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

president trump lash at denmark's prime minister over after his interest in buying nland. he took issue with how she turned the idea down. pres. trump: i thought the prime minister's statement that it was absurd, that it was an absurd idea, was nasty. sophie: also today, the trump administration moves to extend how long migrant detained.an be mamocratic critics call it appalling and in. and first it was the icectrg. now ia is threatening one of the most famous ships in history. how the titanic is disappearing from the ocean floor. sophiefor those watching on pbs and around the globe, welcome to "world news america. presidump ramped up his attacks on denmark today, i

turning what wtially a punchline into a full-scale international dispute. at issue was mr. trump's interest in buying greenland, which denmark controls. the prime minister called the prospect absurd, which sparked an angry reaction from the american president. that is just one of the issues coming from the white y.use to nick bryant starts our coverage. nick: its resources rich and strategicallwell-placed, and america's property tycoon president halong seen greenland as a prime piece of geopolitic real estate. but even though he jokingly tweeted that he promised not to build trump tower on this landscape, the danish prime minister said his ngterest in buhe territory was absurd. no longer did the presidency the funny side, and announced via twitter that he was canceling a next month's visit to copenhagen . pres. trump: i thought it was

not a nice stateme the way she blew me off. she should not to the united saides that way -- sh absurd. that is not the right word to use, absurd. nick:n the invitto visit denmark had come from the well -- royal household, which said it had been completely blindsided by the president's late-night announcement. the new centerleft prime ministerounded dumbfounded. prime min. frederiksen: it is with regret and surprise that i isceive the news that president trump has canceledtate visit to denmark on the second and third of september. i had been looking forward to the visit. our preparations were well underway. nick: this was the reaction of her mild-mannered competitors. >> i heard it was because he couldn't buy gree so he is that stupid? i think it is good he is not coming. greenland people and nobody else. nick: itll has the feel of a summer silly season story, but

the ongoing trade war with china is more serious, and today prompted this extraordinary presidential claim. pres. trump: somebody -- excuse me -- somebody had to do it. i am t chosen one. .omebody had to do it. i am taking on chi i am taking on china on trade. you know what? we are winning. because we are the piggy bank. nick: but even the president of the united staes not have divine powers, and right now he is finding it hard to been the -- bend the world to his will. he can summon his green helicopters at a momens notice, but is finding it much harder to get his hands on greenland. nick bryant, bbc news, washington. ksophie: my colleague kat has been speaking with democratic congressman gerald connolly. he sits on the foreign affairs committee. katty: let me ask you about th president canceling his trip to denmark. e l of this seemed a bit l joke, a bit silly, until

suddenly last night did was not silly anymore becae denmark is a key nato ally and this america's reputation and image around the world. rep. connolly: initially i could't believe that it wa actually true. maybe donald trump thought greenland really was green and it would be a great place to have a golf course. but i agree with you, it has now become a serious matter. it is annsult to an ally, the kingdom of denmark, and the people of greenland. this is not real estate for sale. this is a sovereign nation, where real people live real lives and are proud of their heritage and nationality. he showed no respect for any of that. katty: you sit on the foreign affairs commite. what does it do to america's standing in europe when the president cancels a visit like this for this reason? rep. connolly: i think it makes him look petty.

i think it further diminishes his sense of any kin respectability or power or influence. and it diminishes, frankly, american influence. katty: do you hear the blowback from things like this when you talk to american allies, as i'm sure you do often, in allied countries? rep. connolly: when i go to nato meetings, most of our allies are c,ry careful, very diploma hery respectful. so most of conversations about deep concern occur sort of in the corners sotto voce. they are not expressed in public settings. and i sort of appreciate that, but the level of concern katty: congressman, at the same time president trump is canceling a visit to denmark, a nato ally, he is suggesting that russia should be invited to join

the g7.o is it timeve russia back in the club of nations? rep. connolly: absolutely not. russian behavior has not improved. russia continues illegally to occupy and annex crimea. russia has troops that are killing people as we speak in the eastern ukraine. iait occupies parts of geond moldova. it violates nato airspace in the baltics. it has challenged us in our own airspace in alaska. in has documentarily interfered with our electio016 and according to robert mueller is continuing to do so for next year's presidenweal election as . this is no time to reward the russns by welcoming them bac into the family of nations in an organization like g7. katty: finally, i want to ask you about the democratic party and jewish voters who vote for the democrats. yesterday the president suggested that they were

unpatriotic, disloyal. what would you say to jewish voters who vote for the democratic party? rep. connolly: i think it was a profound anti-semitic trope by the president. i think he owes an apology to american jews. and i think of course it is going to backfire. american jews are smart, they are independent, they care a lot about social justice, and they ine going to vote their consciences, not bmidated by donald trump. katty: we covered a lot of news, the president made a lot of news. congressman connolly, thank you fo rep. connolly: my great pleasure, katty. sophie: also today, the trump administration announced plans to extend the amount of time officials can detain migrant families and the children. under the current policy, they can only be held for 20 days. house speaker nancy pelosi says the plan codifies child abuse, plain and simple. it is likely to face opposition in the courts. e bbc's chris buckler has been

foll joined me a short time ago. explain what they want to do. chris: the trump administration has never hidden its frustration about what it calls a crisis at the southern border, and has been very frustrated by the number of migrant families who have been coming. under the current rule, the orores agreement, children cannot be held forthan 20 days, and by extension, migrant families cannot be held for 0 re thanys. it is felt by some officialsre that some s have been bringing their children or taking children with them to ensure a quick release. what this new regulation that has been proposed will do is essentially means that they can be held for longer than 20 days. as you mentioned, there are many people who feel that is not appropriate il the case of en. sophie: you say longer. indefinitely? chris: until their asylum claims are heard. i of course thindefinite, and what is a real concern for people is that that is taking months and in some cases years for those cases to bheard. there is no doubt that doctors havearned that placing children in detention can have

an effect on them physically and mentally. listening today to the acting homeland secury secretary kevin mcaleenan, he was extremely clear that as far as ned, they will be treated with dignity and respect. he talked about these campuses, family detention centers, where there is access to services and mental health help, and also ey would get education. but as you mentioned, nancyea pelosi, r of the house, democrats saying this is not, acceptabe believes it is codifying child abuse. she has been mentioning what doctors feel about this whole idea. n sophie: strong reactom democratic quarters, but this was also likely to be challenged in the courts. chris: and certainly if you take a look at previous attempts to try and change the rules surrounding the detention migrants, there has always been legal challenges. i think in this case you'll see not one, but several attempts to challenge this in the courts.

sophie: when is this likely to take affect? chris: the trump administration would like to do this in 60 days. the reality is i don't think it will be as quick as the partly beca the new challenges. but what they want to do is send a message out that they are being tough about the imsue of illegagration. this has been a focus for president trump and it will continue to be a focus as we go to next year's presidential election. sophie: he has also been talking about birt citizenship today. chris: yeah, so this came as a bit of a surprise. it had been talked about beforei the trump stration looking to take away the rights of anyone born in america to be an american citizen. this has been issued because there are families arriving here, pregnant women among them, who have children there who have the right to remain inside the country. president trump has time and time again said that that is something he fee should not be the case. today he said it was ridiculous and something he was seriously looking at. sophie: chris, thanks very much. a look at some other news. the u.s. national security

advisor has dismissed the venezuelan president's claims he had approved months of back channel talks between caracas and the trump administration in washington. lshn bolton said the offic had reached out for the sole purpose of discussing how to remove nicolas maduro from office in order to hold free elections. greece has refused to help the iranian tanker that was recently detained in gibraltar on suspicion of shipping oil to syria. the tanker listed its restination as a poor inece but the u.s. has threatened sanctions on any country that allows it to dock. violent protests have continued into a third dayn indonesia. more than 1000 secury personnel were sent in after the country's easternmost province saw buildings torched and street tts between police and demonstrators. the anger was triggered by tions of racism against papuan students. the speaker of new zealand's ooparliamenton the role of babysitter presiding over a

debate it has a representatives. the faer of three himself was looking after the baby boy of an mp, attending his first debate in house after returning from maternity leave. the death of financier and convicted sex offender jeffrey epstein in prison in new york this month -- including prince andrew. the bbc has seen court documents in which the pilot of epstein's private jet has claimed the prince traveled with hni and with vir roberts, a accused epsteo of trafficking her. buckingham palace said that the court documents or inconsistent, and emphatally deny that the prince had any form of sexual contact or relationship with virginia roberts. reporter: one set of relationships, so many percussions. the prince has his arm around

virginia roberts, 17 at the time. it was her court case against delaying maxwell -- gh ghislaine maxwell on the right that brought the allegations. at t heart of it, this billionaire businessman, jeffrey epstein, who took his own life inda detention 1ys ago. he was convicted in 2008 of sex offenses. epstein was alleged to have trafficked underage girls both for himself and for his ccle. here he is in 2010. here is princein andre epstein's house just two years after the businessman's criminal conviction epstein was a high flyer with a private jet. in court documents seen by the bbc, the privatee's pilot says that several times, prince andrew traveled with virginia roberts and jeffrey epstein. ates alot gives locations.

curious company for the queen's second son. the palace has pushed back hard. the statement submitted, it said, "shows a number of einconsistencies between duke's alledge location and his actual location. in some cases he is on different continents. it is emphatically deny that the duke of york at any form o o sexual conta relationship with virginia roberts. any claim to the contrary is false and without foundation." the fact that some of the dates and locations in this are wrong does cast out over the claim. it is also not evidence that has been put into a court of law with cross-examination. when it wasel reased, it came with something of a health warning. rebut there are apers to come, and alongside the video released earlier this week, today's allegations are a reminder of at best a terrible

error of judgment. sophie: you are watc world news america." still to come on tonight's program, from lowbrow to high drama and everything in between. we speak to television c and author emily nussbaum about how tv has changed. ph: the bbc has been looking at older workers and why ies are trying to keep hold of them. today we are heading to silicon valley, where the workforce at tech compani is often so young, people can feel marginalized in their 30's. our technology repordave lee has this report. dave: steve reinhardt has more than 20 years of experience in silicon valley. getting work here used to be a dawdle, but then things started to change when he tued 50. he was applying for jobs for which he should've have been an extremely strong contender.

>> i would say 85% of the timejo thos went to people who 1 weto 15 years younger than me. you start blaming yourself, and you start to question your own abilities. dave: he probably shouldn't blame himself. across silicon valley, the average age of employees is strikingly low. according to independent research, the average worker at facebook is 29. at amazon, it is 30. but there is a movement helping those whwant to stay relevant and fulfilled in silicon valley firms. this is a meeting of a group called the modern elders, a community of older mostly tech workers who coe to network and learn how to adapt their skills. >> there is a lot of fear. people feel like they have put a lot of time and energy into a company, extremely dedicated, and all of a sudden you are obsolete. dave: chip connolly founded the group and literally wrote the book on the benefits of

experience and wiswom in the force. at 58, he is much older than any of his coworkers at airbnb, where he is head of strategy. >> we are all living longer, and most of us are going to work longer, some by choice, some by necessity. therefore we have to figure out how do w help these modern elders to have a continuing role in the workplace. dave: dave lee, bbc news, in silicon valley. sophie: the way we describe television has changed in recent years. what was once the boob tube can now be prestige tv.s wasting ho the couch is considered binge watching. guilty pleasure is often applauded instead ofocked. how did we get here? emily nussbaum writes about tv for "the new yorker" and won the litzer prize in 2016. her new book is called "i like to watch."

she joined me a little earlier from new york. you write about how you used to consider tv junk, a waste of time. is that still the case in any way what would you say? emily: r honestly, i sti into people who do talk about it that way, but the role of tv has changed so much. not only has it radically expanded, but it has moved so much to the center of the culture as an artform. it used to be the kind of thing that people would consider garbage and something that was bad for you, and i feel position is very different now. sophie: you havtalked about and observed, obviously, the iolationship between telev and society over the years. how do you think that has changed? it has reflected society, but does it affect it as well?y: emhis is a book that is essentially about extending the -- expanding the type of tv that is talked about. it is about exploding th onotion that ty type of tv that can be taken seriously are anehero dramas and things l

that. it is about celebrating other rakinds of tv, like soap o and sitcoms and reality television. it is true that all of them act as a mirror for society, but i'm most interested in it as a combination of a mirror and genuinely respectable and creative form. sophie: how much have things changed over the years? how much has tecology had an impact on that when we see this -- the streaming club forms and so much content?y: em think there is no way to talk about television without talking about it as technology. initially, tv when it began was really just a gimmicky machine that nobody knew how to use and it was live, and t kinds of tv made were shaped by the kindf technology it was. obviously in the last ve years there has been this radical expansion and shifting and change. at this point people watch tv on their phones and shows come out alat once that people binge-watch.

that has changed radically the kinds of tv that get made and the way that the people who make tv think of it as its capacities, the kinds of things that can be talked about. it's a much more visual medium.h e are a lot of different things. sophie: i suppose also with the adventcial media, people -- the viewers have a more direct relationship with program producers. ed your life affe as a television critic? everyone is their own critic, i suppose. emily: i think that's true, but actually don't think it is a bad thing. to me, the essential thing about slevision as a medium is relationship with its audience. it is one of the reasons i prefer never to compare tv to movies and books, because to me tv's distinctiveness is in the loop it has with its audience, we mass audience speaking back to tv and the peop make tv responding to what the audience does.

i think this has been true the whole time, and it is part of e whathasize in the book. for me as a television critic, the main thing that has changed is that there is too much to ep up with, and like anybody else i am riding the waves of the massive amounts of production. sophie: ok, emily nus really great to talk to you. thanks very much indeed. emily: thank you so much for having me. sophie: the haunting ruins of the titanic have long captured the imagination, from the first scientific exploration of the wreckage to the portrayal on the silver screen. divers have now returned to the site for the first time in more than a decade, and what they found is disturbing. the once proud ship is disappearing, due to bacteria. rebecca morelle has this exclusive report. rebecca: at the bottom of the atlantic, nearly 4000 mers down, the most famous wreck of all time. this is the bow of the titanic, still recognizable more than 100 years after she sank.

it is the first time people have been down to see it for themselves for nearly 15 years. but while some of the wreck is intact, other parts have disappeared altogether. the most shocking area of deterioration was the starboard side where the captain's quarters are. the captain's bathtub is a favorite image among titic enthusiasts, and that is now gone. at whole deck house on the side is collapsing. rebecca: microbes are eating away at the metal, creating stalactites of rust that dangle from t ship. azingly, the glass in thes portho still in place, giving a tantalizing glimpse into the titanic's past. it was the biggest ship of its time, setting sail from southampton in 1912 on its maiden voyage heading to new york. but it never made it. it sank after hitting an iceberg. 1500 people lost their lives.

these incredibly ornate slippero ed to one of the titanic's first-class passengers.fa a ion buyer who was on her way to new york, she was one of the lucky ones. she survived, and she brought with her this musical toy pig that she played to soothe the children on the overcrowded lifeboats. every one of the precious artifacts at the natiol maritime museum tell a story. but exploring the titanic is alsorucial. >> i think it is still important to go down and visit the wreck. e wreck itself is the on witness we have got of the titanic disaster. all the survivors have passed away. so i think it is important to use the wreck, as it still has armething to say. rebecca: the teanow analyzing the footage they are -- they have captured to assess w long before the titanic is lost to the sea. rebecca morelle, bbc news.

sophie:t just before we go, a of news from the unique intersection between entertainment and politics. sean spicer had to be quick on his feet when dealing with the media as predent trump's press secretary.he now s going to be strutting his stuff in the next series of ng with the stars." spicer says he is looking forward to the role, tweeting today that "it is time to have some fun." he joins several other celebrities player lamar odom and actor james van der beek. just abo it from us, but u can find more of all the day's news on our website, a to see what we're working on at any point, make sure to check us out on facebook. i am sophie long. thank you for announcer: funding for this presentationss is made le by... the freeman foundation; by judy and peter blum-kovler foundation,

pursuinga'olutions for amerneglected needs; and by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. to make sure faciv and the truth are dring conversation. "washington week" is an island of civil discourse in a chaotic media environment. on friday night, we gather the best reporters in the nation to unpack what's really happening and have a conversation that's not about point of view but abforming the american people. announcer: "washington week," friday nights only on pbs.

captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> brangham: good evening, i'm william brangham. judy woodruff is away. on the newshour tonight, expanding detention-- the white house moves to rewrite the rules on immigration, throwing out the caps on how long migrant families can be held in custody. plus... >> i am the chosenne. >> brangham: ...another day, another freewheeling talk with reporters. our yamiche alcindor was there and breaks down what was on the president's mind. then, icy relations. president trump abruptly cancels his upcoming visit to denmark, after the scandinavian nation decles that greenland is not for sale. and, nature trails versus oil drills-- the shifting political landscape of the western wilderness. >> there are these large landscapes that are still so