News Wrap: Iraq’s prime minister tries easing protest tensions

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• Amna Nawaz:

  In the day's other news: A new round of impeachment subpoenas hit the White House and the Pentagon. House Democrats asked for documents related to President Trump's decision to withhold military aid to Ukraine for a time. The subpoenas went to the secretary of defense and the White House budget director.

  We will look at that and other developments in the investigation after the news summary.

  A federal judge this morning rejected President Trump's refusal to release his tax returns to prosecutors in New York. The judge called it — quote — "a categorical and limitless assertion of presidential immunity."

  The president's lawyers immediately appealed, and, this afternoon, a federal appeals court blocked release of the tax returns for now. Prosecutors in New York want the records as part of a probe into payments made to two women who claimed to have affairs with Mr. Trump.

  In Iraq, the prime minister ordered the army to leave a Baghdad neighborhood where dozens of protesters were killed or wounded this weekend. The troops are being replaced by police.

  It's an attempt to ease tensions after protesters burned tires in the streets on Sunday, and soldiers again opened fire, breaking up the crowds. But, today, the demonstrators sounded undaunted.

• Man (through translator):

  We are calling on the people and the army to stand by us. Our revolution will continue until the regime falls. We have demands, and they make promises, but they do not fulfill them.

• Amna Nawaz:

  More than 100 people have been killed in the last week during protests aimed at corruption and a lack of jobs.

  Hong Kong remained on edge today after a government ban on face masks sparked another weekend of violence. The first two protesters charged with violating the ban arrived in court today, as masked supporters gathered outside in defiance. Later, the protests again turned violent, and riot police fired tear gas to control the crowds.

  Two Americans and a British scientist have won the 2019 Nobel Prize for Medicine. They discovered how cells react to low oxygen levels, known as hypoxia. Dr. Gregg Semenza at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore is one of the honorees.

  He said today the research on cells and oxygen could lead to new treatments for heart disease and cancers.

• Gregg Semenza:

  The cancer cells divide very rapidly, consume a lot of oxygen, and the cancer cells become very hypoxic. Whereas most of the chemotherapy drugs are designed to kill dividing cells that are well-oxygenated, there are no treatments that are approved to treat the hypoxic cells within the cancer.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Semenza will share the award, more than $900,000, with Dr. William Kaelin of Harvard, and Peter Ratcliffe of Harv — Oxford, rather, University in Britain.

  The strike at General Motors entered its fourth week today with little hope for an early end. On Sunday, the United Auto Workers said talks had taken a turn for the worse. Nearly 50,000 workers are still on the picket lines at 30 GM factories. It is now the company's longest walkout since 1970.

  Consumer goods giant Unilever has announced it will cut its use of non-recycled plastics in half by 2025. The multinational behind brands like Dove soap and Lipton tea plans to reach that goal by using more recycled plastic and reducing all plastic use by over 100,000 tons. Unilever said today it produced some 700,000 tons of plastic packaging in 2018.

  President Trump signed a limited trade deal with Japan today. It restores benefits that U.S. farmers lost when he withdrew from a broader agreement negotiated by the Obama administration.

  And on Wall Street today, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 95 points to close at 26478. The Nasdaq fell 26 points, and the S&P 500 slipped 13.