Crystal blue caribbean sea. Nonstop flights are available from most major airports. More information for your vacation planning is available at aruba. Com. And now, bbc world news. Tim this is bbc world news america. Reporting from washington, i am tim willcox. Feeling sick at the thought of swaying an election, but no regrets, the fbi director defends his disclosure of the Hillary Clinton just days before the vote. Mr. Comey look, this is terrible. It makes me mildly nauseous to think we had an impact on the election, but honestly, it wouldnt change the decision. Tim we will get this done President Trump insists middle east peace is possible and that a deal between israel and the palestinians can be agreed. How a chief webcam helped scientists developed a revolutionary bionic hand. Tim hello, and welcome to bbc our viewers on Public Television and around the globe. Just a day after Hillary Clinton accused the fbi director of costing her the presidency, james comey told a Senate Committee he had no regrets. Mr. Comey admitted feeling physically ill at the thought of reopening an investigation into mrs. Clintons email might influence the election, but failure to do so, he said, would have been an act of concealment, and he added he would make the same decision again. Our north america editor jon sopel reports. Jon history is likely to judge that this Law Enforcement officer played a decisive role in determining the outcome of the 2016 president ial election. Just days before polling, james comey revealed the fbi had reopened its inquiry into Hillary Clintons emails from when she was secretary of state. He said he had no good options. Mr. Comey speak would be really bad. There is an election in 11 days. Lordy, that would be really bad. Concealing in my view, would be , catastrophic, not just to the fbi, but well beyond, and honestly, i said to my team, we have got to walk into the world of really bad. Jon how does she feel now about the impact his intervention has had . Mr. Comey look, this is terrible. It makes me mildly nauseous to think we had impact on the election, but honestly, it wouldnt change the decision. Jon what is not in doubt is that his letter, 11 days before america voted, convulsed the campaign. Its significance cannot be overstated. This was donald trump the day the news broke. Mr. Trump the investigation is the biggest political scandal since watergate, and it is everybodys hope that justice at last can be delivered. Jon and Hillary Clinton has now made clear she believes that james comey may have cost her the election. Ms. Clinton i was on the way to winning until a combination of jim comeys letter on october 28 and russian wikileaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me but got scared off. Jon donald trump on twitter attacked Hillary Clinton and seemingly had a slight they a swipe at james comey, too. Fbi director comey was the best thing that happened to Hillary Clinton in that he gave her a free pass for many bad deeds. The question is, why did the fbi make public the email investigation and not the parallel inquiry into the trump campaigns links with russia . The answer seems to be that core to be that congress had been told the email investigation complete. Investigation was complete and reopening in it needed notification again. Jon sopel, bbc news, washington. Tim for more on comeys testimony, im joined by a Senior Writer at u. S. News world report. Good to see you again. He had a lot to get off his chest. He did, and at the top of that there was a more emotional, impassioned response. In little bit of regret, saying he was nauseous, but standing by his decision. I dont think that is surprising. It would be a bigger development if he said, oh my did the wrong thing here. That would have triggered an uproar. Tim as jon was saying, the inconsistencies in the evidence why go public with Hillary Clintons emails and not the probe into alleged links between trump and russia . He says it is the new piece of evidence from Anthony Weiners computer, under investigation for another reason, that they found potential emails that huma abedin, hillarys top eight, top aide were forwarding for him to print out potentially containing classified information, and comey said that if i didnt reveal this, that would have been a bigger obstruction and may have helped hillary for people not having that information. Tim sean spicer today said that the president had full confidence in the fbi director, but he has been under attack from both sides. Hillary yesterday saying he cost her the election and last night President Trump tweeted about him. Within 24 hours he was hit from both sides and this is a difference for jim comey because he was appointed by president obama and had a bipartisan reputation in the town. This has taken a toll. It will be interesting to see how long his tenure will be. Tim he was critical about russian involvement in russian politics and no question in his mind that they were involved. I think that is the biggest story today, he is saying they are continuing to meddle in elections. They will continue to do so. What are we as a government now going to stop it . Lindsey graham of South Carolina saying that we need to sanction russia and punish them for their bad behavior, but this has got to come from the trump administration, who is still playing with putin and trying to make him an ally. Tim health care, they seem to be inching a bit closer, dont they . When is recess . Friday. They have another day. This is changing hour by hour. They have slipped two votes and it looks like they have flipped to votes and it looks like they had the votes now but this thing is everchanging. Tim david, thanks very much. Also in washington today, donald trump welcome to the Palestinian LeaderMahmoud Abbas to the white house for a series of talks aimed at finding a way towards peace in the middle east. The selfstyled master negotiator said that reaching an agreement between israelis and palestinians was one of the toughest a deal to close in the world. He added that he was willing to play any role which would help bring about an agreement. President trump the palestinians and israelis must Work Together to reach an agreement that allows both peoples to live, worship, drive, and prosper in peace. I will do whatever is necessary to facilitate the agreement to mediate, to arbitrate anything they would like to do. But i would love to be a mediator, or arbitrator, or facilitator, and we will get this done. Tim for more on this meeting, my colleague katty kay and Christian Fraser spoke to martin indyk as part of their 100 days program. He formerly served as envoy for israelipalestinian negotiations. Katty a lot of optimism from president abbas side and President Trumps side. Justified, martin . Martin not by the facts on the ground. If the will of President Trump was enough there would be reason for optimism but we have learned , from experience that the will of the United States president alone cannot do it. It is the parties themselves that have to make the difficult compromises. And abbas and Prime Minister netanyahu are leaders with domestic political difficulties that constrain them. Katty is there a chance, perhaps counterintuitively, that it would take a president like trump who is seen as having close relations with israel to be the person who could make a breakthrough . Martin i think the building up was what we saw here in that clip. Katty the optics were fascinating. Martin the palestinian flag the hind trumps head. He did not endorse the two state solution or the ever peace initiative, but he did treat he did treat Mahmoud Abbas as an equal. As a leader. He is under siege from the egyptians, jordanian, emirati leaders who dont feel he should represent the palestinians. President trump is presenting them as the leader who will make peace. Christian martin, there is the there are some things they americans have done unilaterally that complicated the issue planning to move the embassy , from tel aviv to jerusalem, and appointing david friedman, known to be a donor to illegal settlements. Martin but it is interesting, question, that on both of those issues trump has walked back on what he said he would do. While he said he would move the embassy on the first day, he hasnt done it. It is just under consideration katty just before Mahmoud Abbas visit he reiterated martin you have to parse the words. He said again that it was under serious can iteration, and will iteration,erious can in my estimation for another , four years. [laughter] martin that is what serious consideration means. The settlement issue, notwithstanding what he said about the ambassador, trumps ambassador to israel, who is a strong supporter of settlement activity, the president himself in front of Prime Minister netanyahu when he came to town said he expected there to be settlement restraint, and in fact, there has been settlement restraint since at least at least the announcement of settlements since that visit. He is doing things that indicate to me a seriousness about his desire to do it. Katty ok, thanks very much. Tim that was martin indyk, former special envoy for israelipalestinian negotiations. Speaking to the bbcs 100 days plus program. You are watching bbc world news america. Theresa may has accused politicians in brussels of not wanting brexit to succeed or britain to prosper. She said they have made threats against britain trying to affect next months general election. A senior eu source dismissed it as fantasy. In venezuela, violent clashes with Security Forces in caracas. Retaliated with tear gas and water cannons. The creation of a new assembly with power to rewrite the constitution. The opposition says it will be used to avoid free elections. 21 miners killed in an explosion in a wrong. Dozens more believed to be trapped underground after the blast that happened in golestan. They had been hampered by concerns about gas in the mines tunnels. Facebook is hiring 3000 people to stop hate speech, child abuse, and self harm. It was a 2. 5 hour showdown seen as the climax of a long and bitterly fought campaign. The rivals for the french presidency have been getting their message out to a mass audience. The 10 andnly time macron will go headtohead on television. Macron willmanuelle not want to slip up. He is a proeu and proimmigration centrist protecting a lead in the polls. Marine le pen is trying to bring him down. I asked her what she wanted from the debates. Some clarification from mr. Macron. He is still being very vague. On french tv,ght the two candidates faced one another and began immediate attacks. Macron is the candidate of globalization, economic uncertainty, brutality. Not a have shown you are candidate for a balanced debate. Do the people want that attitude . You say that globalization is too hard. So is europe, shut our borders and let others succeed, not us. Reporter the atmosphere got heated. I treat the french like adults. You lie all the time. Abouter each was asked terrorism. The safety of our people, the fight against terror and islamic extremism, you dont want to take it on your behalf to close our borders immediately. That is what i will do when i take power. Closing borders achieves nothing. There are many countries outside this area that have been hit as hard as us. Since 2015 we have put border controls to fight terrorism. Reporter the french people heard 2 different visions. Now they have to pick a side. James reynolds, bbc news, paris. Tim still to come, a massive drug crisis of close. How the Opioid Epidemic in the u. S. Is affecting one city in West Virginia and how authorities are fighting back. Scientists say one of the u. K. s few killer whales that died last year was contaminated with a shocking level of chemicals. Body revealed her contained Industrial Chemicals that were banned in the 1970s. Reporter theyre the uks last killer whales. Round off the west coast of scotland. Off the west coast of scotland. Last year they lost a female. Lulu was found dead. She was caught in fishing line. She was heavily contaminated with manmade chemicals called pcbs. The levels were 20 times higher than we would expect. That puts her as one of the most contaminated animals on the planet. Reporter the chemicals can stop the animals from bearing young. They harm the immune system and the brain. They were once manmade wonder chemicals, used in everything from plastics to electric. It was later discovered they were toxic. From the 1970s, a series of were putnd the world in place. They stuck around, especially in landfill sites. This is leaching from the land into the sea, into the marine food chain. Some Scientists Say more needs to be done to clear it from the environment. U. K. Officials say they are declining. Pcbs are a global concern. With so few killer whales in the u. K. , it is sharply felt. It is likely that the rest of lulu pod is contaminated, making their future uncertain. Huntington, West Virginia is in the grip of an addiction epidemic. One in 10 are hooked on heroin or other opioids. They are taking legal action against, cynical companies they accuse the flooding their city with drugs. The report contains distressing images from the start. Stephen williams mayor of the , city of huntington, West Virginia. Huntington is a town of just under 50,000 people. Our county is 96,000 people. Yet over a fiveyear period, there was over 40 million doses of opiates that were distributed in this county alone. The numbers speak for themselves. Most of our calls now are for drugs. They make up one third of our calls. Fires generally are about 50 to 15 to 10 of our calls. The drugs are much that is an overdose. Come on. We are responding to an overdose of a middleaged male at a Kroger Grocery store. It has been reported 911 and we are currently there are now. His mom is outside. Whats his name . Timmy. How long have you been doing heroin . Its been a while since youve done it . Youve been doing it for a while . Stand up, hands of against the wall. Get your bearings. How did you get into it . Just happened. Taking pills them and actually, ive been trying to get off. I would just as soon be able to hear from these companies if they would come in and we will partner with you to be able to fight this addiction, rather than spend their time saying its not our fault, we are just a business. When i was in the investment business, if i was giving advice to somebody that caused harm to them, i would lose my career. Lose my license, possibly have to pay money. Do no harm, and there is plenty of harm we can point to all around. Tim a powerful look at a nationwide crisis. Scientists creating a bionic hand that is a sensitive and versatile as the human version. The secret is a small camera. Within milliseconds, the hand locates objects and decides which grip it needs to pick it up. Reporter a prosthetic with potential. A bionic hand that can pick up objects almost instantaneously. It is 10 times quicker than what is currently available. A number ofof amputees trying the new technology. I got thest thing hand to work, it is quite emotional. Im working something i lost 20 years ago, you know . Reporter how does it work . On the face it is very simple and bound to a web cam. Of the object. Within a fraction of a second, it comes up with the best grip. The hand moves to the right grip mode. Clever. very why are these developments so crucial . There are three types of prosthetics currently available. This is a bodypowered arm. Many find it cumbersome. Studies suggest half choose not to wear one. Anne has been working with amputees for years. She thinks the hand is a significant step forward. I am excited. Keen to have ae prosthetic that does something functional. It is embedded into the back of the hand. Reporter it is still a prototype. It only has 4 grips. Every daysting it on objects so eventually it can learn to pick up something it has never seen before. The kos it is such a simple and potentially cheap solution, it means this bionic hand will be available in the very near future. An amazing invention. I want to show you pictures of a private plane that came down in the state of washington in a spectacular fashion. The whole thing caught on the dashboard camera. Im goingcraft to try to show you these pictures. Having told you all about it. That is a real shame. It hit power lines sparking fires that were massive. The best part is the pilot walked away uninjured. Try to look them up on the website. Bbc. Com news. Byebeye. D the team, make sense of International News at bbc. Com news. Funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation, newmans own foundation, giving all profits from newmans own to charity and pursuing the common good, kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for americas neglected needs, and aruba tourism authority. Planning a vacation escape that is relaxing, inviting, and exciting is a lot easier than you think. You can find it here in aruba. Families, couples, and friends can all find their escape on the island with warm sunny days, cooling trade winds, and the crystal blue caribbean sea. Nonstop flights are available from most major airports. More information for your vacation planning is available at aruba. Com. Bbc world news was presented by kcet los angeles. Captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc woodruff good evening. Im judy woodruff. On the newshour tonight in the hot seat, f. B. I. Director james comey defends his decision to reopen an investigation into Hillary Clintons emails, days before last years president ial election. Then, bridging the health care divide. Republicans try to win over no votes in their own ranks, by putting more money on the table to cover those with preexisting conditions. And, in our final report from south sudan, how violence against women is being used as a weapon of war. They told me that, we long for peace. We want to be able to walk freely and farm and feed our families. But the solutions