2 key witnesses described donald trump's july 25th phone call with ukraine's president as improper and unusual as they appear before the impeachment inquiry is improper for the president of the united states to demand a foreign government investigate a u.s. citizen and a political opponent. i mean our intake of this is al jazeera live from london also coming up more than a 100 people killed in protests across 21 iranian cities one rights group warns the toll could be much higher. just hours after the u.s.

declared israeli settlements in the occupied west bank illegal israel's prime minister muse ahead with a plan to annex the jordan valley. a 4 day standoff at a hong kong university comes to an end as anti-government protesters surrendered to police. oh a key witness in the u.s. impeachment inquiry into donald trump has described the president's phone call with his ukrainian counterpart as improper attendant colonel alexander van men has been testifying before congress you listened in on trump's phone call with skin in july and says he was concerned that the president asked a foreign government to investigate his political rival joe biden. correct and then later you 2 are on the white house call am i right you heard it with your own ears correct not secondhand not from somebody else not hearsay right correct you heard the president's voice on the call i did and you heard him raise that subject again

that ambassador saw and had raised before about investigating the bidens right i did and i want to ask you when you heard him say that what was the 1st thought that went through your mind frankly i couldn't believe what i was hearing it was probably an element of shock. audition cush is live from capitol hill in washington d.c. she's been following all these hearings especially key witnesses today talk us through the the main points of what emerged in these hearings. that's right laurin the facts as in one place within the white house gave us a window into the narrative of how this all unfolded and what he told investigators was this that 2 weeks prior to that phone call ukraine officials met with trump aides at the white house and those ukrainians were explicitly told that in order for their president alone there's alinsky to be rewarded with a one on one meeting with trump at the white house that the ukrainians would need

to initiate investigations into joe biden afterwards came the call and that is when we heard trump ask zelinsky himself for a favor to initiate those investigations he made that ask right after the lewinsky think trump for the u.s. continued defense assistance to ukraine zelinsky apparently at the time didn't know that trump had already frozen about $400000000.00 in military aid and hearing the substance that call is what led then meant to be concerned he flagged it up to his the national security council lawyer also jennifer williams who was the other witnesses morning said that she thought the call was irregular was unusual and inappropriate then fast forward about a month later and that's when we'll against place another role is she working closely with vice president mike pence accompanied him to meet with president bill

and see of ukraine and she says alinsky by then knew about this frozen military aid and he asked pence specifically why was the money not coming tens did not have an answer according to william tell ever another delegate and now the delegate member of the u.s. delegation did have an answer. that was u.s. ambassador to the u. gordon sunland who told and ukrainian aid it does alinsky that there was another explicit quid pro quo that in order to get the white house meeting with his own skin trump and the u.s. security a to ukraine that ukraine would need to deliver those investigations into joe biden now trump has denied that the aide and the investigations were tied and republicans have focused on attacking the process of this impeachment inquiry and also trying to out the identity of the whistleblower that led to this exchange between ranking

member devon junia's and then men in which the union is trying to tease out information about the whistleblower. you're here to answer questions and you're here under subpoena. so you can either answer the question or you can plead the 5th on behalf of my client we are following the rules of the committee rule of the chair with regard to this issue and this does not call for an answer that is invoking the 5th or any theoretical issue like that the following ruling of the chair what chance or what ruling is that i can interject counsel is correct whistleblower has the right statutory right to anonymity these proceedings will not be used to out the whistleblower. and then men also took many other questions from republicans asking whether he had ever leaked information about the call to the press he said he never did and he never would then men's interesting background is

also part of the picture here he immigrated to the united states when he was 3 years old his father had fled the soviet union with him and 2 other brothers in tow he went on to serve in the u.s. military was a wounded war vets in iraq and he had a powerful moment in today's testimony saying that he thanked his father for making the choice to come. the united states 40 years ago that his very presence testifying now congress was evidence that his father had made the right choice and he said don't worry dad i'm going to tell the truth what is your question thank you very much indeed. white house correspondent joins us live now what kind of reaction has there been from the president well the u.s. president held a cabinet meeting invited reporters in and he responded directly as these proceedings were going on in the past he says he hasn't bothered to watch what he calls a witch hunt but this time he said he was watching he's also been tweeting in the

last hour or so retreating essentially defenses or arguments that were made during the hearings that he felt were compelling enough that proved what he has claimed all along is that he has committed no wrongdoing but as he spoke to reporters he once again tried to attack the process attacked the democrats particularly nancy pelosi the house speaker arguing that the all that the democrats want to accomplish is to overturn the results of the 2016 you election he called it a little pipe dream that she's got he then went on to attack the witness lieutenant colonel vince been essentially saying that he didn't know him but also saying that he had testified that everything in the call that he had on july 25th with the ukrainian president was perfect well that's not exactly what the testimony was but it's clear that republicans performing in this hearing were really performing for a single person in the audience and that was the u.s. president and he got praise from the president for their performance. you have

a kangaroo court headed by little shift issue where we don't have lawyers we don't have with issues we don't have anything and yet i just got to watch and the republicans are absolutely killing again they are doing so well because it's just been just scare to big scale they're doing something that the founders never thought possible in the founders didn't want and they're using this impeachment hoax for put their own political gain. and camillus on promote questions about impeachment the president talking about his medical issues yeah because given the fact that this is an impeachment inquiry on the heels of the investigation into whether his 2016 presidential campaign colluded with russia there's been a lot of speculation about the impact on the u.s. 'd president and particularly his health knowing that in previous physicals he has been on the border for heart disease that he is clinically obese and then there was

on saturday a surprise movement an off the record movement where the president was seen getting into a vehicle with his personal physician out we were told that he went to do some routine tests but given the fact that this was sort of seemed like an accelerated an unexpected aspect of the physical many people began to speculate some even reporting he had had a heart attack while the u.s. president also addressed that saying in fact that was not the case and then once again used as an opportunity to attack the media saying that the press is sick and dangerous they're corrupt i hope they get their act together committee hockey thank you very much. thank you. the rights group amnesty international says it believes more than 100 protesters have been killed across iran since the government ordered security forces to clamp

down on protests iranian state television has broadcast footage it says shows some of the 300 people reportedly arrested for writing and threatening shopkeepers a protest against the government increase in fuel prices began on friday well 36 protesters and 5 police have been killed in the unrest and the u.n. human rights office says it's alarmed by reports that security forces are using live ammunition against protesters and urged restraint also barriers the latest from tehran. the number of deaths has gone up since the protestors began on friday according to official figures. 11 people have been killed 5 of those belong to the security forces 6 civilians that make up the arrests now these figures are coming to us from official state channels and officially we've heard the numbers to be much higher but we cannot verify that these demonstrations are being met with all the security forces inside the country since the supreme leader announced on

sunday morning his views that he supported the government's decision to increase fuel prices the intelligence ministry the revolutionary guards have all issued statements saying that they will prevent any kind of gathering from taking place across the country and as a result of that over the past 24 hours there have been very few protests reported and we've seen a heavy security presence across the country now this is happening because president hassan rouhani said they had no choice but to increase the price of fuel to try and provide subsidies to nearly 60000000 iranians who are living close to the poverty line and that's because of economic sanctions that have been imposed on iran they are not able to sell their oil on the international market since the united states withdrew from the nuclear deal last year this is something the iranian president said that they were not it was not an easy decision for them but it was necessary to try and help people deal with the economic crisis that's ongoing in the country a 4 day standoff at

a homecoming university appears to be coming to an end as more student protesters surrendered to police chief executive kerry has condemned the demonstrations behavior accusing them of violence and destruction in some of the worst protests the territory has seen sarah clarke reports from hong kong. this is the aftermath of monday night street protests roads blocked with bared out cars tables and chairs strewn across major roads in hong kong central callen district at polytechnic university protesters started to emerge from the campus after a not a violent confrontations with police the choice to surrender we just want to leave . a mile wide it was really hard because i have a lot of political will also afraid of water police say all very bad because we don't know what will happen and some people have. a calmer always because they are also in jail or sometimes in the end i say or something like police set up

a checkpoint to the campus for questioning those charged with brushing face up to 10 years in jail some students managed to escape on monday they were met by police firing tear gas and rubber bullets on tuesday university professes school teaches and principals negotiated a deal allowing students to leave the campus peacefully with those pages when they meet police agreeing not to arrest them we talk time here by even held in photos and then we believe them but do things. which are rigid belief system not resting their head be flat make sure that they are safe dealt with before the. face protesters have emerged voluntarily for the still hard core group of protesters holed up inside the campus despite attempts by police to negotiate their exit they are facing to leave. hong kong's chief executive kerry lamb condemned the

protests she says $600.00 have been arrested $200.00 of them are under the idea of itin she appealed to the remaining group to give themselves up we will use whatever means to continue to persuade and arrange for lisa remaining protesters to leave. the campus as soon as possible so that this whole operation could be able to end in a peaceful manner and laid a basis for the subsequent work by the police to stop. this protest at the university by almost be over but the cleanup is still underway with the added government movement vowing to continue the demonstrations which is now entering the 6th month sarah clarke al-jazeera hong kong. still to come on al-jazeera war protesters in lebanon formed a human chain to block politicians from entering column and.

hello there still a very unsettled weather picture across much of europe in particular of the central med and central europe little is activity in the last few hours it is going to be carrying away but the damage has already been done particularly cross in austria widespread we've had avalanches mudslides and also flooding this is evidence of mudslides a here's a closer view you can see this is actually gassed just to the north of salzburg huge swathes of land being taken away and of course some buildings have been destroyed but as a say the good news is this system is actually on its way for the tools east now does mean the rain is heading on tools of all kinds if not behind kara conditions sunny final bit dry and really not too bad wednesday across much of western europe the next system is waiting to push in and it does that on thursday the rain heading across the u.k. and on tools franz and sunny very cloudy day across much of spain and portugal

meanwhile a little bit more unsettled through the eastern end of the med some showers on their way to athens and it does mean with all this weather in the mediterranean we will see some clouds certain across northern coastal areas of africa this is wednesday cooler in shipley mostly dry but we could certainly see some showers into morocco rip just 17 degrees celsius and then as we head off into thursday still cloudy conditions but not bad 18 algy is. al jazeera is an investigative unit goes undercover in the caribbean but we don't use the word bribe would you use a token of appreciation exposing trade and diplomatic passports today. in the partial good will of them involving some of the region's highest officials. to. al-jazeera investigations diplomats for sale.

from one of the top stories here on out his era a key witness in the u.s. impeachment inquiry into donald trump has described the president's july phone call with his ukrainian counterpart as improper i was on the bin men says he was concerned but demanded that a foreign government investigate his political rival joe biden. amnesty international says it believes more than $100.00 protesters have been killed across iran since the government ordered security forces to clamp down on protests. and a 4 day standoff at a hong kong university appears to be coming to an end as more student protesters

surrendered to police a small group remains holed up inside the campus refusing to leave. turning now to our top story the u.s. impeachment inquiry hearings into president truong jeffrey kava services director of political studies at the discount on the center he joins me live from washington d.c. thank you very much indeed for joining us so you've been watching this particular hearing what was the most significant part of it do you think. hi lauren i think the most significant thing for me is that there's not a single republican dissenter from the party line that this is strictly a partisan witch hunt by the democrats i think clearly the intent is to have the republican party vote almost as a block against impeachment and that will allow them to do have an easier time painting this impeachment as strictly partisan warfare on the part of the democrats but i think there's a cost to that which is that you go ahead sorry yes i think i think the cost i think the cost of that is that people in america want their politicians to

represent not just their interests but their ideals and the republicans by toeing a strict party line are coming across as mere politicians there is no equivalent here today of a senator howard baker a republican during the watergate inquiry who could ask what did the president know and when did he know it at this point i want to simply seeming like a member of team trump on the republican side and interesting you this time they have these particular issues that we've heard from today that wasn't the defense from the republicans that this is all hearsay because they were much more at the center in events when they yes it's an ever shifting set of accusations 1st it was the process was flawed and the democrats were locking the republicans out then when a vote was taken to open the proceedings it shifted to other grounds so today we're hearing that these are not trustworthy witnesses that perhaps colonel vin this is not even a loyal american so it's a constantly shifting set of attempts to discredit whatever the democrats are coming up with and tell me about the ones that we're expecting next the testimony

from volcker and from morrison give us an idea of what we should look out for their . well i think the question will be whether the republicans go at these witnesses in a different way from the way they went at the previous 2 witnesses given that these are people who are more part of the republican and administrative apparatus and do you think that they are i mean do you think we're going to see any change of tactics as you say you're suggesting that the republican tact is going to stay the same say it stay as a bloc presumably that there might be some elements of this which which would you could cause a kind of that that that sort of unity to shatter would you think that's not likely i'm not holding my breath waiting for the republican unity to shatter on the score i think the intent is to defend trump with every means at their disposal and to paint any kind of evidence that comes up about possible misdoings as just part of the democratic plot or the deep state plot to depose him what about

ordinary americans i mean we're after the 1st few hearings when perhaps they would have watched it all do you think they'll continue what you need to know in kind of in every detail and in every hearing. i doubt it there is a very different tone to this already among the public then past controversies like let's say the army mccarthy hearings in the 1950 s. or the watergate hearings it's not that ordinary americans seem glued to their sets and some of the details i think are going to be lost on the american public one of the major principals in this case is a president of ukraine whose name extends to 7 syllables this is a hard lift for many americans. to forgive us heiress thank you very much indeed for your thoughts thank you thank you now israel's prime minister has approved the fast tracking of a proposed law to annex the jordan valley territory it already occupies it comes just hours after the u.s. announced it no longer viewed israeli settlements in the occupied west bank as

illegal that's been condemned by the palestinians while the u.n. and many individual governments have confirmed they continue to consider settlements illegal and an obstacle to peace very forces reports from the occupied west bank. a short drive south of jerusalem into the occupied west bank of the red roof of the etzion settlement block for decades recognized as illegal by the international community including the united states. the morning after the u.s. reversed that stance benjamin netanyahu in the midst of a last ditch fight to stay in office made time to come here for a victory lap we now know here we are in a historic day with another huge achievement for the state of israel which we've been working on quite a bit the trumpet many straight in his right ear the historic one here and stood with truth and justice and i thank president trump and secretary of state pompei are serving my mad words so the settlements are not per se illegal under international law the u.s. secretary of state said the declaration improved prospects for peace between

israelis and palestinians an idea rejected by the palestinian leadership official translation is that this land is not black or white and this land is not what the palestinians and that's consistent. with the idea called deal of the century or the next century because they don't see the palestinians as people they don't see us with rights of the term a nation shortly before september's election netanyahu said he would annex the jordan valley if he won another term in office he has yet to secure that term nonetheless on wednesday he approved the fast tracking of an annexation bill or did reveal was among the settler leaders who met netanyahu he says the u.s. declaration could be seen as a signal of support for such a plan i see dark as a potential leading to it definitely it might be an indication for the palestinians listen if you carry on missing opportunities there might be nothing left for you.

for decades settlement construction has continued unabated no matter the u.s. or international definition of its legality just last month 2300 new housing units were approved this is a major reversal of u.s. foreign policy it's a breach of international consensus on the illegality of israeli settlement activity but for most israelis it's entirely uncontroversial support for settlements has only grown in recent years and that's why benjamin netanyahu is main political rival benny gantz has also supported the u.s. announcement. just hours left of his officially a lot of time to try to form a government after september's deadlocked election netanyahu is trying just as hard to remain in office he's already using this latest u.s. announcement as part of his argument to stay on harry forsett al-jazeera in the occupied west bank protesters have forced lebanon's parliament to perspire on its 1st sessions and anti-government protests began last month people formed

a human chain to block politicians from entering the building more than half the m.p.'s had already chosen to boycott the city so i know how to report from beirut. protesters gathered along the roads leading to the parliament building and a vote they formed a human chain to prevent m.p.'s from holding their 1st session since the protests began a month ago the lebanese army and other security agencies were out in force to keep the peace but there were sporadic scuffles we don't believe that they would pass and. that will be. for us we don't really trust that whatever they are going to agree about is always against the people only a few politicians managed to force their way through some on motorcycles while almost half of the 128 member of parliament many of them in the opposition to the session there was a lack of quorum and the session was postponed without the date being set the

people declared victory but the political crisis is far from over we're demanding our basics rights which are a given in any country in the word so i mean this is a victory today of course much more are going to come we're not going to stop this is not going to end here until we get what we want we are the people we have spoken anti political establishment protesters are demanding a new government independent of political parties to enact much needed economic reforms and prepare for a new law to govern early elections there is little sign the politicians or the people are ready to make concessions but these protesters may no longer be in control of the streets there has been a shift in how the lebanese army and security forces have been dealing with that they have become more forceful and on sunday the army chief general shows up in his 1st comments since the protests began condemned what he called an authorized blocking of roads with the army and whether the army or the police and it's not

right in my opinion they should stand with us because i know they agree with us i know they agree with what we're doing here on the streets so. i think. that this is the. it's been in the making for over 30 years it's about time authorities are trying to restore a sense of normality lebanon is no longer disrupted by school and bank closures even though controls are in place for us dollar with drawls and transfers abroad but this movement doesn't seem to be going away they have top of the government and now brought parliament to a halt they are stopping their ground that a father. built swedish prosecutors have dropped an investigation into a 2010 rape allegation against wiki leaks founder julian assange he sought refuge for 7 years in the ecuadorian embassy to avoid extradition of the case a 48 year old was evicted earlier this year and sentenced to 15 weeks in a british jail breaching bail conditions and reports 9 years old the

quest to get julian assange before a swedish judge is definitively over the swedish prosecutor says she won't proceed with an investigation into a rape allegation made in 2010 after a review of the evidence member damning at some. after the complimentary investigation conducted over the summer and the beginning of autumn it's now clear the testimony in support of the statement given by the plaintiff has weakened this is primarily because a long time has passed since the event took place memories fade for natural reasons the deputy chief prosecutor said the complainant sevenths was deemed credible and reliable but julian assange now 48 has always denied the allegations back in 2012 when sweden was trying to get him extradited asylum skipped bail in london and sort asylum in the ecuadorian embassy. all along he insisted he'd cooperate with the swedish legal system but said he feared being sent on to the us where he might face

the death penalty and it really is the most extraordinary compendium of war that has ever been released during the time of war. he's been criticized by u.s. officials of the wiki leaks published secret cables relating to the wars in iraq and afghanistan passed on by chelsea manning a former u.s. soldier who spent 7 years in jail for the leak in may of this year julian assange was removed from the ecuadorian embassy and arrested he was later jailed for 50 hoops for breach of his original bail conditions us he's now in this high security prison in london while the u.k. government considers a u.s. extradition warrant a science faces allegations of conspiring to hack into a classified computer at the pentagon and could potentially face a jail sentence of up to 175 years his legal team insists he simply acted as a journalist and say his health is seriously deteriorating in jail on tuesday assigns briefly appeared at a london court via video link but full extradition hearing starts in february the

al-jazeera and a quick reminder you can catch up with all the stories we're covering and of course everything to do with the impeachment inquiry on our website just so that ours are dot com and if you don't already you can also try out watching us live by clicking on the orange live like on al-jazeera dot com. quick reminder the top stories on al-jazeera a key witness in the u.s. impeachment inquiry into donald trump has described the president's phone call with his ukrainian counterpart as improper colonel alexander van men has been testifying before congress he listened in on trump's phone call with them is a landscape in july and says he was concerned the president asked a foreign government to investigate his political rival joe biden. on july 21st 2900 present zelinsky won a parliamentary election in another landslide victory and he proposed that

president trump call president salute the zelinsky to congratulate him on july 21st 2003 in the college heard i listened on the in on the call in the situation room with white house colleagues i was concerned by the call what i heard was inappropriate and i are forward my concerns to mr eisenberg is improper for the president of the united states to demand a foreign government investigate a u.s. citizen and a political opponent rights group amnesty international says it believes more than $100.00 protesters have been killed across iran since the government ordered security forces to clamp down on protests iranian state television has broadcast footage it says shows some of the $300.00 people reportedly arrested for rioting and threatening shopkeepers protests against government increase in fuel prices began on friday we heard you say 6 protesters and 5 police have been killed in the unrest the u.n. human rights office says it's alarmed by reports that security forces are using

live ammunition against protesters and urged restraint. a 4 day standoff at a hong kong university appears to be coming to an end as more student protest has surrendered to police chief executive carola hoyos condemn the demonstrators behavior accusing them of violence and destruction in some of the worst protests the territory has seen a small pro-democracy group remains holed up inside the campus refusing to leave hong kong has been gripped by anti-government rallies for more than 5 months. those that lines do stay with us and i was there the stream is coming up next of course bring you any developments in the impeachment inquiry just as soon as they have an thanks so much for watching ivan.

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