Impeachment inquiry: Trump 'promoted discredited Ukraine theory'
US President Donald Trump disregarded the advice of senior advisers to push a false theory that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election, a former White House aide has told the impeachment inquiry.
Fiona Hill said the president had instead listened to the views of his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.
Ms Hill called the claims about Ukraine a "fictional narrative".
The inquiry is assessing if Mr Trump withheld aid to pressure Ukraine to investigate a political rival.
It is illegal in the US to seek foreign help to gain electoral advantage. Mr Trump denies any wrongdoing.
'Fire is medicine': the tribes burning California forests to save them
For millennia, native people have used flames to protect the land. The US government outlawed the process for a century before recognizing its value
by Susie Cagle with photographs by Alexandra Hootnick
Thu 21 Nov 2019 06.00 EST
When Rick O’Rourke walks with fire, the drip torch is an extension of his body. The mix of diesel and gasoline arcs up and out from the little wick at the end of the red metal can, landing on the ground as he takes bite after bite out of the dry vegetation in the shadow of the firs and oaks.
“Some people are like gunslingers and some people are like artists who paint with fire,” he says. “I’m a little bit of both.”
This is the kind of land management O’Rourke grew up with on the Yurok reservation in the Klamath mountains of northern California. Now, lighting the forest on fire to save it – and his tribe’s culture along with it – has become his life’s work, as fire and fuels manager of the Yurok Cultural Fire Management Council. On this day, he’s working the drip torch alongside a few dozen cultural practitioners from tribes across the US, and firefighters from around the world.
After Morales: Bolivia faces uncertain future as violence rages
Bolivia's interim leadership has asked Congress to approve the organisation of new elections in the bitterly divided country as deadly violence continues to rage following the resignation of leftist President Evo Morales.
Bowing to pressure from the military – which joined demonstrators’ calls for his resignation after weeks of protests – Morales stepped down on November 10 and later sought asylum in Mexico following a disputed presidential election he was accused of attempting to rig.
Bowing out unceremoniously after 14 years in power, Bolivia’s first indigenous leader was replaced by the deputy head of the Senate, Jeanine Anez, a member of the conservative opposition who became next in line for the presidency after Morales, his vice-president and the leaders of both chambers of Congress all quit.
OPINION
We say we want climate action, but we still won't vote for it
November 21, 2019
What now, after two scorching weeks that have set the nation ablaze and delivered warnings of catastrophe so regular they have begun to seem monotonous? Could it be a turning point in Australia’s political logic on climate change; the episode that turned climate denialism (or at least agnosticism) from a political asset into a liability? The moment when those debates about the cost of action seemed rather less urgent in the searing face of the cost of inaction?
That people are now prepared to talk climate change in the midst of a fire emergency tells you that some kind of threshold has been reached. At least something is up when politicians – from both major parties – spend considerable energy telling you not to discuss something, and the public debate carries on anyway. At that point, such pleas sound more like desperation than authority.
Iran loosens internet restrictions after protest shutdown
Internet access 'gradually being restored' as cyberspace official says the country will have full access in two days.
Iran began restoring internet access in the capital and a number of provinces after a five-day nationwide shutdown meant to help stifle deadly protests over fuel-price hikes.
The country's elite Revolutionary Guard security force said calm had now returned across Iran on Thursday, state TV reported.
"The internet is being gradually restored in the country," the semi-official news agency Fars reported, quoting unidentified "informed sources".
Abe's push to change Japan's Constitution hits roadblock as parties scrap Diet discussion
BY SAKURA MURAKAMI
STAFF WRITER
With only two weeks to go until this year’s extraordinary Diet session comes to a close, the ruling bloc and opposition parties agreed to cancel Thursday’s discussion on constitutional change, effectively dashing any remaining hopes of passing a referendum bill this year related to a possible amendment of the top law.
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party had been hopeful that the bill would be passed this year and suggested on Wednesday that the Lower House special Diet committee on constitutional affairs vote on the revision to the referendum law on Thursday, so that it will be ready to clear the lower chamber at its plenary session.
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