captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, unconventional. covid-19 unds the political landscape yet again as democrats kick off an unprecedented national convention. then, mailing it in. house democrats vow to block changes at the postal service they say the administration is enacting to sabotage the november election. and, the aftermath in iowa. recovery efforts are underway following major windstorms that damaged over a third of the state's crop land. >> this is people living in apartments with no roofs, no front walls, the fronts of the

patios off. wires just hanging down. where in the world is our government helping us out? >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> when the world gets complicated, a lot goes through your mind. with fidelity wealth management, a dedicated advisor can tailor advice and recommendations to your life. that's fidelity wealth management. >> financial services firm raymond james.

>> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world. at www.h >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff:elcome to the new set of reconk of political conventions. i'm socially distanced from crew

and colleagues so we can bring you the broadcasts as safely as possible. tonight the democratic party will make history by holding it's first >> woodruff: tonight the democratic party will make history by holding its first national convention to nominate a president, not in person, but remotely in scores of different locations-- all made necessary by the extraordinary events of the past six months, events that have turned life upside down in this country. amna nawaz reports on how we got here. >> nawaz: historically, it is fanfare and spectacle ( crowd cheering ) celebration...and performance. ♪ got the eye of the tiger >> nawaz: the democratic national convention would typically bring together thousands of people, all under one roof for a four-day affair. but today in milwaukee, home base for this year's convention, it is a much different scene as organizers have been forced by the coronavirus pandemic to dramatically scale back plans to an almost-entirely virtual convention.

>> if covid had been more appropriately managed in this country, you'd see thousands of people in the streets of the city of milwaukee. >> nawaz: wisconsin lt. governor mandela barnes is a vice-chair of the convention, and fought for months to bring this historic event to his home city. >> the writing was on the wall earlier this year as covid numbers continue to rise, and with that in mind, i knew that it would be very difficult, nearly impossible to pull off the large scale convention that we thought we'd be able to. and when i saw the news, you know, i had already felt like i was playing the violin on the titanic at that point. >> nawaz: organizers have been working and reworking plans for months, making clear public health was a priority. democratic national committee chair, tom perez. >> our north star has always been public health and safety, it was clear from the outset, we have always made sure we listen to the experts. >> nawaz: originally scheduled for july, the convention was

delayed to gust. the venue, originally the fiserv forum, home to milwaukee's n.b.a. team with capacity for 18,000 people, was changed to the smaller wisconsin center, that can house up to 4,000 people. instead of one city hosting the entire event, the convention will now be anchored from milwaukee...with curated content from other cities. as for the headliners, they'll be virtual too. years past, the party's presumptive nominee delivering an acceptance speech before roaring crowds has been a signature convention moment. >> hillary! hillary! hillary! >> nawaz: this year, former vice president joe biden will deliver his remarks from his home state of delaware on the final night of the convention. in fact, all speakers, incding his running mate, california senator kamala harris, and other key figures in the democratic party, will be delivering speeches remotely. >> we cast 47 votes for the next president of the united states

>> nawaz: even the roll call vote... a hallmark moment featuring each state declaring its delegate count, will be done virtually with input from each of the 57 states and territories. the event meant to cap off the primary season and kick off the general election won't be what it once was. but barnes says he isn't worried it will fail to inspire the democratic base. >> this is a virtual pep rally. and i think that folks will still leave excited because, you know, we now have a vice presidential nominee. the ticket is finally set and there's a lot of enthusiasm there. >> nawaz: as around the nation, covid cases continue to climb, millions remain unemployed, and a national raciareckoning unfolds, the democratic national committee says all these issues will make their way into convention programming. with americans from around the country sharing their stories. next week, president trump and the republican party will host their own convention, similarly upended during the pandemic.

but before then, democrats have four days to get voters excited for their party's 2020 ticket-- all from safe distance. for the pbs newshour, i'm amna nawaz. >> woodruff: and joining me now: our own lisa desjardins is in wilmington, delaware, where joe biden and kamala harris will deliver their convention addresses later this week. and yamiche alcindor is tracking president trump for us, as always, during this critical week. hello to both of you. lisa, to you first, in wilmington, as we just heard, this is the place where joe biden and kamala harris are going to speak, but, otherwise, a pretty quiet place. tell us what is going on there and how does this compare for you to other conventions you've covered. >> judy, there's never been a convention remotely like this, but being here feels so different. the convention that democrats had planned was supposed to be in an auditorium that could seat

nearly 20,000 people. instead, judy, joe biden will be accepting his party's nomination in the building behind me in an auditorium for about 200 people, no audience, just a few members of the press. as you can see, it's an empty parking lot here in what would usually be a place teaming with activity. what the democrats are getting instead, however, is a very bidenesque kind of event. this is just five miles from his home in wilmington and, as you may hear during this live shot, right near, one joe biden's favorite things, a real amtrak. this is unlike any other major ipolitical event we've seen. >> woodruff: lisa, tell us a little bit about what to expect tonight. what is the message the biden camp, the democrats are hoping to convey tonight. >> all right, you know there are themes every night. the official theme tonight is "we the people." but i want to drill down farther into what can t campaign is

telling me they want to do tonight. two things. their theme is going to be unit. joe biden is someone they say will unit this country. tonight in particular, they will lookt at the three crisis the democrats say are hitting this country now, the economic kris, the health crisis with the pandemic, and the racial justice crisis. so all through tonight they will raise these crises, they will say that this is a time when this country needs strong leadership and unity that joe biden can provide and that donald trump as president has made worse and sometimes even sparked. >> woodruff: well, speaking of president trump, yamiche, i guess it's no surprise the president is not laying low this week. he is out visiting battleground states. you have been following what he has been doing and, among other ings, he's talking about this controversy raging right now over the postal service.

and is yamiche hearing me? >> yeah, i cannot hear, judy. >> woodruff: our apologies. we have lost yamiche, but we'll come back to her in just a moment. one of the things that happens in this -- >> yeah, i can hear you, i can't hear judy. >> woodruff: so, lisa, i'm going to come back to talk to you about this issue with the postal service. president trump has been critical, talked about cutting the budget, the postmaster general has become a controversial figure. democrats are taking action on this. tell us what they're doing. >> this something else we've ver seen during national political conventions,udy. house speaker nancy pelosi is calling back her chamber of congress this weekend, saturday, in between the conventions, essentially. we've never had any chamber of commerce meet, judy, during presidential nominating conventions. she's doing this specifically to address the u.s. postal service situation to pass a bill to essentially force the president

to rescind the changing he has made in the postal service, things the democrats say are political and things that president trump talked about as motivations for this. democrats want to pass a bill this weekend to force him to do that. of course, the senate run by republicans would also need to pass that bill, but there is no indication from the senate that they will come back yet. i have been asking senate majority leader mitch mcconnell, his office, all day. they say they have no announcement yet. but the pressure is on them because some republicans including susan collins of maine, a very vulnerable republican this season, is asking the senate to come back in session to deal with the postal service. she wants to raise their funding. >> woodruff: yamiche, we now have your sound and you can hear us. tell us, what is the president trying to accomplish with this by stirring up all this controversy about the posting service? >> well, the president has a calendar full of counterprogramming this week,

andt that involves also talking about mail-in voting. he will be criss-crossing the country going to background states, and is in wisconsin and minnesota toad. he is saying joe biden is dangerous for the country and will usher in socialism. he said america would turn into vens l.a. when it comes into mail-in voting, that is something he's attacking the democrats on. he's saying they're trying to ask for money they do not need. he's also saying he wants to make the postal service great again and says he's happy to try to work with the democrats to find some sort of way to get a bill passed when it comes to funding the u.s. postal service, but he's still very much against mail-in voting and that means states mailing out ballots to people when they did not request them. >> woodruff: it's certainly got an lot of attention and i know we will be hearing about it during this convention. yamiche alcindor, lisa desjardins, thank you both.

>> woodruff: the battle surrounding changes at the u.s. postal service is intensifying. as william brangham reports, house democrats are planning legislation to block recent moves by the postmaster general, and making cnges to their summer calendar to address the issue. >> brangham: speaker of the house nancy pelosi said yesterday she'd call members back from their august recess to try and pass legislation as soon as this weekend to block what they allege is the trump administration's sabotage of the postal service in the run-up to the election. given the pandemic, it's expected that millions more americans will try and vote by mail rather than go in person to their polling places. >> when you do all mail-in- voting ballots, you are asking for fraud. >> brangham: president trump consistently makes false claims about voting-by-mail, and has threatened to block any bill

that contains emergency funds for the post-office. newly appointed postmaster general louis dejoy will testify before the house next week. prior to his appointment, dejoy was a major fundraiser for the republican party, and has a multi-million dollar stake in a company that contracts with the postal service. among the issues democrats will address: the suspension of overtime for postal workers, which has already caused mail delays across the country. the decommissioning of hundreds of high-capacity mail-sorting machines, and removal of some residential mail boxes. the postal service's warning to 46 states and washington d.c. that, because of tight deadlines, it might not be able to deliver all mail-in ballots in time. >> i am deeply deeply concerned about trump's effort to undermine democracy by defunding the postal service >> brangham: dejoy and his supporters say these moves are necessary cost cutting, noting

the postal service lost $9 billion last year. and dejoy notes many of these reforms were recommended before he took the top job. yesterday, white house chief of staff mark meadows rejected the accusation that the president is meddling in the election. >> i'll give you that guarantee right now: the president of the united states is not going to interfere with anybody casting their vote in a legitimate way. >> brangham: and today, on his way from the white house, the president again warned about mail-in voting, but said he'd done nothing to slow down mail service. for more on the coroversy surrounding the u.s.p.s., i'm joined now by a man who used to help run it. david fineman served as chairman of the board of governors of the u.s. postal service under both the clinton and bush administrations. the board oversees the service and appoints the postmaster general. he's now chairman of board of the non-partisan fair elections center. david fineman, thank you very much for being here. i mentioned some of these

changes that the new postmaster general has been instituting, eliminating overtime which has caused delays,ecommissioning some of the equipment, closing some mailboxes. what are we to make of those changes? >> let's just assume that you needed the changes, and let's just assume you needed to upgrade certain systems. it seems to me there are o problems here, one of which is that the postmaster general, before he implemented changes, you would think that he would come to the american public, you would think that he would make a public announcement of these changes before the board of governors and the united states postal service, and you would think that he would probably go to the elected officials and tell them what was going to happen -- you know, we're going to take make boxes from this

area, that area, sorting machines from this plant, we're gog to do certain things, you know, we can't afford to have overtime -- that would be the first thing that you would think that he would do. the second thing, it seems to me, is why is he doing this now? we're in the middle of a pandemic. people rely -- >> seems this is the worst time to be doing things like this. >> absolutely. people rely on delivery of the mail six days a week. veterans get their prescription drugs through the mail. other people -- we're going to get social security checks. small businesses rely every day, when receiving checks from their customers, sending out invoices, and this is a time when seniors are being told t to ave their home. >> reporter: now, the postmaster geral says this is about cost cutting and that some

of these recommendations came prior to his arrival and he's just instituting them. the democrats, on the other hand, look at this, just as you say, during a pandemic and see election sabotage. where do you come down on that issue? what's the intentionality here? >> let me just say i'm a practicing lawyer, you know, and lawyers put facts together and then come to a conclusion. so we take the fact that he is ng out mailboxes, taking out sorting equipment, and then we take the fact that the president of the united states is talking about how there's going to be fraud, although he can't identify it. you know, he hasn't been able to tell us where that fraud is coming from, and a federal judge has asked him to show what the fraud, is and he hasn't been able to do it, and we take that fact and put it together with the fact of what the postmaster general is doing, we come to the conclusion that maybe somebody is trying to sabotage the

election. >> reporter: is it your sense the post office can handle this coming surge of mail-in ballots? we've heard the comparison that, say, during the christmas holiday season, the mail service handles billions of pieces of mail. at worst, the mail-in ballots would be far less. even so, do you think the postal service can handle the tidal wave of ballots coming in the mail. >> absolutely, there's no reason to think they couldn't. people worked at the postal service are trained to do their jobs, they care about their jobs, and, you know, they have been the essential workers on the front lines for the united states postal service. over 3,000 of them have been stricken with this deadly disease, over 60 of them have died, but they are there to deliver the mail, and they to it every day to every household

throughout the countr >> reporter: i mentioned earlier that the postmaster general has this multi- million stake in a company that does business with the post office, some say it's a competitor of the post office. some say that's a clear conflict of interest,out say, no, that's the relative business expertise you wa with somebody running the post office. where do you come down on this. is this a conflict? >> i'm not quite sure whether it is or isn't a conflict, but i would like to know what the board of governors did in vetting mr. dejoy. i would like to know what they looked into, what they saw and why they came to the conclusion that they did that he could serve as a postmaster general. >> reporter: david david, former chairman of the board of governors. thank you for your time. >> thank you for having me.

>> woodruff: senator chris coons of delaware has known e biden and his family for three decades, and he's one of the former vice president's closest allies in washington. he'll be helping introduce mr. biden thursday night and he joins us now from wilmington. senator coons, thank you very much for talking with us tonight. you have known him for so long, he's been in american public life for, what, half a century, almost. so what more is it that's going to come across about joe biden this week that we don't already know and what does this convention need to say t those voters who maybe voted for trump four years ago but who are taking a look at joe biden and can't decide? >> well, judy, tonight, at the convention, you will see a strikily broad range of americans speak up abwhy this moment calls for the leadership

of joe biden. some of them, life-long democrats, folks who are passionate progressives, some of them life-long republicans. obviously we'll hear from former first lady michelle obama, who got to know joe biden very closely, very personally in the eight years that president obama and vice president biden and their families served alongside each other in the white house. we're also going to hear from former governor kasich, a republican governor from ohio, as well as christie todd whitman, former republican governor of new jersey. as you asked in your question, for those americans who may have voted for trump four years ago, i can understand how some folks might have thought, what's the worst thing that could happen? now you know. we've got a wreck of an economy, a pandemic, a nationwide health emergencies, and we've got widening divisions and disagreements over long-standing and unaddressed issues of racial inequality.

our country is in tough shape. so what i hope the average american who listens this week will hear about joe biden is about his heart, his character, his faith, how life has knocked him down hard at the beginning and in the latest stages of his service career and how joe's been able to get back up again. he believes in us, and i believe in him. >> woodruff: well, i was going to ask you about his faith in a moment but you've raised it. you have been saying you are going to talk about that on thursday. what else it about his faith that you want to get across, and why is that important at this convention? >> well, judy, there are tens of millions of americans who are getting through hard times and hard days because of their faith, it's what sustains them, it's what strengthens them and their families. so i think it's important for those folks to know, from who one who's been close to joe for decades, that it's central to who he is. it's essential to how he's made it through all the challenges

he's faced in life, but another important point is that joe is someone who will bring us together. he'll be a president for all americans. joe is a proud catholic. he's a proud irish catholic. but he's someone who respects and recognizes and will represent americans of all faiths and those who are americans of good conscience but who practice no particular faith. so i think it's important folks hear how it strengthens him personal willy, how it helps cot him to millions of americans who get through their daily lives with faith, and how he will represent us in a way that brings us together rather than divides us along the lines of religion. >> woodruff: i want to ask you about an issue bubbling about the postal service. democrats, and you're one of them, are saying president trump, his postmaster general are trying to undermine, undercut the postal service, harm the ability to get ball lots delivered and counted in november.

today, the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell said the postal service will be fine. he said the administration will spend $10 billion on it. so can you clarify where things really stand right now? >> well, i'm visiting the largest postal handling facility in delaware tomorrow. i'm joining with my delegation in calling for more transparency. if the postmaster general can explain and justify these dramatic changes, december assembling and taking out of service large mail handlingand processing machines, changing the service and delivery standards, then he ought to do that and do it promptly. but i'm very skeptical. i've gotten 1,800 calls this week from delawareans concerned about delays in medication, social security checks, small business owners concerned about getting payment. i think this is a legitimate concern on behalf to have the american people that the postmaster general needs to address. >> woodruff: senator, you mentioned and you have be

talking about a number of republicans you speak with privately. you said you wouldn't be surprised if they privately voted not for donald trump but joe biden in november. we will hear from a few this week. my question is about the two parties working together. what is it that joe biden would do as president to get the parties to work together different from what president obama did? i mean, we are in a more polarized environment today than when biden was vice president. >> that's right, and there may be a very real chance that majority leader mcconnell and the republicans in the senate will refuse to work across the aisle to help our nation. that wouldbe disappointing and, if that happens, we're going to have to take tougher partisan action to try to move forward. but joe biden enjoys a long-standing, personal relationship with many of the most senior senators in the republican caucus. they know his character, they

know his heart, and they know if he tries to work with them, they will be able to work together with someone who keeps his word. one of the things that's been hardest about making any legislative progress with donald trump is he'll ask us to take on some tough task. for example, dealing with immigration and the status of dreamers. lindsey graham and dick durbin taking that opportunity from donald trump, worked hard, came up with a bipartisan deal, ticket back to president trump who said this is a eat deal, let's move forward, then 36 hours later, changed direction and campaigned hard against it. if you can't make a teal with the president that's i bipartisan and lasts, it's frustrating to try. on issues like gun violence, dealing with environment, racial inequalities and policing reform or dealing with immigration, making bipartisan progress with donald trump has been very

frustrating, very difficult. joe biden respects and understands the role of the senate. if republicans are willing to work with him in good faith, we can make progress and get america out of its current challenges. >> woodruff: finally, in just five seconds, senator coons, how do you make an inspiring speech at a convention with no one in the room? >> it's tough, but if anyone can do it, joe biden can. >> woodruff: all right. i was asking about you but we'll let you pass on that one. senator chris coons of delaware. >> thanks, judy. >> woodruff: thank you so much. >> woodruff: with just a few hours until the convention begins, our politics monday duo is here to analyze the political expectations and pressures on joe biden and the democratic party. that's amy walter of the cook political report and host of public radio's "politics with amy walter."

and, tamera keith of npr joins us from home, also co-host of the "npr politics podcast." we heard from senator coons, but in general what do the democrats need to do this week to help joe biden? >> he's the challenger, joe biden is the challenger, and, so, the case that the democrats need to make is that four more years of president trump is not something that people want to live through, and that's certainly, you know, an underlying theme of tonight, in addition to the unity message. they're also going to have people there, first responders and frontline medical workers who have been dealing firsthand with the pandemic. they're going to have a family member of someone who died from coronavirus. so the message is going to be

both about joe biden but also about president trump's leadership, and that's fairly solid ground for democrats to stand on, looking at the polls in the way the public has perceived president trump's handling of the pandemic and the economic fallout from that. >> woodruff: good to see you, amy. >> good to see you. >> woodruff: after all these months. how tall a task is this? >> it's funny, tam used the word challenger, that joe biden is a challenger, but he feels like the incumbent. it's rare a challenger goes into a convention with as big of a lead as joe biden has now over an incumbent president. cnn looked all the way back to the 40s, and there's no precedent for this of a challenger coming in to their own convention with the kind of lead that joe biden has. so he has less of a concern about getting a bounce. most challengers want a polling bounce out of the convention.

he doesn't need to worry about a bounce, he needs to worry about keeping the lead he has, but he does need to really fill out the picture of joe biden. it's what you addressed with senator coons. now joe biden's been on the scene for almost 50 years, he's been vice president for eight years, but really telling the story of who he is and, most important, what he wants to do next. what would it look like to have a biden candidacy? that is the part that's still not rely filled in yet. >> woodruff: weto see that tonight. in the meantime, tam, it's what we talked about a minute ago with yamiche, and that is president trump is not going to be quietly in the living room at the white house, he's going to be hitting the til this week making news. how unusual is this for the opposition party to do this? >> president trump has had three rallies today -- hangar rallies at airports in the upper midwest, in wisconsin where he's making the sort of pointed

statement about how he's there in person with people not wearing masks relatively close together, where's joe biden, why couldn't he come to the state? it is pretty much unheard of for a president to do this level of counterprogramming. he's going to have at least six rally/events over the course of this week. i checked in with michael, the presidential historian on this show regularly, and he said, no, my memory is not failing me, this would be another normal busted by president trump. another thing, at his rally in wisconsin today, he announced he is, for sure,giving his acceptance speech from the white house next thursday, and republican official told me they have put in a permit to get fireworks set off over the washington monument after the president's speech. so the president is really going all-in on, you know, even though

it is going to be kind of virtual, trying to make it as not virtual as poible. >> woodruffso, amy, given the fact that this is so unusual, so unprecedented, how likely is it to be successful? i mean, we can't really read into the future but what do we think? >> so what is the measure of success, judy? if the measure of success is joe biden going to get a boost in the polls, that's hard to believe, given he's eight or mine points ahead, is it he's shored up his weaknesses, and i think the sense is who he sand what his presidency would look like if electionsed, and one thing the president has an advantage is who would do better in the economy. so joe biden has to let voters know what he is going to do to bring the economy back, make people feel comfortable with that, to break away from the president on that issue. >> woodruff: and that's something we're going to certainly be looking at every night this week. and i quickly want to return

with both of you, now, tam, so the stthat we have been reporting on for the last -- really since the top of the "newshour", and that is efforts to undermine the postal service. what do we see as really going on here? >> well, if you ask the president what is really going on here seems to change every time he talks about it. as we've documented, he said that he didn't want more money to go to the postal service because then you couldn't have universals vote by mail. the other thing to point out here that is politically important is that the postal service is absolutely critical in rural states. there are a lot of veterans who get their medicines through the mail, a lot of people who get their medicines through the mail. so it's not clear how long slowing down mail delivery can be a political winner. >> yeah, and you're taking on the most beloved institution. there is no other government institution that is as

well-liked as the postal service. >> woodruff: especially now in a pandemic. >> especially now ina pandemic where people are desperate to have any cnection at all, as tam pointed out, especially with medicine. so, again, the president is almost like the challenger right now. this is why he's going out doing these rallies. he needs to show that he's going to take the fight to joe biden. but picking a fight with joe biden, that makes a lot of sense. picking a fight with the postal service really makes no sense. >> woodruff: i'm curious to know, tam, as we look at this and we're hearing arguments on both sides, is this the kind of thing that could literally take thunder away from the democratic convention this week? >> well, i think that the congressional hearings will be next week during the republican convention. certainly this is the topic that's going to be discussed, but, you know, i think that this could be a bigger story next week. it could be the daytime programming to the nighttime

convention. >> woodruff: yeah, unusual, again. >> again, of course. >> woodruff: all right, we're going to leave it there. so good to have you, tam, joining us tonight, and, amy, you will be with us all week. thank you very much. "politics monday." stay with us. >> woodruff: stay with us. stephanie sy from our newshour west bureau will be back in a moment with today's headlines and the rest of today's news. >> sy: in the day's other news: new zealand postponed its national elections by a month, to october 17, as covid-19 infections spread in auckland, the capital. in the u.s., confirmed cases approached 5.5 million, with 170,000 dead. and the university of north carolina at chapel hill abruptly returned to all-remote learning. it's one of the largest schools in the u.s. to bring back students, but now faces a

rapidly spreading outbreak. in afghanistan, the government pressed pause on freeing the last batch of 320 taliban prisoners. it wants the militant group to release more government soldiers first. prisoner releases were expected to lead to direct talks between e sides this week. those peace negotiations are now delayed. back in this country, a searing heat wave has prompted days of rolling power blackouts in california. governor gavin newsom says some energy users and utilities will be allowed to tap backup power sources. he's also demanding an investigation into why the blackouts came without warning. >> i can assureou, you shouldn't be pleased with the moment that we're in here in the state of california. we'll get to the bottom of it. that's why the investigation on what happened and its implications for the future will be done swiftly and immediately

and we will lay out in detailed terms what we're going to do to make sure this simply doesn't happen again. >> sy: underscoring the challenge, on sunday, it hit 130 degrees in california's death valley. if confirmed, it would be the hottest temperature recorded anywhere on earth since 1931. that same heat wave has firefighters in southern california facing extreme conditions as they battle a major wildfire. over the weekend, high winds from a thunderstorm and triple- digit heat stoked the fire north of los angeles. crews are now trying to save hundreds of homes. court documents unsealed today in hawaii accused alexander yuk ching ma who allegedly handed over information on sources and c.i.a. methods to chinese

agents. and, on wall street, major indexes moved in opposite directions, on mixed trading. the dow jones industrial average lost 86 points to close near 27,845. but the nasdaq rose 110 points, and the s&p-500 added 9. still to come on the newshour, the man known as europe's last dictator faces ongoing protests following an election widely criticized as fraudulent. and iowa struggles to recover from major windstorms that damaged more than a third of its farmland. >> sy: pressure mounted today and over the weekend for president alexander lukashenko of belarus to step down after 26 years in power. hundreds of thousands took to the streets to protest last

week's presidential election. the former collective farm boss widely-denounced as fraudulent. with the support of the pulitzer center, special correspondent simon ostrovsky reports from the capital, minsk. a warning: images may be disturbing >> reporter: after widespread allegations of vote riing, the result of last week's presidential election was met with disbelief in belarus. protestors were met with police truncheons, rubber bullets and stun grenas. at least two people died. countless others were beaten to within an inch of their lives. but the violence galvanized an even larger proportion of the blic to come out and demonstrate against incumbent alexander lukashenko and these were the scenes at a heavy vehicle factory in minsk today. the striking workers are part of the reason lukashenko must be terrified right now. it's one thing for people to come out into the streets but factory workers have always been

his base and it seems that is starting to change. behind these factory walls, the embattled president addressed workers of the mzkt vehicle plant telling them "the elections are done, until you kill me there won't be any others." the workers responded with chants of "go away" to his face in pictures widely shared on social media. >> ( translated ): go away! go away! go away! >> reporter: his helicopter departed just as protesters gathered outside the main entrance way. >> ( translated ): he doesn't have the support of the majority and hasn't for the last five years. this past year has finished him. one bad decision after the other has led to this situation. we have one, the question is, how long will it take? a week? a month? who knows. but he has already lost. when blood was spilt, he was defeated.

( chanting ) >> reporter: over the weekend, belarus saw its largest rallies yet. after a we of post elections protests in which thousands of people were arrested and police displayed unprecedented levels of violence this is the scene exactly a week after the contested vote and it's hard to imagine with the number of people that have tuned out that thg could ever be the same here. look at these numbers. ( anting ) >> today we haveome situations

>> reporter: the size of the crowds are extraordinary for any country, but especially for belarus where almost all forms of opposition have been suppressed for decades. ( chanting ) lukashenko purposefully restored the attributes of the country's soviet past, reinstating tight control over politics and the economy, even bringing back the communist-era flag after he came to power in 1996. --1994 but another flag seems to rule the streets of belarus today: the red and white national flag originally adopted when the country gained independence from the collapsing soviet union. these were the images that angered so many ordinary belarusians.

the bruised and bludgeoned bodies of those who were taken into police custody. >> ( translated ): so on the 11th, in the evening, i was taken into custody and let go on the 15th in the early morning. they took me to the car. they said, "come with us." then they started beating me immediately. >> reporter: but lukashenko hasn't given up power yet, and has called for assistance from his ally vladimir putin in moscow, despite a strained relationship or the last few weeks and months. he told his supporters on sunday the protest movement was a foreign inspired plot. >> ( translated ): they are fering us a new government which is being created abroad, two of them! one of them waiting in america. we don't need foreign governments, we need our own government, our own leadership and we get to choose it! >> reporter: in the meantime, opposition candidate sviatlana tsikhanokaya, who fled to lithuania last week, said she was ready to return to head a caretaker government that would organize new elections.

>> ( translated ): i did not want to be a politician, but fate decided to put me on the frontline of the battle with despotism and injustice. >> reporter: the fate of belarus hangs in the balance. for the pbs newshour, i'm simon ostrovsky, in minsk. >> sy: iowa is still just beginning to recover from one of the worst wind storms to hit the state and several others in the midwest. as john yang tells us, more attention and help is starting to come to the hawkeye state. but many homeowners, farmers and businesses have taken a devastating hit. >> yang: a full week after a powerful storm barreled through

the midwest with hurricane-force winds, many in the hardest-hit state of iowa are still reeling. the straight-line wind storm known as a derecho claimed at least three lives in iowa and severely damaged or destroyed roughly 8,200 homes. >> it feels like i'm in a third world nation. this to me seems as if it's our version of katrina minus the deaths. >> yang: kelly mcmahon volunteered to help out after the storm ripped through a cedar rapids apartment complex that was home to refugees from african and pacific island nations. >> this is people living in apartments with no roofs, no front walls, the fronts of the patios off. wires just hanging down. where in the world is our government helping us out? >> yang: most don't speak english, complicating their efforts to get help. >> we have people who don't have houses and we're not talking about 1,2,3 we're talking about hundreds of families that will probably be sleeping in their

cars. >> yang: cedar rapids' city manager jeff pomeranz defended the city's response. >> this is an unprecedented disaster that's affected our entire community. lots of people impacted. some of the residents who have been displaced, we've got council members working around the clock trying to make sure those residents have a place to go. >> yang: the storm toppled scores of trees, taking down power lines and cutting electricity to hundreds of thousands of homes across iowa. tens of thousands are still in the dark today. millions of acres of iowa farmland were flattened, with corn and soybean crops hit the hardest. before leaving the white house this morning, president trump approved iowa officials' request for nearly $4 billion in federal disaster aid. >> we approved the emergency declaration for iowa, so they're in very good shape. they're working as we speak. also fema is in iowa now full force and helping them greatly.

>> yang: about 100 iowa national guard troops are clearing debris from downed power lines as electricity is restored to residents who've been without it for a week. white house officials told reporters that the president will likely visit iowa tomorrow to see the damage. beth malicki is an anchor at kcrg, tv9 in cedar rapids. beth, thank you so much for being with us. >> sure, thank you. >> reporter: as you move around the community, as you report this story, the recovery from this storm, what do you hear, what are people telling you is their biggest need right now? >> humanitarian aid, the basics -- shelter, food, water, ice to keep insulin cold. they're not asking for new bridges, new roads, rebuild everything. those things will come at some point, but, right now, this is a

humanitarian crisis. >> reporter: you see they need the basics. it's been a week as we said in the taped piece since this all happened. how are people reacting to the pace of aid or lack of aid? >> they're outraged, that's an understatement. their tearful. you know, iowans don't like to rely on others, they like to be independent, but this is so overwhelming and widespread and there seems to be this lack of urgency in covering it -- you being the exception, thank you -- and getting things in place. it's so desperate that people from nearby communities that weren't as hard-hit are coming in and going door to door to check on people. we have found people who have been stuck in their homes, an elderly couple in their 90s, that's not our job as media. we really just shine a light.

we're not supposed to be emergency responders or really advocates of anything but the truth. >> reporter: earlier in a news conference today with city officials, you said that people at fema, some government officials are calling your news room to try to figure out where help is needed. >> it happened last night. they couldn't get through to anybody at the city to find these people and give them help. these folks were living outside in makeshift tents, and some of them are still living inside their homes that are missing roofs and walls with exposed wires -- there's no power coming in, anyway -- and nails and children. and this is a community in this particular apartment complex that is predominant my people who came here as refugees from the democratic republic of congo, from micronesia, and these people need translators. they're terrified. they don't know where to go to getelp, where somebody like me, and i have storm damage, but i know how to connect.

these folks are living in imagery that's unimaginable to happen in cedar rapids in the united states of america. >> reporter: you say people are outraged over the pace of the relief. who is the target of the outrage? who are they taking this out on? who are they angry at? >> it's really the decision-maker who they feel did not move quickly and effectively enough at all levels. >> reporter: local, state, federal? >> yes, all of the above. >> reporter: farming, of course, such an important industry in iowa. how have they been affected by this storm? >> some farmers very flat-out wiped out. we're talking ten million acres of farmland that is damaged and destroyed as well as corn cribs and silos that were holding corn. they blew over, the corn spilled out. now, they can pick up some of the corn, but that was nothing compared to what was in the land. that cannot be redeemed. >> reporter: iowa, of course, is not immune to weather problems, and you've had big

flooding problems. how is this the reaction and the pace of recovery and response to th compared to previous natural disasters? >> i was here in the flood of 2008, and, at the time, it was so overwhelming. you're hearing some repeating themes here, but we led the national news that night and we were in the spotlight and people were reaching out and we had trucks and trucks of support from the non-profit side, and we were here , too but it took a long time for the national agencies to notice this was happening and some didn't care, they didn't know. also, with the flood, you have a little bit of lead time. in 2008, the water started rising, things were problematic and they peaked about five days later. this deraicho, we had five

hours. we add a child who was crushed by a tree. we were so not ready and that isn't our fault. there's no warning system that exist force this kind of storm. >> reporter: a very difficult situation. thanks for filling us in on the details. beth malickit at kcrg-tv9 in cedar rapidser, iowa. thanks, beth. >> thank you, john. iowans desperate for attention and help. that's it for us at "newshour" west. judy. the trump >> woodruff: thanks stephanie. administration said it would open oil and leases for drilling in the arctic wildlife refuge. environmentalists arguet it needs be preserved, industry advocates said it should be open you can follow our full coverage of

and you can follow our full coverage of the democratic national convention online. we'll have up to the minute stories on the speakers and dispatches from our reporters and correspondents covering this unprecedented convention in the era of covid-19. all that and more is on our web site, www.pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. we will be back at 8:00 pm eastern with our special live coverage of the first night of the democratic national convention here on pbs. i'm judy woodruff. thanks for watching, we'll see you shortly. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> since our beginning, our business has been people, and their financial wellbeing. that mission gives us purpose, and a way forward. today, and always.

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hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour." here's what's coming up. >> the people of israel trust president trump to make the right decisions that are in the best interests of israel's security and prosperity. >> i speak with president trump's right-hand man and son-in-law jared kushner about the landmark israel/uae peace deal and election politics. we get details of the plan with anwar gargash, united arab emerits minister for foreign affairs. what in the world of foreign machinery policy and beyond. and finally --