I would. Like to put on this is whats happening in the middle of that where people have been protesting peacefully. Caught up in the unrest there thats to rise above aljazeera journalist sprayed with tear gas on camera. My mind. When you hope of course in the u. S. Soldiers a retrial for a black man on death row for killing a white woman 20 years ago. Well the u. S. President on trump is facing accusations of intimidation after attacking the latest impeachment witness on twitter while she was testifying before congress meri jaan of it was the u. S. Ambassador to ukraine until she was recalled early this year of course the whole inquiry looking into whether trump withheld military aid to ukraine. In exchange for a promise of an inquiry against his political rivals. Has a report from capitol hill. President trump has said he too busy to watch the impeachment inquiry hearings threatening to end his presidency but he found time friday to catch some of the hearing unfolding on live t. V. And he tweeted about the witness on the stand his former ambassador to ukraine a woman he ousted from the post as we sit here testifying the president is attacking you or twitter. And id like to give you a chance to respond read part of one of his tweets everywhere maria on a beach when turned bad but would you like to respond to the president s attack that everywhere you went turned bad i mean i cant speak to what the president is trying to do but i think the effect is to be intimidating you vonnegut is a career diplomat who served more than 30 years under president s of both parties in a july phone call the basis for the current impeachment inquiry trump told the president of ukraine she was quote bad news and would go through some things it was it was a terrible moment a person who saw me actually reading the transcript said that the color drained from my face i think i even had a physical reaction it didnt sound good sounded like. A threat democrats say trumps attacks on you vonna vege amounts to witness intimidation and possibly an additional impeachment charge against the President Trump defended his mid hearing tweet saying he had no intention to intimidate i have the right to speak i have freedom of speech just as other people do but theyve taken away the republicans rights testified she was recalled from ukraine without cause in may shed been drunk fully accused of undermining trump she said and was the target of a Smear Campaign conspired between trumps private attorney Rudy Giuliani and corrupt ukrainian officials or continues to amaze me is that they found americans willing to partner with them and working together they apparently succeeded in orchestrating the removal of a Us Ambassador you gonna bitch says she still doesnt know why she was ordered home on the next plane she was gone by the time the white house grows security aid to ukraine and trying to press the ukrainian president to announce investigations into his political rivals republicans say democrats have been unable to directly tie trub to an Impeachable Offense the problem of trying to overthrow a president based on this type of evidence is obvious but thats what their whole case relies on. Beginning with 2nd and 3rd hand information but now complicating the president s defense is this new evidence of possible witness intimidation in the form of trumps tweet that materialize before the publics very eyes democrats have tried to build up a radio bonaventure as a sympathetic witness and now trump himself may have helped them make that case while putting his own presidency in greater jeopardy heidi joe castro aljazeera washington. Meanwhile more closed door testimony from the inquiry is emerging a u. S. Embassy official says he overheard a phone call between donald trump and the u. S. Ambassador to the e. U. Trump was said to be strongly pushing for an investigation into the business interests of his potential rival joe biden lets talk to Shepard Tansey in washington about the she had just been reading about it as well david holmes is his name take us through what more detail there is. Right this is a story that we 1st heard earlier this week in the public testimony of the acting ambassador to ukraine William Taylor and he said that david holmes a told him this story now hes actually given this private deposition but his statement leaked out pretty quickly and both american cable channels and the New York Times have information about what is in his Opening Statement and it does center around this rather bizarre meal that he was invited to with gordon song the u. S. Ambassador to the u. S. In the middle of this long trial of terrorists over one. Decides to call donald trump on his cell phone to give an update on talks that theyd all been having with president s and once give ukraine and other officials in the Ukrainian Government and probably dont trouble speaking so loudly on the phone then that her brother could actually overhear what was being said and he says that he recalls hearing donald trump ask about the investigations are they going to do the investigations hes going to do the investigation and sudden said he will do in fact zelinsky will do anything you are asked. And so then off of the phone call. Homes are asks on them and so is it true that dont talk doesnt really care i mean in so many words doesnt really care about ukraine and so on and said he doesnt really care about ukraine he cares about one thing the big stuff and. Said well the big stuff like what the war russia and so on and said no the investigation to the bidens and to bring into home to bidens role in the response so on so the significance of this is quite interesting to as people try and connect donald trump to some kind of quid pro quo and in fact holmes says later on in his testimony that that he came to the conclusion as others apparently have in that testimony that the military aid was being held up as a some sort of condition to show dissatisfaction with ukraine because they havent announced an investigation into the bidens. And all of this happening goes in a restaurant on the phone its quite extraordinary it all starts to add up doesnt she have the republicans in the. Hearing today was sort of saying oh its all say can and its all 3rd hand but when you start hearing things like this well i mean that they they they will have a point there where they said this is some listening to someone elses phone call it a noisy restaurant what credence can you give to that now the interesting thing is holmes says there was someone at least 2 other people who were at that table who heard this conversation as well and can corroborate the information so thats one part of the significance if you have more corroborating witnesses to this and thats something that we also have another republican defense at the at the hearing today which is also what i mean if isnt it worthwhile to have an investigation into what joe biden and his son were up to in ukraine in fact even the former ambassador who was testifying today said even the Obama Administration was worried about why under biden had this problem with the Energy Company even though he had no Energy Experience was being offered you know given tens of thousands of dollars so we can expect those sorts of those sorts of arguments being thrown back at this however it is yet another bit of circumstantial evidence at the very least but donald trump as far as there is certainly in the government were concerned and in the administrative staff and in the Embassy Staff were concerned was up to something with Rudy Giuliani in order to try and pressure the Ukrainian Government in order to investigate investigate the bidens whether thats perfectly in the National Security interest or of america or purely in Donald Trumps own personal political interest well that will be debated winter so he will she ever tansey in washington thank you. Now a former advisor to the us president has also been found guilty of 7 offenses including lying to congress and witness tampering this is roger stone he was charged this year during the investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election hes now been found guilty of lying to congress about his contacts with wiki leaks during the election and his efforts to push one of his associates to back up his lies stone will be sentenced in february has more from washington it didnt take the jury long just about 7 hours to find roger stone guilty of all 7 counts obstructing official investigation lying to congress intimidating a witness basically this goes back to the election during the election dont put out messages on social media that something was going to come with what cubans well then wiki leaks started releasing emails that were half from the Democratic Party the Intelligence Community now believes that that was done by Russian Hackers so congress as part of their investigation into potential election interference called stone and he said it wasnt me it was this other guy theres no evidence that i was coordinating between wiki leaks and the Trump Campaign for the prosecution brought out texts and emails of witnesses they said in fact he was trying to get information from wiki leaks and he was conveying that to the Campaign Including up to then candidate donald trump the most serious charge here is the potential of intimidating a witness there this witness had messages from stone where he quoted the godfather movie about the mafia and threatened to get rid of the mans dog so now what happens well in february stone will be sentenced he faces up to 50 years in prison but the way federal guidelines work it likely face much less time than that of course no stones going to be looking for his longtime friend and associate donald trump to give him a pardon right now hes probably his best bet to stay out of prison. Now protests in south america now were starting with chile where politicians have agreed on a plan to pave the way for a referendum on a new constitution that was announced earlier on friday its aimed at pacifying the antigovernment protesters whove been out on the streets for weeks but at least for now doesnt look like its working the demonstrators have been back on the streets and of once again been tear gassed by the police a latin america editor of the c newman is there in santiago. And youre upset in agreement for a referendum to draft a new constitution in chile what sort of the ease the tensions on the streets and the protests were premature there are still thousands of people again out on the streets some of them Holding Signs asking for the resignation of president zuma. Others ridiculing the media like us with these little dances but basically whats happening is that people are not satisfied they dont trust their politicians they say they want to see the small print on that agreement that they also want to make sure that while they wait for a new constitution that deep deep Structural Reforms that theyre asking for in helping education pensions salaries take place now and not 2 years from now when presumably they will have a new constitution look at of the replacing the one that was written under the pinochet dictatorship. And now bolivia which is expelling old venezuelan diplomats accusing them of meddling in the countrys internal affairs and as well as a key ally of the former president evo morales who resigned this week and then sort of sodom and mexico following weeks of protests the demonstrators there are back on the streets too demanding a democratic handover of power the interim president. Has come under fire for her previous statements on Indigenous People well as the demonstrations got underway in the pas on friday i was there a correspondent to raise a boat got caught up herself in the unrest. As i would. Never leave fia i was just thrown tear gas by the police on purpose this is whats happening in the middle of a plateau where people have been protesting peacefully a Police Officer just threw tear gas on my eyes says extremely difficult to speaks very very sorry theres been protesters. Those dozens of Police Officers here they just threw tear gas at it right in my ass through and through tear gas in my eyes theres been people protesting here trying to make it to the president ial palace and theres been ongoing clashes with those who are defending. The people are very very angry told the police they see him supporting what they say is a coup against the government of the morales many of them have even told us that theyd rather have a military government than have whats happening in libya right now with the police on the streets and the military on the streets but a woman that they believe is a racist this week coming out some tweets that news published in the past where she talks about indians about what many of the people weve been seeing here protesting and talking about such as mama which the earth goddess and people here respect very much but we paleface live which is also the indigenous plug while people here are very very angry with whats happening in this country they say that this is a coup and theyre demanding democracy they want elections right now on the big question is and this is something that the government has not been able to happen is when are election going to take place in this country. In the news ahead fears of an escalation in iraq after a bomb targets a protest term political from baghdad and sri lankas former defense chiefs come back stir some ethnic tensions ahead of saturdays national election. Head oh thats a nice amount of sunshine 3 more eastern and southern sections of china the cloud with any rain is coming off the plateau as you can see his streaming east was but not really make it to shanghai say for saturday 22 celsius a nice sunshine 26 in hong kong its generally draw and levels are a lot lower however you will see the rain approaching in the philippines to the north across into news on this is the latest Tropical Storm it will be steadily strengthening but neither a very slowly or the next couple of days the main concern will be the accumulation of rain we could see some localized flooding warming up on sunday in shanghai 26 and remaining at about 27 in hong kong so to the south this Tropical Storm has a say will impact than all the philippines but moving very very slowly the rain meanwhile farther to the south across into these northern sections of borneo all over across into much of sumatra again the may and insula and on sunday as you can see a similar sort of pattern there mostly dry to south and it should be a dry day in jakarta no chance of any showers there few meanwhile the rains continuing to come down to lose all we could see about 300 millimeters just in the next 3 days and then to india that all want to showers further to the south conditions carrying quite well across from northern india still warm in new delhi at 27 on saturday on them by sunday no change under those sunny skies. The weather sponsored by catalona is. A story 1400 years in the making. A story of succession. Tells the story line of dentistry. And. The kind of results 3. Top stories for you this hour on aljazeera u. S. President obama trump is facing accusations of intimidation after attacking the latest impeachment witness on twitter while she was testifying before congress. Was the u. S. Ambassador to ukraine trump is of course accused of pressuring ukraine to investigate his political rivals. A former Senior Adviser to the u. S. President has been found guilty of 7 offenses including lying to congress and witness tampering of stone was charged during the investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election and politicians in chile have agreed on a plan to pave the way for a referendum on a new constitution its aimed at pacifying the antigovernment protesters have been on the streets for weeks but rights have continued in santiago on friday. One persons been killed more than a dozens were wounded in a bomb blast in baghdad an explosive placed underneath a car detonated on friday evening Security Forces say the blast happened well which is a focal point for the protests that have gripped the iraqi capital for over a month. Earlier at least 2 people were killed and Dozens Injured as Security Forces fired tear gas and live rounds during antigovernment demonstrations iraqs top shia leader of the grand ayatollah Ali Al Sistani has called for calm in his weekly sermon but theres 320 demonstrators have been killed all up and thousands wounded since the demonstrations began on october 1st protesters angry about widespread corruption unemployment and poor basic services heres more from jim in baghdad. So the smoke that youre seeing there thats coming from the square that the square is just about 300 meters to the north of where we are we are into your square which is the epicenter of antigovernment demonstrations here in baghdad and then you square that is the square in which there have been repeated clashes this cycle of violence that keeps happening the last several days when antigovernment demonstrators that are there trying to get around these concrete barriers that the Security Forces have set up so that people in that square cannot then approach the bridges that lead to parts of the city where there are Government Installations as i said to heres where this is the epicenter this is really the only place where its lawful for our people to protest in baghdad and theres a lot of contradiction here because what you have the violence going on in places like Atlanta Square here you have a times almost a festive atmosphere but you also have ambulances and medics bringing the injured from those other clashes here for treatment if you look around me here are several ambulances there are volunteer medics there are tents full of medics and these took drivers that act as as ambulance drivers as adhoc ambulance drivers bringing the injured here for treatment so while you also certainly since all the all the tension because of the violence that goes on in other parts of the dead here you also have a mass about his fear at times and if you look just around me there are families here this is a friday its a weekend there are families here and there are mothers and fathers bringing their children to see this restored. Moment you have here a stretch of the wall where there are many murals protest art thats been painted repainted almost every day for the last several weeks so theres a lot of Different Things going on here in Tahrir Square now everybody ive spoken with here today theyve told me that they do not believe that the government is actually listening to this actually taking their demands into account they say theyre going to continue to come out here telling people the government actually try to really try to make reforms and listening to their demands. The u. S. Is reportedly threatening to hit egypt with sanctions over its plan to buy russian warplanes cairo has a 2000000000. 00 agreement with moscow to buy more than 25. 00 digits in the last seen by the wall street journal the u. S. Secretary of state and defense of warned egypt is risking sanctions and urged it to cancel the deal twitter is planning to ban political ads from next week as campaigns for the u. S. 2020 president ial election heat up the social media giant announced the ban last month saying a political message reach should be earned and not bought twitter will still allow companies and advocacy groups to run ads that promote awareness about social causes prodemocracy protesters in hong kong to fight a warning from chinas president xi jinping and took to the streets again holding up their hands they call for their 5 demands to be met by the Hong Kong Government antigovernment protests started 5 months ago there have led to violent clashes and an economic recession. Sri lankans are off to the polls on saturday months after the deadly bombings president ial candidate up by a rajapakse there is in the fray but his political comeback has divided the nation religious minorities look at him with suspicion for his links to radical Buddhist Monks and smith reports from. Seeing sebastians in the gamboa has been restored as a place of worship after last aprils suicide bomb attack. 114 people were murdered here on Easter Sunday the bomber was one of 8 who targeted churches and Hotels Across the country killing 263 people. Shell put a silver one of st sebastians caretakers sort all. That. Our i think a righteous government will be good for the chat we can resolve issues of the charge and well be able to find out who committed this offense a damning parliamentary report says intelligence agencies and senior politicians were briefed that attacks were coming but failed to act. After the bombing got a buyer rajapaksa backed by his brother mahinda announced his candidacy for the presidency promising to restore security. But that makes muslims like ryan dean nervous one of his textile shops once stood here it was one of hundreds set on fire by british nationalists days after the easter attacks broke and a bit if the way some politicians have been campaigning is anything to go by we think muslims will have to be cautious right wing british nationalist groups openly support the Rajapaksa Campaign but got a buyer has said he will create a secure environment in which all sri lankans irrespective of their race or religion will be able to live in peace. Because Jaffna Peninsula another minority worries about the return of the rajapaksa tamils 15000. 00 people are officially missing after Mahinda Rajapaksa oversaw a ruthless crushing of tamil tiger fighters to end a 26 year long civil conflict. Behi believes her daughter is still alive. The color would be 28. 00 today. There is no place i have not gone in search of her she is nowhere to be found no matter who is in power our player has been the same she fears that what little progress has been made to account for the missing might be reversed by a government that may not want to look too closely into the past. Its only 7 months since the used to sunday suicide bombings and security here remains tight and its not fair over safety and stability the rajapaksa is hoping will convert into votes for him but its made aljazeera in a gumbo sri lanka a u. S. Courthouse blocks the execution of a black man just days before it was to be carried out 51 year old rodney rita been convicted of the 996. 00 murder of a white woman but the Texas Appeals Court says new evidence of his instance must now be considered as his john hendren in austin texas with no quite the turn around it john. Thats right come on when rodney reed woke up this morning his days were literally numbered to 5 he was sentenced to die by lethal injection at the hand of the state of texas on wednesday november 20th but now we have a reprieve that happened just within the last couple of hours the Appeals Court here in the state of texas has said that new evidence must be considered that could exonerate rodney read that new evidence suggest among other things that a friend of the victim in this case stacy stites says that she knew that stacy stites was having a relationship with rodney reed that would explain why his d. N. A. His semen was found on the victim when she was killed and there is another explosive piece of evidence and that is that there was apparently a gel yard confession a man in prison says that he spoke to the fiance of the victim in this case and that the fiance confessed that he had committed the murder now his lawyers have since denied that but that has led to a rush of new information there was also a deputy who said at the funeral of stacy site that the fiance said over her body you got what you deserve so theres a lot of new evidence in this case and the court now wants to consider that. Its a story john thats 20 years in the making im sure it hasnt been that high profile all the time but how big is it now that we have you know down to the 11th hour well 3 years nobody really paid attention to this case it was another death row case in texas and there are many here this is a state that believes in Capital Punishment but this is how big its gotten kim carr dash in the reality t. V. Show visited rodney reed in his cell today she apparently had to get special permission for that but shes one of a number of stars Oprah Winfrey of the singer iana the texas senator ted cruz all of these people now having heard some of the evidence that has come out recently have been calling for the state of texas just slow down and thats a really rare thing just hours ago the texas parole board recommended that there be a stay of 120. 00 days while the state considers this new evidence to give you an idea of how rare that is thats only happened 5 times since the state of texas reinstituted at the Death Penalty in 1982 and its only been granted 3 of those times and thats a very small percentage there been 566 people executed here in the state of texas since 1982 and now rodney group reid is hoping to beat the odds thank you for all that information john hendren in austin the u. K. s Prince Andrew says he let the royal family down by staying at the house of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein at the scene had been awaiting trial for sex trafficking charges when he took his own life in august but you can view it has made his 1st Public Comments about his ties to epstein after footage emerged of the finance his manhattan home about 10 years ago. Was the fact that once he had. Convicted eastern with my state and thats thats thats the bit that. I kick myself for on a daily basis is because it was not something that was becoming a member off only a neutral and polled the highest standards and practices and i let the side to some present the flood hit italian city of venice is facing another exceptionally high tide more than 85 percent of the citys Historic Sites are already under water the iconic st marks square has been closed and the governments declared a state of emergency and is promising compensation the Venice Lagoon thai peaked on tuesday at the highest recorded level in 53 years. Remember plenty more for you online it sounds 0 dot com and if you want it not just the top stories but plenty of video on demand all our programs as well and Opinion Pieces aljazeera dot com. Were going to take you through the headlines now on aljazeera 1st of all u. S. President donald trump facing accusations of intimidation after attacking the latest impeachment witness on twitter while she was testifying before congress this is marie she was the u. S. Ambassador to ukraine trump is accused of pressuring ukraine to investigate his political rivals as we sit here testifying the president is attacking you or twitter. And id like to give you a chance to respond read part of one of his tweets everywhere marie of on a beach when turned bad. But would you like to respond to the president s attack that everywhere you went turned bad i mean i cant speak to what the president is trying to do but i think the effect is to be intimidating. The headlines bolivias new interim government is expelling venezuelan diplomats accusing them of meddling in internal affairs this is the latest policy change after former president evo morales was forced to resign over disputed Election Results his supporters are back on the streets demanding a democratic handover of power. When the politicians in chile have agreed on a plan to pave the way for a referendum on a new constitution as was announced earlier on friday its aimed at pacifying antigovernment protesters have been out on the streets for weeks now but at least for now it doesnt seem to be working these are the demonstrators back on the streets once again tear gassed by police. One person has been killed and more than a dozen wounded in a bomb blast in baghdad an explosive placed underneath the car detonated on friday evening Security Forces say the blast happened near Tahrir Square a focal point for the protests that have gripped the iraqi capital for over a month and earlier at least 2 people were killed and Dozens Injured as Security Forces fired tear gas and even live rounds during antigovernment demonstrations iraqs top shia leader the grand ayatollah Ali Al Sistani called for calm in his weekly cernan but these 320. 00 demonstrators have been killed since the demonstrations began on october 1st the protesters are angry about widespread corruption unemployment and poor basic services and the flood hit italian city of venice is facing another exceptionally high tide more than 85 percent of the citys Historic Sites are already under water the governments declared a state of emergency and it is promising compensation the Venice Lagoon tide peaked on tuesday at the highest recorded level in 53 he is. And the u. S. Court has blocks the execution of a black man just days before it was to be carried out 51 year old rodney reed had been convicted of the 1996 murder of a white woman but the Texas Appeals Court says new evidence of his innocence must now be conceited youre up to date with the headlines here on aljazeera inside story is next. Levanon could soon have a new Prime Minister and box office are the main political players reportedly reached an agreement but on the streets people are still angry so is a new government the answer and what about the calls to overhaul the entire political system this is inside story. Hello and welcome to inside story im dead you know its almost a month since protests erupted right across lebanon yet a solution to the political crisis hasnt been reached there is some hope for a new government after 4 part