captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good ening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh and the woman who accused him of sexual asstelt prepare to ify before senators tomorrow. then, president leump meets with ers at the u.n. to discuss nuclear proliferation, zeroing , on iran. plne on one with the president of turkey on his country's role in the world and its tense relationwith the u.s.d, the plastic problem-- innovative efforts a underway to re-use existing plastics and to find alternatives for the future. >> the only plastic that does not need to be disposed of is plastic that was never made. so even recycled material you can't cycle it forever.

>> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: th supporting social entrepreneurs anr solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfndation.org. >> the lemelson foundation. committed to improving lives through invention, in the u.s. .and developing countries on the web at lemelson.org.

>> supported bthe john d. and therine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made n possible by the corporatr public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: it's the eve of a crucial united states senate hearing on allegations of sexual assault against supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh. but now, there's a new claim of misconduct. congressional correspondent lisa desjardins begins our coverage. >> desjardins: the day moved st arting with president trump at the united nations,en renewing his d of his nominee and fellow republicans.

>> the republicans could not be nicer could not be more than the way that they're handling this. they could have pushed it through two and half weeksdngo and you wo be talking about it right now, which is frankly what i would have preferred. point,ardins: at th the conversation was about two accusations: christine blasey ford's charge that kavanaugh sexually assualted her in high school, and deborah ramirez' account of him exposing himself in college. he has adamantly denied both. but befo noon, attorney michael avenatti disclosed information about a third accuser. julie swetnick, a current submitted a sworn affidavit to the senate judiciary committee. she told of attending over ten high school parties with kavanaugh and his friend mark judge, and said she sed kavanaugh "drink excessively at many of these parties and engage in abusive and physically aggressive behavior toward girls." that "included fondling and grabbing of girls without their consent." she said kavanaugh and judge also tri to drug girls' drinks so that "they could then be "gang raped" in a side room or

bedroom by a "train"f numerous boys ... these boys included mark judge and brett kavanaugh." swetnick said she was raped at one party attended by kavanaugh and judge, but she does not allege either was involved in the attack. in a statement, kavanaugh responded by saying, "this is ridiculous and from the twilight zone. i don't know who this is and this never happened." kavanaugh's lawyer also responded, and said he will not yothdraw his nomination. >> he's outraged amight imagine by this most recent allegation. n he her met this woman, he doesn't know ms. swetnick, he didn't go to parties with her and we'valready-- i've received calls myself from women and men who went to high school with him-- no one knows this woman, no one remembers seeing her at any of the parties they attended. >> desjardins: pred dent trump fick, too, targeting swetnick's lawyer, avenatti, who also represents adult film slsr stormy danwho claims she had an affair with the president. >> if you'reook at this

lawyer, he repped democrats. its a horrible con game. i think the people are finding it out. >> desjardins: the new accusation brought new cha on capitol hill, and new republican allegations of a smear campaign. senate judicary chairman chuck grassley said the committee is oking into the latest allegations. but he said tomorrow's hearing will proceed, with only kavanaugh and christine blasey ford as witnesses.e' >> doing everything we can to make her feel comfortable so she's been waiting for 10 days now to appear so why would we want to disadvantage her from doing what she offered to do a long time ago. i feel like i have a definite responsibility to hold a hearing get only for her but for j kavanaugh. >> desjardins: but senate minority leader chuck schumer called for republicans to halt the proceedings. >> i strongly believe that judge kavanaugh should withdraw from consideration and the president

should withdraw this nomination if kavanaugh won't do it voluntarily. if he will not at the very least the hearing and vote should be postponed while the f.b.i. investigates all these very serious and very troubling allegations. >> desjardin some senate republicans, including jeff flake of arizona, are voicing doubts about proceeding. >> however this vo goes, i'm confident in saying it will forever be steeped in doubt. this'moubt is the only thing i confident about in this process. >> desjardins: south carolina's lindsey graham: >> this getting into the twlight zone you're talking about brett kavanaugh being a serial rapist duringigh school i have a hard time believing you did it then and neve it before.t' i do believeimportant to invite mr. avenatti's client to

come to the committee and be interviewed by staff that should happen right now. >> desjardins: grassley has schedu kavanaugh's nomination for friday. >> woodruff: and lisa joins me here, and from new york our f want to say just within the last hour, a lotst-moving pieces here. the president continues to hold new at a news conference york at those u.n. meetings. this news conference is now intd its seour. we can tell that you not long ago, he was askersd, of cou about these allegations by thes woainst judge kavanaugh. and he said at first that these are all false allegations. but then went on to say that he wants to hear from the womene 's part of what he had to say. >> republican senators have delayed this fr wee now. they're giving the women a major chance to speak. i no's possible i'll hear that, and i'll say, "hey, i'm changing my mind." that is possible. we want to give them a chance to

speak. >> reporter: do you think all three should have a chance? >> well, whoever is given a chance. we've layed it a long time. but they're going to have a big shot at speaking and makingca theie. and, you know, what? i could be persuaded, also. >> woodruff: president trump also acknowledged, lisa, that he has a parnticular perspective all this because he said, he acknowdged, that he himself has been falsely accused of sexual mishonduct. here'she commented on that. >> i've had a lot of false charges made against me. i'm a very famous person, unfortunately. i've been a famous person for a long time. but i've had a lot of false charges made against me, really false charges. i know friends that have had false charges. people want fame. they want monthey. want whatever. so when i see it, i view it differently thanomebody sitting home watching television where they say, "oh, judge kavanaugh this or that." it's happened to me many times. >> woodruff: now, the president, lisa, and other'v republicans wbeen hearing

are pretty dismist of the newest set of allegations from the woman julie swetnick, but these are serious allegations. what do we know about them? >> these are incredibly serious allegations. we covered some of them in our report at the beginning of the story.s she aying not just about the role of mark judge and mr. kavanaugh, she said she witnsed party whre's there were lines of men waiting outside bedroom doors to molest a woman who she unerstood to be inside. so, incredibly serious allegations. aght now, the committees it is looking to speak to her, which is a process they've used before with the other accusers in this case. there will be no f.b.i. investigations are say republicans, not at this point. democrats, of course, would like misswetnick to appear in a hearing which she and her attorney eattorney have said she is willing to do. >> woodruff: i mentioned some republicans, the president being very dismissive of what she's saying. what are republicans and democrats saying about this? >> rightse the presidened to go back and forth. he said he didn't know a lot out these accusations yet, but

he did at one point say he thought they were false. there were conflicting statements. we have seen just in the past hour, new letters from highu schoolporters of mr. kavanaugh, 60 of them, men d women, sayg they do not recall anything like what mis swetnick stated. they signed a letter a week ago support be mr. kavanaugh. republicans, judy, are questiing the timing of this accusation, both because of the hearing, and they also quolestin homiss swetnick was at the time. they're also questioning a bit of hr character and saying, "if these things happened to you, if you witnessed these parties, why did you continue to go to these parties? democrats, on the other hand, say this is a menounting ev of a culture they believe brett kavanaugh was a part of. what miss swetnick talked about matches an account in "the new merker" this weekend by a for ex-girlfriend of mark judge.

this ex-frgind said judge confided in her that he did get inebriated and he had sex with women who may not have beens fully consci the time. that is her claim. it is obviously part of a very large debate. >> woodruff: my understanding is shiez reconfirmed that statement today. >> that's right. and that ex-girlfriend said she's willing to testify as well. >> woodrf: so to get bacto the original reason for this hearing, christine blasey ford.h do wean, lisa, at this point about how this hearing is going to unfold? >> this is what wean, the finite universe for tomorrow. t let's talk aboe hearing. first, we expect about two hours for each witness. it will be about five minutes per senator, bu the republican senators are expected to pool that time and yield it all to prosecutor rachel mitchell. coe is the prosecutor from maricopanty, over 20 years' wexperience-- druff: arizona. >> maricopa county, phoenix. most of it with sex crimes.

this will be a much smaller hearinroom than we've sn before. for example, the number of seats for the press are about ah quarter oft they were. i suspect the seats for the public and potential protesters will also e sorter. but it will be a shorter and smaller hearing that republicans ve designed. >> woodruff: so, lisa, what do we know from-- there is some w lling that's been done about the public and he american inple are viewing our taking all this. what do we see there? >> well, i think it's no surprise, like on almost every controversial issue these days, americans are divided. there is a plurality who generally oppose judge kavanaugh's nomination right now-- 43%, 38%, say thy're in favor of it in general. but we found there were mo teresting highlights when you drill down. the party divide here is vast, not a shock. when we sked, "if the charge by christine blasey ford is true, should judge kavanaugh be confirmed?" now, that's if it's true. democrats, 12%, said ye should be confirmed. over half of republicans say if

that charge is confirmed he should be confirmed. there a debate we haven't talked about much, if they are true, what does the american publichink should hapen? all of that right now is lofts in a kind of chaotolitical situation. >> woodruff: and, of course, the whole question of whether we will be able to get to truth tomorrow because many people are saying what we're going to come away with when impressions, and not knowing because we don'tha final evidence-- we don't have evidence that dates back to >> that's right. any there's a real challenge for democratic senators. there are 10 on this comifttee. you're a democratic senator and you have five minutes to question judge kavanaugh, a lot of these senators -- i'm not joking-- itakes them three minutes to get out a question. >> so their questions must be short, and judge kavanaugh could also have longer answers. it's going to be verdifficult to have questions and follow-ups in this set. >> woodruff: the re publicans wibe presumably more focused because this practiced prosecutor in rachel mitchinl is to be asking all of their

questions. er that's right. she pools all of time. she can have a direct line of questioning throughout herin entire ti versus each senator may have different lines of questions that they want to ask. m> woodruff: we are going to be covering every t of it, and you're going to be there for us. >> i'm getting there early. woodruff: you're gog to be there early. lisa desjardins, thank you >> and you are going to want >> woodruff: to talk about whato xpect from the senate judiciary committee tomorrow in the questioning of judge kavanaugh and foofessor blasey , i'm joined by julie goldscheid.of she's a sor of law at the city university of new york, where she teaches classes on gender and law. she is one of several law professors who wrote a letter today urging the judiciary committee to further investigate the claims made by blasey ford d other women. professor goldscheid, let me just start by asking, the letter to te comittee. what was the point you were making in that letter which is

itical of how the committee is structured tomorrow? >> thank you. l the point of ttter is really to ask the senators to do what we would expect any fact finder to do, which iso pause, to get a full investigation, and to assess all of the evidence in the context that's before the committe this is not a criminal case. it's not a civil case. it's not about evidence that's going to be assessed based on a preponderance of the evidence, or beyond a reasonable doubt standard. wthis is a question abother or not shoul somebody should be thenated and appointed t supreme court, the highest court in the country. and for tat there are many complex questions i think the senators should be interested in. they should be interested in assessing the very serus allegations that have been made, and hrgt nomfinee's rction on

those-- on those allegations. not only do they raise very serious concerns, but they also raise complex questions that are of the type of-- that reflect the type of issues that the lcourt deals with al the time, and the senators should be interested in how them noinee reflects on that kind of complicated allegation and complicated dynamic. >> woodruf and i know that u and the others who were signing this letter were calling for an investigation to take place just as dr. blasey ford and her attorney were calling for it. but we know that there will be-- there has ben a won't be an f.b.i. investigation. they have been talking to her what will be missing then? i mean, what is it-- what is it-- what will be the role of rachel mitchell, who will be asking questions for the republicans, and then of the democratic senators in getting to the btom of this asest they can, when there has not been an f.b.i. invitigation? >>ht. well, your point is a very good

one. without a full invtigation for packground, and without all the witnesses who canak to the allegations, there's really an incomplete picture that will be painted at ths,e heariy definition, unless the senators decide to open upehearings to more witnesses who can talk about their, the accounts that they heard about the allegations before the-- before these hearings. so the task for thing fors tomorrow is to paint as clear and as complete and as neutral a picture as possible about what dr. ford experienced and what the nominee, judge kavanaugh, experienced, and to hear his reflections on these very delicate, detailed, and difficult allegations. been-druff: so we've her opening statement, christine blasey ford's opening statement,

has been released. we know-- we've been able to take a look at that. she's pretty much giving the same description of happened that night at that party in 1982 in that summer, that we've been told, with a little more detail. given that and given that judg kavanaugh is saying he wasn't at the party, doesn't know her how-- how does-- how does a idence,ner get to some ev some information, that's going to advance our understanding of what really ha >> yeah. well, one thing that the questioner can do is can askab t both witnesses' understanding of some of the other information that has come to light. so, for emple, if judge kavanaugh says he has no recollection, he can be probed about me of the other accounts that have come forward about the details of some of the partiesh and te atmosphere and the culture that at least many

people thinkook place at the school at the time tahe was there. so she can get nss reacto those accounts of what was going on at the time. >> woodruff: are questions about, you know, how much drink dignitdrinking did he do, how mh partying, are those kinds of general questions going to bring us closer to understanding whether thisappened or not? >> you know, i think part of the task is to come to as car of an assessment of what happened as possible, and we know that is many ces like this, there are competing versipes, comng accounts of what happened. so the task for the senators is really to listen ve carefully and closely to the answers to hear how much consistency or inconsistency there is in the respective witnesses' reports and to make their own assessments, both about what happened, but but how the nominee's responses bear on his

ability to serve as a supreme court justice. because i really can't underscore enough that that's what's at issue here. this is more akin to job interview, than any kind of civil or criminal proceeding. it's really about his qualifications for this very, very important position. >> woodruff: professor goldheid, finally one more question, if you were asking questions of judge kavanaugh uomorrow, what's the most important thing ould want to know from him? >> yeah, good quei stion. ght want to knohis view, if the allegations were true, what his views would be about themand what he would think about them. i would really want to hear his thoughts about th seriousness of sexual assault. we know sexual assault isve pervasi it continues to be pervasive, defight all the gains and progress that has been made. and i would want to hear whahit assessment is of those

accounts. >> woodruff: yuli julie goldschy goldscheid, she's a professor at the city univerwsity of york, thank you. >> suny school of law. >> im sorry, thank you very much. >> woodruff: and reminder, we will have full, live coverage of the senate judiciary committee hearing with brett kavanaugh and christine blasey ford tomorrow, starting at 10:00 a.m. eastern. check your local pbs station listings for more information oc us live streaming online at pbs.org/newshour. >> woodruff: back now to preside trump's day at the united nations, where the focus was heavily on iran. foreign affairs corresent nick schifrin reports. >> schifrin: one day after declarindisdain for global governance, president trump

walked into the u.n. security council, and theomorld's top dits hushed their voices. but in a room defined by decorum, a president who doesn't always stick to the script, showed respect to tradition and stuck to the script. s >> turity council is called to order. >> schifrin: this was mr. trump's first security council briefing, and he immediately >>targeted iran. he united states will pursue additional sanctions, tougher than ever before, to counter the entire range of iran's malign conduct. any individual or entity who fails to comply with these sanctions will face severe consequences. >> schifrin: the u.s. is trying to pressure iran to curb its allistic missile program,nd regional proxies such as hezbollah that attack iran's enemies. to do so, the u.s. is pressuring europeans for help. but eur tope's top diploms week announced new ways for iran u.s. sanctions and european leaders are

criticizing the president'so decision tthdraw from the iran nuclear deal they negotiated together, known as the j.c.p.o.a. french preside emmanuel macron: >> ( translated ): the serious crisis of confidence was opened by a reimpotion of sanctions by the united states, but tehran continues to abide by its nuclear obligations. we need to build together a long termtrategy in order to mana this crisis, and it cannot boil down to just sanctions and containmen >> schifrin: and british prime minister theresa may. >> for many years,tuhe scale and of iran's nuclear program raised serious international concerns. the j.c.p.o.a. was an important step forward in addressing these. it remains the best means of preventing iracldeveloping a r weapon. >> schifrin: iran promises to abide by the deal's nuclear limits. and today president hassan rouhani said the u.s. isolated itself from its allies. >> ( translated ): we're not isolated as a matter of fact. americis isolated. the general assembly america was isolated. at the security council america

was isolated. >> mr. president, donald. thank you. >> schifrin: on iran, the u.s. is aligned with israel, th president met with prime minister benjamin netanyahu, but he suggested moving the u.s. embassy to jerusalem will also require israeli accommodations in peace talks. and for the first time, he declared support for creating a palestinian state ne israel. >> i like two-state solution. that's what i think works best. i don't even have to speak to anybody. that's my feeling. you may have a different feeling, i don't think so. bu works best.-state soluti >> schifrin: mr. trump said his diplomatic approach to north korea is also working. in a meeting with japanese prime minsiter snzo abe, he pulled out a letter from kim jong-un and said it was a sign that kim, who has overseen a nuclear program and vast human rights abuses, ishanging his stripes. an north korea, under the leadership of chaiim has tremendous economic potential, trendous.

and i think that chairman esm hat better than maybe anybody. >> reporter: and today, secretary of state mike pompeo announced he would go to pyongyang next month with theio inteof setting up a second summit between president trump and kim jong-un. and the president was asked why he would hold a second summit. he said, foell, kim asker it." and he said that letter that he got, judy, is a sign that the two sides are making progress. >> woodruff: so, nick, one of the thint the presidde news on today is he said china-- china is meddling in the u.s. 2018 elections. hll us more about what he said. >> reporter: yea hasn't said this before, certainly not on this scale and at this platform at the you u.n and he said it in the security council and a press coference. said chine afs meddling in the elections because in his words he was bng tough on china. he gave no details, and we asked

a senior administration tfficial abouat, and he gave a few details, and we should tell you these are no the kind of interference in the election that we saw in 2016 at all. one example: china courting politicians ands farmn states that voted for trump. now, i should say, judy, china has invested in swing states and swing districts long before trump because the president in order to have some political influence. second example, rewarding s urnalists and think taho are nice to china. again, they've done that before trump became president. intimidating people who are critical of china. ain, they have done tht before trump became president. and lastly, using state media r propaganda against president trump. again, they did that beforep trcame president. and what president trump did not mention today, judy, is russia, which, according to the intelligence community, in 2016 launched a hacking campaign into president trump's oponents, distributed that information, and launched a disinformation campgn as well, and the

intelligence community says that 201ngoing in president trump did not mention that at all today. >> woodruff: no mentioof it. a t to keep track of. nick schifrin covering the united nations general assembly for us this week. thank you, nick. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, president trump wid he does nt to fire rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who oversees the russia investigation. at his news conference today, he noted that rosensteidenied that he talked of recording the president, or trying to remove him from office. >> i wld much prefer keeping rod rosenstein. much pfer. many people say i have the right to absolutely fire him. he said he did not say it. he said he does not believe that. >> woodruff: the two men had been scduled to meet tomorrow, but the president said he may postpone it, so he can focus on the senate hearing with supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh. the federal reserve rsed a key

short-term intertht rate for the d time this year, to two and a quarter percent. it serves as a benchmark for many consumer and business loans. fed chair jerome powell said the economy is strong, but he did warn against a drawn-out trade war with china and other nations. >> i think if this perhaps inadvertently goes to a place where we have widespread tariffs that remain in place for a long time in a more protectionist world, that's going to be bad for the united states economy. >> woodruff: fed policymakers also signaled that one more rate hike is likely this year, and three next year. president trump now says he will sign a sweeping spending bill tv t a government shutdown, come monday.lr the senatedy approved the bill, totaling $854 billion, and the house moved to follow suit today. r funds the military and many domestic agencies e fiscal year that begins october first. it does not fund the president's border wall.

inere are small signs of hope tonight for townouth carolina facing floodwaters from hurricane "florence." officials today lowered their flood predictis for conway and georgetown, where several rivers converge, but it cou change agai. >> all three river systems were flooded not only from the water from south carolina at that came in the second wave from north carolina. so this is unprecedented and we are still in full battle mode in georgetown county and horry county. >> woodruff: the hurricane is blamed for 47 deaths in the carolinas and virginia. pope francis urged china's roman catholics today to trust him, after reaching an agreement with beijing on naming chinese bishops. he acknowledged that some chinese catholics feel abandoned by any deal with china's communist government. but he said the goal is to unify the cfthinese church,

decades of division. >> ( translated ): i decided tod ess the chinese catholics and all the universal church with a message of fraternalen uragement. with that, i am hoping that china can open a new phase. one thatel to heal the wounds of the past, and re- establish and maintain the full communion of all chinese catholics to take up with new conviction the message of the gospel. >> woodruff: china's "underground" catholics have long been persecuted for refusing to join a state-run caolic association. and, on wall street, stocks ragged late in the day, after the federal reserved rates. the dow jones industrial average lost nearly 107 points to close at 26,385. the nasdaq fell 17 points, and the s&p 500 slipped ne. still to come on the newshour: an interview with turkey's president at the united nations. inside the innovative efforts to combat the plastic problem.

and a brief but spectacular take on writing about people. >> woodruff: ties betwn the u.s. and turkey, longtime nato trained.are deeply the turks accuse the u.s. of h the u.es to get an american pastor out of jail. the turks accuse the u.s. of harboring fetullah gulen, an exiled cleric whom turkey blames for a failed coup. then there are syria, russia, and broader regional issues. amna nawaz spoke with turkish president recep tayyip erdogan earlier today and you'll see but first, she begins with some background. >> nawaz: the decadeold alliance is now under increasing tension finding new lows. ale flash point: the fate of american evangelic pastor andrew brunson, held for nearly two yes in turkey. he was swept up in the crackdown after the july 2016 coup attemga against erdo

vice president pence had this ultimatum for erdogan in late july. >> i have a message on behalf of the president of the uted states of america: release pastorndrew brunson now or be prepared to face the consequences. >> nawaz: president trump levied sanctions on turkey, and ankara responded in kind. the dispute accelerated the decline of the turkish lira. it's lost 40% of its value this year. yesterday erdogan clearly hadum mr. s economic policy front of mind:at >> ( tran ): none of us can remain silent to the arbitrary cancellation of commercial agreements, the spreading prevalence of protectionism and the use of economic sanctions as weapons because the negative effects of these twisted developments will s.eventually affect all of >> nawaz: erdogan became prime minister in 2003. then in 2014 and again this year he was elected president, a position he has converted intoin turkey's pret power center. one major challenge to government: the grinding war in

syria that has forced more thanl three n refugees across turkey's southern border.nd tens of thoumore were sure to have moved into turkey, if the assad regime, backed by , made an all-out assaul on idlib province in northwest syria. it's the last major stronghold teof islamist and rebel fi. but erdogan struck a deal last week with russian president vladmir putin to forestall that attack: >> ( translated ): we believe at turkey cleared the way for peace and political solution in syria, especially in the idlib province. our goal is to clear the syrian territory, all the way from manbij to the iraqi border, from terrorist presence. >> nawaz: that broad reference to "terrorist presence" also refers to america's kurdish allies in syria, one more flash point between allies. ankara considers the so-called y.p.g. and its political wing, the p.y.d., terrorists allied to turkish separatist kurds. u.s. forces are training, equipping and fighting alongside the syrian kurds to defeat isis.

i sat down with president erdogan earlier this afternoon. mr. president, thank you so much for king the time to spe with us. >> thank you. >> i want to begin by asking u about syria. last week you signed an agreement with russia, specifically with regard to el strongholdst reb in syria. and as part of that agreement, you pledged thaall radical terrorist groups would be removed from idlib by october 15. i wanted to ask you how you begin to figure out who i a radical terrorist 3. >> ( translated ): as to who those groups ar, we had already identified those groups together with russia, anyway. we already know who they areou. withintelligence organization in turkey, we are now working towards that. as we speak, things progressing well. it is about removing heavy weapons from that gion. as we do that, the people of i idlib living lib will again have peace. >> reporter: there was a time you advocated for a regime change in syria. and it's fair to say that you've had a bit of a policy shift when

it comes to syria. last wek you signed tis agreement with russia. yesterday, in your speech at the united nations, y laid the alliance with russia inorking towards efforts in syria. russia is the chief backer ofsa bashar al- so is it fair to assume that you believe bashar al-assad has won the wain syria? >> ( translated ): iwere to create such a suspicion against russia that would be a wrong thing to do. the assad regime has never been an interlocateature for us. as turkey, ourca interature are the people of syria, and they are our brothers and sisters. we have to come with a result as soon as possible. we are now working on two things. rafirst is preon of the constitution, and second is a political process, and opening up the political process to thri people of sbecause the people of syria expect the political process to beome

functional as soon as possible, and for that process to be functional, a constitution is needed. >> reporter: i'd like to ask you about the relationship between ameri and turkey. this morning, you published a very strongly woropde-ed calling for a larger reform to take place at the united nations. but in that piece, you namedon the u.s. you said that this administration has undermined the world order. do you still consider the u.s. to be an ally for turkey? >> ( translated ): we are strategic partners with the u.s. within nato. for any country that is our strategic partner, it wouldn't be suitable to talk about possible sanctions against one's strategic partner, and so far, turkey has always fulfilled its duties of being the strr ategic partned we will continue to do so. we are together with them under nato. we will t with them under nato, and turkey has already defended the outpost of nato.

imagine you interveningn raqqa, and while doing that, imagine you don't work with your strategic partner, h t wita terrorist organization instead. who are those terrorist organizations? the p.y.d., and y.p.g., who happen to expengzs of the p.k.kitchen terrorist organizations. this is what we told the u.s. we said, "you're not doing the right thing." ategiceeing our str partner working hand in hand with those terrorist organizations is not something we could accept, we had a rd time accepting. do you know how much weapons the u.s. sent to the north of syia? more than 18,000 big truck loads of ammunitions and weapons were sent. who will those weapons be used against? because those are places wich are closest to our border, and there is this terrorist corridor there and took it apart. now think of our strategic partner engaging in such acts. thats sad for us to see. it is wrong. >> reporter:'d like to move on to another issue that has come up between the u.s. and turkey, and that is the issue of

stor brunson, andrew brunson, who has been detained in turkey sinc2016 no. the u.s. has asked that he be released. he has been charged wi terrorism and espionage, but recently pastor brunson was moved to house arrest.e ths a new prosecutor appointed in the case as well, and he has a hearing coming up in october. the u.s. has signaled they'd like him released by then. would you ine to release pastor brunson, an american citizen, back to the u.? >> ( translated ): now, in international law, ing political pressure to free those people who are convicted or detained, would that be posible under international law? as a j eournalist, you havever seen this? you could have that only in totalitarian or authoritarian regimes. you would not have it in a country like turkey, where there is the rule of law. now, as we speak, there is fethullah gulen in the u.s., and he has been his country since 1999, and he was head of an organtation which atempted a coup in our country. 251 of ouenr citizbecame

martyrs. in 2000, 191 of our people were injured. he lives in pennsylvania. we asked for him. we asked for extradition, and we signed all the necessary documents and papthwork. could have deported him with an administrative decision, but, unfortunately, the u.s. did not extradite him. >> reporter: are you saying if the u.s. agreeto extradite gulen back to turkey, youbeould illing to release the americans in custody in turkey right now? >> ( translated ): now, i told you i am not talking about any reciprocity. i am talkg about law. fethullah gulen is not part of a judicial process rght now. brunson is an entirely different situatio he is beingtried in court as we speak, and we sent all necessare dos about fethullah gulen to the necessary authorities. te reporter: amnesty international estipastor brunson is one of 15-20 american istizens currently in turkish custody.

hat correct? >> ( translated ): the number cannot be that high. >> reporter: do you know how many american citizens are currently in turkish cusdy? >> ( translated ): currently, as far as i know, six or sevneen z either are in custody or detained. >> reporter: you, yourself, iticismme under heavy cr from some human rights groups, particularly after you entioned that failed coup attempt in 2016. i have to put these numbers to you because they're s'striking. stimated one had been,000 people were dismissed from public sector jobs, mo tha 50,000 arrested and imprisoned. your contribution have called it a purge of your political opusition. are purging your political opposition? >> ( translated ): one cannot accept such information, of course, because you talk basedor on infmation you get from different press and media. currently there are people behind bars. it's true. numerically,es, there are hi numbers of people behind bars. there are 32,000 detained people o have been arrested. it's not hundreds of thousands. those trials must and i hope

will be completed by e end of this year. >> reporter: setting aside your political opposition, specifically when it comes to journalists in turkey, turs key en called the biggest jailer of journalists. back in disrnlg you held 73 journalis -- >> ( translated ): how many? you can give me the figure? >> reporter: in december the figure was 73 journalists held in prison, aording to the committee to protect journalists. >> ( translated ): all of these things you have said are wrong, and the sources are not right. those are lies. the number of people who are behind bars and who are journalists, real journalists, maybe 20 or 30. some of these people have committed terrorism crimes, but they have badges of journalists. we're not talking about actual and genuine journalists here. >> reporter: president recep tayyip erdogan, thank you very much for your time and speaking with us. >> thank you, thank you.

>> woodruff: now to our series on t plastic problem around the world. as we said last night, one of the biggest problems is actually recycling the material. in the u.s., the rate of recycling plastics is just 9%. that compares to 30% in europe. amna is back with a report that took her to three states, exploring innovative ideas aimed at reducing plastic waste. it's part of our breakthughs reporting on invention and innovation for our series, the leading edge of science. >> nawaz: for over 40 years, this is one of theays we've tried to tackle our growing plastic problem. sorting, weeding out, and sorting some more, like in this seattle facility. every day an estimated 750 tons of mater process.hrough this and every stop along the way,st juike this one, is designed to remove one more material. u for anra-durable material

like plastic, the goal of this system was to get us to use less, by re-using what we'd already made. today, new innovative ways of recirculating our plastic are asing road-tested. literally, in this this is the very first plastic road in the u.s., on the university of california san diego's campus. toby mccartneys behind" tacrebur," a british s-up that mixes recycled plastic pellets into asphalt to make longer lasting and cheaper roads. >> the downside to was plastics is it lasts for so long. a bottle will last foraybe 500 years. what we're using is the ability of those plastics, because they last so long, but in our roads. we want our roads to last so ylong before they need an maintenance. >> nawaz: but are re-using and recycng really making a difference? >> i would say that the way we recycle plastic at the moment is not part of the solution. i would even go as far as saying it's part of the problem. >> nawaz: roland geyer is an industrial ecologist at theun iversity of california santa

barbara. he says that in the 70 years plastic's been arounve created nine billion tons of it, most of which still exists. >> the only plastic that does not need to be disposed of is plastic that was never made. so even recycled material you can't cycle it forever. >> nawaz: becca fong, of seattlc putilities, walked us through the city's impressive and growing recycling effort. s still, ss, the process isn't perfect. >> it's geared to capture certain types of plastic of certain sizes and if it doesn't fit into those categories it's not really recoverable. ai nawaz: speaking of certn sis, something like this. a tiny little plastic straw. where does something like that straw fit? >> the fact that it matt it here is pimpressive but the vast majority are going to fall through the machiny and not be able to be recovered to be recycled. >> nawaz: so seattle started small, and in july, became the first major city in the u.s. to ban all plastistraws.

>> it is that piece of material that is so small and so nuanced and actually kind of an extra for a lot of people that it actually makes people stop and think, "do i really need to ve this straw a straw that i use today in seattle can end up in the pacific ocean and last there for thousands of years or can turn back to your plate in ten years as micro plastics embedded in some fish. >> nawaz: mami hara heads up seattle public utilities. before her team could implement and enforce the straw ban, which also includes plastic utensils, they had to get local businesses on board. >> for a lot of businesses it hasn't been a hard sell. for those who are concerned about the price point, we try to work with them to find viable alternatives that don't impact their purse too much. w >>ll buy about a million straws this year and the cost of straws has tripled. >> nawaz: bob donegan is the inesident of ivar's, an 80-year- old seattle seafooitution. >> we don't routinely put a

straw in a drink. lwe ask everybody would ye a straw and they can always have one. the are the new compostabl straws, they are made from plants. >> nawaz: but e compostable straws don't work for him in other ways. >> i challenge you tshsuck a mie through that straw and see if you can make it. >> nawaz: that's not easy. so he spt more money and ordered bigger straws. since the ban, costs have gone up. but donegan says he budgeted arnd them by buying goods early, and in bulk. so there's no use, he says, in complaining. >> put on your big boy pants and get used to it. everythinghe government does isn't fair. but our customers expect that of us and we want to do what our customers want. >> not only are we saying that the environment is important to us, this is a way for us to pu our money where our mouth is. >> nawaz: wes benson at taco

time, another area food chain, e ys they took seattle's straw and utensil ban ep further. today, every single item they give customers, from utensils and cups to plates and bowls, is tully compostable, meaning they're made of nal materials, and can be turned into compost after being tossed. >> one of the nice things aboutc being 10postable is you can make it a part of your story. we're a local company, themp environment istant to us and we're willing to pay five times as much for our packaging. >> nawaz: seattle's efforts to o cut backplastic extend bend restaurants. behind the scenes at safeco field, we get a look a tos stacks of coble items they now require food vendors to use. last year, the park managed to recycle or compost 96% of all waste. trevor gooby runs operations at the ballpark. >> it definitely is more work to sort through the trash that we have after the game and to do these type of things. but again we feel it's really important for our business. and it's important because our fans are asking us to do it.

>> nawaz: all those compostable items end up in piles like these, a run by jason lenz and his family outside of seattle. for what you guys do, how much of a problem do plastics present >> i would say it's, it's not insurmountable at the same time it's definitely a problem. >> nawaz: even here, bits ofas pltic need to be sorted out. lenz has been in this business since 2008, after expanding his sand and gravel company. y thout the cking this of you, or showing there was a demand wouldn't likely be doing this?s >> that'correct. seattle is a big pusher of organics for composting. and so that's why we have this business. >> nawaz: lenz's company now yurns out hundreds of thousands of tons of compostr, and sells it to everyone from soil companies, to local goomrnments, to hgardeners. what is in here? >> so these are bags of dirt

that i collected from various t sites arou houston area. >> nawaz: reed college student morgan vague had a hunch. if plastic really is everywhere, maybe, in heavilpolluted areas, bacterihave evolved to eat it. and maybe those bacteria could take a bite out of our plastic problem. so she collected samples from some of the dirtiest places around h hometown of houston, texas, like sites of past oil spill ss, aes deemed contaminated by the e.p.a., and brought them back to the lab. so you identify the bacteria you want to take a closer look at, put them in these test t fes and the ond you give them is plastic. >> exactly. and we're fortunate to find some that did a pretty good job. >> nawaz: but vague found that the bacteria works much too slowly to be useful just yet. >> what a lot of our researc has focused on, is sort of like how can we speed up this process a bit, how can we kind of scale this up and get it to an applicable kind of stage.

because you know right now it'st ju bugs in a tube. >> nawaz: vague says yes, it's just one sdy, in very early stages, but she's excited for where it could lead.al >> you know l little girls want to change the world when they grow up, righ i think we need more of these kind of grassroots efforts and kind of thinking outside the box or outside the plastic bottle and kind of saying what sort of sotions we can find. >> nawaz: without meaningful solutions, experts warn, our trajecto means more and more plastic, on our land and in our water. acrding to one study, if current production trends continue, by the yea2050 there will be more plastic than fishce in our oans. geyer says one way to fix it: get rid of all single-use packaging-- things like bags, straws, and bottles-- that make up 40% of our plastic. >> that would make a huge difference and i think that's really doable.le lots of pere at the point where they don't like what they see.re that there i willingness to, to change behavior to do things differently.

and i think there are many, many ways we cado it that you know still allow us to have the good life. >> nawaz: to do that, experts say it will take governments, companies, and individls working together, each taking small steps to bring about big change. for the pbs newshour, in santa barbara, california, i'm amna nawaz. >> woodruff: tomorrow, we'll take a look at the obstacles to >> woodruff: tonight the president held a press conference in new york, that lasted nearly 90 minutes. we played some excerpts from that at the top of the program but we want to take a moment to listen to one more bit. our white house correspondent yamiche alcindor was there and asked the president about thesi

was addr the united nations general assembly yesterday. >> yesterday, you were talking about your administration's accomplishments at the united natis, and a lot the leaders laughed. why do you think they laughed. >> well, that was fake news. and it was coved that wa. so i said that since myti el, our economy has become the hottest in the world. tax reductions, regulations, confidence levels are the highest in 18 years-- really soon to be historic. unemployment is the lon the history of our country. as i said, the country is now stronger thanver before. it's true. i mean, it is true. and i heard a little rustle. 'sand i said, "i true." and i heard smiles. and i said, "oh, i didn't know there would be that"-- they weren't laughing ate. they were laughing with me. we had fun. >> woodruff:ia meesh joins me by pone.

the prdent wanted to set that record straight. much of ne news coference was about brett kavanaugh, tomorrow's hearings, the accusations about judge kavanaugh. we heard the president say he really wants to hear the woman, christinblasey for testify. >> he did say that, and he said that he reserved the right to pull his nomination and withdraw the nomination of brett kavanaugh if he hears something tomorrow that moves him. and this president, of course, is someone who goes with his gut, who is very impulsive at times. so there is an opportunity there for the president to possibly say that he does not want ett kavanaugh to be his nominee. but the president said in this country are you guilty un proven innocent. and he said that, because he said, "i myself faced false allegations from women who say i acted sexuallyn iappropriate." of course there are a number of women who said that about the and he's saying he feels for t ett kavanaugh, that sense of kinship, and t somewhat coloring his view of tomorrow's

hearing. >> woodruff: it's interesting, because early on in the news conference, i heard him say these accusations, not only frim chriblasey ford, but the other women who have come rward the last day or two said they are false accusations.i but he also sd we should hear from these women, so there is a bit of a contradic.on going he >> there was definitely a contradiction there. the president said he wants tpeo remainbut he also said these women are not essentially telling the truth. he was asked over and over again, "are these woenying? and why he wouldn't say, "yes, christine blasey ford is lying, yes, deborah ramirez, is lying." he said this is all part of a con and the democrats waited until the last minute to do this. >> woodruff: it was quite a tour de force. 90 minutes. yamiche alcindor repm ting for us fw york. thank you. >> thanks, judy. and that's the newshour fo tonight. i'm judy woodruff. don't forget to join us tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. eastn on your local pbs stations and streaming

online for the senate hearing with brett kavanaugh nad accuser, christine blasey ford. and of course, we will be back tomorrow night. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> consumer cellular understand that not everyeds an unlimited wireless plan. our u.s.-based customer service reps can help you ch plan based on how much you use your phone, nothing more, nothing less. to learn more, go to consumercellular.tv >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals.ra

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hello, everyone. welcome tor amanp and company. here is what's coming up. president trump takes to the u.n. to blast iran, calling it a corrupt regime. i speak with the iranian president. plus, can s europeae the nuclear deal the trump administration wants to destroy? they are trying as hard as they can. also ahead, new zealand's prime minister made histo by bringing her newborn into the u.n. chamber. one of a coalition of new, young global leaders. we talk motherhood, her progressive agenda and climate change. tracy ulman tells