the politics of population control. key witness changes his testimony in the impeachment inquiry more pressure on president trump. on sam is a than this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up separatist fighters in thailand south strike at a security checkpoint 15 people are killed in the late night shooting. the pressure grows on mexico's president to step up the war on drug cartels after gunman killed 9 american. yemen's internationally recognized government reaches

a power sharing deal with separatists when the conflict in the south. donald trump has reversed this testimony in the impeachment inquiry he now admits the u.s. president offered the quid pro quo with ukraine to investigate a political rival the us ambassador to the e.u. golden now acknowledges american military aid to ukraine was contingent on kiev investigating joe biden and his son for corruption either 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. bassett or gordon solomon at 1st says there was no quid pro

quo but after being implicated by other witnesses he says his memory has sharpened in someone'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 cranes 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 do more to exonerate the president then to condemn him a spokeswoman points to a line in solomon's testimony in which she 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 now let's take a closer look at how we got to this point in the 1st place on april the 21st donald trump called ukraine's newly elected president vladimir selinski to congratulate him on his victory in the polls around the week of july 18th trump ordered u.s. military aid for ukraine be withheld then just a week later from cole the ukrainian president a 2nd time on august the 12th an anonymous whistleblower followed the complaint over that call with the inspector general of the intelligence community on september 10th of september 11th rather the u.s. government released the ukrainian aid it had been withholding to explain to 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 pressured ukraine to investigate his democratic rival joe biden in exchange for the aid frank bauman is a professor at the university of missouri school of law he says the release of those transcripts marcus' significant developments 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 was indeed 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 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 and 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 that 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 of other white house that certainly doesn't make a lot of sense to me and then a blow to donald trump a year out from congressional and presidential elections democrats of unseated a number of republicans in state elections on tuesday this by the efforts by trying

to rally support a day early democratic candidate and the best won the governorship of kentucky democrats are also projected to seize control of the government in virginia that's a key battleground state during the presidential election. 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 the gallup province groups have carried out attacks in the muslim majority region since 2004 let's bring in wayne hale joins us now live from bangkok so what details emerging about who carried out this attack well this attack took place at around 1120 jews day nights we never really have any claims of responsibility after these attacks that take place fairly regularly in the 3 southernmost provinces of thailand. where this attack took place

is one of those provinces bordering malaysia where several of these armed separatist groups are fighting for independence or autonomy from thailand which is predominantly a buddhist country of course this attack is believed to be targeted defense volunteers these are basically people from local communities who are recruited by the military as a paramilitary force basically to protect certain facilities set up roadblocks and things like that they are armed trained by the time military many of them are muslims but they are often targeted because they're seen by these separatist groups as being traitors or symbols of the buddhist state that they are fighting against so again no claim of responsibility but it does seem like this was carried out by the largest group operating in the deep south the group that is believed to be responsible for most of the violence there that is revolution s now be our friend

or the national revolutionary front but again we won't get any claim of responsibility. now take us through a little bit about the background of why there is so much instability there in the south way. all right we seem to have lost connection there with wayne hey. let's move on then the u.s. president on trump has offered to help mexico wipe out the drug cartels blamed for an attack which killed 9 americans 3 women and 6 children were killed near the town the best way of the members of a cartel edge and they opened fire on their cars security officials believe the gunman may have mistaken them for a rival gang john allman has more from mexico city this burnt up car witness to a tragedy this is for the record need and for my grandchildren are burr.

shot up. on the road. 3 women and 6 children from the liberal family mormons originally from the u.s. who settled in mexico decades ago was shot dead on a motorway in nor the mits co this was one of the relatives said trevor i used to live and also dead twin's 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. 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 lopez obrador is probably right more than a decade ago but it's kerry started an all out confrontation with the cartels and all that happened. 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 killed in the western state of michoacan then the alleged cartel leader who let go in cooley well the city. and now this and

although this case is attracted more published the it's not a lawyer you know this unfortunately part of sort of the mutation of criminal warfare and off mexican organized crime scene over the past few years is that family members children women innocent bystanders and general regular civilians are not off limits anymore for this kind of violence neither the police no president will preside goodall's new national guard seemed to have been enough to set those boundaries and there's a continuing cost john home and how does it a coup city. yemen's internationally recognized government has signed a power sharing agreement with separatists in the south the deal was brokered by saudi arabia and they to end months of violence between government forces and u.a.e. backed fighters the standoff was complicated by u.a.e. and saudi forces fighting with the government against iranian backed with the rebels in other parts of yemen diplomatic editor james bays now. 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 saudi that 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 equipment 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 who still control a large portion of the country including the capital sanaa james pays out 0 of the united nations. so ahead of al jazeera sturrock release will tell you why hundreds

of u.s. prisoners are going home early. and the doctor states he's wading into a dispute over a controversial down the river an oil. head or the 5 ounce of trashing up on the satellite for the last year as across much of the middle east you know it is this stream of clouds here that is taking with it some rain and some snow to those higher elevations it'll continue to work its way eastwards through afghanistan as we go through wednesday is a bit cooler into turn around to warming up across into turkey since the recent cloud has left the picture there that will keep bubbling up all those day 21 is the high in ankara a warm day in beirut with a high of a 28 degrees and cooling off in kabul as that rain and snow continues to push away

system cooler air hi there just 12 degrees celsius and talking a cooler air perhaps not cooler feeling a whole lot better across most of the arabian peninsula 32 in the whole wednesday and laich is the case is once again clear by this time across in so that is because should actually by then have taken a turn tools east so taking calls any rain any clouds and any strong winds away from those coastal areas 30 celsius on post and also to say feeling a whole lot better bunch of rain showers into cape town of the next couple days that is good news we also got some rain pushing into central areas of angola also on wednesday some rain showers into northern madagascar and then as tanzania on thursday will see the rain showers but woman johannesburg with a high of 34. sponsored. or you know testing about how does this impact their online life based mental state

i'm directly i'll translate slavery or if you join us this is an attack on academic freedom and on our ability to do research and teach freely this is a dialogue myanmar is not making it very welcoming for people to come back everyone has a voice climate change is real the discussion is real and i'm here to talk about the solutions on al-jazeera. come back here watching al-jazeera time to recap the headlines now the u.s. envoy to the e.u. has altered his testimony in the peach frenzy inquiry and president donald trump called and song now recalls a meeting where he said u.s.

military aid was likely dependent on ukraine launching investigations demanded by trump. at least 15 people have been killed and over knife attack in thailand south suspected separatists are believed to be behind the shooting at the security checkpoint in gallup province yemen's government has signed the power sharing agreement with separatists in the south the deal was brokered by saudi arabia and southern separatists backed by the u.a.e. which has been fighting alongside government and saudi forces against both the rebels and the rest of yemen. the u.s. says iran's expansion of uranium enrichment is a big step in the wrong direction and amounts to nuclear extortion saw that on wednesday iran plans to be. getting jacked in uranium gas into centrifuges underground facility in the city of qom but that's bad in the 2015 nuclear agreement also jabari reports. president hassan rouhani arrived at this

factory in teheran for an inauguration ceremony but he used the term announce enron'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 forto 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 step may increase concerns we know people are sensitive about photo and 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 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 doubt to remain a party after 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 green meant 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 dorsett al-jazeera tehran. the u.a.e. has announced plans to form one of the middle east largest defense conglomerates the new entity will be called the edge it will invest in technologies such as artificial intelligence as well as research and development it will tackle cyber security and drone threats the u.a.e. is one of the top buyers of western arms and defense systems mostly from the united states. the united states is brokering talks with tween ethiopia egypt and sudan to

reduce tensions over a dam on the river nile if he appears been building the so-called renaissance stand near its border with sudan for 8 years of age it fears the dam will reduce the flow of water which accounts for their lean 90 percent of its supply mike hanna reports 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 that 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 u.s. 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 1959 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 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 the u.s. secretary of state has condemned china's government for its treatment of we go muslims might compost says he's deeply troubled by reports china has harassed jailed all detained relatives of we've got activists you have experts say at least $1000000.00 illegals have been detained in camps and shin jang china says the camps are reeducation centers to reduce extremism luis aggrieved is director of external affairs at the we go human rights project she describes the

scale of china's the 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 2017 and there were reports

trickling out i would have to give a shout out to radio free asia which has a week or service which was reporting on this earlier 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. now china's vice premier says beijing supports tougher measures against protesters in hong kong and jennings comments come a day after president xi jinping held the surprise meeting with the territories leader kerry lamb demonstrations against a controversial ban on face masks are still being held a month since it came into effect hundreds of people wearing white smiling masks chanted slogans against hong kong police. thousands of bolivians of march to the capital over the country's contentious election results protests for and against president even more hours of been going on for over 2 weeks opponents of moral is

accused him of getting reelected through fraud and are demanding he steps down the president says the allegations are racist he is the 1st indigenous needed to hold the highest office hundreds of inmates have been released from prison is across the u.s. state of oklahoma it's the largest single day reduction of sentences in american history inmates had convictions for drug and property offenses their release is part of a measure by the state's new governor republican governor to lower the number of prisoners and save the state nearly $12000000.00 oklahoma has one of the highest prison populations in the u.s. . 524 people were commuted across our state today given. to leave your past behind and really bring our correctional facilities to current law back in 2060. home or citizens voted

to make something use some minor drug offenses misdemeanors and we're only bringing that up to current law today. south africa's all conquering rugby team have returned home after their world cup triumph in japan the squad is set to go on a 5 day victory tour around the country see a collision came the 1st black captain to lift the trophy after the winner over england on saturday in south africa 1st won the title in life in 95 a year after apartheid ended it was just there was just one black player in the lineup but he says says he is what is truly a national team. in a tin can be overcome with opportunity but with my drive when i was younger it was just go into training each and every single day i was preparing myself not knowing what was it was i was young i was only 9 years old i could do training ija newsroom day and i was always sleeping with the phone which unity just in case it came and

when it did come you know i was really able to get both. the most important is that you never listen to some of those you can make if you're not going to make it it's it's up to you and you alone and all the people that we have around you that's the most important thing and i just want to throw them just keep dreaming in people believing in people and pushing. her let's take you through some of the headlines here now to syria now the u.s. envoy to the e.u. is altered his testimony in the impeachment inquiry into president donald trump goldens on the now recalls a meeting where he said u.s. military aid was likely dependent on ukraine launching investigations demanded by trump hi 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 the 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 attack in thailand self suspected separatists are believed to be behind the shooting at a security checkpoint in yala province armed groups carry out attacks in the most the majority region since 2004 u.s. president all 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 thousands of bolivians of march to the capital of paths in protest

against the country's contentious election results protesters for and against president evo morales been rallying for more than 2 weeks opponents of moral is claim he got reelected by committing fraud and should step aside the u.s. secretary of state has confirmed has condemned rather china's government for its treatment of we good muslims my compost says he's deeply troubled by reports china harassed jailed or detained relatives of week activists u.n. experts say at least 1000000 weak is have been detained in camps inching jaring china says the camps are real education centers to reduce extremism there's a headline is the news continues here in our desire after the stream stay with us. notice there are. they don't believe in the 2 state solution do you still believe in the 2 state solution we listen what i said was that pakistan would never start

a war i'm anti-war we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories that matter so much as their own. ok i'm here in the stream today a mass protests and unrest in chile what are the roots of economic inequality in one of latin america's wealthiest nations will look at the protests over wealth inequality and we want to hear what you think should be done to address it share your thoughts via twitter or and our live chat. many supporters of. the countries are richer than you are in the street. protesters all keeping up their calls for political and economic overhaul in the country and the 3rd week of protests.