this is your news live from berlin the whistleblower complaint against u.s. president donald trump allegations of abuse of power claims of a white house cover up and the nation's spy chief testifies before congress. i believe that everything you hear in this matter is totally unprecedented. abuse abuse his power by prodding the president of ukraine to interfere in next year's u.s. election. also coming up iran's president rouhani urges the u.s. to end its pressure on his country and says he could be prepared to hold talks is

iran putting out feelers to strike a new deal with the u.s. . the former per hour former french leader shock chirac remembered his state's craft earned him the nickname the bulldozer he died on thursday. and william click welcome to the program u.s. president donald trump is fuming over the democrats' impeachment inquiry calling it a disgrace and looking for a way to stop it i'm thursday some lawmakers received the whistleblower complaint which alleges trump used his powers to get ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election the white house is shown as covering up the details of a phone call between the american and ukrainian presidents and the acting director of national intelligence had to explain why he hadn't handed this information over

to congress. i believe that everything here and this matter is totally unprecedented me that it was the latest bombshell in a fast unfolding story allegations of a quid pro quo that u.s. president paul trump made military aid to ukraine depended on the country digging up dirt on trump's political opponent with the acting director of national intelligence joseph mcguire said he had legal reasons for not referring the complaint to congress as directed by law he faced often hostile questions about his opinion on the matter for. their capture you would agree that should be investigated would you not sherman the horses left the barn you have all of the information you have the whistleblower complaint you have the letter from the i.c. i.g. you have the office of legal counsel opinion yes but yes we do it would you agree i said if there is a serious and credible investigation you agree there should be an investigation i

believe that it is a matter to be determined by the chair and this committee part of the complaint alleges that white house officials knew that the call contained evidence of potentially illegal activity and tried to quote lock down the official transcript that did not please speaker of the house nancy pelosi there is actions that are actions that are up yet when you take when you have a system of electronic storage for information that is specifically for national security purposes. and you have something that. happened to the president politically and if it might not be you might not want people to know and you hide it someplace else that. democrats a vow that their impeachment investigation will be swift and sure but there remains much to be investigated. let's go live now to de oliver salat our

washington bureau all over thanks for joining us on this dramatic day let's get right to it let's talk about this conspiracy concern it was one of the most hotly contested points of the hearing today what does that mean why is it so important. well essentially the concern of the whistleblower is that the sitting president of the united states donald trump asked a foreign government in that case the president of the ukraine for help in the upcoming 2020 election campaign he essentially asked the president of the ukraine to investigate against president trump's a major political rival the front runner of the democratic party joe biden and his son who had business in the ukraine back at the time but to understand the relevance of this you also have to take a look at the moller investigation where special counsel robert muller investigated allegations that the trump campaign in the 2016 campaign colluded with the russians and he did not find any proof for that but it certainly sheds the latest

allegations in a very different light of course president trump always defending himself calling this a witch hunt and a hoax and he's certainly now losing his credibility more and more and in addition to that of this obviously much worse scenario to collude and to ask a foreign government for help in an election campaign as a sitting president president rather than as a presidential candidate. and of course the other aspect of this of this complaint besides the phone call is that is that it says senior white house officials wanted the phone call with the lenski of ukraine president locked down is the quote what does that mean and what does it tell us that they that they want to do something to get away get rid of this call well essentially it shows that the tell staffers and aides in there were about dozen reportedly present at the time of the phone conversation that they were so concerned about the content of this

conversation about the political fallout about how it could damage president trump that they just simply wanted to make it disappear that they wanted to cover it up as nancy pelosi said in the report you just played and in doing so they used a computer system that was originally made for material of concern for the national security obviously the whistleblower. having doubts all of that he says this is rather a political cover up and that simply poses a big threat for the president and that can be seen by the response of the white tell stuffers and. so democrats it's pretty clear where they stand on this issue they are livid and want to get to the bottom of it what are republicans how have they been reacting. so the major line of defense here has been to question the credibility of the whistleblower simply because he was not present at the time of the conversation but today the head of the d.n.i.

joseph make wire said that he has no doubt about the authenticity of the report that the whistleblower provided in addition to that it's very interesting to monitor and watch the response of certain republican figures there were 1st senators and also governors who have been very vocal now really criticizing 3 that they have great concern about the content of this phone conversation and the president of course today aggressively fighting back he called the whistleblower a spy traitor and alluding to execution really in a very bizarre interview statements he gave earlier today as a form of punishment all right oliver saad we're going to leave it there for now but thanks very much and we will be talking to you soon. iran's president hassan rouhani has called on the u.s. to end what he called its policy of maximum pressure and urged washington to return to quote dialogue logic and reason he also said his country would be prepared to

hold talks with the united states if president trump lifted sanctions on iran he was speaking in new york a day after addressing the u.n. general assembly. alexandra phenomenons spoke to brian hook the u.s. special representative for iran and asked him about washington strategy. the u.s. government has imposed new sanctions and travel restrictions on the iranian regime bads tehran as seems to remain defiant so it's you mexican pressure strategy not working no we're very pleased with it and we're also very pleased here at the united nations this week that germany france and the united kingdom have announced that we need a new nuclear deal that is much more comprehensive than the iran nuclear deal that the united states left last year the iran nuclear deal failed to cover iran's missile program in fact it relaxed constraints on iran's missile program and now

here today we see the consequences in the middle east with iran using missiles to attack saudi arabia so we think this was a very productive and good week with our european friends they all said that iran is behind the attack on saudi arabia so i think the press has overstated our differences and i think the announcement this week is an example of that however as you said to tensions have been rising recently so i we getting closer to a major conflict i don't think so that really is a question for iran we are committed to resolving our differences with iran diplomatically the problem is that iran is answering our diplomacy with military force and i think what they did against saudi arabia meets the definition of an act of war so it's what i saw this week at the u.n. our nations increasingly diplomatically isolating iran for behaving like an outlaw state that doesn't respect basic international norms. france and germany are

trying to mediate between the u.s. and iran to facilitate a direct talks are you willing to embrace or help well we have made clear from the president on down that we are very much open to talks with the iranians they will continue to say no and so iran faces a choice they can either come to the negotiating table and work out our differences diplomatically or they can watch their economy collapse as our sanctions intensify it wants you to lift some sanctions is it going to happen i think the burden is on iran to demonstrate that it has reached a change of heart and we had attacks in saudi arabia only a week or 2 ago and so i think what the world should be asking is not whether the united states is going to lift its pressure but when will iran stop using military force instead of diplomacy thank you so much ok thanks for having me on. now to hong kong where its leader kerry lamb came under a barrage of criticism at

a town hall session citizens accused her government of turning a deaf ear to months of protests calling for democratic reforms in the semi-autonomous chinese territory the community dialogue was the 1st since a wave of demonstrations began in june. after 4 months of being ideologically opposed on different sides of the same city carry law marched forward to face a small selection of the protesters inside the sign or dettori. no matter how difficult it is my colleagues and i think that it's time to start a direct dialogue. because in the last 3 months i'm sure no matter what political stunts he won't. some of you know you must be feeling very sad a wire eat or angry. voice a tightly regulated town hall style of insult $150.00 protesters selected at random

to be in the audience for the 13 was selected to take the mike and personally addressed the c.e.o. despite the filtration of the audience a common thread floaters now by a young lawyer like i don't think i'm going to do you know younger. because you're useless at governing my decision i know you are responsible for what has happened in the protests they don't want to end things all thanks i wonder how come you have stepped down i am god may be thought to have heart single of the whole issue started when the government proposed to amend the bill therefore if we want to walk away from the difficulty and find a way out when the government has to take the biggest responsibility to do so. i can sing for. despite the close proximity of this event the 2 sides remain far apart with another round of protests to follow on the streets this weekend.

france is remembering former french president jacques chirac he died thursday at the age of 86 schrock dominated french politics for decades and serve as president for life 95 in 2007 he stirred national pride with his opposition to the u.s. led war in iraq but sharks later years were marred by corruption scandals tarnishing his legacy of a man who had once charted the nation. towards the end he hardly went out in public at all the few photos that were taken indicate the state of his health. he was president of france was a master of powerful poses now looked frail. he was supported by his wife bernadette his road to the presidency had been a long one. the son of a banker he was born in paris in 1932 his political mentor george pompidou want to

cheer activities private secretary in the palace he became prime minister in 1904 on the stand but soon he and chirac and political differences in 1905 he won the presidential election against the opposing candidate socialist spawn he'd risen from secretary of state to the top of the ranks of the elites say and it changed his life go chirac then shocked the world by authorizing nuclear tests at a french atoll in the pacific he set a clear course opposing the us president george bush during the iraq war and the people of france agreed with him. france's rejection of the e.u. constitution in 2005 which he had championed was his biggest failure in office. he had little love for his party colleague nicolas sarkozy he could not stop him from becoming his successor. after chirac's term in office was over old scandals returned to the public eye he was accused of paying party colleagues for fake one mare of paris he was sentenced to

a 2 year suspended prison term. that will be remembered less for his politics and more to the french people. that's all the news for now but don't go anywhere the documentary botswana's heavy metal queens is up next there's more news at the top of the hour state. line which of course is. anytime anywhere. the subject.