President trump has lashed out over his imminent impeachment in a 6 page letter to top democrat nancy pelosi, accusing her of declaring open war on american democracy. On the eve of the crucial vote in the house of representatives, which is dominated by the democrats, hes claimed hes been denied his most fundamental rights even though hes turned down an offer to give evidence himself, and have his legal team question witnesses. In his letter to the House Majority leader mr trump claims the charges he faces are completely disingenuous, meritless, and a baseless invention of your imagination and also claims the impeachment process, which is set out under the Us Constitution, is nothing more than an illegal, partisan attempted coup that will, based on recent sentiment, badly fail at the voting booth. Now the fear that impeachment could backfire, politically, on democrats is in the minds of some members of congress, as our north america editorjon sopel reports. 0h, say does that star spangled banner. In america, even a bog standard town hall meeting like this one in michigan comes wrapped in the stars and stripes. The land of the free. But over the impeachment of donald trump, its a disUnited States. And the congressmen and women wholl vote tomorrow on this, like Elissa Slotkin, are under acute pressure from their voters. Shes a democrat who won her seat from the republicans last year in a wealthy district, 30 miles north of detroit. Thank you, guys. And she was struggling to make her voice heard. Ok, im just going to continue, because ive got the mic. Folks, these are the questions youre shouting at me, so you may want to listen for one sec to the answer. One of the hecklers is bill rauwerdink. Hes come with a group of republicans to stir things up. I spoke to him in the cafeteria afterwards. You were there calling her out. What do you think the political consequences are . I think her self awareness, self perception is very good. She said, this vote may end my short lived political career. I think that a really good self assessment. But the congresswoman says shes whats right. The president s attempt to strong arm ukraine to investigate joe biden went too far. When it comes to Something Like asking foreigners to intervene and get engaged here at home, that, to me, requires a response. It cant become normal to just reach out to foreigners. I know it sounds different, but there just has to be some decisions that are beyond the political calculus. And it may be that Voters Decide in 2020 that they dont want me as their representative. Jingle bells, jingle bells. There are other preoccupations at this time of year, though, like present buying and wondering whos paying the towns electricity bill. But impeachment, too. What do you think of the move to impeach him . I think its ridiculous, were wasting a lot of taxpayers money. At this point, leave it to the voters. Its close enough. The economy is doing phenomenally well. Hes the most corrupt man whos ever served in that office, and its exactly what the Founding Fathers intended when they came up with the idea of impeachment. Hes not fit for office. Hes embarrassing. America is so polarised on this, isnt it . Yes. Its all or nothing. Its going to be an interesting christmas. Forget white christmas. Here in rochester, michigan, theyre going for bright christmas. And the one thing Elissa Slotkin is dreaming of is that it should be a backlash free christmas, because its perfectly possible that the biggest casualties of this impeachment process could be the Democratic Party itself. Jon sopel, bbc news, michigan. Thats the view among lawmakers, what about voters . Our north america correspondent peter bowes says opinion on impeachment is split. We have seen more we have seen more move we have seen more move it. People saying that he should be impeached. More people saying he should be found guilty and removed from office but it is still a divided notion. That has been the situation ever since President Trump was elected. Did apply to many of his policies and issues as well. What is interesting is, and we are seeing it with this rally and it has been repeated in many other areas, people are becoming more engaged with the impeachment process and of course with the trial and likely to happen early january. It will be televised, as indeed will be the final hearing in the house of representatives when the articles of impeachment will be passed later on wednesday. People will be watching on their televisions and that is why this is becoming ever more significant, especially for the democrats, as they approach the election next year and the opportunity perhaps to replace President Trump in the white house. The president is right when he says it is a political and partisan process but he is wrong when he says it is antidemocratic to top it is set out in the Us Constitution and he could have engaged much more strongly in the process. This seems to be the great error, at least as far as the democrats see it, in a very angry letter he has written where he complains about not being given due process was not essentially his opportunity to put his side of the story. He refused an opportunity to do that, to allow some of his closest a ides do that, to allow some of his closest aides and senior officials in the white house to appear as witnesses to be cross examined and indeed he also blocked white house blocks the leak of any documents that could be relevant. His dealings with the ukraine are at the centre of all of this. The now famous telephone call with the leader of ukraine, the blocking of military aid to you came, they could well be military documents who shed much Greater Light on that and related issues and we havent seen them and thatis issues and we havent seen them and that is why the democrats say no, this is not a one sided approach to impeachment. President had his opportunity. We will bring you more coverage and analysis. They will be a debate and then devotes on abuse power and the votes in congress. You canjoin our correspondence in washington, dc. We will also have a team of experts to break it all down. A court in tokyo has ordered a prominent tv journalist to pay damages to a woman who accused him of raping 2017. The filmmaker and actress was seeking shiori ito, a film maker and activist was seeking compensation from Noriyuki Yamaguchi in a high profile civil case. She broke her silence about the case in 2017. He denies any wrongdoing. I got the details from mariko 0i a short time ago. Mr yamaguchi has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and says the sex was consensual, that he had to take her back to his hotel room because she was too drunk. As you said, he has filed a counter case which the court has rejected. Authorities estimate that only 4 came forward in 2017. Ms ito face a lot of abuse, especially online. Things that rape victims in other parts of the world phase as well but she went ahead of it. This is a civil case so it is not like he will be arrested or spend time injail but this is definitely a victory for her. So this could have real significance, this case . Indeed, and its also brought up a lot of other issues because ms ito has spoken publicly about how when she first went to the police station, she begged to speak to a female Police Officer but only 8 of Police Officers injapan are women she was advised not to bring the case forward. There is a lot of other issues this case brought up. Pope francis, under pressure to respond to thousands of reports of sexual abuse by catholic clergy and accusations of cover ups, is removing some of the secrecy surrounding such cases. Hes declared that the rule of pontifical secrecy no longer applies to sexual abuse, and hes also changed the vaticans definition of child pornography. Protests across india have continued for a sixth day, with clashes between police and demonstrators. Tens of thousands of people have turned up to protest against a new law, which offers citizenship to non muslim Illegal Immigrants from three nearby countries. Hundreds of thousands of protestors hit the streets of france again the latest in two weeks of demonstrations against plans to raise the age of retirement. Travel was disrupted most trains werent running, electricity was cut to thousands of homes, some flights were cancelled and the eiffel tower was shut. Speaking at his first Cabinet Meeting since his re election as prime minister, borisjohnson has promised to work flat out to deliver on the promises he has had made to the british people. He also wants parliament to prevent extending the brexit transition period beyond december 31st next year. Taiwans foreign minister has called on the rest of the world to stand with the island democracy as it faces increasing diplomatic and economic pressure from china. In an exclusive interview with the bbc, foreign minister joseph wu said the world is waking up to the increasing threat to taiwan from the totalitarian state next door. Hes been speaking to our asia correspondent, Rupert Wingfield hayes. The Chinese Government face a very serious dilemma in dealing with the hong kong issue. 0n the one hand, they are not able to promise the protesters those free elections or other demands or doing an independent investigation on the police violence. And on the other hand, if the Chinese Government decides that is going to march and they want to move their force into hong kong and deal with the situation militarily, many people in the world would agree with me that it has signified the total failure of the one country, two systems model so they are caught in the situation, the hong kong situation is going to deteriorate and its a failure of the one country, two systems model, or a military solution that will also signify a failure of the one country, two systems model. Have they got one eye on taiwan when theyre thinking about this . Yes, yes. And after the violence and protest activities in hong kong in the last three months, the Public Opinion surveys show over 90 of the taiwanese people reject the one country, two systems model so its very clear that people in taiwan see whats happened in hong kong and we dont want to accept the one country, two systems model. When you look at china today, its difficult not to come to the conclusion that the Chinese Communist party is biding its time, building up its strength and certainly under the leadership of xi jinping now has an avowed intent to force unification of taiwan with china in his lifetime. It looks like it is that way and we are working very hard in trying to maintain the status quo, trying to maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and if you look at the key players in the like minded countries like the United States, major eu countries, japan, and at cetera, they understand the situation rather well. It is china that is trying to chip away the current status quo and they understand the danger in it and are raising their level of voice of concern over this kind of situation and will intensify in their support of taiwan, diplomatic or Political Support or willingness to engage with taiwan at a higher level. Given what weve seen President Trump do on the international scene, particularly with the kurds, is the us is still a reliable ally . Yes, i would say so. We have been staying in very close touch with all levels of the us officials and i was given assurances by very senior officials that in the negotiations between the United States and china, they say that taiwan will not be a topic for negotiation. What we have been asking for actually is quite simple, is for the United States to provide defence articles for taiwan so taiwan is able to defend itself and also to engage with taiwan in the military training or military cooperation so that taiwan is much better equipped in dealing with military contingencies, and all this is going on in a very successful way. Taiwans foreign minister joseph wu, speaking to Rupert Wingfield hayes. Stay with us on bbc world news, still to come the jewish barber bringing Christmas Joy to washington. He tells us why this time of year is about more than simply religion. Saddam hussein is finished because he killed our people, our women, our children. The signatures took only a few minutes, but they brought a formal end to 3. 5 years of conflict, a conflict that has claimed more than 200,000 lives. Before an audience of world leaders, the president s of bosnia, serbia and croatia put their names to the peace agreement. The romanian border was sealed and silent today. Romania has cut itself off from the outside world in order to prevent the details of the presumed massacre in timisoara from leaking out. From sex at the white house to a trial for his political life, the lewinsky affair tonight guaranteed bill clinton his place in history as only the second president ever to be impeached. This is bbc world news. The latest headlines as the house prepares to vote on impeaching donald trump, he lashes out, calling it an open war on democracy. A film maker and activist has won damages in a tokyo courtroom after accusing a prominent journalist of rape. Several people have been injured in protests in the ukrainian capital, kyiv. Thousands demonstrated outside the countrys parliament building, in opposition to land reform proposals which some say will only benefit oligarchs and foreign investors. Rich preston reports. Protesters threw rocks and there were accusations of a heavy handed response by police. A journalist for the Afp News Agency reported seeing two protesters unconscious on the floor before being taken to ambulances. Around 2,500 Police Officers were deployed to do with the crowds. 26 people were arrested. Ukraine was once called the breadbasket of the soviet union, home to rich, black fertile soil. After the fall of the soviet union, much of ukraines farmland was shared out and is illegal to sell. But a bill going to ukraines parliament could change that from october of next year. Critics worry the change wont benefit ukrainians, and the land owned by the people will be snapped up by oligarchs and foreign investors. Translation we are protesting against the sale of land. We dont want our children and grandchildren to be slaves. We want our land to be ukrainian and not be on sale. Translation there will be even fewer working places than now. It will be the impoverishment of our village. But the bill is strongly promoted by president volodymyr zelensky, who says it will bring investment and drive economic growth. Ukrainian lawmakers are expected to vote on the land reform bill on thursday. Rich preston, bbc news. New zealand authorities have conceded that they may never find the bodies of two victims of the eruption of the white island volcano. Recovery teams say they believe the bodies of Winona Langford and Hayden Marshall inman have been washed out to sea. The team have now extended their search up to 70 kilometres away from the scene of last weeks eruption that killed another 16 people. Police Deputy Commissioner mike clement said the rescue team will keep doing what they can to find the bodies. We havent given up. But what i am here to do is to signal to everybody that we have reached a phase and we are literally in the hands of the sea. There are so many variables to make it very imprecise in terms of what might happen from here. Weve got some signs and some expertise which says to us what might happen, but the reality is that cannot be precise. The Deputy Police commissioner there. A groundbreaking trial is under way using mri scans, which could transform screening for Prostate Cancer. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. One in eight men will be diagnosed with it in their lifetime. And it kills nearly 12,000 men each year. But there is no widely available reliable screening method. Our medical correspondent fergus walsh was given exclusive access to the trial in london. Mri scanning could herald a revolution in Prostate Cancer screening. Im at londons University College hospital to have my prostate image. 300 men, aged 50 plus, will be invited here to have an mri as part of a groundbreaking clinical trial. The prostate is they walnut size gland which sits below the bladder. The older men get, the more likely they are to develop abnormal prostate cells stop but its only those cancers which are likely to spread that need early diagnosis. How are you doing, are you all right . Recent studies here suggest mri can detect fast growing cancers which are potentially lethal, while ignoring the slow growing, lazy cancers, that will never cause any harm. We are all finished. We will come and get you out. The greatest advantage of the mri is it selectively shows a more aggressive and larger cancers. Those are smaller cancers, which we would only monitor, are invisible on mri. Unlike breast, cervical, and bowel, there is no National Screening programme for Prostate Cancer. There is this blood test to measure levels of the protein psa, but it produces too many false positives, highlighting cancers that are not aggressive dont any treatment. And it misses some cancers, too. Youve got your right hip over here, and your left hip over there, and this is your prostate in the middle. The hope is mri could provide greater clarity. My mri could provide greater clarity. My scan and psa test were both normal, so my risk is low. But one in six men with Prostate Cancer in the uk, likejohn swain, are diagnosed once their disease has spread and is incurable. John, whose 56 and from leicestershire, was told in may and has been given another 3 seven in may and has been given another 3 seve n yea rs in may and has been given another 3 seven years to live. A massive shock to have Prostate Cancer. Itjust came to have Prostate Cancer. Itjust ca m e totally to have Prostate Cancer. Itjust came totally out of the blue. And they can control it for a period of time through hormone treatment and chemotherapy, but i think eventually the cancer wins. A Family History of Prostate Cancer increases your risk of getting the disease. Black men are at higher risk, too. If the mra trial is successful, it could lead to the first National Screening programme for the most common cancer in men. And grab in men. Fergus walsh, bbc news. Barberjack bubis has been transforming his salon in washington into a Winter Wonderland for more than three decades. This year his Christmas Display is dedicated to his late brother, who died a few weeks ago. Jack is jewish, but says the holidays arent only about religion. Instead, hes focused on bringing joy to those around him. The bbc went to meet him. My name is cyriljack bubis, the owner of minskys hair emporium. Im a hair stylist, i am a one man operation. My business opened up onjune11982, the day of Marilyn Monroes birthday. Two bird trees, a tweety bird, my hummel tree. I got my house tree and then i make the 3 d tree in the back. Imjewish but religion has nothing to do with this. Im a very spiritual person. I think everyone has their right to be whatever they believe in, and if they dont believe in it, thats fine, but were human beings, weve got to love one another. The first time was when my mother died. My heart wasnt in it. This year, on november 6 my brother harvey died, my eldest. And i wasnt sure if i was going to do it. Now thats my other grandfather, who was. But i got the feeling from family that i should. So this year, i decided to do it and call it harveys christmas. Thats it. I really get pleasure out of seeing other people with happiness. There are a lot of people that dont decorate, because my clientele is from 2 92 and a lot of the older people that come in just marvel and say this reminds them of being a child and it makes them feel good and when you hear that, that makes me feel good. Good news from uganda now for animal lovers the worlds population of once critically endangered mountain gorillas is making a comeback, according to the latest survey of their protected forest home. A census was carried out last year in uganda, and in neighbouring democratic republic of the congo in total thats 340 Square Kilometres of transboundary habitat. It revealed that in 2011, there were around 400 creatures in the area. That figure now stands at 459. Combined with results from an earlier study in nearby virunga massif an area at the intersection of drc, rwanda, and uganda it suggests the global population of the primates now stands at 1,063. Much more on all the news for you on the bbc website. In 04 watching. Thank you for watching. Hello. Well, wednesday morning is going to be quite foggy across some parts of england so the advice is to take it steady on the roads almost anywhere in england and the fog could linger right through the morning and possibly into the early afternoon, particularly across northern parts of england but as i say, but the south, the midlands, the north are at risk of getting the fog. At the moment, we are in between weather systems. There is a band of wind and rain heading our way but thats not going to reach our shores until a little bit later on wednesday so in the short term, its quiet out there, the winds are light, that fog is forming, you can see it here across the south, the midlands as well, patches in the north too and on top of that, the temperatures are around freezing or below, particularly across northern parts of the uk so the risk of some icy patches early on wednesday as well. So here is that fog again, you can see it across the midlands but it could in the south too and then basically that fog will drift a bit further north into Northern England and it will do that because the winds will be blowing out of the south. It should disperse some of that fog so there will be sunshine around eastern areas but you cant miss this in the west, this is our wet and windy weather sweeping into many western parts of the uk during the course of wednesday afternoon and wednesday night. Low pressure here, that here spells gusty winds as well. Around western coasts, we could see winds gusting to 16mph and these are warm southerlies as well, the orange colour blowing out of the southern climes and that can mean only one thing, that those temperatures will be rising. So we are in for a very mild, wet day on thursday, almost anywhere, rain likely across the uk and the temperatures could get up to 13 or 14 degrees across the south east of the country, really mild for the second half of december. And then double figures with the rain in scotland as well, and we keep those southerly winds through the course of thursday night into friday. But there is an indication, as we head into friday the temperatures will ease just a little bit or rather theyll drop away back down to maybe 10 degrees or so. You can see around about 9 there, for example, in liverpool and there will be some rain around, too. So i think really unsettled run up to christmas at least this week for many of us and those temperatures up into the teens across the south of the country. Lets have a sneak peek of what the weekend might bring. So temperatures back down to around 9 10 degrees and it is going to remain unsettled but details as far as the weather goes this weekend are still a little uncertain. Thats it from me, bye bye. He tells us why this time of year is about more than simply religion. This is bbc news, the headlines President Trump has described impeachment proceedings against him as an attempted coup by democrats even though the process is set out under the Us Constitution. He accused his opponents of declaring war on american democracy, and claimed the first charge against him, of abuse of power, was a baseless invention. The second, obstruction of congress, he claimed was preposterous and dangerous. A court in tokyo has ordered a tv presenter to pay damages to a woman who accused him of rape. The film maker shiori ito brought a civil case against Noriyuki Yamaguchi, saying he raped her after inviting her to dinner to discuss a job opportunity. The court rejected his counter claim for damages. Taiwans foreign minister, joseph wu, has argued that the island requires Additional Support from democratic allies to stand up to increased diplomatic and economic pressure from communist china. In a bbc interview mr wu said the world was waking up to a rising threat from beijing
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