lower further alleges that white house officials told the whistleblower they were directed by white house lawyers to remove electret electronic transcript that is of the call from the computer system in which such transcripts are typically stored and instead it was loaded into a separate electronic system that is used over 3 hours of testimony so far in front of the house intelligence committee on capitol hill in washington d.c. we've been listening to testimony from batman the acting director of national intelligence joseph mcguire. a lot of questions from the committee over the whistleblower complaint and they let us know which was released before that as well it's been pretty intense stuff for a lot at times as well you've seen the partisan lines drawn between republican and democrat members of the committee and it will continue but we're going to take a little break and talk to cast our correspondent on capitol hill today to well

heidi where do we start basically i mean this seems as a say there's been a lot of back and forth you've you've seen some quite shall we say robust questioning particularly from the. republicans but i think the thing which i've heard the most from mr mcguire is his continued statement that no one is above the law. yes he has said that many times but at the same time we have to keep in mind that he is a trump appointing that got this job no more no more than 6 weeks ago and he has been very careful in his responses to not pass judgment on actually the the contents of that call between trump and president's olinsky of ukraine when asked by democrats whether he thought that predicating assistance from the united states depended on the ukrainians helping to investigate trump's political rival joe biden's family the director of national intelligence would not say that it was

wrong doing he said that that is in his words the president's business to conduct calls of foreign leaders as he saw fit and democrats pressed him also on why he took the whistleblower report 1st to the white house before anywhere else did you ever speak to the president about this complaint my conversations with the president because i'm the director of national intelligence are privileged and it would be inappropriate for me because it would destroy my relationship with the president in a tele just matters to divulge any of my conversations with the president of the united states but just so we can be clear for the record you are not denying that you spoke to the president about this complaint what i'm saying congressman is that i will not disclose privileged conversations that i have as the director of national intelligence with the president has the white house instructed you to assert that privilege no sir it was just this just a member of the executive committee of an executive branch as

a member of the national security council and also now the homeland committee and the bench you know i just have to maintain the discretion and protect the conversation with the president the united states. heidi the other development today and it was just before the hearing began was the release of the whistleblowers report itself i mean i'm looking at it in just the 1st few lines where it says i have received information that the president of the united states is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country it's damning right from the outset. that's right and it's very all encompassing because not only does this whistleblower who remains anonymous at this point but is said to be an intelligence officer not only does he detail the contents of this call between trump and selenski but he also goes on to say how this call was only part of what appears to be a months long effort by trump mainly through his personal attorney rudolph giuliani

to groom the incoming ukrainian administration to heed trump's calls investigate his political opponent and if you'll allow me to go through this timeline just a little bit in april is when the lewinsky won the presidency in ukraine 8 days later the u.s. ambassador to ukraine was mysteriously recalled according to the whistleblower who spoke with senior administration officials it was because that ambassador hadn't fully bought in to the idea of this investigation of joe biden and his son soon after that giuliani continued his face to face meetings with other leaders in the ukrainian presidency in the ministration and the whistleblower was led to believe that ukrainians thought that they had to play ball with this call to investigate bided and that the only way that selenski would receive a phone call or a meeting with trump was if he played ball with this request in june selenski was

apparently still silent giuliani tweeted his unhappiness about that and in july that key decision by the president to temporarily withhold almost $400000000.00 in u.s. military aid to ukraine a few days later to july 25th of course came that call that we've all read about and it doesn't end there after of a call according to the whistleblower giuliani against the president's personal attorney a private citizen not a government representative continue these meetings with officials in the ukrainian . ministration and while he did that people in the white house initiated a lockdown of the records of the call between trump and selenski moving those records from its normal system to a very classified secretive system reserved for the most classified national security secrets and in the words of the whistleblower he heard that this was not the 1st time that

a presidential transcript had been moved there solely for political purposes so a lot of worry some information there that democrats are certainly trying to get to the bottom of all while this is happening republicans are still saying for the most part that all of this is still a charade. heidi as we watch the hearing continue whilst we're talking to you it just makes me wonder well 1st of all how long it's going to go and i guess we don't know that yet but then also what happens after that we'll be hearing from the whistleblower themselves at some point in some way. that is a huge question we've heard that the whistleblower wishes to continue cooperating with congress but at the same time has said that he wishes to remain anonymous so how can that happen well right now he's communicating with committee members via his attorney and perhaps there are discussing a future confidential closed door testimony down the road we don't know another

person that the congress wants to talk to would be the inspector general himself who reviewed the whistleblowers complaint and who reportedly interviewed corroborating witnesses within the white house before deeming this complaint as as valid or at least as having marriage to be investigated we also know that this complaint was forwarded to the department of justice as well as for to the f.b.i. for a potential criminal investigation of the president's actions that after only a few weeks and without interviewing any witnesses the part of justice decided not to prosecute and to complicate even this more the leader of the department of justice u.s. attorney general william barr he himself is implicated in the whistleblower reports his name was brought up by trump as someone that selenski should speak with to initiate this investigation of joe biden and his son all of those individuals

certainly i'm sure congress would like to speak with and of course rudy giuliani himself the man whose name continues to come up in this hearing the president's personal attorney who appears to have been acted as the fixer in the situation between trump and his urge his call for ukraine to investigate his political opponent ok heidi thanks for now we're going to go back to chairman adam schiff now . truly. what they would be treated to by the president. would be the highest form of corruption in this country that the present united states would be instead of a champion of democracy and human rights and the rule of law would instead be reinforcing a message would you the new real ukrainian president who was elected to root out corruption that instead the message that president would be you can use your justice department just call bill barr you can use our justice department to

manufacture dirt on an opponent that that's what democracy is you can use foreign assistance military systems vital assistance as a lever to get another country to do something on ethical the idea that a fellow democracy a struggling democracy would hear those messages from the president of the united states i just want to say the people of ukraine we support you in your fight with russia we support you in your struggle for democracy we support you in your efforts to root out corruption and what you are witnessing and. what you are seeing in the actions of this president is not democracy it is the very negation of democracy this is democracy what you saw in this committee is democracy as ugly as it can be as personal as it can be as infuriating as can be

this is democracy this is democracy i thank you director we returned thank you very much mr and with that. the hearing is adjourned the house intelligence committee chaired chaired by that man there adam schiff who is ended the proceedings by saying this is democracy as ugly as personal as infuriating as it can be this is democracy he had previously in speaking to. do return of national intelligence acting director of national intelligence joseph mcguire who said no person in this country is beyond the reach of the law adam schiff said well that's the way it should be i'm trying to figure out if that's the way it is as a practical 5 salo i'm kemal santa maria welcome to this continuing coverage on al-jazeera for the past well over 3 hours we've been watching that hearing on capitol hill relating of course to the whistleblower report which was released just

before the hearing began in relation to a conversation between presidents trump and selenski of the ukraine. correspondent on capitol hill today heidi you've been as we have listening to the whole thing that's been a lot to take in what's been the well the most important thing i guess for you that you've seen to relate to our viewers. well sure mcquire was very adamant he said that he believed the whistleblower in this case did the right thing in his words and he said that he believed that the allegations within this complaint were valid and were credible which is why he sent them on to congress now he has a very interesting role in all of this because he describes himself as nonpartisan however he's only had this job as acting national intelligence director for 6 weeks and he was appointed by trump to this position and he was very vague in it in

answering the questions of democrats who wanted to point out that there may be a conflict of interest here they asked him why did he take the whistle blowers complain. to the white house and why to the department of justice the 2 entities that were really implicated in the report because of course of your remembered its president trump and his interactions with president alinsky that are under examination and the whistleblower pointedly said attorney general william barr who is the boss of the department of justice is involved in this too and it was those 2 men in essence who were able to decide whether or not to release the report it's interesting that they agreed to do so because just before this hearing is when we got that 9 page report which documents not only what happened within this call between trump isn't and zelinsky but also the months long apparent grooming efforts undertaken mainly by trump's personal attorney rudy giuliani to convince the

incoming ukrainian ministration to help try and dig up this dirt on his potential political rival joe biden so all about happened just before the hearing gave the democrats so much material to really dig into however mcquire the acting national intelligence director he was very careful with his answers he did not pass judgment on the president he pointed the refused to say whether or not he thought that this call was the lewinsky amounted to presidential wrongdoing in fact he even would not answer whether it concern him obviously we're hearing very different reactions from democrats nancy pelosi house speaker said this was a flagrant abuse of power and in fact this does give her more of the ammunition that she's seeking to continue her efforts in this impeachment inquiry he was under some sort of pressure though in the state wasn't he heidi and i think this is one

of the fascinating things to watch and it was adam schiff who said you know this is democracy is ugly as you like it but the the different lines of questioning from republican and democrat members of the committee. you know it's almost like they were arguing 2 completely separate things. they were but there was one point that stood out to me it was which one of the republican congressman actually said he said i don't think this conversation was ok he was referring to the call between trump in the landscape and that was one of the few times we've seen a crack in the otherwise very solid republican backing behind trump and it may be indicative of something happening it though it's much too early to say besides that comment really only 2 other republicans have come out to openly criticize the gun transactions that was mitt romney who is known to be a critic critical of donald trump and at this point though the if you look at the

polling for average everyday americans it doesn't say that the public is supporting this impeachment effort there was a quinnipiac university poll that just came out yesterday which surveyed people before the transcript for the call was released but that still found that the majority of americans do not think donald trump should be impeached and of course it falls under starkly partisan lines with only 4 percent of republicans saying that the president should be impeached so the bigger picture context of all this i know everyone is wondering will donald trump be impeached will he be removed from office this still doesn't change the fact that republicans control the senate and any conviction removal of office would require 2 thirds of senators to convict trump and at this moment that is simply still not going to happen so in the short term heidi what happens it's a very high drama and very tense as you watch these hearings then suddenly it's adjourned what actually happens next. well there's still

a lot more information to be dug up there are many witnesses that democrats are still hoping to hear from so as they march steadily through this impeachment inquiry which will then lead to consideration of articles of impeachment which is actually what officially launches the impeachment process they will be trying to speak with possibly the whistleblower himself in anonymous conditions most likely behind closed doors they'll probably try to speak with the intelligence communities inspector general who vetted that complaint who spoke with the whistleblower and reportedly also interviewed other white house officials to corroborate those allegations those people haven't been heard from get nor rudy giuliani who is the president's personal attorney and apparently the go between person between trump and ukrainian leaders giuliani's name is all over the whistleblowers report and he came up multiple times in today's hearing as well and apparently

a process that he undertook that is continuing even now but that began months ago as he try to groom the incoming ukrainian ministration to do trumps bidding and getting this investigation of joe biden which at this point we've seen no evidence of any corruption involving the the bidens in ukraine but he wanted the ukrainian government to help try to dig up this potential political dirt on his opponent and that's the bigger picture of all of this are americans going to be ok with what appears to be the president trying to lobby a foreign government for a reason this personal gain at the possible expense of national security by withholding at least temporarily that $400000000.00 of military aid to ukraine and that is what led this whistleblower to come forward and that's what led many democrats who just jumped on board with this impeachment inquiry to say that was the red line that has been crossed how did you kind of stories on capitol hill

following the events there the house intelligence committee hearing thank you heidi . there is other news going on today and we do want to mark the fact that the former president of france juncture rock has died his relatives say the 86 year old died peacefully surrounded by his family but now with his look back at his life. he forged his own path through a political career spanning 5 decades mayor of paris prime minister twice and president for 12 years jacques chirac held almost all the top jobs he was one of the most to prominent politicians in post-war frogs chirac was born in paris in 1032 after receiving a privilege education his political prowess was clearly evident he spent the night 150 s. working in the civil service before becoming a protege of prime minister george pompidou after that his climb was steep and fast

within 12 years he was prime minister a role where he would push for welfare reform his march to the lease a palace began after he left the cabinet becoming mayor of paris in 1977 where he set his eyes on the presidency it would be almost 20 years before he would gain his seat in the lease a he was elected promising tax cuts and more jobs but within months there was a general strike bringing millions into the streets during his time in office he championed the single currency but the budget of the lease a sawed in 2003 the us president george bush failed to persuade chirac to join the invasion of iraq winning the french leader praise from some quarters 2 years later chirac failed to persuade his own people to vote for a new european constitution memories of his leadership will be sullied by the corruption during his 18 years as paris mayor in 2011 he was convicted of embezzlement jacques chirac though was a consummate french politician

a survivor but his legacy is uncertain and damaged by his personal failures. you are with 0 we have had continuing coverage today of course of the house intelligence committee hearing in washington d.c. we are also waiting to hear from the iranian president hassan rouhani you'll be speaking in new york he has been there for the united nations general assembly this isn't an actual general assembly event he had been speaking on the sidelines of that and as soon as that begins we will bring that news conference to you live as well but as i say our focus has very much been on washington d.c. today so much coming out of the hearing on capitol hill testimony from the scene director of national intelligence joseph mcguire who said among many other things i'm not partisan i am not political this is the 1st time my integrity has been questioned more coverage of that coming up as i say also the news conference from

hasan rowhani at the top of the 700 hours g.m.t. . and i let me show you something this is a $1.25 a well i mean if it were by your very flow of profit millions of people are around

the world exist on less than this amount today of the numbers have gone down but there's still a lot of work done at a time when the world is looking at how to reduce extreme poverty the school. but has been told all the women wherever they have the opportunity to be actively involved in the local communities and economies the huge benefits to the people around them to global commerce and researches know that investing in winning. it's not just the right thing to do it's smart economics because there's a ripple effect this spreads into the wider community so let's take a look at how this works down on the ground. in this film we had to kenya where i would be making change arose at yano and catherine on the day they using rainwater harvesting technology to bring clean water to villages they know that a real community is it's the women who want to express to see what they did with all that expertise. in the.

police ringback in. egypt. in kenya will make you want to own men yet amanda won't feel the pinch of going to get water from the river they don't feel the pinch when i turned is there is going. to the hospital it's the mother. a child is mother wants to deliver and she has to deliver a to health facility and there's no want in that health facility she can't deliver there when her child dies she feels the same and they descends they go to look for

work that was terrible. this is our village called or disorder village the only source of water here is this river it's very dirty it's very contaminated so when we came to train and we tested the water it was full of equalizer so there people saw the need of having clean water for a woman having safe water is a very key and using water is an innovative wheel for imparting them but when you w.w. i advertise that they were having some trainings on water i are played after the training we came back to do some implementation and the technology you had picked was really more to harvesting so this is the 1st time we started we started with a water tank and after some time there we men said they were going to control the town. this community is so i am powered

now decided their own village savings account. and the 60. you know but very. pretty. before we started any project here i stayed with them for 6 months i was disgusted to building them so when we did this our action plan had the water as a priority was what i was a new problem as were removed when the when they were going to move 40 in the evening there was a lot of there in this community then we see what is the solution to this having clean and safe return so when the plant i bought the water then i went for the training then we'll make him back i shared with them and they bought into the idea of this what has been helping these women every day somebody is in charge you sell the water keep their records and at the end of the month because it how much you have made how much are they saving for the group how much i believe bumping into

another project would. cut through and come to one how can i use the same method for the project insists. we did savings and learning. activity from the proceeds from what yes this is that if the army is for the project but all this money is loaned out. so that was how much my musings i commission in these are long. about $2.00 and. 2 point one they will be that you only lose one little number the libya line. when i was told it would be on 90. miles away and everybody knows you can't you i mean we didn't miss you that the man out of the of us did we were getting big chunks were all it and it never. did get i mean it really. doesn't

ring true like the 100 i've got it's got your. back back back there. okie. doke. game am i doing the plan like a. of the 5 months like lisa in my area and even making bricks is some of the things that i tried to do. more listening to with my marriage feelings i didn't get support so much from my community because i had good so many typos and you know

one thing if you pull of the culture and you get in a soup with property it doesn't make any. i like levy and lake leaving i like that it best when i get laid my own things i have my life just. yet. to have to have a way. to go to my duty was that it is hannity and now michael michael national. it would yes it is my jacomo the one little humble that yellow and blue and yellow and down because in all that and what i want to run into a little running order i know one. of you what is it when i want to live in you just a little while and. the

. day that. i had a problem of getting what i am i think it. was a mother was sick so he came to be treated them and told them that if we get what they ended by city it wouldn't be to be deficient because most of this i was as we and they were put in a because we don't want to that's how i learned how to construct i want to have all human body do we. you want to call me a tool to have ownership of whatever is happening around them so i bet as this wait for it has this trouble for it then they would not want to see anybody it's trivial to tell you we tried to help them analyze the problems because it looked like

a come to the old solution and whenever you see rosemary coming you know these men but it was really not have the money so we said attitude to realize that our problems. and this is actually. 2 6 you know the african tradition. going along we need the men support even for us to come up with . the people we. need to. so it's then we'll decide what needs to happen so we knew that my lord then they would say what's going to be to go in and make you ask but only if you were doing this obviously all the time then they realise had the remember also have something. of the community. in which. was a. new

york right now the iranian president hassan rouhani about to give a news conference on the sidelines of the united nations general assembly of course you've had the trumpet ministration barring senior iranian government officials mostly entering the u.s. for this event european efforts to arrange a meeting between donald trump and her son rouhani they failed and so we have this from the iranian president himself he addressed the general assembly yesterday in his official capacity. just waiting to hear if he is about to begin speaking. he's actually being introduced mean told by someone who's off camera at the moment . as i say house and romney speaking at the general assembly yesterday painting away in a way it was a slightly contradictory speech a lot of talk about the middle east essentially being on fire and on a knife edge but also painting himself as someone who can lead the middle east

through pace talking about a coalition of hope for all the countries which use and live on the waters of the strait of hormuz and of the gulf itself and talking about freedom of movement for all involved there here is the iranian president hassan rouhani. possible hottentot . their children if i didn't shut up but i shouldn't be only for my own. and willing to show. god. every heartbeat. and we can be sure. that it's on your hands for you to ramble on to the questions. of your somebody here today here initially i wanted to reiterate this or this your

. fish will we. busy schedule that morning principally the meetings and talks. centered on. the issue. of. implementing. the nuclear. issue of the us you need to get it from the j c b o it's. that they implementation of the un just then a logical analysis of the united states. as well as about the region and the sensitivity of that region. for security. and peace in the region and the. future.