passion. and the very same just. ok witness changes his testimony in the impeachment inquiry more pressure on president trump. time sam is a guy and this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up a separatist movement in thailand south takes a deadly turn police say suspected fighters have killed 15 people in the late night shooting. yemen's internationally recognized government reaches a power sharing deal with the separatist and the conflict in the south. rising

pollution is threatening to bring down india's best known monument. a kid ally of donald trump has reversed his testimony in the peach mint inquiry now admits the us president offered a quid pro quo with ukraine to investigate the political rival u.s. ambassador to the e.u. golden song now acknowledges american military aid to ukraine was contingent on care of investigating joe biden and his son for corruption hydra jocasta reports from washington d.c. . the only witness to have explicitly defended president trump on the central question of the impeachment inquiry has reversed himself that question is whether trump withheld security assistance from ukraine in exchange for help with his

reelection campaign. basket or gordon solomon at 1st said there was no quid pro quo but after being implicated by other witnesses he says his memory has sharpened. on lynn's amended testimony released tuesday the ambassador says he now remembers telling you crane in officials that the security money wasn't coming unless you crane's president publicly announced investigations into trump's political rivals all of the witnesses agree that the president engineer a shakedown of the ukrainian government someone was a wealthy trump donor and was rewarded the top european job despite having no experience in diplomacy analysts say his change in testimony strengthens the case against trump i think the president if it can be shown that he directed his subordinates to withhold congressionally funded military assistance until the state of ukraine was prepared to issue a public announcement that they were investigating joe biden and

a firm connected to his son i think that's right down the middle line of abuse of power investigators also released the testimony of former ukraine envoy kurt volker he said he knew security 80 ukraine was vital and that trumps shadow policy directed by his private attorney was wrong but i'm appalled by these developments. there's no other word for it we're in a moment of history when republicans over only a few weeks have shifted from saying that no laws were broken to saying that laws were broken but it's not impeachable to outright advocating that laws be broken the white house says the witness testimonies released tuesday june more to exonerate the president then to condemn him a spokeswoman points to a line in someone's testimony in which he says he quote did not know and still does not know when why or by whom the aide was suspended but those are the very

questions that investigators want answered and the white house itself is keeping the witnesses who may have those answers from testifying how did you castro al-jazeera washington well let's take a closer look at how we got to this point on april the 21st you may remember donald trump called ukraine's newly elected president bloviate is the lansky to congratulate him on his victory in the polls around the week of july the 18th trump ordered u.s. military aid for ukraine to be withheld then just a week later trump called the ukrainian president the 2nd time nor was the 12 anonymous whistleblower follow the complaint over that call with the inspector general of the intelligence community on september 11th the u.s. government released the ukrainian had been withholding 2 weeks later the white house released a rough transcript of trump's july the 25th phone call with the lansky which

appeared to suggest the u.s. president had put pressure on ukraine to investigate his democratic rival joe biden in exchange for military aid to kiev frank bauman is a professor at the university of missouri school of law he says the release of those transcripts marks a significant development in the inquiry. 1st they strengthen what we've already known about the case against mr trump in the sense that the evidence that there wasn't a quid pro quo in the sense of the fact that mr trump did indeed demand something from ukraine that is help against his political rival in return for military aid is becoming clearer and clearer and clearer. particularly today from the testimony of . the basket or sandland but the other thing that's interesting reading these transcripts is what they don't show and that is. the fact that there are indications of all throughout these transcripts of information that for example you

know ambassador sandlin would like to bring to the house but is being barred from bringing by orders of the white house and of course there are other witnesses that the house would like to have brought forward to. the end pietschmann inquiry to really confirm all the details of this story from the white house is blocking those so from a certain perspective this is the worst of all possible worlds for the white house on the one hand you have enough evidence to actually secure an. impeachment vote at the same time. the president is refusing to produce information that would actually confirm many of the details so this is the worst of all possible worlds and it's a little unclear what it is that they're thinking about the white house it certainly doesn't make a lot of sense to me jury selection is underway for the criminal trial of u.s. president longtime adviser rod just stowed he's facing charges arising from form a special counsel robert mommas investigation into russian interference through in

2006 through the election stone is pleaded not guilty to obstruction of justice with tampering and lying to the house of representatives intelligence committee. at least 15 people have been killed in an overnight attack in thailand south suspected separatists are believed to be behind the shooting which took place at a security checkpoint in yala province groups have carried out attacks in the muslim majority region since 2004 a security official described wednesday's attack as one of the biggest in recent years go by the way in hay now joins us live from bangkok so any more details emerging about who's responsible for this way well the 1st thing we should point out sami is that as you mentioned this sort of violence does happen quite regularly in these 3 southernmost provinces of thailand being one of them where this attack took place late on tuesday evening but they certainly

don't really happen to this scale we see regular gonna text bomb attacks usually one or 2 people killed or injured but 15 people killed around 5 people injured certainly is one of the larger attacks that we've seen in recent years the other thing is that we don't ever get a claim of responsibility from the groups that are believed to operate in the deep south this attack targeted defense force volunteers these are people from local communities who are trained by the tie military they are armed by the time military to basically guard some institutions to set up checkpoints and the reason they are targeted quite often sami is because even though many of them are muslim they're targeted by these armed muslim separatist groups because they're seen as traitors basically they're seen as symbols of the state that these armed groups are fighting

against as they vie for independence from thailand or autonomy from this country which is predominantly buddhist. take us through the background the sort of list of grievances which exist down there. well as you mentioned this violence has been going on for a long long time it really spiked in 2004 it was going on before that but we did have a law in the fighting and then in 2004 it really intensified and since then it has shown no sign of slowing down we've had at least 7000 people killed during that time most of them muslim people like i say many of them who are working for organizations or who are volunteering to work for the government therefore they are seen as legitimate legitimate targets by these groups there's one organization b r n barry sun revolution. now or national revolutionary front which is believed to be

be behind most of the violence we are told they will probably responsible for this attack on not chuse day evening we haven't seen any sign of significant progress in peace talks for the past couple of years even when we do see peace talks take place the feeling is that generally the thai government is talking to the wrong people because the key faction within that group be iran hasn't been represented at the table we are hearing that that faction those people responsible for most of the violence in the deep south now want to talk and this perhaps is a signal this attack on tuesday night to the thai government that this faction within be iran is now ready to get around the negotiating table so that it's a pap's a message to the government that they are ready and if the thai government doesn't meet those demands doesn't agree to negotiate but this is a sign of the perhaps things to come our way hey verifying for that. yemen's internationally recognized government has signed a power sharing agreements with separatists in the south the deal was brokered by

saudi arabia the dame's to end months of violence between government forces and u.a.e. backed fighters the standoff was complicated by the fact the u.a.e. and saudi were fighting with the government against iranian backed who threw rebels in other parts of yemen other panetta get it or james base has more. a deal is signed that it's hoped may bring peace to one part of the violent war in yemen presiding at a ceremony saudi crown prince mohammed bin so man those signing the government of yemen president had he a key saudi ally was among those present and the southern transitional council which was strongly backed by the united arab emirates even though all the while they've remained part of the saudi led coalition in yemen the real warn yemen is obviously between the hard government coalition and the who are these so this is just a sideshow and this is kind of a small breakthrough in the sideshow that only occurred very recently at the u.n.

in new york the deal was welcomed by the u.k. ambassador the current president of the u.n. security council and this is a good step forward and that brings the satin transitional council into the government and we hope that the agreement will last and will be the 1st step if you like on to increase momentum at to get across yemen political process yemen's conflict is complex and multi-dimensional southerners of long had grievances the south was a separate country for much of the cold war but it's worth noting that the last time a yemen peace deal was signed in stockholm almost a year ago the south was relatively quiet. the most recent clashes there only broke out this summer and in part this was linked to the u.a.e. which had the main international force in the south pulling most of its troops from the saudi led coalition the latest developments are important but they don't mean

an end to the wider war and in particular the conflict between saudi arabia and the who thiis who still control a large portion of the country including the capital sanaa james pays out 0 of the united nations. u.s. president donald trump has offered to hell. mexico wipe out the drug cartels blamed for an attack which killed 9 americans 3 women and 6 children were killed near the town of this play off the members of a cartel allegedly opened fire on their cars security officials believe the government may have mistaken them for a rival gang hohmann has more from mexico city. this burnt up car a mule witness to a tragedy this is for the record need and for my grandchildren are burr. shot up. right on the road

a lot more than. 3 women and 6 children from the liberal family mormons originally from the us who settled in mexico decades ago was shot dead on the motorway in nor the mits co this was one of the relatives said trevor i used to live and also dead twins 6 months old the survivors a baby found by the side of his dead mother and children who fled into the mountains alex labor on a relative told us. what . was the lead but owns a well known emits code for the anti violence activism of some of their members because they u.s. citizens that meant president donald trump got involved he tweeted that it was time to wage war on the cartels president lopez obrador while he welcomed u.s.

corporation rejected. the worst they could happen is war those who have read about it all suffered it know that. past experience says the president opens up a door he's probably right more than a decade ago but scary started an all out confrontation with the cartels and all that happened with the mood but he's in a tight spot now about 3 weeks ago his security minister said that his government was getting on top of the violence but since then it's been hit by crisis after crisis 1st of all 14 policemen ambushed and killed in the western state of michu account then in the alleged culture leader who let go in coolly while the city. and now this and although this case is attracted more published the it's not a lawyer yeah this unfortunately part off sort of the mutation of criminal warfare

on off mexican organized crime scene over the past few years is that family members children women innocent bystanders in general regular civilians are not off limits anymore for this kind of file it's neither the police no president will put up with those new national guard seem to have been enough to set those boundaries and there's a continuing cost john home and how does it are met scarcity. well still ahead on al-jazeera china faces more international condemnation for its detention of more than a 1000000 illegal muslim. we find out why the united states is wading into a dispute over a controversial that number of different nial. well there is

a relatively quiet picture across much of the united states has some wind so weather advisories up so was the north and all this chad can see is that you bring in some cooler and that line of tide is where the rain and the snow is going to be developing within the next 24 to 48 hours so if you when. some of that snow across into the great legacy it's not too bad out tools the west those santa ana winds have more or less died down to manageable levels but look at this by thursday still fine and dry out towards the west and cloud pushing toward seattle and then quite a developing line here of rain and of course further to the north and in that cold air on the back side of this system we have got that turning over to snow meanwhile down across into the caribbean probably on wednesdays of heaviest rain across into the windward islands and also that rain quite heavy again across into panama and on into nicaragua but it's a fairly quiet picture further to the west yes we've got one or 2 scattered showers across the yucatan peninsula and we could also see a few more rain showers into southern areas of mexico but they should really be

dying out as ahead as we head off into thursday 21 sells his is the high few there in mexico city on thursday and as i say not about picture generally across the caribbean so 30 celsius in havana and a mostly sunny skies. the 1st glimpse of the challenges faced by journalists in the donald trump we're fighting the fake fake phony the enemy of the people through the eyes of a veteran white house correspondent what do you base your lack of. the press is not after truck after. we're not the enemy of the people we are the usa current battle ground truth is it anyway.

welcome back you're watching out just there a time to recap the headlines now the u.s. envoy to the e.u. is altered its testimony in the impeachment inquiry and president donald trump. now recalls a meeting where he said u.s. military aid was likely to be dependent on ukraine launching investigations demanded by. place 15 people have been killed in an overnight attack in thailand south suspected separatists are believed to be behind the shooting which took place at a security checkpoint in the province yemen's government has signed a power sharing agreement with separatists in the south the deal was brokered by saudi arabia the southern separatists are backed by the u.a.e. has been fighting alongside the government the saudis against the rebels in the

rest of yemen. now the u.s. says iran's expansion of uranium enrichment is a big step in the wrong direction. that amounts to nuke leg store starting on wednesday iran plans to begin injecting you raney and gas into centrifuges underground facility near this city of. but that activity is burned on the 2015 nuclear agreement though such a bar chords. president hassan rouhani arrived at this factory in tehran for an inauguration ceremony but he used to turn around iran's 4th and most significant step in scaling back its commitment to the 2015 nuclear deal more as fire door on iran's 4th step will be launched at the photo nuclear facility and i will advise the atomic energy organization to start as of tomorrow by feeding gas into the centrifuges i will also inform the p. 4 plus one of the step this new action will also be under the supervision of the

international atomic energy agency for don't you clear facility is the only place where iran can and has produced 20 percent enriched uranium. that's considered an important stage towards developing uranium with the potential for a nuclear weapon it has always been a controversial facility its existence was revealed to the world by iran in 2009 that was after the united states intelligence agencies alleged that there was a secret nuclear facility in iran and the president acknowledged that there are sensitivities surrounding the plant. this may increase concerns we know people are sensitive about for when it's centrifuges but whenever they uphold their commitments we will reverse our steps. under the nuclear deal of 2015 for doe had become solely a research facility it was one of the most contentious points of the joint comprehensive plan of action or way agreed with world powers to limit iran's

nuclear program since the united states withdrew from the deal in may of 2013 and imposed the series of new sanctions on iran officials here decided to gradually reduce their compliance and been saying that if they are not able to sell their oil or to get the benefit of the transaction with the global financial system there is no benefit for data to remain a party of the new cardio that to president rouhani declaring in may that every 60 days iran will announce another step until the remaining european signatories uphold their end of the. this latest announcement will have serious consequences for iran and officials here are very aware of that but president rouhani has stressed that all these measures are reversible as soon as the european signatories of the deal so for compliance until then iran will continue to take these steps while the international community continues its condemnations north. tower

on. now the u.s. secretary of state has condemned china's government for its treatment of we go muslims my poem post says he's deeply troubled by multiple calls china has harassed jailed all detained family members of we've got activists u.n. experts say at least 1000000 we have been detained the camps and shooting jang chinaman tell us the camps are reeducation he sent to reduce extremism. reason grieve is direct through of external affairs that the we go human rights project she describes the scale of china's detention program against the minority group. there is a single minded focus for many departments in the u.s. state department there are just extremely alarming to see that you can have an industrial scale detention and torture of millions of people and i'm saying that literally the minimum estimate $1500000.00 people taken away from their homes

this is happening under a shroud of secrecy the chinese government does not allow journalists to go and report but it's very significant the u.s. government continues to speak based on the evidence that it does have we now know that program to simply detain people on mass even using quotas in some villages to simply take away people weavers from their homes and lock them up in camps sometimes converting schools and then rapidly building gigantic prisons which can be seen from satellite photos that began in march 27th teen and there were reports trickling out i would have to give a shout out to radio free asia which has a weaker service which was reporting on this early but it's been known since the fall of 2017 it just takes a long time for people to partly because they just can't believe it it's too it sounds too awful that it could be happening in the 21st century. there are 3 states is brokering talks between theo egypt sense of down to reduce tensions over

a dam on the nile river in fear here has been building the so-called renaissance stand near its border with sudan for 8 years but egypt fears the dam will reduce the flow of water along the river which accounts for nearly 90 percent of its supply my camera wants from washington d.c. . the u.s. treasury department an unlikely mediator in a decades long conflict in a region thousands of miles away a new party attempting to resolve the dispute over a multi-billion dollar water project being developed on the nile river as it flows through ethiopia neighbors egypt and sudan have been deeply concerned at the consequent impact on their own water supplies this round of negotiation flowing from a meeting between u.s. president donald trump and is a gyptian counterpart abdel fattah el-sisi at which the us leader was asked for help in resolving the but a dispute between the countries and this week the 2 presidents held

a follow up phone call after which the white house released the statement president trump expressed support for egypt ethiopia and sudan's ongoing negotiations to reach a collaborative agreement on the grand ethiopian renaissance dam the waters of the 911 long been a source of conflict in 821 egypt invaded sudan to protect its water supply half a century later it occupied ethiopia a series of agreements in the 20th century prevented further major conflict including the nile waters agreement in $1059.00 in which egypt and sudan agreed as to how much each state could take from the nile every year but the struggle was again intensified when in 2010 at the height of the arab spring ethiopia announced the grand ethiopian renaissance down project. the dam is 70 percent complete and the argument is now centered not on construction but on how much water will be

diverted to fill the dam at the moment. to sort or on i hope the diplomatic efforts would lead to some flexibility from the ethiopian side because egypt is not asking to stop the dams construction but rather to slow down its construction which might be too late now because it is believed that a major part of the dam is already constructed but we could think about the way the dam will be operated and how the lake will be filled last month ethiopia's prime minister ahmed was awarded the nobel peace prize for his efforts in ending the war with eritrea a few weeks later he told his parliament ethiopia could mobilize millions in a conflict with egypt but insisted only negotiation could break the deadlock the d.c. talks are a major breakthrough because in the past ethiopia head vigorously oppose calls by egypt and sudan for 3rd party mediation president trump has assigned his treasury

secretary steve newton to host the talks and apparently curious decision to bypass state department which would traditionally handle such negotiations but the inclusion at the meeting of world bank president david marr pass a clear signal that the trump administration sees economic leverage not diplomatic talk as the key to agreement mike hanna al-jazeera washington. now one of the world's biggest tourist attractions is under threat the target mahal was built more than 400 years ago on a network of wooden blocks but experts fear the wood is drying out pollution is causing the monuments famous white marble to change color and chill for reports. having your photo taken in front of the taj mahal is on the to do list for millions of tourist visiting india has burst bemis landmark. but just a few steps away is the young one i've ever choked with rubbish and sewage and both

the pollution and the reduced amount of water in the river because of barrages upstream attracts to the monument of. this in the taj was built almost 400 years ago on a network of wooden blocks polluted river could corrode them and if the wooden blocks dry out they may break up causing the taj to collapse or structurally it has been designed in a manner that. is important both qualitatively and quantitatively for its survival number one it gives. it didn't then the formations of the dollars mill resting on roads they need water. the polluted waters of the river pose another problem a breeding ground for insects some experts say insects crawling up the barge leave yellow patches which need regular cleaning. and pollution from vehicle exhaust is

also discoloring and attacking the white marble now back in the 1990 s. the supreme court of india had ordered nearly $300.00 industries to be moved out of the city but activists say it's the government that needs to do more to save the famous heritage site. the india government's representative in our grass says many projects are planned to ensure the city does its bit to save the young and he says all of the city's sewage will be treated in treatment plants soon as soon as all these schemes are implemented. in all produce all the bills will be linked. will go to the. british can do volunteers friends gathered on the banks of the young every day and pray that the government to deliver before it's too late archibald agra india al-jazeera.

and let's take you through some of the headlines here on al-jazeera now the u.s. envoy to the e.u. is altered his testimony in the impeachment inquiry and president donald trump. now recalls a meeting where he said the u.s. military aid was likely dependent on ukraine launching investigations demanded by trump. i do joe castro has more from washington d.c. now what is the significance of this reversal will someone that was a loyal trump ally he was a donor before being appointed as his ambassadorship and though his 1st instinct may have been to protect the president by claiming that he couldn't remember key details now the fact that he is moving away from trump and revealing more of his conversations is really telling about the strength of this impeachment case is growing as investigators hear from more and more witnesses at least 15 people have

been killed in an overnight is hank in thailand south suspected separatists are believed to be behind the shooting which took place of a security checkpoint in yala province groups carried out attacks in the muslim majority region since 2004 yemen's government has signed a power sharing agreements with separatists in the south under the plan yemen's government who return to aden cabinet positions will be given to members of the southern transitional council u.s. president donald trump has offered to help mexico wipe out the drug cartels blamed for an attack which killed 9 americans 6 children were among the dead security officials believe the gunman may have mistaken them for a rival gang those are your headlines the news continues after whose truth is it anyway. in 2020 tokyo will host the paralympics. but the nation has a troubled history caring for people with disabilities. japan's disability

. 0. and i want you all to know that we are fighting the fake news it's fake phony the enemy of the people and this president has undermined us from the very beginning he's called this and and so the people he has told us that we are fake media and he is trying to undermine and try to wedge between the electorate and us the fake news is creating violence. if the media can't be trusted to report the news then that's a dangerous place for america what you just did is inflammatory and the public in this room is only trying to do their job they are the same they just go.