counting the cost on al-jazeera. the stage is set for donald trump's impeachment trial as the u.s. house of representatives hangs over the case to the senate. follow on down jordan this is our 0 live from doha also coming up. banks are again vandalize in lebannon the 2nd night of running battles in beirut as protesters demand action to reverse an economic crisis. the u.s. and china signed an initial deal to try to end the 18 months trade war but there's a muted response from stock markets. and we're live in the philippines where all eyes are on the tower volcano which has forced thousands from their homes.

president donald trump is set to stand trial before the senate the house of representatives has delivered the impeachment charges against him to the upper chamber trump is accused of abuse of power and obstruction of congress that makes him the 3rd president in u.s. history to face such proceedings has more now from capitol hill. inside the locus are the articles of impeachment documents accusing president donald trump of abusing his power in obstructing congress the 7 newly ordained impeachment prosecutors follow democratic members of the house who will argue that trump should be removed from office as president is not above the law he will be held accountable he has been held accountable he has been a huge the senate's reception of the articles marks the beginning of the trial phase of crumbs impeachment the $100.00 u.s.

senators will soon be sworn in as jurors with arguments to begin next week republicans hold the majority in the senate and their leader mitch mcconnell has voiced strong opposition to the impeachment if the senate blesses this unprecedented and dangerous house process by agreeing on and complete case at a subjective basis are enough to impeach a president we will almost guarantee the impeachment of every future president. of either party or the house like that bird trump is only the 3rd president in u.s. history to be impeached he denies the allegations that he withheld u.s. security aid to ukraine in order to pressure ukraine's president volodymyr zelinsky to announce an investigation into joe biden new evidence continues to emerge in the case on tuesday impeachment investigators released text messages and notes from an associate of trump's private attorney rudy giuliani get the lewinsky to announce

that the biden case will be investigated wrote the associate who had been dispatched to ukraine and in a letter addressed to the president of ukraine giuliani says he is acting with trump's knowledge and consent witnesses may tell the truth and witnesses may not tell the truth documents joe generally like whether the new documents or potential new witnesses will play a role in trump's trial is an open question the president's defenders say no the polling shows the majority of americans think the senators should hear new evidence in order to have a fair trial the senate is on trial as well as the president does the senate conduct the trial according to the constitution to vindicate the republic or does the senate participate in the president's crimes by covering them up at least 4 republican senators would need to agree to open the trial to new witnesses that's

possible but the odds for conviction and remove all are much steeper support from 20 senate republicans will be required to make that happen but a historic trial of a president is now guaranteed heidi joe castro al-jazeera washington. well in bahrain as a former special impeachment counsel to the house of representatives he says trump sanctions justify his removal from office. i would expect that the democrats in their opening statements will allude to all this evidence that they has recently come up in the last 24 to 48 hours about mr giuliani about documents that suggests that the president knew exactly what was involved with regard to getting a concession from the president of ukraine with regard to investigating the bidens this is a political process if we if it were purely constitutional law might be a good idea to have all the major constitutional scholars participating in this

this is the this is both political and legal but primarily political and for the president to say in effect you are not you the president of ukraine you're not going to get this money unless you do a favor for me that benefits me personally politically i mean that in a nutshell is what went on here to my mind that is far more serious than anything involving bill clinton with his. in getting involved with that in turn in a sexual liaison i mean we're talking about an ally in a hot war and the president is playing games with getting them the aid they desperately need so that he can get some political gain out of it. this is not this is very serious stuff and if the president is not impeached and removed because of

it well. it just shows how political this is. there's been a 2nd night of violence on lebanon streets over the government's economic policies security forces fired tear gas at protesters in the commercial heart of beirut dozens of people were injured banks have been restricting access to accounts and blocking as a board. is growing that the lack of action from the government. has been following the story since on to government protests 1st broke out in october. running battles in the streets of the lebanese capital for the 2nd consecutive nights on thai riot police using tear gas to disperse protesters who as you can see are out in force stuff and there is growing frustration is growing at 11 on it is now the force months since thing i'll tell you stop it. down. 7 people took to the street to the mound a change in leadership the country's economy is in near collapse

a close close to us here there are banks people vandalizing banks and destroying cash machines really venting their anger at the banking sector that goes until no capital controls prevent it from accessing their deposit savings there is a cap on the withdrawal of the other things that happened the withdrawal of lebanese pounds tear gas is being used by iraq for the earlier protesters were outside i think relief that the funding to say you say. ok you have to give it to the state do you cut the street so very very proud of this country without another is a political vacuum and the end of october a people are going on their government out we'll tell you it oh that of. and what what the politicians have been doing is triggering amongst themselves.

over the internet. i don't know i don't know why didn't that the situation is quote thing here and they just play off 11 on and blaming really the politicians for a failing financial system. the world's 2 biggest economies have signed a deal to ease their trade war china has promised to increase u.s. imports and strengthen intellectual property rules in exchange the u.s. removes some tires on chinese goods but as mike hanna reports it's an initial agreement and most tariffs remain in place. but. it was a lovely white house ceremony crowded with have to members lawmakers and executives from large u.s. corporations president trump hailed the deal as remarkable. today we take a momentous step one that has never been taken before with china toward

a future of fair and reciprocal trade as we signed phase one of the historic trade deal between the united states and china. together we are righting the wrongs of the past and delivering a future of economic justice and security for american workers farmers and families the sentiments echoed by china's signatory to the deal drew me down war for. china and the united states with the larger picture in mind have taken a serious approach to our differences and work to manage them or appropriately reaching the phase one try to agreement it is good for china for the united states and the world. the reality though that this is just an initial deal and many problematic issues in the u.s. and china relationship remain on address i think that it has moved the needle a little bit with with china and it has made some progress but at the same time i

don't think that it achieves the fundamental structural changes that are going to need to happen for us. the u.s. tech sector in particular to really feel comfortable for president trump's political opponents insist he's being outsmarted by his chinese counterpart i greatly fear that president xi is laughing at us behind our backs for having given away so little at the expense of american workers farmers and businesses the administration in order to get a deal at all costs before the 2020 election. it has thrown the american worker an american business overboard and they're going to be the ones who have to face the consequences and that's the smiles and celebrations the awareness that this is not an end to the trade war it is at the stage really the truth. al-jazeera washington. hong kong's leader carol lam says the city's autonomous status could last beyond its 2047 expiration date but she stressed that the one

country 2 systems model can only be preserved by loyalty to beijing or. i think there will be enough grounds to believe the system can move ahead smoothly and there will be no change after 2047 so to fully implement one country 2 systems we need to preserve the foundation under one country and respect the differences under the 2 systems we have to uphold the principle of one country and only by doing this one country 2 systems has a chance to move forward smoothly. several opposition politicians were ejected from the legislature for heckling last june that question and answer session pro-democracy nor maker shouted slogans and help placards echoing the demands of anti-government demonstrators they've been demanding greater autonomy from beijing since june. break here not just iraq when we come back another warning a new climate data shows the past decade was the hottest on record. in poland

polarized while the arts and the battleground the country's political divisions more and stay with us. hello there are still some pretty clear conditions across central areas of europe that is apart from the fog of course that has been lingering steadily over the last several days but a system in the eastern end of the med we will keep an eye on that it is of course got some rain with it but out across the. yes it is all about the rain the high winds and the snow look at this this is dawlish down in devon and you can see there's actually a train trying to come by and sure enough the massive waves just breaking over this and then you had to the north into scotland the same system of course in that cold air has been coming down as snow so another train working its way across the highlands and again plenty of problems of course on the roads trying to keep the roads clear of all that snow so what is going to happen next well on thursday

there's a slight break in that to rain and also that snow but there's another system just waiting in the wings and this will sweep in as we go through the day bringing rain again across much of the u.k. heavier into scotland some snow again to the mountains and look at this very heavy rain as well particularly heavy down into northern spain and also northern sections of portugal maybe 165 millimeters of rain elsewhere it is fine and quiet but there is a change by friday that high pressure which is being dominant beginning to actually break down so the rain beginning to push across into areas of france heavy at times and finally some snow to the alps. frank assessments the one good thing about these bushfires this is really what's going on the. climate change informed opinions economy i think is actually what's keeping down the truck afloat right now critical debate to columbus to school to even know what the story is all about this argument is astonishing to me

a part time thing in-depth analysis of the day's headlines this is the beginning of the iraq of the new countries and we stood up against an ethnic sectarian kotor inside story on al-jazeera. welcome back to program on about top stories here on the al-jazeera the u.s. house of representatives has delivered the articles of impeachment against donald trump to the senate for a trial he's accused of abuse of power proceedings are expected to start next week . there's been a 2nd night of violence on lebanon on the streets over the country's banking crisis security forces fired tear gas at protesters in the commercial heart of beirut

dozens of people were injured. and the u.s. and china have signed the 1st phase of a deal to ease their trade war china has promised to increase american imports in the u.s. removing some tariffs on chinese goods. now warnings of another volcanic eruption in the philippines a forced thousands more people to abandon their homes to high risk areas as limited drone video shows one town near the top of the volcano devastated by ash fall buildings have collapsed and evacuation centers across the tongue of province are almost full well more than 50000 people are in evacuation centers across the tongue just province jamila island duggan joins us live now from one of them in santa thomas city jamila thousands of people have already been moved so what's the latest on the evacuation how are people coping there. well we are in one of the biggest evacuation sites there is there over a 100 sites set up over the last few days across the province of but anderson could

be there where we are this is a university and we've spoken to the site manager who told us that basically this area of the campus is full to the brim of evacuees there are about 3000 evacuees here now from different towns that have been on lockdown since sunday afternoon since vacuum asian efforts have started led by the philippine military and the police the situation here although i little difficult is manageable we're seeing a lot of aid. coming in donations coming in from different organisations from different sectors and local governments bringing in much needed food. medicine blankets and clothes and there is also a shortage of a bit of water but that there is a daily supply of that now the problem really here is shelter there is no basic decent shelter for thousands of civilians who are staying here but the major concern at this point really is the long term because beside the beyond the

physical discomfort the main issue here is the agony nobody really knows how long they have to stay here many of those who had to evacuate had to leave everything they worked hard for behind their farms their cattle their children are unable to school so this is what they would like to know they would like to know when they can return home and they would like to do that as soon as possible as soon as local government officials allow them and john of the scientists and explosive eruption of the volcano is pretty imminent but they've been facing growing criticism because they failed to predict the scale of the eruptions. well that is something that they have they've said basically it started from alert level one and then it jumped quickly to alert level 2 which is basically there has been spewing of lava ash and steam but there have already been evacuations around the creator of the volcano even before that big eruption sunday afternoon as you see daryn it's not as easy call. watching out or monitoring an earthquake and the

volcanic explosion is not in fact as easy as a typhoon for example in a typhoon you can more or less predict when the typhoon will start where and when it will hit and when it will leave in armed conflict it's also the same here and i said that the problem is you don't really know where it's going to strike so now the point is they're saying they would like to make sure though that everyone will stay out of danger zone until they are sure that it is safe for everyone all right to develop dugan in bhutan this province in the philippines donna thank you for that update. foreign ministers some countries whose citizens died when iran's military shot down a ukrainian airline of a terror on last week a meeting in london canada ukraine sweden afghanistan and britain are all demanding full cooperation from iran canadian and ukrainian investigators are in tehran to examine the wreckage 176 people on board were killed after an initial denial iran's military later admitted that it shot down the jet by mistake china has pushed the

united nations security council to discuss possible solutions in kashmir the internet has been cut since last august when india's government ended kashmir semi autonomous status stands foreign minister says he'll continue to push for international involvement. the bush lead situation. and the question we question has been discussed in the security council for the 2nd time in 5 months is it that clear indication that. the security council is cognizant that this issue is on the agenda posed to security council and the impression that india tries to give them that this is an internal matter is is not predict this is a matter of concern and the international community cannot be the relieve us

of the situation there. russia's president has nominated a bureaucrat with no political experience to replace the prime minister dmitry medvedev he resigned along with him ta government soon after that amir putin announced major changes to the constitution critics say he's paving the way to stay in power for life george howell reports it was dramatic and entirely unexpected except the just hours before the resignation of russia's prime minister dmitry medvedev and his entire government the president vladimir putin had called for a government change. we as the government of the russian federation should provide the president of our country with the opportunity to make all necessary changes to the political system. in the annual live televised state of the nation address putin said that the constitution should be amended to allow parliament to choose candidates for prime minister and the cabinet

a power now enjoyed soley by the president and the president he said should in future serve a total maximum of 2 terms putin himself is currently serving his 4th the proposed changes would substantially limit the power of whoever succeeds putin as president after he steps down in 2024 as he's constitutionally bound to do. supporters describe the move as deepening democracy empowering elected members of parliament critics however suggest it offers a concrete clue to russia's hottest political question what happens after putin the answer some believe is more political. the main result of putin's address tweeted kremlin critic alexis novell me what kind of idiots and or crooks are all those who said that putin would leave in 2024 the only goal of putin and his regime is remaining leader for life taking ownership of an entire country and appropriating

wealth to himself and his friends the russian president seeks to. continue to exert control or the russian political sphere even after he leaves the official office of the president so this more is intended to change the political structure of their action government in such a way as. to possibly move to a different position from which he will be able to do so. but the me of putin has said nothing of his intentions post presidency but he could be planning a repeat of these 2008 move to become prime minister or take on another senior role a weakened presidency might pave the way for russia's longest serving leader since stalin take power with him when he goes home al jazeera. in venezuela gunmen on motorbikes and ambushed opposition politicians to again stop them taking their seats in parliament thank you to one who declared himself interim

president last year well since then he's failed to overthrow president maduro despite widespread backing from neighboring countries the united states is a latin america editor. for the 2nd time this month's than israel's opposition majority leader. was obliged to improvise a parliamentary chamber in a remote auditorium hours earlier armed groups of oil to the government had prevented opposition lawmakers from approaching the national assembly and firing weapons in the losing of a crowbar to attack one of their vehicles. some deputies managed to press police barriers and were brutally ambushed they have taken over the palace moved. by the dictatorship. heavily armed security forces had already surrounded the legislative palace where why the had planned to convene parliament meanwhile government strongman. arrived chair the constituent assembly

a rival legislative super body created by president nicolas maduro that operates from the same building he told al-jazeera the opposition didn't have anything more to do in parliament in fact it's not clear whether the mainstream opposition will ever be able to hold another session here in the legislative palace again the government's strategy seems to be to occupy this area permanently. the. next step will likely be to allow the supreme court controlled by maduro loyalists to appoint a new electoral council. but it's not possible to reach an agreement in parliament as stipulated in the constitution the supreme court has the right to clear a legislative mission and proceed to make the appointments. last january the united states and more than 50 other countries recognized by the law the president of parliament as the country's interim president as well. they argued that macdougall

had rigged his 2018 reelection but a year later harsh economic and diplomatic sanctions to try to force model to hold new national elections have failed. and it's now why dog was on the defensive as the military backed government uses all the means at its disposal to isolated defiant but increasingly powerless opposition you see in human. cataracts emergency crews in pakistan administered kashmir have recovered 21 more bodies as they search for victims of recent avalanches at least 160 people from pakistan and afghanistan have been killed because of the severe weather in recent days the regions need them values the worst hit area people are believed to be trapped inside their homes buried by heavy snow for. yet another dire warnings been issued overheating planet nasa and the us oceanic and atmospheric administration say the past decade was the hottest ever recorded scientists say the arctic is warming 3

times faster than anywhere else and extreme weather will become more common if the current level of greenhouse gas emissions isn't reduced well gavin smith is the director of the god institute for space studies in new york he says the rate of temperature change was predicted 40 years ago. it is the same situation 'd that we have been telling people about for many years and predicting ahead of time we were and we predicted that that the rate of change would be as as it is and the models that we put together even in the 1970 s. in the 1980 s. predicted the changes in temperatures that we're seeing now and we understand why that's happening so short i mean there are people that don't want to see that but there are people who are who have been following the science who understand exactly how solid a case this is it's not reversible on our choices are really 2 to keep our food on

the accelerator and to to keep increasing at an ever increasing rate or to slow it down and those are our choices we can through actions to reduce carbon emissions are slow down what's going on and perhaps stabilize the climate a day at a reasonable temperature depending on how heroic those mitigation efforts are. now ponens right wing law and justice party now do you want to 2nd term in power last year but the opposition now as a majority in the upper house of parliament as the political debate heats up the battle for control of ponens cultural space is also underway but in baba reports. the cold night in good danskin thousands of people paid tribute to their form a man. who'd campaign for the rights of migrants was murdered on stage at this very event a year ago. this year's fundraiser here part of a national charity drive raising money for hospital equipment was dedicated to him

. it used to be shown live on public television since 2017 it's only been carried by a private channel. this event's been going for nearly 3 decades but in recent years it's become controversial for some people here in toto it's just one example of the culture wars. being waged between liberals and conservatives. the head of one regional councils actually refused to take part in this year's fundraiser claiming the event had become political decision was supposed to be in on our toumani late husband who was murdered i asked pawel adama vich is widowed now a center left member of the european parliament and campaigner against hate speech what she made of that maybe they are not aware bad in day or sell of there is a lot of hate there is a lot of maybe disappointment in daily life and a half. bad idea but as we see in the air by here

we have a new. record we gather more in law. some poll sympathetic to the ruling lower and justice party see the charities found. as a left wing of his politics are at odds with traditional values. it's a view shared by today's cruise joint speak who hosts a current affairs show and public television. using. his liberal attitude as expressed in his motto do whatever you want at the same time he supports very problematic issues like abortion and euthanasia which are contrary to the current government's vision and that struggle for control over poland's cultural space is now moved here in this city between art and society the. center for contemporary arts in warsaw the new director here who was appointed by poland's culture minister has spoken of the art world being dominated by a neo marxist ideology saying he wants to promote artists with other views

conservative pro-family this nomination is the most traditional of power because. she's known for extremely conservative views. he doesn't have the art community which will mean. this mission extremely difficult poland's political landscape is perhaps more polarized than it's ever been with little appetite for compromise that's only likely to make it harder to see the world through someone else's on the team bob al jazeera. time for a quick check of the headlines here on al-jazeera the u.s. house of representatives has delivered the articles of impeachment against donald trump to the senate for a trial he's accused of abuse of power for threatening to withhold military aid to ukraine in exchange for a political favor make it be very clear that this person will be held accountable

no one is above the law and i think no future president should ever entertain the idea that article one and she's the article 2 says that he can do whatever he wants . this is difficult for our country but there is precisely the kind of. for which the framers created. i'm confident this body can run short termism and factional fever and serve the long term best interest of our nation there's been a 2nd night of violence on lebanon streets over the country's banking crisis acutely forces injured dozens of protesters in the commercial heart frustration is growing after banks restricted access to accounts and blocked transfers aboard the u.s. and china have signed the 1st phase of the deal to ease their trade war china has promised to increase american imports on the u.s.

removes some tariffs on chinese goods warnings of another volcanic eruption in the philippines a force thousands more people to abandon their homes towns near the volcano and batangas province have been devastated by. several opposition politicians were ejected from the hong kong legislative ahead thing leader kerry lam she says the city's autonomous status could last beyond its 2047 expiration date and she stressed that the one country 2 systems model can only be preserved find loyalty to beijing. what goes with the headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera the inside story statement banks are watching but for. we understand the different scenes and similarities of cultures across the land. so no matter what you seek out his new era will bring you the needs and current affairs that matter to the.

al-jazeera. sudan's transitional government but to the task the army says it lost what it calls the rebellion by former forces it all started with a plan to restructure the intelligence services so what does it mean for sudan's transition to civilian rule this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program i'm richelle carey it was a great confrontation between what say you know sudan's old guard and the new administration at the revolt from within the ranks of the security services posed a major challenge for the transit.