The only ones who should be doing so. China should start an investigation into the bidens. Also on the programme. The high court in belfast rules that a near total ban on abortion in Northern Ireland breaches the uks human rights legislation. The us is imposing 7 billion of new tarrifs on eu goods, as part retribution for the illegal subsidies paid to airbus. Scotch whisky will be one of the hardest hit. And Jason Donovan, dressed only in his pants, rushes to put out a housefire in london thats when Good Neighbours become good friends. Hello, im Michelle Fleury, Christian Fraser is in london. As with most nights recently, theres two big stories on both sides of the atlantic. More on brexit in a moment, but First Washington and the impeachment inquiry. It is just 10 days old yet new developments keep coming thick and fast. Today, Congress Hears from its first impeachment witness. Kurt volker was the special us envoy to ukraine until he resigned last week. Hes not a household name, but is well known in Foreign Policy circles. Now, hes a central figure in the inquiry. He is mentioned five times in the whistle blowers complaint and he is testifying in private today before 3 congressional committees. The involvement of Vice President mike pence is also becoming an issue. The Washington Post says that earlier this year pence was instructed to tell president zelensky that us aid was being withheld until there was more aggressive action on corruption. Was that code for an investigation ofjoe biden . All of this comes after the president s robust performance at his press conference last night. Today, the president is on his way to florida. But before he left, he was again calling for foreign governments to investigate his opponent joe biden, notjust ukraine, but china too. China should start an investigation into the bidens because what happened in china isjust about as bad as what happened with ukraine president zelensky. If it were me, i would recommend that they start an investigation into the bidens because nobody has any doubt that they werent crooked. Well, perhaps no one knows the agencies and branches of government involved in the impeachment inquiry better than leon panetta. His many roles have included congressman, white house chief of staff under bill clinton and cia director. Hejoins us now from california. Welcome to the programme. If i could start by asking you about that clip we just heard there from donald trump. Now he is bringing in china ata time trump. Now he is bringing in china at a time when the us is about to restart trade negotiations. He seems to be doubling down on the body behaviour that is at the heart of this impeachment enquiry . behaviour that is at the heart of this impeachment enquiry . I dont think theres any question that the president at this point really does not have a defence to the basic charge that is being investigated, which is the charge of asking a foreign leader to investigate a political opponent. Which is pretty clear. I think what the president is doing and he did it yesterday, as flailing and throwing it as much as he can. Create a diversion. So he is going to now ask the chinese are to investigate, he is going after the whistle blower, investigate, he is going after the whistle blower, he investigate, he is going after the whistle blower, he is attacking adam sheth, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee and he is continuing to basically throughout as much as he can in order to divert the publics attention from the basic charge that is being investigated. It took about this idea of diverting attention, how do you deal with a president who is, essentially, questioning the processes of how the Intelligence Community works, attacking the very impeachment process and attacks attacking the checks and balances that congress has in its authority . When you have at these norms being undermined, how do you respond to that quiz ladder i think it is very important for our leaders in congress to recognise that they have a very heavy responsibility to protect our constitution. And to apply the laws of this country. It is not going to be easy with this president. Who is going to be throwing out all kinds of attacks and charges and are trying to divert attention from the issue, so the responsibility is largely going to fall only members of congress to hopefully remain calm, be responsible and continue their investigation and determine, not only the basis of any charges here, but what the processor should be moving forward. And the responsibility is going to rest with the congress to determine whether or not our constitution is going to be protected. The former us special on by kurt volker as testified before the statement is today and he was the statement is today and he was the liaison between the white house and the ukrainians, what would you like to know from kurt volker . The important thing to find out from him and the former ambassador is whether or not the president was continuing to proceed with this cd, this Conspiracy Theory, that had been planted by the russians that somehow, it was the ukrainians who we re somehow, it was the ukrainians who were responsible for what happened oii were responsible for what happened on the 2016 election, not the russians. The president seems to have attached himself to that conspiratorial kind of approach and it will be interesting to see whether others who were at the state department recognised that the president was pushing a debunked Conspiracy Theory and whether or not they were advising the president not to do that. Until recently he was out there in eastern ukraine, advising the ukrainians about how to face up to the russian threat, but at the same time, he was, presumably, explain to the Ukrainian Government by these crucial military aid that congress had signed off and was being withheld this crucial military aid. Well, that raises the other issue of whether or not the president was abusing his powers as commander in chief by using our National Security interests as a vehicle to try to get the ukrainians to conduct this investigation into joe biden. The reality is, that the agent was withheld. 400 million in aid to the ukrainians was put on hold stop aid to the ukrainians was put on hold stop the reality is that the aid was withheld. It was suddenly put on hold and, during the conversation, the transcript of the discussion that the president released, there is a discussion about additional aid and it has in the middle of the discussion that the middle of the discussion that the president says, but i would like to ask a favour of you though, which clearly indicates the tie between the investigation and the i think that be another issue to be investigated by the congress. We will see what comes out of that congressional meaty. It was a great pleasure to have you in the programme, thank you for being with us. Borisjohnson has been laying out his brexit proposals, which he hopes will solve the conundrum of the irish border. The Prime Minister told mps that post brexit, britain will be seeking a Free Trade Agreement with the eu. The plan would see Northern Ireland stay in the european Single Market for goods but leave the Customs Union with the rest of the uk resulting in some customs checks within ireland. They do not deliver everything we would have wished. They do represent a compromise, but to remain a prisoner of existing positions is to become a cause of deadlock, rather than breakthrough. And so, we have made a genuine attempt to bridge the chasm, to reconcile the apparently irreconcilable and to go the extra mile as time runs short. Hear, hear. Eu leaders are wary of issuing too harsh an assessment on mrjohnsons blueprint, worried it will make brussels the victim of a blame game in the uk. But it was clear that serious doubts are spreading across eu capitals. Within the european parliament, the influential brexit steering group, led by guy verhoftstadt, said the last minute proposals did not in their current form represent a basis for agreement. And on a visit to sweden, the irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was sounding a similar tone. Our objective is very clear we dont want to see any customs posts between north and south and nor do we want to see any tariffs or restrictions on trade north and south. They were all abolished in the 1990s, we dont want to go back to that. The majority of people in the north dont, the majority of people in the republic of ireland dont. But if were going to be in two different Customs Unions, i think that creates a real difficulty that is going to be very hard to reconcile. It does not sound too positive, does it . Sir graham brady is chair of the 1922 committee, an Influential Group of tory backbench mps. Good to have us this evening. The only brexit deal that has ever won a majority in the house of commons was the amendment that you tabled, the brady amendment, which advocated replacing the irish backs up with alternative arrangements, so was this the kind of proposal that you had in mind . Absolutely. My amendment on the 29th ofjanuary, which did many majority of 16 votes, which did many majority of 16 votes, which in the current climate sounds like a princely majority, was deliberately fairly open. It allows the possibility that you might have a time limit to the backs up, you might have had a unilateral right of exit from it or you could put in place alternative arrangements a time limit to the backstop. This certainly fits within that rubric and my abs in the house of commons today sent to the premise that he should be quite confident telling eu leaders that if they come to the table and reach an agreement on what i think is an eminently sensible compromise, it will get through the house of commons. So the numbers are important, as you say. That one by a majority of 16. We know that the dup and the e rg, the eurosceptics, are on board. He hinted at it today that the payments, testers numbers and how they vote before he goes to the summit on the 17th of october at the Prime Minister said he might those numbers. It was suggested that he do that and the Prime Minister said that he would think about it and there is very little time because parliament is only setting for two days before it will be product leading up to the queens speech. If it would help elite if it would help elite is a beyond this if it it would help elite is a beyond this if it would help the eu leaders above beyond this because they do not think that the house of commons can reach an agreement. Now we seem to be any situation where it may not fly in europe. What were really redressing this downturn now is looking at whether people genuinely wa nt looking at whether people genuinely want to allow brexit with a deal or whether there are people who want to prevent exit with or without a deal. In the house of commons we are seeing some labour members who are making it clear that they are prepared to be flexible, they want to reach a compromise, they want to respect the vote of the people three years ago. But they want to do so any way that enables an orderly brexit, which will be in the interests of business, unlock investment and on. We are seeing some of that common sense starting to break out, not only the whole spectrum of the conservative benches from people who have been very unhappy about leaving the eu and the first place, right the way through to the e r6, the more committed eurosceptics. But also, a significant grip on the other side of the house. You also have people like Jeremy Corbyn her, even though he has been a lifelong eurosceptic and always voted against the eu for his first part of his career, is now prepared to do anything to try to cause difficulties for the government. That is still only have at the equation. The other half, of course, i know that this is the europeans who do not seem to be in favour of this. Does this make it a nonstarter . In my view, obviously, our relationship with the republic of ireland is very important. They are a very important trading partner for the United Kingdom. Are a very important trading partner forthe United Kingdom. There are a very important trading partner for the United Kingdom. There are many, many family links and other connections, obviously, particularly oii connections, obviously, particularly on the island of ireland. It is critically important that we maintain those good relationships and, in particular, protect the Peace Process and the good friday agreement. 0ne Peace Process and the good friday agreement. One of the critical things about this proposal, as opposed to the so called backstop, which theresa may had negotiated, the backstop was a breach of the good friday agreement and that this is entirely consistent with the good friday agreement. Because the good friday agreement. Because the good friday agreement. Because the good friday agreement says there must be consent for any arrangements around the border. This provides for things to happen with consent, whereas the backstop could be imposed from outside. Without the stormont assembly, there is no consent without the assembly. We very much need to get the assembly back. The pressure on Northern Irish politicians to make sure that they do come back to consider this will be immense. I think that the dup certainly, who have indicated their support for this plan, are entirely conscious of that. These assembly has to come back anyway, there are so has to come back anyway, there are so many has to come back anyway, there are so many reasons has to come back anyway, there are so many reasons it should, but this is yet another one, which adds to the pressure. Thank you so much for joining us. Damian grammaticas is in brussels for us. You just heard for some grim payday talking about growing support in parliament. From sir graham brady. I think it is worth pointing out that it looks like from here that the Uk Parliament is making this a mistake it made back when all the. Back in the same position when Graham Bradys amendment was passed. It might look like it has support in the uk, but can it pass your . Back then it was passed, but it was not something it was going to fly in the eu, they viewed it as unworkable and impractical are not a cce pta ble unworkable and impractical are not acceptable to them. Again, the messages that were getting from the eu are saying very clearly that borisjohnsons planner, eu are saying very clearly that Boris Johnsons planner, now, eu are saying very clearly that borisjohnsons planner, now, maybe there is a majority in parliament, is not workable for the eu we have a very clear statement for the irish position, saying that the arrangements on this, that you are hearing again theyre briefly about the governance, the consent of Northern Ireland, for the eu, that is not acceptable. It gives a veto, as the irish had put it, to one community, the democratic unionist party, one party, that could bring the whole thing down. The eu signal receiving as that would have to change, and so too with the arrangements around the customs arrangements. The eu says that those simply are not there in detail. They would have to be put in place something that they know is workable from day one and those are the two key things that the eu, i think, your cycling needs to change. Negotiations will happen your tomato with the uks chief negotiator and i think well see coming out of that very clear signals of whether the eu that there is room for movement on the site and leading towards a deal and if there is not that, were into very difficult territory did because it is signals from all sides, the irish in particular, that what is on the table so far does not do the trick. Thank you for that. A penny for the thoughts of theresa may today. A study in how to keep a pokerface may today. A study in how to keep a poker face today. She just kept in silence watching it going on. There is just silence watching it going on. There isjust a hint silence watching it going on. There is just a hint of a smell, imperceptible, i think, is just a hint of a smell, imperceptible, ithink, but is just a hint of a smell, imperceptible, i think, but almost it has there. I think, perhaps some suppressed satisfaction the hint ofa suppressed satisfaction the hint of a smile. The backstop, taking britain out of its eu and all its frameworks and the difficulties of that, borisjohnson frameworks and the difficulties of that, Boris Johnson is frameworks and the difficulties of that, borisjohnson is beating some of the same scars. What do you think of the same scars. What do you think ofa of the same scars. What do you think of a body line which expert would make of that . We often talk on this programme about the battle over abortion rules in us states such as georgia, louisiana and ohio. Its Northern Ireland though, which currently has even tighter restrictions than these states. Its abortion laws are among the strictest in the world, banning it outright apart from when a womans life is at risk. A change in the law now seems inevitable after belfasts High Court Ruled today that an almost total ban on abortion is incompatible with the uks human rights committments. The case was brought by a belfast woman, sarah ewart, who had to travel to britain for an abortion after being told her baby would not survive outside the womb. Emma vardy has more. Sarah ewart became the public face of a debate about a deeply personal issue. Six years ago, she travelled to london from her home in Northern Ireland to have an abortion. Her unborn baby had a