A new policing bill. And well hear from those displaced by south sudans worst flooding in 20 years and the people trying to help. In just under an hours time witnesses in the u. S. President Donald Trumps impeachment inquiry are expected to testify publicly for the 1st time these hearings could lead to an Impeachment Vote in the house of representatives so only these 3rd time in the history of the United States and then a trial in the u. S. Senate patrick or hain sets up our coverage. For a most the 1st day of his presidency there have been calls for Donald Trumps impeachment. But for the 1st 2 years with his party in control of congress it was more a longing from the left than an actual possibility until. The. Democrats won back control of the house of representatives in the 28000 election and some of the most left leaning members made clear their intention because were going to go in there were going to. That was not a sentiment shared by the speaker of the house nancy pelosi who resisted all calls to start an impeachment proceeding. Or after the conclusion of special counsel Robert Mullers investigation which left it up to congress to decide if the president acted appropriately in regards to russian interference in the 2016 election but that changed in Early September of this year when a whistleblower complaint came to light in it the still Anonymous National security official wrote of more than a half dozen officials who knew about a phone call between President Trump and the president of ukraine and they found it deeply disturbing the allegation was that trump was Holding Hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid meant for ukraine which is fighting off russian aggression intil the ukrainian president promised to investigate trumps potential political rival Vice President joe biden and his son hunter who had worked in ukraine in damage control mode the white house released notes from the call it did more damage because as the notes point out as the ukrainian president is promising to buy more u. S. Missiles trump responds quote i would like you to do us a favor though he goes on to ask for investigations into a debate Conspiracy Theory about the election and later brings up the bidens the president must be held accountable no one is above the law thats when democrats announced an impeachment inquiry would begin along with the president s almost daily defense of the call i made a call the call was perfect there was no way rove was there would have. No idea how they stuck me it didnt help in the president s own acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney went on camera and seemed to admit it had. Happened and i have news for everybody get over it theres going to be political influence in Foreign Policy he later tried to take it back well the white house made clear they would not cooperate define subpoenas for testimony and documents attorney bruce fein says that could backfire i was there at nixon what we did is ok that itself the defiance itself is an Impeachable Offense i will try yourself because the impeachment process becomes farcical if the president can simply withhold and block access to the relevant evidence some members of the Trump Administration have gone to court to ask a federal judge who they should listen to the president who says dont go or the congress that subpoenaed them to show up but while that will take months to work its way through the courts democrats are pushing ahead the 1st 3 to testify in public 3 long Time State Department employees they testified behind closed doors that the president did withhold hundreds of millions in military aid to ukraine because he wanted to debunk Conspiracy Theory and his political opponent investigated republicans have been struggling to defend the president but many seem to be settling on one strategy and i would make the argument that every politician in washington other than me virtually is trying to manipulate ukraine to their purposes menendez tried it murphy tried it biden tried it trumps tried it theyre all doing it they are all trying to manipulate ukraine to get some kind of investigation either and investigation or started investigation the everyone does it defense except no other president in the history of the country has been proven to do what trump allegedly did a slim majority of americans now support impeaching the president and removing him from office both sides we watching to see if that changes with public hearings the results could determine the president s fate in office and in the history books. Washington. White house correspondent kimberly hell kid standing by for us in the states 1st lets go to Heidi Jo Castro whos on capitol hill heidi just talk us through whats going to happen today. Well peter the star witness of this impeachment inquiry thus far is expected to take the stand in public this morning and that is Ambassador William Taylor who is the acting ambassador currently in ukraine and if this were a movie of the impeachment inquiry democrats would surely cast taylor as the protagonist theyre trying to get the public to see this situation through his eyes he has said before in closed door testimony that when he was asked to come out of retirement and take on that position and he of back in june he found himself in the middle of a mystery what he called weird circumstances his predecessor had been ousted with unexplained reasons and he knew that the president s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani was meeting with ukrainian officials trying to drum up these conspiracy theories that clip that involved trumps political opponents now taylor said he was very concerned by this he was a career diplomat with decades of experience in the Foreign Service so he went about immediately trying to figure out how this situation arose and to judge how concerned he should be and what he discovered he said was very alarming he said that through other conversations with other state Department Officials he discovered this was part of a Shadow Campaign that was sanctioned by President Trump and led by his attorney Rudy Giuliani with the purpose of getting these ukrainian officials to agree to publicly smear trumps political opponents at home by launching investigations into these conspiracy theories now the danger to all of this taylor said is that it would endanger ukraine who was a key ally to the u. S. In its effort to hold off right. And when taylor discovered this he also knew that the leverage that the Shadow Campaign was using to get this Public Statement on the investigations from ukraine was a white house meeting invitation that was dangled toward the newly elected president of ukraine and to make matters worse he says in his closed door testimony it got more insidious with time that instead of just the white house visit as the leverage he feared became the u. S. Military aid to ukraine the close to 400000000. 00 that ukraine was counting on to fund its resistance or to russia in the russian backed elements that was breaking out in civil war in ukraine and that is what elicited taylor to say in the most clear terms that we have evidence of in the text message to his fellow u. S. Diplomats he said i think it is crazy to withhold Security Assistance for help with a Political Campaign democrats are hoping that is enough to be the smoking gun in a sense to convince the public that what happened was wrong that there was a quid pro quo and that trump was involved here heidi thanks very much can be held following other developments for us to do with this evolving story today kimberly what are we expecting mr trump to be doing today. Now we expect that he will be watching these impeachment proceedings very carefully and we know that the president is already pretty agitated about whats taking place he has taken to twitter as he often does to try and set the news cycle hes also had his war room sending out emails to reporters to essentially make the case that this is a situation of the never trump Person HoldingCongress Hostage if you will that this is a partisan sham run by a corrupt politician the president tweeting not just never trumpeters but also read the transcript the transcript of his july 25th phone call with the ukrainian leader that he believes clears him of wrongdoing but in the midst of all of this well his war room is tweeting emails or rather sending emails saying that this is a divisive and distraction for the American Public theres another distraction peter thats taking place for the president well he might want to watch this in the comfort of his armchair inside the residence of the white house hes hosting the turkish president at the white house today and not only will he be is sort of taken up with those formalities but there will be a joint press conference now this is kind of unusual given the fact that the president needs bipartisan support right now as these impeachment hearings are taking place but he does not have bipartisan support when it comes to his syria policy particularly when it comes to the 5th fact that many in his own party believe that he greenlighted allowing the turks 2 to go in attacks the kurds that have worked alongside the United States to combat eisel so while the president needs all the support he can get today he is greeting a leader that many people feel the president was should not be so cozy with right now if you will so theres going to be a joint press conference peter theyre going to be some questions about syria policy but there are also going to be even more questions about impeachment what this essentially does is put the president. Or a microscope when it comes to his Foreign Policy certainly maybe not the day that he might like to have that happen kimberly many thanks so if it comes to impeachment how does the process actually work well it begins in the house which debates and votes on whether to bring charges against the President Donald Trump if that vote is successful a trial of sorts prosecute over by the chief justice of the u. S. Supreme court is then taken to the senate the 2 thirds majority vote is required in the 100 Member Senate to convict and remove the president historically impeachment is rare of the 35 attempts only 2 president s have been impeached and neither removed from office a 3rd president Richard Nixon resigned whilst the proceedings were underway Michael Isikoff is chief investigative correspondent yahoo news keeping us company here on aljazeera michael great to talk to you again whats the case that the democrats have to make here. They have to make the case that the president s dealings with ukraine constitute. Bribery high crimes or misdemeanors which is the standard way down in the constitution for impeachment of a president now as weve discussed before those words are open to many interpretations the and thats why you have heard over the last week or 2 the democrats sharpening their rhetoric dropping the words quid pro quo and using instead the words bribery an extortion sort of suggesting that there was pure criminality in the president s conduct with the ukraine now they could you know theyve got a very sympathetic witness to start out the hearings today mr taylor the charge daffaires in ukraine a west point grad a vietnam vet a career diplomat somebody who is trying to implement what was really the bipartisan policy of the United States to support ukraine against russian aggression and then was essentially kneecapped in his efforts to do so because of the meddling of Rudy Giuliani and these demands that political investigations be announced by president s alinsky in exchange for a white house visit and military aide what we can look for from the republicans today is to try to poke holes in the case its not clear theyre going to be able to get much ground attacking the credibility of mr taylor but they could raise questions such as did you ever speak to the president did you hear anything directly from the president that most if not all of what mr taylor knows is 2nd or 3rd hand coming through. The president s intermediaries ambassador sohn wind embassador volker so you know i think that the republicans will try to raise some questions about taylors testimony going down that lane but if they go to road the people that weve already heard from that the significant thing from them surely when it was behind closed doors was these were not wild card people giving testimony these work urrea diplomats these were career military individuals who were in the room they were the grownups in the room at the time of the process whatever the process may have been at the time that they were doing their jobs. Exactly and thats why the democrats are starting out with mr taylor who has an impeccable reputation theyve also got a 2nd witness today george kant who is the state Department Official overseeing ukrainian policy and hes going to support much of what. Mr taylor says but here is where its going to get interesting when republicans get the chance to question george cant because if you read his closed door testimony he did raise a did talk at times about prior concerns within the state department about hunter biden service on that board as a member of the Advisory Board of that company boris mudd that Rudy Giuliani and the president wanted the ukrainians to investigate now its going to be really interesting when republicans if they go down that road will adam schiff the chairman the democratic chairman whos presiding allows some latitude for the republicans to make that line of questioning about the bidens and i think you could. See some fireworks when that happens michael as you were talking so as were monitoring pictures coming to us from inside the chamber there on capitol hill im intrigued as to how you think we will frame this in the future you know hindsight yes of course its 2020 i think it was gerald ford who who leslie in his political career referred to the run up of the political demise of Richard Nixon as being a National Nightmare brackets but we didnt know it at the time will what were just seeing the beginnings of now be that level of political or quickness and soul searching for america. Look that is the question thats why so many people are going to be tuning in watching these in these hearings because we really dont know how theyre going to play with the American Public thats the challenge can democrats make the case to that small segment of the American Public that has not made up its minds about what Donald Trumps fate should be there we already know close to half if not a little more than half of the American Public believes he should be impeached and perhaps removed from office but you know its probably not quite enough when you have solid Republican Opposition in the house the ultimate jurors are going to be in the senate those Senate Republicans and can Public Opinion can the Public Opinion polls which now show Something Like between 49 and 52 percent of the public supporting impeachment will those numbers go up after these hearings over the next 2 weeks to the point where if its 5556 some of those republican senators who will be the jurors in a senate trial will start to abandon the president we dont know the answer as we sit here this morning well find out those answers im sure in the coming days and weeks Michael Isikoff in washington thank you so much quits talked. A lot more still to come for you here on aljazeera including a new interim president takes control the deal but theres a strong source of good to be exiled president able marlice. I know that most likely conditions throughout much of central and eastern china sunny clear skies along that south coast is going to just work its way into shanghai time which is a little bit lower 17 celsius its a warm day in hong kong at 26 at the range where he further to the south were watching this latest Development Across into the philippines that will head west as we go through friday could produce some flooding rains across into much of luzon and then we have got this case continuing slightly in shanghai feeding call the nice with a high of 20 celsius and was secure and fine across into india a little bit more activity across the fall northwest across into were dashed. Some showers on sunday across into pakistan for the next couple of days. Well into the fall south of india and across into show lanka and also by friday that sunny pushing towards new delhi but it should be a dry day unfairly wall with a high of 27. 00 and then the Arabian Peninsula temperatures have been coming down his deadly fighting pretty good set in the Morning Hours 29 celsius in doha say 28 across into abu dhabi then you will change as we head off into friday is we could just see possibly a stray shot but mostly quite of the clouds maybe some strong winds so some blowing sand and dust into rehab but still warm in doha a 28. Youre watching aljazeera welcome if youre just joining us the top story so far this hour in under an hours time witnesses in the u. S. President Donald Trumps impeachment inquiry are expected to testify publicly for the 1st time mr trump is accused of pressurising in print to investigate his political rival joe bidens family. A new wave of israeli air strikes in gaza has killed 13 people air raid sirens have also been sounding in southern israel 23 palestinians have died since tuesday when israel killed a Senior Commander of the armed Group Islamic jihad fighters in gaza have responded by firing at least 220. 00 rockets towards israel egypt and other International Officials are working to mediate a cease fire between israel hamas and Islamic Jihad harry force it is on the israel gaza border hi there any sign of this calming down at all. No sign of that at school yet weve just been hearing some more crunches of explosions inside gaza so more israeli firepower being unleashed inside the gaza strip as you say 13 people have been killed so far during the course of wednesday israel says its targeting Islamic Jihad fighters among those it says it has killed was a field commander. Responsible for a group of fighters in the center of the gaza strip Islamic Jihad the Palestinian Authority and also confirmed that and there have been a large number of rockets being fired out every few minutes really over the last 2 or 3 hours and earlier in the day as well there was a big bear raj so there is no sign yet that this is coming down there are efforts underway as you say both through the United Nations and egypt to try to mediate the big unanswered question so far is the exact extent to which hamas is going to get involved there was a statement from our saying that efforts to try to separate Islamic Jihad from hamas by israel would not be successful that they were standing together and fighting together however our sources indicate that so far and us has not been taking part its military big brigades not taking part in the rocket fire so far if there is a much bigger response if hamas feels that it has to to join in in a much bigger way than it has so far theyre not could lead the way towards a further escalation everything pretty delicately balanced as always in these in these moments of danger and on the israeli side of the border there are sensitive political issues which we should kind of blend into how we are the viewing whats going on there. Yes i mean one thing to note is this policy change away from blaming hamas for everything that comes out of the gaza strip 2 explicitly targeting and messaging against Islamic Jihad saying that thats the reason that they went after this Senior Commander on in the early hours of tuesday to try to stop the rocket fire that was coming out and more imminent rocket fire they expected him to be responsible for and that is who that they are going after in these rounds of airstrikes that have followed Benjamin Netanyahu made that clear in his Statement Today exclusively talking about Islamic Jihad not hamas one of his ministers said that they had changed that policy the other political consideration of course for the israeli Prime Minister is his current very tenuous hold on power hes the head of a 2nd Caretaker Administration in a row after 2 inconclusive elections hes facing down the prospects of an imminent decision by the attorney general whether or not to indict him in 3 separate corruption cases. Whether or not you want to believe the accusations that this there was a political motivation to this and most of the israeli political establishment on on various sides are saying no that this was a legitimate military operation he will still be able to use this in order to try to shape events politically and potentially come to some kind of a deal. Perhaps with his main rival benny gantz theres been a lot of talk about a unity government these conditions potentially make that easier to accommodate thanks very much hong kong has dismissed an application by university to stop the police from entering its campus after clashes with student protesters open night demonstrators are blocking streets in the city center for a 3rd day the government says all schools will close on thursday due to safety concerns. Bolivias Senate Opposition leader says shell work to hold a new president ial election soon as possible after being sworn in as interim president jeanine and theres took power after the former leader resigned and fled to mexico hes faced weeks of protests over a disputed election result to reserve who has the latest now from the capital la paz. Here in the situation seems to be calming down for weeks i can see right behind me there were roads mostly by opponents. Reports and said that fraud had been committed they have been going for weeks the president to resign well theres no people here right now and thats why i think seem to be calming down after an interim president was sworn in the situation is completely different in other parts of the for example where their road people are protesting against whats happening in the country what they say is the Legal Definition of an interim president and. An interim president on tuesday shes a conservative. Sworn in after a series of resignation within a. Movement towards Socialism Party and she says that her priority is to the countrys not clear yet how she is going to do that mostly because the. Planning to hold another Assembly Later this wednesday theyre saying. A designation was ego because there was no poor room in the assembly and theres also thousands and thousands of people who are vowing to protest to defend their being able to come back to this country the main priority right now for this. To calm down the situation in libya its not clear yet how shes going to do that because they havent reached out towards a large sector of society not only able supporters but also indigenous communities who are very much afraid of whats coming next theyre afraid that racism could be. The benefits that they want. The middle east the president of the Economic Situation across the country is getting worse because of the ongoing political crisis the. Demonstrations are. Supreme which will miss our soldiers being detained after forces opened fire on protesters blocking a road. Nearly a 1000000 people have been affected by flooding in sudan heavy rains in october and november destroyed homes and farms Aid Organizations say they are desperately trying to provide assistance to people already in dire need of help dozens of died and there are fears disease will spread has had a more. This is what the eastern town of people are in south sudan looks like now homes and schools nearly fully submerged people trying to salvage what they can and more and what they cant its the aftermath of weeks of heavy rain since october. On a school hed mastered at my school has been drowned by the floods a drying so much that people saw the river rising into their houses i ran into schools but even the schools were submerged and it was a good agricultural season we had harvested our crops but floods destroyed even though. I didnt george says he had to leave people or and come to south sudans capital juba for refuge back home very little has been spared by the floodwaters people here see its the worst theyve experienced in more than 20 years a state of emergency has been declared in 27 of the countrys 52 states more than 100000 people have been affected with almost half of them displaced over 76 people laws from the entire population of did you know 400000. 00 population have been have been displaced of which 200. 00 plus been have been seriously. We are calling so loudly humanitarian interventions. The floods have also destroyed farmlands raising fears that it will add to the problem of Food ShortagesAid Organization think the need for an urgent response is vital in a country where years of war has left 7000000 people in need of help to survive the 1st phase is to provide that immediate Emergency Response to try to get the people who are living in water to have access to what the beautification to have access to toppling the have access to or their medication to have access to medical needs those are the thing that we step to work on that and as i said on. The stand that we start to work on is to look at how to start the really work in an area where the what this data received the stack to really rehabilitate the what the point of people residents say theyre concerned there will be outbreaks of what a point is these is and they say they dont know how long they will have to wait in camps or in the open before the water level to recede and now for them to be able to go back home people morgan are just there are a quick story from Europe Venice recording its highest tide in more than 50 years leaving tourist wading through flooded streets Emergency Services have started to assess the damage while some Tourist Attractions are being completely inundated with water the city man blaming the exceptional flood levels on Climate Change and he said it will leave a quote permanent mark on venice. Updating your top stories live to capitol hill witnesses in the u. S. President Donald Trumps impeachment inquiry are expected to testify publicly for the 1st time in the next hour mr trump is accused of pressuring ukraine to investigate political rival joe bidens family White House Correspondent kimberly it has more. You know that the president is already pretty agitated about whats taking place he has taken to twitter as he often does to tries at the news cycle hes also had his war room sending out emails to reporters to essentially make the case that this is a a situation of the never trump ors Holding Congress hostage if you will that this is a partisan share run by a corrupt politician the president tweeting not just never trampers but also read the transcript the transcript of his july 25th phone call with the ukrainian leader that he believes clears him of wrongdoing now a new wave of israeli air strikes in gaza has killed 13 people raid sirens have also sounded in southern israel 23. 00 palestinians have died since tuesday when israel killed a Senior Commander of the Group Islamic jihad fighters in gaza responded by firing at least 220. 00 rockets towards israel egypt and other International Officials are working to mediate a ceasefire between israel hamas and Islamic JihadHong Kong Court has dismissed an application by university to stop the police from entering its campus off to clancys with student protesters overnight demonstrates his block streets in the city center for a 3rd day the government says all schools will close on thursday because of safety concerns the authorities who want hong kong is on the verge of a total breakdown of the rule of law. Venice has recorded its highest tide in more than 50 years even to its waiting through flooded streets the Emergency Services have started to assess the damage while some Tourist Attractions are being completely inundated with one city mayor blaming the exceptional floods on Climate Change. Bolivia Senate Opposition leader says shell work to hold a new president ial election as soon as possible after being sworn in as interim president shes jeanine and then is taking power after the former leader resigned and then fled to mexico hed faced weeks of protests over a disputed election result so more news on the web site has will keep you company from 15 g. Old twists and turns from washington i will see from tenshi tomorrow up next the bottom line. And the differences. And the similarities of cultures across the world. Hi im Steve Clemons and i have a question whats brewing in heartland america are classic republican strongholds going wobbly and are democrats poised to turn a lot of red states blue lets get to the bottom line. Many local elections were held across the United States last week and both parties found reason to celebrate virginia turned from red to blue and as a sign that times are changing to muslim women were elected to Public Office in that state elsewhere republicans held their ground and even made some gains so is there a National Trend here or there are just too many unknowns like impeachment which is going to get really big this week and the lack of a democratic challenger to face donald trump but were fortunate today because we have 3 people in this room who just have all the answers are brought