woman: this is "bbc world newamerica." is me possible by... the freeman foundation; by judy and peter blum-kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs; and by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. nada: this is "bbc world news america." reporting from washington, i am nada tawfik. dramatic scenes from hong kong,

where protesters use metal poles to storm the parliament building. hours later, ty are cleared by police t usingr gas. after becoming the first sitting president to set foot in north korea, what comes next fortr president p's policy and the goal of denuclearization? and a push for development has put the amazon at risk, with deforestation taking a devastating toll. >> this is happening all over the amazon to create new farmland, and the result ithat the great forest has never been under such pressure. nada: for those watching on pbs d around the world, welcome to "world news america." tense scenes have been unfolding in hong kong after protesters

smashed thr way into the parliament building, spraying graffiti on the walls and tearing down portraits of we city's leaders. hours later theye driven out by police firing tear gas. the protests coincided with the 22nd anniversary of the handovew of p from the u.k. to china, but are a continuation of the unrest sparked by a controversial extradition law. a brief time ago, hong kong's chief executive carrie lam held a press conference defending the police's action and condemning the violent protest. from hong kong, rupert wingfield-hayes has the latest. rupert: exactly 22 years after china took control, the youth of hong kongth venter fury, attempting to smashed their way into the parliament. you can see these more radic activist hav just broke through the ndow of the legco building

behind me d managed to smash through this toughened glass and they are trying toet inside the legco building. inside you can see there are r large numbers t police. so far they have held back. the destructn continued, but the police stood by. it lood very much like they had been ordered not to intervene. meanwhile, across town, hundreds of thousands of othe kongers were on the march in a second huge antigovernment protest. this one was completely peaceful. but even here, there was sympathy for those besieging parliament. >> i understand what they are doing and i thank them for taking the risk to go to jailth and try to stogovernment from handing over the rights of hong kong people.: rupertck outside parliament, the trashing continued.e thlice now nowhere to be seen. now they're trying to smash the

warough the steel shutters, and the crowd here shouts "keep going, keep going." what is the point of this? >> we only know peaceful protest is not useful anymore. you can say it is drawin attention or make some noise too makee know what happens here and let more people know the government is not listening to our peaceful protests. rupert: finally, the steel shutters gave way and the protesters poured in. inside, the trashing continued. inhe chamber they raised t old british colonial flags. what must the chinese communist government in beijing be thinking as it watches these images? how long until there arest mainets ofkong?

outside, the police had finally now masked their fors. at midnight they struck with a huge barrage of tear gas. the police havsuddenly lost their earlier timidity. i am now inside the legislative chamber. as you can see, the place has been completely cleared of protesters and the police are now firmly in control. you can taste and smelar gas in the air here. as we have come into the building, we have seen an enormous amount of damage. this building has been badly trashed.u yon see the graffiti on the wall behind me. already tonight, many in the opposition are starting to ask residents about the wisdom of these young protesters storming intong this builwhether it was a victory of any sort, or in fact handed a victory to the government. in the last hour, hong kong chief executive rrie lam has held an emergency press conference to condemn the violence.

ms. lam: nothing is more important than the rule of law in hong kong. i hope the community at large will agree with us that for these violent acts we have seen, it is right for us to condemn it and hope society will return to normal. rupert: this graffiti calls the government dogs. another says, "you forced us to do this." hong kong is more polarized than at.ny time since the handov many are worried this has gone too far, but others are asking what has driven hong kong's youth to such violence. nada: that was rupert wingfield-hayes reporting from hongmeong. a brief go i spoke to the robert daly, director of the kissinger institute at the woodrow wilson center. robert daly, thank you so much for joining us. this is uncharacteristic for hong kong. p sotesters say that the peaceful demonstrations have not worked. does this fundamentally change

things? robert: this is unprecedented, and tomorrow might be different, but this was an actf ondalism of a sort we did not see in the previous rounds of demonstrations, 2014 and 2003. going into the legco building and defacing a symbol of hong kong and draping the colonial flag over the lectern, these are new acts, and these could change public perceptions in hong kong and within mainland china. yes, this is something new. .mnada: carrie lam at 4:00 decided to speak about this issue. she tried to make a distinction between peaceful protesters and others she called hooligans, saying she was shocked and hope thcommunity at large was a well. do you think they will agree withe her as hopes? robert: i think many will agree with her that the younger people who went into legco and committed vandalism went over the top. but that will probably not change their views about the

un trlying issues, which arehe extradition bill that carrie lam had tabled to get a rough that with that basically being could call somebody from hongng nto the mainland justice system. there is a lot of dissatisfaction with that. not likely the vandalism will not concern that people in hong kong feel themselves to be hong kongers and do not want increased control from beijing. nada: many feel thisres a direct to xi jinping. is china going to have to react and respond? robert: china will have to think about the overall. -- have to think about the problem on the periphery overall. it has had 22 years to convince people that one counwo systems serves their interests. it has had 70 years to convince the people of tibet of the same thing, and it isn't going very well. these areas, hong kong in particular, are the demonstrion project for nvincing taiwan it should be united. this is a challenge to xi jinping's policies on the periphery of china and therefore

it is a challenge to his big goal, the rejuvenation of the great chinese nation. nada: we saw that police were rather restrained, and carrie lam made a point to sahow restrained they were. if this continues, can we count on that being the case? robert: you can never be sure, but i think the police were restrained, and that works to the benefit of the hong kong government to be seen as not otnting to be violent against mostly very young ters. it works against the narrative that they are merely the heavybe hand oing. they did not behave that way today. there was tear gas, but that was about it. 13 police were said to be injured. and there were counter protests, about 150,000 hong kong citizens protesting in support of the government and against these demonstrations. hong kong has had a lot of protests and they value theirit social and pal freedom, but they also value social stability and the abil do business. this going forward, the next few weeks or months, is a battle for

public opinion. nada: thank you so much. robert: thank you. nada: do stay with the bbc as we continue our coverage on the ground from hong kong. president trump is now back in washington a trip. historic on sunday he became the first sitting u.s. president to set foot in north korea. his nearly hour-long meeting with kim jong-un has raised new questions about whether the u.s. will drop its demand for full nuclearization. for more on where the policy goes from here, i'm joined by -- ior was joined a time ago by bruce klingner, who served as the cia deputy division chief for korea and is now at the heritage foundation. the policy up until now of the united states has always been that north korea must ull and rapid denuclearization. from tho you have spoken to, what do you make of the "new york times" article that they could call for a freeze? bruce: it is inconsistent with things i've hea official. u.s. they have always insisted we have to ha what is a u.n.

requiremenof complete, rifiable, and irreversible denuclearization. all the officials i have talked with have said that north korea has to commit to the u.n. definition of denuclearization as well as abandoning not only production facilities but the existing arsenal. nada: president trump placed a lot of value ohis relationship th kim jong-un. do you think he is setting himself up for failure? bruce: well, we have always failed so far with diplomatic engagement with the north. we have had 8 failed agreements for denuclearization because north korea has cheated or not fulfilled on them. the president is prioritizing this relationship over the policy over the strategic objectives, where he is undermining all three aspects of his maximum-pressure policy. g he is pullck onio sanct, he is canceling allied military exercises, and on diplomatic isolation, he is embracing someone who isn the un's sanctions list for human rights violations. nada: plomats, as they tried to reach an agreement, the

reality is that north korea sees it as essential to the survival toave a nuclear program. is the world going to have to accept north korea as a nuclear power? bruce: we can't. if we were to accept it, it would undermine decadeof nonproliferation policy and it would give the green light to her nuclear aspirants. it is difficult, we cannot give up on it, but we cannot acknowledge them as a nuclear weapon state. nada: what about the fact that the united states and north n korea ha come to an agreement about what denuclearization looks like? bruce: that really shows that kim jong-un is no different from his father and grandfather. when they define denuclearization, it encompass not only the military and forces in south korea but global arms control. we will go to zero when you and all the other members go to nada: ki-un deciding to joro. meet with president trump at tho demilitarize, how do you think he has been managing the diplomacy ofll of this?

bruce: he has been very deft. north korea has always alternated between provocations and charm be more offensive than charming. kim has played a good pr game. he has ratcheted up tensions and then allowed himself to be brought back to the table. agreeing to this very short notice invitation from the president really shows some deft north korean diplomacy. they usually take a very long time to make a decision. nada: president trump has the upcoming election and it would be useful for him to have a foreign-policy win. i know you have spoken to those in the administration who are taking a tough stance on north erkorea, but is any chance they will take some concessions to be able to declare victory here? bruce: they may, but i don't think it would be driven by the election. hsome said he would have e a summit before last november's election, and he didn't. i think a large number of people vote for the president and

against the president regardless of what happens with north korea. he could depict a non-agreementa as a succe say that a strong president was willing to walk away from a bad deal, unlike president obama with the iran nuclear deal. nada: bruce klingner, thank you. bruce: thank you. nada: in other news, a twin-engine aircraft has crashed in an airport hangar in texas, killing all 10 people on board. the plane burst into flames after veering into a hangar in addison airport shortly after takeoff. two crew members and eight passengers were onboard, but there were no reports of injuries on the ground. afghan officials say that soiers have shot dead five taliban gunmen in the city of kabul. the gun battle started during rush hour and lasted seven hours. three people were killedn the blast and many others were injured including 50 schoolchildren. japan has resumed commercial whaling for the first time since

1986 after officially withdrawing from the international whaling commission. five whaling vessels sailed from the ships have permits to hunt more than 200 of the mammals between now and late december. you are watching "bbc world news america." still to come on tonight's program, the funeralld for a father and his young daughter who died trying to cross therd into america. we report from el salvador. nada: the mexican city of guadalajara has be hit by severe hailstorm in what i region. a subtropical cars were stranded half buried with their drivers trapped inside. the city as compelling temperatures of more than 30 degrees celsius, and while

seasonal hailstorms do there is no record of anything like this. almost 500 houses were damaged. mexican troops were deployed. reporter: breaking through ice packed two meters deep, industrial diggers leave clear of operation in guadajara. a freak hailstorm has left parts of the city, one of mexico's most populous, paralyzed. om the sky, a white sheet appears to have settross the landscape, encasing hundreds of cars. the drivers pry them out. meanwhile, families bring children to clamber over the temporary terrain that has caused curiosity a frustration in equal measure. the city had until now been experiencings temperatu 30 degrees celsius. what has caused the hailstorm? >> hail in mexico is not

unusual. il and hot parts of the world is not unusual. in fact, he is one of the ingredients you need to develop the new discounts with ice crystals moving up and down and growing together and falling down as hail. obviously, it's much hail in a uitet space of time is unusual. reporter: thoughuadalajara's ldin highways have reopened, they ce days before the city is entirely back on the move. in the meantime, authorities say it is a w miracle that no o injured. nada: the image ofscar alberto martínez and his daughter, valeria, who drowned trying to

cross into thenited states, has touched a chord around theob today funerals were held in their native el salvador. our chief international correspondent orla guerin is there and has this repor orla: united in grief, mourners gathered to say a last farewell to a father and daughter.d they d each other's arms trying to reach a new life. a solemn procession tohe grave site, the heartbreaking end of their american dream. oscar ramirez was just 25, and valeria not even two, when they drowned together a week ago' for el salvados new president, a national tragedy regional crisis. i asked what he thinks of america's response. what is your view the handling of president trump of central american migrants in

general? do you think his approach is lacking in humanit pres. bukele: yes, i condemn the treatment of migrants in mexico, the united states, guatemala -- but i say to the people of our country that we have to focus on making our country better and making our country a place where nobody has to migrate. migrant is a right, but itpt should be ann and not an obligation. orla: he told me that blames f o the deatoscar and valeria belong at home. pres. buekele: they fledunur y. it is our fault. we have not been able to provide anything, not a decent job, not a decent school. what if this little girl had a decent school here and a decent health care system for her and r mily and a decent water supply, living where a gang will not come and rape

her and kill her family? orla: instead, little valeria, who loved to dance, was born into poverty in a neighborhood preyed upon by gangs. her father thought the best thing he could do for her was risk the dangerous jouo america.ie hetrying to save her. now they have been buried together in a single grave. orla guerin, bbc news, sansa ador. nada: el salvador ling oscar and valeria to rest and mourning the deaths. officials in brazil told the bbc there is been an aggressive increase in deforestation since the election of presinent bolsonaranuary. an area of the amazon rainfores roughly ze of a football field is now being cleared every single minute. matters because the are plays a vital role in regulating the earth's climate, absorbing billions of tons of carbon

dioxide every year. in the first of a series of reports, our science edito david shukman has been to see how the decades of conservation efforts are being reversed. david: the rich greens of the most vibrant hitat on earth, the billions of trees store so mich carbon that they help to slow down global w. they are also home to an amazing 1/10 of all species in the natural world. some uerving, others adorable. but the sight of bare earth and dead trunks is becoming more common with huge tracts of rest wiped out. my footsteps and distant birdsong are the only sounds. it is tragic to see his close-up.se to bring the trees down to the ground, they just knocked them over with a bulldozer. this is happening all over the

amazon to create newarmland. the result is that the forest has never been under such pressure. over the decades, field by field many trees agriculture. for that is set to speed up becausve of a masush for development. the new president of brazil, jair bolsonaro, was eld on a promise to exploit the amazon. he's delighted suorters by saying too much of the forest is protected. his environment officials are deeply worried, but he has banned them from saying anything in public. you are trying to save the forest. so we have to meet this official in secret. his face hidden and voice changed, he says the government is trying to cover up the loss of the forest.

david: and the scale of the deforestation he describes is staggering. up here, atop this 50-meter-high observation tor, the view is just phenomenal.ou of what looks like a great ocean of green, this is the canopy of the largest rainforest in the world.ha the problem ismore and more of it is being chopped down. it is hard to believ an area the size of a football pitch is being cleared every single minute. what that means is that forests that could cover 2000 pitches is vanishing every day. all the signs are that this rate of the devastation will accelerate. cattle of thbiggest single reason the trees are cleared. they are grazing on land that used to be forest.

brazilian beef is in demand all over the world. the president's vision of expanding agriculte here has delighted the farmers, like one who says other countries cut their forests down long ago. david: farming on an industrial scale has already reached the amazon. but the government wants to see more of it. and to weaken the laws protecti a the forest. ed to interview two ministers about this, but they both refused. a line often heard here is that only brazil can decide what to do with the forest, no one else. but the fact is the more trees are cutwe down, the morose one of the few things holding back the rise in global

temperatures. what happens here in ting years matters far beyond brazil. david shukman, bbc news, in e amazon. nada: a reminder of our top kostory -- protests in honng onntinue over an extraditi bill that would allow people be sent to mainland china for trials. thyprotesters forced their into the central chambers of hong kong's parliament after ane hours-long sge. hong kong police retook parliament from protesters aer firing tear gas to disperse the crowd. in response, carrie lam, theut chief exece of hong kong, gave a press conferenceni cond the protests and defending the police actions. remember, you can find more on t' story and all the day' news on our website. i am nada tawfik. thank you for watching "world news america." announcer: funding for this presentation is made possible by... th by judy and peter blum-kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs;

and by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you. thk you. ...is just up here. that's where... man: she took me out to those weapons. i atink we're off to a gtart.

captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> brangham: good evening. i'm william brangham.dy juoodruff is away. on the "newshour" tonight, we are on the ground in hong kong as protests move from the streets to inside a main government building, and polico use tear gassperse the crowds. then, president trump makes history crossing into north korea. what his embrace of longstanding adversaries means for u.s. foreign policy. plus, exiting the stage-- from money raised to barnstorming key battlegrounds, the state of the democratic race for the white house after the first debates. and 25 years after the fall of apartheid, how south africans are working to heal the lingering scars of racial hatred >> the kinds of entrepreneurs we work with, are deeply aware of what inequality can do in this country.