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Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s essential stories.
LA’s Getty blaze puts ‘fireproof’ museum to the test
The extreme winds whipping up northern California’s wildfires abated briefly on Monday, offering firefighters in wine country a window to bring the sprawling Kincade fire under some kind of control. The blaze, which doubled in size over the weekend, has burned almost 30,000 hectares (75,000 acres) and forced 185,000 people to evacuate. In LA, a fire broke out close to the Getty Center art museum, which is designed to be impervious to flames and smoke.
Global heating. The tinderbox conditions in California are a traditional feature of the state’s natural cycle, but experts agree the climate crisis is worsening and extending its wildfire season.
Pelosi plans House vote to formalise impeachment inquiry
Nancy Pelosi will call a House vote to formalise the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump, before it ramps up from closed-door depositions to public hearings. In a letter to colleagues, the House speaker noted that the constitution does not demand such a vote, but said it would quash White House claims that the inquiry was invalid and “eliminate any doubt as to whether the Trump administration may withhold documents, prevent witness testimony, disregard duly authorized subpoenas, or continue obstruction of the House”.
‘Internal alarm’. Alexander Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the national security council, intends to testify on Tuesday that the July phone call between Trump and Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, led him to raise an internal alarm that US foreign policy was being subverted.
Syrian Kurds claim key role in hunt for Baghdadi
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) say they played a key role in tracking down the Islamic State leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, including placing a spy in his inner circle who stole a pair of Baghdadi’s underpants to prove his identity via DNA testing. Trump, who has so far played down the SDF’s role in the manhunt, on Monday tweeted a photo of the “wonderful” Belgian Malinois dog injured during the US raid in which Baghdadi was killed on Saturday.
Syria reinforcements. Weeks after a controversial withdrawal from northern Syria, US troops are moving back into positions around oil fields in the east of the country, saying the new deployments are part of a continuing counter-terrorism mission following Baghdadi’s death.
Fighting terrorism. Baghdadi’s death is an important milestone, argues Michael H Fuchs, but the circumstances of the raid and Trump’s announcement also expose the flaws in US approach to counter-terrorism.
Facebook employees ‘strongly object’ to political ads policy
More than 250 Facebook employees have signed a letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, in which they “strongly object” to the company’s current policy on political advertisements, which allows politicians to include false claims in their ads on the platform, in the latest in a string of examples of tech employees protesting against company policies they consider unethical. The letter, posted on an internal message board and first reported by the New York Times, describes the policy as “a threat to what FB stands for”.
AOC endorsement. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who last week grilled Zuckerberg on the policy at a congressional hearing, tweeted in support of the letter, calling those who had signed it “courageous”.
Cheat sheet
Trump has described Chicago as a haven for criminals that is “embarrassing to us as a nation,” on his first visit to the city as president, for a police chiefs’ conference that was boycotted by Chicago’s police superintendent and its mayor.
The risks of using cannabis to treat mental health disorders such as depression or psychosis are greater than the potential benefits, according to a major study that reviewed evidence from almost 40 years of clinical trials.
A 56-year-old woman was killed by shrapnel from a homemade device that was intended to discharge coloured powder as part of a ‘gender reveal’ party in Iowa, but which instead exploded like a pipe bomb because its top had been sealed with tape.
David Benioff and DB Weiss, the creators of the Game of Thrones TV series, have dropped out of a deal to write and direct a new Star Wars trilogy, citing a clash with another commitment: their estimated $200m Netflix deal.
Must-reads
Young Iraqi protesters count the cost of a violent month
More than 250 Iraqis have died and thousands more injured after a month of protests against the country’s ruling Islamic parties and their Iranian backers. In Baghdad, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad meets a generation of protesters who came of age after the fall of Saddam.
The pristine US spring water being bottled and sold by Nestlé
Last year, the Swiss food and drinks corporation Nestlé siphoned off and bottled 45m gallons of pristine spring water from Southern California’s Strawberry Creek, drying out creek beds and reducing once-gushing springs to trickles, say conservationists. It is a pattern repeated nationwide, as Tom Perkins reports.
The glamorous, grotesque life of a New Hollywood titan
Robert Evans, the producer behind some of the most celebrated films of the New Hollywood era, has died aged 89. The flamboyant former Paramount Studio chief was a passionate cultivator of talent, writes Peter Bradshaw. But his sometimes grotesque life threatened to overshadow the movies he made, says Ryan Gilbey.
Remote Canadian islanders agree to resettle
The remote Little Bay Islands in Newfoundland is home to just 54 year-round residents. But soon, reports Tracey Lindeman, that number may be zero. On 31 December, the village’s electricity and water will be switched off and its ferry service discontinued, as part of the province’s ongoing community relocation policy.
Opinion
California is shrouded in wildfire smoke for the third year in a row. Thanks to climate change, says Bill McKibben, the Golden State of his youth is becoming increasingly uninhabitable.
It takes a force as great as the climate crisis to really – perhaps finally – tarnish Eden. In the last decade, the state has endured the deepest droughts ever measured, dry spells so intense that more than 100m trees died.
Sport
The Miami Dolphins remain without a win this NFL season, after the Pittsburgh Steelers bounced back from a 14-point first quarter deficit to win 27-14 at Heinz Field on Monday night.
Vlatko Andonovski, the 43-year-old Macedonian at the helm of Seattle’s Reign FC, has been unveiled as the new coach of the US women’s national soccer team. His name will not be familiar to those who do not follow the NWSL, writes Caitlin Murray, but Andonovski won two championships with FC Kansas City – and was recently named the league’s coach of the year.
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