Reporting from washington, i am laura trevelyan. Ev the white house blocks a key witness from giving testimony in the impeachmeninquiry, saying he cpear before a kangaroo court. A major row between the nba and china could cost the league millions. We will bring you the latest on this clash of sport and politics. Plus, she has explored some of the worlds most captivating ves. Now she is sharing stories about the oceans hidden depths. Laura for those watching on pbs and around the globe, welcome to world news america. Th white house went on the offensive against the congressional impeachment inquiry day, blocking the testimony of a key witness. In response, House Democrats leading the investigation say they would issue a subpoena so they can hear from Gordon Sondland, the ambassador to the eu. Democrats are looking into the president s efforts to pressure ukraines leader to find dirt on his rivals, an inquiry mr. Trump calls a sham. Here is the man House Democrats wanted to hear from today, Gordon Sondland, a wealthy Hotel Executive and donor to tht trump campaign, now americas chief diplomat in brussels. But at the last minute the administration said no. President trump tweeted, i would love to send ambassador sondland, a really good man and great amemecan, to testify, but unfortunately, he would be testifying before a totally compromised kangaroo court. Democrats response was swift. Rep. Schiff the failure to produce th witness, the failure to produce these documents, we consider yet additional strong evidence of obstruction of the constitutional functions, of congress, a coequal branch of government. Laura democrats were keen to question Gordon Sondland because he had been dealing with ukraine in the runup to the phone call between President Trump and that countrys leader, in which mr. Trump asked Volodymyr Zelensky to do him a favor and investigate the bidens. U. S. Military aid to ukraine had been suspended days before. In Text Messages given to congress, veteran u. S. Diplomat bill taylor wrote, i think it is crazy to withhold Security Assistance for help with a political campaign. Ambabaador sondland replied, the president has been crystal clear, no quid pro quos of any kind. Republicans say that the white house waquite right to stop mr. Sondland from testifying. You think of what the democrats are trying to do, impeach the president 13 monthsh prior to an election based on an anonymous whistleblower with no firsthand knowltlge has bias against the president. Laura now House Democrats leading the impeachment inquiry are going to issue a subpoena for mr. Sondlands testimony and documents. The standoff is intensifying into a constitutional clash. Joining us is ron christie, a former advisor to george w. Bush. Tonight the white hse counsel has written to Congressional Democrats declining to participate in the impeachment inquiry, saying it lacks a valid constitutional basis. Is this war . Ron i think it is war. Good evening to you. I think the counsel is right on one key point he says the president is being denied due process. That means t ability to call for evence and read transcripts and have the ranking members, the republicans, to subpoena documents and witnesses. Where i think the president is at his weakest in this document is where he says to the house, you are try to overturn the 2016 president ial election. It is going to be an interesting showdown in the days to come in washington as to how these separately coequal branches of government get to the impasse. Laura isnt there a danger that by declining to participate, the president is enabling democrats to write aicles of impeachment accusing him of obstruction of justice . Ron from a political matter, yes. From a legal matter, no. The house i has still not authorized a formal impeachment. There has to be a legal impeachment under way for the laura but that is just preceden t, not the law. Is it a fact that by focusing on process, republicans are trying to move the limelight away from the fact that the president did ask a former leader to interfere in our election . Ron from the legal basis, the constitution in the thrst article says that the house of representatives is tvenion body for impeachment. We havent had that yet. From a constitutional standpoint i think the democrats are defective in what they are trying to bring forth. You are absolutely right, the process, the more that you are explaining in politics, you are losing. From a political and legal standpoint, the longer the white house has to go down a process argument, it gives the democrats more strength to say that he is telling and doesnt want to cooperate, it must be Something Else there. Laura when republicans look at the polls, which dshow rising support for the impeachment inquiry, is that causing anxiety . Ron behind the scenes, yes. There are a lot of republilins ive spoken to in the last week who say that the president s poll numbers have gone down and the call for impeachment in Public Perception has gone up. You have nearly one third of Senate Republicans up for reelection next year. Do they want to go back to constituents and say that we werent able to get anything done, all we talked about is impeachment, rather than your other promises weve made and where we delivered for you. Laura is there a point where Senate Republicans in particular break with the president . Ron not yet, but i think the ice is beginning to crack. The more we have a lack of cohesion between Congressional Republicans both in the house and senate of how do we speak with a unified voice, what is our message from it will have pele looking for their own political viability rather than President Trumps. Laura we are hearing that the chair of the Senate Judiciary committee, liney graham, has invited Rudy Giuliani to testify. Is that going to accomplish anything more than great political theater . Ron t goes back t a questn you asked a few moments ago, did the president interfere and work with ukraine to impact our election. I honestly dont know. I dont know what mr. Giuliani has been looking at. There will be fireworks to be ceain, but whether he can add something from a legal or substantive matter remains to be seen. Laura doesn dt it underlined e fact that mr. Giuliani was freelancing and apparently carrying out Foreign Policy on behalf of the president while also in conjunction with st e Department Officials . Ron it seems odd to me that the esidents personal attorney would be doing something of this nature. That is why you have the secretary of state. That is why we have safeguards in aegonstitution for how we interact with diffowent ministers of Different Countries. I am curious to see what mr. Giuliani haseen up to and what he uncovered. More interestingly, lyes tess amount to anything other than more of the political circus we have seen day in and day out . Laura ron christie, thanks so much for joining us. Ron good to see you. Laura turkey has stepped up its military presence on the border with syria tonight, saying that forces are ready to advance after the u. S. Began pulling troops out of tharea. The northeast of syria is controlled by the kurdishled sdf forces who played a leading role in the fight against islamic state. There are fears of a new conflict between turkey and the kurds. All this as president erdogan is due to visit the white house next month. Fr the border, our International Correspondent orla guerin reports. Orla a noisy reception for Turkish Forces on the move. Ambulances and armored personnel carriers close to the syrian border. We filmed this convoy tonight heading to a military base. The first evidence, perhaps, of the buildup to a turkish invasion of syria. Earlier, being bussed to the border, syrian rebel fighters backed by turkey. They could be extra manpower for the planned offensive, which is causing havoc internationall ev before it begins. In washington, President Trump habeen meeting his top brass and trying some damage control. He has denied abandoning kurdish rces, americas key allies in syria. But after their epic battle against i. S. , they now feel mighty alone. D what now for that battle . There is gwing concern internationally about wh an offensive across this border might do to the global fight against islamic state. Small wonder there are thousands of i. S. Fighters being held in rdishrun detention centers. The kurds have said if the turks attack, they will have to focus on that fight. So, defeated i. S. Fighters lik these may have fewer guards, raising fears some could escape. President trump says if turkey invades, they are ankaras problem. And there may be less security at kdish camps holding huge numbers of i. S. Supporters and family members. But at the border today, a little gathering of turks who back the offensive, who believe that Kurdish Forces are a security threat. An invasion appeals to president erdoganns base. He has been losing support, and critics y a war is a great distraction. Turkish allies. Ovement by rebel fighters from the free syrian army. They say they will rain fire on Kurdish Forces. A werful nato army now appears to be on the road to battle, and there are real concerns about the possible cost for hundreds of thousdsnocent syrian civilians. Orla guerin, bbc news, at the turkishsyria border. La fears of a turkish invasion growing in northern syria. In other news, the green zone in the iraqi capital, baghdad, has been reopened. The area which houses government buildings was sealed off last week after violent clashes with antigovernment protesters left more than 100 people dead. The Iraqi Government has announced reforms to address issues like corruption, poor public services, and a lack of jobs. An attack on motorists in a weern germaer tn is being investigated as terrorism, according to german media. A man hijacked a lorry that plug plod into several cars. At least 17 people were injured and one remains in critical condition. The driver of the vehicle has been arrested. The nobel prize in physics has bein awarded to three scientists for helping us to understand the evolution of theioniverse. Canadianamerican James Peebles was recognized for his works in physical cosmology, including dark matter. Two swiss nationals, michelle mayor and didier queloz, shared the award for discovering the first t anet orbiting another star system. The prize for chemistry comes tomorrow. It has taken decades for the nba to open up chinas lucrative market to basketball, but all of that may be in jeopardy due to a tweet. The general manager of the Houston Rockets, daryl morey, tweeted out his support for the protestersn hong kong. Although he swiftly apologize, chinas government reacted furiously and stopped preseason games fromppeing shown. Nba commissioner adam silver expressed regret for chinese fans who were offended, but stood by mr. Moreys right to express his views. Adam the longheld values of the nba are to support freedom of expression, and certainly freedom of expression by members of the nba community. In this case, daryl morey as the manager of the Houston Rockets enjoys that right as one of our employees. Laura a brief time ago i discussed all of this with ian bremmer, president of the eurasia group. Thanks so much for joining us. What does the standoff between the nba and china say about the price of doing business in china for u. S. Brands . Ian it is going up. The chinese are stronger than they used to be, they are a much bigger economy, so the benefits of getting business right are significant,ut they are much more rigid and much less flex, partularly on anything that they think involves matters of National Security and political stability. Hong kong in particular, rig in the crosshairs, and the nba stepped all over it. Laura by playing hardball with the nba and canceling the streaming of their preseason games, what kind of a signal of are the chinese trying to send to other u. S. Companies, too . Ian that you are going to he to handle your employees, yo are gointo have to tell them in advance what and is not acceptable. Remember, we are talking about a Single Member of the nba, th general manager of the Houston Rockets, tweeting a message that simply showed some sort of solidarity with the demonstrators in hong kong. I mean, in the grand scheme of s things, somethinthat the nba i think would ve considered unimaginable, that could have ended or suspended their business in china, multibilliondollar business. But the nba also did not react well. This guy immediately took it down, the nba apologized. Their apology to the chinese in chinese language was different and much more contrite than the englishlanguage press release. Clearly a mistake. Laura is it possible that china also faces any kind of backlash domestically, because basketball is very popular there . Ian i dont think so. I think on hong kong specifically, there isthery strong chinese patriotism in favor of xi jinpings position and against these nationalists. They see the Hong Kong Chinese as very wealthy and themselves looking down on mainland chinese. Lets keep in mind, there is no free press in cha. What they are seeing is a sanitized version of what the Chinese Government wants them to see, both about the nba as well as hong kong. So if you are looking for backlash, that backlash is going to come from american fans who are upset that the nba commissioner just last year stood up and said i think it is real important to stand for something. What we see the commissioner right now standing for is profits over principle with mainland china. Laura is it possible that the spat between the n and china affects those allimportant trade talks between beijing and washington that are suosed to resume this week . Ian doesnt help, but they already werent going anywhere. The chinhave been saying they do not expect any Movement Towards a deal. First of all, they dont think they can work with or count on President Trump, too volatile. But also they dont think th trump has a lot more ammunition to hit them with tariffs as the amican economy slows and elections near. For both of those reasons, expectations for this round of trade talks were quite low. Laura ian bremmer, thanks so much for being with us. Ian sure, my pleasure. Speaking of those trade talks, coming up we get the view from the new head of the imf on the state of the global economy. Emotions are running high in south africa over the safety of women with the killing of females, children, and the targeting of the Lgbti Community described as a National Crisis by the president. A warning, this repordoes contain material of a sexual nature which some viewers might find disturbing. Reporter the killing of women in south africa has ignite ouage and protests countrywide. The government says attacks on women and children are similar to those of a country at war. Crime statistics have revealed that nearly 3000 women and 1000 children were murdered in just the last 12 months. Many were assated and raped before their death. This johannesburg woman was gang raped by three men who broke into her home. She never got justice. Im angry. Im upset. Yes, im trying shard to move on. Coming to Justice System in our courur. Honestly, im so mad. Reporter after years of trauma, she opened aape Victim Center which inspired hed to change her life. To reclaim her life. She also runs a rape Awareness Campaign in her neighborhood. Just theast few minutes after the campaign started, we came across a 23yearold woman who was raped earlier this year but was turned away by the police. Here she is now. Tell us what happened. I was raped twice by men who were my neighbors. I fear for my life because i often see one of the two peo e who atcked me. I reported the matter to thehe lice, who turned me away and said i must stop causing trouble. Reporter presidenidcyril ramaphosa recently announced an emergency plan to tackle genderbased violence. Many agree that levels of genderbased violence are unacceptunle, and that a solution to deal with it is with this worrying problem must be found. Laura as we heard earlier china and the u. S. Are to resume trade talks later this week tos try to end a 15montstandoff over tariffs. Todayy the newanaging director of the International Monetary fund warned against the global fallout of these tensions in her first public address. My colleague Michelle Fleury sat down with Kristalina Georgieva for her first interview in her new role. Michelle two years ago you were much more upbeat on your forecast for the global economy. Now the imf sounds more pessimistic. Ms. Georgieva what happened in these two years is removed from a synchronized upswing, 75 rof the world growing faster, to a synchronized slowdown, 90 of the World Economy ecowing. When you look at the many reasons, these are fractures in the World Economy that are Holding Growth back. Michelle you have pretty pessimistic numbers on how the trade dispute between the worlds two largest economies, u. S. And china, is affecting the global economy.