then she hugged me and drove away in his rin taj rolls royce. she was 84 years old. thanks for watching. our coverage continues. the investigation deepens. the white house is now under subpoena as house democrats widen their probe in the impeachment inquiry. demonstrators in hong kong rally in the street over a new rule outlining face masks. and later this hour, a new joker film sparks real life violence. we look into the criticism surrounding that. welcome to our viewers in the u.s. and around the world. i'm natalie allen. >> and i'm george howell from cnn world headquarters in atlanta. news room starts right now.

4:00 a.m. on the u.s. east coast. we start with the u.s. impeachment into the u.s. president. momentum is building with the second report now of a whistle-blower. a u.s. intelligence officer with firsthand knowledge of the president's actions on ukraine may file a formal complaint. >> meantime, the white house has been subpoenaed for documents after ignoring a request to produce documents voluntarily. mike pence is being asked to turn over information about his meeting in poland with ukraine's new leader. >> what we're seeing is house democrats escalate this

impeachment request by sending out these subpoenas. they call for documents related to what is at the heart of what they say is this impeachment inquiry into president trump and that is his phone call that he had over the summer with ukrainian president zelensky. the question will be whether or not the white house is going to comply with the subpoena. if you've been paying attention, it doesn't appear that they are. the what you say knew these were coming. based on what our sources have told us, they are expecting the white house to put out a letter in a few days that would dare democrats to bring forward a formal vote. so far, democrats say that is not something they need to do. the question is whether they come to a middle ground, hold

that vote so they can pursue these documents. but based on what we're hearing, that's still something to be determined. it has been less than two weeks since the u.s. house formally launched its impeachment investigation and the white house response has been all over the map. each day it has attempted to refocus the issues. >> the president now says it's not about politics. he says it's about fighting corruption. let's listen. >> we are looking for corruption. when you look at what biden and his son did and when you look at other people, what they've done, i believe there was tremendous corruption with biden, but i think there was beyond -- i mean beyond corruption having to do with the 2016 campaign and what these low lives did to so many people, to hurt so many people in the trump campaign which was

successful despite all of the unfairness. so we are looking at corruption. we're not looking at politics. >> lofty words from the u.s. president focussing, he says, on corruption as opposed to politics. it is hard, though, to square the circle there with the former u.s. special envoy to ukraine. very stark testimony from kurt volcker. volcker spent more than nine hours talking about what he knows about the scandal. >> he provided text messages showing how the u.s. tied u.s. military aid for ukraine to the country's willingness to dig up political dirt for president trump. sarah murray has that part of the story. >> cnn has obtained volker's

statement. he claims giuliani peddled dubious information. volker described diplomate following to manage the fallout and that the new ukrainian leadership could be trusted. volker was working behind the scenes to try to ensure a smooth conversation between the two leaders. he will investigate, get to the bottom of what happens in 2016. we will nail down date for visit to washington. on the call, trump pressed zelensky to investigate the biden family and trump's unfounded belief that it was the ukrainians, not the russians who

meddled in the 2016 election. >> the president of the united states coerced a foreign power to help himself politically. >> days earlier, giuliani had breakfast with volker. volker testified that he told giuliani it is not credible to me that former vice president biden would have been influenced in any way by financial or personal motives in carrying out his duties as vice president. ukraine was still trying to get a face-to-face meeting with trump. gordon sunland texted volker to say i think poetus was the deliverable. they set out a statement. that statement was never issued. volker said he wasn't aware of efforts to push ukraine to investigate biden. the ukrainian company biden's son served on the board of. he said as unfounded accusations came out publicly, he urged ukrainians not to interfere in

u.s. politics. volker testified he didn't see a link between the investigation and the freeze to military aid in ukraine, but other diplomates were suspicious. as i said on the phone, i think it's crazy to whole security assistance for help with a political campaign he said in september. bill, i believe you are incorrect about president trump's intentions. the president has been crystal clear. no quid pro quos of any kind. still, it unsettled lawmakers, at least one member of the gop. >> i think some of these things are damning. >> other than congressman herd, there have been very few republicans who are willing to go out there and criticize the president. aside from mitt romney, very few

members of the president's own party willing to be critical of him. >> sara, thank you. now perspective with natasha linstad. joining live this hour. good to have you with us. >> thanks for having me. >> let's start by breaking this down into that left/right binary. democrats say there's plenty of evidence that it's abuse of power. but critics on the right demanding what is the issue here. >> i think this is a result of the fact that the country is so polarized. snet what they're saying is corruption is so bad in ukraine that trump has the right to ask countries to investigate it. but what we're seeing, as was already revealed in the report,

is that republicans are mostly staying quiet on this. and there's been such a jump in the support for this impeachment inquiry by the public. so a 10% jump is important just on its own. but if we were to actually look at it comparatively speaking, the nixon inquiry didn't lead to that type of jump early on. if the democrats are able to provide a clear narrative for what took place, and i do think that the narrative is much clearer with this ukraine scandal than with the mueller probe because mueller involved a lot of different people and it was not clear how much trump was involved and whether he was involved at all. with the ukraine scandal, this seems to be directed by trump

himself. i think the democrats may shift public opinion upwards of 60% that could be in favor of the inquiry. >> so, again, republican saying where is the crime here. democrats saying there's plenty of evidence. let's look at text messages that volker provided to congress between a top u.s. diplomate bill taylor and sunland where taylor said, are we now saying that security assistance and white house meeting are conditioned on investigations? sunland then replied, call me. reading between the lines there, what do you take from that? >> well, we have to also note taylor is the most neutral person in this scenario. he doesn't really have any reason to be cleaning one way or the other. but sunland is a trump

supporter, a big trump donor. the first text was sort of a question, is there a wholing of military aid to get them to investigate a political opponent? and sunland doesn't respond no. instead, he responds call me. and with the other text that taylor is shocked and upset, it's crazy, he said, to whole military aid in order to get the ukrainians to investigate a political point, there is a lag time from when sunland responds may have been due to the time changes. but then he comes back with what looks to be something that was sort of written or shaped by trump himself, that there is no quid pro quo, and from now on you're going to need to call me. it doesn't look good for the president. it does look that sunland was

aware that this looked particularly shady and he was trying to ensure that communications moved away from texts where they could be seen. >> you'll remember candidate trump famously asked russia to look for hillary clinton's emails. now the u.s. president in an unprecedented move urging other nations, ukraine and china, to investigate joe biden and his son and now the new ukraine prosecutor plans to audit cases overseen by his predecessors. biden has spoken out about this and he didn't pull any punches. let's listen. >> focus on this man, what he's doing, that no president has ever done. no president. >> the question here to you,

natasha, does this help or hurt joe biden by muddying the water for him or does it raise his profile even further as the democratic front-runner? >> i think it's mixed for biden. on the one hand, yes, it does raise his profile, it sends a clear message that trump believes that biden is so dangerous that he has to involve other countries in investigating biden. so from that standpoint, we get a look into trump's psyche and who he's worried about. on the other hand, it's slightly negative that the optics don't look great. this is trump's effort and i do think trump was caught off guard by all this. there doesn't seem to be the same type of war room that you had with the clinton impeachment

inquiry. and trump felt if he started involving other countries in investigating corruption, then that would distract us from the fact that he asked ukraine to investigate his component and withheld military aid to induce them to use this. >> it's interesting, we're in a situation where there is a central, you know, set of information of facts and people seem to see it differently, but the information is the same. natasha, thanks. >> thanks for having me. next, other stories we're covering for you. hong kong's chief executive says the ban on faith coverings should help curb the violent protests, but so far, it's only caused more outrage. more about it ahead here. plus, violence breaks out in iraq as the government starts to ease restrictions on demonstrators. cnn is live in baghdad with reporting there. stay with us.

protesters in hong kong just finished a march there.

many wearing masks, defying the government's new ban on face coverings. demonstrators are angry about that restriction. >> but the city's chief executive says the ban is justified because of the violent protests. and.we saw some of that violence friday night. >> paula hancocks was in the middle of this protest just a short time ago and she joins us with the latest on how it went. paula, hello. >> hello. lty this point, there seems to be more press that protesters in this area, essentially. but just a couple of hours ago, there were several hundred, potentially a thousand protesters wearing masks .because this march through the streets was to make sure the government knew that they were not happy with this anti-mask law. this is part of the emergency law that was brought in by the chief executive carrie lam on friday. this is a colonial era emergency law that hasn't been enacted for more than a century.

but she is defending this saturday a decision to do that saying it proves it was necessary because you look at what happens on friday night, what she calls very scary riots. and we did see a fair bit of destruction. all of the subway has been shut down this saturday. they said it was so they could try and repair some of the subway stations, but they haven't reopened. that is 161 stations across the territory. some of the shops have shut down. usually a very busy shopping day because there was a rumor that protesters might try to occupy some of these department stores. so much of the city appears to have sht down. there has been some anger with people not being able to get home. at this point, you can see things have ended for the time

being. the march, though, was peaceful. >> are people there still come to grips with what has happened to hong kong since these protests began? >> unfortunately, this appears to be the new norm for hong kong. this is the 18th weekend we have seen these protests. friday night, there was a protester shot by an undercover policemen, as we understand. he was in plain clothes, dragged out of a car, beaten by protesters and the police say he discharged his weapon. that does play into the argument of the protesters.

they believe that the police have acted with excessive force. they believe the police should not be using these tactics on the streets of hong kong. but the police aside, they say if the protesters don't use force, then they don't use force. but friday night marks the second time live fire has been used by police. we understand the 14-year-old boy that was hit is now out of the hospital and in stable condition. >> paula, thank you so much. also following the situation in iraq, violent protests that have been taking place there, so far, 73 people have died. more than 3200 others have been injured. >> meanwhile, the prime minister has lifted a curfew in baghdad which was imposed after the demonstrations broke out.

.el.he's also creating a new committee to address the grievances. >> is it making a difference with the frustration we've seen clearly vented on these streets? >> well, at this stage, as you were mentioning there, all they've really done is remove the curfew. but throughout the better part of the country internet is still shut down. and one has to recognize that these demonstrators have heard these types of promises from the government before, that their grievances will be addressed and they have yet to see any sort of action. these demonstrations that we have been seeing over the last fewer days are leaderless and they are countrywide. and they have the level of anger

expressed within them has to a certain degree taken the government and the security forces by surprise. the more violence that is used, the more determined people become and the angrier they become. the protesters here are demanding an end to corruption, that they want to see an effort being made to resolve the country's wide expressed unemployment, especially among the youth. people are higher education, university degrees, are unable to get adequate jobs and they want to see basic services improve. this is a population that is only too aware that the fact that their country sits on the world's largest oil reserves and yet for decades, they have not been able to see the benefits of that. there is meant to be the establishment of that empty

committee. but until those protesters see those promises turn into action, one can only assume those are going to continue. there is a block saying early elections should be held. he has yet to call on his people to take to the streets. that is something many openers are very concerned about should he take that step. so it's still a very unresolved and sense situation at this point. >> thank you for the report. up next here, we're back to the scandal rocking the trump white house. we will take you live to both beijing and kiev to get reaction there to how this is playing out in washington. plus, u.s. presidential hopeful bernie sanders released from the hospital and doctors reveal he had a heart attack.

stay with us.

welcome back to our viewers in the u.s. and around the world. you're watching "cnn newsroom." i'm natalie allen. >> and i'm george howell. the white house has been subpoenaed by u.s. democrats for documents related to ukraine. a request for documents was made to the vice president of the u.s., mike pence. in the meantime, the "new york times" is reporting a second

whistle-blower may come forward with firsthand knowledge of the events related to ukraine. protesters just finished a march in hong kong. many wearing masks defying the government's new emergency ban on face coverings. hundreds of shops and subways are closed. the city's chief executive says the measure is justified because of the violence. on pri, protesters attacked train stations and set fires. the prime minister of rank has lifted a curfew in baghdad that was imposed after protests broke out this week. demonstrators turned violent on friday. at least 73 people have died and 32 hundred people have been injured since the inrest

started. the trump white house has been subpoenaed in the ukraine scandal after failing to turn over records and documents voluntarily. even the vice president has been called up in it. democrats have asked mike pence to turn over details of his trip to poland where he met with ukraine's new leader. >> all of thissel tos explosive testimony from the former u.s. special envoy to ukraine. kurt volker spoke to lawmakers about behind the scenes activities leading up to the july 25th phone call between president trump and his ukrainian counterpart. sam kylie live in kiev, ukraine, and dave culver following the story in beijing. we now know that ukraine's new chief prosecutor is planning to audit cases overseen by his u.s. predecessors. what is the view in that

country? >> i think, george, that the view from the prosecutor general is very much that this is not ukraine bowing to american pressure, notwithstanding the fact, of course, that donald trump publicly reiterated his demand just a couple of days ago that ukraine should investigate, in his word, the bidens. now, what the prosecutor general announced was a widespread cleaning of the stables, if you like, a review of previous prosecutors generals activities, two of them, the last two, highly controversial figures, both of whom are actually part of the dossier contributed to the dossier that rudy giuliani wrote up and fed into the state department. but the new prosecutor general is saying they're sweeping all of this aside, they're going to

review all previous corruption cases and as part of that process, it is possible that the activities of hunter biden who was a board member of the gas company might come into focus. this is consistent with the texts that were exchanged between mr. volker and the president's office here in kiev during what would appear to have been a bargaining process in which the u.s. side under pressure from the white house was asking for the bidens to be named as targets in an investigation and the ukrainians were pushing back saying they were only going the on be part of a wider investigation into corruption. that now is the official position of the prosecutor

general. >> they pointed out those were not the key words they would focus on but, again, it would be a broader audit. sam, thank you. let's turn to dave culver in beijing. here is the thing. let's turn to china. what has been the reaction so far? >> you have to think about beijing responding differently than washington. this is not a country that simply reacts to a news story. their message is calculated, it's controlled, and it's released when they want it released, especially when it's something this sensitive involving the president. now, there also is some confusion here. what exactly are they going to be responding to if they're answering these questions? and is the president serious?

it becomes even further confused when you look at what say republican senator marco rubio said publicly last night with regards to the request from the president to investigate the bidens. this is rubio's take on it. >> i think he did it to provoke you to ask me and others and get outraged by it he plays it like a violin and everybody falls into it. that's not a real request. >> president trump retweeted that video. either way, china is not yet responding publicly. we are seeing some response in how they're allowing or preventing our coverage from

here on the mainland. in trade war discussions and in, say, pork price discussions, they've allowed it to air. they're trying to figure out, george, how to respond. >> it is interesting to draw on your experience. in china, they block the news and respond deliberately over time. gentlemen, that you can for the reporting. >> democratic presidential county bernie sanders says he hopes to be back on the campaign trail soon. >> this is despite doctors confirming that he did have a heart attack earlier this week. >> vermont senator bernie sanders left a las vegas hospital on friday afternoon after spending 2 1/2 days there being treated for a heart attack. sanders, with his wife by his side, waived to the people outside the desert springs

hospital medical center. sanders was at that hospital after experiencing chest pains on tuesday night during an event in las vegas. two of the doctors that treated him let out a statement that described his hospital stay as uneventful. they say he had, quote, good effective stays. they said he was diagnosed with a mild cardio infarction which is the clinical term for a heart attack. sanders is going to take some time off the campaign trail, but he has promised that he will return in time for the debate which takes place on october 15th. sanders said that he would revs to get back out on the trail. but while sanders feels better, this will no doubt be an issue

for him going forward. his age, he just turned 78, has long by a knock on his campaign. still, sanders has remarkable endurance. ryan nobles, cnn, washington. still ahead, a new movie about an iconic batman villain is stirring up real security concerns as it opens in theaters. why the fbi is issuing a warning about "joker." ♪

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now you can take control of your home wifi and get a notification the instant someone new joins your network... only with xfinity xfi. download the xfi app today. it is the latest comic book blockbuster that is raising turns on its opening weekend. >> we take a look at why the fbi is issuing warnings about this

film. >> when you bring me out, can you introduce me as joker. >> it may be a dark hollywood fantasy. but the new "joker" film opening nationwide is sparking fears of real life violence. police departments across the country beefing up security from new york to los angeles. >> how concerned is the lapd? >> the los angeles police department is aware of the public concern and historical significance behind the premier of the joker. while there are no credible threats in the los angeles area, we do encourage the public to know that the police department will be out there in high visibility. >> the fbi and homeland security warning law enforcement about nonspecific online chatter that they fear could lead to lone offender violence. seven years ago, a gunman killed 12 and injured dozens when he opened fire during a batman film screening in aurora, colorado. grieving parents called joker a haunting reminder. >> how are other survivors of

not just aurora, but of gun violence going to react to being triggered again? >> but some fans aren't afraid. >> i was planning to see the movie, anyway. >> this is the kind of movie that die hard fans would normally dress up for, but security concerns have prompted some major chain toes ban costumes. >> "joker" reveals the back story of a villain. >> on a certain level, i found it objectionable. >> among the parallels are real life attacks, the joker faces female rejection. >> i don't think the movie is endorsing the character, but it is taking a character who traditionally is the an tag insist and making him the protagonist. it's taking the joker and putting him front and center. >> joaquin phoenix says the movie is meant to provoke. >> it is really good when movies make us uncomfortable or

challenge us or make us think differently. >> warner brothers, which is only by warner media said in their statement it is not their intention to hold this character up as a hero. >> no one should sensor themselves because they don't feel like the message of the movie was for the masses. if that was the case, you wouldn't have any art. >> but movie goers may have the final say at the box office. cnn, los angeles. >> joining us now to talk more about this, movie critic brian lowery. first up, the joker movie hit theaters this week despite a wave of criticism that it glorifies a killer and could encourage copycat attacks. what is it about this character in particular that is disturbing and has people fearing violence? >> well, i think there's a fair

amount of baggage attached to the character in large part because of the aurora, colorado, shooting. and then the added part of this contextually is it is a movie about the bad guy. when you think about the joker, you think about him as an an tag insist for batman. this is the joker's origin story and he is front and center and the center of the movie in a way that forces you to, if not identify with him, at least to empathize with him a bit. >> and one understands the character that goes on a shooting rampage. you mentioned what happened in aurora. we all remember that. and that calls some of the families to issue an expression of concern. has there been reaction from the filmmakers and do you think creating this film that they

showed insensitivity or any recklessness and in making this and should hollywood have that burden? >> well, todd philips, the director of the movie, has been quite outspoken about this. he's said a number of things, including the fact that art is not necessarily designed to make you comfortable and that by being unflinchingly violent that it is not whitewashing violence. i don't think the studio or the filmmakers can entirely ignore the context in which movies being released. they knew going into this or should have known going into this that doing a hard "r" version of joker, who is a sadistic psychotic loner would have some parallels to real world events that might make people uncomfortable with it.

so i think the initial studio reaction was a little flat-footed, frankly, and i don't think a lot of what they've said since has particularly helped. >> and to whit, there have been online threats of violence surrounding the movie and one credible threat shut down a california threat thursday. i don't think this film will be hurt at the box office because of the fear or helped with all the type? >> it's hard to tell. it opened extremely well on thursday night. it crossed 13 million in its opening night. it's very hard to prove negatives, box office isn't an exact science. so i'm sure some people were drawn to it because of the coverage because of the controversy and some people probably thought given all the baggage and the hoopla surrounding it that it was probably better to stay home.

i think barring something terrible happening over the weekend -- and let's hope nothing does -- i think the movie will do very well. >> what kind of reviews has it received? >> initially, it won the award at the venice film festival, which is quite a prize, and the early reviews were almost rhapsodic. since then, a number of reviews that have come out have been more skeptical, including what this movie doesn't answer the question is why. why do we want to spend two hours with this character? what is it about him? it's a movie that wall lows in darkness and this kind of sense of gloom without really making a case for what it is building to other than how the joker became the joker.

>> and you mentioned the filmmakers may have been caught flat fooded considering the epidemics of mass shootings in this country. and the seems the person playing the character, joaquin phoenix, he walked out of an interview but he did come back to the interview saying he wasn't expecting that question. does that surprise you when he wasn't? >> usually when stars are on a media tour, they're prepared pretty carefully. it's hard to believe that he wasn't led to question some those questions. his performance is absolutely electric. that is what is going to bring people to the theater. whether that's enough to make it feel like more than, you know, sort of root canal surgery which is i think the way one critic

described it, might be another matter. >> it is opening this weekend. we appreciate your insights, brian lowery. thank you. some deny global warming. a heat wave across the united states. dozens of u.s. cities in the grips of that heat wave. derek van dam brings you the latest. johnsbut we're also a cancer fighting, hiv controlling, joint replacing, and depression relieving company. from the day you're born we never stop taking care of you.

well, it has been in the mid 90s here in atlanta since we can remember it's been so long. >> derek van dam is here to tell us about when there may be relief in sight. >> 91 days this summer of temperatures in 90 degrees here in atlanta. >> i believe it. >> we feel it. >> our topic today is the broader picture. it's more of a worrying trend. it's more of another chapter here within the world's climate story that we continue to talk about. cpernicus, this is a european climate sensing program that has actually just come out with information that september 2019 tied 2016's warmest september on

record. we're seeing this off of back to back to back months off of warmest temperatures. june was the warmest june on record. july was the hottest month ever recorded on planet earth. august was the second warmest august on record. this is having far reaching ramifications, especially on our rising seas. with a warmer planet, we have warmer oceans. we are melting our sea ice rapidly. when that happens, the warmer water takes up more volume. let's me take you to norway. this is the northern most inhabitable region of the planet. it's in the arctic circle, way up there just south of the north pole. what we're seeing is accelerated krie climate change. we're noticing temperatures rising 3 degrees celsius and

this is causing melting of the sea ice within this region and that is having ramifications, again, on our coastal cities. let's talk about charleston. i was there for hurricane dorian. saw the flooded streets with my own eyes. look at the increase in the average coastal flood events that have taking place in this city in the past two decades. we've had 58 high tide flooding events in charleston. it's no secret, we're under a massive heat wave across the southeast. we've shattered 20 record highs. it's never been this hot in augusta, mobile, new orleans, savannah. this is yesterday's record high temperatures in that area. we are all feeling it. we have one more day. atlanta, you're in the clear but it is still hot in places like louisiana and texas right now. >> crazy. >> all right. thank you. we're back to our top stories in just a moment, including the latest on the impeachment investigation. >> stay with us. ♪

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and get a notification the instant someone new joins your network... only with xfinity xfi. download the xfi app today. the white house has been subpoenaed. it is just the latest development in the inquiry that's racing towards impeachment. we'll have the latest for you. plus, protesting the bad. shops closed as hong kong braces for more demonstrations over a new rule outlawing face masks. and the vaping crisis in the united states, it show no, sir sign of stopping. and now health officials are considering a ban. hear from the americans begging to keep e-cigarettes on the shelves. >> live from cnn world