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[applause] >> and now, "bbc worldews." laura: this is "bbc world news amica." reporting from washington, i am laura trevelyan. let the new era of divided government begin. democrat nancy pelosi becomes speaker of the house, ready to battle for her beliefs. rep. pelosi: our nation is in an historic moment. two months ago the american people spoke and demanded a new dawn. laura: president trump ay wers backowing up in the briefing room to say he won't back down on his demd for the border wall. plus, landing on the far side of the moon -- china achieves a noor milestone, going where space mission has gone before.

welcome to our viewers on public television here in america and around the globe. today a new era began in washinon, d.c. democrats took control of the house of representatives and they are ready to stand firm against esident trump. they won't have to wait long, because the government is in day 13 of a paial shutdown with both sides refusing to budge. late thiser aon, mr. trump showed up in the briefing room, saying he is standing firm on his demand for border wall. e bbc's gary o'donoghue reports. >> the honorable nancy pelosi of the state of california, having received a majority of the votes cast, is duly elected speaker of the house of representatives fo the 11ngress. gary: with that, democrats tooke control ofouse of ndpresentatives for the first time since 2010,g the

republican hold on both chambers of congress. once again the party turned to san francisco's nancy pelosi to assume the speakership, putting her second in line for the presidency after the vice president. she is the only woman to have ever held e post, and a regular target of conservative vitriol. rep. pelosi: we all have the e toity and the privil serve with over 100 women members of congress, the larst number in history. gary: while republicans strengthened their control ofse thte, it was a different story in the house. r that meaublicans have 199 seats to the democrats' 235.ng and it is a ss of firsts for women , too, including the first muslim and native american lawmakers, and the youever elected to the house, 29-year-old alexdria

ocasio-cortez. l smiles at the moment, but the grown-ups have big battles ahead. federal, how to end the shutdown. museums and national parks have closed. obmanygoing undone. 800,000 federal employees are also going without paychecks. at the heart of the standoff is 'president trums demand for $5io bitowards his border wall, something democrats for the time being reject out of hand. rep. pelosi: we are talking about border security. >> nothing for the w k andpelosi: we can go b forth. no. gary: the president has invested ge amounts of political capital into the wall, and giving in would prove unpopular withhose who voted for him. in an impromptu press conferencethe president insisted he would push ahead with the wall.

pres. trump: i have never had so much support as i haven the last week over my stance f border security, for border control, and for, frankly, the ll or the barrier. gary: a split congress meanssl legiive progress will be hard to come by, but drama will be wmocrats determined to make full use of their scrutiny powers. gary o'donoghue, bbc news, washington. laura: so what will democrats do now that they are in controlf the house? earlier today hiwas on capitol , where i spoke to democratic congresswoman jan schakowsky from illinois. congresswoman jan schakowsky, democrats take control of the house of representatives for the first time in 8 years. what are your priorities? rep. schakowsky: first of all, we want to maksure the government is reopened. romm getting letters constituents, all of us are -- a woman saying i don't know if i will be able to put food on the table. someone else who said if i get paid by february 1, i could

get evicted. these are serious problems andsu ering that people are seeing. so that is going to be our first priority.wn when we get o the real business, what we want to do is make sure that we clean up government. the president talked about cleaning up the swamp, it has gotten so deep that we have to dig out. that includes heading money out of politics can making sure that we have fair electiono hr1 is goingal with that. laura: will you work with the president to repair america's crumbling infrastructure and bring down the prices of prescription drugs? rep. schakowsky: those were i was going to say two and three. certainly we will have to deal -- and he agrees. he talks about the price gouging of the pharmaceutical companies when he was running for office. we are hoping maybe we can work with him on some legislati that will bring down costs so people don't have to forgo their medications, which some people are.

and then of coursetr infrture. what does that mean? it means jobs. it means we will not only makeoa sure our and bridges and schools, etc., are fixed, but that we are going to put people to work in good jobs in this country. u ura: but don't democrats have to be careful, as ke control of these key committees in the house of representatives and try to investigate t president, that you don't overreach? t p. schakowsky: i think t true, but i think the people in charge of the investigative committees understand that. you know what, no one is above the law. that includes the president of the unitedtates. we feel obligated to make sure we get to the truth about what has been going on with this administration. laura: the incoming speaker of the house of representatives, nancy pelosi, hasn'closed the door on impeaching the president, depending on what special counsel robert muell finds. is that really a possibility, impeachment? rep. schakowsky: what we have to see, is there a tipping point for the republicans when theyev

seence, as happened with richard nixon, who won actually overwhelmingly in his day -- not so for trump -- where they say we have to do something about this, that the president is not fit to serve untry, anthat these crimes are commted are too much? if that happens, and i think it is possible that it will, we will have consensus in the congress and hopefully in the country to to take a move as extraordinary as ieachment. laura: democratic congresswoman jan schakowsky speaking to me a little earlier. regarding the partial government shutdown with there is another meeting between the president and congressional leaders at the white house tomorrow. the showdown reaches the end of its second week. the white house and congress have been sparring over the president's decision to pull out of syria.

the kurdish militia and arab tribes battling so-called islamistate worn this could result in disaster, allowing i.s. to regrp. militants are clinging on in the eastern syria. it iin there that our middle east correspondent quentin sommerville secured this exclusive footage of recent ghting. this is an empire in ruin. so-called islamic state is eahanging by ad. thesdi are ksh and arab fighters taking on the last i.s. gtheir enemy is niving up easily. one truck bomb detonates. trump says he will withdraw 20 american troops from syria. these men will b left to fight alone. at the end of the street on thee

building to th right, the i.s. flag still flies. -message comes in over their radios- another truckb is heading that way. weatherri means acan aircraft cannot help them. these men are poorly with little armor. power at on u.s. air almost every stage of thei a flashll from a rocket prope grenade and the fighting kicks off again. surroued, the men have nowhere to go, but they ld their ground. with success for kurdish-led forces. they stopped the truck bombs in their tracks. here, the body of the driver lies in mud. he was just a boy, barely 12

years o. dthe moreesperate i.s. becomthe, the more ey rely on child fighters. anhere we see other attack from their perspective. .an i.s commander orders his reluctant young fighters to advance. quentin: there are as ma as 8000 i.s. fighters still le in syria, a small army, with tens of thousands of supporters. chaotic, butok they are still a vidious and formle force. the other brothers have left. "the weather is coming up," they shout. "we will be exposed to attacks

so they retreat, leaving the commander behind recovered froms a dead body. airstrikesamerican can' be underestimated. without u.s. support, the islamic state won't be defeated. i.s., which was facing the last battle for his territory, now since has to wait for the americans to go home. state's the islamic leadership likely remains, including al-baghdadi. in ruins, foreign hostages may still ben alive ands. captivity, including at least one british met according to western government and local sources. years of fighting and thousands of lives have been given to this tr, and still it hasn' been won yet.

quentin sommerville, bbc news. laura: the battle on the ground in syria. in other news, the trial of 11 people accused of the murder of journalist jamal khashoggi has begun in saudi arabia. fiosecutors are calling for the death penalty fo of the accused. mr. khashoggi, a u.s.-based critic of the saudi government, three months ago in the kingdom's consulate in istanbul. saudi arabia says mr. khashoggi was killed in a rogue operation. pau' whelas lawyer has filed an appeal in court against his detention wiout bail, say it is an unwarranted and excessive measure. he is an american citizen who was rested in moscow last week and charged with espionage. his family says he is innocent and was in russia only for a friends wedding. the search is continuing off the coast of the netherlands and germany for shipping containers that fell off about in rough seas. flat screen tv's, car parts, and furniture have washed up on the dutch sure.

among materials lost at sea were three containers containing toxic substances. you are watching "bbicworld news am." still to come on tonight's program, china does where no country has gone before, the far we will have the latest on what they have found. rth korea's ambassador to italy, jo song-gil, has he and his wife are reported to seek asylum a third country, but their whereabouts are unknown. his defection would be a major blow to kim jong-un's regime. he was a member of the pyongyang you eat. laura bicker has more from soe l seoul. laur b.: jo song-gil was last seen in november, according to

officials here. it's high in authorities say that they have had no obligations for asylum from a north korean ambassador. but it doecome amid reports in seoul that he was asking for a alian authorities for protection and trying to seek asylum from a third country. what weer uand is that his father and his father-in-law were both former diplomats. his father-in-law is one of the high-ranking workers party officials. these are the elites in pyongyang. defected, iteed would be embarrassing for kim jong-un. as we understand from another former directo the former ambassador, puty ambassador in britain, what he told reporters here in seoul is that mr. jo was part of the network to try to pyongyang.goods into

so, he claims that mr. jo might have knowledgeno of rth korea's nuclear. pla as you can imagine, u.s. intelligence officials love to get their hands on that information. when it comes to where he has, we are not exactly sure, but we have heard from the south koreans that they havefr not hed him. we have heard from the italians that they haveap had no asylum ication. what we are really waiting to hear from are officials in the united states and elsewhere. laura: shares in the technology giant apple fell by almost 10 today. it came after the company announced it wasxpecting lower earnings than previously forecast. the firm blamed a slowdown in sales and china and the trade war between beijin and the u.s. some analysts say it is because consumers are elected to upgrade

their iphones. business editor reports now. >> now let's talk about iphone. reporter: it is arguably the most successful consumer product of all time. a large of a new model is a global event, and so, therefore, is this a price warning from the chief executive that salearare not on tt. the value of the compa slumped over $60 billion in seconds. this once trillion dollar company has lost a third of its value since october. what is going on? we have all got smartphones now and they work prettyl w, and there are a ton of other smartphone makers out there. there was a t of competition. apple's high prices, very ambitious expectations for consumers to continue buying the next big, new, shinyquhing are not ite being met. the applebedded in

box is a surprise message, a warning, they could have implications for big companies and employers around the world, including in the u.k. everything is not gordg to check acg to plan the world's second-biggest economy, china. this manufacturing and exporti superpower had hoped to shoot more tools in ice economy in the spending of affluent chinese consumers would drive growth. >> is that plan bore fruit, it would be great news for producers of consumer everywhere in the world, ,ncluding the u.k., the u.s. and all kinds of other consumer would find an expor market in china. unfortunately, the last year or so, they backtracked and gone to reverse on that process of trying to unlock the chinese consumer. reporter: china is r e biggest carket in the world now. in november, sal fell 20%. a slump in china was a major reason for cutting over a

thousand jobs last year. this is playing out against a u.s.-china trade war which is encouraging many chi consumers to buy chinese products. >> ihink the lesson we learned already from the trade war that thahappened so far is nobody wins a trade war. the idea is to inflict more damage on yourat opponent they can on you. newsis respect, apple's tells us something about how american copies are being hurt by this conflict. american companies are being hurt by this conflict. has man: china problems and -- convincing consumers to buy flashy phones is up there. china is a tough market. laura: of course the technology world is watching apple's fortunes verclosely indeed. a short time ago i spoke with dan ackerman, etor at large of cnet. what do you think you

think, do you buy it? is it just china even though we call this a problem for apple, not going to lose sleep over them.d they sey have gone from making a gigantic amount of money to a slightly less gigantic amount of money. but it makes sense to put thes blame on thiowing chinese market. people thought this would be an inexhaustible place to drive consumer growth, and it turns out that tre is a limit to at. but there is also a limit to what people in the rest of the world want from their phones. we are seeing the upgrade cycles drag out not one year but two years and three years. f that is because the phones are, frankly, better, they last longer, and the other is that we have hit a plateau. they are not that different. if you put this year's iphone against last year's, i challenge you to tell the difference. laura: absolutely. has apple become ambitious with selling phones at $1000 a go? dan: last year they certainly thought that they cracked the $1000 code and other makers followed suit with very

expensive phones. this year they pulled back a little bit and said that you can a get the 10r phone fot less , more in the $600-$700 range. everyone i know who bought a new iphone this year went for the less expensive model, which is just as good. laura: have consumers caught on is the way that apple has built-in obsolescence and we are not buying it anymore? dan: people have complained about at in everything from phones to refrigerators for years. this built-in obsolescence where after certain years he does not work right anymore and you nd to get a new one. interestingly, iphones have usalmost gone backwards be they were replacing a lot of batteries for a bargain price that made your old phone was fairly good and the new versions of ios brought some old phones back to life, o. laura: could the next generation of mobile communications force f all to buy new productsrom apple? dan: 5g is where yould force everyone to buy a new phone. you would need a new ana and need to buy probably more

expensive service from your carrier. that makes tur phone manufas happy and the carriers happy. does not make consumers happy. but people are tired of the same slab of glass and plastic and metal. all the phones look the same. i would really like to who is going to break that mold nexto generate real excitement. laura: is apple still betting on the watch as the nust thing to geeally excited? how has that worked out? dan: the apple watch is the biggest selling smart watch of all, but that is a small pond to be in still. said, looking around th holiday season, sold out almost -- i found a couple of apple products to be in short supply, ld out almost everywhere i looked. that included some models of the apple watch and the apple airpod, wireless headphones. those were almost impossible to find. laura: just briefly, are reports of apple's demise greatly exaggerated? dan: i am not going to worry about them anytime soon.ak they cana slightly smaller but still gigantic pile of money and be ok. laura: indeed. dan ackerman, thank you for joining us.

dan: thank you. laura: china has landed a spacecraft on the far side of the moon will it is the first ever such landing and it is a major milestone space explorer asian. the probe has sent back an image of the oest crater on the moon's surface. the landing is the latest step for china as it ces to catch up with russia and the united states and become a major space power by 2030. from beijing, john sudworth report john: "commence landing," the control room says. then comes the extraordinary sight, the first closeup images of the far side of the moon ever recorded. after a few more tense moments, chang'e 4 safely touches down inside the moon's largest and deepest crater.

"it has all gone according to plan," this scientist tells chinese state tv. one si of the moon always faces away from earth. spacecraft have photographed it but never before landed on it. this animation shows how the probe thrusters were fired to slow it before sensors guid it onto a surface far more rugged than that of the near side. another challenge involves the need for a relay satellite to carry signals from the far sidet back to well, the moon has already sunk below the smoggy beijing skyline, so there is unfortunately no chance tonight for people to gaze at it in wonder. not that they had much warning, mind you. e landing attempt was accompanied by an almost complete news blackout, giving you a nse of the sensitive propaganda value of this hugely forward in china's space race

ambitions and the perceived cost of failure. china plans to follow this mission with another that will bring mineral samples back to earth and eventually perhaps a rted plan for a lunar ba capable of supporting humans. i on't think our exploration will stop.on it wil go deeper, further, and we will invest more. john: meanwhile, the probe's lunar rover will begin exploring the moon's far side. groundbreaking science from a rising space power. john sudworth, bbc news, asian. -- beijing. laura: incredible images. remember, you can find much more of all the day's news on our democratsncluding taking control of the house ofas

representativehey square off with president trump over the government shutdown. to see what we are working on it anytime, do make se to check us out on twitter. amaura trevelyan. thank you so much for watching "bbc worldews america." >> with the bbc news app, our vertical videos are designed to work and your lifestyle, so you ipe your way through the news of the day and stay up-to-date with the latest headlines you can trust.ro download nowm selected app stores. >> funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation, and kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. >> a new chaptou begins. >> n can access more of your favorite pbs shows than ever before, with pbs passport, a member benefit that lets you binge many and catch upt show on your favorites. >> we really are living in the

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ptioning sponsored by newshour produions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight... (gavel bangs) a new era of divided government begins as democrats take control of the u.s. house amid stagnant negotiations over the ongoing government shutdown. then, in a historic first, china's space program manages the difficult task of landing a craft on the far side of the moon. plus, making sense of the rising popularity of socialism among younger ams and what it could mean for the future of equality and our personal lives. >> the contemporary moment of capitalism that we're in has created a lot of risk for young people. they're in a very precarious situation because there's so little of a social sy