you. separatists faces in thailand south attack a security checkpoint 15 people walk killed in the late night shooting. sam is this is al jazeera live from coming up an important witness changes his testimony in the impeachment why he put more pressure on president trump the pressure grows on mexico's president to step up the war on drug cartels after gunmen killed 9 americans in an ambush. india's rising pollution is threatening its

best known monument some experts fear the taj mahal could collapse. at least 15 people have been killed in an overnight attack in thailand south suspected separatists are believed to be behind the shooting at the security checkpoint in the province groups carried out attacks in the muslim majority region since 2004 when hate joins us now live from bangkok so why any claim of responsibility for this one. sami no not yes and i think it's highly unlikely that we will get any claim of responsibility we don't usually get them after these attacks in these 3 southernmost provinces of thailand bordering malaysia that happen fairly regularly there are regular small

bomb attacks gun attacks but it's fair to say that this one was one of the largest that we have seen in recent years with 15 people killed several more injured as well the motive well we are left to guess that but as a say this has been going on for a long time and since 2004 has really intensified the target seems to have been defense volunteers these people from local communities that are recruited by the time military to work as basically a paramilitary force they're armed trained by the time military to do things like man checkpoints many of them are muslims and yet they are still targeted by these armed muslim groups because they are seen as traitors and symbols of the ties states which is the group the government that they are fighting against which is in thailand of course a predominately buddhist country so these defense force volunteers are often targets of these attacks by the separatists to fight says and just take us through

a few would weigh in some of the grievances people have had in the south allegations of forced simulation executions and so on. yes well as a say this has been going on for a long time these 3 southern provinces including jala where this attack took place were part of a middle aged sultanas until 909 when the thais an exposed 3 southern provinces and ever since then there have been complaints of forced assimilation of the fact that their cultural and religious rights aren't respected and that goes on until today and it's a situation that really shows no sign of ending even their respective thai governments say that they have tried to resolve some of those differences since 2004 those attacks of really intensified they've become much more coordinated and larger in nature there are several several groups operating there and the largest

one is called b.r.m. barry sun revolution national or the national revolutionary front they are believed to be behind most of the violence in the deep south they say some of their motivation is torture human rights abuses carried out by the military which operates very much with impunity in those 3 southern provinces one of the interesting things about the timing of this attack and perhaps the motivation for it is that when we have seen peace talks taking place over the last few years the key faction within b.r.m. has not been involved in those peace talks they refused to take part we are hearing now that that key faction believed to be behind much of the violence in the deep south now wants to talk now that we have a new government in place in thailand since the election in march so this attack could well have been a message to that government that we're ready to talk if you're not willing to come back to the table then these attacks could indeed intensify. some good analysis

there fanks your reporting when hey there from bangkok. an ally of donald trump has changed his testimony and be impeached. 20 inquiry and now admits the us president made a favor for favor off to ukraine to investigate a political rival the u.s. ambassador to the golden sun limited knowledge is american military aid to ukraine depended on care of investigating joe biden and his son for corruption harder 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 ukrainian 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 sandlin 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 than to condemn him a spokeswoman points to a line in someone'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 heidi joe castro al-jazeera washington well let's take a closer look at how we got to this point april the 21st all trump cold ukraine's newly elected president of loamy it was a lenski to congratulate him on his election victory around july the 18th trump ordered u.s. military aid for ukraine to be withheld and just a week later trump called the ukrainian president a 2nd time now on august the 12th an anonymous whistleblower filed a complaint of a vacuum all with the inspector general of the intelligence community on september 11th the u.s. government released the ukrainian had withheld 2 weeks later the white house released a rough transcript of trump's july the 25th phone call with selenski that appeared to suggest the u.s. president put pressure on ukraine to investigate his democratic rival joe biden in

exchange for the 8 frank baum is a professor at the university of missouri school of law he says the release of these transcripts mark is 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 baster sandland but the other thing that's interesting i'm 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 saddam 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. into 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 on the one hand you have enough evidence to actually secure and in impeachment vote at the same time the president is refusing to produce in 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 and did a blow to donald trump a year out from congressional and presidential elections democrats of and seated a number of republicans in state elections on tuesday despite efforts by trying to rally support today democratic candidate and the b. show won the governorship of kentucky democrats also projected to seize control of

the government in virginia key battleground state during the presidential election . u.s. president don 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 in the town abyss payoff to members of a cartel allegedly opened fire on their cars security officials believe the gunman may have mistaken them for a rival gang gentleman has more from mexico city. this burnt up car a mute 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 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 limits co 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. corp rejected. the worst they could happen is war those who have read

about it all suffered it know that. past experience says that 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 ambushed and killed in the western state of michoacan then the alleged cartel leader who let go in cooley well the city. and now this and this case is attracted move 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 preserve goodall's new national guard seem to have been enough to set those boundaries and there's a continuing cost john home and how does it a minute screw city. yemen's internationally recognized government who signed a power sharing agreement with separatists in the south the deal was brokered by saudi arabia and aims to end months of violence between government forces and u.a.e. bank fighters the standoff was complicated by u.a.e. and saudi forces fighting with the government against iranian backed to the rebels in other parts of yemen that might again it's james bays 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 war in 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 jazeera of the united nations. still ahead of al jazeera china faces more into. national condemnation for its detention of course 1000000 we. we find out why the united states is wading into a dispute over a controversial dam on the bridge phenomenal. header

their famous of trashing up all the satellite for the last year as across much of the middle east in ages this stream of clouds here that is taking with it some rain and some snow to those higher elevations it will continue to work its way eastwards through afghanistan as we go through wednesday is a bit cooler. warming up across into turkey since the recent cloud has left the picture they've all kept popping up with those a 21 is the high in ankara a warm day in beirut with 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 and a whole wednesday and 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 these coastal areas 30 celsius and also to say feeling a whole lot better punch of rain showers into cape town of the next couple days that is good news we've 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. a policy imposed decades ago pregnant woman thought that she could selectively goods and help people it's changing demographics across asia with far reaching consequences creating a pool of socially disadvantaged young men so you have the system where people at every level will be get being given money money to agree to sterilization on money to get other people to me this rotation al-jazeera examines the politics of

population control. come back you're watching out 0 time to recap our headlines at least 15 people have been killed in an overnight attack in thailand south suspected separatists are believed to be behind the shooting at a security checkpoint in yellow province the u.s. envoy to the e.u. is altered his testimony in the impeachment inquiry into president donald trump. calls a meeting where he said the u.s. military aid was likely dependent on ukraine launching investigations demanded by from. yemen's government has signed

a power sharing agreement with separatists in the south the deal was brokered by saudi arabia it aims to end months of violence between government forces and u.s. backed fighters. the us secretary of state has condemned china's government for its treatment of we go muslims by from peo says he's deeply troubled by multiple reports china has harassed jail. all detained family members of we've got activists u.n. experts say at least 1000000 wiggers have been detained in camps and cian jank chinaman tains 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 detention program against the minority group there's 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 i'm saying

that literally the minimum estimate 1500000 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 weaker 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 china's vice premier says beijing supports tougher measures against protesters in hong kong 100 comments come a day off to president xi jinping held a surprise meeting with 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 with slogans against hong kong police thousands of bolivians of march to the capital over the country's contentious election results protests for an after president even more dollars have been going on for over 2 weeks opponents of war as accused of getting reelected through fraud they're demanding he steps down the president says the allegations of racists use the 1st indigenous leaders a hold the highest office. chile's president sebastian pinera is refusing to resign after 3 weeks of violent protests police fired water cannon and tear gas at

hundreds of people on the streets of the capital santiago demanding better public services and then where nick economic inequality in interview panetta said and he cannot be held accountable for chile's problems of least 20 people died during the demonstrations the united states is brokering talks between ethiopia egypt and sudan to reduce tensions over a dam on the nile river is here up here has been building the so-called renaissance dam 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 michaela 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 us leader was asked for help in resolving the bitter 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 borders of the 911 long been a source of conflict in 821 egypt invaded sudan to protect its water supply off 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 and not 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. was awarded the nobel peace prize for his efforts in ending the war with

iraq. 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 had bigger asli opposed 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. hundreds of inmates have been released from prison zz across the u.s. state of oklahoma it's the largest single day reduction of sentences in american

history the inmates had convictions for drug and property offenses release is part of a new measure by the state's new republican governor to lower the number of prisoners and save the state nearly $12000000.00 as one of the highest prison populations in the u.s. one of the world's biggest tourist attractions is under threat the taj mahal was billed more than 400 years ago on a network of wooden blocks of experts fear the world is drying out and pollution is causing the monuments famous white marble to change color or or pts. having your photo taken in front of the taj mahal is on the to do list for millions of tourist visiting india as borst bemis landmark. but just a few steps away is the young man i've ever joked with rubbish and sue each and both the pollution and the reduced amount of water in the river because of barrages upstream are threats to the monument of. this in that 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 restricted only it has been designed in a manner that this. is important both qualitatively and quantitatively for its survival number one it gives. it absolves dent then the formations of the dollars mill resting on wells 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 order nearly $300.00 in industries to be moved out of

the city but activists say it's the government that needs to do more to save the premiss 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 the taj 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 games will be linked. will go to the. british can do volunteers friends gathered on the banks of the young every day and prayed the government to deliver before it's too late archibald agra india al-jazeera. south africa's all conquering rugby team of returned home after their world cup triumph in japan the squad are set to go on a 5 day victory tour around the country. became the 1st black captain to lift the trophy after the with over england on saturday and south africa 1st won the title

in 1905 a year after apartheid ended there was just one blank player in the lineup chris is says his squad truly represents the rainbow. has take you through some of the headlines here in al-jazeera now at least 15 people have been killed in an overnight attack in thailand south suspected separatists are believed to be behind the shooting at a security checkpoint in the province has more from bangkok. this attack targeted defense force volunteers these are people from local communities who are trained by the thai 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 the u.s. envoy to the e.u. is all to this testimony in the peach winter inquiry into president donald trump golden sun the now recalls the me scene where he said u.s. military aid was like to be dependent on ukraine launching investigations the mom did by trump hired to 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 u.s. president donald trump has offered to help mexico wipe out the drug cartels blamed for the attack which killed 9 americans security officials believe the gunman may have mistaken them for rival gang mexico's president under us manuel lopez obrador as thank trump for his offer but said his country would ensure justice was done. thousands of bolivians have marched in the camp over the country's disputed election results protesters for and against the president have been rallying for more than 2 weeks its listening post now. didn't the u.s. treasury or just a few months ago say that no. we bring the stories and developments that

dramatically changing the living what's the lives of piracy. counting the cost on al-jazeera. stars. the money. the clinic outlook for. hello i'm richard burton you're at the listening post here are some of the media stories we're covering this week you can add chile to the list of countries dealing with political upheaval on the streets amongst the issues on the airwaves journalism from behind bars in prisons across the u.s. inmates are reporting on a hidden world to ban or not to ban the issue is political advertising social media sites are grappling with it and the washington post botches an obituary headline

and the internet is not going to let the paper live it down over the past month or so we've covered mask.