captioning sponsoredy wnet enivasan: on this editio for sunday, june 28: coronavirus cases worldwide now top n million. rebranding in the era of black lives matter. and, in our signature segment: finding alternatives for single-use plastics, oan island that is overrun by them. next, on pbs newshour weekend. >> mapbs newshour weekend is possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. sur e and edchenheim iii. the cheryl and philip milstein family. rosalind. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. charles rosenblum. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we

believe taking re of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement svices and investments. earn more, vis www.consumercellular.tv. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> sreenivasan: good evening, and thank you for joining us. the coronavirus pandemic reached a teronrible miletoday-- more than ten million people are now infected worldwide. johns u hopkiversity's tracking project shows the united states with the most confirmed cases, more than 2.5 million, with brazil, russia and india following.

the united states also has the most deaths from the disease the virus causes. avre than 125,000 american died of covid-19. across the country, states are pausing and reversing reopenings asoronavirus cases spike again. in an interview broadca today, vice president mike pence defended president trump's lack of support for wearing face masks, saying the white house wants to defer to governors and local officials. e president wore a mask when he attended a texas church event today, and heas canceled campaign rallies in florida and arizona planned for next week. y, dallas county, where the church event was held, reported its highest single-day total of coronavirus cases since the pandemic started.or thisng, secretary of health and human services alex azar said individuals need toa wearsks and social distance as the coronavirus surges. >> the window is closing. we have to act-- and people as dividuals have to ac responsibly. we need to social-distance. need to wear our face- coverings if we're in settings

where we can't social-distance, particularly in these hot zones. >>e sreenivasan: hoeaker nancy pelosi called out the president for not wearing a mask, and said a federal mandate requiring masks be worn in public is "long overdue." centers for disease control has recommended the use of masks, bud t not demanded-- requi, because they don't want to offend the president. >>ivasan: president trump denied today that he was briefed on an intelligence report that russia offered bounties to afghan militants to kill u.s. troops.am citing u officials, the "new york times" first reported that a russian military telligence unit offered payments to taliban-linked militants to kill u.s. coalition forces in fighanistan. ials quoted in the report said that president trump and the white house national security council were briefed on the matter in late march. president trump tweeted this morning, "nobody briefed or told me, vice president pence or chief of staff mark meadows" about what the president calle""

the so-called attacks on our russians."ghanistan by yesterday, presumed democratic presidential nominee j biden slammed mr. trump for not taking actnsion agrussia. >> not only has he failed to sanction, or impose any kind o consequences on russia for this egregious violation of international law, donald trump has continued his embarrassing campaigofeference and debasing himself before vladimir putin. >> sreenivasan: the president began his day today with a storm of tweets before heading to his virginia golf club. in addetition to his tabout russia, the president also retweeted a video from a florida community called "the villages," where he has held campaign even"s. he wrote, thank you to the great people of the villages." man in a golf cart with "trumpe 2020rdsigns can clearly be hea chanting "white power." >> white power! white por! >> sreenivasan: this morning,or republican senim scott called the video "indefensible." >> there's no question.

he should t have retweeted, and he should just take it down. >> sreenivasan: by 11:00 a.m., the tweet was deleted. in a statement given to reporters, deputy press secretary judd deere said, "president trump is a big n of the villages. he did not hear the one statement made on the video. what he did see was tremendous enthusiasm from his many supporters." another was wounder a and gunman opened fire on a crowd attending a tration in a louisville kentucky park last night. protesters were gathered to thourn the df breonna taylor. louisville police killed taylor in her apartment during a late night "no-knock" warrant raid in march. one officer b hn fired, and the shooting remains under investigation. police were still searching for thern who shot at demonstrators as of this afternoon. in colorado yesterday, thousands ga oeredutsia suburban denver police station to demand justice for elijah mcclain. the 23-year-old mcclain-- an african american-- was killed last year after police arresting him used a chokehold and tejecmcclain with a sedative. mississippi is poised to change

its state flag by removing the confederate battle emblem. yesterday, the mississippi housee and sented to suspend the legislative deadlines by a two-thirds margin, paving the way for a simple majority vote that would immedialy take down the flag. a nine-person commission will then be created to design a new flagho w confederate symbols. voters will get a chance to choose a new flag in november. in a facebook poni saturday t, republican governor tate reeves said if the legislaturbi sends him th this weekend, he will sign it. in the past, reeves hasaid the matter should be left to the voters. voters overwhelmgly rejected a rerendum to change the 126-year-old flag in 2001. sreivasan: for more on the worldwide coronavirus outbreak and the latest national and internas,tional nisit www.pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: in response to the global black lives matter livement, spurred by the k of george floyd at the knee of a white minneapolis police

officer, there is a renewed effort to eliminate names and brands that reflect this country's racist past. music groups and some popular companies are already reacting by ongverhauheir brands. newshour weekend's christopher booker has more. >> reporter: on thursday, the grammy award-winning country- music group, the dixie chicks, released a new song and video "march march the video, a patchwork highlighting political activism, ends wiueth a r, that we acknowledge and say the names of those killed by the police. ♪ ♪ but that's not all that's in the video. with the song came comes with announcement-- the band has chged its name. the trio dropping the "die," a nickname often associated with the confederate south, and now simply going by the chicks. ththe group posted or website, "we want to meet this moment." the band's name change come o

after a sericompanies announced some of america's most well-known products were discarding names and images considered racially offensive. companies like quaker oats, who said they would be rebranding its aunt jemima products. but not everyone has welcomed the change on tuesday, during president donald trump's rally in arizona, a ccoenege graduate decried the rebranding. >> aunt jemima was cancelled. and might i mention how privileged we are as a nation if our brniggest cons a bottle of pancake syrup. >> reporter: to david pilgrim, type of reaction is in no way surprising. as the founder and curator of the jim crow museum of racist memorailia, held in ferris state universitymin big rapids, higan, pilgrim says he understands why people might feel this way. >> if a person comes to the museum and they see a lynching tree or they see a heavily caricatured object, most people just look at that and think, you knowl., "that's aw but when you have something like

ntmammy cookie jar or jemi, and they think, "there's nothing racial about this, the's certainly nothing racist about it, it's just a food product," or they think "this is just something that reminds me of good times that i spent with my far:ly." >> reporut for pilgrim, such a feeling does not excuse the continued use of the chacter. >> if you ever came to the jim crow museum and you look at the hundreds, if not thousands of images of mammies, including the commercial mammies, you'll notice they all, or almost all were smiling. well, there's nothing wrong wit smiling, but-- but you are reinforcing the idea that african americans-- in this case, african american women, are happy being servants. >> reporter: aunt jemima got its name from a minstr song popular over 130 years ago. in the early 1890s, nancy green, a former slave, was hired to become the face of the brand. she would be the first of many aunt jemimas. >> when i look at aunt jemima,

i'm already looking at 100 years of aunt jemima branding. so, you know, the one today looks like my aunt. but the ones over the years? i mean, the first one was absolutely brutal. i mean, it's just an old- ned caricature. >> reporter: and quaker oats north america, the maker of aunt in their press release announcing the rebranding, the company says, "we recognize aunt jemima's origins are based on a racial stereotype. while work has been done over the years to update the brand in a manner intended to be appropriate and respectful, we realize those changes are not meough." but the corporatage is not resonating with everyone. posts on facebook and other social media platforms have echoed the sentiment that came from this week's trump rally. >> i've seen people on-- on-- on social media, saying, you know, like, what does this have to do with anything? h the justice movement, whs set off by the brutal murder of george floyd, has forced all of us to reexamine the role of racism in the larger society and

in ourselves. addressing uncle ben or aunt jemima, t phey'ret of the same problem. this is about a nation beginning the process of coming to grips with some parts of its past which have morphed into the present. >> reporter: how do you think we will view aunt jemima 20 or 30 years from now? >> i applaud the companies that are having the difficult discussions and actually changing their brands. but they should have changed them. i mean, if-- if your brand has a racist slur in the title, if-- if the title itself is a slur, or if it caricatures a group of people, then you should be having these discussions. and i would hope that you would be makg these changes. i don't want to live in a country where it's illegal for someone to use a racist brand or a sext and or a brand that is homophobicbut i want to

live in a society where we're mature enough to. not do where a company is pressured or otherwise comes to e conclusion that this is not how we want to represent ourlves. >> sreenivasan: like so many countries, including t u.s., the south pacific island nation of samoa has begun to move away styrofoam products. and but it's actually harder for samoa and other islands, because just about everythinthey consume is imported by sea or air. most of those goods are plastic or wrapped in plastic, and they rarely head back out. as special correspondent mike taibbi found in a visit to samoa, for our "samoan islands: shifting tides" series, the solution being pursued involves new uses of old technology and traditional resources.>> hat do you reckon? that looks like a nice one for

the machine. that one's going to come down soon, isnpo it? >> reer: james atherton is vice president of the samoa conioservsociety, and with his cousin alan schwalger, reends part of each day walking among the palm. what they're looking for are the palm l teaves, or sheatht have fallen to the ground, or and the machine they'd be good for is thione: a hydraulic press made in india that uses heat and five tons of pressure for a single minute to make these: inexpsive plates and bowls that he says can be washed and re-used for months, a that are not plastic or styrofoam. however... >> we've only got one small machine with three burners. to get to the point of making money on the basic pruct, we'll probably need two or three more of those, to churn out 1,500 u >> reporter: to stay in production, his company, samoa green product turns out its basic products-- plates and bowls baanoo straws-- but

has now added expensive gift ana ndicraft items ranging from platters to coasters, and other ornamental items. the venture still doesn't quit break even. it has to work as a business. >> absolutely. i think even as an environmentalist, one can't be too idealibout our trying to be green. we have to have green solutions that are cost-effective and that make money. otherwise it just doesn't work. >> reporter: there's certainly a market for a green alternative. last year, samoa banned single- use plastic bags, joining ji, vanuatu and new zealand in that first step. and latein june, styrofoam cups and containers will also be banned, as soon as stores exhaust their stockpf those products. >> educating people, "don't litter," "don't l-- legally dump," "dispose of your waste properly." >reporter: vicki hall is waste management and pollution control director at spiap, the secretof the pacific regional environment program. she says t transition can't happen quickly enough.

>> there is a nuther of plastics at are not necessary. they can be substituted or designed out of prod >> reporter: atherton isn't the only green products designer who's hard at work. in fact, he's now partnering with the scientific research organization of samoa to source alternative plant materials for eco-friendly plates d bowls. for example, besides palm trees, there'sso at least one reurce that is plentiful on the island. >> so we strip it into small pieces. >> reporter: fiti laupua, a statistician by training, is leading the effort to turn the trunk of the ubiquous banana tree into the go-to replacement for a range of plastic pducts. he took us through the steps. >> you have to boil it with sodium hydroxider lye. >> reporter: what does that do? >> it breaks it down, so it's easy to blend, and to make a pulp out of it. in reporter: the pulp is pressed to sheets, and eventually, from out of the dehydrating hat can easily be moldediber to make plates, cups, utensils

or containers. you know, the things we've been using forever. it's labor-intensive, but laupua says the machines to do much of that labor are not hard to do you think it'll happen? >> if we get the funding, yes, it'll happen. >> reporter: is that a yes or a no? >> ie's a will, there's a? way, yeah. >> reporter: there's a top-down effort by the government here to ndpose that will. billboardsigns everywhere, even on city buses, "support the plast,"ic ban," "no more stra "keep samoa plastic-free," and "the ban is the law," a nationwide law that's about to cover styrofoam products, too. samoa's population is just under 200,000, about the same size as akron, ohio; shreveport, louisiana; yonkers, new york. imagine telling everyone and every business in a population that size that, as of a certain date, no more single-use pstic items-- "it's against the law!" here, in a small country with a

big plastic pollution problem, the response seems to be "let go for it." stores and markets keep the message clear, and their customers are paying attention. 80% to 85%, by official and biodegradable or re-usable bags for their purchases. there is a concern, though, thao s efforts to fend off plastic pollution are too tolittlelate; that the ban is a good move, but that in practical termting up recycling bins and collection points means next toothing. at the country's one sanitary landfill, manager fualaga pemita told us that there's no company or country willing to take on thine task of recythe more than 8,000 tons of plastic refuse generated annually in samoa in the years prior to the ban. a lot plastic refuge fo one island. what happens to it? it's just there, right?

>> reporter: and even if samoa could handle its own recycling dilemma, there's little to be done about the constant low-speed tsunami of plastic infusion in the surrounding ocean. there are huge pacific garbage patches-- the nearest twice the size otexas-- with plastic a dominant component, even as those plastics eventually break down. so much so, in fact, that a 2018 study of 34 commercial fish species in the region show that 97% had at least trace amounts of microastics. thats 30% higher than the global average. >> we know plastics get into the food chain and affect the animals, obviously, that eat it, the fisother animals that eat it. and then of course, we consume those animals and therefore, there's a microplastic crisis. >> reporter: that's why atheto long an environmentalist after all, traveled to southern india to see how whole regions have managedor years without single-use plastics. how they've learned to cultivate palm plantations to supply a small-bore industry that turns and utensils that are now the

norm. >> what you see here in samoa is discarded polystyrene . you don't see that in india. people are now using palm plater where for their food. >> reporter: so onherton brought of those india-made presses home and cranked it up,c conved, by the way, that palm leaves aren't the only source material he'll eventually use. samoa is an appealing tourist destination that can't afford to be overrun by plastic pollution, and changes in laws, and in how consumers consume, seem a gical way that these island gems in the blue pific can retain their lustre. >> i think in the future all pacific iands can get to the point of mass production of these items. we're at a state on this planet that-- that we have to make bold choices andifficult chices in the way we live our lives, and our behavior. >> reporter: business has swed these months because of the pandemic-induced stall in trade and travel.

but it hasn't stopped. and with the ban in place and apparently popular, atherton says it won't stop. >> sreenivasan: starting tomorrow evening, pbs will air a two-part sees as part of its" trailblazers" initiative, celebrating 100 years of the women's vote. co-produced by p.o.v., documentary, titled "and she could be next," follows women heart of a movement called the new american jority who are ansforming politics from the ground up. grace lee and marjan saf producer and director of the series. i recently spoke with them aut the documentary. going into 2020 and i don know if you're still in touch with all these differentar chacters, but-- are they as aengaged, as excited, committed as they were in 2018?

marjan, let me start with you. >> i mean, i would say more so, rit? more so, because they the fight continues. we are very much in touch with ths.organiz they' all very much so organizing. in the end, it is a nationwide movement, right. the uprisings that we've seen in the reets are the new american majority. it's a very diverse group of americans who just have a very different vision for what this country should be. and now there's enough numbers that there is a real sort of opportunity to empower. >> sreenivasan: grace? >> yeah, imean, i would just add that what-- what we see on the news every nightwith, you know, these massive protests and people coming out for the first time to sort of express, you know, their feelings about what's going on in this country, i think, you knni, there's dely a connection to these civic engagement organizers who are saying, well, you know, you

can protest withour voices, but you can also, you know, use every tool ithtoolbox, which includes protesting electorally. you know, the alarm is souing. you know, we see every day on the news, in the georgia primary and the kentucky primary, how covid is also, you know, preventing people from actually mang their voices heard. and i think this isoing to be an ongoing issue leading up into no. >> sreenivasan: grace lee, marjan safinia. the film is called "and she could be next" airing on pbs. thank you both for joining me. >> thank you, hari. >> sreenivasan: "and she could be next" airs on p.o.v. tomorrow and tuesday night. and for our extended inrview with grace lee and marjan safina, go to pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: as we celebrate pride this month, we are reminded of a community that has fought to have its voice heard and has endured a different type of epidemic, the aids crisis. denccades ago, stefan was raised by gay parents in the '80s, as h.i.v./aids was taking hold on the community and people around it.

he told his story of how a group of men, called his "aunties," helped him pull through. this animated short is part of the new storycorps season "father figures." storycorps has been recording and sharing real experiences from people who have extraordinary stories to tell. >> my family were mosy gay guys, who were my babysitters and the guys who, you know, took parties. at my birthday and i felt like i had this amazg family. i called them my aunties. and it was a really wonderful, meamazing world, that ca crashing down. starting in '82, t first person i knew died of aids, a young guy named steve. >> reporter: and how old were you at the time? >> i was 10 when he was diagnosed. i remember i was on the beach at fire island, and i saw him, and he was covered sp these purple s. and within, i think two months, steve was dead. d it was pretty much a succession of deaths of my decade.throughout the next

my stepdad, bill, died in '87. my dad died in '91, after a really grueling six months of me taking care of him. you know, i was 19 and was on a break from college, and i'm exhausted from tadang care of my d, and i called up my auntie eddie. i said, can you help? and within a week, he'd organized 40 people to do round- the-clock shifts. he was the only other person in the room with me and my mom when my dad died. at that point, everyone had died except for a handful of stragglers who i now hold near aunties. to my heart, my ta hat wawerful family. there was a lot of love. and they modeled for me how to-- how to survive epidemic, even if you were dying while doing it.

>> sreenivasan: that's all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. for the latest news updat, visit www.pbs.org/newshour. i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching. sthaay healthy, ve a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend isade possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. thchyl and philip milstein family. rosal wind ter. barbara hope zuckerberg. charl.es rosenbl

we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we ombelieve taking care of trow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. sadditionaort has been provided by: and by the corporation for and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a privateu corporated by the american people. tributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. you're watching pbs. (piano music)

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