. ♪ >> this is "bbc world news america." >> funding for presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own foundation, giving all profits to charity and pursuing the common good for over 30 years. and union bank.

>> at union bank, our relationship managers work hard to understand the industry you operate in. working to nurture new ventures and help provide capital for key strategic decisions. we offer expertise and tailored solutions in a wide range of industries. what can we do for you? >> and now "bbc world news america." >> this is "bbc world news america" reporting from washington. the u.s. attorney general calls the death of trevon martin tragic and unnecessary, adding the justice department will continue investigating further charges. tapping in to america's vast oil reserves. we'll take you to california where new technologies are changing fortunes. >> you have to dig deeper, it costs more, it takes more energy, but here's the key thing, there's plenty left. the oil is not running out.

>> ♪ the best you've ever seen ♪ >> and batter up. it's time for a game of baseball. these players are shunning the modern game for a vintage appeal. ♪ >> welcome to our viewers on public television in america and also around the globe. tragic and unnecessary. those are the words the u.s. attorney general used today to describe the death of florida teenager travon martin. this weekend the man charged with his death, george zimmerman, was acquitted of the crime, sparking rallies nationwide. now, the justice department says it is investigating whether further charges should be brought. from florida, the bbc's david illis starts our coverage.

>> they joined hands to pray today. ground zero for the latest chapter in america's race relations debate, this community has been deeply scarred by the death of trayvon martin. the focus on healing, not violence. and remembering one of its own, this african-american church offered prayers for the man who killed him, george zimmerman. >> i'm glad we joined together hand in hand, colors, everybody together. that's exactly what they wanted us to do, to throw stuff, tear up stuff, burn down stuff, kill people, whatever. but we're not about that. we're about peace. >> stanford's mayor told me he's anxious to avoid making the trayvon shooting his city's legacy. >> any city 135 years old has a lot of different chapters, that's what this is, it's the chapters that follow that that will be important and be a part of stanford history but won't

be the definition of who we are. >> yet the trial polarized other parts of this vast nation, rallies ranging from a few dozen people to more than a thousand have sprouted up in close to a dozen cities but wherever protesters have gathered, their rallying cry has been the same, that trayvon martin's death was spurred by racial profiling and george zimmerman's acquittal was unjust. acknowledging the passions that have been inflamed by that acquittal, president obama issued a statement calling trayvon martin's trial a tragedy. >> if i had a son he'd look like trayvon martin. >> the latest debate, should george zimmerman get his gun back? >> the law allows an awful lot of people to carry guns. it doesn't mean they all should. >> you heard the prosecutors say he shouldn't carry one. what's your response? >> i heard them say that. i don't know how he could not

lawfully carry a gun at this point since he's now lawfully allowed to carry one. this is the worst time in his life, isn't it? >> the national association for the advancement of color people, a powerful civil rights here, called on the u.s. justice department to file civil rights charges against george zimmerman. they say the most fundamental of trayvon martin's civil rights were violated the night he was killed. as devastated as his parents are by the verdict, the spokesman's family told me their one hope is by drawing attention to the inequalities facing many african-americans, trayvon's death may serve as a catalyst for change, david willis, abc news, stanford, florida. >> for more on the case and the outrage it provoked i spoke with dr. eric dyson, a professor at georgetown university who joined us from new york. michael, the attorney general now called for an honest

discussion about the issues raised by this case. where in your view does that conversation go? >> well, first of all, i want to congratulate the attorney general for that courageous move. the conversation has to be about the stand your ground laws which have had a disproportionate and disparity racial effect and had an effect on african-american women and women and people of color tend to be the victims and perceived as the predators and as a result of that, they are murdered at an exceedingly high rate. we have to talk about your stand your ground laws, number one. number two, we have to be aware of the perception. george zimmerman was armed that night pursuing an unarmed young man. there's nothing within logic or reason to suggest that because of his skin color alone he presented a threat to george zimmerman except we have racial profiling and subconscious and unconscious racial beliefs and

stereotypes that prevail so we have to argue them. >> on your second point, do you think there should be a federal hates crime prosecution against george zimmerman? >> i definitely think there should be a civil rights violation, the violation of trayvon martin's civil rights, absolutely. >> what will be achieved given a case might be difficult to bring? >> well, it was brought by the elder george bush after the acquittal of the police people in the beating of rodney king. so i think you have to have a creative and i think appropriately aggressive response to such an issue and if the attorney general investigates and the department of justice investigates and finds reasonable suspicion -- look, george zimmerman made 40 some calls to 911 talking about black men, suspecting them, thinking they were criminals, thinking they were out to do wrong. i think there's ample evidence to suggest there were racial predispositions and bigotries

that predisposed him to see travon martin as a criminal. i think there's a healthy ability to have a positive finding. >> what do you think the message of this case is for young african-american men? >> the message of the case is you're vulnerable as a young black man. my son texted me and said i don't know how to protect my two young black boys now? what do i do if black men run their shot, if they stand their ground, they're murder hered. they're seen as criminals for having a kittles candy and iced tea. the reality is we feel vulnerable and feel there's nothing we can do to protect ourselves. white men can wield guns. right after travon martin a young man was playing his music too loudly in a gas station and a man emptied his gun into that black man and killed him and now is using your stand your ground defense. what we feel is vulnerable and we've got to have a national conversation and practices that reorient our society away from using a gun-happy culture in

defense of itself against a perceived black threat and therefore deal with the racial realities that are at root here. we're talking about economic inequality and the overincarceration of black men for nonviolent drug offenses. those things have to be dealt with. >> in other news, a senior american envoy said egypt has been given a second chance to put its political transition in a successful path. meeting with interim leaders in cairo, mr. burns called on the military to avoid any politically related arrests and use strength in dealing with protests. demonstrations but the muslim brotherhood, morsi's party, have been ongoing in cairo. to china where the incredible economic engine is showing further signs of slowing. today figures revealed national wealth for the second quarter of this year came in at 7.5%, down a bit from the previous quarter but let's face it, still the envy of much of the

world. in china's economic planners face the task of keeping things on track and the bbc's has gone to one town in yang su province where the challenges are stark indeed. >> this is china's economy as you don't normally see it. almost every shop on this street is closed. the once booming town now empty and despondent. space for rent, this sign says. just up the road, one of china's biggest ship yards was opened here less than a decade ago. it's now in deep trouble and is appealing for government help. a few restaurants remain open to cater for those who still have jobs. 20,000 people have been laid off over the past two years. we all know that the shipyard lacks money, this worker tells me. if the government can help, it would be a good thing. but this town is already proof

of the limits of china's old model of growth based on massive, ever-expanding investment. this empty hotel stands as stark testimony to the results. huge overcapacity not just in shipbuilding but other industries, too. so future prosperity, this government so-called china dream depends on rebalancing the economy to one based on consumer spending. it's highly risky because to do so, policymakers know in the short term at least they actually need a slowdown in growth. it's part of the plan. >> it's hopeless. there's no dream here, one of the few remaining shopkeepers tells me. it's important to stress, of course, that china's economy is still motoring along by western standards, but the point is, that growth rate is slowing, long gone are the days of double-digit economic expansion

and these closed down shops and boarded up businesses may be for now simply the symptoms of a particular problem in one particular industry, but they are also perhaps the first glimmer of the pain that some of that slowing growth may cause. until now, china has depended on booming economic growth to ensure social stability. is it really ready to stop the big spending? what happens at the shipyard may be a crucial test. bbc news. >> as china races to shore up its economy, here in the u.s., its huge discoveries of oil which have many looking to cash in. new sources in texas, north dakota, and california have put america on course to produce as much oil as saudi arabia by 2020. thanks to new technologies, previously inaccessible reserves can now be reached and

the oil fields just keep on producing. from california, our science editor reports. >> the rhythm of pumps pulling oil from the grown, the beating heart of every modern economy. this is california, but not as most people know it. in one of the largest oil fields on the planet, the baked ground is swept bare, an entire landscape stretches for miles, given over to the extraction of oil from the rock below, and it keeps producing. it's an incredible site, with more than 10,000 of these pumps drawing up the oil. this field has been producing for more than a century. whenever anyone thinks it might run dry, someone comes along and either finds more oil or comes up with a new way of getting at it. the result, as in many parts of the world, there's more oil than previously thought. >> the owner of one of the oil fields here takes me to one of his sites.

>> we've been pumping oil like this for a hundred years here. >> this is big oil country and fred holmes has the stuff in his blood. his grandfather and father worked in the wells. he owns 600 of these pumps and he says there's still a lot of oil. >> oh, there's enough oil in this country for another hundred years with our present technology and a lot of the natural gas and around the world there's a lot of oil to be found yet. >> oil once burst from the ground here. this well gushed uncontrollably for months in 1910. over the decades, the oil fields kept adapting. and new technology now means america is on course, amusingly, to produce as much oil as saudi arabia. international experts say america's oil fortunes suddenly have been transformed. >> it's changed rapidly. the change has occurred in a very short period of a couple years. if you look at the forecast of

three years ago, most people expected continuing decline of production, and now it's a very, very different situation, very different outlook, and it really happened very, very quickly. >> so where does this leave alternative energy? this dense mass wind turbin stands not far from the oil fields. a new flood of oil could undermine moves to get away from fossil fuels. >> we need to win the battle against this big, new oil boom in california. we have to win it in california where we pride ourselves on being a leader in responding to the climate crisis because if we can't win it in california, where in the united states can we win it? >> but huge new reserves of oil are being developed, and the stuff itself is in hot demand. it is becoming harder to get oil out of the ground. you have to dig deeper. it costs more and takes more energy.

but here's the key thing. there's plenty left. the oil is not running out. the latest sources of oil may not be all that easy to exploit. but the oil era that's dawned in these hill is far from over. bbc news, california. >> california's latest gold rush. you're watching "bbc world news america." still to come on tonight's program, a doping scandal send a jolt through the world of track and field with some of the world's top sprinters caught in the middle of it all. >> officials in northern india say nearly 6,000 people are still missing after devastating floods last week and are now presumed to be dead. the disaster hit large parts of the state. >> all that remains of what was , a stop ustling town

for thousands on a pilgrimage. men, women and children driven by fate to the holy town less than 20 kilometers away. today there's a deadly silence. broken only by the sound of the river. the river and it's now cut off beyond this point. when the flash floods came, the river waters gushed in carrying with them stones and boulders, devastating towns in their path and killing thousands of people. days of heavy rain burst a glacial lake and waters surged with unstoppable force. swallowing everything that got n the way. nearby, 54 men have died.

all of them worked in the temple town six months of the year. this woman's husband and two teenage sons of missing since the floods. she told me that she has no hope they will return, and she has nothing to live for anymore. a month since the disaster, people are trying to salvage what they can from their destroyed life. still in disbelief at how a river that gave them life has also taken away so many. bbc news. >> the latest doping scandal to hit the sports world. yesterday it was revealed three of the world's top sprinters have tested positive for banned substances.

among them were tyson gay, the american record holder in the 100 meters, asafa powell, the former world record holder at e 100 meter distance and sherone simpleson from jamaica. i spoke with the senior writer from "sports illustrated" who joined us from new york, david epstein. we've seen doping in sprinting before but now three of the top names in track and field have tested positive. were you surprised by the big names? >> i don't want to say i'm surprised when doping comes up in track and field. my gut instinct is yes, i am, when you see athletes like powell and simpson and gay who have been on the stage a long time, you feel maybe if they were going to test positive it would have happened already. so there's always some surprise but this point in any sport that has vigorous anti-doping, no one who follows it can be totally shot when there are positives. that's what happens when you try to police drugs in sports. >> tyson gay had actually

signed a pledge saying the only sport he believed in was a clean one. that wasn't worth much, was it? >> apparently not. maybe it was at the time but i think athletes go through clean periods and periods where they decide to make other choices. i can say for tyson gay, though i think he's a good guy in the sport, i think in the past he's had a tendency to be led to people who don't have his best interests in mind. >> does this tell us testing for drug is getting better or that doping is endemic in track and field? >> i would say testing is getting better but very slowly. the percentage of positive tests sort of stays the same year after year even with increases in technology because athletes get better at beating it. in these cases, i think we're probably looking at cases of athletes reaching to try new products and not totally knowing what they're doing and not being that smart about it. so i think doping is certainly

endemic in sports but i think still sort of the most cutting edge stuff is able to evade the testing. >> what do you think this means for other leading track athletes? >> i think there were a couple hours on sunday where tyson gay's name came out and we heard there would be five jamaicans but the names didn't come out and i think for a couple hours the entire legitimacy of track and field was hanging by a usain bolt type thread and if his name came out, you might as well start the olympics at 400 meters. so i think you're about as close to that echelon as you can get. and i really think the sport just -- sprinting absolutely just depends on him staying clean and if he isn't, i don't think it will ever recovery. >> where does it leave the reputation of sprinting, is it in a power cycling? >> sprinting has stolen back the doping news cycle from cycling in that way, but at the same time i think sports enthusiasts still view doping

in sprinting, while extremely widespread, a little bit more on a case bicase operation as opposed to the team operations we saw with the postal service team. whether that's true or not, i don't know. i think both these sports have obviously been both leaders in doping but also in plitsing -- policing their own doping and one of the reason you're getting positives out of these sports is because there are policing of anti-doping. and the one positive is you have so many pleem policing and not actually doing it. >> thank for you joining us. to sprinting scandals to the wholesome sport of baseball, known as america's pastime but some teams are taking the sport back to its roots. forget about the gloves and modern amenities, instead, this game follows the rules established in the 1850's. the rochester grangers are among those taking the field with a vintage twist. here's their story. >> ♪ for the love

of the game or hearts belong to baseball forever burn as flame ♪ >> the 1,800's was an era of change. any of us that follow history know that that's a time when the game was born. >> ♪ come play the game that calls us the best you've ever seen for the love of the game ♪ >> my nickname is moonlight. i've been the captain of the rochester grangers for several years. >> down there somewhere. >> a ball that goes through the split rail is a ground rule single. >> our aim is to re-create the game of baseball as it was played anywhere from the late 1850's to the late 1870's. about 50% historical and 50% baseball. we like to re-create the manners and customs of the time. >> it used to be tallied. >> yes, sir.

>> i've written in palm today's match. the crack of the bat is a signal to all. the wahoos are here. what a day for baseball. ♪ >> there are some very different rules. one of the main changes, or main differences in the vintage game from the modern game is that we don't use equipment of any kind. i had a couple of occasions where i closed my fingers a bit too soon and took a blow right on the end of the finger. that finger was broken twice. >> with chooch on the hurl and a sixth shooter in the third sack, here come the grangers in their red, white and black. >> baseball baseball the dodgers in baseball baseball snoit >> in the late 1960's, baseball was evolving and it was played for fresh air and enjoyment among gentlemen.

>> today we're enter sbaining the wahoos. >> it's a very civil game and not unphone for players to compliment their opponent for making a good play in the field or making a good hit. >> fine striking, sir. >> it's more than the dressup. i thought my days of playing baseball were over. i was getting a little long in the tooth to play in men's baseball fast pitch leaguings, and then i came across this game and the rest is history. >> the final score is rochester grangers 23 -- >> hey, hey, hey. >> and wahoos 7. >> people think you're not sadist, they just think you're insane. we accept that. >> ♪ baseball baseball ♪ >> all right! >> a very picturesque story.

that brings today's forecast to a close but you can continue watching "bbc world news" for constant updates around the world on our 24-hour news network. check your local listings for our channel number. for all of us here at "bbc news america" thanks for watching. please tune in tomorrow. >> make sense of international news at bbc.com/news. >> funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own foundation, giving all profits to charity and pursuing the common good for over 30 years. and union bank. ♪ >> at union bank, our

relationship managers work hard to understand the industry you operate in. working to nurture new ventures and help provide capital for key strategic decisions. we offer expertise and tailored solutions in a wide range of industries. what can we do for you? >> "bbc world news" was presented by kcet, los angeles. vo:geico, committed to providing service to

its auto insurance customers for over 70 years. more information on auto insurance at geico.com or 1-800-947-auto any time of the day or night.