Trump's Ukraine envoy quits as president rages on Twitter over whistleblower revelations

While impeachment dominates the news agenda, Chiaro Giordano sheds light on this Trump administration announcement to nearly halve its intake of refugees.

Vladimir Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has voiced hope that Mr Trump won't publish private conversations between the two nation's presidents, as he has done with Ukraine.

Asked if Moscow is worried that the White House could release transcripts of calls with the Russian leader, the Kremlin spokesperson said that "we would like to hope that it wouldn't come to that in our relations, which are already troubled by a lot of problems".

Hillary Clinton has denounced Mr Trump's chances of gaining a second term in office, calling him a "corrupt human tornado".

Donald Trump continues to make his fury known on social media.

Referring to a speech made in Congress by Californian Democrat Adam Schiff during which he paraphrased the potentially impeachable Zelensky call, the president again called for his resignation.

After likening the whistleblower to a spy and reminiscing on how the US used to deal with "traitors", the president continued his verbal assault on the person responsible.

Nancy Pelosi restated the importance of the ongoing impeachment inquiry.

"This is about the national security of our country, the president of the United States being disloyal to his oath of office, jeopardising our national security and jeopardising the integrity of our elections," she told MSNBC on Friday.

She declined to provide a timeline for the House impeachment investigation, saying "the facts will lead us."

"They will take the time that they need, and we won't have the calendar be the arbiter," she said, but added: "It doesn't have to drag on."

"I think we have to stay focused, as far as the public is concerned, on the fact that the president of the United States used taxpayer dollars to shake down the leader of another country for his own political gain."

Democratic "squad" member Rashida Tlaib has launched a range of T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan "Impeach the MF".

"You've asked for 'em. And now we've got 'em," reads the website selling the clothing.

Ms Tlaib was one of four congresswomen of colour Mr Trump told to "go back" to their countries.

Commentators and politicians are highlighting some serious flaws in Mr Trump's most recent attempts to discredit the whistleblower's complaint as "secondhand information that proved to be so inaccurate".

The New York Times came under heavy fire on Friday morning for publishing information about the whistleblower, saying sources had identified them as a CIA officer.

It came hours after Mr Trump demanded to know the individual's identity and hinted they should receive the death penalty for "treason".

AP reports that the White House had been made aware of an intelligence officer's concerns in August by the CIA, after the officer lodged a complaint about Mr Trump's dealings with Ukraine.

The individual then raised a second complaint, this time with the intelligence community's inspector general – a process that granted the individual more legal protections.

At this point, members of William Barr's Justice Department were alerted to the matter by the White House, and they spent several weeks deciding how to deal with the complaint before the department had been officially notified, sources familiar with the matter told AP.

More than 300 former national security professionals have signed a letter calling Mr Trump's Ukraine call an "unconscionable abuse of power".

They applauded the efforts of those in congress pursuing an impeachment inquiry.

If we fail to speak up — and act — now our foreign policy and national security will officially be on offer to those who can most effectively fulfill the President's personal prerogatives," they wrote here.

"All of us recognise the imperative of formal impeachment proceedings to ascertain additional facts and weigh the consequences of what we have learned and what may still emerge.

"We applaud those members of congress, including Speaker Pelosi, who have now started us down that necessary path,"

CNN is reporting that a White House official has admitted that officials did in fact give instruction for the transcript of Mr Trump's Ukraine call to be filed in a classified system – a key allegation in the whistleblower's complaint.

A senior White House official has reportedly told the network this action was taken at the behest of National Security Council lawyers.

"NSC lawyers directed that the classified document be handled appropriately," they said.