captioning s sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, feeling the pain-- a rise in cov infections forces closures and job losses, and threatenthe economic recovery that was starting to get underway. race and politics-- at a time of reckoning in the u.s., how what the president says can stoke tensions and highlight division. and, manufacturing for thent mo a near-bankrupt textile company changes its business model to meet the demand forly soeeded protective material for healthcare workers. >> there isn't an infrastructure in the united states that is capable of building even 10% of the medical products that we need today. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

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suppting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporatiofor public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: the covid-19 pandemic has surged to new moghs, as the u.s. recorde than 50,000 new cases in a single day. infections have spiked in 40 of 50 states. one of those states is florida, which set a new dailrecord

today with more than 10,000 new cases. governor ron desantis insisted florida is equipped to handle the crisis. >> if you go back to march when we faced the initial wave of this you know we h very few tests relative to what we ve now, now hospitals tests for anyone that comes in for something they can test, between the state we're doing between ten to 15,000 tests a day at all the different sites. >> woodruff: also today,exas governor greg abbott issued a statewide order that face masksb muworn in public in counties with more than 20 coronavirus cases. that amounts to nearly 75% of all the state's counties. he'd previously insisted the there are more sig of economicle recovery today. the labor department reported the u.s. economy added 4.8 million jobs in june.

and the natunion'ployment rate fell to 11.1%. but that recovery may be short- lived now that a surge in covid- 19 cases has triggered a new wave of closures.si even so, pnt trump remained optimistic. >> 80% of small businesses are now open, 80% and we think we're gonna have somvery good numbers in the coming months because others are opening. especially as we put the flame out, we're getting rid of the flame that's happening. >> woodruff: there are still nearly 15 million fewer jobs in june than there were back in february, before the pandemices. meanwhile, the presumptive democrat presidential nominee joe biden said americans would be better off had the president taken swter action against covid-19. >> we'retill in a deep job hole because donald trump has so odly bungled the response coronavirus.

and now has basically given up on responding at all. you know a million more americans, a million of them, would still have a job if donald trump had done his job. >> woodruff: we'll take a closer look at today's jobs numbers after the news summary. the upbeat employment report boosted stocks on wall street today. the dow jones industrial average climbed 92 points to close at 25,827. the nasdaq rose 53 points, and the s&p 500 added 14. rethe supreme court today ed to hear whether the house of representatives can access semet grand jury material f special counsel robert mueller's russia pro. the trump administration had appealed a lower courts' ordnt for the docuto be turned over to the democratic- controlled house. today's move means coness won't likely see the documents until after november'sion. the supreme court also ordered

m wer courts to reconsider two cases stemming fstrictive abortion laws in india, that had previously been blocked by courts. one required women tan ultrasound before the procedure. the other expanded parental notifications when minors seek an abortion. the move comes just days aft the high court struck down a louisiana law that regulated abortion clinics. a new york judge ruled overnight that a tell-all book by president trump's niece can move forward. the decision overturned a lower court's temporary hold. the president's brother had sued to stop its release, arguing it would violate a family confidentiality agreement. but now the book will be published later is month. in myanmar, rescue workers recovered the bodies of more than 160 people who died in a a ndslide at a jade mine. heavy rain causeap of mining waste to collapse into a lake. the wave of mud engulfed scoresn

of fre miners scavenging the poorly-regulated jade mines in myanmar's northern kachin state are the most lucrative in the world. a building caught fire at iran's natanz nuclear pla today. u.s.-based analysts told the associated press they believe the site was a new cene production facility. the underground plant is used to enrich uranium. iranian officials insisted there wasn't major damage or radiation leaks. and, a passing to note. broadcast veteran hugh downs died of natural causes wednesday at his home in scottsdale, arizona. his career spanned seven decades, and included co- anchoring nbc's "today" show and the abc newsmagazine "20/20". he also hosted the pbs series "over easy" and "live from lincoln center". hugh downs was 99 years old. still to come on the newshour: a risin covid infections

threatens the economic recovery following the original outbreak. hong kong continues to reel from the chinese government'son imposif a new security law. ident's rhetoric stokes tensions amid a racial reckoning in the u.s. and much more. >> woodruff: today's positive jobs numbers seem to indicate a strengthening econy, as businesses across the country re-opened in june, a restrictions on social distancing and other safety measures were relaxed. how do we re-start the economy ewithout re-invigorating pandemic? we explore that now with paul romer, a nobel prize-winning

economist who has been close focused on just these questions the paul, welcome o then. newshour, so let's talk about today's jobs report. some people are focusing on the positive saying yes 4.8 millione new jobs in month of june, others are pointing out but hey we are still many millions behind where we were before this all started. how do you read th new numbers? >> well, you got it rigeht in earlier introduction of this issue. employment is still dowby about 15 million people. last month it was down by about 21 million. so it is better to be down by 15 million than by 21 million, but it is still pree.tty terri it is the worst labor market in my life. >> woodruff: and of course all this as we know, paul romer tang place as the covid cases are starting to spike, to suge back up again. what is that portend for the economy overal

you have businesses that were getting started, opening up,ho peopleere thinking i am going back to work and now this has happened. what could this mean for the economy? >> well, it is clearly showing that we are not on a sustainable path, and trying to describe what we are doing, it as if imagine some gremlins turned all of our cars, not all them but a lot of cars into time bombs so we drive our cars and they blow up and kill us so we have a lockdown, nobody drives. and then everybody says well, you know, we have to drive, we have to get back out there, so then you start driving, well, we will only drive to the grocerynd store we will only drive on tuesday but that cars blow uppe anple keep dying. the thing you have to do is figure out which are the cars that are time bombs, it is only a small portion of them, and then somehow fix them so they don't ep blowing us so we just keep thinking if we are driving on tuesday or driving to the grocery store we are not going to get blown up but we are not addreing the

fundamental problem. we should be using tests to figure out who is infectious and then isolate them, then everybody else would be safe. >> woodruff: and i know you have been a big advocate of testing, you have been talking about that, writing about that, a t in the meantime while we are at what, halllion tests a day, roughly, in this country, trying to get more, but we are not there yet, in the meantime, what are people to do who are thinking, okay, am i going to be open? am i going to be closed? will i have a job or am i not? what effect is this uncertaint o haviwhat we face? >> i mean, the first thing is, there is a way to get much more -- get many more people tested pacity we have. it is this idea of pooling tests.au and dr. and others have been announcing talking about this in the last week, we neov toahead with this, just full steam ahead. and then we also need to sophisticated players here, like

the stanford medical school and cornell university, what are they doing? they are saying, we are going to test everybody whee wepen because that's the way to keep ourselves safe. and in their case they can just ignore what the cdc says, which is really, you kno bizarrely unhelpful. they just ignore it, but unfortunately far too many people are listening to the cdc on this, and the cdc says don't test. >> woodruff: so you put yourselves, paul romer, in the shoes of sayeo som who owns a small business or someone who is honing they can go to work or stay at work, and they are culatedto make a cal decision. i want to go back to work. i want to open my business but i have got to be woried about health. how are they able to make these decisions with any sense of certainty right now? >> well, it is really tough when the sophisticated players are saying you can't rely on the cdc, so itha is very rd i think for anybody to know what to do. i will tell you what i do.

i mean, one fresh air is very good. in closed sp pes wieople who might be infectious, very bad.uf >> woo so you are speaking for restaurants and any kind of work that can -- could be done outsid of course not all work can be done that way. another thinwant to ask you about, paul romer, the fact we see in these numbers once in individuals, people of color, geople with less than a colle education are facing a much tougher b picture than everybody else. is this just something we are destined to have with us for a long time to come? >> on the current course, the cbo is predict will get back to where we were before -- where we would have been if e pandemic hadn't hit and get back so if we keep doing what we are doing, it is going to be a very long, slow recovery, and the

people who -- in the most disadvantaged will be the ones who ffer the most. and their kids, because their kids are not going to be able to get an education this fall. >> woodruff: you mean in terms getting back to where we would have otherwise been if it hadnth been for pandemic, that's a long time to wait. >> it is. it is a terribly long te, but the sad thing is, is that if we could just o enough teing to find out the roughly 2 million people who are infected right now, quarantine them for two or three weeks, the pandemic would come to a screeching halt. this is all we ne to do is figure out who is infected, gt them into ice isolation, the halt and we just no haveeching the commitment to just start doing it. woodruff: very tight connection between business, between jobs and the economy and finding out who has this covid it.nd then dealing with >> absolutely. >> woodruff: paul romer, thank you very much.

>> thank you. >> woouf >> woodruff: now, to hong kong, where today the city reeled from the effect of a new nationalty secuaw imposed yesterday by the central government in beijing. a after nearuarter century g relative freedom, there is a new reality in hng. and there's a new reality, too, for the united states deals with the rising power of china. he's nick schifrin. >> schifrin: judy, there is not much that republicans and democrats in congress agreen. but since just last night, both the house and the senate passed a piece of legislation unanimously. >> take a listen to republican senator pat toomey, democrat senator chris n haul. >> several years from now we will will look back on july 1st of 2020 as a milestone in the

chinese communist paty's aggression and hostility toward hong kong. >> i hope that president trump will sign this immediate, immediately as a country, republicans and democrats together need to send a strongsi al. >> those are the >> schifrin: the hong kong autonomy act ruires the administration to punish chinese government officials involved in what congress calls the crackdown on hong kong's autonomy: the erosion of the city's british-era rule of law, and restrictions on the freedom of speech. it requires sanctions on any banks who do business with those individuals. to talk about the act, beijing's national security legislation, and where this leaves u.s.-china relations, i'm joined by susan shirk. she was a top state dent asia official during the clinton administration. a e's now chair of the twenty- first century chnter at the university of california san ego.

>> susan shirk, welcome back to the newshour, bottom line, can this kd of act chage chinese behavior? >> no, it won't. this xi jinping will not reverse this act o i don't think anything that the world can do at this point will cause him to step wn. he has been determined to stamp out any threats in what china, because hong kong is part of china, any thrts to chnese rule.t party rule and to his and he appears to be willing to pay a high price to do that. he will pay a high pri in terms of his reputation,hina's reputation a aresponsible power, and i think he will spur a global coalition to condemn

china, condemn this action, but i see no prospecf any flexibility on his part. >> the speticific acs that senior administration officials i talked to th believe that behavior include things,chinese one, sanctioning senior chinese seofficials and naming t officials and, two, some kind of reaching out to cvil society in hong kong too at the very least give them access to the united states. can either of those actio help? >> yes. definitely favor the approach of sanctioning chinese officials responsible for the end of the one country, two symsong kong autonomy. that's a much better approach thanchanging our treatment of hong kong, which is what president trump earlier said he

would do, which for years we have treated hong konseg rately as a separate customs territory in our economic regulations, trade status, and various other types of cooperation, even more i think we need to streneshen our ti with with with hong kong civil society, unio'versities, nand even think we ought to join with the uk and with japan and taiwan these countries are offering to take in basically political refugees from hong kong. >> i want to zoom out a lile t. the national security legislation that beijing has imposed on hong kong is sweeping, anyone can be arrested and jailed for talking aboutko separating hon from beijing, from anyone who gets any kind of support from foreign country, even quote provokes

hatred ofbeijing. what is the legislation itself say about the nature of the government in beijing? >> well, it does give us -- it is so heavy handed, it is so vague, so poorly drafte so expansive, including a kind of global scope. you don't have to be a hongong citizen to be punished under this law. so it is so over the topat what it really tells us is that xia inping is very different type of chinese leader than his predecessors. previous leaders were willing to top --te tolerate hong kong autonomy because they had pragmatic interests and hong kong as an important place for a global finance and trade to help

the deopment of the chinese economy. now, xi jinng has signaled to us, she willing to sacrifice all of that in order to prevent any threat to the p ower of therty and to himself in china. and i ink he may actually really believe that all of the pro democracy sentiment, the millions of people who are out on the street in hong kong, the pele who voted for pro democracy legislators in the locaelections a few months ago are somehow doing that becae of foreign subversion. i mean, that is a ludicrous idea, but it appears that xi jinping may actually believe it. >> if you don't mind my saying, some of the language you are using right now unds a little different from what i have heard and read from you over the years. you have been a long advocate of

more engagement with beijing. have you rethought that? at wl, i have to confess th yesterday i was questioning a lot of my prior assumptions k about whatd of rising power china is. i had be an advocate of trying to compete with china, but also to engage diplomatically with china in order to resolve our most sious disputes, but i a not sure how you deah wit xi jinping's regime and i am rethinking a lotf my premises abouwhat -- how the united states should really deal with this type of regime. >> susan shirk, thk you very much. >> thank you. >>

>> woodrf: in this moment, when the u.s. is facing crises on multiple fronts, president trump continues to use language that stokes controversy and racial division. yamiche alcindor reports. >> we begin, we begin our campaign. >> alcindor: racist tweets. derogatory terms. and a president digging on culture wars. on sunday, president trump retweeted a video of supporters at a retirement community in florida. ace man can be heard chanting the white supremist slogan" white power." >> white power! white power! >> alcindor: hours later, the president deleted the tweet. but the damage was already done. a campaign spokesperson saum mr. "did not hear the one statement on that video." >> i can name, "kung flu." >> alcindor: critics warn the use of the term "kung flu," twice in as many weeks, provoked

xenophobiaacism against asian americans, who are already experience an uptick in racist attacks against them. and in the wake of national protests on racism and police ence... >> no justice! no peace >> alcindor: ...he has retweeted incidents of violence carried out by blackmericans against white americans. meanwhile, the president has also championed monuments confederate generals. >> alcindor: ...and advocated for prosecuting the protestors who try remove them: >> long-term jail sentences for these vandals and these hoodlums and these anarchists and agitators. >> alcindor: eddie glaude is the african american studies department chair at princeton university. what is so offensive about that for people who, maybe don't get it? >> when we read a particular pers, a specific human being as a thug, we're saying there's something inheres in that person that is aligned with criminality. and so their bodies have to be policed and contained an constrained.

at the end of thday, what we're seeing here is a kind of white nationalist politics making its way into the ramainstream and an unaduld way. >> alcindor: stoking racialde diviis not new for mr. trump, going back to his entry into politics, says michael gerson. gerson seeved as chief writer for president george w. bush.op >> some think it's more speak on impulse. the president i think when president lincoln was putting together the second inaugural address wiat care and craft in the lacouage and moraent, that that's what rl authenticity is. it's putting thought into something. it's putting craft into something. your mere impulse is not rhetoric. it's just impulse. >> i'm voting against donald trump more so than i am for joe bide >> alcindor: onika ellis does not identify with eitherli cal party, but she says donald trump's words make him impossible to support. >> he's been more concerned

about the monuments and the statues than his about the flesh and blood. we are in dire crisis. this is not the time to try to incite people. people already angry. people are upset. people are anxious. they don't know what to do. and he'sust stoking the fire. >> alcindor: in a recent fox news poll, less than a third of biden voters said enthusiasm for biden was driving their support, while more than 60% said it was fear of president trump's among trump voterstivated them. the opposite result. >> i find his rhetoric as raw as it is. i, i value that. >> alcindor: schume' navarrote from cial, colorado originally voted for donald trump to reject hillary clinton. but she says the last three years have only reinforced her support. >> he's a firecracker. and i have enjoyed what he has been hetearing down in terms of cesspool swamp, if you will, of our govement.ot

>> trump'serfect. but ththings he's trying to do for us, i think, is as close to perfect as you can get. >> alcindor: joyce s, a former independent now republican from dallas, texas, ages. >> i mean, the you're blaming trump for what's happening in the race relations. that picture is so much bigger and we need to all look at that. >> alcindor: glaude says the bigger picture is that trump is usinrace to stoke fear like many republican leaders befo him. >> i think the idea of appealing to white resentment and white cheers, drawing on a particular understanding of ames fundamentally white, that that language has been a part of republican strategy since i emember remembering. right. it's been a part of my political reality ever since i became aware of american politics. so he sits somewhere in thewe spectrum b ronald reagan and george wallace, maybe close:

>> alcindout recent polling consistently shows there may be a shift in some of presidents trumpporters. college survey found that almost half of self-described "somewhat conservative" voters and more voters disapprovedsmoderate handling of the protests. >> it's just become where i just don't really feel likeong in the republican party anymore. >> alcindor: one of those morates is david meyer of willmar, minnesota. he voted for donald trump in 2016, but ll back biden in the fall. >> you've just seen some of the things that he's done in some of the words that he said. and it's just been inc adibly divisi it's just gotten worse. >> alcindor: gary smith of rcao, nevada alss himself a" moderate." he will vote again for president trump, but wishes he would work on his rhetoric. >> but i think it you know, whoever advises him or attempts to advise him ould be trying to train him about racial sensitivities and how to communicate, especially as the

president, you know, we were supposed to hold them to a and it really doesn't meet that standard. >> alcindor: but that standard >> i won't traffic in fear and division. >> alcindor: the biden campaign has seized on president trump's handling of the protests ind digital ads is week, biden argued he was the candidate to unite the country. >> when a golf cart goes by yelling white supremacy, and the president tweets it out, don't something like that. bring the country together.lc >>dor: with president trump's inflammatory rhetoric driving away some moderates,s novemberaping up to be a atnal test of his strategy. for a closer looow president trump's rhetoric, as well as his response to coronavirus, is resona across the country, i'm joined by chris buskirk. he is the editor of the conservative journal and web- site "american greatne he joins us from phoenix. and cynthia tucker. she is a pulitzer pre winning columnist and the journalist-in- residence at the university of south alabama.

>> thank you so much to both of sin, i can'tly rt with you n the last few weeks we heard the president talk about number of things, confederate 0onuments. what is the take away and how this is resonating with voters across the country and of course are?n alabama where y >> well, trump is still heavily favored to win in alabama, and across the deep south. he is very popul in the deep south. i have to tell you, though, thas i ll disappointed in his campaign and a little surprised he it. s running his second campaign the same way that he ran his first, as hthr george wallace, and here in alabama as a native alabama, the rhetoric isnfortunately familiar. all wallace's rage and resentment an racism are clear in the president's rhtoric. and while that appeals to his base and minority of whites who

are racially resentful, it does nothing to expand -- to winning coalition for november. so it is odd to me that the president is running into -- in defense of confederate mounts. >> chris, i want to put you because cynthi sayingn for the president is running on white resentment if you look at what t president tweeted just this week, new york mayor is going to paint a big black lives matter 0, desecrating this avenue. maybe the police won't let this symbol of hate be paint od ten street. what black lives matter as a a symbol of hate? >> yes. i saw that tweet, and here is the way i understand it. here is what i think the president is trying to basically separate the idea that there is a sanctity behind black lives, in otherords, that all black

he is trying to separate thatan corporation calleck livesthe matter. he is doing that for a reason, cause the organization has these ideas and you can see them on their website, they say weru want to di the nuclear family, et cetera. and so what he is trying to do, i think, is separate the morale sentiment thatle should support from the corporation and then do a second thingwhich is to draw a contrast between theli and between that organization, and by doing that i think that she hoping to run a campaign that is sort of like a law and order campaign, which i know metimes is a charged sentiment or a charged phrase, but when you think about the states that president trump needs to win sort of in the upper midwest and even here in ars, arizona, states hete abso has to carry, most people think about just, i just don't want the taets to burn. they think i want to go back to my life. we had lockdowns and coronavirus and protests and how do we get back to normalcy and i thinkid

prt trump is trying to run on getting back to some type of a normal life. >> well, if he is trying to make a distinction between the organized group ck lives matter and somother view of llack lives, it is not at al clear in a tweet that says black lives matter is a hate group. you know, just two years ago, most americans were opposed to it wasn't that broadly popular. now that so many americans saw the awful, the wretched murder of george floyd anmany, many other videos of pole violence, black lives matter is popular. d most americans suport police reform. >> and cynthia, people are notnd just resg to president trump's issues and his response

to the protests they are also respondi to his dling of the coronavirus pandemic. how are you seeing concerns playedut in alabama? >> well, again, president trump remains broadly popular here, but people are very concerned about the coronavirus. alama is e of those states where the case numbers are rising. when i go to the grocery store, when i go out, i see many, many people weamaringks. when i return to my classes atun thersity of south alabama in august, the school is geoing toquire students to wear masks. will that annoy some students? absolutely. there will be student won't want to wear the masks. they have taken their ues from the president cues from the

president who has insisted that don't like him.ks because they they wear masks because they opposed to him, that isare nonsse. >> andresident trump has resisted wearing a mask in public, chris. you went to a rally in phoenix and youea yourself didn'ta mask. how concerned are you about the split stationf mask wearing? you know, i guess i would have answered thaquestion differently a week ago. i was a little worried about it but now, mostly for practical reasons because what --i anm in arizona and everybody i think knows the story of the rising caseload, you know, positive tests here in arizona, and arizona ans i think, i don't know were sort of split on this issue but what i have seen is people sort of coming around to wearing masks, even people who i very much against it even a week or two ago and s id look ifthis is what it takes to get back to

living our lives and being ae to go out, to restaurants or go to work or to get schools open, i may not agree with it 100 percent, but fine i am going to do it b cause --whether or not i believe in it, it is just the right thing to do as a practical matter. so i feel like that issue which was almost becoming like a tribal sified for people, i feel like that tied tied is receding right now. >> thank you so much, sin sin d chris buskirk. >> thank you. >> >> >> woodruff: the child sex abuse case agaidinsraced financier jeffrey epstein took a new turn today with the arrest of ghislaine maxwell, his longtime confidante, companion, and now acsed accomplice. john yang reports, survivors of abusey epstein, who killed

himself in jail last year, may now be able to face her in court. >> yang: judy, maxwell was arrested early this rning in southern new hampshire. a grand jury recently retued a sealed indictment charging her with recruiting and grooming underage girls, some as young as 14, for epstein. acting new york u.s. attorney audrey straussetailed the indictment. >> maxwell enticed minorir, got them to trust her, then delivered them into the trap that she and epstein had set for them. she pretended to be woman they could trust, all the while she was setting them up to be sexually abused by epstein and in some cases, by maxwell herself. >> yang: late this afternoon ama federastrate in new hampshire ordered maxwell into the custody of u.s. marshals to be taken to new york. there, the government will ask a

to hold her without bail saying she's "an extreme flight risk." ben wieder is an investigative reporter in mclatchy newspapers washington, d.reau who has worked on the "miami herald's" award-winning investigation of epstein. >> ben, thanks so much for joining us. story has been in the headlines, so how, remind people, who ghislaine maxwell is and who she was in jeff grenfield's -- jeffrey epstein's life. >> ghislaine maxwell was jeffrey epstein's partner in both a personal way and effectively sort of a business way, depending on how you look at it. she was by his side for decad and the public face they presented was, you know, two people in the highest are a reaches of society, mingling with, you know, members of the british royal family, wh the current president, withmer presidents, with prominent people all across society, but at the same time, what we have learned is that she also held a

le as effectively as the madam, finding youngirls to satisfy epstein's sexual desire and s the gils later alleged directing some of those girls to actually have stakes with some of prominent friends that epstein had inis circle. >> we heard audrey strauof sort ive the broad brush of the charges, what specifically is the -- does thindictment say that maxwell did? >> the indictment says that maxwell basically, the term they use is groomet that she sof cozied herself up to young girls, sought them out, cozied up to them and had a process in normalizing them to the idea of sexual activity, that might mean, you know, getting undressed in front of them. basically taking them fromer cotions about benign issues such as, you know, what is going on in their life, how then getting them comfortable with the idea of sexual

activity, ultimately to deliver them to epstein and in o o the three victims that are mentioned in the charges today, maxwell is actually accused ofic paating in the sexual activity herself. >> and audrey stras,he affecting u.s. attorney in new york had the intriguing tidbit at this case is being led by the public corruption unit in her office. what do you make of that? you know, any number of thites to specu one of the things we have heard from legal experts is it raises questions of whether they are pursuing the prosecutors who originally gave epstein his sort of sweetheart deal more than dea dego that led to a very unusually lenient sentenceep againstein for the crimes he was accused of committing at the time. the u.s. attorney in southernwh floridled that was the former labor secretary who resigned soon after reports came

out raising questions about the deal that he had okayed. n> so there has bee speculation, is he someone who they are targeting? but also we knyow that number of prominent people were in epstein's circle and have been alleged to have participated in the actits that he was ultimately charged with and . maxwell has also bee charmed with. >> publicly there has been a lot of sort of speculation about maxwell's whereabouts during this period, during the investigation after epstein commited suicide in a w york jail. what is the fbi been saying about how ty re keeping tabs on her? >> so they said they discreetly were watching her. they were keeping an eye on her. he is would pop up here and there, you know, at one point attract add lot of attentionwh she popped up at a location of the popular california burger chain in and out burger in ave intriguing photo. and the term they used today was hthat they learned she

pertyered away to this pro in new hampshire where she was some point after she had done that, which they later said wash in december,y ultimately decided to go in an actually arrest her and bring her in.>> epstein's suicide, of course, denied the survivors of this abuse of cononting him in court but what is going on now with the civil suits against epsteios estate? >>he civil suits are proceeding and there is a victims fund that is being overseen to give some degree of compensation to victims for the suffering they faced. there are a number of ongoing suits at this time. and i think, you know, what we heard from attorneys representing victims today is that they were very relieved to see the charges brought agains maxwell and in some cases are hoping that maxwell is not the last person who faces charges >> ben wieder of mclatchy newspapers dcr bueau, thank you

so much. >> thank you. >> >> >> woodruff: before the pandemic, transformations in manufacturing changed american life. covid-19 is now delivering a new blow, but paul solman reports on how one nearly two-century-old family business is working to turn that around. it's part of our weekly economics series, making sense.e >> rep business resurgent in fall river, massachusetts, at least at merrow manufacturing, irded back in 1838. >> this is the f overlock machine.ow mereated the first overlock machines in the late 1800s,te >> rep 120 years later, 8th generation owners charlie merrow and his brother owen tried to revive the business, in an industry with a proud past and moribund present. >> the first thing people see is w much history there is.

and the first thing i will tell somebody is that nonhat pays the bills. >> reporter: the merrows' bright idea was to sew electronic ntcomponents, simple ones, clothing for theilitary and apparel makers. and then along came covid. how vulnerable were a business? >> completelexposed. having to shut the facility down completely and not knowing whether we were gonna be able to open again. after closing, your revenues, they disappear. to reopen reires capitalizing your company again, meeting a income. without any without any it was terrifying. >> reporter: meanwhile, the whole country was terrified, and especially of course hospital workers,ike nursjacqui anom:t' >>literally frightening when you walk in the and if you're spending half your brainpow worrying about if you're going to die, you're not ncentrating on the patient. >> reporter: because they didn't even have the most basic personal protective equipment: masks and gowns. >> it was a disaster. merrow, with its 500 sewing

erchines and know-how work was uniquely poised to address. >> after shutting the business down with our health teams working, working to clean the facility up and our design teams, building prototypes, it became clear. through the phone that started to ring that this product wassp needed so ately that if we were able to build it, we would get orrs behind it. reporter: merrow pivoted the business within days to make medical gowns. >> we're building 100,000 to 150,000 gowns a day now. >> reporter: it's now the nation's biggest producer of them. we're weing its masks. >> this is a new mask. we're building 10k of them a day and we'll probably scale it up to 25,000. >> reporter: and, as merrow told congressman joe kennedy, he's all in. >> we put in a bido build 40 million gowns in fall river over the next six months. it's a bigeal. >> 40 million? >> we've got the plan for it, i've got the fabrics for it. >> reporter: politicians both near and far are interested. merrow's phone rang during our interview. >> i thought this was off. i have a call today with the canadian govnment. >> reporter: wait, that call just now was the canadian

government? >> it was. >> reporter: and what did they want? >> they want to have a discussion about how to build a technical manufacturing of medical goods that'll rvive for two, three, four years. >> reporter: because canada may be realizing something critics of american business have bemoaned f decades: the offshoring of manufacturing, which saves money short term, but comes at a prohibitive, in this case fatal, long term price. >> there isn't an infrastructure capable of buildin 10% of is the medical products that we need today. >> reporter: not the factories, not the know-how. in fact, 80% of the simplest protective equipment was sourced from china and southeast asia. >> part and parcel with moving manufacturing to centers outside of united states is moving thede design, thlopment, the pattern making, the engineering of products outside of theit states, which is fine. global trade is an if ortant part oour of our healthy, healthy economy. however, without tocse skill sets, it makes it much harder to scale anything up.

>> reporter: that's why merrow, one of the textile industry's survivors, was so desperately needed. >> it has been two months of 18 hour days and every single day has been tense you have to remember, the demano for thess is in the millions. people need them tomorrow. there are calls every single day from providers who don't have them, that are wearing trashgs ba we paid employees to be here twe their salaries to work here until late at night. and every single day we woed at that at the very edge of our limit, there isn't anything i've done that's been harde >> the hours was crazy for a while!us i was exhad. >> reporter: while distancing, while disinfecting, while masked. do you like wearing a mask? >> no, not really. it's it's tough. sometimes it's difficult to breathe. >> reporter: but it'll getum easier, presly. meanwhile, the mostly-portuguese immigrant workforce, all of them legal, emphasizes charlie merrow, takes home on average more than $17 and hour plus benefits. merrow has added abo a 50 new jobslready and expects to

crd te another couple hundreby year's end. >> we have no control what's happening in the world and doing this, this type of work makes us feor good. >> repr: now, merrow is notts alone inivot to p.p.e. production. shoe company new balance, shaving brand gillette, car companies ford and gm, and, many, many more manufacturers are for the moment stepping up, stepping ili but che merrow insists his is a sea-change shift. >> at the expense of taking short term business in we signed long term contracts because this is the only way, in my opinion, for us to justify infrastructure investments, which is what we need in order for this p.p.e. problem to not be a supply problem going forward. >> reporter: one thing that's happened during my reportorial lifetime has been the move from just in case to just in time.>> es. >> reporter: no warehousing of anything. is there going to be a sea change, do you think, in how american business does businessg >> this is thening of understanding how vulnerable we are to our ports closing.

the business of building things is going to be a function of national security in addition ts ease and a >> reporter: are we moving back from just in time to just in case l? >> no, not yet. covid crisis fades from our consciousness, that the industrl uickly go back to waiting for waiting for imported products to show up and notlv g any problems >> reporter: but merrow, for one, plans to produce p.p.e. here for years to come. paul solman, in fall river, massachusetts. >> woodruff: throughout the pandic, we've profiled many frontline workers, whose jobs have been deem essential. tonight's brief but spectacular introduces us to savoya ylor. she works as a line-worker for com ed, which powers chicago and muchf northern illinois.

taylor is the company's first female overhead electriciatoand she spoks about her work and her family. >> just imagine this pandemic without electricity.yb evy was running out to the grocery stores, with no electricity you have nowhere to store that grocery.n, no televiso cell phones. we a definitely called first tsponders in our position. so we're basical first ones out there. i work on the north side of chicago, and also part of the west side. this was definitely not the ying, oh, i'm going to be an electrician. i'm the only lady. the guys treat me well. they treat me as if i'm one of n eir own. it'sazing position to be in.

actually my whole household, we're all essential workers. i have a daughter. she works for the company as well. she works for customer service and i have another daughter. she works at a restaurant. i also have a son at home. he was diagnosed with hodgkin's lymphoma in november, my 12 year old son. it's days my son wants to just be right up under me and i'm like, give me a second. let me get out of these clots, shower, it's just hard when you got a young child at home that wants to love and hug all over his mother and his sisters and stuff. and we just trying to keep a good distance just to keep him safe. and not knowing if i'm going toy contract this illness or not, i definitely have to try to not bring it home to him. and it's days wherhis strength isn'up and he had to do the chemo and everything. these types of diagnosis is hard

on adults, so just imagine a 12 ar oldoy that don't even understand, like why me? he ask why me?t. and i didn't even have an swer. i just told him that things happen to people sometimes, but just continue to be strong and that's on our web site, pbs dot we'll get through it. he inspired me shomuch. he has me that you just can't give up. i worked really hard to be here. and i'm opening up, trying to be positive for a lot more ladies to come behind me. and i'm also trying to train my youngest daughter how to do what i'm doing and teaching her h to climb. she wants to folw into my footsteps. so that really makes mproud. my name is savoya taylor. this is my brief but spectacular take on empowering my family a my community. >> woodruff: and you can find

all of our brief but spectacular segments online at pbs.org/newshour/brief. and before we go, an update to the ventilator challenge story john yang reported on tuesday. the winner of the "covent-19 challenge" to build a cheaper, easy-to-use ventilator has been announced. it's a team from smith college in massachusetts. they won for their design of a simplified, cost-effective ventilator. in two months, the 30 person team of mostly women went from knowing nothing about ventilators to having a fully functional prototype. now, we explore how president trump is rolling backgu environmental tions as the november election nears. that's on our web site, pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here morrow evening.

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: >> since our beginning, our business has been people, and their financial wellbe gg. that missies us purpose, and a way forward. today, and always. >> the alfred p. sloan foundation. driven by the promise of great ideas.

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- "dishing with julia child" was made possible in part by. io and by contrib to your pbs station from viewers like you ♪ ♪ ♪ thank you. (narrator) join celebrity chefs sara moulton, and eric ripert as they savooda vintage french chef

and dish it up with julia child.