hello, i'm ros atkins, this is outside source. the first public impeachment hearings take place on capitol hill. america's top diplomat in ukraine makes it clear military aid was tied to investigating the bidens. this was the first time that i had heard that the security assistance not just the white heard that the security assistance notjust the white house meeting was conditioned on the investigation. on the investigation. president trump blasts the hearings and the witnesses — saying it wasn't even worth his time. iam too i am too busy to watch it. it is a witch hunt, a hoax, i am too busy to watch it. on the uk campaign trail — boris johnson talks up investing in infrastructure, while labour unveils big

spending plans for the nhs. and venice is underwater as the higest tide in 50 years causes severe flooding in the italian city. i willjust mention we are waiting ona i willjust mention we are waiting on a press conference with president trump, and president erdogan of turkey, it promises to be a fascinating affair not least because of the withdrawal of american troops and days later turkish troops going in and the consequences that had for the kurds who had been allies with america in fighting the islamic state promises to be fascinating. donald trump said he would destroy the turkish economy a few weeks ago when he wasn't happen which with the approach the turkish government was taking. relations seem to have

improved since then but these are two strong minded leaders and it is very ha rd to two strong minded leaders and it is very hard to predict how a press conference of this nature will go. that will make for interesting viewing when it begin, we will turn to it. but we are focussing on washington. but we are focussing on washington. for the first time, the impeachment inquiry into donald trump has heard public testimony. and we've been given a detailed look into the inner workings of the president's administration. the inquiry centres around whether donald trump made the provision of military aid to ukraine contingent on ukraine investigating his political rivaljoe biden. the inquiry is chaired by the democratic senator adam schiff. he set out its goals. the questions presented by this impeach. inquiry are whether president trump sought to exploit that allies‘s vulnerability and invite ukraine's interference in our

election, whether president trump sought to condition official acts such a white house meeting,s on ukraine's willingness to assist with that would help his re—election campaign. views of this inquiry divide neatly down party lines. this is how the ranking republican on the intelligaence committee welcomed the two witnesses. what we will witness today is a televised theatrical performance, staged by the democrats. ambassador taylor and mr kent, i like to welcome you here. i would like to congratulate you for passing the democrats chamber additions held in the capital. it seems you agreed wittingly or unwittingly to participate in a drama. before i play you some of that here is gary o'donoghue explaining how the relationship between 2 trump administration and the ukrainian government is at the centre of this story.

everything centres on a july phone call with president zelensky in which mr trump brought upjoe biden and his son hunter who worked for a ukrainian gas company n the partial transcript of the call, donald trump asks for a favour. he then asks about a conspiracy theory, surrounding the 2016 election. but goes on to say, there is a lot of talk about biden‘s son, so what ever you can do with the attorney general would be great, so if you can look into it. it sounds horrible to me. had a perfect phone call. it was a perfect conversation. it was perfect. a week before the call, a military aide had been put on hold by the white house, the president insists the two things were not linked and has doubled down on his demand for an investigation, despite there being no substantive evidence against the bidens. these are the two men who have given their testimony today. the two witnesses today

are both senior diplomats — and both have served under republican and democrat presidents. bill taylor is the acting us ambassador to ukraine. he's held a number of ambassador posts, and is a vietnam war veteran with a medal for valour. here he is recounting the moment he found out the us had put military aid to ukraine on hold. ina in a regular secure video conference call onjuly 18th in a regular secure video conference call onjuly18th i in a regular secure video conference call on july 18th i heard in a regular secure video conference call onjuly18th i heard a staff person from management and budget say there was a hold on security systems to ukraine. but could not say why. for the end of an otherwise normal meeting a voice on the call, the person was off screen, said that she was from omb and her boss instructed her not to approve any additional spending on security systems for ukraine until further notice. i and others sat in astonishment, ukrainians were fighting russians, and counted on not only the training and weapons but also the assurance of us

support. all that the onb staff person said was that the directive had come from the president, to the chief of staff, to onb. in an incident i realised that one of the key pillars of our strong support for ukraine was threatened. the policy channel was running contrary to the goals of long—standing us policy. to the goals of long—standing us policy. the irregular channel he is talking about there, refers to gordon sondland, ambassador to the eu, rick perry, the energy secretary. and kurt volker, the former ambassador to nato. it also includes donald trump's personal lawyer, rudy giuliani. a number of other witnesses in the inquiry testify that mr giuliani was putting pressure on ukraine to launch an investigation into the bidens. the second person giving testimony today was george kent, a state department official overseeing european affairs.

he says mr giuliani was also working to undermine the swipe then us to undermine the then us ambassador to ukraine, marie yovanovitch. she was replaced by bill taylor — who we've just heard from. let's hear some of what george kent told us. welcoming temperatures first lady with us today, and the first lady of turkey, thank you very much for being here, it's a great honour to have you, and we had a wonderful and productive meeting, before we start, i would like to thank president erdogan for releasing detainee, who was in detention in different forms of detention, and i appreciate that very much. that was a very nice tribute, and he will be coming back at some point in the not too distant

future, so that is very good news for the united states, and also very good news for turkey. turkey as eve ryo ne good news for turkey. turkey as everyone knows is a great nato ally, and a strategic partner of the united states round the world, our economic relationship has tremendous potential, and continues to expand and to grow, direct engagement and diplomacy between our nations are essential to ensuring a future of peace and priority perty and promise for our citizens, over the course of the day president erdogan and i had a frank and productive conversation ona a frank and productive conversation on a range of very important topics, among those topics we discussed was the situation in syria, last month i sent vice—president pence, secretary of state pompeo is with us, national security adviser o'brien, thank you.

to meet with president erdogan in the hopes of ending all of the hostilities, the negotiations were very successful and the us and turkey achieved a tremendous amount on that day, and i think we are working toward getting it better and better, it is a complicated situation, it has been going for hundreds of years, today the ceasefire continues to hold and i wa nt to ceasefire continues to hold and i want to thank the president for his parliament ship and cooperation as we work to build a more stable and peaceful and prosperous middle east. we have assured each other that turkey will continue to up hold what it's supposed to up hold. i'm a big fab of the president, i have to tell you that. —— fan. i know that the ceasefire, while complicated, is moving forward and moving forward as a very rapid clip. there is a lot of people that want to see that work,

after so many decades and so many centuries, you might say. the us and turkey are working extensively on many other security issue, turkey has the second largest armed forces in nato after the united states. and they are a very strong second, i might add. i am pleased that turkey has been steadily increasing his defence spending and is close to the 296 defence spending and is close to the 2% of gdp range unlike my many other countries, at the moment they are eight out of the 28 countries that are current in terms of their obligation financially. turkey has made a vital contribution to nato's resolute support mission in afghanistan, and its partnership was important to our destruction of the isis caliphate, in factjust recently when we took out al—baghdadi, take him out we did,

turkey knew we were going over certain areas that were helpful. we appreciate that. good for both countries. we appreciate it. we are grateful to president erdogan and to the citizens of turkey for their cooperation, in the constant drug isle against terrorism. he fights it like we do. american foreign military sales to turkey total many billions of dollars and turkey supplies component parts to many american defence programmes, they make parts of the frame for example for the f35. turkey's acquisition of sophisticated russian military equipment such as the saoo creates some serious challenges for us, and we are talking about it constantly, we are talking about it constantly, we talked about it today, we are talking about it in the future. hopefully we will be able to resolve that situation. we have asked our

secretary of state and minister for foreign affairs and our respective national security advisers to immediately work on resolving the 5400 immediately work on resolving the saoo issue. we have also recently agreed to work towards a $100 billion two way trade agreement, secretary ross is here and we have made tremendous progress on that. we have a lot of trade with turkey but it could be many times larger and turkey would like to see that and it would be good for the us, so we intend to bring it up to $100 billion, that would be four times what it is right now. our goal is to expand commerce between the us and turkey, reduce our trade deficit and ensure a truly fair and reciprocal relationship. we are just for those ofs you you that have any interest, we discussed it today, also, our trade agreement with china is moving along very rapidly. see what happens but it is moving along rapidly.

china wants to make a deal, that i can tell you. one of my chief priorities has been removing the barriers to american trade and investment and ending the elicit practises that harm our workers, we encourage turkey to further open its markets and they are doing that. they are doing that. very much toward american goods and american services, our markets are open. turkey is opening up their markets and they are opening up rapidly. mr president as we have seen in recent weeks the us—turkish alliance can be a powerful force for stability, weeks the us—turkish alliance can be a powerfulforce for stability, not only in the middle east but beyond, i look forward to working with you, and to your representatives i want to thank you very much. i have got to thank you very much. i have got to become very familiar with all of you and i really brussels airportiate you are doing a fantastic job airportiate you are doing a fantasticjob for airportiate you are doing a fantastic job for the people airportiate you are doing a fantasticjob for the people of turkey. look forward to find a

common ground, harness common purpose and advance the vital interest of our people and the friendship between our nations, we have a great relationship both personally and with the great country of turkey, and we look forward to moving that forward and making itan forward to moving that forward and making it an even bigger and better relationship. thank you very much. thank you. applause translation: mr president my dear friend. distinguished ministers, secretaries, distinguished members of the press, i would like to at the on set salute you with my most heartfelt emotion on behalf of myself and my nation. first and foremost i would like to thank my dearfriend president foremost i would like to thank my dear friend president trump and the first lady of the us for being gracious hosts today. we have managed to comprehensively discuss

all the issues in our agenda with mr president throughout the day and they were very sincere. we all agree that we need to further profound our cooperation and that turkish american relations should be erected ona american relations should be erected on a strong healthy foundation, we should remain resolved open up a new chapter in our relation which are in full compliance with our deeply rooted alliance. we have reciprocally stated our will. .. present danger, upon our national security. we have especially underlined the significance of fighting against dyche in a sustained fashion, in the, the death of baghdadi, we have detained several prisoners, trying to flee the prisons in syria and come to turkey and we currently have more

than 200... daesh terrorists who have been incarcerated and with the operation peace bring initiated on october 9th turkey took another step forward in fighting terrorism in a resolute fashion. our country, with this operation, blew a significant impact upon the separate test agenda of terrorist organises such as pkk. in order to further strengthen our cooperation in syria we believe we have gain add significant momentum with our october 17th agreement. our memorandum. but in order to harm this memorandum, pkk and ypg are attacking our soldiers and the civilians in a provocative fashion and in the last 2a hours more than 19 attacks and harassing shots took place. and at the beginning of this

month, a bomb was placed, an explosive device was placed in outdoor market and as a result of the explosion, 13 civilian lives we re the explosion, 13 civilian lives were lost. despite all of these developments, in order to settle the conflict in syria in a sustained fashion we are reiterating our commitment to our memorandum, our agreement with the united states. but some were empathetic to the terrorist organisation, they are feeling deeply upset, disturbed and they are using this information in order to cloud the understanding of the public opinion and that perception, with the eventual gain or goal of harming our relations. and some historical developments and allegations are being used nrd to dynamite our reciprocal and bilateral relations. especially in the house of representatives, some of the resolutions that were passed on october 29th served this very

purpose, hurt deeply the turkish nation and they have a potential of casting a deep shadow over our relations, and i shared this information with mr president. the decision makers in an incident that took place about 104 years ago should not be politicians but historians for we have nothing to hide and we have a... i need to state very clearly, that we ares a turkey on the side of dialogue and open discussion and debate. and we have voiced our proposals to theer mainian party to open the archives, resipically and establish a history commission. i believe the senate will take this, take the united states out of this vicious cycle, which happened as a result of the resolution of the house of representatives. turkey and the us stand side by side in order to fully

eradicate daesh and in order to bring peace and stability to syria once and for all and for this purpose we should keep on working together. turkey remains or it should be the most reliable partner of the us in this region to achieve these targets. we are the only nato ally as turkey, who has fought daesh ina ally as turkey, who has fought daesh in a resolved fashion. and until so far we have detained 7680 foreign fighters and we have sent them back to their countries of origin. we have been entry to 77,000 individuals who are considered for affiliate with daesh terrorist organisation and right now in our prisons, a total of 1200 daesh members are incarcerated coming from 40 country differents. we have recently detained 287 individuals including women and children who have fled the prisons

that pkk and ypg used to control. our country is being showcased as a target, and this terrorist organisation cost 304 turkish citizens to die end against which we are going to keep on fighting. and it is very important to understand that the foreign fighters should be accepted that the foreign fighters should be a cce pted by that the foreign fighters should be accepted by the countries of origin, and we have the same understanding with president trump, in order to convince the countrieses of origin to do this. distinguished ladies and gentlemen, we have a borderline of 911 kilometres with syria and when the war broke out nine years ago we we re the war broke out nine years ago we were the ones at the forefront impacted heavily and maybe the most. currently we have over 3 million syrian refugees and a total of more than four million refugees and we

have spent about $40 billion, beyond that for these refugees in our country and so far europe only sent three billion euros, despite a higher pledge. through our ngos, and some of the leeway we are providing sustained humanitarian aid to 3 million people living on the syrian territory, back in 2015, at the g20, i launched an appeal to establish a safe zone in syria but because of the delay hundred, tens of thousands of civilian lives were lost, this problem cannot continue for ever and ever. previously with our operations we have managed to clear an area of 4,000 square kilometres, of terrorist presence. and i agree with the proposals of the, of the

president, it is very important to realise our goals. i said operation ewe freightties shield and olive branch and through these operation we have managed to repatriate many syrians back to their mother lands, and thanks to the operation peace spring we have secured many towns and many villages, and the rightle settlers are going back. we have shared our projects with president trump, and our several plans for the safe zone and with the support of the un and international community, we can repatriate many more syrian refugees in the northern part of syria. we are talking about an area of 444 kilometres in length and 32 kilometres in—depth. one million people can be repatriated and one

million more individuals can be repatriated elsewhere. two million can be repatriated. the terrorist organisation attempted to destroy the constitutional order of turkey with a failed coup attempt and it is a terrorist organisation behind this failed coup. they have killed 251 individuals, harming 200193 citizens and they have even dared to bomb our parliament. airborne. —— 2193. we have once again accentuated our expectations vis—a—vis our friends at the us administration, to once and for all eradicate the terrorist presence here and we have discussed with president trump how to achieve the 100 billion trade threshold as soon the 100 billion trade threshold as soon as the 100 billion trade threshold as soon as possible. we believe we

should not confuse political incident with aspirations and our secretaries of commerce are currently invested in achieving the $100 billion threshold. we hope and pray we will shy away from certain measures which will make it much more challenging for us to reach these targets, and we have also naturally discussed our deeply rooted relations in the field of defence industry. primarily the s400 system w, we can only surmount the hurdles we experience through dialogue. my dearfriend hurdles we experience through dialogue. my dear friend stated hurdles we experience through dialogue. my dearfriend stated back in osaka that the injustice orchestrated against turkey in terms of the acquisition of patriot missiles and we have clearly stated to president trump that under suitable circumstances we could acquire patriot missiles as well. as turkey, we ready and committed to

sustain a constructive dialogue with the united states congress, this is an ideal the united states congress, this is an idea i have shared with president trump as well. so with these thoughts in mind i hope our discussions with yield the mousse auspicious results i would like to ta ke auspicious results i would like to take the opportunity to thank president trump for being a gracious host throughout the day. i would like to thank you on behalf of myself and my delegation. thank you very much mr president. i called up the senate, i asked a couple of our senators and we really ended up with five, and others wanting to come and we will keep them an prized. some of them are here, senatorjim them an prized. some of them are here, senator jim irish. them an prized. some of them are here, senatorjim irish. ted cruise. lyndsey graham and rick scott, thank you very much. joni is here. these are people that want to see peace in

the middle east and i i thought it would be appropriate for them to come over and they wet with the president and we had a lot of frank discussion and we were dealing with a very big subject, a complex subject, it has been going gone for sents but we are making progress, tremendous progress in the middle east. 0k, a couple of question, go ahead. first i would like to start out getting your general reaction today, to the... hearings on the hill. do you feel that democrats made their case and how do you feel about the republican performance? are you talking about the witch hunt? i hear it's a joke. are you talking about the witch hunt? i hear it's ajoke. i haven't watched, for one minute, because i have been with the president, which is much more important as far as i'm concerned. this is a sham and shouldn't be allowed. it was

situation that was caused by people that shouldn't have allowed it to happen, andl that shouldn't have allowed it to happen, and i want to find out who is the whistle—blower, because the whistle—blower gave is the whistle—blower, because the whistle— blower gave a is the whistle—blower, because the whistle—blower gave a lot of very incorrect information including my call with the prime minister of ukraine which was a perfect call, and highly appropriate, and he wrote something that was much different than the fact, i want to find out why the ig, than the fact, i want to find out why the 16, why would he have presented that, when in fact all he had to do was check the call itself and he would have seen it. i am going to be releasing i think on thursday a second call, which was the first of the two and you will make a determination as to what you think there, but i have heard just a report they said it is all third hand information. nothing direct at all. can't be direct because i never said it. all they have to do is look simply at the transcript. if you read this this was analysed by great

lawyer, analysed by greg jared, by mark levine who was analysed by everybody. they said this statement that i made, the whole call that i made with the president of ukraine was a perfect one. so that this country gets put through that, that we have to waste this german's time but even thinking about it, talking about it. i would rather focus on peace in the middle east, and i hear it is, i hear it is a hoax and it is being played as a hoax. that is what i hear but you will have to tell me go ahead. ifi may i hear but you will have to tell me go ahead. if i may on syria and peace in the middle east, record wan talked about repape rating syrian refugees back to their home land, have you had those discussion with european leaders since there are so many? no, european leaders since there are so i european leaders since there are so many? no, i think european leaders since there are so many? no, ithink frankly european leaders since there are so many? no, i think frankly europe should be paying for this to a large extents. as of this moment turkey has been paying for most of it. i think the president we saying today they have spent over $40 billion on

top cost of that, 40 billion. how much? 40? that is what i said. whatever. he spent a lot, 0k. they are throwing out different number, i heard it was $40 billion. so 40 billion. and i have heard that number from others and that is a lot. europe has contributed about three, and a lot of these people would go throughout europe, it would bea would go throughout europe, it would be a devastating situation for europe, because he has got four million people, he has a lot of kurds they are helping and taking ca re kurds they are helping and taking care of, so i, i have spoken to europe about it, think they should help us with isis because many of them left france, germany and uk, they left different countries and they left different countries and they should help us, if they ever did get released which we would be be doing, that is where they want to go, they want to go back to france

and germany, and the uk and the other countries that are not helping us, it gave sell them the option would you like to have them back? intelligently they said no thank you, but that is not right and it is not far. i can tell you also that turkey captured when they some escaped during the conflict, when they had the heavy shooting, and i meanl they had the heavy shooting, and i mean i think i i know how they happened to escape. it is one of those things. i doesn't matter because turkey captured everybody that escaped plus an additional group. when i became president isis was rampant all over the middle east and as of about a month ago i think, lindsay, we can say that we now have 100% of the caliphate. they will always try and grow but they haven't been able to do that and what we did la st been able to do that and what we did last week with al baghdad a, who is the absolute founder and leader, set them back. we also got his number

two and we have our sights on his number three, so they are not going to be growing too fast. i will say that turkey has been helping us a lot. with that, i also have a question for president ed joanne. with the what calling a real line along the turkey and syria border, a lot of christians in that area are feeling very vulnerable groups in the ground saying they are being attacked under this policy. they say they are not feeling safe any longer. can you guarantee that the turkish government will also protect christians in that region? there was an attack on an armenian priest who died this week. thank you, on the contrary, christian minorities and others is an area we are especially

sensitive about and we have certain different plans. whether it be the ones remaining on the side of syria whose sanctuaries have been destroyed, whose churches have been destroyed, whose churches have been destroyed will see their sentries getting revived and their churches will be reconstructed so that they can go back, and these are the plans we are making for them. as i said before, the christian minorities, the ones who are living on our side of the border have no problems whatsoever, but the ones remaining on the side of the syrian territory will see their worshipping practices restored and revived in a special manner. they are receiving health care, they are receiving humanitarian aid in every aspect

possible. thank you. thank you, would you like to pick somebody? a friendly person from turkey, please. we only like to see friendly supporters. you inherited the burden of obama's flawed foreign policy and one of those flaws was aligning the us with us designated terrorist organisation the pkk. you invited the ringleader to the white house, who is responsible for at least 18 terrorist attacks in turkey, which caused the death of 164 soldiers and 40 civilians. so, after today's meeting, do you still think of inviting him to the white house? it

would be very offensive and hurtful for the turkish public. well, i had a very good talk with him recently. we are working very closely together and we are also working very closely with your great president and a lot of things are happening, a lot of very positive developments are happening. a lot of that is definition, what is your definition of the various groups within? the cards, various groups, and some like them and some don't. i think we have made a tremendous amount of momentum. —— the kurds. we will see what happens, but i will say that the relationship with president erdogan and turkey has been amazing. it isa erdogan and turkey has been amazing. it is a tremendous country with amazing military, the app the finest

military equipment in the world, which the united states makes. we make the best in the world and turkey understood that a long time ago. a tremendous amount of progress is being made. thank you very much. you could as the president a question now. with that mr president, we are not getting the best of news out of the united states and the federal office targeting turkey is expensively invested... back to see certain traces that the us government is ready to understand more. my question is how do you perceive the situation developing? and the

american approach in that regard? can we expect anything further? yes, thank you. during this current visit we are going to submit, as we already have, a great deal of documents and evidence and fettle is a terrorist organisation and she is the ring leader of this terrorist organisation. they killed 251 people in turkey, they try to undertake a coup against the government and more than 1000 —— coup against the government and more than 1000 -- 2000 coup against the government and more than 1000 —— 2000 people have been injured and the ringleader is living in an area in the united states running his network all around the globe. this is something unacceptable. —— feto. during this visit we have introduced an additional array of documents. we will submit them to the relevant authorities, including the

president. in light of these documents, i think they will appreciate the situation. we sent the terrorist back if they asked for them and i'm sure they will do the same for us. i know that you didn't spend a lot of time with the tv today but there was one moment when ambassador bill taylor recounted a conversation that an age of his overhead, the day after the phone call with zelinsky onjuly overhead, the day after the phone call with zelinsky on july the overhead, the day after the phone call with zelinsky onjuly the 26 in which the aide said he overheard to say how everything is proceeding with the investigations? it was repeated back to you, according to the aid, that ukraine was prepared to do everything that you wanted to do. is that correct and can you fill in some more? i know nothing about that, first time i've heard it. the one thing i've seen is that he does speak to me for a brief moment and i

said quit pro under any circumstances. i've never heard this. in any event, is more second—hand information but i've never heard of. do you recall the conversation? no, not even a little bit. the only thing, if he had stayed with his testimony, there is no quid pro quo, pure and simple. president trump sent you a letter urging you not to launch military action in northern syria. he said don't be a tough guy, don't be a fill. you ignore that letter and you went ahead and launched military action into northern syria. can you explain why you ignore the president warning? well, this letter was represented to

the president this afternoon, and i've also underlined the fact that it's areas such as feto should not be considered... this individual has been instrumental in the killings of hundreds of turkish civilians. he is a person labelled as like a son for the terrorist leader recently incarcerated in turkey. a person like this should not be welcomed by a country such as the united states. similarly, this person was welcomed bya similarly, this person was welcomed by a country such as russia. so it is very difficult for me to understand these when we are trying to fight terrorism if we are going to fight terrorism if we are going to sustain our fight against

terrorism and a healthy fashion, we need to be much more sensitive than we currently are. it happens to us today and it will happen to somebody else tomorrow, is a sign that goes in our language. we have also provided information on the document they to our friends in the white house, including mr president. i have also submitted a president to the cia pointing out this individual isa the cia pointing out this individual is a terrorist —— a document. as i've said before, i have shared them with his excellency mr president, and we gave back the letter we have received.

thank you very much mr president for all you have done for kurdistan and for the fight against isis. thank you very much, i appreciate that. my question is, all senators i meet, all of them i interviewed believed that kurdistan is a very unique in the middle east and all minorities. what is your key policy with the cards right now? and is a question for president max,... do you think syria will be your friends in the future. —— erdogan. syria will be your friends in the future. -- erdogan. we had a great relationship with the curzon pot very successfully with them against ices. we have great generals and...

—— kurds. we captured, as i said before, 100%. when we are at 97%1 was going to say well, that sounds pretty high to me. i was thinking about stopping it then and a lot of people said please go to 100. very quickly, very rapidly the military got the 100. i wanted to have that. but we have a great relationship with the kurds. we get along with them andl with the kurds. we get along with them and i think the president may have some factions within the kurds, but i think the president has a great relationship with the cards. many kurds live currently in turkey and they are happy and taking care of. including health care and education and other things, so that isa education and other things, so that is a misnomer, but our relationship with the kurds has been a very good one. first we have to make a

distinction. between two things. we have no problems with the kurds, we have no problems with the kurds, we have problems with terrorist organisations. some terrorists coming out of the kurds, which are they, what are they? they are offshoots of the terrorist organisation pkk. just as we have no problems with our brothers and sisters in the northern part of iraq where we enjoy great relations and we have no problems with similarly our brothers and sisters in the northern part of syria during the times when assad was not recognised in kurdish presence in the northern part. i told in kurdish presence in the northern part. itold him in kurdish presence in the northern part. i told him that he needs to give these individuals passports and that he was making a mistake. there is something important and i want you to know this, my political party has more than 50 mps of the kurdish ethnicity in the turkish parliament.

we don't have problems with the kurds, we have problems with the terrorist. of course you're not going to own up to the terrace, are you? whoever they are, wherever they might be, we have to make a distinction here. we are just fighting terrorist, period. because the terrorists don't have an ethnicity, they don't have a nationality, they don't have a flag. if they are a terrorist, they are a terrorist. if you don't fight back, tomorrow you will have to pay a very hefty price. thank you very much everybody. thank you. so there goes president trump and president erdogan. he recently lent a press conference of around half an error, clearly get on reasonably well. trump said he is a big fan of erdogan and erdogan described president trump as my dear friend.

they covered a range of different subjects on the possibility of a new turkey and us trade deal. mr trump also said a us china trade deal is moving rapidly but he has said that before and nothing has materialised. we will see what happens there. he said the whistle—blower at the heart of the enquiry about the call to president zelinsky is inaccurate. although the transcript suggests what the whistle—blower said was accurate. we also heard that president trump will release an earlier call between him and the ukrainians, so that is a development, he says that will come later in the week. on the issue of syrian refugees, he highlighted how many millions of syrian refugees are currently in turkey and how much that cost turkey. he went on to have an extended ticket european saying that the uk, france, germany and others should be doing far more on that issue. he said europe is not helping us with iis fighters, an

issue to do with fighters who are in custody either in northern syria or turkey, and turkey wants to rid themselves of those fighters and president trump criticising european nations for not doing more. those we re nations for not doing more. those were some of the things ijotted down. let's get chris's reaction, he was listening to thatjust by the white house. kress, it was a multifaceted affair. would you think was the most significant? to say the least, there is lots on it. from the american media point of view, it is likely they are going to on president trump's impeachment talk and asking questions about that. perhaps that will be most relevant to the us, but in terms of an international community, and those who are watching from outside of america, they will have watched present trunk frankly be pretty cozy with president erdogan. i want it those who said he was in a position of saying, if you take a look at one

of saying, if you take a look at one of things erdogan said, you write remember that that letter that was sent from president trump saying don't be a full, don't be a tough quy don't be a full, don't be a tough guy trying to urge him to move back a little bit as far as northern syria was concerned, president erdogan said he returned that letter to president trump, a suggestion perhaps that it was thrown back at him in some way, although i suspect it was a lot politer than that, given the kind of relationship we saw on stage there. certainly, president trump wants to try and develop that relationship. he talked at one stage about their relationship with president erdogan and turkey as being outstanding. there are some in congress who frankly will not see it like that, and there are issues that are outstanding but have not been addressed. for example, he talks at one stage about this s 400 anti—aircraft missile system that is being developed by the russians. now, as far as turkey is concerned, it is purchasing that and that has caused a lot of banks in america and

has led them to stop them any fighterjet has led them to stop them any fighter jet programme, the has led them to stop them any fighterjet programme, the f 35. that was mentioned at length at the top of that news conference and it's been suggested that that issue has not been dealt with. it is one that congress continues to talk about. it is one of those issues that these congress to want to put on sanctions, and that is something that president trump seems to want to step away from if you possibly can. an interest of that relationship with president erdogan. certainly, there are other issues when you look at it. president trump says as parties concerned the ceasefire is holding in northern syria, on the other hand, with president erdogan saying, as he calls them, these kurdish terrors are calls them, these kurdish terrors a re really calls them, these kurdish terrors are really targeting turkish troops. it does give you the idea that the two men are poles apart on some of these issues, that we haven't come to an agreement, that they want to see “— to an agreement, that they want to see —— rightly seem to want to show

heart that they have a good relationship, and it is a better relationship, and it is a better relationship between the presidents than at the countries because of that that could congress. the two men up peer to be getting on, unlike donald trump on europe. i counted two issues, the amount of money that european countries spend on defence as part of nato, syrian refugees and iis fighters. donald trump took a swipe at the uk, germany and france on all three, being very critical of what used to be america's european allies. that is the press conference. for the hours before that press conference, we have been very much focused on the impeachment enquiry into donald trump, because we have had the first day of public testimony. we got a detailed look into the inner workings of the president's administration, at least with regards to the foreign policy. this enquiry centres around president trump and whether he made

military aid to ukraine contention on ukraine investigating his political rivaljoe biden. whether president trump such condition official acts such as a white house meeting our us military assistance on ukraine's willingness to assist with two political investigations that would help his re—election campaign. the republicans are decidedly unimpressed by this whole process. have a listen to the ranking republican on the intelligence committee at the start of proceedings. what we all witness todayis proceedings. what we all witness today is a televised theatrical performance, staged by the democrats. ambassador taylor and mr kent, i'd like to welcome you here, i'd like to congratulate you for passing the democrat star chamber

addition is held in the last weeks in the basement of the capital. it seems you agreed wetting or unwittingly to participate in a drama. now, there is no keener student of these can proceedings than anthony, live from washington. i was than anthony, live from washington. iwas in than anthony, live from washington. i was in the room during the hearings and i was paying careful attention to what knew we were hearing. we knew what the democrats are going to push for, what the witnesses were going to say, what the republican line of attack was. what was really interesting was that bill taylor for the first time in his opening statement said thatjust last friday, and into his in the us embassy in ukraine, had told him about a phone conversation that this aid overhead on july about a phone conversation that this aid overhead onjuly 26, the day after donald trump's phone conversation with president

zelensky. he said he heard donald trump talking to the us ambassador to the eu and could hear on the phone conversation donald trump asking about the investigations and the ambassador saying the ukrainians we re the ambassador saying the ukrainians were on board and moving ahead with it. the aide then asked the ambassador afterwards what donald trump thought about ukraine and the aide said that he's said that he really cares about investigations of joe biden and his son, not so much about anything else is new again. so that was new. but this is second—hand from taylor talking about what his aide is saying, but i will also add that there is an aid to bill taylor who is now going to testify before the committee behind closed doors tomorrow and tomorrow test by any public meeting next week. we will see whether there is some substance to the story that bill taylor was just telling today in the hearing. it's worth adding that any last minute donald trump

was asked about that and said he had no recollection of that call. no recollection, he denied, he said there was the first time he had ever heard of it. there have been reports over the course of the past month or so in some of the testimony that sandlin said he had a direct line to the president. he was presenting himself as saying this is what the president wants ukraine to do. so the question is, was there any direct evidence of this line between trump and the ambassador? and this phone conversation will be the first one if it can be corroborated. what about this critique from the president and many other republicans that all of this a second or third hand and therefore doesn't add up to what we consider to be concrete proof? isn't that a reasonable critique of what the democrats have at the moment? yeah and one of the things bill taylor said several times when he was asked in the searing today, he isjust times when he was asked in the searing today, he is just saying

what he heard, are what people told them. a lot of that is what gordon said about what donald trump wanted, a lot of it is what tim morrison, the national security council said about meetings he had with ukrainian. are things we heard about john bolton an object and objections he had to conduct within the white house between us officials and ukraine officials. all of that is second—hand. it would be much more substantive to get the white house between us officials and ukraine officials. all of that is second—hand. it would be much more substantive to get this reply in an tester by themselves. something bill taylor did talk about her stand with some of the entry actions he had with ukrainian officials and was concerned that they were being pulled into domestic us politics, being pressured to do something they didn't want to do. this is the acting us ambassador to ukraine talking about ukrainian policy, in that specific instance, i think he could give first—hand accounts of what was going on. thank you very much indeed. all of this is

happening as america hurtles towards next yea r‘s happening as america hurtles towards next year's presidential election. that is set for today, back at the same time tomorrow. hi. through wednesday, for many areas it was respite from the recent rain. there was a lot of dry weather around. many places hung on to blue skies, but it wasn't for all. down towards southwest england and wales, we started to see the next weather system show its hand. down to an area of low pressure and this weather front is going to be a bit of a feature of our weather over the next few days. we start thursday with it draped through southwest england, wales and across to east anglia. it's heavy, persistent and slow moving and places like gloucestershire and bristol may see quite a bit of rainfall through the day. and the risk is it's going to edge its way further north and westwards into areas that have seen recent flooding. some sharp showers

to the south of it. to the north of it, more in the way of dry, bright weather, but still some showers filtering in on that brisk northeasterly wind. and wherever you are on thursday, it will feel cold. now, as we head into thursday evening, our band of rain continues to trundle further north and westwards, losing a little bit of its momentum. so it will start to break up, become a little more patchy. some showers filtering into parts of northern scotland, which could have a wintry mix over higher ground. and here, as temperatures drop below freezing overnight, there is the risk of some ice around first thing on friday morning. a chilly start for all. and it will be another unsettled day, with low pressure in charge and further spells of rain. a band of rain gradually starts to work its way down towards the south and the west. but before it does so, it may produce something a little wintry through the pennines. elsewhere, there will be outbreaks of rain feeding in around that area of low pressure, and that rain may turn more persistent down towards east anglia and the far south east of england. later on in the day, something drier and brighter the further north you go. but wherever you are,

once again, it will feel cold. and that cold theme continues as we head into the weekend. there will be some dry intervals, but also some rain at times, because low pressure continues to dominate the scene, and around it, we are going to see some spells of rain at times. now, through saturday, we have got a north easterly wind, so it will feel quite cold down north sea coasts. quite a bit of cloud around as well, although there should be some breaks allowing for bright intervals and further spells of rain as well at times, feeling cold with temperatures mid to high single figures at best. now, through sunday, the wind turns round to more than northerly direction. so, once again, it will feel cold. quite a bit of cloud, particularly for the southern half of the uk with further spells of rain at times. and those temperatures, well, once again, below average for the time of year. into the start of next week, and a bit of a change on the cards because we've got a battle between a ridge of high pressure and an area of low pressure out

towards the east. and depending on the positioning of these two areas will depend on how far west this rain manages to make progress. if it works its way any further inland, it could affect areas that have seen recent flooding. so we're keeping an eye on that. at the moment, it looks as though the best of the fine, dry weather will be out to the west. but we continue with the cool theme. it will feel cold once again on monday, even where we get to see the sunshine. further on into next week, well, at the moment, it looks as though low pressure will win out and we'll start to drop more of a southerly feed. and if that happens, it looks as though temperatures will start to recover a little back to where they should be for this time of the year. but it's moisture laden. so that means at times we will see further spells of rain with an atlantic influence.

tonight at 10 — the conservatives and labour set out their election pitch to voters. sorting brexit is the key to driving the country forward — says borisjohnson as he calls for people to give the conservatives a majority so they can deliver it. it's the blue peter deal — here's one i made earlier. all we need is a working majority, all we need is working majority in parliament to make parliament work. meanwhile, labour focuses on the nhs vowing to outspend the tories with an extra multi billion pound cash boost for the health service. labour will end austerity to bring waiting lists down, stabilise our accident and emergency services and deliver the quality cancer care patients deserve.

we'll have the latest from the campaign trail. also tonight...