and from asia, our soldiers did, and said

that we only finished part of the job when we defeated the germans and the japanese. now we have to bring equal rights to all americans. we have to make sure that every american gets the blessings of american prosperity. that has not happened before worlwar ii, but the optimistic view is to think that perhaps at the end of this crisis we will be in a situation where we discover needs and ambitions that we didn't know before. >> woodruff: andy slafd, just in about 30 second, how do you see the american people coming through this? >> i'm not going to repeat what michael said because that's exactly right. i think what we should do on a day like today is salute and thank every single first responder, essential worker, healthcare provider, doctor, nurse, they have been true heroes. we owe them a debt of gratitude that will be very difficult to repay. >> woodruff: for sure. an we cannot say that often enough. we thank each and every one of them. and we thank both of you, andy

slavitt, michael beschloss. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> woodruff: many of us, myself included and most of our staff, are working from home these days. and it's far from clear how soon people can, will or should go back to their workplace. th could have significant repercussions for workers, companies and the marketplace. paul solman's going to explore these transformations in a two- part look, beginning tonight for our series "making sense." >> this has worked for other things but it's not working for you. >> reporter: c.e.o. dave kenny, our first interview for this story about "working from home"" >> i gotta move the mike. yeah, yeah. i'm used to having people to do this. >> reporte that'll be a unique angle on the work from home

problem. >> exactly. >> reporter: the c.e.o. of nieln, the company famous for measuring television audience ratings, kenny used to think working from home was a bad idea. >> when i came in nielsen at the beginning of last year, which had a work from home option, i was really quite opposed to it. the people who were in the conference room were talking to each other. those who were working from home and phoning in or even videoing in were largely not in the conversation. >> reporter: i don't mean to use this phrase lightly, but has it been for you in a sense, a conversion experience? >> it's been a big event in my life because i was forced to look at a totasystem change as opposed to an incremtal change. i don't think i would have had the courage to go big and have everyone try this if we weren't forced to. but it did tell me some things that, you do them big, they actually work. >> reporter: and it's not just nielsen, of course. last week mark zuckerberg

told facebook's 45,000 employees: >> i think that it's quite possible that over the next five to 10 years, about 50% of our people could be working remotely. >> reporter:ielsen's policy? >> most people will work remotely as long as they can. allowing people to have much more of a hybrid model in the future where they're really only coming in when they need to. >> reporter: but for now, the third ofhe u.s. workforce that can work from home is doing so, full time. economist nick bloom >> maybe a year or two from now when firms relax and say, look, you can come back into the office if you like, you can come back in two or three days a week and spend the other couple of days at home. that's, you ow, the promised land, but that's definitely not wherwe are now. >> reporter: now work from home has long had a surprisingly bad rap, bloom illustrated in a 2017 ted talk. >> if you go to google or to bing and you punch in "working from home" into image search, what do you get? a lot of pictures of basically

naked people, cartoons, people juggling way too many babies to actually be doing anything constructive. >> reporter: but bloom, wanting to actually study the economic effects, found a willing partner: c-trip, china's largest travel agency. >> here's a picture of their headquarters in shanghai. they're interested in working from home because shanghai is a phenomenally expensive place to run a business; very dilbertesque, lots of desks and cubicles, and thousands of people working, taking calls. >> reporr: two random groups of 500 workers each were studied. the results? >> we found amazingly that the working from home employees were 13% more productive. which is huge. that's almost a day extra a week. and when we looked at the data it turned out about a third of that was it's quieter. they said they don't get distracted, you know. my favorite anecdote was i spoke to a woman that said, you know, the person in the desk next to me, she clips her toenails. i see her leaning below the desk and i hear that clip, clip, clip. it's horrible. and then the other two thirds of the gain was actually people

working from home work more hours. they also took less sick leave. >> reporter: the 500 work-from- home employees were so much happier in fact... >> quit rates dropped by 50%. c-trip? they reckon they made about $2,000 more profit per person at home. they were super-positive; they rolled it out to the whole firm. >> reporter: and the u.s. experience mirrors c-trip's, says remote work consultant desmond dickerson, working from home himself for five years. >> reports show that folks are more productive and ta less sick leave when they work remotely. and a huge advantage, i think this is going to be a game changer, is that the pool of applicants grows. now we have folks that traditionally couldn't make it into the office. maybe they have a disability or a chronic illness or they're not in these places where these high tech companies or major corporations are based. so that could be, you know, minority folks or it could be folks that live in rural areas. >> and now they have basically the same access to the types of

working from home jobs that everyone else does. >> reporter: no wonder, then, that nick bloom estimates working from home will increase three to four-fold, post pandemic. but wait just a second. he himself, a stford professor, is hardly working in a remote paradise. >> you can probably see i'm in a bedroom, you know it's out of i had a call with two different people that were working in clothes closets, i could see a shirt hanging behind somebody's ear. kids coming in all the time... >> reporter: as if on cue... you can bring her in. bring her in. hi. now what do you call your daddy? what do you call him? >> doo-doo. >> reporter: doo doo? that's not nice! (giggles) >> post covid, kids will be back in school. but now, i mean, i don't need to say anything else. >> reporter: as for the childless... so you're the typical young worker who must love working from home, right? >> mmm...

it has its ups and downs. >> reporter: jamie andes works for a new york real estate brokerage. >> mostly it's difficult to find the work life balance because it's really easy to continue to work into the night and then it's bedtime and you have had no time to yourself. >> folks will burn out if they're working those additional hours. >> reporter: and then there's the bugaboo most remote jobs now entail: >> meetings, meetings, meetings. that's all we do every day. it's difficult to pay attention to everybody, talk when you're supposed to talk, listen when you're supposed to listen, people talk over each other, all that kind of stuff. so it's a lot more mentally draining than you'd think. i'm craving human contact right now. so i want to go back into the office. i want to be communiting with everybody in person. >> reporte and that might actually help her career, since work-from-homers are promoted less, for two reasons says nick bloom: >> one is, out of sight, out of mind, they get passed over, potentially forgotten about. the second is you may be genuinely need to be in the office to develop the kind of skills to manage people.

>> reporter: skills that just aren't that easy to hone at home. >> i probably should have locked the office door, i think is the thing to do. >> reporter: this is paul solman, working from home, for the pbs newshour. >> woodruff: no doubt there's going to be a lot more working from home when all this is over. and that has implications for, among other things, the value of commercial office space. that's paul's next making sense story. >> woodruff: now we hear from todd johnson. he is the youngest pastor in warren, ohio and preaches at the oldest black baptist congregation in trumbull county. johnson is driven to help the people he serves, especially during difficult times like when a community member was killed by police in january 2019. our brief but spectacular team spoke with pastor johnson before

the pandemic. >> as i preach to my congregation, i am ever mindful that i am preaching and teaching to people who lived through segregation and jim crow. and some who participated in protest and advocated for change, so i always have in the back of my mind that i'm another link in the chain of progress, and i have this legacy that i get to look at every day to encourage me that yes it can be done. i've wanted to be a pastor since i was a little boy. it's a pretty significant thing for me to be able to minister in the same city that raised me. in communities like warren, it's kind of that pla where everybody knows everybody. and when you are working with a justice system in a commity like that, there's a lot of distrust of the system because you're well aware that the officers, the prosecutors,he judges, the lawyers, they all know each other very well. and in our view, that might affect how tough they're willing to be with one another in matters of justice.

there was an incident with a young man of color named matthew burroughs. he was originally slated to have a court hearing and that hearing was canceled and on his way out, an officer of the court attempted to stop him in regards to another matter and matthew chose to flee the scene and go home. a chase ensued. and as matthew pulled into the apartment complex where he lived, neighbors and witnesses describe a sort of slow standoff that culminated in a very quick firing of weapons by niles police officers resulting in his death. many feel that he was not a threat to the officers at all. so we've been fighting all year ng for the officers to be held accountable for their actions. unfortunately, our trumbull county prosecutor decided not to pursue charges and the grand jury did not indict those officers. i've always had a positive view of law enforcement. i was taught to respect police officers and judges. at the same time, i'm always cognizant that there are those who don't always respect all

people the same way. i worry that our community will give in to despair, i worry that sometimes we can get so stuck in the successes of the past that we don't see the promise of the future. in some areas of our city, it's often seen as violent or crime- ridden or rankled by drug activity and while those things do exist, it's really not the prominent story of our community. we really doave a de swath of individuals who are working in community oanizations, churches, students who are excelling, and we're not just another rust belt city that doesn't have any hope or any promise. i think it's vital for young people, to be a bridge with the historical knowledge that we have. when i'm letting some young person know that they really do have a future ahead of them and i'm letting some older person know that their best days really aren't behind them, that's when i feel the most free. my name is pastor todd johnson, and this is my brief but spectacular take on being a young black pastor in warren, ohio. >> woodruff: and you can find

all of our brief but spectacular segments online at pbs.org/newshour/brief. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us again here tomorrow evening, when i talk with former vice president joe biden. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe, and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

hello, everyone and welcome to "amanpour & co." here's what's coming up. a new era in human space travel dawns. here on earth, still styed by a viral pandemic. i speak to arizona republican senator martha mcsally as she bets her political future on president trump. also, mike bloomberg donates $10 million to boost testing and tracing in new york. i'm joined by his close aid and former campaign manager kevin sheekey. >> what i think we need in the case of vaccines is a lot more platforms for how to develop vaccines faster. >> how innovation works. matt