Transcripts For KQED PBS NewsHour 20240711

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Woodruff there are two major stories tonight the president ial traition as President Trump refuses to concede or even allow for the traditional preparations that would normally have begun. And the surging burden of covid cases in most areas of the country. The u. S. Hit a new daily record of covid19 infections with more than 144,000 reported yesterday. Hospitalizations topped 65,000 for the first time. 22 states are reporting more hospitalizations than at any time since the pandemic began. Deaths are up by 22 percent from a week ago. Lets look at how this is hitting a number of states, lets look at how this is hitting a number of states especially hard. In el paso, texas, makeshift clinics outside hospitals are opening up, mobile morgues are moving in and a lockdown of non essential businesses has been extended. Testing lines are growing in wisconsin. Cases there have jumped from 700 a day to more than 6,000 in two months. To deal with its surge chicagos mayor lori light foolt issued a ten person limit on social gatherings and a stay at home advisory for nonessential needs starting next week. And in south and in south dakota, the highest hospitalization rate in the country one out of every 1,600 residents is hospitalized with covid. We asked a small group of americans how these surges are affecting their lives. My name is dave cayton. I am a regtered nurse at the medical intensive care unit and the covid intensive care unit at United Hospital in downtown st. Paul. My name is valerie skrdlant, im from des moines, iowa, west des moines, to be exact. And im a stay at home mom. My name is jared berger. I work in the Culinary Department at a Senior Living community, and i am in sioux falls, south dakota. My name is Jennifer Kary and im a substitute teacher. I live in mandan, north dakota. My name is caroline long and i am a special Education Teacher with minneapolis public schools. My name is marie cheslik, im a registered nurse in chicago, illinois. I feel like im drowning. Its gotten to the point where in the last month for sure, weve been completely ll in the hospital. Every single covid designated room has been full. And even last week we had every room in the intensive care unit was full and we would just get patients rolling onto the unit with no open room to go to. I got sick on october 13th, and within a week i found out that my husband, daughter, his best friend and about 10 other people all became positive within a weeks worth of time. Every potential exposure that i ha is a potential exposure to every single one of the 140 residents that i have to help make food for. And at the end of the day, i have to the way i think about it is would i be able to sleep at night or live with myself knowing that i could have potentially given this to somebody who couldnt fight it off . I find myself running, running, running and not finding time for breaks, and again, sort ofnormal on a on a perspective of being a nurse, but the way that its happening with covid right now is that its nonstop. There have been all this reports that, you know, it has a negative impact on communities of color and, you know, having preexisting Health Conditions myself and then being a woman of color, then i really worry about that. In a family oriented state like iowa, its very hard. Its very stressful. And its it makes you feel like there will be some days where i feel like im the only one on board or maybe me and just a few hundred people that live here are taking it seriously. Its only seeming like its getting worse. And i im afraid for the future. The burnout is from knowing that its not getting better. We generally only see maybe 10 of people wearing masks. They do not social distance. In fact, if you do wear a mask, youre often looked at like, oh, its that crazy person who doesnt know how to live life. its unfortunate that this pandemic has been made so such a political argument. And i dont think that that needed to happen because its really about the safety of lives, the safety of people. I can be there for my patients, but more and more, its less of bedside, being there emotionally and physically for that person. Its being there on a very strict medical level. I have i have days off a few days at a time where i just dont even leave the house. All in all i do is literally drop my son off at school and then pick them up because i just want one less body out in the world that can be potentially getting this, spreading this. I have held the hands of patients as they are dying and ive had to tell family members that they cant come see their family members because they could potentially get the virus or spread the virus. And its awful. Woodruff two states, california and texas, have now reported more than one million cases since this all began. Dr. Anthony fauci of the National Institutes of health said today he was hopeful vaccines will make a real difference in slowing the pandemic. But he warned the virus could remain a chronic proem and said americans need to double down on Public Health measures. We are going to look at that Bigger Picture now with dr. Nicholas christakis. He is a physician and a sociologist at yale university. And hes the author of the new book, apollos arrow, the profound and enduring impact of corornavirus on the way we live. Dr. Christakis, thank you for joining us, it is a powerful book and with the fact the pandemic is doing so poorly right now, people are, we are seeing it spread across the country again, i want to come to a point you make in the book and that is you think a lot of decisions were naid in the wrong direction early on. Not enough personal protective equipment, not enough done with regard to tting, not consistent guidance around masks. Paint that picture for us if y would. The thing that we are experiencing right now is a once in a century event. And early on back if december d janine experts had a vey high expectation that this was likely to happen. And what we should have done in my view as soon as china locked down and put nearly a billion people under home confinement beginning january 24th we should have perked up our ears and said oh pie goodness, what is happening in china, we should have prepared, prepared our testing capacity, our masks. The public should have been steeled with resolve for what was ahead of us and so on. And unfortunately we didnt really make adequate presentations until we were really hit hard in march. Woodruff you also write about the politics of this. Frankly misinformation that went around, public, just frankly conspiracy theories that were allowed out there that werent being corrected. Bad guidance. How much did that contribute to the slowness of the response in the United States . One of the things to realize, unfortunately s that for thousands of years as the germ has spread through social networks from person to person, lies and denial have followed right behind. You might even say that lies and denial are part of what makes an epidemic an epidemic. And you can understand it from a human point of view. People dont want to believe that this bad thing is happening. People wish to have superstitions about what might cause it or what might cure it. These are very normal human responses that human beings have been manifesting for hundreds or thousands of years. But st the role of leadership in my opinion, our leaders with whom we elect to help us not be that way. To help us actually see the world for how it is. And not kind of in a fantasy way pretending that nothing is happening when in fact our world has changed. When we just learned in the last few days that the vaccine maybe available in coming weeks or by the end of the year, early next year, but we are also hearing this warning from dr. Fauci and others that it may be with us for awhile. What do you think the realtime line is in terms of when life returns to a semblance of normal. I think even if the vaccine or several vaccines are invented in the next few months which is likely, we still have challenges in manufacturing, distributing and persuading the public to accept the vaccine. And those challenges will take about a year. And meanwhile the virus is still spreading and it will continue to spread until we reach a threshhold of about 40 to 50 of americans who are infected. Right now we are only at about 10 that threshhold is known as the herd immunity threshhold that will take us into 202 2rbgsz from my perspective the first period in which we are are confronting the biological and ep deem yoj lal impact and living in a changed world wearing masks, physical distancing, School Closures and so on, will last until sometime in 2022. And then were going to begin a Second Period when we are recovering from the psychological, social and economic shock of the virus and this has been seen for thousands of years with other ep deppics, and that will talk a couple of years to rebuild our economy and recover, and so sometime in 2024 i think lively slowly begin to return to normal with some persistent changes. Woodruff so you see the behavior that we have a dod today whether it is mask wearing, social distancing, not shaking hands, that is going on for the fore seeable future, do you think we will go back to what life was back before 2020 ever . Yes, there will be some persistent changes. For example in the 1918 pandemic to puck a trivial example, the restaurants had spitoons, they were seen as unsanitary during a time of a respiratory pandemic. So afterwards they disappeared and they never returned. Therare things luke that, on a bigger scale too, i think, for example Business Travel i think will change, teaching and working from home will change. I think there may even be some changes in the womens labor market participation. We are not the first generation of people to confront a serious epidemic. This has been a part of the human experience. And we wont be the other side of it. You write about yes, we will see the other side but you also write about the profound loss that we all have experienced. Dr. Nicholas christakis, the book is apollos arrow the profound and enduring impact of coronavirus on the way we live, we appreciate it, thank you. With. Thank you for having me. Woodruff now we turn to our other top story tonight the president ial transition. President elect joe biden is forging ahead despite President Trumps refusal to concede. He tapped a longtime aide to be his chief of staff. There is also a growing chorus of republicans who say the president elect should be able to receive a Daily National security brief before inauguration. Meanwhile, the Trump Campaigns legal challenges to the vote count go on, despite many rejections. To discuss this, im joined by White House Correspondent Yamiche Alcindor and Congressional Correspondent lisa desjardins. Heller to both of you, so lisa, following the biden folks, we know that he so far as we reported, he has been denied access to what he normally would get which is a daily intelligence briefing. But as we say, there are some republicans who are gunning to speak up for him, tell us about that. This is fascinating. Today we saw more republicans come out not for saying that the election is over but saying that it is time for president elect bied toan get classified briefings, that includes some Top Republicans and some trump allies like senator Lindsey Graham of south carolina. They seem to be threading a needle here, judy. Not yet ready to openly defy the president , President Trump, but saying that some steps need to be taken to allow president elect biden to understand critical classified information. Here is one of those republican senators mike rounds of south dakota. Lookings one of these two men will be president of the United States after the Election Results have come in. And i think at this point just as a matter of protecting our nations interests, i do think that both the president and his competition here, the Vice President biden should have access to those classified reports. You hear that threading of the needle there where republicans are saying if joe biden becomes president , he should have this information, still not saying they are ready to declare him, all of them, president elect. Judy, this was sort of tipped off by oklahoma senator blankford who is pressing the agency with a broad name to make this call, to kind of push forward with transition in some way, the gsa which is run by a trump appointee has refused to do that so far. Adding to this pressure, theres with a letter today from 150 National Security officials, former officials, generals, admiralsfolks who work in many different counterterrorism agencies saying president elect biden needs these classified briefings, if he doesnt get them there could be immense consequences for National Security. Woodruff and yamiche, what about at the white house . Any Movement Today in terms of how they are handling, how they see this transition and any movement in terms of the president accepting the Election Results . There isnt much movement. The president remains angry, isolated and unwilling to acknowledge that joe biden is in fact the president elect. And it was one week ago today that the president took to the white house podium to say that he had won the election and was doing what no president before him had done which is challenge the integrity of the election. And the president has continued to do that over and over again in tweelts and messages but one thing we have to note, this is the longest period of time. The president has not spoken publicly in his entire presidency. The president is someone without likes to speak in front of the camera, likes to engage with reporters, you have not heard him. That goes to the isolation. I should tell you i have been talking to people in the white house. They feel anxious and fatherful, they are fearless that the continue has to continue to process this and the world is getting tbor President Trump to get on board well fact he lost this election and young white house staffers, young republicans who have been warned that if they start looking for new jobs, if they start trying toove on they will be fired immediately. But Campaign Aides tell me they have, people already are starting to roll off so coming this weekend you will start seeing the Campaign Staff get smaller and smaller. Even though he doesnt want to admit it, this is a white house that is unwinding, is backing away from President Trump. Woodruff and yamiche yamiche, staying with you, you are taking a close look at. So claims the president , the people around him are making both in their public statements and in these legal actions, what are you finding . Thats right, the president and allies continue to make falings claims in most cases, that there is mass fraud that hurt President Trump in this election. Just this hour the Trump Campaign is holding a briefer for reporters and said it will take time. That this is not something, a matter of instant gratification and they are not going to bite all of the apple at once. As a result they have been really trying to defend their lawsuits, i want to walk you through some of the claims they are making that crit in critics say are frivolous. One is in nevada, saying there there are ballots with military addresses used by active military officials that should be invalidated. They are people, those addresses are completely valid. In michigan we saw a woman, a republican woman say that she saw poll workers wearing black lives matter gore and a man was following her that looked big, that is her claim there. Then we see in arizona there was this argument that sharpies if you used a marker on a ballot that it wasnt going to be counted. All of those things have either been disclaimed or are being fought through in court. But what we are seeing is judges throw these cases out one after the other because of some of the information i just said, these are not people with real information about voter it ask anecdotal information that they say could be problematic. And finally lisa, quickly, back to you. We know that president elect biden is starting to make some announcement about positions he wanters to fill, his chief of staff he says will be ron klain, what do we know about him and how he will operate . Ron klain has been with president elect biden since he was a wiz kid at 28 on the judiciary committee. This election judy indicates that president elect biden is going to rely on people who know him and people who are expert and strong in their field, ron klain a long resident including his work fighting the ebola pandemic when biden was in the white house before. Woodruff all right, we will leave it there. Lisa desjardins, Yamiche Alcindor, thank you both. Woodruff while president elect biden continues to push forward with transion planning, there are several states yet to be called. In georgia, biden leads President Trump by more than 14,000 votes and the state will conduct a hand recount of nearly five million ballots. The states republican congressional delegation has asked for an investigation into any claims of voter fraud. But the secretary of state, also a republican, says no such claims have been substantiated. Congressman buddy carter is a republican from georgia and he joins me now. Congressman, thank you very much for talking with us. First of all, do you expect this count to go ahead tomorrow and do you expect to what do you expect it to show . Well, i do expect for it to go forward. And it should go forward. And let me clarify that the congressional delegation, the house delegation, what we asked for was for the secretary of state to grant the wishes of the donald j Trump Campaign and Georgia Republican party. And the secretary of state has done that. He has acknowledged that he will do a hand recount. We appreciate that. We applaud those efforts and we think it will lead to a transparent and honest result. So it is a good thunking that we are doing this. Woodruff do you expect it to overturn the results. And if it doesnt, are you prepared to accept the results . Well, certainly were prepared to accept the results. And certainly thats a lot of votes to overturn, we understand that. But the important thing to remember here is whether you are a democrat or a republican or an independent, you want an honest, transparent election. You want to make sure every vote is counted, you want to make sure that no illegal vote is counted. You want to make sure that no vote is miscounted. We need to have confidence in our election system. And that is what this is about. Woodruff as you know with recounts that have been done in the past, nothing like that number of vote have been changed. Has been in the hundreds of. But what i want to ask you congressman, you were reelected in your district, georgias first district, savannah and along the atlantic coast. If there were problems statewide, do you believe there were problems in your district, with your count . Well, possibly there could have been. And certainly we have gotten calls in our office from constituents who are concerned that there were some discrepancies. And we have done what we are supposed to do. And that is we have directed them to the proper place to file their concern and to enter their concerns. And we will continue to do that. But it is the responsibility of secretary of state to research these kind of concerns. And thats all were doing is asking the secretary of state to do his job. Are you personally aware of instances where either fraud was committed or ballots were cast illegally . Do you personally know of instances that the voters should be worried about . We have had calls in to our office. Again t is not our responsibility to research those concerns. It sur o responsibility to direct the people where they are to go to file those concerns. And thats what we have been doing in our office. But yes, there have been, i wouldnt necessarily i dont know that its with fraudment you hope it wasnt. But i do know that they have expressed some legitimate concerns. Woodruff i guess what i am asking is, is there enough malfeasance that has gone on, do you think . Because that is what President Trump is saying every day that the election was stolen from him. And he has pointed specifically to the state of georgia. So i am trying to understand what is st that you have seen. You know the state, you have been serving in congress, this will be your fourth term. What do you see that would back that up . Well again, i think that the focus here has to be on the secretary of state making sure that all of us have confidence that this was done correctly and that every legal vote was counted. Now if it turns out that the secretary of state comes back and and there was no fraud, there was know wide spread problems then certainly we will probably be forced to accept that. But it is important again for everyone whether are you a democrat, republican, independent, that you have confidence in the system, that we have a transparent and honest system and that if there were proshes during this election we get them corrected. So that we dont have those problems reoccur. But i will tell you that there are still ways to go. This president has every right to fight and is he doing just that. He has every right to demand a fair and transparent and honest return on the elections and that is what he is askk to have done right now. Woodruff and youre not concerned that the voters from this experience will come away with less confidence in our democratic system. Well i think with the recalls, i think with correcting whatever kind of problems we may have experienced. Keep in meund for a lot of these states, this was the first time they had done a number of these types of things. Here in the state of georgia we have never had this many absentee ballots before. We had ten times as many as we normally have. O so obviously that increases the potential for error. And that is why we have to make sure that we got it right. That is all were asking here is just to make sure that it is accurate, that every legal vote was counted and that no illegal votes were counted. Woodruff congressman buddy carter of georgia, thank you very much. Thank you. Woodruff in the days other news, despite a dramatic surge in covid19 infections, the u. S. Labor market is showing some signs of healing. 709,000 more americans filed for Unemployment Benefits last week. Thats the loweslevel since march, and the fourth straight drop. But numbers remain at historic highs. Overall, 6. 8 Million People continue to receive jobless aid. The u. S. Treasury Department Today reported the federal government ran up a record 284 billion budget deficit for october. That shortfall is more than double what it was last year. Meanwhile on wall street, stocks plummeted amid the record shattering surge in covid19 infections. The Dow Jones Industrial average fell 317 points to close at 29,080. The nasdaq fell 77 points, and the s p 500 slipped 35. In egypt, a helicopter carrying Multinational Force and observers peacekeepers crashed today, killing at least eight people, including six American Service members. It went down off the sinai peninsula. Authorities said it appeared to be an accident. The m. F. O. Monitors a 40year Peace Agreement between israel and egypt. The United Nations migration ency says at least 74 migrants drowned after a europebound ship broke down and capsized off the coast of libya. Its the latest tragedy in a series of at least eight shipwrecks in the Central Mediterranean since october. So far this year, at least 900 people have drowned in the mediterranean trying to reach europe. Prodemocracy legislators in hong kong officially handed in their resignation letters today. It was a mass protest after beijing kicked out four of their colleagues this week. The 15 opposition lawmakers refused to attend this mornings legislative session, leaving their seats empty. They insist hong kongers must continue to stand for autonomy from beijing. So whats left for hong kongs democracy fight . Thats the most valid question. But it doesnt mean that oh, so thats the end of it and we all go home and forget about democracy or human rights or any core values. We do not underestimate hong kong people, especially our young. Woodruff the mass resignations come as beijing continues its crackdown on the semiautonomous region. The Legislative Council is now left with lawmakers, 41 of whom are considered pro establishment. In the philippines, the aftermath of a destrucve typhoon has left the country reeling. At least 13 people died, and 15 others are still missing. Floodwaters completely submerged some northeastern towns, forcing people to climb on their rooftops. Rescue efforts are underway as many residents remain trapped. Some 200,000 people were forced to evacuate. Back in this country, heavy rains pummeled floridas western coast today, after Tropical Storm eta crashed ashore for a second time. It happened before dawn, just north of the tampa bay area, packing maximum sustained winds of 50 miles an hour. Now out to sea, eta is forecast to lose strength as it moves northeast over the atlantic. And, a federal Appeals Court in boston has ruled that Harvard Universitys admissions policies do not discriminate against asian americans. An affirmative action group had argued the school went too far in using race to consider students. But two judges today upheld a Lower Court Decision that rejected those claims. Todays ruling paves the way for a possible review by the u. S. Supreme court. Still to come on the newshour social Media Companies combat disinformation in the wake of the election. The world responds to joe bidens defeat of donald trump. And much more. Woodruff well before the election, and ever since, President Trump has repeatedly tweeted out misinformation and outright falsehoods about mail in ballots, voting, the countingprocess and more. Thats also been true for some of the president s supporters and some in consvative media. As William Brangham tells us, social media platforms like twitter and facebook have been trying to limit the spread of disinformation, but its more complicated than you may think. Brangham judy, social Media Companies have tried to put labels or warnings on misleading posts. In some cases, twitter tried to restrict the ability to share them. Facebook took down a network of pages with false information about voter fraud that was tied to the hashtag stop the steal. But despite all of these moves, false information is still shared in other ways and through other outlets Elizabeth Dwoskin is a reporter for the Washington Post who covers this space and joins me now. Elizabeth, great to have you back on the newshour, just remind us what facebook and twitter and these social Media Companies have been doing thus far to try to stamp out mtion information. Sure, well the companies are hellbent on avoiding the repeat of 2016, the scenario where their platforms were abused by russian operatives, so thissier they took unprecedented measure to change their platform. Facebook disabled group recommendations, it banned political ads which they have extended. Twitter as you said slapped these labels on content where they actually covered up content for the first time and said these claims are disputed. And they banned claims that would dispute Election Results. They banned any kind of intimation of violences at the polls so these were unprecedented measures for companies that never banned misinformation of any kind prior to 2020. I certainly understand the instinct and many people do. Some not just on the right argue that this is just flat out suppressionist free speech. That is a separate conversation for now. But despite these efforts and there are still ways for tenacious actors to get around the flags and the labels and the blocs, right . Absolutely. One of the most interesting things that i saw observes what played out last week in the election and its aftermath was these group as rose around the hashtag stop the steal. And facebook has a balancing act because on the one hand they do want to allow people to protest and you know, say that they dont believe in the election. I mean they want to be a platform for people to say those kinds of things. At the same time a lot of what those groups are being mobilized on and fueled by is misleading information. And not just accidental misleading information but active campaigns. Like those put out by steve bannon, facebook removed a network tie to steve bannon last week, former trump chief strategist. They are s owing active ds information and doubt about the vote prog ses. None of these misleading claims around sharpies, in arizona, dead people voting in pennsylvania, biden purportedly claiming t support voter fraud, those claims have not borne out. And so this Popular Movement to contest the election has been fueled by misinformation and while facebook and twitter want to stop the misinformation, they also do believe that people do have a right to some extent to organize in the way they want. And thats why you saw last week that they ban some groups but hundreds of other groups prolive rated. Well this echo he system of misinformation certainly we have seen on the network, fox news in particular some of the presume time hosts have been a big vehicle for this as well. You want to play this clip that aired on fox news, this is sean hannity and laura ingram who are two of the prime time hosts. And they were talking about some of these labels that twitter had been putting on tweets of the president sment and they were suggesting that people who were sick of this kind of intrusion as they say ought to go somewhere else. Lets listen to this. Every time trump tweets now, it says this claim about Election Fraud is disputed. But do you notice how anything the left says, is any of it ever blue flagged like that, like twitter does. Can we now move everybody from twitter to parler. Can we just make the shift together. Like just say goodbye twitter. For people who dont follow this that closely, what is parler and why has it become such a sensation. Particleer is a quote be quote profree speech social network, an alternative social network that was founded about two years ago to tackle supposedly censorship, quote unquote censorship by the tech giants. What you are seeing is these commentators on fox saying that everyone should leave the major flat form, facebook and twitter and go to this alternative service where they can say anything about stop the steel, steal, voter fraud, et cetera. And you actually saw it had an effect. We wrote this week that parler became the top down road in the apple app store. It saw this last weekend. It saw a huge surge in users. But you also have to remember that they dont, anyone who wants to, the people who are trying to create a sustained movement to oppose the results of the president ial election want it to be as fraught as possible, they dont just want to sit in anecochamber on parler which has still a action of facebooks multibillion users, so they still want to be on the main platform. Elizabeth swoas kin of the Washington Postk thanks for helping us get through this. Thanks for having me. Woodruff american president ial elections always draw great and intense interest globally, and this years vote was no different. And joe bidens win was met with a world of reactions elation in some regions, wariness in others, and some silence, so far, from american adversaries. Heres nick schifrin. Schifrin in the part of the world perhaps most excited for president elect biden, in the country where bidens ancestors lived, the irish celebrated their luck. After four years of america first, western europe expressed hope for change. translated joe biden has decades of experience in domestic and foreign policy. He knows germany and europe well. Schifrin many european leaders have worked with biden and share his day one priorities reentering the paris climate accord; extending the new start treaty with russia, and reentering the world health organization. Among bidens first phone calls were european allies, including french president emmanuel macron. I really wanted to congratulate you and to congratulate Kamala Harris for this election. Schifrin in britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been a trump ally. And biden has rejected brexit. Yesterday johnson expressed relief biden emphasized shared values in their call. And it was it was refreshing, i may say, to have that conversation. I look forward to many more. Schifrin bidens second round of calls were with east asian allies, including south korean president moon jaein, and japans new Prime Minister, yoshihide suga. translated he said that he looks forward to strengthening the u. S. Japan alliance and working together on achieving peace and stability in the indopacific region. Schifrin that phrase, the indopacific, was coined by japan but expanded by the Trump Administration to counter china. The administration, with bipartisan support, increased operations in the pacific, and accelerated regional cooperation, including with australia,hose Prime Minister Scott Morrison also talked with biden. We agreed that there was no more critical time for both this alliance, between ourselves and the United States, but, more broadly, the working together especially of likeminded countries. Schifrin less likeminded, middle east leaders. The Trump Administration facilitated accords between israel and three sunni arab countries. It pulled out of the Iran Nuclear Deal to press confrontation with iran. On saturday after the u. S. Media declared biden president elect, saudi leaders tweeted congratulations to the new president of tanzania. The kingdom waited until late sunday to congratulate biden. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed trumps policies would continue. translated i welcome the fact that my friend joe biden and with him Kamala Harris welcomed those agreements. Schifrin but biden has vowed to restart negotiations to re enter the iran nuclear agreement, and withdraw support for the saudiled war in yemen, meanwhile those who havent congratulated biden . Latin american populists Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in mexico, and Jair Bolsonaro brazil, as well as rth Koreas Kim Jong un, russian president vladimir putin, and chinese president xi jinping. In china, a cautious response, and low expectations, as special correspondent patrick fok reports. Burnished autumn leaves are a sign of changing times in beijing. But as the u. S. Prepares for a new era of leadership under joe biden, people here are sure about one thing therell be no seasonal shift in relations between china and america. Beijings yet to acknowledge joe bidens victory. But there has been a change in tone from chinese media. The staterun global times offered this view on wednesday, saying the president elect would be more cooperative than trump. What weve been mainly seeing here in the press over the past few days is a focus on a chaotic situation in the u. S. This is a copy of global times from earlier this week with one article titled analysts predic final madness in u. S. China policy in last days of trump presidency. Schifrin for more on the reaction around the world to joe biden winning the election we get three views. Marwan muasher was jordans foreign minister and then deputy Prime Minister from 2002 to 2005. Hes now Vice President for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Nathalie tocci is the director of the institute for International Affairs in italy and a special advisor to European Union Foreign Affairs minister josep borrell. And minxin pei is a professor of government at Claremont Mckenna college where focuses on china. Welcome to the newshour for all of you, thank you very much. Nathalie tocci, lets begin in europe which is where biden says is his priority. We just went through how europeans are expresessing some relief, some hope about the future. But does europe also believe there are changes to the Transatlantic Alliance that will outlast trump . Well yes, i mean i think there is sort of two main aspects where europeans are not expecting dramatic changes. The first is i think in trade. I think a degree of protectionism is probably likely to outlive trump. I think as europeans, you would expect that things like in paris would be taken off but we would not expect dramatic changes in terms of returning to for instance negotiations over a partnership. Second aspect that i think we would not expect massive changes is the confrontation between the United States and china. In fact in some respects, when it comes to human rights issues, you can probably expectation that confrontation to deepen. So that brings us to minxin pei, how will china respond. China will largely be on the defensive. On the whole i think they are treating this election outcome with relief but their exepgs are relatively low. What they are soon to do is largely pursue a tit for tat strategy. Trying to respond cooperatively if biden has goodwill, they are likely to stick to very hard line positions, if they believe that there is really no big difference between Trump Administration and the Biden Administration. Nathalie tocci, how much does do they believe america can change under joe biden. In the days it is brewing in europe that the fact that we cannot slip back to where they were four years ago. And indeed some of the changes that in a sense the trump and trumpism had represent ready probably longlasting which essentially means that as europeans, we will probably have to assume greater risk and greater responsibility and ultimately that greater risk and responsibility, taking and sharing with the United States is going to make up the healthy part of the relationship with the Biden Administration. And Marwan Muasher how does it look with the middle east with the impending departure. I think you can expect changes in the three main areas in the arab israelie conflict the it is good news for the palestinian and swrordan. In the area of human rights and democracy, a lot of arab countries are not going to see that they can pursue violations of human rights with impunity from the United States. So you can expect some arab countries to be concerned about it. And the third area, what i would say you can expect is an attempt to restart negotiations with iran and have a new agreement on the nuclear issue. Nathalie tocci that aligns with what europe is hoping to restart negotiations with iran but as you pointed out not all of the u. S. Policies will align with europe. So how fundamentally different do you think the u. S. European relationship will be under President Biden. I think it wasnt fundamentally different. With it will be how hard the last four years have been, for the first time in the history of the european integration project, our closest ally and partner essentially looked at us as being an adversity with add visiter, that will change and it will change as the attitudes towards european security, seeing eyetoeye on a number of issues in our neighborhood, and perhaps most importantly approaching the global government, multilateralism, partnership on a global scale, basically as europeans and americans playing on the same time. Minxin pei, Vice President biden team says they focus on domestic issues and focus on the realignment with europe and then approach china hopefully, in their words, together with their western european allies, do you believe that in that case china would respond differently . If the Biden Administration is successful in getting its ally as board, the u. S. Will approach china from a position of real strength. But i also want to say that bidens policy will not be fundamentally different from the Trump Administration china policy. Where we are being to see the difference is mainly in terms of it will adopt a more strie dent prone and subtle tactics and much more selective in terms of where to confront china. To the middle east, again Marwan Muasher, you described the dircheszs you expect in a Biden Administration policy. How will the region respond and go a little bit more in depth given that one of bidens particular priorities is not only scrapping the peace deal as you suggested but really trying to getack into the iran nubbing clear deal. As the iran is major concern for countries who felt that obama, president obama signed a deal with the iranians at the expense of iranian interference in the region. So they would like to see any new deal include elements that would check iranian influence in the region. But as i said, the palestinians are going to be relieved. Not because they expect President Biden to initiate anything serious on the arabisraeli conflict but because they can at least expect to stop that the trump and the policies to trump to the israeli conflict. One on the lips of many u. S. Officials here when it comes to china, trying to make this an ideal logical battle between the communist party of china and the west and frankly glin ping has made this an ideal logical battle, do you think that would continue . Absolutely. I think the issue will be, an issue the bied enadministration has enormous upon. On the other hand i think the trump President Trump refusal to concede plays into china hand in itown narrative which is that u. S. Democracy is declining. There is enormous de cay in the system, and the u. S. Should get its own house in order before trying to confront china. Finally marwan, i wonder about that idea of u. S. Democracy declining from the middle east. Does the u. S. Have the influence it used to in the middle east. Lets remember that President Biden would probably de vote most of his time at least in e early stages of his administration to domestic issues and to repairing the domestic rift in the United States. I think his administration is going to have little band width to deal with an sloo like the arabisrae conflict for example in the middle east and would prefer to de vote their energy to rope and china re than to our region. War wan muasher, nathalie tocci, minxin pei, thank you to all of you. Woodruff wildfires have scorched much of the American West this year. Jocksana corona and her family in talent, oregon, were among the residents forced to flee. Our brief but spectacular team reached them at the girl scout facility where theyve been living. In the morning of september 8th, i didnt sleep very well because it was very windy. I got a text from an Emergency Alert system, saying that there was a fire in ashlyn and to take precautions. It looked way too close. And then thats when my neighbors said, oh no, no, the Fire Department is going to take care of it. And then i said, no, this is one thats going to screw us over. So i ran inside, i called my husband. Took him 20 minutes to get home to us. He ran inside and got our kids birth certificates or passports. And he said, we got to go. We evacuated our house by 12 05 p. M. We have lived in our home for 17 years. Me and my husband. Next month well be married 17 years. So we pretty much bought that house five months before we got married. So thats the only home ive ever known. I was born in mexico and my family moved to l. A. In 1989. My legal status is that i have daca. Out of our mobile home park, which had a hundred homes, 90 burned. I felt like there was no information really going on by authorities. I felt that most of the information i was getting was from other peoples facebook posts. I cant imagine what it was like for my neighbors who stayed waiting for that warning to come. That warning never came. My daughter, every friend, she has lost her home. My son already knows Three Friends who didnt lose their home. The next day, one of my husbands cousins sent me a text and a picture. The picture pretty much showed where my house would have been. There was nothing recognizable. Everything was just ashes. Im still a little scared. Im still, im still wondering how long its going to be before i can feel safe. Were staying at a local girl scout facility where we were offered shelter. And its hard because our Housing Market here in Southern Oregon was already really low. I dont want to move anywhere else. My kids have been in the same School District since they were little, i was p. T. A. President of our elementary school. I did a lot of advocacy work for undocumented families. That is home. Helping is not what i do. Its who i am. I was known in my community as someone that people can reach out to if they needed questions or resources for undocumented families. And i feel like my community has supported me 100 because of the work that i give back. When we lost everything, people reached out to me and i never thought that people i had helped in the past would be the ones who would be helping me to be. I have had so much support from people. My name is jocksana corona, and this is my brief but spectacular take on surviving a wildfire. What a story of courage. We certainly hope all that help continues. And that is the newshour for tonight. Im judy and thats the newshour for tonight. Im judy woodruff. Join us online and again here tomorrow evening. For all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe, and see you soon. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by you can do the things you like to do with a wireless plan designed for you. With talk, text and data. Consumer cellular. Learn more at consumercellular. Tv the ford foundation. Working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. And by the alfred p. Sloan foundation. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Hello, everyone. Welcome to amanpour co. Heres whats coming up. Im letting them know america is back. Were going to be back in the game. President elect biden promises to end america first. But the world has changed since he left the white house. Former british Prime Minister tony blair assesses the challenges ead. Then President Trump won an unexpectedly large share of latinx support. Debunking the smith of the mono li. And i home its all over soon but he is not jus throwing a tantrum. He has the Republican Party behind him. We talk to