we this is the briefing — i'm sally bundock. our top story: countdown to the next crucial phase of the impeachment inquiry. washington braces for public hearings into the president's dealings with ukraine. australia escapes the worst of the bushfires — but the threat still remains in queensland and new south wales. the venice mayor declares disaster as the city is hit by its highest tide in 50 years. and we speak to actors christian bale and matt damon — who reveal the truth behind hollywood auditions. fighting for survivial on the high street — as christmas approaches we look

at the global crisis in retail. a warm welcome to the programme — briefing you on all you need to know in global news, business and sport. also in the programme, have you started christmas shopping? if so, are you heading to the high street or shopping online? as amazon becomes the worlds biggest retailer tell us what you think about the crisis on the high street. just use the hashtag #bbcthebriefing. the impeachment inquiry in washington is about to go public. until now, the testimony has been heard behind closed doors. house democrats are looking at whether president trump abused his power by witholding military aid from ukraine, while pressing for an

investigation into the bidens. mr trump calls the inquiry a ‘hoax'. the first two people in front of congress on wednesday are william taylor — the top us diplomat in ukraine, and george kent — deputy assistant secretary for european and eurasian affairs.and on friday, former us ambassador to ukraine marie yovanovitch is due to testify. but, it's unlikely there'll be many surprises in the testimony offered by the three witnesses scheduled this week. our washington correspondent, gary o'donoghue reports. there was no quid pro quo. no weird pro quote. quid pro quo. three short latin words. in essence, you scratch my back and i'll scratch yours. thank you very much, mr president.

that is what the president stands accused of, pressuring you came's president to investigate donald trump's opponents in return for hundreds of millions of dollars in aid in that allegation has persuaded the top house democrat to drop her resistance. i'm an outing the house of representatives will move forward with an official impeachment enquiry. editing sentence on a july phone call with president zelensky about a phone call with joe phone call with president zelensky about a phone call withjoe biden and his son. in a partial transcript, donald trump asks for a favour and then asks about a conspiracy theory surrounding the 2016 election. but goes on to say: i had 2016 election. but goes on to say: ihada 2016 election. but goes on to say: i had a perfect phone call. perfect,

it was a perfect conversation. it was absolutely perfect. a week before the call, the military aid had been put on hold by the white house. the president insists the two things were not winked and has doubled down on his demand for an investigation despite there being no substantive evidence against the biden family. people have got to know whether or not their president isa know whether or not their president is a crook. well, i'm not a crook. richard nixon resigned when he knew for sure he was going to be impeached and thrown out after the watergate scandal but this place is only formally impeached two presidents in more than 230 years and neither of them was removed from office. chances are donald trump won't be either. so why other democrats bothering? those open hearings will be an opportunity for the american people to evaluate the witnesses for themselves, to make their own determinations about the credibility of the witnesses but also to learn firsthand about the fa cts also to learn firsthand about the facts of the president's misconduct. move back from the sidewalk. the first witness in public will be the

serving ambassador to the ukraine, william taylor. his already stunned washington by telling congress that military aid was tied to investigating the bidens for domestic political gain and it's evident like that the democrats hope can damage president trump in the run—up to next year's collection. and be sure to tune in to the bbc‘s special coverage of those public impeachment hearings on capitol hill. we'll bring those to you live, along with updates and analysis from our team in washington, starting at 1500 gmt. raging bushfires have damaged properties across parts of australia — and briefly spread to the suburbs of sydney. there are still more than 70 uncontained fires burning in new south wales. fire chiefs are warning the dangers facing the state — and neighbouring queensland — are farfrom over. phil mercer has the latest.

well, we know that a helicopter, water bombing aircraft has crashed in the state of queensland. the report of the pilot is ok, we understand he suffered only minor injuries. it does underscore the dangers of fighting fires during the catastrophic fire warnings on tuesday here in new south wales. more than a dozen firefighters were injured. we know at the moment there are around 70 fires burning in the state of new south wales, to the north across the border in queensland. there are more than 60. those catastrophic warnings for new south wales were lifted a fair few hours ago so conditions compared to tuesday are far more favourable here in new south wales but the situation to the north in queensland, the conditions, the fire conditions there are deteriorating so the crisis, the bushfire crisis that

s pa ns two crisis, the bushfire crisis that spans two streets in eastern australia is continuing. the italian city of venice has been hit by severe flooding after the highest tide in more than 50 years. st mark's square was under a metre of water on tuesday night. in a tweet, the mayor, luigi brugnaro, warned the exceptional flooding would leave a permanent mark. gareth barlow has more: venice, the old city on the lagoon, is now mostly submerged in water. known locally as the acqua alta, or high water, this is the highest tied in halfa high water, this is the highest tied in half a century. translation: we are here and we are waiting. we reached another record. we need eve ryo ne reached another record. we need everyone to lend a hand and we need to be united in the face of this which is evidently at the effect of climate change. the mayor went on to

say the tide will leave an indelible wound on the city. some of its most famous landmarks are inundated. translation: my house is on the ground floor so every time there is a high tide, it gets wet. for the tourists, it's great but none of the venetians like it because it brings a lot of problems. the city has been increasingly prone to flooding in recent yea rs. defences increasingly prone to flooding in recent years. defences are being built. the set by delays, they are not expected to be fully operational for several years. the city's mayor has declared a state of disaster but while that might increase the support available, it won't stop the floods. gareth barlow, bbc news. let's brief you on some of the other stories making the news. the deputy head of the bolivian senate, jeanine anez, has declared herself interim president, following the resignation of evo morales at the weekend, after weeks of protests over a disputed presidential election result. ms anez, an opposition senator, doesn't have the backing

of bolivia's congress — but she says the move is constitutional. a suspected suicide bomber has attacked the police headquarters in the indonesian city of medan in north sumatra. a police spokesman said the attacker had been killed in the blast and a number of officers wounded. australia's high court has ruled that cardinal george pell will be allowed a final chance to challenge his child sexual abuse convictions. the former vatican treasurer is currently serving a six—yearjail term for abusing two boys in melbourne in 1996. workers for mcdonald's in the us have filed a lawsuit in which they allege that the fast food company has a systemic problem of sexual harrassment. they accuse the firm of allowing a toxic work culture. mcdonald's hasn't yet responded to the allegations. it has about “1,000

restaurants in the us. a new report says top destination shopping streets can still thrive in select parts of new york and london. but this is a far cry from the rest of the retail sector — which can feel like its fighting for survival, squeezed by high rents and online rivals. kathleen brooks, director, minerva analysisjoins me now. lovely to see you. i mean, when i saw this report, it's absolutely not surprising at all to hear that there isa surprising at all to hear that there is a real crisis on the high street but not just in is a real crisis on the high street but notjust in the uk, also in the us and other countries. yes, and i think that makes it harder to target because it's like a global shift in shopping habits. part of it is down

to amazon but also the fact the high streets aren't conserving our —— serving our streets aren't conserving our —— serving oui’ consumers. streets aren't conserving our —— serving our consumers. they are being targeted continually to consume less so how can a high streets match those demands, those global environmental demands with what people still spend their money on? could that be more restaurants was that things like nutritionists and less tangible things sold on the high street? thinking about the most recent headlines about this. mother going into administration. so many big names on the high street and the uk have gone mike toys "r" us at this time of year would have been packed with people buying their toys for christmas. thousands and thousands of jobs have for christmas. thousands and thousands ofjobs have been lost. there has to be a completely new way of thinking about what the high street is about. their dies and the job losses is a bad part about but some would say the losses of these chain stores could be a really big opportunity for independent retailers to come in and open shops

and do something more bespoke but the problem lies in the fact that rents a re the problem lies in the fact that rents are still really high, business are high. that is business rates. taxes as well. would people actually go out and say, do you know what, i will open the shop to save my high street but not with rates at those levels, maybe they were linked mortar profits, for example, or even if the rents were linked mortar profits, that could be another way to kind of regenerate these places andi to kind of regenerate these places and i think it's interesting, it's easy to think this is a uk problem but it is a global problem. we've seen this in western cultures, we need to see a much more strategic, almost global strategic view to try and save the high streets that we wa nt and save the high streets that we want thriving. thank you very much. kathleen is back to the news briefing. please get in touch as well before than to tell us why you go to the high street still, if you got all and what ideas you may have to save our high streets.

stay with us on bbc news, still to come: andy murray tells us why he no longer cares about winning. the bombastic establishment outsider, donald trump, has defied the pollsters to take the keys to the oval office. i feel great about the election result. i voted for him because i genuinely believe that he cares about the country. it's keeping the candidate's name always in the public eye that counts. success or failure depends not only on public display, but on the local campaign headquarters and the heavy routine work of their women volunteers. berliners from both east and west linked hands and danced around their liberated territory. and with nobody to stop them, it wasn't long before the first attempts were made to destroy the structure itself. yasser arafat, who dominated the palestinian cause for so long, has died. palestinian authority has declared a state of mourning. after 17 years of discussion,

the result was greeted with an outburst ofjoy. women ministers who'd long felt only grudgingly accepted in the ranks of clergy suddenly felt welcomed. you're watching the briefing. our headlines: the first public hearings in donald trump's impeachment inquiry begin today. the us president is accused of improperly seeking help from ukraine to boost his chances of re—election next year, something he denies. bushfires across much of eastern australia are still burning out of control as some of the blazes reach the suburbs of sydney. hundreds of thousands of tourists visit paris every year to see its famous landmarks and soak up the city's culture. but one guide, kevi donas, gives a tour around the capital with a twist — it celebrates

the unsung black people who helped shape french history. and tries to challenge the perception of what it means to be french. take a look.

kevi donas' tour around paris, with a twist. now it's time to get all the latest from the bbc sports centre. hello, there, i'm ben croucher. we'll start at tennis‘ world tour finals, where one of either roger federer or novak djokovic will miss out on a spot in the last four. federer picked up his first win by beating italy's matteo berrettini. he'll now have to beat djokovic in his final group game to progress.

it's after the 16—time grand slam champion was beaten by another inspired showing from austria's dominic thiem in london. two days on from beating federer, thiem saw off djokovic in a final set tie—break to guarantee his spot in the last four with a game to spare. well, there's no andy murray in london — he's still finding his way back after a couple of injury hit years. he says he's optimistic about the future now after fears he might have to retire but says getting right to the top and winning the big tournaments aren't his motivation. but ultimately, like, what i've learned over the last couple of years, i don't really, like really care about rankings. i don't really care about, like, winning tennis competitions. like, it's nice. it's brilliant to do that. but actually, i really enjoy playing tennis, like, i love it. reigning women‘ european champions the netherlands are well on course to reach the final in 2021. they've won six out of six of their qualifying games so far,

the latest a 4—1 victory at home to slovenia. after two penalties from sherida spitse, arsenal's vivienne miedema scored a brace of her own. austria, switzerland, belgium, denmark and italy also preserved their 100% qualification records. well, after federer recovered from an opening defeat, rafael nadal will try to do the same on wednesday. he'll be faced with daniil medvedev on the other side of the net, who also lost his opening match. nadal is only playing his first tournament since september's us open and looked a little rusty as he was beaten by alexander zverev in that first game. he could lose the world number one ranking with an early exit in london. qualifying for the africa cup of nations in 2021 gets underway later this wednesday. sadio mane due to be in action for senegal as they take on congo. mane, though, will have little time to prepare for the game, having scored for liverpool in their 3—1 victory over manchester city on sunday.

fortunately, for the 2019 cup of nations runners—up, congo haven't been in great form recently. they did, though, end their preparations for the qualifiers with a 1—1 draw against brazil last month. and lastly, if your golf is anything like mine, hitting the ball straight can be — well — something of a rarity. well, just look at what spain's adri arnaus tried to do. it's just in a practice round in turkey but that right there is essentially a 100—yard tunnel through two rows of trees. not only have you got to stay dead straight, you've also got to keep it low to prevent it clipping the branches. after a few near misses, arnaus succeeded not once, but twice. it didn't help him massively. he finished 65th out of 75. hopefully he didn't have to try that shot too many times! as always, bbc.com/sport is the place to find the best up—to—date sports news. from me and the team, whatever you're up to,

have a good one! that is been there with the sports news. thanks to him. now, one played jason bourne, the other played batman. now matt damon and christian bale have teamed up for the film ‘le mans ‘66‘, or as it‘s known in the us, ‘ford versus ferrari‘. it‘s the true story of how the ford motor group enlisted the help of a british motor racing driver, ken miles, to try to end ferrari‘s dominance of the annual ‘24 hours of le mans‘ endurance race in france. our entertainment correspondent colin paterson went to meet the two stars in paris, where the film opens later on wednesday. matt damon, christian bale. welcome. britain isn‘t always shy about our sports stars, but ken miles might not be a familiar name. and i hope this changes that. we should be incredibly proud of him. and he is a

legendary figure inside of racing circles but outside of that, no—one knows who he is. we're on the verge of something now you tell me we can't have the best man in world behind the wheel? how did you prepare for the driving scenes? they let us do as much as they could insure us for. some. kristin did a bit of driving, actually and you we nt bit of driving, actually and you went to racing school.|j bit of driving, actually and you went to racing school. i went to a racing school and did open wheel stuff, it was fantastic. if you two had been left to do all of the driving, how would it have a look? very boring! really slow! we are like grandpas, racing. we aren't bad, not the worst drivers in the world. no, we aren't the western world. no, we aren't the western world. but we were the worst on that set. there is an interesting link between your two careers. you won an

oscar for the fighter. he always denies it because he is so humble. but there are a ton of roles that matt was on for it before me. matt was meant to be doing that.|j matt was on for it before me. matt was meant to be doing that. i said thank you for that performance. i always think the right actor gets the pipe. he was meant to play dickie ackland, he was so great. that was the right actor for the part. what a beautiful performance that was. so you come up against each other over the years? no, it's not that we are against each other but he passes on something. not that we are against each other but he passes on somethinglj not that we are against each other but he passes on something. i didn't get offered batman. how close did you come to getting jack in titanic? is that true? i don't think i came anywhere close for it. you went for it, though? i think everybody did. you try to get work, everybody does.

that is anotherjob that i only get roles passed on from. who, leo? laughter titanic was james cameron, an interesting one that has made headlines recently is avatar. you we re headlines recently is avatar. you were offered 10%. i was. headlines recently is avatar. you were offered 10%. iwas. did headlines recently is avatar. you were offered 10%. i was. did you were offered 1096. i was. did you know people have done the maths? $100 million. that would be handy. i do like to say with pride i am the dumbest actor of all time. that is matt damon and christian bale in conversation with colin patterson. he is a great sport, i

had the great opportunity to meet matt damon. he made a video for my kids. i will read suite at once i get out of the studio. —— retweet. and tell me what you think about our talking point today. clinton‘s is in survival talks over the shop closes and rate cuts. thousands of jobs have the shop closes and rate cuts. thousands ofjobs have been lost as the results of retailers are struggling to stay open. is on is the world‘s —— amazon is the world‘s biggest retailer now. are you shopping online? what are your thoughts on this? barry says high prices and long queues, why would anyone resort to the high street? click and collect is a godsend, especially with retailers that don‘t make you queue up. this is where

high street retailers have managed to merge with online, the click and collect idea. samantha says i‘m not ready yet, it will be a close one. thanks for your comments. i‘ll see you soon. hello again. after so much recent rainfall, wednesday offers something completely different for parts of the british isles where you have a dry, crisp, sunny sort of day and it should stay dry for a greater part of the day too. for the west, a new set of fronts bring cloud and rain later on in the day for southern and western areas. a run of showers, mild, dry start running to the south—west of scotland, to the north—west of england and onto the afternoon, you see those central parts do stay dry through the day but does nothing for the temperatures, significant changes south—west. eventually clouding up in northern ireland and wales

and there may well be the chance of a bit of snow falling across the moors of the south—west, the brecon beacons as well and into the wee small hours of thursday, on through the day on thursday, to keep the rain coming to the southern counties and look at this, later on in the morning, a more significant area of rain perhaps further north, perilously close to the flood—affected areas and that‘s why there are met office warnings about the intensity of this rain and the effects that it might have on those flooded areas. further north and west, it is a dry, fine day, but not overly warm. and we don‘t change things very much as we get on into friday. the front is weakening so what rain i‘m showing you for most part through the day is light and patchy, running in on a cold north—easterly wind from the north sea. and what intense rainfall there is in the day may rock up later on across the very far south—eastern quarter on what is again a day dominated by single—figure temperatures. so here we are on into this first part of the weekend. and really, nothing changes very much at all.

the low pressure still close to the south—eastern quarter, wrapped around its northern and western flanks, still that weather front, quite a lot of cloud, a bleak, miserable sort of day, a lot of cloud around, little in the way of sunshine save perhaps for the northern part of scotland and the west of wales and again, on the cool side. there are no real signs of mild air rushing towards the british isles including the weekend. here we are on sunday, a sea of blue surrounds us so it‘s another cold day, a lot of cloud around, upfront moving in from the atlantic, fairly weak affair, rain for western scotland and northern ireland and the remnants of that weather front across those northern and central parts of england and wales.

this is the business briefing. i‘m sally bundock. fighting for survivial on the high street — as christmas approaches we look at the global crisis in retail. china‘s pork crisis. how african swine fever is having a very real impact on family dinner tables.