>> this is "bbc world news america." funding of this presentation isi made pe by the freeman foundation, and kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. >> this fall, it is a season of revelations, from the choice of .erica's favorite nov >> it's 100 books we want people to take a look at. were hoping to get people fall in love with novels again. >> to loe fate of a hero's . >> i'm still here. >> and i. >> from the secret lives of the

most amazingats to new discoveries about the first peoples of themericas. >> our history goes back to the beginning of time. >> 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. sentencing drama -- former national security advisor michael flynn must wait until hixt year to learn his fate as the judge rebukem strongly. forging a new all the way to the arctic -- how china's economic influence has spread 40 years after landmark reforms. >> the tiny population of this vast, empty country, inot going to know what hit it. laura: plus, gorillas are among the greatest treasures of the democratic republic of congo,

but despite va resources, the country's fortunes aren't rising. welcome to our viewers on public television here in the u.s. and around the world. we begin with two very different stories concerning president trump. first, a judge in washington agreed to postpone the sentencing of miael flynn, the former national security advisor who pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi. also today, mr. trump's charity agreed to shut down amid algations that the preside and others used funds illegally. north america editor jon sopel reports. jon: election night 2016, and donald trump is soaking up the applause was rendered by his children. but they are also trustees in

his charity, the donald j. trump foundation. forart from a vehicle flynn to become of the new york attorney general described in the most scathing terms how the trumps were using this for their own purposes. there was a shocking pattern of illegality, including unlawful what a nation with the coordination with the trump presidential campaign, amounting to the trump foundinion functionas little one than a checkbook to serve mr. trump's business and political interests." here in washington, the president's former national security advisor michael flynn has been appearing in court over conversations he had with the russian am time of the election. he lied to the fbi about it. the sentencing should have beeno ine. it was anything. but michael flynn arrived in court this morni hoping he would be judgea sentence, but the

maker that he took the offenses far more seriously. "arguably, you out," he said.ntry diy disgust, myg ain for this personal offense." the judge mused whether he should be tried for treason. the threat of incarceration has not gone away. ironic, really, as the general was the mentoring the election who lethe chance of "lock her rivalout donald trump's hillary clinton. gen. fly: yes, that's right, lock her up! jon: the president's standing by him, tweeting, "good luck in court, michael flynn. heit will be interesting t what he has to say." a theme picd up at the briefing.

sarah sanders: the fbi broke standard protocol in the way th they ambushed general flynn and the way they encouraged him not to have white house counsel's office president. jon: as michael flynn left court thehance of "lock him up," white house was doing nothing to dispel the impression that ie this case thit president was more on the side of the man who broke the law. laura: for more on these development i spoke a brief time ago to democratic senator chris marylanen from senator van hollen, this was a amatic day with the judge say ing to michael flynn that he was disgusted with what he had done what do you make of what we saw today? sen. van hollen: the judge did not mince words with respect to michael flynn.he he sairguably sold out his country.er he made itclear that michael flynn committed serious crimes.

michael flynn in his own edstimony acknowledged that he knew that he commirimes, and the fact that the judge adelayed the sentencing w clear signal that the judge view what michael flynn di with great seriousness, and it was a rious crime. laura: and yet the white house is saying that a actions michael flynn engaged in had nothing to do with the president. based on what we knew, that is it?case, isn't sen. van hollen: to my knowledge that is the case, although we also know that president trump has been making things up likeat ichael flynn was framed byi, the omething michael flynn himself acknowledged he committed a crime and did it knowingly. look, the president has been tweeting about different investigations. he can have his own views, but

the facts are different and the judge laid down the facts today. laura: if we moved to the question of russians and social media, we learned that as well as targeting amerin voters, the russian operatives tried to target special counsel robert mueller himsf and to discredit him. what do you make of that? sen. van hollen: it shows the ongoing campaign by the russian government to try to disrupt and sow seeds of division in the united states. we know from that report that there was additional evidence that russia interfered in our 2016 elections and did so to help donald trump, and now we know there is a continuingn pattcluding trying to undermine the special counsel. this is serious business. this is why senator rubio and ig ctroducedlation which would make it vear up front, not after the fact, that if we catch the russian government interfering in our elections, there will be swift and certain economic penalties. laura: you introduced the legislation, but do you have any

hope at all that it will pass or will it be down to social-media companies to police their ow platforms? sen. van hollen: well, it is important that socl-media companies do monitor their platforms, but that is not enough. we are asking the companies to do their part. the united states government should do its part to deter kind of interference in the first place. we intend to reintroduce the acy ner, and this most recent report out of the senate intelligence committee gives even more momentum to the need to get it done. laura: is the real problem that the russians are exploiting divisions that exist in america, the very deep divisions on whether it is race or religion, and we should heal them oursolves? sen. vann: there is no doubt we have a lot of work to do in this country to unify americans rerdless of their political views. we should ha active and

vibrant debates in this country, but we should try to make them has civil as possible and not engage in the divisive and polarizing rhetoric we have seen beginning with donald trump's campaign and continuing into his presidency. all of us have to do our part here, but of this and that we -- but at the sameou time we do everything we can to prevent the russians from using social media or whatever means to exploit those divisions. we have enough challenges in our own country trying to make sure that we come together. we should not be allowing a foreign power to make this worse. laura: senator chris van hollen, thanks for joining us. sen. van hollen: thank you. laura: in other news, the trum administrati has banned bump stocks, whh allow semiotic weapons to fire hundreds of rounds per minute. on owners have 90 days to turn indestroy the devices. calls to ban bump stocks

increased after last year's las vegas shooting in which 58 people were killed.th manager of manchester united has been sacked from the englise prleague club. he has been under growing tessure after his football team made the worst staa season in nearly three decades. actor and director penny marshall has died at the age of 75. she costarred in the hit american tv show "laverne & shirley" before movifi onto to box ce success behind the camera with films including "big" and "a league of eir own." family says she died peacefully at their home in the hollywood hills. the democratic republic of congo is holding elections this week, two years after they were delayed by theovernment. the new leaders will face stubbornly high levels of poverty, which endured despite the drc's many natural resources. the bbc's africa correspondent alastair leithead spenty six weeks traveling the congo

river. jerome adams alastair: the congo is one of the world's fastest flowing rivers and could power afroea to the hydrctric potential was harnessed. the democratic republic ic the congo isin natural resources. yet it's people are poor. it has the largest continuous rain forest outside the amazon and is home to animals nowhere else on earth. we havcome in search of eastern low land gorillas. families a used to humans and can be visited, if you can find them. there is no path to follow. we have to cut through the deep rain forest. i think we are getting close because we can hear -- a couple of times that the guys are trying to pick up the trail. it is tough going.

after three hours, we got our first glimps just a few meters ahead. the young ones caught us by surprise coming so close. the masks we are wearing protects the gorillas fromur germs. there are probably fewer than 5000 of them lt. but few tourists bring their money here. there is a struggle between reserving nature and c in the country's resources. the congo is rich in copper,di cobalt, gold, amonds, and uranium. balt has become a key ingredient in car batteries. w 60% of tld's supply is here. this is the final product. 35% cobalt. it will be refined further, but this is what they export from here.

wealth like this should transform a country, but e expectation continues. >> we have a lot of resources, and the resources have been a malediction. but at the same moment these resources, if we can manage them very well, we n make it. alastair: is it corruption eating away at the wealth of s is country? >> yes, corruptione challenge among which we have to deal with. alastair: the congo has minimal reserves worth trillions ofdo ars. if used properly they could change the country's fortune and pull millions out of poverty. alastair leithead, bbc news, on the congo river. laura: t promise and the bballenges for the congo there. you are watchingworld news america." still to come on tonight's g ogram, why the surgeon general's warnout the rise

of e-cigarettes, especially among teenagers. a new amnesty international report says that twitter is a toxic place for women. it reports widespread abuse on the social-media platform and found that black women were targeted more than other groups. pothe made a particular point saying that this group of women were 84% more likely than white women to be mentioned in abusive or problematic tweets. loour tech correspondent has more on this story. reporter: headlines from amnesty's troll patrol reports are sobering. one woman received an abusive or problematic treat every 30 seconds, and black women are far tmore likely to be targetn white women. it is worth having a look at how the study was carried out.

amnesty followed 778 women in the u.k. over a year but they and generalli who were morly to be attracting positive and negative -- i can tell you that from personal experience as a journalist myself -- and about that are more likely to morepeople feel angry likely to be controversial. hatwittenot set an awful lot. it wants to discuss with amnesty hoit defines problematic because one person's problematic, it says, could be another's freedom of each. -- freedom of speech. twitter says it is doing a lot to tackle abuse and isep looking intots. however, according to amn 8ty, there weillion accounts that reflect through twitter for abusive behavio-- that reflect your twitter for abusive behavior and only 9% of them were removed. this problem is not unique to

twitter. social networks are robust places and anecdotally the experience is that many women seem to be getting a particularly difficult time. e issue is what can twitter do about it and cap it was fun -- can it respond quickly enough. laura: the highest-ranking health officl in the u.s. has issued a rare warning about the risk of e-cigarettes.ge the surgeoral says the fed -- the threat to young people's especially dangerous one in five high-school students currently use e-cigarettes, a 78% increase from last year. in the past year more than one third of 12th graders, usually d or 18 years old, have u e-cigarettes. overall, more than 3.6 million young people smoke e-cigarettes in the united states. for more othese findings i spoke earlier to dr. vivek murthy, former surgeon general.

we are seeing e-cigarette use is increasing dramatically not only among highoo srs but middle schoolers. what is the health risk that vaping poses to our kids? dr. murthy:o it is important recognize that there are serious health considerations. many children and adults think that vaping is harmless but it is not the case especially with young people. with young people, the brain is still developing, and when they they areape devices, exposed to nicotine, which is nuer one, highly addictive and it can have adverse effects on the developing brain and backing memory anlearning. the third point is that using adctive substances like nicotine can not only create an addiction that substance but increased risk of addiction to other substances like methamphetamines and heroin. it is incredibly important that we protect kids from exposure to not just e-cigarettes but any product like that.

-- any product that contains nicotine laura: you warned of these risks as the surgeon general.ne thsurgeon general is saying we need to protect kids, but how? dr. murthy: it is important toiz rethat there are twoue separateions with e-cigarettes which we shouldn't conflate. nuer one is the credits should -- the question of should kids be using e-cigarettes, and do they help adults who already smoke qu smoking? those are separate questions. on theirst of whether kids should be vaping, there is no question of the scientific perspective that kids should not be using e-cigarettes. very important. the way we get tthe state where kids are not using e-cigarettes, number one, we have to form them and their parents about what the consequences are of e-cigarette use. the majority of children using juul products, the most popular type of vaping product, don't think they are using a nicotine-containing product.

laura: they don't, and yet wery learned that euul contains as much nicotine as regular cigarettes. should the sales be banned altogether?rt dr. : what is important in -- is learning what is driving these sale the most common reason they cite is the flavors. why do we allow e-cigarettes and flavored e-cigarettes in particular to be sold to kids? this issue has been ta by the fda in the united states. they are taking steps to restrict the sale of e-cigarettes to kids. but we are not moving nearly fast enoh. if we cannot protect kids from using e-cigarettes, which the last few years have shown we have not done a good job of, we edo think about a wholesale ban or we need to say that 're goingtes, if they' to be used for cessation, should be prescription devices prescribed by doctors or health care professionals. laura: would you favor a ban o e-cigarettes? dr. murthy: i would favor a ban

on flavors. also, if we cannot get the use rates to come down -- here is what i think we really need to do.th if we thin the benefit of e-cigarettes is f cessation, to help people who smoke to quit, we should, number one, study that. number two, companies producing e-cigarettes should submit them to the fda like any other presiption product. number three, we should make sure they are available for prescription use only. a: dr. vivek murthy, tha you for joining us. dr. murthy: of course. thanks for having me , china40 years ago today began to open up its economy with a series of landmark reforms. now it is looking to the arctic for new opportunities. greenland is seen as a vital stop linking china to europe and north america. but there are concerns about beijing getting a foot hel a foothold there.

oo-- getting aold there. reporter: the chinese are coming. they are getting icebreakers ready. there are minimal to be extracted development.ope for china is demanding essay in the whole future of the arctic, although it insists his interests are entirelyceful. greenland is the iaral place to everything a bit neglected, it s a chip on his shoulder where distant colonial masters are concerned. everything isbout to change. ohe tiny airport is going t disappear. of turniny in charge all three into big international -- orts we are doing these three

airports and tesy are the biconstruction project to the state. it will be important for the infrastructure in greenland's future. reporter: china is amg g those biddr the contract. you have to be here to get an ea of how enormous greenland is. tiny.t the population is less than 60,000. the size of a small town in western europe. greenland is minimal-rich and cash-poor. there are people here who would be only too glad if the chinese moved in in large numbers. it gets dark at 3:00, but in the capital people are selling things. secondhand clothes and cakes anything to get cash. inuits, indigenous

selle, are trying to imports. in the freezing cold, a couple -- inuits -- in u.s. are hunting more. >> i think it is good for greenland greenland can grow. it is good. >> good for everybody? >> yeah, i think. reporter: attitudes to chinese involvement are divided a.ng ethnic lin the majority are mostly teen. the minority of danish desco t tend not tbe. the men who delivers water to the outlying communities was worried. >> for me, i don't like it. leave greenland with nothing. i think the greenland should do

it by themselves. greenlandice government wants eventual independce from denmark. the prime minister and foreign minister would not be abinterviewet china's involvement. previous prime minister was prepared ttalk. >> we live in 2019 soon. greenland needsve urgently is ments from the outside. you don't really see in the western frontu.s. or europe. reporter: you would bhappy to see china putting money into greenland in a big way, would you? >> yes. reporter: denmark doesn't agree. just recently the danish prime minister came here on an attention grabbing visit. both denmark and the united states are seriously worried the chinese market strategic protect her.

mr. v rasmussisited the american missile detection to show his support. irthe foreign afspokesman explained their nervousness. >> we should be very worried out how they should evolve around the world. i would be worried. reporter: the trouble is the havecans and the danes long taken greenland for granted, and neither othem have spent too much money on it. nothat china is showing interest, things are about to change. vejustfour years time, there will be three big new international airports operating here, bringing in investors, .orkers, and tourists the tiny population of this

vast, emptyountry will not know what has said it. -- has hit it. laura: china's interest in the arctic. i am laura trevelyan. thanks so much for watching "bbc world news america." >> with thbbc news app, our vertical videos are designed to work and 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 is made possible by the freeman foundation, and kovler foundation, pursuingo solutionamerica's neglected needs. >> a new chapter begins. >> now you can access more of your favorite pbs shows than ever before, with pbs passport, a member benefit that lets you binge many h the latest shows and ca on your favorites.

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captioningponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, courtroom drama-- prison sentencing for president trump's former national security adviser is postponed after harsh words from the federal judge. then, president trump t the center of a fight over a southern border wall that could shut down parts of the federal government at the end of the week. and, an exclusive report from a vital port city in yemen as a fragile ceasefire appears to take hold. all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour >> mor funding for the pbs

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