Here and also coming up firming up their grip on power sri lankas new president appoints his brother to be Prime Minister. And a show of support for hong kongs protesters as the u. S. Congress threatened sanctions if human rights are not held. A man once considered to be an ally of donald trump has publicly stated the president wanted to withhold military aid to ukraine in exchange for an investigation into his political rival americas ambassador to the European Union testified before the impeachment inquiry into the u. S. President on wednesday hes gotten some deal and he also implicated other top officials saying quote everyone was in the loop alan fischer reports from washington. From the u. S. Ambassador to the e. U. Stunning testimony and said it was abundantly clear to everyone ukraine would not receive military aid from the u. S. Or a meeting at the white house unless it announced an investigation into a Company Connected to the son of political opponent question joe biden 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. Sunderland previously denied the security it was conditioned on the biden investigation but he told the Impeachment Panel it was in the absence of any credible explanation for the suspension of aid i later came to believe that the resumption of security aid would not occur until there was a Public Statement from ukraine committing to the investigations of the 2016 elections and were recently and he insisted senior figures on the administration knew what was going on including the Vice President and the secretary of state everyone was in the loop the suggestion that we were engaged in some irregular or rogue diplomacy is absolutely false im not sure how someone could characterize something as an irregular channel when youre talking to the president the United States the secretary of state the National Security adviser the chief of staff of the white house the secretary of energy he said trump insisted u. S. Diplomats what with his private attorney Rudy Giuliani on handling ukraine so we followed the president s orders sundin says giulianis direction on ukraine became more insidious with time in early july a coveted white house visit for ukrainian president let him use a lengthy was dangled as an award for ukraines cooperation which but later saw england testified it became upon the 400000000. 00 in security aid was also on the line someone testified that in a phone call with the oval office he asked trump an open ended question what did the president won from ukraine the answer he wanted nothing and republicans and the president claims that proves the impeachment hearing is a waste of time its over and some of the fair friends of which there is a deal mike said this thing is over nancy pelosi is a company that has gotten nothing done in congress and now with their big star witness is going to be their star witness said. So you know i dont know very well from a little witness confirmation the ukrainians asked why it was being held up as i think quite a coming sooner than previously reported my staff showed me 2 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 democrats called sunderlands testimony a seminal moment it goes right to the heart of the issue of bribery as well as other potential high crimes or misdemeanors but we also have heard for the 1st time that that knowledge of this scheme was pervasive. Republicans continue to insist the president did nothing wrong that the hearings are a waste of time and money the latest attempt to remove an elected president but this testimony from a trump loyalists mean democrats moving closer to impeachment and republicans rethinking how to defend the president alan fischer aljazeera washington. Well staying with american politics democratic president ial hopefuls have spent more time criticizing President Trump than each other during the 5th debate in atlanta with the impeachment inquiry and unavoidable backdrop tame candidates took to the stage they included front runners Joe Biden Bernie sanders and Elizabeth Warren each heatedly made accusations against mr trump although Bernie Sanders said they shouldnt become obsessed. We have a president who is not only a pathological liar he is likely the most corrupt president in the modern history of america but we cannot simply be consumed by donald trump because if we are going to water were going to lose the election American People understand is that the congress can walk and chew bubble gum at the same thought it over words we can deal with trumps corruption but we also have to stand up for the working families of this country. California senator also accused the president of the law we have a criminal living in the white house and there is no question that in 2020 the Biggest Issue before us until we get to that tender moment is justice is on the ballot and what we saw today is ambassador sonnen by his own words told us that everyone was in the loop that means it is a criminal enterprise engaged in by the president from what we heard today the Vice President the secretary of state and the chief of staff well staying with that story just in sage mitchell this is just a professor at the Northwestern University here in castle she says impeachment was always going to be a big talking point for the democrats. There was a focus on the impeachment especially at the beginning i actually thought it was a really good move on the part of the debate organizers to start with the question because its the elephant in the room or the circus in washington d. C. You might say but at the same time i dont think they dwelt on it because the candidates really dont have any daylight between them on this issue or virtually everyone on that stage agrees that the president. May have committed impeachable offenses and that its important for congress to take seriously their their constitutional duty to protect our democracy so after that original question we we seem to move forward into actually quite a substantive and strong debate for many candidates you know it was interesting the speculation at the beginning of this of this debate previous was that people may get a lot of attacks by his fellow candidates and this is because he has just had a very Strong Holding in the state of iowa and the reason why iowa is important because its the 1st state for the primaries in in february of this next year and he was the top the top candidate in that recent poll but we didnt actually see this huge ganging up on on people we did see Elizabeth Warren once again have an extremely strong debate the main focus was on her from the start she dominated the 1st hour finish strongly ended up with the most speaking time but actually all 4 of the top tier candidates including Bernie Sanders joe biden and people. Had strong debates and so did the 2nd tier candidates cory Booker Harris and. And also which are and the most important thing here was that the message in tone overall was this message of civility and unity its very clear that the democrats are trying to portray themselves as the adults in the room and in direct contrast to the circus that is the trump white house. Because newly elected president rajapaksa as just been sworn in by his own brother as the next Prime Minister rajapaksa himself served as president for 10 years his brother was elected to the presidency just last week to buy a rajapaksa to be tough on Security Issues in large feast and bomb attacks that happened earlier this year fernandez joins us live now from columbus whats expected from this rajapaksa access i guess. Then entirely rajapaksa showed just behind me the president ial secretary it is where the former president 8 was sworn in as the new Prime Minister of sri lanka warnin by the new president go top there rajapaksa obviously the vision as they have portrayed during the Election Campaign rajapaksa is to address the concerns of the sri lankan people they have made National Security a priority which has been a big issue since the easter bombings in april this year they have vowed to bring back this state essential of security make sure lankans feel safe again theyve also essentially pledged to address all the shortcomings theyve said that they will deal with the economy they will deal with the concerns of the shell and can people now the president with his Prime Minister brother obviously quite keen to get on with fulfilling those pledges because they have a general election in the near future peter there are so many specifics minal the economy security as youve just touched on divisions within the country it feels like theyre rising month after month particular after the easter bomb attacks how are they going to handle those specifics. Peter obviously the economy has been a key concern not just for administrative and planners but for the common man on the streets here in sri lanka over the last couple of years as the economy has been burdened with a huge amount of Debt Repayment obviously in terms of sri lankas commitments towards all the laws that we had taken particularly during the rajapaksa regime but also after to keep the economy afloat you know people found that it was difficult to make ends meet their day to day kind of activities their expenses they found were skyrocketing the amount of goods that they could purchase at the store for their essential. You know began to get smaller and smaller for the same amount of money over the last couple of years so these are key factors that sort of made them rethink when the last times election came around so these are challenges obviously for the rajapaksa brothers they have said that they have a plan that they will address the issues that they will balance off obviously the debt as well as the key economic factors and basically ease things for the sri lankan people now obviously i keep going back to this election that they have to face its going to be a bit of a feel good factor over the next couple of months at least until the general election but obviously they have their work cut out for them in balancing the numbers and in getting the economy back on track again peter thank you so much. The u. S. Congress is threatening sanctions against china if human rights are not upheld in hong kong the house of representatives has approved a bill supporting human rights in the territory just 24 hours after the Senate Passed its but china is accused washington of interfering in its internal affairs and summoned the u. S. Diplomats in beijing. In hong kong about 100 student protesters are still inside a University Campus surrounded by the Police Standoff began on sunday sarah clarke has the latest. Police have sealed off this entire area around Polytechnic University and we believe up to 100. 00 people are still barricaded up inside overnight we had a few people the 1st voluntarily surrendered and were arrested as a result of the last few days weve had more than 1000 people leave this campus and of course face arrest now at the moment round this particular area we have huge Traffic Congestion here is the tunnel its been closed since last wednesday and its a major tunnel connecting hong kong and also weve had in the u. S. The passage of the hong kong human rights and democracy act passed the Senate Unanimously yesterday and today it was the house of representatives now the Hong Kong Government has responded to that its told the u. S. To stop meddling in hong kong it also says that this particular passage of this bill since the wrong message to call them the violent protests this bill requires the u. S. To certify that hong kong is protecting and respecting human rights in hong kong and also if this bill does get passed by donald trump it could also introduce sanctions on the Hong Kong Government. Still to come for you here on aljazeera violence in bolivia continues to spiral as the Security Forces try to stop ongoing. Also ahead why the government in greece says it will close done several large migrant camps housing thousands of people. Hello again welcome back to your International Weather forecast well were still looking at flooding here in parts of italy this time i do want to take you up here towards the northwest near genoa show you what they have been dealing with over the last several days heavy rain has been calling flooding along parts of the area as well as mudslides in some cases landslides people have had to be evacuated and were also looking at Power Outages in the region as well whats causing it well this very slow area of low pressure bring a lot of instability across the region as we go towards the next couple of days though were going to be seeing often rain showers in this area but it looks like things will be slowly Getting Better in that region as well now here towards the west though take a look at the winds that are building across parts of portugal in spain and that is going to because of course some storm surge across the area we could also be seeing some flooding in that region as well towards the east oh it is those temperatures they are beginning to drop we are seeing those temperatures well below average for this time of year in kiev starting on thursday at about 3 degrees normally this time of year that is the average but as we go towards friday as well as into saturday we could be seeing below average conditions and the winds are going to be a big problem across much of this area so wind chill if it says minus 3 its going to feel more like minus 10 and saturday will be some sun in the forecast. The weather sponsored by town and. Protesting about how does this information when theyre on the. My wife basements will see. If you join us on saturday this is an attack. On our ability to do research and teach freely this is a dialogue myanmar is not making it very welcoming for people to come everyone has a voice Climate Change is real d the discussion is for real and im here to talk about the solutions on aljazeera. Welcome if youre just joining us youre watching aljazeera live from the top stories. Has told the impeachment inquiry into donald trump that the president wanted to withhold military aid to ukraine in exchange for an investigation into his political rival the u. S. Ambassador to the e. U. Who was once an ally also implicated other top officials. Democratic president ial hopefuls during their debates cannot land senator Bernie Sanders called him the most corrupt president in American History we also want democrats not to get too obsessed with. Newly elected president rajapaksa has just been sworn in part me hes just sworn in his own brother as the next Prime MinisterMahinda Rajapaksa himself served as president for 10 years his brother was elected to the presidency last week. The 3rd general election within 12 months in israel does appear increasingly likely following the latest failure to form a government benny gantz main rival the Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu didnt make weapons tonights deadline to arrange a coalition mr netanyahu also failed so in backing for a Coalition Following 2 inconclusive elections this year both were hoping to win the backing of the former defense minister Avigdor Lieberman but his party refused to support either of them are a force it is in west jerusalem where 4 hours before the expiration of the deadline for benny gantz to make a Coalition Government he came to the microphones to admit what had been coming increasingly clear throughout the course of the day that he had failed but he put the blame for that squarely at the feet of the Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu saying he had been fortifying himself inside a Transitional Government against the will of the israeli people just to try to avoid prosecution in pending Corruption Cases and he used particularly personal language in a very strong attack against netanyahu saying that no party leader was above the nation no person had the right to deny the people their vote no Prime Minister own leader could say that my interests are more important than yours and he said that netanyahu had been putting poison into the israeli political process through hatred and incitement and he said that israel now faced its greatest democratic test in its history as now the 21 day period begins where any me