All set to roll out but some in the congolese a skeptical. And a bleak scene in one of the worlds top Tourist Spots water levels in venice are at their highest in the half a century. A top diplomats given evidence of how the u. S. President put pressure on ukraine gen vest a great political rival Joe Biden William Taylor was one of 2 foreign offices to if i was at the 1st televised hearing thats at the heart of an impeachment inquiry into donald trump custer reports now from washington d. C. The whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god William Taylor and george kent took the stand together at the 1st public hearing in the impeachment inquiry career foreign officers called by democrats to tell a compelling story to the American Public taylor is the acting u. S. Ambassador to ukraine who upon assuming the post in june. Himself dropped in the middle of a mystery once i arrived and gave discovered a weird combination of encouraging confusing and ultimately alarming circumstances taylor had begrudgingly agreed to come out of retirement to take over the u. S. Diplomatic mission at a critical time his predecessor maria had been ousted without explanation and President Trumps personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani was meeting with ukraine officials to discuss debunked corruption allegations against political rivals that had taylor worried and countered an irregular informal channels of u. S. Policy making with respect to ukraine. Unaccountable to Congress Taylor began asking questions and learned the informal channel was aimed at getting ukraine to investigate joe biden trumps potential opponent in the upcoming president ial election taylor says career diplomats were sidelined as trumps shows and aides pressed ukraine to publicly announce a biden investigation george kent a state department expert on ukraine says giuliani was getting more involved in u. S. Relations with kiev it became clear to me that giulianis efforts to gin up politically motivated investigations were now infecting u. S. Engagement with ukraine leveraging president selenski is desire for a white house meeting but there was more ambassador taylor says he had a clear understanding that u. S. Security aid to ukraine worth 400000000 dollars was also on the line the money was essential for ukraine to fend off russias military advances to withhold that systems for no good reason other than help with the Political Campaign made no sense it was it was counterproductive to all of what we had been trying to do. It was illogical it could not be explained it was crazy multiple witnesses have corroborated taylors testimony much of the facts are uncontested but there is a critical factor still missing from the democrats argument to impeach President Trump and that is evidence that trump was directly involved and therefore to be blamed the closest democrats have come is a july phone call between trump and the president of ukraine a lot of years olinsky tells trump his countrys ready to buy more weapons from the us for defense purposes trump sansar i would like you to do us a favor though then ask for investigations into democrats and the bidens this is extortion this is bribery and in any other instance. People would go to jail for sure trump says hes innocent and republicans are stunned sleep defending him but anyone from millionaire the democrat scorched earth war against President Trump would not be surprised to see all the typical signs that this is a carefully orchestrated Media Smear Campaign prior to the start of the public hearings americans were about evenly divided on whether to impeach trump and remove him from office now that theyre hearing directly from witnesses all eyes are on whether the publics opinion will change. Castro aljazeera Washington WellPresident Trump has once again claimed that the impeachment inquiry against him is a witch hunt he made the comments during a meeting with turkeys president at the White House Committee hellcat has this report video come to water. As americans watched the 1st public hearings over the impeachment of the us president one person said he wasnt paying attention youre talking about the witch hunt is that what you mean is that what youre talking about i think i hear its a joke i havent watched but President Trumps own twitter feed suggested the opposite sending out a number of messages during the hearings that lasted all day still trumpeted promise to release the transcript of a 2nd phone call with ukrainian president vladimir is a lead ski and make a determination as to what you think theyre the release of the 1st transcript of a call in july in which trop asked for a favor from selenski is now the basis for the house impeachment inquiry a top diplomat testified on capitol hill on wednesday the trump wanted to withhold Security Assistance to Ukraine Exchange for an investigation into a political rival former Vice President joe biden trump also responded to reports hed pressed another top diplomat about the investigations into biden just a day after that july phone call for more but i know nothing about that 1st time ive heard it although President Trump wants the impeachment inquiry to go away his campaign is using it to raise money an email to supporters to call the hearings not just an attack on President Trump but on americans the goal to raise 3000000. 00 from just the 1st day of public hearings kimberly held at aljazeera the White House Well joel rubin is a former u. S. Deputy assistant secretary of state he says democrats have to build a very clear case in the impeachment inquiry. The democrats are going to have to do is make the case Crystal Clear about how this was corrupt behavior and that the president was using public funds in order to advance his personal agenda his personal political agenda and they have to explain why thats a problem and why that is is an Impeachable Offense and adam schiff he has taken pains to try to bring out the data bring out the witnesses from behind closed doors republicans are trying to obfuscate the facts that these fact witnesses are putting out that the end of the day if the House Democrats can make their case put in writing in the articles of impeachment that then goes to the senate that time we really have the clash where the House Democrats who are managing those articles of impeachment to convict the president go toe to toe with the president s attorneys with the Supreme Court justice presiding thats where the real fireworks will come. On kong is bracing for another day of transport chaos protesters are planning to block more roads authorities have already shut a major tunnel as a precaution lots of clone joins us live now from Hong Kong Sara so another day of transport chaos in hong kong tell us whats been happening. But yes this is the 4th day of protests this is the general strike and these protests have called with a targeting of the transport system whether it be the bus or and where we are at the cross city tunnel this is the central tunnel this is probably the busiest tunnel in hong kong in the last few hours its been shuttled certainly since the early hours of the sporting and during pick out traffic so thats often causing major traffic jams around hong kong this is simply because it was satellite one of the toll booths was set a lot overnight now weve got 15 trying sessions thats the empty actions theyve already been closed as well as a number of bus lines that have been stopped as well that weve had all schools on thursday have been canceled today now that some Primary School thats kindergarten and thats the scene in schools and thats the 1st time this week weve had all schools shut down as a result of the chaos weve seen over the last few days we also have a number of universities that finished their term early thats the end of your term and theyre going online or simply have to finish the term early as a result of the chaos that weve seen now where we were at the point to University Cross city tunnel on my left on the right we have the Polytechnic University on kalon side now early this morning weve already had to guess fire on these protesters and in front of me all the overpasses have been barricaded up the students are pretty much creating this battleground around the University Campuses and no one can get here weve got some students up behind me that can see it i behalf past behind me thats what the whole way along desks chairs tables that have blocked all the try to block the place from entering those campuses so certainly a full of traffic. In hong kong weve also just been informed in the next hour theyre going to create another flash mob in Central Hong Kong and weve seen this over the last few days where tear gas has been fired in one of the busiest areas in the entire the city and certainly seen this new strategy of protests taking place on week days what sort of impact is this having that. Whats having a huge impact on not just on the University Students or the protesters in the place but the general public simply because theyre scattered these flash mobs and these protests and the transport kind of strikes across the city the University Grounds have certainly been the focus of the last few days but as i mention Central Hong Kong during Business Hours during weekdays and during the lunch hour now the public has been caught in the crossfire when the tear gas is being fired and and all schools being canceled thats obviously having an impact on everyone across hong kong now the government overnight wins that evening had hardly ever all senior government officials met at Government House and this certainly raised speculation that this was some sort of im urgency meeting but certainly were yet to see what happens on the set but as i mentioned there are more protests happening in transport chaos in the city all right to sort of talk there in Hong Kong Live for us sara thank you. The Palestinian GroupIslamic Jihad has offered israel terms for a ceasefire up the 2 days of cross border fighting egypt has been helping broker a truce between both sides israel continued to bomb gaza in the early hours of thursday Islamic Jihad fighters have also fired over 200 rockets in response to palestinians have been killed in the past 2 days the escalation began after israel killed a Senior Leader of Islamic Jihad. Firstly we want a stop to all the s. S. Nations inside the gaza strip and the west bank generally secondly to cease firing on all the protesters taking part in the great march of return thirdly for israel to abide by agreements discussed in cairo relating to measures that have to be taken to break the siege on the gaza strip. Matheson has more now from western muslim. Gaza skys filled with smoke for a 2nd day as israels military continues to target what it says a rocket launch sites of the armed Group Islamic jihad meanwhile after an overnight low rockets are again fired from gaza into israel gaza city has all but shut down many of its people are hiding. I think the situation is going towards war like in 2014 still its not clear in the coming hours the situation will become more clear. On tuesday israeli fighter jets killed a senior Islamic Jihad leader by deliberately targeting his gaza highers israel blames. For dozens of attacks Islamic Jihad responded by launching more than 200 rockets into israel now Israeli Armored vehicles are lined up at the gaza border and air strikes continue in the past israel has said that any attacks that originate inside gaza are ultimately the responsibility of hamas the palestinian Political Group which is in control of gaza there are fears that if hamas joins forces with Islamic Jihad then this conflict could get much worse but hamas seems reluctant to get involved. Instead israel is making a point of blaming only Islamic Jihad fighters for the rocket attacks. On we are responding to every attack against us with a very sharp attack and response i think the Islamic Jihad best understand that now rather than when its too late for the United Nations in egypt trying to negotiate an end to the shelling gazas Border Crossings have been closed a number of dead has been rising and the misery of people who cant escape is growing. Rob matheson aljazeera jerusalem. Time for a short break here in aljazeera when we come back the u. S. Reveals its position on bolivias new government supporters of a former leader intensified demonstrations plus. The. Fighting for Development Well tell you why tempers are flaring at a Major Economic summit in brazil more on that stay with us. How its not february but youd be forgiven for thinking if youre in chicago for example or the highest temperature on wednesday about minus 3 this is all cold and i and thats the cold front that brought it on us hard way half way through far at least out of it miamis got 27 degrees in contrast to single figures not far away really on the scale of atlanta but things are slowly warming out never come but freezing the snow on the ground is melting probably sticky and says gosh were in a good part of an ontario but its not really deep winter yet it just looks like it for a time this revolving potential storm off the coast the carolinas could bring some significant rain the washtub it is rain is not snow otherwise its generally fine and sunny the clouds increasing to the west wont bring much with a but there is rain creeping down the coast in the u. S. And snow on the canadian side of the border quite easily. To the south of all this lot ignoring florida and the potential of heavy rain just south coast of texas or more like heading towards mexico weve got an increase in the showers like they are in the smaller of the caribbean islands and quite a concentration in rain for us from nicaragua south was down through panama and in the conscience itself to south america big rain is now falling in southeast brazil. What are you protesting about how does this impact their online well i face mental state im directly out of translating slavery or if you join us on sand this is an attack on Academic Freedom and on our ability to do research and teach freely this is a dialogue myanmar is not making it very welcoming for people to come back everyone has a voice Climate Change is real the discussion is real and im here to talk about the solutions on mountains iraq. Will come back and put them out of our top stories on aljazeera the 1st public hearing in the impeachment inquiry into american President Donald Trump has ended the u. S. Is passed and ukraine said he was told that trump had more about an investigation into his wife of joe biden and he did about ukraine from some extra pressure to kiev into investigating pipe in exchange for military and. Major transport routes in hong kong have been forced to close police on dissipating a 4th consecutive day of midweek demonstrations schools have been shot across the city on the Palestinian ArmedGroup Islamic jihad has offered israel terms for a cease fire of the 2 days of fighting israel continued to bomb gaza in the early hours of thursday 32. 00 palestinians have been killed fighting began after israel killed a Senior Leader it was not like you had earlier this week. The u. S. President Donald Trumps met his turkish counterpart at the white house despite opposition in congress to the visit to his offensive in Northern Syria and its purchase of a russian mission. System dominated the talks mike hanna has more from washington d. C. The president and 1st lady had town to welcome the turkish leader this the 1st face to face talks following weeks of screen relations between the 2 countries President Trump was quick to set a friendly we have a great relationship both personally and with the great country of turkey and we look forward to moving that forward and making it an even bigger and better relationship thank you but its apprenticeship that dates back 7 years to the opening of the trump towers in istanbul buttressed by a warm relationship between their sons in laws one is turkeys finance minister the other President Trumps close adviser jared cushion. Its a relationship that concerned many in congress the concern for the fueled by President Trumps opposition to a bipartisan sanctions bill passed in the house and being discussed in the senate the bill was in response to turkeys military operation in syria. Following President Trump surprise decision to withdraw u. S. Troops from the Region Congress has been angered by the u. S. President s apparent reluctance to impose sanctions on turkey following its decision to buy a russian weapons system yes 400 are already being deployed in the face of protest by all of turkeys nato allies including the u. S. Just outside the white house a small group of protesters expressing their opposition to the turkish president while the protests the. President. Group opera public consent to. This an apparent attempt to persuade them. Again pushing usually you want to start of the negotiation you know the president one senator had least agreed to look for the Silver Lining in the relationship with turkey the purpose of this meeting is to have an american civics lesson for france and turkey. And theres a pony in there somewhere if we can. And the hope expressed by its president that the relationship with the u. S. Congress will improve as turkey we are ready and committed to sustain a very constructive dialogue with the United States congress and this is an idea that ive shared with President Trump as well from President Trump a few circuits raised and the hope expressed of further arms sales we have a lot of trade with turkey but it could be many times larger and turkey would like to see that and it would also be good for the United States so we intend to bring it up to about 100000000000. 00 that would be 4 times. It is right now for president juan it was a successful meeting not only with the u. S. Leader but also with some members of the senate who had opposed him so fiercely in the past mike hanna aljazeera washington. The u. S. Has formally recognized bolivias interim leader as the countrys new president earlier on wednesday 2 protesters in bolivia were killed on jenin on his 1st day in Office Security forces fired tear gas at hundreds of supporters of the former president even moran is resigned on sunday and his disputed reelection demonstrations took place near the president ial palace where and theres proclaimed herself interim president has more from a demonstration in support of morale is on the streets of la. Were here just a few blocks away from the Bolivian Congress from blast Somebody Just as you can see theres not far away from here are supporters of evan with alice are trying to make it there the Movement Toward socialist party has been trying to call for a session in order to reject whats been going on in this country which is basically calling and naming and interim president thats what happened here on tuesday and were here seeing able not only supporters vs men that you can see with the red point chose there are Indigenous Leaders that have come all the way from different parts of the libya very demanding the right to go inside congress theyre convinced that what happened in this country is a cool because theyve almost alice was asked to resign by the military which mean happening in bolivia has polarized the country theres lots of tension right here the interim president has said that pacifying the country is a priority she is calling on to the armed forces and the police in order to pacify the situation here but thats going to be extremely difficult if the this new administration does not consider the enormous amount of support that ever what alice continue to have here and hes a Movement Towards social is that the mass party has been trying to go inside congress in order to hold a session as i said before in order to reject whats been happening in this country in the past few days. Well jenny and sworn in the new cabinet as she moves to fill the power vacuum left behind by mandalas for now. Today we start on a peaceful and Democratic Path to return legality which i have entrusted the armed forces and the National Police with so that they can guarantee the pacification of the country the time has come for us to reunite and end the confrontation to look at one another and accept peace and i assure everyone that the persecution and intimidation in bolivia has ended. A summit of the worlds 5 biggest emerging economies has begun in brazil is culpable while the focus is on International Trade there are disagreements about developments in bolivia and the crisis in venezuela on iraq on the reports now from. Brazilian president greeted the leaders of russia china india and south africa for the 2900. 00 bricks summit the theme of what is now the 11th summit of the socalled brics nations is Economic Growth for an innovative future we 3 countries were going to send out a strong message to the International Community that we are defending strongly a multilateral system a more open free fair International Trade system one controversial topic at this years gathering is the question of venezuela which has put brazil at odds with russia and china was out of order on wednesday fights broke out on the street in front of the Venezuelan Embassy in brasilia between supporters of venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and supporters of Opposition Leader one military police were called to the embassy as rival factions fought over control of the diplomatic compound. Weapon if it was assaulted it was irresponsibly attacked by criminal groups and it is currently under siege we havent recognized people inside the Facilities International law is being violated the Geneva Convention is being violated we call on the International Community to speak out. There were also other protests in the brazilian capital some were against the visit of chinese president xi jinping with demonstrators showing solidarity with the ongoing protests in hong kong the brics summit is taking place during an especially to mulch of his time in latin america discussions over the ongoing crisis in venezuela as well as the recent resignation of bolivian president evo morales are likely to take place among brics leaders though not publicly. So despite the obvious differences in geo political agendas the focus of this years brics summit continues to be the strengthening of International Trade. Agreements no china is trading papa had to give it with my entire team as well as the brazilian Business Community we want not to just expand we want to diversify our trade relations with the bric countries represent more than 40 percent of the worlds population and almost a quarter of global g. D. P. Zita but as. Well the 1st of a case of a boner has been reported in the Southern African nation of lawsuits and its in the town of larry by an outbreak in the democratic republic of congo which is much further north has claimed more than 2000 lives and in just a few hours time Health Authorities in the day will begin testing a new scene but the rollout is already facing criticism there was conference or reports from goma in the democratic republic of congo. A new eyeball a vaccine for a major child scientists the testing it on up to half a 1000000 congolese over the next 10 months to study the fact. The vaccine is safe it has already been tested on a small sample of people elsewhere according to professor would not have approved it if it was harmful to the people. But some people are concerned that the long term effects of the drug made by u. S. Multinational are not yet known and the fact that it needs to doze this 8 weeks apart may not work on people who travel often its a challenge to show rates between 2 to dorothys will be a indication of the acceptance of his vaccines and population. We we will work with the communities we explain to the communities we believe know that if we explain simply things to the people say they are able to understand about 250000 people in parts of this region are already being injected with another vaccine made by a German Company that has just been approved by european regulators those receiving the new a drug given areas that are considered low risk of an outbreak this is a very busy Border Crossing between d. R. Congo and rwanda tens of thousands of people mostly traders use it every day Health Workers say vaccinating them is crucial feelings here over both vaccinations are mixed. Destruction is good it helps us go about our business without fear. I can never do it i dont know what theyre injecting into us they didnt benny and people are still dying now goma. A bowl of vaccinations in the democratic republic of congo have long been controversial and political one Health Minister is reported to have lost his job. For opposing the u. S. Study some congolese say they dont trust whats going on but Health Workers insist this is the best way of beating a disease that has killed many people catherine sorry aljazeera cama. Their jobs Health Ministry says 6 people have been killed and 15 injured after an oil pipeline caught fire on wednesday the blaze broke out in its. Many locals are gathered to fill containers with leaking fuel for the fire again. The mayor of venice is blaming Climate Change for floods which are overwhelming the italian city more than 85 percent of its historic squares and streets are under water hitting the highest levels in more than 50 years reports. The streets and canals merged as the 2nd highest tide ever recorded swept through venice on tuesday undaunted most tourists took to touring the city on gangplanks but some chose to swim through st marks square the citys main. As waters hit 1. 87 meters high the highest in half a century siren sound was for residents the effects a devastating. Musks plights everything look at what were living with here i just want to cry. The citys mayor has declared a state of emergency blaming the rising waters on Climate Change meanwhile much needed off shore barriers designed to prevent floods remain under finished the project started in 2003 has been dogged by delays soaring costs and corruption scandals and venetians a demanding progress. Its been 10 years but theyve done nothing its in total eclipse it does not work and i have stolen 6 and a half 1000000000. 00 our politicians are old fleas they should be in jail. The damage is estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars and there are concerns that this flood is the starkest warning yet that the city is drowning. Out. Of the headlines on aljazeera the 1st public hearing in the impeachment inquiry into President Trump has ended the u. S. Ambassador in ukraine said he was told that trump cared more about the investigation into his rival joe biden than he did about ukraine. Accused of pressuring them to investigating biden in exchange for military. I found it confusing an unusual arrangement for making u. S. Policy toward ukraine there appear to be 2 channels of u. S. Policy making an implementation one regular and one highly irregular well donald trump was dismissive of what hes already labeled a witch hunt i hear its a joke i havent watch have a watch for one minute because ive been with the president which is much more important as far as im concerned this is a sham and shouldnt be allowed it was a situation that was caused by people that should have allowed it to happen who want to find out who is the whistleblower because the whistleblower gave a lot of very Incorrect Information including my call with the president of ukraine which was a perfect all well President Trump says the alliance with turkey remains strong despite differences on key issues hes held talks with president russia type one in washington d. C. Relations have been strained over policies on syria and turkeys purchase of a Russian MissileDefense System major transport routes in hong kong have been forced to close police are anticipating a 4th consecutive day of midweek demonstrations schools have been shot across the city the Palestinian GroupIslamic Jihad has offered israel terms for a ceasefire the 2 days of cross border fighting egypt has been helping broker a truce between the 2 sides but israel has continued to bomb gaza and Islamic Jihad has fired more rockets 32 palestinians have been killed since tuesday the escalation began after israel killed a Senior Leader of Islamic Jihad. The u. S. Has formally recognized bolivias interim leader as its new president on wednesday to protesters and the deal with killed on jenin on his 1st day in Office Security forces fired tear gas at hama supporters of the former president evo morales as a resigned on sunday. Well those are the headlines the news continues on aljazeera after the bottom line statement on so much i think. The green doomsday cult is would hundreds of follow was to a tropical. One when a student mr gates the secretive sick accused of abuse violence in fiji. On aljazeera. Hi im Steve Clemons and i have a question whats brewing in heartland america are classic republican strongholds going wobbly and are democrats poised to turn a lot of red states blue lets get to the bottom line. Many local elections were held across the United States last week and both parties found reason to celebrate virginia turned from red to blue and as a sign that times are changing to muslim women were elected to Public Office in that state elsewhere republicans held their ground and even made some gains so is there a National Trend here or there are just too many unknowns like impeachment which is going to get really big this week and the lack of a democratic challenger to face donald trump but were fortunate today because we have 3 people in this room who just have all the answers abrar im a shoe want to seat on the school board of Fairfax County virginia just became the youngest fellow