TRENDING GLOBAL NEWS

ENVOY SAYS UKRAINE PRESSURE WAS AT TRUMP'S ORDER WAS NO SECRET-

Gordon Sondland, the Republican megadonor turned ambassador to the European Union, told the House intelligence committee on Wednesday that he and other advisers to US President Donald Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate Democrats because of the President directed us to do so. In much-liked testimony opening the fourth day of public impeachment hearings. Sondland said that he, Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Kurt Volker, the special envoy for Ukraine, were reluctant to work with Rudy Giuliani, the President's personal attorney, on the pressure campaign and agreed only at Trump's insistence. Secretary Perry, Ambassador Volker and I labored with Mr. Rudy Giuliani

on Ukraine affairs at the express direction of the President of the United States. Sondland told the committee, We did not want to perform with Mr. Giuliani. Simply put, we amused oneself the hand we were dealt with. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ckv2WbxNddgWith no substitute, he said, we followed the President's orders. Sondland confirmed what has already been known, that there was a clear quid pro quo linking a coveted White House meeting for Ukraine's President to the investigations Trump wanted to be undertaken into democrats. And he said he was concerned about a potential quid pro quo linking $391 million in security aid suspended by Trump to the desired investigations. Sondland acknowledged that he told a senior Ukrainian official that to get Trump to release the frozen US security aid, the Kyiv government would likely have to publicly commit to investigating a conspiracy theory involving Democrats in the 2016 election as well as former Vice PresidentJoe Biden and his son's ties to Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company. But the ambassador did not attribute that linkage to any explicit direction by Trump, instead of saying he came to that conclusion his own based on the fact that the cash had been held up for so long.

HONG KONG STUDENT'S SEWER ESCAPE THWARTED AS ROWS WITH UK, US GROW-

Some anti-government protesters trapped inside a Hong Kong university on Wednesday tried to flee through the sewers, where one student said he saw snakes but fireman prevented further escape bids by blocking a metal manhole into the system. Reuters witnesses said fewer than 100 protesters remained inside the Polytechnic University,ring-fenced 24 hours a day by riot police and barricades after more than 1,000 were arrested from late on Monday. Some give in while others were grabbed in escape attempts that included demanding to clamber down ropes to waiting motorbikes. Some opponents, wearing waterproof boots and carrying torches, resurfaced inside the campus after unsuccessful examining the sewers-where fast-rising water levels are also a hazard-for a way out during the night. Police said four people were arrested for removing a manhole cover outside the campus and two climbing out. Firefighters, whom the students let on the campus, were in place to stop any further such attempt to flee, blocking the only feasible entrance into the sewer system in an underground car park on the campus. Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has called for a humane end to a blockade that saw the most intense clashes since the protests grow more than five months ago. British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab condemned China's treatment of Simon Cheng, a former employee of Britain's Hong Kong consulate, who said secret police beat him seeking information about the protest movement. We were stunned and appalled by the mistreatment he suffered while in Chinese detention, which amounts to torture. The US Senate unanimously passed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which requires the secretary of state to certify at least once a year that Hong Kong retains enough autonomy to qualify for special trading consideration and would impose sanctions on officials responsible for rights abuses.