it is the others the u.s. senate's top democrat republicans to summon current and former white house officials to testify president trump's expected impeachment trial. hello i'm maryanne demasi in london you know with al-jazeera coming up on the program. india's prime minister calls for calm but protest against his new citizenship will spread across the country. gambians rally against the president adama barrow urging him to keep his promise to step down after 3 years. in both iraq and lebanon perspiring the naming of a new prime minister until thursday after politicians failed to agree.

hello welcome to the program the u.s. senate's top democrat is calling for current and former white house aides to testify president donald trump's expected impeachment trial chuck schumer says he wants senior officials including white house acting chief of staff mick mulvaney and former national security adviser john bolton to be summoned he's due to give a news conference this hour of course we'll have that few live when it starts a vote in the democratic led house to impeach president donald trump is expected on wednesday if that pass' he'll then be tried in the republican controlled senate but republicans have called for a short trial about any witnesses why did your castro joins us live now from capitol hill what are you hearing but there about the prospect of mulvaney and bolton being summoned as witnesses. it

mariyam so that's looking forward into the new year when after this wednesday's expected vote on the house floor that is expected to impeach president trump making him only the 3rd us president in history to be impeached by congress that's when this kicks over to the senate and before those senators are even going to hear any of the evidence against trump they must 1st establish the trial rules this is because the u.s. constitution offers very few parameters as far as how an impeachment trial must unfold which essentially allows senators to make up these rules as they go along and now we're expecting very soon to hear from the top democrat in the senate minority leader chuck schumer who has released a letter that essentially lists his minority parties wish list for how the impeachment trial rules may go it's notable democrats won't get any of these things

unless at least 3 republican senators agree with them but at the very top of this list is indeed those witnesses that you mentioned democrats hope to subpoena for members of trump's innermost circle who they believe may have information on trump's motives when he suspended military aid to ukraine and at the same time pressured that presidents the president of that country to publicly announce investigations into trump's domestic political rivals and among these witnesses is make will amy who is the acting chief of staff at the white house he was the person that order the suspension of u.s. security aide also john bolton the former national security adviser to trump who his aides have testified in this inquiry that bolton was so upset by the administration's efforts to get these investigations into trump's political rivals that bolton called this quote a drug deal now it's the senate democrats say that america. in public has

a right to hear from these witnesses who have until now been silenced by the white house and that in order to have this be a fair trial in the senate that the american public should hear from these individuals from the well mitch mcconnell the republican majority leader of the senate has said he is in total corded nation with the white house when it comes to the rules for the senate trial and he has said that there is quote no chance that the senate would remove trump from office right thank you very much with the latest from capitol hill heidi joe castro and i want house correspondent kimberly joins us live now the expected vote on impeachment coming up on wednesday and it seems as a the democrats are unified on this what is then the white house's strategy once the vote goes down how will they intend to defend the president. what we haven't

heard any official strategy but certainly the hallmark of the trump predator presidency particularly has been defiance and we don't expect that to ease in any way in fact we expected to ramp up and we're getting some signals that the president has something planned along those lines not only from his tweets where he has been talking repeatedly claiming no wrongdoing and also claiming that there need to be a large number of witnesses that need to be called in the senate trial namely even some of the president vice former vice president joe biden son hunter biden adam schiff the house intelligence chair even now to palosi the house speaker that may not happen but certainly what we have heard a is from the president even tweeting as recently as early this morning that there could be new information the president suggesting when he retreated tweet from his personal attorney 2 rudolph giuliani. who has recently returned from ukraine that

there is new information potentially against the former obama administration with regard to bribery with regard to extortion it's really hard to know how credible any of these allegations are but the president often floats this out there in the hope that it will at least put it into context for the american public the voting public that there may be something illegitimate about the proceedings that currently are underway so we're watching very carefully not only to see if there is the new information the president is promising potentially to come after the impeachment vote but we're also watching very carefully in the next hour because the president is expected to have a roundtable with governors in the cabinet room we don't know whole lot more about what the president might say but when he tweets as much as he does as we've seen in the last few hours he often has something on his mind and wants to talk to the camera so watching very carefully he may not talking may but he certainly isn't a fighting mood as he has been for many weeks seems to be how it rolls thanks very

much at the white house. india's prime minister has called for calm after 5 days of violent protests over a new law that off a citizenship to persecuted minorities from neighboring countries but excludes muslims around remote he tweeted that the protests are unfortunate and deeply distressing he went on to assure indian citizens that the citizenship amendment act would not affect indians of any religion as its only for those who faced years of persecution outside and have no other place to go except india modi called for peace unity and brotherhood and for everyone to stay away from any sort of rumor mongering and falsehood but the protests show no sign of dying down instead they have spread to university campuses across the nation with thousands of students

demonstrating in delhi southern chennai and northern veyron r.c. there is anger at modi's government following allegations of police brutality during one campus rally in the capital that turned violent on sunday india's supremes court is expected to hear petitions challenging the citizenship law on wednesday. citizenship. and. pilots against the bill that i get this is unconstitutional and we should be standing up for it and people should know more about what is happening in r.t. if you think you are in the genius try me again they're coming and taking away our land and my people are getting killed and ne talking about it. well another story a former member of india's ruling political party has been found guilty of rape and could face life in prison. was convicted on the child protection laws as his victim

was 17 when she was assaulted in 2017 the case came to national attention last year one woman tried to set herself on fire alleging police inaction sango was expelled from the b j p an organised by prime minister narendra modi to face criticism for failing to act against a politician will be sentenced on tuesday. at least 12 people have been killed in a rebel attack in eastern democratic republic of congo the rape happened overnight in the village of it comes a day after at least $32.00 people died in another attack in benny which was blamed on the rebel group the allied democratic forces they are the latest in a wave of deadly attacks which triggered protests against the congolese army and the un peacekeepers by residents who say they're failing to protect them violence has also disrupted efforts to contain an ebola outbreak in the region which has killed more than 2200 people united nations security council has been discussing its role in west africa

a day after its leaders in the region held an emergency meeting in asia on rising violence that just a few days ago 71 soldiers from the jazz army were killed by fighters linked to eye so near the border with mali ahmed idris has more now from. these are desperate times for africa so here we armed groups are inflicting heavy losses on music and forcing thousands of civilians from the whole shebang. leaders of the countries affected no one us g 5 scrambled this meeting in yemi to urgently find a solution almost president mohamed use of force says the frequency of sophistication of recent attacks is waters of. the scale of terrorist attacks are getting larger day after day terrorists are getting more sophisticated weapons the terrorists have been real war professionals they progress every day on the strategic operative and tactical levels. they defied chairman appeal for a new strategy to phrase the growing threat. we must work together

to ensure a victory against today it isn't in the short middle and long term as the casing of the countries fighting terrorism we need an alliance kind of to rise to that responsibility cooperation and respect for each other. on the 2nd life to life not what. many anything else should be working on right now this month we've recognized the 7th anniversary of the sandy hook massacre in the 7 years since that sandy hook massacre in the 7 years since that in the thinkable tragedy america has experienced countless incidence of gun violence ranging from horrific mass shootings to the thousands of shootings that devastate communities every day the senate has not even debated background check legislation. the senate hasn't debated legislation to reduce the cost of health care. college education for

prescription drugs. republican leadership has even refused to work with democrats on bipartisan solutions to secure our elections and to deter foreign adversaries from interfering in our elections. all the productive activity in the congress is coming out of the house the senate remains a legislative graveyard for so many different issues now on impeachment. as you know the house is expected to vote on the articles of impeachment this week assuming the articles are adopted by the house the senate will serve as a court of impeachment conducting impeachment trial in the senate is enormously weighty and solemn responsibility one of the most important thing is that the founding fathers arrogated to the senate the. senate democrats believe strongly

that the trial must be fair and it's very important that the american people judge it to be fair. a fair trial is one where senators get all the facts and one that allows them to adjudicate the case impartially. 2 weeks ago now i told leader mcconnell i was ready to discuss trial rules instead of talking to me he spoke publicly about what a trial may look like and said he was taking his cues from the white house it was very partisan very slanted very unfair. so to get things back on track. i sent a letter to leader mcconnell last night outlining a very reasonable structure that would result in a fair trial. this morning i sent a letter to every united states senator democrat and republican. i hope that all of

my colleagues will look at this proposed structure and make up their own minds the 4 witnesses we propose have direct knowledge of why the aid to ukraine was delayed. we don't know what kind of evidence they will present. they might present exculpatory evidence that helps president trump. it may be incriminating against the president but they should be heard. but by virtue of the senior administration positions they occupy but each of them will have information to share about the charges made by the house information that no one has heard at this point. in fact in the case of mr bolton his attorney stated publicly that he has additional relevant information to share the

information that is not yet become public how on such a weighty matter. could we avoid hearing this could we go forward without hearing. and that is why i sent the letter in part. to leader mcconnell. we also propose that subpoenas for documents that are directly related to the charges brought by the house come forward. there's always a lot of attention on the question of witnesses but these documents are also of great importance when it comes to making sure senators have what they need to make a fully informed decision. right now i think the house has amassed a great deal of evidence much of it in the form of testimony from the president's own appointees. that the president committed impeachable offenses. but

a good number of my republican colleagues have said they believe the charges are serious but there isn't enough evidence yet for them to make a decision. we believe these witnesses and documents would provide the evidence they're looking for without being dilatory or letting the trial drag on for too long. i haven't seen a single good argument about why these witnesses shouldn't testify or these documents be produced unless the president has something to hide and his supporters want that information hidden in. the trial structure i outlined in my letter to leader mcconnell will ensure that all the relevant facts come out without dilatory action. you know there is a grand american tradition of a speedy and fair trial that's just what we've proposed here and i

expect 2 republicans would be sympathetic to our report pozole for that reason. the president and house republicans have resisted letting all the evidence and facts come out the president hasn't offered a single exculpatory bit of evidence that refutes what's in. the house impeachment charges they have not refuted the. document could be summed up. by joe friday on dragnet just the facts ma'am that's what we're interested in. not diversions not conspiracy theories that are irrelevant to the case just the facts ma'am. as i said the president has offered nothing extolled but tory to disprove the evidence that has been for put forward instead he's orchestrated a coverup it's left many in the senate and millions across the country

asking what is the president hiding why doesn't he want the facts to come out. in their investigation the house compiled and present an enormous amount of evidence in support of the articles of impeachment. but as i said some of my republican colleagues are saying there isn't enough evidence the trial structure i outlined in my letter to leader mcconnell will ensure all the facts come out so in the coming weeks senators particularly republican senators will have a choice. do they want a fair honest trial that examines all the facts or they do they want to trial that doesn't let the facts come out trials have witnesses that's what trials are all about. and documents it's not just.

the prosecutors in this case the house attorneys make their side the president's lawyers make their side we know that already we've heard that we need to know the facts from those who are in a position to know and from documents that accurately reflect them. so to engage a trial without the facts coming out is to engage in a cover up. to conduct a trial without the facts is saying we're afraid we have something to hide. to conduct a trial without relevant witnesses who haven't been heard from to just rehash the evidence presented in the house just doesn't make any sense if leader mcconnell doesn't hold a full and fair trial the american people will rightly ask what are you leader

mcconnell and what is president trump hiding ready for questions one at a time that i know you didn't hear he would. like to know ok here is what i said at the time these are exactly my words my view is we've heard from most of these witnesses over and over again we've heard the same story the witnesses in 99 had already been given had already given grand jury testimony we knew what they were to say the 4 witnesses we've called have not been heard from that is a difference and it's a difference that is totally overwhelming. there's. only. one senate to get rid of. them and help them but it's not enough to go to work yet. should. have been sued with well look i'm

not going to 2nd guess the house there is virtually no argument no good argument if you're interested in the facts and not having these witnesses come forward now and remember the standard at a trial is different than the standard when a prosecutor in this case the house impeachment authority puts together a case a trial is a place for witnesses. you have in our neighborhood or if you want i expect to have the support from democrats and republicans because the argument is so strong and many republicans have voiced to me and many of my colleagues privately but they think what the president did is wrong but they're just not sure enough facts have been presented to make the the unimpeachable case high crimes and misdemeanors this is the way to do it the way we outlined it was going to. we're

all. wondering why. were these right these are the 4 who have the most direct contact. of the facts that are in dispute most particularly why was the aid to ukraine delayed they these are the best 4 witnesses for that case and by the way we don't want to be dilatory we don't want to stress this out any longer than we have to. but these people are crucial and haven't been heard from and again that's the difference with $999.00 and it's a total difference. yes. i'm not going to get into that old negotiate with mcconnell but let me tell you live testimony is the best way to go you know in 1998 but if you. did

not want more. it would take us to bring discredit on the senate i feel a lot of days ago and he indicated he thought that the integrity of the senate is a risk here if you have one witnesses on the floor to bark well why is that not the case and this is why would you serve them or. you can say despite what i said that's the whole case we've heard from them. everything in 199999 was a different case there were all the obvious reasons why they did not want a witness like monica lewinsky testifying in public i was there and it related to what she what the questions might be about that the whole nation including children would be watching totally different situation there's no one now it's you. have no . doubt your. wife you know the bottom line is that there are

some who say there is some who may think it's enough we all have to wait and not prejudge the case but there are many who have said these are serious charges but i'm not sure there's enough factual evidence to merit impeachment these people know better than anybody else the facts there is no reason on god's green earth why they shouldn't be called and testify unless you're afraid of what they might say that you. were will cross that i am hopeful. leader mcconnell has finally said that he wants to sit down and talk and i am i am very eager and willing to do that as i said we want to come up with a fair trial where the facts come out without dilatory actions and without making this into a circus of unrelated conspiracy theories of either the right or the left last question back there with the beard. or. the.

years that they might are you willing if they're going to go to work harder to come forward if they sure will some of your witnesses be you some of are you willing to kill again you know i think you should be focused on the fact that the house presented not on conspiracy theories that some establish lawyer puts forward and then someone says let's hear if that conspiracy theory is correct which has no relevance to the facts here so we ought to stick to the facts and if there are other witnesses who might have witnessed what happened who might have very strong evidence on the facts that the house presented i'd certainly want to hear who they are thank you everybody. that you guys you know. we've just been listening to senate minority leader chuck schumer there accusing the president of the united states of quote orchestrating

a cover up he said that the white house had not offered any evidence to refute the charges of abuse of power and obstruction of congress but schumer also accused the republicans of being divisive by not agreeing to a trial with witnesses chuck schumer had written to his opposite number in the senate mitch mcconnell calling for a trial which included officials the likes of acting chief of staff mick mulvaney and the former national security advisor john bolton although. republicans haven't actually agreed to this there is expected to be a vote in the democrat. led house on impeachment this wednesday that is articles of impeachment will be approved and then the process will move to the senate for trial that's castro quickly she joins us from capitol hill so heidi what happens now will mcconnell agree to actually discuss the structure of a trial with chuck schumer. marion mcconnell has said

that he is willing to negotiate the rules of the impeachment trial in the senate however macaw chuck schumer just said that the 2 of them aren't talking that he's trying to get these negotiations started but that essentially the leader of the republican party in the senate has been ignoring him thus he's in a sense forcing the point by holding these public statements and writing a letter to mcconnell laying out what the minority party is hoping as their wish list for this trial going forward what this argument that you just heard from chuck schumer down to is that in the last 2 months we've heard hearing after hearing of these impeachment witnesses in the ongoing investigation however during all this time those investigators and the american public have not cracked through trump's innermost circle these are the individuals who in schumer's words just now they have the most direct contact with the facts in dispute what are those facts will

democrats say that trump withheld the security aid to ukraine with the motive with the corrupt intent they say to get ukrainians to launch investigations into his political rivals trump every public and defenders have said that that was not the pres the president's motive at all that he was doing so to combat corruption in ukraine so those are the 2 disputed sets of facts and there are 4 people that chuck schumer says who are likely to be able to clarify that and all 4 of them were invited to testify before the impeachment inquiry in the house and all 4 declined or refused those invitations at the president's behest so 2 of those individuals particularly are as you mentioned trump's acting chief of staff mick mulvaney who was his right hand man who is the person that order the security aide to be withheld all. also trump's former national security advisor john bolton who is no

longer a member of the white house bill who told aides at the time that he thought the administration's dealings with ukraine during that time in withholding a white house invitation to the president of ukraine in exchange for those investigations into joe biden bolton according to his aides said that that was like a drug deal and he was our he was upset that that was what the administration was doing but again these individuals have yet to tell their stories in before congress before the american public and democrats essentially are saying their argument is what's there to hide perhaps they can even help clear the president's name if he is is innocent as he claims so why not call them forward and offer this previously still on earth information to the american public all right thank you from capitol hill heidi joe castro there's much more on this story and everything else we're covering right here al-jazeera dot com and get the latest on political developments and the protests unfolding in lebanon but also iraq has an analysis there and of

course you can watch us on life streaming if you prefer that al-jazeera dot com. or you just been hearing from chuck schumer there on capitol hill the u.s. is the u.s. senate's top democrat calling for current from the white house aides to testify president donald trump expected impeachment trial in the senate republicans of called for a short trial without any witnesses but chuck schumer saying he wants senior officials including a white house acting chief of any on the former national security adviser john bolton to be summoned. i haven't seen a single good argument about why these witnesses shouldn't testify with these documents be produced unless the president has something to hide and his supporters want that information hidden. the trial structure i

outlined in my letter to leader mcconnell will ensure that all the relevant facts come out with dilatory action in india the prime minister narendra modi has called for calm after 5 days of violent protests at universities across the country over the citizenship amendment act modi tweeted that the protests are unfortunate and deeply distressing the protests show no sign of dying down instead they have spread to university campuses across the country thousands of students demonstrating in new delhi southern chennai and the northern veyron arcee area. something to protest the. citizenship. and. it's going to spell it's against the bill that ak it is unconstitutional and we should be standing up for it and people should know more about what is happening in north korea having to our in the genius trying anything they're coming and taking away

our land and my people are getting killed and nobody's talking about it and one other story from the gambia our opposition parties have been rallying against president adama barrow you have promised to step down at the end of 2019 after 3 years in power as part of the deal to form a coalition government but he has since changed his mind saying he will serve his full 5 year term. is stay with us here on al-jazeera the stream is the program coming up next talking to reporters covering china's change young province i have more news for you after that.

i have family ok and you're in the stream today can exposing china's internment camps close the off to journalists reveal classified documents on muslim intelligent hands china pushes back with its own narrative we'll speak to a panel of journalists covering and we want your input send us your questions and your comments to twitter or our live you tube chop. this is for it if the kind of director of human rights watch and you were in the stream. china says other ethnic minorities who have been detained in the so called we education.