captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, august 16: the postal service crisis: raising alarms ahead of the election. democrats get ready for an unconventional convention. and in our signature segment, what one community in maine is doing to combat one of the largest racial disparity rates of covid-19 in the country. next on "pbs newshour weekend." >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenim iii. the anderson family fund. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family.

the jpb foundation. 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 care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular has been offering no-contract wireless plans, designed to help people do more of what they like. our u.s.-based customer service team can help find a plan that fits you. to learn more, visit www.consumercellar.tv. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation fundedy the american people. and by conibutions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thank you for joining us. the trump administration continued to criticize and

question the capabilities of the u.s. postal service today as states prepare for a massive increase in mail-in balloting this fall during the continuing coronavirus pandemic. the postmaster general-- a major donor and allyf the president is cutting the u.s.p.s. budget and there are calls for him to resign. the house of representatives scheduled an emergency committee hearing for august 24 while the full house is on recess. house speaker nancy pelosi said today a statement that house democrats are "ramping up their ongoing investigation" on mail delays and concerns about potential white house interference in the u.s. postal service. they requested that "postmaster general louis dejoy and chairman of the u.s.p.s. board of governors robert duncan testify." many states are planning mail-in balloting for the presidential election. the recently appointed postmaster general louis dejoy is under fire for cost-cutting measures, such as reducing overtime pay. there were also multiple news reports last week that the postal service is decommissioning hundreds of mail sorting machines.

vermont senator bernie sanders called on the postmaster general to resign. >> this is a deliberate effort to defund and destroy the u.s. postal service so that people cannot engage in mail-in ballots. >> sreenivasan: yesterday, president trump expressed confidence in dejoy and said he would support separate additional funding for the post office-- but not the $25 billion democrats included in their coronavirus stimulus package passed in may. >> he'll be a great postmaster general. and he needs obviously, if millions of ballots out of nowhere, he's going to obviously need funding. but the democrats aren't willing to provide other things and therefor they're not going to get the funding for that. >> sreenivasan: is morning, chief of staff mark meadows said the president would be willing to make a deal on postal service funding if paired with the stimulus programs the president wants. >> if the democrats feel this is a big issue, and i've talked to some moderate democrats and a few progressives as well, if this is a big deal, let's put it with stimulus check to go to americans, let's put it with enhanced employment extension,

let's put it with small business reform and extending the p.p.p. will the president sign that? yes, he'll sign that. >> sreenivasan: president donald trump's younger brother, robert trump, died yesterday. robert was 71-years-old and was hospitalized in new york city. in a statement, the president said his brother died peacefully and was "not just my brother, he was my best friend." mr. trump visited his brother at the hospital on friday. robert was the youngest of the president's siblings. the president's older brother fred died in 1981 and he has two sisters. robert remained close to the president and supported his run for office. in june, robert trump filed a lawsuit on behalf of the trump family that unsuccessfully sought to stop publication of a tell-all book by the president's niece. officials did not immediately release a cause of death. a week after a questionable election in belarus, president alexander lukashenko is rejecting any possibility of a revote. at a speech in front of thousands of supporters, lukashenko blamed western powers

for meddling in belarus's sovereignty. lukashenko-- who has ruled as an authoritarian for more than 25 years-- is under pressure from massive protests after last sunday's vote. the official government tally had lukashenko winning with 80% of the vote. opposition leaders reject the result and allege widespread vote-rigging. as lukashenko was speaking, an opposition rally was getting underway about a mile and a half away in minsk. it's the ninth straight day of anti-government protests. since last sunday, more than 7,000 people have been arrested, and many have alleged police torture as part of a weeklong violent crackdown on protesters. in thailand today, anti- government protesters gathered for one of the biggest demonstrations in years. the studenled movement is demanding new elections and a new constitution. and some protesters were calling for reform to thailand's popular constitutional monarchy-- an institution nsidered sacrosanct in the country. there habeen a coup in thailand roughly every six years on average since the absolute monarchy was toppled almost 90

years ago. most recently, the army chief led a coup in 2014 overthrowing an elected government. he's now thailand's prime minister. at today's protest hundreds of police were present, and a small group of counter protesters. but the pro-democracy rally show the movement has now expanded beyond college campuses. almost a week after a devastating storm cut across the midwest, some in the region are still suffering. monday's rare derecho packed 100 mile-an-hour winds, and created a line of hurricane level damage from eastern nebraska, across iowa, and into parts of illinois, indiana, and western ohio. the storm killed at least four people, and left residents across iowa homeless and without electricity. the storm also damaged an estimated 14 million acres of farmland in iowa alone, causing billions in damages just as farmers re getting ready to harvest. iowa's governor has deployed a small contingent of national guard members, and said she will seek a federal disaster

declaration tomorrow. as of this morning, there are still tens of thousands of people without power, and there is growing frustration that help has not come faster. at an apartment complex in cedar rapids that was made uninhabitable by the storm, residents were not brought to shelters until yesterday. >> where in the world is our government helping us out? these people should have been in shelters on monday night. we should be helping our most vulnerable first and that's not what we're doing. >> sreenivasan: the democratic national convention formally gets underway tomorrow, but in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic there will no physical convention in the traditional sense. it will be all virtual. there will be two hours of programming each night thi week, a combinatn of pre- recorded and live video messages leading up to former vice president joe biden accepting the nomination for president in a mostly empty ballroom in delaware on thursday. the convention will feature speakers ranging from republican governor john kasich, whis supporting biden, to congresswoman alexandria ocasio- cortez, who supported bernie sanders in the democratic primary. vice presidential pick kamala

harris will speak on wednesday, a night that will also feature former president barack obama and pop star billie eilish. for more on the schedule of events for the virtual democratic national convention visit pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: this month marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment, granting women the constitutional right to vote. the suffrage movement leading up to that historic decision helped inspire other movements for reform which continue on today, with the on-going protests for black lives matter, police reform, and l.g.b.t.q. rights. the 19th, a new nonprofit, nonpartisan digital newsroom and platform dedicates itself to issues that continue to affect women's lives, from politics and policy to gender, health care, and the current coronavirus pandemic. i recently spoke with co-founder and publisher amanda zamora. one of the interesting storylines that several of your writers have picked up on different threads in their own pieces is how this pandemic is

affecting women specifically. >> this is the story of this pandemic in so many ways. women are being disproportionately impacted in virtually every arena, except perhaps for mortality rates. you know, women are at the frontlines of healthcare, they're at the frontlines of education. they make up the majority of low wage jobs. you know, women are experiencing double-digit unemployment for the first time. we had made such tremendous gains in the workforce over the last half of the century and women have seen those virtually evaporate overnight. women have lost 11 million jobs in the first months of this pandemic. and experts say that eight percent of those jobs, that's tens of thousands of women at work, are not coming back online. the other thing that we're seeing in the workforce and even in our own newsroom is that women are being forced to choose-- do they go back to work? do they stay at work or do they stay home and take care of their

families, of their children? women are still doing the outsized share of caregiving in their households, and they are being confronted with this impossible choice as schools are struggling to figure out how to reopen safely ashousands of daycare facilities have shuttered across the country. women are just in this impossible position of choosing between staying in the workforce choosing their families. >> sreenivasan: and you've profiled different sort of tiers of women on the socio-economictrata. so some who have, you know, kind of achieved that dream of becoming in senior leadership positions, they worked really hard, and here they are making that choice. and then at the same time, you've also highlighted how disproportionately it's affecting women of color who actually make much less per dollar compared to men. >> exactly. low wage workers whose jobs are the least secure, some of them have come back online, but they're by no means either economically secure or, from a health perspective, secure. you know, they're being more

exposed to covid risk. and, by the way, when those jobs do come back online, they're not always at the same, you know, wages. those wages are decreasing. and so the cost of living, particularly if you're a low wage worker and you have a family also to take care of and children to take care of, you know, those expenses are rising while wages are being depressed and it's just a real crisis of caregiving for women across the socio-economic spectrum. >> sreenivasan: another big topic that makes your site and your story so relevant right now as we approach the anniversary of the suffrage movement, here we have a democratic v.p. nominee, but if people had been following some of your writers for a while, they would have seen this coming. >> yes. i mean, the senator kamala harris pick historic in many ways. she makes good on biden's promise to have a woman as a vice-presidential candidate. but yore right, erinn has been covering the black electorate

and black women in the electorate for, for months and months, since before the pandemic. black voters propelled biden's candidacy in the primary. and this pick makes good on his promise, but also rewards those black voters, and black women in particular, who have been the backbone of the democratic party. and, yes, if you read erinn haines's reporting, you will see that that pick really is a pick of this moment in time as the country is grappling with an economic crisis, with a health healthcare crisis, but also with this crisis of systemic racism, reconfronting so much of systemic racism and division in this country thasenator harris's pick unites the party. but potentially they'll be looking to unite the country with the november election. >> sreenivasan: amanda, i've also got to ask, in the middle of a pandemic, it doesn't seem like thereatest time to launch a whole new site. i mean, what's that been like? >> it's been exhilarating. it's been challenging, but it's been so necessary for all of the, the stories that we've just been discussing here in a matter

of moments. we are just getting started and we are really looking forward to digging in and providing the kind of journalism that our readers are asking for. and yes, we're, we're thrilled to be online, pandemic or no. >> sreenivasan: all right, amanda zamora of the 19th. congratulations for getting out the door. and thanks for joining us. >> thanks so much for having me. >> sreenivasan: the ste of maine has one of the lowest infection rates of covid-19 in the country. but it also has the highest racial disparity to the impacts on black mainers. particularly vulnerable are maine's black immigrants, who support the pine tree state's economy but say they have been slow to receive much needed state funding to combat the coronavirus. "newshour weekend" special correspondent kira kay reports on how the pandemic is hitting these mostly african immigrants and what some of them are trying too about it. this story is part of our

ongoing series "chasing the dream: poverty and opportunity in america." ♪ ♪ >> reporter: music is once again filling the bethel church on the outskirts of portland, maine. it had been closed to worshippers for three months because of covid-19, but has now reopened its doors, carefully. everyone's temperature is taken on arrival and masks are mandatory. only 50 worshippers are allowed in at a time. >> the whole world has been completely shut down by the pandemic. anwe also pray for those who have passed away because of this. >> reporter: congregant claire uwimbabazi tells me she's been woied people might be sick or that she herself could be infected and pass it on. but she feels joy in her heart to be back. bethel's congregation includes many political and humanitarian refugees from central africa.

but in maine, they are facing a new danger: very high covid-19 infection rates. claude rwaganje is a congregant at bethel and a local city councilman. >> i know many families that everybody in the house, every single household member got covid. so it's not a story that we hear from far away. we lived it. >> reporter: covid-19 rates in maine are low: less than half a percent of its population -- one fifth the national average. still, the state has remained vigilant as it reopens, and even welcomes a limited number of summer tourists. but when you look at maine's black community, it's a starkly different reality. maine has the largest racial disparity of covid-19 infection rates in the country. whilblack mainers are 1.4 percent of the population, they make up at least 22 percent of the positive cases. this means one in 20 have had covid. and while maine doesn't break

out how many are immigrants, they me up almost half of the black demographic-- the largest proportion in the country. these immigrants are all informally referred to as "new mainers." >> initially in 2001, the largest influx of new mainers were from somalia: muslim, black, very visible islamic attire like myself, majority were women and children. >> reporter: fowsia musse is an outreach worker in lewiston, a major resettlement city for refugees. >> rumor has it that one family came, liked it because maine is small, very family oriented. and in the last five years, we're seeing central and west african. so today in the lewiston school department, we have 35 languages spoken. >> reporter: musse feels her community still faces racism. >> it used to be very explicit: "go home... don't, why are you here? you're taking away our jobs." it's not as explicit as it used to be, but there is a lot of

systematic, you know, implicit biases towards immigrants. >> reporter: new mainers play a major role in maine's economy, primarily in manufacturing and other essential jobs. their impact can be seen in places like the american roots factory, where 80 percent othe workforce is immigrant. it's a project of husband and wife team ben and whitney waxman to make clothing iamerica. >> we did not know who was going to walk through our doors when we started this. and it just so happened that it was folks from iraq, from angola, from congo. >> reporter: maria lutina was an early recruit after she arrived from angola, and is now a head stitcher. >> when i meet whitney and ben, they bring me to school, they start to teach me. when i finish my training, i meet my team, they were arabic people, and then we start to share ideas. >> i think maine needs us.

this is an aging state and they are getting migrants who are very young, who actually will take over the workforce. >> reporter: but despite this optimism, black new mainers still suffer a poverty rate triple that of other mainers, which puts them at the front line of the pandemic. >> the one, number one problem is housing. you have families with ten, eleven children and so there's no proper quarantine space. and so it becomes automatically, one family, it will turn into a statistic of fifteen. you have people who are in a veryongested neighborhood. everybody is touching and cross-contaminating with one hallway and one door. >> even those who were afraid of going to work, because of covid, stayed at home for a week or two. when they didn't see a paycheck, they had to go back. >> reporter: claude rwaganje's own family was not iune. >> he got hit hard. >> reporter: in late june, covid-19 swept through the household of his niece, chantal mukinanyana, her husband, jean

paul, and their two-year-old son. jean paul is a healthcare worker for adults with mental disabilities. he asked to stay home because chantal was about to give rth to their second child. >> they was like "no, there's other people who's working. you're just going to have to protect yourself." so we had to pretty much suck it up so we can survive. >> reporter: chantal delivered baby cheryl by c-section just as jean paul tested positive, infected by one of his clients. he had to go quarantine away from his family. >> but it was already too late, we all got the virus. >> reporter: chantal was fighting a fev while fearing for her newborn. >> i was told by the doctor when she tested positive, that i need to 24 hours watch her breathing, because if it kicks in her small lungs, she's going to stop breathing. but she fight it! i have a two-month old today that surved covid. it's crazy. >> reporter: the family is now

on the mend and jean paul is back at work. the pandemic also hit the american roots factory hard, starting with a drop in orders that would lay off 80 percent of their staff. the waxmans called an emergency meeting to see if workers were willing to shift to making ppe. >> every single hand went up. and within 14 days, we had brought everybody back and had shipped the first ten thousand face shields to boston. >> repter: they began cranking out 7,000 masks a day, using the fabric once meant for t-shirts. they also instituted safety measures including sanitizers, hand washing stations, and socially distancing the workers. >> we had a crew comin and hang all of these plastic sheeting throughout the factory. and what this allows is for us to use this space, and still have up to 60 people within this factory working. >> reporter: but despite these measures, the virus still caught up to them.

>> the phone rang to whitney and she came and grabbed me and said, "we've got a positive case." on saturday, july 11, we had our second positive case. on sunday, july 12, we had our third. >> so we had 11 positive cases that immediately went into quarantine and we had ten additional people who went into quarantine due to contact with the positive cases. >> reporter: with rapid testing help from the state, the remaining 93 employees stayed healthand, after a shut down for cleaning, the factory has reopened. all of the infected workers have returned to making p.p.e. >> 150 in here, these are standard. >> reporter: city councilman claude rwaganje distributes american roots masks to local businesses and his own church. he says his mmunity's early battle against covid-19 was something they had to fight mostly alone, as state funding was first funneled through non-immigrant umbrella groups. >> they gave money to social

services agencies. and that really made us unhappy, because we said this is actually a racial and lack of trust issue. what we wanted is recognition that we know better the community that we serve, more than anybody else. so we have the culture. we have the language. it came after maybe 15 weeks for us actually asking these things. >> reporter: maine health officials say they chose social services agencies "...as the fastest avenue to get funding out the door and into affected communities." but in mid july, acknowledged concerns about "adequacy and inclusiveness." on july 30, gornor janet mills announced $1 million in ne funding, specifically for community-led organizations, to "help reduce the disproportionately large racial and ethnic disparities in covid-19 in maine. in lewiston, local groups didn't wait for help from the state and created their own task force early on to serve their

community, including handing out masks to local businesses to share with customers. and organizing for a one-day walk-in testing clinic run by a health center in theeart of the city's immigrant neighborhood. on a sweltering day in late july, 64 people came to get tested, including abdirabi and his 3-year-old son. they also got precious hand sanitizer and masks. >> i have seen it while i was passing here. i want to know my health. if i am told that,you are not positive," it's good. i will be happy. >> reporter: task force co-leader abdulkerim said says they are making up for lost time. >> sometime in june, when a lot of people are sick in the community, a lot of people are hospitalized, people were ready to be tested at that time. but the state was not ready to bring the site on for testing. so we missed that opportunity. >> each side of your nose.

>> and we have to convince again, explain, educate the community about the testing. >> reporter: the results from the clinic brought much-needed good news tohe lewiston community: zero positive tests. but statewide, black mainers still have an infection rate 11 times higher than all othe mainers. schools are reopening, but said hopes that with state funding finally expected in coming weeks, they will be ready. >> sreenivasan: newshour will have live coverage of the democratic national convention this week. the first-ever virtual convention begins tomorrow and ends thursday with former vice president joe biden's nomination and acceptance speech. coverage on air and online will be from 8:00 pm until 11:00 pm eastern time. that's all for this editioof" p.b.s. newshour weekend." for the latest news updates visit pbs.org/newshour.

i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching. stay heahy and have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund. bernard and denise schwartz.

the cheryl and philip milstein family. the jpb foundation. 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 care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. additional support has been provided by: consumer cellar. and 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. you're watching pbs. >> here is a song

i always get requests for, but i can't understand for the life of me why. [ playing "the elements" ] ♪ there's antimony, arsenic, aluminum, selenium ♪ ♪ and hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen and rhenium ♪ ♪ and nickel, neodymium, neptunium, germanium ♪ ♪ and iron, americium, ruthenium, uranium ♪ ♪uropium, zirconium, lutetium, vanadium ♪ ♪ and lanthanum and osmium and astatine and radium ♪ ♪ and gold, protactinium and indium and gallium ♪ ♪ and iodine and thorium and thulium and thallium ♪ ♪ all the world seems in tune on a spring afternoon ♪ ♪ when we're poisoning pigeons in the park ♪ ♪ so long, mom ♪ i'm off to drop the bomb ♪ so don't wait up for me ♪ but though i may roam, i'll come back to my home ♪ ♪ although it may be a pile of debris ♪ un