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 tomorrow can help you make the most o today. Mutual of america financial group, retirement serves 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 s station from viewers like you. Thank you. Sreenivasan evening and thanks for joining us. This memorial day weekend flags across the country are flying at half staff to honor those who have lost their lives to the coronavirus a who lost their lives in military service. Even as governments begin to allow larger gatherings and reopenings, deaths from covid19 continue. Lets get started with todays top stories it feels great to have guests on the park again. To actually enter the park, you need to reserve a spot online. Sreenivasan americans are on the move this Holiday Weekend, going to visit newly opened amusement parks and restaurants. Although the virus spread slow in most areas, the centers for Disease Control and prevention reported more than 24,000 new cases yesterday. On some newly opened beaches this weekend there were scenes of crowds that raised concerns abou the virus resurging as reopenings increase. The White House CoronavirusTask Force Coordinator dr. Deborah birx urged people to wear face coverings outdoors this Holiday Weekend if they cant stay six feet apart. I think its our job as Public Health officials everyday to be informing the public of what puts them at risk. And weve made it clear that theres asymptomatic spread. And that means that people are spreading the disease unknowingly. And thats unusual in the case of respiratory diseases in many cases. So you dont know whos infected. And so we really want to be clear all the time that social distancing is absolutely critical. And if you cant social distance and youre outside, you must wear a mask. Sreenivasanthe Trump Administration is considering a ban on travel from brazil as that country now has more confirmed coronavirus cases than any country in the world besides the United States. Brazils Health Ministry said there are now more than 347,000 cases of coronavirus, surpassing russia as the number two hot spotlobally. Despite regional lockdowns, brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro showed up to a rally supporting him in brasilia today. Bolsonaro has come under criticism for his handling of the pandemic and for alleged interference in a corruption probe into his family. Yesterday, brazilian officials announced that there were 965 coronavirusrelated deaths in the previous 24hours. In total, more than 22,000 people there have died. Thousands of demonstrators returned to the streets of hg kong today to march against Mainland Chinas new National Security legislation. Police fired tear gas at the protesters who say that beijings proposal to ban subversive activity and foreign interference threatens hong kongs autonomy. The law would bypass hong kongs legislature and could allow security agencies from Mainland China set up offices in the city. The new security legislation is expected to be approved by Chinas Parliament later this week. The longawaited corruption trial for israels Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu began in jerusalem today. After arriving at the courthouse, netanyahu accused police and prosecutors of trying to depose him and claimed he is the victim of a conspiracy. The Prime Minister is charged with fraud, breach of trust, and accepting bribes accusations he denies. Netanyahu is the first sitting prime mister in israels history to stand trial and legal analysts say the case could last for years. The government of afghanistan and the taliban announced a three day ceasefire for the eidalfitr holiday. Afghan president ashraf ghani said all security foes would observe the halt in fighting, which begins today. In a good will gesture, ghani also started a process to release up to 2,000 taliba prisoners. Hundreds of afghans gathered today to attend eid prayers, which were held outside to help prevent the sprd of coronavirus. The holiday marks the end of the fasting month of ramadan. You can find all of our coverage of the global outbreak and the latest national and International News at p. Org newshour. Sreenivasan theres been a lot of discussion about Contact Tracing to help curtail the spread of the coronavirus outbreak. But in this era of advanced technology with global tracking and digital locators, the process for tracking the virus may require oldschool techniques. Propublicas Caroline Chen took a deep dive into Contact Tracing and joined me recently to discuss what may be coming. Caroline, lets talk out Contact Tracing. This is not that new an idea, but its very different in how much we need it today. Yeah, absolutely. We have been actually using Contact Tracing for decades and decades for many different types of diseases, including s. T. D. S like h. I. V. And syphilis and for diseases like tuberculosis. But the big challenge right now is just how big the coronavirus outbreak is. So, what the u. S. Needs right now is massive numbers of people to do Contact Tracing. Sreenivasan and is this a job where theyre going to have to go door to door because people are concerned that, hey, i dont want to actually be a contact tracer if im going to have to go meet people who are sick . No. So, this can all be done over the phone. And, in fact, these can be remote jobs. So a lot of the states that are hiring people right now, this is a job that you can do from home. Sreenivasan thats great. Now, theres also been app or what does a contact tracer do over the phone . Yeah. So, Public Health departments will get information from labs on positive patients. And so, theyll get that information, say, you know, that bob has gotten a positive te. So theyll call bob, hi, you know, they will check up on how bobs doing and what his symptoms are. And then also ask, hey, you know, can we review with you who youve been in touch with . And this the c. D. C. Guidance right now is two days before you started to get symptoms, because ths the period in which you were probably most infected. And the definition of a contact, according to the c. D. C. Right now, is someone who you were within six feet of for more than 15 minutes. And then theyll ask, you know, do you remember peoples phone numbers . You know, this is why theyre called disease detectives as well. Thats another word for Contact Tracing. You really have to do some sleuthing here and theyll get that information and then start contacting these people who are close contacts with bob now, they dont ever actually give out bobs name, though. So there is this level of anonymity where theyll call wednesday, jane, and say, hey, jane, we have information that you were within close contact of someone who tested positive for the virus and ask jane to then be in quarantine for 14 days. Sreenivasan so, give me an example of the scale of contact tracers that we would need to pull this off considering that our data shows that there are still new infections officially recognized and diagnosed ones that are happening every day. One statistic thats really stuck in my mind is that the city of wuhan, china, had a has about 11 million residents. And at the peak of their infection, at one point, they had 9,000 contact tracers. And thats a ratio of 81 contact tracers per 100,000 residents. Right now in the u. S. So if you take massachusetts, saying that heard is california says that they would hire up to 20,000 contract tracers, so that would be in the range of about 50 contact tracers per 100,000 residents so it is still not up to wuhan levels, but much higher. So basically, i think the takeaway is we need a lot more. Sreenivasan what do i need if i want to be a contact tracer or, considering there are a lot of people that are unemployed right now that might be looking for work that they can do from home, this sounds pretty good. What kind of qualifications do i have to have . A lot of experts have said a lot of people have compared to, you know, census taking type of jobs. Its sort of a civil level of education. And ive looked, you know, state by state different states have different requirements so, i would say you really probably want to go look at your specific states requirements. But i think, you know, what the hardest part of this job is not just data collection, but really empathy and getting trust from the person on the phone because youre calling someone and oftentimes youre giving them really bad news. Youre telling either youre infected or youve been in close contact with someone whos been infected. And its a real shock. And the thing that states really need to think about is youre not there to, like, just extract information from someone, but youre there to then equip and enable someone to be able to comply with what they then need to do, which is stay at home for a relatively long period of time. So someone might say, im the so you need to have social services engaged. You need to have this person trust you and understand why its so important to break the chains of transmission. And so, really, people need to be trained in communication. Do that job well alongside being able to gather good information. Sreenivasan caroli chen of propubla, thanks so much. Thanks for having me. Sreenivasan the coronavirus pandemic has put every country to the test. Whether measuring infection rates, mortality or unemployment, the results vary dramatically. Here in the u. S. , the government is weighing whether or not to provide another stimulus package as more than 38 Million People have filed for unemployment since midmarch. In germany, the number of people out owork during stay at home orders surged, but atate funded shortterm program there helped many avoid layoffs. Its a worksharing agreement that some here in the u. S. Are hoping may catch on. Newshour weekends Christopher Booker has more. Reporter with the passage of the landmark cares act in march the headline was Financial Relief was on its way for millio of americans. As companies slashed jobs, the nearly 2 trillion relief bill meant that on top of a one time stimulus check, an additional 600 a week in federal Unemployment Insurance would be made available for those suddenly out of work. But, buried deep in the document was Something ElseAdditional Support for little known state programs that can help businesses avoid having to lay people off in the first place. I learned about work share because i actually stared reporting a story about the unemployment system in my capacity as a journalist at the l. A. Times. Right at the same time, i was working on that our management came to us and said that they wanted 2 million in cuts from our newsroom. Reporter matt pearce is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times and an elected guild member of the newspapers union. You know there are other programs out there like t. P. P. That Small Businesses have applied for to keep workers on their payroll. We were too big to be eligible for that. We also didnt have access to the Treasury Program for mid sized business loans, so we reached for the next closest tool, which was the work sharing program. Reporter california is one of 25 states along with the district of columbia that have at is known as a work share or shortterm compensation program. Such programs allow companies to avoid layoffs in exchange for a reduction in employee hours. A percentage of the employees lost wages are offset with Unemployment Insurance, which comes out of state funds, but der the cares act those pay outs are being reimbursed by the federal government. We had trouble actually finding other employers who had had experience with this program. I mean, this was the craziest thing when i was making phone calls even among labor people in california, they didnt have much experience with it. Reporter but pearce and the guild did figure it out, and convinced management to agree to a 12week Work Share Program. Cutting hours of everyone by 20 , the agreement saved 84 jobs. Thats really attractive thing about this program. You dont have to lay people off just to save t business. Everyone can take a collective hit, protect some people so that they dont get thrown out into the unemployment line. It really seems like a winwin for all of us. It is a program that i think in many respects is ideally suited for this recession. Reporter Susan Houseman is the Vice President and director of research with the w. E. Upjohn institute for employment research. The Michigan Research organization was founded 75 years ago to study policy related issues of employment and unemployment. The causes of the recession. Were not economic in nature. Theres a health pandemic. And what ideally wed like to do is to hold things in place as we get better control of the virus ramp up as quickly as possible. There is not a fundamental restructuring that needs to be done in the economy. Reporter much of the immediate job losses were in the Service Sector of our economy. Is a Work Share Program more is it possible to have a Workshare Program for someone that works at a restaurant or the bartender . For someone that works in tail . In principle, absolutely. Reporter but again, that is, if its available in your state and employers know about. In 2017, houseman was a coauthor of a study that looked at how to expand Workshare Programs already in existence in iowa and oregon. And the baseline in iowa for employers knowing about this program. Their minds have been running for years and i was 10 and, and in oregon it was about, about 25 . Reporter 25 of employers knew about this in oregon and only 10 knew about in iowa . Correct. Many employers dont know about it. And if you think about it, just, it was just within the last several years that nine of these states, including mine, michigan, introduced this program. We were in an expansion. So i would imagine that very few employers, when this hit and it hit quickly, this, this recession, knew about it. Reporter there are those who argue, the lack of workshare is not just about policy, but something much more complicated. And this can be seen nowhere more than in the difference in unemployment between the United States and germany. At the end of april, the german Unemployment Rate was 5. 8 . Meanwhile, in the u. S. It was 14. 7 . Well, whats the difference . Well, of course, culture is the difference. Reporter Thomas Kohler is a labor scholar and professor of law and philosophy at boston college. So, what has made the difference . Their socalled kurzarbeit, short work system. What kurzarbeit does is to take those funds and to give an incentive to employers and employees to continue to work or continue to train. And the government will subsidize that. The idea being this is a lot cheaper than having a large body of Unemployed People who end up if theyre out of the labor market too long. They have difficulty getting back into it. Reporter according to the german i. F. O. Institute for economic research, half of all german firms coving as many as ten million german workers are currentlutilizing kurzabeit. To do something as structurally comprehensive as the germans would require a lot of change in our attitudes. You can never look at a model and buy it and take it home. It wont work that way. You need a certain culture to do it, but theres a lot we could learn from it. Reporter do you anticipate Employment Policy will change in the u. S. In response to this crisis . I think at some point it absolutely has to. We have too many people who have literally no protections at all. Its clear to me that we need a new way to think about work and how we order it. I can see from firsthand experience now, you know, not as a journalist, but as someone, you know, representing my coworkers, why its so difficult to promote these programs in the us. Theyre just its easier to lay people off. Theres not a culture of spreading around the pain to protect people in these times of temporary economic crunches. Were just going to try to survive this round the fight and then get on to the next battle, which could be 12 weeks from now, six months from now, a year from now. Reporter the cares act funds Work Share Programs through the end of 2020. The current l. A. Times deal lasts until the end of july. While pearce is unclear what happens after, his phone has been ringing. The calls coming from other newsrooms across the country looking for advice. More on our while the environmental effects of covid19 are still to take publics focus on both crises. They are finding online ways to organize and continue their advocacy. Newshour weekends eve, Ivette Feliciano reports. Last year, the High School Reporter last year, High School Youth and new yorkbased indigenous climate activist xiye bastida led hundreds of students in mass strikes as part of fridays for future, a walkout Climate Protest Movement started by teenage climate activist greta thunberg. When you disrupthe system, that is when people Pay Attention to you. So, for the first Global Climate strike on march 15, i organized my school to strike and i got 600 kids to walk out. And on the streets is where i met my fellow organizers from around new york city. And ever since we got together, started organizing and got three hundred thousand people to strike on september 20. Reporter the youth protest movement brought more than ten million to the streets in september. Bastida and climate activists around the world were gearing up to do more inperson actions for the 50th anniversary of earth day at the end of april. But then, the coronavirus pandemic began, and stayathome orders were issued. It like, really disrupted our upward trend of having impact in different places. But it united us in a different way, because climate activism is about community. So we shifted all of our organizing that was going to happen on the streets to online activism. Reporter the focus on Online Environmental activism has only grown. For earth day on april 22, Climate Justice organizations like 350. Org helped organize a 72hour livestream event, which had over 4. 8 million views from around the world. How do you advocate, lobby and create critical moments of pressure when you cant get into soones face . Reporter Tamara Toles Olaughlin is the north america director for 350. Org. The group created online toolkits for differe ways of organizing around the climate, such as virtual banner projects, Online Training and outreach tutorials. How do you get people who arent in the same place to connect about big ideas and create space for conversations . Some of thats just plain old education about what the facts are. Resources and toolkits. Templates for how to communicate with your representatives. So, figuring out what it is people need where they are is just an extension of what we have been doing as an International Global organization thats been working on climate for over a decade. Reporter on may 14, the organization gathered more than 600 people for an online discussion that included the relationship between Climate Change and covid19. Other groups are also finding new ways of taking direct social action. We have pivoted to organizing in a way that is totally consistent with keeping those distancing requirements in place. Reporter Keya Chatterjee is the execive director of the u. S. Climate action network, a coalition of hundreds of organizations active on Climate Change. We Just Launched something called arm in arm, where any three people, anywhere they are in the country, can take leadership and sta doing what we are calling disruptive humanitarianism. Whether that means, you know, planting orchards in the way of pipelines or closing off streets so kids can go outside for the first time in a month, you dont actually need to gather a lot of people to disrupt systems. Reporter the network also started an Online Campaign called the peoples bailout. It urges citizens to call their elected representatives to demand they address the social inequities of Climate Change, which activists say now risk being intensified by the federal governments response to covid19. If you look at who has been most badly affected by covid 19, it is indigenous, black, latinx communities are the very same communities hit worse by the Climate Crisis. Even geographically, the overlap. If you look at, you know, louisiana, you know, parts of new york, detroit. These are ples that have been really badly hit by environmental injustices and climate injustices. Reporter youth climate activist xiye bastida says that, if nothing else, the covid19 pandemic has made the threat of Climate Change to marginal communities clear. I was born and raised in mexico and when i was 13 years old, my town flooded heavily. And not only that, but the waste that we had from a lot of the neighboring factories spilled over on the streets. So it was pollution and the effects of the Climate Crisis combined into something that completely made my town unstable economically. So, ever since that was like my wakeup call. What covid has done is rip the bandaid off and let people know that if you dont have access and you dont have resources, then you dont have a response to a crisis that will only continue to be compounded as climate makes pandemics more likely. So, for example, in this moment, we were planning before now to focus on flood and a fire season. For people that are stable around what they can in covid, they will be forced to consider whether they can continue to shelterinplace in places where there are floods, where there are fires, where its just too hot or electricity may go up because of brownouts. Reporter a new study this week by a group of International Scientists found that Global Carbon dioxide emissions dropped by 17 in april during the coronavirus lockdown. Yet bastida says it shouldnt take a Health Crisis to heal the planet. Because it is actually harming a lot of communities. The coronavirus pandemic is only stopping mass production of things, and we can achieve low Carbon Emissions by switching to renewable energy. We have to keep fighting for Climate Justice. Sreenivasan this coming week two american astronauts will blast off on a mission to the International Space station from cape canaveral. Its the first launch from u. S. Soil with astronauts on board since the Space ShuttleProgram Ended in 2011. And the first time a private company spacex, not nasa will control the mission using its crew dragon capsule on a Spacex Falcon 9 rocket. Liftoff is scheduled for 4 33 eastern time on wednesday afternoon. Thats all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. For the latest news updates visit pbs. Org newshour. And on this memorial day weekend, thank you to those who have lost their lives in military service. Im hari sreenivasan. Thanks for watching. Stay healthy and have a good night. Captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org pbs newshour weekend is made possible by bernard and irene schwartz. Sue and Edgar Wachenheim iii. The cheryl and Philip Milstein family. Rosalind 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 tomorrow can help you make the most of today. Mutual of america financial group, Retirement Services and investments. When it comes to wireless, Consumer Cellular gives its customers the choice. Our nocontract plans give you as much or as little talk, text and data as you want. And our u. S. Based Customer Service team is onhand to help. To learn more, go to www. Consumercellular. Tv. 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 you. Thank you. Youre watching pbs. ceremonial music singing in a Foreign Language [narrator] this is fall in the Sierra Nevada mountains of california. singing in a Foreign Language a brief color show where trees paint the high peaks and canyons with red and gold, and where people come to explore before winter shuts its doors. singing in a Foreign Language electronic music the summer crowds are gone. The air is crisp and clear. And if you know where to look,