do the ends justify the means. to tunes witnesses starts december 13th on d w. 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 impeachment hearings against president donald trump in the biggest challenge yet to his presidency democrats want to prove he abused his power also coming up in turkey as presidents get the

warm 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 public hearings on the impeachment inquiry against president donald trump the 1st such hearings in 20 years or wednesday they heard testimony from 2 top diplomats trump as call the process which . a historic day for the united states hours of testimony plays out on television screens across the country we will come to order. morning everyone. the inquiry centers on an alleged pressure campaign

aimed at forcing ukraine to investigate the u.s. president's political rival joe biden and on wednesday one of the diplomats who testified linked donald trump more directly to those efforts the acting ambassador to kiev said a member of his staff overheard a conversation in which trump asked e.u. ambassador gordon somnolent if he'd successfully pushed the ukrainians into a night sing the investigation. following the call with president trump the member of my staff asked investors on what president trump thought about ukraine as the song responded the president from cares more about the investigations of by. trump later said he did not remember the conversation. i don't recall not even a little bit. but democrats are hoping to build the case that trump did in fact abuse his power of office to pressure ukraine's behavior they say would warrant removing him from office is this what americans should now expect from their

president if this is not impeachable conduct what is the republicans say it's not rather than denying the mounting evidence of a pressure campaign and now focused on arguing this is not grounds for impeachment it seems unlikely that fresh evidence will change that strategy when the next round of hearings begin on friday. our let's get more on a historic day in d.c. let's bring in 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 volodymyr zelinsky they essentially said that there was a quid pro quo and they undermined all these allegations that have been made before

but obviously now and probably get on 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 a lot of years olinsky as well as hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid and they were conditioned to investigations against joe biden obviously the 3 political rival off president trump and the democrats are arguing that this would be the betrayal of president tom's all thought off as it would also be 1 an abuse of his presidential power as well the democrats are saying it 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 there on 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 of our wells 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 way of investigations and that of course is another damning account on president trump all over solid our correspondent in d.c. thank you very much and as that impeachment hearing was under way on capitol hill u.s. president donald trump was meeting at the white house with turkish president friendship . trump has come under 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 after which turkey marched in leading lawmakers have been arguing deserted the u.s. as allies there the kurds. at the white house there was little sign of washington

and on grower on the same page regarding the kurds with everyone defending his decision to invade syria as part of an chorus fight against terror our let's bring in our correspondent pablo foley now he is in washington the 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 and it was quite interesting particularly hearing president trump said that he was a big fan of president 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 it wasn't it wasn't the 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 that 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 uphold and he also said the 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 you know pulling turkey out of their f. $35.00 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 and the right direction and pablo as we mentioned the president 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 out of 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 as 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 will did 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 appeared the president had plenty of positive words for president out of the one all right public fully in washington for us thank you very much let's take a look now at some of the other stories making news around the world supporters of venezuela's opposition leader one why do occupied the country's embassy in brazil on wednesday stand off and after some of levon hours why don't those recognized by the u.s. and brazil has been this way those legitimate leader outside the embassy there were stuff it was between his supporters and those of venezuelan president. israel has launched fresh air strikes against palestinian militants in gaza killing several people violence has flared along the border after the israeli military

assassinated a senior leader of the islamic jihad earlier on tuesday at least 21 palestinians have been killed in the air strikes a fired hundreds of rockets into israel in retaliation. at least a dozen people have been killed in a bus crash in the central european nation of slovakia 4 of the dead are reportedly children the accident happened during rainy weather on a winding 2 lane road it's the country's deadliest road accident in a decade the prime minister called it's a horrible tragedy. one of europe's most important cultural landmarks and one of the world's most popular tourist destinations is facing a catastrophe venice is fought suffering from the highest tide in more than half a century the tide level peaked at just under 2 meters that's high enough to leave homes flooded boats stranded and tourists wading through historic st mark's square

the mayor is urging the italian government to help and says repair and rebuilding will likely cost hundreds of millions of euros. alarm sounds throughout venice's historic center warning people to find higher ground to escape one of the worst floods in decades high winds and rain caused the water level to surge to almost $0.19 a meters with waves crashing into buildings. mayor luigi berg nardo filmed himself at the famous scent marks square and blamed climate change for the extreme weather. some applies to all but after thousands of political divorces we just can't wait unfortunately. we have reached a new negative record is going to we have to stand together against the effects of climate change and reform tide accusing us in a little bit in your face to the community. now it's all hands on deck to push

stranded boats back into the water. larger vessels require more than manpower. tourists are taking raised walkways to reach the city's famous sites including st mark's basilica. the basilica itself was flooded for only the 6th time and its 1200 year old history . workers are assessing the damage. there is plenty of anger here the more a system designed to protect venice from high water has faced constant delays on the sort of the chianti for the movie they've been on it for 10 years but they've done nothing it's in total neglect doesn't work and it's only $6000000.00 euros in italy unfortunately that's the way it is our politicians are all thieves we should all be in jail and it would have been a duty if god said it. was locals take in the aftermath city officials say the

damage totals hundreds of millions of euros this as people prepare for yet more days of flooding. well in tennis rafael nadal has engineered an incredible comeback against russian done the bed of to keep his a.t.v. finals hopes alive the 33 year old lost the 1st sets on a tie break and he was nearly overwhelmed in the 2nd but then saves a match points and came back to take it to a decider the final set tie break was settled by archaia technology after a smart challenge from the dol to deny medvedev is 1st ever career victory over the span of. football's governing body fifo has announced the appointment of our same vendor as its global development chief the french been coached arsenal in the premier league for more than 20 years until 2018 and he had

recently been linked with the vacant coaching position of unix but will now be tasked with overseeing the growth of the sport at the bangor will also be focused on training coaches and considering potential changes to the game's laws. you're watching news live from berlin coming up next marking 100 years of germany's bauhaus and how the movement changed our target texture and design in the meantime you can get all the latest news information 247 on the website it's t w dot com call aspen thanks for watching. cool. the adventures of the famous naturalist and explorer. juice in the bridge and colleagues on the phone it's 250th birthday we're embarking on a voyage of discovery. expedition good on t.w. .