Defending his boss, saying the Impeachment Vote is a disgrace. We go to washington for the latest. Also coming up, australia is roasting its hard to stay on record. The country battling a bushfire crisis and severe drought, but even that does not stop the Prime Minister from going on holiday. And germany moves so closer to banning what is called gay conversion therapy. You will meet one man who even underwent an exorcism in an attempt to become ststraight, bt it didid notot stop his susuicil thoughts. Its time to say goodbye to the latest Star Wars Trilogy as the final movie in the series has its world premier. Im brent goff. To our viewers on pbs in the United States and all around the world, welcome. We start with the historic debate in the house of representatives to decide on approving articles of impeachment against President Trump. The voters is expected to take place after several hours of debate. If successful, President Trump will then go on trial in the u. S. Senate. Speaker of the house nancy pelosi opened the impeachment debate by saying this if we do not act now, we would be derelict in our duty as custodians of the constitution or, constitution. Heres more. It is tragic the president s actions made this necessary. What we are discussing today is the established fact that the president violated the constitution. It is a matter of fact that the president is an ongoing threat to our National Security and the integrity of our elections, the basis of our democracy. Brent my colleague joins us from capitol hill in washington. Good evening to you. It is certainly a day where history is being made in the United States, but a solemn day. Talk us through what is happening now. Alexandra right now, a debate is taking place on the house floor, and it reflects in a very good way two radically different points of view where democrats say this is their solemn duty to defend the constitution and impeach donald trump because they think that he violated the constitution, that he abused his power, and that he is, as you mentioned, and that is what Speaker Pelosi said, and ongoing threat to the National Security and integrity of thehe u. S. Elecection. Republicans decry the process as rigged and say democrats just want to undo the 2016 president ial elections, but of course, democrats had reasons to launch their impeachment inquiry, so lets have a look at the facts and how it all began. It all started with a phone call, a phone call in which President Trump asked president zielinski of ukraine to investigate his main political rival, democratic president ial hopeful joe biden and his son hunter. I became increasingly aware alexandra what followed was a congressional inquiry with a dozen witnesses testifying in public describing trumps dealings with ukraine as improper. One witness in particular turned out to be the u. S. Ambassador to the European Union and former trump donor. He told investigators there was a deed a quid pro quo. In the works. At the same time, u. S. Military aid for ukraine was put on hold at the president s direction. Everyone was in the loop, so we f followed the president s orders. Alexandra other witnesses added more damming details about Donald Trumps conduct, enough evidence for the democratic majority in the house to move forward with impeachment. Good morning. The facts are uncontested. The president abused his power for his own personal political benefit at the expense of our National Security. Alexandra abuse of power and obstruction of congress two charges the democrats say amountss to high crimes justifying impeachment. However, they have not convinced a single republican get. Trumps party stands by the president , decrying impeachment as a political witch hunt. The majority of lawmakers approved the articles of impeachment, which seems likelel it will trigger a senate trial to determine if the president is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors and should be removed from office. A trial President Trump seems to be gearing up for. He expects to be exonerated by the Republicanled Senate and hopes impeachment will backfire on his rivals. There was nothing done wrong. To use the power of impeachment on this nonsense is an embarrassment to this country. Alexandra whatever the outcome, what is happening in washington right now reflects the hyperpartisan divisions in american politics. Brent that division has led to today. If the president is impeached, which we expect him to be within a couple of hours, then what . Alexandra then we will see phase two of impeachment, a senate trial, and at the moment, its rather unlikely there will be a 2 3 majority in the Republicancontrolled Senate to convict donald trump and remove him from office. Nevertheless, we will be keeping our eyes open for surprises because its not clear if the Senate Majority can dismimiss te casese straighghtaway. There mightt be two or three republican senatorors who might want to listen to more witnesses , to learn more about the accusations. Brent what is this doing to the country . Youre going to have impeachment today. The trial will happen probably next month, and as it looks now, the president will not be convicted, and then hes going to go into a reelection campaign. What is all this doing to the country . Alexandra the president has been talking a lot about that, a lot about impeachment and how bad it is for the country, and he has accused democrats to be focused on impeachment and not paying attention to the issues that are important to the american people, but that is simply not true, as we could see this week. Only yesterday, the house passed two spending bills to avert a government shutdown, and lawmakers are expected to approve a trade deal with canada and mexico, so things are being got done here in the house of representatives, and its not the case the country stands still only because of impeachment. Brent are americans paying attention to these impeachment proceedings . How are they responding to what has happened . Alexandra we can see in the polls the American Public is split for the matter. Its like a 50 50 situation. It is also worth mentioning the support for impeachment and removal from office has been declining in the last weeks. Brent on capitol hill we are expecting a vote to impeach u. S. President donald trump within several hours. Thank you. Here is a look at some of the other stories making headlines around the world. Bolivias attorney general has issued an arrest warrant for president morales, wanted on charges of sedition and terrorism. Morales fled after he claimed victory in a disputed president ial election. Hes currently living in exile in argentina. Germanys chancellor says she opposes u. S. Sanctions against the nord stream 2 gas pipeline. U. S. Congress approved the sanctions on wednesday. Washington says the almost completed pipeline will make the European Union dependent on russia for energy. The german chancellor today entered into the controversy over if the Chinese Telecoms Company huawei should be allowed to participate in germanys 5g rollout. Chinas ambassador has hinted his government might retaliate if huawei is excluded from the process. Merkel says she has not been told of any threats by chinese authorities. She repeated today that she is against banning any company before the 5g rollout. Dw has been to take a look inside huaweis s extravaganant offices anand we have an excluse interview with the companys chairman. It looks lilike a renaissance castle in the m middle of eurur, but its actuallyly onlnly a mon replica, and p part of t research and Development Operations at chinas tech supreme a huawei. The campus outside of shenzhen was open this spring. From the outside, it is nostalgia written large, but inside, futurism pure. Huawei demonstrates the world of wireless communications. The company uses the facility to flex its 5g muscles. Huaweis take on technology is praised by many customers, and its cheaper than 5g systems from europe or the United States, but many are wary with critics saying the threat for huawei to misuse the technology is real. The concern is that it would pass on the user data to the chinese government. The chairman of the company told Deutsche Welle the concerns are unfounded. Brent the chairman of huawei says without a lawful request, the company would not engage in spying. Did he say what would happen if china makes what it deems to be a lawful request to the company . This gets to the gray area of what he deems to be a lawful request. Weve had the case of the two canadians who were detained a year ago after huaweis chief Financial Officer was detained in canada. She is under house arrest there. Theyve been under arrest in china for a year. They have not seen a lawyer. If that kind of thing can happen, basically, the law is whatever the communist party says it is. Brent they have not seen a lawyer, but the cfo in canada has had access to her lawyers. What should we make of the german chancellors Statement Today who said shes not aware of any threats being made . The ambassador did hint strongly there would be retaliation against the automobile sector. We also had the ambassador in estonia who was threatening the danish ambassador, so youve got a building picture there, and ultimately what this comes down to is it is about volkswagen and siemens as much as it is about huawei. She has got to play the political game. China is a big market for germany, and she cannot exclude german firms. Brent i think people forget, too, in 20, china surpassed the United States as germanys biggest trading partner in 2016. We are seeing them playing a big role in serbia, for example. They just installed surveillance equipment in the capital there. It is sending 5g e equipmentnt o various other european powers. It is cheaper. They can deliver the goods, so it is playing an important role. I think the question still is where are the european firms in this . You have ericsson and nokia who can also do this. I think that is missing from the debate. Where is europe in all of this and why art european firms stepping up and why art european governments doing things to promote european firms why arent european governments doing things to promote european firms . Brent thank you. Australia is suffering its hottest day on record. Today, the National Average temperature reached 40. 9 degrees celsius, beating the record that was set in 2013. The recordbreaking heat comes as the country battles a severe drought and bushfire crisis. Harder than ever. Australia is going through record high temperatures, and for a few here, thats just another reason to make a splash, thouough no man ocreaeature iss spared the h hlth risks. S. Dehydration can be deadly. For the phone a team, the threat to wildlife is foremost for the fauna rescue team. Theres probably not much food out there because of the drought. Theres not a lot of water out there. Its just dreadful, and its going to get worse and worse. There are already some d dead os apparently hanging in n trees. The extreme heat is compounding this problem. Since august, millions of hectares of australian bush have burned. The weather has rendered firefighters helpless. Scientists say it is a result of mankinds failure to address climate change. They say words could be to come. We are going to see firefighters, emergency services, and all those communities close to fires and indeed those some distance from fires challenged with a new threat and a a n new challenge e head into this heat wave. Anger is growing at Prime Minister morrisoson. After failing to conced for weeks that the fires were linked to climate change, he has gone on holiday. For shoppers in central city, however, there is no escape. A festive themed monument crafted from chard branches stands as a bleak reminder of this national crisis. Brent in india, authorities have banned large gatherings in several states after thousands of people took to the streets to protest the new citizenship law. A week after the controversial legislation was passed by parliament, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi remains unmoved. Six people have lost their lives and protests across the country, but demonstrations show no signs of abating. It is a show of solidarity and passions have been running high. Nobody has the right to take our rights. Nobody. Not any religion, not any government. They say the new law is discriminating against bill muslims against muslims. The government says the new citizenship Amendment Act provides a path to citizenship for hindus, buddhists, christians, and other minorities in three neighboring countries, but it does not apply to muslims, and for the protesters, that is a violation of the constitution. First of all, we the people of india, so the current regime of a government wants to remind us on the basis of religion. Police have banded demonstrations in cities across the country. Brent the European Parliaments top accolade has been awarded to the uighur human rights activist you see right here. It was presented to his daughter at the European Parliament in strassburg because he is serving a life sentence in prison in china, charged with separatism, but before being jailed in 2014, he worked for more than two decades to improve the rights of chinas persecuted uighur minority. More than one million uighurs are currently being heard held in internmentamps. Whehen was the last time you heard from your father . Do you know how he iss doing no . The last time i saw my father was 2013. The last time i talk to my father was 2014. The last time i heard from my father was 2017, which was also the last time mymy family wawase to visit h him. Ththat was also when the camp exploded. Unfortunately, i do not know how my father is doing. I dont know if he is still being locked up in thee samee prison. I dodont know if he is doing ok physically, mentally. I dont even know if he is still alive. Your r father was awarded the sakharov prize by the European Parliament. Ththis sends a strong message of solidadarity, but will this s be enough . What does it mean for International Pressure to o maka change . Letting the youounger generations beining educated of what is going on, helping those Chinese International students to be aware of what is going on inside their own country because many Chinese Students have no idea this is happening to the Uighur Community and w with chchinese propaganda news and chinese propaganda videos, a lot of them wouldd blame uighurs for overreacting, which is pathetet. Also putting sanctions on those companies who support the concentration camp, who are importing expororting from m the concentration camps. Thank you very much for talking to us. Brent here are some of todays top stories. French trade Union Leaders have met with the countrys Prime Minister in a big to end the deepening crisis over proposed pension reforms. The talks came on the 14th day of strikes that have paralyzed transport and other services. President president macron has offered to make changes, but his office insists the reforms must go ahead. Fiat chrysler and rival psa group have announced that their boards have agreed to merge the two carmakers, creating the worlds fourth biggest auto company, which will be led by psas ceo, carlo tavares. In germany, chancellor Angela Merkels government is aiming to ban what is known as gay conversion therapy for minors. The government says the practice, which claims to make gay people heterosexual, has no scientific basis and often causes psychological harm. The law has to be passed by parliament before it takes effect. By banning conversion therapy, Germanys Health minister says he wants to protect young people. The law says that socalled cures for homosexuality that try to change peoples sexual preferences lead to considerable emotional and physical damage. This is about addressing individual suffering and the suffering of those who have received the therapy, but it also signals to society that homosexuality, being gay or lesbian, is totally ok. He has experienced socalled gay conversion therapy. Today he is openly gay, living without the guilt his strict Pentecostal Community pressured him to feel. He had been plagued by thoughts of suicide. Finally, he sought the help of a doctor whoho performed an exorcism. He then said that a big lack hole was coming out of my back, and it was an evil demon that was responsible for my homosexuality. Doctors have long read that homosexuality is not a disease, but its estimated 2000 people undergo pseudotherapy to treat their sexuality each year in germany alone. The World Health Organization says this is a violation of human rights. Brent as we say goodbye to a decade, we also bid farewell to a saga from a galaxy far, far away. Were talking about star wars. The ninth and final dome in the Skywalker Saga has its world premier. The rise of skywalker crowns 42 years of ox office gold. We have this sneak peek k withou any spoilers. Take a look. What t are you doing there . Taking one lasast look at friends. The final Star Wars Trilogy is coming to an end, but the galactic battle between good and evil is not over yeyet. Chat in trainingey jedi in training rey is back to face kylo ren. Confronting fear is the destiny of the jedi, your destiny. If this mission fails, it was all for nothing. The pressure is on, not least for disney and director jj abrams, who has been brought back to the Star Wars Franchise after the last episode by a different director left a lot of fans disasappointeded. Episode nine focuses primarily on the chemistry between its central characters. For cast anand fans, its about more than just one movie. Its about the end of the saga. This is the last one. Like, its crazy. 42 years and eight episodes later, can the rise of skywalker live up to fans expectations . Brent may the force be with you. Im brent goff. You are watching dw news. May the day be with you. After a short break, i will be back to take you through the day. Stick around. Youre watching friends twenty four and this is live from paris with me Charlie James these aree heheadlines. Us house of representatives hearing to historic lows. Heat President Trump democrats have the votes needed to making just the third president ever to be. French government says it is ready to compromise on inches engine reforms but it is refusing to give in to Union Demands that they dropped the plan completely