this is bbc world news today. i'm lewis vaughan jones. our top stories. the us secretary of state dismisses the latest attempts by the democrats to push forward their impeachment inquiry into president trump. when the world doesn't focus on the things that are right, the things that matter, the things that impact real people's lives, and instead you get caught up in some silly gotcha game... more protests in hong kong as demonstrators defy a ban on face masks. hong kong's leader accuses them of destroying the territory. translation: the extreme actions of rioters created a very dark night for hong kong and make hong kong society semi paralysed. why were six elephants found dead in thailand at the foot of a waterfall?

hello and welcome to world news today. us secretary of state mike pompeo has dismissed questions about donald trump's attempts to push ukraine and china to investigate democratic rival joe biden as a "silly gotcha game." democrats leading the impeachment inquiry into president trump have issued a legal order demanding the white house hand over more documents on its dealings with ukraine. mr trump is accused of abusing his position to put pressure on the ukrainian leader to investigate mr biden. our north america correspondent chris buckler reports. no matter where america's commander—in—chief goes, there's no escape from the talk of impeachment, or the many questions about his request for a foreign government to investigate one of his political rivals.

requests for documents from the white house have become demands. with a subpoena issued by the democrats, alongside a strongly worded letter, that accuses the president of choosing a path of "defiance, obstruction and cover up." among the many records they want is a full rather than a rough transcript, showing exactly what mr trump said to the ukrainian president in a phone call during the summer. that's when he controversially tried to pressure volodymyr zelensky into launching an inquiry into the potential presidential candidatejoe biden and his son, hunter, who had business dealings in the country. on a visit to greece, the us secretary of state couldn't hide his frustration at this latest attempt by congress to put pressure on the president. this is what's wrong... when the world doesn't focus on the things that are right, the things that matter, the things that impact real people's lives, and instead you get caught up in some silly gotcha game. but democrats have still to decide on whether to hold a formal vote

to impeach the president. some people say, "why are you doing this?" "he's not worth it, to divide the country this way." i say, "well, he may not be, but our constitution is worth it, our democracy is worth it." applause. the battle lines are being drawn in washington, and congress is preparing for yet another bitter fight with this white house. chris buckler, bbc news, washington. most republicans are standing squarely behind mr trump in this, though a few republican senators have spoken out against the president. mitt romney — the republican presidential nominee who lost to barack obama in the 2012 — presidential election, is one among them. i did read the transcripts. it remains troubling in the extreme. romney also took to twitter

to criticise president's action. he said, "when the only american citizen president trump singles out for china's investigation is his political opponent in the midst of the democratic nomination process, it strains credulity to suggest that it is anything other than politically motivated. by all appearances, the president's brazen and unprecedented appeal to china and to ukraine to investigatejoe biden is wrong and appalling. and president trump had a response, he tweeted, "mitt romney never knew how to win. he is a pompous "ass" who has been fighting me from the beginning, except when he begged me for my endorsement for his senate run. i gave it to him, and when he begged me to be secretary of state i didn't give it to him. he is so bad for republicans!" masked protesters have again taken to the streets of hong kong in defiance of their leader carrie lam who has introduced a new law banning face masks in public.

a human chain was formed to show they're against the legislation which came into effect on saturday and the whole metro system closed. 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 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. our correspondent robin brant has more now on how the shutdown is affecting the territory. the underground trains will not be running. the only service is to the central city and the airport. the decision by the authorities to

shutdown a key part of the transport infrastructure will continue today. we heard from carrie lam, the most senior politician here. this is what she's trying to bring to an end. this is the middle of hong kong, a premium shopping district. there aren't many shoppers, there's no traffic because we had a protest half—an—hour ago, 2000 people marching here peacefully but there was disruption. this is taking place in the context of an escalation from the authorities, bringing emergency powers to stop people wearing masks over their face. powers to stop people wearing masks over theirface. despite powers to stop people wearing masks over their face. despite that, powers to stop people wearing masks overtheirface. despite that, look to your right. characteristically youthful protesters here covering theirfaces. youthful protesters here covering their faces. 0thers youthful protesters here covering their faces. others are covering their faces. others are covering theirface over there. i their faces. others are covering their face over there. i was standing here half—an—hour ago and there are a couple of thousand and about 40% covering their face, which tells you what some of these protesters think about the authorities‘s decision to try and

force them to stop covering their face. the act is technically illegal now. i spoke to sophie richardson, the china director at human rights watch. well, we think that the authorities‘s goal is to deter people from protesting. if their identities can be easily known, they may be less likely to come onto the streets. it's a move that's clearly disproportionate under international law. it doesn't necessarily serve a law—enforcement purpose and there are no limitations placed on the scope and duration. sorry to interrupt. chinese authorities would surely argue that we want to deter the violence and identify those violent protesters and this is a way of doing it. i think if hong kong and beijing authorities had shown a fraction of the creativity that they've shown in restricting protest in answering people's grievances, we could have both outcomes, meaning there wouldn't have been

lots of protests and the legitimate rights that protesters are demanding would have been respected. you talk about legitimate rights and obviously the five demands of the protesters. do you see any of them being met? the fact that hong kong authorities formally withdrew the extradition bill was a significant victory. beijing doesn't blink often. i think it's time for the hong kong authorities to take seriously those concerns, especially an independent investigation into the use of excessive police force, and resuming the discussion about universal suffrage. people in hong kong have a right to vote and a right to run. people all over the world have that right. these protests come after 20 years of people trying, in multiple different ways, to assert those rights. what we've seen over the last couple of months is notjust a flare—up that started at the start of the summer, it's a culmination of years of frustration. given that it is the culmination of years of frustration, as you say, what do you think the chances

are of something like universal suffrage actually taking place? i think as we watch hong kong authorities spending their time thinking about other ways to invoke the emergency orders to do things like extend pre—trial criminal detention, which is a very ccp response to the problem, the odds are looking great. but i think there are some people in senior levels of the government, in beijing and hong kong, who realise that people in hong kong aren't going to sit quietly. they want to see their rights respected. 0k, very quickly, because we have to wrap things up, and impossible question. where do you see this going from here? well, i think if you'd asked people in hong kong a couple of years ago, or all over the world, whether we'd see this number of people coming out weekend after weekend in the boiling sun and pouring rain, people would have said no. it's an extraordinary statement about how many people in hong kong care about their rights that they keep coming out. it's not going to go away soon.

let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. a north korean negotiator says nuclear talks with the united states have broken down, blaming washington. the us state departement says north korea's comments don't reflect the content or spirit of the talks which lasted for more than eight hours in rural sweden. the event was the first formal discussions since donald trump and kim jong—un met on the border of the two koreas injune. the european commission says it has no plans to hold further talks with british officials over the weekend after discussions broke up without agreement. the prime minister's europe advisor, david frost, will return to brussels next week. at least four men, all believed to be homeless, have been bludgeoned to death while they were asleep in new york. a fifth person is critically ill.

the night—time attacks were carried out with a metre long metal object. a suspect is in custody. french anti—terror prosecutors say the police worker who killed four colleagues in paris on thursday, adhered to a radical vision of islam. four police workers were killed in a knife attack at the police headquarters in paris and the attacker was later shot dead at the scene. here's what the prosecutor had to say. translation: the developments of the investigation have allowed us to unveil correspondence between the assailant and several individuals who possibly belong to the salafist islamic movement. also, several accounts allowed us to shed light on the fact the assailant allegedly adhered to a radical vision of islam. stay with us on bbc world news, still to come. and a late penalty gives liverpool victory over leicester — making it eight wins out of eight at the start of the season.

this was a celebration by people who we re this was a celebration by people who were relishing their freedom, believing everything would be different from now on. they think their country can be respected and run as it was before slobodan milosevic took power. the dalai lama has won this year's nobel peace prize. two grenades exploded and a group of soldiers jumped from the truck and lea pt group of soldiers jumped from the truck and leapt towards the president firing from automatic rifles. after 437 yea rs president firing from automatic rifles. after 437 years the skeletal ribs of henry viii's ship were unearthed. the mary rose went through heart stopping drama. unearthed. the mary rose went through heart stopping dramalj unearthed. the mary rose went through heart stopping drama. i will be the people's governor. i will represent everybody. i believe in the people of california.

this is bbc world news today. the latest headlines. the us secretary of state has dismissed attempts by the democrats to move forward on the impeachment of president trump. mike pompeo called it a "silly gotcha game." daniel lippman is a reporter for politico and hejoins me now from washington. . thanks forjoining us. so, this impeachment enquiry is moving forward at quite a pace. different developments all the time. we've had this demand for documents, legally the white house must hand them over, those relating to the ukraine phone call. do you think that will happen? it's going to be quite a while

because the white house is resisting and the state department isn't going along with this as well in terms of interviews of the state department employees involved in this mess. democrats are going to go to the courts and they'll have to get some courts and they'll have to get some court rulings in their favour to actually get those documents since it looks like the trump white house is going to put up as many roadblocks as possible. is that what you expected to happen, these roadblocks? yes, i think it's not that surprising, given that the documents that they have as to who is involved and what happened, that will form the articles of impeachment that perhaps democrats wa nt to impeachment that perhaps democrats want to prosecute trump over. so the white house is totally following its own self interest. president trump is instructing his attorneys to put

up is instructing his attorneys to put up every conceivable barrier to prevent those documents from being handed over. moving on to the reaction, we heard earlierfrom mitt romney, pretty outspoken, criticising the president. but many other republicans not doing so. yeah, this is a long—running pattern in washington in that many republican senators and congressmen, they are worried about their bases in terms of back home and their states and districts and don't want to be criticised from president trump. romney is independently wealthy so he can finance his campaigns. he is less worried about that prospect. he's already served a long career, he's been a multiple presidential candidate, has been the governor of massachusetts. he doesn't need thisjob. governor of massachusetts. he doesn't need this job. he's governor of massachusetts. he doesn't need thisjob. he's more independent thinking. most republican senators have forgotten

their traditional republican... they would criticise a democrat president like obama if he asked england or france to take up evidence against a rival. where do you see this going now, then? it's going to take a couple of months for the impeachment hearings to be held. they don't actually need all the documents, they can impeach him tomorrow because of that transcript that was released, trump asking president zielinski for information on joe biden. i think we're going to see a conclusive house vote and then the senate will likely have a trial and by this time next year we'll probably have an elizabeth warren versus trump campaign but i don't think trump is going to be booted out of office. it will be up to the

voters. explain how the process works. why do you think that the senate wouldn't impeach? works. why do you think that the senate wouldn't impeach7m works. why do you think that the senate wouldn't impeach? it is controlled by mitch mcconnell, a republican who has been very loyal to trump. there aren't enough republican votes who would go against trump in that body. you need the house and the senate. most republican senators are pretty loyal to this president. thank you. a cinema in the us has cancelled two screenings of the film joker after police revealed, what they called a credible threat to those with tickets to the blockbuster. police in major us cities have ramped up security to coincide with the release of the violent film, fearing it could incite gun violence. freya cole reports. twisted, wicked and cruel —

thejoker is returning to screens around the world as dark as ever before. murray, one small thing. when you bring me out, can you introduce me asjoker? the warner brothers film depicts the story of the mentally deranged joker before batman. the r—rated movie has triggered widespread fears that it will incite violence, and less than a week into its box—office debut, in california, two screenings have been cancelled. the local police department deemed that threat was credible enough to provide a uniformed presence at the theatre. now reopened, the huntington beach police department has said it will provide patrols for the rest of this weekend. the need for heightened security stems from the 2012 shooting attack inside a colorado cinema. 12 people were killed and 70 injured when a gunman dressed in body armour

and a gas mask opened fire during a midnight screening of the dark knight rises. their families have written to warner brothers urging the corporation to do more to tackle gun—related violence. i believe that if someone is trying to copy—cat, maybe thejoker would be a place where that could happen. i think people need to be aware of it. inevitably, some moviegoers will hold off seeing the film. i am conflicted about it, because of the issues in america right now with gun violence. but the joker has a cult—like following. it isjust a movie, you don't have to act what you see in the movie. already the film has broken box—office records, making more than 30 million us dollars in its debut. freya cole, bbc news. there have been more protests in iraq, despite appeals

for calm from political and religious leaders. five more people have been killed in the new round of unrest in iraq's capital baghdad. more than 90 people have been killed during four days of violence across the country, and almost 4000 people injured. security forces are using tear gas and rubber bullets to shut down the protests. 0ur middle east editor sebastian usher, explained what sparked the demonstrations. 700,000 people enter the workplace every year but there are no jobs, but the corruption that has led to that is in place. you have basra, where the were big protests last year down in the south, huge lack of electricity during baking heat of the summer and these frustrations boil over. what we're seeing now, is the worst, the worst since isis was defeated and the worst unrest that there's been on the streets and iraqi against iraqi in this way that we've seen, i would say, since before isis emerged. now to a tragic story in thailand where six elephants were found

drowned in the cow yi national park at the bottom of a waterfall. wildlife officials believe a calf may have been swept away in raging rapids before another five animals then died trying to help the infant. a rescue mission was launched by park officials to save two more elephants who survived the strong currents and managed to get to the riverbank. jane dougall has all the sport. hello and thanks forjoining us. the ethiopian middle distance runner sifan hassan has furiously distanced herself from the banned coach alberto salazar after winning gold in the 1500m final at the world athletics championships in doha. hassan, who had previously worked under salazar, took victory in a championship record time. we can cross live to the khalifa stadium, ade adedoyin is there for us. you spoke to hassan and she seemed

upset about the association with salazar? yes, sifan hassan was defiant. she created history by winning the 1500 metres, making it a unique double, the 15 and the 10,000. since she won the 10,000 she's been under scrutiny because of alberto salazar. she hasn't been able to speak to him. when i spoke to her, she said people are questioning her integrity. the ioc president said he would want all athletes affiliated with salazar to be tested. to that question she reacted angrily when i put it to her. she said she'd be happy to be tested every day to prove she's clea n. do you think i don't get tested? i get tested every time. they can test me everyday if they want to. i will be happy. very adamant. later, excitement in

the men's and women's four x 100 metres relays? yes, very good championships, 14 asher—smith who claimed her third medal. getting silver behind the jamaicans who had the 100 metres champion shelly—ann fraser—pryce. the men, the defending champions, got a silver medal, breaking the record. it was always going to be difficult competing against a very strong american quartet that included coleman and gatlin, the gold and silver winners. adam gemili said that they are delighted. it's been a tough season. a disappointing campaign, missing out on the individual medal but he has a silver in the relay. thank you. liverpool have maintained their 100 percent record in the premier league, but only just. james milner scored a 95th minute winner from the spot

at anfield against leicester. 2—1 the final score. leicester's frustrations boiled over at full—time. sadio mane had put liverpool ahead before half—time, butjames maddison scored an 80th minute equaliser with their only shot on target. but they then conceded an injury time penalty with a foul on mane. that's eight wins out of eight for liverpool heading into the international break. here are the other results in the premier league, spurs' miserable week ended with another defeat — this time 3—0 at brighton. jeff hendrick scored the winner for burnley against 10 man everton. wesley scored twice and also missed a penalty. that's all the sport for now. you can keep up—to—date with the rest of the championships on the bbc

sport website. the mother of british teenager harry dunn who died in a crash involving the wife of a us diplomat says the government must put pressure on her to return to the uk. harry dunn died after the accident near raf croughton. the diplomat‘s wife has claimed immunity and travelled to the us. the boy's mother says she will make the foreign secretary dominic raab in the coming days. authorities said they wanted to interview an american woman in her 40s. the world's fastest kitefoil racers are battling for the kitefoil world series championship titles. the race on the first day was close, with high winds testing even the most experienced athletes. the five—day finale is taking place on the italian resort island of sardinia. it's set to be one of the hardest—fought after kiteboarding won inclusion in the line—up for the paris 2024 olympics.

don't forget, i'm on twitter. across most of the country get ready for a wet night, rain spreading over most parts. they could be some minor flooding and surface water. low—pressure south of greenland. these areas of cloud moving east overnight. clearing away from northern ireland, maybe one two showers. elsewhere the rain becoming heavy and persistent with remote, especially in central and southern scotland. temperatures not dropping much from where they are, 9—12. not very cold. lots of

rain. the rain may be hit and miss over western scotland by 9pm. central and eastern areas, heavy, especially in the borders. the pennines, fairly wet. some of the heavy rain over east locklear and lincolnshire. maybe some thunder. wendy around the western coasts, eastern coasts, sorry. wales and south—west england especially windy. many western areas having a better day than today. temperatures fairly similarto day than today. temperatures fairly similar to today, 12—17. still damp across eastern counties to finish the day. the rain clearing as we go into sunday, turning misty in places. more weather fronts into sunday, turning misty in places. more weatherfronts pushing its way in around the area of low pressure as we go into monday. monday may start dry and bright.

0utbreaks monday may start dry and bright. outbreaks of rain pushing north and east. not so much rain. the rain fragmenting as it moves east. in the west after a bright start, brightening up for many but it will be windy, winds touching 50 or 60. the changeable pattern persisting, look at the jet stream, never far away from us. each dip we see another area of low pressure. always likely to be rain at times and gusty wind too.

the mother of british teenager harry dunn who died in a crash involving the wife of a us diplomat says the government must put pressure on her to return to the uk. the us state department expressed sympathy, but said diplomatic immunity was rarely waived. democrats leading the impeachment inquiry into president trump, issue a legal order demanding that the white house hand over more documents. dozens of people are injured, eight of them seriously, after a double—decker bus overturns in devon. a british—australian woman and her boyfriend are released after more than three months in an iranianjail.