Hello and welcome. In breaking news this hour, there are reports that the us president s special representative for ukraine, kurt volker, has resigned. Its after he was named in the whistleblower complaint at the centre of impeachment proceedings into donald trump. Meanwhile those impeachment proceedings appear to be gathering pace in the us as democrats say theyre hoping to hold hearings into President Trump, as early as next week. The subpoenas are already flying secretary of state mike pompeo has been ordered to hand over documents concerning contact with the Ukrainian Government by next friday. President trump has lashed out at the inquiry saying its a witch hunt. Our north america editor jon sopel looks at the days events in washington. We will bring you those details. We will be speaking to our correspondence shortly about that. Now we get the background and everything that has been happening. We have also been hearing about mike pompeo, he has been subpoenaed by those impeachment investigations. Theres support, theres defiance, but also theres anger. In a twitter feuds like this morning he took aim at the Democratic House chair of the house intelligence committee, adam schiff, the person who will play a key role in impeachment hearings. The Inspector General found that serious allegation of misconduct by the president credible. Donald trump said of him. And then the whistle blower who revealed details of the president s conversation with his ukrainian counterpart volodymyr zelensky. Sounding more and more like the so called whistle blower isnt a whistle blower at all. But everything in the whistle blowers letter has been proved true. The call did take place. President trump did ask his ukrainian counterpart to investigate his Democratic Party rivaljoe biden. And the white house today confirmed the transcript of the call was moved to a more secure server. But when President Trump asks ukraine to investigate corruption, the democrats want to impeach him. But now in a slick counter blast, the Trump Campaign is firing back. They lost the election, now they want to steal this one. Dont let them. Im donald trump and i approved this. But the speaker of the house is unmoved. She says she was left with no other choice but impeachment following all of this. But this is about National Security. This is about the National Security of our country, and the president of the United States being disloyal to his own oath of office, jeopardising our National Security, and jeopardising the integrity of our elections. And the woman donald trump beat in 2016 has also made a rare intervention to pile in. He has turned american diplomacy into a cheap extortion racket. He has denigrated and lets be honest stabbed in the back of the Career Foreign Service officers who serve bravely and selflessly no matter the politics of the administration that they are working under. The white house line on the whistle blower is that its all second hand information and inaccurate. Its anything but. So far everything hes said has turned out to be true. Republican lawmakers can say they dont really care and donald trump is free to do whatever he likes, much harder, though, to say theres nothing here. John sopel, bbc news, washington. Just repeat the breaking news, the special representative for ukraine, kurt volker, has resigned, that is according to reports after he was named ina according to reports after he was named in a whistleblower complaint. We will keep across that story and will be speaking to our correspondence about the very latest lead in that programme later in the programme. Here in the uk its been announced that the independent office for Police Conduct will assess whether the Prime MinisterBoris Johnson potentially committed the criminal offence of misconduct in Public Office during his time as mayor of london. The allegations are that borisjohnson maintained a friendship with the american businesswoman and former model Jennifer Accuri and, as a result of that friendship, allowed ms arcuri to participate in trade missions and receive sponsorship monies in circumstances when she and her companies could not have expected otherwise to receive those benefits. The Police Watchdog will now consider if it is necessary for the matter to be investigated. Downing street has released a statement saying everything was done with propriety and in the normal way. Our uk Affairs CorrespondentDaniel Sandford has more. The basis of the allegations is that, while he was mayor of london, borisjohnsons friend, Jennifer Accuri, received £11,500 in sponsorship for events organised by one of her companies, which came from organisations linked to the mayors office. And also went on three overseas trips with borisjohnson which, originally, shed been turned down for. Now, the Greater LondonAuthority Monitoring officer has been looking at these allegations this week and so have we, in fact, and noticed that people who went on the trips with Jennifer Accuri felt that she seemed a bit out of place, as her companies didnt seem as substantial as those of the other people that were on the trips, and certainly we know that borisjohnsons office intervene to make sure that she went on one of the trips and the Greater LondonAuthority Monitoring officer has now decided to call in the Police Watchdog, the iopc, to assess whether Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, should be investigated for the criminal offence of misconduct ion Public Office. The iopc are involved because when he was mayor of london, borisjohnson was in charge of londons metropolitan police. Borisjohnson has vigorously denied these allegations, saying to the bbc last night that people are barking up the wrong tree. His office insists that hes always acted with propriety. And he says very proud of his time as mayor of london. Police in nigeria have freed some 500 people, many of them young children, from a building where they have been allegedly chained, tortured and sexually abused. To protect their privacy we have decided to conceal the identities of the victims in this report from mayenijones in lagos. Captives in chains, boys, teenagers, and grown men held in a so called Islamic School and unable to leave. Look, they put chains on me, with all the level of my exposure. One look at my own age, i have responsibilities on my head. But they denied me access to a lot of things. Police received a tip off from relatives of children held here that suggested this place was not what it seemed. I say, ok, take this loaf of bread and take it to them. So when we go back home now, we had a family meeting, so we said, ok, the only thing that shall report this issue to the police station. That is exactly what we did. The police said this was no educational institution. We discovered that we have, today, and five graduates. Civil servants i hear. Most of them are ten. Ten as far as im concerned, this is modern day slavery. Millions of students are in Islamic Schools across nigeria. Parents in this deprived region often have to leave their children in religious boarding schools. These institutions have been dogged with allegations of abuse. Earlier this year, the government said it planned to ban them. But wouldnt say when. As the victims are treated and reunited with their families, this latest incident may be a reminder of the need for reform. Mayenijones, bbc news in lagos. More than nine Million People are expected to cast their ballots in afghanistans president ial election on saturday, in a poll which has been overshadowed by Violent Attacks claimed by the taliban which have left many dead in recent weeks. There are at least 16 candidates, all of them men, including former warlords, ex spies and members of the countrys former communist government. The two main contenders are ashraf ghani, the current president , and Abdullah Abdullah, who was made chief executive after negotiations in 2014. Well have full coverage of the vote, here on bbc world news. Im joined by murid partaw, the former Afghan National representative to Us Central Command now at the school of global studies at the university of south florida. Thank you so much for your time. First of all, given those levels of violence we are seeing, how possible is it that these elections will be fairand is it that these elections will be fair and free of fraud . is it that these elections will be fair and free of fraud . I think this election is going to be different compared to the one in 2014, because the Afghan Security forces are in a better state than five years before. And, more importantly, the Afghan Election Commission, the independent election commission, has also promised to conduct these elections ina promised to conduct these elections in a free and fair way. So i think that despite the taliban announcement that they are going to disrupt the process, for the most pa rt disrupt the process, for the most part the Security Forces and the afg ha n part the Security Forces and the Afghan Election Commission will be able to provide a safe environment for afg ha ns to able to provide a safe environment for afghans to cast their vote. But surely with as levels of violence, as you say, the taliban wants to disrupt the elections, surely were not going to the voter turnout that you would need to have a kind of convincing result . There are approximately 9. 5 million afghan voters registered right now, according to the afghan independent election. I think that the turnout, as you pointed out, will probably be as you pointed out, will probably be a little bit low given the level of violence that has been happening across the country. Nevertheless, the elections will be happening around the country and the places that these votes will be cast will be, for the most part, secured by the Afghan Security forces because the Afghan Security forces because the Afghan Security forces because the Afghan Security forces recently announced they have deployed close to 70,000 forces in charge of the election security. As you say, theres been a lot of concern about fraud in the past. We saw those allegations in 2014, 2018, what provisions have the government put in place so that doesnt happen ain . In place so that doesnt happen again . There are some good provisions that have taken place by the afghan election committee. 0ne is the biometric system that they have in place in this polling stations, that they will undergo with those votes that have been biometric clear approved. So thats a good provision in place. And, secondly, there are some other good managements in place, such as observers from the candidates, especially from the two main contenders, Abdullah Abdullah and ashraf ghani, to observe these polling stations in order to prevent fraud in these polling stations. And in addition there are some International Observers to, listing kabul and other major cities. Murid partaw, im so sorry. We are out of time. Thank you very much. Murid partaw, former afghan representative to Us Central Command. A huge crackdown by egypts Security Forces has prevented mass protests from taking place in the capital cairo. There were online calls for demonstrations against alleged corruption by president Abdel Fattah Al sisi and the military instead it was the leaders supporters who staged rallies in his defence. Protests broke out last week and since then human Rights Groups say nearly 2,000 people have been arrested. Sally nabil is our correspondent in cairo. It has been a quiet day in cairo so far, although there were calls for huge Anti Government protests. But it seems that the people are too scared to take to the streets, like they did briefly last week. Security presence has been beefed up all around the city. Cars are not allowed into tahrir square, only pedestrians. Weve seen security personnel stopping passers by, checking their mobile phones and looking for their id cards. 0nly small scale protests have taken place in a couple of cities in the south of the city and one neighbourhood in cairo. 0n the other hand, thousands have taken part in pro sisi gatherings in eastern cairo. The president himself has downplayed the significance of the protests that called on him to step down, making it clear egypt is strong and there is nothing to worry about. Its a nervous time, and many are waiting to see what will happen in the coming hours. Stay with us on bbc world news, still to come 22 years on, prince harry retraces his mothers footsteps, walking through a partially cleared angolan minefield. In all russias turmoil it has never quite come to this. President yeltsin said the day would decide the nations destiny. The nightmare that so many have feared for so long is playing out its final active. Russians are killing russians in front of a grandstand audience. It was his humility which produced affection from catholics throughout the world. But his departure is a tragedy for the catholic church. This man, israels right winger, ariel sharon, visited the religious compound, and that started the trouble. He wants israel alone to have sovereignty over the holy sites. An idea thats unthinkable to palestinians. After 45 years of division, germany is one. In berlin, a million germans celebrate the rebirth of europes biggest and richest nation. This is bbc news, the latest headlines the United States special representative to ukraine kurt volker has resigned. It comes after a whistleblower claimed donald trump put pressure on ukraine, to investigate joe biden, the democratic frontrunner in the race for the white house. So lets stay with our main story. For more im joined by our correspondent david willis in los angeles. Can you tell us more about these reports that kurt volker has resigned . We are told that kurt volker resigned after with his boss, mike pompeo at the state department. He was one of five people who were scheduled to give evidence over the course of the next two weeks, to these committees, these democrat led committees, and are investigating and doing this impeachment enquiry into the conduct of the president donald trump. Also amongst that five was marie yovanovitch, the former Us Ambassador to the ukraine, somebody who was sacked after falling out and having disagreements with the policy, over policy with President Trump. Where kurt volkers departure will leave his testimony to Congress Remains to be seen, but there is certainly somebody who either thought they would want to question i would have thought they would wa nt to i would have thought they would want to question very closely, a since he is alleged to have brokered these meetings with President Trump is my personal lawyer Rudolph Giuliani and members of the ukraine government. Im sure we will hear more about kurt volker in the coming hours and days, but of course events are happening thick and fast, mike pompeo has been subpoenaed as part of this investigation . Yes he has, and that is in regard to documents correspondence, e mails and so on, about contacts between members of his staff and members of the government of the ukraine. Mike pompeo has defied two previous deadlines to produce those documents, he now has one week in which to do so. David, these impeachment proceedings, how popular are they within the country, is there a lot of support, not much . Traditionally there has been very little public support for impeachment, embers of the public tend to prefer their politicians to focus on more mundane but relevant topics, the economy, cost of things, healthcare and so on. But there was a poll released today which showed an increase in the number of people interested in impeachment proceedings against donald trump. And i think there is a feeling, certainly amongst the democrats and the democratic leadership in the case of nancy pelosi, that this is a this telephone conversation with the suggestion of a quid pro quo attached to it between donald trump and the president of ukraine, is something that people in america can understand, and perhaps can get behind as far as these very controversial proceedings are concerned. And it looks as though things could move quite quickly, the chairman of the intelligence committee, adam schiff, said today that he wanted to move on this and get articles of impeachment prepared if possible, by thanksgiving, and thatis if possible, by thanksgiving, and that is at the end of november. So the subpoena issued and delivered to mike pompeo may just the subpoena issued and delivered to mike pompeo mayjust be the first of many in the