Sri lanka former president Banda Rajapaksa is sworn in as Prime Minister joining his brother to run the country. Back with support joins him a raynier takes training at tottenham for the 1st time and says hed relishing the chance to develop the clubs younger player. A man once considered an ally of donald trump has linked the president s decision to withhold military aid to ukraine with a push to have kiev investigate his political rival but Gordon Sandland said that he has no evidence that trump ordered that directly the Us Ambassador to the e. U. Testified before the impeachment inquiry on wednesday sandland implicated other top officials saying that everyone knew what was going on and the inquiries a major topic in the latest democratic president ial debate candidates attacked trump accusing him of being corrupt and a criminal. In a few hours theyll be more testimonies were expecting to hear from the white houses top russian expert fiona hill and from david holmes a stuff at the u. S. Embassy in ukraine lets wrap it all together now with an official in washington. From the u. S. Ambassador to the stunning testimony. Said it was abundantly clear to everyone ukraine would not receive military aid from the u. S. Or a meeting at the white house unless it announced an investigation into a Company Connected to the son of political opponent question joe biden was there a quid pro quo as i testified previously with regard to the requested white house call and the white house meeting the answer is yes. Sunderland previously denied the security it was conditioned on the biden investigation but he told the Impeachment Panel it was in the absence of any credible explanation for the suspension of aid i later came to believe that the resumption of security aid would not occur until there was a Public Statement from ukraine committing to the investigations of the 2016 elections and were recently and he insisted senior figures on the administration knew what was going on including the Vice President and the secretary of state everyone was in the loop the suggestion that we were engaged in some irregular or rogue diplomacy is absolutely false im not sure how someone could characterize something as an irregular channel when youre talking to the president the United States the secretary of state the National Security adviser the chief of staff of the white house the secretary of energy he said trump insisted u. S. Diplomats what with his private attorney Rudy Giuliani on handling ukraine so we followed the president s orders sundin says giulianis direction on ukraine became more insidious with time in early july a coveted white house visit for ukrainian president let him use a lengthy was dangled as an award for ukraines cooperation which but later so england testified it became upon that the 400000000. 00 in security aid was also on the line someone testified that in a phone call with the oval office he asked trump an open ended question what did the president won from ukraine the answer he wanted nothing and republicans and the president claims that proves the impeachment hearing is a waste of time its over and some of the fair friends of which there is a deal mike said this thing is over nancy pelosi said competent shes gotten nothing done in congress and now with their big star witness is going to be their star witness and. So you know i dont know very well from a little witness confirmation the ukrainians asked why it was being held up as i think quality coming sooner than previously reported my staff showed me 2 unclassified emails that they received from the state Department One was received on july 25th at 2 31 pm that email said that the Ukrainian Embassy and House Foreign Affairs committee are asking about Security Assistance democrats called sunderlands testimony a seminal moment it goes right to the heart of the issue of bribery as well as other potential high crimes or misdemeanors but we also have heard for the 1st time that knowledge of this scheme was pervasive republicans continue to insist the president did nothing wrong that the hearings their waste of time and money the latest attempt to remove an elected president but this testimony from a trump loyalists mean democrats moving closer to impeachment and republicans rethinking how to defend the president alan fischer aljazeera Washington Well as we reported u. S. President ial hopefuls heavily criticized donald trump during their latest debate with think impeachment inquiry an unavoidable backdrop 10 candidates took to the stage in atlanta they included front runners Joe Biden Bernie sanders and Elizabeth Warren each made accusations against trump all of Bernie Sanders said they shouldnt become obsessed. We the president was not only a pathological liar he was likely the most corrupt president in the modern history of america but we cannot simply be consumed by donald trump because if we are going to walk were going to lose the election American People of is that the congress can walk and chew bubble gum at the same talk it over words we should deal with trumps corruption but we also have to stand up for the working families of this country we have a criminal living in the white house and there is no question that in 2020 the Biggest Issue before us until we get to that tender moment is justice is on the ballot and what we saw today is ambassador by his own words told us that everyone was in the loop that means it is a criminal enterprise engaged in by the president from what we heard today the Vice President the secretary of state and the chief of staff jocelyn sage mitchell is assistant professor at Northwestern University and he said she says that impeachment was always going to be a big talking point for the democratic president ial hopefuls there was a focus on the impeachment especially at the beginning i actually thought it was a really good move on the part of the debate organizers to start with the question because its the elephant in the room or the circus in washington d. C. You might say but at the same time i dont think they dwelt on it because the candidates really dont have any daylight between them on this issue which is virtually everyone on that stage agrees that President Trump may have committed impeachable offenses and that its important for congress to take seriously their their constitutional duty to protect our democracy so after that original question we we seem to move forward into actually quite a substantive and strong debate for many candidates you know it was interesting the speculation at the begin. Of this of this debate previous was that people may get a lot of attacks by his fellow candidates and this is because he has just had a very strong holing in the state of iowa and the reason why iowa is important is because its the 1st state for the primaries in in february of this next year and he was the top the top candidate in that recent poll but we didnt actually see this huge ganging up on on people we did see Elizabeth Warren once again have an extremely strong debate the main focus was on her from the start she dominated the 1st hour finish strongly ended up with the most speaking time but actually all 4 of the top tier candidates including Bernie Sanders joe biden and people. Had strong debates and so did the 2nd tier candidates cory Booker Harris and. And also which are and the most important thing here was that the message in tone overall was this message of civility and unity its very clear that the democrats are trying to portray themselves as the adults in the room and in direct contrast to the circus that is the trump white house. China says that its ready to retaliate for the u. S. House of representatives passed a bill calling for human rights to be upheld in hong kong the legislation has already been approved by the senate and now goes to President Trump chinas accused washington of interfering in its an internal affairs of the someone to an american diplomat in beijing in hong kong around 100 student protesters inside a University Campus surrounded by police lets take you live now to hong kong on the scene as scott hyla can tell us more about whats been happening today scott. If you will we know that at least several is the best way to characterize it students have left the public Technical University did theyve been holed up in there for the last 5 days we know several have kind of come out trickled out i should say over the last 24 hours you know and word coming out from the protesters who are still in there the team didnt characterize as hardcore protesters that are still in the university itself they are standing strong they stand there looking for support getting word out to people who are coming to take care of them to talk to them who have come out and that message has been in day dont why were here were at that you long empty are the metro station now this is something well probably see some protesters come out in the next hour or so age and that is because if 4 months ago today there was really a turning point in this protest movement and that was when the protesters returning from a gathering deeper into Central Hong Kong came here to this train station and they were attacked by a mob now part of the reason why they mark this day every month is because they view it as yes because that was an attack a turning point where there was violence perpetrated against the protesters specifically because of who they are but also because they feel as though justice hasnt been has prevailed by those who carried out those attacks so probably see several 100 gathered here later theyre characterizing it as a sit in that should happen in about the next hour adrian and scott whats been the reaction now that but the house and the senate have passed this hong kong democracy act in the states. Well the government here in hong kong came out almost immediately and condemned the passage of the bill in both the senate and now we know in the house of the whats left to be signed by president coming out of beijing demanded actually that he vetoes presence of. That bill but also here the local government came up pretty quickly condemned it saying this is internal matter for hongkong and these bills are really only making things worse for the situation actually feeling the fire it kind of has a knock on effect weve seen in the markets in china and here in hong kong dipping a little bit lower today for the 2nd day because theres concern that if this bill moves forward it will have economic implications and that could prompt retaliation china and the United States when it comes to ongoing trade wars are going to knock on effect on the economy as it already has here in hong kong but its built to provide even more impact to that aljazeera scott highly reporting live from Hong Kong Scott many thanks indeed this is the news hour from now c. N. N. Still to come on the program we meet the iraqi women challenging tradition as antigovernment protests sweep the country. Taking aim at the government thousands of indias Indigenous People protest outside home and against plans to the victim. And in sport tennis section for the davis cup as the hosts play the defending champions. Lankas newly elected president go to rajapaksa has sworn in his own brother as Prime MinisterMahinda Rajapaksa served as president for 10 years ago to buy rajapaksa has vowed to be tough on Security Issues in light of the east of bombings that happened earlier this year lets go live now to colombo smell fernandez well tell us more about the swearing in ceremony. Basically adrian after the victory of good hobby rajapakse on the 16th of november he obviously has the ability to appoint a Prime Minister of his choosing but that was enabled by the fact that the serving Prime Minister running a vicar missing her actually tendered his resignation now obviously his 1st and most obvious choice was his elder brother the former president by that rajapaksa. Political experience he had said during the campaign that mind the rajapaksa would be appointed the Prime Minister under his watch so obviously the parliament the term of parliament will can go on until march 2020 but in the meantime with the resignation of the Prime Minister on a victim missing her. Has brought in mind the rajapaksa as the new Prime Minister like i said this was enabled with the bowing out of run over missing her as we saw yesterday. Running the vicar missing who went on television to address sri lankans about his decision to step down by the about very opposite people not even though we had a majority in parliament we accept the mandate received by mr rajapaksa decided to allow him to form a new government as he wishes. His announcement came after he called his cabinet to a meeting at his official residence on wednesday for some members of his party its high time for change even the United Russia Party needs new leadership to move forward new people need to come and take responsibility and particularly because the general election will be coming closely because singh has led the United National party for 25 years drawing increasing criticism for not handing over the leadership hes party helped defeat the government of bahrain the rajapaksa brother of the new president in 2015 but lost support when it failed to keep election promises to bring changed. And stamp out corruption he was sacked by prison might upon the city seem to belong. Only to be reinstated by the Supreme Court which ruled that was unconstitutional. And basically the rajapakse is have gotten down to business just behind me the official Prime Ministers office and the crowd and the excitement you see is just within the last 2 minutes weve had the rise of the new Prime Minister mine the rajapaksa hes come here to formally take up his work to start work as his brother did after his swearing in so its an all rajapaksa show the president go to Harvard Rajapaksa and his brother behind the rajapaksa they have their work cut out for them obviously during the campaign National Security was earmarked as a top priority particularly after the east the bombings in april i mean that was one of the cornerstones of the entire Rajapaksa Campaign that they would work to bring back National Security the cheers you hear again is the support base sort of rising up and cheering for that arrival of why and the rajapaksa but beyond this euphoria theyre going to be sort of very conscious of the mountain that they have to surmount in terms of not just the National Security element but the economy shrank an economy has taken a hit after those easter bombings and already sort of a weakened economy with huge Debt Repayment and pretty bad Economic Indicators so all of these things are sort of a big challenge for the rajapaksa it will be 6 sort of new 42. 00 days obviously celebrating that victory of the rajapakse sort of taking control but there will be sort of the reality setting in and theyll have to get down to work and fast. Enough amandas reporting live from colombo you know many thanks d. G. Is executive director of the National Peace council in. Dependent Nongovernmental Organization he joins us now live via skype from colombo good to have you with us sir let me just get something straight here the president has the right to appoint a Prime Minister but but where does the power lie in the sri lankan with the president or with the Prime Minister whether that remains to be seen. Usually used to be the president but. In 2015 that was the 19th amendment to the constitution which reduced the president s powers significantly. This is going to be a new ariens matter really now because. That was a transitional process which given the previous president some powers some instruments it remains to be seen how desboro about. Tumblr i dont accept we did a very big majority if youve got 200 people who will indeed well consider a vote. But the new Prime Minister the president s brother will only oversee out a former president himself will only ever see an interim government its that right theyll be parliamentary elections sometime next year yes he will expect that let me mention them or let somebody else after much so your Prime Minister is what you have a short time but hes a very experienced politician and he actually doesnt really buy in that d people are very popular with