The 7 wonders of the world could collapse. A central figure in the trunk of an inquiry has changed his testimony appearing to further employ kate the president or she intends a bastard to the gordon song and has admitted donald trump used military aid to try and force ukraine to investigate joe biden one of his political rivals heidi joe castro reports from washington d. C. The only witness to have explicitly defended President Trump on the central question of the impeachment inquiry has reversed himself that question is whether trump withheld Security Assistance from ukraine in exchange for help with his reelection campaign. Bassett or gordon solomon at 1st says there was no quid pro quo but after being implicated by other witnesses he says his memory has sharpened in someones amended testimony released choose. De the Ambassador Says he now remembers telling you crane officials that the security money wasnt coming unless you cranes president publicly announced investigations into trumps political rivals all of the witnesses agree that the president engineer a shakedown of the Ukrainian Government sandlin was a wealthy trump donor and was rewarded the top european job despite having no experience in diplomacy analysts say his change in testimony strengthens the case against trump i think the president if it can be shown that he directed his subordinates to withhold congressionally funded military assistance until the state of ukraine was prepared to issue a public announcement that they were investigating joe biden and a firm connected to his son i think thats right down the middle line of abuse of power investigators also released the testimony of former ukraine envoy kurt volker he said he knew security 80 ukraine was vital and that trumps shadow policy directed by his private attorney was wrong but im appalled by these developments. Theres no other word for it were in a moment of history when republicans over only a few weeks have shifted from saying that no laws were broken to saying that laws were broken but its not impeachable to outright advocating that laws be broken the white house says the witness testimonies released tuesday do more to exonerate the president than to condemn him a spokeswoman points to a line in solomons testimony in which she says he quote did not know and still does not know when why or by whom the aide was suspended but those are the very questions that investigators want answered and the white house itself is keeping the witnesses who may have those answers from testifying heidi joe castro aljazeera washington and another blow to donald trump a year ahead of the 2020 president ial election democrats have been seated a number of republicans and state elections despite efforts by trying to rally support a day earlier democratic candidate and even share has claimed victory in the race for the governorship of kentucky and in virginia the democrats have gained control of both houses of the General Assembly for the 1st time and more than 2 decades. At least 15 people have been killed in an overnight attack and thailands south gunmen stormed a checkpoint in yala province believed to be part of it part of a separatist movement armed groups have carried out attacks in the muslim majority region since 2004 as a curate official described wednesdays attacks as one of the biggest in recent years wayne hay is following these developments from bangkok. This attack took place at around 1120 on tuesday evening in yellow province one of the 3 southernmost provinces in thailand bordering malaysia where several armed groups have been fighting for years for independence or autonomy from thailand which is a predominantly buddhist country the target of this attack appears to have been Defense Force volunteers these are people from local communities who are recruited by the Thai Military they are armed and trained by the thai army to act as exactly what theyre called Defense Force volunteers they do things like man checkpoints and they are often targeted by the separatist groups even though many of them are muslim themselves because they are seen as traitors they are seen as symbols of the state that they are fighting against highly unlikely that well get a claim of responsibility for the this attack we never really get them in the deep south but we know that the group that is responsible for most of the violence is believed to be be our ran by resign revolution or the National Revolutionary front interestingly the timing of this could be to do with the stored Peace Process when peace talks have taken place over the last few years the key faction within that is believed to be responsible for most of the violence in the deep south has not been involved in those talks it refused to take place because the conditions werent right what were hearing now is that that faction of b. Are in may want to talk now that we have a new government in place in thailand after the election in march so this attack in yala province on tuesday evening may have been a signal to the government that it is ready to talk and if the government is not willing to get back around the table and have negotiations then the attacks may well continue. China and france have signed a trade deals worth 15000000000. 00 and this president and chinas shushan paying announce their agreements after a meeting in beijing the deals over aeronautics energy and agriculture including of who voted for 20 French Companies to explore poultry beef and pork to china or just risen lebannon are back on the streets for a 3rd week demanding the fall of the government are gathering outside government buildings in a bid to force the entire ruling elite to step down Stephanie Decker joins us live now from beirut where you are rather its clear that the crowds are still going strong stephanie whats happening where you are. Thats right well you can see that a group of protesters actually were going to local courts and also in front of the ministry of justice here in the capital calling for accountability this is somewhat of a change in strategy or showers through as you know theyve been blocking roads yesterday the army yet more force than usual i mean still restrained but very clear that orders had been given to clear the roads to clear the highways to allow traffic to flow to allow people to get back to their daily lives so whats happening now is that people are coming to government Institutions Companies like the Electricity Company which a Company Communications company because also charges here are mobile phones and internet charges are extremely high all these issues that people want to see address the message years of accountability richelle they want to see the next step happening which is the president announcing a date for consultations basically meaning at the event of a new Prime Minister and this interim government to be formed Everyone Wants to know what kind of shape thats going to take and whether thats going to be acceptable. Step. One of the rallies and they wrote stephanie thank you. Russian air strikes have had a hospital in serious and lead province killing at least 3 children rescue workers are still trying to recover the bodies from the rubble several medical staff are among those injured russian and Syrian Government strikes have been pounding the last remaining rebel stronghold in the past week and at least 12 people have been killed and its attached to her bargeman from the turkey syria border unfortunately this is not the 1st time that the hospitals and medical staff have been caught in the middle of all this. Indeed strikes have targeted many medical facilities over the last few weeks in those areas weve just been in touch with the director of that hospital that was targets basically he said that many people were injured mostly evacuated to other hospitals of the hospital is now out of service which means that many people who live in the in the area wont have access to any medical facility any time soon and this poses enormous challenges for the medical stuff in the area what is happening now rashad is that the russian government backed by russian fighter jets are targeting rebel positions in the desk of deescalation so these are areas we were not supposed to be targeting following the 2018 agreement russia signed with turkey and now there are also rebel positions in by thats another man in chief well enough k. In men if it is just south of it look at it seems they are trying to push all the population north to woods was the city over it did for them to be able to contain the area of the seas it paving the way for what they say could be a final push to take over it live which is the rebels last stronghold in syria all right with the latest on the turkey syria border thank you. In the coming hours iran is expected to take further steps away from the 2015 nuclear deal and began activating its Nuclear Enrichment facility tehran plans to start injecting uranium gas into centrifuges at an underground area near the city of comb that decision was announced by iranian president Hassan Rouhani on tuesday the u. S. Is call the move quote a big step in the wrong direction in the use says it is also concerned. Still ahead on aljazeera keeping up the pressure iraqis continue to vent their anger against the government despite the mounting death toll and United States waits into a dispute over a controversial dam on the river nile. I know there are very unsettled picture across much of europe some heavy rain some strong winds and a huge amount of cloud as you can see the Central Mediterranean is where the next strong winds will be along with the rain and this example of those strong winds actually just south of corsica the French Island of course and as you can see here some pretty strong ways because of those very strong winds some warnings in place through wednesday across the central areas in very heavy amounts of rain again those gusting winds and then elsewhere its just a very unsettling cloudy picture time which is of course quite a bit lower. Just 9 celsius and london and fairly heavy rain for the tools east notice the mild air pushing up into most cases 11 celsius and still this particular portion of europe remains warm and dry as well and how much is above the average that rain across the central med works its way eastwards as we head on through thursday and as i say its a system off a system set by theres a new system taking the place of the old one across much of the north and the west of europe again some strong winds and some pretty persistent areas of rain now image thats how much is in book rest of this for the next 3 days wednesday 24 celsius kissed sunny skies just as one celsius below the actual record temperature in november and even the bubbling up thursday and friday its still stateswoman this time which is still above the average. From the london Broadcast Center to special guests and conversation they only want to protect life. I was making for you or your old unprompted uninterrupted black useful for as long as weve been fighting back have been labeled as terrorist intimately reflecting on the issues of our time people like to think that theyre not listening is not as good as someone elses National Studio unscripted coming soon on aljazeera. Lets recap the top stories right now a crucial figure in the truck then pietschmann and corey has reversed his testimony. To the new borns on one has admitted his military aide to try to force your brain to investigate his democratic rival joe biden. Are in lebanon are gathering outside government buildings in a bid to force the anti are willing to leap to step down or testers have criticized the government for delays in forming a new cabinet after Prime Minister saad hariri resigned russian airstrikes have hit a hospital in syrias province killing at least 3 children askew workers are still trying to recover the bodies from under the rubble several medical staff are among those injured. Yes president on a trump has offered to help mexico wipe out the drug cartels blamed for an attack which killed 9 americans 3 women and 6 children were killed near the northern town of ice after members of a cartel are believed to have opened fire on their cars Security Officials say the gunman may have mistaken them for a rival gang a warning now viewers may find some of the continents on home and story disturbing this burnt up car a mute witness to a tragedy this is for the record i need and for my grandchildren are burr. Shot up. Right on the road out of the motor. 3 women and 6 children from the liberal family mormons originally from the u. S. Who settled in mexico decades ago was shot dead on the motorway you know the myths go this was one of the relatives said trevor i used to live and also dead twins 6 months old the survivors a baby found by the side of his dead mother and children who fled into the mountains alex labor on a relative told us. Once. What. Was the lead but owns a well known emits code for the anti violence activism of some of their members because they u. S. Citizens that meant President Donald Trump got involved he tweeted that it was time to wage war on the cartels president hope is over the door while he welcomes u. S. Corporation rejected. The worst they could happen is war those who have read about it all suffered it know they. Past experience says the president opens up a door hes probably right more than a decade ago but scary started an all out confrontation with the cartels and all that happened with this but hes in a tight spot now about 3 weeks ago his security minister said that his government was getting on top of the violence but since then its been hit by crisis after crisis 1st of all 14 policemen ambushed and killed in the Western State of michu account then in the alleged cult a leader who met during coolly kind well the city. And now this and although this case is attracted more published the its not a lawyer you know this unfortunately part off sort of the mutation of criminal warfare on off mexican organized crime that has seen over the past years is that family members Children Women innocent bystanders and general regular civilians are not off limits anymore for this kind of file its need of the police no president will preserve those new National Guard seemed to have been enough to set those boundaries and theres a continuing cost john home and how does it a myth scarcity. Hundreds of inmates have been released from prison across the u. S. State of oklahoma its the largest single day reduction of sentences an American History in maytag convictions for drug and property related offenses the release as part of a measure by the new republican governor kevin state to cut the number of prisoners and save the state nearly 12000000. 00 oklahoma has one of the biggest prison populations in the u. S. An advisor to the u. S. President on a trump left court early on the 1st day of his criminal trial complaining of Food Poisoning as political consultant roger stone is facing charges connected to Robert Mullers and best a geisha and to allege russian interference in the 2016 election so did not guilty to obstruction of justice witness tampering and lying to the house of Representatives Intelligence Committee the u. A. E. Is integrating more than 2 dozen Defense Companies to form one of the middle east largest defense conglomerates the new group formed by abu dhabi will be called edge and will invest in Artificial Intelligence as well as research and development that will tackle tackle Cyber Security and drone threats the u. A. E. Is one of the top buyers of western arms and Defense Systems mostly from the United States. Recognize government has signed a power sharing deal with southern separatists the agreement was brokered by saudi arabia names to end months of violence between Government Forces in the u. A. E. Backed fighters heres our diplomatic editor james pace. A deal is signed that its hoped may bring peace to one part of the violent war in yemen presiding at a ceremony Saudi Crown Prince mohammed bin so man those signing the government of yemen president had he a key saudi ally was among those present and the Southern Transitional council which was strongly backed by the United Arab Emirates even though all the while theyve remained part of the Saudi Led Coalition in yemen the real war in yemen is obviously between the hard government saudi that coalition and the who are these so this is just a sideshow and this is kind of a small breakthrough in the sideshow that only occurred very recently at the u. N. In new york the deal was welcomed by the u. K. Ambassador the current president of the u. N. Security council and this is a good step forward and equipment that brings the satin Transitional Council into the government and we hope that the agreement will last and will be the 1st step if you like on to increase momentum to get across yemen political process yemens conflict is complex and multidimensional southerners have long had grievances the south was a separate country for much of the cold war but its worth noting th