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>> this is bbc world news america. reporting from washington, i'm laura trevelyan. fighting intensifies along the syrian border. tens of thousands have fled the violence. syrian position just acrosshe board are beingounded now and there are announcements being made telling civilians to take shelter and to get off the street. the plot thickens. two men who helped rudy giuliani try to investite joe biden or accused of breaking campaign finance laws. plus, 30 years since the fall i then curtain across europe, r we look at howussia is trying to regainn i sense of empire. ♪ a:laur for those watching on pbs and around tnd globe, welcome to

world news america. for a second day, turkish forcel hanched major tax from northern syria as a try to drive kurdish fighters out of the area. turkish president says more than 100 kurdish forcesavavbeen killed.ivilns have died. ve erdogan is calling on the u.s. and other major allies to back offenses. our inrnational correspondent is in turkey near the syriann bo.er and has this report. reporter: turkey says it is creating a safe zone in syria. take a look at fivyear-old sarah. e has just lost one ofonererthat killed her 12 year old brother.y she is onef casualties in the hospital in a kutown today. n ctims of a new chapter ian old war.r.

bbr uncle mohammed told th there is no military be nearby. the milita base is this child, he said. >> p b makireng no siapologies for his offensive. far fromt. as his party rallied arod him, he threatened his critics with a flood oo syrian refugees. >> hey, europeannion, get a hold of yoself. look, i'm telling you again, if you describe our operation as an invasion again, we will tal tha easy road. l wil tng his forces are now mi deeper into syrian territory. here rebels backed by turkey

occupy a border vill one of several they have captured. president erdogan is making cmilitary gains but diplo losses. and herereis targets, syrian rcasesfoisvi h tes rrorists, desperatel second largestup against nato's arm they led the battle against i.s., now washington has left them to their fate. but the kurds hit back today, causing terror and casuaies, as we were a block away. this is the main strt in a turkish border town. police trying to clear the area ter what appeared to be mortar fire. >> we've just had two rounds ofs explns here in the space of only a few moments.

the blast seemed to be inside this building. >> but then we were moved back amid fears of morencoming fire. turkey's offensive across the border in syria is now hitting home. this amateur video appears to show some of the casualties today. officials here say three people are confirmed dead, and two of them were children.ct we were expeg a response from the turkish authorities, and it hasn't taken long.ri we have been h explosions in the last few minutes. on the horizon you can see thee. dense e ack sm that is the aftermh of a series of airstrikes. syrian positions just across thp border are beinded now and announcements are ing made telling civilians to take shelter and to get off the streets.

the airstrikes continued through the afternoon. on both sides of this border now, there are famies grieving, and the offensive is only iits second day. at the local mosque, a special prayer said in times of war and times of mourning. turk's assault on syria has been met by a chorus of condemnation, but here we found staunch support for the military offensive. >> we are sending our soldiers there as if were sending them to a wedding. we are so proud of them. off fit to celebrate.et s we >> but this is the night sky inside syria. towns and villages under fire, an the you i -- u.n. says

hundreds of thousands of civilians in harm'onway. bbc newshe turkey-syan border. laura: the car thousands o northeassyria. our correspondent has spoken tou british men d of being former i.s. fighters. >> the islamic state group was born in the shadows. isonwets bed ground , its recruitment centers. thousands of its swporters are ai jind thorer n adv up, but i's way. the conditiond are appalling, t these are the best prisons the kurds have. for years they have told the west to take back their jihadists. few countries did andow the prisons are overwhelmed.

escape is a growing threat. in one crowded sell, we were lde would find a man fm east london, part of a gang that joined i.s.in university. he is accused of being a committed jihadist who fought heortured in prison. >>e arthe onliti but b btish and amecan troops are ulling back to avoid clashes with their nato ally, turkey. so the men and boys of the islamic state sit and wait. the kurds are left to continue the threat alone while fighting for their lives. the prisons, now undermanned, turkish hands.ll into

onhas already been jailed. in another prison, facebook post show him armed and dressed f f combat. ahe came as a teenager. hiss uncle was k kled fighting for i.s.. 18 members of his fami joi use e. home, but says i.s. is still waing to strikik >> i think they will come back. the having ofng territori in the deses in araqra i believe whenever they have a chance, they are going to come outly and probabo somethmeg even worse. >> outside the prisons a camps for i.s. women and their children.

extra guards wersent here this week after a number of women w escaped. some w we rapture but others are still on the run. thousands to putational these men behind bars, but the west has abandonon them. crisis.ism these men are not just prisoners, they are an islamic state armeao dy rri t for mor mn spoke a short time ago with robin wright from the new yorker who has reported extensively from the mewiddle e st. hthanks for being w us, robin. iweyoisn rey vthnoerastern syr. how uneven do you think the fight is between the kurds and most uneven cts anywhereof the in the world. turkey has more than 350,000tw

troopse that with rese. the kurds have 60,000 with women and men. the turks have 500 warplanes, thousands of tanks and military arpieces. the kurds have rudimentary aining and very basic, vintage weaponry. the chances that the cards can make anyigthca cniou sld efind a slaughter. laura: it is a slaughter that of enabling, even by hawks within the republican party. by effectively giving a green light to president erdogan and removing troops from the area. the president has just said that syria.bi t united g over fewas options now. it was, tragically, the one party that was allies with both turkey and the kurdish l militia inside syria that has defeated isis. he could''ve negotiated with bot of them. there was a special u.s. envoy who had made some attempts, but

esident erdogan has been intent on doing this for a very long time. biggest threat to turkey and he has always feared a kurdish state.ng so he is looo create a buffer zone along the border with syria, but that will further dismember syria, which is in the middle of two other wars. hiura: so wh impact does have on president al-assad? robin: you have the war through isis but there are still 20,000-30,000 isis spider -- isis fighters somewhere along the border between syria and iraq who have engaged in insurgency that engages gularly in conflict.

you have the eight year civil war and rebels including an al qaeda faction that are holding idlib province. laura: how long do you think this will go on? will turkey's president be able to maintain it if therexis rnal pressure?rn robin: i think erdogan is intent on this. he has gamed preside trump very well. he likes to callim on weekends when the president is not surrounded b his foreign policy advisor, when he is playid olf as he december to get trump to promise to leave syria altogether. it is hard to see that he is going to give up easily. the one danger is that they go deeper than 20 miles and then a end orbing all the isis fighters as well. laura: robin, thanks so much for being with us. in other news, britain's prime minier horace johnson and his iris counterpart say they agree

that they can see a pathway to a possible brexit deal. they held two hours of talks on how to avoid a hard border in the irish prime ministerves the suggested that a deal could stil done by the end ofbe october, the deadline. >>riin bnoefs g te she is married to a diplomat and has diplomatic immunity. two european authors have been awarded the nobel prize for literature. this year's award went to an austrian novelist. the announcement of last year's prize had been postponed after a sexual and financial abuse scandal. you'rere watching bbc world news

america.l sto, tonht proiggrhtam, t'os men with ties trudy giuliani ares activities related to ukraine. a massive strike by general motors autoworkers as well into its fourth week with no sign of ending. th,000 employees walked of job in mid-september, demdingth the carmaker increase wages and provide job security. gm management is looking to shore in its bottom our business correspondent reports from detroit on how the strike cld impact the broader u.s. economy. reporter: at every entrance of theng spraw facility, they are picketing. people honk their horns in support. billy brewer has worked at gm

for 42 years. company during the financial crisis when the carmaker had to be bailed out by the u.s. government. >> we feel we deserve our share then when they were losing. we saved them, sohey need tove step up and s. >> the impact of the strike goes beyond the workers and genenal motors. e auto industry is the largest employer in michigan and thousands of other businesses rely on it. if the strike goes on toog, lon it could plunge this state into a recession. normally these trucks would be hauling gm parts, but today they stand idle. it has already0 cut 100 2 emoypls.g ll b ok. despite $8 billion in profits for gm last c year, t industry is facing an uncertain future. >> all the trade stuff is kind of up in the air.

we don't knowhe automation and electrification will take hold. gm is spending a lot of money. >> even before the strike, america's manufacs ring sector owing down payment this strike makes it worstroking more- stoking more fears that a recession is around the corner. ♪ laura: two menith ties to president trump's personal lawyer, rudy giuliani, were arrested at dulles out for -- dulles airport last night. they are accused of campaign finance violations. severally, they are said to have assisted's or giuliani as it tried to get ukraine to congressnal committees want to hear of the two men as part of the impeachment inquiry. a short time ago, president from the white hthe situation

presowent trump: i don't them. i don't know about them, i don't owow what they do. but i don't maybe th were clients of rudy, you would have to ask him. i just don't know. i spoke about all this earlier with a formefederal campaign-finance viecolations. what are they supposed to have done? >> we have gotten a crash course in campaign-finance the last few years. we've heard all kinds of things about what you can and cannot do. what they are accused of is pretty straightforward. the indictment says that through mpa shell y theyanaged to get fus from overseas, ukraine and perhaps elsewhere, funnelou them t a shell company in order make them look like they were u.s.-based contributions to a couple of super pacs aligned with the president. as we know, cannot accept foreign money into u.s. domestic campaign, whether it's a sur pac, whether it's for congress,

by basically hiding this money through what appears to be a conspiracy they are charged with. charges at this point have not been approved but of course it , is very serious. laura: and the trump campaign is saying they didn't know the ney was foreign. t separately these a mre associates of rudy giuliani and the congressional committees want to hear from them and have issued subpoenas for them and their documents. what is that about? >> i have heard peop already ying this case has absolutely nothing to do with what the house is looking into. but that is really not true, because these upposed to be mayor giuliani's fixers in the ukraine. they were helping m delve into this mission of finding out information about joe and hunter biden. so on the one hand they appear to be possibly key witnesses into exactly what the house is looking into. on the other hand, now they are criminal defendants along withme two other gent when you put them in that position, the likelihood othem

cooperating i would say becomes a lomore likely that they wi be forthcoming with whateverhe house wants to hear from them. puura: doe thites iantpolly t msmsf? >> at a minim, it seems clear he is a witness. it is hard to see how he can continue to function as a lawyer and say i'm here to give legal advice, i can't be forced to the same time he seems a key witness in both these instances now, whether or not thee president was trying to pressure ukraine into getting information about joe biden, and now on the hand, his association with these two dividuals who were alledly funneling money into ace are two separate incidents, as of now, rudy is the connecting force beeen the two, and i don't hehose c cw nuonane tito fufution as a personal lawyer to

the president with the knowledge he has of both of these cases.s laurla thar explaining that so clearly. it has bee30 years since the tumultuous events of 1989 and the fall of the arm curtain. end of communism meant freedom. but for moscow, it meant the collapse ofts empire in end of soviet domination in eastern europe. our moscow correspondent steve rosenberg reports. steve: moscow is a city that loses empire. bufor centuries, russia h had an unswerving belief that it is great, and that great powers must have influeuee. yocan feel that ithe kremlin. look at this. enceays power, omnipotthis says. that's why fora, 1989 was

sosius r traumatic. 30 years ago, people power swept away the iron cuain, and with it' moscow's domination of eastern europe, russia's empire. >> today's russia wants to forget about 1989. it was a period of backtracking, surrenr, defeat. >> aoss eastern europe are ghostsf o the fallen empire, shards of a former superpower. soviet army bases lie abandoned. is o is near bern. moscow had 800 military garrisons in east germany alone. when the berlin wall fell, i withdrew its troops. he was t commander in the last

russian soldier to leave germany. >> when we left, politicia in the west cried from the rooftops that nato wouldn'take a single step to the east. but today, nato hasn't only reached our borders, it has come right o our fence, to our gate. >> but 30 years on, it is russia , we saw this display of strength in crimea, ukrainian nerritory russiaexed in 2014. athcollapse of the iron curtain had brought he betwee moscow and st. hthasat what we see is a pattef behavior whesi r is responsible for aggressive actions against neighbors. that reflectei that the main problem with russia is that they stillth believe in ideaf influence. >> in response, nato is boosting

their defenses. estonia, we were given where it's not justyber c.nato has exr policing to intercept russian militaryircraft. the baltic has become one of the front lines of what feels new cold war between russia and the west. to moscow, the presence of nato troops near its border is are 'threat to russia' naonal sperhaps the cold war ner really ended. but how does moderdo russia see itself, as an empire, aay global , or a superpower? this is my chance to ask the president. i asked vladimir putin, is

ruia is superpower again? >> we are not speaking -- not seeking this status. we're not trying to return to away when the soviet union imposed its power on its neighbors. but some in the weshave not learned from that experience. they are making the same mistake. it's one of theessons of 1989, that it is easier to destroy and iron curtain and it is to ild trust betwn russia and the west. steve renberg, bbc news, moscow. laura: russia looks back to past glories. remember youan find much more ysaldathe thanyouch for watching bbc world news america. announcer: funding for this prese mation e possible by... the freeman foundation; byudy and peter bl-kovler founletion,

pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs; and by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. 's...is just uhere. where... man:he took me out to those weapons. i think we're off a greatattart.

captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. w i'm judydruff. on the newshour tonight:l althe president's lawyer's men. two associates of rudy giulianio are arrestcampaign finance charges as the u.s. house subpoenas them in the hepeachment inquiry. then, crossing t line. kurdish civilians attempt to flee for safety as theurkish invasion into northern syria escalates. and, sally, you've never seen a street like sesame street. eveything happens here, you gonna love it. >> woodruff: this show is brought to you by the number fifty. a half-century of learning and growing with the neighbors of sesame street. >> we have a 50-year history of reaching childrein those critical early years when you can make the most difference.