captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, october 18: the presidential candidates make their appeals to voters in the final weeks of the campaign. ongoing hostilities in the nagorno-karabakh dispute. and we continue our roads to election 2020 series from the state of ohio. next on "pbs newshour weekend." >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl andhilip milstein family. barbara hope zuckerberg. the leonard and norma klorfine foundation.

charles roselum. 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.consumercellular.tv. additional support has been provided by: and by the corpotion for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thank you for joining us. we are continuing our "roads to election 2020" series this sunday from ohio. here in the capital of columbus and across the buckeye state--

early voting is already underway. and as we are seeing in many states, the turnout is already high and may reach record- breaking levels. ohio is also experiencing a resurgence of coronavirus cases and we'll have the second of our two-part series on how cities here are coping as federal relief funds run out. our ohio reporting is coming up righafter the news summary. the presidential candidates both began today with church services as they enter the final weeks of the 2020 campaign. former vice president joe biden attended mass near his home in delaware as he does almost every sunday. >> mr. president step right there. >> sreenivasan: president donald trump-- who does not regularly attend church-- went to the international church of las vegas. thpresident is on a western states campaign swing after rallies in michigan and wisconsin last night. in michigan, the president attacked democratic governor gretchen whitmer's coronavirus policies.

whitmer was the target of a kidnapping terror plot earlier this month. >> you've got to get your governor to open up your state, okay? ( cheers ) and get your schools open. get your schools open, 'cause schools have to be open, right? >> lock her up! >> lock them all up. ( cars honking ) >> sreenivasan: at a drive in event in north carolina this afternoon, former vice president biden again criticed the president's response to the coronavirus pandemic. >> on friday, we saw the highest number of new cases in one day since july. in the last two days, worst day since july. yet the other night trump said at one of his rallie "we've turned the corner."

my grandfather would say this guy's gone around the bend if he thinks we turned the corner. ( cars honking ) >> sreenivasan: in washington, d.c., house speaker nancy pelosi said this morning that talks with the trump administration on new covid-19 relief spending continue but said to pass a bill before the election there will have to be agreement on the language in the next 48 hours. >> they took out 55%f the language that we had there for testing and tracing. and the tracing part is so important, because communities of color have been disproportionately affected by this. so, on this subject where we have agreement, we don't have agreement in the language yet, but i'm hopeful. >> sreenivasan: bolivians began voting today to elect a new leader following last year's ouster of former president, evo morales. the front runners include luis arce, who was finance minister in the morales administration and carlos mesa, a centrist and

former president from 2003-2005. today's election is a redo of the 2019 vote that saw socialist president, evo morales win-- only for the results to be annulled amid allegations of fraud. the country erupted in violence forcing morales to flee, ending his almost 14-year rule. an interim government has been in power ever since. but a win for arce could see morales return to bolivia. results are not expected to be released today and polls indicate there may be a runoff vote. in thailand today, thousands of anti-government demonstrators protested in the country's capital for a fifth consecutive day, defying a ban on such gatherings. the protesters are calling for the prime minister to resign and reform of the monarchy. thailand's current prime minister, prayuth chan-ocha, a former military officer, rose to power following a coup in 2014. he secured a second term in office in last year's disputed election. protestors charge the prime minister rigged the 2019 election, an accusation he

denies. today, the prime minister called for talks with the demonstrators despite more arrests. there were at least a dozen other rallies across the untry. iran's government marked the end of the decade-long united nations arms embargo today with e country's foreign minister javad zarif calling it a" momentous day." the embargo barred iran from purchasing foreign weapons and expired under the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal with six world powers. president trump pulled out of the nuclear agreement in 2018. in august, the u.n. security council defeated a u.s. attempt to extend the arms sanctions. today secretary of state mike pompeo tweeted that the u.s. i"" prepared to use domestic authorities to sanction individuals or entities" if they sell arms to iran. iran is currently suffering a severe economic crisis and the worst outbreak of covid-19 cases in the middle east. for more international and national news visit

pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: new clashes have erupted in the contested region of nagorno-karabakh. the fighting between azerbaijani and armenian forces has been going on for nearly three weeks there, despite efforts of a russian-brokered cease fire last weekend. the destruction has swept through this region with devastating force, and is eroding assurances that have held for nearly 30 years. special correspondent simon ostrovsky has been reporting in the region with support from the pulitzer center and has the latest. a warning: some of the images in this segment are disturbing. >> reporter: the war over the nagorno-karabakh enclave has >> reporter: ethnic armenians won control of this region in a bitter and bloody war between the former soviet republics of armenia and azerbaijan that broke out as the soviet union disintegrated.

they cemented their rule over these mountains, declaring independence and forging overland links with armenia. azerbaijan doesn't yet rule the mountains, but in this new war, it rules the sky with an arsenal of sophisticated weaponry purchased with its oil wealth. it's a war in which you never see your enemy face to face. ethnic-armenian forces are left to warily scan the sky searching for the next suicide drone or guided missile. >> ( translated ): it's a plane! it's a plane! it's not safe here! the same thing happened yesterday. we were hit with bombs, some kind of smerch rockets or artillery. i don't really know, i'm a doctor, i don't know these weapons very well. ( explosion ) see? >> reporter: here in martakert, a military hospital was destroyed in a strike on wednesday as staff removed bodies for transportation

homewards. two medics were injured. this town, like other parts of karabakh, has remained under fire despite a cease fire that was brokered by russia last week. russia once ruled over both armenia and azerbaijan, but lately, there is a new power player in the region: turkey. it has supplied its ally azerbaijan with an arsenal of killer drones and sent in syrian mercenaries on baku's behalf. ankara's involvement is evoking memories of the 1915 armenian genocide. marten sargiyan fears the worst. >> ( translated ): genocide for us. they don't want us here. >> reporter: for almost three weeks sargiyan has called this cellar underneath a kindergarten in the town of martuni his home. he shares it with several other pensioners, one of whom was hit with shrapnel when his guard booth was destroyed by a bomb. here on the fringes of karabakh unlike in the big cities, the

cease fire never came into effect, the war never ended. the men here are frail and old, they say they hope for peace, but they're also ready for war. >> ( translated ): half an hour ago there were explosions 100 meters from here. we want peac we want our sons and grandchildren to come here... to be near me. that's what i want. >> reporter: martuni has been transformed into a ghost town. the streets are pockmarked and deserted. the sound of distant artillery fire hangs in the air. yet, violetta tumanyan refuses to flee. "my son is on the frontline," she says. "if we stay here, our sons will fight harder knowing they need to defend us.

further back from the frontline in the town of lachin, we meet the owner of a supermarket. stepan sargsyan lived in los angeles for 20 years before deciding to plant roots along the only functioning road connecting karabakh to the republic of armenia. >> ( translated ): on friday, a bridge here was targeted with an air strike in an attempt to sever that link. >> reporter: he tells us it has become more difficult to fill store shelves with dairy products and meat since the conflict began. >> it was a very, very big attack. we didn't expect it to be this bad. i didn't think that the world would stand by and look at it, and make some regular standard statement and then forget about it. i say that it will be fine. they won't win. but let's hope that god will help us, that ends up being true. >> reporter: districts like lachin are at the center of azerbaijan's grievances with armenians.

when ethnic-armenian forces won the first war they didn't just take control of the mostly armenian karabakh region, they also took over seven surrounding districts of azerbaijan, forcing out the ethnic-azeri population. armenians, too, had to flee areas that remained under azerbaijan's control. karabakh's representative to the united states, robert avetisyan, told me these azerbaijani districts, which are now largely depopulated, serve as an important security buffer for nagorno karabakh, which armenians call artsakh. do you think there is a scenario in which nagorno karabakh will ever trade land for recognition with azerbaijan as part of a lasting peace settlement? >> whatever is the republic of artsakh today is even less geographically and historically than historic artsakh, which was part of armenia for millennia. >> reporter: so that's a "no?" >> that is the clear understanding that the security

of the republic of artsakh is in the hand of the political leadership and the defense army of the republic of artsakh. >> reporter: azerbaijan, too, has taken an uncompromising stance, demanding all the territory controlled by armenians within it's internationally recognized borders be returned to its control. >> ( translated ): but, at the same time, we have proposed that in the future the armenian community and the azerbaijani community should peacefully coexist there. the overall death toll continues to rise. according to armia, 633 soldiersnd 34 civilians have died from its side. azerbaijan reports 43 of its civilians have been killed, but isn't releasing figures for military casualties. judging by the grim footage coming out from the battlefield, it, too, is sustaining heavy losses. while azerbaijan has made some modest territorial gains, it

hasn't swept the board as it's military leadership had originally hoped. a temporary cease fire was agreed to on saturday, but the two sides appear to be locked in a grueling war with no end in sight. >> sreenivasan: tonight we continue our series of reports from here in ohio on how cities are coping with funding uncertainties in the wake of covid-19. it's been more than six months after the cares t provided some fding for cities and states to cover covid-19-related costs. negotiations over a new relief bill are bogged down-- in part over whether cities and states need more money. in the city of lancaster, about miles southeast of the state capital, the covid9 pandemic caused a sharp decline in tax revenue. but even before the public health crisis hit, lancaster was already rough financial shape.

( siren ) nine out of ten times the lancaster fire department gets a call, it's for medical reasons. so when covid-19 hit, chief dave ward's men and women were on the front line and already thin resources were stretched even further. >> at one time i think i had six or seven firefighters off with diagnosed covid. so, that put our overtime through the roof. >> sreenivasan: by july, the department blew through its budget and reduced the number of firefighters on duty each day. >> we're an essential service. it's one of the basic tenets of living in a city. and so, we were here to protect the people, but we just didn't have the resources to pay our firefighters. >> there's a giant wet blanket over city finances that is keeping everything down. >> sreenivasan: republican david scheffler is the mayor of lancaster, and a retired accountant himself. to help close the budget gap, this city of 40,000 people will receive about $2.7 million as part of the federal cares act. that's about 2% of the city's overall annual budget.

and by law, that money all has to be used this year and for covid-related purposes. but even before the pandemic hit, the city had not figured out a steady way to replace millions in lost revenue from the state of ohio over the last decade. mayor scheffler says they've cut costs as much as possible. >> we're down to the nubs. i mean, at some point you're down where you can't cut any more. anthat's-- that's the place where we are right now. >> sreenivasan: lancaster is not planning on any new federal stimulus money. what they are planning to do to stay within their budget is to cut services like fire and police. the only way to avoid that is by raising revenue. that means raising taxes. this is a pretty conservative area. not many people are real psyched about the idea of mo taxes. >> nope, it is not a popular subject. >> sreenivasan: how do you change their mind? >> facts and data. >> sreenivasan: brad hutchinson

has spent his whole life in lancaster, owns five businesses here, including this true value equipment rental store. he's also helping run a non- partisan campaign to ask voters to approve a less than half of 1% increas the local income tax. it's the city's third try asking residents to voluntarily raise more revenue. over the last year, voters have already rejected the same tax increase twice. >> nobody likes more tax. i pay a lot of tax. but what i like even less is not having a police and a fire department who can respond in case of an emergency. >> sreenivasan: hutchinson points out that as the population has grown, police in lancaster do about twice as many runs as they did 40 years ago, while the number of officers has only slightly increased. the fire department does more than three times as many runs and has fewer people than it did 40 yrs ago. >> you can't spend what you don't have. so, they have to understand this is not a, this isn't a nonsense request.

if we don't get this done, it's going to hurt, and it's going to hurt bad for a long time. >> sreenivasan: engine house number one is a 120-year-old building that was originally designed for horse-drawn fire engines. and despite some modern upgrades, the station has its quirks. >> this has got sprifrom a model t ford. you step on it... >> sreenivasan: fire chief dave ward says the department has already cut what it can, including a round of layoffs back in 2011. >> if it doesn't pass and they asked me to cut budget, it's personnel. and we would at least have to shut down one engine house and possibly two to make ends meet. and then i think the people would realize, how did we get there? >> i understand the city is in need, i truly do, but at this point in time, it's just not right. i don't have more money to giv to the city right now. and, to be honest with you, i consider myself one of the lucky ones. >> sreenivasan: floyd frye has lived in lancaster for 15 years and was furloughed from his job as a warehouse supervisor for six weeks eaier this year.

he says thcity needs to tighten its be, even ithat means reduced public safety services. >> i've lost my job before in my life. i get it. you know, i don't want that to happen to anybody, but we're in a situation where we're going to have to make some really tough decisions. and some of those decisions might include sacrifice. and i understand the sacrifice, at the end of the day, younow, when you're talking about fire and police, it might mean life >> sreenivasan: how do you convince someone around here that saying it's just gotten so much harder to make ends meet, is this the right time to ask for a new tax? >> and it's harder for cities to make ends meet. we can sympathize with that, but we're facing the same issue that a homeowner or a wage earner is facing. >> sreenivasan: and while the income tax levy will be decided by lancaster voters in november, mayor scheffler still thinks there's a need for additional federal help. >> our position is, sheesh, you've bailed out everybody else. you bailed out the airlines, the

hospitals, small businesses, but t we are suffering from lost revenue, basically because the government shut everything down. >> sreenivasan: while "yes for lancaster" signs compete f front yard real estate with every other kind of political sign, and voters will have the final say, mayor scheffler insists that in lancaster, this is not political. but he says that if it doesn't pass, it will be painful. >> city services will have to suffer. i mean, there's no choice. we can only provide what we have money to do. >> sreenivasan: just a few weeks ago, and a couple of hours north east of here, president donald trump and former vice-president joe biden, squared off in their first, and so far only, debate at case western reserve university in cleveland. ohio has historically been the quintessential swing state, and i recently sat down th paul

beck, professor emeritus of political science at ohio state university. i began by asking him why this swing state was not so close in 2016. the last presidential election, ohio didn't seem nearly as much of a battleground state as it has in the past. >> that's right. >> sreenivasan: why is it heated up again now? >> well, i think it's come back to normal. clinton was not a particularly good candidate for ohioans, and that was pretty clear. and you can see the evidence of that. she lost support from what obama had had in rural areas, in appalachia. there was lower turnout in the cleveland area, largely among african-americans. and so, there were all of these hits to the democratic ticket in 2016 that i don't think are going to be there. in fact,he polls are showing they're not there in 2020. biden, i think, appeals both to urban ohioans, you know, kind of

white workers, males a females, more to females than the males. he appeals to people in the rural areas and small towns-- not that he's going to win a majority there, but what he will do is pick up maybe an added 10% or 15% above what clinton was able to do back in 2016. >> sreenivasan: and yore already seeing a tremendous amount of energy at the polls. >> absolutely. now, you never know at that means. is it just regular voters who are moving up their votes? >> sreenivasan: but don't want to be in the long line on election day. >> yeah. and, you know, there could be some of that. but i think the estimates are that maybe two thirds of ohio voters will vote absentee. some of them gng to the early voting sites, which is also an absentee vote, but it's an absentee in-person vote and that's very different than it was in 2016. and i think we'll never go back. i think people will get used to absentee voting and they'll like it.

so, i think we're seeing, you know, really kind of a change, a major change in how people vote. >> sreenivasan: here we are in an important year, and the census counting has been shortened. these are big consequences for the next ten years for this state. >> in ohio, the rural areas are losing population. the urban areas,nd particularly the suburbs, are gaining in population that may get registered in the census, but it may not. and i don't think we really know for surehat's going to happen. ohio, under ordinary circumstances, would lose a seat. and that then means that every district has to be redrawn. and the question is, who redraws the districts? and we've changed through several ballot initiatives how we actually do the redistricting. and it may well be that it'll be more balanced than it was ten years ago when the republican legislature and republican

apportionment board really was the one that controlled the redistricting and ohio was heavily gerrymandered. >> sreenivasan: so, what are you watching for on election night? >> i'm going to go to bed earlier than i normally do, because i don't think things are going to be resolved on election night. and we're really talking about, i think, 13 states and two congressional districts that are battlegrounds. now, about half of the battlegrounds are in states where there are going to be absentee votes that are cast after the day before the election that may not get counted on election day or least folded in to those totals. ohio is one of them. so, in ohio, if an absentee ballot comes in after election day, it can still be counted for up to ten days. and then, to top that off, ohio doesn't release its official results until november the 24th, three weeks later. and, of course, if the election is really close nationwide and

ohio is a pivotal state, we just have to wait for that result. ohio is unusual. most states are going to count their ballots earlier than that. but there are a few that are going to be late counts. >> sreenivasan: paul beck, thanks so much. >> thank you. >> sreenivasan: that's all for this edition of "pbs newshour weekend." for the latest news updates visit pbs.org/newshour. i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching. 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.

barbara hope zuckerberg. the leonard and norma klorfine foundation. 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 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 cellular. 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.

>> explore new worlds and new ideas through programs like this, made available for everyone through contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. (mournful folk music plays) >> the centrality of the civil war in our lives and in the meaning of who we are as americans, we were able to touch a chord, and the response is based on that. >> the response to the civil war was utterly shocking and overwhelming. people were talking about it everywhere. >> of all of ken's films, i think it's t one that people remember the most and embrace the most.