Barbara hope zuckerberg. Corporate funding is provided by mutual of america designing customized individual and Group Retirement products. Thats why were your retirement company. Additional support has been provided by and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Ank you. From the tisch wnet studios at Lincoln Center in new york, megan thompson. Thompson good evening and thanks for joining us. President trump met with his National Security team this afternoon, saying the United States is weighing, in addition to military options, stopping all trade with any country that does business with north korea. This after north korea announced it had detonated a Hydrogen Bomb in its sixth and most powerful nuclear test yet, and its first since september of last year. Asked by reporters today whether he might order an attack on north korea, mister trump replied well see. North korea called the nuclear test a perfect success, and the underground explosion did register many times more powerful than its last one. Just hours before the nuclear test, north korean staterun media released photos of dictator kim jong un inspecting what it said was a small Hydrogen Bomb that could be used as a warhead on a longrange intercontinental Ballistic Missile. North korea said the weapon tested today was an advanced Hydrogen Bomb designed for such a missile. There has been no independent confirmation of that, but an unnamed u. S. Intelligence official told ruters, he had no reason to doubt it. Scientists say the significance of a Hydrogen Bomb is that it makes for a lighter warhead with more explosive yield relative to size and weight. President trump and other World Leaders denounced this latest test, mister trump saying on twitter north koreas words and actions continue to be very hostile and dangerous to the United States he said, north korea is a rogue nation which has become a great threat and embarrassment to china, which is trying to help but with little success. China, north koreas main ally strongly condemned the test, and urged the north to stop what it called its wrong actions. Japans Prime Minister shinzo abe said the test was absolutely unacceptable and agreed with President Trump that the International Community must step up its response. At the request of japan, south korea, the u. S. , u. K. , and france, the u. N. Security Council Plans an emergency meeting tomorrow morning. This afternoon, u. S. Defense secretary james mattis spoke for the administration, outside the white house. We have many military options and president wanting to briefed on each one of them. We made clear that we have the ability to defend ourselves and our allies, south korea and japan. From any attacks and commitments among allies are iron clad. Any threat to the United States or its territories including g guam or our allies will be met with massive military response, response both effective and overwhelming. Thompson to help us understand what this all means, were joined from denver by christopher hill, the dean of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the university of denver. Among his many diplomatic posts, mister hill has served as ambassador to south korea and has headed the u. S. Delegation at talks on the north Korean Nuclear issue. First start off describe the difference between a Hydrogen Bomb and other Nuclear Weapons that north korea has tested. How much more of a threat is this . Well, its just a much bigger bomb. Its something on the order of eight to ten times bigger than anything they have tested before and its much bigger than the bombs that were dropped in nag sag key and hiroshima. It speaks to the fact they are deadly serious dont just want little symbolic deinterpret they have very serious program toward a serious end, would need to be extremely concerned about it. Thompson talk about being concerned what kind of destruction could a bomb like this cause and how big is the threat to the United States . How could weapons like this reach . Well, its a function of course of the missile that its used on. Also a function of whether they can marry up a Hydrogen Bomb to a missile, socalled deliverable weapon that they have been talking about. They say they can do it. I dont think too many experts believe they had the experience yet its very complex, you have to send a missile into near outer space, it has to come down with enormous heat and need to survive. Then detonate. A lot of questions there. But no question that they are really moving ahead with this and they are taking aim at the United States. And i think its not just to protect themselves against a supposed u. S. Attack on north korea, rather its an effort to essentially hold us at risk in the event that we have to go to war to protect south korea. Thompson last week they launched a Ballistic Missile over japan, today we have this. Do you think that this signals an escalation in the aggression by the North Koreans, can you talk a little bit more about what their goal is with all of this . Well, first of all, it does look like an acceleration and aggressiveness, it can can also be a testing program. A lot of these things are technical in nature, they are testing various Delivery Systems and weapon systems. But whatever it is, its a very serious program. The serious program essentially not just sort of a oneoff deterrence this notion if you attack us well launch a Nuclear Weapon at you. Its clear that they have in mind a capacity such that were they to be in a war with south koreand u. S. To say, okay, were at your side, our requirements in the alliance the North Koreans would say were not so fast, we i can hit your homeland and wipe out a with one of our hydrogen weapons. Of course, the u. S. Response, if you do that well wipe you out. North koreans go, game on. The issue is really, would the could the North Koreans put a u. S. President fulfillment Alliance Requirements at the same time, creating a situation where u. S. Population centers are at risk. That is an extremely serious matter right now. Thompson secretary mattis warn the of a massive military response, what should the u. S. Be doing . Well, i think the u. S. Needs to be doing sort of all the things its already doing. Ratcheting up sanctions, et cetera. But i think its very important that the u. S. Has a sort of action plan to see what could be done to retard the north korean program. It need to be done really together with china. Issue with china not so much the issue of sanctions, although obvious china needs to do more to uphold the sanctions regime as they have been doing lately. The issue is really to have an understanding with the chinese about what our expectations are for them and what their expectations are for us. Kind of deep dive. I think its important to understand that we cant just give that through tweets in the night or occasional phone call we have to have a indepth discussion with the chinese about exp thompson though many residents of texas and louisiana have returned to homes they evacuated due to Hurricane Harvey, 37,000 people remain in shelters in texas, and 2,000 in louisiana. More than 50 people have died or are feared dead due to harvey, according to the houston chronicle. The federal Emergency Management agency, fema, says its received 507,000 registrations for disaster aid, and has approved about a third of them at a cost of 114 million dollars. At the vatican today, pope francis offered his prayers for those afflicted by severe flooding in the u. S. , as well as in india, nepal, and bangladesh. Today, President Trump and the first lady attended services at saint johns episcopal church, near the white house, as part of a national day of prayer for harvey victims. The trumps saw the storm damage in person yesterday, during visits to lake charles, louisiana, and to houston. Tats where we find newshour weekend special correspondent marcia biggs, with this report on Recovery Efforts there. Reporter this is what it looks like inside the kitchen of matt and marianna kremers home in west houston. Floodwaters are up to the counters. Thats part of their sofa, which floated in from the living room. Just last night, for the First Time Since harvey hit, houston officials ordered a mandatory evacuation for their neighborhood, where floodwaters have yet to recede. Today, matt tried to get back to check on their home, but police turned him away. Even though marianna is eight months pregnant, the kremers initially decided to stay put and ride out the storm. But their living room slowly turned from this, to this. Youve got to hold mommys hand. Reporter six days ago, they decided to flee. Mariana filmed the family boarding a Good Samaritans boat that rescued them, along with their threeyearold son, george, a dog and two cats. Not knowing where they would go, she posted the video to facebook. So sad to leave our home behind but grateful for this brave man to picked us up. Now what, question mark . We dont know. Reporter and you still feel that way . And i still feel that way. Reporter mariana says her streets were clear until the city released water from two reservoirs, an effort to keep antiquated dams from buckling. Thats the part i just cant get over, why werent we warned . Reporter are you angry with the city of houston . I just dont understand why the communication wasnt better. They should have known that the neighborhoods behind the bayou were going to be severely affected. Yet, nobody said anything to us. Why . Thats not okay and i want answers. I feel like the sacrificial lamb. Reporter residents of a nearby, floodridden neighborhood that is also under an Evacuation Order took time this weekend to protest being barred from starting to repair their homes. I think a lot of us are frustrated because we want to get back to our homes, we want to start fixing stuff. We have a lot of these folks cant even get into their homes yet to start taking up the carpet and sheet rock and just at least stop the deterioration. Reporter the kremers are now in limbo, living with mariannas parents in the town of katy, a half hour from a home they cant reach or inhabit, about to have a second child. We are one of the lucky ones, but we cant live with my family forever. Unless you have insurance, which 80 of the people affected do not. Theres no answers for the rest of us. Reporter with no flood insurance, theyve applied to fema for aid, but their case is still pending. All they can do is wait. Thompson houston is an industrial city, central to the nations oil and gas industry, and home to one of the busiest ports in the country. Its also home to more than a dozen of the 41 superfund sites in texas. Those are areas contaminated with toxic waste that the federal Environmental Protection agency is charged with cleaning up. This week, reporters from the Associated Press surveyed seven of houstons superfund sites to assess the damage from harvey. Ap reporter Michael Biesecker joins us now to discuss this. I wanted to first ask you can you describe us to what these superfund sites are . What are they contaminated with, are more they more dangerous than the chemical plants and refineries around houston . Theyre legacy pollution sites. Most were created in the 1950s and 60s when environmental regulation were much weaker and often because industrial process water they are next to rivers, lakes. So, these are pcbs, heavy metal like lead and arsenic that have been in the soil in sediment at the sites for decades. The epas job try to clean those up and find responsible parties, the companies who originally called the pollution see if they can pay for the clean up. When they cant taxpayers are on the hook we pay to clean up the sites as funds become available. Thompson can you tell us what did you guys find and what are the threats from the flooding . Well, there are about a dozen superfund sites in the greater houston area, ap journalists were ail to make it to seven of those sites. Would prioritize ones we knew in 100year flood plains which are the areas most likely to flood. And we found all seven have been unin in undated by water. The risk posed depends a lot on what remediation has taken place through the years, soil and sediment been removed, have they been capped with a fiber that is weighted down to try to prevent flooding. Both the epa and environmental watch dogs have been warning about these sites close to waterways for a long time. They are at risk of flooding. Thompson the epa is defensive about your reporting, today they put out a statement saying that the article is misleading, they say that they have conducted assessments hats 41 sites at 28 have not been damaged. 13 have been damaged. They say they worked to secure the sites before harvey hit. How do you respond . Well, you know, epa can speak for itself, for their calling our reporting misleading, if you read their read carefully they confirm what our reporting said which is, yes, there are 41 sites throughout texas. Yes, epa has been able to inspect two sites in corpus christi. But in the houston area which suffered much more dire flooding, epa has not yet been on the ground at those sites. Now they say from Aerial Photography that 13 sites appear to have flooded in texas including the ones around houston that we you are. But we asked why our reporters were able to make it to these sites and epa said it was still too dangerous for them to send crews out to assess the damage or to collect samples to monitor weather whether pollution has spread. They hope to get there next week. Why we were able to make it there and why they werent would have to ask them. The administrator of epa has been on on the record saying he thinks that projections of climate scientist, is that hurricanes will be stronger and wetter. Are alarmistsist its knots an issue at this point they seem to be planning for dregsing. We asked whether Hurricane Harvey had altered administrator pruitts perspective on the risk from climate change, response we got was from an epa spokeswoman who said that was an effort to politicize the tragedy. Thompson all right. Michael biesecker, Associated Press, thank you so much for being with us. Good fob with you. Thompson to read the full report from the Associated Press, visit our website at pbs. Org newshour. Thompson the 2,000yearold colosseum, in rome, is visited by nearly five Million People every year. But maintaining the site, and italys many other ancient treasures, is a large financial burden for the Italian Government. Now, its relying on donations from private businesses to keep its cultural legacy in tact for tourists. Newshour weekend special correspondent Christopher Livesay has the story, from rome. Reporter more than 2,500 years after its founding, rome is a bustling World Capital with its history proudly on display. Ancient romans believed theyd built an eternal city. Some structures are magnificently preserved. For others, the centuries have taken their toll. This is what the colosseum, built in 70 a. D. , looked like just a few years ago. Discolored by pollution with loose stones at risk of falling. This is what it looks like today. The exterior gleaming after two years of patching cracks and cleaning the soot and dust. Before and after. What makes this restoration in this part of the world so unusual is private money paid to preserve a public treasure. The first phase of a 25million euro, or 30 million, donation by an italian fashion company, tods. The government approved and oversaw the work. Barbara nazzaro is the colosseums technical director. How important is a restoration like this . Imagine if tods hadnt donated 25 Million Euros . What would be at stake . We usually do preservation and maintenance works. But, you know, all this money its a great help. Because we have it at the same moment, and we can do the external part at one time. Otherwise, we would do it piece by piece, and it would take a lot of time. This is a historic image of the monument. Reporter preserving the colosseum meant leaving certain archeological aspects in tact, like these holes. Many once had lead in them to help fasten the stones and decorate the arena, but during the middle ages, scavengers stripped the metal out to melt down and reuse. The pockmarked surface is now considered a key historic feature. Restorers have cleaned over 32,000 square feet of stone. That was just on the outside. Now they have to start the same process on the inside. So are these bricks ancient roman . Of course. Reporter its the next phase of the colosseum project, repairing passageways wild animals and gladiators took to the floor of the colosseum, where they fought to their deaths. Thats expected to take another yearandahalf. All of this paid for by tods. Why did this fashion mogul have to intervene to restore the colosseum . Why wasnt the state already giving it the care that it needed . The stat