Hasnt yet declared spelling bee day a national holiday, some of our competitors are stuck at work. Are onour competition the hill for late votes. We will do things differently and have the journalists compete for their champion and when our politicians arrived, they will battle it out and the winners of each round will go headtohead to find out who is the champion. Lets get started. Competing for the press team this year, we have our defending champion, Alexandra Petri from the washington post. [applause] im still smarting because she beat me last year. John donnelly of cq roll call, a long time press club member. From nr, npr, my former colleague. Oey from buzzfeed alex from the and josh from the ericngton post and finally this is a great lineup of fierce competitors select have a round of applause and now, i would like to turn to scripts and they will go over the rules of the competition. Hello, everyone. I am one of the eight spellers who won the 2019 Scripps National spelling bee i
A National Security adviser fails to appear before the impeachment inquiry john bolton says he will testify only if cleared by a court. And lessons on how to save nature italy becomes the 1st country to make comment change a compulsory subjects in Public Schools. We begin in iraq where police a fardon and see government protesters in the Southern City of basra killing at least 7 people demonstrators have been staging a sit in for days blocking the entrance to the ports of only cusser many iraqi cities have been gripped by weeks of Anti Government protests this anger over a lack of Public Services corruption and unemployments well in iraqs capital at least 6 more protesters were shot dead on thursday clashes broker. I told him she has a bridge for Security Forces used live fire against demonstrates his mama gemstone has more from baghdad. Security forces used live fire on protesters outside of government buildings there there are also reports that some protesters may have been trying to
Hello to you. New developments in washington as the impeachment inquiry against President Trump gathers pace. His dealings with ukraine are at the centre of the inquiry and testimony has now emerged from a senior american diplomat, whos told congressional investigators the president s personal lawyer ran a Smear Campaign against the former Us Ambassador to ukraine to try to get her removed. George kent, whos in charge of ukraine policy at the state department, accused Rudy Giuliani of spreading what he called lies about marie yovanovitch. She was later recalled from her post. George kent testified last month before the house impeachment inquiry and the transcript has only just been released. The bbcs david willis has been taking a look. It is a long and comprehensive transcript. He gave a lot of evidence to that enquiry last month, mike, and george kent hitting the headlines today for that claim that there was a Smear Campaign orchestrated by Rudy Giuliani against the Us Ambassador to
Highs, the nasdaq just a fraction off its record close that optimism rippling through asian trade. A warm welcome to the programme, briefing you on all you need to know in global news, business and sport. And you can be part of the conversation. Tell us what you think just use the hashtag bbcthebriefing. We start in the us where the impeachment investigation against President Donald Trump is about to move to a new stage. All this week, the democrat led inquiry interviewed witnesses behind closed doors, building up the momentum for the first public hearings next week. The latest reports suggest the committees investigating the president have now subpoenaed acting white house chief of staff, mick mulvaney. Mr trump insists he has done nothing wrong and says the whole inquiry is a hoax. Our north america correspondent, david willis has this report. As senior official of the us state department, george kent told congressional investigation that one point he was told by a superior to keep h
A no show. Facebooks new plans to tackle misinformation in the lead up to the us elections is it doing enough. Low Iraqi Security forces have shot dead at least 7 protesters in basra that follows reports that protesters tried to break into government buildings earlier Security Forces broke up a sit in to be entrance of the port the countrys main fought for oil and food in iraqs capital at least 6 more protesters were shot dead on thursday clashes breaking out on sure who the bridge where Security Forces used live fire against demonstrators. Has more from bank. Security forces used live fire on protesters outside of government buildings there there are also reports that some protesters may have been trying to storm government buildings and bus or of course there is the main source iraqs oil wealth demonstrations as you indicated have been going on there and not just port also you had thousands of demonstrators that are gathering around other Government Installations you had a group in t