Democracy Now!

"American Prison." That's the name of the new book by award-winning journalist Shane Bauer, who dives deep into the profit-earning motives of U.S. prisons, from convict labor in colonial-era settlements all the way to present-day mass incarceration, including Bauer's own stint as an undercover prison guard at the privately owned Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana. We speak with Shane Bauer in New York City.

South Carolina officials are coming under fire for refusing to relocate prisoners in mandatory evacuation zones even as Hurricane Florence barreled down on the state. Prisoners were instead put to work behind bars making sandbags to prepare for the storm's arrival. We speak with Kymberly Smith, a community organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation. She has been protesting South Carolina's choice not to evacuate prisoners during Hurricane Florence.

Two women being transported by sheriff's deputies to a mental health facility drowned Tuesday in South Carolina when the van they were riding in was overcome by floodwaters. The two sheriff's deputies in the vehicle survived. Forty-five-year-old Windy Newton and 43-year-old Nicolette Green are two of at least 37 people killed by Hurricane Florence since the storm made landfall. Both women had gone to hospitals Tuesday morning when they were involuntarily committed and detained. Less than 24 hours later, they were dead. "There are a lot of questions remaining about why this had to occur then, why there couldn't have been some sort of an emergency delay," says Meg Kinnard, South Carolina correspondent for the Associated Press, who has been following the story closely.

As Republicans charge forward with Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nominee hearing despite Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's claim that he raped her as a teenager, a new Nation investigation reveals a secret network of right-wing activists has spent millions of dollars attacking questions about Kavanaugh's stance on abortion, LGBTQ rights and executive privilege as "anti-religious bigotry." We speak with Sarah Posner about her explosive new report for The Nation, "The 'Anti-Catholic' Playbook." She is a reporting fellow at the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute.

Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley has set a 10 a.m. Friday morning deadline for Dr. Christine Blasey Ford to decide whether she will testify about her allegation that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh attempted to rape her at a high school party when she was 15 years old. But Dr. Blasey Ford's lawyers say an FBI investigation into her claims should be conducted first. Attorney Lisa Banks issued a statement Wednesday saying, "The rush to a hearing is unnecessary, and contrary to the committee discovering the truth." We get response from journalist Sarah Posner, reporting fellow at the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute.

Sen. Grassley Sets Deadline for Kavanaugh Accuser to Respond to Testimony Request, North & South Korea Aim to Declare End of War This Year, Shocking Video: Florence Rainfall Drowns Thousands of Factory Farm Animals in NC, Puerto Rico Marks Anniversary of Hurricane Maria as Trump Denies Death Count, Trump Continues Attack on Sessions: "I Don't Have an Attorney General", Senate Passes $674 Billion Military Spending Bill, FBI & DOJ to Redact Documents Trump Ordered Fully Declassified, Israeli Forces Kill 15-Year-Old Boy in Gaza as Historic Protests Continue, Palestinian UNRWA Staff Protest Job Cuts in Gaza, Germany: Journalist Dies While Covering Hambach Forest Occupation, NYRB Editor Leaves After Outcry over Essays by Men Accused of Sexual Assault, NBA Sanctions Dallas Mavericks for Sexual Misconduct and Violence, Human Rights Group to Bail Out Over 500 from Rikers Island, Former Disgraced Chicago Police Chief Jon Burge Dies at 70, CodePink's Medea Benjamin to Iran Envoy: "You Are Making a Case for War with Iran"

The Trump administration has once again slashed the number of refugees allowed to resettle in the United States. On Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the new cap on refugees would be a historic low of just 30,000 next year, down from the current level of 45,000. The actual number of refugees allowed in to the country is expected to be even lower than the 30,000 cap. Monday's announcement represents the lowest ceiling any president has imposed on the U.S. refugee program since its creation in 1980. Under President Obama, the refugee cap reached 110,000. For more on the Trump administration's refugee policy, we speak with Ryan Mace, refugee specialist for Amnesty International USA.

As President Trump visits North Carolina, where thousands are evacuating after Hurricane Florence caused record flooding, we go to Raleigh to speak with Rev. Dr. William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign. Areas devastated by the storm include some of the poorest areas on the Eastern Seaboard. Barber’s recent CNN piece is headlined "In hurricane wind and waves, the poor suffer most."

Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh have cast doubt on whether President Trump's Supreme Court nominee will be confirmed by the Senate. "The process was bad from the beginning," says Rev. Dr. William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign and president of Repairers of the Breach. "We are poised to have two presidents that did not win the popular vote, now will have appointed four extreme members to the Supreme Court." Barber says Kavanaugh will be dangerous to voting rights, to labor rights, to healthcare and to women's rights.

A Senate hearing with Supreme Court justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford may not move forward, as Blasey Ford asks for the FBI to investigate her claims that Kavanaugh attempted to rape her as a teenager before she testifies. Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley had invited Blasey Ford and Kavanaugh to both testify on Monday, but Blasey Ford's attorneys are declining the offer. Her lawyers wrote in a letter to Grassley, "While Dr. Ford's life was being turned upside down, you and your staff scheduled a public hearing for her to testify at the same table as Judge Kavanaugh in front of two dozen U.S. Senators on national television to relive this traumatic and harrowing incident." The letter revealed that Blasey Ford has received multiple death threats and has been forced to move out of her home. On Tuesday night, Senator Grassley said there's "no reason for any further delay" in the hearing, even if Christine Blasey Ford does not testify. We speak with Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore about Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford. His new movie, "Fahrenheit 11/9," is out in theaters this week.

North and South Korea Vow to Denuclearize, Co-Host 2032 Olympics, Kavanaugh Accuser Faces Death Threats, Asks for FBI Investigation Before Testifying, Florence Death Toll Rises to 35, Includes 2 Detainees in Police Custody, Trump Considers Building Permanent Military Base in Poland, NATO Building Permanent Military Structures in Afghanistan as 17th Anniversary of War Approaches, Yemen: New Evidence of U.S.-Made Bombs; Charity Warns of Starvation on "Unprecedented Scale", Israeli Forces Kill 2 Men in Gaza Protest and 1 Palestinian in Occupied East Jerusalem, U.N. Report Condemns Burma for Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity, U.S.-China Trade War Ramps Up with Retaliatory Chinese Tariffs, Pussy Riot Activist Was Likely Poisoned, German Doctors Confirm, Wilbur Ross Lied Under Oath About Citizenship Question on 2020 Census, Brooklyn Catholic Diocese to Pay Massive Settlement in Child Sexual Abuse Cases, Workers Strike Across U.S. Against Sexual Abuse and Harassment at McDonald’s

This week marks the seventh anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement and 10 years since the collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers, which triggered the onset of the global financial crisis. The crisis also sparked massive global anti-capitalist movements, including Occupy Wall Street, the M-15 movement in Spain and the anti-austerity movements in Greece. "It's striking how little we are marking these anniversaries," says author and activist Nathan Schneider. "I think … we recognize we really haven't done anything serious to deal with the causes of this crash." Schneider's new book outlines an alternative economic model based on cooperative ownership that saw a resurgence since the 2008 financial crisis. It's titled "Everything for Everyone: The Radical Tradition That Is Shaping the Next Economy."

While the worst of Hurricane Florence is over, officials say the most dangerous flooding is yet to come for residents of the Carolinas and Virginia, as thousands have been ordered to evacuate their homes and hundreds more have sought rescue from rising floodwaters. But undocumented immigrants have expressed concern they will encounter immigration enforcement if they seek help. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has reallocated nearly $10 million from FEMA's budget to ICE to pay for detention space and deportations. We speak with Laura Garduño García, a DACA recipient and Greensboro-based organizer with Siembra NC and the American Friends Service Committee, and with Mary Small, policy director for Detention Watch Network.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley has announced that the committee will hold another hearing on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh next Monday in light of accusations that he attempted to rape a 15-year-old girl at a party while he was in high school. Both Kavanaugh and his accuser, professor Christine Blasey Ford, will testify under oath. As the allegations against Kavanaugh gain steam, a new report from Ryan Grim for The Intercept has revealed that attorney Cyrus Sanai tried multiple times to reach out to Senators Charles Grassley and Dianne Feinstein on behalf of federal court employees also willing to speak out against Kavanaugh. The employees wanted to talk about Kavanaugh's work as a clerk for disgraced former 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, who resigned in 2017 after being accused by at least 15 women of sexual misconduct. But Sanai never heard back. Kavanaugh has said repeatedly that he did not witness Kozinski behave in a sexually inappropriate way. We speak with Ryan Grim, Washington, D.C., bureau chief for The Intercept. His latest "piece":https://theintercept.com/2018/09/17/cyrus-sanai-federal-court-employees-attempted-to-come-forward-to-chuck-grassley-and-dianne-feinstein-neither-responded/ is headlined "Attorney Sent Letter to Chuck Grassley and Dianne Feinstein Claiming Federal Court Employees Willing to Speak About Brett Kavanaugh."

Trump Administration Slashes Number of Permitted Refugees in U.S. to Historic Low, Kavanaugh & Christine Ford to Testify at New Hearing on Attempted Rape Allegation, Syrian Missile Downs Russian Military Aircraft, Killing 15, Russia and Turkey Announce Plan to Create Demilitarized Zone in Idlib, Yemen: U.S.-Backed Saudi Coalition Accused of Deadly Bombing of Radio Station, Pyongyang: North and South Korean Leaders Reportedly Preparing to Declare End of Korean War, Hurricane Florence Death Toll Reaches 32 as Threat of Toxic Coal Ash Release Looms, Death Toll from Typhoon Mangkhut Tops 74 with 3 Million Displaced in China, Nigeria: More Than 100 Dead in Mass Flooding, Israeli Airstrike Kills 2 in Gaza; Palestinian Man Dies in Custody in West Bank, Pakistan: PM Imran Khan Plans to Grant Citizenship to Over 1 Million Refugees, Trial Underway for Officer Who Killed 17-Year-Old Laquan McDonald in 2014, Ex-Police Chief in Florida Pleads Guilty to Framing Innocent Black Men, Trump Orders Declassification of Materials in Russia Probe, Billionaire Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff Acquires Time Magazine, Texas Board of Ed Votes to Drop Hillary Clinton, Helen Keller from Curriculum

Protests continue in Dallas after the shooting and killing of a 26-year-old black man in his own apartment by a white Dallas police officer. Police officer Amber Guyger has been charged with manslaughter after she entered Botham Shem Jean's apartment about two weeks ago and opened fire, killing him. Police claim she believed it to be her apartment. Questions are growing over why there was a three-day delay in charging Guyger and how she failed to know she was not in her own apartment when she killed Jean. Jean's family is also criticizing police for issuing and making public information from a search warrant on Jean's apartment. We speak with Lee Merritt, a civil rights attorney who is representing the family of Botham Jean and says police are trying to smear Jean to shield their officer from punishment. "It took [Jean] being killed by a Dallas police officer for him to become a criminal," Merritt notes.

As news of sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh breaks, his stance on Roe v. Wade is also under scrutiny. The New York Times reports that it received several leaked documents ahead of Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings earlier this month, including an email in which Kavanaugh questioned the accuracy of calling Roe v. Wade the "settled law of the land." We speak with Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor at Slate.com, and Ian Millhiser, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund and the justice editor of ThinkProgress.

Last week, ThinkProgress published a report by senior fellow Ian Millhiser headlined "Brett Kavanaugh said he would kill Roe v. Wade last week and almost no one noticed." But then a Facebook fact checker with the conservative outlet The Weekly Standard declared it "fake news," leading the piece to be targeted and demoted by the social media site. The Intercept then republished Millhiser's piece, with editor-in-chief Betsy Reed writing, "The story was effectively nuked from Facebook, with other outlets threatened with traffic and monetary consequences if they shared it." We speak with Ian Millhiser, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund and the justice editor for ThinkProgress.

Dr. Christine Blasey Ford has come forward to accuse President Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of attempted rape, throwing his nomination into question in the days before the Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote on it. Blasey Ford is a professor at Palo Alto University in California and says Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were both in high school. She at first expected her story to be kept confidential, but changed her mind after it leaked. She now says she is willing to testify about her experience. In an interview published Sunday by The Washington Post, Ford said that in the early 1980s Kavanaugh and a friend were "stumbling drunk" when they pushed her into a bedroom. The Post reports, "While his friend watched, she said, Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed on her back and groped her over her clothes, grinding his body against hers and clumsily attempting to pull off her one-piece bathing suit and the clothing she wore over it. When she tried to scream, she said, he put his hand over her mouth." We get a response from Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor at Slate.com, whose latest piece is headlined "Our System Is Too Broken to Assess the Sexual Assault Claim Against Kavanaugh."

California Professor Publicly Accuses Brett Kavanaugh of Attempting to Rape Her in High School, Tropical Depression Florence Kills 17 & Smashes Rainfall Records in Carolinas, Florence's Torrential Rains Trigger Toxic Coal Ash Release in North Carolina, Typhoon Mangkhut Reaches Mainland China; Death Toll in Philippines Could Exceed 100, FEMA Head Defends Trump's Lies on Hurricane Maria's Death Toll in Puerto Rico, Hundreds Mourn 12-Year-Old Gazan Boy Killed at Nonviolent Protest at Border Fence, Officials Say Palestinian Teenager Fatally Stabbed Israeli in Occupied West Bank, Chile: Pope Expels Priest in Child Sex Abuse Scandal, Blackwater Contractor Faces Retrial for Murder in Nisoor Square Massacre in Iraq, Trump Threatens to Impose New Tariffs on China, Escalating Trade War, Texas Border Agent Confesses to Murdering Four Women, Guatemala's Highest Court Orders Return of U.N.-Backed Anti-Corruption Probe, Germany: Thousands Protest the Clearing of Hambach Forest for Coal Mine Expansion, European Activists Protest Banks on 10th Anniversary of Lehman Brothers' Collapse

As California Governor Jerry Brown's Global Climate Action Summit is underway in San Francisco, we look at one of the more controversial solutions to climate change: geoengineering. Sometimes called "climate manipulation," geoengineering involves the deliberate altering of the Earth to decrease the impact of greenhouse gas emissions. Such proposals are already being explored by government agencies, scientists and businesses around the world. Supporters of geoengineering endorse radical ways to manipulate the planet, from spraying aerosols with sulfur particles into the stratosphere, to scrubbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But critics say these "techno-fixes" do nothing to address the root causes of climate change, and worse, can be dangerous for the Earth. We host a debate between Gopal Dayaneni, board member of the ETC Group and a founding member of the Climate Justice Alliance, and David Keith, professor of applied physics at Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and professor of public policy in the Harvard Kennedy School. He is also the founder of Carbon Engineering, a company developing technology to capture CO2 from ambient air.

Over 100 indigenous and climate justice activists staged a protest in San Francisco Tuesday outside a meeting of California Governor Jerry Brown's Climate and Forest Task Force. Protesters attempted to deliver a letter to Brown and task force members. Democracy Now! was there in the streets.

Protesters disrupted the Global Climate Action Summit Thursday, criticizing California Governor Jerry Brown in part for his support for cap and trade. Cap and trade is a market-driven strategy in which governments cap emission levels, then allow companies to buy and sell permits to pollute. California has the most far-reaching cap-and-trade program in the United States. Last year Governor Brown signed an extension to the state's cap-and-trade law, which began under Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Governor Brown has credited cap and trade with limiting the state's greenhouse gas emissions, but the issue has split many environmental groups. We host a debate between Peter Miller, director of the western region Climate & Clean Energy Program for the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Eriel Deranger, founder and executive director of the group Indigenous Climate Action and a member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation.

As California Governor Jerry Brown's Global Climate Action Summit kicked off Thursday, indigenous and climate justice activists blocked the main entrance in protest. While the protests took place outside the GCAS, Gov. Brown and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the U.N. special envoy for climate action, were inside. Protesters disrupted Bloomberg's speech at the summit's main plenary. Democracy Now! was there, in the streets and at the conference.

Hurricane Florence Makes Landfall, Lashing Carolinas Coast, Trump Falsely Claims 3,000 Puerto Ricans Did Not Die After Hurricane Maria, Wins and Losses for Progressive Challengers in New York Primaries, Former Refugee from Afghanistan Safiya Wazir Unseats Incumbent in NH Primary Race, Paul Manafort and Special Counsel Reach Tentative Plea Deal, Sen. Feinstein Refers to FBI Letter Alleging Sexual Misconduct by Kavanaugh, Dozens of Homes Explode North of Boston, Mass., Killing 1 Person, Argentina: Thousands of Teachers & Students Strike Against Austerity Measures, Lawsuit Alleges MSU Officials Intentionally Covered Up 1992 Rape by Larry Nassar

Governors, mayors and policymakers from around the world are gathering this week for the Global Climate Action Summit. The conference was organized by California Governor Jerry Brown. The conference begins today, just days after Brown signed a new law to shift California to 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2045. While Brown is hailed as a climate hero, he has been widely criticized by many climate justice activists who are planning to protest outside the opening of today's conference. We speak to Bill McKibben, the co-founder of 350.org. His latest piece for The Nation is titled "Jerry Brown's Climate Legacy Is Still Being Decided."

As the East Coast prepares for Hurricane Florence to make landfall, fear is growing that the storm could result in catastrophic waste spills. Twenty-four toxic coal ash containment ponds in the path of the storm are at risk of flooding in the extreme rainfall. We are joined by Will Hendrick, staff attorney with the Waterkeeper Alliance; Frank Holleman, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center; and Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org.

In North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Georgia, millions of residents are bracing for the arrival of Hurricane Florence, which meteorologists are warning could unleash life-threatening storm surges and historic flooding across a wide swath of the East Coast. Even if the storm weakens, experts warn Hurricane Florence could kill thousands of farm animals and trigger catastrophic waste spills from sewage treatment plants, hog waste lagoons and chicken farms. Many of the factory hog farms in North Carolina store their waste by spraying it on nearby fields and neighborhoods, or by depositing it in lagoons that can overflow during hurricanes, causing the toxic pig manure to pour into nearby waterways. We speak with Naeema Muhammad, organizing co-director for the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network, and Will Hendrick, staff attorney with the Waterkeeper Alliance.

Millions Along East Coast Brace for Arrival of Hurricane Florence, Toxic Waste Sites and Nuclear Plants Lie in Path of Hurricane Florence, Puerto Rican Officials Slam Trump for Claiming Response to Maria Was "Success", NYT: More Migrant Children Are Detained Than at Any Other Time in U.S. History, Parents Forcibly Separated from Children Win Second Chance to Apply for Asylum, NYT: Scott Pruitt in Talks to Work as Consultant to Coal Tycoon, Pompeo Certifies Saudi-Led Coalition Taking Steps to Protect Yemeni Civilians, Despite Evidence, Guatemala Protests President's Effort to Shut Down U.N.-Backed Anti-Corruption Probe, Trump's Son Eric Faces Backlash After Anti-Semitic Comments About Woodward's Book, CBS "60 Minutes" Chief Jeff Fager Ousted Amid Sexual Harassment Accusations, Report: Over 3,600 Children in Germany Were Sexually Abused by Clergy, Pussy Riot Member Hospitalized for Suspected Poisoning, New York Voters Head to Polls for Primary Today

Today in San Francisco, the Rise Against Climate Capitalism conference—a counter-conference to California Governor Jerry Brown's Global Climate Action Summit—will focus on the common goals of climate activists and labor. That's also the subject of an explosive new report: "Death on the Dakota Access: An Investigation into the Deadly Business of Building Oil and Gas Pipelines." We speak with Antonia Juhasz, a longtime oil and energy journalist, about her new investigation for Pacific Standard magazine on the deaths of two men who worked on the Dakota Access pipeline, and the massive oil and natural gas boom that has generated some of the deadliest jobs in the country.

We continue our conversation about California's incarcerated firefighters with a look at the women fighting the state's climate change-fueled blazes. We speak with Amika Mota, a former prisoner firefighter. She didn't even make $1 per hour while on duty as a firefighter—she made just 53 cents. Amika Mota is now the director of prison re-entry at the Young Women's Freedom Center in San Francisco.

We go behind the scenes of California's raging climate-fueled wildfires with the hidden men and women on the front lines of the state's ever-growing fire season: prisoner firefighters. Of the 13,000 firefighters battling blazes across the state, more than 2,500 are prisoners. While salaried firefighters earn an annual mean wage of $74,000 a year plus benefits, prisoners earn $1 per hour when fighting active fires. According to some estimates, California saves up to $100 million a year by using prison labor to fight its biggest environmental problem. The Democracy Now! team traveled on Sunday to the Delta Conservation Camp, a low-security prison about an hour north of San Francisco where more than 100 men are imprisoned. We interviewed incarcerated firefighters who had just returned from a 24-hour shift fighting the Snell Fire in Napa County.

"Storm of a Lifetime": Hurricane Florence Barrels Down on Carolinas' Coast, Ahead of Florence, SC Officials Say They Will Not Evacuate Ridgeland Prison, Florence Threatens Catastrophic Waste Spills from Pig Farms, Coal Ash Ponds, 6 Years Before Florence, North Carolina Passed Law Banning Studies of Sea Level Rise, Ahead of Florence, Trump Tries to Celebrate Admin Response to Hurricane Maria, Merkley: Trump Admin Diverted $10M from FEMA to ICE to Build Detention Centers, HHS to Triple Size of Texas Tent Camp for Migrant Children, Stephen Miller's Former Rabbi Slams Him at Rosh Hashanah Services over Family Separation, Tens of Thousands of Syrians Flee Idlib for Turkish Border, Afghanistan: Death Toll from Nangarhar Suicide Bombing Rises to 68, Lula Officially Pulls Out of Brazil's Presidential Race, Up to a Million People March in Barcelona to Celebrate Catalonia's "National Day", Ethiopia and Eritrea Reopen Border After 20 Years

We look at fallout from the women's U.S. Open final Saturday, where tennis star Serena Williams lost to 20-year-old Naomi Osaka, after accusing umpire Carlos Ramos of sexism. On Monday, the Women's Tennis Association came out in support of Williams, with chief executive Steve Simon suggesting the umpire showed a different level of tolerance to Williams because she is a woman. During the final, Ramos gave Williams a code violation after he deemed a gesture made toward her by her coach to be "coaching," which is banned during a game. Ramos then penalized Williams a point after she destroyed her racket in anger, and docked her an entire game after she subsequently called the umpire a "liar" and a "thief" for stealing her point. We speak with Amira Rose Davis, assistant professor of history and women's, gender and sexuality studies at Penn State University and co-host of the sports podcast "Burn It All Down."

On Monday, President Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, announced the administration will close the Palestine Liberation Organization's office in Washington as retaliation for the Palestinians' efforts to bring alleged Israeli military war crimes to the International Criminal Court. Palestinian diplomat Saeb Erekat called the move "an affirmation of the U.S. administration's determination to continue its policies of blackmail and extortion and undermining the peace process and the two state solution." We speak with Jamil Dakwar, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Human Rights Program.

President Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, has threatened U.S. sanctions against International Criminal Court judges if they proceed with an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by U.S. troops in Afghanistan. In 2016 an ICC report accused the U.S. military of torturing at least 61 prisoners in Afghanistan during the ongoing war. The report also accused the CIA of subjecting at least 27 prisoners to torture, including rape, at CIA prison sites in Afghanistan, Poland, Romania and Lithuania. Bolton said in a speech at the Federalist Society Monday, "We will let the ICC die on its own. After all, for all intents and purposes, the ICC is already dead to us." We get response from Jamil Dakwar, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Human Rights Program.

More than 1.5 million people have been ordered to evacuate the coasts of Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina as Hurricane Florence continues to gain strength as it barrels toward the East Coast. The enormous Category 4 storm is projected to make landfall on Thursday or Friday, bringing with it heavy rains and high winds that could linger for days after hitting land. People up and down the coast are preparing for extreme flooding and what the National Hurricane Center is calling a "life-threatening storm surge." Experts are warning the damage could be catastrophic.

John Bolton Threatens International Criminal Court Judges with Sanctions, More Than 1 Million Ordered to Evacuate as Florence Barrels Toward East Coast, Trump Admin Plans to Roll Back Regulations Limiting Methane Gas Emissions, Gov. Jerry Brown Signs Law to Move California to Carbon-Free Energy by 2045, In Urgent Plea, U.N. Secretary-General Warns of Risks of "Runaway Climate Change", Bill McKibben: More Than $6 Trillion Divested from Fossil Fuel Companies So Far, WaPo: 1,600 Federal Workers Have Departed EPA in Mass Exodus, U.N. Warns Offensive in Idlib Could Lead to Worst Loss of Life in 21st Century, Afghanistan: At Least 20 Killed in Suicide Bombing in Nangarhar, White House Considering Second Meeting Between Trump & Kim Jong-un, MSF: 100+ Migrants Died Crossing Mediterranean Earlier in September, Protesters Rally Outside Dallas Police Headquarters over Police Killing of Botham Jean, FL Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Ron DeSantis Spoke at Far-Right Conference, Prosecutors Admit They Wrongly Accused Maria Butina of Trading Sex for Influence

Supreme Court justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh is facing accusations of perjury following his confirmation hearing last week. Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont has suggested Kavanaugh lied to the Senate Judiciary Committee during his 2004 and 2006 hearings to become a federal judge. During those hearings Kavanaugh denied seeing private Democratic files that detailed strategies for opposing Republican judicial nominees while he was associate counsel in the George W. Bush White House. We speak with Lisa Graves, former top aide to Senator Patrick Leahy, whose new piece is headlined "I Wrote Some of the Stolen Memos That Brett Kavanaugh Lied to the Senate About." Graves is the former chief counsel for nominations for the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and was deputy assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice. She is now co-director of Documented, which investigates corporate influence on democracy.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters in more than 90 countries joined a worldwide day of protest demanding urgent action to address climate change Saturday. In San Francisco, up to 30,000 people took part in the Rise for Climate, Jobs and Justice march. It is believed to be the largest climate march ever on the West Coast. The protest came just days before the start of the Global Climate Action Summit being organized by California Governor Jerry Brown. Democracy Now! was in the streets of San Francisco for the march.

Activists Rally at Protests Worldwide to Demand Urgent Action on Climate Change, Syrian and Russian Militaries Continue Offensive in Idlib, Obama Slams Trump as "Threat to Democracy", Trump Ex-Campaign Adviser George Papadopoulos Sentenced to 14 Days in Prison , Senator Warren: Time to Use 25th Amendment to Remove Trump from Office, U.S. to Adopt Aggressive Stance Against International Criminal Court, Israeli Soldiers Kill 2 Palestinian Protesters Friday, NYT: U.S. Officials Met with Rebel Venezuelan Officials to Discuss Coup Against Maduro, Egyptian Court Sentences 75 Muslim Brotherhood Members to Death, Iraq: Protests over Public Services, Jobs Continue in Basra, CBS Head Leslie Moonves Resigns, After New Sexual Assault & Harassment Accusations, NYT: CIA Expanding Drone Operations in Africa, Nationwide Prison Strike Ends on 47th Anniversary of Attica Uprising, White Dallas Cop Charged with Manslaughter for Killing Black Man in His Own Apartment, Serena Williams Tackles Sexism by Umpires at 2018 U.S. Open, NFL Players Protest Racism & Police Brutality by Kneeling During National Anthem, Scientist Jocelyn Bell Burnell Wins Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics

The leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey are meeting today in Tehran as the Syrian military is threatening a massive invasion of the rebel-held city of Idlib. Russia and Iran are close allies to Syria, while Turkey has been a key supporter of the opposition. This comes as the United States will chair a U.N. Security Council meeting today on the crisis in Syria. The U.N. is warning that an assault on Idlib could lead to a humanitarian catastrophe. U.N. special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said that if talks in Tehran fail, as many as 800,000 citizens may flee the region and that panic is spreading among Idlib's 3 million residents. Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports that President Trump has agreed to a new strategy that indefinitely extends the U.S. military effort in Syria in part to push out Iranian forces from Syria. We speak with award-winning journalist Rania Abouzeid in Beirut. She's the author of "No Turning Back: Life, Loss, and Hope in Wartime Syria." She has reported extensively from Syria since the uprising began in 2011, and has received the George Polk Award in 2014 and the Michael Kelly Award in 2015 for her coverage.

The Trump administration is attempting to remove court-imposed time limits on the detention of immigrant children. The administration's proposal would allow immigrant families to be held in detention indefinitely, ending the long-standing 1997 Flores agreement which says that children cannot be jailed for more than 20 days. More than 400 children remain separated from their parents more than a month after a court-imposed deadline requiring the Trump administration to reunite all of the separated families. The American Civil Liberties Union says it appears ICE officials had access to the phone numbers of hundreds of parents of separated children before a federal court's June 26 family reunification deadline, but intentionally withheld the phone numbers for months. We speak with Cathleen Caron, founder and executive director of Justice in Motion, a group spearheading an effort to find parents of detained children.

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing took a series of dramatic turns Thursday, as Democratic senators began releasing confidential documents from Kavanaugh's work at the George W. Bush White House. The New York Times also broke a major story Thursday morning revealing that Kavanaugh wrote as a White House attorney in 2003 that he did not deem the Supreme Court's landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision to be "settled law of the land." He wrote, "I am not sure that all legal scholars refer to Roe as the settled law of the land at the Supreme Court level since Court can always overrule its precedent, and three current Justices on the Court would do so." These revelations come as the Trump administration withholds more than 100,000 pages of Kavanaugh's records on the basis of presidential privilege. We speak with Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

Sen. Cory Booker Releases Kavanaugh Documents in Act of "Civil Disobedience", New Documents Contradict Kavanaugh's Sworn Testimony, Kavanaugh Conflates Birth Control with Abortion, Trump Admin Seeks to Allow Indefinite Detention of Immigrant Families, ICE, DOJ Subpoena Millions of North Carolina Voting Records, Top Trump Admin Officials Deny They Penned Scathing Anonymous Op-Ed, Baghdad Massacre Trial for Blackwater Mercenary Ends in Hung Jury, Gunman Kills Three at Cincinnati Bank, Then Shot Dead by Police, Cincinnati Officer Who Tased 11-Year-Old Girl Will Face Discipline, Jury Gives $1 Fine to Man Who Punched White Supremacist Jason Kessler, Brazil: Far-Right Presidential Candidate Jair Bolsonaro Stabbed, Brazilian Workers' Party Candidate Lula da Silva to End Presidential Bid, New York AG Subpoenas All of State's Catholic Dioceses in Abuse Probe, Twitter Permanently Suspends Alex Jones & Infowars from Platform, New Northern California Wildfire Erupts in Shasta County, East Coast Schools Close Due to Heat Wave and Lack of AC, Thousands March in NYC for Action on Climate Change

India's Supreme Court has overturned a law criminalizing consensual gay sex, in a major victory for LGBTQI groups. The ruling voids a portion of the Indian Penal Code written by Britain's colonial government in the 1860s, which, although rarely enforced, made sodomy a crime punishable by up to life in prison. We speak with Arundhati Roy, the acclaimed activist and author based in New Delhi. She won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her first novel, "The God of Small Things."

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis are in New Delhi today for talks aimed at deepening military and trade ties between India and the United States. India is the largest weapons importer in the world. The trip comes just a week after the Indian government conducted raids across the country targeting prominent human rights activists, lawyers, poets and critics of the Narendra Modi government. At least five people were arrested. Critics say the arrests are part of a broader attempt by Modi's government to silence dissidents ahead of next year's general election. We speak with the prize-winning author and activist Arundhati Roy. She won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her first novel, "The God of Small Things." Her most recent book is a novel titled "The Ministry of Utmost Happiness."

The White House is scrambling to ferret out disloyal members of President Trump's inner circle after The New York Times published an anonymous op-ed Wednesday it says was written by a senior administration official claiming that a "quiet resistance" is underway seeking to constrain Trump's worst impulses. In the extraordinary op-ed, the unnamed official writes, "Many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations." We speak to Vince Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Judge Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation hearing enters its third day today. On Wednesday Capitol Police arrested 73 people protesting Kavanaugh's nomination. The protests began almost immediately when Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley tried to start the hearing. Protesters included Women’s March organizers from 26 states. Among them was a teenager who stood on a chair and said, "I'm 18, and I'm here for the youth of the country. You're ruining my future." We speak to Hina Shamsi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's National Security Project, and Vince Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Unnamed Trump Official Cites "Quiet Resistance" Within Administration, Trump Blasts "Gutless" Writer of Anonymous New York Times Op-Ed, Kavanaugh Won't Rule Out Presidential Self-Pardon, Roe v. Wade Reversal, Trump Suggests Banning Protests As 73 Arrested Amid Kavanaugh Hearing, Afghanistan: 20 Dead, 70 Wounded in Kabul Twin Bomb Attack, Iraq: Government Building Torched as Basra Protests Continue, Spain Cancels Bomb Sales to Saudi Arabia over Yemen Civilian Deaths, Syria: 800,000 More Civilians Could Be Displaced by Idlib Fighting, Trump Denies Report He Wanted to Assassinate Syria's Bashar al-Assad, Kim Jong-un Says Faith in President Trump Remains Unchanged, India's Supreme Court Overturns Colonial-Era Ban on Gay Sex, Jon Kyl Leaves Lobbyist Job, Returns to Senate to Fill John McCain's Seat, Chicago: Murder Trial Opens for Officer Who Shot Laquan McDonald, Louisiana: Four Water Protectors Arrested at Bayou Bridge Pipeline Site