and attacks on the media and a leader accused of abusing his office from giant superpowers to small new republics these are the doubles of democracy that can kill democracies tonight in the former soviet republic of georgia protesters are demanding new fair elections a young democracies better angels versus those possessed by the temptation of ever more power i'm burnt off in berlin this is the day. this is a good. business but. we are here protesting. because they lie so us and they made us from this becoming from soviet times we don't have proper courts we don't have night proper checks and balances we will have to vote really will have willingly and will

have elections where people will believe government has been broken it will eagerly but the people will pull they want to be in charge. also coming up with the friendship between the late geoffrey epstein and britain's prince andrew the house of windsor haunted by the ghost of a convicted pedophile he was staying at the house as a convicted sex offender. it was a convenient place to stop. what you our viewers on p.b.s. in the united states and all around the world welcome we begin the day with a democratic dream deferred for the people in the former soviet republic of georgia last summer protests in the capital tbilisi resulted in what appeared to be a fast track to proportional representation in parliament a better fairer democracy in the eyes of many. origin's but the government appears

to be backpedaling saying reforms to the country's electoral system will come after elections next year that decision has triggered new protests and arrests in the capital tbilisi tens of thousands of anti-government demonstrators took to the streets this week demanding early elections police used water cannon to push back protesters and more than 30 people were arrested some of them were put in prison today you know be used and really sure when is in tbilisi she picks up the story from the. valley for democracy and against the ruling party protesters outside the georgian parliament once snap elections and constitutional reform the protest has united around 20 opposition movements they say the current electoral system favors the ruling georgian green party which critics argue has too much power for people here electoral reform is much more than a formality this is a very important change will be society because everybody understands that with the

current system there may be no free and fair elections people want something very basic they want this country to be peaceful to be democratic they want their will to be respected they want free and fair elections and these are basic constitutional rights of georgian people some protesters are even camping out here to keep up the pressure on the government the ruling georgian green party had promised a change in the electoral system after protests in june but last week it didn't pass in parliament where the party has a majority we are here protesting. because they lie so us and they made false promise we are coming from soviet past we don't have proper courts we don't have my proper checks and balances so to have a parliament where the forces i represented proportionally is vital for our democracy and people realize that recent surveys show georgian dream is still the most part. piller party even if their poll numbers have dropped to just 23 percent

but the leader of the parliamentary majority insists that most people here appreciate the stability his party has brought to the country and says the protests aren't representative. all of them are citizens. talking about 56 maybe 3 of them the people who are. half of them are just activists of the certain political parties talk to political crisis meanwhile outside parliament demonstrators are keeping watch for another day. these tents show that the protesters are here to stay but for now both the opposition and the government are standing their ground and the political deadlock here in georgia looks set to continue parliamentary elections are scheduled for autumn next year but protesters don't want to wait and they're planning another large rally on monday. when she is in the georgian capital tbilisi this evening good evening to you and so

we've got the protesters being arrested today some of those protesters were actually put in jail is this an attempt by authorities by the government to intimidate them and to silence them. well that's certainly what the protesters would say from the government point of view they say that those 10 people who they jailed today were disobeying police orders and in that rally earlier this week after that that the mayor also said that the protesters have been acting outside of the law the government officials that i spoke to here a very much been kind of portraying the protesters as a small group of aggressive activists just a reminder that are there this week more than 220000 people came out onto the streets but the activists are very much the charm and not to be intimidated they say that they are going to keep protesting and there's this monday rally that they have planned so we'll have to wait and see whether or kind of threats of arrest

work and whether people normal people come out onto the streets and emily the protesters they do have a point we had a promise made last summer that the country's electoral system is going to be reformed now we're being told that not going to have been wait until after the next election but protesters say the system is unfair so why would you wait for another unfair election. well absolutely that's exactly what the protesters are saying and that's why they've been trying to keep the pressure up today where there were actually 3 more arrests there were protesters kind of gathering outside of various government buildings they tried to put up the locks on for example the headquarters of the ruling georgian dream party today and were arrested outside of that building but to the government they say well look we had a vote in parliament that was democratic we're going to have elections one official

said to me let the people who are dissatisfied show what they think at the ballot box like in any other normal democratic country and of course the government is also promising this this reform to the proportional electoral system in for the elections in 2024 the problem is of course that these upcoming elections are going to probably be considered kind of not legitimate by a lot of people who support these reforms and not could mean that this political standoff that we're seeing could continue and we know that the european union and the united states both showing concern about what's happening in the this young democracy of georgia are people they're worried also about what is being called russian creep the more influence of russian political winds in georgia. well i would say that this is definitely a national issue but the kind of threat or the fear of russia is never far

away in georgia after all recent polls show that. over 83 percent consider russia as the main political threat here in georgia and many people remember the war between russia and georgia in 2008 georgians consider 20 percent of their territory to be occupied by russia and even in this kind of constitutional conflict this conflict over reforms both sides mention russia and mention also western partners as you said the u.s. and the e.u. have come out in favor of this democratic reform and the proponents of the for reform say look we've really lost face in front of our partners we need to show that we're stable and that we can be relied on as partners and on the other hand the government says these protesters are making our country less stable and we need to show the west that we are a stable country and that we are a stable transit country for them as well geopolitically so geopolitics are

certainly never far away in georgia. sure we're reporting tonight from the georgian capital tbilisi emily thank you. well today was the 5th and final day of public hearings in the impeachment inquiry against us president donald trump it was also the day after the hearings climax yesterday ambassador gordon saw england stunned almost everyone when he testified that there was indeed a quid pro quo between trump and ukraine and he also implicated practically the entire inner circle surrounding the president saying they were all in the loop and that there were no secrets today began with a rebuke for republican lawmakers from fiona hill the former white house russia adviser i was shocked. when on july 18th an office of management and budget staff member surprisingly announced the hold on ukraine's security assistance if this

will said to the order it come from the president during the lunch ambassador silence said that he was going to call president trump i've entered president trump asked so he's going to do the investigation master song replied that he's going to do it adding that president selenski will do anything you ask him to do i asked about your song one it was true that the president did not give a expletive about ukraine vasser song stated to the president only cares about big stuff and about resigning replied that he meant big stuff that benefits the president like the biden investigation the mr giuliani was pushing and ambassador bolton had looked pale and basically indicated with body language that there was nothing much to do about it and he then in the course of that discussion said that rudy giuliani was a hunger that was going to blow everyone up did you understand what he meant by that i did actually what did he mean he was frequent on television making quite incendiary remarks about everyone involved in this or that he was clearly pushing

forward issues and ideas that would probably come back to haunt us and fight so i think that that's where we are today that's where we are today will be about complete coverage of this 5th and final day of hearings here at the big table with me is nicole redbird she is a us politics analyst with the german council on foreign relations and joining us from our studio in washington d.c. is joseph marino a former federal prosecutor and f.b.i. consultant both of you welcome the judge let me start with you 5 days of testimony looking at this as a prosecutor has the case been made that successfully shows that the president is guilty of an impeachable offense what do you say. well it's difficult because what constitutes an impeachable offense is such an objective concept because it's really anything that members of congress say that it is so if

we were building a traditional criminal prosecution right basically if we were trying to say that the president was guilty of bribery or extortion or some other federal crime i would say the democrats have gone a long way to establishing the elements of a prosecution with respect to impeachment which we keep saying is really a political case in a look they have done what they need to do and they probably did it yesterday with investor sunland to describe kind of fill in the gaps in what they needed to do to reach the point of saying we think we have one or more impeachable offenses here and they got to be something like bribery as far as whether they reach the american people and convince them that's a different story the testimonies have shown that the u.s. president that he did pursue a personal agenda and that he used u.s. foreign policy to reach his goal that i think we can say is not in dispute that

has been shown so if republicans if they do not change their minds about the u.s. president if they if they do not vote to convict strong in the senate would you say then they're going to be making a purely political decision and it's not going to be a legal or a judicial decision that we're going to see would you agree with that. i think that republican defenders of the president at this point will have to use sort of 2 lines of defense if they want to say they're not going to hold him accountable one is they will stick with the president's assertion that there was no corrupt quid pro quo that the president legitimately was asking about what he believed were corrupt circumstances in ukraine and that was his parotid of as commander in chief in releasing the aide now there are problems with that argument but that definitely is one that they could adopt the other one is the defense that the president does not like which is basically to say look this was bad however it does not rise to

impeachment level bad and therefore we should give him a pass on this and let the voters decide next november i think it's one of those 2 arguments or more or less all that the president's defenders are now left with you nicko talking about what we saw all today we had 2 u.s. experts on russia and ukraine very reseed these 2 people forced in their jobs to watch as u.s. foreign policy is directed by people and their president who say that they don't give a you know what about ukraine what does this do to the credibility of u.s. foreign policy especially in the eyes of europeans what you see here is the beginning of a marathon so when you realize that this is the beginning often lengthy process which might lead at some point to an impeachment of the president. it's very mixed messages to the people in europe on the one hand it shows the system is

functioning the democrats are taking up the issue they they follow the rules said look if the president biden aid to the u.s. constitution by that the same time a country like ukraine which is vulnerable vulnerable anyhow is put in a very very difficult position and we see it basically. ukraine as being a toy in the instruments in the hands off off foreign off foreign policy extras so you see you want to see ukrainian relations weakened by this impeachment scandal is impeachment process. it depends i mean if if the accuse ations it's. true that the ukrainian president was put under pressure and was not given the military support he was promised then the whole process is in favor of the old crania and because that should be something that should be out in the open on the

other hand nobody really wants a confidential discussion you're not going to be saddened me something the whole world discusses that's a good point i want to consider what the past 5 days of testimonies i have met in their entirety today book the democrats or the republicans gave their assessments is take a listen to what they had to say the evidence is clear that the president the president has used his office for his own personal gain republicans are in denial about the facts if the republicans do not want to honor their oath of office and then i don't think that this should be we should be characterized as partisan anyway because we're patriotic democrats might not be focused on facts but republicans will continue to double down on the truth and expose those for what it is a political hit job on the president. jason let me ask you when we hear what the republican the democrats what they say about each other about this process. how do you think

the world is is going to view this the notion of american justice after this process is over i know i mean maybe people around the world don't realize that impeachment is something political and not something legal but still when we talk about a trial we talk about testimony it feels and it sounds like a court proceeding so what's the image of american justice when this is all said and done. i have to say that i tend to cringe when when either democrats or the republicans literally run out of these hearings and then go right to television cameras and give their opinion about what they just heard i really wish they would at least pretend to be impartial about this they're supposed to be fact finding at this stage in the process and it's clear that when both sides of both guilty of this when they clearly have their preconceived talking points and it virtually makes no difference what they've heard over these long days and they just

run to the cameras and say what they think the situation is i think that makes the process look bad but at the end of the day i mean hopefully if this goes to the senate it will be done with some more decorum right we have seen this done in the case of former president clinton 20 years ago and it was done fairly. you know with undertones of fairness and bipartisanship it was not ideal but it was certainly better than what we've seen that was also the the era before social media and twitter so i'm hoping that if it goes further we will see at least more of a sense of decorum and fairness in the senate than what we're seeing right now you know that you think a lot of people would agree with you on the jobs of how would you grade the 2 prosecutors who did the questioning during these hearings they were not members of the house intelligence committee do you think of their status as outsiders helped or hurt the process. i mean i think overall this was

a mint over a lot of the public hearings we've seen in the past few months and years where you have soley members of congress with 5 minute rounds i think that's a very impractical and not very productive process because one members are not always the best questioners they often tend to give speeches a lot more than ask proper questions and 25 minutes is not a great time frame to ask meaningful follow ups so i do think the 45 minute format where a lot of that time was given to outside professional lawyers i think it's an improvement that being said they did fine i think they elicited the information that each side kind of had to work with i think they were respectful at least i mean i think that even though these were long there were no outbursts it was nothing really ridiculous so i think under those circumstances both sides did ok there and it was better than it could have been but again far from ideal. nicko do you see for

foresee any event or in the other testimony that could basically sway the balance in the u.s. senate because as it looks right now there will be impeachment of there's not going to be a conviction that's why but what you see is the american democracy is working again and so this investigation is a powerful instrument and it's wisely used it took us a process maybe comes out maybe not punishment but truth checks and balances are working. yes all right you go through the german council of foreign relations and judges of merino the former federal prosecutor to both of you we appreciate your time and your insights tonight thank you. well calls are growing for prince andrew to speak to u.s. investigators including the f.b.i. over his friendship with the late convicted pedophile jeffrey epstein on wednesday the prince withdrew from his public duties this after he gave

a controversial interview over allegations that he had sex with a teenager who says that she was trafficked by. a reporter alex forsworn as you know she's been working this story i can imagine the buckingham palace would like for this story which has become a scandal to go away but it's not going away no it's not going away and on wednesday night prince andrew himself issued a statement saying that he had asked permission from his mother queen elizabeth that he could step back from poppy and that she had agreed to that however make no mistake this is effectively prince andrew being sacked ever since he t.v. interview last weekend things have gone from bad to worse a city sponsors who have been supporting some of his projects have been pulling out even some of the charities for which he is their patron have been trying to find ways to force him to step down so it has not been a good week for him now not only has he was he friends with epstein for many many

years but he himself has been caught up in this whole scandal with very serious allegations that he had sex on 3 separate occasions with a woman who says that she was trafficked by now prince andrew knows that you can deny that but he was aust in this interview why was it that he had decided to go and stay with epstein when epstein had just been released from jail for prostituting mine is. but you were staying at the house and convicted sex offender . it was a convenient place to start i mean i've gone through this in my mind so many times . but the end of the day. with the benefit of all the hindsight that one could have. it was definitely the wrong thing to do. but at the time i felt it was the papers the right thing to do and i admit fully that

my. judgment was probably colored by my. tendency to be too on the whole but that's just the way it is. to see to be too honorable i'm speechless yeah well it has surprised many people and has been described as a car crash interview and you can see why because the tickets you didn't show any empathy a tool or any sympathy for any of of the victims now let's just remember about epstein he was found dead in a prison cell just back in august where he was facing a more allegations of child sex offenses so those lawyers who were acting on behalf of the victims would obviously like to ask him more questions they calmed and they are now hoping that prince andrew himself will help you because the interview no is

being used by lawyers of the victims to demand that prince andrew ensor even more questions absolutely and we can hear from one of those lawyers now. he should turn over any and all evidence he has e-mails texts calendars all the normal stuff that you turn over when you're in litigation and he should have his staffers and security personnel also talk to law enforcement because they could help us determine where he was when he was there and what they saw so all of that is extremely important so we can get to the bottom of what happened. if this were a case if you were arm or involved in this obviously we would have to cooperate with authorities will the prince well there isn't well there is talk of york could well be prepared to to face proper questioning over this criminal investigation and there is of course the possibility that the authorities could issue him with a subpoena so that he would have to appear and to give testimony but this is

such a scandal for the british monarchy this is not what they need at this moment in time obviously they've been hoping it would disappear or that at least it would go quiet and it is far from that we're going to see much more on this story not even the word regret coming in that interview it's. alex as always thank you. and the day is almost done but the conversation continues online you'll find us on twitter either at g.w. news or you can follow me on. t.v. and don't forget when you write to us to use the hash tag the day every member whatever happens between now and then tomorrow is another day we'll see you then everybody.

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