hungry to study for me. johannesburg south africa. still ahead on. the white house course congress's impeachment inquiry illegitimate and said that one to cooperate. and an iranian footballer faces the consequences of taking weeks out for female fans. still got some rather lively showers around central parts of the mediterranean sea this area cloud here just pushing across greece heading across c.g. and that will help help to make its way a little further east which as we go on through the next 24 hours some quiet weather does gradually come back in behind you can see a slightly finding joy as we go on into wednesday was the pleasant sunshine for the time being further north is not quite as pleasant while blustery showers are rocking in the cross the british isles the low countries the snow was

a front some snow over the high ground there through switzerland that's all pushing a further east where it's busted whether they're extending across germany and also feeding its way over towards that western side of russia more the same as we go on through thursday parts guys come back in for high temperatures getting up to around 12 or 13 degrees for germany and poland 60 celsius the london 17 there for paris still some wet weather into northern parts of england in scotland fading on into swells want to show i was to a little further south you see by this stage we'll see some wet weather just into central parts of the med it's right in that may well just brush the far north coast of libya and he can expect see a little bit of wet weather that's making its way a little further race was with a fair bit of cloud pushing towards egypt. hello

i missed our mind about top stories this hour on terror he says it will begin its offensive into syria shortly and it might not be doing so alone an aide to the

president says turkey's military will be joining forces with the free syrian army when it crosses the border into syria. as president has ordered an overnight curfew in some areas of the capital quito thousands of protesters fought with security forces during a 6th day of violent demonstrations over the government's decision to end fuel subsidies. and the united nations is suffering a cash crisis and is warning it may not be able to pay stuff at the end of the month secretary general antonio terror's says u.n. operations around the wilds could be compromised. u.s. house speaker nancy pelosi says president donald trump will be held to account despite the white house declining to cooperate with an ongoing impeachment inquiry the white house calls the probe in a just a minute but democrats of want that any stonewalling would be viewed as obstruction of justice my cat has. ambassador sunderland had flown back from brussels and was

eager to appear agreement for the deposition had been reached at the state department but then at half past midnight a voicemail was left on someone's lawyers phone saying the trumpet ministration would not allow him to give evidence the failure to produce this witness. the failure to produce these documents. we consider yet additional strong evidence of structure and of the constitutional functions of congress a co-equal branch of government republican committee members all back to the white house move what we see in this impeachment is a kangaroo court and chairman shift is acting like a malicious captain kangaroo and there's no pressure whatsoever coincidentally or not a phrase very similar to that use to buy the president an hour earlier unfortunately he would be testifying before a totally compromised kangaroo court treated president trump where republicans

rights have been taken away and true facts are not allowed out for the public to see republican members of the house committees insist democrats have been selective in what evidence to make public particularly of that provided last week by u.s. representative to ukraine could focus which made clear u.s. diplomats had been discussing the preconditions for a meeting between president trump and his ukraine counterpart this has to be a fair process and when you have a press release being drafted by our democrat colleagues cheery picking text messages when the full text of ambassador bowker's testimony last week would have exonerated this president let's release it ambassador sunderland was mentioned repeatedly in the testimony made public his texts and emails indicating he was in direct communication with the white house throughout the discussions about ukraine his evidence is regarded this critical in terms of understanding the motive behind

the trumpet ministrations engagement with the president of ukraine and the house committees are insistent he must testify a formal subpoena has now been issued calling on ambassador sunderland to appear with all these documents mike hanna al-jazeera washington. well jeff houser is the executive director of the real the revolving door project at the center for economic and policy research and he says despite the white house's intimidating behavior more whistleblower as well come forward it's contested right now to see how many whistleblowers would be willing to come forward it's clear that there is an effort by the white house to discourage whistle blowing and it's clear that to the extent to which the name of any was or borkum you come public that individual should expect torrent of abuse and that is awful you cannot really have a lawful society in which people who are bringing forth evidence of abuses by

superior officials feel threatened but that is what's going on and so i don't know how many whistleblowers going to be willing to come forward despite the directives from the trumpet ministration but i suspect some more will there are ready is evidence of that but it's not entirely clear and i do think it is something that congress can do is to impeach on this basis it is an obstruction of the clear constitutional rights and responsibilities of congress to investigate the executive branch congress is interested it's the only organ of the government that has the clear right to remove a high official including the president and if its ability to do that is being impeded by the president if their ability to investigate potential misconduct by the president and his team is being impeded by the president that is clearly in and of itself impeachable behavior. there have been passionate scenes outside columbia supreme court by supporters and opponents of former president. he testified to

choose day as part of a deeply divisive investigation into whether he participated in witness tampering and bribery and the 1st time a former president has been called before a court on allegations that could lead to criminal charges. reports from i surrounded by bodyguards and political allies former colombian president climbed the stairs of the supreme court on tuesday with the country collectively holding its breath. for the 1st time a former colombian president could be facing criminal charges as supporters and opponents of the still popular right wing leader confronted each other in front of the tribe you were the protesters calling him a criminal and the beast as as his supporters are known trying to silence them with . maybe what we came here today to finally demand justice from our system.

is an assassin who belongs in jail this hearing is just the tip of the iceberg of all the crimes he has current. 8 years in office were beset by corruption in serious human rights abuses both from many. countries savior the president who fought colombia's rebel fighters bringing the country back from the brink of becoming a failed state now he's being investigated for witness tampering in a case dealing with his alleged connections to paramilitary groups. supporters who questions the court's independence he's simply the victim of conspiracy. that he has persecuted this country as criminals go realize drug traffickers he demobilized paramilitary that's why he's the victim of a plot against him it's a conspirators in the political left trying to take over the country they will feel . the judges of the supreme court have been prepared. hearing this hearing for over a year and said they have a least a 100 questions for ali but to answer. this is the 1st day of closed door court

proceedings and it's highly unlikely that the decision will be released before at least another couple of days of questioning leaving the country in suspense about the fate of this trial leaving is a person who raises passions both from supporters and detractors alike and so i think that regardless of what happens nobody's going to be proved perfectly content with the court's decision but we need to stand by it and stand by our institutions was leaving office would remain popular and divisive equally hated in glorified whatever tribunals decision it risks further deepening divisions in the country alison them just eat up all the time. now portugal's caretaker prime minister has been asked to form a new government despite his party for in short

a majority and parliament the country's president met leaders from all parties following sunday's election and declared antonio costa the premier designit his socialist party will now open talks with his minority governments far left allies from the previous legislature. and italy's parliament has overwhelmingly voted to reduce the number of its members seats in the lower house will be cut from 632400 they'll now be 200 senators instead of 315 the government says the move will streamline parliament and save millions of dollars in salaries and expenses but critics say the changes could weaken democracy. now women are about to make history in tehran with thousands expected to attend iran's world cup qualifier with cambodia on thursday it will be the 1st time women will attend a match in decades pfieffer have sent a delegation to ensure that women can enter and watch they flee the decision to

allow women into stadiums came after a female fan lit herself on fire when she was denied entry to a match last month he has more from the capital. estos law is one of the most popular football clubs in iran and the team's been in the international spotlight ever since a female fan committed suicide wanting to watch her favorite team place decided to try to enter a stadium dressed like a man and when police caught her they charged her with violating public order laws as well as assaulting an officer faced with the prospect of jail time and reportedly already in a fragile mental state she set herself on fire outside of tehran court the incident put into sharp focus the frustration many female fans feel trying to overturn the country's ban on women entering stadiums to watch football games is to the last team captain himself he was one of the people who went online and spoke warmly about sar after the tragedy. and sunny it is everyone's duty to consider equal

rights for women and men either inside or outside stadiums this is our humanitarian duty we should work for equality for women and men in all fields not just in football i hope good things happen for my people especially for the country's women she came to be known as the blue girl for the istiklal team colors that she wore so proudly despite the fact that this is a controversial issue for iran's government and public figures are discouraged from speaking openly about things of this nature before republic we were a t. shirt on or entering a stadium for a local game now even though it's those low officials in the free himself deny this ahead of iran a qualifier against cambodia on thursday before his fans took to social media and said that it wasn't a case that the captain was not fit enough to play in the game but that he was outspoken about his support for women entering stadiums to watch football games that cost him a spot on iran's national team. well you can find much more on our website

including detailed coverage of the tensions on the turkey syria border al jazeera dot com. had i missed it in doha with the headlines turkey says it will begin its offensive into syria shortly and it might not be doing so alone an aide to the president has turkey's military will be joining forces with the free syrian army when it crosses the border into syria troops have been gathering on turkey's side of the border since monday night turkey says it wants to create a safe corridor and rid of border areas and u.s. backed kurdish forces. ecuadorian president lenin morello has ordered a curfew in areas close to government buildings this comes after thousands of protesters clashed with security forces in the country's capital quito during a 6 day of violent demonstrations many are angry about harsh economic reforms.

200 metres of the entrance to the doors national. a short while ago we had to tear down barricades and almost make it to the side pushed back with tear gas and the other it's been doing this all day long trying to cast. out the united nations is suffering a cash crisis and is warning it may not be able to pay stuff at the end of this month a 3rd of member states have not paid their share of the costs secretary-general antonio terrace says u.n. operations around the world could be compromised. portugal's caretaker prime minister has been asked to form a new government despite his party for and short of a majority in parliament the country's president met leaders from all parties following sunday's election and declared antonio costa the premier designit his socialist party will now open talks with far left parties who helped him form a government in the previous legislature and italy's parliament has overwhelmingly

voted to reduce the number of its members seats in the lower house will be cut from 652400 they'll now be $200.00 senators instead of $315.00 johnson and johnson has been told it must pay $8000000000.00 in damages after a man after taking its anti-psychotic drug drug respect all grew breasts a jury in the us found the pharmaceutical giant had failed to warn nicholas murray and other young men of the side effects well those are the headlines next stop on al-jazeera its inside story do stay with us with a record number of nominations the world waits to see you in 2019 euro peace prize the nobel committee will announce the winner. syria has been awarded exclusive international rights to interview we know that you would soon december the nobel prize on around 20. the confusion over u.s.

plans for syria donald trump is facing criticism for his decision to withdraw from the northeast paving the way for a take you ship and see if what are the risks of a military operation and what to do with eisel fight is in kurdish prisons this is inside story. the and welcome to the program fully back to pull the white house is sending mixed messages about the future of america's role in syria president donald trump announced on monday that u.s. soldiers would pull out of northeastern syria allowing turkey to launch a military operation against kurdish fighters turkey's defense minister says its forces are ready to enter and clear what he calls terrorists syrian kurds america's

close on eye in the fight against eisel call trumps decision a stab in the back and after widespread criticism at home the president is not threatening to destroy turkey's economy if it does anything he considers to be off limits but a white house official says u.s. soldiers are only being moved within syria rather than fully withdrawn contradicting the president's earlier tweet that the u.s. would quote get out of the war but we have a lot to get to with our guests but 1st this report from kimberly hockett in washington d.c. . as u.s. troops begin pulling out of positions in northern syria their commander in chief donald trump defended his decision to withdraw now we've captured isis we've done what we've done we had 50 soldiers in the area talking about it and i said we want to bring our soldiers back home it's been a long time it's a major shift in u.s. foreign policy one being criticized by members of the president's own republican

party senator lindsey graham one of trump's biggest supporters on twitter pledged to reverse the withdrawal of the u.s. senate calling it a disaster in the making a move also backed by the top democrat in the senate and i can tell you this it is getting roland condemnation from democrats and republicans and i expect congress will take some form of action either a resolution or something even more. u.s. officials credit kurdish forces with helping take back territory from isolate in northern syria but there are tensions between turkey and the kurds the turkish government considers one of its most effective fighting forces the p.k. k. to be a terrorist organization some u.s. lawmakers are threatening to sanction turkey potentially calling for its suspension from nato if it attacks kurdish forces in northern syria but trump went even further threatening to economically obliterate turkey if the kurds are attacked i

have told turkey that if they do anything outside of what we would think is you main they could suffer the wrath of a an extremely decimated economy still trump has long been vocal about his desire to get the u.s. out of what he calls america's endless wars trumps impulsive syria strategy has led to key members of his administration resigning last year his defense secretary james mattis and brett mcgurk eisel special envoy what this shows president. all of his predecessors were whether republican or democratic is only concerned about himself we have a moral responsibility to the kurds because without them we would not have destroyed the caliphate in a statement on monday the pentagon made clear to turkey the united states does not back turkish operations in northern syria believing it will have

a destabilizing effect on the region president trump campaigned in 2016 promising to withdraw the united states from foreign wars now with the 2020 u.s. election just a little more than a year away it appears potential voters not his senior advisers are the ones trying cares about pleasing most can really help at al-jazeera the white house so let's take a look at how others have responded to trump's decision nikki haley who served as strom's 1st u.s. ambassador to the u.n. said we must always have the back so if we expect them to have our back the kurds were instrumental in our successful fight against isis in syria leaving them to die is a big mistake turkey is not a friend us senate majority leader mitch mcconnell warned the move would damage relations with turkey and only benefit russia iran and syria as president bashar al assad fronts another ally in the u.s.

fight against size so is worried the on group could remarriage while iran foreign minister jogs a reef called the us and eve relevant occupy in syria he warned turkey against any military operation. we're going to let's bring in our guests for today's show in washington d.c. we have also chosen he's the people's democratic party representative to the united states a kurdish opposition group in turkey also known as the h d p in istanbul we have osman sirte director of the institute and former advisor to turkish prime minister. and in washington d.c. on skype while. he served as a senior syria advisor to samantha power a former u.s. ambassador to the united nations welcome to you all thank you for being on inside story on china in washington if i can start with you what is your understanding of the administration's announcement of the future us all in syria's war is the

u.s. administration endorsing a turkish offensive in northern syria and are they abandoning your people the kurds . thank you for having me on the show firstly i think. very short and simple answer to that is we just simply do not know yet because in the last year and a half president trump has tried to leave syria on to 2 previous occasions on both being severely pushed backed by the american establishment on the 2nd time in december in 2019 when president front said he had ordered the military to actually leave syria. the crisis grew so much the defense secretary of the time james mattis had resigned over it and then subsequently brett mcgurk also resigned over president trump decision to withdraw now we know that after that this

isn't pressure from congress especially had president trump backtracking a little bit and actually slowing down the withdrawal although a very limited withdrawal took place. the u.s. and president trump himself also said that the american soldiers would stay longer while what are your thoughts the prevailing narrative has always been that the americans won't abandon the kurds who fought and defeated eisel what do you make of the confusing statements coming from the u.s. administration does the u.s. support a turkish operation in northern syria. you know i wouldn't say that the prevailing sentiment was that the united states would never abandon the kurds in fact history proves otherwise those of us who are in the previous administration like myself always pointed out that while partnering with the p.k. affiliate in northern syria was expedient and useful against isis in the short term

it was always going to be problematic in the long term because they are the number one any of the nato allies to their north and that's reflective right now in the concert a tree statements confusion and near hysteria you're seeing in washington over the situation where you have on the one hand. those who have invested in this relationship seeing their hard work you know. being being being let go and a president who's erratic and you know. is a you know issues foreign policy from from twitter if i am but but is forced into a corner by by by president or one even the white house seemed to walk back the president's withdrawal comment do you think present trump was just perhaps trying to divert attention from the domestic issues while. that's very possible with this

president but at the end of the day he was steamrolled as they say by a president or a turkey on this issue and he really has a very recurrent to play even if you were a the most perfect president we've ever had which he is not he has a very curt we're a few hundreds of soldiers in the north. and the turkish army is help and on and on coming across so his choices were either to watch them do it against his objection or to see that he grew to it. let's bring in our sponsor it in istanbul last month a some reports have suggested that even the turks were caught by surprise by the president's announcement of u.s. troops withdraw from northern syria i wonder what's going on in their minds right now where this threat by the u.s. president to obliterate turkey's economy if in his words they do anything he considers off limits what are the turks making of all this pain if you're looking at the looking at the issue from the from ankara and istanbul you can see that

there is a mass standing over there ok and this mess is of washington must know the mass of turkish american relations on the one inside there's a president just between of ours he is telling that he is and or sing a turkish possible operation in order in syria and secondly he is just threatening turkey true to its devastated turkish economy on the other side the pentagon which should be ruled by the president it is dragging its feet to to apply the orders of the president and this when you look at the issue from took his perspective it is a mass and this mass is an american mass the trance administration's mr trump's 1st priority is to be reelected in the coming elections and to deal with this impeachment process and for the congress and the others they need to know fight over trump and unfortunately the discussion about turkey is just becoming a tool for this fight indeed right please say the. this is an american mess but turkey has a big role to play in this as well i mean will there be

a turkish military operation every everything seems to indicate that this will be the case but the question is what will be the scope of any operation what will be the initial focus and how far well turkish troops push into not northern syria of course it's a fact that there's a turkish role what's happening in this problem but it when you look at the issue from you know what kind of an ally you have it standing at the other side of the table with whom you will be negotiating with whom you will be having a deal regarding an operation ok you may be disagree with the operation you maybe disagree with the turkish politics and in syria but what kind of a politics what kind of a counterpart you have regarding the operation tookie is ready to make an operation now he did twice in the region in our foreign and. region and then the turkish army is ready just as as far as i touch to the officers over there they're ready to make it is there are some of the mutations regarding

a field or something like that but without the protection such kind of an operation can be terkel turkey did it and it has an experience on the problems that you got in we are discussing about the american policy on syria i think the main problem is that the better america has a policy on syria not about from starting from the obama period is if there is a coherent consistent policy citing this is another very important point all right jaron let me bring you back in us month says the turks are ready to go away how concerned are you about the protection protection of kurdish people in northern syria when the takesh tanks rolling in both in terms of sovereignty and also maintaining safety in the area how big of a risk is this operation. or. absolutely huge risk because we don't have to look anywhere else we can just see war the turkish

security forces did in the predominantly kurdish cities in southeastern turkey only a few years back only only in 20152016 turkish tanks and heavy artillery demolished 10 cities in southeast turkey when fighting certain kurdish rebels there so. we don't have to look too far or too far into the future to be very concerned about what this operation into northern syria would do because we're talking about an area that relatively speaking has been the most stable part of the country of syria since the 2011 uprisings began and so for turkey to actually want to destabilize and attack a region that hasn't frightened turkey that hasn't had any instability of its own it just doesn't make any sense to me and i think that the legitimacy or the rationalization that's offered by turkey by the turkish government doesn't make

much sense even because what the turkish government is saying is that the kurds in northeastern syria northern syria are affiliated to the p.k. k. somehow now that the p.k. k. is a movement that the turkish government sat down with between 20302050 politically to try and solve the kurdish issue now if your able to sit down with the actual movement for an insurgency against you directly namely the p.k. k. then how can it be that a few years after you feel it necessary to actually cross the border into a completely different country and attack kurds there for their so-called affiliation to the p.k. k. now i think international forces need to take note of this as well there was a potential for peace between to turkish government and the p.k. k. and i think the only way to solve all of this crisis and. tension is for international powers under turkish government as well to really think it's kurdish policy and sit down with the very movement that it's itself fighting the insurgency

in turkey last month in istanbul your thoughts on that while they're on says that the turkish government needs to rethink its kurdish policy but it doesn't seem to be the case right now that they want to rethink they just want to go and then clear the area from what they call terrorists are they are they likely to be thinking of this earth thank you very much for. thank you very much for this in just giving me a voice on that event just in order to make it to to clarify the issues for the audience. is a terrorist organization labeled by the americans by the europeans by turkey which will which killed more than 30000 turkish and kurdish people in the region it is a very valid known terrorist organization when it underlined this this is number one regarding the kurds in the region which coach we are talking about it about the northern iraqi kurds i'm talking about a key our g. . and others when they are facing up with isis turkey was rushing to help them to

contribute military to try to contribute to fight it isis and turkish help save this courting court codes from isis whether we're talking about the church who escaped from wipe egypt pressure in syria about 200-002-3000 extension 00 kurds living in turkey right now escaping from the y.p. judy jon benet we are talking about this church in the region the are talking about why p.g. which is affiliated to let k.k. and it is not so court affiliation and yell out of there i don't really agree happening that this is this is this is the affiliation is very obvious and the americans itself you know they know that it was unsafe anable for the americans to keep the balance between just saving the p.k. k. in the region and keeping turkey corn with automatic letter laoghaire on to respond radio macon ga if i bring back while into the conversation i hear on your response . firstly just to correct several figures i mean over $40000.00 people have lost

their lives inside turkey in the conflict between the p.k. k. and turkey and more than half of the total casualties have been on the side of the p.k. came the kurds so let's firstly get that straight now to the categorization of the p.k. case a terrorist organization yes ok the u.s. and certain states and western states and turkey see the p.k. as a terrorist organization but then as your guests in in istanbul in turkey saying that the turkish government sat down with a terrorist organization because i don't think he can reject the truth that the turkish government sat down with the p.k. k. between 20132015 this was the right thing to do because there is absolutely no reason to perpetuate this conflict right now the turkish government took the p.k. k. as the other side of this conflict and sat down and tried to solve this age old question ok now about why i don't think the old discourse and rhetoric holds any water anymore

a gentleman in of course as you know another major concern is what will happen to nearly 12000 i saw fighters held by kurdish forces in syria if indeed turkey goes ahead with this operation some 2000 of them are foreign fighters including from france germany and the u.k. but european governments have refused to take them back earlier we spoke to a journalist molly sweeney who recently interviewed people try.