captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, a damng report-- new york's attorney general finds governor andrew cuomo sexually harassed multiple women. he denies the claims, defendin his actions, while president biden and others call on him to resign. then, a new push by the biden administration to help those facing evictions; targeting those most at risk of losing their homes. and, wildfire inequality- how worsening wildfires in california's wine country threaten low-wage farmworkers. >> grapes don't like smoke. in the past, certain wineries might be granted access to their vineyards even if they fell in

evacuation zones. workers might find themselves trying to save the grapes near wildfires while potentially endangering themselves. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life, well-planned. our no-contract plans give you as much-- or as little-- talk, text and data as you want, and our u.s.-based customer service team is on hand help. to learn more, go to consumercellular.tv

>> the john s. and james l. knight foundation. fostering informed and engaged communities. more at kf.org. >> 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: we have two big stories leading tonight: the biden administration moves to help renters in targeted areas facing eviction, after a national moratorium expired. we will look at what that means in a moment. first, we turn our focus to new york, where the state's attorney general accuses governor andrew cuomo of sexually harassing multiple women. it has sparked a cascade of calls for his resignation and launched an impeachment investigation. >> the independent investigation has concluded, that governor andrew cuomo sexually harassed multiple women. and in doing so violated federal and state law. >> woodruff: it was the new york state attorney general, democrat letitia james, who announced the damning findings. her investigators today published a 165-page report, which concluded that governor

cuomo did sexually harass “a number of current and former new york state employees.” the report says cuomo did so through “unwelcome and non- consensual touching”-- and by making “offensive comments of a suggestive and sexual nature.” it also says that cuomo's conduct “extended to... members of the public.” >> this investigation has revealed conduct that corrodes the very fabric and character of our state government and shines light on injustice that can be present at the highest levels of government. >> woodruff: investigators wrote about cuomo's conduct toward 11 women, and included some episodes that had not been reported previously, including the harassment of a state trooper assigned to his security detail. the instances of non-consensual touching included unwanted hugs and kisses, but also the groping

of women's buttocks and breasts. employment attorney anne clark is one of the attorney general's lead investigators. >> we fod all 11 women to be credible. there was corroboration to varying degrees, probably at the >> woodruff: another investigator, joon kim, spoke to their findings about the toxic work environment around the governor. >> the executive chamber's culture of fear and flirtation, intimidation and intimacy, abuse and affection, created a work environment ripe for harassment. >> woodruff: in a video message today, cuomo argued that he has long had a habit of giving other people hugs and kisses, but responded this way, to the report's findings about groping and inappropriate comments. >> i never touched anyone inappropriately or made inappropriate sexual advances. i am 63 years old.

i've lived my entire adult life in public view, that is just not who i am. >> woodruff: still, reaction from other new york political leaders was swift. the state's two u.s. senators, majority leader chuck schumer and senator kirsten gillibrand, both democrats, reiterated their calls on cuomo to resign. before today, president biden had said that he, too, would call for cuomo's resignation-- if the attorney general's investigation confirmed the allegations against cuomo. mr. biden weighed in, late today: >> i think he should resign. i understand that the state legislature may decide to impeach. i don't know that for a fact. >> woodruff: cuomo is also the subject of an impeachment investigation in the state assembly, over this and other scandals. attorney general james pledged today to provide the assembly with any relevant evidence from

her investigation. we turn now to karen dewitt, new york state public radio's capitol bureau chief, in albany. karen dewitt, welcome to the "newshour". just how come -- >> thanks, judy. >> woodruff: absolutely. how compelling is the evidence that the attorney general presents in this report? >> well, you know, i found all of these allegations pretty compelling, and most of them we knew about when they first became public late in march, i covered them, i talked to some of the women, but i have to say all in one place, the way this report put them out, it was deeply shocking to see all of these allegations that were pretty well corroborated, and what one really struck me was is this incident to have the state trooper because we hadn't heard of it. she was pulled out of the ranks by cuomo, chosen to be the

boddia guard. usually the superintendent of the state police does that so that was highly unusual. according to the report, she was subjected to inappropriate touching, questions and advise from him act getting a girlfriend and questions about why wasn't she wearing a dress. all of that combined was really devastating. >> woodruff: and you said much of it is corroborated, so there's evidence in terms of what other people said to back up these allegations? >> yeah. well, i know, in this highly politicized environment, you know, people might say, well, the attorney general, she's just saying this, but they had thousands of pages of documents, e-mails, texts, photos, and in many cases they had corroborating witness in the case of the state trooper, there were corroborating witnesses of other troopers. so they definitely did a very solid job of backing up all of these allegations and concluding that they believe them. >> woodruff: and karen dewitt, governor cuomo came back with a

pre-recorded statement in which he very vo siffously -- vociferously denied all this. said he learned to hug and kiss people from their parents and how he has been all his entire life. how does this square with what the attorney general is saying? >> i think it'st odds but i think governor cuomo hopes -- just a little year ago he was on television during the day as the de facto leader of the nation in the covid pandemic, the first big wave of the pandemic, and i think he's saying that's the real me, you saw me on television every day. i am not this guyi am not a serial sexual harasser, and i think that's what he was trying to convey with this pre-taped message. >> woodruff: tell us where this goes from here. this report with all this damning information from the attorney general, what happens next? >> well, i think it goes without saying from what the governor said he is not resigning.

he says he still has a lot of work to do, but there is an assembly impeachment inquiry happening, and late today the assembly speaker said that is going to be expedited. the assembly speaker who previously did not call cuomo to resign is saying he lost confidence in cuomo and cuomo is not fit to be in office. also albany county d.a. david sowers announced today, he confirmed there's an ongoing criminal investigation and is asking victims to come forward. so if that were to come to fruition d the governor were to be indicted, i think that would be more very serious trouble for him. >> woodruff: do you have a sense of which one of these processes would move more quickly? are we looking at something that's going to take months and months or what? what do you hear? >> i think sooner than later. seemed after the first allegations came owl, things were dragging, but i think things will now go at pretty

lightning speed here. >> woodruff: does he have defenders? >> well, his family, so far, has defended him and as one would hope that your family would, but nobody immediately comes to mind right now who is defending him, frankly. so he's really all alone on this issue and, in some ways, i think he's trying to turn that on his head and say, look, if all the elected officials are against me, i must be doing something right. he also said i'm a victim of cancel culture, so he mig be able to turn around the fact that he's really all alone now on this. >> woodruff: watchic it closely, karen dewitt, new york state public radio the capitol bureau chief, thank you very much. >> woodruff: karen hinton was questioned by the new york attorney general's investigators as part of their probe. she came forward earlier this year, accusing cuomo of touching her inappropriately in 2000, when she was an aide to him during s time as secretary of housing and urban development. and karen hinton joins me now.

it's very good to have you with us, ms. hinton. tell us a little more about what happened, exactly. it was around the year 2000. remind us when it was, what happened. >> the end of 2000, we had done a media event in los angeles, and, after the event, he asked me to come up to his hotel room to talk about the day, what we would do the next day. and i agreed to come up and see him. i had been in hotel rooms with him before with other staff. there was no one there. the lights had been dimmed. i was a little concerned about that but i took a seat and we did talk about the media event. and then the discussion became a bit more personal about marriages, mine and his, and i decided, okay, i really would like to leave, and i stood up, and he embraced me a little bit too tight, too long, and i felt

that he was aroused, and i left the room. we never talked about it, and i never told anyone except one of my best friends, who i called that night to tell her what had happened. but, you know, this was a long time ago, and i'm from an older generation of women, and i didn't really think that if i told someone i might lose my career, i would hurt my career, so i didn't. and praise to those eleven women who did. >> woodruff: so you did sak with the investigators, you shared your story with them? they didt include it as one of the complaintants in this filing, but you said they did listen to you. >> oh, yes, they were very interested inalking about his pattern of behavior over time, and i've known andrew cuomo for a long time, 25 years, and this report describes him to a t.

and i was shocked but i wasn't shocked. and i think that the assembly is riht, to go ahead and fast forward their impeachment inquiries because i think he probably won't resign, even though the president has called for him to resign. and i think the a.g.'s office were very interested in that pattern over time. >> woodruff: when you say what's in this report describes him to a t,hat do you mean by that? >> well, i think the flirting, the intimidation, the nipulation, the need to control, the need to scream and holler and get angry at people unnecessarily, that was the andrew cuomo that i know, you know, over these two decades. that is a pattern that he's

always performed, and it's been concerning to me for a very long time, and i wish i had spoken out more about it, but it wasn't ever in this kind of context. and i'm glad these eleven women did that because i think they really empower other women to do it, not just in politics, but in a range of fields where women face social harament, in the news media, in the entertainment, but also if you work at a grocery store it happens, if you work in a doctor's office, it happens, a restaurant, a law firm, wherever, it happens because it's so pervasive. >> woodruff: what role were you in -- you said you observed him over several decades. were you working in his office or were you in and out in a work capacity? >>i was, of course, for a time, in his office wn i was his press secretary in washington, d.c., and then, after that, i maintained a

professional relationship as well as a personal relationship over time because i did marry someone who worked for him at h.u.d. and then later worked for him in the governor's office. so i had opportunities to be around him and see him over time. >> woodruff: why do you think that more women -- and you've just alluded to this about how difficult it is to come forwardish -- but why do you think more women, more people who work for him haven't spoken out publicly in the intervening years? >> i think it's really difficult. it's very hard to speak up. we've been basically programmed to shut up and be silent, women have, over the years. and, so, i think it's hard to break that pattern. i think that the #metoo movement did a lot to help empower women, and, so, we need to keep that

movement going. and what i really want to see is not just for women to speak out, but for men to act right. it's just not that hard to treat women with respect and as professionals, and that's all that these eleven women really want is to be treated with respect and professionally, and we don't need an attorney general to help a man do that. >> woodruff: well, it's an important, certainly, set of developments today and karen hinton, thank you so much for sharing your story with us. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> woodruff: the biden administration is announcing a new, more limited, eviction moratorium tonight.

more than six million people are behind on their rent. and there has been great concern that too many could face life- changing choices. the supreme court had struck down a ban that finally expired this past weekend. but today, president biden confirmed the centers for disease control would issue a new order. democrats on the hill who had pressed hard for a new moratorium celebrated. that included senator cori bush, who once faced homelessness herself, and congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez. >> it also goes to show that the typical laws of physics that we think about in politics. there's no way you can get it done when congress is out on recess, there's no way we can get it done. on friday they said fat chance, on saturday they said you're doing this in vein, on sunday

they said hmm maybe we can do something about this. and you know lo and behold, just a couple days later thanks to the people power and direct action, and honestly just the stubbornness of a better world that we can get it done. >> woodruff: stephanie sy has the latest on the breaking news tonight. >> sy: judy, the new moratorium will limit how many people could be evicted. and it's said to be aimed at helping renters in areas that are especially hard hit by covid. in addition, congress already has authorized $46 billion that could be used for rental assistance to help those in trouble and facing debt. but just a small fraction of that money, roughly three billion dollars, has been allocated and is making its way down to renters and their landlords. a number of advocacy groups, and a growing number of progressive voices in congress, had pressured president biden to enact a new moratorium and fight for it in court if need be.

the president said today he is not yet sure if it will survive legal challenges. let's get some reaction to the news and take a deeper look at what people are facing on the ground. zach neumann is with the colorado covid eviction project and joins me now. zach, thank you so much for your time. so assuming this temporary eviction moratorium can be extended, what will this mean for people you work with? >> yeah, thanks for having me on and good to be here to talk about the moratorium. the extension of the moratorium will immediately help families in our community. it means lawyers representing tenants at risk of eviction have real defenses to use in court, and more importantly means that the $46 billion allocated by the biden administration has the opportunity reach renters before it's too late. >> reporter: okay, but there is word, zach, that not everyone would get relief from this extension of the moratorium. what kind of pressures are your

clients dealing with since the original temporary moratorium expired on saturday? >> yeah, we've seen historic number of intakes overthe past three days. this is e-mails, this is phone calls, this is referrals from our community partners. we've never seen anything like this. presumably, this moratorium would be extended to cover folks in denver, in colorado where we work or at least a good chunk of the state and thateans immediately we would be able to provide those folks with a real defense in court and process their rental applications in a way that means hopefully that money gets there before the eviction cae has a chance to make its way through the court system. >> reporter: are you talking to clients who are really concerned about homelessness at this point, that really could see their families and children turned out on the streets? >> absolutely, and, i mean, it's happened throughout the year and it's happened during the moratorium that was in place. i had a client last year who was evicted. her husba was going through

hospice care, end of life care. her 12-year-old son was trying to go to school on zoom, and we didn't have enough money to pay the rental assistance balance, this was before the federal program was in place, and she ws evicted and forced to move into hotel. there are real numbers behind this. when it happens it destroys a family. there's not a lot left for them and crates more challenges. so the work towards the moratorium and to extend the moratorium and to move in money faster makes a difference for the families in our community. >> reporter: and they're not necessarily any safer in the long term here. scotus, the supreme court, has already ruled against the c.d.c.'s authority to enact these temporary eviction moratoriums. so are you expecting that this just buys time? >> you know, it's hard to say what scotus will do. i think what is so important here is that even two or three months makes an enormous difference for the folks we represent. it gives them a chance to put in

an emergency rental assistance application, it gives the states and counties a chance to process that, it gives payment a chance to arrive. leal, when you're dealing with the eviction time line which is incredibly fast moving, even a couple of days or weeks can make a really big difference, if that money gets there before the judge has a chance to rule. so while this may not be long-lasting, even a few more days here really really really may make a difference for our clients. >> reporter: we are hearing a lot of stories, and you referred to this, from renters and small landlords that applied for assistance and it's taking a long time to get relief checks out. why has it been so hard to get the funds to people who need it? >> a few reasons. one if way congress allocated the money means the application process can be lengthy are. it does take time. tenants have to proved documents, landlords have to provide documents, there's a review pross associated with that and on the back endpen that the cck actually has to go out the door. that's part of it. the second hart part is states

and counties haven't had to do this at this scale maybe ever. so you don't have the staff, the system to move that money quickly. so a lot of what we're seeing in state and county partners that are working as hard as i can, over time, it takes time to get the applications through the system. >> reporter: so how do you advise clients that might be enrolled in rental assistance or waiting to be enrolled and are worried about getting evicted before their application is approved? >> so there are a few things that really make sense here. the laws vary by state, the jurisdictions are different. there are free legal services available in your community through federal legal services. look it up, reach out to an attorney. talking to someone who knows the process can really make a difference. that's your first stop if you've lready applied for rental assistance. the second thing is talk to your landlord. let your landlord know you've applied for money, that federal funds are available, that mon where is on the way. knowing that the check is in the mail may change your landlord's

mind and buy some time in the process. >> reporter: zach neumann with the colorado covid eviction project. thank you so much for your time. >> no, thanks for having me tonight. appreciate it. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, mandates for covid-19 vaccinations spread to more of the country, as the delta variant surges. new york became the nation's first big city to require proof of shots for indoor dining, theaters and gyms. tyson foods ordered its 120,000 employees to get vaccinated. it's one of the first big employers of frontline workers to do so. and, microsoft said starting in september, anyone entering its buildings must be vaccinated. also today, major u.s. automakers announced that unionized workers must return to wearing masks, tomorrow. in florida, republican governor

ron desantis rejected any new restrictions today. he spoke in miami, after news that covid hospitalizations in the state hit a record for the third straight day. >> we are not shutting down. we are going to have schools open. we are protecting every floridian's job in this state. we are protecting people's small businesses. these interventions have failed time and time again throughout this pandemic, not just in the united states but abroad. they have not stopped the spread, particularly with delta, which is even more transmissable. >> woodruff: president biden today criticized governors who have blocked vaccination and masking requirements. he said, "if you aren't going to help, please get out of the way." a pentagon police officer was stabbed to death today at a transit station outside the pentagon. the building was put on lockdown for part of the day. it was widely reported that officers shot and killed the suspect at the scene. there was no word on a possible motive.

in afghanistan, the taliban accelerated its gains, moving to capture a provincial capital for the first time in years. insurgents gained control of nearly all of lashkar gah in helmand province, and desperate civilians tried to flee. >> ( translated ): i am leaving. everyone has left. there is bombing from the air and taliban are on the ground. >> woodruff: meanwhile, an explosion in kabul apparently targeted the acting defense minister. he was unhurt, but at least six others were killed, including four gunmen. a belarusian exile was found hanged today, near his home in ukraine's capital, kyiv. vitaly shishov led a group that helps people fleeing the authitarian government in belarus. ukrainian police said they're investigating the death as a possible murder staged to look like a suicide. a major forest fire is burning

on the outskirts of athens, greece tonight, forcing thousands to flee their homes. water-dropping tanker planes and helicopters attempted today to drown the flames. huge clouds of smoke rose as the fire spread. the fire is feeding off one of the country's worst heat wave in decades. on wall street, stocks made modest gains as investors kept an eye on how new, pandemic restrictions might affect the economy. the dow jones industrial average was up 278 points to close at 35,116. the nasdaq rose 80 points. the s&p 500 added 36. and, at the summer olympics, an american star returned to competition. gymnast simone biles won bronze on the balance beam after sitting out other events to focus on her mental health. and in pole vaulting, american chris nilsen won silver, while sweden took the gold. stil to come on the newshour: how the infrastructure deal

hopes to boost broadband across the u.s. why wildfis hit western families unequally. a sculptor changes perspective, marveling viewers for decades. and much more. >> woodruff: the senate is debating a trillion dollar bipartisan infrastructure bill this week that would invest in vital public works projects throughout the country. one key portion expands broadband internet access for millions of americans lisa desjardins explains. >> desjardins: among the larger single pieces in this bill is $65 billion set aside for high- speed broadband, long seen as an area with some big gaps and disparities. some 30 million people in the

u.s. either have no internet or get it at speeds too slow to access the modern web. another 100 million have some access but don't subscribe to broadband, many because they can't afford it. this deal addresses both, with large amounts to put broadband in new communities and 14 billion to help with affordability. we turn now to nicol turner lee, senior fellow of governance studies and director of the center for technology and innovation at the brookings institution. nicol, tell us, who are we talking about in terms of americans who don't have high speed internet and what does it actually mean in their lives? >> the pandemic has definitely demonstrated that being connected mattered, right, whether you were a school-age child that needed to be online to get access to learning, whether you are remotely working, whether you're somebody who could not go into a hospital and it was important for you to see your doctor via tele-health, having a connection mattered. i think the infrastructure bill,

lisa, is telling us we've got to findways so we can break through the equitable aspects of this, the affordability of broadband, where it's deployed, and make sure no one is ever left offline again. >> reporter: what do you think this money can actually do? i hear generational shift being said at the capitol a lot. is this a generational shift in terms of technology in this country potentially? >> well, it's a generational shift in the form of including broadband as one of the critical infrastructures in this country, right? we normally think of infrastructure as electricity, as water systems, transit, and now we're actually seeing that a data infrastructure, a communications infrastructure matters. so i think going forward, that is a huge generational shift from when we actually saw the newdale era prrams that came out to have the great depression. with that being the case, i think we're also realizing this technology is not just about the haves and have nots, it's about people leveraging the technology

to apply for jobs, to get access to employment and medical care opportunities and schooling. so the question coming out to have the bill is are we going to be able to solve the some of the big things it's going to do. universe access, who has access to broadband, are they redlined out of having access, are they included in areas that will be easy to deploy it like rural communities? the question of equity, how do we make sure people have equal access to adopt the technology and use it for the very purposes we've discussed? and i think affordability. people are making hard decisions now between broadband and bread and i think what the bill is actually going to do is allow some leeway through some to have the incentives towards subsidy toward the broadband bills people are carrying so they don't have to make the hard choices. right now people need to be online to actually survive and i think that's going to be a big part of economic recovery. .>> reporter: you mentioned rural communities. one to have the groups that has trouble with internet

connectivity is farmers. our team reached out, spoke with a wisconsin farmers union representative and this is what she told us about the problem for her farmers -- >> it's caused great concern, especially this last year. even with things like getting their kids on the internet so they can attend school virtually, but it also has a financial impact on the bottom line for farmers because they need to be up online in order to sell directly, if they're doing direct market sales. we'vegot members whose businesses have -- new businesses have been hampered by their lack of broadband access. >> reporter: nicol, what are the economic effects for this country of having such a spotty internet map now? >> i think that is a great question. having done this over 20 years, i think part of what we're seeing is we need to make the investments but we need the data to know where we have to target them. the experiences of small farmers today, i mean, that i are

competing against larger farmers in the foot pripts their in, but in some cases they don't want to go to precision agriculture, which is the next wave of advanced technological use. they simply want to be able to order equipment. so i think it's a real cause when we have farmers and other local businesses that cannot get online because they have to be digitized in order to survive. so this bill, i think,le a louse some leeway to give recovery to them. >> reporter: farmers have a problem with access at all, but in the cities in this country, there's a huge problem with aformat. what do you think this bill could do about that? >> the bill is actually presenting a solution that is an american problem. on the rural side we know we'll have topographical challenges when it comes to connecting places where there are more cows than people. on the urban side, we need to work on competition. people should have a variety of choices of where they could actually access service. that's not always the case.

the only way you can reduce prices is if you make sure people can have a potpourri of choices when it comes to getting access to subjectle services. so given the fact that we have so many uses of technology right now to be able to move things remotely versus in person, it's so important that we address both the urban challenges and the rural but we address them together because together the country needs to actually move in a way that we have full connectivity. >> reporter: if this bill passes and becomes law in five years from now where tuning we'll be with this problem. >> in five years i hope we'll solve the digital divide that plagued the country prior to the pandemic. but if not i think we'll be one step closer to finding out how important it is for people to have access to 20th century resources. no longer can we rest upon the laurels of being in line. we need to make being online a reality because that's where society is going. >> reporter: nicol turner lee of the brookings institution. thank you so much.

>> woodruff: wildfire season is here. in california alone, fires have already burned more acres than at this time last ar. sonoma county, north of san francisco, where wine vineyards dot the landscape and tourism is a billion-dollar industry, wildfires are now part of daily life. stephanie sy is back with how it affects certain groups worse than others, part of our race matters series. >> sy: the tubbs firin 2017... the kincade in 2019... and last year's glass fire, which forced tens of thousands of evacuations in the midst of the pandemic. worsening wildfires in california's wine country seem to burn houses and hovels indiscriminately. but advocates say the workers

who toil in fields to produce some of the country's most expensive wines in the shadow of multimillion dollar homes, risk losing much more. >> ( translated ): as humans, we deserve to be treated as equals. >> sy: maria salinas was a farmworker in sonoma county for years. now, she advocates for the thousands of indigenous mexican and central american people living in the region -- populations who may find themselves especially vulnerable during wildfire season. for example, they may not understand emergency alerts and evacuation orders. >> ( translated ): when there are natural disasters, the announcemes don't get to this community because they're only in english or spanish. >> sy: spanish is not understood by many of the indigenous mexican and central american workers in the region. and even if they did speak it, a statewide audit after the 2017 fires revealed the county only sent emergency warnings in english. that has since changed. in recent years, salinas and

other organizers have had to make direct contact with indigenous community members to make sure people know fires are approaching. >> ( translated ): on the radio or facebook, they're saying that ople need to evacuate or go to a shelter. but these messages are never translated into indigenous languages. also, many indigenous people feel uncomfortable going to shelters because no one speaks their language. >> sy: even when they do get the message, there are additional concerns, especially for the some 40,000 undocumented immigrants in the county. >> ( translated ): they fear that immigraon authorities will ask for their documents or question them about their status. to live here as an iigrant without papers is very scary. >> sy: another vulnerability here is economic: the loss of work during wildfires can be devastating. and the fire season often coincides with the wine harvest. >> harvest season for farm workers is one of the most critical times for income generation during the entire

season. >> sy: alegria de la cruz is the director of the office of equity for sonoma county, which was created after it became apparent that last year's dual pandemic and wildfire crises had an outsized impact on latino, undocumented and indigenous people. she says farmworkers are protected by california's relatively strict labor laws, even if undocumented, but enforcement often lags. >> we have the strongest labor laws in the country and they're still not enough. we don't have the sufficient amount of enforcement resources to make those rights true. right to make them real. >> sy: advocates say, with another wildfire season upon them, not enough has been done to protect the workers who are the backbone of the wine country economy. grapes don't like smoke. in the past, certain wineries might be granted access to their vineyards even if they fell in evacuation zones. workers might find themselves trying to save the grapes near wildfires while potentially endangering themselves. >> ( translated ): when the fire

started coming, we were called into work. >> sy: anabel garcia has been a farmworker in sonoma for 20 years. she came face to face with wildfire in 2017 . >> ( translated ): they sent messages to the whole group who were responsible for harvesting grapes, so we had to go. we had red eyes and itchy throats from the smoke. >> sy: it sounds like you were working in an evacuation zone, did you know you were working in an evacuation zone? >> ( translated ): all we knew was that we were being called into work. we didn't have another option because during the harvest, this is our only income that we use to pay rent and our bills. >> sy: were you paid extra? >> ( translated ): no. you only receive a check for the hours that you've worked during emergencies like this. >> sy: in recent months, garcia worked with the local nonprofit north bay jobs with justice to survey dozens of farmworkers about their experiences during wildfires.

they came up with five demands to mitigate the impacts of the disasters on low-wage workers in sonoma county: multilingual messaging, disaster insurance, community safety observers, premium hazard pay, and clean bathrooms and water. but karissa kruse, president of the sonoma county winegrowers, says there are adequate protections for workers, and the fires also put growers in a difficult spot. >> when you talk about actual harvest, if our growers don't harvest a grape it's not that they are missing a couple of weeks or they didn't get to work as a farmer. it's that they get zero income. zero. >> sy: one estimate shows wine companies suffered losses as high as $3.7 billion during st year's wildfire season. >> the farmers can get through a few years of dealing with the financial impact. and then they lose the ranch. and at some point there is that breaking point that, you know, really impacts agriculture and potentially makes our family farming community, not be a family farming community. >> sy: but whether it's the

growers or government, anabel garcia wants to see more resources put toward workers safety and economic security. >> ( translated ): those who drink wine have no idea what it takes to make the wine, from planting to harvest. we don't have any kind of support. >> sy: and she believes the country's farmworkers have earned it. for the pbs newshour, i'm stephanie sy in sonoma county, california. >> woodruff: thiweek, the biden administration is sending its most senior official yet to addis ababa, the capital of ethiopia. u.s.-aid director samantha power is putting pressure on the ethiopian government and its nobel peace prize winning prime minister to alleviate a humanitarian crisis in the country's tigray region. but as nick schifrin reports,

the ethiopian government seems determined to target tray. >> schifrin: in addis ababa, the army's newest recruits wrap themselves in the ethiopian flag. they pledge to give their blood, literally, in a war the government calls existential. >> ( translated ): our recruits shall ry the enemy and make sure ethiopia's sovereignty is respected. >> schifrin: that enemy is in tigray in northern ethiopia, led by the local government tigrayan people's liberation front, or t.p.l.f. today ethiopia's federal government is waging war against tigray not with arms, but food. five million tigrayans don't have the means to eat, and rely on aid. but many world food program trucks are blocked by the ethiopian government. the last convoy allowed into tigray was three weeks ago, a fraction of what's needed, to stop starvation. >> this is a really large humanitarian disaster. >> schifrin: marixie mercado of unicef just returned from

tigray. she saw an acute crisis. last month hundreds of tigrayan women lined up with the most vulnerable victims. unicef says over the next year 100,000 tigrayan children face life-threatening malnutrition, 10 times the normal number. nearly half a million, are facing famine. aid workers handed out high calorie, vitamin fortified biscuits, to try and save children's lives. >> there is very little or none of the therapeutic food that these severely, acutely malnourished children need in order to survive. there's almost no electricity, there's no antibiotics. so all of this put children at huge risk. >> unless we act now, then we will witness and of course we will shoulder the responsibility of losing the lives of milons in tigray. >> schifrin: yohannes abraha represents the t.p.l.f. overseas. until last year, he worked for ethoipian government. he now accuses them of

withholding food as a weapon of war, and risking a repeat of the famine 40 years ago that killed a million ethiopians. >> if they don't get the necessary and emergency food aid, then we will witness the catastrophic famine that we have witnessed in ethiopia in the 1970s, '80s. >> schifrin: the ethiopian government says the crisis started late last year when tigrayan forces attacked a federal outpost. federal forces and their allies from neighboring eritrea, and the amhara region, waged a scorched earth campaign and occupied parts of tigray. humanitarian groups accused them of crimes against humanity including indiscriminate killings, and widespread rape. t in late june, tigrayan forces pushed federal ethiopian soldiers out of tigray. they paraded ethiopian and allied eritrean prisoners through the streets. in addis ababa, prime minister abiy ahmed claimed he had withdrawn from tigray, for a humanitarian ceasefire. >> his decision to pull out for

humanitarian reasons may, in fact, have been a cover for military defeat. >> schifrin: ambassador johnny carson served as the top u.s. diplomat in numerous afric countries, and is now senior advisor at the u.s. institute of peace. >> the ethiopian military has, in fact, been seriously damaged, even decimated by the conflict in the north. >> schifrin: and so humanitarian groups say the federal government is now regrouping and turning to other ethnic militias to target tigray. tigray is fighting neighboring amhara, over territories both claim as their own. this video purportedly shows a priest blessing amhara fighters. tigray also created a new front in the eastern region of afar, where local fighters are being backed up by militias from oromia. >> the defense forces of tigray are duty bound to neutralize such forces. so, yes, they were crossing borders from tigray, and attack

these forces. >> schifrin: but claiming to defend territory by expanding past its own borders, is exactly what senior u.s. officials urged tigray not to do. and now, the ethnic violence is spreading further. militias in afar are fighting in the far-eastern somali region. hundreds of somali residents, mainly women and children, recently gathered to protest. the increasing ethnic violence now means the conflict could be existential, for the entire country. >> the current ethiopian crisis puts ethiopia at risk of collapse as a unified state. there is a great deal of concern about balkanization and about potential fragmentation. >> schifrin: a military dictatorship known as the e.r.g. ruled for 17 years, before t.p.l.f. rebels helped topple it in 1991. they divided the country into 10 states on sometimes-fragile ethnic lines, and often

persecuted their opponents. adotei akwei leads amnesty international's africa team. >> the country is really crumbling or it's cracking on fault lines because the system that kept it together was autocratic and repressive and very violent. and that system has fairly has broken down. >> schifrin: abiy took power from the t.p.l.f. in 2018 and promoted himself as creating a new democratic era. he won the nobel peace prize for brokering peace with eritrea, after two decades of hostilities. but their mutual enemy is tigray, and abiy refers to the t.p.l.f. as “weeds” and“ ethiopia's cancer.” the biden administration has tried to pressure abiy's government to stand down, including during this week's visit to the region by u.s.-aid director samantha power. but humanitarian groups say the pressure needs to increase. >> really need to turn up the pressure to say this is not only very dangerous and but it's also putting millions of lives at

risk. >> schifrin: and without a political solution, that risk to lives and the country, will become more dire. for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin. >> woodruff: an 'alternative perspective' is what artist mel kendrick has offered for 40 years. special correspondent jared bowen of gbh boston takes us to the addison gallery of american art in andover, massachusetts to see why kendrick's art has such staying power. it's part of our arts and culture series, canvas.

>> the only way i could do this was cutting it into many small pieces and then removing the core. then i, you know, gutted it, emptied out and reassembled it exactly the way it grew in the tree. >> reporter: for most of his career, kendrick has always gone out on a limb. dismantling them actually, along with trees and logs-so that they can be reassembled. >> on all these pieces, you can match up the holes and see what's going on. but it always brings up the whole question it's like, what am i making? what am i making? why is this interesting to me? >> reporter: they're questions that have sustained kendrick through a 40-some-odd-year- career-charted out here in his first-ever retrospective at the addison gallery of american art. kendrick came of age as a new york artist when minimalism reigned. where artists like frank stella stried art dn to its barest forms, kendrick was buiing it back up.

in other words-going against the grain. >> i was heavily influenced by the artists. i was meeting the older artists nd i kept trying to break through to find something, you know, that was my own. >> reporter: so he stayed with sculpture. something the art world had written off by the time he had a significant early career show of his small works in 1983. >> i literally went into that show and i thought, okay, i can get emotional, okay, i've done all that i can do and if they don't sell, if no one likes them, i'll give them all to my friends. didn't turn out that way. >> i really can't think of anyone i would compare him to, which is what makefor me this show so exciting. >> reporter: allison kemmerer is the curator of the show-- really a show of shows, where each gallery offers a different body of work. >> you will participate in this

show, these works mand physical engagement. they suck you in. you need to walk around them to you're asking yourself, what is this? you need to walk around them to fully understand them and process them. >> reporter: often the answer, despite kendrick's best efforts, is that these are beings of some sort. with their craggy legs and humanistic forms. >> mel is adamant about avoiding any link to the representational world. but of course, we all see that. i imagine nemo the insect like full-room sized sculpture as when we turn off the lights at night, is making his rounds around the museum, i mean it's all about motion. >> reporter: and made in motion. kendrick never sketches, draws or designs his sculptures beforehand. >> he sees wielding the chainsaw much like wielding a penl, in that the shapes that he sort of enforces on to wood curves and arabesques and holes are not things naturally akin to the material.

it's more a painterly drawing process. >> if i make a mistake, whatever a mistake is, something i don't like, i stick it back together with glue and then i keep on. so i'm incorporating all those elements. and that, to me, is drawing. >> reporter: the clues to kendrick's how-did-he-do-that process are everywhere-the traces of paint, the ties, the armature-all locked into these single blocks of wood. what about your relationship with wood,o you-- is it a relationship? >> i like to say i'm a very bad carpenter. i started in construction when i arrived in new york, i knew nothing about wood, so it's really the whole thing build up from literally building, building walls, building kitchens. >> reporter: wood does have the starring and frequently towering role here and with appearances in his woodblock prints and photography. but occasionally we find cameos

by concrete and rubber. >> yeah, this is phase. i loved the color, the amber and the-- it satisfied something in me to see the inside. >> reporter: how often does beauty matter in your work? >> beauty, beauty is in the eye concept, is not something i go through. i think it's a very disturbing object or a very funny thing. i meanthis is a funny sculpture and there's that. these pieces near a window. it's fantastic. but not in no way that i think this could be deemed a beautiful object. i think it's a very disturbing object or a very funny thing. i mean, this is a funny sculpture and there's that. >> reporter: and therein lies the beauty of mel kendrick. seeing the other side of things. for the pbs newshour, i'm jared bowen. >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here

tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support

of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

sglrchlgs hello, everyone and welcome to amanpour and company. here's what's coming up. >> i am furious with myself. >> why? >> because i was not vaccinated. >> in the united states, what if the unvaccinated can't be persuaded until it's too late? plus -- >> the delta variant in particular, it may be just a few minutes of exposure before you get infected. >> the important things to know about the delta variant.