and group retirement products. that's why we're 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. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening, and thanks for joining us. authorities in little rock, arkansas, say all 25 people wounded by gunfire inside a music club early this morning are expected to survive. the violence occurred around 2:30 a.m. inside the power ultra lounge, a two-story club a mile from the state capitol building. little rock police say several people fired weapons during a rap concert in what they believe was a dispute among rival gang members. police say those wounded ranged in age from 16 to 35 years old, and all were african american. so far, no arrests have been made. the memphis-based rapper on stage at the time, finese 2times, has expressed his condolences to the victims, who were being treated at five local hospitals. though two victims were in critical condition, the little rock police said no injuries were life-threatening. state officials today suspended the club's liquor license, and little rock's mayor said the city will be shutting down the club. six victims of yesterday's mass shooting inside a new york city hospital remain hospitalized. five patients improved to stable condition and one remains critical. they were wounded yesterday when a doctor, fired by bronx lebanon hospital two years ago, entered the building with a high-powered, semi-automatic rifle. the gunman opened fire on the 16th and 17th-floor family medicine department where he once worked, killing a doctor and wounding five other staffers and a patient before shooting and killing himself. the "new york daily news" reports, two hours before his rampage, the gunman sent the newspaper an email blaming the hospital for ruining his medical career, but did not threaten violence. president trump is defending his controversial voting integrity commission, following resistance from half the states in the country. this morning, president trump said on twitter, "numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished voter fraud panel. what are they trying to hide?" in a sweeping request for publicly available information, the commission has asked states for the names of all registered voters, as well as their home addresses, last four digits of their social security numbers, party affiliations, and elections voted in. the request also seeks available records of military service and any felony convictions. officials in at least ten states and washington d.c. are refusing to comply at all, while two dozen other states say they'll comply only partially, due to state restrictions on who can access such information and for what reasons. the list of states includes both democratic-run states like california and new york, and republican-led states like kentucky and mississippi. commission vice chairman kris kobach authored the request letter, but even his home state of kansas can't provide voters' social security numbers due to its privacy laws. president trump launched the commission following his unsubstantiated claims that voter fraud, including three million allegedly fraudulently cast ballots, might have cost him the national popular vote to hillary clinton. commission critics say the effort is a pretext to pass legislation making it harder for people to register and vote. president trump is carrying his public feud with cable news anchors joe scarborough and mika brzezinski into a third day. this morning, mr. trump said on twitter, "crazy joe scarborough and dumb as a rock mika are not bad people, but their low rated show is dominated by their nbc bosses. too bad!" there was no direct reply from them or nbc news. it is now legal to buy and sell marijuana for recreational use in nevada. at the stroke of midnight, nevada became the fifth state to legalize limited amounts of the drug, following a state referendum approving the move last november. with valid i.d., anyone 21- years-old or older can buy up to an ounce of marijuana for use at home, but smoking pot in public remains banned. nevada joins colorado, oregon, washington, alaska, and washington, d.c. in legalizing pot. california, maine, and massachusetts are on track to join them next year. it will be at least six more months till the pentagon allows transgender recruits to enlist in any branch of the u.s. military. defense secretary jim mattis said in a written statement last night, the military is still assessing whether the move will affect the "readiness or lethality," of the armed forces. the pentagon rejected requests by the army and air force for a longer, two-year delay. last year, the obama administration ended the ban on openly-transgender people from serving in the military. >> sreenivasan: iraqi army troops continue to close in on taking back control of mosul from isis militants who captured it three years ago. mosul was the country's second- largest city after baghdad. one u.s. commander says u.s. army forces are helping the iraqis in a "very close fight" in the streets of mosul. many of the tens of thousands of civilians trapped by the fighting, with little food or water, are now trying to flee to safety. reuters reporter stephen kalin is covering the conflict, and joins me now via skype from the iraqi city of erbil, about 60 miles east of mosul. victory has been did he declared. in mosul yesterday. what's it like. >> fighting is ongoing in the old city of mosul. which is a century old district of the city. and this is the last area of mosul that the state hails still has presence in. it can be grim. narrow ally ways and you know, fighting. very close. very close conduct. >> mr. sreenivasan: tell me about the civilians you saw there, the ones that were fleeing >> we were at the sight of the grand mosque in the heart of the old city, which is where the state leader made his appearance three years ago and this is where we saw civilians streaming out. it was a few dozen that we saw but i later heard it was thousands overall yesterday. that left the old city. and they were coming out in desperate states i've seen thousands and thousands of residents fleeing. and these were by far the worse in the worst condition >> mr. sreenivasan: why did they stay there as long as they did? were some being held against their will >> they were using civilians as human shields the entire time for the entire battle and because they know that the forces and the coalition is doing everything they can to the casualties they will force civilians sty in lower grounds and put the sniper on top so had that sniper is in some ways protected from more attacks or air strikes >> mr. sreenivasan: tell us a little bit about the mosque >> the mosque is the center of the old city and which is 840 years old, which is leading sort of like the leading tower of piza due to we think structural problems. it began leaning soon after construction, it's an iconic site. it is also where the state leader came in july, 2014, made his only public appearance that we know of the confirmed public appearance, and pro claims itself the leader of the islamic state. this is place where he came, and the iraqi forces were hoping to get to the site take down the isis flag that has been hanging up for the past three years and string up the tri color iraqi flag as really symbolic sign of victory. they weren't able to that because over a week ago, the state rigged the entire complex with explosives and blew it up. only part of the mosque that was still in in fact. was the dome under which baghdad on a made that message three years ago >> mr. sreenivasan: the iraqi force that is you speak to, what's the next step? let's say best case scenario they retake the city. it's in ruins right now. >> the infrastructure in mosul is heavily damaged, where there is electricity and water, it's usually provided -- generate raters or weather trucks. basic infrastructure not there. so the battle continues, and security and stability maintaining that really is going to be a trick as well. where almost a hundred percent percent sure of that islamic state had sleeper cells that some of the fighters have blended in with civilian population. we expect there will be some sort of return to insurgent attacks and that will be attack number one for the security forces to handle. >> mr. sreenivasan: reuters joining us live. thanks so much. >> thanks for having me. >> sreenivasan: global sea level rise went up 50% between 1994 and 2014, according to a study published this week in the journal "nature climate change"" in 2014 alone, it went up an eighth of an inch. but if you want to see what those numbers actually mean, take a look at the increasing number of flooding events along the east coast of the united states. the nonprofit "climate central looked at 90 cities from massachusetts to florida. included in that list are atlantic city and other towns on the new jersey shore. i recently spoke to the reporter of that story, john upton. we think casinos. the trump tj et cetera >> they looked at hundreds of u.s. coastal cities and ask examined the increases. identified about 90 that face sharp increases in flooding risks. a lot tend to be built along bays and rivers. so they have a very low to that ohhinggraphy and the highest along the midatlantic and atlantic city showed up as being one of the cities that faces the greatest risks, but in addition to that, it is also has great inequity' among the rich and poor, it's a city in economic decline, how they're aadapting to the changes in sea level >> you took video and spent six months working on this. there's a piece of sound we have from one of the residents there. let's take a listen >> it wasn't bad when these persons were in there. now it's ten inches. right now, going to try to put a washer and drier up. it's replaceable but it's very inconvenient and money, you know. >> mr. sreenivasan: this is not after hurricane sander >> this is a full moon or new moon you get higher tides and yesterday, i was retweeting pictures from the straight arizona atlantic avenue flooding, because there's a high tied associated with a full moon. at the same time, there was a storm. the storm pushed water from the coast toward the land. of so you have the tide rising upcoming through the water drains and you have heavy rain or any rain and the rain kind of drains away, what you get is a substantial flooding in some of these neighborhoods built along bays in atlantic city and that was the case in the video that you just saw >> mr. sreenivasan: this is people getting used to this as a fact life on -- if the circumstances are right, basically a full moon and heavy rain or storm and it's over. >> this is happening monthly. they alert each other when they see the water rising, they move cars, pack them in a garage in the downtown area or higher land. and they put their furniture up on blocks, take precautions because they've all experienced serious floods, they take measures to minimize the impact each time it floods >> mr. sreenivasan: what does this do to property value? after i see the story or people who knee what they're looking for i'm not going to buy a house on that street. people if they can't sell it >> it's not only it's unappealing because it's flooding because atlantic city is in serious economic climate. it had five % of the population leave over the last decade. all the jobs are drying up. nobody want to be buying property in atlantic city let alone in these vulnerable areas. two houses in this one block straight that i went to arizona avenue, two of them sold for less than $35,000 each. and what that means is that residents who are some out of work, all of that equity is tied up in the house, they can't sell their house, they don't have work in atlantic city they want to move but can't sell the property h they feel trapped. some of them really express very strong emotions to me. they feel stuck. >> mr. sreenivasan: isn't the army core's engineers working to try to shore up the defenses >> using sandy recovery funds, the army corporate is engaging two projects quite close to arizona avenue, close to these working class neighborhoods. one is in the downtown area. that's a big sea wall being built to protect the casinos and downtown area. they're also about to spend tens of millions on sand dunes to protect ocean front homes, often costing millions of dollars off occupied only during the summer. these are holiday houses, they're getting protection. even though they've actually stud try to prevent the project. they don't want to lose their views, they can see the federal government working to alleviate flooding risks. but these working class residents atlantic city are getting nothing. >> mr. sreenivasan: you focused on atlantic city but you have an interactive map on the site and points out how this is happening in different coastal populations all over the country. i mean, you know, if you kind of click through and you see kind of myrtle beach in south carolina you have what the flood risk it's will be now and 20, 30 years from now. almost in every one of those places, obviously, it's getting worse. >> yes. and the areas that are built along bays, the areas along river, these working class neighborhoods they face the have to stop putting so much pollution into the atmosphere. we need to take measures to stop that. even if we stop putting in the atmosphere tomorrow, we locked in so much it's such a slow moving disaster we've begun that we're still going to see the risks increasing dramatically in a number of these cities around the u.s. and also around the world >> mr. sreenivasan: how is a house insurable in a neighborhood like this? so working downtown miami these condos are expensive and they're there, here we have a situation that 30 years from new, all the projections say it's going to worse, who's giving me that morgan and what's the insurance? who's giving me the insurance vthe only reason you can get insurance is that the federal government always provided flood insurance, it's promoted and encouraged and effectively subsidized house building urban development, home buying, in very vulnerable coastal areas >> mr. sreenivasan: we're paying for it >> the flood insurance program is currently more than $20 million in arrears, there has been attempts to reform. the problem is what congress discover asked that once you take the subsidies away, the homeowners, the voters suddenly see very substantial increases in their insurance rates and they're paying what the market would have to offer and that's very unpopular, it's a hard thing to change now that we got that in place. >> mr. sreenivasan: the report is on climate central's website, john upton, thanks for joining us. troy williams spent 18 years behind bars. now, he's editing a newspaper that is available to people in prison across the country. visit www.pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: north korea, which first tested a nuclear weapon in 2006, is currently the focus of non-proliferation pressure by the u.s., china, and other world powers. the u.s. first tested nuclear weapons 72 years ago, in july 1945. the government conducted more than 900 such tests in the nevada desert throughout the cold war. not only were mushroom clouds visible from the las vegas strip, they became an unlikely tourist attraction. newshour weekend's ivette feliciano has this report on a book telling the history of this era in an unconventional way. >> reporter: in 1951, the u.s. government started testing atomic bombs in nevada's mojave desert, measuring the effects of these weapons for military applications and on civilian life. university of nevada-las vegas professor andy kirk has studied the era. >> did they really build fake towns out in the desert and then blow the whole place up with atomic bombs? and the answer is yes, in fact, they did do that. >> reporter: they were called" doom towns." and, as seen in this 1955 public information film, the federal civil defense administration built houses, stocked them with food, and placed fully-dressed mannequins inside to learn what might survive an atomic bomb. >> would food in the average home be safe to eat after a blast? >> the purpose, as stated by the civil defense agencies, of creating these "doom towns" and then widely disseminating on film of them being destroyed, was to encourage americans to be concerned about the possibility of civilians being the target of nuclear attack. >> reporter: "doom towns" is the title of andy kirk's new graphic history about this era. collaborating with british artist kristian purcell, the book weaves together primary documents, photos, and the oral histories of residents, scientists, soldiers, and anti- nuclear activists. >> instead of just collecting examples of visual history and collating it and presenting it in some sort of coffee book form-- you could actually think about doing some of that, but also in conjunction with telling the story as a visual narrative. so, in the form of a graphic novel, except based on careful archival and oral history research. >> reporter: kirk found the visual style of a graphic history well-suited for bringing to life the stories of the people who lived through nuclear testing, stories he helped collect in an oral history project partly funded by the u.s. departments of energy and education. participants are literally drawn into the panels, and describe not fully knowing about the hazards of radiation, how soldiers experienced the blasts at close range, and were then ordered to march toward the test site to see how they would respond during an actual attack. but the tests weren't all "doom and gloom," according to las vegas news photographer don english, who recalled how his photographs of a dancer in front of an atomic cloud became iconic images of nevada's nuclear testing legacy-- and how the blasts in the nevada desert became a draw for tourists. >> i'm not an artist, so when i watch an artist work, i thought it was just really cool. so, this is the draft sketch that is really just coming out of his head as he encounters primary historical documents, >> reporter: kirk's book explores how the blasts affected nearby communities, and how nuclear fallout was more unpredictable than portrayed by scientists and the military. >> the public information tried to depict testing as contained and as low-risk. but in private correspondence, there's always a tone of uncertainty. >> reporter: eventually, local communities learned fallout from some of tests were far more expansive and dangerous than they realized, including a large sheep kill in a wide range of utah in 1953. >> i think there were many people who were affected by nuclear testing, who didn't fundamentally oppose the nuclear weapons. they were patriotic, and they were even willing to make sacrifices personally for the cold war. but they did want good information, and they did want to know the truth. >> it detonated perfectly, releasing its lethal radiation. >> rorr: the last above- ground nuclear test was in 1962, but underground tests continued until 1992. in kirk's telling, residents, civilian workers, and soldiers alike played key roles in nevada's history as a nuclear testing site, and in a sense, shared an identity as cold war veterans. >> this identity as a cold war veteran united people who were very, very different in other respects. caltech scientists or sandia lab scientists, who were commingling with las vegas residents, who by the circumstances of proximity to the test site were pulled into this extraordinary series of events. >> this is pbs newshour weekend, saturday. >> sreenivasan: china and hong kong today marked the 20th anniversary of the former british colony's handover to beijing, with both speeches and protests. hong kong has semi-autonomous rule, with civil liberties such as free speech, under an arrangement china calls "one country, two systems." after helping inaugurate hong kong's new chief executive, carrie lam, chinese president xi jinping had a blunt warning for pro-democracy activists. he said any attempt to threaten political stability in china or hong kong would cross a "red line" and be "absolutely impermissible." no sooner had xi left for home than thousands of pro-democracy protesters took to the streets, calling for more autonomy and even independence from china. world leaders past and present attended a memorial service today for former german chancellor helmut kohl, who died last month at 87. kohl was west germany's chancellor for 16 years, from 1982 to 1998, and oversaw the historic reunification with east germany in 1990. during the ceremony at the european parliament in strasbourg, france, former president bill clinton said kohl "gave us the chance to be involved in something bigger than ourselves." french president emmanuel macron and russian prime minister dmitry medvedev were among the dignitaries on hand. german chancellor angela merkel, who considered kohl a mentor, said in addition to german unification, he was the catalyst for the european union as we know it, with its open borders and single currency. >> ( translated ): helmut kohl personified an era. his chancellery is connected with many years of economic prosperity. >> sreenivasan: tomorrow on pbs newshour weekend, a new film that tracks the destruction of the world's coral reefs, in real time. >> there's nothing natural about the cycle that's going on right now. in 2016, we lost 29% of the great barrier reef. so 29% of the great barrier reef died in a single year, because the water was hot. >> sreenivasan: a document outlining one of the most famous deals in sports history, the boston red sox sale of slugger babe ruth to the new york yankees in 1919, sold at auction for $2.3 million today. ruth's world series ring with the 1927 yankees-- the season he hit 60 home runs-- sold for $2.1 million. lelands.com did not reveal the buyers, but the seller was actor charlie sheen. and finally, a warm welcome to vegas pbs, now a part of the pbs newshour weekend family. that's all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching. good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're 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. thank you. ♪ >> each california channel island has its own heartbeat. each island has its own dynamic, it's own size, it's own orientation, its own very intimate personal history. >> well, this is the final frontier of our continent at any rate. >> there's eight islands off the coast of california. the four northerly ones are kind of in a line just off of santa barbara here. >> the southern four islands are more widely scattered, but to just say that they're a group of islands is to completely misrepresent what they are. they are the trace of a vanished world. >> i do this interview with a little hesitation, and i'm a little nervous about what we're doing here. if you love this island, for god's sake, don't come here.