Democracy Now!

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

Independent Senator Bernie Sanders has targeted Amazon for its role in widening the wage gap in the United States, and this week he is expected to unveil legislation requiring large employers like Amazon to cover the cost of federal assistance received by their employees. We speak with journalist James Bloodworth, who spent a month working undercover as a "picker" in an Amazon order fulfillment center and found workers were urinating in bottles because they were discouraged from taking bathroom breaks. His new book is "Hired: Six Months Undercover in Low-Wage Britain."

Amazon made headlines Tuesday when it became the second American company, after Apple, to reach $1 trillion in value. Amazon's founder and chief executive, Jeff Bezos, is the richest man in the world, with a net worth of more than $167 billion. But what's behind that wealth? What about its workers? The working conditions in Amazon's warehouses have been the focus of protests, union drives and several investigations—including by student reporters. As students throughout the country head back to class, we feature an investigative report by students at the Rutgers University Department of Journalism and Media Studies.

Even as records about Judge Brett Kavanaugh's time in the White House remain concealed, much can be learned from his judicial record. We speak with Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, about their analysis of Judge Kavanaugh's opinions in split-decision cases, which found that during his 12 years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Kavanaugh decided or wrote an opinion against the public interest 87 percent of the time in split-decision cases dealing with consumer, environmental and worker rights.

When Fred Guttenberg approached Judge Brett Kavanaugh during Tuesday's Supreme Court confirmation hearings to talk about his daughter Jaime, who was shot and killed in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre on Valentine's Day, he hoped to shake the nominee's hand and start a conversation. Instead, Kavanaugh turned his back and walked away. We speak with Fred Guttenberg about Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing and his record on the Second Amendment.

Protests, arrests and repeated calls from Democratic senators to adjourn the proceedings. That's how confirmation hearings began Tuesday for Judge Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump's pick to fill Justice Anthony Kennedy's seat on the Supreme Court. We begin our look at the hearings with Heidi Sieck, co-founder of the national organization VoteProChoice, who was the first member of the public to enter the Kavanaugh hearings on Tuesday and was removed after she protested, along with dozens of others who interrupted the proceedings.

Dozens Arrested Disrupting First Day of Kavanaugh Confirmation Hearings, U.S. to End All Funding for U.N. Agency Providing Humanitarian Aid to Palestinians, Nearly 500 Migrant Children Remain Separated from Their Parents, "Fear": Bob Woodward's New Book Depicts Trump White House as "Crazytown", Amazon Becomes Second-Ever U.S. Company to Reach $1 Trillion in Market Value, California Lawmakers Pass Net Neutrality Bill, in Rebuke to Trump's FCC, Mexican Television Reporter Javier Enrique Rodríguez Valladares Killed in Cancún, Worst Typhoon to Hit Japan in 25 Years Kills at Least 10, Iraq: At Least 5 Killed by Security Forces Amid Ongoing Protests in Basra, From Florida to Washington, Prisoners Continue Nationwide Strike, Ayanna Pressley Defeats Michael Capuano in Massachusetts Primary

Canada's Federal Court of Appeals has rejected the government's approval to triple the capacity of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline in a major victory for indigenous groups and environmentalists. On Thursday, Justice Eleanor Dawson nullified licensing for the $7.4 billion project and brought construction to a halt until the National Energy Board and the federal government complete court-ordered fixes. Her ruling cited inadequate consultations with indigenous peoples affected by the project, and found the National Energy Board's assessment of the expansion was so flawed that the federal Cabinet should not have relied on it during the approval process. Just minutes after the court's decision, Kinder Morgan's shareholders agreed to sell the existing pipeline and the expansion project to the federal government for $4.5 billion. Prime Minister Trudeau had announced in May that Canada would purchase the pipeline. This means the government now owns the project as its expansion faces years of further review. We speak with Winona LaDuke, Native American activist and executive director of the group Honor the Earth, and Eriel Deranger, founder and executive director of the group Indigenous Climate Action.

Confirmation hearings begin for Judge Brett Kavanaugh to fill Justice Anthony Kennedy's seat on the Supreme Court. If he is confirmed, it would likely make the court the most conservative since the 1930s. Kavanaugh is 53 years old and could serve on the Supreme Court for decades to come. Critics warn his confirmation could lead to major rollbacks of civil rights, environmental regulations, gun control measures, voting rights and reproductive rights, including possibly overturning Roe v. Wade. We speak with Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Last week the committee released a damning report on Kavanaugh's record on cases and issued a statement opposing Kavanaugh's nomination. She will attend the Senate confirmation hearings for Kavanaugh this week.

Confirmation Hearings for Judge Brett Kavanaugh Begin Today, Trump Attacks Sessions for Filing Charges Against 2 Republican Congressmen, Father of Mollie Tibbetts: Don't Use Her Death to Promote Xenophobia and Racism, Trump Warns Syrian Government Not to Attack Idlib, Reuters Journalists Sentenced to 7 Years in Prison After Investigating Burmese Military Massacre, Saudi-Led Coalition Says Bombing of School Bus, Killing 40 Children, Was "Unjustified", Germany: 50,000 Attend Anti-Racism Concert in Chemnitz, Brazil: Fire at National Museum Destroys Millions of Pieces of Art and History, Canadian Court Rejects Effort to Triple Capacity of Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline, "Protect the Protest": Activist Groups Launch Campaign to Fight SLAPP Suits, Gordon Slated to Hit Gulf Coast as Hurricane Today, Florida Gubernatorial Candidate Andrew Gillum Targeted by Racist Robocall, Colin Kaepernick Is New Face of Nike's "Just Do It" Campaign, Steve Bannon Disinvited from Headlining New Yorker Festival After Protests, Award-Winning Alternative Weekly The Village Voice Shuts Down After 63 Years, Funerals Held for Aretha Franklin and John McCain, Legendary Pianist and Composer Randy Weston Dies at 92

In a Labor Day special, we air an extended conversation with Boots Riley, writer and director of "Sorry to Bother You," his new film about an evil telemarketing company, a corporation making millions off of slave labor, and one Oakland man at the center of it all who discovers a secret that threatens all of humankind. His dystopian social satire is being hailed as one of the best movies of the summer. Riley is a poet, rapper, songwriter, producer, screenwriter, humorist, political organizer, community activist, lecturer and public speaker—best known as the lead vocalist of The Coup and Street Sweeper Social Club.

In this exclusive broadcast, Democracy Now! breaks the media blockade and goes to occupied Western Sahara in the northwest of Africa to document the decades-long Sahrawi struggle for freedom and Morocco's violent crackdown. Morocco has occupied the territory since 1975 in defiance of the United Nations and the international community. Thousands have been tortured, imprisoned, killed and disappeared while resisting the Moroccan occupation. A 1,700-mile wall divides Sahrawis who remain under occupation from those who fled into exile. The international media has largely ignored the occupation—in part because Morocco has routinely blocked journalists from entering Western Sahara. But in late 2016 Democracy Now! managed to get into the Western Saharan city of Laayoune, becoming the first international news team to report from the occupied territory in years.

Prisoners across the country join work stoppages, hunger strikes and commissary boycotts in at least 11 states to protest prison conditions and demand the end of what they call "prison slavery." Organizers report prisoners in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Indiana are demonstrating. Individuals in Texas, California and Ohio have gone on hunger strike, including some in solitary confinement. Meanwhile, at least six people have been hunger-striking inside the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, for more than a week. We speak with Amani Sawari, prison strike organizer working on behalf of Jailhouse Lawyers Speak, a network of prisoners who are helping organize the nationwide strike.

Prisoners are dying at the highest rates the state of Mississippi has ever seen. Thirteen prisoners have died behind bars in the month of August alone. That's compared to 47 prisoner deaths in Mississippi in the entire year of 2015. Prison officials insist the deaths are by natural causes. But advocates and family members are demanding answers for the shocking spike in prisoner deaths, including the killing of 24 year-old Nija Syvallus Bonhomme at the privately run Wilkinson County Correctional Center in southwestern Mississippi. Bonhomme died in his cell after what officials say was a fight with another prisoner. But his family says that the prison failed to protect him from violent conditions that led to his death, allowing him to return to his cell after a violent altercation with his cellmate. His sister told Democracy Now!, "They threw him back to the dogs." We speak with Jody Owens, director and managing attorney of the Mississippi office of the Southern Poverty Law Center, part of a recent lawsuit against the Mississippi Department of Corrections alleging grave abuses of prisoner rights at a private prison.

After progressive candidate Andrew Gillum pulled off a stunning upset in Florida's Democratic primary for governor Tuesday, putting him on a path to become the state's first African-American governor, he was attacked within hours by his Republican opponent—handpicked by Trump—who warned voters not to "monkey this up" by supporting Gillum. Even Fox said they they don't condone his comments. We speak with two activists who've worked with Gillum: Phillip Agnew with Dream Defenders in Florida and Charlene Carruthers, head of Black Youth Project 100 and author of the new book "Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements."

"We Did a Fantastic Job": Trump Praises His Handling of Puerto Rico Despite 3,000 Deaths, Report: Trump Administration Jailing Passport Applicants with U.S. Birth Certificates, Betsy DeVos Prepares to Rewrite Campus Sexual Misconduct Policies, Baylor University Accused of Infiltrating Sexual Assault Support Groups, Texas Police Officer Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison for Fatally Shooting Black Teenager, California Lawmakers Push for State to Go Carbon-Free by 2045, Trump on Twitter Announced Donald McGahn Leaving White House Counsel Post, Florida GOP Candidate for Governor Said Black Opponent Andrew Gillum Will "Monkey This Up", Andrew Cuomo & Cynthia Nixon Spar in Only New York Gubernatorial Debate, U.N. Accuses Nicaragua of Widespread Repression; Ortega Faults U.N. for Ignoring Violent "Coup Mongers", Brazil Sends Troops to Venezuelan Border as Refugee Crisis Grows, Detroit School System Shuts Off Drinking Water Due to High Lead Levels

We look at the shocking case of a Texas woman sentenced to five years in prison for illegally voting, who could now have even more time added to her sentence. Crystal Mason cast a provisional ballot in the 2016 presidential election despite having a past felony conviction for tax fraud that prevented her from voting. In March, she was convicted of illegal voting; she says she did not know that she was barred from casting a ballot in Texas due to her criminal record. Her supporters argue her conviction was racially biased, and point to the case of Terri Lynn Rote, a white woman in Iowa who was convicted of the same crime after she tried to vote for President Trump—twice. Rote was sentenced to two years' probation and fined $750. Crystal Mason joins us along with her attorney, Kim Cole. Mason has a federal court hearing in Fort Worth, Texas, tomorrow, and if she loses the hearing, she will be heading to prison. We also speak with Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project, about how policies restricting the voting rights of convicted felons disenfranchise more than 6 million people.

Puerto Rico officially raised the death toll from Hurricane Maria last year from 64 to nearly 3,000 following the release of a study ordered by the governor of the island. This officially makes Maria one of the deadliest storms in U.S. history. We get response from Democracy Now! co-host Juan González and Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.

Pressure is growing for Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to reject plans to grant federal funds to states to purchase firearms for teachers and school employees. The proposal comes after requests from Oklahoma, Texas and other states to train and arm school marshals. DeVos's plan would use federal Student Support and Academic Enrichment grants to pay for firearms and to train educators in their use, and would reverse long-standing federal policy prohibiting federal funds for arming educators. We speak with Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, and Adam Skaggs, chief Counsel at the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

As the school year begins this week across the United States, the top student loan watchdog has resigned in protest, accusing the Trump administration of siding with powerful predatory lenders over student loan borrowers. Seth Frotman worked as student loan ombudsman under the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director, Mick Mulvaney. He wrote that under Mulvaney's leadership, "the Bureau has abandoned the very consumers it is tasked by Congress with protecting." This comes as Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has proposed new rules that would cut an estimated $13 billion in federal student loan relief for people defrauded by for-profit colleges. We speak with Sara Goldrick-Rab, professor of higher education policy and sociology at Temple University and author of "Paying the Price: College Costs, Financial Aid, and the Betrayal of the American Dream."

Puerto Rico Increases Hurricane Death Toll to 2,975, Andrew Gillum, a Black Progressive Backed by Bernie Sanders, Wins Florida Gubernatorial Primary, Trump-Backed Martha McSally Wins Arizona GOP Senate Primary, Trump Warns of "Violence" If Democrats Win Control of Congress, Texas Police Officer Convicted for Killing 15-Year-Old African-American Student, Teachers in Washington State Begin Strike, U.N. Secretary-General: Report on Genocide Targeting Rohingya Needs Serious Consideration, India Carries Out Raids Arresting Critics of Modi Government, France's Environment Minister Resigns On-Air over Climate Change, Department of Homeland Security Analyst Linked to White Supremacists, 160 Workers Arrested in ICE Raid in Texas, Nine-Year-Old Dies by Suicide in Denver Shortly After Coming Out as Gay

We revisit the 1968 DNC protests in Chicago, where Yippies Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin nominated a pig named "Pigasus the Immortal" to compete with candidates Hubert Humphrey and Richard Nixon. They hoped to In-Hog-Ur-Ate Pigasus instead. His platform was to be a pile of garbage—"just like the platform of all the other parties." They demanded Pigasus be taken to the White House for a foreign policy briefing and given a Secret Service detail. Pigasus was later arrested along with many others, who were charged with disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace and bringing a pig to Chicago. Defense attorney William Kunstler later accused the Democratic Party of the same charges. We continue our conversation with Black Panther Bobby Seale, arrested for inciting a riot and gagged during the Chicago 8 trial stemming from his speech at the protest, and SDS activists and organizers Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers.

As we revisit the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago that became a national spectacle 50 years ago when police attacked demonstrators, we are joined by Bobby Seale, who was chair of the Black Panther Party when he spoke at the demonstrations and was later arrested and became part of the Chicago 8. Seale describes how at his conspiracy trial the judge ordered that he be gagged and bound to his chair. He was sentenced to 48 months in prison for 16 acts of contempt of court, but all of the charges were later dismissed.

It was 50 years ago this week that the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago became a national spectacle, as a major political event turned into chaos that culminated with a police riot, much of it unfolding on live national television. Chicago met the protesters with 24,000 police officers, National Guardsmen and Army soldiers using tear gas and clubs. We feature Newsreel clips from the week and go to Chicago to speak with former SDS and Weather Underground member Bill Ayers, who was arrested 50 years ago.

U.N. Accuses U.S.-Backed, Saudi-led Coalition of Possible War Crimes in Yemen, North Korea Warns Denuclearization Talks in Jeopardy, Federal Court Strikes Down North Carolina's Gerrymandered Voting Map, U.S. Student Loan Watchdog Accuses Trump Administration of Siding with Predatory Lenders, Facebook Bans Burmese Army Commander-in-Chief After U.N. Genocide Report, U.S. and Mexico Reach Agreement to Revise Portions of NAFTA, Trump Breaks Near-Silence on Death of Sen. John McCain, Study Links Air Pollution to Reduction in Intelligence, Bloomberg Reassigns Journalist Who Exposed Wells Fargo's Ties to Gun Industry, Former Egyptian Presidential Candidate Condemns Crackdown on Opposition Figures, Malian Singer Khaira Arby, the "Nightingale of Timbuktu," Dies at 58

Pope Francis marked the first papal visit to Ireland in 39 years by acknowledging the failure by church authorities to address child abuse crimes by the clergy. But Sunday, Pope Francis faced a new bombshell accusation from a former top-ranking Vatican official who called on him to resign, releasing a 7,000-word letter claiming the pope knew about allegations of sex abuse by high-ranking Cardinal Theodore McCarrick years before they became public, and failed to punish him. McCarrick faces allegations that he coerced men training to become priests into sexual relationships and abused a teenage altar boy. Pope Francis has refused to comment on the accusations. In Dublin, we speak with Peter Isely, a survivor of childhood sexual assault by a Wisconsin priest, and a founding member of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. We also speak with Thomas Doyle, a former priest and longtime supporter of justice and compassion for clergy sex abuse victims. They're both part of the organization Ending Clergy Abuse.

After a major debate, Democrats have voted on a key progressive demand after the 2016 campaign: to vastly reduce the power of superdelegates in choosing the party's presidential nominee. Saturday's vote by the Democratic National Committee comes after the 2016 race for Democratic nominee between Senator Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and pitted many DNC members who supported the change against two former party chairs and members of the Congressional Black Caucus. We get an update from Norman Solomon, national coordinator of RootsAction. He was a Bernie Sanders delegate from California to the 2016 Democratic National Convention, where he coordinated the independent Bernie Delegates Network.