yes. i. can tell you. some other like. a key witness changes testimony in the u.s. president's impeachment investigation piling further pressure on donald trump. and michele kerry this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up 15 people killed in southern thailand after an attack on a security checkpoint. a case of mistaken identity a family adore us mexican nationals are massacred by gunmen on a road trip south of the border. as pollution worsens and india some fear one of

the 7 wonders of the world could collapse. a central figure in the trunk of an inquiry has changed his testimony appearing to further employ kate the president or she intends a bastard to the gordon song and has admitted donald trump used military aid to try and force ukraine to investigate joe biden one of his political rivals heidi joe castro 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 choose. de the ambassador says he now remembers telling you crane 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 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 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 heidi joe castro

al-jazeera washington and another blow to donald trump a year ahead of the 2020 presidential election democrats have been seated a number of republicans and state elections despite efforts by trying to rally support a day earlier democratic candidate and even share has claimed victory in the race for the governorship of kentucky and in virginia the democrats have gained control of both houses of the general assembly for the 1st time and more than 2 decades. at least 15 people have been killed in an overnight attack and thailand's south gunmen stormed a checkpoint in yala province believed to be part of it part of a separatist movement armed groups have carried out attacks in the muslim majority region since 2004 as a curate official described wednesday's attacks as one of the biggest in recent years wayne hay is following these developments from bangkok. this attack took place at around 1120 on tuesday evening in yellow province one of the 3

southernmost provinces in thailand bordering malaysia where several armed groups have been fighting for years for independence or autonomy from thailand which is a predominantly buddhist country the target of this attack appears to have been defense force volunteers these are people from local communities who are recruited by the thai military they are armed and trained by the thai army to act as exactly what they're called defense force volunteers they do things like man checkpoints and they are often targeted by the separatist groups even though many of them are muslim themselves because they are seen as traitors they are seen as symbols of the state that they are fighting against highly unlikely that we'll get a claim of responsibility for the this attack we never really get them in the deep south but we know that the group that is responsible for most of the violence is believed to be be our ran by resign revolution or the national revolutionary front

interestingly the timing of this could be to do with the stored peace process when peace talks have taken place over the last few years the key faction within that is believed to be responsible for most of the violence in the deep south has not been involved in those talks it refused to take place because the conditions weren't right what we're hearing now is that that faction of b. are in may want to talk now that we have a new government in place in thailand after the election in march so this attack in yala province on tuesday evening may have been a signal to the government that it is ready to talk and if the government is not willing to get back around the table and have negotiations then the attacks may well continue. china and france have signed a trade deals worth $15000000000.00 and this president and china's shushan paying announce their agreements after a meeting in beijing the deals over aeronautics energy and agriculture including of

who voted for 20 french companies to explore poultry beef and pork to china or just risen lebannon are back on the streets for a 3rd week demanding the fall of the government are gathering outside government buildings in a bid to force the entire ruling elite to step down stephanie decker joins us live now from beirut where you are rather it's clear that the crowds are still going strong stephanie what's happening where you are. that's right well you can see that a group of protesters actually were going to local courts and also in front of the ministry of justice here in the capital calling for accountability this is somewhat of a change in strategy or showers through as you know they've been blocking roads yesterday the army yet more force than usual i mean still restrained but very clear that orders had been given to clear the roads to clear the highways to allow traffic to flow to allow people to get back to their daily lives so what's happening now is

that people are coming to government institutions companies like the electricity company which a company communications company because also charges here are mobile phones and internet charges are extremely high all these issues that people want to see address the message years of accountability richelle they want to see the next step happening which is the president announcing a date for consultations basically meaning at the event of a new prime minister and this interim government to be formed everyone wants to know what kind of shape that's going to take and whether that's going to be acceptable. step. one of the rallies and they wrote stephanie thank you. russian air strikes have had a hospital in serious and lead province killing at least 3 children rescue workers are still trying to recover the bodies from the rubble several medical staff are among those injured russian and syrian government strikes have been pounding the last remaining rebel stronghold in the past week and at least 12 people have been killed and it's attached to her bargeman from the turkey syria border unfortunately

this is not the 1st time that the hospitals and medical staff have been caught in the middle of all this. indeed strikes have targeted many medical facilities over the last few weeks in those areas we've just been in touch with the director of that hospital that was targets basically he said that many people were injured mostly evacuated to other hospitals of the hospital is now out of service which means that many people who live in the in the area won't have access to any medical facility any time soon and this poses enormous challenges for the medical stuff in the area what is happening now rashad is that the russian government backed by russian fighter jets are targeting rebel positions in the desk of deescalation so these are areas we were not supposed to be targeting following the 2018 agreement russia signed with turkey and now there are

also rebel positions in by that's another man in chief well enough k. in men if it is just south of it look at it seems they are trying to push all the population north to woods was the city over it did for them to be able to contain the area of the seas it paving the way for what they say could be a final push to take over it live which is the rebels last stronghold in syria all right with the latest on the turkey syria border thank you. in the coming hours iran is expected to take further steps away from the 2015 nuclear deal and began activating its nuclear enrichment facility tehran plans to start injecting uranium gas into centrifuges at an underground area near the city of comb that decision was announced by iranian president hassan rouhani on tuesday the u.s. is call the move quote a big step in the wrong direction in the use says it is also concerned.

still ahead on al-jazeera keeping up the pressure iraqis continue to vent their anger against the government despite the mounting death toll and united states waits into a dispute over a controversial dam on the river nile. i know there are very unsettled picture across much of europe some heavy rain some strong winds and a huge amount of cloud as you can see the central mediterranean is where the next strong winds will be along with the rain and this example of those strong winds actually just south of corsica the french island of course and as you can see here some pretty strong ways because of those very strong winds some warnings in place through wednesday across the central areas in very heavy amounts of rain again those gusting winds and then elsewhere it's just

a very unsettling cloudy picture time which is of course quite a bit lower. just 9 celsius and london and fairly heavy rain for the tools east notice the mild air pushing up into most cases 11 celsius and still this particular portion of europe remains warm and dry as well and how much is above the average that rain across the central med works its way eastwards as we head on through thursday and as i say it's a system off a system set by there's a new system taking the place of the old one across much of the north and the west of europe again some strong winds and some pretty persistent areas of rain now image that's how much is in book rest of this for the next 3 days wednesday 24 celsius kissed sunny skies just as one celsius below the actual record temperature in november and even the bubbling up thursday and friday it's still stateswoman this time which is still above the average. from the london broadcast center to special guests and conversation they only want

to protect life. i was making for you or your old unprompted uninterrupted black useful for as long as we've been fighting back have been labeled as terrorist intimately reflecting on the issues of our time people like to think that they're not listening is not as good as someone else's national studio unscripted coming soon on al-jazeera. let's recap the top stories right now a crucial figure in the truck then pietschmann and corey has reversed his testimony . to the new borns on one has admitted his military aide to try to force your brain

to investigate his democratic rival joe biden. are in lebanon are gathering outside government buildings in a bid to force the anti are willing to leap to step down or testers have criticized the government for delays in forming a new cabinet after prime minister saad hariri resigned russian airstrikes have hit a hospital in syria's province killing at least 3 children askew workers are still trying to recover the bodies from under the rubble several medical staff are among those injured. yes president on a 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 northern town of ice after members of a cartel are believed to have opened fire on their cars security officials say the gunman may have mistaken them for a rival gang a warning now viewers may find some of the continent's on home and story disturbing

this burnt up car a mute witness to a tragedy this is for the record i need and for my grandchildren are burr. shot up. right on the road out of the motor. 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 the motorway you know the myths go 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. once. 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 hope is over the door while he welcomes u.s. corporation rejected. the worst they could happen is war those who have read about it all suffered it know they. 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 this 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 cult a leader who met during coolly kind 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 off sort of the mutation of criminal warfare on off mexican organized crime that has seen over the past years is that family members children women innocent bystanders and general regular civilians are not off limits anymore for this kind of file it's need of the police no president will preserve those 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 myth scarcity. hundreds of inmates have been released from prison across the u.s. state of oklahoma it's the largest single day reduction of sentences an american history in maytag convictions for drug and property related offenses the release as part of a measure by the new republican governor kevin state to cut the number of prisoners

and save the state nearly $12000000.00 oklahoma has one of the biggest prison populations in the u.s. . an advisor to the u.s. president on a trump left court early on the 1st day of his criminal trial complaining of food poisoning as political consultant roger stone is facing charges connected to robert muller's and best a geisha and to allege russian interference in the 2016 election so did not guilty to obstruction of justice witness tampering and lying to the house of representatives intelligence committee the u.a.e. is integrating more than 2 dozen defense companies to form one of the middle east largest defense conglomerates the new group formed by abu dhabi will be called edge and will invest in artificial intelligence as well as research and development that will tackle 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. recognize government has signed a power sharing deal with southern separatists the agreement was brokered by saudi

arabia names to end months of violence between government forces in the u.a.e. backed fighters here's our diplomatic editor james pace. 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 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 to get across yemen political process yemen's conflict is complex and multi-dimensional southerners have 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. and iraq more anti-government protests are expected after the government. did a curfew in the capital baghdad i mean astride a mahdi has denied he's clinging on to power reiterated his call on hala titian's to find his replacement more than 260 people have been killed since demonstrations began last night. at least $260.00 iraqis as i said have been killed in those demonstrations since they began in october a un report says security forces are committing severe human rights violations the latest report indicates a demonstration related violence from the 25th of october to november 4th caused at least $97.00 further deaths and thousands of injuries well the iraqi security officials could displayed more restraint that in previous protests earlier in october particularly in baghdad the unlawful use of lethal and less lethal weapons by security forces and armed people requires urgent attention and u.k.

parliament is to be formally suspended in the coming hours ahead of a snap general election that means campaigning can officially began opposition leader jeremy corbyn has given a preview of what people can expect from the labor party campaign his speech focused on the national health service and bracks it and that's expected to define the election which is the 2nd since the 2016 referendum. violence has broken out between supporters and opponents bolivian president evo morales in the capital of pas riot police fired tear gas to disperse the crowds as thousands marched over last month's disputed election results his rivals are accusing morales of voter fraud and want him to step down the president has denied those allegations. your secretary of state has condemned the chinese government for its treatment of ethnic weaker muslims might pompei o says he's deeply troubled by reports china has rather jailed and detained family members of bigger activists the un says at least

a 1000000 readers have been detained in camps in jang beijing says the camps are reeducation centers to reduce what it calls extremism they secrete is the director of external affairs at weaker human rights project and she describes the scale of china's detention program. 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 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 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. it the f.b.i. has been building the so-called renaissance dam near its border with sudan for 8 years but egypt fears the dam will reduce the 4 water along the river which accounts for nearly 90 percent of its water supply i can report 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 to 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. 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 the 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. washington. one of the world's biggest tourist attractions india's taj mahal is under threat it was built more than 400 years ago on wooden blocks but experts fear that wood is drying

out and pollution is damaging the monuments famous white marble reports. having your photo taken in front of the taj mahal is on the to do list for millions of tourist visiting india as most famous landmarks. 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 attracts to the monument of. this and that 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 does what. is important both qualitatively and quantitatively for its survival number one it gives. it didn't.

do for missions or the rest of. the polluted waters of the river pose another problem a breeding ground for insects some experts say insects crawling up the yellow patches which need regular cleaning. and pollution from vehicle exhaust is also discovering and attacking the white marble now back in the 1990 s. the supreme court of india 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 and he says all of the city's sewage will be treated in treatment plants so as soon as all these schemes are implemented. all the games will be.

bridged and his friends gather on the banks of the young every day and pray that the government to deliver before it's too late. al-jazeera india. michelle kerry these are the headlines right now on al-jazeera a significant figure in the trump and pietschmann and corey has changed his testimony washington's ambassador to the e.u. gordon song one has admitted donald trump threatened to withdraw military aid to try to force ukraine to investigate his democratic rival joe biden. and lebanon protesters are gathering outside government buildings to try and force the ruling elite to step down demonstrators want to new government that's not divided along religious sects they're also angry over delays and forming a new cabinet after prime minister saad hariri resign stephanie decker is at those protests in the capital beirut

a group of protesters actually in the local courts and also in front of the ministry of justice here in the capital calling for accountability this is somewhat of a change in strategy and rashard soon as you know they've been blocking roads yesterday the army used more force than usual i mean still restrained but very clear that orders had been given to clear the roads to clear the highways to allow traffic to flow to allow people to get back to their daily lives so what's happening now is that people are coming to government institutions to companies like the electricity company the water company communications company russian air strikes have killed at least 3 children and syria's and live province a hospital for women and children were among those targeted several medical staff are also injured. ronsin expected to take further steps in the 2015 nuclear deal and began activating its nuclear enrichment facility tehran plans to start injecting iranian gas into centrifuges at an underground area near the city of qom

the u.s. has called the move a big step in the wrong direction that's a quote and the e.u. says it is also concerned at least 15 people have been killed in an overnight attack in thailand south of a men stormed a checkpoint in yala province they're believed to be part of a separatist movement. as president onil trump has offered to help mexico quote wipe out the drug cartels blamed for an attack which killed 9 americans security officials say the gunman may have mistaken them for a rival gang and in bolivia there's been violence upon supporters and opponents of president evo morales in the capital of pas palace his rivals are accusing moralities of voter fraud and want him to step down. so the headlines keep it here and side story as that next thing. the prime minister's. mission is to deliberate. on the 31st of october and making this country the

great just great. britain. is delayed but by how much follow would drama of bricks it on al-jazeera. it's being called apocalyptic india is suffering unprecedented levels of their pollution with warnings of dire consequences for people's health but what exactly is causing pollution there and across the region and what's being done to tackle this is inside story. and i want to welcome to the program darren jordan india's top coach says new delhi is choking every year and blames the state government for failing to cut pollution the problem is so bad schools have been shot flights diverted and the public hell.