Democracy Now!

During Tuesday's debate, Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams defended her actions in 1992 when she helped burn the Georgia state flag, which at the time contained a prominent Confederate battle flag. In a victory for civil rights advocates, the flag was later changed. We speak to Leah Wright Rigueur, professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

A new investigation has found Georgia secretary of state and Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp has overseen the removal of more than 340,000 current Georgia residents from voting rolls. We speak with Greg Palast, a journalist who has been investigating Brian Kemp and voter suppression in Georgia. He has joined a lawsuit against Kemp over the purge.

With the midterm elections less than two weeks away, we look at the governor's race in Georgia, where Democrat Stacey Abrams is attempting to become the first black woman governor in the country. Polls show Abrams and her opponent, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, are in a dead heat, but the race has been roiled with accusations that Kemp has used his power as secretary of state to suppress the vote. Earlier this month, Abrams called on Kemp to step down as secretary of state for placing 53,000 voter applications on hold. Seven out of 10 of the stalled applications are for African-American voters, in a state where less than one-third of the population is black. Voting rights activists have also sued Kemp for purging voters from the rolls. On Tuesday, Rolling Stone published an audio recording of Kemp privately telling Republican donors that he was concerned about too many Georgians exercising their right to vote. Hours later, Abrams and Kemp sparred in their first debate. We speak to Leah Wright Rigueur, professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She is the author of "The Loneliness of the Black Republican: Pragmatic Politics and the Pursuit of Power."

U.N.: Half of Yemen's Population May Soon Face Famine, Majority of Global Leaders Refuse to Halt Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia, Trump on Khashoggi Murder: "Worst Cover-Up Ever", New Reports on Khashoggi Murder Emerge Amid Saudi PR Campaign, Saudi Crown Prince Gets Applause, Cuts Deals at Investment Summit, Bolton Confirms Nuclear Treaty Withdrawal After Meeting with Putin, Georgia Voter Suppression Crisis Dominates Gubernatorial Debate, Iraq: Car Bomb in Mosul Kills 6, Wounds 30, France: Police Evict Asylum Seekers from Grande-Synthe Refugee Camp, Trump Admits No Evidence of Middle Easterners in Migrant Caravan, Trump Falsely Accuses Puerto Rico of Spending Hurricane Aid on Debt, Trump Declares "I'm a Nationalist" in Texas Rally, White Nationalist Richard Spencer Accused of Abusing Wife, NYPD Arrests "Proud Boys" over Attack on Antifa Protesters, Brazil: Ex-Political Prisoners Warn of Dictatorship Under Bolsonaro

President Donald Trump is lashing out at the Central American migrant caravan of some 7,000 people making their way through Mexico and toward the U.S. border. On Monday, he claimed without evidence that terrorists and members of the MS-13 gang had infiltrated the group. Trump has doubled down on his threat to cut aid to Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, and called out Democrats over U.S. border policy, in an ongoing attempt to turn the caravan into a main issue in upcoming midterm elections. We speak to two Central American-born activists, Patricia Montes of Centro Presente and Oscar Chacón of Alianza Americas.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has directly accused Saudi Arabia of the premeditated murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was last seen alive entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in Turkey on October 2. Erdogan said a team of Saudi officials had planned Khashoggi's murder days in advance, directly contradicting Saudi Arabia's claim that Khashoggi died after a fight in the consulate. Turkish officials have claimed that audio and video recordings show Saudi officials used a bone saw to dismember Khashoggi's body, but Erdogan made no mention of the audio and video recordings of the killing. Fallout from Khashoggi's murder is being felt across the globe. We speak with Rula Jebreal, a journalist, author and foreign policy analyst who conducted one of the last known interviews with Khashoggi. She says calling Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman a reformer is "like calling David Duke a civil rights activist." Her new "cover story":https://www.newsweek.com/jamal-khashoggi-secret-interview-saudi-murder-prince-mbs-islam-america-1178489 for Newsweek is titled "Jamal Khashoggi Secret Interview: The Saudi Journalist's Views of Islam, America and the 'Reformist' Prince Implicated in His Murder."

Turkish President: Khashoggi Murdered in Premeditated, Political Act, Mnuchin Meets Saudi Crown Prince as Trump Sends CIA Chief to Turkey, Hackers Target Saudi Investment Conference Website, Yemen: Tropical Storm Kills 12, Exacerbating Cholera Crisis, Bolton Meets with Russians as U.S. Plans Nuclear Treaty Withdrawal, Central American Caravan Continues Toward U.S. Despite Trump Threats, Mexico: Tropical Storm Vicente Kills 12 as Hurricane Willa Approaches, Human Rights Watch: British Academic Jailed by UAE Denied Rights, Trans Rights Protests Target Plans to Narrow Definition of Gender, Trump Admin to Expand Religious Exemptions to Birth Control Coverage, Nigeria: Curfew in Kaduna State After Sectarian Violence Kills 55, 14-Year-Old Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Among the Worst in U.S. History, Supreme Court Shields Wilbur Ross from Questioning over 2020 Census, New York: Bomb Found in Mailbox of George Soros's Home, Kavanaugh Lobbied for Judge Reviewing Ethics Complaints Against Him, Graffiti on Yale Campus Quotes Christine Blasey Ford on Kavanaugh

Shortly after Israel announced a new "zero tolerance" policy toward demonstrations in Gaza, some 130 Palestinians were injured Friday while protesting ongoing Israeli occupation and demanding the right of return. Four paramedics and 25 children were among the injured. Ten thousand protesters gathered along Israel's heavily militarized separation barrier with Gaza as part of the weekly Great March of Return protests that began March 30. Since then, Israeli forces have killed at least 170 Palestinians, including more than 30 children, and injured thousands more. We speak with Hagai El-Ad, the executive director of the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem. He was in New York last week testifying before the U.N. Security Council officially for the first time.

The New York Times reports that the Trump administration is attempting to eliminate the rights of transgender people by creating a narrow legal definition of gender. Citing a government memo, the Times reveals that the Department of Health and Human Services has undertaken an effort across several government agencies to establish a legal definition of sex under Title IX, the federal civil rights law that bans discrimination on the basis of sex. That definition would be either male or female, unchangeable, and determined by the genitals a person is born with. The Times reports that the memo says, "Sex means a person's status as male or female based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth. The sex listed on a person's birth certificate, as originally issued, shall constitute definitive proof of a person's sex." If enacted, the proposal would reverse the expansion of transgender rights that took place under President Barack Obama. We speak with Chase Strangio, staff attorney at the ACLU.

President Trump has announced plans to pull the United States out of a landmark nuclear arms pact with Russia, in a move that could spark a new arms race. President Ronald Reagan and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 1987. The INF banned all nuclear and non-nuclear missiles with short and medium ranges. The treaty helped to eliminate thousands of land-based missiles. On Saturday, Trump vowed to build new nuclear weapons. We speak with Daryl Kimball, director of the Arms Control Association. He previously led the Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers. He has been advocating for the U.S. and Russia to preserve the INF Treaty.

Trump to Withdraw from 1987 U.S.-Russia Nuclear Deal, Plans to Establish Biological Definition of Gender Threatens Trans Rights, Saudi Arabia Says Khashoggi Killed in "Fistfight" Amid Mounting U.S. Pressure, NYT: Saudi Troll Farm Targeted Khashoggi, Other Critics on Twitter, Afghanistan: 27 Killed, 100 Injured as Voters Head to Polls, Gaza: Israeli Forces Shoot and Injure 130 Palestinian Protesters, Israel Delays Plans to Evict Bedouin Village in West Bank, Central American Caravan Crosses into Mexico as Trump Threats Mount, Honduras: Lawyers for Victim Berta Cáceres Removed from Murder Trial, Florida: $339 Million Fighter Jets Damaged by Hurricane Michael, Supreme Court Temporarily Halts Landmark Youth Climate Lawsuit, 700,000 March in London Demanding "People's Vote" on Brexit

Fears are growing as Israel escalates its military presence along its heavily militarized separation barrier with Gaza. Israel has deployed 60 tanks to meet Palestinian protesters gathering today to protest the ongoing Israeli occupation and demand the right of return for those displaced from their homes. Israel has announced it is implementing a "zero tolerance" policy toward protesters in Gaza, who have been staging weekly Friday protests since March 30 under the banner of the Great March of Return. Since then, Israeli forces have killed at least 170 Palestinians, including more than 30 children, and injured at least 18,000. We speak with Hagai El-Ad, executive director of the human rights group B'Tselem, who testified Thursday in front of the United Nations Security Council about the crisis in Gaza and the West Bank.

As details continue to emerge about the disappearance and probable murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, we speak with Saudi dissident Madawi Al-Rasheed about Khashoggi's history as a Saudi journalist and government insider, and the future of Saudi Arabia. She is a visiting professor at the London School of Economics Middle East Centre. She was stripped of her Saudi citizenship in 2005 for criticizing Saudi authorities. Her new piece in The New York Times is titled "Why King Salman Must Replace M.B.S."

Evidence is mounting that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is directly implicated in the assassination of Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Turkish officials say Khashoggi was tortured and murdered by a squad of 15 Saudi hit men shortly after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on October 2. Four of the men implicated in Khashoggi's death are reportedly linked to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's security detail. After weeks of defending Saudi Arabia, President Trump said Thursday that he believes Khashoggi is dead, and acknowledged allegations against the Saudis. We speak with Madawi Al-Rasheed, a Saudi dissident and visiting professor at the Middle East Centre at the London School of Economics. She was stripped of her Saudi citizenship in 2005 for criticizing Saudi authorities. Her new piece in The New York Times is titled "Why King Salman Must Replace M.B.S."

NYT: Saudis May Blame Adviser to Crown Prince for Khashoggi Murder, Trump Says He Believes Khashoggi Is Dead, Trump Praises Body-Slamming Rep. Gianforte, Attacks Sen. Warren at Montana Rally, Report: Trump Family Lied About Real Estate Deals Around the World, Emails Show Trump Pushed for Keeping FBI HQ in Washington, D.C., Honduran Caravan Continues to U.S. as Trump Threatens Central American Leaders, Brazil: Haddad Accuses Far-Right Bolsonaro of Paid Online Smear Campaign, Taliban Claims Killing of Top Afghan General and U.S. Ally Gen. Raziq, Israeli Court Overturns U.S. Student's Deportation, DOJ Opens Investigation into Child Sexual Abuse in PA Catholic Churches, NYT: Former NY Doctor May Have Sexually Abused Huge Number of Young Patients, California: More Than 400 Survivors Accuse USC Doctor of Sexual Abuse, Florida: Three Ex-Police Officers Plead Guilty to Framing Black Men, NOLA: Man Pleads Guilty to Shooting 3 Black Men After Hurricane Katrina, Water Protectors Arrested in TX for Disrupting Oil Co. Meeting

A record number of Native American women are running for office in the midterm elections. At least four candidates are vying to become the first Native American women elected to Congress, including Deb Haaland in New Mexico and Sharice Davids in Kansas. Three Native women are running for governor, and 31 are running for seats in state legislatures. In Fargo, North Dakota, we speak with Tara Houska, national campaign director for Honor the Earth and an Ojibwe lawyer. In Anchorage, Alaska, we speak with Mark Trahant, editor of Indian Country Today. He's a member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes. In Seattle, Washington, we speak with Gyasi Ross, a member of the Blackfeet Nation and host of the podcast Breakdances with Wolves.

Native Americans across the country are criticizing Senator Elizabeth Warren's decision to use a DNA test to assert her Native American heritage. Chuck Hoskin Jr., secretary of state of the Cherokee Nation, said, "Sovereign tribal nations set their own legal requirements for citizenship, and while DNA tests can be used to determine lineage, such as paternity to an individual, it is not evidence for tribal affiliation. Using a DNA test to lay claim to any connection to the Cherokee Nation or any tribal nation, even vaguely, is inappropriate and wrong." We host a roundtable discussion of Native American activists and journalists to respond to Warren's DNA test and the subsequent media coverage. In Fargo, North Dakota, we speak with Tara Houska, national campaign director for Honor the Earth and an Ojibwe lawyer. In Anchorage, Alaska, we speak with Mark Trahant, editor of Indian Country Today. He's a member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes. In Seattle, Washington, we speak with Gyasi Ross, a member of the Blackfeet Nation and host of the podcast Breakdances with Wolves.

Senator Elizabeth Warren has come under fire since releasing a DNA test Monday showing Native American ancestry. The announcement responded directly to President Trump, who has frequently attacked Senator Warren by calling her "Pocahontas." A Stanford professor of genetics says there is "strong evidence" of Native American lineage in Warren's family tree dating back six to 10 generations. At multiple points in her career, Warren identified as Native American, but she says she did not use the claim to advance her career. We speak with Annie Linskey, Washington, D.C., deputy bureau chief for The Boston Globe. She examined hundreds of documents to determine that ethnicity was "not a factor" in Warren's rise in academia and law.

Saudis Transfer $100 Million to U.S. as Khashoggi Killing Crisis Deepens, Hurricane Michael Death Toll Tops 30 as Rescue Efforts Continue, Trump Asks Federal Agencies to Slash 5 Percent from Budgets as Deficit Swells, Canada Becomes 2nd Country to Legalize Recreational Marijuana, Crimea: Student Gunman Kills 19, Injures Dozens at School Shooting, CNN: Russia Building Up Military Installations in Baltic Sea, Israeli Forces Bomb Gaza, Killing One and Injuring a Dozen Palestinians, Ethiopia: Women Make Up 50 Percent of New Cabinet, DRC: Dozens Killed as 200,000 People Expelled from Neighboring Angola, Chicago Releases Footage of Police Shooting of Unarmed Teen Ricardo Hayes, Questions Remain in Police Taser Death of Black Bay Area Man Chinedu Okobi, Maryland: Woman Says Police Officer Raped Her After Learning She Was Undocumented, PA Priest Pleads Guilty to Sexually Abusing Two Boys, Ex-USA Gymnastics President Arrested in Larry Nassar Sexual Abuse Case, Georgia Bus Carrying Senior Black Voters Stopped on Way to Polls

A shocking new investigation has revealed that the United Arab Emirates hired U.S. mercenaries to carry out assassinations of political and clerical leaders in Yemen. The former elite U.S. special operations fighters were paid to take part in missions to kill those deemed to be "terrorists" by the UAE. The UAE worked with the U.S. company Spear Operations Group, founded by an Israeli-American man named Abraham Golan, who told BuzzFeed, "There was a targeted assassination program in Yemen. I was running it." The group's first target in Yemen was a local leader of al-Islah, a political party whose members include Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Tawakkul Karman. We speak with journalist Aram Roston of BuzzFeed News, who broke the story. His new piece is titled "A Middle East Monarchy Hired American Ex-Soldiers to Kill Its Political Enemies. This Could Be the Future of War."

As international outcry grows louder amid new revelations about the shocking death of Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, we speak with investigative journalist Sarah Aziza about Saudi Arabia's long history of targeting dissidents. Just weeks before the ban was lifted on women driving in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi government arrested several of the country's most prominent feminist activists, including women who had been campaigning for decades for the right to drive. Sarah Aziza has been reporting from Saudi Arabia with the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting. Her latest piece for The Intercept is headlined "Jamal Khashoggi Wasn't the First—Saudi Arabia Has Been Going After Dissidents Abroad for Decades."

New details have emerged in the disappearance and probable death of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was reportedly still alive when his body was dismembered inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul more than two weeks ago. A Turkish source says it took Khashoggi seven minutes to die. The New York Times reports four of the 15 Saudi men implicated in the killing are directly linked to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's security detail. We speak with Jamal Elshayyal, an international award-winning senior correspondent for Al Jazeera. He wrote a piece for the Middle East Eye last year titled "The rise of Mohammed bin Salman: Alarm bells should be ringing."

Trump Refuses to Condemn Saudis over Khashoggi Disappearance, Reports Link Suspects in Khashoggi Case to Saudi Crown Prince, Somalia: Pentagon Claims U.S. Drone Strike Kills 60 Al-Shabab Fighters, China: 1 Million Uyghurs Imprisoned Under Guise of "Job Training", Suspended EPA Official: "Our Kids Will Continue to Be Poisoned" Under Trump, New Head of Federal Medicaid Worked to Slash Program in Maine, McConnell Blames Deficit on Entitlements, Not GOP Tax Cuts for the Rich, Trump Attacks Stormy Daniels on Twitter After Defamation Suit Dismissed, Sen. Heitkamp Apologizes After Publishing Names of Sexual Assault Survivors, Israel Set to Raze Palestinian Village for Settlement Construction, U.N. Appoints Palestine as Chair of G77 Developing Nations, Cuban Diplomats Protest U.S. Embargo at U.N., Trump Threatens to Sanction Honduras over Migrant Caravan, New York City to Charge Members of Far-Right "Proud Boys" Group, Oregon: No Arrests After Portland Cops Found Far-Right Group's Gun Cache in August, Malta: Supporters Mark Anniversary of Journalist's Assassination, NYU Students Disrupt Appearance by Henry Kissinger

Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election due to voter suppression. That's what professor Carol Anderson argues in her new book "One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy," which tracks the rise of restrictive voting laws across the United States. In it, Anderson examines how African-American voter participation has been systematically compromised since a 2013 Supreme Court decision that gutted the 1965 Voting Rights Act. By the 2016 election, turnout among black voters nationwide dropped from 66 percent to under 60 percent. The discrepancy was even larger in key areas like Milwaukee, where turnout went down from 78 percent in 2012 to less than 50 percent in 2016. President Trump won Wisconsin by a margin of fewer than 23,000 votes. We speak with Carol Anderson, chair of the Department of African American Studies at Emory University in Atlanta, about her new book and the upcoming midterm elections.

The Supreme Court has ruled it will allow the state of North Dakota to enforce a new voter ID requirement that will make it harder for Native Americans to vote during the midterm elections. The state's new voter ID law requires voters to show identification demonstrating a residential street address, but this has already rendered many tribal IDs invalid, since many Native Americans who live on reservations depend on post office boxes to receive mail. The law could make a difference in the close race between Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp and her Republican challenger Kevin Cramer. The race is expected to help decide who controls the U.S. Senate. We speak with Ari Berman, senior writer at Mother Jones, reporting fellow at The Nation Institute and author of "Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America." His latest piece is titled "Inside the Unlikely Movement That Could Restore Voting Rights to 1.4 Million Floridians."

Voters in Florida are preparing to vote on a measure that would restore voting rights to 1.4 million people with nonviolent felonies who have fully completed their sentences. One in five African Americans in Florida and 10 percent of the state's adult population are ineligible to vote because of a criminal record. Across the United States, more than 6.1 million people with felony convictions are not eligible to vote. Florida is one of just four states that bar ex-felons from voting for life. The other states are Iowa, Kentucky and Virginia. The Brennan Center for Justice reports that Florida disenfranchises more citizens than Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee combined. We speak with Desmond Meade, the president of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, who is leading the fight to re-enfranchise felons in Florida. He's also chair of the group Floridians for a Fair Democracy. Meade is an ex-offender who was previously homeless. He is still disenfranchised. We also speak with Ari Berman, senior writer at Mother Jones, reporting fellow at The Nation Institute and author of "Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America." His latest piece is titled "Inside the Unlikely Movement That Could Restore Voting Rights to 1.4 Million Floridians."

With the midterm elections just three weeks away, voting rights advocates are accusing Republican officials in several states of orchestrating a campaign of voter suppression targeting people of color. In Georgia, the Democratic candidate for governor, Stacey Abrams, is calling on her Republican opponent, Brian Kemp, to step down as secretary of state for placing 53,000 voter applications on hold. Seventy percent of the applicants are African-American. Abrams has accused Kemp of using the state's "exact match" system to disenfranchise voters. With exact match, even a minor discrepancy in a voter's registration and their official ID could bar them from casting a ballot. We speak with Carol Anderson, chair of the Department of African American Studies at Emory University in Atlanta. She is author of the new book "One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy."

Saudi Officials to Offer New Narrative on Khashoggi Disappearance, Trump Floats "Rogue Killers" Narrative of Khashoggi Disappearance, President Trump Tours Areas Ravaged by Hurricane Michael, Florida Evacuates 4,000 from Hurricane-Damaged Prisons, Georgia County Rejects Nearly 1 in 10 Mail-In Ballots, BuzzFeed: UAE Used U.S. Mercenaries to Kill Yemeni Politicians, Syrian Rebels Refuse to Surrender Idlib Buffer Zone, Burmese Military Led Social Media Hate Campaign Against Rohingya, Nigeria: Boko Haram Kills 2nd Captive Aid Worker, Honduran Caravan of 1,600 Migrants Makes Way to U.S. Border, France: Worst Storm in Over a Century Kills At Least 12, Native Americans Criticize Sen. Warren's DNA Test as Trump Denies Donation Promise, Almost All Public Comments Were Pro-Net Neutrality Before FCC Repeal

Pope Francis has named Salvadoran Archbishop Óscar Romero a saint. Romero was a champion for the poor and oppressed who was murdered by a U.S.-backed right-wing death squad in 1980 at the beginning of the brutal U.S.-backed military campaign in El Salvador. Wearing the blood-stained rope belt that Romero wore when he was assassinated, Pope Francis praised Romero for disregarding his own life "to be close to the poor and to his people." We speak with Matt Eisenbrandt, a human rights lawyer and the author of "Assassination of a Saint: The Plot to Murder Óscar Romero and the Quest to Bring His Killers to Justice." Eisenbrandt served on the trial team that brought the only court verdict ever reached for Romero's murder.

The Trump administration is reportedly considering plans to resume its policy of forcibly separating migrant children from their families along the U.S.-Mexico border, even as the full number of people torn apart the last time it carried out the widely condemned practice remains unclear. A new report by Amnesty International suggests immigration officials separated some 6,000 families between April and August, a far higher number of children and parents torn apart than previously thought. Trump administration officials are now considering plans to detain asylum-seeking families together for up to 20 days and then force parents to choose either to stay detained together for months or years while their immigration case proceeds or to allow their children to be taken to a government shelter where their relatives or others can seek custody. We speak with Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project. He is the lead lawyer on the ACLU's national challenge to the Trump administration's family separation practice.

Saudi Arabia will allow Turkey to search its consulate in Istanbul Monday afternoon, nearly two weeks after prominent journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi disappeared after entering the consulate on October 2. He has not been seen since. This news comes amid mounting international outcry that Saudi Arabia explain Khashoggi's shocking disappearance, after Turkish officials accused the Saudis of assassinating Khashoggi, dismembering him and smuggling body parts out of the consulate. In an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes," President Trump said Saudi Arabia would suffer "severe consequences" if it was found responsible. But Trump has repeatedly said he opposes ending U.S. weapons sales to the kingdom, which he claims are worth $110 billion to U.S. companies. The Saudi Foreign Ministry has responded to Trump's threats, saying if it "receives any action, it will respond with greater action." The Saudis deny Khashoggi was killed in their consulate. We speak with Ali al-Ahmed, a Saudi dissident and founder and director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs. He was a political prisoner in Saudi Arabia when he was 14 years old—the youngest political prisoner at that time.

Trump Rejects Ending Saudi Arms Sales over Journalist's Disappearance, Corporate Executives Pull Out of Saudi Investment Summit, Yemen: U.S.-Backed, Saudi-Led Airstrike Kills 19 and Injures 30, U.S. Death Toll from Hurricane Michael at 19 as Dozens Remain Missing, Trump Doubles Down on Climate Change Denial on "60 Minutes", Senate Confirms Former BP Oil Defender as Top Environmental Lawyer, Tens of Thousands March in Europe Demanding Action on Climate, Somalia: Al-Shabab Suicide Bombers Kill 20, Injure 40, Nigeria: Anti-Boko Haram Militia Releases Children It Held Captive, Gaza: Israeli Forces Kill 7 Palestinians, Injure 250 at Friday Protest, Turkey: 22 Migrants Killed in Truck Accident While Fleeing to Greece, Germany: Merkel's Party Loses Power, Greens and Far-Right Party Gain, Pope Francis Canonizes Murdered Salvadoran Archbishop Óscar Romero, WaPo: White House Considering New Plan to Separate Immigrant Families, NYT: Jared Kushner May Have Paid Almost No Federal Income Tax, Ethics Watchdog Says Press Secretary's Kanye Tweet Broke Federal Law, Sen. Elizabeth Warren Releases Evidence of Native American Ancestry, National Parks Service Plan Would Make Organizers Pay for WH Protests, Senate Democrats Agree to Confirm 15 of Trump's Judicial Nominees, New York: White Supremacists Unleash Violence on Manhattan Street, Ashes of Murdered Gay Student Matthew Shepard Interred at National Cathedral

Johns Hopkins University has announced plans to name a new research building after Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman who permanently changed modern medicine nearly 70 years ago when it was discovered that her cells could live forever. These "immortal cells" have helped scientists produce remedies for numerous diseases, including the first polio vaccine, that have saved hundreds of thousands of lives. But Lacks's cells were taken without her consent when she was a patient at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in 1951. For decades, the woman whose cells would transform modern medicine was unknown. Instead, her cells were simply known as "HeLa"—the first two letters of Henrietta Lacks's first and last name. We speak with Rebecca Skloot, author of the best-selling book "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks," and Jeri Lacks Whye, the granddaughter of Henrietta Lacks.

Facebook and Google recently admitted major privacy breaches. Facebook says the personal information of nearly 50 million users were exposed after an online attack. Meanwhile, Google is shutting down its social network Google Plus after revelations of a data breach that exposed the private data of hundreds of thousands of users. The breach was discovered in March but was not disclosed to the public. We speak to Rep. Ro Khanna, who recently introduced an Internet Bill of Rights.

President Donald Trump is rejecting calls to cut off arms sales to Saudi Arabia following the disappearance and probable murder of the Saudi-born Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Washington Post is reporting the Turkish government told U.S. officials it has audio and video evidence that Khashoggi was killed last week inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Officials say the recordings confirm that a Saudi security team detained Khashoggi after he walked into the consulate on October 2, before killing him and dismembering his body. We speak with Ro Khanna, Democratic congressmember from California. He is calling for congressional hearings into Khashoggi's disappearance. Khanna has been a leading critic of U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen.

Hurricane Michael Flattens Florida Towns as It Rips Through Southeast, Turkish Gov't Says It Has Video Evidence of Khashoggi's Murder at Saudi Consulate, President Trump Rejects Calls to Cut Off Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia, Report: Trump Administration Separated 6,000 Families in 4 Months, AP: U.S. Army Discharged 500 Immigrant Recruits, Kanye West Praises Trump During 10-Minute Oval Office Tirade, Pop Star Taylor Swift Tells Fans to Vote in Midterms, Washington Archbishop Resigns Amid Growing Church Sex Abuse Crisis, Syrian Rebels Withdrawing Heavy Weapons from Idlib Under Turkey-Russia Deal, HRW: Egyptian-American Man Detained and Tortured in Egypt, Colombia: Environmental Leader Assassinated Amid Spate of Activist Murders, Justice Roberts Ethics Complaints Against Kavanaugh Referred to Colorado Court, Trump Attacks Federal Reserve Amid Stock Market Plunge, Washington State Abolishes Death Penalty, NY Judge Drops One Sexual Assault Charge Against Harvey Weinstein, Georgia Voter Suppression Efforts Under Fire in Heated Governor Race, Report: AR Sheriff Forced Prisoners to Pose in Nike T-Shirts to Mock Colin Kaepernick

In his new book "How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them," Yale professor Jason Stanley warns about the dangers of normalizing fascist politics, writing, "What normalization does is transform the morally extraordinary into the ordinary. It makes us able to tolerate what was once intolerable by making it seem as if this is the way things have always been." We speak with Jason Stanley in New York.

When a limousine crashed in upstate New York this weekend, killing 20 people, investigators quickly uncovered a series of shoddy practices by the limo company that owned the vehicle, including a record of repeated safety violations. The limousine that crashed in Schoharie, New York, in the deadliest U.S. transportation disaster since 2009 had failed an inspection last month and was not licensed to be on the road. Now it's been revealed that the owner of Prestige Limousine Chauffeur Service is a Pakistani immigrant named Shahed Hussain, an FBI informant with a long history of entrapping Muslim men on behalf of the U.S. government. On Wednesday, state officials arrested his son Nauman Hussain, who operates his father's limo service, and charged him with criminally negligent homicide. In Pittsburgh, we speak with a man who was entrapped by Hussain, Khalifah al-Akili. We also speak with Lyric Cabral, co-director of "(T)ERROR," a documentary that follows a sting operation targeting Khalifah al-Akili. In New York, we speak with Sam Braverman, an attorney who represented one of the "Newburgh Four," four black Muslim men who were convicted in 2010 of plotting to shoot down U.S. military planes based on testimony from Shahed Hussain.

At least two people have died since Hurricane Michael made landfall in Florida and Georgia on Wednesday. It is the third most powerful storm to ever hit the U.S. mainland, and meteorologists say it is supercharged by warmer-than-usual water in the Gulf of Mexico. But Florida Governor Rick Scott has a long history of denying climate change. In 2011, his administration reportedly banned state employees in Florida's Department of Environmental Protection from using the terms "climate change," "global warming" and "sea level rise." We speak with Gloria Horning, a social and environmental justice advocate. She serves on the Environmental Advisory Board for Pensacola, Florida.

Category 4 Hurricane Michael Slams Florida & Georgia on Way to Carolinas, Floods Kill At Least 10 in Mallorca, Spain, Indonesia: Tsunami Death Toll Tops 2,000 as New Quake Rocks East Java, Bali, U.N. Report: Extreme Weather Cost $2.9 Trillion over Last 2 Decades, WaPo: Saudi Prince Ordered Operation to Lure Khashoggi to Saudi Arabia, Brazil: Protesters Take to Streets to Denounce Right-Wing Candidate Jair Bolsonaro, WSJ Endorses Far-Right Brazilian Presidential Candidate Bolsonaro, Shipwreck Kills 8 Refugees Off Turkish Coast, 25 Still Missing, Moroccan Navy Shoots at Migrant Boat, Injuring Teenage Boy, Burma: 3 More Journalists Arrested After Criticizing Government, Peru: Keiko Fujimori Arrested over Corruption, Dow Jones Drops More Than 800 Points as Tech Companies' Stocks Plunge, DOJ Approves $69 Billion Merger Between CVS and Aetna, Enbridge Pipeline Explodes in Canada, Forcing First Nations Community to Evacuate, Family of Mexican Teen Killed by Border Patrol Agent Demands Justice 6 Years After His Death, U.S. and Russian Astronauts Safe After Emergency Landing, Activists Turn BrettKavanaugh.com into Resource for Sexual Assault Survivors

As Hurricane Michael barreled down on Florida, famed climate scientist Dr. James Hansen traveled to Minnesota earlier this week to testify on the imminent danger of climate change. He was supposed to be an expert witness at the trial for the "valve turners," the anti-pipeline activists who staged an unprecedented coordinated action to shut down the flow of oil from Canada to the United States in 2016. But the judge ruled she would not allow witnesses like Dr. Hansen to testify on the clear and present danger posed by climate change. On Tuesday, valve turner activists Annette Klapstein and Emily Johnston were acquitted. We speak with Hansen in Minneapolis about the valve turners, the recent IPCC report about the imminent threat of climate change and what must be done to save the planet from destruction. Hansen is the former top climate scientist at NASA. He is now the director of Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions at Columbia University's Earth Institute. We also speak with Klapstein and Johnston.

A month before the 2016 election, anti-pipeline activists staged an unprecedented coordinated action to shut down the flow of oil from Canada to the United States. On October 11, 2016, activists in North Dakota, Washington, Montana and Minnesota turned the manual safety valves on four pipelines, temporarily halting the flow of nearly 70 percent of the crude oil imported to the United States from Canada. They came to be known as the "valve turners." What followed was a lengthy legal battle that ended with some of the activists in jail. But on Tuesday, three valve turners who broke into an oil pipeline facility in Minnesota on that day in 2016 were acquitted. We speak with the valve turners themselves, Annette Klapstein and Emily Johnston, about their acquittal. Johnston is a poet and co-founder of 350Seattle.org, and Klapstein is a retired attorney for the Puyallup Tribe and member of the Raging Grannies. We also speak with their attorney, Kelsey Skaggs.

It's been more than a week since Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi disappeared after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last Tuesday, sparking international concern. Now, a Turkish official has told The New York Times that Khashoggi was assassinated inside the consulate by a team of 15 Saudi operatives who used a bone saw to dismember his body before smuggling body parts out of the building. We speak with Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said professor of Arab studies at Columbia University. He is the author of several books, including "Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East."

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has announced she is resigning her post at the end of the year. The former South Carolina governor—one of the few women in Trump's Cabinet—gave no reason for her departure. During Nikki Haley's time as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, the United States withdrew from the Paris climate accord; the U.N. Human Rights Council; the Iran nuclear deal; UNRWA, the U.N. agency that provides humanitarian aid to Palestinians; and UNESCO, the U.N. educational and cultural agency. We speak with Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said professor of Arab studies at Columbia University, about the significance of Haley's departure and the role of the United States at the United Nations. Khalidi is the author of "Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East." His next book, titled "The Hundred Years' War on Palestine," will be out in May.

Hurricane Michael Barrels Toward Florida as Category 4 Storm, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley Resigns, Trump Considers Nikki Haley's Replacement at U.N., Praises Ivanka, Turkish Official: Saudis Used Bone Saw to Dismember Body of Jamal Khashoggi, U.N.: 40 Percent of North Koreans Undernourished and in Need of Aid, Charges Dropped Against MN Pipeline Activists in Landmark Trial, AP: Deported Parents Could Lose Children to U.S. Adoption, Court Upholds Deposition Order for Wilbur Ross in Census Case, SCOTUS Rules for ND Voter ID Law, Disenfranchising Some Native Voters, Trump Rolls Back Ethanol Gasoline Limits & Attacks Dianne Feinstein, Former White House Communications Chief Hope Hicks to Join Fox, Google Drops Bid for Pentagon Project Under Employee Pressure, Acting EPA Head Andrew Wheeler Amplified Racist & Conspiracy Posts on Social Media, "Nuns on the Bus" Launch National Tour for Tax Justice

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang over the weekend in talks meant to further steps toward nuclear disarmament. Pompeo hailed the meeting as a success, saying both sides were "pretty close" to agreeing to details for a second summit between Kim and President Donald Trump. He also told reporters Kim has agreed to let international inspectors into a North Korean missile engine test facility and nuclear testing site where the country conducted its six nuclear tests. However, Pompeo did not say whether North Korea would allow inspectors to visit a site where the country produces fuel for nuclear weapons. We speak with Beatrice Fihn, executive director of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, about the ongoing negotiations on the Korean Peninsula, the U.S. nuclear stockpile and the path to an international ban on nuclear weapons. She is in New York to deliver The Nation Institute's third annual Jonathan Schell Memorial Lecture on the Fate of the Earth "tonight at The New School.":http://fateoftheearth.org/

A new report from the United Nations' climate panel warns humanity has only a dozen years to mitigate global warming and limit the scope of global catastrophe. Otherwise, millions will be imperiled by increasing droughts, floods, fires and poverty. The sweeping report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change urges immediate and unprecedented changes to global policy in order to keep global warming at a maximum of 1.5ºC. We speak with Kevin Anderson, Zennström professor in climate change leadership at the Centre for Environment and Development Studies at Uppsala University and chair of energy and climate change at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of Manchester in Britain. He says that the IPCC report fails to hold the world's highest emitters accountable, and argues a "Marshall Plan" for climate change is necessary to save the planet from destruction. "About 70 percent of global emissions of carbon dioxide come from about 20 percent of the world population. … When we try to address climate change and reduce our emissions by focusing on all 7.5 billion people, I think it misunderstands where the actual responsibility of emissions resides," Anderson says. "We're not developing policies that need to be tailored to that particular 20 percent."

In a stunning upset that may radically alter the political landscape of Latin America, far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro won 46 percent of the vote in Sunday's presidential election in Brazil in a far more decisive victory than expected. The former Army officer has a long history of making racist, homophobic and misogynistic comments and has openly praised Brazil's military dictatorship. He will now face Fernando Haddad of the leftist Workers' Party in a runoff on October 28. Haddad won 29 percent of the vote Sunday. Many are warning that the future of democracy in Brazil hangs in the balance. We speak with Maria Luísa Mendonça, director of the Network for Social Justice and Human Rights in Brazil, who says Bolsonaro is a "fascist" and that his election would create "a very dangerous situation in Brazil."

Hurricane Michael Kills 13 in Central America, Approaches U.S. Coast, Trump Apologizes to Kavanaugh During Ceremonial SCOTUS Swearing-In, Beijing Strikes Hostile Tone at Pompeo Visit Amid U.S.-China Tensions, China Detains Interpol Police Chief, Accusing Him of Corruption, NYT: Ex-Trump Campaign Aide Rick Gates Was In Touch with Israeli Psy-Group, Turkey Searching for Van in Case of Missing Saudi Journalist, Social Network Google+ to Shut Down After Massive Data Breach, NYC Vigil Held for Uber Driver Who Died by Suicide, Owner of Company Behind Deadly NY Limo Crash Was FBI Informant, New York Governor Cuomo, President Trump Celebrate Columbus Day, Columbus, Ohio, Cancels Columbus Day as L.A. Celebrates Indigenous People, Minnesota: Water Protectors' Encampment Challenges Line 3 Pipeline, Landmark Trial Begins for Activists Who Cut Oil Pipeline Flow, Prize-Winning Economist: U.S. Opposition to Climate Science Will End, Johns Hopkins to Name Building for Henrietta Lacks, 67 Years After Stealing Her Cells for Research

Fears are growing over the fate of missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who Turkish officials say they believe was murdered in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last week. Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post who had been living in self-imposed exile in the United States, entered the Saudi Consulate in Turkey seeking a document he needed to get married and has not been seen since. The Washington Post reports a Turkish investigation has revealed that a group of about 15 Saudi men traveled to Istanbul to kill Khashoggi as he visited the consulate. Saudi officials have denied the report and say they don't know the journalist's whereabouts. Khashoggi is a critic of the Saudi regime. "This is a horrific escalation in the crown prince's campaign to silence dissent, to silence any criticism, even the mildest of criticism, from Saudis at home or abroad," says columnist for The Intercept Mehdi Hasan, who is also host of "UpFront" at Al Jazeera English, where he interviewed Khashoggi earlier this year. We're also joined by Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CodePink, who knew Khashoggi and is the author of "Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the U.S.-Saudi Connection."