career as a nonpartisan public servant and told us that she particularly excelled in fighting corruption abroad president george bush named her as an ambassador twice and president obama nominated her as ambassador to ukraine where she represented the united states from 2016 to 2019 eradicating corruption in ukraine has been a key policy priority of the u.s. government for years during the house inquiry the ambassador explained why implementing this anti-corruption policy was so important. as critical as the war against russia is ukraine struggling democracy has an equally important challenge battling the soviet legacy of corruption which is pervaded ukraine's government corruption makes ukraine's leaders ever vulnerable to russia and the ukrainian people understand that that's why they launched the revolution of dignity in 2014 demanding to be a part of europe demanding the transformation of the system demanding to live under the rule of law ukrainians one of the law to apply equally to all people whether the individual in question is the president or any other citizen it was a question of fairness of dignity here again there is the coincidence of interests corrupt leaders are inherently less trustworthy while an honest and accountable ukrainian leadership makes the u.s. ukrainian partnership more reliable and more valuable to the united states on the evening of april 24th 2019 ambassador your vine of each was hosting an event at the u.s. embassy i'm hearing the memory of an anti-corruption fighter who had been killed when acid was thrown in her face the previous year at about 10 that night the embassy event was interrupted by a telephone call from washington ambassador yavanna vision described his conversation with the head of the state department's human resources department she said that there was great concern on the 7th floor of the state that's where the leadership at the state department sits there is great concern they were worried she just wanted to give me a heads up about this and you know. things seem to be going on and so she just wanted to give me a heads up confused the ambassador asked for more information from washington. 3 hours later they spoke again and bassett ivanovich learned that there were concerns about her quote up the street that is at the white house the ambassador was told to get on the 1st plane home why was this respected career diplomat abruptly removed from her post why was she in fact. urged by the state department to catch the 1st plane home that she was in danger if you're just joining us on al-jazeera it's gone past 2100 g.m.t. 4 pm almost 4 o 5 pm eastern standard time and you're watching continuing coverage here on al-jazeera of day 2 of president donald trump's historic impeachment trial the democrats have been given their opening arguments we heard from the lead democratic impeachment manager adam schiff for about 2 hours almost and now speaking for the democrats is gerry. the democrats serving as prosecutors in this impeachment trial and they've begun by laying out the factual core knology of president trump's actions the of course the crux of this house case is either the case rather of the house is the allegation that president trump withheld military aid and white house a white house meeting to pressure ukraine to investigate his political rivals including a former vice president joe biden. is following all of this for us on capitol hill joins us now live heidi so we've heard from adam schiff now jerry nadler speaking talk us through the main points the democrats have made so far in their opening arguments and also what's it like inside that senate chamber right now. carol so we saw maybe the 1st 3rd of the arguments as just for today expecting at least another 4 hours of these arguments from the democrats and you just heard adam show starting this with really a plea to his senate republican colleagues we know they need at least 20 republican senators to vote with the democrats in order to convict president trump and remove him from office and really that is a tall order very remote possibility at this point but we heard adam schiff making that argument saying essentially to these republican senators. history is watching and that the american people are watching we saw a shift open with references to the framers of the u.s. constitution that the country's founding fathers saying that this was a moment that they would have most dreaded in which a president is acting as a monarch also saying that the american people would see through if this trial was fair or not in fact polling shows that a vast majority more than 70 percent of americans say they do want a fair trial and as far as the length of these opening arguments this is only day one of what's expected to be 3 days just on the democrats' impeachment managers side they'll be modeled by 3 more days from the president's defenders and as you can imagine these 100 senators who are sitting there as jurors it's quite a tedious process for them and so while cameras have been barred from going into the proceeding room because what you're seeing is the government controlled television feeds that are area on television screens we have had. producer katherine berger go inside the chamber and she says that you know these senators are sitting at their desks there trading notes with one you know with one another at some points there barred from speaking on penalty of imprisonment they cannot have any electronics with them only pencil and paper some are taking copious notes others are not you know last night with this one well into the past midnight there were a certain senators who work asleep so this is not an easy process certainly for anyone involved but the senator saying that you know this is a very serious and somber process they are undertaking of course with president trump's presidency at stake and also. what message this sets for historians years from now with a look back at this moment certainly tuesday was a marathon session just coming back to the proceedings and what we're expecting in the coming days of course the democrats were hoping to subpoena white house documents and also some witnesses which was rejected in tuesday's vote but the senators could still revisit this question of witnesses later in the trial that percent. that's right so after these 6 days of opening arguments then senators will have 16 hours to submit questions written questions to both sides and then following that democrats will once again try again to get enough republicans and they only need for really to cross the aisle and agree to subpoena more witnesses and there are 4 individuals that democrats are eyeing specifically they include a former national security adviser to president trump john bolton and trump's acting white house chief of staff make mulvaney why are these 2 individuals so important in the democrats' eyes well they are really the president's closest advisers when it comes to the day we are going on in the white house from all the nice case and then for national security and foreign policy for john bolton and neither of these men complied with requests to offer their testimonies as part of the investigative process leading up to trump's impeachment so really their their black boxes as far as what information they may have but if anyone were to be in the room when trump was making these decisions that that speaks to his motive as to why he withheld security 80 ukraine if anyone was there to see it happen it would be these individuals and at least one of them john bolton has actually said he is willing to testify before the senate if he's issued a subpoena so there's a. lot that could still change at this point but it would take at least 4 republican senators to agree even to open up those black boxes to see what these individuals have to say i can been a think you very much a starry ger heidi hi does her castro lie for a sin of washington d.c. on capitol hill will be speaking to came been in just a moment kimberly a light house correspondent not us for as in donald trump is on his way back to washington right now flying back from the world economic forum in switzerland way his span his white house correspondent kimberly how kept with more on that he was in davos switzerland to talk trade with world leaders but in his 1st press conference since the senate impeachment trial began donald trump couldn't help lashing out at his democratic adversaries calling them major sleazebags the his mindset focused on his defense trunk told reporters he wanted to let members of his administration testify like former national security advisor john bolton secretary of state mike pump a 0 and other top officials he even floated the possibility of showing up himself i'd love to go with grace and white meat you know i don't know at sort of love sit right the front row and stare their corrupt faces i'd love to do it i don't know don't don't can talk in because i'm many you may convince me to do it traum seemed fixated on the trial back home even as the white house hope trump would use the world economic forum to highlight accomplishments on trade trump was corey went asked when hill tariff imports of european cars to the united states i have a you a date in my mind and if it it's a fairly quick date past threats of tariffs of spark backlash from european officials and it could heard efforts to negotiate another trump trade priority were form of the world trade organization and a new trade deal with the united states and european union still trumps says he hopes to have a deal before the 2020 presidential election terms also confirmed he's expanding his controversy will travel ban barring citizens of certain countries from entering the us we're adding a couple of countries to it we have to be safe our country has to be safe trumps ban sparked protests in the us when he introduced it less than a week after taking office here that many called it a muslim ban for targeting muslim majority countries like a ron and somalia at fahd it in court $28.00 teen the supreme court upheld the policy the white house promise is countries can be removed from the travel ban of list if they step up security but those headlines from tromps impromptu press conference were once again over shadowed at the impeachment trial on capitol hill mr jew justice when trunk believes could shape is legacy one i finish i think that this is going to go dan is one of the greatest things i've done for our country thank you very much thing despite allegations to the contrary tromp insists he's committed no wrong doing and efforts to remove him from office are an attempt to undo the results of the 2016 election and influence the next one and ask a mini mention their present trump years his press conference in davos to lash out against impeachment proceedings against same and he also bowl said about withholding some evidence from the democrats take a listen they had a phony concocted story made up so his a story did nothing wrong it was a perfect conversation it was totally appropriate the best lawyers in the world of looked at it the department of justice as looked at it given it a sign of there was nothing wrong so we're doing very well i got to watch enough i thought i team did it it very good job but honestly we have all the material they don't have the materia and live now to all white house correspondent kimberly how kit kimberly just tell us about the reactions farce from the white house or the opening arguments made by the democrats on on day 2 off the strive yeah well the white house says one of the big points that they're making to reporters is that they feel like this case by democrats being made in the senate is based on hearsay and assumptions they point out that a lot of the witnesses this case relies on never really had direct contact with the president so the information that is being used to make the case that the president abused his presidential powers is not firsthand information they're also saying that the ukrainian president or rather leader made very clear that he was under no pressure in the words of the white house and also in transcripts provided in fact the u.s. president tweeted that no pressure in all caps that no way was there any sort of effort to influence another foreign government and finally the other point that's being made is that the president had a right they say to be concerned about corruption in fact this is something that dr fiona hill in the house inquiry also testified was a problem in ukraine and that the president had legitimate reasons to be asking about any influence of corruption of the 26th election but this was not in any way to try and influence the 2020 alexion so this is what the white house is arguing in the midst of the democrats making their case on the floor of the senate just you know listening to the sound bite of the president in davos say he seems very pleased with the cases legal team has been making. how important is it for him though that this is all wrapped up before the state of the union address. you're absolutely right about the president seeming to enjoy or relish the fight that is a donald trump trait. in terms of how much bearing this has in terms of trying to wrap this up before february 4th the state of the union the president says he's not particularly concerned about it he also didn't seem to. set about letting his opposition democrats know that he has evidence they want he's likely not to give it as that sound bite there seemed to indicate one point that we should make in all of this that as i've been watching all these proceedings that i've been hearing in terms of fact checking we like to fact check donald trump and certainly there is a lot of opportunity to do that but there was something that adam schiff said on the floor of the senate that caught my attention and i think it's important for our viewers to note as there's this case that donald trump allegedly welcome to interference from a foreign government this case ukraine that he was trying to pressure it in order to help his reelection live in there in a lot of the democrat talking points has been the point that he also welcomed interference from russia and i think it's really important a fact check that point because we did have a 2 year investigation by robert muller the special counsel looking into just that in the outcome of that was there was no collusion with russia so i think it is important and it's just another example of how both sides try to politicize their cases and arguments thank you very much kimberly how it live for us in washington d.c. and we of course continue to follow the proceedings on the senate floor where the democrats continue to deliver their opening remarks on day 2 also president trump's impeachment trial in the senate we'll bring you the very latest here on al-jazeera later in the hour. but we turn our attention to other world news now and u.n. human rights experts are calling for an investigation into a new allegation. that sounds arabia's crown prince was involved in hacking the amazon the fall of amazon boss and washington post boss jeff bezos relations between the billionaire and riyadh soured after the murder of journalist. nicola gage reports 15 months after the murder of saudi journalists. in the kingdom's consulate in istanbul the fallout continues jeff bezos the boss of the world's largest online shop amazon also owns the washington post the newspaper khashoggi wrote for he's now at the center of a hacking probe un human rights experts including agnes kalmadi who investigated crucial g.'s murder scene say they've looked at forensic analysis that points to dart of being stolen from basal says foreign in 2018 that happened after bass also received whatsapp messages from the personal account of the saudi crown prince mohammed bin some on possibly the experts say to try and influence articles in the washington post the guinea shola expert who conducted. the investigation concluded reason medium to or high a certain je than to show also the hijacking was a videophile send to me stone. and account by the crown prince on the sidelines of the world economic forum saudi's foreign minister quickly denied the reports and the kingdom is calling for an investigation well i think is exactly the right way the idea that the crown prince would jeff bezos of photos absolutely silly. as baze also supported g.'s fiance following his murder in 2018 relations with been some man soured baze also security team alleged last march that the kingdom gained private information from his phone involving text messages between him and a former t.v. news presenter this latest analysis implicates the crown prince for the 1st time i think that it's hard to believe that if they had this successful capability and were brazenly willing to use it against one of the most powerful people in the world that they would stop there the saudis have been accused of other hacking attacks but baze also is by far the most high profile person involved and these latest allegations are expected to only worsen relations between the world's richest men and the kingdom a strategic ally of the us weekly gauge al-jazeera i heard there from the un special rapporteur agnes column on when she spoke to al-jazeera here's more from that interview. any shoulder expo to conduct an. investigation concluded reason medium to high certainty that it was so awesome the hacking was a videophile send to me stove top web site. and account by the crown prince we subsequently david kay and i asked independent expert to review the findings all of the initial team of experts and they too i've reached a similar level of conclusion as the initial forensic study i wouldn't want to point out i decided that you just saw a d.c. court for a forensic expert wheeze an incredible means and disposal to reach a 100 person and. so teach you would certainty order so also the act that should be a wake up according to all of us that twee are confronting a technology and and a need a street that is extremely difficult to trace even riza best and highest resources at our disposal those allegations place. the crime prend and the center of a campaign all the hacking surveillance and intimidation that's a fair saying in my view based on mine were created to the killing of time at castro game those allegations today reinforce the call and i have made for some independent investigation into the mastermind behind the killing of castro gate and particularly an investigation into the nature and extent of their responsibilities at the highest level of the state including by mohammed bin salman . national time ago jeff bezos tweeted a photo of himself with. save from when they were unveiling a plaque last october marking the one year anniversary of his murder and it had the hashtag let's speak to alan fischer was across the story for us from washington d.c. so alan the u.n. calling for an investigation and now the u.s. congress also wanting to get involved tell us more. well ron wyden who is a democratic senator from oregon he has said that he would like to get some more information from jeff bezos because he says this is part of a growing trend with so dear arabia using cyber truly to hike into foreign so you've got to remember the kind scale of this jeff bezos believes he was hacked sometime around may 28th teen so that several months before the murder of jamal khashoggi but it's exactly around the time when jeff bezos was in saudi arabia talking about the possibility of putting a massive sever farm somewhere in the middle east this is a $1000000000.00 project and so the saudis would have been very keen to find out who else he was speaking to what sort of information they could glean what they could possibly use to their advantage if there was anything that they could offer so jeff bezos that was being offered by anyone else and certainly it's interesting that the the the government here in the united states certainly congress wants to do farther investigations ice for the u.s. embassy here in washington itself it has tweeted out saying it's absolutely absurd to suggest that the crown prince would be involved in hacking a foreign and called for an investigation all that did was lead to a number of people tweeting back saying you know the sort of investigation that someone like jamal khashoggi could carry out unfortunately he can't because you margaret him so there is still widespread anger it's not entirely sure that the game under is linked to the hacking but certainly people aren't going to let that go when it comes to dealing with saudi arabia and anything they do that connects jeff bezos the washington post and the writer who was killed allan thank you very much for that live in washington. scenes of chaos anger and fighting have erupted in beirut barely a day after a new government was formed the cabinet met for the 1st time on wednesday promising to end months of political and economic crisis but to protest a lot of the same political elite they blame for widespread corruption as in a harder report from. the people versus the state lebanon is in turmoil anti-establishment protestors briefly broke through security barriers outside parliament square there is anger over a new government that is slow going to live there because it is ultimately made the authorities are all liars corrupt we don't trust them they can't deceive us they can't form a government the way they want they will not stay in power we will not leave the streets we are hungry and dead and we have nothing left to lose. for hours out-i riot police tried to quell the unrest using teargas and water cannons but the few 100 young men were defiant challenging security forces for hours using rocks stones and firecrackers central beirut has been a battleground in the past week but in the past few hours the confrontations have to harass those that are violent. the most violent and aggressive since the protest movement against the political class began in october anger is escalating among the lebanese who are demanding a new leadership they believe the new cabinet reflects the previous one protesters are not convinced politicians will carry out the needed reforms because that would mean losing access to the state's resources for personal gain they also question whether the ministers appointed by politicians are able to hold corrupt officials accountable. is good though the remarks not so sharp and knew no other than this government doesn't represent the lebanese the politicians brought their sleeves to thinking we wouldn't work. but they are both looking at a little known engineering professor and one time minister is lebanon's new prime minister has sandy was the choice of the country's ruling alliance his cabinet line up has been criticised for lacking change and being one sided it convened for its 1st session on wednesday and it now needs to work on an economic and financial programme to reassure the lebanese about their future but president michel aoun also told the government they need to regain the confidence of the international community foreign support is needed to unlock billions of dollars in aid the international community cares about one thing today is the ability of the government to deliver on the form will this team prove to be really independent. when they prove that they can they are not but isn't the office system. in place. and. opponents of the political class are divided over the way forward some believe the movement should remain peaceful while others support a violent campaign. for a 2nd consecutive night tried to convince the security forces to join their ranks and to stop protecting the elite who he said are responsible for all their pain. orders were carried out and the unrest was eventually contained scenes like these are becoming more frequent it's causing concern about the future of a country deeply divided with those who are defending the status quo and those demanding a new lebanon center for their beirut. let's cross over now to our european use and to and i am now must say for more of the day's news. yes thanks folley well we've been following developments closely around the newly identified and potentially deadly coronavirus in china the world health organization tonight the spurned their decision to thursday on whether to declare a public health emergency over that outbreak currently at least 17 people in china have died from the corona virus and more than 500 cases have been confirmed the disease has no effective vaccine and can be passed from human to human the chinese city of one hand the source of the outbreak has closed its transport networks and advise citizens not to leave the city viruses spread from china to other countries and territories including hong kong from where there is a jim brown now reports. as the disease spreads to more of china's provinces the leadership has issued an unequivocal order to all officials be honest and transparent that now includes the media state t.v. is devoting more coverage to the containment measures it moved on where the outbreak began 3 weeks ago medical teams have been instructed to intensify their efforts after a warning the virus could mutate and expand by man again we are told we advise everyone not to go to war harms and we advise 100 residents not to leave the city unless do special circumstances this will help reduce the flow of people and the risk of transmission but the flow of people to china goes on but cold in west train station in hong kong most passengers were heeding the advice to wear face masks in crowded places. there are 2 direct trains a day from here to han on wednesday many passengers were canceling trips and seeking refunds. someday. i was supposed to be going to one i had not been back for 15 years now there is this big disease and my aunt told me not to come i think it's pretty serious here i made it out to our terror that i'm worried about the huge crowds on the transport system and a possible big outbreak of the virus. this is the suspected source of the virus wholesale seafood market in movie media reports say it's sold of the riot while meat under new measures announced on wednesday the trade in such meat as well as live poultry is now banned the majority of those who've died so far had underlying illnesses and most were elderly adrian brown al jazeera hong kong. speaking to al-jazeera from the world economic forum in davos the un's head of humanitarian affairs said he's particularly whine about the virus spreading to less developed countries what we've seen so far is small number of cases relatively speaking in mostly relatively developed countries tomorrow the emergency directors of all the world's biggest most important humanitarian agencies say unicef the world food programme w h o the red cross and so on will be meeting to prepare for the possibility of the coronavirus appearing in much weaker more fragile countries who will find it harder to cope just because they're weak or more fragile. well now to libya the only functioning airports in the capital was forced to close for several hours on wednesday after rockets were fired at it it's not clear who carried out the attack but suspicion lies with the warlords has been trying to wrench control of tripoli from the un recognized government is that you ation in libya has been raised at the world economic forum in davos as well where turkey's foreign minister blamed hafter for standing in the way of peace our diplomatic editor james bays has more on what was said a meeting of world leaders last weekend in berlin was supposed to bring libya closer to peace and cement a cease fire in the country and yet there are reports of fresh air attacks on music a port in tripoli carried out by the forces of general holy for half the turkish foreign minister has told delegates here in davos that one man stands in the way of peace. after didn't make any announcement as he didn't sign the joint statement for ceasefire in moscow this is the only the problem everybody committed not to send any additional military force there by the way our personnel is. for training and also education nothing else like very limited number of we don't have any strong military presence in the lack of political progress means the humanitarian situation is bound to further deteriorate the u.n. is particularly concerned about the files and migrants from elsewhere in africa trapped in the conflict zone we found solutions for if you want them extracting them evacuating them to other countries. we have managed to expand a little bit the space to work inside libya for those who can't get out but frankly if there is no progress on the political front if military action is not halted that space will remain very narrow will continue to be bullied by that tragedy next door to the european border the next phase for diplomacy on libya is slated for next week in geneva when representatives of general haftar are supposed to meet a team representing pfizer also raj the prime minister of the internationally recognized government timmy's from syria 2 women and 2 children have been killed in a series of government as strikes on edler province the last rebel held area in the country at least 34 separate strikes hit a bridge in west of the city of aleppo these are the scenes at a camp for displaced people close to the town of kufa the region has been hit by air attacks and shelling for the past 5 days forcing tens of thousands to flee. elsewhere at least 15 people have been killed in clashes in yemen's capital between forces of the internationally recognized government and the rebels meanwhile yemen's interior minister has called for the saudi led coalition to investigate a myside attack which killed at least 116 yemeni soldiers on the weekend on saturday the who sees an arched a raid on a military camp in mar a province about 115 kilometers from sun the attack was one of the deadliest assaults in almost 5 years of war. on our soldiers not the 1st one not be the last it killed many of our men our believe the arab coalition is the one literally the skies therefore we need a clear answer from the arab coalition about what happened in the skies above become before it was attacked. we have the right for a clear answer to share the skies of yemen along with the arab coalition who have targeted our scientists. they make the air we breathe kaina protect against flooding and provide habitats for wildlife so no one is going to argue against planting more of them global leaders in dallas for the annual world economic forum and made a pledge to plant a trillion trees even the u.s. president is on board with this but as john hall now reports scratch at the surface and the roots run deep. the world economic forum likes to talk about improving the state of the world this year that means saving the planet the headline achievement corporate and government deal to plant a trillion trees at a ww sucking 200 gigatons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere in the coming decade who's against the tree i mean the tree every once for the trees the trees are a bipartisan issue everybody's pro tree i haven't met any anti tree people yet try brazil's leader jeb also naro last year's star attraction in davos. at its peak logging in the brazilian amazon was destroying an area the size of 2 football fields every minute reforesting the world has attracted high profile support even from plymouth skeptic donald trump. today i'm pleased to announce the united states will join one trillion trees that initiative being large here at the world economic forum one trillion curious. so what does it mean and is it enough the highest priority is decarbonising and cutting emissions there's not enough room on the planet to offset all of our emissions are trees so we absolutely need to cut emissions and draw down carbon and what we find is that this commitment to a trillion trees can be a really powerful tool to draw down that carbon but it must be done in combination . cutty is a youth climate activists from uganda who cares passionately about the forests of africa. laves without the systems that means we have no planet for example most of the countries in africa do not have the money for the modern solutions of climate change that everyone is suggesting so our hope is in the forest because they're the largest carbon sinks that we have extreme weather biodiversity loss the breakdown of natural ecosystems the loss of the trees this year some of the world's most powerful people gathered here at davos are being encouraged to do something about it so even the trees is a start but with the old rules of capitalism changing and climate now at the top of the agenda for the davos elite it's hard to imagine a return to business as usual so to hold al-jazeera in the swiss alps despite some of the efforts being made there is a huge number of people in the world are already feeling the consequences of climate change in somalia for example drought has forced more than 2 and a half 1000000 people from their homes as their farmland turns dry and barren manito visited by doe at the heart of southwestern somalis farming country. dry dusty and parched desert sand is flawed it took you over once for toll filled since somalia. just 2 years of to the last drought and the country's again facing one of the drivers train assistance in more than 3 decades. the victims of visible almost everywhere makeshift camps like this one for those affected by drought can be found in almost every city this is by door in south west some money these people of just arrived from the countryside. however the bill so hot for her family from old clothes she says it took them a month to get his own name brand i don't know what our cattle ride fast and then the crops failed and we fled hanging out here and but it is still follows we have had no help at all why sees me and i believe the people of somalia are always named droughts and use the buses total coal miles talked about was one droughts what and or 15 years up now that become the new norm and scientists say that the country has dried up mark foster in the 20th century than at any other time in the past 2000 years. these but in plains of sundin's 2 and have always known long dry spells but they've always been followed by rain enough at least to rebuild hubs so that's can be repaid and milk provided for the children. that's changed 91 year old. sais he has never seen shifting weather patterns some forgiving. her and. i don't remember our granaries not having food and people resent this droughts are quite different from what we used to say there's no time for recovery they just keep coming back. just a few months ago to shut up that man had $25.00 goats now she has just 5 the rest with it and died in the current drought. that the my well i thought 500 nations from well wishers there's no pasture for the goats and i'm forced to look for grass for them in found and at times i even have to share my food with them. nomadic animal hoarding is not just on a comic activity for the people of somalia it is who they are and as the climate changes they too are being forced to change. the world jazeera and by door somalia and all the global news india's supreme court has given the government for ways to respond to more than 100 legal challenges to its new citizenship law the citizenship amendment act has led to weeks of protests across the country it gives persecuted minorities from 3 neighboring countries the right to apply for citizenship the measure excludes muslims and as a birth prana reports now from new delhi. after 6 weeks of nationwide protests opposition to the citizenship amendment act came before india's supreme court on wednesday but the groups which filed petitions against the law were disappointed with the judge's decision supreme court. the supreme court the government everyone knows what's happening in the country yet the 4 weeks that was given to the government it was done to with we don't think the people of india happy with what the court has said. more than $100.00 petitions have been filed with the court which say the fast tracking of citizenship to minorities from 3 neighboring countries but not muslims goes against india's secular constitution but the court itself has been criticized recently for yielding to government pressure on some of the most contentious issues judges ruled last year on india's most controversial religious site and $992.00 hindu mobs destroyed the 16th century mosque and i all the sparking riots which killed more than 2000 people despite acknowledging that the mosques destruction was unlawful the supreme court allocated the land for the construction of a hindu temple while giving the muslim community an alternative piece of land to build a mosque was not a very little and of course it was. allowed dispersal of whatever. it was based on the public sentiment more. there's already sentiment more and orchestrated when not majority sentiment i would like to say critics also point to what they say is the court's inaction and indian administered kashmir has its leaders remain detained and the internet is still cut off in many places 5 months after the government revoked autonomy the court has yet to rule on whether that is constitutional court has been judge efforts on calendar advocate sunday head day has worked at the supreme court for 3 decades and says he's never seen the judiciary under so much pressure from the government this is the 1st government which has been at the receiving end of the judiciary before it came to power it was subject to quite a bit of scrutiny in individual cases. so the big nor the power of the judiciary and. judiciary the supreme court has also come under criticism from within its own ranks with senior judges questioning the relationship between the government and the judiciary it's been 2 years since full supreme court judges held an unprecedented news conference to raise the alarm about how india's highest court was being they said then that unless the institution is preserved democracy won't survive now test as against the citizenship law of scrutinizing the courts to see if its independence has been. and that's before al-jazeera new delhi. or coming up from london now back to da. and you're watching al-jazeera live from doha with me for the back tivo of reminder of our top story this hour and the senate impeachment trial of present donald trump is underway adam schiff the chief prosecutor in the trial has said in his opening statement that president trump's actions show that he believes he is above the law the u.s. president meanwhile is on his way back to washington after attending the world economic forum in switzerland he used his press conference in davos to lash out against the impeachment proceedings against him and he also boasted about withholding some evidence from the democrats let's take you back now live to the senate floor where the democratic jason craw is continuing with the democrats opening statements let's listen in for combat all russian aggression and ensure their freedom wins in europe this body as in so many ways such that example protecting europe from russia is not a political game but may provide some background. and early 2014 in what became known as the revolution of dignity ukrainian citizens demanded democratic reforms in an end to corruption ousting the pro russian president within days russian military forces and their proxies invaded ukraine and crimea and occupying portions of eastern ukraine since 2014 more than 13000 ukrainians have been killed because of the conflict in over 1400000 have been forced from their homes russia's invasion of ukraine is the 1st attempt to redraw europe's borders since world war $2.20 then secretary of defense james mattis summed it up well he said quote despite russia's denials we know they are seeking to redraw international borders by force undermining the sovereign and free nations of europe and as a base ambassador taylor put it russian aggression in ukraine dismissed quote dismissed all the principles that have kept the peace and contributed to prosperity in europe since world war 2 it's clear that russia is not just a threat in europe but for democracy and freedom around the world our friends and allies have also responded imposing sanctions on russia and providing billions of dollars in economic humanitarian and security assistance to ukraine this has been an international effort today the european union is the single largest contributor foreign assistance to ukraine having provided roughly 12000000000 in grants and loans since 2014 and the united states has provided over 3000000000 in assistance in that time because we all know that we can't separate our own security from the security of our friends and allies that's why the u.s. has provided economic security and you may attain assistance in the form of equipment and training. ambassador taylor testified that american aid is a concrete demonstration of our quote commitment to resist aggression and freedom and defend freedom he also detailed the many benefits of our assistance for ukraine's forces sherman the security assistance that we provide it takes many forms one of the components of that assistance is counter-battery radar another component our stipe are weapons these. weapons and this is a system and is allows the ukrainian military to deter further incursions by the russians against their own against ukrainian territory if that further incursion further aggression were to take place more ukrainians would die so it isn't that a deterrent effect that these weapons provide it's also the ability it gives the craniums the ability to negotiate from of a position of a little more strength when they negotiate an end to the war and dumbass go sharing with the russians this also is a way that would reduce the number of ukrainians who would die. i would like to make a finer point of how this type of aid helps because i know something about counter-battery radar and 2005 i was an army ranger serving in a special operations task force in afghanistan we were at a remote operating base along the afghan pakistan border and frequently the insurgents that we were fighting would launch rockets and missiles onto our small base but luckily we were provided with counter-battery radar. so 203040 seconds before those rockets and mortars rained down on us an alarm would sound and we would run out from our tents and jump in to our concrete bunkers and wait for the attack to end this is not a theoretical exercise and the ukrainians know it for ukraine aid from the us actually constitutes about 10 percent of their military budget it's safe to say that they can't fight effectively without it so there is no doubt u.s. military assistance ukraine makes a real difference in the fight against russia and $21000.00 congress provided $391000000.00 in security assistance this included $250000000.00 through the department of defense the ukraine security assistance initiative u.s. ai and 141000000 through the state department's foreign military financing program f m f. if you're just joining us on al jazeera continuing coverage of day 2 of president trump seen in the u.s. senate it's almost 4 hours now since democratic house manages acting as prosecutors in this trial began their opening statements in this trial we've heard from adam schiff the need democratic house manager we've heard from jerry madness. and speaking right now is jason crowley the democrats of course trying to make a case said that president should be removed from office let's bring in joseph who is associate professor of political science at texas a and m. university he is here in the studio with me thank you so much for being with us and thank you for your patience and know you've been listening into this for the fans for ali's. let's start with your impressions of the presentation made so far by the democrats these opening statements did you hear any new arguments that you think may sway those undecided americans about whether president trump is guilty or not because of course we sort of know what's going to happen in the senate because you know the president's got the voices and the got the republicans but this is all about convincing the americans did you hear any new arguments that might change americans minds you know a lot of the information congressman schiff and his colleagues have gone through is that we heard during the impeachment hearings in the house or that have come out in the media i think not that it's new but these are the most striking moment were congressman schiff was talking about the importance of the act of impeachment in this trial in the american constitutional system rehashing the point of view of the founders in the structure of the constitution really making the point that if a constitution doesn't endure on its own right the whole system of government survives if the people who it governs maintain it and the important role of the president in faithfully executing his office. and how central that is to the system surviving in the role of congress in exercising oversight of the president in the part that impeachment plays in constraining and punishing a president who abuses his office i thought there was a particular sort of strong set of arguments and the really. point that seems to get lost in the in our says about the political consequences might be or the president's motives were really the central constitutional point for the whole proceedings the voyage of friction between democrats and republicans has been leading up to this trial about witnesses and you know documents from the white house which was rejected yesterday the subpoenas set to the democrats have requested for witnesses and these documents rejected in yesterday's session during the debate about the resolution we're just hearing now that shock schumer the democrat has said that any witness trade involving hunter biden joe biden's son. was off the table why do you think that is why they were very keen on having witnesses why is that dean off the table well i think the democrats' point and point of other supporters of the impeachment inquiry has been that. it's well known that the conspiracy theories about vice president biden's involvement in in ukraine in corruption and ukrainian involvement in the 2016 election interference from abroad are not supported by any evidence so. negotiating the witness list in such a way that would put people on the stand so to speak who only contribution could be to sort of. elevate the status of those conspiracy theories to sort of serious arguments is something i think the democrats don't want to engage with adam schiff had an interesting warning one point on tuesday joining the rules debates he said that the white house would pay a high priced. not allying witnesses and documents do you think the white house will pale will they reap the rewards of us you know it's hard to say when people judge the legitimacy of any government action in essence they're judging the fairness of the procedures so when the american people watch this this series of events unfold if at the end there are important unanswered questions the potential witnesses could have addressed that will hurt the republican party's position on the other hand if for whatever reason and however this unfolds the sort of set of facts that emerge are sort of a coherent narrative of the main points than adding more witnesses or failing to add more witnesses rather may not be a political liability so in some respects it's just contingent on on how this all plays out just a few out what do you think will be achieved in the end considering that senators will be voting and along party lines what's the point of all this i mean the point of all this is very much believe that when speaker pelosi and the democrats took control of the house of representatives of course there are members of their caucus who very much wanted to be aggressive towards the president but i think their initial political calculation was. to avoid this kind of confrontation until the 2020 alexion and let the people decide i think they feel that they were forced by circumstances and again congressman schiff point at the beginning about the constitutional function of this and preserving the balance of power on the one hand those are talking points on the other hand that really is the whole substance of what's happening so simply fulfilling their duty. acting on the part of congress to preserve the balance of power and sort of forcing everyone who has an office in congress to take a stand on this issue you know that's really. what we can hope to achieve and i just thank you very much for sharing interviews with us joseph is from texas a and m. university here in doha but of course continue to cover the. impeachment proceedings in washington d.c. and out we're going to take a short break and be back in just a moment stay with us. the 21st century began with extraordinary economic growth across much of latin america. but since this halted in 2008 there's been a political shift to the right on a continent to a socialism on strive to. achieve land politician goes on a journey to meet leading left wing figures to understand why that politics have lost ground so dramatically. latin america a giant in turmoil on al-jazeera. from fossil fuels to modern day renewable as societies develop the energy demands increase requiring innovative solutions to make such to moms as a global power develop into the basement company nebraska power is uniquely positioned to deliver against the state well we provide business growth promote social economic benefits and provide innovative safe and firemen to sell energy solutions for a future generation the brush pioneering future energy tool to use their own we were told to get to the mystery of all the brush it has this been addressed by tokyo we listen to what these the proposal of spain for. we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories that matter no 20. the u.s. . it is always of interest to people all around the world this is been going on for a number of tear gas being used to repeat the recent international perspective to try to bully their little audience how this could impact clear life this is an important part of the world now does it is very good to bring the news to the world from here. the. u.n. experts demand an investigation into evidence that saudi arabia hacked into the phone of the washington post's and amazon owner jeff bezos. play watching al-jazeera life my global headquarters in doha fully back or also coming up he personally asked a foreign government to investigate his opponent opening arguments in president trump's impeachment trial the lead democratic prosecutor makes a case for mary for a new.