In 2019 is very tribal the democrats will have hared things that they think put donald trump very firmly in the dock the republicans think this is very much nothing to get worried about and donald trump did nothing wrong whereas donald trump himself he underlined exactly what you just said there by standing on the white house lawn today and saying i wanted nothing i want to do nothing yet as little notepad there sort of shouted that in and tried to ram home. Well the timing of him saying there was no quid pro quo which is very important is interesting because he said that to Gordon Gordon sandland said to him what do you want from ukraine i want selenski to do the right thing i dont want a quid pro quo why is that phrase become important because that very day the media were reporting that aid to ukraine was being held up because donald trump was looking for a quid pro quo and someone clearly said to donald trump if thats the case that does not look good for you this is a real problem theres going to be more evidence over the next couple of days that is going to just take the direction that the democrats are moving this which is towards the idea of impeachment its interesting though that might pence and might be pompey or have refused to give evidence to what they see as a charade they will face summonses from the court sorry from the congress but the reality is we are going to hear from minor players but big thing again today gordon song and was there a quid pro quo or yes thats what all those hours of testimony boiled down into today thank you alan fischer in washington d. C. So lets hear a little from the people who have spoken today at the hearing in part of her testimony senior u. S. Department of defense official laura cooper stated ukraine was worried about the u. S. Military aid hold up back in july on the issue of ukraines knowledge of the hold or of ukraine asking questions about possible issues with the flow of assistance my staff showed me to unclassified emails that they received from the state department. One was received on july 25th at 2 31 pm that email said that the Ukrainian Embassy and House Foreign Affairs committee are asking about Security Assistance the 2nd email was received on july 25th at 4 25 pm that email said that the hill knows about the f m f situation to an extent and so does the Ukrainian Embassy i did not receive either of these emails my staff does not recall informing me about them and i do not recall being made aware of their content at the time and only the u. S. Ambassador to the golden sun and gave the most anticipated testimony so far in the public hearings was there a quid pro quo as i testified previously with regard to the requested white house call and the white house meeting the answer is yes mr giuliani conveyed to secretary perry ambassador volcker and others that President Trump wanted a Public Statement from president selenski committing to investigations of brewery sma and the 2016 election mr giuliani expressed those requests directly to the ukrainians and mr giuliani also expressed those requests directly to us we all understood that these prerequisites for the white house call and the right white house meeting reflected President Trumps desires and requirements and that is where we will leave our rolling coverage of all of the impeachment inquiry in the United States aljazeera world is next with about the headlines in about half an hours time. I was having an experience which ill never ever forget i was 19 years old at the time. And it was quite a surprise to find myself in russia in the middle of a war the front seat literally. Numbers werent there but dont parents i worried and i. Know theres a worry in times really it was a worrying time for us. Not knowing. If and when were going to get out and it was very worrying for the parents as well or you know. Their sons or husbands and all that was going to come out because of the way the war was going but once it was over there was just a waiting game. During this conflict there was a bit of anxiety because if youre in the middle of a war trapped there you dont really know which side accidentally could hit your ship so its quite scary times and it wasnt a glorious place to be obviously when you see a conflict like that and you watch it on the televisions there are on the television or film war looks glorious book to be honest it is not it is completely horrific. We dont know if the israelis are going to push further from where they stopped on the sinai site further into egypt or we dont know alls we know always wish to walk in there like trapped animals. What would happen who knows. Nobody could tell us. Thats what we have to live with. It was in a prison as you would know it but used you could go anywhere couldnt do anything. Just to carry on. Thats an. Opened 150 years ago to connect the mediterranean with the red sea the suez canal is a remarkable engineering achievement. However one of dent in the storied history of suez remains largely untold how in 196714 cargo ships unwittingly sailed into war not to emerge but another 8 long years. Those manning the ships were neither prisoners nor hostages most came and went every few months but they did succeed in building a baritone Community Like no other. With their ships left in splendid isolation and unable to leave the suez canal bay stablished their own unofficial micro nation complete with traditions sporting competitions and even postage stamps. They try to make the best of the situation in the great better late a particularly wide section of the canal socalled because of its high salt content. The merchant seamen were not remotely experts on the conflict into which they landed theirs was a world of engines and currents and ropes navigation was their strength and war was alien to them yet they found themselves surrounded by the bitterest of enemies in a confrontation that was none of their making. As months 20 years their cargo ships became covered in fine desert sand which from a distance gave the flotilla a distinct yellow color as a result of the vessels became known as the yellow fleet. And now miss high no clearly meant. Its fire its fancy. Stood on its fight off its year shifts north end. Of the north end and you must start. North. In the eyes of. The british models mccourts t. House cries of off on a non indian want for an indian. Chief who owns or lets. Continue and confront dollars and bid on a who is cannot. Do it and die of a home from karachi. To give it all stones or it may not aid in yemen. Petroleum name was a branched off in Diesel Fuel Oil on an involved. Target before v 8 and i become bia from my get in. Good kind but im going to defend his old vida fonda. Descend in dished. As kind bogart. In the no 2 d. I knew it was about to shrug off the boat one via most all feeling sponsored wagner and. Before via bunch of become of you become bunch of judeans and on to if you found fun you know whats worse to it and its was cannot find. This a bit as. In djibouti muslims are not merely conscious position if. Vies im out to missed. My name is sean dring i was an able seaman on the m. V. Which was a british cargo ship which predominantly sailed to Australia New Zealand from the u. K. Taken general congo there im bringing back vegetables fruit meat back to the u. K. Has basically run. On this particular journey we had been out. To australia and. Back for the united kingdom. We left fremantle. To cross the. Indian ocean and come in through aden. They. When we arrived at the. Southern end the vessels were more outside on a convoy of 14 ships would commence the next day phase slice through a little bit a lake on demba ba progressed a journey through to port site which is roughly a 24 hour journey on not mourning. On the convoy began to move into the base a late. This was the cold war a time of great tension between the superpowers of east and west rumors intelligence and espionage where the currencies of the day. And on the 13th of may 967. 00 soviet intelligence warned of an imminent attack by israel the attack they said might begin on the syrian front where israel had assembled troops. Egypt which at the time had a Defense Agreement with this syrian our eyes prepared for battle. These were extremely tense times in the region a decade earlier in 1956 Research Crisis had seen israel invade the Sinai Peninsula part of egypt in a conflict that drew in the worlds major powers. A large number of egyptian Ground Forces across the suez canal and dug in of the Sinai Peninsula israels response was to put its own army on to a state of alert. 11 years later on the 22nd of may 1967 egypt closed 2 israeli ships access to the straits of tiran a strategic waterway leading to the port of a lot in the south of israel. The next day egypt also close the entrance to the gulf of aqaba to all ships carrying the israeli flag as well as to International Oil tankers bound for a lot the rhetoric between both sides ramped up and war appeared to be imminent. But to crewmen on a brief supply stop in aden now part of yemen the geopolitics of the middle east. Were not uppermost in their minds. On the way home from the far east we bunkered we stopped in aden and bunkered there to pick up fresh water in oil and we picked up some supplies there as well. During this time the 6 engineer and i decided we were asked the chief if we go ashore just for a last minute bit of shopping before we go into the suez canal and up the red sea. And as a result of that we were on shore and we met a couple of british soldiers marines and they were on patrol and they said to us i think you to a better get back to ship because its going to kick off around here we didnt really know what that meant so we went back to the ship. Anyway we finished bomb queen in aden with the oil and water and supplies and we headed up the red sea i think it was before we went up there and see or join this time we had a meeting with the ships officers and the captain and they knew something was going wrong but they said should we carry on they took a vote whether they should carry on to the series can now or turn around and go back round. The bottom end of africa however my personal vote was carry on. For me. Into the sun through for. The president you had me into hadnt and as i did become trapped machines id forgot vast a lot of it indoors and on and of it. Yes this would. Give. The views invite a shift to shift a lag and i go. Rhymefest 00 get 20 fifths ensure for the year ziva vida do is kick out of the of the violent risk would have to go to shift and in doing good its kind of lifted off the conduct among artists in east st to me once a seat on to us and tell us could not fix. It or not so now if im. Going to shift this somalian on to our sports you know its not far off to my not to model because it nor try to put. Less than a month out of it shipping was barred from the straits of tiran israel launched a series of attacks on egypt and positions triggering the 96076. 00 day arab israeli war which drew in not just egypt but also syria and jordan it was monday the 5th of june 1970. I was on the watch when all of a sudden we had an amazing noise of a jet engine and as we looked up. We see in a formation of sri fighter planes coming across from the sinai side just above must fight and flew between ourselves the last 4 ships to 3 planes crossed they immediately climb show High Altitude and as we looked out the. They began to do what we now know was a means of blowing up the wrong way at the airports or the air force base. When. We could see it it was less than a mile and a quarter way out than oculus we watched the jets bombed a long ways 1st and then they israeli warplanes which were parked all by the angers was then attacked those 3 awful nation of sri israeli jets one state dropped their payload they came back and crossed towards sinai again again very very low on must heise and then across battle the sinai no sooner had they gone done another wave of survey came in and did exactly the same and we watched these formations over the next. A couple of alice every 4 minutes 5 minutes they would be that common a crush do an option as much damage is sacred to the Egyptian Air Force base which they literally obliterated. Oh all. While the war was going on where you just sister just saw everything that was going on because it was only a mile from the s. 1000000 rampal its a resort applying her. We sure were there reading so let me know at times we stayed out on deck and we was just watching the the battle going on shore saw it round rand is mayor and the surrounding areas we watched her with a trace of bullets gold a red polish we could air with it like the explosions gharyan and also but the catalyst there was said to us you know you play should be careful so we still watched it so we really didnt sleep much when i was 6 days. 6 days after the war began mr aziz ceased israeli tanks and troops attacking egypts Sinai Peninsula reached this it was canal israeli troops stood in the eastern side of the waterway gyptian forces were massed on the western side in a standoff that gave both control of traffic on the canal. The egyptians reacted by closing the suez canal their goal was to physically prevent israel from having access to the canal so all ships were scuttled to make the canal impossible passenger ships would be allowed to complete their journeys but cargo vessels could go no further than the great better laid bare they were instructed to drop anchor and wait for further developments this decision brought together 14 ships of different flags for british 2 west german 2 polish 2 from sweden one french one czechoslovakia and one bulgarian and an american vessel war and politics at. Unwittingly assembled the yellow fleet. We became trapped because we. Very soon afterwards within a matter of days that a trench been sunk it seemed to us training open or close on it at the northern entrance as we understood it the that probably done the same thing to the south of us so the audio of us making in the sky Something Like that sunny to the south seemed to good to know that there was probably no possibility whatsoever. There was news suddenly navigations there was no indefinite no telephone tone and like that and it was days the only thing it we had bits that i mean ships radio but you could communicate all over the walls with. That this last stop by the egyptian authorities to stop us using that because lets face it we could possibly have sent you know a lot Enter Mission as to what was going on to be bombed allowed to do that and to stop us from doing the we had a policeman on board each ship and his job was to look after the interests of the egyptian authorities and ensure that we did not use not radio. Shortly after we were there the captain of our ship thought we do need to get in touch with these other people and he made it his business to get in the lifeboat because the light boat was our taxi we lowered the ships like guy who got in our taxi and went right to all the other ships and suggested to those people where to make the best of this possibly count on the all agreed that this would be a really good idea from following on from not then they came up with another a new. Amber of unique ideas as to why they could best improve life for everybody on the lake. One of the lifeboats manned by one of the officers aboard the ship went to the israeli side and i think that they were taken in a shore by the israelis and sent back to london so at all costs we stead of the israeli side but there was an occasion and the early days when we went id that a memo came from the egyptian side to say that any of the any of the boats sailing side the perimeter of the ships in the canal will be shot upon. A couple of months past weve been told that the International Red cross were trying to talk to both parties egyptians and israelis. About what they could do for the crews who were trapped. The captain had decided that if we could keep push kalitan crew on board. Then the rest of the crew could be repatriated. On the egyptian authorities and the israelis authorities allowed and then call it all from athens through to cairo. I was one of the Skeleton Crew of the young man i was 20 was a seaman an old the captain swung to the dot. In the event that. The canal would open we just needed sufficient crew to mount the vessel and take it out to port side on the mediterranean side. I didnt really. Understand or appreciate what the dangers might have been at that point i just saw well ok. Undy only this died on the vine no money they havent got children or not old age you know it yet it should be me that stays here for half a lover or however long it takes for this conflict to end i have no idea it was going to end up the way it did. As the guns fell silent what to do with the 14 cargo ships stranded in the middle of the canal became a problem that neither egypt nor israel was willing or able to resolve. The sailors on board seemed destined to be patently marooned in this isolated desert waterway communication with the outside world was tightly controlled with radio callers restricted to medical emergencies. The ships owners made a decision to rotate the crews so after 4 months or more each merchant seamen would be replaced even though there was little work to do apart from basic maintenance all the sailors continue to receive their food wages. Coming up in part to be other fleet crews devised different ways some quite ingenious to improve conditions on board. The way had a lot of big games spin l the next sicko 968 a thing and so the ball the ships decided to of a many a lympics and of course they are gonna start that all off all sorts of things. Aljazeera. And to you. Im come on santa maria with a look at the headlines on aljazeera and the latest session of hearings on the impeachment inquiry into the u. S. President as weve heard from both the Deputy Assistant secretary of defense or koopa and also david hale the on the secretary for Political Affairs as they were being questioned over what they knew about events leading up to the holding of u. S. Military aid to ukraine early this year we also had the u. S. Ambassador to the European Union golden sun speaking earlier he gave probably t