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. Consumer cellular offers no contract wireless plans that are designed to help you do more of the things you enjoy, whether youre a talr, texter, browser, photographer or a bit of everything. Our u. S. Br ased customervice team is here to find a plan that fits you. To learn more, go to www. Consumercellular. Tv. Additional support has been provided by antid by the corpo for public broadcating, a private corporation funded by the american people. And by contributions to your you. Station from viewers like thank you. Mitchell good evening and thank you for joining us. Ay has been more than 100 since the first case of covid19 was reported in the United States. Weeks of stayatme orders have followed. The Global Pandemic is slowing, but not everywhere. In some places restrictions are easing, buthe debate over how and when to reopen coinues. Lets get started with todays top news as parts of the country and the economy begin to reopen, the Trump Administration is taking a wait and see position on new nancial aid. White house economic adviser larrkudlow said today the administration wants to see how the more than 3 trillion already allocated affect the country before authorizing morep ding. Were trying to work through this. I dont want to rule in or out anything right now. We are in discussions internally and with leading members of congress. Mitchell new york governor andrew omo invited governors from nearby states to join him online at his daily News Conference today. All focused on working together to meet their reopening and health care needs. Were gng to form a consortium withur seven northeast partner states, which buy about 5 billion dollars in equipment and supplies that will increase our market power when were buying. We can wait for the national stockpile, we can wait for that plane to land from ina, lets see what we can do ourselves much stronger together. E i wouldnt mind having some of going forward, thank you for sharing that with connecticut going forward. Tchell in other par the country, protesters demanding reopening of businesses and elimination of restrictions showed up agai throughout the weekend. Some wore face masks others did not and called for governors to drop face mask requirements. In ohio, Governor Mike Dewine rescinded his order mandating customers wear masks in stes. People were not going to accept the government telling them what to do. Mitchell White House Coronavirus response coordinator dr. Deborah birx warned that the demonstrators she saw standing should to shoulder at michigans State Capitol on thursday put many others at risk. Let us in its devastatingly worrisome toe personally, because if they go home and infect their grandmother or grandfather who has a comorbid condition, and they have a serious orut unfortunateme, they will feel gu rilty for tt of their lives. So we need to protect each other at the insame time were vo our discontent. Mitchel money from the res act has been distributed to many Small Businesses across the country, and while its helped, some owners sat its time to ck to work. I recently spoke with ben and high rise bakery in jefferson city, missouri. Up only since midmarch, but tomorrow will open the doors and get back to business as consciously as they can. We obviously wa to keep the social distancing guidelines of six feet apart. So weve taken tables out of both dining rooms in order to, to keep that space. The other guidelines were things inlike, you know, just lim our capacity. Were probably looking at less than half of our capacity. Were gonna, were gonna try to put a few extra tables outside, and then were we will alecbe wearing prve equipment, masks and gloves, while were serving. You know, were not gonna require patrons to come in with those on, but we will be wearing those. Mitchell ben, if you could describe your town a little bit and the onomic impact thats been felt there. I dont know the exact populaf tionr town. Its in that 30,00040,000 person range. Its not been good. There are a few i know of a few peopamle to do thetype of thing that i do that wont be reopening their doors. Some of them completely closed down. , my businesses would say wee en doing 25 of our normal revenues. Oo mitchell and when you do open your on monday, what are you expecting to see . O do you expect customersme in, sit down, order a meal and we do. Dining in . Weve actually got some people want to people want to get out. They want to get back to normal. Its a little bit different in our small town. We havent seen the number of cases that they have in places likesnew york or seattle, pla like that. Mitchell and how do your staff fee e they all coming back . For the most part, everybody. Through the whole thing. Ith me weve been offering curbside and delivery and things like that. I guess everybodys a little apprehensive, but all thats ally done is made us make sure that everybody is comfortable and that our that our employees are comfortable as well. Mitchell and why have you made the decision to open up on monday . You dont have to. You could wait a little bit longer. Why now . Its out of a necessity. We cant sustain like this forever. In fact, id say we probably wouldnt want to try to do this for very much longer. Its tough. You know, its a tough decision. Its, its. We, we, we dont take it lightly for sure. We, we need tbe open so that we can gerate revenue so that can pay our taxes, so that the state can turn around and pay taxes to the federal government. I mean, thats how thr , thats how conomy works. Were, were kind of dipping our toe in and see where it tak us. Mitchell what do you say to critics that say youre just openouing up too soon,hould wait longer . Um, well, there is an gument there. Theres an argument both ways. Our, our little town, were spread out as it is. And we dont, v just dont e. Like i said, we dont have the number of ases around us. So it makes us feel a ittle bit mocomfortable. And there is a, there is a, a want from the public. People are ready to get out and get somewhat back to normal. Mitchell ben huhman, thank mitchell while parts of the United States and europe are easing lockdowns, new Coronavirus Infections are still growing in some in britain, hundreds of covid 19related deaths are still being reported each day. The u. K. s death toll now more than 28,000 is nearing italys, once the epicenter of the outbreak in europe. In russia, the confirmed number of new covid19 cases surpassed 10,000 today, a stark jump from a week that officials said was partly due to increased testing. And in india, 2,600 new covd19 teses were reptoday, a new daily record. Most of indias 1. 3 billion people remain under lockdown restrictions that have been in place r more than five weeks, but less affected areas will have some strictions eased is week. South koreas military reported today that noh korean soldiers fired into a guard post along the two tocountries bordey. South korean soldiers responded cease fire broadcast. A no casualties were reported on either side of the most heavily fortified border in thgworld. Followhe incident, secretary of state mike pompeo said that the uniteesstates belithe initial shots fired were accidental. For more on the escalation between north and south korea and the latest on the Global Pandemic, visit pbs. G newshour. Mitchll former Vice President and democratic candide for president joe biden, continues toace an allegation of Sexual Assault from tara reade, who worked for him 27 yearssego in bidens te office. Biden denied the allegations in televi ionerviews over the past two days. Yesterday the Associated Press published a story focused on reades recollection of a written reporthe says exists, but does not possess. Alexandra jaffe,orne of the auof that piece, joins us now from washington, d. C. , with the latest othis still developing story. A lots happened since joe biden first publicly spoke aboute reallegation and your a. P. Report interviewing reade. Since then, reade has said me of the reporting in your interview isnt wholly accurate. Give us a quick tick tock of everything thats happened since your interview came out. Sure. When i spoke with her, i tried to get, sort of, her trclarify whet she filed a full report and what the report said. And shefi told me that shd only an intake form. So she basically just filled out a form with some basic information abouofherself in her ice. And within that intake form, she did not use theraords sexual ment or assault. She said that she described an incident in wch she was asked to serve drinks at a fundraiser because joe biden liked her legs, and the retaliatn th she experienced after that. She was too scarede the me that words Sexual Harassment and was not that specific. In the, sort of, day since we mitchell yeah, and thats something that she is sticking to atthe moment. Anhis isnt the first time that a. P. s interviewed her. You also spoke to her back in 2019. Why is this the first time were hearing about those interviews . The april of 2019 interviews one of whom was part of ourrs, investigative team, trying to vet these claims back when tarac firsame forwaranalleged that joe biden sexually harassed her. Or that was bshe came forward with the allegation of assault. And we didnt end up publishing a story on, sort of, that exhaustive vetting process because we simply cld not corimroborate her c mitchell have you found anyone further that will corroborate these stories . I can tell you ive spoken with two people who spoke to me anonymously out of concern for theimir , one of whom said that tara expressed to her about a decade after the incident that she aswas sexually hd by her boss in washington. Another woman told me that tara did indeed tell her at the time that she was sexually assaulted by her boss in washington. But those were, sort of, itonymous sources. And without any n proof, its tough to say. Mitchell whats coming out of the biden camp . What are you hearing from them . And what about those records from the university of delaware . Will we see th anytime soon . I think that this has brought renewed focus on joe bids papers, which remain, sort of, locked away at university of laware. He has refused to call for them to be released. The university has said they are not going to release them until two years after joe biden exits public life. Anspeaking with the biden campaign, you know, theyre not weighing in on this. And theyre staying quiet and letting, sort of, the vice presidefrnts commentay speak for themselves. Mitchell so, tell me, how are republicans in the Trump Administration responding to all of the noise thats going on about this story . Republicans have seized o this as evidence that both democratand the media are treating this with hypocrisy, that they have not gone after because it gejots at two arguments for republicans one, that democrats arent consistent on this question of character. Thats a central sort of focus and argument for joe biden that he has a stronger char tter than donamp. And two, republicans frequely raise doubts about the media, any questions about the medias coverage. And this really gets at that question as well. Mitchell thank you so much for your time. Thank youor having me. M chell earlier this week President Trump issued an executive order under the defense production act classifying me processing plants as Critical Infrastructure and ordering them to stay open. Still, many have been forced to close their doors due to covid 19, pacting not just the mea producers, but the entire food chain, frofarmers who raise hogs to Grain Farmers who help feed them. Newshour weekends Melanie Saltzman has more. This first group of pigs needs to be started to market in about two weeks. Reporter rob stout is a fourth generation hog farmer in southeast iowa. Raises 4,000 pigs at any given time, selling about 11,000 each year. Its a ocess that has ted nine months before, before we get them to the marketplace. Cant shut off the supply of pigs, because those pigs were conceived a long, long time ago. We got caught in the pandemic. Its, its hitting us. Basically. Im going into savings or just borrowing more money at the bank to cover the cost. Reporter hog prices dropped by roughly half because of a sharpue decline in demando restaurant closures and major disruptiopl in processing ts. Tyson foods, one of the top pork procssors in the u. S. , warned the Food Supply Chain is breaking, and millions of poundsil of meatdisappear from it. I mean, a pig isnt useful to anyone unless itan be processed into pork. Reporter Mike Paustian is the president of the iowa pork producers association. Hes also hog farmer himself. Were estimating that as many as 40,00pigs per day are not gointo market that normally would be. Rt ununately some farmers are going to be faced with, you know, the heart breaking decision to perhaps have to euthanize some of their animals. The coronavirus pandemic has really unleashed a cascade ofic dilt economic issues. Reporter Neil Hamilton is the emef ritus directore Agricultural Law Center at drake university. Iowa riculture came into this pandemic in a fairly precarious situation. We were suffering the consequences of a very difficult trade war that had been that had dried up a number of our foreign markets. A lot of faers were really on the edge. Reporter he also notes that producers in the food chain are all interconnected, so a hit to one part of the chain impacts every. With meat in particular, you have not just the production of ee animals, but you have demand for what they eat. And all of those things are tied together. , and there is less demand for livestock, theres also lhes demand foreeds that feed them. Its a little bit like an acy dent on the freeat kind of slows down traffic, and then the effects are rippled all the way back through the system. It takes a t of generations build a farm, and it only takes one eventike this to potentially le a farm, so i hope that doesnt happen to me. Reporter sam bennett, a sixth generation famer, is part of that system. He has 2,000 acres of crs half corn and half soybea. Those soybeans are made into hog feed, for the most part. And with the processing plants for hogs closing left and right, the demand for soymeal for hog feed idrastically cut. Alfalfa was planted this spring at the smeame ti i was planting oats. Repter newshour weekend featured sam bennett last year. He was demonstrating for other farmers how to improve the health of their soil by diversifying the crops they grew, he told us about his hopes for the future of his farm im not borrowing this land from my dad, or my grandpa, im borrowing it from my kids, and my grdkids. Its my responsibility to leave this land in better shape than i found it. Repo been since we met . Ngs comparatively, things were good when we talked last. Things have gotten pretty tough recently, especially with the lack of demand for all of our products that we grow. Reporter when we meebennett lastar he was growing the very crop that hes now having trouble selling for a profit. Bennett sa Soybean Prices dropped by 25 since the pandemic began, and the price of corn tied to ethanol and energy 25 as well. Pped about this is largely due to the fact ltat people have been sheered in place and stopped driving. Things dont look very good for the fute. My cash flow for this year looks like 100,000 less than it would have beeyn when i talked to bankers this winter about securing loans for farming this year. Reporter for now, bennett is gohiing to try to storgrains for as long as they can, hoping prices improve. But managing existing crops is only half the problem for iowa farmers right now, because they just began planting next years crop this week. Ive invested probably 40la0,000, just to a crop this year, and it looks like right now were going to plant a crop for no profit. Theres an old saying that it takes five years to make up one yeas sses, and thats probably, could easily be true here reporter farmer mike helland grows corn and soybeans. How much are y investing right w in next seasons crop . A tremendous amoud of money ith. Reporter newshour weekend also featured helland last year, when he described to us how hard it was for him to make a living as a farmer. All of our costs keep going up. As a farmer, you never get a yocost of living increase just have to be more efficient with the same machinery, or the same manpowe same hours. Reporter helland says hes lost 100,000 in the last month alone. He says the pandemic could have long term impacts. Were kind of looking towards retiri here in the next few years, and this is kind of maybe putting a hold on a lot of retireicment plans. Affects the younger generation, too, because those are jobs that dont become availablif people dont tire. Reporter and in the meantime this week, you just keep planting. Ou keep working, take care of the things you can take care of, and try not to worry about the things that you really dont have any control over. D ather and markets are two of those things. Mitchell last summer newshour weekend spoke with new yorknc city and choreographer reggie regg roc gray abo helped pioneer called flexn. Now, almost a year later, new yorks performance spaces have been shut down, but that doesnt mean gray and his fellow dancers have stopped creating. Neewshour weekends Ivette Feliciano has more ta we love the sge. We love being in a place where its full of full of people when everyones around us. Itsve that give and receel, you know . Were just waiting for that moment again to happen, so we , n, you knpress our creative, freedom within our movement. Reporter reggieregg roc gray and his dance troupe, dream ring, may not be appearing on stage any ti soon, but theyve found a new venue online as part of a new digital art series, up ose, presented by new york city art center, th. Dream rings new work is calle revelationf proverbs, a callback to the bible verses gray was reading when the shed commissioned the piece. Oddly enough, i was actually reading proverbs. Theyre these short sayings of just wisdom. And then you think about revelation, thats what it feels like right now in the sense of your loneliness, right . Of your of you being quarantined in a place and its, like, okay, well, i cant go outside because im scaredim nervous, i dont want to get caught up, i might havei mit have a preexisting condition. Like, no one knows whats going on. So like th theres this spiritual awakening where its like, okay, well, i have something here to create within. And how do we bring this out . Reporter were you guys able was it all done online . It definitely was all done online. The d cancee up with their own ideas. They come up with their way of doing things. And we got on a zoom call, we just stouarted talking whats happening right now. Whats it feel like, you know what im saying . Are you are you working out more . Like, what is happening in your life thfoats for the good an the bad . What are your pros and cons . And they started to put it in their movement. Reporter anviwhat kind of nments are your dancers performing in . Kitchens, living rooms, bathrooms. laugh ans here i guess it feke a story could be told. Everybody got their beids and their all messed up. Though. S its all good, like, its its liberating, actually. Reporter what are some of your thoughts about ng Performance Art during the time its nothing liforming live, cause you really need that human exchange. You really want that feeling. Digitally, it feels like it takes the soul a bit, but its still there. You know, we have to use what we have. Wee actually using social media for what its meant to be used for. laghughs art is something to bring everyone together and to not let art die out, we have to use our tenology. We have to use our ways of conneing through the airwaves, through video, you know, to make something worthwhile, so people can look at something and be so people can look at some someone and say, hey, well, i can do that. Or, i can make this. You know, i dont have to just lay in many bed aldabe depressed or be scared about whats happening. Be creative. Work out. Do things youve never done before. Cook recipes. Ive become a chef lately. laughs i did not know i could cook this good until i started cooking quarantined. Until i was ive ive really started, like, follong recipes and coing a im like, oh, well i can actually cook now is the time to get whutever you had nd just let it flourish. Mitchell and finally, another installment of our series the nenormal, in which we feature your stories about how youre living now. Toaght, we head to califor to meet an artist working in an unusual medium. Newshour weekends Christopher Booker has details. Reporter the artwork of Joanne Bolton is the byproduct of creativity and dog ownership. When i started the artwork i was looking around for something i might like to do when i retire, and we had a new dog and i was Walking Around the neighbhood. I dont know what time of year it was, seeds and everything were on the ground. I picked him up and thought, these are free. These . Reporter free, and in the hands of bolton, rather fantastic. Owlsofrnstructed om flowerin petals, ball made of leaves, or cats with pinecone tails. These are all i have like five or d swers of these leaves that have been pressed so i can use them over and over reporter boltates her images on top of a black, velvet sheet, and then takes a photograph. Right now she says shes not sure what she wants to do with all of the work, but at least during this time, our socially distanced te, she says she is keeping really busy. My son kept saying, you can do this, youve got all this time. And im saying to him, its no different from another day for. I mean, ive definitely stepped up making things, but whais different is that its given me more focus. And actually more empathy. I mean, i hopit changes everybody for a long time. D i hope we were able to stay isolated long enough to make it worthwhile. Mitchell thats all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. For the latest news updates visit pbs. Org newshour. Im karina mitchell. Ks for watching. Have a good night. Captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org pbs wpossible by d is made sue and Edgar Wachenheim iii. The cheryl and Philip Milstein family. Osalind p. Walter. Barbara hope zuckerberg. Charles rosenblum. We try to live in the moment, to not miss whats right in front of us. At mutual of america, we believe taking care of morrow can help you make the most of today. Mutual of america financial group, retement services and investments. Additional support has been provided 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 u. Thank you. Youre watching pbs. lighthearted music [jeff] when you think of australia, wh comes to mind . White sand, surf, and Crystal Clear waters . S yup, it at. But like most places on earth, if you travel the back roads, you see something else. That is impressive. Thats like out of Indiana Jones right there man. [jeff] you see a side of theountry that isnt putting on a show. It isnt trying, it just does what it does. This part of australia doesnt see Many International tourists. And because of that, a journey here meansa youll havavel experience thats about as honest as it gets. Ive never seen anything like this thats just off the side of the road randomly. thunder rumbling [jeff] wheyou travel, the world becomes a smaller place. F when you explore wiends that share a love of photography, destinations come to life. We tell the stories of travel with our cameras. Capturing some of the most beautiful locations on earth