JUDY WOODRUFF: Good evening.

I'm Judy Woodruff.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: about-face.

The highest ranking military officer apologizes for appearing with the president during the peaceful protests in the wake of George Floyd's death.

Then: feeling the pain.

A grim economic forecast shows high unemployment lingering in the U.S. and abroad as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Plus: the economic impact.

COVID-19 takes an outsized toll on black-owned businesses in the U.S. already facing financial challenges.

JAMES MACK, Owner, Epic Times: It is hard as an African-American to get big funding, even small funding, even micro-loans, to get that.

And I have excellent credit, I own property, and everything.

JUDY WOODRUFF: All that and more on tonight's "PBS NewsHour."

(BREAK) JUDY WOODRUFF: There is a split tonight between leading U.S. military leaders, current and former, and the president.

The country's top military officer, the president's chief military adviser, has rhetorically broken with the commander in chief over his role in a controversial event last week.

Nick Schifrin explores this critical moment in relations between the military and the White House.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Judy, last Monday, President Trump walked out of the White House to pose for a photo outside of a church that had been slightly burned by protesters.

Behind him walked Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Army General Mark Milley, America's senior most officer.

Today, in a video address to National Defense University, Milley said his presence was a mistake.

GEN. MARK MILLEY, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff: I should not have been there.

My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.

As a commissioned uniformed officer, it was a mistake that I have learned from, and I sincerely hope we all can learn from it.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Also today, West Point alumni wrote a letter urging graduates not to politicize the military, just a few days before President Trump addresses their graduation.

And the president is resisting momentum inside and outside the military to rename bases that are currently named for Confederate generals.

With me to discuss this critical moment in civilian-military relations is retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, who most recently led U.S. Army Europe and has known General Milley for 20 years.

General Hodges, welcome back to the "NewsHour."

Why was it a mistake for General Milley to walk with the president as part of a photo opportunity?

LT. GEN. BEN HODGES (RET.

), U.S. Army: Well, Nick, thank you.

Mark Milley recognized that he had let himself get into a political situation where he became a prop, actually, and therefore played into the situation where you had military getting involved in a diplomatic -- excuse me -- in a domestic situation.

That was the mistake, and, of course, that's what he acknowledged today.

NICK SCHIFRIN: And Milley says that he didn't know he was walking toward that photo opportunity.

Should he have figured it out earlier?

Should he have turned around?

LT. GEN. BEN HODGES: Yes, I think part of what General Milley acknowledged in his public apology was that he, as a senior leader, knows that people are always watching him.

He knows that he has an important constitutional role, and that he should have been more aware.

I mean, given all the events of the past several day, the fact that he was in the Oval Office there meeting with the president and the secretary and others, and then knowing what was going on outside, what we call situational awareness, he acknowledged that he should have been more alive to the possibility of what could happen.

Same thing for being in uniform.

You know, in hindsight, clearly, the image of him being in that uniform sets a tone, not intended.

And that was what he apologized for.

His mistake was that he should have been more aware of these kinds of things and, frankly, recognized that, in this sort of set of personalities, that he would be used.

NICK SCHIFRIN: And, of course, part of this tension is that the president threatened to use active-duty military troops to quell some of the protests, some of the violence in the United States.

Why have so many military officials, Milley included, retired and active-duty, resisted the idea of using active-duty inside the United States?

LT. GEN. BEN HODGES: Because the idea of American soldiers being used -- being put in a position where they use violence against our fellow citizens is anathema to everything that we believe in.

From what we -- from the day we start off as brand-new cadets or officers, you're trained to respect civilian authority and to protect our fellow citizens.

That's the oath that we take.

And so the idea that somehow soldiers would be in a position, regular Army soldiers put in a position to use violence against our fellow citizens just is repulsive to all of us.

And that's you have seen so many people come out and say things, and, generally, even retired generals and admirals, who prefer not to get involved in things like this that are political, because of this tradition of apolitical military.

But this was so -- such an egregious situation, clearly not something calling for implementation of the Insurrection Act.

The president had not made the case for that at all.

And so I think, because of the tradition of an apolitical military, that's why the words of people like General Mattis and Colin Powell and others have had such resonance.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Let me give you some examples of forts that -- whose name we all know, Fort Bragg, Fort Benning, Fort Polk, some of the most famous military installations in the country, all named after Confederate generals.

Is the military and its leaders beginning to acknowledge that they need to do better when it comes to race?

LT. GEN. BEN HODGES: Yes, this is going to change, these installations.

And I have to tell you, I'm embarrassed.

Of course, I went to Fort Benning.

I have served at Fort Bragg, Fort Campbell, all these places.

And while I often thought it was unusual, I never thought deeply about it.

And it was probably only about three years ago that I had sort of an epiphany that, while it didn't seem like a big deal to me, it would be a big deal to others.

And now I'm embarrassed that it took me so many years to realize that this makes no sense.

The more I think about it, the more indefensible it seems.

These are not traditions dating back to the Revolution.

Most of these forts were camps that were established just before the First World War or the Second World War for training and mobilization.

So there's no long patriotic sort of legacy there that needs to be defended.

I think we -- the Navy has a good model, where they just name the base after the town.

I would also recommend, though -- I always believe in building something, something positive, vs. always tearing things town.

And what a powerful statement it would be if there was a monument next to any Confederate statue or any of these sort of legacy things that listed the names of all the former slaves who joined the Union Army during the American Civil War, at huge risk to themselves.

Thousands were killed.

To have that monument there with those names next to an old legacy sort of statue, what a powerful statement that would be about the values that we really actually do believe in.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Retired General Ben Hodges, thank you very much.

LT. GEN. BEN HODGES: Nick, thank you.

JUDY WOODRUFF: In the day's other news: Wall Street plunged back into meltdown mode on news that coronavirus infections are rising in 21 states.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost well over 1,800 points, nearly 7 percent, to close at 25128.

The Nasdaq fell 527 points, and the S&P 500 dropped 188.

The sell-off also came as another 1.5 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits.

We will take a closer look after the news summary.

The pandemic is also continuing to surge in other countries.

Cases across Africa doubled to 200,000 just in the last 18 days.

Brazil and India have reported spikes in infections as restrictions ease.

And the World Health Organization urged vigilance today.

TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS, WHO Director General: Most people remain susceptible to this virus.

And the threat of a resurgence remains very real.

All of us have a part to play in protecting ourselves and protecting others.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Globally, some 7.4 million people have been infected.

Nearly 3.5 million have recovered so far.

Back in this country, protesters are pulling down more monuments linked to white supremacy.

Overnight, crowds in Richmond, Virginia, toppled a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

Protesters in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Miami targeted statues of Christopher Columbus.

Meanwhile, the country music group Lady Antebellum shortened its name to Lady A. Antebellum generally refers to the pre-Civil War era, when slavery was legal.

President Trump called today for racial justice, but he also warned against what he called an extreme agenda.

He spoke in Dallas, and, without giving specifics, he suggested that some protester demands are not helping.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: Americans are good and virtuous people.

We have to work together to confront bigotry and prejudice wherever they appear.

But we will make no progress and heal no wounds by falsely labeling tens of millions of decent Americans as racists or bigots.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The president also drew criticism for planning a campaign rally on June 19 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The day is known as Juneteenth, and commemorates the end of slavery.

And Tulsa was the scene of rioting by whites in 1921 that killed hundreds of black victims.

Former Vice President Joe Biden says he is worried that President Trump will try to -- quote - - "steal" the November election.

Biden has wrapped up the Democratic presidential nomination.

He spoke last night on "The Daily Show with Trevor Noah."

JOSEPH BIDEN (D), Presidential Candidate: It's my greatest concern, my single greatest concern.

This president is going to try to steal this election.

This is a guy who said that all mail-in ballots are fraudulent.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Biden also said that the military could be called on to escort Mr. Trump out if he loses the election, but refuses to leave office.

And the United States is moving to impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court for investigating alleged U.S. war crimes in Afghanistan.

President Trump's executive order today authorizes travel restrictions and other measures.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the ICC a -- quote -- "kangaroo court."

Still to come on the "NewsHour": a grim economic forecast shows high unemployment lingering as a result of COVID-19; protesters worldwide show solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement; the coronavirus takes an outsized toll on black-owned businesses in the U.S.; and much more.

The number of weekly unemployment claims we reported a few minutes ago is the lowest since the shutdown of the economy began in March, but it remains far above what we have seen in other financial crises.

It follows Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell saying he expects unemployment at the end of 2020 to top 9 percent and to remain elevated for years to come.

To help us look into these numbers and the broader economic concerns they raise, we turn to David Wessel, director of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at the Brookings Institution.

Hello again, David Wessel.

So, how are we to interpret all of this?

We see the markets today reacting negatively to news that the coronavirus rising in a number of states, and yet we see unemployment -- we see unemployment continuing, but better than it had been in recent months.

What direction do we look when we see these numbers, David?

DAVID WESSEL, Brookings Institution: Well, I think it's really important to separate out what the markets are doing from the real economy.

I think the labor market is terrible.

There are now 30 million people collecting unemployment benefits.

That's nearly 20 percent of the work force.

And we -- it's good, because it means that even those people out of work, they're actually having some income.

But it's going to be a long, slow climb out of this COVID recession.

And I think what happened in the markets is, the markets basically overreacted initially.

Stocks fell 30 percent.

Then we had a euphoric moment.

The stocks recovered all their lost ground.

And then, in the last couple days, they have given up 10 percent.

So the stock market is now 10 percent lower than it was before COVID.

And that seems to me about the right place where it should be.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And then we have, as we mentioned, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jay Powell, saying he expects unemployment to be over 9 percent still by the end of this year, only slowly coming down.

Americans can't be excited about that.

DAVID WESSEL: Right.

I mean, I think that Chair Powell was trying to do two things.

One is be realistic with the American people, explain to them that we're not going to come out of this quickly, and, secondly, put some pressure on Congress to do something.

We can have lower unemployment by year-end if we get more help from Congress.

That was the chairman's message, I think.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, sending a signal to the Congress.

David, I also want to ask you about this census survey of small businesses, first week of June showing that fewer small businesses -- while fewer of them are cutting hours, in all, more of them are cutting than increasing.

How do we read that?

DAVID WESSEL: Right.

So, one of the things -- and I'm sorry -- I think I probably have a bad connection.

I apologize for that.

One of the good things that's happened at the Census Bureau is, they have been doing these weekly surveys of households and small businesses.

And they -- it's a sign of just how bad things are.

Twice as many small businesses cut hours in the first last week of June, 26 percent, than increased them, 12 percent.

So it's -- we are not out of the woods yet.

And even though we see this modest improvement in the job market, it's really hard to overstate just how bad the economy is, and how hard it's going to be for us to recover from this, because people are going to be reluctant to spend.

Businesses are going to be reluctant to reopen.

How many of us are going to get on an airplane in the next few months?

This is going to be a long, slow slog.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, David, economists have been saying it's going to take a vaccine, it's going to take some dramatic piece of new information or science to make people feel more comfortable.

Is that still what the economists you talk to are saying?

DAVID WESSEL: I don't think we really know how people are going to behave.

This is such an unusual event.

So, we see now that people seem to be getting a little impatient with the lockdown.

And so we will have to see, do people come out of their houses?

Are they willing to go back to the malls?

Will the offices reopen?

And if they do, will that -- will we be met with a second wave of COVID in the fall, and that will send us all back into our houses?

So I think that there are three things that we have to worry about.

One is the science, the treatment and the vaccines.

Two is how people react.

And everybody's guessing.

Nobody really knows.

And third is, how much sustained support will the economy get from the federal government until we're past this horrible episode in history?

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, I know people want answers.

And what we're hearing is, it's just hard to come up with definitive answers right now.

We just keep paying close attention.

David Wessel, thank you so much.

DAVID WESSEL: You're welcome.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The killing of George Floyd has led to reckonings not only here in the United States, but in many countries around the world.

Nick Schifrin is back with that.

NICK SCHIFRIN: From Madrid to Tokyo, from Sydney to Seoul, George Floyd's death has sparked a worldwide reckoning.

M.J., Protester: I think it's important that we're doing this even in Korea, because, you know, racism is a global issue.

It's not just an American issue.

NICK SCHIFRIN: In the birthplace of the Enlightenment, French demonstrators chant "No justice, no peace."

They say, France also struggles with police misconduct and discrimination.

Three days after a Minnesota police officer killed Floyd, a French police officer kept his knee on a black suspect.

But that treatment often happens off-camera.

These protesters chant Adama Traore, a young black Frenchmen asphyxiated in police custody in 2016.

No officers were charged.

ROKHAYA DIALLO, Journalist and Filmmaker: And he's not the only one.

You have several young French blacks or Arabs who died in the hands of the police.

And I think that George Floyd's death echoed the very local situation.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Rokhaya Diallo is a filmmaker and journalist who's helped lead French protests.

This week, the interior minister banned police from using choke holds and promised to suspend racist officers.

But activists say multiple French governments haven't done enough.

ROKHAYA DIALLO: It has been pointed out several times that there was a problem with police brutality, with racial profiling in France, and that nothing has been done by any government.

It's a display of systemic racism.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Diallo regularly appears on TV to argue France struggles with systemic racism.

She's been called divisive.

ROKHAYA DIALLO: Because I am the only person of color around the table.

And ever since I tried to tackle race, I'm assaulted by the others around the table.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Do you think you're controversial?

ROKHAYA DIALLO: I don't think so.

I think that race is controversial in France because it really questions the structures of power, because we live in that fallacy of universalism of a country that would be colorblind.

And I think it's comfortable to live in that dream, but it's not possible for people who experience race every day just to forget it.

NICK SCHIFRIN: European activists have worked to ensure colonial pasts aren't forgotten either.

In Brussels, demonstrators chanted "murderer" on top of King Leopold II.

And in Antwerp, officials removed a Leopold statue, 125 years after he oversaw Belgium's brutal colonial expansion in the Congo that historians say killed 10 million.

In Bristol, England, protesters tore down Edward Colston, a 17th century merchant, and threw him into the same waters that ships he oversaw set sail filled with slaves.

And in London, Winston Churchill, who helped win World War II, but also argued white people were superior, got tagged racist.

British activists say the country's history is often whitewashed and police treat black Brits unequally.

PAULINE STEPNEY, Legacy of Windrush Descendants: We have got people that say, oh, you know, all lives matter.

We know.

But, right now, it's that's being killed.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Pauline Stepney is a protest organizer in Bedford, outside of London.

PAULINE STEPNEY: Black Lives Matter is not a trend, because I am black always.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Last weekend, activists released this video of Stepney at a socially distanced protest.

Activists cite the case of Sean Rigg, who died in 2008 after being held down by officers for eight minutes.

No officers were charged in his or other deaths by police.

PAULINE STEPNEY: When you see the injustice of people not being convicted for killing a child, for killing somebody that was walking away, for killing somebody, when you see that, that is systemic.

NICK SCHIFRIN: London's mayor is pressuring police to change some tactics.

But activists say the problems run deeper, including the denying of Caribbean immigrants' rights because of institutional racism.

PAULINE STEPNEY: Once you're dehumanized, once you're seen as not having any feelings, being told we have to work as hard -- twice as hard.

We want know equal access to jobs, want equal access to -- in education.

We want our children to stop being discriminated by teachers.

NICK SCHIFRIN: For artist Diana Arce, who's lived in Germany for 16 years, Floyd's death gave old causes new momentum.

DIANA ARCE, Black Lives Matter Berlin: We have never had these kinds of a turnout.

And my fear is among these white activists who go to this is that they, too, still don't understand that the problem is also at home.

If you are not fighting against it when there's not a video, then you are part of the problem.

NICK SCHIFRIN: She says Germany has its own institutional racism, and it's time for the government to atone.

DIANA ARCE: There needs to be reparations in the form of structural funding in all areas for black communities, so that we can lead the work in all areas of civil society.

NICK SCHIFRIN: No society is free of discrimination.

Inequity is not new.

But Floyd's death provides a catalyst for minority communities, and their allies, to fight for change.

And it allows a father in France, the son of U.S. civil rights leader once known as Stokely Carmichael, to teach a lesson to his own child that's universal.

BOKAR TURE, Son of Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael): There are some people who might think less of us because we're black, but we know that's not true, right?

We know that we're just as smart, just as intelligent, and you're just as beautiful as anyone.

NICK SCHIFRIN: For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Nick Schifrin.

JUDY WOODRUFF: As we have been hearing this hour, shutting down the U.S. economy over the coronavirus outbreak came at enormous cost to American businesses.

But, as Paul Solman reports, the impact on African-American entrepreneurs has been especially harsh.

It's the latest installment of Making Sense.

JAMES MACK, Owner, Epic Times: A watch like this a man will really appreciate.

PAUL SOLMAN: Doing small business is beyond tough these days.

But think of what you're up against if you're African-American.

JAMES MACK: I have been asked, is this real, many, many times.

I have been asked, this is not stolen, which was absolutely appalling.

They ask, who owns this business, because it's such a nice, upscale store.

PAUL SOLMAN: James Mack's dream come true, his own jewelry store in Charlotte, North Carolina.

But there's at least one major hurdle: his race.

JAMES MACK: A lot of people say that maybe, you know, you should hire someone of a Caucasian or a Mexican descent to stand in the front.

But it's like, you know, when do we get the respect of running a business at a high level?

TERENCE DICKSON, Owner, Terra Cafe: These are all famous people and tell a great story, Cassius Clay, right before he was Muhammad Ali.

PAUL SOLMAN: African-American-art adorns Terence Dickson's Terra Cafe, opened in Baltimore 11 years ago, despite lacking what many entrepreneurs almost take for granted.

TERENCE DICKSON: Normally, you know, you go to business school, they said, you need a business plan.

You need six months of revenue.

You need six months of payroll.

The average black business starts with about 1,500 bucks and a couple halfway credit cards and a dream.

PAUL SOLMAN: African-American businesses are hamstrung from the start, says economist Robert Fairlie, since half of African-American families have less than $9,000 in wealth.

ROBERT FAIRLIE, University of California, Santa Cruz: White families have $130,000.

That contributes to the lack of ability to find financial capital to start a business.

It contributes to the lack of financial capital to grow that business.

So, that wealth gap is a big problem.

ANDRE PERRY, Brookings Institution: Black people represent about 13 percent of the population, but only about 4 percent of the overall number of business owners.

PAUL SOLMAN: And Andre Perry of the Brookings Institution says it's not for lack of drive.

ANDRE PERRY: It's probably more because of a lack of access to capital.

Black businesses receive less loans.

And when we do get loans, they're at a much higher interest rate.

PAUL SOLMAN: It's been like this pretty much forever.

Virginia Ali, now 86, and her husband founded Ben's Chili Bowl in 1958 in Washington, D.C. VIRGINIA ALI, Co-Founder, Ben's Chili Bowl: We found challenges when we opened it.

We found that it wasn't easy to get the financing if you wanted to expand and things like that.

That's the way we found it.

PAUL SOLMAN: True 62 years ago, when the Chili Bowl opened in segregated D.C.

Still true for James Mack today.

JAMES MACK: It is hard as an African-American to get big funding, you know, even small funding, even micro-loans, to get that.

And I have excellent credit.

I own property and everything.

PAUL SOLMAN: Terra Cafe's Terence Dickson, who mentors African-American business owners, once went to the bank with a group of them.

TERENCE DICKSON: The only thing that we wanted was a business credit line, as easy as, let us deposit this $1,000 in, and give us a business credit line.

They gave us donuts.

We got coffee and water.

They say, we appreciate you, and thank you.

That's it.

AKA, get the hell out.

PAUL SOLMAN: Compare that to white entrepreneurs.

TERENCE DICKSON: They have family, all right, that are helping them.

They have an education of some type that is helping them.

And, see, it started before they even started with business.

If I'm a black family, and I'm struggling just to keep the roof over my head and food on the table, I don't know about savings.

I don't know about IRAs.

I don't know about business structure.

I just know that I got enough this week to pay the light bill and bring some groceries in, and I will get the rest of the rent next week.

PAUL SOLMAN: Yes, says economist Fairlie: ROBERT FAIRLIE: The racial gap in wealth, the racial gap in education, this racial gap in family business ownership, you put all those factors together, and that's what's contributing to why I say a young person today who's African-American has a much lower chance of starting up a business and running a successful business than someone who's white.

PAUL SOLMAN: And the pandemic has reduced the number of African-American businesses by 41 percent.

ROBERT FAIRLIE: Twice as high as it has been for white-owned businesses.

PAUL SOLMAN: To what do you attribute the greater impact on black businesses of COVID-19?

ROBERT FAIRLIE: It was partly because of the industries that black owned businesses are in, that, often, these are smaller scale businesses that were shut down that weren't deemed essential.

And so that's created problems.

PAUL SOLMAN: But wait.

The Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, signed by President Trump, was supposed to aid small businesses.

ANDRE PERRY: When the Treasury announced that they would be distributing these funds through mainstream banks, I immediately rolled my eyes in frustration, because we know that mainstream banks have long had a sordid history with black business owners.

They essentially worked with their existing customers, many of which were not black people.

So, structurally, it was set up where black people would get less money.

PAUL SOLMAN: Now, the Treasury has set aside funds for firms that lend to underserved communities.

Still: VIDA ALI, Ben's Chili Bowl: For black businesses, it's very difficult at this time.

PAUL SOLMAN: Virginia Ali's daughter-in-law, Vida, also works at Ben's Chili Bowl.

They did get a PPP loan, but it's not enough.

VIDA ALI: Business was down 80 percent on U Street and all other Ben's Chili Bowl were closed.

We just reopened our H Street location a couple of weeks ago.

But business is still down 70 percent.

TERENCE DICKSON: We're not going back to business as usual.

That's done.

PAUL SOLMAN: Terence Dickson's lounge room sits empty.

His cafe is open for takeout only.

So he's developing safety measures to reopen.

TERENCE DICKSON: How do you eat an elephant?

All right, one small bite at a time.

So, I think that how do we work our way out of this corona?

One small bite at a time.

PAUL SOLMAN: Simone Charles had 56 dates booked in her Cincinnati event space.

But by the end of March?

SIMONE CHARLES, Owner, Social Butterfly Events: We literally had three events left.

We were looking at opening reopening our doors the beginning of June.

However, with the protests, a lot of our clients who were scheduled to do tours have reached out saying that they feel uncomfortable, wanting to postpone those tours.

PAUL SOLMAN: Charles reopened just yesterday.

James Mack hopes to soon.

He's still cleaning up after his store was broken into amidst the protests in Charlotte.

Security cameras captured the incident.

JAMES MACK: I mean, not being able to do business in that time frame is extremely hurtful.

We are just trying to climb back, claw our way back, you know, without losing our space, without losing our business.

And then we have another hurdle to go over, not taking away from any of the protests or any of the demonstrations at all.

But, you know, hurting African-American businesses in the meantime is only bringing us down more in an economic situation where we are trying to rise up.

PAUL SOLMAN: Mack, Charles and Dickson all support peaceful protests.

And so does Virginia Ali, whose Ben's Chili Bowl was the only restaurant allowed to stay open past curfew in Washington during the 1968 riots.

VIRGINIA ALI: I love the protesters.

I think they are making a difference now in our country.

And I want them to continue to be persistent and peaceful.

We have got to get positive change.

We have got to do that before I leave this Earth, Paul.

PAUL SOLMAN: This is Paul -- Solman -- reporting for the "NewsHour."

JUDY WOODRUFF: Stay-at-home orders posed a challenge to all of us, but especially to Americans who struggle with addiction and rely on the supportive in-person recovery meetings.

And many others found their alcohol habits changed drastically during the pandemic.

William Brangham looks at the impact COVID-19 has had on Americans' substance use, and the consequences that could long outlast the virus.

WOMAN: This week has been challenging.

I found myself having an unexpectedly strong urge to drink yesterday.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: This is what a recovery meeting looks like in the age of social distancing.

MAN: It's been kind of difficult, in having urges and cravings to drink.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Groups like this one, for people struggling with substance abuse and addiction, have been forced to move online.

These members of what's called SMART Recovery.

It's an Alcoholics Anonymous this alternative.

And these people all agreed to be recorded.

I have been dealing with quarantine in a rather negative way, with my anxiety and panicking, and I am fighting off a lot of urges.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Separately, one member of A.A., Reagan Reed, decided to depart from that group's anonymity policy to speak personally about the challenges posed by coronavirus.

REAGAN REED, Executive Director, New York Inter-Group Association of A.A.: We had to find a way to literally bring all of Alcoholics Anonymous online.

And we did so via Zoom.

It's been a big challenge for everyone to sort of adapt to this new way of maintaining sobriety.

But then, also, you know, the whole other side of it has been the enormous amount of uptick of people reaching out to us, people who have a drinking problem who are home and isolating, particularly those essential workers.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In-person meetings are the foundation of recovery programs like Alcoholics Anonymous.

They provide a connection that's now sorely missed.

REAGAN REED: There's something so important about physically making yourself go to an A.A. meeting and sit down in that chair that's so essential to staying sober.

MAN: The online meetings are good, but not getting to a meeting where I can talk to people has definitely been hard on me.

WOMAN: One of the other things I -- we don't get in the online meetings that we get in face-to-face meetings is getting together a few minutes early, before the official meeting starts, and getting a chance to just chat with the people who are there, and kind of hanging around a bit after.

DR. TIMOTHY BRENNAN, Director, Addiction Institute at Mount Sinai West: It worries me from a relapse standpoint.

We're all suffering from a great psychological trauma.

It's absolutely anxiety-provoking.

So, for patients who might be tenuous in their sobriety, feelings of isolation, feelings of loneliness, feelings of anxiety can really represent relapse triggers.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: According to one study, alcohol sales spiked 55 percent nationwide over one week in March, just before stay-at-home orders went into effect in many states.

Online alcohol sales jumped 243 percent.

BEN KOIZIM, Sherry Wine and Spirits: I'm the head of online sales and marketing at Sherry Wine and Spirits in Washington, D.C. March has suddenly gotten the same amount of business as you would normally get in December.

And, in this industry, it's typical for a decent store to get at least 25 percent of their year's take in the holiday season.

So, to be getting a holiday season on your Web site in the middle of March is a humongous benefit to the store.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Of course, most of this spike in alcohol sales likely comes from so many bars and restaurants being closed across the country, not because of people with abuse or addiction problems.

Having so many Americans locked up inside their homes is changing people's drinking patterns.

Justine D'Souza is one of many who say their drinking habits expanded from weekends to weeknights during the lockdown.

JUSTINE D'SOUZA, New Jersey: I was used to having a lot of activities after work.

So I would have rehearsals.

I was very involved in the performing arts scene locally.

I had never really had time before, with all my activities to sit down in home and have a glass of wine.

And so I guess my thought was sort of like, OK, now I have nothing but time after work.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Austin McMullen said he started drinking more after he became one of the millions who lost their job because of the pandemic.

AUSTIN MCMULLEN, North Carolina: There's nothing really else to do.

So, yes, not only have I just kind of been drinking more, but it's been more -- definitely not socially.

It's just drink, play "Madden," watch TV.

But then I'll start to feel bad about it.

But then I'll go outside and I'll see everybody else is doing the same thing.

And I will take my recyclables down there, and it's just full of bottles of just different kinds of alcohol.

So, every once in a while, I will kind of get like, man, I should probably slow down.

I feel kind of upset about this.

But then I realize that everybody else is doing the same thing.

DR. TIMOTHY BRENNAN: It's very normal for people to reach for a drink when they're feeling some anxiety.

But because of the physiology of alcohol tolerance, the patient needs to drink more and more in order to achieve the same desired effect.

I really worry that some of the roots of addiction are going to take hold.

And I'm also worried that patients won't necessarily realize it at the time, until it's too late.

I'm very much worried about a gathering storm of patients who I don't even know about yet.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Residential recovery centers are bracing for that storm of new patients.

The chief medical officer of the Hazelden Betty Ford Treatment Centers said new enrollment numbers have held steady so far, but that they expect to encounter a flood of people seeking inpatient treatment after stay-at-home orders end.

REAGAN REED: They say that you really have to hit a sort of rock bottom before you can get help.

But that bottom right now for people who are struggling is getting lower and lower.

You know, I worry about people drinking themselves to death just as much as I worry about people with the virus.

If you're in a meeting, and you're a newcomer, and you see people from literally all over the globe struggling with something that you struggle with, but are scared to admit to yourself about, you know, that's -- that helps.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm William Brangham.

JUDY WOODRUFF: It was two years ago when the 240-year-old American Academy of Arts and Sciences put together a bipartisan commission to take a hard look at the state of our democracy.

The commission is today issuing a report detailing 31 recommendations on how to strengthen it.

Full disclosure: I'm a member of this commission.

And while I'm very much for a stronger democracy, I do not advocate for any specific policy changes.

Here's a look now at what the commission found.

These recommendations are meant to take a fresh look at our founding ideals and documents.

The commission first defined the challenges our democracy is facing, rising inequality, political polarization, a surge of white nationalism, a lack of trust in our nation's institutions, a fragmented media environment.

To those challenges, it offers solutions, broken down into broader themes.

One theme is aimed at equality of representation, changes that would address governance.

The report recommends substantially enlarging the U.S. House of Representatives, establishing 18-year term limits for Supreme Court justices, and big changes to campaign finance laws.

It also calls for so-called ranked-choice voting, where voters rank candidates in order of their preference for elections at the federal and state level.

And it sees room for improvement in how we vote.

The commission recommends switching to universal automatic voter registration.

It says federal Election Day should be a holiday.

And it recommends making voting a requirement of citizenship, much like jury duty.

It also wants changes in how we get information, like a tax on digital advertising that would go to a public media fund.

And it calls for a culture change towards service, with Americans putting in a year to serve in programs like AmeriCorps, the military, or other nonprofit work.

All this is just a starting point.

The commission says it wants this report to be a call to action and for the recommendations to inspire debate.

To discuss the report, I'm joined now by two of the three chairs of the commission.

Danielle Allen, she's a political theorist and a professor at Harvard University.

And Stephen Heintz, he's president and CEO of the philanthropic foundation The Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

Welcome, both of you, to the "NewsHour."

Stephen Heintz, let me start with you.

Why did the commission think now is the time to overhaul our democracy?

STEPHEN HEINTZ, Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship: You know, many Americans, we have discovered, feel that our representative democracy is neither truly representative or very democratic.

They don't think their (AUDIO GAP).

They don't think their votes count.

They think the system is stacked against them.

And so the American Academy, which sponsored this commission, felt it was time to listen to Americans, to study the questions and the issues that confront us, and to try to develop a comprehensive plan for how we could reinvent our democracy for the challenges we're facing in this century.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And you bring up inequality.

Danielle Allen, this report is issued at a moment when the nation is feeling the cause of racial injustice in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd.

How much is that woven into the fabric of what you're proposing here?

DANIELLE ALLEN, Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship: We have been working on this report for two years, it must be said, and with a sense of urgency the entire time.

That urgency has been fueled by the sense that the social compact in this country has cracked, it's fractured.

Just as Stephen said, people feel disempowered.

People feel that our political institutions have not been responsive.

We also feel separate and apart from each other, divided and polarized.

So, these things have been the truth for some time.

This moment has brought out, clearly, just how urgent the problems are.

And if one focuses simply on the question of policing and racial justice, it's, in some sense, the perfect example.

People have been pursuing change for a long time, but certainly with renewed energy since 2014 with the death of Michael Brown and others.

And although there have been some successes for reform here and there, fundamentally, what we have had to take away is that our political institutions have been nonresponsive.

So, at the end of the day, what we are watching now, as people come together, is a rediscovery of common purpose, a rediscovery of the goal of securing liberty and justice for all, and a recognition that achieving that does require knitting together responsive institutions, genuine opportunities for empowerment, civil society organizations that connect people across lines of difference, and healthy information ecosystems that help us all do our work as civic participants.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Stephen Heintz, it's such a polarized moment in American history.

How are people to believe that this is truly a set of bipartisan ideas?

STEPHEN HEINTZ: Well, from the very beginning of our work back in 2017, we were committed to recruiting a very diverse group of commissioners from all across the country, and people with different backgrounds, different experiences, different political perspectives, and partisan ideologies.

The one thing we all shared was a love of country and a concern about our democracy.

And we worked together for two years.

We (AUDIO GAP) data.

We did the analysis.

But the most important thing was that we listened Americans all across the country.

And we benefited from their experiences of how our democracy has enduring strengths, but how it is also leaving us with unmet promises.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Danielle Allen, audacious, bold ideas, increasing the size of the House of Representatives by 50 more members, putting an 18-year term limit on Supreme Court justices.

Many people are going to look at this and say, can this really happen?

What are you trying to accomplish here?

DANIELLE ALLEN: It really can happen.

The first thing for people to recognize is that a healthy democracy depends on a virtuous circle linking effective, functional political institutions, civil society organizations that bridge differences and that connect people to their institutions, and a civic culture that cultivates a commitment of Americans to one another and to our constitutional democracy.

So, our -- our recommendations are not just a sort of hodgepodge, a sort of grab bag of policy ideas.

They're very considered things that interact with each other.

So, yes, a requirement for universal voting, but, at the same time, a recommendation to make voting easier.

And across the slate of our recommendations, there are champions for all of them, people are already working hard on these things.

We spent a lot of time, actually, evaluating feasibility.

We also sought to make sure that the actions could be moved forward on many levels of our system.

So, there are some things that municipal leaders can move forward, some that state leaders can move forward, some that require actions by Congress, only one constitutional amendment.

That was our goal, was to try to avoid constitutional amendments whenever possible.

So, that one, we do think we need with regard to issues of campaign finance.

But, for example, even the change with the Supreme Court, term limits, that is a change that can be made within our existing constitutional parameters.

And across the board, we saw a pathway to implementation that was highly aligned with usability, taking 2026, the 250th anniversary of the nation's political birth, as our target.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, Stephen Heintz, 31 recommendations.

Priority?

What do you start with here?

What you say to the American people, these are our priorities?

STEPHEN HEINTZ: Well, I think what we're saying to the American people is that we're issuing an invitation to them to pick the recommendations that mean the most to them and to begin to work together on them.

We're not establishing priorities for them.

That's the work of the citizens of our country.

We're offering them a comprehensive plan.

We think all the recommendations should be carefully debated and expanded on and developed in the years ahead.

But I want to stress one thing about the challenge here.

We are at a moment, I think, where there is greater receptivity to change and a greater need for change.

Both this pandemic that we have been living through and the racial justice crisis make the flaws in our democracy all the more vivid and the need for reinvention all the more urgent.

And I think people in America understand this and want the change.

And they want to believe in this democracy.

They want to be connected to each other.

And they want it to work.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Danielle Allen, finally, that was going to be my question.

Do you believe American -- the American people are receptive to these kinds of ideas right now?

DANIELLE ALLEN: Absolutely.

This country is full of brilliance and full of can-do energy.

The most inspiring part of our work was listening sessions all over the country, and the opportunity to see the ways in which people are already rebuilding political institutions, rebuilding trust in their own community, inventing forms of civic media that can be antidotes to the corrosive effects of social media, for example.

So, yes, the American people is hungry for this.

The American people is full of ideas, full of can-do energy.

I am 100 percent confident that we can bring about the transformation that we all desperately aspire to.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Danielle Allen, finally, where do the -- where do people go if they want to read this?

DANIELLE ALLEN: The Web site is Amacad -- that's short for American Academy -- /ourcommonpurpose.

JUDY WOODRUFF: All right, we are going to leave it there.

But we thank you both so much for joining us, two of the co-chairs of this commission on strengthening American democracy.

Danielle Allen, Stephen Heintz, we thank you both.

DANIELLE ALLEN: Thank you so much, Judy.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Chinatown is typically a vibrant and bustling staple of New York City.

But, as a result of COVID-19, the area became a ghost town, with some there experiencing xenophobic attacks.

In response, longtime resident Karlin Chan created the Chinatown Block Watch to help to keep everyone safe.

He's the focus of tonight's Brief But Spectacular.

KARLIN CHAN, Community Advocate: I started patrolling the streets of the Lower East Side with a couple of friends because we had heard of some harassment that was going on.

So, then I shared it on social media.

We started with five people, six people, and now we have expanded to a group of 20 -- 20 or 30 people.

We are a multiethnic group who are banding together, who unite to fight xenophobia and hate.

I love this area, because I grew up in this area.

I have lived here in this area over 60 years now.

It's a vibrant, functioning immigrant community.

First, it was an Irish slum, and then it was an Italian and Jewish slum.

Then it became a Chinese slum.

Now it's changed.

We have a functioning Chinatown.

And my hope is that, no matter how much we get gentrified, it will remain a functioning Chinatown.

Pre-COVID-19, this was a bustling area.

Right around the lunar new year every year, the streets are packed with celebrants.

And we have tons of tourists that will shoot into this area just to observe the various traditions that we have, lion dancing, dragons, the floats, the music, the food.

COVID-19 affected this community early on.

As news out of China broke about the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, many tourists stopped visiting the area.

Even regulars stopped coming to this area to patronize our shops and our restaurants.

A lot of it was caused by xenophobia.

And it was a misconception that all Chinese carried this virus, whereas we're born with this virus or something.

Restaurants experienced a 50 to 60 percent drop in business, and many were forced to close.

This is even pre-lockdown, which went into effect in March.

Since the lockdown, the streets are really totally empty.

There's no one out there.

Only the few came out to wait on line to buy necessities every few days.

We do have incidents of harassment, verbal, as people pass through the neighborhood.

If we witness an incident, we will record it, document it, and we will help the victim report it.

We're here to tell people, with these highly visible safety vests that are -- that we have a visible presence on the streets, and we're not going to tolerate any incidents of harassment or attacks here.

Because we are residents of the community, the business owners who are open, they recognize us, and it's really reassuring to them to see a friendly face keeping an eye out for them.

My name is Karlin Chan, and this is my Brief But Spectacular take on the Chinatown Block Watch.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And you can find all of our Brief But Spectacular segments online at PBS.org/NewsHour/Brief.

And on the "NewsHour" online: As protests over systemic racism continue in the wake of George Floyd' death, there have been growing calls to defund the police.

But what exactly does that mean?

Our Amna Nawaz took your questions about the movement earlier today with Yale university's Philip V. McHarris, who has studied the issue for a number of years.

You can find the full interview on our Web site, PBS.org/NewsHour.

And that's the "NewsHour" for tonight.

I'm Judy Woodruff.

Join us online and again here tomorrow evening.

For all of us at the "PBS NewsHour," thank you, please stay safe, and we'll see you soon.