the international legal scholar philip alston spent 12 days touring the united states he is the u.n. rapporteur investigating thon human rights and joins me now from geneva. welcome to the program. >> thank you. >> can i ask you to just react to the conversation we've just been living to about what could happen to further exacerbate you know, financial worries for the average american, if, indeed, these measures in the trade debacle heat up? >> i think what's interesting to me is there's a certain consistency in the policy approach. what the president seems to be trying to do is to reward allies in the coal, cars, steel, aluminum, very other industries who will benefit immediately and greatly from these tariffs. the people who will lose the great bulk of consumers. those who rely on cheap goods from overseas, but that doesn't seem to be a problem. it's more a question of rewarding the wealthy and the supporters than of improving the lot of the average person. >> so let's talk about the average person, not only the trump voters. those actually living in much reduced circumstances. wha

we will be speaking with philip alston as well. stay with us. ♪ [music break] amy: "men explain things to me" by tacocat. a group of top democrats are demanding the trump administration present a plan to congress to address mounting levels of poverty in the united states following an excoriating report by the united nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty. in the letter sent to u.s. ambassador to the u.n. nikki haley on tuesday, vermont senator bernie sanders, massachusetts senator elizabeth warren, new jersey senator corey booker, and other top lawmakers write -- "we believe the massive levels of deprivation outlined in the report -- as well as the intense levels of suffering this deprivation causes -- are an affront to any notion of the inalienable rights to live, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." this comes after united nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty, phillip alston, slammed the trump administration's policies for worsening the state of poverty in the united states. the report states -- "the policies p

last week philip alston appeared on democracycy now! ! to discucs findings. >> vast numbers of people are left living without enough to get by on. 40 million living in poverty. the figure of 5.3 million, which has been estimated of people who live in "third world conditions" in this country. amy: more than 100 people were arrested at the u.s. capitol thursday in an action organized by the poor peoples campaign to protest the trump administration's mistreatment of immigrants. among those arrested included the reverend william barber and david goodman, the brother of slain civil rights worker andrew goodman. thursday's action took place on the anniversary of the 1964 disappearance of james chaney, michael schwerner, and andrew goodman, whose bodies were found buried in a dam in philadelphia, mississippi, a august 4, 1 1964. the poor people's campaiaign is holding a major march on the u.s. capitol on saturday. reporters without borders has called on n the israeli parliamt to reject a new bill that would criminalize the taking of photographs