woman: this is "bbc world news america." is made possible by... the freeman foundation; by judy and pete blum-kovler fodation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs; and by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. laura: this is "bbc world news america." reporting from washington, i am

laura trevelyan. canadian prime minister justin trudeau apologizes for multiple photos that have emerged of hime wearing blackface. will his apology being enough? prime min. trudeau: i stand here today to reflect on that and ask for forgiveness. ura: what did president trump say to a foreign leader that led a whistleblower to complain? g that is the story causinroar in washington as democrats demand answers. plus, as regulations are rolled back, colorado is feeling .e im some ask if the changes come at too great a cost. e why the rush to get at areas that we will never be able to put them ck? laura: for those watching on pbs and around the globe, welcome to "world news america."

today canadian prime minister justin trudeau asked for forgivens after multiple images of him emerged of him wearing blackface. he said at the time he did not recognize how hurtful his behavior was. thisomes weeks before voters go to the polls with mr. trudeau hoping to be reelected. from ottawa, the bbc's nick bryant reports. nick: when he first emerged as the canadian prime minister, hee be golden boy of international politics -- youthful, telegenic, a leader who seemed to embody the values of modern-day progressivm and political rrectness. so this photo has shocked supporters and opponents alike. ithows him wearing blackface in 2001, an arabian nights costume party where as a 29-year-old teacher he wasdr sed as a character from "aladdin." his message today, forgive me, i have changed. prime min. trudeau: i have endeavored in my life to put the

advantages and the opportunities i have been given to serve this country, to ght for people's rihgts, and i have to recognizeo that i let a lpeople dn with that choice, and i stand here today to reflect on that and ask for forgiveness. nick: today a video has emerged from the early 1990's showing a young justin trudeau covered in dark makeup and making faces. the emergence of the blackface photo comes in the midst of an election campaign where mr.d trudeau already been suffering from a corruption scandal that has hit him and his governing liberal party. his opponents are piling in. ac i believe canadians might have been able tpt his apology if he had been truthful and open, if he had not based the apology on a lie. once again with justin trudeau, one set of rules f himself and one set of rules for the rest of us. >> anytime we have examples of

making a mockery of someone for how they have lived and what their experiences are. he has got to answer for it. nick: justin trudeau has always sought to polwray canada as one of the world's most successful multicultural countries. here he granted syrian refugees at the airport as they were granted asylum. the blackface photographs, now recognized as a racist caricature, damages and contradicts his political brand. justin trudeau has positioned himself as a liberal counterpoint to donald trump south of the border. mbarrassing both here and internationally. the question is, will it imperil his reelection? nick bryant, bbc news, ottawa. laura: back here in the u.s. trumpl, did preside make a troubling promise to a former leader, and if so, what was it? "the washington post" reported

that an official file a complaint because this person was so concerned about the president said perhaps multiple times is causing a firestorm here. democrats say they are not gettinquanswers to the tions. greg miller is one of the journalists who broke the story and he jned us earlier. thanks for being with us. what more can you tell us about why the president's promise to a foreign leader caused an intelligence officerl so much co greg: that is a bit of a mystery biat this point. we don't have all the answers, nor do members of congress. what we do know is that this member of the u.s. intelligence community, having learned about trump's communic with a foreign leader, became so disturbed by what he saw that he then filed a formal complaint with the main whistleblower, aog sort of watcntity in the u.s. intelligence community, which is just a really extraordinary development.sp

e with a number of american intelligence officials today who say they could neverms recall a cirnce where the president himself was the subject of this kind of scrutiny. laura: and meanwhile, congress is finding it very difficult to get any answers about what h actualpened. greg: this has triggered a really -- a real fight over -- an almost constitutional fight for the united states over who and which branch of government is entitled to this kind ofio inform congress exercises an important oversight role of u.s. agencies. it is a check on their power. and so congress fes entitled to know about whats mentioned in this whistleblower complaint that the nation's spy chief has sitting on his desk. the white house has argued that thats not the case, that this

is privileged information involving the president's private communications and that it should not be shared with capitol hill. laura: the president says who is dumb enough to believe he would say anything inappropriate to a foreign leader while people are listening in. greg: he has a track record working against him if he is trying to make that case that he is careful in theses. circumstan i have written stories about his disclosure of classified information to russian officials in the oval office, and he has repeated got into fights with his intelligence agencies, often siding with autocrats including vladimir putin, the saudi crown prince, and the leader of north korea, over what his spy agcies are telling him. laura: the whistleblower complaint was filed in august. who had the president been

speaking to around then? greg: yes, the timing is important here and it is veryin resting because the complaint gets filed where with a week or so of trump having a conversation that he citiated with russian psident vladimir putin -- rse, a very acute tra record there --or and days po that he had a call with the leader of ukraine. so there is a lot of interest in what happened on those two conversations. laura: greg miller, thanks so much for joining us to talk about your scoop. greg: sure, thank you. laura: last weekend's attack on two saudi arabian oil refineries hasd washington riyadh pondering a response to the strike.

earlier today my colleague christian fraser asked the u.k.'s ambassador to the u.n. whether she was confide about ere the attack came from. christian: are you confident it did come from southern iran? amb. pierce: at the moment thego britisrnment has not established that and not made a statement. christian: so you are keeping an open mind? wob. pierce: there is a lot of supposition, and id be fair to say it would be unlikely the houthis, although they claim respsibility, could have don it. certainly not by themselves. th scale, the type of missiles heused, it is not likeouthis have launched before. saudi arabia has said that the attack came from iran. that is evidence we weigh ourselves but we take it very seriously, these saudi ments. christian: in tesss of possible solutions, there was a statement from liam fox, former defense secretary. he takes the view that the jcpoa is as dead as a dodo. is that the official u.k. position in the security council? b. pierce: not the officialt

position, is very challenging to keep the deal going. we still want to do that. the french and germans, russians, chinese, eu want to keep the deal going. but the past few months iran has stepped out of the deal three successive times. iran needs to come back intoom fulliance with it, and that is the bit that is challenging. irant is established tha did launch the attacks on aramco, that makes the inrnational situation very difficult. laura: karen pierce, u.k. ambassador to the u.n. th at least two dozen civilians have been killed in yghanistan to in separatencents, a suicide bombing and an airstrike. we have released new research on conflict which showed on average more than 70 people died every single day in august. a bbc team spent the whole of that month at one of the

usiest hospitals, from where secunder kermani sent this report. you might find the images distressing. cunder: if you want to see whathaore means afgstan, this is where to come. what war mns in afghanis come.is is where to it serves some of the most volatile provinces in the country. medical staff worked around the clock trying to save lives. but resources are stretched, and every day brings new patients and the new tragedies. a one-year-old is one of the youngest being treated here. overs third-degree burns 50% ofis body. the family compound caught fire after being struck by a stray buet. cunder: the youngest are often

those who suffer the most. this child was injured in an airstrike by government and u.s. forces. in a nearby room, a seven-year-old girl recovering after being shot in the head whilst her family were fleeing the fighting. last year more children were killed in afghanistan than in any other conflict. >> when you see the child suffering or dying, most of th patients are very sick if not dead on arrival. secunder: the bbc spent one month your. staff treated 75 gunshot victin and more tha injuries caused by landmines. most of the time you only hear about conflict in afghanistan en there is been a huge bomb ast or an airstrike has killed a large number of civilians full the spending time here, you realize how oftenives are torn l

apart by incidents that are not covered in the media. they might be smaller in scale, but they still leave devastating impact. a farmer from helmand province has just bee transferred here after stepping on a landmine. it is not know whether his legs can be saved or whether they will need to be abrogad. -- amputated. secunder: civilians are not the only ones paying the deadly price in this war. at the hospitalor me, the body of a policem killeda just a fehours ago for the waiting outside, his grieving family. a short while later, another

ambulance. this is the cond body of a policeman that has arrived at this hospital in the souce of a few. the government no longer releases figures on how many members of the security forces rehere dying because of the sheer volume. in the operating theater, he has been put under anesthetic. it is looking like he will eventually need amputation. for the surgeons, that is never an easy desion to make. >> this kind of case are growing in numbers and affecting our mental status. secunder: do you feelt t trauma yourself? >> exactly. it is affecting my family. secunder: for this baby at

least, there appears to be some good news. his burns have gradually been recovering, with the help of ells of the afternoon sun. his uncle'dolife has been nated by war. he wonders if his nephew's future will be, too. secunder:here are stories of hope and resilience here. the horrors of the war continued. more relatives arrive to collect more dead bodies. ate few days afwe finish filming will and that the baby has died -- w learned that the baby has died, too. happy endings are hard to come by here. secunder kermani, bbc news,

kandahar. laura: heart break and loss in just one month in afghanistan. you are watching "bbc world news america." still to come on tonight's program, young people are speaking out on climate change.m ahead orrow's strike, we hear from a 12-year-old making his voice hear laura: iraq's prime minister has not too lateit is to stop a war between iran and saudi arabia, and he warned that any new conflict in the region could spread uncontrollably. he was speaking to the bbc's rld affairs editor john simpson in baghdad in his first major tv interview since taking office a year ago. >> good morning, prime minister. adil abdul-mahdi is a skilled operator. ave a political party behind him, but a year ago he got iran and the americans to

back him as prime minister, although now he finds himself caught between the two of them. i thinkn. awoul-mahdi: we still have time for diplomacy. we need wise decisions from all. john: there are other threats, too. cuisrael has been d of carrying out drone attacks against iraq. n.prime bdul-mahdi: we were told that some of the attacks on iraq was done by isrlis. john: still, you can see how iraq h changed in the year that abdul-mahdi has been in power. isis has been defeatednoat least for w. yet all this could change if iraq is caught in an open war nbetween the u.s. and the salaries on one side and iran on the other. prime min. abdul-mahdi: we are told with assurances that no one wants war. they want but the peaceful

difficult for all parties to start. john: after 16 years of invasion and civil fragile here.eels very complex divisions have only just arted to heal. if iraq becomes a new battleground, this could be threatened all over again. john simpson, bbc news, baghdad. t laura: over the next we fight against climate change will be front and center, with a global strike tomorrow followed by a u.n. summit in new york. at the same time, the trump administration is rolling back regulations, saying they are a burden for industry and costly for consumers. among the states where the ttle is playing out is colorado. the bbc's aleem maqbl has been there to see the impact. aleem: the north fog valley in colorado is an area of stunning

diversity and landsce. lush green valleys aside riking, stark desert terrain, plateau mountains, and dense pine forests. but it also sits on one of the largest shale gas reserves ing the u.s., leavese pockets of untouched splendor severely under threat. perhaps now more than ever. this gas well has been in operation not far for manyar but the trump administration is pushing aggressively for more wells to be drilled on public lands. includes areas of natural beauty and even wildlife refuges. j t its first year, the trump administration offered up 12 million acres of public land to oil and gas cavities, six

times as much as the obama administration the previous year. those opposed to energy companies developing here say they are not being listened to. >> why are we trashing some of our remarkable landscapes and pristi somebody can make a profit? it doesn't make senseo why the rusht at these areas that we will never be able to put them ck the same way? aleem: the currentst admition is proud that u.s. oil and gas production is going up. >> this is an opportunity for us to be able to export. we can export into japan. aleem: but at what expense to the environment? >> well, again, i will point to my state. we had some of the most stringent environmental requirements put in place. aleem: in fact, environmentalal regulations ke on emissions and protecting wildlife, on drilling, and pollution has been overturned at an astonishing rate in favor of oil and gas companies.

>> we have seen attacks on some to our most fundamental regulations meanrotect our natural resources, really bedrock enviroental regulations, and we have seen definite efforts by the trump admistration to reduce the amount of input that the community can provide to these important decisis. aleem: already more than 50 rules to protect the environment have been scrapped, and all the signs are en more are on their way out. good for the u.s. oil and gas industry, bad for the environment and for climate change. aleemaqbool, bbc news, colorado. laura: as we have mentioned, there will b calling attention to climate change tomorrow, and young people will be leading the charge. among them is a 12-year-old from florida. he has traveled to washington for the event and joined me a short time ago. thank you so much for being with us, levi. levi: thank you for having me.s

laura: acrerica kids are skipping school, including myei th grade son, because of the leadership that you have son on -- shown on climate change. re you hoping to achieve levi: what i am hoping to achieve is to show adults that we care and the peopcharge and are empowered that we care and we need to be taking action to save our future and our lives. laura: why is it your generation that is leading the way on climate change and not mine?le : the reason it is my generation and not yours is because the adults have not been taking enough action, and so we need taking action.g the adults are welcome to strike with us, but we are the ones leading this. laura: you live on a barrier island in florida. te me whatou see that makes you think that climate change real. levi: the barrier island i live ons on the east coast of

florida, and this barrier island is at sea level. because of theurricanes, we oftentimes experience flooding, and so we need to be taking action if we want to save my barrier island from going underwater. dei've seen fish killed becausef warming temperatures. that kills millions of fish. shseeing millions of dead n the beach is terrifying, and also in the lagoon. and we need to be taking action to save the planet and a future. -- an hour future. laura: when you hear adults, and there are many of them in washington, d.c., who do this, whessay that human activity not play a part in climate change, what do you say to that? levi: what i would say to that is you neeto look at the science, and they oftentimes to say that the world has been changing for millions of years.m and it has il increments, but it has been increasing, itha been changing increasingly fast.

and so we need to save the future of the world by, i -- i believe, 2050 the scientists he predicted that barrier island will be underwater if we continue to be going on the course that we are, and maybe even before. laura: and that is why you are part of this lawsuit. you are suing the federal government over climate change. what is it you want tohe government do differently? levi: what i want to see the government do fferently is i want them to be taking action and being responsible for the actions they have caused -- they are lirally killing us. people that are from low-income communities, that are minorities, they have been affected more, and everybody has been aected. so wneed to be taking action if we want to have a future on this planet.

laura: you are only 12. your life? levi: yes, this is literally the fight of my life, and fighting for my life, because if we don, not take act won't have a life. and the people on this planet will not have a life. we need to be taking action if we want to have lives and futures. laura: thank you for being with us. levi: thank you for having me. laura: levi leading the way on climate change. we will have full coverage of the effect of that schoolchildren strike across america on tomorrow's program. yocan find much more on all the day's news on our website. to see what were working on at any time do make sure to follow , us on twitter. i would love to hear from you. i am laura trevelyan. thank you so much for watching "world news america." anr: funding for this presentation is made 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. ...is just up here. that's where... man: she took me out to those weapons. i think we're off to a great start.

captioning sponsored by newsur productions, llc >> nawaz: good evening. i'm amna nawaz judy woodruff is away. on the newshour tonight: "urgent concern." a whistleblower sounds the alarm, leading to warnings from the intelligence comnity watchdog and sparking a fight between congre and the white house.en >> i shouldn't have done that. i should've known better, but in didn'ti'm really sorry. >> nawaz: racism and regret. canadian prime minister justin trudeau apologizes after revelations that he wore blackface on multiple occasions. plus, between the lines. a conversation with joy harjo, the new poet laureate of the uned states, and the first native american to fill the role. >> you can time travel in a poem. you can get to know people in a poem.

and poetry is a plyo