And by contributions to this pbs station om viewers like you. Thank you. America. Reporting from new yori am laura trevelyan. President trump changes course on disbanding the Coronavirus Taskev force, saying he knew it was so popular. This comes amid warnings at the outbreak is just beginning in the u. S. And brazil, the out break is the latest threat to neighborhoods agued by poverty and violence. The president s handlingrof the crisiskes an angry reaction. Polluted parts of california and why people there feel they areba rollinck environmental protections. For all of you watching on pbs and around the globe, welcome to world news america. President trump has reversed course and will keep the task force in place indefinitely. Mr. Trump n says tion is battling a crisis worse than 9 11 and pearl harbor. En so, more and more u. S. Meeting the federal guidelines, which say Coronavirus Infections should be declining for at least two weeks. There are more tn 1. 2 million cases in this country and more than 72,000 people have died. Our reporter has more. Reporter as the coronavirus drastically and quickly altered american life, the white houses task force sought to offer guidance on the way forward. Pso when the visident who has led the group for months said ity would proband down before the pandemics and, criticism was swift. Today iner as of tweets, President Trump reversed course. He said the task force would continue on indefinitely, but reopening of the country. Y and in the oval office, he said he changed his mind because he e how popular the task force was. The president was honoring americas nurses as cases of infections continue to rise in the country. Pres. Trump this is the worst attack we have ever had. This is worse than pearl harbor. This is worse than the wld trade center. There has never been an attack like this. And it should have never happened. Poer restarting an ailing economy that is crucial to his reelection prospects is the president s priority. It will be no easy task though. Parts of the country are still eing dangerous trends. In iowa, 730 workers at a tyson foods pork plant tested sitive. And deaths in the state surged to a new high on tuesday. In the epicenter othe virus, new york is still desperately trying to protect residents. Eraordinary times call extraordinary measures. Reporter cleaning crews have begun disinfecting tra nightly. It is the first time in the subways historyre that an en shutdown of the system has been planned. Ch morning, regular service will resume. Restarting the nations economy will not be as simple. Bbc news. Laur joining me now to talk about the u. S. Response to the growing coronavirus outbrk is dr. Lena when, and emergency physician who is baltimores public healthommissioner. Thank you for joining us. We heard today from dr. Thomas frieden, former head of the cdc, who set the outbreak inishe u. S. Ad and it is just beginning. Do you share that assessment . I do. Unfortunately. The vaccine the virus, rather, has not changed since the beginning. We still do not have a vaccine. We still do not have a care. What we have in place to prent prevent the transmission isg. Social distanc the moment we start removing thes restrictions, we will see an increase in the number of not have the capabilities of raining and the virus. We doot have theng tes we dont have the Contact Tracing in place. So in essence, we are deciding that we are ok with these escalating numbers, because that is whats going to happen when we reopen without these other key capabilities in place. Laura so is the president right then when he says there may be deaths as we reopen . But we have tak to keep our economy closed. Wl, whave somehow made this decision as a society. Eebut weto talk about what the toll is going to look like. We are going to see a new york style infection. An outbreak all across the because as it is, we are seeing that the numbers in new york are finally leveling off. But if you take new york out of the equation and you look at wherthe u. S. Is, minus the new york area, the number of infection the infections is going up by the day. Sand that with our social distancing measures in place. So you take that away, im afraid are going to see escalating numbers, and outbreaks happening all around the country, especially in areas that w. Dont even know abo hot spots in places that donus have rhealth care infrastructure as it is, and that is a lot ofen deaths, prble deaths, at this point. Laura the president is saying he is not goi to wind down the Coronavirus Task force. But how effective has i . Even be i think it is important that there is one taskorce in place because there needs to be one entity that is coordinating this whole of government response. It has been effective in some ways,s at least we know there one place out of which guidance is coming from. The problem of course is that we have not had this National Coordina that we need. He way this National Effort to secure the number of tests needed to get also the other critical tisupplies, the vtors, the masks, the gowns. Asandforward, we will have many more needs goingwa f. If we one day have a vaccine, we dont just need the vaccine. We need the vaccination. We need vials, syringes, we need these medications to be produced. All of that requires a ordinated response. Im glad the task force is in place still. But i hope it will do a lot more going forward. Laura dr. Lena when, thank you for joining us. Nthou Coronavirus Infections in new york are declining at long last as she wasg, say hotspots are emerging elsewre in the country. Take illinois. There have been more than 65,000 infections. The governor unveiled g phased reopenan today. The city of chicago has been hardhit in the state. And a joins us now. Thank you for tight for finding time. Tell h us bad is the situation in chicago right now . Overall, weave seen a flattening of the ratee at whih ses are increasing. When the virus really hit chicag hard in early to mid marc we were seeing a doubli of the cases every two days. We are now seeing a doubling of the cases every 15 days. That is clearly progress. What w are still in the midst of is an increase every single day in the number of cases and the number of deaths. We have not seen a decline yet. So we are continuing to work on containment efforts. Laura are the fault lines in america of race and poverty being exposed by thi crisis . Those fault lines were always exposed. The reality is that when you see the disparity across black a brown communities in particular, the lack of access to health care, the lack of access to healthy food choices, the kinds of jobs that many people in black and brown communities, not just in chicago, but across the country that are open to them, that put them at risk because they are essential workers and dont have the luxury of teleworking, they are on the front lines. Not surprisingly, those disparities have also led to Underlying Health disparities. Fhigher rates diabetes, Heart Disease and upper respiratory illnesses that we know that this virus ruthlessly attacks. The are the kinds of things that we are seeing laid bare as we see the increase in the disproportionate number of cases in the latinx community, the black community, both in infections but sadly, also in deaths. Laura speaking of deaths, cook county which includes chica is reviewing deaths as far back as november. Do youig suspect coronavirus m have been circulating then . Well, i thinky thee going back as far as december. And i think it is pdent for the medical examiner to go back and makeure that we do have an accurate accounting of how people died. Getting that Vital Public Health information is ctically important. Just as important as making sure we understand who has been affected, how ey have been e w tted, inti ghanget de have been f emphasizing no some time here in chicago. We can measure impacts ontant hyper local specific interventions. Laura the plan to reopen illinois is much, much stricter than the federal government guidelines. Why is not . You think the federal government was too lax . I think theme federal gove is looking across 50 states. Illinois is looking across one state. And we have to be driven by, as i know the guidelines are, by weather conditions are on the ground in illinois. We have not seen a e in cases. Que the contrary. Continue to see an increase day by day. The rate of increase is definitely less. But we still have not seen a crse and a sustained decrease which we will need to be open to fully to openy fuckup. The guidance that was rolled out by the state is helpful. Tomorrow we will be issuing some chicago specific guidance. And that will be important to really inform residents in our city what the state of play is with the arc of this virus in chicago. Laura mallory lightfoot, thank you for joining us. My pleasure. Thank you. Laura results president is facing growing pressure over his response to the pandemic which his opponents callhaic. President bolsonaro who suggested the worst of the crisis is over, even as brazil saw its largest increathe death toll. Our correspondent katy reports from sao paulo. Reporter inral, coronavirus is seen as a ch mans disease. Brought in from abroad. But they know that the poor will suffer the most. Death ever present in these often violent neighborhoods. Covid19 has become another killer, leaving it weaving its way into these narrow streets. She use to earn a five dollars a day as abo cleaner. No she and her husband are unemployed. Bringing up three little girls on handouts and donations. Social distancing is not an option here. And authorities are not around to enforce any rules. They are angry with how their president is dealing with this crisis. [speaking foreign language] bolsonaro is wrong. He tells people to go toeo work, thene die. And then he will just say nother one died. Well, it is not my son. What stayathome. Is gyre bolsonaro is not dea p fonothing. H le hiamerican i habeen railinggainst lockdown. As crisis escalates, so too does denial. Translator yesterday he said the worst was over. Then came the biggest number ever. Reporter he got the top job because he promised brazilians angry with corrupt politics a change for the better. But wh families in the amazon bearing their dead burying their dead in mask raves and Health Systems on the verge of coapse, many former supporters feel they were fed a lie. State governors are ignoring the prident, introducing quarantine and lockdown to protect the public. The man in charge of brazils wealthiest state has become when you have v tuses to combat, the coronavirus and bolsonaro virus, it is not time to discuss ideology, politics, campaigns or individual positions. This is the wrong w the right way to save lives and to respect the science. Reporter in sao paulos eastern suburbs, quarantine offers little opportunity. Poverty mixture of that. The most vulnerable are waiting in line for government dandouts, and ng so, they are the most exposed brazilians are confused. Do ty listen to their local politician saying stayathome or to work . Increasingly, rules are being bent a ignored and it could not come at a worse time for the country. Even the most famous landmark has been enlisted in the fight if christ the redeemerdi cannot uade bolsonaro to don a mask, nobody can. Katy watson, bbc news in sao paulo. Laura in other news now from around the world, the number of coronavirus deaths in the u. K. Ha risen to over 30,000 people. In parliamt, the Prime Minister said italy regrets the epidemic in nursing homes. Th they havhighest reportage in eure and a second only to thunited states. Uber has become the latest company to announce huge job cuts as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The ridesharing firm is cutting 3700 jobs,f abo 14 s workforce. Thu. S. Secretary of state has doubled down on his claim that there is evince the virus originated in a will hand labotory. A briefing in washington day, he once again criticize the chinese governments handling of the pandemic. Our state Department Correspondent pressed mr. Pompeo over whetherhe have been inconsistencies in the administrations messaging. Dr. Fci said there was evidence that indicated the virus evolved in nature. , barba barbara. Bewe have through it. And so on. Im wondering. It does not talk about evidence. Are you basing your sherman assurance on information that these parties do not have . Barbara. Let me put this to bed your efforts to try to find to spend your whole life trying to drive a little wedge between senior american officials, it is just fse. Barbara, everyone of those statements is entirely consistent. Laura here is what barbora had to say that exchange, reporting from the state department. Reporter the issue is that mr. Pompeo said at the weekend that there was evidence that the virus had emerged in a chinese laboratory. Tandt assertion seemed to contradict earlier comments he made, as well as those of hid top general her u. S. Officials who have been more cautious. That is why we were challenging him. This or pompeo used the press conference to deliver another salvo int w has been a torrent of criticism from the Trump Administration against cna, sang that the chinese withheld information in the early days of the epidemic, and that allowed it to spread globally, killing hundreds of thousands of people. And creating an economic downturn. And that the chinese were not besg transparent so more li were being lost. Is true other countries have criticized chinese behavior and some of them have called for accountability. In terms of the Trump Administration, critics say it wants to divert attentionrom its own slow response to the pandic, especially in a president ial year, and that is one of the reasons why it has been hitting beijing so hard. Ura barbara reporting there. You are watching bbc world news america. Still to co on tonights program, a public sign of f appreciatim the worlds most private artist. Thanks he leaves a work forit hospal staff in britain. Germanys ancellor it has reached an agreement with regional leaders on relaxing coronavirus restrictions. Angela merkel says social distancing will stay in place until june and face coverings must be worn on public transport. Other elements canesume. Heres jenny health. Hireporter country is in a good position, the infection rates have been calling falling. Spare. Is Hospital Capacity to that has put Angela Merkel under sure from 16 states who desperately want to restart their local econoes. At the meeting today, we are told it was very stormy, they s,reed they can open shops, restaurants, hot albeit with strict social distancing measures, and that germanys professional football ague, the bundesliga can resume matches, although they must be he behind closed doors. There are important caveats. People cannot go out and meet up with whoever they would like to. Th still have to wear face masks. And the authorities will continue to test and Contact Trace aggressively. Are focused tonight is the salt in see in californias imperial valley, one of the most polluted areas of the golden state. The Obama Administration introduced policies to limit environmental damage there. E Trump White House wants to roll those back. Sophie long reports. Reporter this is the salt and see, californias largest lake. A vast inland oasis created over a century ago when a flood in Colorado River was accidentally diverted into the desert. St this is the y of the miracle sea in the desert. Reporter the richocnd famous fld to its reserve its resorts in its heyday. Now it is contaminated by pollution,nd it is drying it. Its white shores growth. It is no secret there are sinister chemicals in the sand and they are causing children to che. This tox dust is a major part of the problem. For theast few months, millions of parents around the world have been keeping their children at home to protect them from what is outside. That is nothingor new communities here. They have had to do that for years. In the neglected communities living in the sweltering valley, many children are battling to breathe. One in five have been diagnosed with a chronic respiratory disease. For their parents, covid19 is a terrifying prospect. Cantfeels like you breathe. Reporter sixyearoljust ayad tells me hes tough anasthma doesnt scare him it scares his mom, though. She knows a severe attack could kill him. Recently it has gotten a lot worse. S the first few times, i t so scared i think because i did not know the severity of imi i was not ar with what it can do. Now it is a lot more scary because im more famiar with it and his attacks are getting worse. Reporter of the World Economic forum in january, President Trump declared americas skies and seas cleaner than they have been for decades. Ol with itsack of environmental protections, his administration seems to be moving ithe opposite direction to what people here say they need. Those who see the suffering say at can only exacerbate conditions that have already made so many vulnerable to the global pandemic. If yocan trace the poor air qualy and map it out in our country, the vast majority of the time,ar they are communities of color, for communities, or very rural communities. So by removing these protectionhose are the communities who will now be left more vulnerable, more exposed and at the whim of covid19 that can potentially die at even a higher, more alarming rate than they already are. Reporter those monitoring air pollution around the salt and sea say the combination of toxic dust, agricultural waste andfa ory pollution has created a disaster waiting to happen. These pandemic conditions can be the source, can be ground zero for the next pandemic. That will affect the state, it will affect this country. We can be the cold worked the culprit for the next pandemic. We still live in our own backyard here, we are home tolu the most pd river that crosses the international border. It is bacally an open zero or sewer. Reporter the Trump Administration points blame at mexico for much of the waste and fumes that flow into this basin. That makes little difference to people here. Iopoll has as little resct for borders as the pandemic. They need to step up a implement the clean air act. Not onlyer the diesel gors i can be replaced, but there is lots of other things and managing the agriculture that can reduce the air quality. There is all sorts of thingsat ould be done. But they are just throwing up their hands and saying, its mexico, we cant do anything about it. When in fact they can. Reporter the fear is if the salt and sea is left to die, so too with the communitieshat live along its shores. Sophie long, bbc news, imperial valley, california. Laura pollution knows no borders. The street ardor artist bbc banksy has joined the global trend of thinking of thanking people. We have more. Reporter could this be a rare artist banksy . E elusive street undercover making a special delivery to University Hospital southampton, it rtainly is his handiwork. It was hung late last night and unveiled this morng. It depicts a young boy kneeling down wearing dungarees and a white tshirt, a wastepaper basket in front of him has two discarded superheroes. Instead he is playing with this new model figure, a superhero. An nhs nurse pointing forwards like superman. She is on a mission. The idea of the hospitals management and banksy was s to thank tff for everything they are doing. Did it go down well . Just the proud nose of it, realizing that we are thought of and respective respected for years now, with everying going on with the current climate. People areeeing us where we should be. Such a nice reward for all the staff that have been working really hard throughout this. We have had members of staff, and all our patients, we have pulled together and got on with our work. Reporter why did the hospital want to work with banksy . He really capture the emotion behind the way the cous recognizing the nhs at the moment, certainly since we have been talking about it this morning, people recognize him, they understand where hes coming from. And theyppreciative that he has made southampton the place to recognize the nhs. Reporter the plan is to sell the artwork at an auction after the lockdown with proceeds going to the nhs, some of which will come to this hospital. It could fetch over one million pounds. Laura speaking of tributes, the Boston Red Sox have used the Hallowed Ground of fenway park to show their appreciation to Mark National nurses day in the u. S. They carved nurses into the center field gsslongside their famous sks. Banksy would be proud, i think. Boston has been hit hard with more than 10,000 confirmed cases. The salute from the sporting titans of boston to the citys newest heroes, im trevelyan. Thank you so much for narrator funding for this presentation of this programby is provide. Language specialists teaching anish, french and more. Raymond james. The freeman foundation. By judy and Peter Blum Kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for americs neglected needs. And by contributions to this s station from viewers like you. Thank you. Narrator yo reatching pbs. Mr. Rogers its a beautiful girl we are the curious. Woman 1 wow t man 1 he adventurous. Man 2 oh daniel tiger grrr woman 2 those venturing out for daall blast off r [rocket explosion] av man 3 and those who hnever lost our sense of wonder. Man 4 whoa man 5 are you seeing this . [quacking] vo we are the hungry. Cookie monster cookie man 6 the strong. Mu muhammad ali i st be the greatest vo the joyful. Lobob ross a happy little. Man 3 we believe there is always more we can uncover. Girl moree can explore. Woman 3 we believe. Man 6 . In the capacity for goodness. Vo and the potential for greatness. Ee man 7 the torch hasn passed to a new generation americans. Man 1 pbs. Man 3 pbs. Rl pbs. Captioning sponsored by , newshour productionsc woodruff good evening. Im judy woodruff. On the newshour tonight an uncertain future. Reopenings continue, despite an expected spike in infections, as the president oscillates on dissolving the whiteouse Coronavirus Task force. Then, empty skies. The Airline Industry implements Safety Measures to increase travel by the summer, but qioue remain. I talk with the head of southwest airlines. Plus, hesitant to seek help. An increasing number of ericans are choosing to forego medical care, even criticaloc predures, to avoid exposure to covid19 at hospitals. Maybe weve underestited the kind of fear that now is pervading society, thats
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