desperate situation of the indian government set up a new commission to monitor sources of air pollution across 5 nor for the state's health experts and environmentalists had been warning for months that the easing of the lockdown would lead to an increase in pollution and the impact that would have on those because the 19. or the and the and. this impeachment is completely divorced from the facts the evidence and the interests of the american people donald trump's lawyers begin their defense of the former president by branding his 2nd impeachment trial an act of political vengeance. hello i'm maryam namazie and london you're watching al-jazeera also coming up on the program the. despite mass arrests hundreds of thousands of people

across may and modify the military with their 7th and biggest day of protest yet. tokyo olympics chief resigns after making sexist remarks even the game searching for a new president. and heated exchanges as crime in corsica lacks in a valley appears in court again on slander charges. we're watching our ongoing coverage of the 2nd impeachment trial of former u.s. president donald trump over the course of the last 2 hours his legal team of been laying out their case for his acquittal calling it absurd to suggest that trump's speech on january 6th incited insurrection and defense lawyer michael vanderveen accused the house impeachment managers of presenting a case driven by hate this case unfortunately is about political

hatred. it has become very clear that the house democrats hate donald trump this type of political hatred has no place in our political institutions and certainly no place in the wall this hatred has led the house managers to manipulate and selectively at it mr trump's speech to make it falsely appear that he sought to incite the crowd to violently attacked the capital he didn't well they have shown another member of trump's legal team accuse the house and patient manages of manipulating and manufacturing the evidence there is significant reason to doubt the evidence the house managers have put before us let me say this clearly we have reason to believe the house managers manipulated evidence and selectively edited footage if they did and this were

a court of law they would face sanctions from the judge i don't raise this issue lightly rather it is a product of what we have found in just the limited time we have had since we 1st saw the evidence here with you this week we have reason to believe that the house managers created false representations of tweets and the lack of due process means there was no opportunity to review or verify the accuracy. fisher is following the proceedings on capitol hill for us and joins us now on out and in support of that argument we saw or at one point footage i think it was some 9 minutes of democrats using the word fight so that an attempt to refute the house managers argument that president trump incites at the insurrection. it was 11 minutes and 18 seconds if you're interested. did they did the defense team a taking an interesting approach here they're very critical of the host team

they're using words like a poker see and heat and hatred and punish and it sometimes in the words of the defense team i am here because of donald trump and you you you know that he has spoken to the team very much beforehand did they're saying that some of the evidence was manipulated they're claiming that there was something wrong with the fact that the he had managed that the prosecution and managed to get unseen video of what happened here on capitol hill just to make clear if the defense team or any senators any republican senators or even remember republican members of the house had requested that video they also would have been given access to that as well it's clear that the prosecution or perhaps just thinking 11 step ahead defense team have done exactly what we thought they would do 1st of all the question the constitutionality of the proceedings which is an annoyed way to approach it because it's already been decided by the senate that yes it can be had by the senate they

are claiming that there was no due process the last legal team saying there should be conducted more like a court of law there should have been an investigation this is essentially done the way the senate does these things so it has ticked all those boxes if you want to talk about how things should be done if they followed a court of law you would have had the defense team huddling with 3 republican senators on thursday night to talk about how they would craft the message going forward because of course the senators are meant to be acting is impartial jurors and then the 3rd argument is donald trump's speech is protected and whatever happened here on capitol hill on the 6th of january had absolutely nothing to do with them and as you saw several times they went back to the idea of people talking about fight fight and fighting we talked about how you'd have to put these. words in context even try to look real litigate what donald trump said after charlottesville when he said at that point there were people good people on both

sides just to point out dollar trump actually said another thing to point is that he didn't criticize people marching through american street chanting actual nazi slogans until some time afterwards so that was a bizarre approach to take but what the defense team is doing here is essentially giving the republican senators something to face the beast they can vote no and then they can go back to their states and speak to local media and say well the reason i voted no was this was unconstitutional the president the ex-president wasn't given due process or they can say look we've heard all these arguments before from democrats the use the same kind of words and as i pointed out earlier it's interesting the people that they used in the video a lot of them like elizabeth warren and cory booker income a heartless and presently the are considered and alex hunter of tears let's not forget her all of them are considered hip figures for the right and republicans and

so by putting them in the video that just wasn't a random selection of politicians that was the liberal who they picked and who they put in there. and allen a we're just hearing a clip of none of them are former president donald trump's legal team david schoen and he is accusing house impeachment managers of manipulating and manufacturing the evidence a very this is a very serious charge. yeah but they're talking about how he it's an odd charge to make the thing about the the twitter feed you've got to remember don't trump hasn't had a twitter feed for some time know he's been banned from the platform and saw by in the sense that it is some things have to be pulled up after the fact the fact that someone has a blue take verifying them is a genuine news. that had suddenly appeared if that's the extent of your defense

on the charges of inciting an insurrection it's not a particularly strong defense but i'm sure that the democrats will in questions to the chair address those things but you know donald trump's defense team still have to argue exactly what happened here and a very big question that was come and more come to his team during question is if donald trump is as you see all has always been on the side of peaceful protest and go in peace and protest patriotic way why did it take more than 2 and a half hours when he knew the capitol was under siege that his own vice president had to be escorted out of the chamber that the police lines had fallen why did it take 2 and a half hours for him to order the national guard to capitol hill and you'll remember at the time it was even said that he didn't order the national guard to capitol hill that was the decision taken by mike pence here because he was so

frustrated by the lack of action from the white house and another question that they will ask as well is that if donald trump did not incite the crowd as you suggest why then did so many republicans call the white house and ask him to call off the more that was rampaging through the halls on capitol hill but as i see. you've got to set aside the legality of all and the defense that is being put forward here. this is all about giving republican senators cover to vote no as we suspect most of them all do one other thing i'd like to point out michael vanderveen is not a constitutional expert he's not a civil rights lawyer is a personal injury lawyer from philadelphia who came to this case very late all right thanks very much from capitol hill and fresh air following developments there in the former president on a 2nd impeachment trial want to just now grab one of the we'll pay you one of the short of one of the videos that trump's legal team played highlighting the fighting

talk used by democrats in the past. and democrats are fighting as hard as we can democrats are standing up to fight we know we are a lot like democrats are going to fight like you know we fight like you know come apart because i will fight like hell we're going to fight like hell i'm going to fight like hell i might help i might write something like all your many many of these senators and members of the fight like both we are going to fight for you killed we're going to fight like hell fight like hell and we just have to fight we're going to fight we are going to fight drug or gang banger. in west palm beach florida and alan fisher is an official as saying there on capitol hill the point he was making that trumps lawyer well the legal team came to the case quite late there has been concern that they have been somewhat

disorganized about this we've not heard anything from donald trump that. well i don't think ever has donald trump been so silent for so long of course he's not on twitter anymore it's a stark contrast to his 1st impeachment trial where on just one day he tweeted out 140 times but objective lawyer if you look at what's happened in the 2nd impeachment trial and you compare his lawyers opening remarks in defense of him and today's proceedings they are very different it's a far more cohesive far more comprehensive argument there was no stumbling they seemed to know what they were doing and they really honed in on the arguments that they wanted to make and that video you just played before you came to be is a good example of that so i think if the president as i do expect is watching this today he would be far happier than he was on tuesday when these impeachment proceedings began so we are waiting to hear what the mood of the president is we

know on thursday he played the majority are they playing golf but all we're getting really are reports from those said to be close to him former aides eggs cetera some saying that he was extremely angry in those opening remarks are saying that his mood is quite buoyant so it's very difficult to say when someone was so used to hearing from so much as stay very quiet i think it's also important to point out that even when all this is over when the 2nd impeachment trial is done and dusted he is facing potential problems in the u.s. state of georgia where in fulton county they have just launched a criminal investigation into that hour long phone call that the president made that was recorded to the republican secretary. state about getting votes in a state that he lost he demanded the votes that they be found by the secretary of state to swing the election a state that he lost they're all sorts of implications there this could go before a grand jury they're talking about rocketeer ing interfere with local elections so

even once this is over the expectation is done some won't be impeached in this 2nd trial his legal woes are far from over. thank you for now from west palm beach andy kalika. democrat patient managers have already presented their case trumps legal team now has up to 16 hours over 2 days to present a defense but have said they may only take 4 allies senate has then have up to 4 hours to present written questions to both legal teams as then a debate and vote on whether to allow witnesses if either side wants them if they don't or the vote fails both sides will make brief closing arguments followed by the final senate vote on the article of impeachment a 2 thirds majority vote is required for a conviction which would mean 17 republicans that's $17.00 have to join all 50 democrats and it could all be as over as a saturday night john nichols is the national affairs correspondent for the nation and author of the fight for the soul of the democratic party joins me by skype from

madison wisconsin and they're likely to be witnesses called i don't think so. early on before the trial began jamie raskin who was the lead impeachment manager for the democrats did write a letter to president trump asking him to justify they got an almost immediate refusal on now and my sense is that it's unlikely it's not on the books so that it could happen but it looks like this trial is moving very very quickly and my sense is that both the democrats and the republicans are inclined against witnesses. why do you say that there's a lack of witnesses possibly affect the strength and structure of the arguments. you know i actually took to calling witnesses would be a good idea and i've have written about and covered a lot of impeachment trials over the years and so i think the the instinct on it is

twofold is it number one it's the question of whether witnesses would move knees republican senators there are about 4 or 5 republican senators who are likely to vote for conviction but the impeachment managers need to move roughly a dozen more than a dozen more and if there was a sense that witnesses could move them then i think there would be any nation to go that way but in the sense that it is probably unlikely they may want to rest on the strength of their presentations that they made i do think though that that decision has yet to be you know firmly made it will probably be made after the completion of the republican case here as the impeach a manager's way whether it might be whether there might be a way to come in and use witnesses as an effective tool it would be the impeachment

managers who would make that move and one final thing i'd say in this regard. as alan fisher was saying earlier the presentation by president trumps defense lawyers is aimed directly at the republican senators it's aiming to sure them up to make sure that they don't break from president truck and frankly aimed at the republican base out across the country and that becomes a factor in all this because if the republican senators are unlikely to switch then i think. both of these are managers and the defense lawyers are probably inclined toward moving this track toward a conclusion. how would you describe the struggle is seeing within the republican party what's interesting is that in the immediate aftermath of the insurrection on capitol hill emotions were running high and there was a sense of urgency around president trump's rhetoric and his behavior and his actions has that receded quite

a bit to. kind of going back to the except ince of. president trump has his supporters and a lot of their constituents still quite like this guy. i think that's a big factor in this look here's here's the reality what happened on january 6th was incredibly shocking to everyone in the capital democrats and republicans liberals and conservatives and their response i think was very human very real. they were clearly used to the president be it which he did not do it and a very quick rate there was also in the immediate aftermath some very strong statements made even by some of the president's most ardent supporters but as time has gone on 2 things have come into play one there is the reality that there was a peaceful transition of power. and that has softened some of the tension some of the uncertainty that you saw earlier in january and to frankly a lot of these republican senators are you know best described as politicians they

look at polls and polls tell them that donald trump remains very popular with a lot of the republican base and in fact that he is that still the dominant figure in the republican party so i don't think that you can underestimate that for lack of a better term there's an element of cowardice in this there are republican senators who while they know that what happened on january 6th was terrifying and also justification for an impeachment trial they are afraid to stand up to donald trump in a way that might lead him to support a challenger to them in the future so to. president trying to form a president tom's defense a far one a is the fact that it was it's political rhetoric and accusing the democrats of hypocrisy for having is the same set of language and the pastas be they pay that

footage and the other is that present speech is protected by the 1st amendment is there a free speech defense to this impeachment. well let's separate those 2 parts are 1st the fact that they showed a video of a lot of democrats very prominent democrats using the same words fight like hell. but then it wasn't put in context the democrats were talking about fighting like hell for health care or for civil rights or for covert relief of donald trump was talking about fighting like hell to overturn the results of an election in which he had been defeated and so these are 2 very very different types of speech yes people do use the same phrase but it's the context that matters and so what the republican or what the trump defense lawyers are trying to do here is to conflate the 2 i think what you'll hear the democrats in the piece with managers

say when they come up to respond to this is you know let's let's be realistic here we know that there is always a free speech defense for political figures saying that they're going to work hard on an issue that they're going to focus on legislation that they're going to rally their supporters of course that's there's no doubt of that in the united states however there is also a that protection for the people for the for the republican self against those who might use fighting words to incite violence and to again potentially overturn an election and so i i think that while there is always a free speech defense it may not apply tech i would argue it doesn't apply to a situation where you're inciting people to go to the capitol and trying to stop the counting of of electoral votes thank you very much chatting someone attending

evening for now john nichols appreciate that thank you. i. want to turn some other news making headlines around the wild an international pressure is growing for me and was military to respect the results of the election the u.n. human rights council has unanimously adopted a resolution calling for the release of ousted leader unsung suchi and other detainees and also called on the military to reinstate the government and exercise restraint with brits with the protest as well this off to human rights investigators said there was a growing evidence officers were using live ammunition against demonstrators day of the day the people who may have more people around who will have watched with horror photos and videos of the trial of emerging from the streets of new york for the large columns of security forces in full riot gear surrounding peaceful

protesters and water cannons being fired into crowds of protesters being shot including a go and shot in the head as she stood alone imposing no threat with other peaceful protesters and. there are growing move towards and photographic evidence that mean more security forces they use live ammunition lethal force against protesters but violence hasn't deterred the hundreds of thousands of people who've been back out onto the streets and that 7th and biggest day yet of protests against the coup in a move they said was to help peace the gentility east more than 23000 prisoners but a scot hider of course from neighboring thailand anger at the military is bridging some traditional divides us. as they tap their creativity for the marches for a 7th straight day the anti coupe row tessa's across myanmar continue with their

movement calling for the return of democracy and the release of their civilian leaders in armenia we are asking international football on twitter facebook and instagram to save our country and show what is happening to me and my and not just premier league football fans in yangon. in the eastern city of mean police broke up a protest arresting several people for the last few nights security forces have rounded up people who have taken part in the growing civil disobedience movement. and as myanmar's military celebrated union day in the capital which marks the anniversary of the nation's independence facebook announced it would reduce the distribution of all content in profiles run by the military the move is not a ban but to lower the number of people who see their content the social media giant saying the military has continued to spread misinformation. and there's growing concern about a cyber bill proposed by the junta. the military says its new laws are to protect the public and prevent crimes that could harm the country's stability. freedom of

expression advocates see it as an unprecedented censorship. and this is sort of a page out of the authoritarian playbook you define something so broadly that it can mean anything and then you can charge anyone and 9 times out of 10 that's going to be a government critic or an activist so we're really worried that this law will be pushed through and then it will be used to suppress criticism of the military or resistance to the military coup also marking the union day holiday the huta announced a prisoner amnesty more than 23000 prisoners were released the military leaders say the move was to establish a new democratic state with peace developments and disappointed protesters are concerned that part of the reason for the release is to make room in the prisons possibly for more political detainees scott hodler al-jazeera. the bind administration says it will revoke the designation of yemen's who see rebels as a terror group on tuesday in an effort to alleviate the humanitarian crisis there

but 300 feet as well remain under u.s. sanctions and the u.s. state department is warning the group might be hit with more sanctions after admitted to attacking a saudi airport on wednesday has the military spokesman said they targeted international airport with drones by president biden and the united nations fear designating the group a terror organization could hold a deliveries and to who he control parts of yemen where there is already a major threat of famine. or the u.n. is warning that at least $400000.00 children under the age of 5 and yemen could die of starvation this year if there's no treatment for them for agencies say soaring rates of malnutrition of being driven by 6 years of war on the coronavirus pandemic a particularly to put 3000000 children under the age of 5 will suffer acute malnutrition this year many aid programs in yemen are being forced to close down or at least scaled back because of

a drop in funding. well the u.s. is planning to allow around $25000.00 asylum seekers awaiting at the mexican border into the united states it's another major step by joe biden away from donald trump's policies under the former president on mexican migrants were required to wait there until their immigration claims were processed about 70000 asylum seekers and rolled in the remain in mexico program and they've been stuck since the policy was introduced at beginning of 2019 by the plan is set to begin next friday a legal battle to force royal dutch shell to pay for decades of oil spills in the niger delta is gaining momentum the u.k. supreme court says nigerian farmers and fishermen can sue the oil giant in english courts tens of thousands of nigerians want compensation for years of oil spills which have contaminated land and drinking water shell has argued that the leaks are

caused by locals sabotaging their pipelines a not through neglect earlier we spoke to the king of a galley and niche eye of god when. he hopes that a new court case or bring much needed on says. because there are these qualities and in this case a lawyer can be god pair at least to take care of the on the ground water destroyed in the beginning to look at how there are strange disease now in oregon. as a result of 'd all 'd the destruction all the granted. skin diseases. of a lot of strange trend disease that is going on so improper many who. record people taking. saw can never.

give all or a percent. lyra life back but at least we can begin to. progress a big soccer program so that the rope was john. tokyo's olympic organizers say they'll begin their search for a new president to soon as possible after the incumbent resigned over sexist remarks issued on mori sparked a backlash after saying they'd have to restrict women speaking time if they increased the number of female board members because they talk too much in meetings controversy as just the latest hit the 2020 games which were perspired until this year because of the pandemic. it's not. my inappropriate remarks cause turmoil i'm sincerely sorry for causing troubles to many including organizing committees and everyone involved in this as it has been already reported i am resigning today i have no intention to look down on the woman i have been treating everyone equally including both people with disabilities and without that's what

the olympics is about the one comment i made triggered this consequence it was careless of me in the history of my 83 years long life i feel pathetic about myself now it causes trouble to lots of people. now to developments in russia the opposition politician alexina valley has been back in court on the charges he railed against the judge accusing her of helping prosecution witnesses and telling her to improve her knowledge of russian law the judge repeatedly reprimanded him avali was jailed last week for violating parole conditions when he was flown to germany for treatment after being poisoned with a nerve agent in this trial he's accused of defaming a world war 2 veteran who appeared in a video backing president putin. i am very disappointed and i want to point out your behavior once again every time that witnesses the prosecution failed to answer my questions you interrupt the process

and let the witnesses leave the room and have a chance to get advice from the people on how to answer the question. meanwhile russia's foreign minister has threatened to break off ties with the european union tensions between the e.u. and russia have been building since alexina valley was poisoned and then arrested so galadriel has accused the e.u. and other western powers of lacking mutual respect in their conversations with russia. but. all the problems between us and the european union started a very long time ago and they have been essentially wearing as have patience and goodwill. 2 prominent opponents of better russian president alexander lukashenko facing new charges maria costa linac over and maximization ak would jailed after mass protests in september they've now been accused of extremism and trying to seize power which could carry a 12 year prison sentence across like over was one of 3 women.