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Good morning, I’m Mattha Busby with today’s essential stories.
Trump to face impeachment inquiry over Ukraine scandal
Donald Trump is the fourth president in US history to face an impeachment inquiry, amid mounting allegations of abuse of power. The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, made the announcement following claims that Trump pressured the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to investigate the son of Joe Biden during a July phone call, which would represent seeking the help of a foreign country to harm a political rival.
What’s next? Further information about the Ukraine affair is set to emerge after the House intelligence committee announced that the whistleblower wishes to testify, potentially this week.
‘Jokers’. Allies of the 45th president rallied to his support, with the Republican national convention rapid response director, Steve Guest, saying the Democrat-led impeachment inquiry “was not based on facts”.
Boris Johnson flies back to face MPs’ fury after court ruling
The UK prime minister cut short his visit to New York as he was forced to fly home to face MPs following a supreme court judgment which ruled his advice to the Queen to suspend parliament was “unlawful, void and of no effect”. Johnson was urged to resign by Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, who inched closer to supporting a general election and claimed the prime minister was “part of an elite that disdains democracy”.
Back in session. MPs will return to Westminster on Wednesday after the president of the UK’s highest court, Lady Hale, announced that “parliament has not been prorogued”.
Stop vaping now, urges California
California has issued a stark warning to vapers, urging them to stop smoking e-cigarettes amid investigations of hospitalisations and deaths. The acting public health officer said in a statement that the state was in the midst of something unprecedented: “There are numerous unknown factors at this time, and due to the uncertainty of the exact cause, it is our recommendation that consumers refrain from vaping until the investigation has concluded.”
Caution. More than 500 cases of lung damage have been reported across the US and the California department of public health has 90 reports of people admitted to hospital in the state with “severe breathing problems and lung damage” – as well as two deaths.
How social media app TikTok promotes China’s foreign policy
Leaked documents reveal how ByteDance, the popular Chinese-owned social network and Beijing-headquartered technology parent company, is advancing Chinese foreign policy aims abroad by algorithmically curating TikTok users’ feeds to exclude videos that mention Tiananmen Square, Tibetan independence, and the banned religious group Falun Gong.
Censored. One ban covers the “demonisation or distortion of local or other countries’ history such as May 1998 riots of Indonesia, Cambodian genocide, Tiananmen Square incidents”.
Silenced. A search on the site in Hong Kong revealed “barely a hint of unrest in sight”, amid rising suspicion discussion about the protests was being censored, the Washington Post reported this month.
Cheat sheet
In a frank appraisal of the state of the earth’s future, the world’s scientists have warned that extreme sea level events that previously occurred once every century will strike every year on many coasts by 2050, regardless of whether climate heating emissions are curbed.
After Trump mocked her emotional address to the UN, Greta Thunberg described herself as “a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future” in a new Twitter bio, following her combative speech which took aim at politicians’ “empty words”.
The picturesque German city of Görlitz, which borders Poland, is offering free lodging and studio space in exchange for feedback on what potential residents would like from a city. “I thought, ‘Why not Görlitz?’” said Eva Bodenmüller, a freelance journalist who took up the offer.
At least 19 people have been killed and 300 injured after a shallow 5.2-magnitude earthquake struck north-eastern Pakistan, sparking chaos in Lahore and Islamabad as deep cracks were torn into roads and infrastructure heavily damaged.
Must reads
What lies beneath: the craze for ‘selfeets’ of eye-catching floors
The humble thought, “Wait, let me take a selfeet,” has passed through the minds of hundreds of thousands of Instagrammers as the latest craze on the photo-sharing site sees people around the world share photos of eye-catching floors using the #ihavethisthingwithfloors hashtag.
Louis Tomlinson on loss and love
The former One Direction singer Louis Tomlinson has opened up about a series of personal tragedies as he launches his solo career. “I kind of had a bit of a word with myself and worked out what I want – to be happy and proud of what I’m doing,” he tells Emine Saner.
Midnight Traveler: a powerful refugee documentary filmed on a phone
The ongoing journey to safety and stability by one family from Afghanistan has been captured in a new feature-length film recorded on three phones in a humanising portrait of the search for a better, more peaceful tomorrow amid the largest refugee crisis since the second world war.
How to get a whole new wardrobe from your old clothes
Layering, Sirin Kale writes, is a surefire way to reinvigorate your wardrobe without any extra expense. There are two fundamental rules to the on-trend dressing method: one, never layer your bottom half, and two, start with finer, thinner materials and work your way out. Take a look at how to layer into winter.
Opinion
The Democrats’ decision to begin impeachment proceedings has set the country on an impossible to predict course, but the political advantage currently seems to rest with Nancy Pelosi, writes Geoffrey Kabaservice, the author and director of political studies at the Niskanen Center.
Although Ukraine-gate and the moderates’ resulting bolt toward impeachment may have forced her hand, she now presides over a unified caucus prepared to launch an investigation that may prove extremely dangerous for Trump and the Republicans.
Sport
Footballers Wayne Rooney and Zlatan Ibrahimovic have been exposing Major League Soccer’s apparent flaws, declaring American players are underpaid and that the league’s playoff format is “shit”.
The US rugby team head coach, Gary Gold, has described England as a side with no detectable weaknesses ahead of the meeting between the two nations on the Eagles’ first appearance at the Rugby World Cup, after his opposite number, Eddie Jones, said he was expecting 15 Donald Trumps who had been training with marines.
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