captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. face-- the highestkingry about militafficer apologizes for appearing with the president during the peaceful protests in the wake of george floyd's death. then, feeling the pain-- a grim economic fecast shows high unemployment lingering in the u.s. and abroad as a result of ie coronavirus pandemic. plus, the econommpact: covid 19 takes an outsized toll on black-owned businesses in the u.s. aeady facing financial challenges. >> it is hard as an african- american to get big funding, evenmall funding, even micro loans to get that. and i have excellent credit. i own property and erything. >> 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, p with financinning and advice for today, and tomorrow.

>> carnegie corporatioew york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international pe.e and securi at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these instutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs yostation from viewers lik thank you. >> woodruff: an about face-- the split military leaders, current and former, and the president, is wider tonight. e country's top military officer, the president's chief military advisor, hasor rhally broken with the

commander ph chief, over a o-op last week. nick schiffrin explores the latest clashes >> schifrin: lasmonday, esident trump walked out of the white house to pose for a photo outside a nearby church that had been slightly burned bs protes behind him, walked chairman of mathe joint chiefs, genera milley, america's senior most officer, and the president's top military aisor. milley spoke in a recorded commencement address to the national defense univey.rs my presence in that moment and mi that environment, created a perception of thtary involved in domestic politics. as a commissioned uniformed officer, it was a mistake that i've learned fro and i sincerely hope we all >> schifrin: meanwseveral

hundred alumni of the united states military academy at west point sent an open letter to the class of 2020. now, with me to discuss general milley's remarkable about face,f and thught moment in civilian-military relations is retired lieutenant general ben he served as commander of u.s. army europe until 2018, and has know general milley for 20 years. ben hodges, welcome back to the newshour. general hodge, welcome back to the newshour. why was it a misrake for genl milley to walk with the president as parted of a photo opportunity? >> well, nic thank you. mark milley recognized thaht e aad let himself get into political situation where he became a prop actually, and therefore played into the situation where you had military getting involved in a domestic situation.

that was the mistake, and that's what hto acknowledgeay. >> schifrin: and milley says he doesn't know he was walking toward that photo opportunity. should he have figed that out earlier? should he have turned around? >> i think part of what general lolley acknowledged in his public a is that he as a senior leader, he knows people are always watching him.he he knows thaas an important constitutional role, and that he shouldave been more aware. i mean, givthing al events of the past several day, he was in the oval office meet with the president and the secretary and others, and then knowing what was going on outside, what we call situational awareness, he acknowledged that he should have been more alive to the possibility of what could happen. the same thing for being in uniform. you know, in hindsight, clely

the image of him being in that uniform set the tone, not intended, and that was what he apologedor. his mistake is that he should have been more aware of these kinds of thin and frankly recognized that in this sort of set of personalities that he would be used. >> schifrin: of course, part of this tension is that theid prt threatened to use active duty military troops to quell some of the protests, some of the volence in the united states. why have so many military officials, mlecluded, retired and active duty, resisted the idea of using active duty inside the united states? >> the idea of american soldiers being used, beingput in a position where they use violence against our fellow citizens is anathema to everything that we believe in. from the day we staroff as

brand-new cadets or officers, you're trained to respect civilian authority and to protect our fellow citizens. that's the oath that we take. the idea that somehow soldiers would be it is in a position, regular army soldis put in a position to use violence against our fellow citizens just is repulsive to all of us. that's why we see so mane peopl come out and say things. and generally even retired generals and admals who prefer etonon ga like this are political apolitical military.ition of this was such an egregiousat sin, clearly not something calling for implementation of the insurrection act. the president had not made the case for that at all. so i think because of the tradition ofn political military, that's why the words of people like general mattis and colin powell and others have

had such resonance. >> schifrin: let me give you some examples of forts whose name we all know. fort bragg, fort benny, fort polk, some of the most famous military installations in the country nam after confederate generals. is the military and its leaders knowledging that they need to do better when it comes to race? >> this is going to change. these installations. i have to tell you, i'm embarrassed. of course, i ent to fort benning. i've been to fort bragg, fort campbell, all these places, andt while i oftught it was unusual, i never thought deeply about it.o it was bly only about three years ago that i had an epiphany that while it didn't seem like a big deal to me, it would be a nobig deal to others, andi'm embarrassed that it took me so many years to realize that this makes no sense. the more i think about it, th more indefensible it seems.

these are not traditions dating back to the revolution. most of these forts were camps that were established just before the first world war ord the second wor for training and mobilization, sono there's long patriotic sort of legacy there that needs to bd defe i think we -- the navy has a good model where they name the base after the tn. i would also recommend -- always bereave in building something, something positive versus always tearing things town, and what a powerful statement it would be if there was a moent next to any confederate statue or any ofes sort of legacy things that former slaves who joined the union army during the american civil war. at huge risk to themselves, thousands were killed, to have at monument there with those names next to an old legacy sort of statue, what a powerful

statement that would be about e values that we really actually do believe in. >> schifrin: retired general ben hodge, ank you very much. >> nick, thank you. >> woodrf: in the day's other news, wall street plunged back into melt-downode, on news that coronavirus infections are rising in 21 states. the dow jones industrial average lost well over 1,800 points,os nearly 7%, to at 25,128. the nasdaq fell 527 points, an the s&p 500 dropped 188. the sell-off also came as another 1.5 million americanspl filed for unment benefits. we'll take a closer look, after the news summary.al

the pandemic i continuing to surge in other countries. cases across africa doubled, to 200,000, in the last 18 days. brazil and india have reported spikes in infections as restrictions ease. and, the world health organization urged vigilance today. >> most people remain susceptible to this virus and the threat of a resurgence remains very real.l us have a part to play in protecting ourselves andng protectithers. >> woodruff: globally, some 7.4 million people have been infected. nearly 3.5 million have recovered so far. back in this country, protesters are pulling down more monuments linked to white supremacy. overnight, crowds in richmond, virginia toppled a statue ofid confederate prent jefferson protesters in st.

minnesota and miami targeted statues of christopher columbus. meanwhile, the country music group lady antebellunashortened it to "lady a". the pre-civil war era, whenrs to slavery was legal. president trump called today for racial justice, but he also suggested some in the protest movement are going too far. he spoke in dallas, and gave no specifics. >> americans are good and virtuous people. we have to work together to confront bigotry and prejudice wherever they appear. but we'll make no progress and heal no wounds by falsely labeling tens of millions of bicent americans as racists or ts. >> woodruff: the president also drew criticism for anng he will resume holding campaign rallies on june 19th, in tulsa. the day is known as "juneteenth"

and commemorates the end ofri slavery in a. hiteby a w was the scene of tin 1921.id former vice prt joe biden says he is worried president trump will try to "steal" the november election. biden has wrapped up there democraticdential nomination. he spoke last night on "the daily show with trevor noah." >> it's my greatest concern. my single greatest concern. this president is going to try and steal this election. this is the guy who said all mail-in ballots are fraudulent >> woodruff: biden also suggested the military could be called on to evict mr. trump, if he loses the election, but refuses to leave office. and, the united states is moving to impose sanctions on the international crinal court for investigating alleged u.s. war crimes in afghanistan. president trump's executive order today authorizes travel

restrictions and other measures. secretary of state mike pompeo called the i.c.c. "kangaroo court." still to come on the newshour: a grim economic forecast shows high unemployment lingering as a result of covid 19. protesters worldwide showso darity with the black lives matter movement. the coronavirus takes aned outsoll on black-owned businesses in the u.s. and much more. >> woodruff: the number of weekly unemployment claims we reported in the nee summary is west since the economic shutdown began in march, b it remains far above what we have seen in other financial crisis.

it follows federal reserve chairman jerome powell saying he exdcts unemployment at the of 2020 to top 9%, and to remain elevated f years to come. to help us look into these numbers and the broader economic concerns they raise, we turn to david wessel, director of the dutchins center on fiscal monetary policy at the brookings institution. hello again, david wessel. so how are we to interpret all of this? we see the markets todayng reacnegatively to news that the coronavirus rising in a number of states, an we see unemployment, we see unemployment continuing, but better than it had ben in recent months. what direction do we look when we see thebers? >> i think it's important tose rate the markets from the real economy. nearly 30 million people ar

checking unemployment, that's nearly 20% of the workforce. that's good, because even though people are out of work, they have some income. but it's going to be a long, slow cliout of this covid recession. i think what happened in the markets is therkets basically overreacted initially, stocks fell 30%, and hen we had a euphoric moment. stocks recoveredll their lost ground, and then the last couple days they have given up 10%.to so the market is now 10% lower than it was before covid and that seems to me about thepl righe where it should be. >> woodruff: and then we have as we mentioned the chairman of the federal reserve, jay powell, saying he expects unemployment to be over 9% still bynd the of this year, only slowly coming down. americans can't be excited about that. >> right. i men, i think that chairman powell was trying to do two

things. one was be realist wick the ngerican people, explain to them that we're not gto come out of this quickly, and secondly put some pressure on congress ts ething. we can have lower unemployment by year end if we get morhelp from congress. that was the chairman's message i thk. >> woodruff: so sending a signal to the congress. david, i also want to ask you about this nsus survey of small businesses. first week of june, showingat fewer small businesses, while fewer of them are cutting hours, in all more of them are cutting than increasing. how do we read that? >> right, one thing... i'm sorry. i think i have bad connection. i'm sorry about tht. one thing, at the census bureau, th have been doing weekly surveys of households and small businesses. it's a sign of just how bad things are twice as may small businesses cut hours in the first week of

june, 26%, than increased them, 12%.ar so it's... w not out of the woods yet. even though we see this modest improvement in the jrket, it's really hard to overstate just how bad the economy is and how hard it's going to be for us to recover from this, becausere peopleoing to be reluctant to spend, businesses are going to be reluck reluctant to reopen, how many of us are going to getn an airplane in the next few months? this is going to be a long, slo slog. >> woodruff: and david, economists say it's going to take a vaccine, some dramatic piece of new information or science to make people feel more comfortable. is that sll what the economists you talked to are saying? >> i don't thin know how people are going to behave. this is such an unusual event. we see now that people seem to be getting late impatient th the thelockdown. so we'll have the see. do people come out of their houses? are they willing to go back to the malls?

will the offices reopen? and if they do, willhat... will we be met with a second wave of covid in the fall that will send all back into our houses? so i think there are three things we have to worry abo one is the science, the treatment, and the vaccine. two is how people rect, and everybody is guessing. nobody really knows. and third is how much the same support will the economy get from the federal government until we're past this horrible episode in history. plewoodruff: i know p want answers. what we're hearing is it's just hard to come up with definitive answers right now. we just keep paying close attention. david wessel, thank you so much. >> you're welcome. >> woodruff: the killing of george floyd has led to reckonings not only here in the united states, but in many countries around the world.

nick schifrin is back with that: >> schifrom madrid... to tokyo. from sydney... to seoul, george floydeath tarked a worldwide reckoning. >>nk is important that we're doing this even in korea because you knowracism is a global issue, it's not just an american iss. >> schifrin: in the birthplace of the enlightenment, french demonstrators chant no justice, no peace. they say france also suggles with police misconduct and discrimination. three days after a minnesota police officer killed floyd, a french police officer kept his knee on a black suspect. but that treatment often happens off-camera. these protestors chant adama traore, a young black frenchmen asphyxiated in police custody in 2016. no officers were charged.

>> and he's not the only one. you have several young french blacks, or arabs, who diedn the hands of the police. and i think that george floyd's death echoed the very local situation. >> schifrin: rokhaya diallo is a filmmaker and journalist, who's helped lead french protests. this week the interior minister banned police from using p chokeholds amised to suspend racist officers. but activists say multerle french gents haven't done enough. >> it has been pointed oti severas, there was a problem with police brutality, with racial profiling in france and th nothing has been done by any governments. it's a display of systemic racism. schifrin: diallo regularly appears on tv to argue france struggles with systemiracism. she's been called divisive. >> i am the only person of coloe arou the t and ever since i tried to tackle race, i'm assaulteroby the othersd the table.

>> schifrin: do you think iau're controve >> i don't think so. i think that race is controversial in france because it really questions the structures of power. because we live in that fallacy of universalism of a country that would be color blind. and i think it's comfortable to live in that dream. but it's not possible for people who experience race every day just to forget it. >> schifrin: european activists have worked to ensure colonialist pasts aren't forgotten either.ru inels, demonstrators chanted ¡murderer' on top of and in antwerp, officials removed a leopold statue, 125 years after he oversaw belgium's brutal colonial expansion in thi congo, that storians say killed 10 million.ol in bri, england, protestors tore down edward colston, a 17th century merchant, and threw him

into the same waters ships he oversaw set sail filled with slaves. and in london, winston churchill, who helped win world war ii but ao argued white ople were superior, got tagged, racist. british acvists say the whitewashed.ory is often and lice treat black brits unequally. >> we've got people that say, oh, you know, all ves matter. we know. but right now, it's us that's being killed. >> schifrin: pauline stepney is protest organizer in bedford, outside of london. >> black lives matter is not a trend, because i am black, always. >> schifrin: last weekend activists released this video of a social distanced protest. activists cite the case of sean rigg, who died in 2008, after being held down by officers for eight minutes. no officers were charged in his, or other deaths, by police. >> when you see the injustice of people not being convicted for killing a child, for killing

somebody that was walking away with killing somebody, that was somebody that was reaching for a >> schifrin: london's mayor is pressuring police to change theitactics. but activists say the problems run deeper, including denying caribbean immigrants rights, cause of institutional r >> once you're dehumanized, once you're seen as not having any feelings. being told we have to work twice as hard. we want you know equal access to jobs, equal access in education. we want our children to just not rsbe discriminated by teac >> schifrin: for artist diana who's lived in germany f 16 years, floyd's death gave old causes, nemomentum. >> we've never had this kind of turnout. and my fear is ang these whiteo activists whgo to this is that they, too, still don't understand that the problem is also at home. >> if you are not fighting against it when there's not a video, then you are part of the problem. >> schifrin: she says germanyn

has its stitutional racism, and it's time for the government to atone. >> there needs to be reparations in the form of structural funding in all areas for black communities, so that we can lead the work in all areas of civil society. a schifrin: no society is free of discriminatio inequity is not new. but floyd's death provides a catalyst for minority s,mmunities, and their all to fight for change. and allows a father in france to teach a lesson to his child, that's universal. >> there are some people who might think less of usse we're black, but we know that's not true, right? we know that we're just smart, just as intelligent, and you're just as beautiful as anyone. >> schifrin: for the pbsm newshour, ck schifrin.

>> woodruff: shutting down the u. economy over the coronavirus outbreak came at enormous cost to american businesses. entrepreneurs has been especially dire. it's the latt installment of making sense. >> a watch like this a man will really appreciate. >> reporr: doing small business is beyond tough these days. against if you're african- american. >> i've even been asked is this stolen? many, many times i've been asked, this is not stole which is absolutely appalling. they ask who owns this business because it's such a nice upscale store and when i tell them me. >> reporter: james mack's dream come true: his own jewel store in charlotte, north carolina. but there's at least one major hurdle: his race. >> a lot of people say that

maybe, you know, you should hire someone, of caucasian or mexican descent to stand in the front.t 's like, you know, when do we get the respect of running a business at a high level? >> cassius clay, right? before he was mohammed ali. >> reporter: african-american- art adorns terence dickson's terra cafe, opened in baltimore 11 years ago, despiting what many entrepreneurs almost take for granted. >> normally, you know, you go ts busineool, you need a business plan. you need six months of revenue.h you need six mof payroll. the average black business starts with about 1500 bucks and a couple halfway credidrcards and a m. >> reporter: black businesses obe hamstrung from the start, says economist rt fairlie, since half of black familiesha less than $9000 in wealth. >> you compare that to white families. white families have 130,000. that contributes to the lack of ability to find financial capital to start a business. it contributes to the lack of financial capital to grow that siness.

so the wealth gap is a big problem. >> black people represent about 13% of the population, but only about four percent of the overall number of business owners. >> reporter: and andre perry of the brookings institution says it's not for lack of drive. >> it's probably more because a lack of access to capital, which of black businesses receive less loans. and when we do get loans, interest rate.uch higher >> reporter: it's been like this forever. virginia ali, now 86, and her husband founded ben's chili bowl in 1958 in washington, d.c. >> we found that it wasn't easy to get the financing if youo wantedpand and things like that. that's the way we found it.ru >> reporter:62 years ago, when the chili bowl opened in segregated d.c. still true for mack today. >> it is te, you know, it is hard as an african-american to get big fundin you know, even all funding, even micro loans to get that. and i have exclent credit.

i own property a everything. >> reporter: terra cafs terence dickson, who mentors african-american business owners, once went to the bank with a group of them. >> the only thing that wwanted was a business credit line. as easy as let us deposit th thousand dollars in and give us a business credit line. they gave us donuts. we got coffee water. they say, we appreciate you. and thank you. that's it. a.k.a. get the hell out. you feel me? >> reporter: compare that to white entrepreneurs. >> they have family, all right? that are helping them. they have an education of some type that is helping them and see it staed before they even started with business. a i don't knut savings. i don't know about i.r.a.s. i don't know about business ructure. i just know that i got enough this week to pay the light bill and bring some groceries in and out ani'll get the rest of the

rent next week. >> reporter: yes, says economist fairlie... >> the racial gap in wealth, the racial gap in education, this racial gap in family business ownership. you put all those factors contributing to why i say a young person today who's african-american has a much lower chance of starting up a business and running a successful business than someonh who'e. >> reporter: and the pandemic reduced the number of african- american businses by 41%. >> twice as high as it has been for white owned business. >> reporter: what to what do you attribute the greater impact on black businesses of covid-19? >> it was partly bause of the industries that black owned businesses are in. often these are smaller scale businesses that were shut down that weren't deemed essential and so that's created problems. >> reporter: but wait: the paycheck protection program or" p.p.p.", signed by prasident trump,upposed to aid small businesses. that they would beibutingunced these funds through mainstream

banks, i immediately rolled my eyes in frustratiobecause we know that mainstream banks have long had a sordid history with black business owners. they essentially work with their many ofg customers which were not black people. so sucturally, it was set uple where black peould get less money. >> reporter: now, the treasuryha set aside funds for firms that lend to underserved communities... stil >> for black businesses, it'slt very diffit this time. >> reporter: virginia ali's at ben's chili bowda also works they did get a p.p.p. an. but >>'s not enough. usiness was down 80% on u street a all other ben's chili bowl were closed. we just reopened our h street location a couple of weeks ago. but businesss still down 70%.ot >> we'reoing back to business as usual. that's done. >> reporter: terence dickson's lounge room sits empty. his cafe is open for te-out only.

so he's developing safety measures to re-open. >> how do you eat an elephant? hoe small bite at a time. rkt e a doti wme o.woutur >> reporte simone charles had 56 dates booked in her cincinnati ent space. the end of march? >> we literally had three events left. we were looking at opening reopening our doors at the beginning of june. however, with the protests that are that have been occurring a lot of our clients whoere scheduled to do tours have reached out saying that they feel uncomfortable wanting topo po those tours. >> reporter: charles hopes to re-open soon. as does james mack. he's cleaning up after his store was broken into amidst the protests in charlotte. security cameras capthe incident. i mean, not being able to do business in that timeframe isem exy hurtful. we just trying to climb back to our way back, you knng, without lour space, without losing our business. and then we have another hurdlea to go over, nong away from

any of the protests or any of the demonstrations at but, you know, hurting african- american businesses in the inmeantime, it is only brius down more in an economic situion where we are trying to rise up. >> reporter: mack, charles and dickson all support peaceful protests. ben's chili bowl whe onl, whose restaurant allowed to stay open past curfew in washington duri the 1968 riots. >> i love the protesters. i think they are makin dierence now in our country. they're and i want them to continueo be persistent and peaceful. we've got to get positive change. we've got to do at before i leave this earth, paul. >> reporter: this is paul solman, reporting for the newshour.

>> woodruff: stay-at-home ordere posed a che to americans who struggle with addiction and rely on the support of in-person nycovery meetings. and thers found their drinking habits changed drastically during the pandemicn william am looks at the impact covid-19 has had on americans' substance use, and t the consequenct could long outlast the virus. >> this week has been allenging. found myself having an unexpectedly strong urge to drink yesterday. >> brangham: this is what a recovery meeting looks like i the age of social distancing. >> it's been kind of difficult, in having urges and cravings to drink. >> brangham: groups like this one, f people struggling with substance abuse and addiction, have been forced to move online. these members of what's called"y smart reco it's an alcoholics anonymous alternative, all agreed to be

filmed/recorded. >> i have been dealing with quarantine in a rather negative way, with my anxiety a >> bng sepat onef m fighting off membera., reagan reed, decided to depart from that group's anonymity policy to speak personally about the challenges posed by coronavirus. >> we had to find a way to litelly bring all of alcoholics anonymous online. and we did so via zoom. it's been a big challenge for everyone to sort of adapt to this new way of maintaining sobriety. but then also, you know, the whole other side of it has beenn the enormous aof uptick of people reaching out to u people who have a drinking problem, who are home and isolating, particularly those

essential workers. >> brangm: in-person meetings are the foundation of recovery programs like coholics anonymous. providing a connection that' now sorely missed. >> there's something so important about physically making yourself go to an a.a. meeting and sit down in that chair. that's so essential to staying sor. >> the online meetings are good, but not getting to a meeting where i can talk to people has definitely been hard on me. >> one of the other things we don't get in the online meetings that we get in fe to face meetings is getting together a few minutes early, before the ficial meeting starts an getting a chance to just chat, and hang around a bit after. >> it worries me from a relapse standpoint. we're all suering from a great psychological trauma. it's absolutely anxiety

soprovoking. or patients who might be tenuous in the sobri feelings of isolation, feelings of loneliness, feelings of anxiety can really rnt >> brangham: accoro one study, data from nielsen, alcohol sales spiked 55% nationwide over one week in march, just before s-home orders went into effect in many ates. online alcohol sales jumped 243%. >> i'm the head of online sales and marketing at sherry's wine .cd liquors in washington, march has suddenly gotten the same amount of business as you would normally g in december, and in this industry it's typical for a decent store to get at least 25% of their year's take in the holiday season. soo be getting a holiday season on your website in mid- march is a humongous benefit to the store. >> brangham: of course, most of this spike in alcohol sales likely comes from so many bars and restaurants being closed nationwide, not from people with

abuse or addiction problems. having a huge percentage of the country stuck inside their homes is changing people's drinking patterns. justine d'soa is one of many who say their drinking habits expanded from weekends to weeknights during the lockdown. >> i was used to having a lot of activities after work, so i would ha rehearsals, i was very involved in the performing arts scene locally. sit down at home and have ato glass of wine, and i guess my thought was, okay now i have nothing but time after work. >> brangham: austin mcmullen said he started drinking more after he became one of theos millions whotheir job because of the pandemic. >> i don't really haveto do. so, yeah. d not only ever, it just k been drinking more. but it'seen more. definitely not socially. watch tv., play madden, but then, you know, i'll start to feel bad about it, butsthen i'll go e and i'll see everybody else is doing the same thing and then i'll take my

recyclables down there and it's just full of bottles of just differt nds of alcohol. so everyone's well, kind of get like me and i should probably ow down. i feel kind of upset about this, but then i realize that everybody else is doing the same thing. >> it's very normal for people to reach f a drink when they're feeling some anxiety. but because of thehysiology of alcohol tolerance the patient needs to drink more and more in order to achieve the same desired effe. i really worry that some of the roots of addiction are going t take hold. and i'm also worried that patients won't necessarily realize it at the time until it's too late. i'm very much worried about a gathering storm of patients who i don't even know about yet. >> brangham: residential recovery centers are bracing for that storm of new patients. the chief medical officer of tha lden betty ford treatment centers said new enrollments numbve held steady so far,

oft that they expect to enunter a flooeople seeking inpatient treatmen after stay-at-home ordd. >> they say that you really have to hit a sort of rock bottom before you can get hel people who are strg isnow for getting lower and lower. you know, i worry about people drinking themselves to death just as much as i worry about people with the virus. you know, if you're in a meeting yoand you're a newcomer an see people from literally all over the globe struggling with something that you struggle with but are scared to admit to yourself about, you know, that's that that helps. >> brangham: for the pbs newshour, i'm william brangham.

>> woodruff: it was two years ago when the 240 year old american academy of arts and sciences put together a bipartisan commission to take a hard look at the state of our democracy in the 21st century. the commission is today issuing a report detailing 31 recommendations how to strengthen it. full disclosure: i'm a member of r is commission, and while i'm very much stronger democracy, i do not advocate fol any specificy changes. here's a look at what the commission found. these recommendations are meant to take a fresh look at our founding ideals and nts. the coission first defined the challenges our democracy is political polarization, a surge of white nationalism, a lack of trust in our nation's institutions, a fragmented media vironment. to those challenges it offers

solutions, broken do into broader themes. one theme is aimed at equality of representation-- changes that would address govern rce. the repoommends substantially enlarging the u.s. house of representatives, establishing8 year term limits for supreme court justices, and big changes to campaign finance laws. it also calls for so-called" rank-choice voting," where voters rank candidates iorder of their preference for eltions at the federal and state level. and it sees room for improvement in how we vote. the commission recommends switching to universal, automatic voter registration. it says federal election day should be a holiday. and it recommends making voting a requirement ofitizenship, much like jury duty. it also wants changeinin how we germation, like a tax on vertising that would go to a public media fund.adl di

and it calls for a culture ange toward service, with amerans putting in a year to serve in programs like americorps, the military, or other nonprofit work. all this is just a starting point.co thission says it wants this report to be a call to action and for the recommendations to i debate. to discuss the report, i'm joined by two of the three chairs of the commission: danielle allen, a political theorist and professor at harvard university. and stephen heintz, president and c.e.o. of the philanthropic foundation, e rockefeller brothers fund. welcome both of you to the newshour. stephen heintz, t me start with you. why did the commission think now is the time to overhaul our democracy? >> you know, many americans, we have discovered, feel that ouren reprtive democracy is

neither truly representative ore democratic. they don't thnk their voice is heard. they don't think their votes count. they think the system is stacked against them. so the american academy, which sponsored this commission, telt it wme to will listen to americans, to study the t questions ane issues that confront us, and to try to develop a comprehensive an for how we could reinvent our democracy for the challenges we'rfacing in this century. >> woodruff: you bring upeq lity. danielle allen, this report is issued at a moment when the nation is feeling the cause ofus racial ince in the aftermath of the death of george floyd. how much is that woveen into the fabric of what you're proposing here? >> we have been wo on this report for two years. it must be said, and with a sense of urgency the entire time.th urgency has been fueled by

the sense that the social compact in this country has cracked, fractured, just as stephen says. people feel disempowered. people feel that government has not been responsive. we apo feel ate and apart drom each other, divided pollerrized. this has been the truth for some time. this moment has brought out clearly just hower jet the problems are. if one focuseon the question of policing and racial justice, it's a perfect example. people have been pursuing change for long time, but certainly with newed energy since 2014 with the death of michael brown and others, and although there have been some successful reforms here and there, fundamentally what we've had to take away is that the governmen en non-responsive. now we're seeing a rediscovery of common purpose. a rediscovering of the goal of securing liberty and justice fo d a recognition that achieving that does require living together, responsive

institution, genuine opportunities for empowerment, civil society organizations that connects people, and healthy us all this ourwork as specificp participants. it's such a polarized moment in american history. how are people to believe this is truly a set of bipartisan ideas. >> from the very beginning of mmd reitayack in 2017, we we diverse grup of commissioners from all across the country and people with different backgrounds, different experience, different political perspectives and partisan but one thing we all shared was a love of country and a concern about our democracy. and we worked together for two years. we did the analysis. but the most important thing was

to talk to americans all across the country. we benefited from thed democracy has uring strength. >> woodruff: danielle allen, audacious,crold ideas, sing the size of the house of representatives by 50 more members, putting an 18-year ter li supreme court justices. many people are going to look at this and say, can thisreally happen? what are you trying to accomplire here? >> itlly can happen. ize is that a healthyeople to dependcrgnacy a virtuous circle linking effective functional institutions, civil society organizations that connect people to their institutions and a civic culture that cult terest rates a commitment of americans to one another and to our constitutional demsoocracy. ur recommendations are not just a hodgepodge, a grab ba of policy ideas. they're very considered things that interacthwith each er. so, yes, the requirement for

universal voting, but at te same time, a recommendation to make voting easier, and across the sle of our recommendations, there are champions for all of them, people who are already working hard on these things. a t of times actually evaluating feasibility. we also thought to make sure that the actions could be moved forward on many levels of our system some there ar some things that municipal lead kearse move forward, some thate staders can remove forward. some that require actions b congress. only one constitutional amendment, that was our goal to, avoid constitutional amendments wherever possible some that wayt we can d things we need with regard to issues of campaign finance. even a changat the supreme court term limits, that's a change that can be made within ourexisting constitutional parameters. across the board, we saw pathwaf implementation that was highly aligned with feasibility, taking 206, the 250th anniversary of the nation's litical birth, as our target. >> woodruff: stephen heintz, 31 recommendations, priority,

what do yostart with here? what do you say to the american people, these are our priorities? >> wwhl, i thinkt we're saying to the american people is to them to pick thean inv recommendations that mean the st to them and to gin to work together on them. we're not establishing priorities for them. that's the work of the citizens of our country. we're ofering them a comprehensive plan. we think all the recommee ations shouldrefully debated and expanded on and developed in the s ahead. but i want to stress one thing tact challenge here. we are at a moment i thie wh there is greater recep tiftd -- receptivity to change and a greater need for change.n the mic we've been living through and the racial justice crisis make the flawings in our democracy all the more vid and the need for reinvention all the morer jet. i ink people in america understand thi they want to believe in this

democracy. they want to be connected to each other, and thewant it to work. >> woodruff: danielle allen, finally, that was go be my question do, you believe the american people are receptive to these kinds of ideas right now? >> absolutely. this country is full of brilliance and full of can-do energy.s the most iring parts of our work was listening all over the country, and thopportunity to see the way people are alreadyre ilding, rebuilding trust in their own communities, inventinm forms of civia that can fflook at the corrosive ts of social media, for example some the american people, they're hungry for this. the american people are full of ideas, full of can-do energy. i am 100% confident that we can brinthoug re att satrly aspire to. >> woodruff: and danielle allen, where do people go if they want to read this? >> the website is amacd back

slash orcommon purpose. >> woodruff: all right. we're going the leave it there. dannydanielle allen, stephen gostkowski, we thank you both. >> thank you so much, judy. >> woodruff: chinatown i typically a vibrant and bustling staple of new york city. but as a result of covid-19, the area bece a ghost town, with some there experiencing xenophobic attacks. in response, longtime resident karlin chan created e chinatown block watch to help keep everyone safe. he's the focus of tonight's brief but spectacular.

>> i started patrolling the streets of the lower east side with a couple of friends because we heard of some harassment that was going on here.en shared it on social media five people, six people, and now we've expanded to a group of 20, 30 people. a re a multi-ethnic group who are banding together, who unite to fight xenophobia te. i love this area because i grew up in this area. i've liv here in this area over 60 years now. it's a vibrant, functioning immigrant mmunity. it was an italian jewish slum,en but then it became a chineseum and w it's changed. we have a functioning chinatown and my hope is that no matter how much we get gentrified, it'll always remain a functioning chinatown. pre covid-19, this was a bustling area. right around the lunar new year annually, the reets are cked with celebrants. we have tons of tourists that

will shoot into this area just to observe the various traditions that we have, lion dancing, dragons, the floats, the music, the food. covid-19 affected this community early on, starting in even mid december, of 2019. as news out of china, broke wuhan, many tourists stopped visiting the area. even regulars to this area stopped coming to this area to patronize our shops and our restaurants.ca a lot of it waed by xenophobia. chinese carried this virus, all whereas we're born with this virus or something. restaurant's experienced a 50 to 60% drop in business, and many were forceto close. this is even pre lockdown, which went into effect pre-march. since the lockdown, the streets are really totally e there's no one out there. only the few came out to wait on line to buy necessities every two days. we do have incidents of harassment, verbal. people passing through the neigorhood.

if we witness an incident, will witness it, we will record it, document it, and we will help t victim report it. we're here to tell people and with the hvisey e hlbltysifesa vests that we have a visiben pr on the streets and we're not going to tolerate any incidents of harassment orre attacks he because we are residents of the community. the business owners who are open, they recognize us and it's really reassuring to them, to see a friendly face keing an eye on them. my name is karlin chan, and this is my brief but spectacular take on t chinatown block watch. >> woodruff: and you can find all of our brief but spectacular segments online at pborg/newshour/brief. and on the newshour online, as protests over systemic racism continue ithe wake of george floyd' death, there have been growing calls to defund thepo ce. but what exactly does that meanu amna nawaz took your questions about the movement

earlier today with yale university's phillip v. mcharris, who has studied the issue for a number of years. rvyou can find the full inw on our web site, pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank u, please stay safe, and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> the ford foundation. with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. e

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- "diasing with julia chi" ade possible in part by. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you narr oor: exploring europen a river, historic panoramas unfold. ♪ ♪ ♪ thank you. as they savorty chefs a vintage french chef episode and mix it up th julia child.