Transcripts For ALJAZ NEWSHOUR 20240711

A possible breakthrough in the fight against covert 19 u. S. Drug giant pfizer says its vaccine candidate is 90 percent effective. Also in the news there i mean to end a decade of chaos and bloodshed in libya u. N. Backed talks have begun paving the way for a political transition. And uncertainty in peru is the president faces a 2nd impeachment trial in just 2 months coming up a live update from the capital lima. And bumpy december the legal sports news 27 seen masters champion Sergio Garcia withdrawals from this weeks tournament of the testing positive for corona virus. But were starting with breaking news this hour 1 pm in washington d. C. And literally in the last 2 minutes the u. S. President donald trump has fired his secretary of state. In his words. Has been terminated straight to kimberly how could a White House Correspondent cant believe its begun. Yes thats right mark else for is the secretary of defense or at least he was until this announcement by the u. S. President on twitter where the president says i am pleased to announce that chris for miller the highly respected director of the National Counterterrorism center will be the acting secretary of defense affective immediately he says that mark asked for has been terminated i would like to thank him for his service now we have seen before that the president has said that officials that he has fired openly in such a public way have been terminated only to have to spirit from about whether or not it was a termination or resignation why is this important because we have been hearing for days in fact that mark asked for had been preparing a Resignation Letter as weve known for months that the 2 have been at odds over a number of different issues most notably the conflict that took out place over the summer with regard to the social on ras the president wanting to utilize the military to quell some of this social unrest over racial protests in the United States mark asked for pushing back saying this is not the role of the military so it appears that there is a difference between these 2 men and whether or not this was a termination more resignation still very unclear ok is this a sign of what people feared can believe that donald trump in what looks like the last 2 months of his presidency. Doing things like this firing people making executive orders doing everything he wanted to do before he leaves office. Well you know all of the members of the cabinet serve the pleasure of the president they can be hired and fired at any time done terms not doing anything wrong per se but certainly we do see this from president s in the past they do take advantage of the fact that they know there will be limited consequences because theyre on their way out to enact things that might have been unpopular or could be not well received from the public prior to an election so yes donald trump could be doing just that in fact there are other departures that are rumored to be also coming down the pike for example being f. B. I. Director Christopher Ray another one that has been at odds with the u. S. President publicly and also the cia director Gina Housefull the allegations being that they have been pushing back on pressure political pressure from the white house to use their positions for the purposes of the president. President trump is on the been on twitter with the golf course for the last couple of days are there any plans in the diary that he will be seen publicly. Not as of right now what we do know is that mike pence the director of the Coronavirus Task force and also the Vice President currently is can be in a closed press meeting in the situation room of the covert task force its unclear 2 what they are going to discuss but the timing is interesting given the fact that we know that the projected winner of the u. S. Election joe biden has released his covert platter at least discussed the announcement of his task force today so these seem to be the only things on the schedule so i minutely the resignation or terminations of mark s. For the defense secretary was a bit of a surprise ok thank you for now kimberly how could our White House Correspondent breaking news as i said literally about 90 seconds before we came on air with this news hour with these tweets from donald trump i am pleased to announce that christopher c. Milla highly respected director of the National Counterterrorism center will be the acting secretary defense effect immediately because as you see in the tweet above that mark aspect has been terminated i would like to thank him for his service that was kimberly points out some confusion over what terminated actually means in this sense whether he resigned or was fired ok so thats what has just come out of the white house lets head to delaware. Joe bidens hometown and mike hanna is there foss well talk to you more mike in a moment i think about the coronavirus toss tolson the briefing we heard from president elect biden little bit earlier but 1st some other what is seriously reaction to this but it just shows they could be some chaotic days ahead during this transition period. Well the Incoming Biden Administration i cannot speak for them obviously but they would have expected nothing else they have been laying out all sorts of scenarios in recent months leading to this particular point trying to game out what situations may emerge during these some 70 days between pride and being projected as the winner and his inauguration as president sudden changes in government personnel certainly would have been one of the scenarios that they looked at so they are prepared they would say for this type of eventuality whether at this stage its the beginning off a scorched earth policy if one could put it like that thats far too early to say but certainly at this stage as well no reaction from the Biden Incoming administration as to the sudden departure of the defense secretary ok might lets just pause for a 2nd and go back to the coronavirus issue u. S. President elect joe biden saying there is a need for bold action to control the pandemic hes promised to put this at the top of his agenda after assuming office there was a national to address about an hour ago where he urged americans to put partisanship aside and abide by Health Guidelines biden and president elect harris held their 1st meeting with the task force formed to help deal with the crisis biden warning americans the nation was edging towards what he called a dark winter but have a listen this group will wise and detail plants built on a bedrock of science and we keep compassion empathy and care for every american at its core this election is over time to put aside the part of the partisanship and the rhetoric that designed to demonize one. This time to end the politicization of basic responsible probably kill steps like mask social distancing. So back to mike hanna now in wilmington and mike we were talking about this earlier. A lot of the similar sort of campaign lines that we heard from joe biden but i guess its the fact that there is a clear message coming from someone who should be in power in 2 months time. Oh come on lets just track this back biden was projected as the successful president on saturday. And 48 hours later he was convenient to meeting off a coronas Coronavirus Task force this as he stated through his campaign is an absolute priority he has drawn up an action plan throughout the recent months hes consulted in numerous experts and now on this day he named his Task Force Team to begin to prepare for when they move into power and generally the 20 is obviously the great difficulty is this intervening period a period during which cases are spiking around the country and joe biden making a very clear call there as hes done before but even more impassioned on this particular point that the mosque is the most important weapon against a virus attempting to deep politicize the wearing of a mosque which is largely being done by President Trump certainly has been egging it on among many off his supporters so by the skin to get back to basic Health Grounds you heard him saying that he is formulating a plan on the bedrock of science he said as well in his 10 minute address that what his administration will be doing is Incoming Administration is follow the data of the science and then act of that its a very different approach from the trumpet ministration come out ok thank you to mike hanna whos been covering the president elect from wilmington delaware were going to go to washington now to speak to julie fisher who is a professor of microbiology and immunology at Georgetown University medical. Center julian supposed to have you with us lets talk 1st of all about and just following on from what mike was talking about there the message coming from the Biden Campaign from president elect biden i guess the clarity in the simplicity thats coming from it do you think that will resonate with americans. I think its an opportunity to have a clear set of messages coming from from the president elects. So youre right im having told think of what to call it when the president elects position to make clear that this is that the ongoing cover 910 demick is a problem for which we can bring Technical Expertise to bear and that we can provide some clear technical guidance for state and local Decision Makers which is something that has been really difficult to find in the past few months i think it will help people understand it get this there are Public Health and scientific questions here to be addressed not just cultural and political issues surely theres also the news that the u. S. Drugs make a fire. Has talked about its covert 19 vaccine candidate and said it is proving to be more than 90 percent effective on track to seek Regulatory Approval to sell a vaccine by the end of the month i mean thats really positive news obviously but how have you taken that how much of a what we say how much of a grain of salt do we take that with i think its really promising news and obviously we are all excited about this evidence that we could have this much effectiveness which is actually much higher than you normally see with the typical seasonal flu vaccine but the numbers are small right now so i am taking it as a sign that we can be optimistic but we really need to wait a little while and see the numbers of. Enrolled volunteers close that we can really understand what impact this will have and rolled out at the population level so cautiously optimistic thats good im always interested though with with Something Like a vaccine about how it gets to the people you know joe biden was talking about it needs to be free for everyone and its got to get to wherever it needs it you know pfizer is a business all these other Drugs Companies their businesses as well i just wonder how much cooperation there will be in the end given the size of the situation. I think what we are seeing now is an unprecedented degree of cooperation and coordination on the International Level from Vaccine Companies even though pfizer is a company and obviously experienced at producing and rolling out treatments and vaccines the scale of rolling out a vaccine for covert 19 is unprecedented and the vaccine that has just shown such promising results requires. A cold chain it has to be kept at very low temperatures and it requires 2 doses so. Putting the the infrastructure of the clan and the management in place so that can be rolled out to the people who are 1st most vulnerable and then to the whole global population its going to require cooperation not just between the private sector and the u. S. Government but with governments across the whole world. From Georgetown Universitys Medical Center in washington thank you great to talk to you just before that pfizer news came out the World Health Organizations Decision Making body was meeting as covert 19 cases and deaths surge around the world the annual ministerial World Health Assembly is taking place after a shortened session back in may the w. H. O. Chief has called for Scientific Solutions and solidarity to combat the pandemic we might be tired of 19 but it is not dying of violence yes its preys on in we go home. But it preys on we can assume inequality division denounce we sure do you clean and we believe annoyance. Plenty more news coming up for you on the news are they claiming victory and meanwhile the ruling party which says its won enough seats to form the next government. Bolivias the former leader evo morales heads home after a year in exile in argentina. Swedish star striker areas slots on break him of it shows no signs of slowing down the reason hes told police he was going to sports a little later. Well move to some other news the latest round of libyan peace talks 1st of all which is happening in neighboring tunisia yam of the political dialogue is for elections to take place as soon as possible. As more. The United Nations has invited 75 delegates from libya chosen to represent an array of political viewpoints regional interests and social groups theyve gathered here in tunis to find a way forward acting un envoy Stephanie Williams is clear on the aim of the talks in tunis so. We are going to work with the 75 participants on a on the road map Going Forward the political roadmap Going Forward with the key objective being the scheduling of national elections. Cycles of violence for nearly a decade after the tribes and groups to dine market afy turned on each other. And it has morphed into a conflict in which regional and global rivalries are being played 8. Libya has had 2 rival administrations for years with the un recognizing the government in tripoli and the warlord Khalifa Haftar are leading his forces in the east last month libyas domestic warning sides agreed to a permanent cease fire such deals have failed in the past to stop the fighting but the un says the military officers have shown a sense of duty and responsibility and so it hopes for the same from the 75 delegates involved in the political talks here in tunis. Their host president. Said it was imperative libya remain a unified nation. Libya as unified nation some people talk of western and Eastern Libya but we tell them that libyans are one people this kind of rhetorical could lead to the division of libyas the tunisian people refuse this because they know that all libyans refuse it to us its a danger on the region as a whole as it could open the door to division in other neighboring nations with libya already desperate for normalcy the Global Pandemic has made worse the situation in the words of the u. N. Envoy to 19 has colluded with conflict libya is geographically nearby but a world away from the grandeur of this luxury hotel in tunis where in the next 6 days 75 delegates will attempt to chart its political future clearheaded it. Tunis u. N. Secretary general antonio terraces addressed the participants at that form urging the International Community to support the talks. Your commitment to this process will replace star leaving sort of an entity and the democratic leadership timoci of leaving the sea to sions as you engage in dialogue to resolve your differences your the to me nation will be tested however compromise is the only approach that to pave the road to National Unity you can count on the United Nations to support your efforts and i call on the International Community to provide strong backing as well including by and shooting full of the it is through the Security Council arms embargo the future of libya and all its people is greater than any parties an audio visual difference is very pleased to welcome Jonathan Winer to the new zines in washington former u. S. Special envoy for libya so well placed to talk to us about these talks actually before the tolls the 1st point i feel we should make is that the ceasefire has held and that is a massive massive platform isnt it to actually to be even be holding these talks in the 1st place well the talks could move forward so as people who are fighting one another surely strickly was being attacked sure there was continued efforts to conquer territory you cant have talks under such circumstances its good to see the foreign sponsors libyan factions supporting the ceasefire and the show so then what sort of hope do you hold out for these particular talks. Well the question will be can they find a package for a successor transition government that increases Peoples Trust and which keep intentional point case of course their appointees as a result of the dialogue that happens or people that libyans will say this is the right group we can work with this group this group represents us this group this fight is a transition its going to be hard to get what exactly they have to still trust its exactly what i suspect inside that what you just described sounds difficult because even though i mean weve heard people at these talks say you know we need to talk about libyans all libyans the fact is there has been this very stark divide through the country east and west facade along and that doesnt go away if in eyes you know it will not go away overnight but some individuals are trusted more than others people who initiated conflict people who are responsible for killing other would be if youre going to have a hard time i would think being in the most senior political positions the question will be are compromised candidates who can bridge develops help build an inclusive interim government theres a way for elections elections judy to have 2 or 6 libya has had elections theyve been able to choose their own leaders when antonio contests the u. N. Secretary general talked about the International Community supporting the talks how can the International Community do that when and again it comes back to those divisions so many different players from all over the world have been clearly supporting different sides for so long well that was true prior to the scrub agreement which was just about 5 years ago actually lost. The Foreign Countries that supported different factions told their clients you have to do you have to participate in this there needs to be a copper unless there has to be a solution and that is a critical critical prerequisite for success. Jonathan winer in washington d. C. Talking libya with us we thank you very much for your time sir. Here. Iraqi Security Forces are searching for attackers who killed at least 7 People Police say a gunman in 4 vehicles opened fire on an army post in western baghdad they used grenades and automatic weapons several others including soldiers were injured some Wonderful Team has more from baghdad. People have become gathering for the funeral of the victims of monday nights attack here in the village of seem south west of baghdad and the area where the incident happened is just 2 kilometers that where you can see this is quite a rule area and what we understand from eyewitnesses what happened was that there was an attack on a checkpoint manned by tribal forces at around 11 pm one of those people at the checkpoint was killed the other one managed to escape and get help from a civilians in these areas because these are essentially the families of the people who were manning those checkpoints and then people mobilized rushed to the site of the attack and exchanged fire with the attackers and india and a total of 4 people were killed. When we arrived at the scene and there was still shooting in the distance after that the Security Forces arrived to give support its unclear at the moment exactly who is responsible even though most people here believe that it could be isolated if that is indeed the case then this would be rather unusual because were very close to baghdad here were just a few kilometers south of the airport and we havent really seen any attacks by i saw in baghdad since the group was officially defeated in 2017 so if indeed it turns out that the group was responsible this would require a change in the security situation now what people here are saying the families of the victims is that these tribal forces which actually came into being in 2006 to fight alqaeda at that time that theyre not getting enough support and i dont have enough weapons enough equipment to actually be able to manage the security in this area. The area is kind of isolated and the 2 people manning the checkpoint there and they had a gun with 10 to 15 bullets no more when they are touched by fighters they cannot repel them they cannot protect the area and they make themselves easy targets now an investigation is ongoing the area is being searched by Security Forces so we will be waiting for the results of that investigation for further details. Officials in the disputed region of. The strategic city of shusha has been taken by forces from those claims that initially been denied thousands of armenians are fleeing the area this long line of traffic seen on the outskirts of the regional capital stickpin occurred as people tried to escape the fighting lets hear from. 7 in armenia this statement of the spokesperson im not going to cry about which was posted on facebook would actually be deferred admission from the armenian side that things did not go so well in shushi over the past 24 hours ever since president. In baquba said that. He was now under the control of the forces or what we heard on this side were deny both the ministry of defense in your event and the authorities in the going to care about saying that the fight was ongoing this morning actually saying that they were managing to put up a strong resistance and had managed to push back the their way forces from this south of shushi now now over here is the opposite from the spokesperson. But he actually also added that he is very forces were within reach of stefana kurt that would be. Another huge huge blow for armenia and over the past 48 hours weve actually seen civilians fleeing in large numbers as they penned occurred i spoke to some of them who described really very frightening situation from their point of view constant fighting calls that shelling and they said that life was it was not possible anymore in that town foreign journalists were also allowed vacuous 8 depend occurred over the past 48 hours. And now asama bin job and he is in the azerbaijan capital book weve been hearing these conflicting claims coming from the armenian site but it has been adamant defiance and celebrations here in the azerbaijani capital baku today the president came out and said that 23 more villages along the line of contact have been taken by Azerbaijani Forces and his forces are fully in control of fuchsia as it is known here in the by john youve also heard from the ministry of defense releasing a video of azerbaijani flag on various buildings in inside that strategic mountain top town which overlooks the capital of the de gorne a kind of awkward step on a card as its known in armenia and one can the as its known in azerbaijan aviv also heard from military sources saying that now the situation if you just look at the geography off in the east of hanukkah they have been able to manage to block off at least 3 sides of the supply routes from the southeast and southwest and also from the north and only in eastern cardon remains for the supply routes to come into this conflict and the capital of all different conflict the region so it is going to be difficult for the remaining armenian troops and the forces there to put up a fight. Lets return to our breaking news this hour the u. S. President donald trump firing his secretary of defense mark s. But in typical trump style he did it by tweet here it is. Actually the bottom line 1st please to announce that Christopher Seaman of the highly respected director of the National Counterterrorism center will be acting secretary of defense and in the up what you see will do great job mark s. But has been terminated i would like to thank him for his service were going to talk to Douglas Ollivant about the senior fellow in the future the war project joining us on skype from washington d. C. In this context douglas what do you think terminated means because what has caused what it was saying in a there was some talk but its been might leave anyway right weve heard rumors that esper was either thinking about resigning or was in danger of being fired for some time i think personally this came as a reaction to his being caught up in the walk across the Washington Mall through the demonstrators earlier this year both here and and german mily being caught up in that photo op of moving up cross the. Area cleared the demonstrators in the wake of that esper went out of his way to reinforce that the military has no role in domestic politics but things like the insurrection act are certainly not triggered by by some civil rights demonstrations and really push back against some of the things the white house wanted to do so in some ways this comes as no surprise i dont think however it has any real effect in these last 2 months. Having said that dont sit well ok so 1st of all the president can hire and fire who he or she wants that is that you know you know that that thats how it works but does this start to look like it could be the start of some some school settling a bit of not necessarily scorched earth in the last 2 months but the president doing what hes well maybe doing what hes always wanted to write i mean the you know as in the classic saying trump will be trump. I dont think thats really hurt mark asked for a professionally this probably pushed his reputation as he goes out the door now conversely a we have to feel bad for chris miller whos caught in the middle of this tweet is true chris miller is a highly respected. Who was unanimously confirmed by the u. S. Senate for his position at the Counterterrorism Center that said his expertise is technocratic expertise is quite narrow he is as his job title implies a counterterrorism expert a friend of mine to talk to before i got on air today said one im pretty sure he can tell us submarine from an Aircraft Carrier 2 out of 3 times now obviously theyre exaggerating for effect but the point is is that produces extremely narrow he doesnt know much about them maybe doesnt know much about the airports doesnt know much about the larger defense enterprise hes a highly skilled technocratic focuses on them or. Who else could be on the list i know were speculating here but stay has been plenty of talk about the lights of the the director of the f. B. I. And well where the truck can do it or not talk to felt she people have wondered for a long time as well. Right i think the names they get taught are tossed around our doctor found she gina haskell the cia director and and she said the f. B. I. Director are the names that are commonly tossed around as people who have pushed back against the president and that he might want to engage in a round of score settling with. Again that said it he may see what happens in the wake of this appointment and realize that hes really not analyzing these people very much again perversely i think asperse reputation will be blue weighed by the fact that he pushed back enough against the president that he felt inclined to fire him and to be fair a lot of these people would possibly be out of a job in january anyway when president elect Joe Biden Takes Office i mean sometimes there are secretaries who carry over in their job to a new administration but it doesnt happen that often it doesnt happen often so i know there will be a difference between purely political appointees secretary asked which sure to which is john as you know on the 20th or anywhere and longer term a point like doctor for algae serve several Administration Like f. B. I. Directors and to serve i believe its 10 year terms or 10 year terms other people tend to be in these offices longer and while theyre appointed by president s tend to stay through administrations but we start to see that class start to be fired thats of a slightly different cyclists all of them thank you for coming to talk to us once this news has been breaking the law stuff we appreciate it my pleasure. So you heard me mention there president elect joe biden to intents and purposes will be sworn in on january 20th but buttons transition to power may not be as smooth as he would line given President Trump is to refusing to concede when i look at this transition of power in the us through some models and scenarios which were created back in june this was the transition integrity project which came down a series of possibilities as to what could happen in the election and the transition using a number of politicians former politicians Governors Campaign manages a lot of the scenarios they came up with back in june did not and well they in fact look a lot like right now his nails gilman who we spoke to cofounder of the transition integrity project explaining the simulations his team ran through right well in june this year we ran a series exercises that basically tried to game out what could possibly happen if we had a president who was unbounded by norms and unconstrained by his own party and what we concluded was that you know the results of the game were that absent a decisive victory for joe biden. The threat to the integrity of both the electoral process itself and the transition to a new administration were potentially quite severe as in the games where the Election Results were very close both sides called their supporters into the streets with obviously great risk that there could be contest station a violent contestation between competing groups of protesters and in fact you know whats actually happened is that the election is not all that close republicans are claiming its close but in fact its not very close. You know there have been at least 10 elections in u. S. History that were closer than this one including 2016297696 extension 8 so in fact what we have is a situation where i dont think that the trump team has a real viable path to winning this election but im not sure that even thats their goal at this point what theyre trying to do is lay down a marker that the results are illegitimate so that they can continue to contest and fight the biden ministration into 2021 and beyond what he wants to do is be able to have a basis to continue to activate the 70000000 people who voted for him and the many more people who are fans of his and continue to use them to continue his career as a political celebrity and i believe that he will continue to do that and will continue to be in the spotlight criticize the existing administration perhaps even seek to run again in 2024 its very possible and now Steven Rogers has served as an adviser to Donald Trumps campaign in 2016 and he thinks they will he says they wont be this chaotic transfer of power. No one denies the fact that president drug has the legal right to challenge a lot of these state totals now saying that of course they have to have the evidence that should be presented to a court and then the court will make that this is ins outs as to whether there is legitimacy to the accusations that were made and so i have to wait and see what happens with the court but saying that its very important for the for the 70000000 people thats 70000000 americans who voted for President Trump to get clarity and to get closure and the way you do that is to listen carefully and watch carefully the course that the president has taken and look if it does not come out in favor of the president i am confident contrary to what the Mainstream Media is saying there will be a very clean dignified transition of power but saying that i believe the American People could rest easy president europe he loves this country hes worked very hard for years and keep in mind he could come back 4 years from now and he still will be a Major Political force in america whether in the white house or at a white house and that is very important as we move forward with congressional and senate races so you have President Trump threatening litigation against the vote counting process in several states and steven said that he has every right to his campaign has filed suits in georgia d michigan pennsylvania and nevada including allegations of late and invalid votes and campaign observers being denied adequate access to cases michigan and georgia have already been dismissed for lack of evidence none of the complaints provide examples of what trump claims is massive photo for once. I mean popes with us from london now shes a lawyer but hes also served in the u. S. Department of justice as deputy Homeland Security adviser to president obama also as counsel to former u. S. Senate majority leader harry reid i mean thank you for taking the time for us today as i read out those suits and the failure as already made it makes you wonder is this just a bit of a as they say in america or a hail mary of throwing anything at it and hoping that something sticks. I think thats what it is i mean President Trump has a long history in his private life of using lawsuit says a way of creating a new sense of creating some spin around his particular point of view and this seems to be more of the same there just doesnt seem to be the evidence of widespread voter fraud or irregularities here that would merit a court really taking action and frankly as the Electoral College numbers continue to go up in favor of a President Biden the likelihood that any lawsuit would be successful and have a Material Impact on the election is basically nonexistent ok so even with the limited detail weve got lets lets look at the allegations of late votes invalid votes. What are those allegations and do they hold up. Well in the 1st instance it seems to be that President Trump is characterizing as invalid any vote thats against him and thats just not the way the american system works hes also suggesting that votes that were properly cast on election day but were arrived at the Polling Centers after election day should not be counted for example in the case of pennsylvania interestingly though in pennsylvania they segregated those votes they did have the legal right to can to count them but they did segregate them and even not counting them pennsylvania still went for for president elect biden so again just not a lot of evidence to substantiate his claims. So. Im sorry just looking back at my script here when you talk about massive voter fraud i mean its that sort of emotive language which President Trump uses i just wonder how much or how difficult can all of this make life or the transition period for President Biden i mean president elect biden im sure he and his team will just want to ignore it and get on with it but its hard to ignore. Well i think the place where it could have a Significant Impact is how quickly president elect bidens teams could go into the departments and agencies to begin the transition process so under regular circumstances the loser would concede the race that would allow the federal government to ascertain the results of the race and then the transition officially begins right now that hasnt happened because President Trump has not yet conceded and so the race has not yet been ascertained that slows down the transition and at a time of a covert response and other real challenges for the American Economy that could have a Material Impact and it could be significant in terms of how quickly the Biden Administration can ramp up some good context and analysis there with amy polk joining us from london today thank you thank you peruse president is facing his 2nd impeachment trial in congress in less than 2 months mouth of his counters accused of accepting bribes with hundreds of thousands of dollars from companies that one public works tendons has kind of survived a similar proceeding in september which was part of a wideout bribery probe though he denies the allegations. So his money innocence is now in lima the capital of peru. To impeachment attempts in 2 months is quite something for any president whats he been saying today. Thats right kemal its unthinkable that in less than 2 months we are seeing another impeachment proceedings but this time president seemed very confident and he did not allow his lawyer to speak he defended himself for nearly one hour with where he the night categorically that he had done any wrongdoing in this case where he allegedly received bribes for about 630000. 00 he said he had never received any money that was when he was the governor of the Southern State or region of in peru now he during this hour that he spoke to congress he said that the these are accusations that are baseless and that because they are based on witnesses that are unofficial there have not been included yet in the investigations they are witnesses who have are talking to prosecutors and someone is leaking those talks to the press and the lawmakers are using these these leaks if you will to build this case and to unseat the president now the president has also said that theres been theres no proof of any wrongdoing we havent seen any so far and he said that theres no formal accusation actually he can be prosecuted but once he finishes his term in office in july of next year and there is a current investigation that prosecutors are leading now theres also something that the president question do today. Theres 2 different offices of prosecutors who are fighting to lead the investigation. Both cases and he said this is something that is an think of think of all that this is happening because really this could bring all the investigation to a halt because its not serious and also he questioned who may be behind all of this but the major question here is how is it possible that he. That he can be impeached twice is that he. Constitutional tribunal has to decide and say what is moral incapacity so the law makers interpret the law as they wish thank you for that update thats money in a son in lima peru still in latin america after a year in exile believe he is former president evo morales has returned home 61 year old was greeted by crowds of supporters as he walked across the border. Left the country last november after a violent protests and accusations of electoral fraud. In me and my son searches National League for democracy the n l d party has announced it is one enough seats to form the next government where the official results of yet to be released the governing party says that the numbers point to another landslide victory for the fall as a report from young. Myanmars governing National League for Democracy Party led by un santucci has claimed another landslide victory in general elections. Official results are yet to be released but the n l d says its confident it has won enough seats to be able to form a new government. Im so happy and thrilled that in the old he has won i believe our mother soon will make the best situation for our country being out of the way and i voted for an oldie because i want the best for my country and. I hope all newly elected candidates will listen to the ordinary citizens who voted for them. The celebrations began soon after polls closed despite pleas from the government to return home a sea of supporters clad in red put aside their fears about the pandemic and gather to show support for the governing party. Despite widespread vote cancellation in ethnic areas and speculation that covert 19 would keep people away from the polls the turnout on election day was high voting is still new in myanmar for most voters this is only the 2nd time in their lives that theyve had a chance to vote for the party of their choice and so people dont take this for granted even if they feel that the end of the is going to win in their constituency they still want to get out there to demonstrate their support to do their civic duty and i think there was an overwhelming sense of love. And the n l d it looks like in d. C. As im sure the vote has been reflected in the result 25 percent of the seats in mammals parliament was. For the military so that means that the m. L. T. Needed 2 thirds of the seats being contested in this election in order to gain enough power to choose the president who then in 10 will form the government although the n l d was widely expected to win there was a question about whether it would gain enough seats to meet that threshold but it seems the party has exceeded expectations early file aljazeera younger. Hong kongs prodemocracy politicians say they will all resign from the citys Legislative Council if beijing was to disqualify any one of them before it comes amid reports that chinas top legislative body is considering removing at least 4 they just slated for violating their oaths prodemocracy supporters have come under sustained pressure since beijing imposes its National Security go back to. Ivory coast president Alassane Ouattara has been officially reelected the Constitutional Court is indorsed the results of octobers election after opposition members disputed him running for a 3rd term in 38 people were killed in postelection violence. Now the leadership in ethiopia is no particular reason says the area has been hit by at least 10 government as strikes Prime Minister ordered the offensive against forces in the region 5 days ago accusing them of trying to break up the country says the operation will end soon and those responsible will be brought to justice the Prime Minister has sect his army chief the foreign minister and the head of intelligence sport is coming up for you on this news hour and baseballs bubble boy is back to create coronavirus awareness so hes paid it back and i know its. Were in a virus never far from the sporting world he has got news of another infection thats exactly right kemal the 2017 mortars culture have been Sergio Garcia will look play in this years event of the testing positive for corona virus the masters usually takes place around april but it was moved after the disease forced a global shutdown of sporting events garcia revealed and twitter page that he felt unwell over the weekend and decided to get tested for the virus along with his wife it tested negative little in the 21 year streak in which garcia has not missed a major championship. Garcia was playing at the houston opening takes us just in the last few days and thats where carlos ortiz has become the 1st mexican player to win on the p. G. A. Tour in 42 years he produced some fantastic shots in the final round on sunday to clinch victory it was a 20 foot part of the last of which generated the biggest cheer on tour since march and that is because this was the 1st event to allow up to 2000 fans on calls per day to his one play in this weeks masters and its victory does earned him a place in the tournament next year. Dont really have to have been hearing heres how he said texas like my 2nd home state there is going to have people here cheering for me bunch of latinos back to canton and obviously people from texas cheer for me to say it was saw something in front of them and im thankful. Over in italys let me bring him aventures showing no signs of slowing down the 39 year old ac milan striker who recently recovered from coronavirus himself has just become the top scorer in this season setting our milan were up against tell us where on and it was a great start over those 2 goal lead after 90 minutes in the 2nd half people him of each had a chance to equalise from the penalty spot but instead mostly stewed for the season eventually in stoppage time abraham of which is called the equaliser to rescue milan from defeat 2 to keep them at the top of the standings and puts the blame of each on 8 goals that you hear it will be dangerous this can still remember. The contrast in fortunes of spanish champions real madrid who were thrashed on sunday and their coach that in sudan is taking the blame for the 1st time andries leadership a real conceded 4 goals in a league match valencia running out for one winners of carlos becoming the 1st player to score a hat trick of penalties in a single Spanish League game this century it was also an own goal from a laugh over on it leaves rail 4th in the standings. It is difficult for all of us to understand what happened but yes clearly i am the one who is responsible because i am the one who has to find solutions during the game and he said we were not able to change things after they scored their goals and hows this for a shocking mistake this one in portugal has been feet lost ground in the premier league when they go keep the versts idea this is so of last quarter mice came out of this area against brother but this time the bouncers Francisco Mora got past them and scored a 2nd in progress 3rd of a 32 victory brodeur 3rd in the table the same number of points has been fico. To Major League Soccer and Thierry Henri montreal impact but hes the comeback victory against d. C. United to clinch a place in the playoffs montreal had been behind twice in the game but leveled out both science and romo kioto school the winner in the 88 minutes 3 to the final score and it ends a 3 game losing streak for the impact who will be the number 9 seed in the eastern conference. I really dont want to go because some of its in lost we wanted we didnt need in we didnt need. Anyone else to go through only day we did it on the day. Meanwhile on a very wet night in florida the team owned by David Beckham into miami also made it into the playoffs thats after a 21. 00 win over f. C. Cincinnati mikey ambrose amalie under Gonzales Peter aids scoring the goals miami go into the postseason as the number 10 see instill confidence. Rushing tennis player Daniel Medvedev will be one to watch at next weeks a. T. V. World tour finals in london hes moved up to full from the World Rankings after winning in paris medvedev was facing alexander very heavy in the final on sunday despite losing the opening set medvedev fought back to seal his 1st victory in the french capital and with it a 3rd masters title admitting his confidence was low coming into this tournament before the tournament i was not in my best form play not so that was a 0 finals year and i was actually going to college trying to my wife not brian but just complaining like oh my god i dont have a level i dont even have one final im playing so bad la la la so by now i am the winner of their seaward tournament. Motor sport now and chase earlier today following in his fathers footsteps by winning the nascar championship he wrapped it up at the phoenix raceway in arizona 24 years old chases the 3rd youngest champion in nascar said this is history and it comes 32 years old for his dad who in the one the title he was one of their spawns most popular drivers known as all simbu from dawsonville but now its the son who is the new face of the sport. And weve already heard that u. S. President elect joe biden has been invited to throw out the 1st pitch at the 1st home game of the Washington Nationals next year and on monday the 1st pitch in a south korean baseball game was thrown out by a leader are also known as the bubble boy who became very popular on the opening day of the season but he also threw out the 1st pitch he stressed in a bubble to promote social distancing during the 619. 00. Ok ill be here again a little bit later with another sports news update coming up thanks peter appreciate it finally a small group of tourists and visitors are trickling back to. Their heritage site in peru finally reopened shot in march of course due to the corona Virus Outbreak this report in charleville us. Much of picchu is not like any other place in the world as global covert 1000 cases surge and lockdowns cascade into effect its in can ruins have reopened. Much a big tournament but the 1st to enter much of peter really is a thrill all i can tell all peruvians and all the world is to come we have all the security measures it is very safe to be here and you will be well received. Eunice Co World Heritage sites closed in march because of coronavirus restrictions it officially reopened to this week but with Health Checks and capacity limited to 30 percent or 680. 00 terrorists a day the 1st visit was just yama in october the japanese tourist received a special exemption to into early after waiting for 7 months in a nearby town much you picchu sits 2400 meters above sea level where the peruvian andes meet the amazon basin archaeologists believe it was built in the 15th century as a century front in can empower it remains one of the most significant portals into inconsiderate eyes ation as perus top tourist attraction the local economy relies on the travel as it draws especially foreigners its closure affected nearly a quarter of a 1000000 workers shopkeepers in nearby cusco say they lost more than 2 thirds of their income and yet it has been super terrible because there were no tourists you can only see resident tourists who live here who live nearby and nothing else. Peru is closing in on 1000000. 00 cases of covert 19 with nearly 35000. 00 deaths for a country of 32000000. 00 people thats the highest per capita mortality rate in the world but cases are now decreasing and restrictions easing yes. Its been quite complicated for all of us who work in tourism the city basically lives off it and its been a very hard blow many shops are closed many people lost their jobs now the gates have reopened provings are hopeful brighter days are here shiela bellus al jazeera. And with that on hold on lauren tyler and the team in london are back in just a few months time and. My name is Matthew Castle i grew up jewish in america and i support the palestinian struggle against occupation when politics can pass and my mom saw me at a protest in chicago during a palestinian flag she told me i was no longer her son is it possible to be jewish im critical of zionism. I do palestinian solidarity work i think its the most jewish thing i can do what about the treatment towards the palestinians in the occupation of Gaza Al Jazeera correspondent. This underwater treasure is a risk of disappearing jews a coral bleaching caused by rising temperatures when we think about the great. Grey area of this country heritage its iconic litter is an Industry Based band says we will lose it instantly if we have another bleaching event of these magnitude if this continues it is just well the opportunity for the corals to recover in between those magic. Side to supporting full strong Climate Policy from the government to reduce emissions without this the situation on the get worse. With jealousy they still she doesnt exclude is if shes still a climber its battle the culture to look at our very very best of all the special occasions and for that people will spend money everything you see on the top while they do it here. If there is going to be longevity they have to come in to tell you things to my my dear on aljazeera d. A high profile dismissal President Donald Trump fires defense secretary marcus on twitter. And our intake of his aljazeera live from london also coming up a development that could change the course of the pandemic interim results from pfizers vaccine candidate show its 90 percent effective. The u. S. President elect welcomes the vaccine news as he assembles his Coronavirus Task force. Thousands leave the regional capital in the corner karabakh is fighting between as a