lisa desjardins reports. >> desjardins: to new sanctions, north korea today reacted with its own threat ( translated ): the us's villainous illegal actions against our country and people will be reciprocated by thousands-fold. if it thinks that it will be safe because it is across an ocean, there is no bigger misunderstanding than that. >> desjardins: that sharp warning after north korea test- launched two intercontinental ballistic missiles last month that some analysts believe could reach parts of the united states. today at a summit of southeast asian nations in manila, a north korean spokesman defended its nuclear program. >> ( translated ): we affirmed that we'll never place our nuclear and ballistic missiles program on the negotiating table and won't budge an inch on strengthening nuclear armament. >> desjardins: and again singled out the united states. >> ( translated ): is our nuclear possession a threat to the world or is it just a threat to the united states? we want to make it clear that the worsening situation on the korean peninsula, as well as the nuclear issues, were caus

for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. >> woodruff: during the cold war the u.s. military built an elaborate system to control the thousands of nuclear weapons in this country. there are many checks and balances, no officers who work with intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear armed aircraft, or nuclear submarines can launch missiles alone. they always work in two's, or sometimes entire teams. but there is an exception to that: the entire system is designed to respond to the sole decision of the president. this week, after watching president trump's campaign rally in phoenix, the former director of national intelligence, retired general james clapper, said on cnn that the president could be a threat to national security: >> having some understanding of the levers that a president can exercise, i worry about, frankly, you know, the access to the nuclear codes. in a fit of pique, he decides to do something about kim jong-un, there's actually very little to stop him. the whole system's built to insure rapid response if necessary. so there's very little in the w

our lisa desjardins joins us to explain. >> desjardins: right, judy. the president will give his first campaign-style rally since the tragic events in charlottesville. he will be talking to some of his most faithful supporters inside the phoenix convention center, even as, outside, officials are bracing for thousands of protestors to greet president trump. in his first trip to arizona as commander-in-chief, president trump toured a customs and border protection facility and visited with marines in yuma. but not everyone in the western state is welcoming trump. on monday, phoenix mayor greg stanton, a democrat, called for trump to delay his visit in light of the violence in charlottesville, virginia. >> i did not feel it was the right time to do it. it was too close after charlottesville. that was such a difficult situation, not only for the people in charlottesville, but for all americans. and so a campaign-style rally so shortly thereafter, i did not think was appropriate. >> desjardins: trump's fellow republican, governor doug ducey, plans to greet h

lisa desjardins is here to explain, lisa? >> desjardins: hari, the one dollar was the amount swift had requested. this was her countersuit, after a radio host sued the singer for defamation when she spoke publicly about the incident. he claimed she cost him her job, but the court sided with swift. the verdict came after four days of testimony, with a photo of the incident as the only piece of physical evidence. it shows former radio station host david mueller posing with 27-year-old swift before a denver concert four years ago. his hand appears behind swift just below her waist. swift says mueller grabbed her bare bottom and didn't let go when she "lurched" away. mueller said he may have touched her ribcage but nothing else, but the jury did not believe him. swift's case and experience is not new. one in five college-age women in the united states, say they've experienced some form of sexual assault, according to a washington post-kaiser family foundation poll. but swift's stature in the music industry, and society give her a

nick schriffrin, lisa desjardins. >> woodruff: stay with us.ing up on the newshour: an interior department official helping alaskan natives with climate change speaks out. and, right-wing activists forcing refugees to turn back in the middle of the mediterranean sea. but first, we are beginning a special series on the growing concerns around antibiotics. why there is more resistance to the drugs, from so-called superbugs that can be dangerous and even fatal, and why it has been difficult to create a newer class of drugs to solve this problem. it is a story that involves the worlds of science, medicine, business and economics. so we asked our science and economics correspondents, miles o'brien and paul solman, to team up. their coverage will continue over the next couple of weeks. we start with miles' report, part of our weekly series on the "leading edge" of science and technology. >> every sunday night, i put up the pills for a week at a time. >> reporter: 30 times a day... >> amlodipine, that's a blood pressure medicine. >> reporter: each and

lisa desjardins has more. >> desjardins: mayor megan barry's 22-year old son max died after an apparent overdose. she spoke about her son's death publicly for the first time yesterday when she returned to work. she's encouraging families to have frank conversations about addiction. and mayor barry joins me now. thank you for joining us and our very sincere condolences for your loss. >> lisa, thank you. >> this open owed epidemic is so often told in statistics, but i'd rather hear about your son. can you tell us about him? >> sure. max was a wonderful kid. he was full of energy. he just grng waited from the university of puget sound and was looking forward to the rest of his life. you're right there. are lots of sta testics out, there but when it happens to your own child, it's not a statistic. >> i'm wondering, you've been in civic life far decade, mayor for two years now. you have a personal story for you here. when did it first come to your attention that the opioid epidemic was indeed a broad crisis in your community and in your life? >> we've seen those numbers in our own community

lisa desjardins begins our coverage. >> reporter: waves battered galveston and the rest of the texasst all day, the punishing winds and rain only beginning. from high overhead, cameras aboard the international space station captured the scope of the storm as it closed in. texas governor greg abbott activated 700 national guard troops and braced for the worst. >> we are going to be dealing with immense, really record- setting flooding in multiple regions across the state of texas. you may think that the initial surge is something you can deal with. what no one knows is the magnitude of flooding over the coming days, and the aftermath. >> reporter: harvey is poised to make landfall overnight near corpus christi. but, it's expected to stall and hover, inundating a wide swath of the state, including san antonio and houston, with up to three feet of rain. then, another weather front could push it back into the gulf of mexico, to regain strength and strike again near houston. seven coastal texas counties ordered tens of thousands to evacuate from low-lying areas. other areas, like galvesto

for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. >> woodruff: and now to walk us through some of the legal questions raised by the "washington post" report, we are joined by peter zeidenberg. he was a federal prosecutor for nearly two decades, and was a deputy special counsel involved in the investigation into the valerie plame leak. peter zeidenberg, welcome to the newshour. now that the white house has confirmed that the president was involved, weighed in, as the press secretary said, in this statement by donald trump, jr., to the public, what effect does this have on this investigation? >> well, it's going to generate a lot of interest i'm sure from the special counsel who is going to want to know who was involved in that whole process. everyone on that plane who was weighing in, whether they were actually physically on the plane or, according to the "post" story, they were opening or calling in, so all those people, the special counsel is going to want the interview and find out what was going on. >> woodruff: how much does it matter, peter zeidenberg, that the white house press secret

our own lisa desjardins is here to walk us through these shake- ups at the top.come, lisa. >> thank you. pretty busy set of days here. walk us through the time like of how we got here. >> to do that, west go back to ten days ago. that's when we saw anthony scaramucci be hired as the communications director the same day press secretary sean spicer resigned. five days later july 26 he made the phone call to the "new yorker" reporter in which scaramucci used a series of profane words to openly attack chief of staff priebus. then the next to go july 21, friday, reince priebus resigned, bringing us to today when we're told by the white house anthony scaramucci will no longer be communications director or have any other role in the white house at all. this comes as the sale of scaramucci's company is for sale. it's not clear what will happen with that. >> brangham: was this chief of staff kelly on day one of the job pushing him out? was the president saying enough is enough? >> the word of the white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders -- >> the president felt

political correspondent lisa desjardins joins me now to discuss how republican lawmakers have reactedthe new numbers from our latest newshour poll, done in collaboration with npr and marist college. these were done after the statement on saturday. >> that's right. this was a poll done monday and tuesday. so some of this might include the president's latest reaction. most sin colluding his reactions from saturday. here's what we've found. we asked people what they thought about the president's response. 27% felt it was strong enough. hari, a majority of americans felt, 52%, not strong enough. now, that did break down across party lines. republicans felt better about the president's response than did democrats and independents, but on another question this was universals agreement. the question was should the fatal crash in charlottesville be investigated as an act of domestic terrorism? 67% polled answered yes. that was the same across all parties. we saw that resonate. what's interesting there, hari is the president has yet to say this should be investigated as nestic terrorism. he ta

lisa desjardins is here to help explain. >>> which is shall we say troubleds at the least >> talk about biblical and strange timing here. let's look at a few key points about this important national flood insurance program. this program expires soon, expires september 30th, it is right now miles 24 billion dollars in debt. this is the largest flood insurer by a lot in this country, 5 million americans get their flood insurance through this federal flood insurance program and now congress has to decide how to renew it in just 30 days after this disaster. >>> o'brien: what is the role for congress? they obviously were under a deadline, anyway. seems more urgent >> i think that there's also a tricky issue here, some republicans want to massive's reform this program meanwhile other republicans are more endorsed about bringing down premiums for those in flood areas and some democrats with them. listen to sound bites from a hearing in june of this year. >> we know this is a program that is 55 billion dollars under water and runs an act we are yell annual deficit of 1.4 billion. >> i truly bel

our lisa desjardins is here to walk us through where efforts stand.a, we've been spending a lot of time looking at this, who has been pushing this, who is working on it and what do do they want to accomplish. >> this is a process very different than health reform and health care. >> let's look at who republicans are using, what is determining this, it is the big six leaders, the tresh rear secretary and the president's national economic advisor then leader mrk-- mcconnell and the chair of the senate finance committee and speak are ryne himself and his tax-writing chairman. here is what they came out with in the last week, an idea that they say they want to lower rates for individuals and businesses. they also want to simplify our large tax code. we hear that a lot. fewer brackets but also fewer deductions, it's not clear who wins or loses yet, but the white house has come up with a little more specifics. they have said they want to cut the corporate rate from 35% to 15%. >> so it's not clear, you're saying yet, who the winner and who is a loser, what

lisa desjardins is here to help explain. >>> o'brien: troubleds at the least >> talk about sort of biblical and strange timing here, let's look at a few key points about this important national flood d insurance program. this program expireses soon, september 30th. it is right now miles 24 billion dollars in debt. this is the largest flood insurancer by a loot in this country, 5 million americans get this through this federal flood insurance program and now congress has to decide how to renew it >>> o'brien: they obviously 'b were under a deadline, seems more urgent >> that's right. i think that there's also a tricky issue here, in that some republicans want to massive massively reform this program because of the deficit it is in, others are concerned about bringing down premiums for those in flood areas and some democrats with them. sound bytes from a hearing in june of this year. >> this is a program that is 55 billion dollars under water and runs an actuarial annual deficit of 1.4 billion. it's unsustainable. i truly believe that this can be bipartisan. but i'm concerned that if you do n