captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good even i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, a troubling surge-- the world markits highest single-day total of new coronavirus infections yet as the president walks back remarks about slowing down testing. then, jailed for journalism-- we discuss the crackdown on press freedom in the philippines with a journalist targeted by her country's government. plus, warning signs-- problems with voting machines and vulnerabilities to hackers in the state of georgia undercut trust in the democratic process. >> we don't necessarily have fair and secure elections across the united states and georgia is the epitome of problem elections. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

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institutions to promote a better world. at www.hewlett.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions t pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: the covid-19 pandemic has infected more than nine million people worldwide, as of tonight. and, deaths in the united statee have t120,000. all of this, as the pace of the pandemic gains new momentum.

amna nawaz begins our coverage. >> nawaz: in geneva today, a grim new record, confirmed. 3,>> yesterday, more than 0 new cases of covid were reported to w.h.o. >> nawaz: that represents the biggest daily surge inovid 19 cases, since the start of the pandemic. all logged by thworld health ganization within 24 hours this weekend. in brazil, the world's highest spike, a startling 54,000 new cases-- almost a third of all new infections. in india, more than 15,000 new and hospitals, already under strain, are now turning away patients. meanwhile here in the u.s., more than 36,000 new cases-- roughly one-fifth of the global surge. states that had once seen new cases plateau, and moved to ease restrictions, are now riding new peaks. a dozen states across the south increases this past week.ok homa, where on saturday president trump held his first

indoor rally since march, isor also rng new highs. blaming the spikes on increased testing, the president told hsupporters he'd instruct team to scale it back. >> when you do testing to thatex nt, you will find more cases. so i said to my people, "slow the testing down, please." >> nawaz: ite house trade viser peter navarro later told cnn's jake tapper, mr. trump was joking >> come on now, jake, you know it was tongue-in-cheek.in that was tonguheek, please. >> nawaz: but asked about his rally remarks in an interview with scripps networks toy, president trump dodged answering directly, instead pivoting to how much testing has been done >> but did you slow it down? >> if it did slow down, frankly i think we're way ahead of ourselves, if you want to know the truth. we've done too good a job. >> nawaz: his white house press secretary later denied any efforts to curtail testing. confirmed that eight staffers at the rally had now tested positive for the virheusalth

experts including from the world health health experts, including from iothe world health organiz say scaled up testing is not the only driver behind the latest spike in infections. >> we do not believe that this is a testing phenomenon. clearly when you look at arhospital admissions, the also rising in a number of countries, deaths are also rising.no and they'rdue to increased testing per se. >> nawaz: in new york city, mayor bill de blasio said testing is what allowed the city, once the epicenter of the u.s. outbreak, to move into its next phase of reopening today. >> this is a game changer. remember we didn't use to have this on a massive scale, nor did other cities or statesd the country. now we're doing the thing that'e worked s across the world. we're proactively reachingpo people who testive or people who are symptomatic and need help. >> nawaz: more than 300,000 new yorkers we allowed back into businesses and offices today. while barbershops and hair salons welcomed customers inside for the first time in more than one hundred days.

for the pbs newshour, i'm amna nawaz. the surge in cases in india, brazil a other countries is especially concerning. it also bears repeating that ev though the number of deaths i have droppthe u.s. from the initial peak this spring, more than 600 people a day are still dying in the u.s. from covid. some perspective on all this from an expert who watches the global transmission of the disease. stephen morrison is a senior vice president and director of global health policy at csis,th center for strategic and international studies. he joins may now, stephen morrison, welcome t bathe newshour, let's start overseas where we are seeing some of the ermous surges specifically in brazil. 54,000 new cases, why is there such an alarming surge happening right now? >> well, it's a nuf factors. i mean testing has expanded a bit but that's not the main factor we're looking at he. there was a lockdown for a period but it was verwefla

it was very fragmentedment there has been a repening. people have become complacent. i think probably the dominant factor is simply wretched naonal leadership in the form of president bolsonaro who has had open scoscrn forience and for this virus. has embraced hydroxychloroquinen has hademp for his governors who attempted to put in place quarantines, has called for mass rallies, has done pretty much everything possibly wrong. and his support and legitacy has collapsed. and so we-- and the epidemic is concentrated in large, urbanre centers whhere is high slums and it's very hard to social distance. access to water is often qite problematic. and so we're seeing a surge in these large urban concentrations, sao paulo, rio deej nareau and asthe soutt

is quite difficult situation, 60,000 dead, a million cases, they could in the course of this summer overtake the united stes in terms of the numbers that have died reasons let meab ask yot india as well, the prime minister there did lock down the entire country back in march, four weeks. we're talking about over a billion people across the country. so why are we seeing this spike now all these wee late >> well again, you had a 77 dayk wn in india. and that had some impact in dampening the curve but it was unsustainabla you had ove hundred million migrants who were impo workers who were let loose and mi grated back across the country to their hoes, carrying the virus with them, oftentimes, anhe had to-- he had to relent. so theriwas a fnally a lifting of this, but they did not have

the syems in place in their health system. their health system, the public sect certificate woeful, testing has been terrible, and remains terrible. and so you are seeing a surge, again not unlike brazil.se you are eing it in mumbai and new delhi, these huge urban concentrations is where we're seeing the hot spoots rightw. >> and what about here in the dozens of states are now seeing an increase. is the increase in infections that we're seeing just due to an increase in testing here? >> no, i think what we are seeing in the united states a surge, an acceleration of community transmission. there is no question testing has increased. our peak testing was just under 600,000 per dat on an average day it is about half that much. so testing has not increased all that much in terms of actual testing. but what we are seeing here is a new normal. i mean yesterday we had 37000

cases. that is an astronomical numr. and it again gets back to, we have a lockdown, that had an it was lifted prematurely. people have reverted to complacency.av theynocontinued in terms of social distancing and use of masks and hand washing. and we're seeing a surge of tases particularly in the wes and the south, and increasingly in parts of the midwest. >> you also heard us report that president trump had mentioned over the weekend that he had asd his team to slow down testing, the rational being if of confirmed cases doesn't gor up. what do you make of that reasoning. >> it's dangerous. the notion that you would deny testing because you simply didn't want to acknowledge the reality of what is arod you is reckless and responsible. your electoral calculations are

what should drive your decision making, not your concernor the health and well-being of your population. so if you are one of those whof has diedne of those 120,000 or a family member of one of00 those 120to hear the idea that you would deliberatelyti minimize t which is so vitally important to understanding the transmission of this disease and s vitally new outbreaks after you lift and reopen, you have to have cacities in place starting with testing to be able to chase down those cases and contain them, if you minimize testing and you slow testing, you are undermining your own ability to cope with this. i wanto make one other important point here about the surge that we're seeing. the surge across-the-board in nazil, india, in the united states does get back to what fauci has termed the worst of this virus.ch is the nature

this virus is incredibly fast. a third to a half of the transmission is asymptomatic so it isv inisible. it kills people as we're seeing, 420,000 deaths. d but esn't kill at such a high rate that it snuffs it self out. so it continues circle the globe. and that is the relentles t realitat you request have poor leadership, wretchedor leadership, ystems and the like but it does not slow this virus. >> and we should not forget hundreds of people still dying here in the united states every day as a result. stephen morrison from the center of strategic and intertional studies, thank you for being with us. >> thank you, amna. >> woodruff: in the day's dgher news, a in south florida announced the pandemic has

forced an indefinite delay in the trial of nicas cruz, for the parkland school shootings. the judge said it remains enclear when courts can re for jury selection. cruz is charged with killing 1 people on valentine's day, 2018. a noose at a nascar speedway in talladega, abama, led to an outpouring of racial solidarity the noose was founay in the garage space of bubba wallace, nascar's sole black driver. he had successfully pushed to ban confederate flags from racing sites. all 39 other dvers rallied around wallace today, pushing his car down pit row before the rain-delayed race began. he climbed from the car and wept. the wh president trump approved the weekend firing of u.s.ttorney offrey berman, in manhattan. the president initiallyca ind he played no role.is

but today,ress secretary said attorney general william barr spoke to mr. trump, after berman refused to resign. >> barr was working on a smooth transition a when berman chose to respond in the way he did, he thcame to the president ane president agreed and he fired this iividual, mr. berman. no investigation will be affected by this as was made clear by attorney general barr. >> woodruff: berman's office isn lookin whether rudolph giuliani, the president's personal attorney, broke federal bbying laws. workers at a major u.s. navy shipbuilder have gone on strike for the first time in 20 years. some 4,300 machinists union members walked out overnight at bath iron works in maine, over sub-contracting and work rules. the strike could disrupt delivery of guided missile destroyers to the navy. a dust cloud out of africa blanketed much of the eastern caribbean today, and headed for

the united states. air quality fell to "hazardous" across much of the region, from erto rico to antigua to trinidad and tobago. most concentrated in 50 years.ch in britain, ologists using remote sensing have made a startling discovery nearon enge. this animation, from thety univerf bradford, shows a circle of underground pits, mord than a mile meter. it's just two miles from the the pits also appedate from the same era, about 4,500 years ago. and, on wall street today, stocks advanced, and oil closed4 above a barrel, for the first ti since early march. the dow jones industrial average gained 153 poi26s to close at 25. the nasd rose 110 points, and, the s&p 500 added 20

still to come on the newshour: crisis managemt: the governor of arkansas on the pandemic spikes and the president's response. a journalist targeted in the philippines discusses the crackdown on press freedom. problems with voting in georgia undercut trust in the democratic proces and much more. to reopen their economies, many are seeing new surges in coronavirus cases. in arkansas, there hn e been more t00 new positive tests since they began phase two reopening last week. n is backasa hutchin on newshour for an update.

governor, welcome back. we thank youor joing us. you attribute it t do youhat do have any question that there's some connection to the reopening? >> we actually measure it every week, judy, in terms of the new cases that we have, are they related to the fact that we opened up, lifted some of the restrictions. and the aner is that we have not seen a correlation betweenst lifting ctions and the new cases that we have. the new cases actually are coming out of t some essential industries that are open regardless it is our food supply, and so that is what we are targeting in terms of our strategy. we've creased testing dramically in arkansas. this month we are testing 4 percent of our population, over 120,000 tests, which is a dramatic increase, really doubling from last month. whever you look at our contact tracing, trying to break tho

transmissions of the virus within the community. and so thas the strategy. we have 75 counties in arkansas today, 72 of the am had increase of less than 20 cases. so we have three counties that had a larger amount and that's where our focus is. h you've got e two messages, keep your economy moving, keep itrowing, but at the same time this is a deadly virus, you have to takioe serly and you have to manage the risk. >> you do have thoseutbreaks at the powl tree plant in prison facilitiesd thelso in state but i've also seen specialists quoted as saying in the state of arkansas saying they don't think it's connected, just to more test. and one in particular, an epidimiologist with the state's health department said she said it is probably connected to a loosening restrictions. so you are saying you disagree with that?

>> well, i think that epidimiologist was misquoted but eecertainly agrhat whenever you see the increase in testing, excuse me, then icrease in cases, it's more than just increasing the tes st part of it but it is more than that. we certainly acknowledge that we have you know, an increase in concern and a couple of our counties in northwest arkansas, that's why we are de voting more to dotesting because youcontinue follow that up with isolating quarantining, and trying to stop that transmission. and so yes, we've had some outbreak but we measure it as to whether st related to those lifting of restrictions, th's not an indication of that. we'll continue to monitor thate and if we to make adjustments, we will. >> speaking of testing, i did watch your news conference this afternoon and you mentioned problems with, i guesssome 90,000 testing kits that were

sent to arkansas by the u.s. department of health and human services. how much does that set back the state's efforts to keep a record, to keep track of what is going on? well, any time you disrupt the supply chain with a faulty product, that's a problem. and we had not distributed that widely. we are trying to trace it down but can overcom tht but it is a gap in our supply chain. and heryou've got many southern states that have upsurge in our number of cases, we're testg more and so that puts a strain on the supply chain. and so our national message needs to be let's continue that investment in testing, let's make sure that we do our social distancing. let's take this seriously, do what you can from an individual discipline standpoint. we've got to bui the infrastructure for this fall. we don't know whether it's going to benother resurgence in the

fall or whether this is going to be a constant flow and epidimiologists were cited both ways. so we have be prepared regardless and build that national intra fruk ture because the ne l continue. >> and just quickly we know thig oring state of oklahoma, president trump had a big campaign rally there in tulsa on saturday night. it is understood that a number of arkansas across the state line to go over to attend the rally, how much concern do you have about people coming back because it was indoors and people were not required to wear masks? >> well, i would say that if somee was socially distancing up on the third tier or the second tier by tmselves, they're okay. but if you are in the middle of that crowd without a mask on and you are from arkansas, i hope th you will be tested when you come back. we certainly don't want any virus to be attributed to your

attendance there. >> woodruff: have you put that word out in the state of arkansas? >> actually, i have said thatic pu. just common sense that i wouldn't want people f i was going the to socially distance, wear a mask, if you are not going to do that,ngage in that disciplined behavior, then make sure you be responsible and have t when you come back to make sure that are you not positive. >> woouff: was it a mistake you think for them not to require masks? >> wl, it is my understanding that they expected people to either socially distance, follow the cdc guide line. y rally, a event like that in a public nature with a crowd of peopleeeds to follow common sense, public health guide lines, that is obviously something that's important. >> woodruff: a different subject, governor, at is rate symbols confe across the country in recent days. i see that arkansas has 34 civil

war proiepe according to a report i was looking at, the vast majority of them represent the confederacy. one particular symbol was taken should all of them come down in your opinion? >> well, it all depends upon the local munipality, where its located, where is the proper way to place for thato be located. no one wants to erase history. we do want to learn from it. these are discussions that will be ongoing. we've had the city of little rock remove one conderate statue. we hope that that will be moved with its history.t is con there will be discussion about other venues as well. and so you know in arkands we have protests. they were largely peaweceful. anave set up a task force

to discuss the future of lawen enforcwith protest leaders as well as the exeument and law enforcement all together. and i think that will produce some very good things for the future and bild and strengthen harmony in our communities and the discussion about somof these statutes that are really reminiscent of an oppressive time for our african-american population, has to be a part of that discussion as well. >> woodruff: but just quickly, are you not weighing inwith your view one way or another on whether tho confederate symbo should come down? >> well, i think there should be a discussion, and decisions made. o understand that what that means to thse that were irpressed, thencestors in that form of slavery. and that's what the civil war was about. so it's not a pleasant memory and a reminder for them. anit should be a lesson in

hinoory, a hopping memory of history. moved but those are many localci ons. the general assembly will have to be a part of that discussion, so to me the priority ould bean that ars needs a hate crime law. we're one of the four states that does not have that, that is something ngm pusor. and i think that is a priority that will address real problems. >> governor asa hutchinson of arkansas, governor, thank you. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: our week ago, a in the philippines convicted one of the country's most prominent joualists of "cyber libel." press freedom advocates quickly called the trial unfair, and part of a larger crackdown by fipino president rodrigo duterte on critical media, and

his political opponents. nick schifrin picks up the story of maria ressa. >> schifrin: maria ressa is a filipina-american journalist who was once a "time" person of the year, d used to be cnn's manila bureau chief. she founded rapler, an independent news sitthat investigated duterte without fear or favor. in 2012, rapler published an article linking a businessman connected to duterte, with illegal drugs and human trafficking. since then, ressa has been charged with multiple crimes her lawyers call politically motivated. the charges add up to as much as 100 years in prison.ri and ressa now joins me from manila. heria ressa, what's the state of press freedom in philippines? >> it's death by a thousand cuts. you know, not just of pressee m, but essentially over the last four years, of our democracy. rtainly what we've seen just in the last two months, yo know, the largoadcaster-- imagine, if cbs or cnn were shut down by decree, righ so the largest broadcaster here,

s-cbn, is shut down. the last time that happened was when martial law was declared in the '70s, was shut down for 14 years. they're still trying to fight it. and then less a little over a month later, here's my conviction. criminal cases that i face for being a journalist. on the supreme court, chiefks justice, on prominent legislatures and of course, the war on drugs, which the u.n. calls a murderous crackdown that's killed more than tens of thousands. is this part of a trend in the philippines? >> absolutely, and it's too, you know, the first is really when we saw in 2016, the weaponization of social media. so the attacks are coming exponentially bottom up. and then it comes top down, by weaponizing in the law. the law is the tip of the arrow that is used to attack perceived critics. i'm not a critical journalist in the sense that i didn't set out

i just set out to do my job, to hold power to accoun >> schifrin: and what the president says is that there's a lot of crime that he needs to crack defense.nd that's his and the president's allies also point at there is a commission now to investigate some of the murders against journalists. >> the tens of thousands-- this is the u.n.'s estimate of people killed in the drug war, there's only been one conviction of aen case that's rought to court of police. it is impunity.th and then osecond front, in terms of journalists, we've see exponential list my case alone. i don't have to go very far. all i've done is to do my job. t beyond that, this case should have been thrown out of court because the law we allegedly violated wasn't even in effect at the time that that story was published. the kind of legal acrobatics to bring this to court and to have a conviction are mind boggli

>> schifrin: what the government says is that the article was edited after the law came into effect and that the cyber crime law specifically has no stute limitations, and that's what you were convicted of. >> both are wrong. essentially, because in 2014, that's two years later, someone inalappler fixed a typograph error. they fixed one letter of one word. it's a typo. agd for that, myself, i and one of my former cols can go to jail for six years. that's the first. the second is the statute of limitations for libel. the constitution is very clear on this, it's one year. our laws are clear. d yet to convict us, it was changed, the judge, judgees mo's court says, it's now twelve years. >> schifrin: the issues of press freedom in asia are larger than in the philippines. the day that you were ted, i stocked, i talked to stephen e to protectcommit journalists' asia coordinator. and this is what he said.'v >> yseen it across the board in cambodia and malaysia, philippines, thailand, india has been terrible.

so this is part of a broader trend that has forced press freedom further into ret'vat from what seen in recent yars. >> schifrin: why is threat happening, do you think? >> i think of two, two reasons. e first is that our information ecosystem has fundamentally changed with the power of technology. so starting in 2016, we pointed out that theseheap armies on social media are literally changing the facts, right? and starng in 2017, all of the and it's not just in the philippines. it's in the united states.wh has happened here is happening to you. so when facts are debatable, then you have no integrity of anything, you can't have the second reason is because there's almost like a dictator's playbook that we're seeing all around the world. they're using the vulnerability of the information ecosystem, social media, and they-- what we thought would be an enabling and powering tool during in egypt, has now turned into a despot's.

to >> schifrin: you mentioned the united states. the u.s. state department did release a statement the day after you were convicted decrying the case.e has the u.s. dough? >> we would like to see more of the ideals of the united states the reste world has felt a little bit of its absence in terms of press freedom issues. having said that, no matter what the u.s. or any other countryfi says, this is pino problem. and filipino must stephep and demand rights. otherwise, we're going to lose it. >> schifrin: maria ressa, thank you very much. >> woodruff: new york ate and kentucky have their presidential primaries tomorrow. in kentucky, there are conces about whether voters could be

faci major delays, long line and other problems if turnout is high. fewer than 200 polling places will be open because of covid. that's compared to 3700 in a typical year. earlier this month, georgia served as the latest example of serious voting problems that could affect elections this fall. miles o'brien has the story. >> reporter: it was no walk in the park when georgians cast their ballots on june 9. many voters, disproportionately democrats and african americans spent six to eight hours in line, patient yet piqued. at the central park rec , nter in atlanmet amelia dobbs, four hours into a grueling vote- athon. >> i'm very disappointed after being a ter for over 50 years. it's getting worse, worse and worse. it can't get any worse than >> reporter: john and his ahead of ms. dobbsn a linee just

that encircled the park. they were livid. >> it is 9:56, there are now eight, eightballots counted. >> eight ballots scanned. eight. this is exercise and patience but it also it's an exercise in will. and if the intention is to break the will, this will, those people are not leaving. >> reporter: inside, beleaguered poll workers struggled with a new, complex voting system that they hadn't even seen before the election. unsafe in the mids was deemed pandemic. among other things: the machines didn't work.o the marilyn marks is executive director of the coalition for good governance, an ortion focused on electionar trancy and verifiability. >> we don't necessarily have fair and secure elections acrosa the uniteds and georgia is

the epitome of problem elections. georgia becomes really theam exe at almost every level of what is wrong. >> reporter: marks helped lead the chge to usher in a new era of voting ineorgia last year. for 18 years the state used electronic voting machines made by diebold election systems. the machines were widely used across the nation, even though experts proved they were eas for hackers to attack without leaving a trace. >> a federal judge is ordering georgia to stop using its outdated voting machines... >> reporter: in august of 2019, a federal judge ordered the state to scrap the flawed machines for something more secure and verifiable. so the state spent more than $100 million to supply every county with so called imagecast machines made by a canadian company, dominion voting systems.

they are ballot marking devices, meaning voters make selections on a touch screen, and ballots are printed with choices embedded in a q.r. code and listed in plain english. cathe paper ballot is thened and counted. brad raffensperger is georgia'st sey of state. >> when you have a paper ballot no mattew that when it comes about, at the end ofhe day, m u have the paper that you can do the audit frod then you can audit the election. secure because theeallyk is more capture voter intent. >> reporter: but election issecurity experts say thaot the case. s a computer and you hav no idea what's in the computer. and you have no idea what the computer is doing ioth the informthat you give it. >> reporter: rich demillo is a professor of compur science at the georgia institute of technology. n tried to stop the state from buying the dominstem now used in 24 states. >> aallot marking device is the first place, extremely t

expensive penct will make mistakes, that is prone to faile, that's prone to misus and if it fails, if it's misused, you have no way of telling that you don't have the original record of voter intent. >> reporter: are you concerned the system can be hacked? >> no. we are very vigilant. we understand that elections are tempting targets for hackers. >> reporter: indeed. at the hacker convention def con, they have been making virtual mince meat of electronic voting machines for years. legendary white hat hacker and election security consultant harri hursti was part of the exploits. >> you can introduce races which don't appear as when they should be, you can change the design oe the sc to be misleading and confusing the voter. when the voter is making the selections. are those selections recorded accurately? >> reporter: the new voting

system also includes electronic poll books made by a st. louis company called knowink. election officials say thent devices freq shut down and showed polling information for the wrong election, creang more havoc. but they also come with security concerns. they are ipads that connecto the internet to download the database of registered voters. how big a concern is that? >> if you can deny someone access to the voting machine, ayen you move that person from voting at that place at that time. >> reporter: it is a proven target. in the runup to the 2016 election, russian hackers successfully broke into voter databases and software systems in 39 different states. rick barron is the director of registration and elections in fulton county. do you have any evidence that in the midst of this chaotic election, hackers took advantage of those vulnerabilities and may have tampered with this election? >> no, i have you no evidence of

>> reporter: so, it's really hard for you to-- you really don't have the bandwidth or the capability of looking? no>> no. i mean, all that we can do is set up our own security o arou equipment to mitigate the risks to it.ra we have caon our building, we have alarms on our building, we have the server locked away as well. ll reporter: the experts a agree paper ballots marked by hand are the most secure, most verifiable way of voting. more than a million georgia voters chose to do thileat home thisction. for those who didn't receive their ballots or chose to vote in person, the expsive, complicated, vulnerable machines created a huge bottlenecat polling sites, and there were many fewer of them. in fulton county, 34 polling sites opted out because of cod-19 concerns. with democrats turning out four to one over republicans, it was a recipe for scenes like this... long lines of african american

voters. corie campbell waited four hours >> i feel like they are just trying to discourage people of color or of minority to not vote because that's the agenda that we are trying to push, soal espe younger people of color and minority. so and it's very important and i know how important it is, so they'll do anything to throw a >> reporter: with four to five million georgians expected to vote in november, this primary election offers a stark warning of electoral chaos ahead. for the pbs newshour, i'm miles o'brien in atlanta. >> woodruff: you25 voters under re taking to the streets and to social media to oppose president trump.

but will generation-z's political energy translate into votes for form vice president joe biden? miche alcindor reports. >> alcindor: on saturday in tulsa, oklahoma, it was asa ointing turnout for president trump's comeback rally. earlier in the week,he president said for the event, the campaign had fielded one million sign-ups. >> we're getting exact numbers out, but we're eitheclose to, or over one million people wanting to go. >> alcindor: but come saturday, just 6,200 of the 19,000 seats were filled. america's teenagers on the social media app "tik-tok" say expectations.uel fal they claim thousands registered for the rally as a prank on the trump campaign. >> i got two tickets, but i totally forgot i have to pick up every individual piece of lint >> it would be such a shame if all of you did the same. a >> alcindos the 2020 campaign nears, america's youngest generation-- known as "gen-z"-- is energized forl

politicaange. young voters on average lean democratic. likely than other tions toe less vote. and in this year's democratic primaries, the majority of young voters rejected joe ssden for proges like bernie sanders and elizabeth warren. in an appeal to young organizerh this mbiden's campaign released a digital ad promising to take action on structural racism. w >>ve had protests before. we got to now vow to make this at least an era of action and m reverse the systemic racth >> alcindor: it's an appeal not just to vote for biden, but to address the ongoing lack of enthusiasm for the democratic nomie among democratic ver a recent fox news poll showed 63% of biden supporters said they were more driven by fear of president trump's reelection than enthusiasm for biden. one such voter is 18-year-old marvelle reed from milwaukee.

he opened his eyes recently to more issues pertaining toe, younger peond i feel wholeheartedly that i can support him. >> de anna >> alcindor: deana ayers disagrees. >> there is like a slim to none orance that i would vote him. >> alcindor: deanna ayers graduated college this yrnr and bcked sanders in the primary. for them, beating trump isn't worth sacrificing their values. >> if he supported, you know, defending the police, like abolishing ice, raising them minige, things like that, but like a really progressive young people are asking for. and those po me.s would sway >> alcindor: still, a recent next-gen america", showedup" positive signs about gen-z turnout. it showed 50% of voters aged 18 24 wfinitely voting. that's up 10% from a similar poll conducted at this time in 2016. those margins could mean young voters organizing on tik-tok and in the streets could also propel joe biden to a win this november. for the pbs newshour, i'm yamiche alcindor.

>> woodruff: where do presiden trump and former vice president let's check in with our politics monday duo.'s thmy walter of "the cook political report" and host of public radio's "politics with amy walter." and tamara keith of npr. she also co-hosts the "npr politics podcast." >> hello to both of yotam, let's start with you, is there evidence that young people are going to turn t and vote is november? >> there certainly was evidence in 2018 and of course mid terms are not od indicators for presidential elections, election years, it is not an applot apple comparison but young voters did turn out in 2018 and there is some indication that ergy in the streets can trslate to a wave of voting. >> woodruff: and amy young voters turned out for bark obama, when he first ran in

2008. anything like that level of enthusiasm this year? >> it's not likely, judy. and you know, there was a lot of talk in 2016 about the dropoff in youtnger voers' enthusiasm for say hillary clinton. the difference this yeajudy is that while joe biden at least in the polls right now notdoing any worse than hillary clinton did among younger voters, he is doing a lot better among older voters and older voters-- and especially we're talking abut that-- access to voting,

president trump is again today calling out is to problems with mail-in voting. and getting involved, how much do we know about real problems in the past with mail-in vot >> let's just be clear that we have no idea what president trump was alleging. there is no clarity on what he is saying about foreign volvement in mail-in voting. the reality is that mail-in voting is fairly secure. there haven't been, you know, there was an issue with ksh-- a campaign in north carolina, the

republican-- the president is doing what he has been doing. he did it before the vote in 2016, did it after the voe in 2016 in which he claimed there were millions of illegal votes. he has never been able to provide evidence of that. and it is what he used repeatedly. and it is something that he is likely to continue to come back to,. >> woodruff: amy, we heard it from the president before, and tam was saying we are likely to keep on hearing it. >> yeah, i mean it's hard to-- h we don't know what this

will lokike. what we do know is a report indicated that if he is going to take these states-- their interest in voting by mail. >> we're going to have to wait for days to get resul there will be a lot of stories about people who didn't get ballots, about overwhelmed postal workers or other folks invold in this process. it is going to be messy and what we need at thimoment in time is to stand up and say voting is verymportant, let's make sue that we can do everything possible to make it work. >> and let's be year, it is rmal with mail-in voting it will take long tore get results. look at california, the congressional election in 2018,

it took a couple of weeks to find out that e candidates had actually won. simply because the ballot processing and provisional ballots just take longer. >> and it's normal. amy, very quickly here at the end, tomorrow, presidential primaries in new york, and kentucky what are you looking for. >> well, what. >> the absentee ballots-- we ults probably not have res by wednesday. the mar key race in kentucky democrats-- amy mcgraph has raiseed 40 million dollars, because she's are youining aga

the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. a lot of democrats around the country hoping to defeat senator mcconnell but she has ay serious primallenge from her left, from anca afamerican candidate who has been running a very strong campaign, the issues of protesting, especially at this moment in time in this state,t become so a central question. and she did not gout and protest. he did. we will see whether or not that is going to be a factor butis tt he race we're all watching. >> woodruff: unfair tf meo ask you about 20 different congressional races with 30 seconds to go. but we can always try. amy walter, tamara keith, thank you both, politics monday. >> you're welcora. aph >> woodruff: wh covid-19 cases

on the rise in many parts of the country, it's easy tthink that we are living in unprecedented times. but is that true? jeffrey brown spoke with two historians about how pandemics have shaped societies in the past, and what those experiences can teach us about living with the coronavirus now. it's part of our ongoing arts and culture series, canvas. >> the doctors were unable to cope, since they were treating the disease for the first time. >> brown: the images are contemporary, but the words, ancient. greek historian thucydides' describes a 5th century b.c. plague that devastated athens as it warred with sparta. the epidemic contributed to athens' defeat and helped bring an end to its experiment with democracy. just one example of how disease has shaped human history. everything about us, our art, been informed, inflected, should

we say, with the passage of death and suffering in the form of disease. >> brown: frank snowden, professor emeritus at yale university, is author of" idemics and society."iv he now l in rome, a city slowly re-opening after imposing a strict lockdown. it's also a city that has seen the impact of disease before. century a.d. show victims of a malaria outbreak, one that eaked havoc on the roman empire's military and economic might. pandemics throughout history, oftecaptured in the imaginations of artists, have hit in specific ways, with different impacts. beginning in the 14th century, bubonic plague changed the a third of europe's population. perished. historians see enormous political and economic impacts: worker shortages gave serfs more

bargaining power and hastened the end of feudalism. snowden al cites a growing awareness of public health. >> doctors had personal protective equipment. that is the masks and the plague costumes and a rod for social stancing. >> brown: william shakepeare experienced plague in 16th and c 17tury england. >> there is not a play as played directly about plagu but if you want to shock your audience, you can mention the plague housesu.gue on >> brown: that would have had an extraordary resonance in a shakespearean play.>> rown: but not all pandemics resonate in the cultural memory: the so-called ¡spanish flu' of 1918 was different. >> in an azing way, almost immediately following the pandemic, it just di appears from trican public conversation. >> brown: nancy bristow, a history professor at the university of puget sound,s

author of "american pandemic: the lost wors of the 1918 influenza epidemic." bristow's great-andparen were two of the 675,000 americans and up to 50 million people worldwide who died, numbers that far surpassed those killed in the world war raging at the same time. in some smaller ways the life.mic did alter american >> as a result of the pandemic, public spitting really wason frowned another thing that disappears for us is the public drinking cup. >> brown: but overall, bristow says the pandemic reinforced the status quo >> in the midst of the pandemic, people who we poor might ffer from cold and hunger and homelessness. people of color would find themselves excluded from the eremergency hospitals that produced. rd yet in the aftermath, there was no movement air those problems. >> brown: so it sounds as though 1918, the way you see it, was a pandemic that did not leave so

much of a trace. >> that's exactly right. i think there were lessons that could have been leard. it's a somewhat human and certainly american tendency to put aside and eventually forget those things in our past that are unplsant or that don't speak to who we want to be or imagine oursels to be. >> brown: as many have noted, the ndemic we're living through has exposed the continuing inequities in our time. and in the aftermath of the killing of george floyd, protestors across the nation decided to take their message to the streets, many wearmasks, despite the health dangers. frank snowden suggests the history of pandemic and illness offers us choices for our time. >> it's a crisis because but it's also a time ofn. opportunity. t when i thit this is a time when we can not re-imagine our lives in ways that would make us safer than we were this time

around, that could actually leave the world a safer, a better place for our grandchildren than the one that >> brown: a hope for the future, with an eye on the past. for the pbs newshour, i'm ffrey brown. >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here 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: pe since our beginning, our business has beele, and their financial wellbeing. that mission gives us purpose, and a way forward. today, and always. committed to advand. restorative justice and meaningful work through investments in transformative leaders and ideas. more at kendedafund.org.

>> supported by the john d. and caerine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possle by the corporation fo public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ -today on "a's test kitchen," dan makes julia an easy grill-roasted whole chicken, jack challenges bridget to a taste test of milk che chips, lisa reviews specialty gadgets, anelle makes bridget the perfect skillet-charred green beans. it's all coming up right here on "america's test kitchen."