this is bbc news, i'm lukwesa burak. the headlines at three: democrats leading the impeachment inquiry into president trump issue a legal order demanding that the white house hand over more documents. much of hong kong is shut down as demonstrators defy a new ban on wearing facemasks. the government indicates it could clarify its new brexit offer after the eu called for "fundamental changes". iran releases a british—australian woman and her boyfriend, who'd been detained for three months on spying charges. prince harry begins legal action against the owners of the sun and the mirror over alleged phone hacking. england reach the quarterfinals of the rugby world cup — with a game to spare after a 39—10 victory over argentina in tokyo.

and we investigate the possible state manipulation of wikipedia, that's in click in half an hour. donald trump's political opponents have intensified efforts to impeach the president. three congressional committees have demanded legal documents relating to a telephone call by mr trump, in which he asked ukraine to investigate his presidential rivaljoe biden. from washington, chris buckler reports. what was a request has become a demand. democrats are piling the pressure on president trump by issuing a subpoena for a series of documents.

they want a full, rather than a rough, transcript of thejuly phone call in which he asked the ukrainian leader, volodymyr zelensky, to investigate his political rival and potential presidential candidate, joe biden. and amid all the talk of impeachment, mr trump continues to make unfounded allegations about mr biden, who hopes to challenge him in next year's presidential election. you're pointing out when he's flatlining, where there is no evidence, none, not a scintilla, not one tiny piece. the american people know me, and they know him. even the people who support him know this man lacks character. even people who support him know he lies constantly. in a letter, the chairmen of three congressional committees accused mr trump of choosing a path of defiance, obstruction and cover—up. in response, the white house accused the democrats of setting up a kangaroo court that would only waste time and taxpayers‘ dollars, and president trump's press

secretary insisted that all their inquiries would ultimately show that the president had done nothing wrong. chris buckler, bbc news, washington. much of hong kong is shut down after violent demonstrations led to the suspension of the city's public transport network. many shopping centres, banks and businesses have been unable to open. thousands of people have taken to the streets today to protest against a newly—imposed ban on wearing facemasks. hong kong's leader, carrie lam, is warning that she can no longer tolerate rioters destroying the territory. translation: the extreme actions of rioters created a very dark night for hong kong and made hong kong society semi—paralysed. everyone is very worried and concerned or even scared. the government will suppress violence with the greatest determination. i appeal to everyone to support the government in suppressing

violence in accordance to the law, condemn violence together, and cut ties with rioters with a firm will. at a news conference in kuala lumpur, the united nations high commissionerfor human rights, michelle bachelet, said the ban on face coverings should not be used as a way to target or disrupt people taking part in peaceful demonstrations bans on face covering during assemblies are, in some circumstances, used to target particular groups and improperly curtail their freedom of expression or peaceful assembly. so freedom of peaceful assembly, when we are talking about peaceful assembly, should be enjoyed without restriction to the greatest extent possible. but on the other hand, we cannot accept people who use masks to promote violence. that is also not acceptable. let's get more on this with the bbc‘s asia pacific editor, celia hatton.

celia, great to have you here. first off, you know, coming to work at the weekend, you know hong kong will be on the agenda, is this the new norm? yes, today is slightly different. last night we saw some of the most violent uprisings, you know, to mark the past four months really, in response to the chief executive's announcement that facemasks would no longer be allowed, even at peaceful protests, and we saw relative chaos last night in hong kong. today it is eerily quiet, really, across the territory, and we have seen small protests pop up, many ordinary people, modernists turning out to mark their displeasure against the facemask ban. —— moderates. we also hearing reports of violence against businesses that are perceived to be owned mainland chinese people, and

so owned mainland chinese people, and so that is another development. but he has come a month four of these protests a nd he has come a month four of these protests and it is the weekend again, this is supposed to be a holiday weekend in hong kong. —— but, yes come amount four of these protests. now the underground system has been shut down, this is a place that really has been changed. you mentioned a national holiday, eve ryo ne mentioned a national holiday, everyone was very worried looking to october the ist, explain that significance. it was a really big day in the calendar in mainland china, when the communist party marked 70 years of the people's republic of china. moving towards that important date, beijing was preparing for its largest ever military parade, the chinese president gave a big speech. we didn't now, watching hong kong, we could see pressure building towards that date, we knew a lot of people we re that date, we knew a lot of people

were planning protests to mark their grief, as many put it, of the imposition of chinese rule. and it wasn't clear whether the temperature would continue to go up after that, tensions would continue to rise, or whether things would begin to calm down. now we have had the announcement of the facemask band, we can say that things have not really improved in hong kong. where is it all leading to, celia? we heard carrie lam saying she will no longer tolerate this, she is still at the helm, beijing is displaying very unusual, uncharacteristic restraint on hong kong. explain why. i think if you are expecting to see military tanks, chinese military ta nks military tanks, chinese military tanks rolling down the streets of hong kong, you know, the famous tank image re—enacted on the streets of hong kong, i don't think we will see that any time soon, if at all. but i think beijing is enacting a lot of

measures behind—the—scenes to really put pressure on the hong kong authorities, the hong kong police, hong kong businesses to start bringing an end to these protests, andi bringing an end to these protests, and i think that is really what we're going to see as time goes on. we have seen the hong kong authorities using an emergency law that has not been used since 1967 to put the facemask ban into place, we have seen heightened police tactics. even though we have not seen the measures we thought beijing might bring into place, i think that beijing is doing a lot of things to try to bring an end to these. 0k, celia, 90 very much, celia hatton, thank you. the foreign secretary, dominic raab, says he's called the us ambassador to express his "disappointment" that the wife of an american diplomat, who's wanted in connection with a fatal road crash, has left the country. 19—year—old harry dunn was killed in a collision near raf croughton in northamptonshire in august. police say they want to arrest and interview the 42—year—old

woman about his death. the government has indicated it could clarify its new brexit offer after the eu called for "fundamental changes". talks will resume on monday after the eu said the uk's proposed alternative to the irish backstop could not be the basis for a legally—binding treaty. borisjohnson has insisted the only options are a "new deal or no deal". our political correspondent susana mendonca explained how the deal presented by borisjohnson to the eu fell short of what leaders were looking for. the sense from the european union is that what is on the table is not in keeping with what they are after. borisjohnson has said he would want a situation where you have got northern ireland staying within the single market for goods but the whole of the uk leaving the customs union,

and so one of the key challenges and one of the key debates around all of these, and the reason for the backstop, this insurance policy to prevent a hard border, is about trying to keep an open border between northern ireland and the republic of ireland. and this plan by borisjohnson, the government say that you would be able to do border checks at factories and away from the border, but the european union doesn't seem particularly convinced of that, and certainly what we have had so far, leo varadkar, the irish pm, saying that it falls short, donald tusk saying he is not convinced, on friday there was a meeting of eu negotiators with eu diplomats, basically saying that fundamental changes have to happen. so we know the government is talking about how it wants to clarify its offer, we understand that will be happening in the coming week, there will be talks on monday in brussels, and we understand the borisjohnson will be meeting eu leaders in the coming week. so certainly there will be an attempt to get something that can be put to parliament, but essentially if he doesn't

manage to get something to put to parliament, then potentially brexit may not happen, or you know, he is still saying that we will leave, deal or no deal. now, labour have been talking about this, john mcdonnell is in colchester today, he's the shadow chancellor, he's been talking about the need to raise living standards in a speech there, but he was asked about this, and he said he didn't think the deal that borisjohnson had put forward was actually a real deal. it looks like an election stunt, it looks like they have put forward proposals they know the eu will not accept, and on that basis boris johnson will portray himself as some form of victim either from the eu or parliament and that will be the basis of his election campaign. what we want is a prime minister who looks after the long—term interests of our country, makes sure we rule no—deal off the table completely, goes into negotiations, secures a sensible deal and put it back to the people with the option to remain. what we wanted to bring the country back together again. the best way of doing

that is let the people speak. susana, just to try and get some clarity here, the 19th of october is the big day on whether we have a deal or not. if he has no deal, what happens? his legal team says he will do one thing, he says something else. in terms of the law that was brought in last year, what is known as the benn act, it means that he has to have a deal passed through parliament on the 19th of october, so the eu have to agree the deal, parliament would have to agree, and if he doesn't do that, what the law says is that he will have to then write to the european union to request an extension to article 50 for us to remain in the european union. now, borisjohnson has said that he will obey the law, that is what the law says, and certainly there is a court case at the moment in scotland which is looking at this very issue, and in papers submitted to that court, he has said he will obey the law.

but he is also saying that he will leave the european union with or without a deal, and that is where all the questions are being raised about what that means — does it mean that he is looking for a loophole that he could potentially get out of following that rule? are there ways he could write a letter but actually somehow get out of it? that is where there is a lack of clarity at the moment, and downing street haven't given any detail on how they would avoid going along with the letter of that law. could the loophole, then, be another eu member, in the form of hungary? we have been hearing a lot about viktor orban. this idea's been spinning around since last month, when the mps brought in the benn act, and this is the idea that you could get one of the other european union nations to veto, so borisjohnson would put forward the letter but then eu leaders would have to agree — and one could veto. it is an idea that has been around for some while, and it has resurfaced because there was a video on social media suggesting

that the hungarian foreign minister had been seen at the cabinet office, and the newspaper reports today suggesting that the prime minister would want the hungarian government to veto. but what we heard from the hungarian government, from the foreign minister there is that no request has been made for that, and so they have not been asked to do that. i spoke to downing street, and they did not comment either way. we do not know whether they have asked hungary to do that. could they do it? it is a difficult thing to achieve, you would have to have a european union nation going against the wishes of other european union nations, a difficult ask, i think. just quickly, could you bullet—point what we have to look forward to this week? another prorogation of parliament, everybody knows that word, the suspension of parliament, the last one was found to be unlawful, and this is going to be just a few days, as we understand it, so sometime in the next few days

jacob rees—mogg will ask the queen to suspend parliament for a few days in order to have the queen's speech, which the government wants to hold to hold in a week's time, setting out its programme for government. we have also got borisjohnson and the government trying to get some movement with the european union in terms of a deal that they want to achieve, so that will be happening over this week as well, and also his court case going on in scotland which is about trying to make sure that the government sticks to the law of the benn act. that was susana mendonca speaking to me earlier. the headlines on bbc news: senior democrats in the us demand the white house hands over documents for their impeachment inquiry into president trump. protesters defy a ban on wearing facemasks as much of hong kong is shut down. the government indicates it could clarify its new brexit offer after the eu called

for "fundamental changes". in sport, england are the first team through to the rugby world cup finals. they beat argentina 39—10, three victories out of three, they play france in their final pool match. tottenham lost 3—0 away to brighton in the lunchtime kick—off, no goals in the other matches in the premier league so far this afternoon. the england lionesses luz one against brazil. they were playing a friendly at middlesbrough's riverside stadium. an update for you in the next hour. iran has released a british—australian woman and her boyfriend who'd been detained for three months on spying charges. jolie king and her australian boyfriend mark firkin had been accused of using a drone to take pictures of military sites.

separately an iranian student has reportedly been freed in australia, but it's unclear if the two developments are linked. australia's foreign minister says tehran has dropped all charges against the couple. they are very long term negotiations, and i are ongoing. she has, as you know, been detained for some considerable time and has faced the iranian legal system and has been convicted and sentenced. so, as isaid in been convicted and sentenced. so, as i said in my remarks, each of these cases are unique and different, so we are continuing our discussions with the iranian government. we don't accept the charges upon which she was convicted, and we would seek to have her returned to australia. the duke of sussex has launched a legal battle against the tabloid press, taking action against the owners of the sun, the now defunct news of the world, and the daily mirror, in relation to alleged phone—hacking. it's not yet clear when prince harry's allegations date from, but in a phone hacking trial in 2011

he was named, along with prince william, as a victim. his move follows the announcement that his wife meghan is taking separate legal action against the mail on sunday. ben ando has more. the end of another high—profile tour fulfilling their royal duties, meeting and greeting, but amid ever—frostier relations between the prince and the press. now harry is suing the publishers of two tabloid newspapers, the sun and the mirror, over allegations his mobile phone was hacked, it's thought, in the early 2000s. the phone—hacking scandal led to the closure of the mighty news of the world newspaper in 2011, and during a trial that year, princes harry, william and kate middleton, now the duchess of cambridge, were named as victims. but why is the prince suing now? royals rarely reach for a lawyer or a writ, and the reason is that it's such a high—risk strategy. they can be cross—examined, they can also have disclosure go to places

that they don't really want. so it is a very high—risk strategy, the things that are outside their control, but it's also a high—risk strategy for the editors who are going to have to give evidence too. there are strong suggestions that, in taking this action, harry is ignoring the advice of palace officials. but ever since he refused to take part in the traditional newborn baby photo call when his son archie was born in may, it's been clear that the duke of sussex is ready to challenge expectations of how much or how little privacy members of the royal family can expect. on tuesday in south africa, the duke accused britain's tabloids of a ruthless campaign against his wife meghan, and she started legal proceedings against the mail on sunday, claiming it unlawfully published a private letter. it seems the sussexes believe only the courts can give them the privacy they feel they're entitled to. ben ando, bbc news. this a number of passengers

have been injured, one seriously, after a double—decker bus overturned in devon. the vehicle crashed on the a385 between totnes and paignton at about 11 o'clock this morning. emergency services declared a major incident. police have closed the road in both directions and asked people to avoid the area. police in new york have said four homeless men have been beaten to death with a metal object in chinatown. a 24—year—old suspect is reported to be in custody. cbs journalist christina fan has this update from new york. we are in chinatown in lower manhattan, where police are investigating an attack against the homeless that left four people dead and one other seriously injured. this is one of the many locations where police found the bodies this morning. we want to give you a look at the massive police response at the heart of chinatown. there is a suspect in custody. we have learned that he and all of the victims are believed to be homeless men.

officers found the bodies after getting a call around 2am of a possible fight near bowery and doyers street. here they found two victims. just a block over on east broadway, they found three more bodies. it is believed the victims were sleeping when they were hit by a metal object that looked like a pipe. one of the victim survived the attack and is now being treated at a local hospital. again, police say the suspect, a 24—year—old man, is in custody, and they are questioning him but do not know the motives of the attacks at this time. that was cbs journalist christina van speaking to us earlier. thousands of people have attended a pro—scottish independence march through the streets of edinburgh. groups and organisations who support separation from the uk joined the all under one banner procession, which began at holyrood park and continued up the royal mile. scotland's first minister, nicola sturgeon, didn'tjoin the event but said she was there "in spirit".

more than 1,600 uk high—street shops have closed as a result of restructuring deals since the beginning of last year, according to new figures. the local data company has looked at the impact of so—called company voluntary arrangements and found that nearly two—thirds of closed stores are still sitting empty. our business correspondent emma simpson has more. they've been trading for more than a hundred years at this store. a family business that prides itself on its expertise and service. the ogden brothers have been keeping a close eye on their high street, too. and these last two years, it's lost a bit of its sparkle. this is the prime shopping area. it's lovely. it's a lovely street, and yes, it's always been a premium shopping street in harrogate. but you've got gaps now. we've got gaps, and it's very sad to see. five years ago, it would have been unthinkable to have these empty units. it's a real shame.

even this attractive and popular spa town isn't immune from our changing shopping habits. i think it's the cost of trading in harrogate is quite high, rents are high, rates are high, and i think all that needs to happen is footfalljust drops a fraction, it becomes less viable. it's the big chains that have been pulling out. a familiar story on high streets up and down the country, and we have been crunching the numbers. since the start of 2018, 23 chains have done restructuring deals to cut costs. they're known as company voluntary arrangements, a form of insolvency proceedings. so far, 1,676 outlets have shut, mainly in retail, and nearly two—thirds of them are still sitting empty. here's one of them. this used to be the early learning centre. they shut the doors and handed back

the keys, leaving the landlord with a substantial repairing liability, up to possibly £100,000. now this letting agent is trying to fill the gap. it's the toughest market i've ever known for retail properties. landlords have to reduce rents, the government have to reduce the rates liability, which is substantial, and i think town councils have to help by reducing car parking, having an hour's free parking or something like that. you wouldn't let it to a chain again? i don't think he would, no. here's another chain that left, but it's just got a new lease of life. this local business got a deal and moved in. our landlord has been lovely, and he's taken a chance on us. we're an independent, family—run business, and we wanted to bring something back and to be in the town centre, and looking around, this is what people want. while other town centres

are battling for survival, the challenge here is keeping harrogate special. a recipe that might now need a tweak. joining me now isjon copestake, a senior consumer analyst. 90 was speaking to us at bbc news. hello! you have described the uk high street as overweight, what does that mean? i think there is a sense that mean? i think there is a sense that there are probably too many shops, as people shift to online shopping and other channels of buying, the sense that, you know, footfall, which has been in decline for a decade on the high street is continuing to fall, and there are perhaps too many shops open. too many shops or the wrong types? most people would think, oh, we need the shops. that is an interesting point, something that is reflected in that

report. the notion is that the high street became very homogenous, very much the same shops, the same chains on every high street, but i think now we are seeing more on every high street, but i think now we are seeing more of an opportunity for local entrepreneurs, local businesses to move in, and that might be something that brings back some life to the high street. what type of local businesses are we talking about? well, from the perspective of shops, retailers on the high street need to thinking about reinventing themselves, they need to think about facing the challenge of online retail, and that goes back to the traditional sort of notions are providing experiences for consumers, experiences for shoppers, providing personalisation, things that differentiate them from standard offerings they can get elsewhere. many people have said that a lot of that goes wider than the high street, we are talking about, you know, the bigger picture.

for that to work, aren't we going into the domain of town planning?- a degree, but there are lots of things that shop owners and retailers can do themselves. when you think about what a shar pei is, literally just a space you think about what a shar pei is, literallyjust a space in a prime location that people can visit. —— what a shop is. if you give that more focus, more purpose, add elements of entertainment, events planning, education into your retail experience, that will bring people back as well, and i agree that there are elements that go with regulators, but also i think the shops themselves need to start reimagining what they are doing and how they offer services to the consumer. jon, what you are describing seems to be services and goods away from, you know, the critical shopping list that we, as consumers, would put at the top of that list. these are luxury experiences, luxury goods may be — is there really the market and the

free cash for people to afford services like that? they don't need to be luxury services. i think local services don't have to be luxury, they can be cheaper. some of the things that shops might experiment with his home—grown produce, selling things that they are growing on—site or nearby, and i will be very attractive to younger, millennial consumers, and yet they can be affordable. there are quite a lot of solutions that you can bring to the high street that is affordable, low hanging fruit, rather than requiring large amounts of investment, especially for smaller businesses that can use open source infrastructure, you know, analytical platforms relatively cheaply without having the legacy that older retailers and large retailers may have. we could go into the domain of landlords and rights, but i really just want to ask you, in your research and your work, can you give us an research and your work, can you give us an example of where a uk high

street has reacted well and perhaps done what you are talking about?” can give you examples from north america, which is very similar, malls have been suffering from very low occu pa ncy rates, malls have been suffering from very low occupancy rates, and i have com pletely low occupancy rates, and i have completely reject the layout of many of them, now designing malls with experiential centres, which have much more leisure activities and many more things to do, and the idea is to bring people to the malls, no matter what you do, just get them m, matter what you do, just get them in, then that will drive shopping as a result, and that is something that high street need to think about. high street is that you we will be ones that hold events, have a sense of community, and as people come in, they will spend as well. a lot of malls are away from the city centre, though. high street themselves need to be gravitational centres, they need to pull people in, we need to give people a reason to go to the high street, and malls have suffered from the same problem, and they are addressing it by doing exactly that,

creating something to draw the gravitational pull of consumers. jon, thank you so much. now it's time for a look at the weather with ben rich. just about all of us are going to get wet weather tonight and into tomorrow. rain spreading east and some of it will be quite heavy. there may be some travel problems, may be flooding. you see the wet weather moving quite slowly east overnight. you can see the dark blue and green, very heavy downpours and may be some lightning. quite windy, especially over the north of scotla nd especially over the north of scotland but mild, 9—12. tomorrow, the rain stalling over eastern parts. eastern england into south—eastern scotland will see persistent rain. into the afternoon, the rain may move away from the south—east and it may fizzle elsewhere. further west,

south—east and it may fizzle elsewhere. furtherwest, blue