A watch for one minute thats donald trump dismissing the impeachment hearings as he meets his turkish counterpart for the 1st time since turkeys military operation in syria also in the news the Palestinian GroupIslamic Jihad off its terms of a cease fire has as ready as strikes killed dozens in gaza and a new ball of vaccine is all set to roll out but some congolese are worried if it will actually work. Hello everyone a top diplomats given evidence of how the u. S. President put pressure on ukraine to investigate his political rival Joe Biden William Taylor was one of 2 foreign offices to appear for hours at the 1st televised hearing at the heart of the impeachment inquiry into donald trump we saw our coverage with this report from hydro castro in washington the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god William Taylor and george kent took the stand. Gather 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 found 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. 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 potential opponent in the upcoming president ial election taylor says career diplomats were sidelined as trumps chosen 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 are now infecting u. S. Engagement with ukraine leveraging president selenski 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 stanch lee 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. Will President Trump is once again claimed the impeachment inquiry against him is a witch hunt he made those comments during a meeting with turkeys president of the what else can we count that as this report it will 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 alecky and youll make a determination as to what you think there 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 where they 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. So maybe donald trump isnt taking much notice but certainly a lot of america in the rest of the world is weve got victoria days and b. To have a look now at how this whole impeachment process actually works democrats alleged abused his president ial power when he spoke in july with ukraines lead to me is a lenski the call prompted a whistleblower complaint the foundation of the democrats impeachment inquiry so how does the impeachment process work well it begins in the house of representatives which has evidence from witnesses and then debates and votes on whether to bring charges against the president if that vote is successful a trial presided over by the chief justice of the u. S. Supreme Court John Roberts takes place in the senate a 2 thirds majority vote is needed in the 100 member upper house to convict and remove a president historically impeachments are rare out of 35 attempts only 2 president s have been impeached bill clinton in 1998 and Andrew Johnson in 868 neither were removed from office a 3rd president Richard Nixon resigned while proceedings were under way trump has described the impeachment inquiry as a scam hes released a transcript of his corps with the selenski which he says shows no wrongdoing now for the 1st time the world will hear publicly from some of the key witnesses in this investigation and American Voters will judge for themselves whos telling the truth. Victoria day should be there explaining the whole process of impeachment always important remember to remember that impeachment does not actually in the United States mean removal from office that is a whole other process so lets bring in im very pleased to introduce ambassador Nancy Soderberg now former Deputy National security adviser under president clinton of course the last president to be impeached shes with us from Jacksonville Florida thank you for your time ambassador what did you get out of today out of the fight pledge and sit and actually watch the process and see the partisan nature of this interaction well it was like going from black and white to a full living color on a big screen it brought to life the career Public Servants who are having their courage to stand up to what they believed was wrong to come forward against instructions from the president not to testify and to lay out the facts which are very clear that the president held up military aid to ukraine in exchange for an investigation of the bidens. But of the fact that present the United States would use our Foreign Policy tools particularly one to a a at risk from russia for his own personal gain and thats the question thats going to be before the house and then eventually the senate in the trial the real piece of i think new news was more meat on the bones there was a little bit of news that ambassador bill taylor said when one of his staffers he had learned since his previous testimony had overheard trump and son when the ambassador to the e. U. Whos in the middle of all this talking to the president and its very clear that it was about the by and the investigation and they summed up the call saying that the president cared more about the investigation of the bidens than it did about ukraine that made headlines kind of a bombshell revelation today but it is very clear that the democrats are building a very methodical case and that the republicans will do anything to blow it up in mere the president s witchhunt phrases and is this not actually the whole i guess problem with the process you made the point that this is about laying out the facts and that is very much what bill tyler and george kent tried to do that you heard them saying it im just here to tell you what i know and to answer your questions but everything then actually gets skewed by both sides and its almost you can tell the story better or who can who can work the story better. Well i think the story tells itself the facts are very clear what happened i think whats not clear is whether or not the republicans will consider that an Impeachable Offense former u. N. Ambassador nikki haley has a new book out and shes on the talk circuit saying in the end nothing really happened the aid did go through and there was no investigation so thats not impeachable i think that will emerge as their line and then its going to be a very partisan vote i think i predict he will get impeached in the senate along partisan lines and then the case will go get impeached in the house and then the senate will take up the actual trial and he probably will get exonerated by this Republican Controlled Senate and this is always been the case as i pointed out removal from office only comes down to the senate and as you pointed out it likely wouldnt happen in this case does that mean its all potentially a wasted exercise for the democrats will do they still get something one year out from the election of the hits on donald trump by saying well he was impeached. I think what the democrats are trying to do is defend the constitution and they believe that having a president misuses power in Office Mandates that they hold him to task so it will call to the carpet the president for this type of behavior and i think theyre honest in trying to say this is not something we want to have as a norm for future president s i think it will be hard for the republicans to say actually yes its established that he did it but thats ok so theyre going to have to have some internal politics their own districts the very hardcore trump districts are going to vote to. Say well theres extenuating circumstances it was serious but not of the impeachable level and i think it probably pull off a couple of republicans who certainly those who are not running for reelection and mitt romney and others but i think its unlikely well get to the 20 needed the best and then see sort of book its been a pleasure talking to you thank you for joining us any time my pleasure. Well Donald Trumps threats to withhold military aid to ukraine is obviously a key part of the whole inquiry care of the actually received an estimated 1500000000. 00 from the United States in the past 5 years so fast with this report now from a Training Center in western ukraine where troops are getting specialist help from american soldiers. But it is. Laying low seems to be the message in ukraine after u. S. Military aid was temporarily suspended in july the country was suddenly at the center of an american political storm involving a phone call between the u. S. President and the newly elected ukrainian leader. Undeterred by whats going on in washington ukrainian soldiers are preparing boardgames with the u. S. Colleagues at the joint multinational Training Center in the west of the country tactics they can use in the ongoing war against russian backed separatists in the east where we Pay Attention to politics that doesnt affect our process will be heard tomorrow or as long as both governments agree that were needed here. Besides having ukraines back against russia the americans are getting ukraines troops ready to become part of nato. This is how u. S. Military aid to ukraine looks like an army which was said to be suffering from corruption and the lack of funds now weve got to face russia in the east but one threat to withhold this aid even though it was only temporarily has caused doubts about how much ukraine can rely on its most important ally. After the much debated phone call with trump ukraines president followed a mere zelinsky said he did not feel pressured by trumps threat to withhold military aid but analysts say it has affected the image of the United States and ukraine and could even push some towards moscow what were seeing in washington now that is under threat of unraveling completely as. Well i didnt put in the seas that for trump is not interested in any larger issues of democracy promotion state building and human rights in ukraine rather hes interested in using ukraine for his own political needs. But the us president still has some fans in this coffee shop only opened a few months ago i would say it would make ukraine more famous and more people aware of ukraine and its happening in ukraine about war in the middle of europe ok but it would be very ukraine for many Many Americans dont even know that ukraine is this juncture bios going to do that i dont feel any particular help from america so i think we have to rely on ourselves. Not the sort of message ukrainian soldiers fighting what is known as the forgotten war against russian backed separatists want to hear they hope the u. S. Will continue to support them step fasten aljazeera livy ukraine. Here here is what weve got coming up here on this news hour protests greeting bolivias interim leader on just her 1st day in office. Im alan fischer in linton north dakota remember the people who protested at Standing Rock in north dakota over plans to build an oil pipeline unitive American Land well theyre back this type protesting plans to expand that pipeline. And sport some last minute changes for footballs arab gulf cup as the 3 blockading nations say they will now compete in qatar. Palestinian armed Group Islamic jihad has now offered israel terms for a ceasefire after 2 days of cross border fighting egypts been helping broker a truce between the sides israel continued however to bomb gaza or in the early hours of thursday something she had fighters have also fired over 200 rock. Its in response 32. 00 palestinians have been killed in the past 2 days an escalation which 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. More now from our correspondent rob matheson reporting from western resulin. 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 guys or hires israel blames. For dozens of attacks the 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 in the side 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. We are responding to every attack against us with a very sharp attack and response i think there is law makes you had best understand that now rather than when its t