♪ >> this is "bbc world news erica." >> funding of this presentation is made possible by the frman foundation, kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs, and purepoint financial. >> how do we shape our tomorrow? it starts with a vision. we see its ideal form in our mind, and then we begin to chisel. we strip away everything that stands in the way to reveal new possibilities.ur atoint financial, we have

designed our modern approach to banking around you -- youral plans, your your dreams. your tomorrow is now. purepoint financial. >> and now, "bbc world news erica." jane: this is "bbc world news america. reporting from washington, i am jane o'brien. scott pruitt, presidt trump's embattled head of the epa, steps down after a series of controversies. a couple in the u.k. rem critical condition after they came in contact with an item ntaminated with a nerve agent. netflix is making moves ina. in can original content with local stars capture the new market against stiff competition?

welcome to our viewers in america and around the globe. it is the daafter the fourth of july, but there are still fireworks coming out of the white house. the head of the epa, scott pruitt, stepdown. his resignation follows a serieh of scandals the dogged his tenure. president trump announced it in his usual fashion, by tweet, saying "i have acceptethe resignation of scott pruitt. within the agency, scott has done an outstanding job and i will always be thankful to him for this." he has been the subject of numerous stories c which haled into question his conduct. for more on this most recentin shakeup, i am by the north america reporter. starting with you, this has been going on for a long time. why has he decided to resign now? >> i think you was pushed to the

white house. 12 different investigations were in t tping point. there was a new york s timry about the firing of an aid that she disagreed about meetings wanted deleted from the public record. it was an accumulation of scandal after scandal, and the white house tolerates they liked the policies he was implementing at the w epa, but th ultimately the presidents this vision he said this was enough. jane: theres no mention of any of the scandals in his resignation letter. expect that from donald trump. he will focus on the positive. there is a lot of conservatives who thought he was doing a good job. he was trimming regulation and essentially taking away the power of the agency that many, including pruitt when he was in oklahoma, objected to. increasingly, pruitt was getting

bogged down bys. scand it was taking time to rebut the investigation. incongress, thector general, officeent accountability inquiry, those were taking away has power to do what they hired himal to do. even, it reached a tipping point. jane: w presidents confit dents -- confidence or so long? >> wheyou talk to energy lobbyists around the country, they love scott pruitt. there was when ithas emailing ho wanted to fight to keep him in there. they rolled their eyes at these ethical lapses. yet blind spots all over the place, trying to get his wife a isuse of taxpayer money. but i think if you talk on policy, lots of conservatives were very happy because they here gutting environmental

regulations acrossountry and if you are an oil or coal lobbyist, that was goo policy. that is what they wanted to see. his departure, will we see any change to the policy? >> a confirmed to be taking over, i don't think he is going to ange anything. he was a coal industry lobbyist before taking this position. he has experience within the epa . he served under george w. bush. at least he knows little more about the bureaucratic politics involv and how things work. he may actually be more effect of in --fftive in shaping then scott pruitt. advocates say scott pruitt was smart and effective, but he constantly with t career employees of the epa. jane: what do you think are the chances of a confirmation

hearing at this point? >> i think it is unlikely right now. the president is goingo try to positionin an acting through the midterm elections. you will have aghupreme court likely this fall with a nominee coming next week, and a new agency had. especially the environmental protection agency, that would be a polarizing debate. i don't think the whit hhouse wants e it. i think emma kratz will push and say to me you need to put sobody in front of the senate that is confirm-able. it thinkll be a months long process. >> we don't even have a head of affains this will get more and more political the closer we get to there will be some pressurehe. andrewer said he doesn't want the job. be interesting to see i he is in the mix or if trump goes outside andotries to pull r outsider into his cabinet. this is going to heiten the

polarization in washington, make it a really long summer because remember, this is a busy time ahead. to ask you about tiontone of the resig letter. unrelenting attacks are unprecedented and have taken a toll on all of us. what you make of that? he is not admitting anything. >> i am not surprised. he is fashioning himself as being persecuted. he was confronntd in a restauaving dinner, like several other trump officials have been, on his personal time. the allegations weighed on him. i don't think he will acknowledge this because he sees a -- himself as being in the right. i think he wants to run for office you will see him going back to oklahoma trying to run for the senate or the governor.

he has ambitions to be president. this puts a damper on it, but i don't think this is the last of scott pruitt because this letter and his comments have been defiant. jane: thank you for joining me. police say a british couple is in critical condition and were exposed to a nerve agent. at happened wh they touched a ntaminated item. it is the same nervese agent in march to attack sergei s kripal and his daughter. a this is dawn sturgis and store and sells veryyiseen on ccp drinks. inhours latershe was tensive care. she and charlie fell ill within hours of each other, and they remain critical in hospital. like all tir family members, charlie's brother is hoping her -- hoping for positive news. >> he is my younger brother.

i love him to bits. i don't want anything to happen to him. ye it has. how would you deal with that? is heartbreaking. >> the couple becamein conted when they handled the poison, according to scotland yard, which is headingt the investign. counterterrorism officers are working with the local forces. four months on from the skripal poisoning, pice are once again trying to reassure the public. >> our top priority now and always will be the safety of everody across the community to that en people in ensbury and salisbury will see an increase in the mber of police officers and resources available. >> charlie was at a church e hourson saturday in before he collapsed. >> they looked a bit out of sorts. you could sense there was

t something ght. one would have assumed it was possibly alcohol.on we 't know for sure. >> this footage shows him beinge taken to t hospital. dawn sturgis had already been admitted. a friend describes this. >> she is a happy, caring, loving person. she looks after everyone, really. i could sit here and talk, and her and charlie are potentially fighting for their lives. >> a numr of locations where it is believed the couple were before they collapsed are cordoned off. they fell ill hours apart at charlie's flat. also closed is a center nearby ots, thecal branch of chemist. in salisbury, a hostel, john tbaker house, a queen elizabeth gardens have been closed.

the gardens are close to a shopping center, and a bench where the skripals were found collapsed. the skripal home is nearby. the medical team that treated the skripals are fighting to treat the new victim is is an expanding polic investigation. the biggest questions are, where and how were the couple poisoned? jane: i discussed this case with a former cia agent based in russia. thanks for coming in. the police say they are keeping an open mind,t but w the likelihood these instances are linked? >> it is highly likely they are linked. s i would suspect t tied to attack and perhaps the assassin, if that is what it was, discarded the material and somebody came across it, which

jane: four monthapart. how does this stuff stay active for so long? x one of the men involved in making it moved to the states and i saw some interviews with him. stuff.owerful it was meant to be weaponize din the cold war, to be able to fight nato. early, this is not run-of-the-mill material. it is a nerve agent that is incredibly powerl. >> why would the russians use it? there must be easier ways to carry out an assassination. >> that is what we don't know. soit is either som of signal to somebody, whether to rich russians in london to keep mout closed, or perhaps an internal signal to people around putin that if you oppose the govement or betray the government in some way, you will get yours. it is t clear to me why, exactly. think the second

incident complicates our helps the investigation into the original attack? >> my guess will be it will help, in the sense that it should be easier to find the material now, where it was discarded, and piece togete r what may hppened on that werewhen the skripals attacked. it will hurt inhe propaganda battle. the russians are in the denial stage, putting out information because the world cuoing on. inthey are s these people have no connection. diplomatically and politically, it may be harder but i trying to figure up what happened, it will help. jane: do you think the second incident should prompt a some kd itional action against russia? >> i wld think so. in some ways, if this was a professional assassination attempt, it is unacceptable. if it was done in such a sloppy way that a number of other people that weren't targeted die

western governmentsse have to take thaously and respond in some fashion. jane: how worried should people be? >> that is hard to say. i feel for the people around ursali tourists who might go there, because they will worry. for the most part, average people shouldn't be worried, but that doesn't mean it is acceptable. jane: thanks, john. >> my pleasure. jane: a quick look at the day's lyher news. ne0 people are missing after a boat and a yacht capsized off the shore of thailand. 80 people have been rescued so far, but their efforts are being hampered by strong winds and waves. the health and human services secretary

estimatesus tds of children have been separated from their families. this includes 100 children under the age of fi it is a higher number than that number released by the days ago. a few authorities in thailandeare trying tde how to rescue 12 boys and their football coach who have been trapped in a flooded cave for almost two weeks. they are trying to pump as much before itthey can ra jonathan has the latest. >> how long will they stay down there? the boys are now getting care and food, but the authorities e debating whether to risk bringing them out quickly or waiting, possibly for mohs. dozens of volunteers are helping the navy divers. this is an exhausting and sometimes dangerous operation. this television actor is one of them.

water is the main obstacle, he says. if we can get the water level down, the boys can be brought out. but while a massive pumpingef rt is reducing it in the first section, it is having less effect deeper in, where the boys are trapped. so the thai army has been taking tuipment to the other end of the mountains to tlower the water table closer to their location. they have a number of ideas they want to try. their first effort has been to dive the stream which feeds the underground pools. we followed them up. along pipes laid in the pastew days. this creek has dried up. a week ago, it was filled with water. this project, with all t pipes, is definitely having an impact.

higher up, we were shown the newly built dam. work like thiss oing on all over these mountains. i no onesure yet how much they can bring down the water that is blocking the boys'escape or whether they will win the battle against the im monsoon rain. they just know that they have to try. jonathan head, bbc news, thailand. jane: in southern syria, government forces are continuing to push aheads they try to recapture territory from the rebels. the bombing f hced up to 325 thousand civilians from their homes according to the u.n. refugee agency. it is one of the last rebel strongholds in syria. our middle east editor has been

outa to findernh out what happened to the people who lived there. >> time has passed. seven dark years the war is not over, but it is changing. in the spring, the regime won the battle of damascus, smashing the last rebel enclaves. for the war weary, it is kd of peace. the great suits in the old city survivednd -- unlike the suburbs, where the fights for damascus was lost and one. this is the last major rebel enclave to fall. even the graveyard is in ruins, hit by shells.r the firepowe the syrian army and its russian allies was overwhelming. the heavy guns have been movedef to other batlds. no one shoots now when you walk past the empty ruins

life never stopped here, but now, ty can live it in the sun. when the war was being fought, they retreated underground into cellars and tunnels. they were built to last by skilled engineers. the regimes as prisoners of the rebels were forced to do the digging. unsomels are wide enough for vehicles. e area used as a carpark was burnt out in the last days of the siege. in this section, the system goes down four levels in deep b concreasements. there are jail cells and close by, the command center for the dominant rebel group. the commanders in the bunker thought they were going to win, and for a while, it looked as

ough it might happen. in 2015, the russians intervened and sie then, everything has changed. president assad and his generals, who were ostracized by the western world, by the saudis and others, are now getting closer to victory. guns quiet, grandparents were checking their home for the first time in six years. it was even worse than this couple thought. it wasn't just their flat or the block. the entire neighborhoo gone. around 12 million people, half syria's prewar population, have ed their homes. >> it has happened to everyone,

not just us. we have lost everything we have ever worked for. the apartment waall we had. >> it is god's will. god protects the soldiers and the president. everything is much better now.>> thousands of people, some for -- from the losing side, are in camps without even ruins to visit. some of the men said this camp ws a prison because they are not allowed out tok. people were desperate alk despite our usual military and civilian minders. they were frantic about the 100 men who were taken away six days earlier. >> we arrived this place 20 minutes ago and there are lines of people queuing up to tell their stories. stories about family members going missing, men being taken, women being very worried about the state they may be in now.e

>> we here under an international guarantee. they say the young men are fine. buwhere are they? we need to know. we came out of one cri to land in another. >> one mother claimed her 15-year-old son and husband had been taken. the authorities denied that and said the missing men included killers and others on the run fr army service. >> they ok my son, left his wife and child and me. we want bashar al-assad to give our young men amnesty. mail was killed in 2012 when he was 21. his father says he forgives his killers. this bereaved father says onlywi forgivenes heal syria but

he accepts some in the camps fear the state. >> i understand the families of the young men who were taken to dention centers to fix the problemsre scared because of the human rights people. they are putting pressure on the syrian goverent, like the chemical weapons. >> the war blew through douma for six years. it has moved on while the president and his allies dealwi their remaining enemies. douma is one fragment of the wreckage of syria.e it mighto late to put this country back together. jeremy bowen, bbc news, damascus. jane: a conflict wi consequences that will be felt

for many years to come. for millions of americans, a new netflix series can lead to good old-fashioned binge watching. viewers in india are getting a chance to see original series. crimes andes combine passion. twoe of y ingredients for any successful run. the market in india is competitive. will t new program help make a breakthrough? it is not uncommon to see bollywood stars on the red carpet. but this is a premier that is different. sacred games is the first series made by netflix in india. adapted from a critically acclaimed novel to make to set -- it is set in the dark underbelly of mumbai, where politics and crime come togethnc. it was anned in india as it works to make a dent in a promising but competitive market.

>> we are commissioning more ows and films in india relative to the time we have otherin market than an territory outside the u.s. >> netflix is facing fierce competition. homegrown apps like hot star are dominating the market. amazon prime, which entered the market last year, has moreer custthan netflix. much of it comes down to price. the cheapest package offered by netflix is more than double that of hot stars. the video streaming market in india is valued at $llion red that is expected to mo than dble by 20 22. so the battle to sign up new customers will only keep going. jane: it is amazing how much our

viewing methods haks changed. thor watching "bbc world news america." app, wethe bbc news work around your lifestyle. you can swipe your way to the aynews of the day and up-to-date with the latest headlines you can trust. download now from selected app stores. >> funding of this presentation is made possible by ure freeman foundation, kovler foundation,ing solutions for america's neglected needs, and purepoint financial. >> how do we shape our tomorrow? it starts th a vision. we see its ideal form in our mind, and then wbegin to chisel. we strip away everything that stands in the way to reveal new possibilities.

at purepoint financial, we have designed our modern approach to banking around you -- your plans, your goals, your drea. your tomorrow is now.re int financial. >> "bbc world news" was presented by kcet los angeles.

captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodrf: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. the newshour tonight: scott pruitt is out. the environmental protection chief resigns after a cascade of allegations about his ethical conduct. then, as the u.s. government says it plans to reunite families, meeting the imposedt coadline, lawsuits over the mistreatment of children in anstody. "behind rebel lines," in yemen. just who are the rebels, and why are some members of congress so concerned about the war? >>n fact, this war is unauthorized, and it is in factn ufconstial. >> woodrf: all that and more, n on tonight's pewshour.