al-jazeera. swim at least. 2 veteran diplomats testify in the fast televised hearings as part of the impeachment investigation into president donald trump our answer to these questions will affect not only the future of this presidency. but the future of the presidency itself. in our intake of this is our jazeera live from london also coming up the u.s. president said he was too busy to watch the impeachment hearings as he met his turkish counterpart for the 1st time since turkey's syria offensive. dozens of

killed as israel launches for the astronauts on gaza more than 200 rockets are fired from gaza in response. and venice's mess says the city is on its knees as the highest tide in 50 years floods its historic katz's. iowa began in the united states where the impeachment inquiry into president donald trump and to a vital new phase the 1st public televised taring has seen 2 senior u.s. diplomats take center stage on capitol hill for cross examination by the house of representatives intelligence committee it's been a day of competing narratives from the opposition democrats and republicans as hunter castro reports from washington d.c. the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god william taylor and george kent took the stand together at the 1st public hearing in the impeachment inquiry career foreign officers called by democrats to tell

a compelling story to the american public taylor is the acting u.s. ambassador to ukraine who upon assuming the post in june found himself dropped in the middle of a mystery once i arrived and gave discovered a weird combination of encouraging confusing and ultimately alarming circumstances taylor had begrudgingly agreed to come out of retirement to take over the u.s. diplomatic mission at a critical time his predecessor maria of out of it had been ousted without explanation and president trumps personal lawyer. we ani was meeting with ukraine officials to discuss debunked corruption allegations against political rivals that had taylor worried and countered an irregular informal channels of u.s. policy making with respect to ukraine unaccountable to congress taylor began asking questions and learned the informal channel was aimed at getting ukraine to investigate joe biden trumps potential opponent in the upcoming presidential

election taylor says career diplomats were sidelined as trump's shows and aides pressed ukraine to publicly announce a biden investigation george kent a state department expert on ukraine says giuliani was getting more involved in u.s. relations with kiev it became clear to me that giuliani's efforts to gin up politically motivated investigations are now infecting u.s. engagement with ukraine leveraging president selenski desire for a white house meeting but there was more ambassador taylor says he had a clear understanding that u.s. security aid to ukraine worth $400000000.00 was also on the line the money was essential for ukraine to fend off russia's military advances to withhold that systems for no good reason other than help with the political campaign made no sense it was it was counterproductive to all of what we had been trying to do. it

was illogical it could not be explained it was crazy multiple witnesses have corroborated taylor's testimony much of the facts are uncontested but there is a critical factor still missing from the democrats' argument to impeach president trump and that is evidence that trump was directly involved and therefore to be blamed the closest democrats have come is a july phone call between trump and the president of ukraine a lot of years olinsky tells trump his country's ready to buy more weapons from the us for defense purposes. trump's answer i would like you to do us a favor though then ask for investigations into democrats and the bidens this is extortion this is bribery and in any other instance people would go to jail for sure trump says he's innocent and republicans are staunchly defending him but anyone from millionaire the democrat scorched earth war against

president trump would not be surprised to see all the typical signs that this is a carefully orchestrated media smear campaign prior to the start of the public hearings americans were about evenly divided on whether to impeach trump and remove him from office now that they're hearing directly from witnesses all eyes are on whether the public's opinions will change. castro al-jazeera washington as you've heard at the center of the trump impeachment process is the stretch to withhold military aid to ukraine received an estimated one and a half $1000000000.00 in the past 5 years from its u.s. ally ukraine is at war with russian backed separatists and his own major political from tip between russia and the west now there are fears it's being dragged into a us political scandal status reports from the western city innovative home to a u.s. military training center. so that's what it is. laying low seems to be the

message in ukraine after u.s. military aid was temporarily suspended in july the country was suddenly at the center of an american political storm involving a phone call between the u.s. president and the newly elected ukrainian leader. undeterred by what's going on in washington ukrainian soldiers are preparing war games with the u.s. colleagues at the joint multi national training center in the west of the country tactics they can use in the ongoing war against russian backed separatists in the east while we're we pay attention to politics that doesn't affect our day to day process will be here tomorrow or as long as both governments agree that we're needed here. besides having ukraine's back against russia the americans are getting ukraine's troops ready to become part of nato. this is how u.s. military aid to ukraine looks like an army what was said to be suffering from corruption and the lack of funds now we've got to face russia in the east but one

threat to withhold this aid even though it was only temporarily has caused doubt about how much ukraine can rely on its most important ally. after the much debated phone call with trump ukraine's president followed emirs alinsky said he did not feel pressured by trump's threat to withhold military aid but analysts say it has affected the image of the united states and ukraine and could even push some towards moscow what we're seeing in washington now that is under threat of unraveling completely as wide a report in a series that for trump our job is not interested in any larger issues of democracy promotion state building and human rights in ukraine rather he's interested in using a crane for his old political needs. but the u.s. president still has some fans and this coffee shop only own. a few months ago i would say it would make ukraine more famous and more people aware of ukraine was

happening in ukraine about war in the middle of europe. but it wouldn't hurt the pain in that many americans going to even know that you're framing this. politically but i don't feel any particular help from america so i think we have to rely on ourselves. not the sort of message you craney and soldiers fighting what is known as the forgotten war against russian backed separatists want to hear they hope the u.s. will continue to support them step al-jazeera livy ukraine. is president donald trump says talks with his turkish counterpart. at the white house have been productive they discussed turkey's offensive into syria and urged europe to pay more towards the syrian refugee crisis they also discussed washington's disappointment at anchors purchase of a russian missile defense system

a trump praised turkey as a great nato ally i want to thank the president for his partnership and cooperation as we work to build a more stable and peaceful and prosperous middle east. we have a surety each other that turkey will continue to uphold what it's supposed to uphold i'm a a big fan of the president to tell you that and i know that the cease fire while complicated is moving forward and moving forward at a very rapid clip to be does it mean that you know legitimacy we all agree limousin didn't actually need it to further profound our cooperation and that picture american relations should be erected on a strong and a very healthy foundation i think we should remain resolved in order to open a new chapter in our relations which are in full compliance with our deeply rooted

alliance. because she looked you know we have reciprocally stated our will to fight terrorist organizations imposing a clear and present present danger upon our national security. let's bring in algeria senior political analyst him on bashar joins me in studio 7 not so long ago president trump was threatening economic destruction for tacky if they stepped over a particular line and now he's a big fan so there's quite a a woman up in relations there it's actually astounding i'm shocked by this positivity. this optimism this. this a honeymoon you know feeling and beyond stu it all and it's also struck me just listening for hours to the testimony about the impeachment just how long does it take for a president of a mid-size country to even have a phone call with the american president i mean it took the ukrainian president all sorts of consultants consultation and so on so forth to have

a phone call for the phone call to work let alone a meeting so to have a meeting after what you just mentioned a bit of a tension between turkey and the united states and for that meeting to be so successful and so many levels meaning military strategic economic trade war on terror nato alliance and so on so forth and to really pass by hard marks on all of them and for president thrum to be showering president there one as a fan of his that was really actually quite something the only point of contention was turkey's purchase of sophisticated missile defense system from russia by the number as s. 400 that is a bit of a thorny point but it seems like both presidents agree that this can be worked out through dialogue so how how does all this play for president out of one hat out of this positive situation. plan with clearly this is more important for president are

doing than it is for president trump president trump is living now under the shadows of the impeachment and so on so forth threats but for president they're doing this comes at a very important time when winter could just intervened in syria in order to create a safe zone just settling some syrians there to deal with the kurdish question and the p. y. d. question that president are doing when at length and order to distinguish between what he called terrorist groups and kurdish people in general some of them or 350 or 65000 living through the in or refugees today in turkey. so i think it's a big deal for president now why and how would just look at how this press conference is viewed today in saudi arabia or the united arab emirates or israel or iran and yes russia i think all these countries down to deal with or have issue with their key or with turkey's policies in syria or turkey's role as

a regional power i think are all now outward looking with bit of cautiousness because president urged to on has just been empowered by the superpower president trump in a sense of saying look we are with you in the war on terror in your policy in syria and your policy in the middle east and you are a senior partner a big partner of ours in the middle east that i think will echo bigley in places like riyadh and tel aviv the new text. rushing out of their life from london still ahead. olivia's new interim raided deny is all a president ever rise was asked in a coup deploying security forces to keep the peace. hong kong police claim universities have become a refugee refuges for criminals as violent clashes on campuses with pro-democracy protesters escalate.

how the wind has swung around in some cases that helps with the fires some because it doesn't queen's in the worst affected more recently this should be a general trend to lower the wind speed now but there's nothing in the sky in the case any rain falling through or a significant wind except down here in victoria so it's probably good news 22 in melbourne is a good thing 38 in perth maybe not it's getting hotter and hotter in western australia near the 40 mark as i may get to friday's a warming trend a little bit in the southeast corner but not in tasmania hobart's held at about 14 degrees and it's through the bus driving across the sea that you get the frontal systems moving through that's the active one that's just gone through queensland further south it brings rain to the south of them most of the north on new zealand or cleans more or less in the bright if not sunny weather the sun returns more

vigorously come friday but the rain still falling somewhere further south a change of season is being pretty apparent now in the northeast of asia 1st of all we've got winter coming out of the mainland minus one is the maximum but if i store this massive snow makes its way across during says a nice warm day for tokyo and 11 sapporo come friday it's all change big snows i think for holiday. this is a classic as you've begun to see that it's gonna be ideological battle over abortion we've. had the. make is challenging a woman's right to choose some of the groups that's been ignored now for decades has been. against those lined up to defend that choice we're talking about being able to make decisions for our body. investigates the abortion bans on.

and one of the top stories. a top u.s. diplomat in ukraine says he was told president donald trump cared more about the probe into his likely 2020 rival than he did about ukraine when taylor was speaking in the house impeachment hearing into whether trump pressured kiev to investigate his democratic presidential rival joe biden. in while trump has been hosting the turkish president at the white house for talks for the 1st time since turkey's syria offensive after meeting the us president said europe should be paying more to

cover the costs of syrian refugees. according to medical sources 2 palestinians were killed overnight as israeli military jets continued to target parts of gaza rocket so also being north from the territory into israel since tuesday the number of dead in gaza is now reportedly 24 from math and reports from western slim. gaza skys food with the smoke for a 2nd day as israel's military continues to target what it says a rocket launch sites of the armed group islamic jihad meanwhile after an overnight lol rockets are again fired from gaza into israel gaza city has all but shut down many of its people are hiding. i think the situation is going towards war 2014 still it's not clear in the coming hours the situation will become more clear . on tuesday israeli fighter jets killed a senior islamic jihad leader by deliberately targeting his gaza hundreds israel

blames back on. for dozens of attacks islamic jihad responded by launching more than 200 rockets into israel now israeli armored vehicles are lined up at the gaza border and air strikes continue in the past israel has said that any attacks that originate inside gaza are ultimately the responsibility of hamas the palestinian political group which is in control of gaza there are fears that if hamas joins forces with islamic jihad then this conflict could get much worse but hamas seems reluctant to get involved instead israel is making a point of blaming only islamic jihad fighters for the rocket attacks. we are responding to every attack against us with a very sharp attack and response i think the islamic jihad best understand that now rather than when it's too late while the united nations and egypt try to negotiate

an end to the shelling of gaza's border crossings have the closed a number of dead has been rising and the misery of people who can't escape is growing. rob matheson al-jazeera jerusalem. bolivia's new interim president has ordered security forces to guarantee quote the pacification of the country a day after she swore herself in as leader joining an years has called for transparent elections as soon as possible or in the resignation of ex-president overall is is currently in mexico where he's been granted asylum or on a step down on sunday at the military's request after weeks of protests against his disputed reelection is described it as a coup only hurting you nor i i want to be very clear he has not been a coup in bolivia has been a repositioning of the constitutional legality and this is been the bolivian people's fights which happened in the streets to defend the citizens votes and for that reason my task is to make those votes count as soon as possible there's

a boy who has more from the streets or pass. we're here just a few blocks away from the bolivian congress from blast somebody just as you can see there's still a gust not far away from here supporters of evan with alice are trying to make it there the movement toward socialist party has been trying to call for a session in order to reject what's been going on in this country which is basically calling and naming an interim president that's what happened here on tuesday and we're here seeing able not only supporters vs men that you can see with the red point chose there are indigenous leaders that have come all the way from different parts of the libya very demanding the right to go inside congress they're convinced that what happened in this country is a cool because they were more or less was asked to resign by the military which mean happening in bolivia has polarized the country there's lots of tension right here the interim president has said that pacifying the country is

a priority she is calling on to the armed forces and the police in order to pacify the situation here but that's going to be extremely difficult if that this new administration does not consider the enormous amount of support that ever what alice continue to have here and he's a movement towards social is that the mass of the party has been trying to go inside congress in order to hold a session as i said before in order to reject what's been happening in this country in the past few days meanwhile in mexico city every marla's has held a news conference saying he'll return from exile if the bolivian people request it from home and has more. president rallies used his press conference in mexico city he's been granted asylum in mexico call for a national dialogue in bolivia to try and sort out the mess that's happened after the bolivian elections he repeated that for him this is a military coup in the country again said that he was asked to leave by the

military and he said the proof of that coup was senator and now in 3 in president xi name and years declaring himself interim president of bolivia he also spoke about the election process in the in the vote count that led to the organization of american states saying that it was serious or regularities he said that there was a fraud he said that he felt that the organization of american states was acting in the interest basically of the united states so that's president morales is take on what's happening back home in his country bolivia the organization american states define serious regularities in the voting process there were serious doubts and that spurred the opposition a many people to take to the streets in a process that really hasn't stopped him believe you're now looking at crashes also between the opposition and between the supporters of president morales the president the ex-president now said that his sister's house was attacked in one of

those confrontations so a very disturbing situation in bolivia and the president and the next president that's now many miles away here in mexico. on kong's high court has dismissed an application for an injunction to stop police entering the territories chinese university it was put forward by the university student union after protesters clashed with police on tuesday night injuring dozens of students a court declined injunction on the grounds that the campus is a public space escalating battles between police and pro-democracy. jess's of mainly shifted to university campuses and he said he used to gas and rubber bullets against demonstrators they say armed with petrol bombs as well as bows and arrows to the fallen has more from hong kong. well students at the chinese university decided to take matters into their own hands long before the high court decided not

to grant the student union an injunction that would have allowed the university to stop police from entering the campus the students had blocked all entrances carefully screening anyone who tried to enter the campus they also set a barricades all along the campus roads and they've been stocking up on supplies indicating that they were digging their heels in for the long haul as they wanted to safeguard their university that brought in supplies such as food water clothes fire extinguishers and even umbrellas in case not just not for the weather but just in case police decided to try and come in and tear gassed them and i'm quite disappointed in judgment of that by the cards because i think we can see the police are all the country right now and instead in we are trying our best to protect a school on tuesday night into the early hour so wednesday this was the scene of intense confrontations between protesters and riot police riot police fired tear

gas water cannon and even rubber bullets at the protesters on the university campus . it was on the forefront of many people's minds on wednesday as they took part in an impromptu protest in the city's financial center really wary of all that because now the police. they are not normal and they're not doing according to the home goal so we want to fight well here the chinese university students say they'll now more time to protest after the university canceled classes till the end of the year the university says it's because of safety concerns and damage to property. lebanon's president says the country's economic situation is getting worse because of widespread protests over the ongoing political crisis. anti-government rallies are ramped up since michel i would urge demonstrators to end their revolt against the ruling elite one man was shot

dead on tuesday south of beirut the army says a soldier has been detained after forces opened fire on the protesters blocking roads around the capital stephanie decker has more from cul de south of beirut. we are one of the many roadblocks that are now across the country you can probably hear people arguing there's a lot of frustration among the drivers telling the protesters who are blocking the roads that this is not the way to air their grievances because they want to go about their daily lives get to work get to wherever it is they have to go you know it's are is very hard to tell americans are essential resources how close are you start your life your life we're live with life we're going to we're live ok we're like look at the side of the sari ok so there's that i think you know that that's why there's a lot of frustration ok but you don't see where so what would you why are you here blocking the road i don't understand because i am depending on how you go that is not ok ok i thought ok i don't understand it when it's. time

to tell me what it was how do the how does it make you feel. but. how why are you here why you want to do your brother i want to close with hope we don't want this for those who go for the motherboard ok so what's your reaction to the president's speech yesterday just you with all the sort of the people going to thoughts of the . time how could the president say please be president if you don't like. this to their country oh you're coming over to your country who are all good. about this is this is why people are very frustrated interpret in the words of the president he said to them it's not like i'm saying something back so this is what they're trying to do to keep the pressure on the street and the people on the government for change so you can see cars are backed up they're going out they're turning even down there the highways blocked with burning tires. thousands of students from iraq school for university and trade union members have joined

ongoing anti-government protests there accusing the government of being illegitimate and failing to tackle mass unemployment and widespread corruption on 300 people have died in the on rest of the country's top shia cleric grand ayatollah ali sistani has backed a un roadmap out of the crisis the un's proposal calls for an immediate end to violence electoral reform and anti graft measures within 2 weeks america venice is blaming climate change for floods which overwhelmingly italian city more than 85 percent of its historic squares and streets are under water it's in their highest recorded level in 53 years 2 people have lost their lives charlie rangel reports the. streets and canals merged as the 2nd highest tide ever recorded swept through venice on tuesday undaunted most tourists took to touring the city on gangplanks but some chose to swim through st mark's square the city's

main piazza as waters hit 1.87 meters high the highest in half a century sirens sounded. for residents the effects a devastating day basket our masks our plates everything look at what we're living with here i just want to cry. the city's mayor has declared a state of emergency blaming the rising waters on climate change meanwhile much needed off shore barriers designed to prevent floods remain on finished the project started in 2003 has been dogged by delays soaring costs and corruption scandals venetians a demanding progress. it's been 10 years but they've done nothing it's in total eclipse it doesn't work and i have stolen 6 and a half $1000000000.00 our politicians are old cleaved they should be in jail but. the damage is estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars and there are concerns

that this flood is the starkest morning yet that the city is drowning. and the one you can catch up with all our stories on our website. dot com. but mind the main story. the top u.s. diplomat in ukraine says he was told president donald trump cared more about the probe into his likely 2020 rival than he did about ukraine william taylor was speaking in the house impeachment hearing into whether trump pressured kiev to investigate is democratic presidential rival joe biden. or trump has reacted strongly to the proceedings when asked during a meeting with turkey's president richard. at the white house he called it a witch hunt like i did i did not watch and i'm too busy to watch it it's a witch hunt it's a hoax i'm too busy to watch it so i'm sure i'll get

a report and there's nothing i have not been proved no there's nothing there i see they're using lawyers or television lawyers they pick some guys who have television you know i'm not surprised to see it because shift gears to his own questions. meanwhile trump has been hosting as we saw there the turkish president at the white house for talks the 1st time since turkey's syria offensive after the meeting the u.s. president said europe should be paying more to cover costs of syrian refugees he added that he believes he has a great relationship with richard tired one. bolivia's new interim president has ordered security forces to guarantee the pacification of the country a day after she saw herself in as lead it journey 9 years as called for transparent elections as soon as possible following the resignation of ex-president ever more as he's currently in mexico where he's been granted asylum for others says he will return from exile if the people request it the former leader step down on sunday at

the military's request after weeks of protests against his disputed reelection. ongoings high court has dismissed an application for an injunction to stop police from entering the territories chinese university it was put forward by the university's student union after protesters clashed with police throughout tuesday night injuring dozens of students and court declined the injunction on the grounds that the campus is a public space escalating battles between police and pro-democracy protesters mainly shifted to university campuses police have used tear gas and rubber bullets against demonstrators they say are armed with petrol bombs as well as bows and arrows. as the headlines do stay with us fault lines the abortion bans is next thanks for watching by phone or. from lagos to jerusalem to by i am on the go is this claim 3 month old form milestone in history my own

background. 3 short films that show how people take a stand against evictions in their struggling communities the 1st time they arrested i was 11 years old a.j. selects on al-jazeera. in georgia the governor is poised to sign one of the most restrictive it the abortion laws in the country missouri state senate passed an 8 week abortion ban containing no exceptions for victims of rape incest or in the crimes right on the heels of alabama's even stricter legislation in 20199 u.s. states passed laws that would ban abortion in the beginning stages of pregnancy as early as 6 weeks before many women even know they're pregnant. the state of georgia recognize the benefits of providing all legal recognition i'm born alabama went the furthest and began the procedure.