good evening and live from america s news headquarters, syrian rebels say a cease-fire dealing allowing for the evacuation of fighters and civilianes from eastern aleppo is back on hours after it collapsed. the evacuations were supposed to happen early wednesday but air strikes and shellings started up again. according to u.n. estimates there were about 1500 rebel fighters and 50,000 civilians in eastern aleppo on tuesday. closing arguments scheduled for tomorrow in the death penalty case of the suspected charlston church shooter, the lawyers for dillon roof resting their case after a judge ruled they could not present evidence about his mental health. now roof is accused of killing nine black parishioners at a south carolina church in 2014.
trial. the man confessed to killing nine at the charleston, south carolina church. he faces 33 criminal counts and death sentence with the jury set to get the case this afternoon. let s get the latest from cnn s nick valencia. reporter: john and alison, this case is in the making for more than a year. if roof had his way, he would plead guilty on the condition that the death penalty removed from the table. prosecutors were unwilling to budge. they went forward with the case and over the last week, they painted dylann roof as a cold blooded calculated killer who meticulously planned the attack. they read from his manifesto and read from the web site which appears to show admiration toward white supremacy and hatred toward blacks. they also highlighted a sheet found in his room which investigators believed was fashioned to imitate a kkk hood.
footage of a new deal that s emerged just this morning very early. those people are leaving under a new deal, and it includes something of a quid pro quo. the civilians that were blockaded into pro-government villages in idlib north of aleppo will also be evacuated, and this was at the insistence of iran. the russian ministry of defense said this morning that the first convoy of buses carrying some 5,000erab5 tho5,000 rebel fighters and the families had left the previously rebel-held neighborhoods of aleppo. most will be taken to idlib, a rebel-held province in northern syria. matt bradley, thank you. back here, closing arguments beginning shortly in the trial of dylann roof. roof has confessed to killing nine black people in a mass shooting at a historic south carolina church. that churchl in charleston, south carolina. emanuel ame. on wednesday, defense attorneys rested their case without
i m not suggesting that. but in terms of the strands of this, in terms of the shadow that this will cast on the trump presidency, it is very much like waterigate, which was about the 1972 election and then the next three years until nixon s resignation, were all dominated by that. to be clear, this is not right now at least, this is not a partisan issue. you have the senior senator from south carolina, lindsey graham, the senior senator from arizona, john mccain, other prominent republicans as well saying there may be more to this than meets the eye. let s pivot. i want to talk about the news conference. we were supposed to hear from him today about his business entanglements, if you will. that did not happen. peter alexander reporting it s because aait s so complex, they need time to figure it out. here s what kellyanne conway said about it on morning joe. getting this right before you announce it is what s important. that s what i have been told by the legal experts and protoco
tomorrow will come closing arguments to the jury. they ll decide the fate of the killer who confessed to killing nine innocent people in an historically african-american south carolina church. chilling surveillance video shows roof walk into the emanuel ame church on june 17th of last year, prayed with a bible study group and went on his rampage. nick valencia is covering the trial. nick, the defense tried to call two mental health experts to the stand but we did not hear from them. why not? reporter: the defense has put up very little fight over the past week. that s what we anticipated. we knew the defense wouldn t really cross-examine any witnesses and perhaps not call witnesses of their own. before court ended today, the defense attorney for dylann roof attempted to bring two mental health experts, the judge denying that motion. we can only assume that because a competency hearing for dylann roof before the trial he was found mentally fit to stand trial. the judge during the exch