the drugs can be pretty beautifully expensive some desperate patients travel to india to buy cheap generic versions but what cost when a strollers those smuggling to survive are now does iraq. was there a quid pro quo. as i testified previously with regard to the requested white house call and the white house meeting the answer is yes the u.s. ambassador to the e.u. testifies that donald trump wanted ukraine's president to investigate his political rival next change the military is not going to we win today it's over and some of the fear perhaps of which there is a democracy at this stage is over. president trump remains defiant insisting he wanted nothing from ukraine and that the inquiry should.

follow him down in jordan this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up under siege students to university in hong kong remain holed up. in the u.s. approve a bill to support human rights that. unrest in bolivia continues to spiral the security forces try to stop ongoing protests. a significant moment in the impeachment inquiry of u.s. president donald trump came on wednesday during testimony from the ambassador to the european union gordon song and said he had no direct evidence from border security aide to be withheld from ukraine in exchange for investigations into his political rivals but he and other u.s. officials believe the 2 were connected alan fischer reports from washington d.c. . from the u.s. ambassador to the e.u. stunning testimony and said it was abundantly clear to everyone ukraine would not receive military aid from the u.s.

or a meeting at the white house unless it announced an investigation into a company connected to the son of political opponent joe biden was there a quid pro quo as i testified previously with regard to the requested white house call and the white house meeting the answer is yes. sundin previously denied the security it was conditioned on the biden investigation but he told the impeachment panel it warts in the absence of any credible explanation for the suspension of aid i later came to believe that the resumption of security aid would not occur until there was a public statement from ukraine committing to the investigations of the 2016 elections and were recently and he insisted senior figures on the administration knew what was going on including the vice president and the secretary of state everyone was in the loop the suggestion that we were engaged in some irregular

or rogue diplomacy is absolutely false i'm not sure how someone could characterize something as an irregular channel when you're talking to the president the united states the secretary of state the national security adviser the chief of staff of the white house the secretary of energy he said trump insisted u.s. diplomats what with his private attorney rudy giuliani on handling ukraine so we followed the president's orders sundin says giuliani's direction on ukraine became more insidious with time in early july a coveted white house visit for ukrainian president let him use the lenski was dangled as an award for ukraine's cooperation which but later saw england testified it became upon the $400000000.00 in security aid was also on the line someone testified that in a phone call with the oval office he asked trump an open ended question what did the president won from ukraine the answer he wanted nothing and republicans and the

president claims that proves the impeachment hearing is a waste of time it's over and some of the fair friends of which there is a deal mike said this thing is over nancy pelosi said company she's gotten nothing done in congress and now with their big star witness is going to be their star witness in. so you know i don't know very well from a little witness confirmation the ukrainians asked why it was being held up i think quality coming sooner than previously reported my staff showed me 2 unclassified emails that they received from the state department one was received on july 25th at 2 31 pm that e-mail said that the ukrainian embassy and house foreign affairs committee are asking about security assistance democrats called sunderland's testimony a seminal moment it goes right to the heart of the issue of bribery as well as other potential high crimes or misdemeanors but we also have heard for the 1st time

that that knowledge of this scheme was pervasive. republicans continue to insist the president did nothing wrong that the hearings are a waste of time and money the latest attempt to remove an elected president but this testimony from a trump loyalists mean democrats moving closer to impeachment and republicans rethinking how to defend the president alan fischer al-jazeera washington. well alan rickman is a professor of history at american university he says president trumps impeachment is guaranteed. i think today's hearing though was very important because it blew away substantively 3 of the republicans most important defenses number one they said there was nothing linking this to donald trump who wouldn't sunlit who has direct access to donald trump directly linked it to donald trump directly through a directive from donald trump's through donald trump's personal attorney rudy

giuliani who donald trump also said presidents dyleski should contact after he asked him for these politically connected investigators secondly gordon seidlin blew away the defense that there was no this for that he said absolutely rudy giuliani told him that there was a quid pro quo that they would not get. the critically needed meeting with donald trump in the oval office unless they announced these investigations thirdly as we've heard from laura cooper which blew away the republicans defense said oh the ukrainians didn't even know about this until maybe late august they were expressing concerns on the very day that trump out his conversation with someone's. about $100.00 protesters are still holed up in the hong kong's besieged polytechnic university where the remnants of hundreds of the compass for several days international condemnation is growing of a treatment of the protest as the u.s.

house has approved a bill to support human rights in hong kong china though says it's meddling and has summoned a u.s. diplomat in beijing but sara clark joins us now from outside the university sara so just bring us up to date on what's happening there and how many students are still left inside. we believe around to up to $100.00 protesters are holed up inside the campus is this protest goes into about a week that's not a block out in this particular campus in palo last friday it's now thursday here in hong kong and 100 or so are refusing to leave overnight we had a couple who were arrested though some of the 1st i volunteered hold themselves up inside for the last few days but they surrendered to police all up with had more than 1000 arrests here at this particular campus and about under 300 under the age of 18 now those who are under the age of 18 have been arrested their names have simply been reported but they've been allowed to go home to their families and we believe these protesters who are still inside a skid of indicated they hungry and of they also scared about leaving given the

fact that this whole area is in a lockdown the police have sealed the entire around the campus as well as a key part of the very busy part of telling district now i can also report there's a lot still a lot of traffic congestion we've got the cross have a tunnel which is probably the busiest tunnel in hong kong it reminds closed but the cleanup has begun you might be able to hear some banging behind me we've got the plane is coming through clearing these overpasses which connect this part of this shopping area here where we are in to the actual university campus and i was barricaded up by those protesters trying to keep the place as i. and sarah we know that the u.s. senate and the house has passed this human rights bill which is now awaiting president trump signature that bill aims to protect human rights in hong kong what sort of reaction has there been there. for the passage about bill the smalling on thursday in hong kong markets across asia dropped as a result including the hanging saying now the hong kong government has also

responded to the 2nd passage of the house of reps passage of this particular bill they've told us to stop meddling in hong kong's affairs they've also said the passage of this bill it sends the wrong message to these protesters now as you mentioned this bill requires a state department in the us to certify that hong kong is protecting the human rights in the city and also as a result of this bill if it does become law to trump does sign off it could also introduce sanctions to hong kong qualifies for special u.s. tried and considerations that could also be withdrawn so certainly response here from the hong kong government and no doubt china is an angry response telling the us to stay out of its days all right to sarah clarke there in hong kong sarah thank you. at least 11 people have been killed after airstrikes and missiles targeted parts of syria's rebel held it liberal beenz activists are blaming the syrian government and iranian militias for a missile that targeted a camp of internally displaced people in the turkish border syrian regime airstrikes also hit the city of marjah

a new man in southern it live. israel's opposition leader benny gantz has been unable to form a coalition government he had until 2200 g.m.t. on wednesday to do so as well it's been through 2 inconclusive elections in april and september and a 3rd one now looks likely gantz an incumbent prime minister benjamin netanyahu not receive an overall majority both were hoping to win the backing of the former defense minister avigdor lieberman's party but he refused to support either of them are a force that has more from west of them. well 4 hours before the expiration of the deadline for benny gantz to make a coalition government he came to the microphones to admit what had been coming increasingly clear throughout the course of the day that he had failed but he put the blame for that squarely at the feet of the prime minister benjamin netanyahu saying he had been fortifying himself inside a transitional government against the will of the israeli people just to try to avoid prosecution in pending corruption cases and he used particularly personal

language in a very strong attack against netanyahu saying that no party leader was above the nation no person had the right to deny the people their vote no prime minister own leader could say that my interests are more important than yours and he said that netanyahu had been putting poison into the israeli political process through hatred and incitement and he said that israel now faced its greatest democratic test in its history as now the 21 day period begins where any member of the israeli parliament the knesset could theoretically try to form a coalition government if they have enough support otherwise israel is off to a 3rd round of elections within less than a year because they are would so usually score. netanyahu needs to remember israel still has a democracy even if it doesn't appeal to him and he should have come to terms with the fact that the outcome of the elections required him to negotiate directly with no blocks or barriers well earlier the right wing politician of

a door lieberman who's been seen as the kingmaker in this process so that he hadn't been able to convince either netanyahu or gantz to compromise enough to form a joint unity government the only kind of government that he said he would support with his crucial seats in the israeli parliament so what comes next for the only way really that a 3rd election could be avoided is if the threat of that election which is so unpopular with the electorate is enough in itself to try to pressure key players to compromise more or if when netanyahu and we do think it is when they finally gets charged by the attorney general in the coming days in his 3 corruption cases whether that changes the calculus within his own party enough to try to splinter support away from him there's been no sign of that in the run up to those charges coming in the support has so far been rock solid behind him and so for now this grinding political crisis goes on with no sign of an end perhaps it will only end and maybe not even then if the 3rd round of elections happens in the early part of

next year. iran's president hassan rouhani is blaming the united states israel and its other regional enemies for the mass protests in his country over the past few days the capital tehran is now largely peaceful following demonstrations which began on friday after a government hike in petrol prices iran's also disputing amnesty international's figure more than 100 dead in the protests calling the number speculative ronnie says the protests were a security issue and not a popular movement tullow variables were organized and they were precisely following a scheme plotted by the backward state in our region as well as the zionists and the americans i consider this another big victory for the iranian nation after supremely to his stated our people have come out victorious at different times in the face of our enemies plots and this time as well in violence that with the enemies plot for creating insecurity our people gain complete victory. plus more

snow to come here and al-jazeera including the nicaraguan president is accused of persistent repression we'll have the latest on the protests and the standoff at a cathedral. and we'll tell you why it's some say the very thing is just as dangerous as spoken more in that state that's. how the weather still looks pretty disturbed across a good parts of the middle east at the moment heavy rain turning to snow there pushing up towards afghanistan we got this line of cloud which just runs across iran pushing down towards southern parts of the arabian placers all making its way further eastward we'll see sadly the snow maybe $25.00 centimeters is a possibility the parts of afghanistan heavy downpours there into pakistan could cause some flooding a little bit of a wintry mix up towards the caspian sea i just notice

a little more cloud just fly. and towards a levant as we go on 3 fridays syria lebanon jordan clouding over a few spots of rain always a possibility and still a few spots of rain by friday there in sioux pakistan still looking at some snow flurries there over towards the himalayan plats i mean while it's fresh and up nicely across a good part of the arabian peninsula that same area cloud and rain stretches its way down across oman the drying up now brightening up as we go on into friday clear skies come back in 25 celsius for doha so too bad here some pleasant sunshine coming through pleasant sunshine to enjoy a good part of southern africa we have got some rain in the full cost almost and also for good parts of zimbabwe. whether sponsored by catalona. or you protesting about how does this impact whether on line will i face mental state was directly out of trance like it's playful or if you join us on sat this is

an attack on academic freedom and on our ability to do research and teach freely this is a dialogue myanmar is not making it very welcoming for people to come back everyone has a voice climate change is real the discussion is real and i'm here to talk about the solutions on al-jazeera. welcome back a quick amount of our top stories here on the al-jazeera the us ambassador to the european union has delivered some of the most anticipated testimony of the donald trump impeachment inquiry board and some of them describe broad involvement of the trumpet ministration in a pressure campaign against ukraine the white house though says his testimony

completely exonerates the president while trump says the inquiry is over. about a 100 protesters are still holed up in hong kong's besieged polytechnic university international condemnation is growing of the treatment of the protesters and the u.s. house approved a bill supporting human rights and all. of these 11 people have been killed up to airstrikes and missiles talk of the parts of syria's rebel held in the province activists are blaming the syrian government and iranian militias from missile that a camp for displaced people near the turkish border. in bolivia and these 8 people have been killed in clashes with police on the military who were trying to secure a fuel plant marianna sanchez reports now from some people still unaccounted for. in a tiny church in 6 men were covered with blankets and laid on praying benches they died in tuesday's protest families mourn in shock waiting for an explanation of

what happened. to many a part of the my cousin they all had a life ahead not even a rapist or murderer is killed this way. he can assist his young nephew was not protesting he was hit by a bullet in the head in the hooks but i don't get it because he was shot from a helicopter they destroyed his head. outside the church angry bolivians demanded justice blaming security forces for the deaths. human rights organizations here say social unrest is spiraling and security forces were given a green light to quell the protest. on tuesday a government minister said the army hadn't shot one bullet but stopped short of saying the same about the police. these images show police shooting towards protesters 1st in cochabamba last friday and in atlanta on tuesday. neighbors shared images on social media of the army also appearing to fire live

rounds thembi any most of the stuff we have also seen the shootings and now there has to be an investigation to know who shot them. protesters blame interim president jenny aeneas for the killings and are demanding her resignation. people. say they want to withdraw 3 things really that the police and the military. background there haven't posted. the interim government released it says is an audio recording of former president it will muddle is ordering allies to reinforce blockades that have stalled much of. the deadly protests for. journeyman used to say she will color lections immediately. and though we are presenting the bill for the transitional electoral regime for the 2020 general elections. back in the church the families of the victims

say they don't trust aeneas or any public servant they say they didn't let their loved ones be taken to the morgue autopsies were performed in the church a family's waited for answers. this is protesters escorted yet another dead man into the church. and innocent just i just don't believe. united nations has called on nicaragua's president daniel ortega to stop what it calls persistent repression there's been a standoff at a cathedral where protesters staged a hunger strike that demond they were nice of people who were arrested during demonstrations that killed more than 300 people and gallica reports in nicaragua as capital managua pro-government supporters stormed the nation's most important cathedral and what church officials call an active desecration. in the scuffle that followed a priest a nun reportedly injured church was sheltering

a group of mothers calling for the release of the children they say are political prisoners which reported the women left with the red cross the catholic church plays a powerful role in nicaragua the president told take his accused bishops of being cooped losses the plot of larroca then i want them on the phone was of course we are free we don't have any power we don't have anything of course we are free but no priest has gone into exile and everyone is where they should be even those who were tortured in maceda are in their parishes accompanying the people with much care with much fear nicaragua's political crisis began in april last year with a popular uprising critics accuse ortega of running a repressive regime that according to the interim merican commission for human rights has killed over $300.00 protesters and forced 70000 people to flee the country opposition groups say at least 16 churches have been besieged by authorities as calls grow for the release of prisoners. for the freedom of

our political prisoners for the life of our families who are in the churches and against the violation and desecration of the catholic church the church must be respected life must be respected a report from the un last august cited extra judicial killings torture an arbitrary detentions the organization for american states say this is now a critical human rights situation president daniel ortega now in his 4th term and accused of rigging elections says he won't leave office until at least 2021 and a gallica al jazeera. the greek government has announced it will close down server large migrant camp some replace them with closed facilities with a capacity of at least $5000.00 people each is also browning to step up deportations of migrants not eligible for asylum it's the latest in a series of measures aimed at tackling severe overcrowding because of insecurity proceeding with the arrangement of closed centers not only said they cannot move

apparently there was because a clear message needs to be sent to laze planning to enter the country illegally when they know that they do not qualify for a start up. now with just over 3 weeks to go until the u.k.'s general election the main anti briggs it party the liberal democrats publish his manifesto the party's main pledges to stop drugs it and use the money they say we saved to improve public services they're estimating that figure at around $65000000000.00 the liberal democrats are a long way behind in 3rd place in the current polls. and the ruling conservative party has had controversy after the 1st televised leadership debate from mr burris johnson went head to head with opposition leader germy corbin for the 1st time but it's events behind the scenes that have made the headlines he's pulled. off the back of that debate which took place on tuesday night in fact the headlines weren't really dominated by what the 2 men said but what had happened on social media and a kind of scandal that has erupted not for the 1st time i have to say about the

behavior of the conservative party press office who rebranded themselves as fact check u.k. for the duration of that debate and essentially mimicked the 3 or 4 fact check independent nonpartisan fact check web sites that there are out there is cause ringback a real political storm journalists are not happy about it the opposition political parties are not happy about it accusing the conservative party of playing somewhat fast and loose with the conventions and norms of nonpartizan campaign rules twitter has said that it will take stern action if the conservative party tries to do it again the electoral commission which is kind of the governing body of elections said that it has no power to reprimand the conservative party for this but simply reminded all political parties that they have to abide by transparency rules and it makes it obvious and is yet more evidence that behind the kind of headline

campaigning that is going on the conventional campaigning there is a real guerrilla war happening on social media and the rules and regulations are perhaps not as nimble or as effective in keeping people along the line. at heel as far as abiding by the guidelines that have long been set out. the u.k.'s prince andrew says he's stepping back from public duties for the forseeable future he says his ties to the convicted sex offender geoffrey epstein have become a major disruption to the royal family prince andrew is facing a backlash over a recent interview in which he said he did not regret friendship one of malta's most prominent businessman has been arrested in connection with an investigation into the murder of anticorruption journalist definitely crowe on again it's year you're going french was detained as he tried to leave the mediterranean on his yacht comes a day after the prime minister offered to pardon they suspected middleman in the reporter's murder if he provided legally binding evidence of who was responsible

khurana galatea was killed by a car bomb in the maltese capital letter in october 27th. a magnitude 6 point one earthquake has struck in thailand it happened in the district of one in the north east of chiang mai so far there's been no reports of damage or casualties sri lanka's new president carter by rajapakse has named his elder brother mahinda as prime minister then director paxson who was president himself between 252015 will replace rana with promising that when sworn in on thursday former prime minister stepped down after his party's presidential candidate lost the election earlier this week china's online giant alibaba has begun this year's biggest share sale raising the only $13000000000.00 u.s. dollars in a landmark listing in hong kong the auction marks the largest sale in the city for 9 years i'll be seen as a boost for the territory following more than 5 months of unrest retailers selling

500000000 shares but will issue more depending on demand. the u.s. very pink industry has come under fire for allegedly using deceptive marketing practices to target teenagers new york is the 2nd state this week to sue the cigarette man it's not true jewel targeting mimas the company has pulled its fruit dessert and mint nicotine flavors following intense scrutiny from the moment as much. they were designed to help adult smokers quit smoking but are now described by many as a health crisis affecting millions of young people new york has joined 4 other plaintiffs in the united states taking on its biggest make up of electronic cigarettes they accuse jewel of targeting teenagers and downplaying the risks and use of nicotine in so-called of a pig the company controls around 70 percent of the market in the u.s. and new york's attorney general alleges it's misrepresented the safety and value of

its products in rising numbers our children are vaporing and we know that no matter how it is delivered nicotine is addictive in it's harmful and it's especially harmful to our youth and right now an entire the new generation of americans have become addicted to nicotine jewel labs is accused of conscious public health crisis by glamorizing its products and selling to minors earlier this week legal action was launched against the company in california and north carolina our lawsuit alleges that jewel targeted under age californians with its marketing and sales practices of its nicotine addictive they've been products today one in every 4 high school students is use east everett's is v.p. just 2 years ago that number was one in 9. despite federal law banning the cigarette sales to those under 18 that hasn't stopped millions of under-age youth

consuming jewel products health officials have linked around 40 deaths and more than 2000 lung injuries to severe vaporing related illnesses in the u.s. this year and the health concerns have taken a political turn despite calls to ban flavored isa gretz in september u.s. president donald trump is reportedly backtracking amid pressure from the tobacco invading industry he fears just process and it could affect his vote in next year's presidential election jewel lab says it does not intentionally target under-age uses and it will cooperate with authorities and public health officials it has since announced a series of changes including a new chief executive and a promise to drop the fruit flavored products only to sell those tasting off tobacco but despite jewel nabs promises other health authorities and states in the u.s. say they are preparing to take legal action to mohammed al jazeera. a

quick reminder you can catch up with all the news on our web site there it is on your screen the address of course is al jazeera dot com that's out as a. quick check of the headlines here on al-jazeera the u.s. ambassador to the european union has delivered some of the most anticipated testimony at the donald trump impeachment inquiry gordon songen described broad involvement of the trumpet ministration in a pressure campaign against ukraine the white house though says his testimony completely exonerated the president while trump says the inquiry is over was there a quid pro quo as i testified previously with regard to the requested white house call and the white house the answer is yes. mr giuliani conveyed to secretary perry ambassador volker and others that president trump wanted

a public statement from president selenski committing to investigations of the research and the 2016 election mr giuliani expressed those requests directly to the ukrainians and mr giuliani also expressed those requests directly to us we all understood that these prerequisites for the white house call and the right white house meeting reflected president trumps desires and requirements to american defense official laura cooper later told the impeachment inquiry that she found out in july about military aid to ukraine being put on hold and the president of the order of it. about $100.00 protesters are still inside hong kong's besieged polytechnic university police around the campus of arrested more than a 1000 people since monday international condemnation of the treatment of the protesters is growing and the u.s. house has approved a bill supporting human rights hong kong. israel's opposition leader benny gantz

has been unable to form a coalition government he had until 2200 g.m.t. on wednesday to do so. israel's been through 2 inconclusive elections in april and september and a 3rd one now looks likely. incumbent prime minister benjamin netanyahu did not receive an overall majority both were hoping to win the backing of former defense minister. at least 11 people have been killed off the airstrikes and missiles talk of the parts of syria's rebel held in the province to mix up blaming the syrian government on the right the militias. for displaced people the turkish border. so those are the headlines the news continues here on the al-jazeera after the street station so watching. the one minister. is to give the british all the credit. and making this country the greatest place

on a pretty. good drama brick suit on al-jazeera. welcome to the stream. george's government is under pressure and made mass protests for snap elections but the country's leaders are digging in so what happens next send us your thoughts your twitter and you tube and you could be part of today show. all against one that's the chant voiced by thousands of people who joined anti-government protest that convulsed georgia's capital this week they say they will continue to speak out against politicians from the ruling georgian dream party who backtracked on an electoral reform pledge al-jazeera as robin forrester walker covered $110.00.