i'm amy goodman. the powerful head of the senate foreign relations committee, tennessee republican bob corker, warned sunday that trump is treating the presidency like a reality show and setting the u.s. on the path to world war iii. senator corker made the comments to "the new york times" after trump spent much of the weekend threatening war with north korea and after trump attacked corker on twitter sunday morning, saying the senator didn't have the guts to run for reelection and claiming corker dropped out after begging unsuccessfully for trump's endorsement. that prompted corker to respond on twitter -- "it's a shame the white house has become an adult day care center. someone obviously missed their shift this morning." the president's spat with senator corker came as trump repeated threats of war against north korea throughout the weekend, tweeting -- "presidents and their administrations have been talking to north korea for 25 years, agreements made and massive amounts of money paid hasn't worke

amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> verery often they talk a abot refugee crisis, but there is no refugee crisis. only human crisis. amy: today, in a democracy now! special, world-renowned chinese dissident artist ai weiwei for the hour. he's been called the most dangerous man in china and the most powerful artist in the world. we'll speak to him about art, human rights, power, and his epic new documentary "human flow," which is a sweeping look at the struggle of the more than 65 million refugees worldwide. >> being a refugee is much more than a political status. it is the most pervasisive kindf -- that cacan be accessed againt the human being. you are forcibly, of all aspects that would make human life not just tolerable, but meaningful in many ways. amy: we'll also get a sneak preview of his new massive new art installation that spans across new york city's boroughs. it critiques the global rise of nationalism and the closure of borders. it's called "good fences make good neigh

i'm amy goodman. president trump announced that he was directing the department of health and human services to declare the opioid crisis a public health emergency. walking back his plans announced in august to declare it a more serious national emergency. the shift means the federal government will not as of now direct any new federal funds to address the opioid crisis, which killed 64,000 americans last year. pres. trump: drug overdoses arae now ththe leading cause of unintentioional death i i the united states by far. more people are dying from drug overdoses today than from gun homicides and motor vehicles combined. amy: we will have more on trump's announcement and the opioid crisis later in the broadcast with dr. carl hart. on capitol hill, the house narrowly approved a budget plan that will allow republican lawmakers to push through president trump's tax bill without the support of a single democrat. trump's proposed tax overhaul would shower billions of dollars in tax cuts upon the wealthiest

amy: dr.x moritz, thank you for being with us, fire research scientist with the university of california cooperative extension based at uc santa barbara. we are north, we're in marin county near the fires in northern california. when we come back, we will talk with environmental leaders about what to do about climate change and where they're focusing their organization. stay with us. ♪ [music break] amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. broadcasting from the community media center of marin in san rafael, california. today is community media day, which celebrates community media centers like this one around the country. we are proud to broadcast from public television and read your stations around the united states and around the world. we end today's show with a roundtable discussion on what the environmental movement is focusing on now. we are joined by three guests. lindsey allen is executi action network. dallas goldtooth is an organizer w

amy: the u.n. said its shipment will provide relief to about 40,000 people -- a small fraction of the estimated 350,000 syrians in the area who've seen food, fuel, and medicine cut off since government forces cut off access to smuggling tunnels earlier this year.r. in the gaza strip, at least eight were killed monday as israeli forces built -- blue up a tunnel. the palestinian ministry of health said most of the dead were members of the al-quds brigades militant group. the attack drew a threat of retaliation by the islamic jihad movement and was condemned by hamas, which called it a "new war" against the people of gaza. the tunnel attack came just days before hamas is due to relinquish power to the west bank-based palestinian authority as part of an agreement aimed at ending a decade-old split between hamas and its political rival fatah. meanwhile, white house senior adviser jared kushner has returned from a secret trip to the middle east. kushner which is saudi arabia where he met privately with m

i'm amy goodman. in california, powerful winds and bone-dry conditions fueled massive wildldfires throughout much of the state, leaving at least 10 people dead, destroying whole neighborhoods, and forcing 20,000 people to evacuate their homes. state fire officials say they're battling at least 14 major fires in eight counties. one of the worst blalazes was in the city of santa rosa in northern california's sonoma county, whwhere fire rippedd ththrough a traileler park, destroyed homemes, resestaurantd hotels, and forced medical teams at the kaiser permanente hospital to evacuate 130 patients as flames approached. this is santa rosa resident dave rollans. -- david rollans. >> this is apocalyptic it seems. this is so far out of the norm. i'm from southern california. i've never seen ananytng like this in an urban area. amy: northern california hospitals report at least 170 people have sought medical treatment, mostly for smoke inhalation but also for burns. meanwhile another massive fire in southern cal

i'm amy goodman. president donald trump traveled to puerto rico tuesday on a whirlwind visit, two weeks after hurricane maria knocked out power across the island and left more than half the territory's nearly 3.5 million residents without access to clean water. throughout the trip, trump repeatedly praised his administration's response to the storm, comparing it to george w. bush's handling of hurricane katrina in 2005. pres. trump: if you look at a real catastrophe like katrina and you look at the tremendous hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people that died and you look at what happened here with really a storm that was just totally overbearing. nobody has ever seen anything like this. what is your death count as of this moment? 17? 16 people certified. 16 versus in the thousands. you can be very proud of all of your people, all of our people working together. amy: trump's comment came as puerto rican officials raised the official death toll from 16 to 34, though the center for investigative jou

i'm amy goodman. president trump's former campaign chair paul manafort and his former business associate rick gates were told to surrender to authorities monday after a federal grand jury in washington, d.c., handed down the first indictments in special counsel robert mueller's investigation to russia's alleged interference and the 2016 presidential election. it is not yet clear what charges the pair face, but manafort is under investigation over his foreign lobbying efforts. mueller is also investigating whether trump associates engaged in money laundering or tax evasion, and whether trump's firing of fbi director james comey last may constituted obstruction of justice. after news of the indictments broke, president trump lashed out against hillary clinton and the democratic party, tweeting -- "all of this 'russia' talk right when the republicans are making their big push for historic tax cuts & reform. is this coincidental? not!" meanwhile, "the new york times" reports russia's government provided a

i'm amy goodman. in las vegas, the toll in sunday night's mass shooting rose to 59 dead and 527 wounded, as investigators searched for clues about what drove 64-year-old nevada resident stephen paddock to carry out the worst massacre in modern u.s. history. police say they found paddock dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound shortly before midnight sunday after they used an explosive to break into his suite on the 32nd floor of the mandalay bay hotel, where he was holed up with an arsenal of guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition. paddock lived in a retirement community in mesquite, nevada. he previously worked as an accountant, a property manager, and spent three years working at a weapons company that was later acquired by lockheed martin. neighbors described paddock as a recluse who spent long hours playing video poker. stephen paddock's father, benjamin hoskins paddock, was once on the fbi's most wanted list after he escaped from a federal prison in the 1960's after a conviction on serial bank

amy? >> amy: i think democrats are trying to politicize this. they are wedge issues touching on race and i think it's a way for democrats to try to then use their own dog whistle to accuse president trump of being racist that he's not sympathetic to the victims of the puerto rico hurricane, not sympathetic to the hurricane. >> neil: he never does that with me. he agrees. >> amy: i think it's interesting that democrats keep invoking comparisons to katrina. why not comparison to the bp oil spill when president obama didn't go down to the gulf for days and days and was getting criticism and even the new york times reported the obama administration underestimated continuously the impact of the b p oil spill. that never gets brought up. >> neil: it's an interesting point. then you were saying to this she raises a good point, these other issues like the nfl and this and whether the president is doing enough for puerto rico is it meant to get the eye off other issues or what? >> ben: i think the point that i was applauding when amy was talking was that

i'm amy goodman. in puerto rico, more than 90% of the island still does not have electricity from the power grid and half of the island does not have clean drinking water. now more than two weeks after hurricane maria. on wednesday, the director of office of management and budget, mick mulvaney, has contradicted president trump's comments that he would wipe out puerto rico's billion dollar debt amid the catastrophic aftermath of hurricane maria. with the challenges that puerto rico has, the island is at least $72 billion in debt, before the storm. regardless focus our attention right now i'm -- we're going to focus our attention on making sure everyone is safe and that we get through this difficult times. we're not going to deal right now with those fundamental difficulties that puerto rico had before the storm. talked about of this, a lot of those issues re: dealt with through previous legislation called promesa. amy: mulvaney was walking back comments trump made on tuesday, during which he told fox

i'm amy goodman. in somalia's capital city of mogadishu, two massive truck bombs exploded in quick succession saturday night, killing at least 300 people and wounding 300 more. it was the deadliest attack in somalia since the rise of the al-shabab militant group a decade ago of the worst bombings , one by a non-state actor in recent years. in the worst of the two bombings, a truck packed with hundreds of pounds of explosives detonated near the safari hotel, collapsing the building, igniting a nearby fuel tanker. the resulting fireball set cars on fire, flattened nearby businesses and homes, trapping people under rubble. on sunday, hundreds of somalis poured into the streets of mogadishu to condemn the attacks. this is rahma abdi ali, one of the protesters. >> it was a massacre that happened yesterday, and i never saw such a thing in the last 27 years. i witnessed a little boy's head lang on the ground and his mother another children with their heads also cut an explosion. people buried at people's bod

i'm amy goodman. a federal judge in hawaii blocked most of president trump's latest version of a travel ban tuesday, just hours before it was set to take effect. u.s. district judge derrick watson, who previously blocked plans by the administration to ban refugees and travelers from six majority-muslim nations, ruled the latest ban "plainly discriminates based on nationality" in violation of the law as well as the "founding principles of this nation." the ban would have barred some travelers from chad, iran, libya, north korea, somalia, syria, and yemen. however, the hawaiian judge watson's order will allow a ban on some north koreans and venezuelans to go into effect. the supreme court was scheduled to hear arguments this month on an earlier version of a travel ban, but canceled the hearing after trump issued new restrictions. the white house has vowed to appeal the latest ruling. on capitol hill, two senators said tuesday they've reached a deal to stabilize health insurance markets as president trum

i'm amy goodman. in afghanistan, a suicide bomber ambushed afghan army cadets as they left their base in kabul on saturday, killing 15 of them. the taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing, as well as a rocket attack earlier in the day on a military base used by the u.s.-led coalition. on friday, a suicide bomber attacked a shia mosque in kabul, killing 56 people and wounding 55 others during prayers. isis claimed responsibility for that attack. separately, an attack on a sunni mosque in central afghanistan's ghor province killed 20 people. the attacks capped a week of violence that saw more than 250 people killed across afghanistan. the violence came as "the new york times" reports the cia is sending teams of paramilitary officers to afghanistan to help afghan forces hunt and kill taliban fighters. the move signals an expansion of the cia's role in afghanistan, where agents previously focused on defeating al qaeda and aiding the afghan intelligence service. speaking last thursday at a washingto

i'm amy goodman. in california, the death toll from the massive wildfires have risen to 17,7, with hundreds moe hospitalized, as the uncontrollable blalazes continue to burn. more than 20,000 people have been forced to evacuate their homes. the chief of california's fire agency says the two most destructive fires are 0% contained. in total, more than 115,000 acres have been burned. drone footage of santa rosa, california, shows entire blocks of homes reduced to ash. last year, the u.s. forest service warned an unprecedented five-year drought has led to the deaths of more than 100 million trees in california, setting the stage for massive fires. climate scientists believe human-driven global warming played a major role in the drought. we'll have more on the california wildfires after headlines. in puerto rico, officials are warning the island's health system is in dire condition as the island still has severely limited electricity and running water nearly three weeks after hurricane maria hit puerto ri

i'm amy goodman. questions are mounting about the relationship between the massive private prison contractor geo group and the trump administration. "the washington post" revealed geo group held its annual leadership conference last week at president trump's private miami-area golf resort, the trump national doral. geo group was a major backer of the trump campaign, giving $225,000 to a pro-trump super pac and then another $250,000 to trump's inaugural committee. the company secured a new multimillion dollar contract from the trump administration, and its stock price has tripled since last year when the obama administration announced efforts to end the use of private prisons. "usa today" is reporting the trump administration is slated to declare the opioid crisis a publ health emgency today. the der uld low ates to shift federal funds to address the ioid crisis, which killed 64,000 americans last year. to see our full interview about the sacklers, the secretive family that made billions off the opioid

i'm amy goodman. we begin today's show with news that the nobel peace prize has been awarded to the international campaign to abolish nuclear weapons. the group, known as ican, is a coalition of non-government organizations in more than 100 countries. this is the chair of the norwegian nobel committee, berit reiss-andersen. >> good morning, everybody. committeeian nobel has decided to award the nobel peace prize for 2017 to the international campaign to abolish nuclear weapons, ican. the organization is receiving the award for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its groundbreaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition on such weapons. amy: after the announcement, reporters questioned the message the committee is trying to send with its award this year. could unravel? >> there has been an american diplomatic pressure on countries like sweden to prevent them from signing the ican treatment. leg himway, kicking the as one

i'm amy goodman. this year's nobel peace prize has just been announced. >> good morning, everybody. the new region nobel committee ---- the nonorwegian nobel comme has decided to award the nobel to therize for 2017 ininternational campaign to abolish nuclear weapons. amy: the international campaign to abolish them for weapons is a coalition of non-government organizations in more than 100 countries. launched in 2007, it helped organize a landmark victory: the world's first legally binding treaty banning nuclear weapons. the treaty was adopted by 122 u.n. member states in july, and signed by 51 countries during u.n. general assembly week in september. the treaty prohibits the development, testing, and possession of nuclear weapons, as well as using or threatening to use these weapons. it was adopted and signed by dozens of countries despite the fierce opposition of the united states and other nuclear armed nations. this is the executive director betrice fihn. ,>> we are working very hard on trying to m

i'm amy goodman. a federal judge in maryland has blocked parts of president trump's most recent travel ban, dealing a second blow to trump's effort to block citizens from eight countries from entering the united states. in wednesday's ruling, maryland district judge theodore chuang said president trump's own words convinced the judge that the latest ban is a "inextricable re-animation of the twice-enjoined muslim ban." this ruling comes only one day after a federal judge in hawaii blocked most of the latest version of the travel ban just hours before it was set to take effect. the two rulings temporarily halt the parts of the ban that would have blocked all citizens from iran, libya, syria, yemen, somalia, and chad from entering the united states. both the maryland and hawaii orders do allow the part of the ban blocking some north koreans and venezuelan government officials to go into effect. this is trump's third proposed travel ban and the first to include chad, a small african nation that has been

i'm amy goodman. in las vegas, nevada, a gunman opened fire with an automatic rifle from the 32nd floor of the mandalay bay casino hotel sunday night, killing at least 50 people and injuring over 200 others at a country music concert below. it was the deadliest mass killing by a single gunman in u.s. history. videos shared on social media showed a chaotic scene as thousands of panicked concertgoers dove for cover or fled from repeated bursts of rapid gunfire. [gunfire] amy: police say a swat team used an explosive device to break into the hotel room where the shooter had holed up, killing him. police have now identified him as 64-year-old stephen paddock, a white male from the las vegas area. at the time of this broadcast, police said they had located a campaign in of paddock's, marilou danley, who has been described as an associate of the shooter, a person of interest. the mass killing came as jason l dean performed at the end of the three-day route 91 harvest musical festival near the end of las veg