the e.u. ambassador under scrutiny, ahead of testimony on capitol hill. eight witnesses on the schedule. the president attacking yet another one. a new leader for the democrats in iowa. what a rise of pete buttigieg means for the 2020 field. and the president backing off a major commitment to curb vaping. does his re-election bid come before teenagers' health? this is "early start" i'm dave briggs. >> i'm christine romans. it's 4:00 a.m. in new york, 9:00

a.m. in laondon and 5:00 p.m. i hong kong. the focus is on one, gordon sondland, head of the e.u. he frequently updated top officials on efforts to convince ukraine to launch investigations the president was demanding. among them, energy secretary rick perry and mick mulvaney, who famously said this about trump's pressure campaign. >> we do that all the time, with foreign policy. i have news for everybody, get over it. there's going to be political influence in foreign policy. >> also released this weekend, a deposition from former top official, tim morrison. he told officials that sondland was operating at the request of the president. republicans trying to shift the blame for mounting trouble away from the president.

>> those individuals who leaked this, this is all coming out into public has weakened that relationship. it exposed things that didn't need to be exposed. it would have been better off if this happened behind the scenes. funding would have been restored and the relationship with ukraine would be far better off than it is today. >> the president did not get the message that intimidating witnesses is a bad thing. after talking about marie testified. >> she testified privately that trump's request for investigation struck her as, quote, unusual and inappropriate. the president's latest attacks on a witness threatens to deepen

his trouble in a frenetic week ahead. cnn's david shortell has more from washington. >> reporter: eight witnesses set to testify publicly this week before the house intelligence committee, including highly credentialed national security officials, making this week the most consequential of the trump presidency. i want to focus on two of the witnesses that are scheduled to provide some of the most compelling testimony so far. that's gordon sondland, and timothy morrison, who is the top white house official on russia. sondland was a wealthy businessman who donated $1 million to the president's election committee. his testimony is not expected to be a home run. we'll likely hear him describe a call that he had with president trump, that the president told

him explicitly that he does not asking for a quid pro quo. it was a conversation he had with his colleagues that we recently learned about. that conversation, at a restaurant in kiev, sondland told officials that trump did not care about ukraine and was only concerned about an opening of an investigation into the bidens. morrison, the former nsc official is expected to testify on tuesday. and we expect him the to build the credentials of sondland as someone who was working with president trump on this shadow ukraine policy, sondland, the witness with the most direct role in this effort that we've heard from so far. dave and christine? >> all right. who ordered the april trump/zelensky moved to a classified system. that was a mistake. tim morrison relayed a message

from john eisenberg. it was put on the highly classified server. they discovered it was misplaced when they tried to prep the president for a trip to warsaw. a stunning rise from obscurity to the top of the field in iowa, for pete buttigieg. the south bend, indiana, mayor, with a nine-point lead. that's a 16-point surge in iowa, since september. with 11 weeks to go before the a caucuses, it's a close race for second with elizabeth warren at 16%. >> on the ground, for weeks, i have been feeling there's momentum. they connect with the message and get more and more interested in supporting this campaign. i know we have the biggest hills to climb ahead of us. >> i don't do polls. i know we need ideas that match

the problems in this country. >> a challenge facing buttigieg is a lack of support in the black community. he will speak at moore house college. the field getting a warning from obama. he talked about going too far on certain policies. he says voters want ideas rooted in reality. >> this is still a country that is less revolutionary than it is interested in improvement. they like to see things improve. but the average american doesn't think that we have to completely tear down the system and remake it. and i think it's important for us not to lose sight of that. >> expect buttigieg to be the target of increased attacks during the next democratic debate on wednesday night.

anti-government demonstrators setting fire to hong kong's poly university. protesters also throwing petrol bombs at police. paula hancocks live from hong kong with the latest. you've been following this all weekend. and the protesters have been dug in with food and water and supplies inside that university. where do things stand now? >> as far as we know, inside the university, there could be hundreds of protesters still there. we spoke to one pro-democracy lawmaker who is holed up inside with them. he believes there's like 1,000. it's difficult to tell. the police have it on lockdown at this point. there's been a number of fires that protesters started to keep police out. but police have them on lockdown and in a wide cordon, starting to arrest people.

what we're seeing outside -- this is a couple of blocks from this campus. we're seeing other protesters trying to make a distraction. this is a scene of a battle that ended a number of minutes ago. there were petrol bombs thrown by the protesters, teargas by the police. they've disbursed a little down the road. they want the protesters to leave that campus. we saw dozens of protesters escaping from the campus, running across the road, before police could stop them. so, they widened that cordon, police, to catch up with everybody. it's a fluid situation. there's clashing pops up between protesters and police everywhere around this area and around the cordon of that campus. there's many people inside of the campus itself.

we spoke to one protesters. he's a 23-year-old. his parents don't know he's in there. he's staying with his girlfriend, saying he is exhausted and he is waiting to be arrested by the police. >> these are hong kong-based police. tell us about the law enforcement there. a lot of us watching the trade talks have been wondering if mainland chinese forces are there. >> reporter: these are hong kong police out on the streets. we did see some of the pla, in track suits, come out to help. they were trying to get the bricks out of the street. that did not go well with pro-democracy lawmakers. they say that should never have happened. but the government said they didn't ask them to do it. president trump, backing off a proposed ban on most flavored vaping products, a ban he announced with some fanfare two months ago. >> we can't allow people to get

sick. and can't have our youth be so affected. >> white house and trump campaign officials tell "the washington post," trump changed his mind because he fears that upsetting vapors could hurt his re-election chances. he says that the vaping industry could stop the economic growth. juul will stop selling pod, other than tobacco and menthol. as of last week, there's been 42 confirmed deaths. thousands gathered sunday night to mourn the victims of the shooting at saugus high school in santa clarita, california. ♪ family and friends gathering to remember dominick michael blackwell and gracie anne mu mullberger. the suspect shot himself in the

head and died the next day. all schools except saugus high school will reopen today. gas prices are surging between 50% and 300%. why and what police are doing to settle things down, straight ahead.

iran is warning security forces may act against protesters angry about a sharp rise in gas prices. at least one person was killed over three days of protests. gas prices serged 50% to 300%. across the country. nick paton walsh live in london. what are we learning? >> dave, interesting to see protests on this scale. we haven't seen this for over a year. because of the blockout in iran and restrictions on reporting there, it's unclear how quite

widespread these are. we have seen social media videos suggesting that people are impacted by the protests. there appears to be confro confrontations between officials to clamp down on the rioters and the protesters. people depend on gas for their daily lives. and the shocking price rises, sometimes six-times, will impact every part of daily life for ordinary iranians who are already feeling the squeeze because of sanctions. iranian government backed into this. the supreme leader says this was, perhaps, necessary, but two who lost their lives. there must be a financial crisis at the heart of iran's

government. will this sustain? there's another reminder of the economic peril at the heart of iran. the u.s. very clear to say it supports the iranian people, like it said 18 months ago. if the current iranian government does find difficulty. hard liners would use this opportunity. people are looking to see if this could be calmed on the streets without further loss of life. a sure thing of the problems that iran is facing economica y economically. >> thank you. china and the u.s. held constructive discussions regarding a trade deal. the progress according to chinese state media on sunday. u.s. markets are hungry for a deal here. larry kudlow said that

washington and beijing were close. peter navarro talked about a trade with robert lighthizer. >> my lighthizer rule is all negotiations should be behind closed doors. we're on a glide path to a deal. >> a glide path to a deal. navarro would not say if a deal would come before the end of this year. until then, tariffs remain on goods, includie ining ag produc. president trump promised cash to u.s. formers before thanksgiving. on friday, the government says it would begin a second round of bailou bailouts for farmers this year. the farmers have been the collateral damage in the president's trade war. are boeing's days of self-certification coming to an end? revealing comments from the head of the faa.

the head of the faa is considering an overhaul of their approval process after two crashes by boeing 737 maxes. he called on pilot reaction and human factors highlights new items from the ntsb. a list of rules from the faa, coming in at the end of the process to assess the design. the faa has been criticized for

outsourcing much of the certification to planemakers themselv themselves. syracuse university is suspending all activities after ten racist activities this month. students and citizens breaking out on the upstate new york campus, for information on the responsible parties. the latest incident involves members and guests. asians and african-americans have been targeted and disturbing videos like this one. >> i swear, i have hatred in my heart for. [ bleep ]. >> the university is increasing security around the campus and adding shuttle service for students' safety. a possible real-life version of "breaking bad."

two are accused of making meth. terry bateman and bradley roland face charges of manufacturing methamphetamine and using drug paraphernalia. both were associate professors at henderson university. the science center was closed october 8th after someone reported a chemical order. bateman and roland are on administrative leave. an 8-year-old boy is helping 3,000 veterans providing them with hero bags. tyler stalling didn't understand how returning heroes could be homeless. he wanted to build housing for them. his mom said no. so, he settled for raising $50,000 in donations over the past four years to make and deliver hero bags, stuffed with hygiene and grooming gifts, along with hts, gloves and blankets. the president attacks

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the e.u. ambassador under scrutiny, ahead of testimony on capitol hill. eight witnesses on the schedule. the president attacking yet another one. a new leader for the democrats in iowa. what a rise of pete buttigieg means for the 2020 field. and the president backing off a major commitment to curb vaping. does his re-election bid come before teenagers' health? that was quite a reversal. he was very firm on that before. welcome back to "early start." i'm christine romans. >> i'm dave briggs. the focus is on one, gordon sondland, head of the e.u.

wednesday, "the wall street journal" reporting sondland frequently updated top officials on efforts to convince ukraine to launch investigations the president was demanding. among them, energy secretary rick perry and mick mulvaney, who famously said this about trump's pressure campaign. >> we do that all the time, with foreign policy. i have news for everybody, get over it. there's going to be political influence in foreign policy. >> also released this weekend, a deposition from former top official, tim morrison. he told officials that sondland the president and that he spoke to a top ukrainian official about exchanging military aid for investigations. republicans trying to shift the blame for mounting trouble away from the president. >> those individuals who leaked this, this is all coming out into public has weakened that relationship.

it exposed things that didn't need to be exposed. it would have been better off if this happened behind the scenes. funding would have been restored and the relationship with ukraine would be far better off than it is today. >> the president attacking another witness after demonizing marie yovanovitch while she testified on friday. the president on sunday lashed out at another witness, jennifer williams, an aide to vice president mike pence. he went after her as a never-trumper. she is set to testify tomorrow. >> williams listened in on the phone call to ukraine. she testified privately that trump's request for investigation struck her as, quote, unusual and inappropriate. the president's latest attacks on a witness threatens to deepen his trouble in a frenetic week ahead. cnn's david shortell has more from washington. >> reporter: eight witnesses set to testify publicly this week before the house intelligence

committee, including highly credentialed national security officials, making this week the most consequential of the trump presidency. i want to focus on two of the witnesses that are scheduled to provide some of the most compelling testimony so far. that's gordon sondland, and timothy morrison, who is the top white house expert on russia. sondland was a wealthy businessman who donated $1 million to the president's election committee and later became his top envoy to the e.u. his testimony is not expected to be a home run. we'll likely hear him describe a call that he had with president trump, that the president told him explicitly that he does not asking for a quid pro quo. it was a conversation he had with his colleagues that we recently learned about. that conversation, at a

restaurant in kiev, sondland told officials that trump did not care about ukraine and was only concerned about an opening of an investigation into the bidens. morrison, the former nsc official, is expected to testify on tuesday. and we expect him the to build the credentials of sondland as someone who was working with president trump on this shadow ukraine policy, sondland, the witness with the most direct role in this effort that we've heard from so far. dave and christine? >> all right. a stunning rise from obscurity to the top of the field in iowa, for pete buttigieg. the south bend, indiana, mayor, had a nine-point lead in september. it's a close race for second, with elizabeth warren at 16%. >> on the ground, for weeks, i have been feeling there's

momentum. they connect with the message and get more and more interested in supporting this campaign. i know we have the biggest hills to climb ahead of us. we will stay disciplined and focused on doing that. >> i don't do polls. i know we need ideas that match the problems in this country. >> the biggest challenge facing buttigieg is a glaring lack of support in the black community. he will speak at morehouse college. the field getting a warning from obama. he talked about going too far on certain policies. he says voters want ideas rooted in reality. >> this is still a country that is less revolutionary than it is interested in improvement. they like to see things improve. but the average american doesn't

think that we have to completely tear down the system and remake it. and i think it's important for us not to lose sight of that. >> expect buttigieg to be the target of increased attacks during the next democratic debate on wednesday night. if michael bloomberg is running, insiders are expecting him to make an announcement in coming days. he reversed h his position on stop and frisk. he supported the policy during his tenure as mayor. on sunday, he apologized for his position, aed an african-american megachurch in brooklyn. >> i got something really important really wrong. i didn't understand back then, the full impact that stops were having on the black and latino communities. i was totally focused on saving lives. but as we know, good intentions aren't good enough.

i now see we should have acted sooner to put the stops. >> some abloomberg's apology ring s hollow because he supported the stop and frisk this year. in hong kong, the students set fire to the entrance of poly te technic school to keep them out. paula hancocks has the latest from hong kong. what are you seeing? >> this is what we've been seeing all day, a game of cat and mouse between protesters and the police. the police have been responding with teargas over the recent hours. they are trying to draw the

people away from poly technic university. these protesters are trying to pull them away so fellow protesters can escape. people disburperse and disappea. the police are trying to catch as many as they can. they say red cross has been allowed into the polytechnic university. that's a good sign. there could be negotiations. we're also hearing at the same time and seeing from live feeds the fact there have been started. we spoke to one protester. he said that he and 20 years were sitting, waiting to be arrested by police. people have been allowed to go on campus because we've tried to

get inside and they have a strike cordon on who can get inside. we're seeing the escalation in this battle. it's hard to see where it is at this point. >> a small win for protesters, as the anti-mask law, ruled unconstitutional by the high court. paula hancocks live for us. thank you. president trump is backing off his ban on most vaping products, a ban he announced with fanfare two months ago. >> we can't allow people to get sick. and can't have our youth be so affected. >> white house and trump campaign officials tell "the washington post," trump changed his mind because he fears that upsetting vapors could hurt his re-election chances. trump also believes that job losses in the vaping industry could stop the economic growths.

juul will stop selling pods, other than tobacco and menthol. as of last week, there's been 42 confirmed deaths. a manhunt under way after at least ten people were shot, four of them killed, at a football viewing party in fresno, california. police tell affiliate kstv, that 14 people were at a home when a suspect snuck in and fired in the crowd. there's no indication that the suspect knew the victims at this point. the president with a visit to walter reed medical center this weekend. the white house says it was physical. why wasn't protocol followed?

british papers and social media slamming prince andrew after he was grilled on television about his relationship with late sex

offender jeffrey epstein. the prince denied allegations he slept with an underaged girl who was on orders from epstein. the queen's second son said he had no recollection of meeting the woman. >> you were staying at the house, a convicted sex offender. >> it was a convenient place to stay. i mean, i've gone through this in my mind so many times. at the end of the day, with the benefit of all the hindsight that one could have, it was definitely the wrong thing to do. but at the time, i felt it was the honorable and right thing to do. i admit fully that my judgment was probably colored by my tendency to be too honorable.

that's just the way it is. >> cnn's hadas gold. >> this brought up more questions. in the clip you aired, he had to go and break up the friendship with jeffrey epstein in person. but earlier, he says they weren't that good of friends. that brings to mind questions like why can't you call him on the phone and break up over the phone. these are allegations from some of the witnesses. one of the interesting alibis that is getting attention, that one of the nights that was claimed he was together, he was taking his daughter, princess beatrice to a party. one royal commentator, charlie

proctor, editor in chief wrote, i expected a train wreck. that was a plane crashing into a trailer, causing a tsunami, triggering a nuclear explosion bad. when people sit down to interviews, when they're are not tied to their charity work. it took place in buckingham palace. that's the seat of the monarchy. the queen, probably, at least, knew about it. >> bad to worse. fedex is challenging a news outlet to a public debate over coverage it doesn't like. "the new york times" reported that fedex paid zero dollars in taxes in 2018. that's thanks to the trump tax cuts, which the company lobbied

hea heavy for. the tax savings went to shareholders. fedex did not dispute the low tax bill. however, frederick smith is hitting back now in a public statement, calling the report a distorted and factually incorrect story. the focus, smith said, should be federal tax policy and the societal benefits of business investments on the economy. "the new york times" had no immediate response to the challenge from fedex. questions are being raised after an unconventional visit by president trump to walter reed medical center. the white house insists it was for an annual physical and did not follow protocol. more from jeremy diamond at the white house. >> reporter: good morning, dave and christine. president trump on saturday, making an unusual visit to walter reed national military medical center, for what the white house was saying is the first part of his annual

physical exam. it was suggested that the president had a free weekend in washington, and wanted to get ahead of a busy 2020 zschedule coming up and decided to go to walter reed and have his physical done. the way this took place was unusual. the white house did not announce his plans to go to walter reed. and those driving in the motorcade did not know where they were going. and they were not to report the president had left the house until arriving at walter reed. i'm told according to a source, that the president's visit to walter reed did not follow the property come of a routine examination. the medical staff would have been informed ahead of time. there was a v.i.p. coming to walter reed. certain parts of the hospital would be closed off. none of that occurred this time.

another source telling us, that the president's visit was not on his internal public schedule as of saturday morning. white house press secretary stephanie grisham responded said, we're not going to get into security and movement protocols when it comes to the president. my statement says, he is in good health. and it was a routine checkup as part of his physical. i've been giving on-the-record statements that were truthful and accurate. despite saying that the president had a free weekend in washington, grisham did not respond to my question about why the president wasn't able to complete the full physical, which typically takes about four hours for him to complete. this is taking place nine months after his last physical. the president said he will complete his physical next year. dave? christine? >> jeremy, thank you so much for that. a dunkin' is tossing out

styrofoam cups for good. more on cnn business, next.

two yachts with a combined worth of more than $20 million destroyed by a fire in ft. lauderdale, florida. more than 60 firefighters and 3 fireboats called to the marine center docks early saturday morning. fire officials think it started on one yacht and spread to another yacht. they say it looks like the vessels were undergoing construction work at the time of the fire. let's get a check on cnn business this morning. looking at markets around the world. starting a new week mixed. asian and european stocks will try to lean higher, despite violence in hong kong. the hang seng had a rebound from last week's 5% drop. it could be another record day on wall street. markets are hungry for any news of a u.s./china trade deal. they had productive discussions about a trade deal. last week, indices hit record

high when the u.s. and beijing were close to a deal. they are putting recession worries away in the rear-view mirror. a huleewlett-packard offer xerox on november 5th. on sunday, the offer was voted down, saying that the bid undervalued the company. however, the board says it is still open to a merger. aging tech companies are in cost-cutting mode. ford is coming for tesla, unveiling a fully electric suv. the mustang mock e. will keep everything in line with the classic car mode. but for electric motors. it is ford's biggest bet on a mass market electric car, but in

a size most americans prefer. nearly half of all cars sold are suvs. prices for this mustang started around $45,000. dunkin' is tossing out styrofoam cups for good. the chain is ditching the distinctive foam cup. duncan playfully tweeted it was breaking up with the double-cup. it will offer customers double-walled paper cups. dunkin' made plans to phase out styrofoam completely by 2020. not hard to imagine impeachment as a soap opera. "saturday night live" gave it a shot. >> "days of our impeachment," where the only thing at stake is democracy. >> oh, yeah. i love the glamour and the spotlight.

that's why i spent my career in ukraine and somalia. >> i tried to do that thing when you hold up a magnifying glass and say, i'm going to look into that. but i picked up a hammer and took my eye out. not my best day. not my worst. >> oh, my got. >> i think he may have fixed me. >> everywhere marie yovanovitch turned bad. she started out in somalia, how did that go? as long as we're talking about track records, trump started in atlantic city, how did that go? >> should the president be tweeting at her? no. it makes him look like a big, dumb baby. >> that's what they're saying on his favorite channel. that's like your kid turned on nickelodeon and dora would say, you're never going to read, fatty.

>> don't bring dora into this, please. >> thanks to our international viewers for joining us. enjoy the rest of your day. for our u.s. viewers, "early start" continues right now. the e.u. ambassador under scrutiny, ahead of testimony on capitol hill. eight witnesses on the schedule. the president attacking yet another one. a new leader for the democrats in iowa. what a rise of pete buttigieg means for the 2020 field. and the president backing off a major commitment to curb vaping. does his re-election bid come before teenagers' health? that was quite a reversal. good morning. welcome back to "early start." i'm christine romans. >> i'm dave briggs. there are eight public impeachment hearings this week. the focus is on one, gordon sondland, ambassador to the e.u.

wednesday, "the wall street