A 4 year ban of from all major sporting events including the tokyo lympics and football world cup in qatar. Paulo we begin in syria where russian and Syrian Government forces are escalating their assault on the last rebel held province and strikes have caused a mass exodus in observers say 18000 people have been displaced by the ongoing bombardment in just 24 hours dozens of civilians have been killed with mostly small villages in the countryside targeted so far this is all happening despite a truce being in place since august it was announced by russia but it has been continually violated in recent weeks but to smith begins our coverage now with this report on a live look there was a market here in the southern italy village when the strikes began. Did you know they were russian jet. Its according to the syrian observatory for human rights. Volunteer white helmet how medics are there within minutes to do what theyve done thousands of times during the civil war trying to save the lives of civilians there are scrubbing through the dirt by hand when you know nothing was english could displace more rubble she day she said she said it was that it was somehow this man is still a large. Muslim in a play on a lot of years there but intensive airstrikes by jets targeted the main market the airstrikes killed at least 8 civilians and left Dozens Injured as Civil Defense we took out the bodies and help the injured. By leon was one of 5 villages hit by Syrian Government forces in italy province in the last 48 hours this territory is the last holdout of groups opposed to president Bashar Al Assad russia which supports assad and turkey which backs the rebels had agreed in august that this would be a deescalation zone but attacks of continued since then. More than 18000. 00 people have been displaced since sunday as a consequence of the latest bombardments most north towards the Turkish Border worsening an already desperate refugee situation. Bernard smith aljazeera. Or for more on this lets speak to Syria Research our chris doyle in london thanks very much for being with us so what do you make of what is happening in the region right now and the fact that thousands of people have been displaced in just in the space of 24 hours and this cease fire has been broken so quickly. As im the situation of adlib an officer is extremely graham and it has been for a very long time and were looking at a situation where at least half the population it live currently is probably internally displaced and theyre having to face winter rains to face the cold largely without heating fuel theres hardly any of that and of course a drop in the syrian pound which is in the reducing of their purchasing power and on top of that we see the escalation of russian Syrian Regime bombing into into it live into even these villages and i think lying behind it is really an attempt by the Syrian Regime backed by moscow of course to retake could lead to actually. Take this last area that is holding out against the regime and i think that most people suspect that turkey has largely acquiesced in this that they have centrally ripped up that cease fire agreement and. Green lighted the russians in the Syrian Regime to do this in return for turkey getting its own way in what is happening in northeastern syria because that area is of infinitely more importance to turkey it matters far more in terms of its strategic objectives so in return for allowing turkey to get some of what it wants there to ensure that surrender kurdish groups are not close to the Turkish Border that there isnt going to be any form of serious kurdish autonomy there turkey is more than willing to allow the Syrian Regime and russia to deal with the province of idlib so for the civilians an adlib its a very dire story because on the one hand yes you have these air attacks you have this bombing which is targeting civilian infrastructure hospitals schools mosques and the like but you also have a situation where the dominant faction within it was a very extreme group centrally what was an alqaeda is affiliate in syria hired tough. And its no fun living out of their control either. So they have a pretty grim few months ahead of them at least because i dont imagine theres going to be much letup in this assault right now so where else to do the people whove been displaced where else do they have to go then in syria. Well youre absolutely right to highlight that because you know many of these people arrived in it live as a result of previous ceasefire gleek grievance that saw them being transported there often in those dreaded green buses that so many syrians know about and its very difficult and then see where now because crossing over into turkey is not going to be an option for them they may have to go into one of the areas that is now controlled by either turkey directly or Turkish Backed forces in Northern Syria but this will be a very very tough for them they may not be welcomed in those areas and indeed there wont be any of the resources that they will need in them as well so one really has to think what are what is the international doing community doing about this because were watching on our screens were seeing the images of a tucked in a deliberate targeting a civilian infrastructure and. Camps of displaced people and very little has been said or done a very little is being done in Security Council to try to stop this largely because of course its divided and even turkey has said very little and indeed it would appear that they are telling some of their syrian groups that back them to to back off in any criticism because theyre pretty much party to whats going on yeah pretty dire situation for civilians living in that part of appreciate your analysis on that for us chris and well joining us there from london. Now the u. S. Impeachment inquiry is heading towards a key moments with House Democrats poised to press formal charges against president the House Judiciary Committee city to resume hearings in the coming out of the case centering around allegations withheld military aid to ukraine to pressure kiev into investigating his political rival joe biden the white house has said it will not participate in this weeks hearings House Speaker nancy pelosi ordering all ticals of impeachment against the president on thursday can be how he joins us now from washington so kimberly what can we expect from these hearings today given the fact that the the white house wants no part of it what we can expect that there are going to be a lot of clashes between democrats and republicans essentially have to now the republicans have been serving as the president s defense threw out the impeachment inquiry and we expect that to really ramp up today essentially what weve got here is a review going on of the findings of the house Intelligence Committees investigation and we expect that as democrats lay out each point republicans are expected to battle it every step of the way but what we will be seeing are the staff attorneys thats the attorney for the democrats as well as the republican side says lee presenting to the public but namely to the Judiciary Committee their conclusions of the findings of the investigation is sort of look at it in the context of knowing on the heels of the House Speaker nancy pelosi on thursday saying she wants the articles of impeachment drafted that this is really the laying out of the charges against President Trump what this means is that essentially this committee is assessing the charges knowing that there will soon be a vote on whether to impeach donald trump. And so then as far as the timetable looks right now they could be a full house votes on this perhaps by by christmas yet what were looking at here is a pretty rapid timeline essentially we have the knowledge that there will likely be a vote potentially as early as next week in the house of representatives we know how thats going to go essentially along party lines and then it would go to the senate for a trial but there is a side drama going on today has them that we should talk about in all of this and that is another report thats coming out today from the department of justice this is the release after the Inspector General looking into the origins of the russia investigation and this could really be some fodder for republicans who want to make the argument look this impeachment inquiry is politically motivated and so to potentially will this report say according to republicans that the investigation that russia investigation that consumed the 1st 2 years of Donald Trumps presidency they want to say that this was also politically motivated we havent seen the results of that Inspector General report just yet but expect that that could change the dynamics somewhat if republicans find that theres something in there they were looking for. All right for the moment kimberly how could life for us there in washington and as the prospect of impeachment charges loom over donald trump well take a look now at how the last 2 months have played out a televised public hearings began in the democrat controlled house of representatives in mid november some of the most explosive testimony came from Lieutenant Colonel alexander as the top ukraine expert on the national Security Council he listened into the phone call at the center of the inquiry he said trump made an improper demand by pushing ukraine to investigate political rival joe Biden European Union ambassador gordon someone was also told he believed military aid had been withheld from ukraine to pressure its government into investigating trumps rivals for special envoy to queen curve volcker was the 1st to testify behind closed doors when he spoke publicly said trumps personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani was feeding a negative narrative of ukraine frank bauman is a professor of law at the university of Missouri School of law he previously served as a Deputy District Attorney joins us now from washington thanks very much for being with us so just give me an idea of their of what weve what weve heard and seen some heard and seen from these hearings so far what are you expecting today what should we be looking out for. Well as your reporter said were not going to have a presentation of any new evidence are not going to be live witnesses talking instead youre going to have lawyers some one for the democrats one of the republicans summarizing what weve heard in the past now that suggest that were not going to hear any shattering new revelations in terms of facts but there are a couple things to watch for within the Democratic Caucus there is ongoing debate about the scope of any potential articles of impeachment there is one school of thought that the article should be restricted to matters relating to your crane interaction where mr trump did i think extort from or attempt to extort from ukraine announcement of investigations of his political rival joe biden. Theres one school of thought that that that should be the pretty much exclusive focus of the articles of impeachment along perhaps with an article claiming obstruction of that investigation. By the house the other school of thought is that the in order to put place President Trumps behavior generally into context that articles of impeachment ought to in some measure or another refer to at least portions of the report produced by special counsel bob mueller in particular those portions that are in the 2nd volume of his report that deal with obstruction of justice so you feel like that that the moola findings on the russian investigators should be included in this and its not it should not be all about ukraine i mean its interesting you say that because the democrats up to this point have no committed. To that but theyve theyve also not ruled it out. You know please dont misunderstand me im made no recommendation about what i think the democrats should do what i think it what i think is true is that within the Democratic Caucus. And within the democratic membership of the Judiciary Committee there has been ongoing debate about the scope of what they should do. Maybe now if you ask me personally though obviously i dont get a vote i think my disposition would be to focus more on the matter of the of ukraine but i think what were going to learn it to the extent theres anything to be learned from watching these hearings today one of them will be. Trying to determine whether the democrats seem to be leaning for a narrow or for a broad. A broad scope of impeachment i think things can also be learned from watching what the republicans do candidly i think the facts that have been brought forward so far are so strongly against the president that one might expect republicans to concede some impropriety but nonetheless argue that perhaps it doesnt rise to the level impeachable conduct. But given the behavior of the House Republicans so far what they may gauge is a kind of scorched earth approach where they try to claim that the case is it hasnt been proven at all or that frankly some of the facts just arent facts or try to try to claim that the Civil Servants and who testified in this in this case before the Intelligence Committee are in some sense biased against the president so were going to get a window into the republicans Defense Strategy good to get your a perspective on this frank baum and thanks so much my pleasure. Are plenty more ahead on this news hour Indias Parliament is set to vote on a bill that threatens to alienate millions of muslims well have the details. Damning evidence emerging a Sudanese Paramilitary group has stolen a large part of the nations gold. And later in sport the 20 year old from slovenia who just broke one of Michael Jordans records in the n. B. A. I have a 1st police in new zealand say there is no sign of any more so following a volcanic eruption 5 deaths have been confirmed in the eruption on white island a popular tourist site of the countrys north Island Police say at least 10 people remain unaccounted for a group of people believed to be tourists were seen near the crater moments before the eruption legislators human 100 has more on one of new zealands worst natural disasters in recent years. Thick smoke and ash rises thousands of metres into the air as the white island volcano also known by its indigenous madi name as for caare erupts 50 kilometers off the coast of new zealand releasing toxic fumes of sulfur and chlorine. Dozens of tourists were on the island. Some seen walking on the crates of floor moments before the eruption police said more than 20 people managed to get off the island some in boats others including some of the injured by helicopter. Full cannick ash is now hampering rescue is attempts to get to the island a number of other people have been taken to hospital removal hospital. A number of people have burns as a as a result of the eruption new zealands Prime Minister has called for calm i know there will be a huge amount of consume and anxiety for those who have loved ones on or around the island at the time and i can assure them police are doing everything they can why thailand is located in the bay of plenty and has been active for at least 150000 years its new zealands largest and most unpredictable volcano erupting every couple of years releasing gas clouds steam and rocks the alert level was raised last month warning the volcano may experience a period of activity more than normal and its not a particularly big eruption is is seed it was kind of. Almost like a throat clearing kind of eruption and thats why material probably wont of made it to. What mike it might only in new zealand on the scheme of things for volcanic eruptions its not large but if youre close to there it is of its not good. Emergency services say its too early to confirm the number of injuries or deaths but there are fears of more fatalities were here mohammed al jazeera. Is a journalist with news in for qahtani new zealand one of the closest towns to the volcano. Originally the helicopters were managed to get close to the shore the boats. The paramedics to the island but theyve now had to leave because of the ash there is a no fly zone for about 26 nautical miles around the island theres a 5 kilometer radius exclusion zone no one is around no one is allowed to break that zone until they are given the all clear from more thorough days which no one is happy about something because its so heartbreaking to know that there are people still on that island and unaccounted for but simply theyre not willing to risk any more lives at this stage no this island is not heavy heavy said that its purely people visit it just for the experience of being on an active volcano its usually sits at a level one alert risk and they are daily to was going the Tourists International tourists but also local visitors coming and going out to see this incredible volcano that we have literally ferry ride away from so its a very popular destination but what we understand is that the only people that are on me at the moment are those who were part of one of the total groups that leafed earlier today going on a trip of a lifetime and have not managed to get off there are movements the service is standing