welcome to bbc news. i'm reged ahmad. our top a second whistleblower comes forward in the impeachment against donald trump. this is both of them are biased. hong kong police make their first arrests under a new law banning face masks. could married men he ordained as catholic priests? the pope opens talks to find ways to boost the clergy in countries around the amazon. a massive explosion ripped through our galaxy three and a half million years ago — the discovery sheds light on the secrets of the solar system.

hello and welcome. a second whistleblower has come forward in the impeachment inquiry into president trump's conversations with the ukrainian president. a lawyer involved has told american television the second whistle—blower is another us intelligence official. donald trump has been accused of using military aid to ukraine as quid pro quo if ukranians agreed to dig up dirt on his rivaljoe biden. national security lawyer mark zayd confirmed the reports on twitter — saying the whistleblowers have also made a protected disclosure under the law and cannot be retaliated against. what is more a lawyer involved has told american television the second whistle—blower what is more d whistle—blower is another us intelligence official. donald trump has been accused of using military aid to ukraine as quid pro quo if ukranians agreed to dig up dirt on his rivaljoe biden. national security lawyer mark zayd confirmed the reports

on twitter — saying the whistleblowers have also made a protected disclosure under the law and cannot be retaliated against. our washington correspondent chris buckler gave us more details on the latest whistleblower. this second whistle—blower has been described as a us intelligence official and they apparently have first—hand knowledge of this controversial conversation that took place between donald trump and the ukrainian president. you might remember, in that phone call back in summer, president trump asked zelensky to launch an investigation into his potential rival, joe biden and that was extremely controversial and caused a great deal of anger among democrats are now there are growing questions about whether there was any attempt to put pressure on you cane —— ukraine, perhaps by offering some kind of incentive like a visit to the white house or potentially by threatening to suspend security assistance to the country. now, that is very firmly denied by president trump. he insists he had every right to ask that question. but while he has made unsubstantiated allegations againstjoe biden and his son, hunter, is not produced evidence and this weekend, he has put out more unsubstantiated allegations. meanwhile, amid all of this noise of politics taking place in washington, there are three congressional committees that are quietly working away on impeachment enquiries. at the moment, democrats are trying their very best to get information from the white house. they want documents about anything connected with that call between ukraine and the united states.

and they will also, i suspect, want to hear exactly what this whistleblower has had to say. it is understood they have already spoken to the inspector general. that's the person who acts as the watchdog for the us intelligence community. well, joining me now to discuss the latest is rina shah, she's a republican strategist. donald trump is saying both these

whistleblowers are biased but the fa ct whistleblowers are biased but the fact that another one has come forward , fact that another one has come forward, does that change things for the republican party? not so much for the republican party, just changes things in general. this is a moment where we are so changes things in general. this is a moment where we are so polarised and thatis moment where we are so polarised and that is not atypical in washington, for people to sort of rush to the fringes of the political spectrum. but certainly, with the second whistleblower, it being a first—hand account is that more and more people who support resident trump are going to say this is a grand conspiracy. more people than want to undermine the president. this is the republican argument i suspect we we re republican argument i suspect we were here over the coming week. do you think it's a good idea for the democrats to keep continuing with impeachment proceedings? absolutely.

i think those things can be mutually exclusive because there is a reality here. there are democrats who did not call for this impeachment from day one. if you look at the background. speaker nancy pelosi, she waited some time, she kept her caucus acquired. i think, like many of us, i say this i would not vote for him for re—election. those of us who said, let's give him a chance, let's govern. bree is in now. we will see the ukrainian transcript. that to me was the final straw. when it's in black and white. asking for a favour, to potentially eliminate

the challenger. a fellow american. that right there tells you everything you need to know. some people argue it's12 months out from election. impeachment is a political process. america or the democrats should let the public decide at the election whether they have a problem. i believe there was never a good time to talk about this president's many thoughts. look, none of us are perfect. this president is so unique in that is sort of abuse of the power, he is using the oval office to enrich his family, the emoluments clause, the favourites, the way he cozies up and uses pages out of the dictators

playbook on the regular, that is what we are not used to. most of us who've been in washington for a very long time, it not only offends our sensibilities it is very clear to us that this president is undermining democracy and doesn't understand that he is leading us and actually has led us to a banana republic already. of course donald trump continues to defend himself against a lot of those charges but i'm sure the discussion continues. thank you very much. let's get some of the day's other news. a report in the financial times says the banking group hsbc is planning to cut up to 10,000 jobs. the cuts would come on top of more than 4,000 redundancies that were announced in august. the latest cuts are said to be part of interim ceo noel quinn's ambitious campaign to reduce costs across the company. hsbc is making no comment on the story. portugal's governing socialist party has won the most seats in the country's general election but not enough to control parliament.

the prime minister antonio costa said he would continue to cut the budget deficit and the country's debt. since taking office four years ago, mr costa has presided over an economic upswing, and reversed cuts to public sector wages and pensions. the centre—right social democratic party came second. iraq's interior ministry has confirmed 104 people have been killed in less than a week of anti—government protests. around 6,000 have been injured. the united nations has called for an end to the quote "senseless loss of life". it's the deadliest unrest in iraq since the islamic state group was declared defeated in 2017. here's our middle east editor, jeremy bowen. the iraqi security forces are opening fire at demonstrators. that's why so many

people have been killed. the use of deadly force as well as tear gas and other methods can only increase the anger of the mainly young people have gone onto the streets to protest. the un in iraq has demanded an end to what it calls a senseless loss of life. decades of war have inflicted terrible damage on iraq and its people. unemployment is high and even those with jobs are struggling. it's mainly young men on the streets. a quarter of the population lives on less than us$2 a day. this man says he has a masters degree but the government wouldn't even hire him as a street sweeper. all these young people, he said, are treated unfairly. the prime minister has so far offered little more than vague promises and an appeal for calm. he said he was speaking so the deterioration in the security situation would not lead to the destruction of the state. perhaps it's surprising that it's taken so long for demonstrators to go onto the streets.

at times the iraqi security forces have answered their protests iraq has the world's fourth biggest oil reserves. it should be rich. but it's also one of the most corrupt countries in the world. another generation has grown up in a state that can't offer them much more than a very hard life and these demonstrations are born of desperation. jeremy bowen, bbc news. the british foreign secretary, dominic raab, has urged the united states to reconsider its decision to let a diplomat‘s wife leave the uk after she was involved in a fatal car crash. british police say the american woman, who has been named as anne sacoolas, is being treated as a suspect in their investigation into the death of a 19—year—old

motorcyclist harry dunn in august. they say they'd been prepared to arrest and formally interview her. the woman claimed diplomatic immunity and left the country. harry's mother, charlotte, appealed to the american woman to return to the uk so the accident can be investigated. not out to get her put behind bars, if that's what the justice instant ends up doing, then we can't stop that but we're not out to do that, we are out to try and some peace for ourselves. our reporter simonjones is here. the fact that this woman has been named, how significant. there has been a bit of a mystery. you know the name of the motorcyclist, harry dunn, but we did not know the name of the diplomat‘s wife the bbc understands her name is anne sacoolas and it will put rash on her to return to the uk. the british

foreign secretary has called for her right to anonymity to be waived and it has been echoed by the chief co nsta ble of it has been echoed by the chief constable of —— chief constable of northamptonshire. he says he has written in very strong serves, saying she is to return to the country to face justice, i call echoed by the family of harry dunn. this whole case centres around the idea of diplomatic immunity. why hasn't become so contentious? this was enshrined in the 1961 vienna convention and that states that diplomats and their families have a right to immunity from prosecution in their host country as long as they are not nationals of that country but the home country can waive that right to anonymity if they feel that is necessary. back in 1961, the idea behind this was so that diplomats in potentially hostile countries could go about

their work without fear of being persecuted but there have been many questions about it since, whether it is fit for purpose, it's been reported that limits here in london have racked up bills of around $100 million in unpaid congestion charges knowing they won't be taken to court so lots of questions about how effect of it is and whether it's been used correct. in this particular case involving harry dunn, the us state department says it's listening to the concerns of dish officials and will consider that request in anonymity for the woman in this case but it says it is rare for that to happen. i'm sure it's not the mast with heard of it. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: the 5,000—year—old settlement uncovered by archaeologists in israel. this was a celebration by people who were relishing in their freedom.

they believe everything's going to be different from now on. they think the country will be respected in the world once more as it used to be before slobodan milosevic took power. the dalai lama, the exiled spiritual leader of tibet has won this year's nobel peace prize. as the parade was reaching its climax, two grenades exploded and a group of soldiersjumped from a military truck taking part in the parade and ran towards the president, firing kalashnikov automatic rifles. after 437 years, the skeleton ribs of henry viii's tragic warship emerged. but even as divers work to buoy her up, the mary rose went through another heart—stopping drama. i want to be the people's governor. i want to represent everybody. i believe in the people of california. a second whistleblower has come forward with what's described as first hand evidence of the phone call at the centre

of the impeachment inquiry into donald trump. now, just 3.5 million years ago, a massive energy flare ripped through our galaxy — it's impact was felt 200,000 light years away. this new discovery that the milky way's centre was more dynamic than previously thought, can lead to a complete reinterpretation of its evolution. the team behind the discovery, led by professorjoss bland—hawthorn from australia, used the data gathered by the hubble space telescope to calculate when the massive explosion of high—energy radiation took place. and the professorjoins me now. thank you so much for your time. first of all, we will see pictures ina minute first of all, we will see pictures in a minute of an artist ‘s impression of this play to give us a sense of it, but can you explain

exactly what it is? when gas clouds and stars fall into the centre of the galaxy they go into a death spiral around the central back —— black hole at the centre of our galaxy, formally times the mass of our son. the black hole itself is invisible, but the spiral of gas going around the central black hole gets very hot indeed and then blows off jets, gets very hot indeed and then blows offjets, wins, and bubbles into the surrounding galaxies —— wins. we have seen evidence of the explosion 3.5 million years ago, a giant beam of radiation, like a lighthouse —— like a lighthouse pigment across the galaxy and lit up gas along with out from the centre of the galaxy. we just saw some pictures to give us a sense of what this is, but given this is at the centre of the galaxy and given that earth is far away from it, i'll be in any danger of this flower and what it is producing? it is a very good

question, because our black hole, in fa ct question, because our black hole, in fact the disc around the black hole does flop around a lot. it is not like the very massive black holes and quasars that we have seen in a distant universe. once we have seen ina distant universe. once we have seen in a local universe flop around. in actualfact, in a local universe flop around. in actual fact, the gap in a local universe flop around. in actualfact, the gap in an radiation could come in our direction. that is an interesting question, because it could have happened in the past, could have happened in the past, could happen in the future. but we are ok? so if the radiation from the judge was to arrive at our solar system, think it would be as powerful as the most powerful burst of radiation from our son —— jet. that would be very bad for satellites and it would be bad for space walkers. but i think the atmosphere of the earth would protect us like it does from the sun itself. so now you have discovered this, what does it tell you? why is it important? it is important

because we now know that essentially all galaxies have these massive black holes in their centres. but if you look out into the local universe, very few black holes have these shining discs right now, maybe a few at most. but they all have these events at the centre and the reason we only see a few % is because they are flickering. they turn on, they turn off, rather late fireflies. so you can imagine like your flashlight, if your battery was backing up the torch starts to flickr. i think it is like that. the black holes flickr over thousands of yea rs. black holes flickr over thousands of years. the amazing thing for us was to find that the milky way is one of those sources. we have a flickering black hole at the centre of our galaxy. so could help, for example, to find life in other galaxies, planets that can support life, anything like that? not to directly. i think the big question there is whether this activity would affect life nearer to it. it could mean

that these explosions from black holes would kill life anywhere in the centres of galaxies or even quite some file way out, rather like a bomb going off —— some file way out. i think are suburbs are won't say from the nuclear explosions. but i think it poses danger for life anywhere near the centres of galaxies. all right, professorjoss bland—hawthorn, from australia. thank you so much for that. and congratulations on the discovery. pope francis has denounced the fires that recently devastated large areas of the amazon region at the opening of they three—day synod. the vatican is also considering whether married men should be ordained as priests in the amazon — a move to boost dwindling numbers of clergy in the region. john mcmanus reports. at the opening mass for the synod

of the amazon, pope francis had a tough message for those he accuses of exploiting the amazon basin. translation: may god preserve us from the greed of new forms of colonialism. the fire set by interests that destroy, like the fire that recently devastated amazonia, is not the fire of the gospel. the environment is the main focus of this three—week meeting of bishops and laypeople from the amazon region. but tucked away in the preparatory document is a potentially explosive idea, that to remedy the serious shortage of priests in the amazon, the church could ordain married men. that would break with centuries of tradition, whereby only celibate men could be raised to the priesthood. the suggestion has aroused serious opposition within the vatican, with some clerics worried that a solution to a latin american problem could be exported across the catholic world. cardinal raymond burke, who has become a focus of opposition to the pope within the vatican, has already denounced some of the synod discussion

as heretical. but church leaders in brazil are adamant that the problem is real. one diocese of more than 67,000 square miles has only 21 priests. any final decision would be made by the pope and it's unlikely even a reformer like francis would enact such a sudden and dramatic change. but the very fact that married priests are even being discussed is another sign of how this pope is opening up the church to different ideas. john mcmanus, bbc news. archaeologists in israel have unearthed the remains of a 5,000—year—old city — said to be among the biggest of its era. en esur dates from the early bronze age and was believed to be home to around 6,000 people. the site is close to the modern israeli city of harish. the bbc‘s tim allman reports.

it has been described by some as the new york of its time. an ancient city buried for millennia, rediscovered when engineers wanted to carry out roadworks. no—one knew it was here. no—one knew how big it would turn out to be. translation: en esur is the largest site and the most important from that area. it's double the size of what we had previously seen. —— era. the city covers an area of around and is from the time of around 400 bc in what was once the biblical land of canaan. all sorts of things have been unearthed, tools, figurines, pottery. experts believe it could transform the way we understand the development of villages, towns, and cities. translation: what makes this site so important is that we can observe a set of components that make it a

city, such as residential buildings and streets that divided the houses and streets that divided the houses and created quarters which connected them to other areas. there are even some remains of what may be an older settle m e nt some remains of what may be an older settlement from an earlier era. once the site has been fully excavated and examined is likely to be covered up and examined is likely to be covered up once and examined is likely to be covered up once more. and examined is likely to be covered up once more. en esur has been called a megalopolis, a huge city of the bronze age. an ancient mystery, an ancient marvel. tim allman, bbc news. the drummer ginger baker, widely considered to be one of the most influential and innovative musicians of his generation, has died at the age of 80. nicknamed ginger because of his flaming red hair, he helped form cream — one of rock's first supergroups. david sillito looks back on his life.

drum solo. it was in 1966 that ginger baker decided he wanted his own band. cream with eric clapton and jack bruce was described as a supergroup. and his freewheeling jazz—inspired improvisations marked him out as one of the great rock drummers. i play to what i hear and it's all that's happening all the time, which is why it's never the same. born in lewisham in south london, he'd started out playing jazz. and there were many bands over the years because he was not always easy company. the director who made a documentary about his life ended up with a broken nose. nevertheless, his work with african artists at his lagos studio, his melding of jazz and rock, he was a pioneer. it was a turbulent life of drugs, feuds and a love of polo. but behind the drums,

he was one of the greats. now, working on the basis that no bulletin is complete without a panda story — three young pandas are being trained for life in the wild. lets have a look. china's conservation and research centre for pandas is letting the cubs live with their mother in semi—wild environments before being fully released. nine out of 11 panada cubs released last december have survived. the reserch centre in china's southwest sichuan province has over 300 pandas, the largest number of captive giant pandas anywhere in the world.

i could not resist showing you those pictures. stay with us on bbc news. much more is on the website. hello. it's been another very wet to 24 hours for some. western scotland, overnight into sunday, had nearly 60 millimetres of rain in places. in east anglia, we had 40—50 millimetres of rain through the course of sunday, which has resulted in flooding. and, in fact, there are a number of flood warnings in force across the rivers in scotland and england. and with more rain to come in the next 24 hours that's not good news. the grounds saturated as well. but more rain is what we have. this next dominant area of low pressure is advancing in. so we're looking at severe gale force winds through the course of the day across parts of northern and western scotland and gales in other areas in the north and west as well. combined with yet more rain it will be particularly unpleasant as we go through the rush hour. we could see some mist and some fog under the clearer skies further east. but a very windy day across northern and western areas,

very wet through the rush hour as well. we're not as expecting as much rain as we've had in the past 24 hours, but nevertheless the ground is saturated so it will go straight onto the roads and into the rivers. there'll be lots of spray and standing water for those travelling. and, of course, the strong and gusty winds, which will eventually blow the rain away from scotland and northern ireland, allow some brighter skies, but heavy showers to follow. and it could take much of the day for that rain to get into southern and eastern areas, once the fog has cleared away. it doesn't look as wet for east anglia as it was during the day on sunday. but nevertheless more rain is not good news. now, it does meander its way into the near continent as we head into tuesday morning. it's very close by, so it drags its heels a little bit. and then that low pressure is moving a little closer to the north—west of scotland. so still windy in northern and western areas. but windier, potentially, across england and wales on tuesday, which will blow the showers in. so it's more of a showery day. but the showers will tend to merge at times to give longer spells of rain. strong and gusty winds will blow them right the way east across england and across scotland, northern ireland, and wales as well. and they will be heavy. there will be torrential downpours

with hail and with lightning and therefore thunder. but temperatures are doing quite well. no real frost worries this week. temperatures by day a little above average or around average. another very showery picture, as you can seem on wednesday, perhaps clumping together in places to give longer spells of rain. and perhaps fewer reaching eastern areas, but we're clutching at straws for the detail. the devil is in the detail this week. but it does look very showery for most of us. of course there will be some sunshine, but it will often be quite windy with that low pressure sat close by. no sooner does that one start to move away, by the end of the week we have another area of low pressure coming in and yet more weather fronts with those. so as ever you can stay up—to—date on the website.

this is bbc news, the headlines: a second whistleblower comes forward in the impeachment case against donald trump. they're said to have first—hand knowledge of the controversial phone call at the centre of the inquiry. president trump is accused of asking his ukrainian counterpart to dig for dirt on his rivaljoe biden. police in hong kong make their first arrests under the new law banning protesters from wearing face masks. dozens are detained in another day of violence in the territory with thousands of people taking to the streets and police using tear gas in an attempt to quell the unrest. pope francis opens a three—week synod in the vatican dedicated to countries around the amazon and the needs of indigenous peoples. among items to be discussed are controversial proposals to allow married men to become priests, in a bid to boost clergy numbers which are dwindling in the region.