narrator: funding for this presentation is made possible by... man: babbel, a language learning app that teaches real life conversations and uses speech recognition technology. y 10 to 15 minute lessons are voiced by native speakers d they are at babel. b-a-b-b-e-l.com. narrator: funding the freeman foundation. by judy and peter blum-kovler foundation. or pursuing solutions america's neglected needs. and by contributions to this pbs station om viewer woman: and now, bbc wod news.

laura: this is "bbc world news america." rtrepog from washington, i am laura trevelyan. a state of emergency takes effectone australian state where bushfires have killed 18 and forced thousands from their homes. >> feels like i'm in the mide of the apocalypse. i think someone dropped a bomb on us basically. that is what it feels like. laura: election-year begins with julian castro ending his bidme o behe nation's first latino president. his fellow democrats are raising ns of millions. plus, trying to crack down on teenage vaping. the trump administrion bans popularpo flavors, but the licy is full of loopholes. laura: for those watching on pbs and around the globe, welcome tm "bbc world newica." a state of emergency has come

intotr effect in the ulion state of new south wales. the area has been ravaged by the worst bushfires in the country. it allows the authorities to carry out forced evacuations thousands have been fleeing their homes. our sydney correspondent is in milton town, one of the areas under the evacuats n order. herer report. reporter: mass exodus from the devastation on the southern coast, and a race to escape the dangerous fire conditions ahead. thousands of holidaymakers inching their way to safety with a 48-hour ne. families have heeded the call to evacuate, but because the conditions on the road are very erdas, there have been closures in different elections. now having evacuated the fire-ravaged towns, unable to get home. >> you can't go for it, you can't go backward, and really stuck between a burning rock and

a burning rock. >> to want to get caught in the middle of a fire. reporter: se families were le to get away early in thehe morning beforeoad closures. this couple lost their house and had to take refuge in the lake across the road. >> the fireball came over opposite the lake. we thought we had a few minutes at least, hosg down the house and everything, doing what they say to do. rewithin two or minutes, the fireball came through. hit the house, and then we ran into the lake. all the embers and everything hit us, burned our hair a little bit. it was about an hour beforwe got rescued. reporter: this is what they are escaping. burning september, these bushfires have destroyed more than 1200 homes. the prime minister, who'seen a

thaunch supporter of fossil fuels, insisted government policy struck the right balance between supporting the economy d prote >> how come we have not -- they do 't have a lot ofey but we have -- reporter: d got an angry reception from residents when he visited the town. a popular holiday destination, now it looks like a conflict zone. when kim harper came back to her house, she cannot recognize the neighborhood. >> feels like i'm in the middle of the apocalypse. i think someone has dropped a bomb on us, basically. that is what it feels like. reporter: in the neighboring state of victoria, the navy has been helping evacuate people. so far, 18 people have lost their lives in the fires. volunteer firefighter joffrey was one of them. today s his funeral where his

19-month-old son harvey was presented with his father's medal for avery. gusty winds and temperatures40 soaring abovegrees are set to create hazardous fire conditions in the coming days. a:la we are tracking another story about dangerous weather tonight. floods innd iesia's r are known to have killed 26 people after the city experienced the heaviest rainfall in decades. at least 30,000 residents have moved to temrary shelters. jakarta is one of the cifastest-syncing es in the world and faces frequent flooding during the rainy the ne is upon us, and yeason. 2020 in america's capital means one thing, it is election year. on that front we have had two jor developers. first, democrat julian castro is ending his campaign foe presidency.

thone-time obama cabinet officials struggled to stand out in a crowded field and failed to make the cut for the latest debate. meanwhile, other democratic atcand released the most recent fundraising totals. bernie sanders led the way with nearly $35 million. former mayor pete buttigieg came in second, raising almost $25 million. joell biden, she fronrunner in most polls, raked in 22.7 and dollars. businessman andrew yang reported a $17 million total for the latest quarter. democrats raise about $100 million beeen them. president took in a whopping $46 million during the same period . elizabeth warren has not yet released are updated totals. a reporter covering money and politics for politico joined me earlier. thanks for being with us. where is bernie sanders getting this massive hall from? maggie: that is a great question. bernieders has ts large pool of supporters, and they are

people who have in many cases been with him since 2016, but in many cases he has new people coming on board and he s a lot of what theyall small dollar nors, people who are giving five dollars$20, $40 at a time, and it seems like they are coming back over and over. people are giving to bernie again and again and again. he is so time been the king of the small-dollar fundraising, and it seems like it continues to work for bernie. aot of people -- he has been overlooked in some ways during this race, but you cannot count him out in his $34 million shows that. ura: you certainly can't. what about joe biden? is that his biggest haul yet? is he going to be pleased with that? magg: yeah, $22 million is much smaller than bere's haul, but a lot larger thant joe biden has raised previously. it is a victory for joe biden

he has been very pleased, i ink, with that num people were worried that joe biden would not be able to raise the money he needste to compen iowa, to get be in new hampshire, to compete in a lot of theuper tuesday states that are going to be central joe biden's strategy to victory. he was building what they call thisew fl where, come marc biden is hoping to take him victory in south carolina. den needs to put field staff in states across the country and to do that you need a lot of money. biden needs to be raising this money to show that he has momentum, to show that he has support. at the end of the day it is practical. laura: iowa is only a month away, so what does all this money mean potentially for the result in iow eldgie: you know, it means staff, it means ads, practically sp campaigns are building out their

infrastructure. i think you are seeing in general there is a lot of interest and a lot of montum for the democratic primary. people traditionally -- traditionally december is a slow month. everyone goes hom and they celebrate christmas and they don't think about politics and they think you are seeing -- ople were still donated the candidates. people still have a loof interest in someone like bernie. pete buttigieg was attacked over his wine cave and the big fundraisers for the last month, but he still got it a lot of money ande will have a lot of money goininto iowa, a state were he has a huge field operation and paying a lot of attention, and he ucll be able toe down and do a lot of work in the coming weeks. laura: what are you expecting be see from eli warren when she releases her figures? nlggie: yeah, so elizabeth warren is the omajor candidate who has not said how much money she has raised so far. she has kind of given us some hints or guides and a

fundraising email last week she sent to supporters. i've been told byt sources t the know is accurate, it was not just them fluffing donors or anything, and she said that she has raised more than $17 million,in and they were hto raise $20 million. that would be less than she raised in the previous quarter, when her campaign was really searching lot of excitement and everyone was really excited about elizabeth warren. it is not uncommon for campaigns to ebb and flow a little bit over probably -- i think more and would be hoping that that-- numr he has raised between $17 million and $20 million -- she would hope for it to pick up in the future, because it is no just money but a show of enthusiasm. laura: maggie severns, thanks ng much for bei with us. maggie: thank for having me. laura: industrial action in france has entered its 29th they can making it the longest rail workers strike in more than 50 years old the protest against president emmanuel macron's

pension reforms have hit train service is the hardest. more tbeks are due t held between unions and the government on tuesday. the fugitive businessman carlos ghosn says that he alone arranged for his unauthorized of watefrom japan. in a statement, mr. ghosn played down his decoration that family members arranged for him to escape house arrest to travel to lebano via turkey. the former nissan boss was awaiting trial in tokyo on financial misconduct charge the u.s. defense secretary says iran or its allies may be plann og more attacu.s. interests in the middle east. that is after a violent demonstrations against the u.s. embassy in baghdad this week. mark esper confirmed that extra u.s. forces are being sent to the region to defend american personnel and the nation's partne. sec. eer: it i isortant to not make this a united states versus iran issue. it is iran versus the world. it is irian bad behavior that has been going on for nearly 40 years. laura: for more on the growing tensions between the u.s. and iraq and iran, i was joined by

douglas all oollivant of the new america foundation, who was director for iraq the naouonal securityil. more u.s. troops are going to the middle east. ardefense secrsounds hawkish. how great, in your assessment from is the risk of a conflict between the u.s. and iran? douglas: it depends on the iranians on what they do next. what was notable about the attack on s. embassy is well it was certainly awful and there were bad optics, no one was hurt, no one was killed. the united states can pre tear gas testers without killing anyone, unlike some other people in the region. but no one has been hurt. now the ball is in the iranian'' court. are d they going something else? are they going to strike again? the united states, while it is flowing more forces to the region, these paratroopers will sit in kuwait until something happens and riere are more s at the embassy.

but ght now i don't think the united states is going to stke again, unless, as the secretary said, we see some imminent threat happening. laura: t iranian-backed gelitias called off the sf the u.s. embassy in baghdad because they say the iraq parliament may vote on whether to get u.s. troops out of iraq. what do you make of that whole compromise? douglas: well, we will see what happens. ramosts know that the presence of u.s. forces in iraq is a pretty much untrammeled good thing for iraq. they get free training, there is a lot of moneyhat comes along with it. we send a little bit of extra equipment to help generate some programs. that program is pretty much a great thing for iraq. they don't get a penny for those troops. it is very much against the natural interest oo push those ps out. that said, we will see if the push from these militia forces means that much. laura: there has been a whole spate of inian taking of the

u.s. and its allies -- the attack on the dne, the attack the saudi oilfiel, now what happened at the embassy. do you see this continuing? douglas: it may continue. we have a two-level game going on, what is happening between the united states andn, iut then what is happening internally in iraq with these pro-democracy protesters, not to be confused with tou militia meanide the embassy sacking it yesterday. but the pro-democracy eamonstrators are still there. they still want r accountability, less corruption, a better iri government. it looks like the winds were aded in that direction, and there are many of us who think that i rented is because they were beeinning tohat they were losing the pitical -- iran and it is because they were beginning to see that they releasing the politicda fight in ba laura: the president of the council on foreign relations

iid the president is losing diplomacy win. what do you make of that assessment? douglas: there is always a middle ground to be found here. certainly diplomacy with iran has a mixed message --sorry, mixed record, not the next message. --noa mixed message. on the other hand, that has not gotten us very far. iran's low level militia threat throughout the middle east continue to be a problem and have not givenp its missiles. there certainly at the very least was a lot to tweak with our agreement withraq even if it didn't need to be thrown out altogether. laura: doug olivant, thanks for being with us. story being developed tonight -- r iraqi police say fokets hit a military base at the baghdad airport. wwel be monitoring the story for further development. you are watching "bbc world news america." still to come on tonight's program, the scourge of a violence against indigenous women in alaska.

the trump administration has promised action, but those who suffered are skeptal. laura: a vegan man is bringing adm lk legal case in the u.k., calling for veganism to be protected by law. he wanted classified as a philosophical belief. reporter: he describes himself as an ethical vegan, and campaigns to get his message to others. >> show you the whole life of the animal -- reporter: his beliefs affect much of his everyday life. he will walk rather than take a bus. >> some people only eat a vegan diet but they don't care about the environment or the animals because they only care about their health. re about animals and the environment and my health and everything. that is why i use as a nickel -- i use ethical veganism because

veganism is a believe that affects every aspect of my life. reporter: he works with a believe against cruel sports and claims that when he drew his bosses' attention to the fact that pension funds were invested in companies involved in animal g,testhey did nothing. so he informed colleagues and says he was sacked as a result. he claims he was discriminated against on the basis of his vegan believe. today an employment tribunal will consider for the first time if veganism is a philosophical belief akin to a religion and so protected in the law. qualify, it must be a genuinely neld, seriousl an opinion, cover substtial aspect of human life, and be worthy of respect in a democratic society, and not interfere with the rights of otrs. the league against cruelports denies his client, and says -- denies his claim, and says he was dismissed for gross misconduct, but it does not contest thateganism should be

protected in law. if successful, the case could provide vegan's with protection against dissemination in employment, edution, and the provision of goods and services, and those holding other believes could then seek similar legal prottion. laura: the trump administration has created a task fce to look at violence against american indian and alaskan native women. mr. trump says it should have been done a long te ago. some native women say the president has asked the very agencies whose negligence helped facilitate the violence to investigate their own shortcomings. sophie long reports now. [chanting] sophie: the word spacing, the drums they-- the words they

sing drums they beat, honor the women and girls of their community, the missing indigenous wen of alaska. she was 32 when she was last seen in october 2012. lori was 31 years old when she went missing in 2016. tracy was 43 when her daughter last saw hern february of last year. they are a few of the thousands of natnee women have missing across the united states and who have never been found. ashley was just 10 y wrs old when s last seen. she was found dead here in a vast meadow just a few miles from their home she shared with her six sibngs. her father noworries for his other children. >> just want to say sorry to her and stuff like that. sophie: what do you want to say sorry for? >> not being there forer, not

protecting her. as a parent, not protecting her. sophie: t he takes me place ashley had been playing with her friends. eightci excruingly long days later, confirmed.ears were >> and then they told the search parties not to search no more, and there's this young boy that wast 21, that was his fime searching for anybody. sshe the first one to identify her. d they found her in a small trench. phie: ashley had been sexuall m assaulted anded. at a tribal gathering in the state capital, there are shocking stories revealing the prevalence of violence against girls and women in native communities. >> i'm a family of eight siblings, and out of all eight ofs, there were seven of us

molested and rate. standing up and being dressed the way am just, my hand prts on, showing i'm going to end the silence today. >> there's not one of my sisters i don't know that ces not experisome sort of violence from domestic abuse, rape, sexual assault. it runs the gamut -- molestation of children. it is highly prevalent in my opinion. sophie: the epidemic of the abe stands far beyond remote communities. native women are at rier in urban ce too. anita has compiled a database documenting the thousands of girls acrosn and north america. >> law enforcement in this country has a very ep culture of racism, very deep culture of sexism, and that kind of good old bs mentality is very strong. we see that in law enforcement in all different levels and all different states, and it creates this kind of intergenerational legacy within departments that

allows that violence to flourish. >> is incredibly serious allegation, and i would say unorormly there is no basis that belief. why would you come from different cuouures and backs, the fbi, particularly in indian country, spencereat deal of time forging relationships with native communities there. sophie: understanding the cause of this epidemic of abuse is complicated. its causes are complex. but the voices of the wome gathered here are starting to be hear >> there has been a somewhat dismissive attitude. if it is a native woman that has gone missing, well, maybe she is just out and about. maybe she brought it upon herself. that, that is absolutely unacceptable, anywhere at anytime. >>he this ishereody came. sen. murkowski -- sophie: ashley's abduction and death did stir hearts across the

united states. 41ear-old man has been charged with her murder. her father can hope you might see some kind of justice. >> for her to go and live her ownsh life to become who e was, who she uld have been. sophie: hundreds of others continue to wonder where their daughters are and fearha what coul happened to them. sophie long, bbc news. laura: the epidemic of the violence that took ashley. the fda in the u.s. is trying to combat undera vaping by banning the use of popular flavors in e-cigarettes. the new rules only apply to one type of nicotine delivery system. that is being seen as a significant concession to the e-cigarette industry. flavored e-cigarettes are very popular with teenagers, and many parents are concerned about the impact of these products could have on their children's health. the trump administration has banned the kid friendly mint and

fruit flavors in cartridge e-cigarettes, but will still allow them to be sold via tank vaping systems found in vape shops. >>li this po was dictated by the e-cigarette industry. laura: then does not resict the sale of tobacco-flavored and menthol cartridges e-cigarettes. president trump has always been clear about his goals. pres. trump: we have to protect our families. at the same time, it is a big industry and we want to protect the industry. laura: while its unclear what the long-term affects of vaping are, there are worries about the impact on the lungs ofse who vape. rthow effective might his l ban be? >> i think it will have a slight effect. i don't think it will stop this amazing epidemic of youth vaping. ribut it is one step in tht direction to try and start stemming the tide. laur ultimately, this ban on some flavors of e-cigarette cartridges is a compromise between the goal of cracking

down on teenage vaping and the e-cigarette industry, which has lobbied hard forxemptions. let's hope it has some effect. before we go, did we just celebrate the start of a new decade, or do m we have oe year to go? let me try to explain. 2020 was rung in with the usual fanfare along with the debate on when the decade begins and ends. years ago, a christian scholar invented the anno domini embraces them. 1 .d. was supposed to mark the year of jesus's birth.but there was no year zero. the first decade carry through the end of the 10th year. by that logic, if you are still following me, the start of the next decade is 2021. got it? one more reason to celebrate the new year, i guess. i am laura trevelyan. narrator: funding for this preseation is made possible by... babbel, an online program designed by language specialists

teac ang spanish, fren more. narrator: funding was also provided ... the freeman foundation. by judy and peter blum-kovler foundation. pursuingerolutions for a's neglected needs. anontributions to this pbs station from viewers like you, thank you. narrator: be more, pbs. ♪

>> good evening, i am judy woodruff. on the newshour, fires dark and the skies in southeast australia, burning millions of acres in forci thousands to flee. then, the money trail. how democratic presidential ndidates fundraising stacks up one month before the iowa caucuses. losing their religion, why young americans are turning away from faith and how religious leaders are trying to bringhem back. >> people want something that matters for their lives. if the content is literally not healing you, connecting you to somethin bigger, then you're wasting your time. >> all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour." ♪