this is d.w. news live from berlin making the case for impeachment in public. to come to order. good morning everyone the u.s. house of representatives opens historic public and pietschmann hearings against president donald trump in the biggest challenge yet to his presidency democrats want to prove he and gives to his power also coming up turkey's president gives a warm and white house welcome but tensions between the nato allies are high and there's little sign of a breakthrough we'll have analysis from washington. i'm

called aspen welcome to the program we begin in the u.s. with a historic day on capitol hill lawmakers have begun the 1st public hearings on the impeachment inquiry against president donald trump on wednesday they heard testimony from 2 top diplomats trump has called the process it which. a historic day a public hearing to remove a sitting president from office plays out on t.v. screens across the country it's just the 3rd time in u.s. history this case hinges on the relationship between the u.s. and ukraine. the question is presented by this impeachment inquiry or whether president trump sought to exploit that allies vulnerability and invite ukraine's

interference in our elections where the present trump sought to condition official acts such as a white house meeting or u.s. military assistance on ukraine's willingness to assist with 2 political investigations that would help israel lection campaign and if president trump did either whether such an abuse of his power is compatible with the office of the presidency recognized the republican party has been against this inquiry from the start you'll make her devin nunes called the whole proceeding a media smear campaign for domestic political gain was correct the president did not ask ukraine to make up dirt on anyone the democrats are not trying to discover facts they're trying to invent a narrative and if the facts they need do not exist then they'll just make it up. at the center of the proceedings is a phone call between u.s. president trump and the ukrainian president followed amusin lansky. this summer

ukraine was trying to end a military conflict with russian back separatist forces in the east of the country and was looking for aid from the us democrats allege that trump urged ukraine to investigate the son of democratic politician joe biden and his dealings with the ukrainian and the g. company called burruss ma the career diplomat william taylor was u.s. ambassador to ukraine at the time. i mean july was becoming clear to me that the meeting president alinsky wanted was condition on the investigations of barista and alicia crane interference in the 26000 us elections it was also clear that this condition was driven by the irregular policy channel i'd come to understand was guided 'd by mr giuliani rudy giuliani stand up and. that's donald trump's personal lawyer and embassador taylor says mr giuliani was involved in an

unofficial communication channel that was unaccountable to congress and was involved in pressuring ukraine. president trump dismissed the inquiry i'm too busy to watch it it's a witch charge it's a hoax if you missed the hearings on wednesday the president will get another chance to watch on friday that's when a former u.s. ambassador to ukraine and the state department official a due to take the stand. our let's get more on a historic day in d.c. let's bring in deed of use all of our salat he was at today's hearing on capitol hill now all over the 1st impeachment hearing in more than 2 decades in the united states what specifically did we hear from those 2 witnesses today. well karl the main takeaway today was that these witnesses here tied president trump closer to this alleged pressure campaign against the ukrainian president

a lot of mere zelinsky they essentially said that there was a quid pro quo they underlined all these allegations that have been made before but obviously now and probably get a live television and that is exactly what the democrats are trying to achieve here to get their message out and then bill taylor the acting ambassador to the ukraine confirmed that there was an invitation to the white house for ukraine's president volodymyr zelinsky as well as hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid and they were conditioned to investigations against joe biden obviously the political rival of president trump and the democrats are arguing that this would be a betrayal of president thomas all thought office there would also be 1 an abuse of his presidential power as well the democrats are saying and but the big question that remains is really how much impact will that have on the american public this was the 1st day of public hearings of course on your cameras they are in capitol

hill how did lawmakers react to what they heard. well the republicans are under enormous pressure and i was following parts of that hearing today here on capitol hill and you could really see that they are strategy off defense is basically saying that the call might not have been great but it was not impeachable so they're questioning the legitimacy of the investigations they say basically the democrats are just afraid of the upcoming the upcoming elections in 2020 that they want to do with the democratic leader held elections of 2016 but at the same time i have to stress there are 2. diplomats in fact who testified here today that are working for the government one of them bill taylor was even the chosen by president trump and he himself stressed today that he's impartial so there's

a high level of credibility to these witnesses and the democrats are trying to capitalize on that briefly all over what else can we expect from this inquiry this week. the hearings are going to be continued on friday with the former 2 ambassador to ukraine you'll vonna which she essentially says that rudy giuliani president trump's private lawyer held a campaign against her that he believed that she would stand in the in the way of investigations and that of course is another damning account on president trump all over some of our correspondent in d.c. thank you very much. and as that impeachment hearing was underway on capitol hill u.s. president donald trump was meeting with turkish president bunch of time everyone at the white house trump has come under intense pressure for hosting everyone right now he's facing criticism from both republicans and democrats for going ahead with a recent military pullout from northern syria leading lawmakers have been arguing

the trump card deserted the u.s. as allies there the kurds. and the white house there was little sign of that that washington and on the same page regarding the kurds with their one defending his decision to invade syria as part of congress fight against terror take a look we're going to sustain our fight against terrorism in a healthy fashion we need to be much more sensitive than we currently are it happens to us today and it will happen to somebody else tomorrow we have a great relationship with the kurds we have head we're with them now we get along with them and by the way i think the president he may have some factions within the kurds but i think the president has a great relationship with the kurds are let's bring in our correspondent pablo now he is in washington our relations of course between turkey and the u.s. have not been going well they've been going south quickly in fact to the 2 leaders

did they find any common ground that they can build on. well karl it was one of those press conferences that at times you were left wondering you know what exactly what was happening it was quite interesting particularly hearing president trump said that he was a big fan of president out of the one we just heard there the sound bite where president trump was saying that in fact you know president added one didn't have a problem with the kurds it was only a certain faction of the kurds now president and the one actually also said that it wasn't it wasn't buddy he said it was with the terrorist now he's referring to the syrian democratic forces who have links to the p.k. k. that's what we can understand from the boat of course president trump was addressing at the ongoing conflict like i was saying in syria he said that turkey will continue quote to what it's supposed to hold and he also said a u.s. brokered cease fire in the region was complicated but moving forward very rapidly

so you know at times we were left wondering exactly what some of the statements actually meant something that was perhaps a little bit more concrete was how turkey said that the united states and. had actually overcome their problem over his purchase of the russian s 14 missile system which angered the united states over the summer and led to the united states 'd you know pulling turkey out of their f. 35 program and also there was some positive news from the united states and turkey over a trade deal that they were hoping to reach which they said was moving along in the right direction and pablo as we mentioned the president's facing heavy criticism for his syria policy did this meeting between the 2 leaders do anything to smooth over things at home in the u.s. . well you know there were some senators several senators 5

republicans who were there who were present and they basically wanted to make sure that some of the issues that had been brought up. from here from the united states or displeasure at the one on turkey's handling in syria and also their displeasure out at president trump's handling of the situation referring to of course the fact that president trump was criticized for essentially abandoning long standing as kurdish allies in northern syria and in the region in fact at once again we were left a little bit the wilderness when donald trump that sort of went off will say script and said the u.s. military presence in syria is only for the oil which i'm sure caused several gasps amongst members of the republican party so once again it was an interesting press conference karl. overall had it paired up president plenty of positive words for president out of the one. in washington for us thank you very much.

arda look now at some of the other stories making news around the world chilean authorities say hundreds of people have been injured and over a 1000 arrested in nation wide riots fresh protests erupted on tuesday after the country's currency fell to a historic low demonstrators are demanding that president sebastian pinera step down. supporters of venezuela's opposition leader one quiet go occupied the country's embassy in brazil on wednesday the standoff ended after some 11 hours as recognized by the u.s. and brazil as in this way those legitimate leader outside the embassy there were scuffles between his supporters and those of venezuelan president nicolas maduro. but 23 palestinians have been killed in 2 days of israeli air strikes in the gaza strip israel is targeting militants in the palestinian territory in response to dozens of rocket attacks on israel this latest flare up in violence follows the

killing of a senior member of the power still in palestinian militant group islamic jihad on tuesday by israeli forces. first the sirens. and then. this is a current operating procedure at the busy life hospital located several kilometers from gaza. but not even an iowan dome defense system can ease anatoly his fears his newborn is somewhere in the hospital. 2 days ago i became a father but now the rockets called me in the hospital we don't get used to this. the rockets have been relentless gaza militants have been firing them into israel since tuesday when behind after a senior commander from the palestinian militant group islamic jihad was killed by israeli forces israeli warplanes have responded with a series of airstrikes. and with nowhere to run for cover gaza residents are

lashing out but warning the jews are lying this is my home it had 3 floors in it was destroyed during the night it's not a military site it's the home of 8 people. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has want further escalation if airstrikes from gaza continue egypt is reportedly working as a mediator to deescalate tensions between the 2 sides in the meantime basil a hospital is continuing its operations underground for people here this is an all too familiar scenario sirens heralding an attack then you have only about 30 seconds to find shelter and even have a cease fire stops the rockets many people here feel that this is only temporary that without a political solution another escalation is just a matter of time. you're watching news live from berlin coming up next d.w. news africa and the meantime a check of our top story today u.s.

house of representatives is meeting today in the 1st public hearing on capitol hill in the impeachment case of donald trump. up next is d.w. news africa in the meantime all the latest news and headlines available 247 on our web site that's d.w. dot com thanks for watching. i'm not laughing through the day well i guess sometimes i am but i'm still laughing with that and i don't think sneak into the german culture of looking at the stereotype the question but if you think the future of the country that i now don't . need it seems to take for this drama they are to me because it's all about their new primary job join me to meet the gentleman from d.w. .