do that on al-jazeera. really understand the differences and similarities of cultures across the world so no matter what we know the news and current affairs that matter to you. this is not a process for a fair trial. this is the process for redress. us democrats accuse senate republicans are proposing unfair rules for the pietschmann trial of donald trump the u.s. president won't be there he's in davos same color as the trial i disgraceful hoax. would have the very latest from capitol hill in just a moment i'm fully back to boil watching al jazeera live from doha also ahead china's sphere of super spread is confirming

a new virus is passing from president to person us like a lot of people close to centipede who feel like there is no hope maybe a. young libyans wonder whether their future lies abroad with chaos reigning at home. all right staking you live to washington d.c. and capitol hill where senate minority leader chuck schumer a new york democrat is giving a news conference ahead of the start of the impeachment trial of president in the senate that's next week americans health care. will always see if they succeed either this year or next year. now let's get to the issue at hand. as you all know president trump is accused of coercing a foreign leader into interfering in our election. to benefit himself and then

doing everything in his power to cover it up. it proved the president's actions are crimes against democracy itself it cannot be overstated how serious this charge is if americans start believing that foreigners can affect and elect presidents. or senators or governors if foreigners can interfere in elections and determine the outcome instead of the american people determining the outcome or democracy is vastly eroded people will stop losing start losing faith in elections and a very well spring in foundation of this grand and great nation that the founding fathers established more than 200 years ago. so the charges these dollars charges were being asked to try for anyone who says oh this

isn't serious or this is done all the time no way. this president in his abuse of power is unfortunately unique. and willing to abuse his power. with fewer conscious qualms and far more readily and easily than any president we have seen and by a long shot. and the only power. that the american people have when a president of views is power other than elections is this impeachment process. we take it very seriously very seriously. so. one senator inhofe is sworn in the sand or noon the ceremonial functions at the beginning of the presidential impeachment trial will be complete the senate must then determine the rules of the trial. the republican leader will offer an

organizing resolution that outlines his plan for the rules of the trial which was only released last night. amazingly waited till the very end and now we see why. it is completely partisan it was kept secret until leave of the trial. and now that it's finally been made public it's obvious to see why leader mcconnell was keeping it so close to his vest because the mcconnell rules seem to be designed by president trump for president trump. simply executed by leader mcconnell and senate republicans. it appears that leader mcconnell decided to go along with the president's desire to cover up his wrongdoing hook line and sinker it almost seems that the resolution was written in the white house not in the senate. but mcconnell resolution is

a blueprint for an impeachment trial on fast forward it asks the senate to sprint through the trial as fast as possible and makes getting evidence as hard as possible. but bottom line. leader mcconnell wants the process rushed. with his little evidence as possible in the dark of night. he pushes the arguments into the wee hours of the night so merican people won't see them. in short again the mcconnell resolution will result in a rush trial with little evidence in the dead of night. if the president is so confident in his case. then why won't he presented in broad daylight if leader mcconnell and the republican senators who've said he's done nothing wrong it's perfect. why not while the sun is shining. instead of a 2 am throws pretty obvious it's pretty obvious why not.

on something as important as impeachment. mcconnell's resolution is nothing short of a national disgrace and it will go down in history as one of the very dark days of the senate not living up to its responsibility you know b. since to the president not to the truth. leader mcconnell promised his trial rules if you've heard this for weeks let's enact the same rules as the clinton trial rules he said we're going to get started in exactly the same way it turns out the mcconnell rules are not even close to the clinton rules. and there are many places where that happens. unlike the clinton rules that will connell resolution does not admit the record of the house impeachment proceedings into evidence so mcconnell seems to want

a trial with no existing evidence and no new evidence no evidence. can understand why. it's because he's afraid of evidence so is president trump so are the president's men. a trial with no evidence is not a trial at all it's a coverup 2nd unlike the clinton rules the mcconnell resolution limits presentation by the parties to 24 hours per side over only 2 days. leader mcconnell wants to force the managers to make important parts of their case in the dead of night i've read the brief. it's about $45.00 pages i commend each of you it's a powerful document very hard to rebut in fact the president's brief doesn't even attempt to revive it. next the mcconnell resolution

prohibits motions to subpoena witnesses or documents until after the senators question period and even then it requires the senate to overcome an additional hurdle by voting to determine whether motions to subpoena witnesses and documents are in order so we've had some senators say well i'm going to vote for mcconnell's resolution but later i might vote for witnesses and documents mcconnell's very resolution puts many obstacles in the path of getting witnesses and documents even later so republican senators don't fool us. don't say. you want to make it easy to vote for witnesses and documents at the end of the trial if you vote for this resolution. makes it a lot harder. and finally unlike the clinton rules the mcconnell resolution allows a motion to dismiss it any time during the trial now we thought that the

clinton rules shouldn't apply they were unfair to us mcconnell kept hugging the clinton rules as his defense but we now see that he didn't mean it. that what he wants to do is simply cover up for president trump. so starting this afternoon immediately after leader mcconnell introduces his resolution i will be offering amendments to fix its many flaws the 1st amendment i will offer will ask that the senate subpoena white house documents related to the charges against the president. those documents include the records of meetings in calls between president trump and the president of ukraine as well as those records created or received by mr mo veiny mr both mr blair and other white house personnel

about the decision to hold and release the military assistance to ukraine. it's very possible even likely that some of these communications may be have been with the president trump between him and these people. that's why they're so important no one can argue that these documents are not directly related to the charges against the president and should be reviewed by the senate. the witnesses i've requested have gotten a lot of attention and rightfully so the documents are of equal importance. people should understand that the documents can shed as much light on why the aid was cut off who did it. and how it evolved as the witnesses and we feel very strongly that we need documents and that's why it's our 1st call.

i will then the with the with the i will then offer a series of amendments on the documents we requested the witnesses we requested and amendments to fix the most egregious departure that mcconnell made in his proposed resolution from the clinton rules let me be clear we have no intention to be dilatory there is no guarantee that leader mcconnell will allow these votes to take place later in the trial so now before any resolution passes we must do what we feel this is an obligation we have to the constitution to outline what a fair trial would be to not go along with a cover up with a sham trial and we will do what we will do right off the bat republican senators will face a choice about getting the facts or joining leader mcconnell and president trump in

trying to cover them up. this is a historic moment. the eyes of america are watching. republican senators must try to be a cation senator durbin. in your interview for your. democratic senate minority leader chuck schumer speaking to reap forces there ahead of the start of the impeachment trial of the president in the senate democrats say the process is being considered for this upcoming senate trial of the rules for post by the republican leader mitch mcconnell are not fair and chuck schumer is saying mcconnell's resolution is nothing short of a national disgrace mcconnell he says wants to cover up president trump earlier we heard from the democratic house managers of this trial including adam schiff and

jerry madden of the democratic house and agent managers also expressed their disappointment with these rules we need democrats really angry about these rules and the process that's been proposed by the republicans that's bringing. who's on capitol hill for us covering this story for them and just remind us heidi i view was why democrats a so upset with these rules that the lion well in a sense you know for the weeks that have ensued democrats were hopeful that that proposal for this trial it will mirror that of bill clinton and 20 years ago that's what mitch mcconnell the top republican in the senate who wields include one of those already in crafting these rules had said he would follow however democrats were indeed outraged when this proposal worst revealed last night because it has

quite a few departures from what is a clinton president and what they're 0 in on them are 2 out. why is all the difficulty of incorporating all the existing evidence into this trial of the official shower occurred and the outcome witnesses as we already knew that would be an issue that this proposal does not allow automatically for her for new witnesses to be hauled on the 2nd point of outrage of democrats all this without looking like total is being celebrated you piece of the trial for expecting all of us who are our very long days hearing opening arguments from either side i mean 12 to 15 hour days and democrats say that all push the proceedings in shooting the wee hours of the night with the american public in their beds asleep rather than paying attention to these issues that they say have the other the very stake of democracy 'd at stake here in the country and so that is why you're hearing chuck schumer the top democrat in the senate really criticizing what's going forward and he says that

he will be offering a series of amendments supported by democrats they likely will not have the senate support because of course the senate majority is held by republicans and we heard similar criticism coming from the lead house manager adam shift who you know be prosecuting the case and against president trump let's hear what he said is. this is not a process for a fair trial this is the process were rigged. this is the process if you do not want the american people to see the evidence this is a process you use if you want to hand in hand work in concert with the president allow the president to continue to obstruct the congress and deny the truth the american people thankfully however we know the truth evidence is already overwhelming and that evidence is that the president abuse the power of his office

heidi as you said the senate majority held by the republicans but could they be surprises could they be defections. well there could be there are at least 2 who are a moderate republican senators that democrats have been trying to log on really for a while yes on this question of allowing you witness is endless they have signaled that they are open minded as far as supporting this resolution as written though for at least 2 of them have been on record saying well vote to support this resolution which is expected to pass here only down partisan lines within a few hours time after we hear opening arguments from the 2 sides after senators has said that the questions in writing to the chief justice and after any other motions are discussed it as you know and those 4 modern republicans will play yet another going to his it'll fall because democrats will have another chance to try to convince their colleagues to support their call for

a new way people like they need the acting chief of staff in the white house and former national security advisor john bolton both of whom had key insight perhaps into the president's dealings with ukraine but have not cooperated with the impeachment thus far under a ban from the white house so democrats say that the public has a right to hear from those 2 individuals as well as several others republicans at least those moderates have said they are still open minded to that and whether or not any of those witnesses will be called in still be decided on a later date thank you heidi for the moment live for us on capitol hill. now that senate session to hammer out the details of the impeachment trial is set to begin in just over an hour as heidi said they have but the u.s. president does have a world away in switzerland is delivered an upbeat address to the world economic forum telling political and business leaders that america is experiencing an economic boom like never before diplomatic editor james frey's reports from davos.

on the day of the start of his trial for peach but this was the davon version president trump of the world stage in a place surrounded by business leaders where his advisors knew he would look presidential it's clear from his recent comments and his posts on twitter that the us leader is obsessed with impeachment but this was a speech over half an hour long in which the i word wasn't mentioned once today i'm proud to wear that the united states is in the midst of an economic boom the likes of which the world has never seen before. we've regained our stride rediscovered our spirit in reawakened the powerful machinery of american enterprise america's thriving america's flourishing and yes america is winning again like

never before. many of the world leaders who were in the room know how much now depends on the us a lecture at this could be trumps the last of us but they're preparing to for the possibility of a 2nd term this is a global forum dealing with global issues and so we have more and more conflicts breaking out across the world that need everybody around the table to solve them and we need the united states as part of that conversation and the united states needs an effective state department needs an effective diplomatic corps and soft diplomacy as well in order to be a true partner and i think people are genuinely worried that this is a place where donald trump feels comfortable he was never invited to speak at davos as the head of the trump organization now he feels part of this elite club as the u.s. president his advisors cleverly using this as a backdrop for a speech to a domestic audience james bows out 0 doubles. face masks are selling

out and body temperature checks are becoming the norm at airports and train stations as china china's to control the outbreak of a new virus says kill 6 people infected 100 zen is present in 4 of the countries one patient in china passed it on to 14 others raising worries of a so-called super spreader. for some beijing. china's tightly controlled state media says the mysterious virus has now spread to some of the country's major cities. in addition to more deaths new infections including hospital workers. and for the 1st time confirmation that this respiratory virus can be passed from person to person i mean that you saw some cases happened in 2 places one in guangdong the other one where human to human transmission has been confirmed that the disease was 1st identified in wu hand late last year the majority of the

confirmed cases of the virus in china are here but a handful have also been identified in other parts of asia where authorities are ramping up their defenses with a mandatory screening of air passengers from who had this week china becomes a nation in motion as people travel home to mark the new lunar new year but many are also traveling overseas and from will hand it's now possible to fly to 40 international destinations which is why i say some experts this outbreak is going to be more than just china's problem china has been here before 17 years ago another virus called sars severe acute respiratory syndrome claimed the lives of around 800 people almost 300 of them in neighboring hong kong at 1st china's leaders asserted there have been only a handful of cases but later admitted providing false information about the

epidemic a city mayor and health minister revenge sacked professor leo pune of hong kong university was one of the 1st scientists to decode the sars virus he says the city has improved its disease control work but he and other scientists were racing to understand this new virus if it were very efficient or not. right now we only know that there's a limited human to human transmission but what does that mean we need data to actually come up with more our career estimation so it's a race against time to i agree with you. more information pharmacies are stocking up on face masks the growing health emergency across the border now replacing media coverage of the young growing protests demanding political reform and while there is no panic there is deepening concern adrian brown al-jazeera hong kong. security forces in iraq are trying to clear protestors as

a new wave of demonstrations spreads across the country. in the southern city of basra police officers attempted to remove barricades while in baghdad protesters fought back against security forces with rocks and fire bombs at least 10 protesters have been killed over the past 2 days in baghdad and in cities across the south of iraq osama bin job it is following the situation closely from the iraqi capital. it's the 2nd day of running battles between security forces and protesters here in baghdad and across iraq at least one protester has been killed today after receiving injuries this is been the case as protesters try to block off major arteries roads across baghdad in the center as well as the mom of the staff and highway which leads east in western part of the city the protesters have been trying to make sure that they choke the city and stop the business as usual to try

and make the point that they are still out here they're still out in numbers and they are going to stay until their demands are met so that's been the case since monday we said that was when their deadline expired that they gave to the government to start working on their demands which they had set up set forth and trying to make sure that their movement is not hijacked by other political parties are going to come to the fray in the next 48 hours on friday so that's been the case here in baghdad but across iraq as well they have been running battles as protesters just like bag that have been trying to block off major highways major arteries and then there is a back and forth between them sometimes the police pushes them forward sometimes they continue to throw molotov cocktails and burn tires and and the standoff continues we've been speaking to people from the certain parts of iraq where they're saying that life is becoming very very difficult as many people have been stranded for hours on highways trying to get to their destinations and the protesters are saying that they will continue to do so until they see tangible

results to their demands which have continued since october. at least 14 people have been killed in syria during government strikes on in the province and the aleppo countryside children are among the dead the area has been subject to shelling for the last 4 days leaving a number of people dead and forcing tens of thousands to flee a u.n.'s call for an immediate end to the hostilities and so don a grenade has exploded at a wedding killing 7 people including 3 children dozens more people were injured in the capital khartoum witnesses say a soldier was carrying the grenade there's no indication he set it off on his. european union foreign ministers have agreed to look at ways to support a long term ceasefire in libya but only if warring parties stick to a tentative truce it could include a monitoring mission and restarting a naval operation the un. as tony burke the reports from tripoli after years of

conflicts many young people there now see their future away from their homelands. they signal v for victory but these 5 year olds don't really know what it means it was a common gesture in the revolution 9 years ago now it's being used as libya is mired in conflict once again this school in tripoli has been hit 3 times by rockets these children are caught in the middle of a fight between government forces and those led by warlords khalifa haftar and they are learning about death and destruction 50 percent of the $450.00 peoples at this school said to be suffering from trauma. with war destruction indiscriminate shelling this is an extremely hard and difficult psychological impact on the children can see many are completely broken and they have no desire to continue their education. it's not a good time to be young in libya life is precarious the economy is suffering and the staples of life will become luxuries and once they finish school the

opportunities are limited to us the sky's the limit for it when you kind of live in libya that limit is kind of you know decreased. more and more are leaving they prefer to take their chances abroad and stay and face unemployment and hardship at home 100000 students at tripoli university just half of them are expected to find a job after graduation that when they. show. many have left their studies to fight because the government did not give to the use the opportunity to study in these hard times it's destroyed the future of half of young. men let me make my last year in the middle of no i wish i could leave who doesn't hope for that when a country cannot guarantee you a job abroad they show appreciation that you're educated. there are no official statistics of how many of the young educated are leaving but everyone agrees it's not an insignificant number next to achieving a lasting peace here the biggest challenge is going to be how to stop the departure

flow of libya's young talent before it becomes a flood. at this intellectual form they're trying to do that by helping people set up their own businesses such a large number of people lost the sense of youth who feel like there is no hope if you have a lot of them are trying to go upward and various you know departments of the various specialties but it's very worrying because they don't see if you're training. when moammar gadhafi was overthrown as leader in 2011 people the young in particular were promised a bright future 9 years on and the children of libya are still waiting tony berkeley al-jazeera tripoli. a former head of interpol has been sentenced to 13 years in jail for bribery in china main home ways trial was one of the most high profile during president xi jinping corruption campaign the 1st chinese to head the

global police coordination agency went missing after resigning 2 years ago after his arrest in china he admitted receiving $2000000.00 in bribes while he was a government minister heavy snow rain and gale force winds in spain are being blamed for the deaths of at least 4 people storm gloria battered much of the country on monday with more bad weather forecast. regional government has banned outdoor activities because of the potential danger. in nepal fears are increasing for 7 people missing after an avalanche on friday for weather conditions are hampering the search for 4 south korean tourists and their 3 in a poly guides because on the popular routes around mount on a poor were led to safety. now it's being described as a momentous agreement to stop treasure hunters plundering the world's most famous

ship wreck the rusting remains of the titanic will be treated with sensitivity and respect say the british and american governments though grants permits to explore the wreck and remove artifacts at least 1500 passengers and crew drowned when the so-called unsinkable line a hit an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage in 1912. the and the s $1630.00 g.m.t. the headlines on al-jazeera u.s. democrats are accusing republicans of setting the stage for on unfair trial. for president donald trump lead impeachment manager adam schiff has denounced the proceedings as a cover up and sent to chuck schumer says the democrats will subpoena white house documents relating to tom's decision to withhold aid aid from ukraine a senate is set to meet in a little over an hour now to finalize the rules and procedures for the impeachment

trial if this is not a process for a fair trial this is the process were rigged trial this is the process if you do not want the american people to see the evidence this is a process you use if you want to hand in hand work in concert with the president allow the president to continue to obstruct the congress and deny the truth the american people. thankfully however we know the truth evidence is already overwhelming and that evidence is that the president abuse the power of his office . while the senate session gets underway the u.s. president is half a world away in switzerland where he's delivered an upbeat speech at the world economic forum in davos donald trump says america is experiencing an economic boom like never before he's also dismissed what he called prophecies of doom over the climate's crisis. in china doctors are trying to stop the spread of a newly discovered type of respiratory virus it's already killed 6 people infected

hundreds in china and 4 other countries are also reporting cases that show the world health organization is due to meet on wednesday to consider whether to declare an international public health emergency. security forces in iraq are trying to clear protesters as a new wave of demonstrations spreads across the country in the southern city of basra police officers attempted to remove barricades while in baghdad's protesters fought back again security forces with rocks and fire bombs at least 10 protesters have been killed over the past 2 days in baghdad and in other cities across the country and 14 people have been killed in syria during a government as fights on edge in a province and the aleppo countryside children are among the victims you have stay with the headlines on al-jazeera up next it's rewind stay with us.

hello and welcome to rewind. today we're rewinding back to 2014 in the philippines the country was experiencing a spike in gun violence at the time and the government's response was to introduce new restrictions on the purchase and possession of firearms have been a fierce backlash from the gun owners community which was insisting on the right of self-defense again.