Agreed to a referendum for a new constitution. Sri lankans voting to elect a new leader with ethnic divisions on the rise after the deadly bombing its. Like im. Bringing home as a court in the u. S. Or as a retrial for a black man on death row for killing a white woman 20 years ago. The u. S. President donald trump is facing accusations of intimidation after attacking the latest impeachment witness on twitter while she was testifying before congress Marie Evanovich she was the u. S. Ambassador to ukraine until she was recalled earlier this year with all inquiries looking into whether trump withheld military aid to ukraine in exchange for a promise of an inquiry against his political rival back home as reporters from. On 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 marie of on average 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 trying to 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 of on a bitch 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 bronc 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 u. S. 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 cruised security aid to ukraine and trump pressed 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 they getting 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 and then on top of all that more closed door testimony from the choir 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. She had pretends he has more on. David holmes as you accompanied us as you ambassador good and some of them to a lunch following someones meetings with various ukrainian officials including president selenski and during that love someone decided to phone donald trump on his cell phone to update him on how things were going and dont trouble speaking so loudly holmes says that he could actually hear dog trumps end of the conversation and he heard from immediately are so are they going to do the investigations and someone said yes theyll do anything for you that they love you words to that effect and as far as holmes is concerned what they were talking about was the investigations into joe biden and his son hunter biden and Hunter Bidens business dealings with an allegedly corrupt energy firm after that conversation there holmes took the opportunity to ask someone so just dont really care about ukraine or words to that effect and so on and said well he cares about the big stuff so homes are small big stuff i mean like the war with russia and so on and said were all here is really concerned about is the investigation into the bidens and what can politically benefit him. In some ways this isnt new we already knew that donald trump had asked the lenski to open an investigation in 2 biden from the july transcript a partial transcript of the phone call but it does add then to how involved the trunk was in trying to get zelinsky to open an investigation into the bites in how involved he was into whatever someone and Rudy Giuliani were up to in ukraine despite Donald Trumps constant partner stations that there was no quid pro quo months ago theres no quid pro quo on this on this phone call but it adds to that impression certainly from those around in the Administration Like holmes that that as far as they were concerned they came to the conclusion that there was some sort of quid pro quo so thats one thing that also certainly made gordon sometimes testimony on wednesday the current basta more interesting because he did mention it in his last 2 appearances in congress there is yet another thing he may have to be have to remember and he may be in some some trouble as a result. Christopher hunter with us now senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and a former federal prosecutor at the u. S. Justice department nice to see you christopher weve got all of that closed door testimony now weve got everything that mary evanovich said for 6 or 7 hours today its all starting to mount up but as the republicans say its all still 2nd and 3rd hand is that going to be a problem Going Forward. Well lets step back and look at the big picture here the the big picture is that the president engaged him in pretty much one of the few in numerated Impeachable Offenses in the United States constitution which is bribery this is not even a close call and the testimony that weve heard this week is merely an amplification of evidence thats already been in the Public Record now for quite some time so big picture the president engaged in bribery which is a specifically enumerated Impeachable Offense in the constitution whether or not the senate ultimately convicted him in a trial is a completely different question than whether or not hes committed the conduct thats impeachable he has and whats your thought on that potential senate trial because the the prevailing theory seems to be well its republican controlled go he wont be removed from office but again if we go back to all this evidence piling up do you think is enough to maybe stop turning some republicans. Well you know when congressman Francis Rooney from florida a number of weeks ago had expressed openness to hearing the evidence about President Trumps conduct we saw here in the United States what happens when anybody dares to question this president congressman rooney was quickly attacked and very shortly thereafter chose not to run for reelection and then subsequently fell in line with the republicans in congress who are trying to stop the impeachment proceedings disrupt them in any way that they can so the partisan politics presently prevailing in the United States are such that i dont think its reasonable to expect that there will be a conviction after a trial in the senate instead i think the final judgment will be rendered next november at the ballot box. Lets talk about what we saw today in congress then ambassador you have on of it giving her testimony dont know trump shouting from the sidelines effectively whilst she was giving that testimony and adam schiff relaying it to whats your take on that whole event because the idea of witness intimidation is being thrown around now. And it should be and thats another one of the Bigger Picture lenses that should be used to view this conduct. Donald trump has engaged in this sort of behavior throughout his presidency and quite frankly throughout his Business Career which is to say any time anybody challenges him in any way he personally attacks them in viciously he has been doing that throughout his presidency and he did it again today. We can look at it from the perspective of how he has handled the news media in the United States repeatedly he has incited his followers to commit acts of violence against members of the news media in the United States so the fact that he today while ambassador yvonne of which was testifying was tweeting about her in tweeting about the conduct about what she was testifying is in fact intimidating witness its not dissimilar to what congressman that gates from florida was doing some time ago when Michael Cohen was testifying before congress the lawlessness that has characterized this presidency in this particular president is is very troubling you know the republicans in congress led by paul ryan at the beginning of this presidency had an opportunity to prevent all of this from happening and theyve chosen not to do so the 3rd sort of Bigger Picture lens through which i think we should be viewing all of this is is puring into the future in a year from now and trying to determine what this will look like when its all over here in the United States and how the broader Global Community should interpret these events christiane to from the Atlantic Council joining us from Tampa Florida today thank you for your time. Well this impeachment process in the u. S. Is also focusing a lot of attention on corruption inside ukraine itself caught between the u. S. And russias rival geo political ambitions ukrainians are looking to their president the lansky to steer the nation and clean up its political system to support war from state bassa now in kiev. Ukraine Flagship Initiative in its fight against widespread graft but here at the newly installed high court of anticorruption the cases are rapidly piling up in the dark a former Deputy Governor of the National Bank hes a suspect in an embezzlement case of nearly 50000000. 00 with the bailout package approved for ukraine the i. M. F. Is pressing the government to recover an estimated 15000000000. 00 that disappeared from the countrys banks they include one previously owned by a supporter of president followed him years a lenski reading this is here and the way they really want to destroy all this money to the country this process i mean cleanup it was a very painful for the society for the government for the budget but. Today i can almost almost tell you i dont see any other massive spalls. The impeachment process in the us has focused peoples attention on ukraines long history of corruption. Combating corruption was one of president elect is the most important election promises but has been actually one of the greats richest only cards and the phone. In which he said that the state prosecutor was one person this person has caused some concerns. While many in ukraine consider the us a supporter in its fight against corruption this seems to have changed. You know we see with the grays all of politics its also a term to use ukraine as a leverage for personal political interest by american politicians. So ok lets go found himself directly into the case against trump after he was accused by the u. S. President s personal lawyer of madly in u. S. Elections in 2016 already giuliani claimed lashing gold medal by exposing secret payments to Trumps Campaign chairman paul manner for he denies that claim i feel myself as a target of some american politicians and lawyers who decided to make themselves very useful for mr trump and they manipulated to fire him except for mention it was fake news. For ukrainian today have other things to worry about the landscape is efforts to go after those who have been rich themselves over the years at their countrys expense have impressed many but many also say its only the beginning and the results have yet to be seen step fasten aljazeera here. Its just one other note from washington a former advisor to the us president has been found guilty of 7 offenses including lying to congress and witness tampering this is roger stone he was charged earlier this year during the investigation into russian ference in the 2016 election hes been found guilty of lying to congress about his contacts with wiki leaks during the election and then his efforts to push one of his associates to back up his lies he was sentenced in february telling. 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 elections dont put out messages on social media that something was going to come with what you call the wiki leaks started with leasing 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 emails and 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. Heres whats coming up for you on this news hour fears of an escalation in iraq after a bomb targets of protest camp well have a report from baghdad. Im florence. Province china where thousands of villages like this one here have benefited from the boom in online shopping. And in sport the on field attack that resulted in an n. F. L. Player receiving an indefinite ban from the game. Politicians in chile have agreed on a plan to pave the way for a referendum on a new constitution that was announced earlier on friday and its aimed at pacifying the antigovernment protesters whove been out on the streets for weeks but at least for now it doesnt seem to be working the demonstrators have been back on the streets and have once again been tear gassed by police in America Addison to see a new man is there in santiago. Less than 24 hours ago chiles rival Political Parties finally arrived at what many call in stark agreement to read draft a constitution that will replace the one that is a hangover from the peevish a dictatorship it had been a key demand for testers and yet as you can see people are still back on the streets. And there are many reasons 1st and foremost they say that reforms in Health Education pensions and better salaries cant await the estimated 2 years that it would take to rewrite a constitution. For example pensioners i live on 200. 00 a month i need to buy medicine and food but who cares the government is heartless. Others say they simply dont trust their politicians and want to see the small print of the deal but the biggest complaint has to do with the agreement that would require an article of the constitution to be approved by 2 thirds of the delegates many say that would continue to give the wealthy minorities to which power but it makes you feel its excessive 2 thirds is the same limit that we have under the current constitution put there to ensure necessary reforms dont pass the government had a hope that by caving into demands for a new constitution the under arrest or at least the large number of protests on the streets would diminish and while some do say that its a positive step that does require compromise most of the people here believe its just simply not enough. Lets talk to. A spec now founder and editor in chief of chile today hes on skype from santiago bar thanks for your time i think the see a made the point there that its just not enough it is a change it is a concession it is a long term thing its not changing whats happening right now the finitely not so youre talking here about a constitution live for the last 30 years under a constitution that has changed the country the broad well of the as good as developed the country but also on the other side and thats created this huge inequality gap so changing a constitution this whole process of reforms that soften the things youre so you of course its a long Term Solution but of course what will short Term