captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for saturday, august 8: th president weighs in on covid-19 economic relief; international aid and recovery efforts in beirut; and russia keeps a close eye on an election in belarus.ne on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii.de e on family fund. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. barbara hope zuckerberg. charles rosenblum.

we try to live in the moment, n not miss what's right i front of us. believe takinge of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group,etirement services and investments. additional support has been provided by: consumer cellular. and by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the americanpl p and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> sreenivasan: good evening, and thanks for joining us. with talks between the white house and democrats stalled over a second coronavirus aid package, presp identrid he wouldse executive action to help americans. last nigsoht, at his golf re in newersey, the president said-- with little detail-- he is looking at several executive orders through the end of the year, including defeing payroll taxes and student loans, as well as extending

unemployment benefits and eviction moratoriums. >> if democra continue to hold this critical relief hostage, i will act under my authority as president get americans the relief they need. and what we're talking about is ferring the payroll tax for a period of months until the en of the year. and i could extend it at a certain period. >> sreenivasan: mr. trump said he expected legal challenges as congress controls federal spending. he did not address thpaycheck protection program, which gives potentially fo trgivable loa small businesses. today is the deadline for applying for the program. as of thursday, more than 20 billion have been approved for more than five million businesses. the program has about $130 billion left in appropriated funds. enhanced federaunemployment benefits expired a week ago. the $600 payments t e a major po contention between the white house and democratic leaders working on a deal. a federal moratorium on

evictions expired two weeic ago. democreaders have said that mr. trump could extend the moratorium through executive action but have also said it's d use without re assistance.or we will haveon the evictions moratorium after the news summary. coronavirus continues to spread throughout the world. there are now manore 19 million confirmed cases in 188 countries, according to researchers at john hopkins more than 700,000 people have lost their lives.de in brazil, thh toll is expected to hit 100,000 today, try is stilln reporting more than 50,000 new confirmed cases iach day. citithat country have continued to ease lockdowns even though the pandemic has not yet reacheits peak. the united states remains the global leader with nearly five million confirmed cases and ove6 ,000 deaths, more than one- fifth of the total reprted coronavirus deaths around the world. the u. reported nearly 61,000 new confirmed coronavirus infections yesterday, according toomataled by the "new

york times." on average, that's actually an 18% decline compared to the daily total two weeks ago. a new study from the centers for diase control and prevention shows that hispanic and black children have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic at disproportionate rates. in the study of more than 500 covid-19 associated hospitalizations published yesterday, researchers found black and hispanic children were hospitalized at dramacally higherates than white children. the disparity among minority children follows the racial disparity in coronavirus hospitalization among adults. ack and hispanic adults have been hospitalized at a rate more than four times higher than whites. >> sreenivasan: in beirut, government's response to this week's deadly explosion turned violent todt . lebanese rlice fired tear gas at protesters in beirut's city center. some protesters set fires and threw objects at police there's been widespread anger at government officials over corruption and incompetence at failing to prevent the massive

llblast on tuesday which at least 158 people, injured 6,000, and ft hundreds of thousands homeless. more than 2,000 tons of explive ammonium nitrate had been stored at the port for years. since the blast, at least 19 people have been detained, including the port's chief. evenefore the blast, lebanon was in the midst of its worst economic crisis in decades. dozens of people are still missing, and, at the site of ths expln, rescue workers-- some of them from other countries-- continue the arch for survivors. newshour weekend special correspondent leila molana-allen has more. >> reporter: "let him come back. dear god, just let him come back." at the entrance to the beirut port, the epicenter of tuesday's explosion, desperate families t for hours praying their loved ones will be found. zain is waiting for news of her husband, who worked her s he hasn't ben since the blast. inside, a scene of utter devastation. metal, plastic, and chemicals

hangs heavy in the air, black ash ating every surface. packing crates spill out charredmihapen lumps amid the rising dust, barely recognizable as the freshly imported goods once stacked in these warehouses. a washing machine here, wbet might have a glass jug there. just a few days ago, this was a thriving port, beirut's lifeline to the rest o twisted, smoking metal is all that remains. and underneath that rubble, hun beings. these disfigured, crumbling ruins were once leba national grain reserve. 15,000 tons of wheat and 10,000 of corn were destroyed, now forming an unstable mountain of waste through which rescuers must wad dozens of countries have sent rescue teams to help in the effort. these french reue workers have en digging nonstop for 35 hours to try and reach seven people they belie are buried underneath at least 30eters of concrete and earth. they're working in fulleme.

protective gear, in 90 degreehe , in air thick with toxic fumes and dust. but even me perilous are the structures on the point of collapse that surround them. >> ( tranaislated ): the danger is from both above and from below. from above, the structure behind could collapse with any vibrations. and from below, when you're looking for the foundations, if youro hit the spot, you could get coateral damage. >> reporter: the risk is so great that the cerkish red cr has set up a field hospital directly behind the search and rescue site.or it's not onlyetrieved victims, but for the rescue workers in case something goes wrong. so, it's set up juslike a real emergency room? >> ( speaking different language )

>> reporter: so, you have a ventilator here, you h monitor, anything you might need for serious injuries? and the risk isn't just at the port area. the explosion destroyed residential neighborhoods for miles around.re he in gemmazye, onef the worst hit, the search is ongoing for both survivors and whatever can be retrieved from people's homes and businesses but many buildings are now dangerously unstable, risking further collapse and injury. back at the port, the team are using sniffer dofi to try and dozens of other missing workers who could be buried along the seashore. meanwhile families like zainab's n only wait, wonder and hope. >> sreenivasan: leila molana-allen joined us earlier today from beirut for more on the situation in lebanon. i howbeirut recovering now? >> beirut is trying to recer. what happening at the moment is that people are trying to figure out how they're going to live over the next few weeks and then look beyo at. so, part of that, obviously, is so many homes damaged here in

the immediate vicinity, completely ravaged. and up to nine kilometers away, a lot of damage happening. and sat we're seeing is t incredible effort of groups of wung people-- armies, really-- arming themselvh brooms and spades and striding out into the town, walking down the streets, clearing up, turning up at people's houses and walking in, saying, "we want to clean, what can we do?" and if there's no one there, they cle up anyway. of course, one of the biggest issues at the moment is still e ongoing injuries in hospitals. every hospital bed is full. still 60 people... more than 60 people missing, and probably ma more than that. that's how many have been reported. so, lots of families desperately still looking. of course, the whole community is just trying to get through the next weeks before they can think ab year after that. the >> sreenivasan: leila, most of the world has not been paying attention to what's been happening in lebanon over the eral months it's also in a state of economic crisis. so, who pays for this cleanup? how does this work get done? >> so, it's estimate at the moment that the damage is $15 billion, which is quite

incredible for a country that already was in such dire straits. right now, the majority of this cleanup on the streets is being done by the people. the only place re the authorities are doing things is down at the port because the army operates tt.he p but it's non-logistical care, and what we've seen is a lot of international aid coming in. so, that started a couple of days ago, and they're just teams from all acsshe world doing medical care, doing search and >> sreenivasan: so, we've got a pre-exisisting economic c a pandemic and now catastrophe. all these frustrations are starting ntto boil overthe streets. >> they are. the angealr has beenble the last few days. the protesters are going round ying, "now we do cleanup but on saturday, that stops and we sweep them out."ernment. and for the last few hours, they have all been in downtown beirut. and immediately,heoment the protest started, tear gas was unleashed. then, rubber bullets started. i dozeured.

and the rage that is on the street, i have not seen this level throughout the entirt protvement here. they've now managed to breach part of the parliament wall, which is where the security forces have been trying to keep them away from.er s also, obviously, a fear of covid-19. and they've been sent... hospitals have been sending out instructions on how to keep yourself safe in the demonstrations-- almo implicit endorsement of the fact that everybody is out in the streets and angry, so angry, at this governmeasnt. >> sreen: leila molana-allen, thanks so much for joining us. >> thanks, hari. >> sreenivasan: for more on the latest national and international news, visit www.pbs.org/newsho.ur >> sreenivasan: national and state eviction moratorium phave been a bart of the economic relief for covid-19. but even if evictis are temporarily halted, they can have long term impacts. are there her solutions to america's housing crisis made worse by t pandemic? i spoke with matthew desmond, a professor at princeton

univerthty who helped buil first nationwide database on evictions at the university's eviction lab. >> so in a normal month in america, 800,000 people, thas the population of seattle, are threatened with an evtion, ave n eviction filed against them. that's a normal american month. that's a month when unemployment is below 5%. now when we have unempymenat levels we haven't seen sin the millions, by some accounts tens of millions of families, who could ace eviction over the year. >> sreenivasan: and because of the pandemic, there has been some stimulus money, $600 a week, supplemental income to unemploymeh insurance, thaas also expired. how crucial were those $600 to families who were at risk? >> incredibly important. and walready saw warninsigns

on the horizon that even with that ex$tra 0 boost, it wasn't enough to shield families fmerom ssness. in may, houston allocated $15 million extra dos in rent relief. it was gone in two days. in june, cities liel cld and milwaukee saw eevictions sp0% to 40% above normal levels when moratoriums expired. >> sreivasan: what is unclear to mhae is wdoes a landlord gain by kicking a family out? because depending on the rental market, it's not like that family is suddenly going to gi the landlord the money that they owe if they don't have any money all, and unless you have another renter lined up, you're not really getting that money that you want if you're a lalord, right? >> right. and, so, in this case ipan icular, eviction solves nobody's pitroblem. ertainly deepens the poverty

and the vulnerability of l milies. theye cast out of their homes. and it also doesn't solve the landlord's financial problems. you know, eviction right now, thd gh, is k the only tool we've given to landlords, right. we haven't seen a serious investment in housing from the federal government. and so when you're a landlord of reach for that pink slip.i some landlords do it grijing and after months of negotiation. some landlords are really quick to do it. but it's not going to sleolve their prin ts situation. it's only goingo solve-- it's only going to spread more disease and more poverty. >> sreenivasan: you have built a database in the eviction lab at princeton, but what kind of transparency exists? how do we know how many ptaeople on ae or city basis are getting evicted if tnghey're getevicted repeatedly, if there are the same landlords, or someandlords are doing it more than others. how do we figure that out? >> we know a lot less than i , ink we should. you kn published a book on

eviction in 2016, and it was based in milwaukee, and i went around the country talking about the book, and people in houston and baton rouge and l.a. were san that's miction rate. how many people get evicted in memory america? we have no way tnswer that question. the federal government does not it does not even know how many evictions through public housing, housing it owned. we built thirst database of eviction in this country. we found that, you know, about ever minute, seven evictions are in the united states and this is affecting communities big and small, communities witc high housints and pretty low houses costs. it's a nationwide problem. but this should be problem that's at the top of the national scpagd worthy of our eetention. we nreally hard data on this that's not just collected by some ragtag group at princeton that a ing after the data. >> sreenivasan: what agencies what can the federal government do to try teao states in the

right direction? >> i'd love to seethe department of housing and urban development take this over and really k oindf track, you know, which cities have the highest and most eviction rates? which laws work? which laws don't? bring some accountability to who owes our cities. you kpenow, which py owners are evicting a lot of people in baltimore? and which property owners are not, yo, you know. and i think that-- and at c we learn from them? i think this is something theme federal gove needsto pay attention to and is beginning to. so in december, there was a bill called "the eviction crisis act" a bipartisan bill passed in the senate-- or wasntroduced in the senate, excuse me-- that build a national evictionwould database in hud and i hope it gets momentum and passes. >> sreenivasan: a you seeing the spikes now in the number of people who are being evicted? >> we're beginning to see them. we're beginning to see warning sns on the horizon. i think the moratoriums worked

very well. the cares act helped a lot, and n think there were many property owners that weregotiating th their tenants across the country. but as those moratoriums disappear, if the feral aid stops, i think we're going to see a lot of evictions right around the corner.so >> sreenivasanow do we get out of this? >> we need serious federal investment. that's the-- that's the way out of this. you know, we need a national moratorium on evweictions. eed to say, "look, in this pandemic, the home is mmedicine. the is safety and we have to protect that. americans deserve that level of protection." property owners need to pay their bil, too. we don't just need moratorium. weeed rent relief. we need serious investment from the federal government with the recognition that everyone needs a stable, affordable place to live in normal times andci esly during this pandemic, that's true. i think the stimulus debate that we're having now is incredibly

important. it's literally a life-or-death issue for american renting families. >> sreenivasan: matthew desmond of the eviction lab from princeton. thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> sreenivasan: tomorrow, voters in belarus will cast their ballots in a surpringly competitive presidential election. authoritarian leader alexander lukashenko is facing a challenge from a political novice after ruling for more than a quarter century. as special correspondent simon ostrsky reports, it's an election where the country's relationship with its neighbor to the east, russia, looms large. >> reporter: the are pictures of the belarusian security service arresting men it claims are mercenaries from russia last week. according to belarus state television, mosc sent them to stir up chaos ahead of simorrow's pntial elections.

>> (te translated ): the administration became suspicious of the visitors because of their unusual behavior for russian tourists. theyid not drink alcohol or visit entertainment venues. they kept apart and tried not to drawttention to themselves. la>> reporter: state tv di the men's personal belongings, parading them for the whole country to see on their television sets. it's an unusstl bout of ity for two countries which until recently considered themselves the closest of allies. but in belarus, these are unusual times. >> ( translated ): i am tired of being silent. i am tired of being afraid. and you? are you tired of being patient? are you tired of being silent? >> reporter: for weeks noas the public h been rallyinaround this woman. sviatlana tsikhanouskaya is running as the sole opposition candidate in a surprisingly contested election for a country that's been run by the same man for over a quarter century.

she threw her name in the hat afr her husband, a video blogger, was jailed and barred from runn two other opposition leaders were also struck from the ballot. one fled the country, the other was imprisoned. tsikhanouskaya has gathered massive rallies li this one, attended by thousands of supporters in towns and cities throughout the nn,atioomething that's never happened in this tightly run dictatship before. today, belarus' leader faces a wavlie of disconten he's never seen before. earlier this year, russia hiked energy prices in a pressure campaign to push belarus lto an everoser union. then, the coronavirupandemic hit, which he dismissed as something you could treat with a shot of vodka. now, thousands of belarusians usuay earning money abroad are stuck at home, penniless. it's the perfect storm, but belarus' embattled president

isn't ready to give up the reigns of power just yet. >> ( translated ): we won't let youake our country! reporter: central to his plan to stay in power are the arrests of the alleged russian mercenaries who his security services accuse of arriving in belarus to help tsikhanouskaya's jailed husband sow discord. >> ( translated ): these people, they have given testimony. they were sent to belarus specifically. their orders were to wait. the country has laws.ry. no one knows our laws better and theeadership.sian brothers >> reporter: it's a scenario that may be ringing bells for those who remember the crisis in ukraine's crimea peninsula in 2014. uniformed men without national insignia, who later turned out to be erssian sol appeared in key locatiocons to wrest rol of the territory away from ukraine after a revolution created a power vacuue.

t> the kremlin understant it is a-- a realpportunity for them to advance russian national interests now in belarus, especially because lukashenko is in-- in a very vulnerable and weak position. >> reporter: arseny sivitsky is director of the center for strategic and foreign policy studies in minsk, an independent think tank. he told newshour weekend he feared russia could use t political instability in his country to overthrow the regime in favor of a more pliable leader, or worse. >> it seems that we are preparing for a major battle with the russis, not only in the politic bal spher also a military one. i'm a military officer in reserve. so, two weeks ago, i received the mobization call from the

recruitment ceofd i wa told that i-- i need to be prepareild for snap mation r: case something goes wrong. >> reporussia hasn't taken the allegations of meddling sitting dow foreign mistry spokeswoman maria zakharova called the arrests of thelleged military contractors nothing more than a "play," aatdding ominously minsk knows russia won't let any harm befall its citins. invited to monitor sunday'srs polls, katsiaryna shmatsina the belarusian institute for strategic studies fears lukashenko is planning to falsify the votinis own favor and use the alleged russian mercenary plot tobe irch the opposition in thebl eyes of the as being sponsored by foreigners but also to send a message to wasngton and the e.u. >> either pport lukashenko,

who-- who is a poovlitician who es the sovereignty of belarus; or otherwise, if there's someone new coming in, he or she might be not ablto contain the russian aggression. >> reporter: meanwhile, belarusi pice have taken a harder stance on ra and file opposition supporters, arresting close to a thousand over the last few weeks, according to shmatsina, even though political rallies are sanctioned ahead of elections. s in sunday'sen te-- be it an unlikely tsikhanousakaya victory or a crackdown on the political opposition-- belarus is in for a tense few weeks as its larger watches.waits and >> sreenivasan: we will have more on the emergency covid-19 financial aid ptons online

ght and on air tomrow. that's all for this edition of pbs newshouweekend. for the latest news updates, visit www.pbs.org/newshour. s i'm haenivasan. thanks for watching. stay healthy and have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh cess.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii.an therson family fund. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryphl anip milstein family. barbabera hope zuck. charles rosenblum.

the jpb foundation. m we try to live in theent, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutu wal of amer believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of americfinancial group, retirement services and investments. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular's goal has been to provide wirelesheservice that s people communicate and connect. we offer a variety of no-ctract plans, and our u.s.-based customer serv fe team can hed one that fits you. to learn more, visit www.consumerllular.tv. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for publadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. you're watching pbs.

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