>> this is "bbc world news america." funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation, and kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. >> this fall, it is a season of oice ofions, from the america's favorite novel. >> it's 100 books we want people to take a look at. we are hoping to get people to fall in love with novels again. >> to the fate of a hero's lovei 'm still here. >> and i.

>> from the secret lives of the most amazing cats to new discoveries about the first peoples of the americas. >> our history goes back to the beginning of tim >> all this and more, this season. >> and now, "bbc world news." laura: this is "bbc world news america. reporting from washington, i am laura trevelyan. he was donald trump's personal lawyer. now michael cohen pleads guilty to lying to congress about the project. in russ the president is quick to criticize him. pres. trump: he is a weak person, and what he is trying te do is get duced sentence. he is lying about a project that everybody knew about. laura: the meeting is off. the president cancels talks with s adimir putin at the g20, blaming russia'tions against ukraine. tplus, hitting reverse onhe amount of carbon dioxide in the

air. scntists want to combat climate change with techniques that could turn back the clock. laura:o welcomer viewers on public television in america and around the globe. michael cohene once saiduld take a bullet for the president, now he has admitted lying to congress over a business deal in srussia on mr. trump' behalf during the presidential campaign. mr. cohen was donald trump's intorney and advisor for years, and he is cooperin the robert mueller investigation which the president calls a witchhunt. today mr. trump said mr. cohen waweak. our north america correspondent nick bryant reports. nick: michael cohen was donald trump's . fix-it, central

figure in the billionaires business empire. but the lawyer who made his problems go away now potentially poses a huge proem himself for the president. >> mr. cohen has coorated, comrhen will continue to cooperate. enng is set for december 12.ni ck:g the fast tanew york outside court.ned tightlipped those words from his lawyer are a startling new development. it means he is sharing information wi the russian collision investigation. up until now mhael cohen has been prosecuted by investigators here in new york. what mak this so significant is that it is the first time he has been charged by and entered into a plea agreement with robert mueller, the special counsel looking into allegations of collusion between the trump presidential campaign and the kremlin. inside cou, he pleaded guilty to making false atements to congress about a real estate project that would have altered the skyline of moscow, proposed anump tower in the rus capital.

talks about the project nthad ued well into 2016, he admitted, the year of thepr idential election. donald trump had been more extensively involved.ad heeen in contact with the -- on the project with a key figure in the kremlin, spokesman for vladimir putin. speaking in court, cohen said he made these misstatements out of loyalty to a figure described as individual one. individual one is president donald trump, who todad his former right-hand man. pres. trump: he is a weak pers, and what he is trying do is get a reduced sentence. he is lyinabout a project that everybody knew about. i mean, we were very open. nick: last week donald trump provided a series of written r, ands to robert muel the president's legal team said tonight his responses about building a trump tower in moscow lined up with what michael cohen said in court. the president has intensifiedta his cks on robert mueller -- a rogue prosecutor, he says

, leading a mccarthy-style witchhunt. one thing mr. trump might ponder on the flight to the g20 summit to argentina, how today's legal development have made it much more difficult to fi. nick bryant, bbc news, new york. laura: for more on the fallout from this story, i spoke a brief time ago with criminal defense attorney caroline polisi in new york. caroline, michael cohen has admitted lying to congress about the trump tower in moscow. what is the legal significance of the admission being made public right now? caroline: right, well, it is hugely significant, laura,es cially when you view it in juxtaposition to yesterday, where we heard this bombshell that the special counsar office was g up the cooperation agreement with paul manafort. it seemed to like maybe mueller was on the outs, not doing so well.ud

today all of an with this really bombshell news that michael cohen is cooperating with the special counsel's office, remember that we had not heard a really anything from minael cohen since august w he pleaded guilty to crimes unrelated to russia in the southern district of new york. the fa that robert mueller now is charging him with these crimes means that he believes that the substance of what cohen lied about to congss was in fact material to this investigation. otherwise, he would have farme out to the district. laura: caroline, michael cohen says he briefed other trump family members about the trump tower moscow project. why might the special counsel want to get that on the record? caroline: well, you make a good point. i think that robert mueller is being very strategic in how he charges things, speaking through these charging information and indictments.

obviously, the issue of transparency -- there is an issue of whether or not putin was usg leverage over trump and his familyn the form of a carrot and a stick -- a camera being a huge amount of money in the form of the trump tower moscow deal and a stick in the form of knowledge about covert deal. to the extent that trump' family is directly implicated, that is likely causing the whits a lot of anxiety at this time. laura: but of course the president is saying that michaea cohen is aand he has admitted lying to congress, so doesn't that weaken his legal credibility? it is kind of hard to keep who is lyinwhen and where they are lying straight. if you untangle it, the position of the wte house, even though michael cohen is lying about the

trump moscow deal today, trump's answer to the ecial counsel's written questions -- remember, he was allowed to ovide written answers to specific questions about collusion, not about obstruction, but aut potential collusion leading up to the presidential election. giuliani has stated that his answers in those writtentu questions ly line up with what michael cohen said. however, trump today is saying he is a liar. it ikind of hard to understa what exactly he is lying about, if you follow that. it's confusing. laura: caroline, thanks so much bringing clarity to it, though. wellall this news broke as president trump was preparing to leave for a gathering of the group of 20 nations in buenos aires. on the flight he made news by tweeting that his meeting with russia's president was off due to recent clashes over ukraine.

was that the only reason for the cancellation? that is a question we closed to the bbc news north america editor jon sopel in argentina. jon: well, that is what the white house is consider this --10:45 this morning when donald trump left the whiteby house he was aske reporters if the meeting wouldai ahead and heit was an opportune time for a. 45 minutes later he says there will be no meeting. what has changed in the interim in terms of the ukrain situation? nothing. what has chang in terms of the eller investigation? tochael cohen has gone to court and said he likeongress. that is a big deal. donald trump issued a atement on twitter blind the russians completely saying that the meeting wouldn't gohead but that he hoped it would soon. not a word of criticism about vladimir putin or russia's role in this.

if you consider the leaders that nald trump has attacked you are going to be here in buenos aires, theresa may, emmanuel macron, angela merkel, president xi, president erdogan, he is not shy of a fight. but with vladimir putin he has not said a word of criticism. that leaves many p tple fascinatsee what if anything robert mueller will uncover. bc's north america editor jon sopel there for us. all this week ahead of the g20 we're looking at economic nonditions in key south ameri countries. tonight the bbc's tim willx reports from the host nation, argentina. tim: the polo clubs of argentina are riding out the recession. the country's economy may be in crisis once again, butor polo aficionados, life goes on. >> the courses are sold to go abroad. the best players here, they all

have their horses and man themselves. horsese best over $60,0? >> they go for 10 signs that. -- 10 times that. b low-cost, high class, all the classes are affethis. for argentina's less well-heeled, the latest crisis and bailout is a body blow, and they are committed to stopping electiont macri's next year. millions of argentines don't want any international bai they have memories of what happened with the imf last time. with nearly 50% of the mepopulation on ort of welfare payment andpe inflation excted to top 50% athey think thre the ones who will suffer more.

>> we thinthat macri is giving our wealth, o natural resources to companies, and we think that belon to our people. >> there is lot of people that iddidn't have food, dt have social secure. they didn't have jobs. it is terrible. he is increasing that. tim: to meet the imf's repayment demands, the government is slashing subsidies on basic utilities. foispeople in buenos aires, has meant the cost of electricity rising by more than water has gone up 340%. gas by 225%.io educand health budgets have also been targeted. >> of course its a rocky road, has been bumpy, but we have done very well in terms of strengthening institutions, stabilizing the economy, moving

forward on deeper reforms to competitive -- for example, investment in infrastructure. we believe if president macri is rereected we will have four years of moving in that direction. tim: movement that will need the complexity of argentina's national dance, and some fr, as many years to master. bbc f do stay with the coverage of the g20 meetings taking place starting tomorrow in argentina, including the high-stakes discussion between president trump and chese leader x jinping on saturday on trade. in other news from around the world, police in frankfurt have raided the headquarters ofas deutsche banart of an investigation into alleged money-laundering. around 170 officials are involved. the bank says it is cooperating with authorities. an imprisoned murder is being

investigated after confessing to 90 killings across four decades in the u.s. he is serving life in prison after being sentenced in 2014 for the murders of three women. the fbi believes the 78-year-old may be among the most prolif serial killers in u.s. criminal history. it is set to be one of thegh of the year. but the last news conference between heavyweights tyson fury and deontay wilder became an ugly brawl.s what startedrbal abuse became physical and the fighters had to be separated. the fight itself will take place in los angeles on saturday with the book is making -- the bookies making wilder the narrow favorite. you are watching "bbc world news america." t still to come ight's program, caravans and crackdown. we will speak to former homeland security chief janet napolitano about the president's immigration policies

three police officers in theph ippines have been found guilty of the murder-y of a r-old student during an anti-drug operation in manila last year. a judge sentenced them to up to 40 years in prison ersh. it is the conviction for next to judicial killi carried out as part of president duterte's war on drugs. the bbc's howard johnson has the details fr manila. howard: this was a controversial case because the nig-y when the 17ear-old high-school student was killed, police officers said he fought back and shot at them during a drug war operation and they fired back and killed him in self-defens but eyewitnesses a cctv footage said otherwise. they said he had been dragged across the basketball court and take into an alleyway, where he was given a gun and told to fire it and run. another eyewitness said he begged for his life before police officers killed him. this story caused outrage in the

country mainly because a lot of people could relate to it becausehe mother is in erseas worker, overseas filipino worker. she works in saudi arabia and sends money back to the family. many people here are in similar situations. they have relatives like that. the president said he was elected -- modeling himself as a fatherly figure who would look after these children while they were overseas. today the cabinet secretary and department of juste secretary s come forward and said that this verdict debunks the myth that there is a culture of impunity in the country. but human rights watch has come out and said this is just one case and that there are thousands of drug war killingsat till need to be investigated by an independent commission, and that they look forward to the international criminal court going through preliminary examination of the drug war to see if there are indeed crimes against humanity caused by preside rodrigo

duterte in the war on drugs. laura: this morning president trump said yet again that a government shutdown is possible if lawmakerson't give him the money for his border wall with mexico. one person who kno a thing or abtwt border security is janet napolitano. she served as president obama's secretary of homeland security and before that was governor of izona. i spoke to her earlier.pr thident threatened to close the border with mexico because of the number of migrants trying to cross. is that a good idea?po ms. tano: no, it is not a good idea. you have to recognizethhat mexico isecond leading trading partner of the united states. we are mexico's number one trade paner. there are literally millions if not billions of dollars of commerce that have to go through

that border on an annual basis, plus hundreds of thousands of people crossing through the ports of entry. justaying you have got to close the border doesn't make economic sense, it doesn't make sense particularly for the border stas of the united states. it is just not a good idea. laura: and yet the president was elected promising to bld a wall with mexico on public t-- are is so much public concern over people trying to cross the border illegally. as someone with experience in bordertates, what is the answer? ms. napolitano: you have to illegal migration across the border is at 40-, 50-year lows. a great deal has been done tord protect the between the ports of entry, with manpower,og with techn with air cover. that is the kind of strategy that actually work the problem with building a wall dois even if you can get i, and there are lots of logistical

issu with getting it done, y show me a 10-foot wall and i will show u a 12-foot ladder. it is just something that by itself is not a strategy. it is a symbol. laura: and yet we saw this weekend images of children being tear-gassed at the u.s.-mexico border. havepu both reicans and democrats failed on the issue of how to secure the border? ms. napolitano: you know, when you talk about securing the border, i think we have to talk about migration and the immigration law in the united. states really what is needed is the comprehensive immigration reform which would include in it a better process by which people could come legally in the united states to work, they can stay in the united states. it would also include with it grear border security measur and it would also include in it

a pathway for those already in to united states illegally get right with the law.at laura: absent ind of agreement by lawmakers, immigration issues are being decided by the courts, aren't they, which is also for the -- awful for the people who are stuck in the middle. ms. napolita: well, it is, and it really is the responsibility of congress to act, to passis a bipa bill and for the president to sign the bill. in the absence of that, when he -- when you saw the caravan at the border, it would have been befoer rather than tear gas the united states to what i think of as flood the zone with more customs and border prection officers who coul process more asylum cases, put more immigtion judges right at the border, so those cases could be resolved effectively, fairly, and efficiently.

laura: janet napolitano, thank for joining us. ms. napolitano: thank you. laura: 20 of the warmest years on record have come in the last2 ears. that is what scientists looking at climate change have found. ahead of the g20 summit i argentina and the u.n. climate change conference in poland nexc week, the u.n.tary-general antonio guterres is urging countries to do more. t he sat down wi bbc's nick bryant. secretary-general guterres: things are getting worse than predicted, and the political today is unfortunately not as high as it should be. we hava very important landmark agreent, the paris agreement, but countries are not doing what they committed to do in paris -- many countries, no all -- what they committed to do in paris. and what was committed is not enough because it would lead to an increased temperatures a degare than threees

total disaster. we need to have a more ambitious commitment by countries to reduce emissions. laura: the u.n.ge secretarral with a global call to action. as scientists look for solutions, some calculate that reducing our emissions of greenhouse gases won't be enough. we have got to figure out how to remove the gases, too. our science editor david shukman investates. david: every hour around the world more and more carbon dioxide is being pumped into the air. scientists say we have got to nd a way of doing this, pulling the carbon dioxide out again. in south wales, i joined researchers who believe they may have found an answer. , a mountainag heap of waste left over from an old ironworks. hwhat they have foue is that this stuff actually draws in carbon dioxide. phil and his student sarah show me how this works.

adding some slag to a bottle and giving it a blast of carbon dioxide. in the space of a few minutes, se gas binds to the miner inside, and the bottle starts to collapse inwards. could this be done on a worldwide scale? >> globally we have 12 million -- half a billion tons of it around the globe. that would capture something on the order of a quarter of a billion tons of co2. it will not do everything, but it might do something relevant for us. david: just sitting here, the material does not absorb much the gas. a new process will have to be devised to make it useful. but that is technicallyas le. this is just one tiny fraction of the legacy of the industrial age, and it is an amazingth though the iron and steel industries which produced all the stuff and generated so much of the carbon dioxide that has been warming the play now have a role in helping to limit the rise in global temperatures.

>> sheffield, capital of steel, part of a great industry. david: in the boom years of stdl production, what matte was the volume. no one back then worried about the carbon dioxide being released into the air. but now at sheffield university, that is what they are trying to deal with. in an underground laboratory plants are grown in carefully comonitored itions. instruments keep track of every detail. mixed into the soil is a powder, rock that has been ground up.is ths a major project to see if agriculture can help target climate change. these plants look normal enough, but they are part of a highly unusual experiment that could prove incredibly useful. that is because the scientists here have worked outadding powdered volcanic rock to the soil massively increases the amount of carbon dioxide that is drawn out of the air.

look at that, the gas that is driving thatrise of tempes. anything to help get rid of it could make a dference. on an experimental farm in the american midwest, the powdered rock is being tested on fields. already scientists have seen it acts as a fertilizer. they don't know whether at this massive scale the process traps carbon dioxide. ncbut they are con it is worth trying. >> the world needs to wake up to the fact that we need to reduce our emissions and combine itol with tecies for removing co2. at the moment we have no idea how to remove billions of tons of co2 from the atmosphere. david: maybe the answer will lie with the plants and wdered rock, or the minerals in the slag heap will be useful. in any event, there is a frantic effort to find out. all e time, the more carbon dioxide builds up in the air, the more urgent it becomes to somehow get it out. david shukman, bbc news.

laura: how plants could help us. mbre, you can find much more of all the day's news on our website. i am laura trevelyan. axis a t much nks so much for watching "bbc world news america." >> with the bbc news app, our vertical videos are designed too workd your lifestyle, so you can swipe your way throughe the news of day and stay up-to-date with the latestca leadlines you n trust. download now from cted app stores. >> funding of this presentation is made possible by thfreeman foundation, and kovl foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. >> a new chapter begin >> now you can access more of your favorite pbs shows than ever before, with pbs passport, a member benefit that lets you binge many of the latest shows and catch up on your favorites.re

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captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good even i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, another guilty plea. this time, president trump's former lawyer michael cohen admits to lying to congress to cover up contacts with russia well into the presidential campaign. then, parase lost. we visit the california town destroyed by wdfire and the desperate search for the missing among the ashes. >> what you are really trying to be mindful of is that as y move through these searches, you're also moving through some of the most intimate of anybody's life. >> woodruff: plus, we are on thn ground in arge as leaders of the world's largest economies gather and president trump faces a numb of flashpoints. l that and more on tonight's

pbs newshour.