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• North Korea Carries Out Strongest-Ever Nuclear Test
• Sessions to Make Announcement on DACA as Trump Considers Canceling Program
• Death Toll from Hurricane Harvey Hits 63
• California Gov. Declares State of Emergency Amid Largest Wildfire in L.A. History
• Category 5 Hurricane Irma Barrels Toward Caribbean and Southern U.S. Coast
• Nigeria: 100,000 People Forced to Evacuate Widespread Flooding
• Trump to Nominate Climate Denier Congressmember Jim Bridenstine to Head NASA
• Yemen: Cholera Affects More Than 600,000 People, Amid U.S.-Backed Bombing Campaign
• Syria: 14 Civilians Reported Killed by U.S.-Led Coalition Shelling in Raqqa
• Chechnya: Tens of Thousands Rally to Support Burma's Persecuted Rohingya
• Video: Utah Police Arrest Nurse for Refusing to Draw Blood from Unconscious Patient
• Hundreds of Fast-Food Workers Nationwide Demand $15 Minimum Wage
• San Diego: Hundreds Defend Chicano Park's Murals & Protest White Supremacist Rally
• Award-Winning Indian Country Today Media Network Temporarily Ceases Operations
• Native Youth Finish 250-Mile "Paddle to Protect" to Oppose Enbridge Line 3 Pipeline

Days after the deadly white supremacist rally in Charottesville, Virginia, a remarkable letter was published in a local newspaper in Fargo, North Dakota. The letter was written by Pearce Tefft about his son, Peter Tefft, who was photographed attending Saturday’s deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville. Pearce Tefft wrote, "[N]one of his beliefs were learned at home. We do not, never have, and never will, accept his twisted worldview. [Peter] once joked, 'The thing about us fascists is, it's not that we don’t believe in freedom of speech. You can say whatever you want. We’ll just throw you in an oven.’ Peter, you will have to shovel our bodies into the oven, too. Please son, renounce the hate, accept and love all." Democracy Now! recently spoke with another member of the family, Jacob Scott, Peter Tefft’s nephew, along with Christian Picciolini, co-founder of Life After Hate, a nonprofit helping people disengage from hate and violent extremism. He was a leading neo-Nazi skinhead gang member and far-right extremist in the ’80s and ’90s.

Foreign Policy recently published an FBI and Department of Homeland Security bulletin that concluded white supremacist groups were "responsible for 49 homicides in 26 attacks from 2000 to 2016...more than any other domestic extremist movement." Despite these findings, the Trump administration recently slashed funds to organizations dedicated to fighting right-wing violence. One group, Life After Hate, which works to help white nationalists and neo-Nazis disengage from hate and violent extremism, was set to receive a grant under the DHS’s Countering Violent Extremism program, approved by the Obama administration. When Trump DHS policy adviser Katharine Gorka released the final list of grantees in June, Life After Hate had been eliminated. Gorka is the wife of Trump adviser Sebastian Gorka, who has been linked to a Hungarian far-right, Nazi-allied group. We speak with Christian Picciolini, co-founder of Life After Hate and former neo-Nazi skinhead gang member.

As President Trump faces growing outrage over his response to the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, we bring you an exclusive: an interview with the great-great-grandsons of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson. At least 1,500 symbols of the Confederacy can be found in public spaces across the country. But now a number of the monuments are coming down. Calls for the removal of the statues are even coming from the descendants of the leaders of the Confederacy. We speak with two of the great-great-grandsons of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson. Jack and Warren Christian have just written an open letter to the mayor of Richmond calling for the removal of the Stonewall Jackson statue in Richmond. They write, "Our sense of justice leads us to believe that removing the Stonewall statue and other monuments should be part of a larger project of actively mending the racial disparities that hundreds of years of white supremacy have wrought."

We examine the corporate crackdown on environmental activists challenging the fossil fuel industry and human-driven climate change. The company that owns the Dakota Access pipeline—Energy Transfer Partners—has sued Greenpeace International and other environmental groups, accusing them of inciting "eco-terrorism." We speak to Annie Leonard, executive director of Greenpeace USA, and Tara Houska, national campaigns director for Honor the Earth. She is Ojibwe from Couchiching First Nation.

The flooded Arkema chemical plant in the town of Crosby, Texas, that saw two explosions on Thursday, could see as many as six more blasts, and a new investigation reveals this comes after Arkema successfully pressured federal regulators to delay new regulations aimed at improving safety procedures at chemical plants. It also found that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton aggressively attacked a proposed chemical plant safety rule, after his election campaign garnered over $100,000 from chemical industry donors. We speak with David Sirota, senior editor for investigations at the International Business Times. His story is headlined "Texas Republicans Helped Chemical Plant That Exploded Lobby Against Safety Rules." We also speak with Stephanie Thomas, Houston-based organizer for Public Citizen, and Matt Dempsey, a Houston Chronicle data reporter who contributed to a series called "Chemical Breakdown," which investigated regulatory failures of the chemical industry.

Hurricane Harvey has been downgraded from a Category 4 hurricane to a tropical depression as it moves over Louisiana and into Mississippi. Texas officials say at least 44 people were killed by the storm and nearly 100,000 homes are damaged by flooding. This comes as a chemical plant about 25 miles northeast of Houston, in Crosby, was rocked by two explosions early Thursday morning. The facility produces highly volatile chemicals known as organic peroxides, and at least 10 sheriff’s deputies were hospitalized after inhaling fumes. Officials had already evacuated residents within a one-and-a-half-mile radius of the plant in the town of Crosby, after it lost primary and backup power to its coolant system. Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez insisted in an early-morning press conference that the plant had not exploded, describing the event as a "pop" followed by smoke. But Federal Emergency Management Agency head Brock Long said a plume of chemicals leaking from the plant was "incredibly dangerous." We speak with Matt Dempsey, reporter with the Houston Chronicle who questioned Arkema about what is stored at the plant and who produced the investigative series "Chemical Breakdown," which examined regulatory failures of the chemical industry.

• Texas Grapples with Unprecedented Catastrophe as Hurricane Death Toll Rises
• FEMA Chief: Plume from Chemical Plant Explosion "Incredibly Dangerous"
• Monsoon Rains Trigger Building Collapse in Mumbai, Deaths in Karachi
• Yemen Floods Kill At Least 18 as Drainage Systems Fail
• Niger: Heavy Rains Leave Thousands Homeless
• White House Denies Reports President Trump Has Decided to Cancel DACA
• State Department Orders Closure of Three Russian Diplomatic Buildings
• Special Counsel on Russia Probe Teams with New York Attorney General
• Iraq Declares Victory Over ISIS in Tal Afar After Bloody Campaign
• U.N. Human Rights Official Warns of "Pyrrhic Victory" In Raqqa, Syria
• Trump Administration Moves to Undermine Obamacare Enrollment
• Federal Judge Halts Texas Anti-Abortion Law
• Trump Administration Cancels Collection of Data on Wage Gap
• NYT: Google Executive Pressured Think Tank over Criticisms
• Treasury Secretary May Reverse Plan to Put Harriet Tubman on $20 Bill
• Radical Milwaukee Sheriff Resigns Ahead of Reported White House Job
• Georgia Cop Ousted After Telling Motorist, "We Only Kill Black People"
• New York Regulators Deny Gas Pipeline Permit for Massive Power Plant

Another suspect in the brutal beating of a young African-American male during the recent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, has been arrested in Georgia. Alex Michael Ramos, 33, has been charged with malicious wounding for his attack on anti-racist protester Deandre Harris during the Unite the Right rally. Earlier this week, Ohio police also charged 18-year-old white supremacist Daniel Borden in connection to the attack. The police have faced criticism for failing to quickly investigate and arrest Harris’s attackers. Photos and video showed at least six white supremacists punching, kicking and beating Harris with large metal poles. Harris, a hip-hop artist and assistant special education teacher at a local high school, later described the attack in a video filmed by photojournalist Zach Roberts. Roberts also captured photographs of the attack which were used to help identify the assailants. We speak with Roberts along with Lee Merritt, a civil rights attorney representing Harris.

While Houston continues to deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, we look at the media silence on the human contribution to the record-breaking storm. British journalist and author George Monbiot wrote that despite 2016 being the hottest year on record, the combined coverage during the evening and Sunday news programs on the main television networks amounted to a total of 50 minutes in all of last year. "Our greatest predicament, the issue that will define our lives, has been blotted from the public’s mind," he wrote. The silence has been even more resounding on climate-related disasters in areas of the world where populations are more vulnerable—most recently, on the devastating floods across the globe, from Niger to South Asia. Over the past month, more than 1,200 people have died amid flooding in Bangladesh, Nepal and India. This year’s monsoon season has brought torrential downpours that have submerged wide swaths of South Asia, destroying tens of thousands of homes, schools and hospitals. Meanwhile, in Niger, West Africa, thousands of people have been ordered to leave their homes in the capital Niamey after several days of heavy downpours. We speak with Monbiot, columnist at The Guardian. His book, "Out of the Wreckage: A New Politics for an Age of Crisis," will be out this week.

Six days after Hurricane Harvey made landfall, the unprecedented storm is continuing to wreak havoc in Texas and parts of Louisiana. The death toll has risen to at least 38, but authorities expect it to grow as the historic floodwaters begin to recede. Early this morning, a pair of explosions rocked a chemical plant 30 miles northeast of Houston, sending thick black smoke into the air. The Harris County Sheriff’s Office says one deputy was taken to the hospital after inhaling fumes, and nine others drove themselves to the hospital.
Now a tropical depression, Harvey has moved inland, but many parts of Texas remain underwater or under flood watch. On Thursday, the city of Port Arthur, Texas, which is 100 miles east of Houston, was completely underwater. AccuWeather is now projecting the economic impact of Harvey might top $190 billion—exceeding the economic impact of Katrina and Sandy combined. Up to 40,000 homes may been destroyed and 500,000 cars totaled in the storm. According to the Red Cross, more than 32,000 people are in shelters in Texas. We speak with Hilton Kelley, the founder of Community In-Power and Development Association in Port Arthur, Texas. He is a former Hollywood stuntman turned environmental activist. In 2011, he was awarded the Goldman Prize, the world’s most prestigious environmental award, for his work battling for communities living near polluting industries in Port Arthur and the Texas Gulf Coast. Port Arthur is home to the largest oil refinery in the nation—the Saudi-owned Motiva plant, which has been shut down due to flooding.

• Death Toll from Harvey at 38 as Port Arthur, TX Floods Completely
• Explosions at Arkema Chemical Plant Near Houston Follow Flooding
• North Korea Tensions Rise as Trump Tweets "Talking is Not the Answer!"
• Federal Court Halts Implementation of Texas Anti-Immigrant Law SB 4
• Immigration Protesters March on Trump Tower in Support of DACA
• ACLU: Immigration Agency Is Destroying Records of Human Rights Abuses
• Democratic Lawmakers Demand Hearing on Trump's Pardon of Joe Arpaio
• Afghanistan: U.S. Airstrike Kills at Least 11 Civilians
• Yemen: Saudi-Led Airstrike Kills 5 Civilians at Checkpoint
• Bangladesh: 18,000+ Rohingya Refugees Flee Government Violence in Burma
• Another Suspect Charged in Charlottesville Beating of African American
• Charlottesville Marchers Demand Justice Following White Supremacist Violence
• U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Says Trump Inciting Violence
• Los Angeles to Replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day
• Activists Bail Out Black Women, Calling for an End to Cash-Bail System

Hurricane Harvey has sparked comparisons to Hurricane Katrina, which hit New Orleans 12 years ago yesterday. The devastating storm killed more than 1,800 people and forced more than 1 million people to evacuate. Both the government and major aid agencies like the Red Cross were widely criticized for failing to respond adequately to the disaster. Instead, local residents took matters into their own hands, launching relief, recovery and mutual aid efforts such as the Common Ground Collective. For more on the Red Cross’s failures and local grassroots relief efforts, we speak with Scott Crow, author and anarchist who helped found the Common Ground Collective in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and Jonathan Katz, director of the Media and Journalism Initiative at Duke University and former Haiti correspondent for the Associated Press. He’s the author of "The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster" and a new article headlined "The Red Cross Won’t Save Houston."

Dr. James Hansen has been called the "father of climate change awareness." In 1988, Hansen first warned about the dangers of global warming when he testified before Congress. At the time, he was the top climate scientist at NASA, where he headed the Goddard Institute for Space Studies. We speak with world-renowned climatologist Dr. James Hansen on what role climate change played in unleashing Hurricane Harvey.

The World Meteorological Organization on Tuesday announced that Hurricane Harvey’s devastation is linked to climate change. All past U.S. rainfall records have been shattered, and the devastating storm is expected to bring even more rainfall to Louisiana and Texas in the coming days. And yet, the corporate networks have avoided linking the record-breaking storm to climate change. We examine storm coverage with Naomi Klein, best-selling author of several books, including "This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate."

Hurricane Harvey has prompted at least five Texas prisons to evacuate nearly 6,000 inmates, and on Tuesday the Harris County Sheriff’s Office tweeted that their jail next to the swollen Buffalo Bayou in downtown Houston had not been evacuated. Meanwhile, law enforcement officials are urging immigrants not to fear seeking help despite an anti-sanctuary law set to take effect on Friday. We get an update from criminal justice correspondent Renée Feltz.

As fallout from Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Louisiana continues, at least 30 people have died and more than 17,000 people are in shelters. Hundreds of thousands are under evacuation orders, and all past U.S. rainfall records have been shattered. In Texas, a third of Harris County—which encompasses Houston—is currently underwater. Houston officials have imposed a mandatory curfew between midnight and 5 a.m. ExxonMobil says Harvey has damaged at least two of its refineries, causing thousands of pounds of chemicals to be released into the air. Residents in Crosby, Texas, are being evacuated amid concerns a chemical factory damaged by Harvey could explode. We speak with Bryan Parras, organizer with the Sierra Club’s Beyond Dirty Fuels campaign and the group Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (t.e.j.a.s.).

• Hurricane Harvey Death Toll Tops 30 as Storm Makes Second Landfall in Louisiana
• Flooding in Mumbai, India, Kills 6, as Freak Rainstorm Wreaks Havoc in Istanbul, Turkey
• U.N. Security Council Condemns North Korea Missile Test Over Japan
• Afghan Air Force Airstrikes Kill More Than a Dozen Civilians in Herat
• D.C. Grand Jury Indicts Turkish President's Security Guards over Assault on Protesters
• Special Counsel Issues Several Subpoenas over Manafort & Flynn's Financial Ties
• Defense Secretary Says Transgender Servicemembers Can Continue Serving, Pending Review
• Trump Heads to Missouri for Speech on the Tax Code
• Wisconsin: 6 People Arrested Protesting Construction of Tar Sands Pipeline

Two weeks ago today, President Trump signed a widely overlooked executive order to revoke Obama-era standards that required federal infrastructure projects like hospitals to factor in scientific projections for the effects of climate change, such as increased flooding. Critics say the reversal will put more lives in danger by exposing U.S. infrastructure to the kind of damage inflicted by hurricanes and superstorms including Harvey, Sandy and Katrina. Obama’s order marked a rare climate change measure that was praised by both conservative and progressive groups. Trump announced the reversal during the now infamous press conference in the lobby of Trump Tower that was largely overshadowed by his remarks defending the white supremacist protesters behind the violent rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia. We speak with John Nichols, political writer for The Nation. His new book, "Horsemen of the Trumpocalypse: A Field Guide to the Most Dangerous People in America" is out today.

In the past month, more than 1,200 people have died amid flooding in Bangladesh, Nepal and India. This year’s monsoon season has brought torrential downpours that have submerged wide swaths of South Asia, destroying tens of thousands of homes, schools and hospitals and affecting up to 40 million people. Aid organizations are warning that this is one of the worst regional humanitarian crises in years, with millions of people facing severe food shortages and disease caused by polluted flood water. Flood victims in southern Nepal say they have lost everything. We speak with Asad Rehman, executive director of "War on Want". He has worked on climate change issues for over a decade.