captiong sponsored by newshour productions, llc judy woodruff.ood evening, i'm on the newshour tonight... >> we're not fooling a here. >> woodruff: ...democrats threaten the white house with subpoenas if they don't turn then, n focus: theed to the democratic candidates for president are in las vegas,as making thethat they have a plan to address gun violence. and, revving up for the future-- ssspite leading the world in greenhouse gas ens, china's market for electric cars is transforming thveglobal automondustry. >> ( translated ): the government's goal of cutting emisons is aligned with its promotion of the electric vehicle industry.st in total there are about 400es million vehicln china and everyday they produce a huge amount of emissions. if a number of those become electric then itill have a great impa. >> woodruff: all that and more

on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> the lemelson foundation. committed to improving lives through invention, in the u.s. and developing countries. on the web at lemeon.org. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation.mm ted to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.or

of these institutigoing support >> this program was made possible by the corporatioadfor public bsting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank yo >> woodruff: top house democrats are pressing their impeachment probe tonight, and warning againsobstruction. president trump is blasting the investigators, and key witnesses, as traitors and spies. white house correspondent yamiche alcindor begins our coverage of this day's events. >> alcindor: t, a warning from house speaker nancy pelosi and a top lieutenant, leading the impeachment inquiry.

>> the presiden' probably dorealize how dangerous his statements are when he says he wants to expose who the whistleblower is and those who that information.e whistleblower >> alcindor: house intele gence commitair adam schiff served notice that said this time, stonewalling will be treated as glingds for impeachment in itself. >> we're not fooling around here though we don't want this to drag on for months and months and months which appears to be the administration's strategy. that they will be strengthening the case on obstruction if they behave that way. ook onindor: schiff secretary of state mike pompeo, documents and test demands for >> we are deeply concerned about secretary pompeo's effort now to potentially interfere with witnesses who whose testimony is needed before our committee, many of whom are mentitled in the whlower complaint. >> alcindor: in italy, pompeo acknowledg for the first time, that he was on that contested july phone call. it was on that call thit president trump requested ukraine's leader to investigate former vice president biden and his son. >> as for was i on the phone call, i was on the phone call.

>>nlcindor: but pompeo agai ripped into democrats who want current and former state department officials to testify. >>e will of course do our constitutional duty to cooperate with this co-equal branch but we are going to do so in a way that is consistent with the fundamental values of the american system and we won't tilerate folks on capitol hill bullying, intimi state department employees, that's >> alcindor: the state department's inspector general steve linick met today behind senate staffers, at his request. he reportedly provided documents related to the state department's dealings with ukraine. meanwhile, the house oversight committee announced it willhi subpoena the house on friday for records of the presidens dealings with ukraine. chairman elijah cummings cited a "flagrant disregard" of previous requests. democrats also warned president trlp against abusing potent witnesses. again, adam schiff.. >> the president wants to make this all about the whistlet ower and suggople that come

forward with evidence of his ongdoing are somehow treasonous and should be treated as traitors d spies. this is a blatant effort to intimidate witness. it's an incitement of vience. >> ding an oval office meeting with the president of finland, president trump went after the .democrat aga >> he should be forced to resign, adam schiff, he's a low life, he should be forced to resign. >> president trump agreed whistleblowers should be protected but not the one who reported his conversation with the president of >> he wrote a vicious conversation. in other words he either got it totally wrong, made it up or the person giving the information to the whistleblower was dishonesth and this count to find out who that per to was, because t at person is a spy. >> alcindor: aa joint press conference later in the day, amid reports from the new york times that schiff got an early account of the complaint, mr.

trump claimed schiff may have written parts of it. >> i think it's a scandal that he knew before. i'd go a step further: i thinkro hebly helped write it. the intelligence committee did not receive the whistleblower complaintin advance. meanwhile, president trump refused to answer quions about what exactly he wanted g ukraine to do regarde biden family. house democrats will hold a closed-door depositionheomorrow withdministration's former envoy to the ukraine, kurt volker. he resigned from the state departmentast week. and former u.s. ambassador to ukraine marie yonovitch will be deposed next week. she was abruptly recalled in may. >> woodruff: and yhe joins me along with our congressional correspondent lisa desjardins. another fast-moving day. lisa, so back to what the house is doing there, they are nosa ng we are prepared to subpoena the white house for documents. what you have learned about what they're seeking, the timetableth

fos, and so forth. >> this is a large cat egory of documents, 13 different cactus requesting for many months, and what they're saying now in this memo to the white house is now time sup, now we think we need a responsend we're ready tosu oena. you see some of the memo. look at the strong language from chairman cummings. the white house flagrant disregard for multiple voluntary oduction of documents combined with stark warnings from thel inspector geneout the gravity of these allegations choiceeft us with no other than issue the subpoena. they have not issued the subpoena yet, that is planned for friday. i think all this speaks again looming here.rt battle is one other thing, in that document, they're saying we're not approaching this lightly, and they say the white house -- 's not just that they refuse these documents, they say the white house has not et acknowledged the requests at all. >> woodruff: and it's interesting that they're

telegraphing they're going to do this before they do it. >> it is, that's riht. >> woodruff: yamiche, you have been talking to folks at the white house. how are they responding th? this is a direct request. as lisa seis, the language is very aggressive. what are they saying? >> the president is responding democrats or the planned subpoena by house democrats with ager but not quideteiance. today at the press conference at the white house the question was fat president trump do you plan b comply with this subpoena that's supposed filed on friday. the president said i'm willing to work with the house telligence commiee and nancy pelosi, so he didn't say i'm not going to provide these documents, but he wasn't also clear about what he might provide. he also said nancy pelosi is caught handing out subpoenas like cookies, basically making the point nancy pelosi is harassing him and too many subpoenas are going around. but ere is a history of t white house not wanting to provide documents to coming.us the white says it has to do with executive privilegeco

thgress says the white house is stalling on documents. rudy giuliani is going on an offensive when it com to legal tactics saying he might sue house democratssome of the same people now seeking they're two separate things the president's personal lawyer and the white house, but you're seeing a legal battle shaping up and president trump isn't quite sure what he's going to prre wv. >> woodruff: and, yamiche, as we saw, the president addressed all this in two separate sessions with the president of finland, first in the oval office, and then they had a joint news conference scheduled. that news conference turned out pr be very little about his meeting with theident of finland and so much about this impeachment inquiry. >> well, this was s a se press difference even for a president that has had very tense other foreign leaders.ia now, here we had the president lashing out at the whistleblower.he said, i believg

whistlebwers, but this person essentially doesn't -- should etven't that protection because they're saying sng about me that i believe to be a lie. it was very interesting to wach him also take queions from other reporters from a different country. so a finnish reporter stood up and put a quest to the president of finland what favors has president trump basically requested of u today? gasped. room it was in some ways a reapoy nant moment and it really shows that president trump is facing lly scrutiny with the case, he's tto do foreignhis policy, but helready being accused of having corrupt bevior with this present. the president of fin land said i haven't been asked to do b anythithis president, but it's quite a reminder when we iee the president lashing out and being angrys notin just about the domestic policy, it's also about the fache's accused of using his relationship with

foreign leaders coming to the white house for things that are nefaous and hisown politicalli gain. >> woodruff: it was a striking exchange. lisa, another thing that happened today thas unusual in that the state department's insptor general, an independent official inside then federal depar asked for a briefing with congress blind the doors. it wasn't in private -- it was in private but i know you and other journalists are trying to find out about what happened. we know a lot about what it was weird. the inspector general gave a short notice to congress, congress was out of town, so staffers ande mber of congress who attended the the inspector general broughtro documents having to do with this whole ukraine discussion. what were those documents? those documents were in the words of representative jamie raskin a democrat from maryland, a series of disesinformation papers about conspiracy theories in ukine, some having to do

with former vice president biden dod his son, some having to with the former ukrainian ambassador maria vonbaovich. raskin said imself he dinot think a charge of wrongdoing was in all of this, more thaet th i.g. was covering his bases saying to congress here's a pact of material sent to secretary of state mike pompeo. we're not sure if he spread it around or not, but somebody s putting out these ar theories te ambassador. here's a picture of the documents. it's in cay lig phi. 1780.oks like it could be from it really is strange. i wanted to mention it because we have been repor ng on and it shows some of these things are very substantive, some of these things, i's not clear what they mean. >> woodruff: and it's not clear where these came from to secretary pompeo.

>> it's a mange question mark.qe did it come from wthete house? there were folders involved that came from the trump hotel. i don't ow. present raskin says he thinks it's a distraction and is nod ng pattention to it. it was odd. >> woodruff: covering all of the developments today at the capitol. lislisa desjardins, thank you, yache alcindor, thk yo. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, a sell-off hit wall street for thsecond straight day, amid worries over trade and the economy. the trump adnistrationti announced tariffs, targeting $7.5 billion in goods from europe. and a private survey found u.s hiring slowed in september. the dow jones industrial average lost nearly 500 points to close at 26,078. the nasdaq fell 123 points, and the s&p 500 gave up 52.

former dallas police officer amber guyger was senteed to 10 years behind bars, for the murder of a black neighbor, a year ago. guyger said she entered the wrong apartmt and shot a man she thought was an intruder. she could have gotten life in prison, and a crowd outside the court booed when the sentence was announced. democratic presidential candidate bernie sanders has called off campaigning, for now, after a heart procedure. the vermont senator is 78. he had chest pains in las vegas bl tuesday, and doctors inserted two stents into ked artery. this afternoon, sanders tweetedt e is feeling good, and he touted his push for "medicareed for all." russia's president vladimir putin today dismissed fears of his country meddling in u.s. it.ctions, even making a joke of the kremlin has denied u.s. findings that it interfered in th.2016 presidential electi

at a forum in moscow, putin made light of t issue, and pretended to confide that russia has similar planfor 2020. >> ( translated ): i'm telling you as a secret: yes we will definitelyo it in order to deliver you the best of fun, just don't tell anyone.yo know we have plenty of our own problems.lems we are dealing with domestic problems and this is our key priority. at is the point for us to meddle in some election in some other country? >> woodruff: putin said he h a good relationship with president he also said he do mind ifhe a his calls with mr. trump are made public. in iraq, security forces killed at least seven people and wounded dozens in new clashes with anti-government protesters. woun made nine killed in days, witheds more wounded. thousands took to the streets of baghdad. security forces used water cannon and tear gas to try to firing live rounds.then began

ngthe protesters are deman jobs, better services and an end to corruption. hundreds of students and supporters in hong kong condemned police today, for shooting a teenage protester. they held rallies and marches against police brutality andnt demanded accility. the 18-year-old protester was shot tuesday as he struck an officials saoday the wounded teen is in stable condition. north korea may have fired an advanced nucar-capable missile, from under water, for the first time sce starting nuclear talks with the u.s. it happened early today, and south korea says the missile came from 10 miles off the north's coast, possibly from a submarine. it landed in japanese waters, and in tokyo, japan's defense minister condemned north korea's actions. >> ( translated ): this missile launch, which appears to have fall into japan's exclusive economic zone, is a serious

threat to japan's security, and without any prior notice, landing in such a zone was a dangerous act for aircraft and ships that is extremelyob matic and violates the u.n. security council resolution. >> woodruff: the missile launch came one day after the said it will resume talks with the u.s. in washington, the state department said pyongyang should efrain from provocations." proposed a last-mirexittoday deal to the european union as a halloween deadline approaches.s the oposals focuses on a open border between e.u. member ireland, and british-ruled orrthern ireland. prime minister b johnson soasa conciliatory note he addressed a conference of his ruling conservhiives. >> yesis a compromise by the u.k. and i hope very much that our friends understrod that and cose in their turn. the alternative is no deal and that is not outcome we want.co it is not an outcome we ek at all.

but let me tell you, my friends, it is an outcome for which we are ready. >> woodruff: e.u. officials said they welcome the new propol. johnson said he hopes to make get a final agreement deal at an e.u. summit in mid-october. this day marked one year since "washington post" columnist jamal khashoggi was murdered at e saudi arabian consulate in istanbul, turkey. activists and friends gathered near the site today to demand justice. they included the post's owner jeff bezos and khashoggi's turkish fiancee.tu saudi crown prince mohammed bin salman said this week he takes responsibility for the killing, but did not order it. trump denied that r talkedent ofedhings like digging a moat to "top border crossings. new york times" reported that last march, he suggested ar elied border wall, a moat with alligators, and evenig shootingnts in the legs.s.

today, he said "i may be tough tough."ity, but not that and opera star placido domingo resigned today as general opera, amid accusations of sexual harassment. he had alreadyoleft the metran opera in new york. domingo saidoday he will focus on trying to clear his name. still to come on the newshour: former republican senator jeff flake on how the party can save its soul. democratic candidates say they can reduce gun violence. thhow china is electrifyin auto industry.d eelchair tennis players blaze a trail for disabled athletes. >> woodruff: so far congressional republicans have been united in their stance

against the impeachment inquiry, jewe turn to former senato flake of arizona. he's in boston. and chris buskirk, editor of the conservative journal and web- te "american greatness." he joins us from phoenix. hello to both of you. we thank you for joining us on nk you "newsnaur". r flake, let me start with you. do you believe the -- what we know about the president's conversation in that phone call with the president of ukrainehi warrants impeachment inquiry? >> i do. i do. i think that conversation, just from the transcript, not descriptions of the transcript, but the transcript itself is damning enough to launch inquiry, so, yes. >> woodruff: chris bukirk, what do you believe based on what we know about that conversation? >> no, you know, i've read that transcript. it's got to be at least five times. what's more is i'm not connced that even nancy pelosi thinks

that it warrants it. i mean, my understanding of this hat this is really a part of 2020 election campaig that t it's not a serious attempt to remove the president from office because nobody realieves that the senate will convict. >> woodruff: but i mean on the facts, chri chris buskirk, quic, the facts of what was said inof ation,onve president trump asking the president of ukraine to help with an investation into joe biden, a foreign leader. >> yeah, no, i me- an, that's right, because wat joe biden did while vice president ss highly questionable, and he' bragged about this in public, that way he threatened with ukraine with withholding a billion dollars of aid if they didn't fire a prosecutor. sat requires something looks into, if he walling his of course kneeledssistancet, he of the ukrainian government to get to the bottom of what haened while on their soil.

>> drof: whatever happened, it's widely deburvegd by all the reporting i've seen. senator flake, what convinces you this warrants an impeachment inquiry? >> the pure text ofte it, askina foreign leader to help investigate one of your i political rivals and, not just that, involving the state department, you heard the torn general, in that effor that is abuse of power. i don't know where this inquiry it's tough to see the votes now there in the senate. i myself don't want to see impeachment come, would rather see the president defeated inl the nexttion, that would be better, but to say that this doesn't merit an inquiry is just ignoring the evidence there. >> woodruff: t senator flake, explain why you don't believe an impeachment inquiry that the president should be imimpeached? u're saying it warrants an inquiry but you think it's wrong

for the congress to pursue tha why? >> well, the constitution spells out the remedy, in this cas t it doesn't require that there co impeach. given how the country is split, i just hope we don't come to that. ry divnisive in ay circumstance, but where we are as a country, it will be doubly so, and i fear the president wi use it to his advantage if impeachmt comes and not conviction, then it can be taken advantage of by the president.be that wouldn'ood for anyone. >> woodruff: chris buskirk, you were writing in the york times" this weekend that you also believe that for the democrats to pursue this will end up helping the president politicall >> yeah, i think that's exactly right. i mean, i look back at the last twpresidents wh faced impeachment proceedings, and yon look bachen it was richard nixon, thete in the house toee prwith an impeachment

inquiry was 410 to 4, and then when you fast forward to the '90s and we hadsi pnt clinton, sonthing like 250 to 178 or something likthat, the point being it was a much more party-line vote that time. and you look at the outcomes of those two things, and theey very, very different, ander thas very dive, highly partisan,ously highly political, and it's an odd thing to be dong rig before an election when you have a political process playing out and people coitain are to look into ukraine and all kinds of other things as voters get ready to goto the polls, but it seems to me that theri appre way to pursue -- to try and win an election based oe one of the i a one of the issues may be who trump is, what he's done, what he hast done, but to pursue this now when you're going to have a party line vote does not seem to auger well for one's polpolitical prospects, and i think that's white ultimately benefits the

president more than democrats. >> woodruff: senator flake, you have written in the last day or so that, again, you believe the president should be removed by the voters and not byy impeachment, and you argueanfor republics, it's a matter ofpl prin but if that's the case, why to support impeachment?inciple >> well, it may well be, depending on what the indquiry turns up. if therei just evnce coming out of additional abuse of power, it may be thatt republicans cagnoret it and will have to go forward with you know, it being a partisanno vote now mayhold if additional evidence comes forward, and there are a lot o subpoenas out there. there's a lot of information to be gathered, and things could change, and it could change in the senate, where engof my former colleagues may simply say we've got to appach the president and do as was done in the early '70s with senator

goldwar and congressman john rhodes and sayju there's no way out. it may come to that, depending inquiry.s turned up by th >> woodruff: what about that, chris buskirk? >> yeah, ikiwon't come to that. there's no way that will happen right in front of an election.yb evy will want to fight this out on political turf and let voters deide. whatever comes out of an inquiry, that seems to be theie heal way for the republic to decide this matter which is make everything plic, we know it's going to come out, but then let voters decide in 2020 which way they want the country to go >> woodruff: and i want you to weigh in on this, senator flake, but i guess what i'm trying to get at here, chris buskirk, is there is a place -- and we don't know if, at this point, this is it -- for a president to removed by impeachment and conviction, you're saying -- i mean, how can you be so confident that it's the wrong ing to do, then?

flake?that to me or to senator >> woodruff: tof: you. to me. i mean, look, if th accusation is based upon the transcript of this conversation that president trump had with president zelensky, that is not dios bive. noy peopieve it is, and they can hold that political opinion, but a vair large segment of the population looks at it and says mae no problem or look at it and say i don't like it but it's not an imimachable offense. i don't see a realistic scenario where you get to the requed votes in the senate. yes we understand impeachment in a political prcess that plays out in congress, but, at the same time, we have a deadline of november 2020 when there's going to be an election, and i think that's ultimately what's goi on which is democrats are trying to harm the prearsident's retation in advance of th election, they think they can

undermine voters' confidence in him and that that will lead to an actual remoom office.her than >> woodruff: se r flake, i mean, as we look at the nt 15 months before we get to the presidential election, whais congress' responsibility in terms of, you know, asking this president to support this impeachment inquiry, demanding documents, i mean, h should congress be approaching this? >> well, first, i don't share their confidence that your other guest has that nothing will turi up, and it's notjust what may or may not turn up, it's how the president reacts to iand evidence so far is not too well, which isn't going to ve my former colleagues confidence int ight be there. so i think the responsibility of congress is to do the inquiryan and to look then to see whether or not they ought to move forward.

like i said, my preference would be to do it in the next election, but if it comes to it, if there'sore information, then they ought to do theti constial duty and i wouldn't hesitate, if iwoul wer, the seno do that. >> woodruff: former senator jeff flake of arizona, chris buskirk, tnk you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: after the most recent back-to-back mass shootings in el paso and dayton, democrats, including the party's presidential candidates, renewed thei canlls for changes to gun laws. amna nawaz has more on where the candidates stand. >> nawaz: many of the 2020 candidates spent the day at a forum in las vegas, explaining how they would curb gun violence.th as send indiana mayor pete buttigieg took the stage, he made clear all the democratic candidates have a united goal. >> i'm guessing that pretty much

everybody in the parade of candidates you're abouto see is going to call for universal backgrnd checks, closing the hate loophole, the charleston loophole, the boyfriend abusers, enacting red flag laws, extreme risk protection orders,a ing the sale of assault weapons like what i carried in afghanistan.rriew we kat we have to do. >> nawaz: our john yang was at the forum today and joins me now. john, good to talk to you. we heard from mayor buttigieg right there and another candidate former vice president joe bn released his own plan to curb gun violence in the country today. wh was notable about that plan? amna, one thing notable, he was the last of the majorcandidates to lease his gun violence plan and he chose this forum gabby giffords group and the group formed after e parkland high school shooting and this shooting one day after the second anniversary of the harvest music festival shooting

here in las vegas that claimed 58 lives. fitting his role as the modera candidate, joe biden's plan had some moderate points in it. there are three main points. he wants to expand background checks, but, importantly, he wants texclude sales between close family membersat's an exclusion, very important to a lot of gun owners. he also wants to tore the manufacturing new assaultan on weapons, and for existing assault weapons, he mihas a ddle ground, not a mandatory buybacku a ary buyback. owners of assault weapons would have to choose, under his plan,s whether toell their weapon back to the government or undergo background checroand register in order to keep theirp assault . so a middle ground on that sue. >> so, hn, a lot of those things we heard mayor buttigieg list at the top, when we okoa

y at a lot of the candidates' plans as put forward, you see common elements. where are the areas of disagreement among the democratic presidential candidates now? >> that is e. that is sort of the ma stream agreement among the candidates, but one candidate in particularly today, senator cory booker of new jersey, tried to distinguish himself from the other candidates. here he is talking about a national registry for gun owners. >> here's my message to democrats -- the public is already there. well over 75% of ericans support gun licensing. this isn't about leadership. deleadership is about bringing people along with you. the public is already there. you should not be a nomionee frm our party that can seriously stand in front of urban places and say, i will protect you if you don't believe in gun licensing. this isn't about leadership, this is about u standing wi the overwhelming majority of americans on gun licensing. >> reporter: another

candid warren of massachusetts, said the difference is the details in the individual plans aren't at important. >> this is not going to be a one and done to fix this problem. it's not going to be a -- we'll get two statutes passed and three regulation changed, problem fixed, because it won't be fix . >> reported in so many of the differences between the candidates on so many issues, it comes down to a breakdown between progressives and moderates, but on gun buybacks, here's what ouratest "newshour" npr-marist poll found, it showed among democrats there's broad support, 70% support a mandatory buyback for assault weapons, and look ater this, s no difference between progressives and moderates, a cities asking tie, bo about -- it's a statistical tie, both about 70% support thhe. >> you seeumbers. the candidates are saying the support is there among of a lot tiof the pot voters for some of these reforms. as you mentioned, you're

standing tre on the site of the deadliest modern shooting in istory. i'm curious, a lot of thee activists were there at the forum for whom this might be a voting issue, how have they changed the conversation and what are you hearing from them about these plans? >> yeah, procer meredith lee talked to a lot of the people here, the activistsho ar here, and we want to play me of that tape for you. 're hear from victor pancheo, 24-year-old from uth central los angeles. >> so i really likes the plans of folks like senator nders and warren, i real, ly appreciae their, you know, focusing on lower income comitnities, comms that are only experiencing mass gun shootingsl experiencingy gun violence throughout the communityand that are historically not focused on when it comes to these iss ts. >> i want talk about the intersection of gun violence. i think that is ataery imp thing. the intersection of gun violence of mental health, with police brality, with criminal

justice. it's a multi-facetted issue so it should address every side of t gun violence, not juss shootings or the kids from parkland, but the churches,co erts, streets and stree cities. >> that was deley tar, from parkland, florida, one of the co-founders of march for our lives. they have some differngces, but coogether and agreeing on a lot of the broad strokes of n control thatone thing in common we heard not only among the candidates but among thest actihere, they feel, in order to get meaningful gun control laws, they've got to defeat donald trump for the white house next november, a they've got to defeat the republicans who control the senate. there was also a lot of talk here about the national rifle association about how corporate america controls politics andic saying that the n.r.a. now no longer represents gun owners bue hame a lobby for

gun-makers.rs na. >> john yang in las vegas with a subject that's sure to be front and center in the 2020 election. thanks, john. >> woodruff: china has histically been known more f the pollution it produces than the gas it saves. but china is nrl also the wos largest market for electric cars. and china's elecic vehicle markettransforming not only chinese automakers, buforcing international companies to ramp up e.v. production as well. with the support of e pulitzer center, we return to our series, china: power and prosperity. special correspondent katrina yr begins her rept in hefei, china. >> brangham: in one of the world's most advanced factories, this start-up is working to ensure the future of electc cars is driven by china.

nio is described as "china's tesla." it produces electric s.u.v.s for environmentally-conscious millennials. each vehicle comes with an artificially intelligent dashboard robot. >> nihao. >> reporter: access to drive- through, nio power stations that swap out dead batteries. and exclusive nio clubhouses. c.e.o. william li says nio is more than a car. >> ( translated ): nio doesn'ton want to be an electric car brand, but a lifestyle brand. we hope to create a community which starts from the car. it's about living well, living consciously and creating a happy way of living. >> reporter: that happiness is mostly for china's upper-middle class. the esand es8 are priced between 40 to 0,000. li says chinese drivers are slowly seeing the benefits of owning an electric vicle, but many still need to be convince to make the switch from gas or diesel.

>> ( translated ): these days people still aren't familiar with electric cars and can have some misunderstandings. we need to provide a better environment for customers so they can better understand t benefits.ro >> reporter: pviding this better environment is exactly what the chinese government is trying to do. earlier this year, a state-owned fund injected nio with $1.4 billion. and the government doesn't just support companies, it also incentivizes consumers in beijing, zhu mengxiao's electric car is worth about $30,000 dollars. but after government subsidies, she only paid $18,000. zhu took me for a spin. thing, having the right toone ve it can be another.to educe overcrowding on roads the government carefully managee e ples. residents can only get one through a lottery, but the odds

of winning are low if you'reyou' driving a gas guzzle >> ( translated ): it's like a real lottery. you may win the big prize with o on ticket, but there's also the chance you won't win anything your whole life! when we first applied for a license plate it was around 2010, and we were waa long time and didn't receive onfor a gas-pod car. only after the exceptions appeared for electric cars, could we buy thicar. >> reporter: zhu receiveher electric car license plate within a few months. she was initially worried about the car's battery life, but says the pros outweigh the cons. >> ( translated ): with more advanced technologies, more people are likely to choose electric cars. especially since the price ofol peluctuates and oftenpe jumps. electric cars can be cheaper to use, and more eco-friendly. >> reporter: putting more eco- friendly cars on china's roads is critical. alst outside beijing, plant belches smoke-- a reminder that china remains the world's largest emitter of greenhoe gases.

two thirds of china's electricity comes from coal. and it often leads to days like this. reducing air pollution is central to china's camign to ke cars green, says industry analyst qiu kaijun. ( translated ): smog is a serious problem, and car emissions are a part of that. so the govercuent's goal of soing emissions is aligned with its promotion of the electric vehicle industry. in total there are about 400 million vehicles in china and everyday they prode a huge amount of emissions. if a number of those become ectric then it will have great impact. >> reporter: electrs are also key to reducing the country's reliance on foreign oil, says government advisorei jianguo. >> (s translated ): china country with few resources. d local productisn't meet the country's needs, so china needs electric cars. since promoting them we reduced petrol consumption by nine million tons. >> reporter: that's a reduction of less than 1%. but with public transportion increasingly going green, that

figure is set to grow. top-selling electric vehicle manufacturer byd has turned the southern metropolis shenzhen stto the world's first city to rely only on electric buses. shenzhen alone now operates more electric buses than every city in the world outside of china, combined. byd is also greeninghe city's taxi fleet-- almost all of the isty's 22,000 cabs are electric. but some driversthey weren't forced to make the switch.ch. >> ( translated ): electric taxi drivers definitely earn less because it tak several hours to recharge the car. sometimes we have to wait in line. two months ago i waited in line one hour or more for a charging station. then it took me two hours to recharge. those are hours i could have. been worki >> reporter: but he has no choice. the central planners of china's migovernment say they're ced

to ensuring the electric vehicle market bomes a world leader. this year china imposed an emissions cred system that requires car mufacturers to reduce emissions below o certain levepay for credits from other companies. that's an expenditure ey want to avoid, so they are being compelled to go re green-- and that applies to both domestic and international carmakers. at a plant in foshan in china's south, german automaker audi is building its first fully- electric car designed especially for the chinese market. audi plans to launch 30 hybrid hed electric models around world by 2025. china is audi's biggest market. and china's drive for new energy vehicles, or n.e.v.'s, is impossible to ignore, says director executive heinz-willi vassen >> this is a key element here in china, so it would be a very big risk not to be able to offer n.e.v. technology in the chinese market, so for us, not

acceptable. we sell more than 30% of our cawe target to have 40% of our cars sold in china, we have several productions here in china. so for us it's a key market. global brand linino complye only with china's e-strategy. also launch electrels madell specifically m the chinese market by the end of this year. while tesla's first factory outse the u.s. is nearing completion in shanghai. but for inese brands, there have been some speed bumps. nio is struggling with months of sluggish sales and reports of battery fires. the company has had to fire 10% of its workforce. and across the country, a weakening economy has reduced auto sales, including a 7% slump in electric vehicle sales. it hasn't helped that consumer subsidies began being scaled back in june, driving up the cost to buy one.o. nio c.e.illiam li downplays concerns.

he says his coany and the electric industry overall, are just starting to get on the road. >> ( translated ): the carar industry is constantly changing and there are always new callenges. we have more and more customers, and their situation is changing too. a it is not ea it takes time. regulations and a massive market will help ensure momentum toward een cars, and that policymakers in beijing, not washington or california, are in the drivers seat. for e pbs newshour, i'm katrina yu, in hefei. >> woodruff: adaptive sports, whh are recreational or competitive sports for people with disabilities, are growing in popularit as are the skill levels of the athletes.as

one of thest growing sports in the field is wheelchair tennis. william brangham went to the u.s. open in new york to talk with some of the top players. >> brangham: 28-year-old dana tthewson hits hard. she's the number one american women's wheelchair tennis player, competing at the world's top tournaments, including, this, her third u.s. open. mathewson started as a soccer player, but at age 10, she contracted aare neurological disease which caused her immune in a matter of minutes, she went from running on the field to being paralyzed from the waist down. during this difficult time, her mom, who doctor, encouraged her to try tennis as a way to move forward. i didn't think they could be competitive. >> brangham: flash forward 19 years. mathewson has represented td u.s. in worlp team tennis nine times. this september, playing for teaw usa, s a gold medal in doubles and a bronze in singles

at the pan american games in peru. is it just as fierceyo arguys just as rough on each other and just as brutal? >> dinitely.in i think more s a way, when you have a disability or you come back from certain hardships and then play a sport, that's a tyn. of really resilient per >> brangham: that type of>> b resilience is shown in other adaptive pro sports, like wheelchair basketball, wheelchair racing and skiing, all growing in popularity. >> respect has arrived. you are seng the very very best skill level i would eque to the able bodied side. >> brangham: jason harnett is iothe u.s. tennis associats head coach for the paralympic team. he's known mathewson since she first picked up a raquet. nis rules for wheelchair iee the same as for able-b tennis, with one exception: you get two-bounces if players need the additional time to get to the ball. here at the u.s. open, the world's top eight men and top eight women were competing, as were the best four quadriplegic

players-- those who have at least three extremities affected by a permanent disability they compete in a separe competition. >> there's no side to side. the chair, if i have to move to my left or my right, i actually have to turn the chair and push forward. ere is no cross step.>>ut. brangham: jo wallen directs the wheelchair tournament at the u.s. on, and she says, players ave to hit the same tough shots-- but theyo have to quickly steer their chair, often making figure eights so they can track the ballbe ready for the return shot. >> it's in the maneuverihe chair that messes upble bodied players when they get in. >> brangham:ome big names in le-bodied tennis like novak djokovic and frances tiafoe have tried playing from a chair and discovered jhow hard it is. >> i always dreamed to be a professional sports player. it was tennis, what i was meant to do. >> brangham: argentinian gustavo fernandez is the number one in the world.hair tennis players

in 2019, he's won the australian open, the french open and wimbledon. when we caught up with him ate the u.s. open,s going for his final of the grand slams. fernandez has been in a wheelchair since he was a year old as a result of a spinal cord injury. >> i love to compete, it means everything to me and to keep achieving things, it's huge. >> brangham: he said he feels a need to not only grow as a, competitt to grow this sport, in part to change perceptions. >> sometimes the ignorance makes you not see what it really is. and you takthat concept wrong and learn about it, you can see that it's a professional sport with high quality tennis. and i think in that way, it will grow by itself. >> brangham: fernandez's matches are nse-- on this day, heew bl tire on the hot court. >> there's the wheelchair technician. >> brangham: enter michael zangari. chief wheelchair technician.

he's a pioneer who played wheelchair tennis himself for 35 years, and basketball fore that. he's ready, courtside, to repair these light-weight, high end titanium chairs that can run into the thousands of dollars. >> if you take your conventional hospital chair or the ones you see in theirport or the ones i got my start in, i would relate them to a hummer. >> brangham: a hummer? >> big, clunky.ar now cog to these chairs, that's what you have out there, lamborghinis. >> brangham: wheelchair tennis is slowly gaining trtion. there are grassroots levels up to professional ranks, and the sport is represented at all four grand slam events arou world. but it's not without its challenges: building a fan basel getting more sponsors, even offering higher prize money: wheelchair grand slam winners take home just over $33,000, compared to the millions for the able-bodied winners. certain players, like six-time u.s. open singles champion and

world number two, shingo kunieda following.al after this recent doubles win with gustavo fernandez, fanswith flocked to him, but nowhere near enough to fill the cavernous aradium. officialalso hoping the sport will gn more popularity when the top players compete in tournaments with a much largs, pool of plays they did here, this year in st. louis. these more intimate vecoes help builunity: the players ate together, pumped up their ownires, helped each other out, and generally celebrated each other's achievemen. fernandez and mathewson were part of that while remaining laser-focud on their goals. in new york, i asked them what drives them.nk >> but i the more and more that i get exposed to different things, the more that i realize what i can do with this disability and the things that it's afforded my liftu the more i ly feel really grateful for it, which is kind a weird thing to say. a lot of people... >> brangham: grateful? >> yeah, a lot opeople wouldn't really look at a

disability and say that's a great thing. i think that's one of the more unfortunate attitudes that people have about disability, that if someone can't walk, their life must suck. this disability has allowed me to represent my country. i rt to travel the world for a living. i get to play a sport for a living. >> i like really much what i do and i respect it and i think i'm quite good at it. because i worked for it. there's 10 people, 10,00 one billion people watching it, for me, it will mean the same. >> brangham: the tennis year seemingly never stops. players are now on to europe for one last tournament, and theney ead to orlando for another. for the pbs wiwshour, i'm lliam brangham in flushing meadows, new york. >> woodruff: more than half the children in american schools are students of color. but their teachers are overwhelmingly white. in tonight's brief but

ectacular we hear from a african american biomedical engineer on why it is so iimportant to see ourselv front of the classroom.re >> i had thily powerful experience when i was a graduate student. i was attending one of mfirst major confces. there was a black woman who was a speaker. and at the end of the session, i actually stood up. at the time i was 23, and i said, "i have attended two ivy league institutions. i have studied physics and engineering, and this is theis t first time i've ever been in a room where the speaker was a black woman. and i let it soak in to the thousands of people sitting behind me, until that moment i had never realized that i had never had someone who loed like me, teaching me. i've always thought that seeing is believing sve built optical instruhants to be able to see into the body. o and that's why i decided biomedical engineering and i to show how cancerdsicroscopes

through the body. i started to see the role of the immune cells in that process.ss and thinking of how use those immune cells to target the cancerells in a way more effective way than just the bloodstream.directly into immune cells travel through our body. they have their own specialized networks. they go to places of disease. my thought here is, if they arep already going ces of disease, why not add an exa passenger? why t add a drug and attach to the immune cells and then len them do what they normally do? i thought this could be used not n st for cancer, but it cabe used for other diseases as wl. when we first made this discovery, we were very excited. we had over 700 articles from our first publication on this work. i would get emails from people and they would say, "i've never seen a black woman in a lab coat being pictured as having contributed to a major discovery."

aywould have my little cousins when they saw me"i want to write about you for black history month." when i am most personable, my students are also able to openst up and talk about themselves and i am contributing to a generation of not only people who might be scientists, but also people who go out into the world and take on many different ingciplines and i'm encour selves in their fieir whole and so i find that to be very powerful. challenging, but also powerful. i'm dr. elizeth wayne, and this is my brief but spectacular take on the power of images in science and life >> woodruff: and you can watch additional brief but spectaculau episodes oweb site, pbs.org/newshour/brief. on the newshour online, we markk the one-year anniversary of jamal khashoggi's death with some of the questions that remain. find our story on instagram, @newshour. and that's the newshour forat's

tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join uonline and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs wshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbsbs newshour has been provided by: >> consumer cellular believeat ireless plans should reflect the amount of talk, text and data that you use. to learn more, go to consumercellular.tv >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals.

>> this program was made possible by the corporation forn public broadca and by contributions to your pb station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshourroductions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

hello, a t welcomeo "amanpour and company." this week we're dipping t into archives and looking back at some of our favorite interviews here's what's coming up. former secretary of defense ash carter tells me what it take run the onpent why he believes china and russia are the trump administration's biggest foreign policy challenges. en -♪ ♪h whath a world ♪ >> celebrating 80 years of gospel and soul. music legend mavis staples why she's still usingo song t unite america. why aren't more catholics entiged, prot? >> the catholic church should abolish the priesthood to save itself.