At a worse time for lebanon. The country is already in a deep recession. For many businesses like this, this will be the final straw. Judy all of that and more on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs wshour haseen provided by before we talk about your investments, what is new . Aubrey is expecting. We want to put money aside for them. Lets see what we can just. Changing plans. Mom, are you painting again . You could sell these. Let me guess, change in plans . American cruise lines. Consumer cellular. Hewleiam and flora foundation. Advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world at hewl and with the ongoing these individuals and institutions. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by bucontons to your pbs thank you. Rs like you. Judy stark headlines tell our top story tonight. The pandemic dominating the United States and the world. U. S. Coronavirus cases have reached 4300. 78 deaths. Gatherings of more than 10inst shuttering. Ore businesses are wall street crashed again with the Dow Jones Industrials or 13 . Ling nearly 3000 points amid all of this, President Trump warned that the crisis could linger into july or august. William begins our coverage. William in much of theil count, life is shutting down. Hugearts of the country areei doing part to try to slow the spread of this coronavirus. New york citys times square was eerily quiet. Floridas theme parks were ghost towns. Businesses, restaurants and bars from coasttocoast closed their doors as governors in multiple states ordered full closures or drastically cut back hours. Seven counties in andround san million residents to shelter in place. Novi l home except for crucial tasks until at least april. In the centers for Disease Control and prevention, they made the call to cancel all gatherings of 50 or more people over the next few weeks. Measures like these could slow a virus, some people remain on shore. On shore. I want us all to remain healthy but i am also concerned about how i will pay my bills. Food Distribution Centers like this are helnng those need. In terms of this epidemic, america is two weeks behind ital country that is overrun with infections where hospitals are overflowing and over 2000 people have died. Despite the Surgeon Generals warning for americans to maintain super social distancing, some elected leaders advised of the oosite. Here is what devin nunes said on fox news. There is a lot of concerns with the economy here because people aregocared t out. If youre healthy, you and your family, it is a greatime to go out and go to a local restaurant. He president reiterated the message that Public Health officials have been urging this for days. My administration is recommending that everyone engages in schooling from home p whensible. Avoid gathering in groups of more than 10 people, avoid discretionary travel and avoid eating and drinking in bars, restaurants and public food courts. There are also reports that the Trump Administration believes a foreign disinformation camayign is undeo so fear of a coming nationwide quarantine. Rumor tha white has officials denied. Still, closures and the u. S. Supreme court postponed arguments, including one over subpoes for President Trumps financial records. It is considered the first such recess since the spanish flu outbreak. There are some glimmers of progress. Testing is being ramped up to prioritize medical workers whoh might work wfected patients and Senior Citizens who are most at risk. President trump told governors on a Conference Call today t to geir own respirators and ventilators and not wait for the federal governthnt to provide. Some hospitals have erected tents outside of their facilities to prepare for the increased demand and care. Most patients infeed with coronavirus have recovery without any repcussions. In order to limit him in contact, more than 10 states offer drive through viral testing. U. S. Researchers in seattle also administered the first experimental coronavirus vaccine. Health officials have warned it will take at least a year before any vaccine is ready for widespread use. Elsewhere around the world, numerous other countries announced strict new policies on the movements of tens of millions of people. Canada announced it was closing itsor border to any noncitize resident. Emmanuel macron ordered all citizens to remain at home for two weeks except for essential activities. In spain, the nation with the fourth highest infection rate, they have been on National Lockdown since saturday. The peace corps temporarily suspended its operations. Thats as it evacuate all of its volunteers from all untries. I am william right now. Judy we returno track the white house response to all of this. There wis a briefing afternoon. The president seemed to take a different tone today. That is right. President trump was complete different in his tone and the ppway he wasaching coronavirus. Much more somber. Ser in the past, he downplayed the virus. He said a miracle might wash away the virus and tould be cases going down to zero. Today he said there mig be a recession because of coronavirus. He also said that u. S. Hospitals might be overwhelmed. He said this couwa last all the to august and maybe even longer. He was telling people that you need to be vigilt. There are three big people big things people want you to do. Stay away from bars and restaurants. The third was please dont gather. Dont gather in more than 10 people. If you have a large family, you have to separate even if youre the same home. The president is there with numbers of the tasforce. What were they saying today about the status of testing and about the situation with regard to the ventilators that will be necessary if people become very sick . The president and Health Officials said we are entering a new phase in testing they will roll out 1. 9 million new tests. They are still focusing on testing people who show symptoms of covid19. That is an infection caused by coronavirus. The president ordered a lot of ventilators. On the call,cr he did get icized afterwards because he told governors they would be e shouldlying on their own ventilators. The president was saying that the federal governments resources should be the last resort. They are looking at tal equipment but that should not be looking at the white hou right no for the first stock in ventilators or respiratory equipment. ju we know people have been looking to the white house for how they would handle the financial, the economic fallout from this virus. We saw what happenedtoo the markety. What are they saying about that . It was remarkable to hear the president say we might be going into an economic ren. Whthe house has been saying today that they are preparing and have announcedp to 800 billion in economic aid. That is to individuals but als to companies the president said we will have the airlines possible specifically. We should note that the senate jority leader said he is preparing a bill for 750 billion focused on the coronavirus. What we are seeing are billions and billions of dollars bei put into the coronavirus response. They are still fearing how this will work. The white house doepa want a oll tax cut. There is going to be another bill coming. There will be a third bill coming that the president will be looking at and negotiatin on. Judy so much to keep track of. Thank you. As we have been mentioning, panic rocked the World Markets today. The dow dropped 3000 points. It is down nearly one third of its value since peaking in midfebruary. The nasdaq fell 970 points and the s p 500 fell 325. John yang looks at the economic pain that is being inflicted by the widening coronavirus. John this followed extraordinary action from the d yesterday. It cut a key Interest Rate to zero. The move is aimed at shoring up Investor Confidence as restaurant are closing, sporting events are canceled and people are being urged to stay home. Director of th Hutchins Center on monetary policy. Figure for joining us. How big a deal is what the fed did yesterday . David it was a big deal. The fed basically said we will use all the monetary ammunition we have. They restarted bduying, quantitative easing. They said we are making it as easys possible for banks to borrow from the fed so they can keep lending. Was a very big deal it is everything the fed cani don terms of monetary policy. Going into recession, what is left . What can be done . It is clear we are going into recession. The fed has a few emergency h powers i not used yet. The ones it used during the 20 2008 financial crisis. Really, the game is up to fiscal policy. We need a big package from congress, tax cs and spending increases to replace the demand that hass evaporatedople are told not to go out and people are losing their jobs by the minute. We have a not so distant history with fiscal policy in times of economic turmoil. The financial crisis at the end of the Bush Administration and beginning of the obama administration. What lessons did we learn then . Adavid the lessons to learn. The situation is different. This was not caused by an imbalance in the financial system. It was a shock from outside but one of the key lessons we learned is it is important to do a lot and do it soon. Waiting to see how things develop at a time like this is a mistake. Although the government has a very big debt, they are also ableo borrow at very low Interest Rates. I think most economists say it is time for congress and the president to borrowome money, do a big fiscal stimulus and get on with it. They are worried that the political dysfunction in washington could slow it down. Talkbout that. The haggling over the details. What goes into this package . Paid sick leave . The bailing out of airlines and the financial the cruise ship induhiry . I the next step is going to be hundreds of billions of dollars. Some will go to Industries Like airlines, hotels, restaurants, businesses so they will be able to stay alive and they will be able to function when this ends but eventually some of it will go to individual households. After all, a lot of people wont see as much income because they dont work as many hours. They will be laid off. Some will get unemployment, some wont. This is something really unusual. Have not seen such an abrupt end of consumption. People told not to shop. Think how different this is from 9 11 when president bushioaid the pac thing was to go shop. Now we are told the patriotic netflix and amazon will make some money but a lot of other people will be in trouble. Thank you very much. You are welcome. Hearing a lot about to help deal with coronavirus is what is knownve as flattening the c if not enough protective measures are taken, there will be a sharply rising number of cases. Blueown in this pa spike. A huge jump over a very st timeframe. That would strain the capacity of our Health System. Flattening the lower grace well is caused by social distancing. Our doctor has been talking about th very issue. He isith the brigham a Womens Hospital in boston. He is with us now. Between washington and the states, are then ameri people being given enough guidance to induce them to do the right things . Ihink we are starting to be to urgently increase the paceed and coordination of stringency in the response. The curvere youalking about, the trajectories we are seeing are not sustainable fte our health sto manage. We do not have enough ventilators to manage a moderate or severe outbreak like this. We have to stretch out the number of cases anderrevent the nuf cases from flooding the hospitals now. To clarify, we are not saying that people wont get this virus. O a lopeople will get it. The goal is to not have so many of them gett at the same time which would overwhelm the careity of our heal system correct . Correct. The issue ibo the speed and growth oft cases, of people t get it and the severity of cases that would overwhelm our acute hospital and i see you systemss response capacity. Judy ng i am as because many can avoidnk that they this altogether. The fact is that Many Americans will get the coronavirus, correct . It appears to be so. Has a high reproduction rate, it has a high infection rate. A lot of those cases might be mild but a lot will bsevere. Especially for people in highrisk. Americans should be distancinghemselves, staying at home. What do you say to those people who say i really need to continue whatever work i can continue . I need to get out because my family is depending on me . They will be some of the really difficult choices we all face moving ahead. On thene hand, these seem to be voluntary choices. We are saying that somerk people are g from home. Some companies are trying to have their workers work from home. As we saw in san francisco, there will be involuntary measures that will start to close down and distance people from each other physically. Wwhile peop work in nonessential services may want to continue that work and i am very sympathetic to it, unfortunately, the speed and the rise o ethisdemic may make necessary more iesoluntary closr restrictions. Judy a lot of people are asking a question that is impossible to answer. How do you answer that . Last . I is a hard question but it is one we need to start grappling with. This looks to be many weeks to months. It is hard to imagine that there is there is evidence from other countries that we cant control this we can control this in just a week or two. It is really hard to predict the dynamics of any particular epidemic but this one is almost i think it is imp that we all have a new social compact around coming together by staying apart. Quickly, finally, to those who are concerned about whether therare enough hospital beds, enough venlators for the most seriously ill, what do you say . We have according to the american hospitalia asson a little more than 900,000 beds. We have about 50,000 medical icu beds that are staffed and another 50,000 other types of icu beds that are staffed. In total, about 160,000 beds. Moeven in rate scenario, if it all came at once, we would not have the capacity. What is needed now is for people to take the Community Mitigation and social distancing strategy is to flatten the turve and spret out so that if the cases do emerge, it can at least emerge over an increased amount of time. Otherwise, this will be very difficult on our Health System and Health Care Worker judy thank you very much, dr. Thank you. All over the country are taking unprecedented steps to limit the spread of the coronavirus in their state. Larry hogan of maryland ordered all restaurants, bars, gyms and movie theaters to close in his state. He joins us from annapolis, the capital. Weome back. What are the main steps you have taken in response to this . About 11 days ago we declared a state of emergency. We have taken a number of unprecedented steps. I think i was the firstovernor in america to close all of our schools. Today, we took a whole other host of steps. As the doctor was just talking about, trying to spread out this curb and bend theurve, we have to stop the spread. We closed all bars, restaurants, movie theaters, gyms, that is an unprecedented step. It will cause tremendous hardsh on a lot of peop and it mayeem extreme but we think it is absolute necessary to protect the lives of thousands of people in our state. We also called up a number, we have 1000 activated members of the natial guard today. We are trying to rapidly activate 6000 new hospital beds in our stateo address the other issue you were just talking about. Eth surge on our hospitals and the possibility of not being able to handle the capacity. We are trying to open some hospitals, add additional beds. We are waving license requirements wnsse nursing liis expired. We are waving them from other states and activating people. All kinds of steps thaare unprecedented. With all of that, do you believe you have done everything you could do . Every day, we try to take actions. We have take actions every day for the past two weeks. We think we are doing everyday we can do. Come up wi another thing wewe have to do. I have been trying to make the decisions as quickly and time is not our friend in this. Mean that some people will live and some will die. We are trying to make them as quickly as we can. We have a Coronavirus Task force made up of some of the smartest doctors in our task force. We are trying to b take tt medical advice. We have been getting somect din from the federal government but we are just making theecisions and taking actions on our own. Judy the president is saying to the governors that it is better for you to reach out number of ventilators youre going to need for people who become serioroly ill with virus. Do you think that is the right approach . How are you dealing . I am not sure that is the way he said it. I am the c National Governors association. We had 48 governors on call. I think he misspoke when he was talking and some of my colleagues may have put that out there. I am not sure what he meant to say but part of that is true. The governors are takingto steps et our own ventilators but we also need the federal government to get us as many as they can as quickly as possible. We did get a load from the stockpiles from the federal government last night. It inot nearly enough. We dont have nearly enough. Neitrr do any of the ot governors. We have to get as much help from the federal government as quickly as possible. We made that point very clear with the president. We are taking actions on our own to get these things from private sectors d other sources. We dont have time to argue about who is whose responsility it is. We just have to get things done a matter how we get them done. How worried are youbout the 6 million citizens in your state . We are worried. We dont want people to panic. I understand these stepsnge are taound really scary. They are disruptive. Ioant people t understand that most people that get this virus are going to be ok. Its not really going to be that bad. The sbaptoms wont be tha we are trying to protect the people whore vulnerable. Our older citizens, people with Underlying Health condions. Those younger people who will not get that sick can help us save the lives of many others. It is obviously the worst crisis any of us have ever dealt with. Its unprecedented. Nothing like this has ever happened throughout the world. It will challenge and tax ever resource we hav iust want people to understand that we will get through this together. Everybody at every level is trying to do everything we possibly can to try to save lives a keep people safe. Udy a few more words of advice for families oped up their homes, whether they are elderly, young single, have children, what would you say . Enjoy the time you have with your families and let them know it will be ok. We dont know how long it will take but we are going to make sureas people get the necessities they need. While it may not be convenient that you can go out to the restaurant or the movie theater, stay home and enjoy some time with your family. Lets hug each other and lets spend that quality time gether. Stay home, watched television, listen to your show and stay informed, stay involved, Pay Attention to what is going on. Dy that was governor larry hogan of maryland. Thank you very much. Thank you. Stephanie we will return to Judy Woodruff and the rest of the full program after these headlines. Updating our top story. Washington state reported six more deaths from covi19. Ringing the National Total to 80 five. Seven surrounding counties join san francisco, men didnt for necessities until at leastly april 7. With only nine hours to go before ohio is scheduled to hold its p president iamary, a showdown about whether the contest will take place. Mike to one issued a statement tonight saying it is impossible he called earlier for a delay because of coronavirus concerned but a judge rejected his plea. Joe bidenas even more momentum going into tomorrows primaries. Tonight, he was declared the winner in washington state, giving him vtori in five of the six states that voted last tuesday. Inther news, in israel, benny gantz was formally tped to form governing coalition. He had been unable to doaf so r the previous election. Prime minester benjamin nyahu finished slightly ahead of him in the march 2 election but he has won endorsements from a slim majority of israeli lawmakers. Back this country, five people, including a Police Officer ore killedrnight in a shooting attack on a gas station in springfield, missouri. The gunmen crashed his car into a station. Finally, he took his own life. Still to come on the newshour, joe biden and Bernie Sanders square off in a debate dominated by coronavirus. Tasir critical primary approaches, we will have an on the Ground Report from here in arizona. We break down the politics of the pandemic and much more. This is the pbs newshour from w eta studios in washington and the west from the want to cook Walter Crockett school of journalism. Judy we turn to the docratic race for president with a delay of ohios primary vote, three reining states will hold critical primaries tomorrow. Joe biden and Bernie Sanders met on the debate stage last night. Lisa is our reporter. Buckham to this unique event. F a firsts kind. A debate in a time of National Amid a pandemic. Ive audience joe biden and bnie sanders went oneonone for the first time. We have problems we have to solve now. Now. What will revolution do . Disrupt everything in the meantime . Lets be honest and understand that is coronavirus pandemic exposes the credible weakness and dysfunctionality of our Current Health care system. At the heart o the debate, the ideological divide between the two men over health care and how they would address the coronavirus outbreak as president. People are looking for results, not a revolution. Biden has a plan to pvide wcost treatment for the virus. He says sanders medicare for all icplan in whthe governor government would be the singlepayer failed would fail to address this. You have a singlepayer system in italy. It doesnt work there. It has nothing to do with medicare for all. That would not solve the problem. For all would address not just coronavirus but much larger issue with American Health care along underfunded system that treats rich and poor differently. You are saying in a middle of a crisis the middle of a crisis. Last year, 30,000 people died in america becausee dont have universal health universal crisis universal care. I think that is a crisis. The pandemic fundamentally changed the campaign trail. They are holding online town halls instead of rallies. We are doing great, it will as for President Trumps handlingf the crisis, the two men had partial words. It is undermining theie docts and ists trying to help the american people. Donald trump is exacerbating each one of these problems. Join me. The two sparred over their past positions that included climate change, the iraq war, social security. We did not cut it. I know that. People like me help stop that. Biden backs sanders c lege but his plan would help families making less than 125,000. I would pick w aan to be my Vice President. Sanders indicated he uld probably pick a woman. My strong tendency is to move in that directio before running mates are chosen, one of the candidates have to secure the nomination. Judy we will be back with politics in just a moment. Election officials across the country are considering how to adjust to the pandic. Louisiana, georgia and ohio have candidates have scrapped public rallies altogether. Nain ari80 of voters were expected to mail in the seemingly undeterred by the that of coronavirus, the Farmers Market in Downtown Phoenix was buzzing this weekend. New rules enacted since the outbreak presented prevented jd duke from offering up samples of his organic cookies. But he was handling handing out political opinions for free. I think we need a different leadership in our country. Ri kenny was w his support for Bernie Sanders. The people who stayed home against when they ran hillary against trump, theyill stay home when they run joe biden versus tron. Em it is a lack othy on their part. Alexis dgado garcia is b another vote fnie sanders but she says she will back whoever the eventual nominee is. Somef his family members never gained legal status. Even though they lived in arizona for decades. Alexis is one of a growing number of votingge latinos that want to swing blue. Understanding that people matter, our values mnster, our emotatter. Joe garcia is director of Public Policy at thisin itution. When they were growing up, perhaps one both of their parents may have not been able to vote because they were not here with documentation. About 95 of young let to nose are naturalized and they are le to vote. Whether the Younger Voters turn out the question. Dora vasquez is a Third Generation mexicanamerican. She was determineto hold her Debate Watch Party sunday evening. That does concerbu m i dont want to live in fear. Even as sheorried that coronavirus concerns may impact the elections. I am very conrned about the ability for people to get out and meet with voters. This county has closed. It is enacting aemergency protocol that allows voters tots cast their balt any of 150 voting centers. The early voting tradition in arizona might minimize the impact of the outbreak. Vasquez voted early for senator Elizabeth Warren before she dropped out. I wanted warranted Elizabeth Warren to be resident because she is a woman. I have four or five elections left in my lifetime. It seems to me that the good old boys system was in play again. Courts of the other major factor is the number of out of state residents moving here. Mthe phoeniro area is the Fastest Growing in america. A lot of those transplants bring their politics with them. East of phoenix lies the affluent scottsdale suburbs which includess tp code. One of the top sources of trump campaignonions in 2016. This couple moved here from connecticut. When i told my friends i was moving here he said you cannot move to arizona. I said why not . He said it is too republican. U will perish. They did not perish. Of likemindeup people in the area who meet every sunday to talk politics. There are one or two Republican People what the rest are democrats. That is very nourishing for us. Several were absent due to coronavirus concerns and extra precautions were taken. The conversaons were no less poignant. The talkurrounded which candidate was best equipped to be president mp t how many are supporting Vice President joe biden . If Bernie Sanders ends at the democratic nominee, how many of will still come out and vote for sanders . You have to. You have to. Otherwise it is trump. The midterm victories for is9 made it clear the sta in flux. Garcia describes the dys using a consensual arizona analogy. You have the homegrown latino voters coming out for the first time and then the newcomers are moving into arizona with th. R own politi both of those things heading, we will see when the dust settles where it i am stephanie sy in phoenix. Judy to dive deeper into the primary race and talk about how things are impacted by the coronavirus, i am joined by amy wallace amy walter and tamra. We haveoc somel distancing tonight. It is important for everyone. Lets start with tomorrow. As reported earlier, four states were supposed to votrrow. Lets look at the map. We are talking big states tomorrow, illinois, florida, ohio, arizona. Ohio will not be voting in person without ohio. 441 delegates at stake. There will be other changes in effect as well. Include polli places closing and that will be in micopa, arizona as well as delhi back on polling places in Senior Living facilities. How do you recn with the two risks . A risk to voters if they do vote . Eya risk to democracy if dont . Also to pull workers. Many of whom are older. Ini that everybody is taking this as a moment by moment experience. Obviously some stes felt like they did not feel comfortable hoing a primary, knowing the Public Health s not being protected. Then ihink we stepped back a moment and we said thinking about the democratic primary, what will happen tomorrow . What should happen Going Forward . We were on the se on last Election Night where it was pretty clear that Bernie Sanders was falling far behind. He nds at least 60 of all the delegates now goi forward in o catch up to joe bid and get enough to be thein n , surpassed joe biden and be the nominee. He is sitting at the polls somewhere around 30 nationally. In the polls out of florida and arizona, he is down to 30 or 20 points. It will not happen. The question is when the election is over on tuesday night, will Bernie Sanders still be in this race . Will he decide that now is the time to move out . Thought the debate would be the place where he backed off. That didot happen. There are two things happening. Bernie sanders is using his path was tough before this crisis was totally obvious. Super tuesday was not good for him. I do think that there was an Inflection Point last tuesday. What happened is they canceled their events. This campaign, everything changed last tuesday when this got real. It t was ohiot made it get real. Ohio said no large gatherings and all of a sudden these two Campaign Events that receive us to be happening in ohio wereot happening. The candidates flu is to and have been taking stock ever since. Bernie sanders did not have a good night last tuesday night. He said as much the next day wh he finally spoke to th press. I think that when we looback on this primary a generation om now, we will probably forget about super tuesday. We may forgetut a lot of things but we will remember coronavirus and how in some ways, this primary is locked in and therebe the governor of ohio said he was moving the election to jen. Heitted that september would jim because of the nominating process. The conventions are a in july august. Is there talk about what happens when we cant have the conventions . There has not been public talk but this is somethi that people who run these conventions talk about. Ant to do in the case emergenc there are processes in place. There are other campaigns happening now. People are running for congress, state legislature, the senate. You can do big fundraising, in person fundraising event. Not doortodoor. R adding ylunteers together to put mailers out to your constituents. At a time when the economy is looking thi fragile, asking donors for Campaign Contributions will be tough. This is democrats and republicans. This cuts ross the entire swath. One thing about the partisanship that was surprising, piercing some difference in opinion about this crisis. This is a pull from nbc and the washington journal. They asked people if they thought th were worried about their family catching coronavirus. Ofs. Democrats said ye republicans said no. This could be a regional effect but what you make of this . There is another factor. Until today, President Trump has downplayed or said everything is going to be ok or wecoave this underol. He has been out of sync with some of the health professionals. He has been out of sync with the media. Today was a very different President Trump. For the voters who listen to him and dont trust the media,or the la month, the media has been overreacting and the president has been he has been saying. I think that does affect public opinion. The president said today that the media may have been doing a good job and also laid out some very stringent steps for the American Public to take to keep evybody safe. It was a major moment. I think that is exactly right. Lets watch and see now that the tone. Dentas taken a different this polarization was a way of life in our country. I am always worried that what happened in a crisis ishat is happening right now. Instead of pushing us together, it is keeping a separate from where we decide to get a resources ofon informawho we trust and who we dont. All we can hope is that with everybody o the same page, we can come to an agreement on how terrible this is. Unlike Something Like 9 11 which was a tragic moment that happened all at t oncs is a slow rolling potential disaster. Everyones lives and jobs are getting more difficult. We appreciate both of you. Thank you. Youre welcome. Judy forea, lebanon has been a financial house of cards. Its debt is one of the Worlds Largest per capita. Now, the foundation of that housis giving way. Add in a Global Pandemic and the result is a gatherinect storm. Jane ferguson reports from beir. Jane beirut is famous for its restaurants and cafes. A mixture of arab and mediterranean hospitality but the government has ordered everything shut in an attempt to contain covid19. Only grocery stores, bakeries and pharmacies can welcome it is very difficult. We dont know. Maybe next week we cant open the shop. Itould take a decision to close all of the shops. They opened the small corner store 37 years ago. She says business has never been is bad. End, we had th corona. This was the full f it. The government claimed a state of medical emergency. The count g willinto lockdown with its National Airport shut for at least 12 days. Police are chasing people away schools have been shut for two weeks already. The president addresse. To the nati each of us is called upon to coinue his work from home in the way he sees appropriate. So theil students be able to study and workers will be able to work in our institutions to remain alive and efficient as much asossible. The coronavirus could not come at a worse time for lebanon. The country is already in aeep recession. For many businesses like this, this will be the final straw. Lebanon is facing its worst Economic Disaster in decades. A banking crisis threatening the livelihood of millions. Last week, the country defaulted on its debts for the first te in his history. Mthe primeister broke the news in a televised speech. Our reserves have reached critical and dangerous levs. Today, we are paying the price for mistakes of past years. Last week we thinned to our children . Equeath them to our children . Now, after decades of mismanagement and corruption, the country is the third most indented i the world. The country imports a lot. You have to finance that gap. Has been financed with lebanon using the dollars that have been sent. Over the years, that money has been spent to finance the imports. Mike is a former economics lecturer at Johns Hopkins university. Dollar deposits in the systemf buthose dollars have all been spent to finance either the trade deficfi, the fiscal t. Since the end of the this unorthodox method of balancing payments seemed to be working to hold the courys finances together. For a while, at least. But those dollars from lebanese people abroad slowed down. The conigict in oring syria crippled the economy. Also, a downturn in oilris means a lot less money being sent home by lebanese migrants working in the pose engulfed. Once those dollars stop flowing, central bank has to rates. High and higher interest in the u. S. , at a time when people are earning 0 , 1 on their deposits, in lebanon, you can earn 68 . It was a little more than a ponzi scheme. Now, the central bank can balance the books. Volunteers are handing out food to the poor, filling a gap where the government refuses to help. These people created a soup kitchen for the most desperate. N this charity work has stopped torent the new coronavirus from spreading. Telling people withou food ha could put them at risk. Handouts could put them at risk. The Global Pandemic adds a new level of fear to the hardships. We heardm f the tv about corona. We are afraid of a child coughs or sneezes. We have 80 tents and in each hand, there are four people. It would be catastrophiif its breaded he. Parents in the camp worry about how their children will get treated if ty get sick. If we go to the hospital, in unless we pay. Take if you have money, youre welcome, f you dont, youre not. Lebanon has faced a multitude of calamities. This new wave of disasters is its greatest test in decades. The generations that survived war and political crises now face an unprecedented set of challenges that only continue to get worse. For the pbs newshour, i am Jane Ferguson in beirut, lebanon. Judy we thought we would close tonight with ato of hope. How in these trying times people are creatively using the arts likes onto come together evenn the face of social distancing. Ait is reminder of the power of humanity e dnuring hardship. Jeffrey brown has a look as part of our ongoing culture series. Broadway may be dark and silentut in the digital world, there is music in the time of coronavirus. The show in that way goesn, a chorus line of nyu students eager to pick up where they left off. A song from the musical, youre inown by a middle school urinetown by a middle school. And a performance from Les Miserables froolthis high sc this last video and many others like it were posted to sunshine songs, started by this broadway veteran, a Tony Award Winning actress and singer who found herself sidelined with the thought of youngpl peo facing their own canceled shows for which they put in so much work. To put out the word, send me your sg videos. I want to see you. I want to hear you. R theponses have come in. In the meantime, in the land, italy is all but shut down. That can stop the music. Cant stop the music. This singe sang to his neighbors in florence, the in a rather remarkable perfornce, he sent in a performance from pavarotti. Th used colored smoke to paint italys flag in the sky. All around the country, there were impromptu manents of song pleasure. In spain, also hardhit bthe virus, music helped residents of an apartment house joined together for some exercise. Even as they maintained their soci distancing. Back in this country, there was this. Mpa new hashire police nassociatioipe and drum group. Their tour of ireland had been canceled. Instead, they went to a locallm t. A moment of relief for all of us, even staring at antishelves of toilet paper. Jeffrey brown. Ur, i am judy we needed that. Thatfo is the newshou tonight. I am Judy Woodruff. Join us online. For all of us at the pbs newshour, ank you. Major funding for tas pbs newshoureen provided by on anir americanlines journey along the mississippi river, travelers explore and develop homes antebellum homes. You can experience local culture and cuisine and rele american history. American cruise lines, proud sponsor of pbs newshour. Fidelity investments. Bnsf railway, Consumer Cellular and by the Alfred P Sloan foundation. Supporti improved Economic Performance in financial stliteracyn the 21entury. Supported by the john d and Catherine T Macarthur foundation. Dedicated to making a more peaceful world. And with the ongoing support of these institutions. This programad waspossible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station by users like you. Thank you. This is pbs newshour west from w eta studios in washington and from our t hero at Walter Cronkite school of journalism at Arizona State university. Today, on americas test kitchen, were braisingverything. Dan makes julia delicious braised oxils. Adam reveals his top pick for dutch ovens. And becky shows bridget a foolproof recipe for fava beanspaith artichokes, gus, and peas. Its all coming up right here on americas test kitchen