Lebanon celebrates its Independence Day under a cloud of uncertainty as the government tries to resolve a political and economic crisis. And on the list get to be tallied what Law Enforcement agencies miss my mother 1st the norm in the state in africa i know that this is affecting the president ial. Town in sport n. F. L. Star Myles Garance has a blast an appeal against his indefinite ban from the league guarantee hits an opponent over the head with a helmet journey gang last week. Israels Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu is vowing to fight on saying that he wont step down this after he was charged with corruption is called indictment an attempted coup netanyahu is accused of bribery fraud and breach of trust the attorney general has charged him in 3 cases. Rival groups of netanyahu supporters and opponents turned up to protest outside his residence after the announcement lets go live now to west jerusalem to serious harry forces is there so harry whats been the reaction to work last nights press conference angry press conference from the neo well yes this whole thing is send shock waves through israeli politics and through everybody watching really this is an unprecedented event that a sitting Prime Minister is invited is indicted especially for a charge of serious as bribery for crimes alleged to have committed while in office and then as you say he came to the microphones and gave this extraordinarily savage attack on various institutions of israeli establishment especially against the police and the prosecutors and the attorney generals decision to indict him in what he said was a tainted and biased investigation it was very clear from his words last night that hes going to do everything he possibly can to stay in office. Theres never been anything like it in israeli politics on the day the grinding stalemate over forming a new government and to the new unprecedented phase the attorney general was ready with his own historical 1st. We dont consider that today i informed the representative of the Prime Minister mr Benjamin Netanyahu about my decision to try him under an indictment will include 3 charges a day in which the attorney general decide to serve an indictment against a seated Prime Minister the serious crimes of corrupt governments is the heavy and sad day for the israeli public and for me personally from an hour later a shocked looking Benjamin Netanyahu began his battle to stay in office while indicted. Tonight we are witnessing an attempted coup against the Prime Minister using false accusation and a systematically tainted and vice investigation. Investigations began in december 26th seen into 3 separate cases case 1000. 00 involves gifts including cigars and champagne worth more than 200000. 00 received and often demanded by netanyahu and his wife sarah from billionaires. And james packer the charge and breach of trust the same charges apply in case 2000 in which newspaper magnate on mosers is alleged to have offered favorable coverage in return for his hampering the activities of a rival but it was case 4000 involving show the main stakeholder in the countrys Biggest Telecom company that attracted the most serious charge bribery netanyahu and his wife accused of dictating precise elements of coverage on his news site while or in return for regulator benefits worth 500000000. 00 a recurring theme runs through these indictments netanyahu is obsession with his Media Coverage and the alleged lengths to which he was prepared to go to try to control it that these charges were expected hasnt lessened their impact this is an explosive moment in israels political and legal history now the focus intensifies on netanyahu future. Was ahead of him a twin battle to head off any contest for the Party Leadership in the run up to a likely 3rd election next march and a potential Supreme Court case challenging his legal right to stay in office if he was a minister he would have to resign or be fired because he is the Prime Minister its unclear what is clear is that is a moral problem right now because its not just that the attorney general recommended indicting him including for bribery these are things that happened while he was Prime Minister earlier israels president officially gave the parliament the job of finding a member with enough support to form a government and prevent another election unprecedented and in the view of most unlikely to succeed. Though yesterday these are harsh dark days in the annals of the state of israel he said they may be harsher and darker days to come reads longest serving Prime Minister. In the brain what happens next. Well there are twin tracks really to think about one is the legal one is the political on the legal front netanyahu and many legal commentators do believe that he as Prime Minister will have the right to stay on even if indicted right up until the point where hes exhausted every legal opportunity to even appeal a conviction if one comes through however there are those who also believe that the law which mandates a minister steps down if indicted could also in some way be applied to a Prime Minister so the labor gets shipped party for one is preparing a legal challenge for the high court as well as that theres a legal question of a netanyahu suppose adroit as a member of the Knesset Israeli Parliament to seek immunity from the knesset at the moment with no functioning government that is impossible because there isnt a committee required for him to appeal to so does that mean that all of this has to be put into the future until there is a functioning government or could the attorney general argue in court that the indictment has to go through now because of the current state of play as for the political side well as one potential rival who says he wants to challenge netanyahu in a primary before any new election bigger questions really about the very Senior Leadership it really could and whether there might be some kind of informal process to oust him but is certainly the call from some commentators one especially writing in one of the main newspapers in israel saying that netanyahu has shown that he will sell everything ablaze he wont finish until all is rubble as he tries to stay in office and hes appealing to the members of the code to do what is necessary to stop him. Im serious harry forsett live in west jerusalem harry many thanks thats kind of you know from akiva eldar whos a columnist for the news website. Actually its important to remind if us that the tourney general you cited. Was d the cabinet secretary and one of his country its not the leftists its not you know the usual suspects from these really left all the. Chief of police that netanyahu d already d smeared s. Of you know a member of the deep state this is the one of the closest people jonathan and netanyahu has now that. To declare war he has the fullest already dismantled all to relationship was the palestinians and a combination of d d and indicted right minister and american president his closest friend who is there now facing impeachment i think this combination is something that. Nobody could write a script for a movie that a horror movie that. Is as good as this one. A former white house russia expert has said that a fictional merits him was used to link ukraine to interference in the 2016 us president ial election fiona hill was testifying at the impeachment inquiry into accusations that President Donald Trump pressured ukraine to investigate his political rival joe biden as soon as hi to joe castro reports. Raise your right hand i will begin by swearing the days testimony began with a warning from the former white house policy expert on russia and ukraine some of you on this committee appear to believe that russia and its Security Services did not conduct a company against a country and the perhaps somehow for some reason you craned it this is a fictional not a sieve that has been perpetrated and propagated by the russian Security Services themselves the on a hill testified russia was watching the impeachment hearings and ultimately would benefit from republicans repeating the quote fictions that ukraine meddled in the 2016 elections with the help of democrats she said she had warned gordon sagal and the e. U. Ambassador the same when she realized he was carrying out the president s personal political agenda by requesting ukraine open investigations into trumps political rivals and i did said to him go often i think this is all going to blow up and here we are david holmes of Foreign Service officer in the kiev embassy testified ukraine has been cleaning up corruption under its new president billowed amirs alinsky homesteads alinsky wanted an Oval Office Meeting with trump but it was made clear that the linsky would wouldnt get the meeting unless he announced on c. N. N. That ukraine was investigating joe biden this was a demand that president selenski personally commit on a cable news channel to a specific investigation of President Trumps political rival homes testified he also had a clear impression that a hold on u. S. Military aid was likely intended by trump to pressure ukraine for the investigation holmes said he overheard a phone call between trump and ambassador saw on land discussing whether his alinsky would cooperate so you heard President Trump ask ambassador son when is he going to do the investigation yes or. What was ambassador sunless response he said oh yeah hes going to do it hell do anything you ask that urn homes of this rebuke from republican congressman mike turner your statements that your interests are protecting ukraine are very dubious when you embarrass president zelinsky by making those statements even have to make who cares that investor someone said who cares that question sums up a republican Defense Strategy to counter these 5 days of public testimony that democrats say showed trump at best misused his office and at worst committed bribery but is not enough to move the American Public the latest polls show that americans remain evenly divided on whether to impeach trump and remove him from office and the vast majority say that these hearings will not change their minds hi peter castro aljazeera Washington Well after thursdays hearing it ended white house spokesman hogan gidley said that the hearings were a sham and that unless that ended President Trump wants to have an impeachment trial in the senate because he said its clearly the only chamber where he can expect fairness and received you process under the constitution he went on to say that we would expect to finally hear from witnesses who actually witnessed and possibly participated in corruption like he said Adam Schiff Joe Biden hunta biotin and the socalled whistle blower to name a few President Trumps Republican Party holds a majority in the senate and while those impeachment proceedings were in progress on thursday the president met some of his Party Senators at the white house and heres what one of them said afterwards. You talked about. Perceiving selfrestraint. And inability to be a lot of things. But he did well last week we didnt take up the levy is part of our conversation by any means this is the news hour from of 0 still to come on the program hong kongs 2 police chief urges students inside a university to surrender and end their 6 day siege. Palestinian journalists where i patches in solidarity with a colleague who was shot in the eye by Israeli Forces and canada surging to the semifinals of the davis cup will tell you who is there shooting star a little later in the. Trunk a new president has appointed a cabinet with 2 of his brothers holding top jobs goodbye rajapaksa was elected president last week he was the defense minister in the final days of the civil war and a crackdown on tamil tiger separatists hes picked his brother by hender to be both Prime Minister and finance minister manda rajapaksa previously served as president for 10 years. Rajapaksa has been named minister of trade he was a speaker during the hindus time as president lets bring in sultan baraka whos the director of the center of a conflict and humanitarian studies at the Doha Institute will talk specifically about the Muslim Community in just a moment sultan but what do the rajapaksa brothers mean for sri lankas minorities in general. Well in fact as you know its around has a well established democratic system and elections is being respected them plays a very Important Role in the organizational politics in sri lanka and of course president. Was elected with 52 percent. The votes and there was a very high turnout for for the body that what this really means is that theres been polarization within the population of sri lanka not necessarily on the traditional lines of politics as it used to be but this time maybe on the lines of religion so maybe what has what what is the elections out there in majority sinhalese buddhist voting for for the president as opposed to the minorities including including the muslims now this has its own implications for the minorities and a lot of people fear that it will strengthen the the feeling that the series had when the war was won over the tamils back in 2009 that by force things can be done and there is no need for coexist as theres no need for sharing power theres no need for consultation and the minorities ive simply got to accept the rule of the majority and get on with it this is. A reversal from where we were back in 2015 when the minorities including the muslim minorities created coalitions with the sinhalese opposition groups and brought in a president who was more willing to offer reconciliation and was more. In inclined to creating an open society where all groups within surround capri an active role. Sorry the Muslim Community makes up what 10 percent of the population in sri lanka and until now as you say had played a key role in determining the winners of both president ial and parliamentary elections now this is only a temporary cabinet isnt it there will be parliamentary elections next year so they they say they could still have a role at least in making up the the constitution of the parliament. Its true unfortunately the bombings the easter bombings the terrorist attacks that happened in colombo and elsewhere in the country have played an Important Role in further marginalizing the Muslim Community by and large despite the fact that these problems were traced back to a very fringe small group so almost like an extended family members who conducted this work. The Muslim Community by large were blamed and there were a number of extremist buddhist movements that really stirred hatred against the Muslim Community ever since then and thats one of the reasons why i suspect the majority of the population voted for this coming president out of fear and seeking security because he is seen as someone who won a war major war that was going on for about 30 years in the country and who comes in with the military support and who can secure the country and move it forward or the Muslim Community has no representation effectively within the cabinet now in sri lanka is that a problem for them the current cabinet is a kind of caretaker government which he appointed his his brother was also the president at the time when the war was won against the l. T. Has no muslim representative and i think that will probably will cause some some issues for the muslims. In the previous government there were 7 ministers and now we have none but as you said earlier i suspect by february things will look slightly differently. In fact some of the extreme movements that florist over the last 3 few years in sri lanka and where somehow directly or indirectly supported by some right wing groups within within the buddhist movements have announced their own dismantling in the last couple of days. And it does look like they have very strict inclusion that their job has been done they brought the military back to power although it is in civilian clothing and thats a very important issue in sri lanka i think the majority of people will wake up to this fact and will want to reverse this trend because they do not certainly want the military to be in control and this is the main challenge for them is how do you put the military back into into its traditional position before the 2009 went from 2005 into 2009 undermanned he build the military to a level that they were able to crush the city but they also occupied a lot of land in the north and northeast of the country a lot of private and state land some of that has now been returned but the majority of the key key and key positions highly prized areas are still under they control and now theyre all coming back through this arrangement for the new government many of the secretaries of the key ministries are ex. Military officers and Close Friends of the elected president ok good to talk to so many thanks indeed sultan back at that thank you lebanon is marking its Independence Day after weeks of antigovernment protests i. As to the tease for t