rockets are fired from gaza into israel just hours after a cease fire went into place. in life from a headquarters and. also ahead to protesters killed in baghdad as fighting intensifies between security forces. withholding security assistance in exchange for the domestic political campaign in the united states would be crazy i believe and i believe it. gives evidence in the 1st public hearings of the

impeachment inquiry. and a new ebola vaccine is all set to roll out but some. are skeptical. fellow rockets have been fired from gaza into israel hours after a cease fire was agreed to this would appear to have violated a truce struck earlier between israel and islamic jihad armed group $34.00 palestinians have been killed in israeli airstrikes in 2 days the escalation began after the israeli army assassinated a senior leader off the group on tuesday. jihad spokesman confirmed the cease fire to the north the month also led winton to a thick on the ground at 5 am with islamic jihad conditions on behalf of the palestinian resistance factions dealing clue to the occupation submission 2

conditions which is to stop the assassinations protecting the protesters at the much of pretense demonstrations and to begin practically the procedures to break the siege of gaza this is guaranteed by the presence of resistance in the field and it's ready mr respond to any aggressions in the future and also the continuation of the egyptian role at the political level let's get an update from mary foster joining us from the israel gaza border what more you hearing about the rockets that were fired from gaza and what does this mean for the cease fire. well it happened about 2 hours ago there were alerts in the area around gaza these rockets fired from gaza city there have been reports that it was fired by a smaller faction inside gaza not islamic jihad or hamas but nobody's officially claimed responsibility for it israeli military says that it observed these 5 rockets come out and that 2 of them were intercepted by the anti missile iron dome system now it's not unprecedented for a cease fire to come in and then for

a few flare ups to take place afterwards without its entirely destroying the cease fire and certainly there's been nothing else for the last couple of hours in terms of the cease fire itself as you heard islamic jihad is saying that it is security concessions from israel both in terms of a pledge not to assassinate top leadership as what as with what happened in the early hours of tuesday morning with the targeted killing of a senior commander of islamic jihad and his wife in an apartment building and to stop firing on protesters at the friday border protest now the israeli foreign minister has been interviewed this morning saying that neither of those 2 things are true israel will continue to talk. that anyone it deems a threat and that the rules of engagement in terms of the border protests have not changed israel has been very much specifying both its military operation and its messaging against islamic jihad separating it from hamas hamas which controls the

strip and was speaking in support of islamic jihad saying that it stood with them in the fight appears not to have actually fired any rockets itself so it was on the fringes the fact that it's only lasted a couple of days perhaps allowed them to carry on with that tactic without losing potentially too much face with the gaza public and so for now the cease fire is holding it is worth though emphasizing that the death toll has gone up substantially even from what we were reporting fairly a late yesterday going up to 34 and the most deadly incident was this one strike on a house in central gaza killing a man and his wife his sister and 5 of his children israeli military says he him selfe was a senior hamas islamic jihad commander ok harry thank you for that update well at least 2 people have now been killed in iraq's capital during antigovernment protests there 35 others were injured many of those hurt had choked on tear gas or

they were hit by rubber bullets more than 300 people have been killed since the beginning of october protesters want a complete overhaul of the political system from a gem june will bring us an update from baghdad so protesters still out on the streets and mohamed what are you hearing. that in this violence that you're speaking about 2 protesters killed and dozens injured this happened we're told earlier this morning between 7 and 8 am but at that time now. there is this cycle of violence that's been going on where we typically see protesters that gather in this square where the violence happened is called kalandia square that is a square that is nearer to how do you square which is the epicenter of the demonstrations in baba dead to her square is the only place here in the city where it is lawful where the government allows the protesters to demonstrate what we've

seen happen again and again the past couple of weeks there are demonstrators that gathered around the square because that's where it's close to these bridges that lead to areas of the city where there are government installations where they would like to mark the security forces have placed concrete barriers in that square so these demonstrators cannot access those parts of the city that angers the demonstrators they try to get around the barriers and then the security forces try essentially to force them to return to the area where close to or square there was violence today this happens intermittently throughout the days the last few days it's interesting that this goes on because when you go to have your square which isn't that far away where there are these anti-government demonstrations the mood there can be oftentimes jubilant can be vibrant there is music sometimes there is dancing people are happy to be out there nonetheless there is always this tension because people are concerned that clashes could start at any moment now all of this going on today also you have the political drama that is going on in baghdad yesterday you had parliament meet there was a session in which as

a guest the head of the united nations mission in iraq went because the you're not me is trying to mediate these political disputes here they're trying to mollify the situation make sure the demonstrators get their demands met and that the government can function and that people stay safe not much came out. parliamentary meeting we are told that there is this draft law electoral reform draft law that has been drafted by the president's office it since went to the cabinet the cabinet has passed it on to the head of parliament and they will take up the issue but we don't yet know when that will happen and that's one of the reasons why demonstrators continue to come out because they do not feel that the government is taking their demands seriously they are worried about inequality here they want to see jobs created they want into corruption they want more of their demands met and they say they're going to continue to come out and because they come out in large numbers and because many of the demonstrators then try to get to parts of the city where there are government installations that's why you have these clashes. jim jim

thanks for that update from baghdad. well russia is setting up a new military air base in northeastern syria in an area recently controlled by u.s. forces the new base in the city of hama she will house combat how the copter is an air defense systems russia and turkey have been carrying out joint patrols in the area since the withdrawal of kurdish why forces protesters in hong kong a block many parts of the city center for a 4th straight day. they're angry after 2 demonstrators were injured in confrontations with police and left in critical condition with pastors are occupying the city center and blocking several major roads schools are being kept shut until sunday as well sarah clarke. the point university young cullen side in hong kong has become a rallying point for a growing number of protesters and students who barricaded will block themselves in the campus behind me now this number has been growing throughout the day and have now created

a barricade which you can see the umbrella's and the students hiding behind that waiting for the police to arrive it also blocked off some of these major thoroughfares these roads through taliban throughout the day scattering bricks as well as niles across the road to stop from the police from entering police so i should say protests is a block more than 20 traffic. across hong kong on thursday and around 15 of the train sessions the empty asked actions have been closed with more to close throughout the evening as the not ways goes on in a place of described this as more behavior described as one step closer to terrorism now we have 2 people in a critical condition currently one is a 70 year old man who was hit by a brick another is a 15 year old who was hit by a canister of tear gas protesters have also confirmed that this particular week die protests the general strike action targeting the transport system that will continue and friday will be another day of general strikes.

u.s. ambassador has described how president donald trump put pressure on ukraine to investigate his political rival joe biden william taylor was one of 2 diplomats to appear on the 1st public hearing at the center for an impeachment inquiry and to trump. reports from washington 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 had been ousted without explanation and president trump personal lawyer rudy giuliani 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 chosen 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 sansar 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 familiar with the democrats' 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 opinion will change. castro al-jazeera washington still ahead

on al-jazeera in just a moment wrapping up the campaign we'll look ahead to one of the most important sri lankan elections in decades there are still deep trouble in one of the world's top tourist spots water levels in venice are at their highest in half a century. hello there fitting a little bit wintry across northern sections of japan this kind of cloud coming through is bringing snow and also some rain but the conditions have been clearing across much of the south of the korean peninsula but this is what i mean about the rain in the snow so even northern honshu is a saying some of that sun you cross into hook either just 5 celsius in sapporo minus one at best on saturday is your high temperature and cooling off in tokyo 900 the chance of some rain showers as well further to the south it's not much of china

as a long coastal areas and not too bad in terms of temperatures 20 celsius in shanghai 25 in hong kong again most of the rain is across the northern philippines and this is all coming from the latest a tropical storm it will continue to build up over the next few days not moving particularly quickly so we could well see some flooding rains developing in the northern philippines. elsewhere to the south of there we have got more rain across much of northern borneo out across the west fairly widespread 3 much as some showers like you across into the west of java and also quite a bit of rain and clouds you can see the across much of the minae peninsula and then into india quite an unsettled few days ahead into new delhi a system coming through damages though still on the warm side 31 on friday. the plan. to do it. here.

with the basic facilities. is. probably. hours after a cease fire was agreed. between israel. 34

palestinians have been killed and. 2 people have been killed in iraq. government protests 35 others were injured many of those hurt choked. by rubber bullets more than 300 people have been killed since the beginning of october. protestors in hong kong a block many parts of the city center for a 4th straight day. confrontations with police left in critical condition. become body and prime minister who has ordered the release of more than 70 opposition activists on bail they were arrested in recent weeks and accused of plotting to overthrow the government the justice ministry has also withdrawn arrest warrants for office activists hiding in cambodia and those who fled to thailand. in the beginning a major clinical trial of a new ebola vaccine but the rollout is already facing criticism. reports from goma

in the democratic republic of congo. a new a ball of vaccine for a major child scientists are testing it on up to half a 1000000 congolese over the next 10 months to study the fact. the vaccine is safe it has already been tested on a small sample of people elsewhere. would not have approved it if it was harmful to the people. but some people are concerned that the long term effects of the drug made by u.s. multi-national are not yet known and the fact that it needs to doze is 8 weeks apart we not walk on people who travel often to challenge and to show grades between the 2 duties will be indication of the acceptance of his vaccines or population. we. we will work with the communities we explain to the communities we believe though that if we explain simply things to the people

say they are able to understand about 250000 people in parts of this region are already being injected with another vaccine made by a german company that has just been approved by european regulators those receiving the new a drug given areas that are considered at low risk of an outbreak this is a very busy border crossing between d.r. congo and rwanda tens of thousands of people mostly traders use it every day health workers say vaccinating them is crucial feelings here over both vaccinations are mixed. distraction is good it helps us go about our business without fear. of them and i can never do it i don't know what they're injecting into us they didn't benny and people are still dying a ball of wax in nations in the democratic republic of congo have long been controversial and political one health minister is reported to have lost his job.

for opposing the u.s. study some congolese say they don't trust what's going on but health workers insist this is the best way of beating a disease that has killed many people catherine sawyer al-jazeera. years of conflict in sudan has left many people struggling to access health care and those living in rural areas often have to travel to the capital to receive medical treatment but even for those living there accessing treatment can also be difficult as her morgan reports when her son abraham was born 6 years ago it was 3 thoughts living in sudan's capital how to would make it easy to get medical help he suffers from brain damage sustained at birth as well as man nutrition and anemia his elder sister had malaria and john just and died after being diagnosed late and was through a fears that with treatment being so expensive it brought him to suffer the same fate. his medicines cost so much that sometimes i don't get them all but if i miss

a single $1.00 of them within hours he starts getting convulsions and has to be hospitalized the hospital's a free but the treatment costs money which i don't always have it's mostly people who take pity on me and contribute. my student says she has to travel more than 50 kilometers to take her son to a hospital doctor according to the world health organization would and 35 percent of sudan's population of 40000000 people live in areas far from advocates health facilities that's because years of conflict have destroyed health facilities in many areas war and 20 years of u.s. economic sanctions have also depleted government funds and less than 10 percent is their right to health care for many the only way to get treatment is by coming to the capital but doctors their state even then it can't be guaranteed this number of the year number one the hospital lacks proper equipment and doesn't have enough beds most are native rehabilitation because they were built during colonial times then there's the issue of manpower we don't have enough doctors and government

hospitals because the pay isn't enough so most prefer to have a go to private practice or leave the country problems facing health services are not a recent difficulty in getting health care contributed to a nationwide protest last year against the government and since and new transitional government took over in august the country has been suffering epidemics like malaria cholera and dengue fever affecting thousands of people so getting treatment has become even more important since september at least 300 cases of cholera have been reported including 10 fatalities and in early november more than 90 people suffering dengue fever were received daily in hospitals in the eastern state of qatar aid organizations say most of those infected are children and more than 2000000 suffer from malnutrition it's in the service side where there is an access issue it is lack of services there's lack of funding for this have this is that the community needs to do those who believe the perception and the standing in the community willingness to be with us in the same platform so that we

can work with it it's you said amazing. as it kind of like seeing. mr says that she can't always afford to feed a brain properly but she says she hopes. dan's new government will improve health care so he and her other children can get the medical care they need people more going out as they arise out of town. u.s. president donald trump has met his turkish counterpart at the white house despite opposition in congress to the visits turkey's offensive in northern syria and its purchase of a russian missile system dominated the talks by khanna reports from washington. the president and 1st lady at hand to welcome the turkish leader this is the 1st face to face talks following weeks of strained relations between the 2 countries president trump was quick to set a friendly we have a great relationship both personally and with the great country of turkey and we look forward to moving that forward and making it an even bigger and better

relationship thank you for its apprenticeship that dates back 7 years to the opening of the trump towers in istanbul buttressed by a warm relationship between their sons in laws one is turkey's finance minister the other president trumps close adviser jared cushion. it's a relationship that concerned many in congress the concern for the fueled by president trumps opposition to a bipartisan sanctions bill passed in the house and being discussed in the senate the bill was in response to turkey's military operation in syria. following president trump surprise decision to withdraw u.s. troops from the region congress has been angered by the u.s. president's apparent reluctance to impose sanctions on turkey following its decision to buy a russian weapons system yes 400 are already being deployed in the face of protest by all of turkey's nato allies including the u.s.

. just outside the white house a small group of protesters expressing their opposition to the turkish president while the protests the. president. group opera public with. this an apparent attempt to persuade them. against a huge live you want to start of deliberations you know the president one senator had leased agreed to look for the silver lining in the relationship with turkey the purpose of this meeting is to have an american citizen. friends in turkey. and there's a pony in there somewhere if we can. and the hope expressed by president turner one that the relationship that the u.s. congress will improve as turkey we are ready and committed to sustain a very constructive dialogue with the united states congress and this is an idea that i've shared with president trump as well from president trump

a few circuits raised and the hope expressed of further arms sales we have a lot of trade with turkey but it could be many times larger and turkey would like to see that and it would also be good for the united states so we intend to bring it up to about $100000000000.00 that would be 4 times were. it is right now for president it was a successful meeting not only with the us leader but also with some members of the senate who had opposed him so fiercely in the past mike hanna al-jazeera washington . sri lankan presidential candidates are wrapping up very campaigns ahead of saturday's vote but whoever wins the tight race will face tough challenges the nation is still recovering from the easter bomb attacks a sluggish economy and political instability many often ender's has more from colombo. 35 candidates are running for president in sri lanka. says one of 2

main contenders he's a cabinet minister with the ruling united national party addressing his final campaign rally in central colombo he promised action combating crime and booster insecurity. every aspect of the hour we will destroy terrorism we destroyed better as we will destroy the drug dealers we will not leave room for such people to be in our society he supporters braved the rain do it in this final rally. in the future when we are not around at least out children will have a good country and advancement under premed. as a young person i feel premadasa understands young people's hopes and feelings. as main rival is former defense secretary. the former president's brother he represents the opposition sri lanka people's front he's supposed to say he has proved himself overseeing the defeat of the tamil tigers who battled the government

during a 26 year civil war. he's the one who saved this country it's why we have a country for the future. will definitely where it will be good for the country if he does rajapakse is promising to strengthen national security which took a beating. to the east bombings in april that killed more than 250 people the government came under fire by the opposition for intelligence reports received by authorities more than 2 weeks before the bomb a strong and already he's also promising to bring development and democracy. is dismissed criticism of his role in ending the civil war. we have our challenges 1st the challenge to build this country we are due to join us in working towards and achieving that goal. leftist candidate. with the national people's party is likely to come in distant in the presidential race as he

wrapped up his final rally. he said. represent broken promises so people should vote for him weeks of intense campaigning ended at midnight on wednesday 48 hours before the presidential election it's been one of the most expensive campaigns should have known and both front runners are hoping it secures the presidency. at least 2 people have been killed after a tornado swept through a town in eastern south africa take a look at these pictures they show a separate incident in which a van was flipped but surprisingly none of the passengers were injured the large storm hit new hanover late on tuesday and over 40 years have told locals to stay alert as heavy rain and thunderstorms continue to hit the area causing localized flooding. much of the italian city of venice is still under water after the highest

tide in 50 years officials there are blaming climate change locals are angry more hasn't been done to protect the city from high tides government is expected to the clear a state of emergency on thursday. the headlines on al-jazeera rockets have been fired from gaza into israel hours after a cease fire was agreed to this would appear to have violated a truce struck earlier between israel and the islamic jihad armed group 34 palestinians have been killed in israeli airstrikes since tuesday harry fawcett has more from the israel gaza border it seems that there is a real fragility to this cease fire. rocket siren alerts from areas around the gaza strip not right here it has to be said that we got those alerts through on our

phones and got confirmation from inside gaza from our colleagues that more rockets had been fired out of gaza territory and at around the same time we heard here in this location what sounded like outgoing israeli artillery although we can't confirm that certainly loud bangs at least 2 people have been killed in iraq's capital during anti-government protests $35.00 others were injured many of those hurt have choked on tear gas or were hit by rubber bullets more than $300.00 people have been killed since the beginning of october protesters want a complete overhaul of the political system. protestors in hong kong have blocked many parts of the city center for a 4th straight day and they're angry after 2 protesters were injured in confrontations with police and left in critical condition 2 u.s. diplomats have become the 1st to publicly testify the impeachment inquiry into president donald trump both william taylor and george can say they felt concerned

over pressure president trump put on ukraine's leader. cambodian prime minister hun sen has ordered the release of more than 70 opposition activists on bail they were accused of plotting to overthrow the government the justice ministry is also withdrawing arrest warrants for authorization activists hiding in cambodia and those who fled to thailand. much of the italian city of venice is still underwater after the highest tide in 50 years officials there are blaming climate change locals are angry more hasn't been done to protect the unesco city from high tides the government is expected to declare a state of emergency on thursday and these are the live pictures that you're looking at right now from the center of venice here today with the headlines on the bottom line is coming up next thanks for watching.

i am steve clemons and i have a question what's brewing in heartland america are classic republican strongholds going wobbly and are democrats poised to turn a lot of red states blue let's get to the bottom line. many local elections were held across the united states last week and both parties found reason to celebrate virginia turned from red to blue and it's a sign that times are changing to muslim women were elected to public office in that state elsewhere republicans held their ground and even made some gains so is there a national trend here or there are just too many unknowns like impeachment which is going to get really big this week and the lack of a democratic challenger to face donald trump but we're fortunate today because we have 3 people in this room who just have all the answers a bra.