this is bbc news — welcome if you're watching here in the uk, on pbs in america or around the globe. my name's duncan golestani. our top stories: john bolton says the white house prevented him from using his personal twitter account when he left his job two months ago. the four main contenders in the uk general election take part in a bbc television special — with uncomfortable moments for them all. an historic vote for the people of bougainville — could the pacific province become the world's newest nation? as prince andrew's pictured riding with the queen — a growing list of sponsors sever

links following his bbc interview. the former us national security adviserjohn bolton has accused the white house of having denied him access to his personal twitter account since he resigned in september. in his first tweet in two months he wrote: he also urged his followers to stay tuned for what he called a "backstory." a senior official in the us administration said the white house had not denied mr bolton access to his account, and didn't have the technical means to do so. mr bolton's comments come after a dramatic week

at the impeachment hearings. on friday president trump phoned into a fox news programme and said he would welcome a full impeachment trial in the senate if the house of representatives votes to impeach him. nada tawfik has more. adjourned. less than 2a hours after two weeks of dramatic and contentions public impeachment hearings ended, president trump is out with his counter—attack. increasingly, every waking moment in washington seemed to hang on the latest revelations from these 12 us officials, called as fact witnesses by democrats to bolster their case that president trump abused his office for personal political gain. with impeachment all but certain and pressure building, the president rang into his favourite programme, fox and friends, for a nearly hour—long interview. mr president, you expect an impeachment vote. do you expect to get impeached, and would you say you embrace the idea of... no, i don't expect it. you don't expect it? you don't expect democrats

will vote for this? i think it's very hard for them to impeach when they have absolutely nothing. still, the president has begun strategising with republicans and claims he wants a senate trial. but what of the key question, whether a white house meeting in us aid was expressly tied to the ukrainians announcing investigations into the bidens? perhaps the most damning testimony against the president came from the us ambassador to the eu, gordon sondland. was there a quid pro quo? the answer is yes. the president again denied it and claimed a reported phone call with sondland about the investigations never took place. there was no quid pro quo. i want nothing. democrats believe they have enough evidence to draft articles of impeachment. with a full house vote possible by the end of the year, the president's fate moves in 2020 to the republican—controlled senate and then, perhaps, to voters. nada tawfik, bbc news, washington. a little earlier i was joined by journalist and broadcaster max kutner, and asked whether the white house had much to fear overjohn bolton's latest

twitter revelations. there was a comment by the white house, the press secretary said maybe he just needed to reset his password. so they do not seem very concerned yet, but maybe they should be, because this is just the latest indication that there is tension between bolton and the white house. earlier this month a lawyer for bolton stated in a court filing that he has a lot of information about the ukraine issue that has not been previously discussed in testimonies. also earlier this month there were reports thatjohn bolton has a book coming out, so this is some increasing tension between the white house and bolton, the tweets being just the latest example. and yet has he ever given any indication he is willing to give evidence at an impeachment enquiry? he hasjoined a lawsuit from his former deputy who basically went to the judge to ask whether he should comply

with the congressional subpoena in the impeachment enquiry, because the state department and the white house said don't testify, congress is requiring he do so, so bolton and his former deputy have both asked the judge to decide on that. a lot of people today were saying in response to the tweets, were pointing out, if you are being so forthcoming on twitter, about this controversy, why don't you at least testify, that is what we really want to hear about, these people are saying. if we look at the week in the impeachment hearings, what would you say, for you, was your standout moment? one moment we have to talk about, duncan, is president trump's comments today that he would "welcome" a trial in the senate. i think this is classic trump, he loves to have something to go up against, he wrote in 1987's the art

of the deal that he loves a fight, and that is the kind of rhetoric he is using now. during the fox and friends interview today, he said the republicans have never been so united, and so i think that indicates that he believes there is not a chance that his republican allies would cross him, and support a conviction in the senate. and so if he were to be impeached in the house but then come out of the senate without a conviction, i think that would give him some ammunition for 2020, and he already has ammunition from an apparent exoneration in the russia investigation, even if that is not what mueller necessarily intended. so he would have impeachment and he would have the mueller investigation under his belt. but in addition to that we also heard some amazing testimony from witnesses, yesterday fiona hill said that the whole idea that ukraine meddled in the 2016 presidential election, that that is russian

disinformation, it is a fiction, that is what she said, that is exactly what russian agents want us to be talking about. and president trump indeed was talking about that on fox and friends today. also interestingly, president trump was talking about gordon sondland, one of the other witnesses, as "clinton lawyers", apparently they have contributed or have some kind of ties to the clintons, what president trump did not mention is that gordon sondland's companies have contributed $1 million to the trump inauguration, so that was another impeachment enquiry mention on fox and friends today. as always, you can find much more detail and analysis about these impeachment proceedings on our website. just head to bbc.com/news, or download the bbc news app. let's get some of the day's other news. britain's prime minister, borisjohnson, has welcomed the return of a group of british children who were orphaned in syria. they've been flown back to the uk

from an area that used to be controlled by the islamic state group. they were brought back to britain at the request of a high courtjudge. russia's hopes of competing in next year's tokyo olympics have been dealt a blow, with the governing body of world athletics suspending its readmission. the agency has taken the step because of suspected breaches of anti—doping rules. a former cia agent has been sentenced to 19 years in prison for conspiracy to spy for china. jerry chun shing lee left the cia in 2007 and was recruited by chinese agents in hong kong. prosecutors say he was then paid to divulge information on us national defence. the high court in hong kong has suspended its own ruling against a government ban on protesters wearing face masks. china reacted angrily to the court's decision earlier this week that the measure introduced by hong kong's chief executive carrie lam was unconstitutional.

with less than three weeks to go until the uk's general election, the leaders of the four biggest parties have featured on bbc television to answer voters' questions. they appeared individually, but members of the audience had a chance to compare their views. john pienaar‘s report contains some flash photography. he's looking confident — it's what he does — but this campaign's just getting going. everything's still to play for. just look atjeremy corbyn. young voters often like him and he needs them. # 0h, jeremy corbyn! tonight, though, he wants to reach more than just the converted. so does the lib dem leader jo swinson, maybe keen to build more momentum. and snp leader nicola sturgeon. looking forward to tonight, first minister? looking forward to it, yes. for them all, it's a big night. first up, the labour leader, and from jeremy corbyn a clear answer to the brexit

question that's dogged him. will you campaign to remain or leaving the eu if elected? why would anyone vote for labour without knowing the answer to that question? the answer was neither one, and his frustration showed. we will negotiate a credible leave deal with the european union. laughter let me finish, please. i'm trying to answer the gentleman's question. secondly, we will put that alongside remain in a referendum. i will adopt a neutral stance so that i can credibly carry out the results of that, to bring our communities and country together. then, a question that hurt him. anti—semitism in the party, his own treatment of a jewish woman mp. ruth smeeth, a jewish mp, was heckled out of that press conference and there you are at the end of the press conference chatting happily to that same heckler. i don't buy this nice old grandpa, i see that video and that tells me all i need to know. misogynism, racism in any form is absolutely not acceptable in any form whatsoever.

there's a big question over the union. the snp wants a referendum, he says not his priority, so when? what does "the early yea rs" mean, year two, year three, yearfour? the early years, the first two years, at least. another answer that'll be remembered, but nicola sturgeon wants more and hoped to get it if no party wins the election outright. if there is a hung parliament, what is the price of your cooperation with a minority government? i could not in good conscience ever put borisjohnson into number 10 downing street. applause in terms of what i would seek to win from a minority labour government, obviously i would ask for and expect jeremy corbyn to respect the right of the scottish people to choose their own future. and if she wanted another brexit referendum why was one vote on independence enough? would you want a confirmatory vote? no, because... ok, so you want a referendum for brexit, a second one,

but not for your independence deal? the point i'm making is i don't think the position we're in right now with brexit had to be like this. that was down to the bad planning, the lack of planning. jo swinson next, she's a potential power broker, too, but the lib dems, to one questioner, were still carrying the baggage of being junior partner to the tories in coalition. do you regret consistently voting with the conservatives in favour of harsh and uncaring benefit cuts? there are far, far too many people in our country living in poverty, and life is too hard. and we did not get everything right. the lib dem pledge to block brexit came with a cost — the anger of leavers. is revoking article 50 confirming to 17.4 million people that you think we're stupid and didn't know what we were voting for? you want to leave and i don't think that makes you a bad person, and i want to remain in the eu, and i hope you think that doesn't make me a bad person. you can disagree with me, but you lost.

i haven't changed my view on whether i think we're better off in the european union. but anger too from people who never wanted brexit at all. but the liberal democrats standing on a manifesto to unilaterally cancel brexit and the electoral pact has absolutely cost you my vote. this is the essence of democracy. i am standing here and telling you honestly what i would do if i was elected as prime minister. i would revoke article 50 and if you vote me into that position, i will do what i've said i will do. then, the one they all want out of his job — and straight away a tricky one for borisjohnson, who's so often accused of bending and breaking the truth — this time to his face. how important is it for someone in your position of power to always tell the truth? i think it's... i think it's absolutely vital. laughter and applause and i think that the issue of trust in politics is central to this election and fundamental to the corrosion of trust in politics at the moment is... so why do you think you were being

asked that question? ..let's be clear, is the failure of politicians to deliver brexit. because the people have, yes... crowd jeers hang on. hang on a minute. we have a deal and it's a good deal. applause it will allow us — it's a great deal, it's there and ready to go. as i never tire of saying, oven ready. so a potentially awkward moment used to make the case for brexit. no shortage of tough ones, though, this one to the man who compared muslims in burqas to bank robbers and letterboxes. racist rhetoric in this country is completely rife. will you admit that you have personally contributed to this and say the words "i'm sorry"? applause i've written many millions of words in my life as a journalist and i genuinely never intended to cause hurt or pain. what i was really doing was mounting a strong liberal defence of the right of women in this country to wear what they choose. and again, could the country

believe what he says? why on earth should i now believe yet another pledge that you will recruit an additional 6,000 gps over the course of the next parliament? well, richard. applause 5,000 more doctors this year than last year. we are making progress. yes, of course i want more gps, and of course i want more investment in the nhs. and we're putting in, now, the biggest ever cash boost into the nhs under this one nation conservative government. he'd survived the ordeal, they all did. borisjohnson even seemed pleased, or at least relieved with how it had gone. trust is an issue for all the leaders in this campaign, and somehow they all seemed rather defensive. john pienaar, bbc news, sheffield. the brexit party has unveiled its policies for the election, promising "fundamental change" for the uk after it leaves the european union. instead of a traditional manifesto, the party's leader nigel farage published what he called a "contract with the people". he said votes for his party will

produce a "political revolution". stay with us on bbc news, still to come: two weeks to write 2a songs. a tight schedule for two british stars adapting a bestselling book, into a musical. president kennedy was shot down and died almost immediately. the murder ofjohn kennedy is a disaster for the whole free world. he caught the imagination of the world, the first of a new generation of leaders. margaret thatcher is resigning as leader of the conservative party and prime minister. before leaving number 10 to see the queen, she told the cabinet, "it's a funny old world". angela merkel is germany's first woman chancellor, easily securing the majority she needed. attempts to fly a hot—air balloon

had to be abandoned after a few minutes, but nobody seemed to mind very much. as one local comic put it, "it's not hot air we need, it's hard cash". cuba has declared nine days of mourning following the death of fidel castro at the age of 90. castro developed close ties with the soviet union in the 19605. it was an alliance that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war with the cuban missile crisis. this is bbc world news. the latest headlines: the former us national security advisorjohn bolton has accused the white house of having denied him access to his personal twitter account since he resigned in september. the leaders of britain's four main political parties have been questioned by a television studio audience ahead of next month's general election. topics included where each stood on brexit, spending policies, the national health service, and racism.

an historic independence referendum is under way on the pacific island of bougainville — all part of a peace deal dating back to 2001, which ended a decade of civil war. bougainville is currently part of papua new guinea. phil mercer has more on the vote. the people of bougainville will answer a straightforward question — should they have greater autonomy or independence from papua new guinea? reports suggest most want to be part of the world's newest nation. bougainville's civil war lasted from 1988 to 1997. up to 15,000 people died, or about 5% of the region's population. the conflict was brutal and fuelled by anger over a huge gold and copper mine. locals felt dispossessed and exploited.

the referendum on independence from papua new guinea was at the heart of a 2001 peace agreement. many on bougainville have long had secessionist ambitions and the signs are they will vote to break away. we want to get our independence and rule our own island. translation: this is an important referendum. it's the people's right, and they will be able to vote on how they see things. it's part of the peace process and part of our culture. translation: people are really excited and ready to vote — box number two! translation: i'm going to vote with my family and my community. i can say 100%, we will vote for independence. voting will take place over two weeks. the result is expected in december. bougainville is an autonomous region of papua new guinea, or png.

it has its own government but still depends on national authorities for most of its income. any vote for independence would need to be approved in time by the png parliament. phil mercer, bbc news. bolivia's interim government has launched legal action against the ousted president, evo morales. it's after he called on his supporters to maintain blockades in the country. road blocks in the capital la paz have been in place for weeks, causing severe food and fuel shortages. morales, who is currently in exile in mexico, has been accused of sedition and terrorism. president trump says outlawing some vaping products may lead to a rise in dangerous counterfeit ones. he made the comments at a meeting with a range of industry representatives, and it comes as health authorities in the us confirmed that a vaping—related respiratory illness has killed 47 people.

the pope is on his way to japan after a 4—day tour of thailand. during his visit there, pope francis talked about the abuse of women and girls in the sex industry, as well as the pitfalls of technology. while in japan, he'll visit nagasaki and hiroshima, both devastated by atomic bombs by the us during world war ii. a growing list of companies and organisations have been breaking links with prince andrew. support for his business mentoring initiative has been falling, after his controversial interview with the bbc newsnight programme last week. our royal correspondent nicholas witchell has the latest. not a good week for the royal family. a disastrous one for andrew. more organisations cutting their ties to him — the english national ballet, the royal philharmonic orchestra dropping him as patron. others expected to follow. barclays, the latest financial institution to end its support for pitch@palace — that's andrew's initiative

helping new businesses. and quite what role, if any, he will have with that going forward is unclear. all this as his private office here at buckingham palace is being wound down, possibly closed completely, and his private secretary amanda thirsk is moving across to be chief executive of pitch@palace. it's a demonstration of the queen and the prince of wales acting this week very assertively when they perceived a reputational risk to the monarchy itself. for andrew, there may yet be further difficulties. the bbc has said today that its panorama programme investigation will be transmitted on the 2nd of december. that will contain the first british television interview with the young woman, virginia roberts. nicholas witchell reporting there. two metal detectorists in the uk have been found guilty of stealing and concealing a viking hoard worth $3 million, almost $4 million.

-- £3 —— £3 million. but is almost $4 million. experts say the discovery has the potential to "rewrite history". george powell and layton davies didn't declare their thousand—year—old find, and instead sold it on to dealers. the boy in the dress is a best—selling children's book written by the tv star and author david walliams. now it's been turned into a musical with the help of the royal shakespeare company and the singer robbie williams. will gompertz has more. # though it feels so right to me, how do i know that it isn't wrong? you gave us two weeks! no—one else can see. two weeks to write 24 songs! # feel like i belong. elton john wrote the songs for billy elliot in one week. yeah, but i can go... mimics gibberish. but, you know, i can't — i don't know how to do that! words are very different. i bet eltonjohn did, but i bet you... lee hall, i think, wrote the lyrics. well, i bet you lee hall took

about two months to think of the words. 0k, all right. # you have to admit that's a perfect fit. # i've never dressed up like a girl. # you wouldn't ever know it. it's written before you had a child. it's written before instagram and social media has become a big thing. if you were writing it today, would you write it differently? um, i hope not, because i think the theme is always relevant, because the theme is what it is to be different and the celebration of someone who has the courage to be different and do their own thing. the interesting thing is that debate has kind of moved on a lot in ten years. because when the book came out, it wasn't much of a success commercially because i think that people were quite resistant to maybe the title of the book. and then, the creative process? my process is, "i'm going into the studio today to get a hit".

you know, where i think that other people that may have written musicals before are thinking about the book and the journey and where it needs to go and the elements, it's like, each individual song, i'm just thinking, should be a number one somewhere in the history of music. # dance, dance, dance! # forget about the world outside! does this show relate to shakespeare? i think it does in a way. you know, there was a point where i decided on a cunning piece of programming, which was that we would do as you like it and the boy in the dress, so the girl in the trousers and the boy in the dress. you know, rosalind in as you like it puts on her trousers and understands a different perspective on humankind and i think dennis does the same in the boy in the dress. # dance, dance, dance!# will gompers reporting. that is the way it is looking and you can find

me on twitter. i'm @duncan golestani. for now, thank you very much for your company and we will see you again soon. goodbye. hello there. rain is the main concern over the next 24 hours. there are various met office warnings warning about that persistent rain, but there could be some travel disruption, even possible flooding. it's certainly been wet through the evening and night across the south—west and wales and across northern ireland. that rain's been moving northwards, so the warnings come into force as well through the midlands and then northern england, eventually parts of scotland, too. so given that we've already had well in excess of what we'd normally see through the autumn rain—wise, there is a concern that there will be some further flooding because we could see another half a months worth of rain in some parts of england, wales, and later up into scotland as well. it looks pretty wet for northern ireland as well. all this rain is meandering around an area of low pressure sat towards the south—west. so even once the main rain clears, there'll be showers around —

some quite hefty ones. may dry up for a time, but we'll have a legacy of drizzly and rather cloudy weather, low clouds and some hill fog around as well. you can see the day looks quite wet through the midlands, northern england and through the afternoon as well. that rain's creeping up into eastern parts of scotland. so the north—west, after a chilly start, might see the best of the sunshine. the northern isles as well doing quite well in terms of dry and bright weather on saturday, but the rain then arrives through the evening and overnight across eastern and north—western parts of scotland. elsewhere, well, elsewhere we see a brief ridge of high pressure, so that's a window of drier weather — 12 to 24 hours for most of us — before the next low pressure rolls in by the end of sunday and into monday. so sunday does look like the drier day of the weekend for most of us — not all of us, but most of us. however, there'll be a lot of grey weather, some morning fog. of course, after all that moisture around, that takes a long time to clear in november because we're lacking strength in the sun,

and then it just lifts into low cloud. we've got a much wetter day for the northern isles and then, here comes the rain later on. the winds won't be as strong tomorrow as they will be today, so it'll feel cold today just because of the wind as well as all the cloud. but that's easing tomorrow. but still, it's only 9s to 11s, which is about average for the time of year. sunday night sees the arrival of the next band of rain — turns quite showery. but then tuesday's rain — or monday night and tuesday's rain — looks a little bit more persistent once again, so we're into this, again, unsettled picture. temperatures are up on those of last week. there's just a hint that later in the week, we might again get a respite from the rain and have some drier weather. but for the weekend, yes, rain is definitely the concern. particularly, as we say, in england and wales, and then into parts of scotland. it does look drier for many of us on sunday. the warnings are on the website.

this is bbc news. the headlines: former us national security adviser john bolton has accused the white house of denying him access to his personal twitter account since he resigned in september. in his first tweet since then, he thanked twitter for returning control and told followers to stay tuned for a backstory. with less than three weeks to go to the british general election, the leaders of the four biggest parties at westminster have been given a grilling by members of the public on the bbc. there were uncomfortable moments for them all as they made their pitches. the people of bougainville are voting on whether to seek independence from papua new guinea and become the world's newest country. the referendum in the island group was part of a peace deal agreed almost 20 years ago, which ended a decade of civil war.