this is d.w. newsline from verb land the us house of representatives impeach is president donald trump in a historic vote. baruchel one is adopted. trump becomes just the 3rd u.s. president ever to be a united states allies in the hands of the senate for a trial will decide whether or not he remains in office also on the program it's being called the trial of the decade in the philippines a core fans out life sentences to the masterminds of a brazen political massacre of family members of the 58 people killed saying it's

only a partial victory. and a state of emergency in new south wales as australia's bushfire crisis continues a record breaking heat wave and strong winds are fanning unprecedented fires authorities they are warning of the worsening conditions over the coming days. i'm called aspen welcome to the program donald trump is now just the 3rd u.s. president in history to be impeached the u.s. house of representatives has voted on 2 charges stemming from trump's alleged attempt to pressure ukraine into investigating his main political rival joe biden both votes fellow along party lines almost all democrats voted for the changes republicans voted unanimously against them this now paves the way for senate trial which will decide whether the president will be. from office. after hours of

debating the 1st article of impeachment for abuse of power past the hives. on this vote the yeas are 230 the nasal 197 present is one article one is adopted i'm just minutes later the 2nd article for obstruction of congress went as planned for the democrats on this vote the yeas are 229 the nays are 198 present is one article 2 is adopted. hundreds of kilometers away as a rally in michigan president trump reacted to his impeachment. with today's illegal unconstitutional and partisan impeachment. would do nothing democrats and they are doing nothing all they want to do is focus

on this what they could be doing argent larry their deep hatred at this stage for the american voter. this lola's harvester speech is a political suicide march for the democratic party have you seen my polls of the last for which. back in washington democratic had speaker nancy pelosi accuse the republicans of being purely partisan she threatened to delay the impeachment trial until she could be sure it would be handled fairly in the senate. we have legislation approved by the rules committee that will enable us to decide how we will send over the articles of impeachment we cannot name managers until we see what the process is on the senate side and i would hope for that will be soon so far we haven't fulfilled what will they are to us so hopefully it will behave more when we see what calls for 4 more. probably with voting concluded in the house of

representatives and donald trump becoming only the 3rd u.s. president to be impeached americans now face the next stage in the process the senate trial that's due to begin in january but democrats face an uphill battle considering the senate is republican controlled and they need a 2 thirds majority to remove president trump from office. for the capitol is about to begin a brief period of calm over the holiday season as members of the congress and senate spent time in their homes across this starkly divided country. let's get more now on impeachment joining me in studio rachel rizzo she's. u.s. political analyst and bosch fellow here in berlin rachel i mean we keep calling this a historic moment only the 3rd presidents in the history of the country to be impeached what does the word historic mean hero put this in context for us i mean when you look at the only 2 other presidents who have been impeached andrew johnson and bill clinton the word impeachment really hangs over their presidency even for richard

nixon who resigned before he could be impeached and that word sort of hangs over his presidency too but i think this is about a lot more than just impeachment it's about protecting the integrity of the office it's about honoring the constitution but it's not a day of excitement this is not a day to celebrate. dancing palosi made that very clear in the way she shut down democrats who started to cheer as she was reading out the votes so it's really a solemn day for the united states in our history i think so how does this vote how does this more a given pietschmann what does that do to trump's presidency how will people per potentially view president trump now from this day forward the word impeachment is going to be associated with donald trump's presidency and that bothers him that he doesn't see it doesn't seem like the ball exactly but donald trump cares about how he's perceived in public he's he cares about how the public sees him and you can tell that b. because of what he says over twitter from the letter he sent to nancy pelosi even

what he was saying during the michigan rally that he held last night so this is something that is going to hang over his presidency and it's something that he's going to fight against people because it really does get to the heart of who gets. to speaking about the impeachment proceedings it's of course the lawmakers who do the actual vote and we saw that last night but public opinion does play a big role in terms of potentially pressuring lawmakers to vote one way or the other what's the public opinion right now on impeachment in the united states how people feel about this impeachment is a chaos creator for the united states right and it just feeds in to the. hyper partisan political climate that the country is experiencing experiencing today i mean the country is divided so clearly along partisan lines democrats and republicans this impeachment proceeding isn't going to change decided voters either way republicans or democrats will continue to stay in their lanes i think what's

going to be really interesting to see going forward is how this affects the very small number of undecided or independent voters in the united states there was an election you may have heard coming up in 2020 it's a big one will there be fallout from the impeachment do you think i mean it'll be in november so is that a long enough time or will still be a campaign issue by them well there's a couple things here the 1st is that there's going to be senators that are distracted by this candidates like clover shar booker warren and sanders they all have to come back from the campaign trail to finish this trial in the senate the 2nd thing is that republicans are really going to use this as a talking point against the democrats they're going to say that the dems are the ones who are dividing the country who are trying to feed into the hyper partisanship and so this isn't something that's going to go any way go away any time soon it's going to follow the democrats all the way down the campaign trail until november that's on a trial expected sometime next year of rachel rizzo a u.s. political analyst and bosch fellow in berlin thank you. all right here's

a look now at some of the other stories making news around the world the pretrial hearings have started in the case of a slovak of businessman tied to the killing of an investigative journalist mario is suspected of ordering the killing of a journalist. been investigating his business and activities. and his fiance were gunned down at their home in february last year. scotland's 1st minister nicola sturgeon says that the scottish government will consider all options if the british government tries to stop it from holding an independence referendum sturgeon's pro independence scottish national party won 48 seats in last week's u.k. wide election. a court in the philippines has found the masterminds of the country's worst political massacre guilty of murder convicted members of the influential. parts one family sorry killed $58.00 people in the 2009 bloodbath including political opponents and journalists the family's trial was also seen as

a crucial test in a country where corruption and intimidation often decide local elections. 10 years have passed but these people students have not and may never hue. they cannot forget the murderers who took away their loved ones. but today justice has been done for them they are hereby convicted and sentenced to suffer the penalty of imprisonment. 29 of the suspects now face life imprisonment decades in jail but dozens of others are still at large the following accused who are found to have acted the atrocity in 2009 the worst political massacre in the history of the philippines 58 people were killed over 100 of them journalists in the province of much into now police found mutilated bodies in mass graves prepared ahead of the

mirja one body was never found. the region had long been governed by the amp a 20 family but in a provincial election they were challenged by a rival candidate and a smile. after receiving death threats mangudadatu sent to family to riches to him for the poll together with the launch group of journalists whose presence it was hoped would deter violence but the convoy was attacked by gunmen sent by the. decade long wait for justice follow it. it's a scar that will stay forever but perhaps their grief can now begin to hew. i want to get more in the spring and correspondent on the santos and manila who was in the courtroom as that verdict was announced now on of this is being called the trial of the decade in the philippines what was the reaction in the courtroom today

. this morning began with a lot of tense hopefulness there was very heavy security there with riot police outside and going into the courtroom every step of the way was guarded and people were screaming inside there was one side or the one supporters and there was another side also for the 2 supporters so they were on different sides to keep some peace and also when the verdicts started being read out there was a lot of when there was a verdict that was read out for the guilty verdict of the primary suspect and on the side of those were the supporters of what there was some cheering on the widow which you can imagine with also all sorts of disappointment for some of the family members so it was really bittersweet for them today happy that there was justice served for the primary suspect being sentenced to life but also a little bit of you know. her critics gone on stronger on those others were also

part of the. well you mentioned the mixed reaction and i mean this is it's been a decade now what does this guilty verdict mean not only for the families but for the country is their feeling justice has finally been served. yes there is that definite feeling that justice has been sort of work when you talk about the which ones you're talking about a very strong or nickel family that has you know that runs their region with their target on comprised mostly of police officers so they really own this their region as if they're warm when you go up against that that kind of see how they carried out this crime it's brazen and community today's verdict of justice was really something it's a victory for the people it was a victory also for the family. i don't know what happens next now while those who were found guilty appeal this ruling. yes both of the family the

families and their lawyers anticipate that there will be the courts will be inundated with the field moving forward ad they're now making measures to talk to the courts to make special arrangements so that you know just is not delayed and they process that's one secondly the judge issue the warrant of arrest for the 80 suspects that still remain at large so that's another set of hearings and trials that is going to take place and that's not what they call these 2 of them but to a verdict west for justice for the victims so if the day was a victory yes for the country justice was served a little bit as 'd. bittersweet as those 80 suspects still are at large on the santo's the middle of thank you very much. in australia a record breaking heat wave and strong winds are plaguing firefighters battling out of control bushfires the country's most populous states new south wales has declared an emergency there authorities are warning of worsening conditions over

the next few days this week has already seen 2 consecutive days of record heat the average temperature reaching 41.9 degrees celsius that's 107 degrees fahrenheit and it's set to go even higher. a wall of flames consuming all before it the firemen trying to slow its advance of fighting a losing battle. wildfires have been raging in australia for months now it's going to be more than $3000000.00 hectares of land and destroying over $700.00 homes that smoke has engulfed sydney blurring it psychotic skyline but with average temperatures reaching record highs the state of new south wales is preparing for things to get us given the severity of extreme weather conditions today and also saturday and for the next few days on advice of commissioner

fitzsimmons new south wales will be in a state of emergency from today for the next 7 days scientists blame global warming for the severity of this year's fire as parched from the searing heat new south wales is a tinderbox already a light. the fire service sending out its biggest plane this one dumps 36000 liters of fire retardant with every flight but that's still not enough we've got just under 104 hours bernie krause new south wales and half of them are not can time was to die is going to be a very bad i dined resty here in new south wales the forecast is that sort of i will be even worse so we're talking about some very serious and dangerous conditions over the coming days. with the heat bearing down many australians took to the waves to cool off. even as they relax on the beach the flames a creeping closer. police in india have detained hundreds of people during the new

protests against a new citizenship law the demonstrations went ahead despite a ban on protesting by authorities critics of the law say it makes religion a basis for granting indian citizenship and discriminates against muslims at one protest police arrested the well known historian rama chan drug who caught his attention has prompted widespread outrage particularly among academics on twitter a delhi based political historian condemned what he described as the quotes police manhandling one of our most prolific and influential public intellectuals and scholars u.s. journalist meanwhile edward luce who has specialized in reporting on india tweeted this he said a system that can arrest and detain guha gandhi's biographer for peacefully purposefully protesting to uphold its constitution is not a liberal democracy he called on people to quote stand with raul. well here's a check now here's

a check now of some of the global headlines at this hour olivia's attorney general has issued an arrest warrant for former president evo morales the new government has accused him of sedition and terrorism the left wing leader fled bolivia last month after the country's military pressured him out over a disputed presidential election rallies to announce the arrest order as illegal. spanish police have clashed with protesters outside a football match between our sloma and ryall madrid the protesters you see them there outside the stadium in barcelona trying to draw attention to the catalonian separatist movement during the goalless match it was watched by 650000000 people worldwide. or russian president vladimir putin is giving his annual marathon end of the year news conference and this year there are plenty of burning questions putin addressed issues ranging from climate change and the impeachment of donald trump to the ban on russian athletes for doping around 2000 journalists have crammed into

a moscow conference room to quiz him but in the meantime we've taken to the streets to ask ordinary russians what question they would most like to ask their president there's an explosive question but i'd like to ask him to stay his current course that's what i want he needs well our country is advancing we're happy and we want things to stay is they are the i want to ask him when we will finally get gas connections we're providing europe and china with gas but in the moscow region some people aren't that's not right in your will i'm concerned about the fact that many of putin's directives for economic and social reforms are being carried out on time you will need some sort of. i for more on putin's press conference we're joined now by heaven he is a journalist from the moscow times that's an english language news portal based in moscow he's following that marathon press conference forests i mean my 1st question russia's not exactly known for its freedom of the press what kinds of questions will putin be facing what kind of questions can journalists really ask and

this is a really closely managed affair it takes 4 hours we're about only halfway through so far it's been 2 hours and the questions that journalists ask all have to be approved ahead of time and they give a chance for pushing to address as you mentioned some of the main issues of the day back when these started 20 years ago in 2001 was the 1st. was the 1st press conference it was much more free flowing international journalists have much more of an opportunity to ask questions and as it's over the years it's basically become a lot more focused on what putin wants to send a message about some of the questions have been this here a bit more. but it's a spicy than you would think there was a question about an investigative journalist who was arrested in june that set off mass protests in moscow this summer and which an answer that question that was absolutely unexpected so the questions were a lot more in line with what you would expect there were questions about. russian

from the street mentioned earlier there was a question about peace talks with ukraine about the about the doping scandal and so on but they're asking the sort of flat way that answer however he sees fit it's interesting that putin as well acknowledged events posed by climate change what did he have to say about global warming. it was actually the 1st question today was about global warming which is also interesting we've had record temperatures here in moscow we haven't seen snow which is quite surprising for moscow in december temperatures are well above 0 so. people are a bit disconcerted you actually see climate change you know in places where temperatures have read 0 you see those tangible effects putting acknowledges that climate change exists and they acknowledge it again today but he said today he said quote we don't know what is causing it he can be quite frustrating for climate

change activists because on the one hand he does acknowledge that it's a problem and russia ratified the paris agreement the global landmark accord on fighting climate change this year it was a bit late to the but it did sign it then again which it won't actually go so far as to say that it's human driven and which gives him a way to sort of be up with the international norms but not pull back from the main . you know the main thing that drives the russian economy which is greenhouse gases . an interesting window into the thoughts of let me put in evan with the moscow times thank you so much germany has been marking the 30th anniversary of the fall of the berlin wall this year which led to german reunification one of the big questions facing german leaders back then was what to do with the vast quantity of files kept by the stasi they would be much feared east german secret police who operated with the support of a vast network of informers who were willing to spying on coworkers friends and

neighbors and when the end of the files were made available to the public but 3 decades on they remain a source of pain and of controversy. 13 years ago east germans stormed the headquarters of the stasi was they wanted to prevent the communist dictatorship secret police from completely destroying its archives here are in supreme war these guys you know the place where the secret police plan the oppression of the people they were in helping to preserve the files it's an experience i'll always remember as. my daughter i don't know how many out there today is the federal commissioner for the stasi archives is agency holds enough files to stretch for 111 kilometers as a journalist and civil rights activist he himself was put under surveillance spied on and filmed by the stasi until 989 just like millions of others the spying

reached all the way to the top ranks and into the west one of the stasis main targets was long term chancellor helmut kohl after the fall of the g.d.r. the german government did not initially want to make the archives available to the public in an exclusive interview with g w the former chancellor's widow mica clearly explains why the since on stock there of questionable truth what's worse the stasi also added fake information to the financial system so they were created in order to spy on people to subdue people and to secure the continuance of the regime by labor suspicion but activists from the former east germany persevered soon anyone could apply to look at his or her own files people were often astonished by what the stasi had known about them and how much fun a long legal battle to prevent stasi files about himself from being released to academic researchers and journalists in the end a compromise was reached. top 40 stuff i thought i mentioned i thought it was the

stasi violated our human rights by spying on citizens and helmut kohl was all i would call a collector that information and these files of course they should be protected these are. 30 years on more than 2000000 people have seen their files the identities of former stasi spies have been revealed. people who were wrongfully imprisoned were forced into working for the stasi were rehabilitated. but how to treat the files in the future is still controversial. they're not a legitimate source this was always my husband's concern he'd say the more distant people are from the g.d.r. over time the less they will understand that the stasi files are not of a constitutional state that says but. the archives is a key historic document this is these arkansas it's important to expand these files by talking to witnesses of the time but also with other information. in

a sense history is always made up of many different elements like a mosaic shouldn't be a static image of history these archives should contribute to a discourse on history. that could take place here at the former headquarters of east germany secret police in berlin a campus for democracy as in the planning it should be finished by 2021 and it's hoped it will send a clear message i think that. can be overcome that's a reason for hope and that's the message that can be learned from history also for future generations to become aware that freedom and autonomy are not a given but instead they must be cherished and protected. the report part of the documentary type wrote in dresden you can view that online a d. dot com slash dock they'll all visitors to pompei italy are being given a chance to see something special the ongoing restoration of the world's most famous works of art pompei administrators open the doors on the 19th and 20th of

december and that allows the public to view work being carried out on the frescoes in the orchard house or casa del food the work on the images of gardens ornamental plants and flying birds is expected to be finished in february next year. and reminder the top story that we're following for you at this hour the u.s. house of representatives has in teached donald trump evo it was split along party lines. no republicans voting in favor of the articles of impeachment twin now be sent to the senate or a republican majority is expected to vote to keep president trump in office. and in australia new south wales has declared a state of emergency over its bushfire crisis authorities are warning that a record breaking heat wave coupled with strong winds will increase the threat over the next few days. up next witness is speak out about the 1999

by the assassination and you're watching. more news coming at the top of the hour and it's all the latest news and information available 24 seventh's on our web site that's a b.m.w. dot com promise one that's watching. an

internment camp. we go. managed to escape from china. and turkey she needs another week or so to also report on the home we think conditions in the camps. gelida about once to tell her story so the whole world can know the plight of her people. next on d w. conflicts with tim sebastian.

junger's recent celebrations for a 70th anniversary one quite the public relations triumph it was supposed to be my guest this week here in london is a big tent golf how does he justify china's comes a log of human rights abuses and the continuing pressure on hong kong conflict so for 60 minutes d.w. folks. should tell us things this is a new ball speaking welcome to the show with a ding dong xoai and concerts with the mistress guests. knocking sounds.

then incredible location. welcoming tonight. every week on w. . x. . well a very warm welcome indeed to focus on europe with me peter craven and we begin in belarus where 20 years ago death squads targeted opposition politicians no exclusive don't chevelle or research shows how those politicians disappeared without trace after being killed in cold blood and there seems to be little doubt that the order came.