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[applause] >> and now, "bbc world news." laura: this is "bbc world news america." reporting from washington, i am laura trevelyan. the trump administration stands firmly behind saudi arabia, with secretary of state makingse the to u.s. lawmakers. sec. pompeo: there is no direct reporting connecting the crown prince to the order to murder jamal khashoggi. laura: the lioair flight which crashed intthe sea killing everyone on board was not fit to fly, say investigators. plus, gadgets of the past the key to finding new life in the afrin nation of togo. the transformation comes with the risk.

welcome to our viewers on public television in america and around the globe. itas a charged atmosphere on capitol hill today as the u.s. secretary of state made the case for sticking with saudi arabia, first in a closed briefing to senators and then to the press. mike pompeo said there was no direct link between the saudi crown prince and the killing o urnalist jamal khashoggi and warned against withdrawing u.s. backing for the saudi campaign in yemen. this is the controversial saudi crown prince who, reportedly in the assessment of the cia, ordered the killing of n urnalist jamal khashoggi. mohammad bin salmarived in argentina ahead of the g20 summit, but on capitol hill, a chorus of senato demanded saudi arabia face consequences for violating human rights. the u.s.ecretary of state had to defend a crucial ally. sec. pompeo: there is no direct

reporting connting the crown prince to the order to murder jamal khashoggi. selfa: the president h said in a " washington post" interview once again that maybe mohammad bin salman did know about the killing, maybe he didn't come and the trump administration argues that saudi arabia is a crucial partner. but u.s. senators saygnmerica cannote murder. >> when we do not send a message to a country like saudi arabia, we tell an ally you can kill with impunity simply because you have some other interest with us, then we sent a global message that is frightening and one that does not serve u.s. national interests and national security. tolaura: after hearing frop trump officials today, senators asked why they were not allowed to hr from c.i.a. director gina haspel themselves. she heard the tape of the khashoggi killing.

sen. graham: i'm not ing to be denied the ability to be debriefed bthe cia that we have oversight of i believe this cannot have happened without mbs. laura: senators asking hard questions about u.s. military support for the saudi support for the coalition carrying outtr aiikes in yemen. the administration says withdrawing the backing would embolden iran. iobservers of the u.s.-sa relationship say the administration could use leverage over crown prince salman to stabilize the alliance and the kingdom. >> every saudi watcher i talked to tells me that mohammabin salman is not going to leave so the question to me is, realistically, how does a country in which he remains the crown prince and will someday be king become more stable? laura: the administration says it is naïve to abandon autocrats who arfriendly to u.s. interests. but after the khashoggi murder, the spotlight is on the

u.s.-saudi relationship, with lawmakers demanding that riyadh a price -- pay a price for behavior. for more on u.s.-saudi relations, i spoke a brief time ago with brian katulis, a senior fellow at the center for american progress. brian, u.s. senators have raised this idea of the u.s. ending military support for the saudi campaign in yemen. do you think that is going to happen? brian: probably not. the trump administration has responded to the draft legislation saying that congress does not have the power to do the type of support the u.s. is providing. what i think we are seeing here is the start of a prot debate not only about the yemen war but about the powers that congress has versus the executive branch in our system. laura: how concerned do you think thsaudis are by the fact that the u.s. senate is even debating the idea of drawing -- withdrawing support from a

key u.s. ally? brian: wl, they should be very concerned. at this moment the u.s.-saudi relations are at a very low point, perhaps the lowest since the 1973 oil embargo. this vote today by bipartisan support for at least raising this question demonstrates that there is a lot of doubt about the way saudi arabia is handling not only the yemen war but thein investigation to the jamal khashoggi murder. senatorso t, and also, don't seemke the way the administration is framing this, the president particularly, framing this as let's keep oil prices low. brian:e has been offering a blank check to the saudis and that has produced a backlash not just from democrats but republicans as well. laura: could the senate go as far as to try to curb u.s. arms sales to saudi arabia? what sort of signal would it send? brian: they could do that,thut is probably a longer debate that goes into the next year.

we are going to have a new democratic-controlled house. you will have countermeasures by the trump administration. importantly, if you want to y end the war en, you need diplomacy and efforts by the united nations. a locan happen between when the debate is starting and when the debate will end. laura: are we eing many diplomatic attempts by the trump administration to get through to the saudis? we are seeing a big defense, a big full-court press in "the wall street journal," the secretary of state denouncing the caterwauling on capitol hill and the media pile-on. but what about outreach? brian: none at all. this is the great mistake by t h trump, that leverage over the saudi-led coalition and it is not exercising it. the u.s. should link security a realation measures t plan to end the war in yemen. in their defense of saudi arabia, especially in light of khashoggi's murder, the trump administration is eliminating the leverage we have over saudi actions.

laura: how about the crown prince himself, mohammad bin salman? we know he has a closesh relati with jared kushner but is there much leverage the u.s. is willing to use over him? ntian: absolutely not. all roads in presirump's middle east policy run through riyadh and mohammad bian. again, that is severe weakness in the current u.s. approach. there are signs that mbs himself has created a backlash in his own family. in essence president tru has rested his entire middle east policy on a very shaky foundation. laura: brian katulis, thank you for joining us. brian: great, thank you. ur indonesian investigators say the passenger plane that a lastd into the java se month was not airworthy. it is devastating news for families of the 189 people on board who died when the boeing 737 operated by lionair went down.

reporter: the almost new plane crashed within minutes after htkeoff. he was on the flith his cousin. >> he was a really good kid. nothing about him was bad. reporter: now he and other grieving families have heard that the plane was not airworthy and should have been grounded the day before. the head of the investigating committee to the bbc there were a number of serious technical issues with the plane on the previous flht from bali to jakarta. >> many problems appeared in the flight. based on our opinion, the rcraft was no longer airworthy. reporter: what happened instead waat after the pilot managed to land safely in jakarta, the plane took to the air again with a different pilot. information from the flight datr recohows the pilots repeatedly fought to override an automatic safety system

installed in the boeing 737 that pulled the plane's nose down. the system was responding to faulty data that suggested the plane's nose was higher than it was. the head of the investigating committee says they have not found details in theg piflight manual about how ts should deal with such an ergency situation. >> we have not found the information in the manual, the new feature of the 737. reporter: some of the grieving families have launched a legal challenge for compensation from boeing. boeing has saice warned all ines about how to address faulty readings, and insists the model is as safe as any other aeroplane. >> any accident can lead to death. we are waiting and watching for that, watching out for that, not only for our families, but also for indonesia, for the safety of

air travel in indonesia and the world. reporter: the final report is not expected until next year. laura: in other news from around theen world, russian pres vladimir putin claims ukraine's leader petro poroshenko is trying to boost ratings ahead of elections next year with the naval confrontation of crimea. it comes after russian border guards opened fire on three ukrainian vessels and seized their crews on sunday. ukraine says it was a russian act of aggression. the european union will become the first major economy to become clite neutral by 2050. this means that carbon emissions will be balanced by removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. scientists say that net 2ro emissions 0 are necessary to keep global temperatures under a 1.5 celsius increase. it was a nailbiting finish for

the world chess championship. thehe end, the norwegian time kevin magnus carlsen managed to fend off e challenge of his american opponent, fabiano cover one of those of it came after a record-breaking -- fabiano caruana. this friday a group of 20 nations willeet in buenos aires, well much of the andntion has been on russia saudi arabia, thereris growing coabout venezuela. the country's economy has been in recession since 2014, with siits economing by a third since then. the bbc sent this report from caracas. reporter: a supermarket ind caracas empty llow. many shelves have been left empty as the country struggles to deal with the worst economic crisis. in the last three years, the ecomy has shrunk by a thir the government blames u.s.-led sanction but the widespread

view is that this is more the result of the mismanagement of the country's vast oil resources. with little food in supermarkets, it's here where venezuelans come to find whatt they need, strrkets. but prices here rise fast. this farmer's market is anpl exof hyperinflation here.do prices havled or tripled in less than a month. take tomatoes. at the beginning of the time i was in caracas, they were sold for 45 bolivars. a few weeks ter they had risen to a hundred, which is 122 percent higher. the same with eggs. in a matter of weeks they became 50% more expensive, passing from 32 to 48 bolivars. economists say it is the of shortages and the lack of

production from the private sector that has affected prices in the country. d >> o you find the pricext and the day it has changed. >> we have to have miracles here.ve i am 92 and i o shop around different places to find better prices. >> we don't know who is in charge of business, but -- who is in charge of this mess, but we have to eat so we have to take this. reporter: as i was in caracas, i madid manage to find a supet with some food on the shelves. but this told me another story about the untry's current economy. in a country with regular shortages and incredible levels ti inflation, you can find extraordinary dist. whichfor itance, pasta, is regulated by the state. it cts one cent of a u.s. dollar. if you are further down, you can find other goods whichay not need on a regular basis. but this costs 2000% more than the pasta which is regulated by

the state. then you have the supply chainr , which foops like these is incredibly uncertain. one y there are no eggs, no milk. on another day you can only find toilet paper on every single shelf. shops simply don'know what to do with it. venezuela's inflation is already mind-boggling. the imf ready thinks it will close 2018 above 1,000,000%. next year, the i's economists think it could be 10 times higher. vladimir hernandez, bbc news, caracas. inra: much rampan inflationve zuela. you are watching "bbc world news america." still to come on tonight's program, claims by a chinese scientist that he genetically b editedy have sparked an ethical debate.

the bank of england has warned that without a brexit deal, the british economy would go through a recession worse than the 2008 financial crisis. our economics correspondent has more for us on this story. reporter: a resolute move from the bank of england's p officials today, determined to issue a stark warning to the parlment that a cliff-edge no-deal respite would mean an economy that is much less open and much more lnerable. is clear -- lower supply capacity, weaker demand, a lower exchangeate, higher inflation. reporter: here is thea's analysis of what could happen under different scenarioorrather than aast of what will happen. on the current trend with the eu we continue to grow. if we take the deal offered by

the government can we grow but by a little less. if we crash out without radeal or aition period, the economy could shrink by 8% within a year. in the worst-case scenario, house prices could fall by 30% come with a pound dropping by as much as a 2 commercial alvi ity h would be a worse recession than the financial crisis. brexit supporters are skeptical of the bank of england's warning, remembering a time before the referendum where it warned of a risk of ren within three months of the vote to leave. instd the economy kept growing. >> these are mickey mouse figures that they throw out there and they e back again to scare us witless, and 'm afraid not going to get scared into the giving up this country's democracy by this disgraceful behavior. reporter: the bank of england

stresses it is not saying it will happen, just that it might. here,was doing projects it didn't work on the currency markets. the pound was up against the dollar and the euro. laura:eing is looking into claims by a chinese scientist that he hasd hel create the firstit gene babies. the professor in question defended his work today, saying that healthy twin sisters were born this month with their dna tered to prevent them from contracting hiv. for more on this story, i did speak a brief time ago with a bioethicist at nyu's school of medicine. ge this a breach of medical ethics, editing ths of embryos? >> well, it is one of the most

significant experiments in the history of human genetics to change genes in our children, and it is stupendously unethical to have done so given where the technologys today. laura: is gene editing technology somethi that could very easily be misused? dr. caplan: gene editing technology has been misused. this gentleman has misused it. he basically acted like a moral putz, meaning a moral idio he did not get approval from the scientific community, who doesye no believe that the gene editing technique is ready for use this way. there has not been enough experimentation on animal embryos or human embryos in dies to know that it is accurate and reliable. he did it in syret. he actua published and ethics paper, believe it or not, in which he failed to disclose he was doing this experiment.

he has been secretive. he has been talking about it only on youtube. he has never shared in writing what he has ne. he is using a technique that scientific colleagues don't approve of. by the way, he has a conflict of interest. he has applied for pheents and s clearly bringing people to the infertility clinic at some significant fee to try thi technology out on them. normally you would not let ape on who is trying to recruit people to this novel approach bw the pers gets the informed consent or who evaluates whether it is working. laura: and yet, do you see gene editing technology in our near future? dr. caplan: i do. this is ironic for me because i have been a defender of even germline genetic engineering -- meaning trying to change genes in embryos so we do not pass genetic diseases on to our children.ho there are someay we should not do that. we should never geneticay

engineer traits that get passed on because it will be hard to draw line -- making taller kids or stronger kids. i don't worry about that. i think you can draw a line. you can do it by treaty or regulation or penalty. but to say to someone we will not fix hemophilia, we wilnot fix huntington's disease, we we are not going to not edit out for all-time cystic fibrosis -- not only do i think it is in our n future, i hope it isr future, and i think it is mandatory that we tried to get it into our future. what this experiment did is it scares people. it looks like a renegade scientist is doing whatever he wants. and it is likely to o a backlash in the form of less funding and maybe some prohibitions to one of the most exciting areas of science out there. laura: thank you so much for joining us. dr. caplan: my pleasure. laura: now, with the holidays approaching, many of us are eyeing the latt gadgets, but ones andpens to the tv's which have fallen out of favor?

a lot of electronic waste is shipped abroad, endi africa. in the nation of togo, o gadgets are big business. from the capital, lome, this report. reporter: a child's toy from anu unlikelye, made from other people's unwanted waste. >> this is plastic, so we printed it with a 3-d printer. reporter: you made this 3-d printer? >> yeah, we made a 3-d printer from waste material. we recycle old printers, conventional printers, and we take parts that we used to make the frame. reporter: he is one ofrowing number of young entreps who see the potential of e-waste as an emerging business in togo. his vision is to empower children through science. our goal is to produce and

studentsthat will help be interested in science and the -- solving problems we have in our communities. reporter:t is estimated nearly half a million tons of used electrical goods arrive here every year, fm old mobile phones and laptops to tv's and generators. there is a rising demand for the latest secondhand electronics at bargain prices. but we have been told that 80% of imports that are sold in markets like these no longer work. spite international conventions that ban theve nt of nonworking electronics, they find a way to these shores, hidden inside vehicles that have been shipped from the west. this market would not let cameras in, so we filmed what we could on our phones. >> how many do you h

130 tv's. reporter: and if these electronic goods don't work, thin will likely end up here landfill sites across the capital. just look at this, the cover of a slide projector. if you look closer, you can actually see that it was made in st germany. almost three decades after the fathe berlin wall, it ended up here, a sobering example of how togo is becoming a dumping ground for the world's unwanted e-waste.r those discarding electronics comes serious risks.xi toc materials like mercury and lead can be contained within them. there are people here who are trying to reprocess the materials safely in theer recycling cent but even a man whose business depends on discarded technology is concerned about the long-term environmental costs.

>> there are lots of people who make a living from the fact that e-waste is coming into the couny. regulating it would reduce the amount of money that can be made. but a lot of the waste that arrives here is dangous, so we should really think about the impact it could have on our environment. reporter: despite these challenges, initiatives are cropping up across the capital, including here, whoue children as as 10 are learning ways to recycle electronics safely. in a country with limited job opportunities, startups liked these coovide togo with some of the answers to a sustainable technological future. elaura: now to the annualvent which helps us all ring in the holiday season. yes, it is that time of year when the national christmas tree has been officially lit up here in washington, d.c. on hand for the event president trump and his wife,

melania, who pressed the button, along with the crowds right outside the white house. you can find more of allhe day's news on our website. i am laura trevelyan. thanks for watchin"bbc world news america." >> with the bbc news app, our vertical videos are designed to work around your lifestyle, so you can swipe your way through the news of the day and stay up-to-date with the latest headlines you can trust. download now from selected app stores. >> funding of this presentation ti made possible by the freeman foun, and kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for amertea's neglneeds. >> what aryou doing? >> possibilities. your day is fied with them. >> tv, play "downton aey." >> and pbs helps everyon discover theirs.

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captioningponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, senators demand to hear directly from the c.i.a. after secretary of state pompeo claims there is no link to saudi arabia's crown prince in the murder of a journalist. then, one-on-one with the trump administration's point person on afghanistan amid a spike of violence in the united states' longest war. plus, to catch an asteroid-- inside nasa's mission to further understa >> osiris-rex will be the largest sample-return from a planetary body since the apollo missions, so we're really are redefining the next stage of planetary exploration. t >> woodruff:t and more on tonight's pbs newshour.