captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> o'brien: good evening. i'm miles o'brien. judy woodruff is away. on the newshour tonight: harvey hits again. the relentless rains move east, but as the sun finally shines on houston, a clearer picture of the death and destruction emerges. then, the science behind extreme storms. from beaumont to bangladesh, we explore the role of climate change in the latest scenes of devastation around the world. plus, the fallout from turkey's failed coup-- how those accused of supporting the government overthrow are now being targeted as enemies. >> reporter: 50,000 people have been arrested. 150,000 people have either lost their jobs or been suspended. the purge has targeted every aspect of society.

>> o'brien: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org.

>> the lemelson foundation. committed to improving lives through invention, in the u.s. and developing countries. on the web at lemelson.org. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> o'brien: harvey is back on land tonight, and finally moving on. in its wake, officials in texas and louisiana are beginning to calculate the costs. at least 21 confirmed deaths, 32,000 people in shelters and tens of thousands of homes

damaged or destroyed. william brangham begins our coverage. >> reporter: after five days of record rain, nearly 52 inches, the skies stopped pouring, and the houston area finally saw sunlight again. better still, officials announced nearly all waterways have now crested and should start going down. jeff lindner is with the harris county flood control district, that includes the city: >> the water levels are going down. and that's for the first time in several days. >> reporter: but the danger is far from over. police today confirmed six members of a family drowned when their van was swept away in a bayou. and, officials are still monitoring levees that are straining under the load. if those barriers fail, even more homes will go under. meanwhile, the rescues continue. the coast guard kept searching in houston. overnight, volunteers and others joined in to help people stranded in lakes that used to be neighborhoods. >> well, you've just been saying

everything on the news, and it's just close to home and you know, that's just a thing texans do. i mean, we just got to go out and lend a hand. i just can't sit at home knowing people need help. >> reporter: early estimates say more than 48,000 homes have been damaged. the city's convention center is full to the rafters, and now, two more so-called mega-shelters have opened their doors, including tv pastor joel osteen's church that can hold 16,000 people. he'd been criticized for not taking in storm victims earlier. many have harrowing stories to tell. at a mosque-turned-shelter in stafford, texas today, one woman recounted her family's escape. >> we all of a sudden just got, like, this stress, and we just thought, like, if we don't get out now, it's impossible. like, it was just a lot of water everywhere. you could see people holding their bag, like, trying to get to the front of the street, just so someone could pick them up. because, it's really hard to move in cars. >> reporter: in response, the state has activated 14,000 national guard troops. another 10,000 are coming in

from other states. houston mayor sylvester turner says his city urgently needs more federal help, as well. >> right now, there are many pople who are angry, they are frustrated, okay? and they want help, and that's why i'm saying to our federal partners and i'm saying to fema: people are angry and they're frustrated, they're wet, they're out of their homes, okay? and they want assistance yesterday. >> reporter: meanwhile, the storm itself made landfall again this morning, early, near cameron, louisiana and slowly pushed north. but even as it weakened, it dropped more rain on the texas- louisiana border region. parts of southwest louisiana are now coping with flooding. and port arthur, texas was all but cut off by surging water, after 20 inches of rain fell in a matter of hours. overnight, a civic center shelter was overrun with gushing

water that sent people climbing up into the bleachers. evacuee beulah johnson narrated the scene in a video posted on social media: >> we came here for a safe place to get away from high flooding in our house, to get away from being trapped in our house. and we end up being trapped here. >> reporter: elsewhere in port arthur, the nation's largest oil refinery closed. 20 miles away, in beaumont, texas, a hypothermic toddler was found clinging to her drowned mother after they were swept from their vehicle last night. governor greg abbott warned today the toll in deaths and damage is likely to go much higher. >> the worst is not yet over for southeast texas, as far as the rain is concerned. there will be ongoing challenges both during the time that rain continues to fall, as well as for approximately four days to a week to come.

>> i'm william brangham, houston, texas. >> o'brien: that sad story of a mother >> o'brien: that sad story of a mother's ultimate sacrifice is just part of what is unfolding now as beaumont bears the brunt of the storm. it is taking a physical and emotional toll on first responders, as haley morrow of the beaumont police department told me when we spoke earlier. >> officers morrow thank you for being with us i know you're very busy. first off, that horrible story of a mother who parished saving her child, tell us what details you have on that. >> well, we were dispatched out in reference to a water rescue and when officers and first responders arrived they found the woman and her child floating about half a mile away from where they were swept into a canal and their vehicle flooded out. the first responders on boats going to do high water rescues

they were able to follow the water and they saw this sweet little baby, pink backpack sticking up out of the water she was clinging to the back of her mother who was floating along and she was hype thermic. but she's okay and she's expected to make a full recovery. but unfortunately cpr was attempted but we weren't able to save the mom. >> o'brien: i know you wear a uniform and a badge but you're a mom, too. what's it like to have to deal with something like that? >> i am to be honest with you, receiving that news even just as a first responder as a mother it's devastating. and you know, it's a true testament to the will and the sacrifices that parents, not just parents and mothers go through and what they will sacrifice which in this case, she sacrificed her life to save her child.

and so we're so sad about the circumstance. the silver lining is that the sweet baby is alive and will make a full recovery. she's with family, we've been in undated with questions about the baby, she's three years old, about her status and who she's with and if she need to be adopted. but she's with family. of course they're dealing with a very, very grief-stricken time and we're trying to support them as much as possible. >> o'brien: please let us know if there's any way we can help. give us the big picture if you could, the extent of the flooding in beaumont right now. >> well, right now we are having major flooding, unprecedented flooding in this area. all of the major interstate and state highways are flooded getting to our city. our service roads and many of our major thoroughfares inside the city are flooded. we have nonstop high water rescues going on right now.

they're trying to get me accurate numbers but they're so swamped. we know we've done at least but probably much more 700 high water rescues. and we do have to confirm fatalities, one being the story that we just talked about then we had another fatality this morning. it's devastating. our first responders have all experienced some type of devastation, some are facing their own damage to their home and they're on extremely exhausting shifts. they just keep persevering and going out and saving people. >> o'brien: first responder are citizens, too, many can out and do this work when their own homes are damaged. you are married to another police officer. you said you're a mom. what is that like trying to put your personal life aside, your own concerns for others? >> well, i'm not only a police wife, a police officer, my father is a beaumont police

officer as is my brother and my sister a 911 operations dispatcher. so, in situations like this, my mother is the one who keeps the children and we get her evacuated when we need to. so it's hard. it's really hard for our first responders to have had to leave their families and their homes that are taking water to come in and do their job and, you know, that's on their mind. but when they get here they're so strong and they just continue to go out and do the work and that's what we're here for. we are the first responders. and we want to always remind the citizens that we're coming, we're going to come and save them and we just pray that our families are okay, too. i know those first responders would love any prayers and good thoughts that anyone wants to send their way. >> o'brien: the public information officer for beaumont police department. we wish you well. >> thank you.

o'brien: >> o'brien: online, you can hear my full conversation with halley morrow where she warns about the spread of misleading and false information on social media, and how that hampers their efforts. as we've heard, the scope of the recovery is staggering. there are some 24,000 national guard troops deployed to assist local and state responders, and we're still just in the rescue phase. colonial steven metze is a public affairs officer for texas military department, which is heading the military efforts to the hurricane in texas. we spoke a short time ago. online good to have you with us, i know you're busy, we'll get right to it. give us an idea of the scope of the deployment right now. is this unprecedented for texas? >> i looked it up we haven't deployed this many people since world war i. that literally is the most in 100 years. >> o'brien: give us a sense of how many troops are in the field and the kind of mission, is that they're doing right now. >> so, we're getting a constant stream of troops and equipment every day, it's constantly increasing on our way to 14,000

organic to the state of texas, and stuff we're getting from other national guard and stuff we're getting title 10:00 federal troops in and equipment as well. so, all those are coming in right now. there's still a lot of people in imminent danger so our focus right now is still search and rescue. we're starting to do a little bit of critical life support which is basically when you have organizations that have food and water that they need delivered we help them get it to where it need to go. we set of points ever distribution to help it gets to where it needs to go safely and orderly. so we're starting to do a little bit of that. there are several other roles we'll have to play before this whole thing is over. but we're preparing for several contingencies as it stands right now. >> o'brien: i guess a lot of people wouldn't be aware that the national guard kind of has a mutual aid pact with other states. tell us what kind of help you're getting from out of state. >> absolutely. we -- governors between the states talked with the agreements in place.

i know we have helicopter search and rescue teams from north carolina, south carolina, utah, nebraska, arizona, virginia. i know we have search and rescue ground teams and boat teams from utah, california. i think there are way more than that those are just the ones that i know off the top of my head. we have got offers from every state and we're filtering what we need and taking what we can get one at a time as it comes in. >> o'brien: do you have a tally right now the number of rescues you have accomplished collectively? >> just within the texas military forces we've done about 4500 ground rescues. another 450 air rescues, that s -- that doesn't include all the stuff that's happening with the coast guard and air force and navy. all of our rescues of course are in coordination with local and state authorities. we're working with dps, we're working with the texas division of emergency management, working with texas task force one and two. they're the ones who are pulling

people out of the water while we take them there on helicopters and that sort of thing. >> o'brien: i get the sense from talking to you that you're still very much in the middle of this and could still be ramping up your response, is that accurate? >> we're absolutely continuing to ramp in right now. like i said, people and equipment are pouring in every day to help with us this. we're looking at it as a long run. we've got a long way to go still. we're doing 24-7 operations and no one is slowing down until we're confident we've done everything we can. >> o'brien: as the storm moves toward the east, obviously you're deploying along with it is the nature of the mission there more critical? >> we certainly focus wherever the need s. we definitely have people toward beaumont and port arthur area for early this morning and still still continuing. we're going wherever the mission is greatest but we're not leaving any of the other areas right now. we're just continuing to add.

>> o'brien: seeing these scenes, people being rescued, quite harrowing from afar you've been much closer to it, what is that like for you? >> it's pretty amazing. we're seeing things like -- we're having helicopter rescues that happen at night which something we've never done before. the other night we were looking at footage of 14 people hanging on to the stop sign, the stop sign -- was up to the stop sign, all holding on to it the helicopter lowered people down to pull them off of that stop sign. we're seeing little kids wrapped in garbage bags to keep them dry with only their heads exposed. being pulled out of houses, holding on to soldiers and airmen as they're being pulled out of the deep water. seeing some of this footage is really powerful stuff. mothers with infants on helicopters. people with broken legs being pulled owl of houses. there's a lot of really powerful

stuff happening it really makes us think our hearts and prayers continually go out to the people that are affected by this hurricane and we're going to continue doing everything we can until we're confident we've done everything we can. >> o'brien: i guess all we can say is thank you for your service. and everybody else in the texas national guard. steve mets is the public affairs officer for the texas military department. thank you. >> o'brien: the record setting flood has of course forced tens of thousands from their homes and into shelters. our p.j. tobias has been talking to those displaced today. pj, this is a new shelter, just describe the scene there for us. >> sure, this is the nrg center, it's a massive convention street and meeting hall in southwest houston. has the capacity for 10,000 people. it has 900 evacuees, they are

expecting 1500 more, some times later tonight. when the doors opened last night and again this morning, some 3,000 houstonians turned out to volunteer to pitch spin way, obviously that was far more than they needed. but one man was kept around his service were definitely required. >> give away food whenever we can. there's nothing i can do, but what we can do is help feed all these people. >> obviously very important task but give us a sense about all the other things those folks behind you need, are they get language they need? >> absolutely. as you walk in right behind me, there's tables and tables and tables of food, toiletries, bedding, pretty much everything you could need. and there is a lot of need here. we spoke with one woman who is here with her 7 seven children at the shelter tonight. >> you know, they know that we have no house.

lost everything. we're going to get back but not even -- >> o'brien: do you have a sense, pj, of where those moss of these people are coming from? >> sure, first of all of course they're coming from all around houston and the broader region. with the the george r. brown center was another large venue in town that was filled to capacity some time yesterday. they opened up this one. some of these people are coming from primary evacuation centers they're plucked from their house by boat or by car and taken to a local school or mosque or church. then they're brought to a place like this. one woman we spoke with was actually evacuated twice. once when her home was in undated with six feet of water, she then escaped was evacuated to sister's home which then was put under mandatory evacuation when a chemical plant in her

neighborhood had flooded. >> they took all four of my children, i couldn't take my clothes or anything. my mom was table grab like her breathing machine and like all her medicines that she needed. we think maybe like one pair of clothes which is what we had on. >> o'brien: folks who are getting ready to bed down here for the night are looking forward to moving on, they're not sure exactly when that is going to be able to happen. there are still many more people coming here earlier, we were driving around town today just saw whole neighborhoods completely flooded, still very much in undated with water. >> o'brien: very long road ahe ahead. pjtobia in houston, thank you very much. >> o'brien: harvey has strained the healthcare system in houston. aside from those injured by harvey, there are also critical services many patients need. one of those is dialysis tomeka weatherspoon from houston public media, to find out how many people we were talking

about and what progress was being made. thank you for being with us. first off just give us an idea of how many people we're talking about here? >> well, when we arrived there were upwards of at least 100 people in the clinic. when i was talkining to some of the volunteers and staff there they were saying they had seen hundreds who had come in during the storm. they were only closed for one day, that's just sunday was horrific for anybody trying to travel. but other than that they have been open and they have been seeing patients and getting quite a bit ever overflow. >> o'brien: give us an idea of how serious this problem is, if someone misses a dialysis appointment that's a big deal, isn't it? >> it's a huge deal. honestly, if you miss an appointment, these treatments are regularly and scheduled for auto reason. it's potentially deadly if you don't receive these treatments. dialysis is cleaning out the blood, certain types of liver and kidney diseases, if you're

unable to do that so it's really critical that they're able to get these treatments. i talked to a doctor at the clinic and he was just telling me how his staffer was working nonstop pretty much to administer these treatments to all of these people. >> it's an inconvenience for many people having this types of storms, it can be a matter of life and death to these dialysis patients. >> o'brien: you've had chance to talk to some patients how are they coping? >> i.t. was really difficult, actually, to be in the clinic. there were a lot of people waiting for this life-saving treatment. and just the distance people had to come to get there, it's really, really tough to witness that. but the patients i was able to speak with were really optimistic and grateful to have a clinic that was actually open when their local clinic had been closed due to all of the flooding and difficulty with

traveling. i talked to a patient while she was receiving treatment, her name was debra, she was just really happy to still be alive. >> i was afraid, i didn't know what i was willing go to do. i'm sure all the other people who couldn't make it who know that they have to do this to survive were concerned about whether they was going to make it here or not. >> o'brien: which has to be a huge strain on the hospital staffs, give us sense of how they're coping. >> well, they're being really optimistic, much like some of the people the patients that i spoke with. they were really park natural. really cared about helping everyone. they much still working long hours and honestly you can see them a little bit tired, see it in their eyes really cared about what they were doing. they were understaffed, you know, had not as much resource as they probably need. but they were just really, really passionate about helping

everyone that was there. >> o'brien: tomeka wealther spoon with houston public media, thank you. >> thank you. o >> o'brien: a reminder that if you're looking to give to harvey relief efforts, you can donate to a number of groups working on the ground. organzations, including the red cross, are accepting donations online or by phone. president trump turned his focus to the hurricane victims today. he'd talked up the recovery effort and the federal response during his visit to texas yesterday. today, he was in springfield, missouri, on tax reform, but he began by circling back to the ravages of harvey. >> to those americans who have lost loved ones, all of america is grieving with you, and our hearts are joined with yours forever. >> o'brien: mr. trump plans to return to texas and possibly louisiana, on saturday. in other news, the president and his secretary of defense gave out conflicting signals, after north korea fired a missile over japan on tuesday.

mr. trump appeared to dismiss diplomatic efforts, with a tweet that said "talking is not the answer." but, secretary of defense james mattis said just the opposite a short time later, as he met with his south korean counterpart at the pentagon. >> no, we're never out of diplomatic solutions. we continue to work together. and the minister and i share a responsibility to provide for the protections of our nations, our populations and our interests, which is what we are here to discuss today. >> o'brien: meanwhile, the pentagon released footage of a missile defense test today off hawaii. it said the u.s. navy successfully shot down a medium- range ballistic missile. the pentagon is calling in a panel of experts to study the issue of transgender troops. secretary mattis announced last night that he wants recommendations on whether those already serving will be allowed to remain in the ranks. president trump has left their fate to mattis to decide, but he's ordered a ban on recruiting any new transgender troops. the u.n.'s human rights chief

warned the president today to stop attacking journalists. zeid ra'ad al hussein spoke in geneva. he said it's dangerous for mr. trump to brand news organizations "fake" and single out individual reporters. >> is this not an incitement for others to attack journalists? and let's assume a journalist is harmed from one of these organizations, does the president then not bear responsibility for this, for having fanned this? >> o'brien: al hussein called on venezuela's president nicolas maduro to stop violating human rights and crushing dissent. he said the country's democracy is only "barely alive." the russian government confirms that it received an email from president trump's personal lawyer during the 2016 campaign about a business deal. michael cohen was pushing plans for a trump tower property in moscow. a kremlin spokesman says the

russian government did not reply to the email, and the project never went anywhere. in myanmar, some 18,000 rohingya muslims have fled to bangladesh in the last week. the u.n.'s "international security organization for migration" reports they're fleeing attacks by government troops. it's the latest conflict between the minority rohingya and the country's buddhist majority. >> ( translated ): in myanmar, they are killing us. they burn our houses, killing muslims, and because of that we have come here. they rounded us up with helicopters, looted our belongings, chasing and killing our men. they killed many people so we came here. >> o'brien: in response, hundreds of buddhist nationalists called for a crackdown at a rally in the capital city of yangon today. they say rohingya militants started the trouble. more than one and three-quarter million muslims began the hajj pilgrimage in mecca, saudi arabia today.

they came from around the world to circle the kaaba, tracing the footsteps of the prophet muhammad. it's the start of five days of rituals. the saudi government has a security force of 100,000 in place to guard against violence, or a deadly stampede like the one that killed thousands in 2015. the food and drug administration has approved the first gene therapy for use in the u.s., against childhood leukemia. it was developed by novartis and the university of pennsylvania, and alters a patient's own white blood cells to identify, modify and kill cancer cells. novartis says the treatment will cost $475,000. in economic news, the trump white house has blocked a rule that employers report payroll data by gender and race. it would have taken effect next march. business groups lobbied for rescinding the mandate. they said it would do little to address wage gaps. on wall street, stocks moved higher on news that second quarter growth was the best in two years.

the dow jones industrial average gained 27 points to close at 21,892. the nasdaq rose 66 points, and the s&p 500 added 11. and, they painted the town red today in bunol, spain-- literally. more than 20,000 revelers hurled 160 tons of tomatoes at each other, in one of the world's epic food fights-- the the famed "tomatina" festival. afterward, crews hosed down the streets. the event began in 1945, when the first tomato fight broke out among local children. still to come on the newshour: did climate change make hurricane harvey worse? we examine the evidence. the political implications of the storm damage. we hear from the voices turkey's president is trying to silence. and much more.

>> o'brien: the epic, tragic dimensions of harvey have understandably commandeered our attention this week, and the associated press now reports the confirmed death toll has risen to 12. but even as we focus on texas and louisiana, nature is taking a devastating toll elsewhere. heavy monsoons are paralyzing mumbai, india right now. more than 1,200 people have died so far. connecting the dots between a global warming and extreme weather is not a simple job for science. but the evidence gets stronger by the day, and it is topic of our "leading edge" segment this week. scientists are loathe to get ahead of their data, but what they see in houston fits like a key piece in a giant complex puzzle. first, the disclaimers: >> it's difficult to say anything about individual events. >> o'brien: kerry emanuel is a

professor of atmospheric science at the massachusetts institute of technology. >> we have a lot of extreme weather events. whether or not the climate changes to attribute a particular event to climate change is next to impossible. >> because, for those really rare events, it's hard to even know how common they are, before you get to climate change. >> o'brien: radley horton is a climate scientist at columbia university's lamont doherty earth observatory. >> you probably want to have 500 years of data, a thousand years of data, to estimate those statistics. and of course, we don't have data records to go back 500 years or a thousand years. >> i'm very uncomfortable talking about causation of one particular storm, in the same way that i can't identify what particular home run was hit by a baseball player because of steroid use. >> o'brien: marshall shepherd is a professor of geography and atmospheric sciences at the university of georgia. >> i think that we know that steroid use likely increases the probability or chance that there will be more home runs in

baseball. but can i conclusively say that that particular player hit that particular home run because of steroid use? i don't know that for a fact. >> o'brien: so let's begin on the firmer ground-- the facts. over the past hundred years, global temperatures have risen 1.5 degrees fahrenheit, and global sea level has risen about eight inches. no dispute about that. >> it doesn't sound like much, but for a lot of the coastal cities in the u.s., places like norfolk, virginia, we're already seeing much more frequent nuisance flooding events. >> o'brien: and in fact, while our eyes have been fixed on texas and louisiana this wek, large parts of norfolk are underwater because of a run-of- the-mill tropical system. and in india, monsoon rains caused floods that killed 1,000. >> we're getting high water along the coast when there's no storm at all. water levels that used to happen maybe once every decade or so, happening every couple of years.

>> o'brien: and while the atmospheric temperature has increased, the real heating has occurred in the oceans. and warm water is like high- octane fuel for a hurricane. >> once those upper ocean temperatures, especially near the surface, get to about 80 degrees fahrenheit or warmer, you now have a source of warm moist air. that is the fundamental fuel for a hurricane. >> o'brien: this is where the science gets a little bit harder. does this warmer water necessarily mean there will be more powerful hurricanes? >> what all the models and theories seem to agree on, at least globally at this point, is that the frequency of the very high intensity, category 3 or 4 or 5 events should go up. if you look at the most powerful hurricanes on the planet, they have winds near the surface of about 200 miles per hour. it's conceivable that 100 years from now, the top ranking hurricanes will have wind speeds of, say, 220 miles per hour,

about 10% increase. >> o'brien: scary and foreboding as that is, the strength of a hurricane is just part of the picture. a warmer climate means more moisture in the air, and that is leading to more rainfall. >> even if the hurricane strengths stay the same, we'll probably see more rainfall in those hurricanes in the future, because the upper oceans are going to be warmer, because that warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture. that means that even if the storm strength is the same, you'll probably see a little more rainfall occurring during those hurricanes. >> we're very confident that fresh water flooding will become more problematic as the climate warms, fresh water flooding in particular from hurricanes. models show that it's a very simple theory. that's a big worry. >> we're seeing quite a bit of urban flooding around the world and particularly in this country. many of our storm water management and built environment infrastructure has developed for what i called the 1950s rain

storm. >> o'brien: we have built our civilization right to the edge of safety for a very specific, and until recently, very stable climate. >> there's something called stationarity. and what that essentially means is that storm water management, roads, building design, built infrastructure, assume that the intensity of rainfall would basically stay the same forever. and what we're seeing in the scientific literature is that the most intense rainstorms are now more intense, and this overwhelms that built infrastructure. >> going forward, i think the built environment infrastructure planning and engineering communities will have to increasingly consider these weather and climatic changes in their design. >> o'brien: but ten days before harvey hit houston, the trump administration moved in the opposite direction, overturning an obama-era rule that federal projects be designed to account for the risk posed by climate change. and yet the data is clear: there

will be more events like this to follow. >> we see that when those climate models are run in the future, with those higher greenhouse gas concentrations, we see more extreme events of certain types, more heat waves, more heavy rain events and more frequent coastal flooding. >> we're inside the experiment. it's the largest experiment we've ever done on the earth system, for sure. >> o'brien: we produced that story in conjunction with pbs "nova" and the online weather app "my radar," part of an upcoming series on the link between weather and climate. >> o'brien: we turn now to the political news of the week: the reaction to the president's stop in texas tuesday, his tax speech in missouri today and divisions in the trump administration playing out in public. john yang has that. >> yang: thanks, miles. to discuss all that, we're joined again by karine

jean-pierre. she's a senior adviser to moveon.org, a contributing editor to bustle, which is an online women's magazine, and a veteran of the obama administration. and also, matt schlapp, chairman of the american conservative union and the former white house political director for president george w. bush. let's begin with you, your old boss learned the pitfalls of dealing with natural disaster. >> he didn't like being called old. >> reporter: after you left the white house i should add. how is president trump handling his first major challenge dealing with the natural disaster. >> it's tough for the president. they are damned if they do, damned if they don't. they're criticized for going down and getting the attention off those whose lives are in danger. but then when they stay back and try to monitor thing from the situation room people say you're not showing compassion and should you be out there talking to folks.

so, i think donald trump understood that there were going to be credit can no matter what he did. he demonstrated to the community that he has compassion for those whose lives have forever been affected. he's bringing the power of the federal government to everything that can be -- done possibly to help these folks. and this is going to be an ongoing, long recovery. that is something that i think president bush realized, his dad before him in hurrican andrew which is when you have devastating storms like this it takes years to recover. some people will never get their lives back. >> reporter: what is your take? >> i'm going to agree with matt, it is going to be a long-term recovery. that's my concern with donald trump, you know, yesterday almost like a 24-hour tv show and my concern is for him, he needs to understand that this is monumental what we saw in

houston. the whole city is under water practically, the gulf coast is in devastating situation. and what we have right now with the donald trump administration, he has them staffed up in the most crucial departments that are going to be leading this effort, talking about department of homeland security, sba, small business administration and also fema. and there are hundreds and hundred of positions that are crucial for this and he hasn't staffed up. can't blame on the senate, he hasn't brought people to be nominated. secondly, is when he created his budget that went to congress there was slashes to fema, to sba, to dhs, to programs that were incredibly important. is he understanding what the long-term affect truly is and how is he going to change that. >> it's conservative to make this argument. get conservative republicans in charge, we don't always trust cat rear folks. i'm going to take the defense of

the career folks. political people in charge, you have hundreds, thousands of confident career people. i think general kelly the chief of staff someone just came from homeland security who has relevant experience in these areas is really advising the president, i think it's wrong to say just because we don't have political people in place, that the career people in place can't do the competent job. every step i've seen from what the federal government can do to help these folks they are hitting it right on mark. even though this tragedy, people lost their lives, policeman lost his life. you captain do anything to change that. but we shouldn't assume that the federal government and career civil service can't do their job as well. >> we were both in a presidential administration, i was in department of labor, as a political person. they are incredibly important in helping guide the policy of the agency. i disagree with you on that. and also how about the funding. he cut, he slashed important programs for the three agencies that i just mentioned.

>> unfortunately at some point in our history, we decided that every emergency that happens in this country becomes a federal emergency, as a conservative, i don't like that approach. but don't worry, i guarantee you that we'll keep the 100-year trend all the money that's needed to try to fix the problem. >> we need to help people. there are people -- and they need to be helped. >> also on that point about the road ahead and federal funding, the northeastern not only democrats but republicans, peter king, chris kiss tee, are reminding the texas delegation now what they said after sandy when they wanted to -- that texas delegation, republican delegation voted against the sandy funding, emergency funding, is there going to be a similar fight this time? >> are you assuming hypocrisy? i'm shocked. the fact i think it would be good to have all emergency

spending offset. we are $20 trillion debt. congress seems to have no appetite to have any fiscal constraints. i think that these emergencies do over take priorities, also smart because of our kid and grandkids to be responsible with our fiscal policy i think it's okay to pay for these things. but it's okay to change the order of what is important. when you have a great disaster like this, i'm comfortable with being greater priority than other projects. >> reporter: karine. >> i think that ted cruz should own up and apologize say he was wrong, he should not make people's lives suffering, people are dying, he should not turn it into a political -- >> congress never has a problem appropriating money. they're really good at it. too good. >> reporter: the other part is that people say congress is good at is raising money. with taxes. president trump gave a speech outlining his vision and goals for tax cuts and tax reform. there's still looking for the first really big major

legislative victory of this presidency. are taxes are going to be it, matts this going to be it? >> the pew foundation came out said this is the most productive congress we've seen in half a century because don't gloss over the facts that they have had great achievements on these congressional review racks over a dozen to pull back on regulation, make sure we understand. i think it's fair to say they stubbed their toe on health care, i've been the first one to zion this show over and over again this is a massive problem for those republicans who promise to repeal and replace owe bam ma care f. they don't get a big tax cut bill it's a massive political problem but they're going to get it done. >> reporter: quickly, the last word? >> they will have difficult time. we have heard from the trump administration saying because we weren't able to repeal, we're not going to be able to get this tax reform done. think it's -- i don't think so. tooth and nail. >> we fought obamacare.

reporter: thank you very much. >> o'brien: it has now been more than a year since that failed coup in turkey. you will recall, elements of the military tried and failed to overthrow the government. since then, the government has mounted a widespread purge in the name of security. critics of the regime claim this has led to a fierce campaign to silence criticism across all aspects of society. special correspondent nick schifrin reports from istanbul. >> reporter: 39-year-old aynur barkin has long been a proud member of turkey's opposition. she's always known her activism carried risks, but she never anticipated being labeled an enemy of the state. >> ( translated ): they want us to teach the way they like. they want us to dress the way they like. they want us to obey them wherever we go. and we say, no. we have our own identities and values that we believe in. we believe in democracy. >> reporter: for the last 15 years, she's been a third

grade teacher, the kind who takes selfies with her eight- year-olds. but she's also a self-described leftist who's opposed the government's education policies. and one day in february, she looked online and learned she had lost her job. >> ( translated ): they do not take your statement or give any notice. there was just one sentence that read, "they might be in contact with terrorist groups." might. they do not have conclusive evidence. it's all hearsay. >> reporter: she and these other fired teachers lost their jobs because the government said they supported terrorists. in other words, supported last july's failed coup. the government says elements of the military tried unsuccessfully to overthrow the administration, even sending tanks toward downtown istanbul. by the end of the night, 234 died and more than 2,000 were injured. ( gunfire ) five days later, the government declared a state of emergency, saying the coup was organized by religious leader fethullah gülen, who lives in exile in pennsylvania.

in front of millions of supporters, erdogan vowed to crush the coup plotters, and what he described as gulen's society-wide conspiracy. >> ( translated ): from now on, we will examine very carefully who we have under us. we will see who we have in the military, who we have in the judiciary, and throw the others out of the door. >> reporter: under the state of the emergency, the impact has been enormous. 50,000 people have been arrested. 150,000 people have either lost their jobs or been suspended. the purge has targeted every aspect of society. the fired teachers often clash with police. two of them started a hunger strike, to protest what they describe as the government's forcing them to submit, or starve. >> ( translated ): if we apply for a new job, the possible employer will find a code that says, "this person was dismissed by decree," so nobody is willing to employ you. they are willing me to starve. >> i'm a physician, and i'm a

doctor, and i'm an academic. and i ask questions. and now, our system is prohibiting asking questions. they say, "just do what i say." >> reporter: dr. ozdemir aktan is a general surgeon at a private, upscale istanbul hospital. he's also been a prominent critic of the government's politics and health policy. he was the head of the turkish equivalent of the american medical association. and in february, he was fired from his government-run hospital and teaching job for "links to terrorist groups." >> i was one of the academics who have signed the letter asking for peace, asking for stopping the human rights violations, and asking for democracy and freedom. and that was considered as a support for p.k.k. ( explosion ) >> reporter: the p.k.k. is a kurdish militant organization, considered a terrorist group by turkey and the u.s., that's declared a desire for independence, and targeted state institutions, like this police station last year. on turkish tv, erdogan labeled akhtan and other academics who pushed for peace talks with the

p.k.k., "enemies of the state." >> ( translated ): they have titles before their names, like professor and assistant professor, but that doesn't make them intellectuals. they're unenlightened. they're vile. those who side with the cruel, are cruel. those who side with massacre, commit massacre. >> reporter: that was five months before the coup-- which means the coup only accelerated the president's crackdown already in progress, says dr. aktan. >> turkey always looked to the west, and tried more to be like a western country. we want democracy-- well, we want freedom, we want freedom of speech. but now we are getting away and away from the western population. that means less democracy. >> i don't think this is an identity change. this is about priorities. and national security of the country is very important. >> reporter: the government declined our interview request. but turkish heritage organization executive director yenal kucuker echoes the government argument when he says government structures had to cleanse themselves of people who

support faitullah gulen, especially the military. >> in specific divisions, there are certain-- generals, commanders, different ranks-- getting their instructions from, not from the military, but from those who were outside of the military. there was a cleanup campaign, so to speak, to eliminate those who are affiliated with gulen movement. >> reporter: that campaign has extended into journalism, and it's a fight that the cumhuriyet newspaper knows well. turhan gunay is the newspaper's books and magazine editor. he shows off mementos in the newspaper's century-old tradition of opposition. what happens if someone opposes the government in turkey these days? >> ( translated ): i can only answer this question through my own experience, and that is: you are thrown into jail. the government has no tolerance for the slightest criticism. >> reporter: today, gunay is free, surrounded by a fraction of the books he's spent the last 33 years reviewing. he was imprisoned for nine

months with ten of his colleagues. they had been accused of aiding a terrorist organization. did they provide any evidence? >> ( translated ): no, they didn't. there was only the accusation, "aiding and abetting the p.k.k." but we have no connection to them. after all, we are just journalists. >> reporter: journalists in turkey have been arrested by previous governments, and turkey has suffered three previous, successful coups, the last one in 1980. but gunay says today feels different. since last year's coup, 150 media outlets have been closed. and like all critics who've been jailed or fired, gunay's passport's been taken away so he can't leave a country that he says is becoming an open air prison. >> ( translated ): turkey is a civilized, secular, and muslim country. it was founded on that and molded on that. but today, the people we call secular, modern, or civilized are cornered into certain spaces, and the areas they live in are fast being destroyed. >> reporter: the government has stood by its characterization of the cumhuriyet newspaper as pro-coup. and last month, one year to the

minute after the coup, erdogan recommitted himself to what he describes as strengthening the state. >> ( translated ): the july 15 coup attempt was not the first attack against our country, and it won't be the last. for that reason, we'll first rip the heads off these traitors. we'll cut their heads off. >> reporter: the crowd responded, "we want executions. we want executions," even though the country banned the death penalty 13 years ago. >> ( translated ): people have become afraid of saying what they've seen, or standing as a witness to what they've witnessed. >> reporter: ömer kavili is a lawyer for a 33-year-old first lieutenant in the turkish air force. that's him on the right with his family. he's accused of being a coup participant. in total, thousands of turkish service members are on trial, part of the largest legal proceedings in turkey's modern history. kavili says his client didn't help the coup plotters, and the only evidence the government presented is video during the coup of his client walking in a hallway. can your client get a fair

trial? >> ( translated ): this is no trial. as he gives his testimony, we should be able to ask questions. but our microphones are turned off. i can't speak to my client because between us, there is a wall of armed police. we don't know the evidence against us. we don't know who testified against us. if you call that a fair trial, to hell with it. >> reporter: kavili shows me how every time he goes into court, authorities cover up his phone's cameras. he says in this environment, the defenders feel like the persecuted. >> ( translated ): they are already tailing me and tapping my phone. i'm under constant surveillance. they can detain me anytime they want. >> reporter: the government's defenders acknowledge the coup was a turning point, but they argue it was for the better: the people prevailed, and the military learned its lesson. >> ( translated ): this was the first attempt-- coup attempt, by the government's definition-- that the turkish people were able to stop. this is democracy, this is an elected government, and the only way for the elected government to leave this post, basically, is elections, the ballot. not bullets. >> reporter: today, amidst istanbul's high rises, posters depict failed takeover attempts,

and men labeled martyrs who died defending the government. authorities here are keenly watching their own people. and in the name of preventing another coup, they're targeting all their enemies. for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin in istanbul. >> o'brien: finally in the face of so much tragedy, a group of gospel singers was able shine some light on a convention center shelter in conroe, texas last night. take a listen. ♪ we want to see jesus ♪ o, glory ♪

revival ♪ we want to see ♪ we want to see your kingdom ♪ we want to see revival ♪ let us see ♪ we want to see your kingdom ♪ come on, one more time ♪ jesus, the glory ♪ we want revival ♪ we want to see your kingdom ♪

we want to see your kingdom ♪ ♪ ♪ we want to see your kingdom ♪ one more time. ♪ we want to see your kingdom ♪ [ applause ] >> o'brien: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm miles o'brien. join us online, and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. >> supported by the rockefeller foundation. promoting the wellbeing of humanity around the world, by building resilience and

inclusive economies. more at www.rockefellerfoundation.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> you're watching pbs.

(light music) ("goldberg variation 20" by bach) - simone dinnerstein's career trajectory has been unorthodox. after demonstrating prodigious talent from age four and enrolling in the manhattan school of music at nine, she found herself in her early 30s without professional representation or name recognition. deciding she wasn't going to wait for the world to discover her, she self-funded a recording of bach's notoriously difficult goldberg variations. it was a huge hit, getting to number one on the classical charts, and at times, outselling her hipper contemporaries in pop and rock such as bruce springsteen and the white stripes. from there, dinnerstein's career took off. there followed a slew of successful records including another bach chart topper and engagement at some of the world's great concert halls, but even then, dinnerstein would further exhibit