i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. rmeen: we now go to mississippi, where prisoners are dying at the highest rates the state has ever seen. 13 prisoners have died behind bars in the month of august alone. that's compared to 47 prisoner deaths in mississippi in the entire year of 2015. mississippi department of corrections commissioner pelicia hall has insisted the death or by natural causes and told reporters -- "the number of deaths the department is reporting is not out of line with the number of deaths in previous months." but advocates and family members are demanding answers for the shocking spike in prisoner deaths, including the killing of 24-year-old nija syvallus bonhomme at the privately run wilkinson county correctional facility in southwest mississippi. bonhomme died in his cell after what officials say was a fight with another prisoner. but his family says that the prison failed to protect him from violent conditions that led to his death, allowing him to return to his cell after a violent altercation witht

i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. rmeen: we continue our coverage of the california wildfires with a look at who's actually fighting the fires, and it may just surprise you. in addition to roughly 7000 full-time and seasonal california firefighters, the ststate relies on about 3500 prisoners, including many women , to battle the blazes. at least 2000 prisoners are curly fighting the wildfires, burning acrossss the state, offenders.8 youth earlier this month, california governor jerry brown thanked the firefighters on the front lines, including those who are incarcerated. >> you have heard there is a tremendous effort fighting these fires, and i want to personally thank all of the firefighters who are on the lines. the members of calfire and the national guard and the thousands of inmates who are also on the line fighting to protect lives and bring these fires to a quick close to the extent that is at alall possible. amy: prisoner firefighters live in one of 43 low security field camps throughout the state and are routi

i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. rmeen: with unprecedented fires, floods, and heat waves sweeping the globe, 2018 is on track to be the fourth hottest year on record. the regions most affected by the disastrous effects of global warming are overwhelmingly not the countries that have contributed the most to climate change. according to the 2018 global ninete risk index, the leas countries most affected by climate change in the past 20 years are developing nations, including hunter is, haiti, burma, and bangladesh. text andy reports " contribute less than 1% of the world's greenhouse gases blamed , yetausing global warming its 200 million people are among the world's most vulnerable victims of the growing consequences of climate change." the indian government says more than 500 people have died as a result of flooding and heavy rains in recent weeks. in iran, there's a chronic shortage of water. amy: meanwhile, in u.s., a report by media matters found that major broadcast networks mentioned climate change just once duri

i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. rmeen: we are continuing to look at the shocking new pennsylvania grand jury report that has revealed how more than 300 catholic trees sexually abused 1000 children possibly thousands more over seven decades and that the church leadership covered up the abuse. we're joined now by two guests. amy: shaun dougherty joins us. he was molested by a priest from the altoona-johnstown diocese in pennsylvania for three years, starting when he was 10 years old. the priest responsible, george koharchick, has been defrocked. even though the fbi determined he was a child predator, the pririest cannot be tried as such because of expired statute of limitatioions. 's story was one of many included in the grand jury report released on tuesday. bob hoatson is a former catholic priest and the co-founder and president t of road to recovery, which assists victims of sexual abuse. we welcome you both to democracy now! saw you in a clip released by the pennsylvania attorney general. talk about what happened t

i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. een: we ended the hour looking at how multiple people close to donald trump have direct ties to white supremacist. president comes top economic advisor there he kudlow has admitted he recently hosted white nationalist publisher peter brimelow at a birthday celebration at his home. brimelow founded the dare.com. a panelist at the h.l. mencken , conference call the gathering of "white nationalists and pseudo-academic and academic a panelist atracists." for more, we're joined by richard cohen. welcome back to democracy now! talk about the latest developments. >> i don't think they are entirely surprising, amy. we've seen a real cross-fertilization between some hard-core people in the anti-immigrant movement in the trump administration. jeff sessions, stephen miller, and now these revelations. it is reflection of trump, his policies, and his heart. these people are not renegades. they are not people who weasel their way into the the administration uncorrupted trump. they reflect his views.