Closed impeachment doors open

New public phase of the impeachment inquiry begins [Forward to a friend]( | [Subscribe]( | [View in your browser]( [Top of The World]( Must-see TV? You decide. Today marks the beginning of televised public hearings of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. Elsewhere, natural disasters are taking a toll on Venice and Australia, where flooding and wildfires, respectively, have residents on edge. Protests, not weather, have residents of Hong Kong on edge, where authorities have begun firing tear gas on university campuses for the first time. And while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visits the White House, Turkey prepares to repatriate ISIS fighters to countries that don’t want them. (We’re still beta-testing this newsletter and we've just updated the design. Let us know your thoughts on that more generally about this newsletter by replying to this email.) --------------------------------------------------------------- In the news today New public phase of the impeachment inquiry begins [On the eve of the start of public hearings in the impeachment inquiry of U.S. President Donald Trump, the moon rises over the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., November 12, 2019.]( Credit: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters The impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump will enter a [new phase today]( as lawmakers launch their first televised public hearings. House committees leading the probe will hear testimony today from William Taylor, the top US diplomat in Ukraine, and George Kent, a senior State Department official who oversees Ukraine. Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch is scheduled to testify on Friday. [All three diplomats have previously expressed alarm]( in closed-door testimony about Trump's alleged abuse of power with Ukraine. It has been two decades since the last impeachment proceedings in the House against a president, and these will be the first of the social media era. The hearings begin at 10 a.m. ET. [Livestream the hearings here]( Documents: [Read William Taylor’s previous testimony]( [Read George Kent’s previous testimony]( Record tides flood Venice The City of Canals is struggling to stay above water after[the highest tides in 50 years]( pushed water levels in six feet higher than normal, prompting Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro to declare a state of emergency. The waters have submerged canalside cafes, flooded buildings and put residents on high alert. And although Venetians have become more used to frequent flooding in recent years, they have long known the city is in trouble: [sea levels are rising and the city is sinking.]( New fire warnings in Australia [High-rise buildings are seen through smoke from bushfires during sunset in Sydney, Australia, November 11.]( Credit: Stephen Coates/Reuters Australian officials issued a "leave immediately" warning as firefighters struggled to contain more than 150 bushfires raging on both the east and west coasts. Fifty houses were destroyed or damaged in New South Wales yesterday[but no lives were lost](, officials said. While cooler weather overnight brought some relief in New South Wales, attention shifted to Queensland, where more than 80 fires threatened lives and homes. Also:[Is climate change to blame for Australia's bushfires?]( Classes called off in Hong Kong Protests in Hong Kong continued as students erected barriers around university campuses. Authorities have suspended much of the city’s public transit, and multiple universities have announced that [all on-campus university classes are canceled](. This is the sixth month of protests but the first time police have fired tear gas on university campuses. [“I feel totally hopeless,”]( an anonymous student was quoted as saying in The Guardian. “I don’t want to resort to violence, but peaceful protest doesn’t change a thing. I feel there is no future ahead of us.” Also: [Tiananmen leader on Hong Kong protesters: 'They are ready to burn together']( These sisters both had DACA. One took matters into her own hands. [Fed up with the uncertainty surrounding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, Karen Hernandez, a DACA recipient, moved to Canada earlier this year.]( Credit: Courtesy of Karen Hernandez Sisters Karen Hernandez and Angela Velasquez say they remember the day in 2012 when then-President Barack Obama issued an executive order launching Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). The program offered undocumented people like them, who were brought to the US as children, temporary relief from deportation and work permits. They applied right away. Then in 2017, President Donald Trump canceled DACA.[It shook the sisters](. After some research, Hernandez found out that with her skills and college degrees, she could become a legal resident in Canada quickly. Today, she and her husband live in Vancouver. Velasquez, meanwhile, is riding out the uncertainty in California. She said she tries to avoid the news about immigration. It’s too stressful she says. Two cases of plague reported in China Two people in China have been diagnosed with plague. The two patients are from the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia and are now being treated in Beijing for the pneumonic form of the disease, [which is even more serious than bubonic plague](. It’s the second time a case of the plague has been reported in this region of China this year. (An outbreak of the plague led to Black Death, one of the deadliest pandemics in human history.) Also: [A very short history of death (video)]( Europe is ‘terrified’ ISIS fighters will go free if repatriated Turkey has begun repatriating ISIS fighters. The first one expelled was an American, according to multiple reports, and is currently [stuck at the border between Turkey and Greece](. Turkey’s repatriation efforts are causing consternation in some circles, according to Anne Speckhard, director of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism. “No country wants to take [the fighters] back, particularly the male fighters, if they’re not prosecuted and if they don’t spend time in prison because they’re afraid,” she said. The detained fighters’ home countries are[“afraid that they’ll take them back and they’ll end up on the streets and that they’ll be a danger.”]( Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is set to visit the White House, where he is expected to discuss a package of incentives with President Donald Trump that includes [a $100 billion trade deal and a workaround to avoid US sanctions.]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Morning meme: Evo Morales [tweeted a photo of himself]( on the bed he slept while in hiding in Bolivia before fleeing to Mexico following his resignation from the presidency over the weekend. Now some Bolivians are taking a shot at it with ["The Victim Challenge"](and posting pictures of themselves laying on a “bed” on the ground. [pics of the Victim Challenge] Credit @myteks/Twitter Extra:H]([ow Estonia became the drug-overdose capital of Europe]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Promotion Like what you read in TOP OF THE WORLD? When you make [a gift]( to support our work, your donation will be matched. [[Support](] --------------------------------------------------------------- In case you missed it on The World - [Coal tours in India]( - [Russia and the UK]( - [The Juliet Club]( - [Still time for compromise in Hong Kong]( - [Evo Morales's legacy in Bolivia]( - [New Zealand bird of the year's election gets heated]( - [Bushfires rage across Australia]( - [Protesters remember attack by Erdoğan's guards on eve of Turkish president's visit to DC]( - [The legality of DACA]( - [DACA recipient goes to SCOTUS]( Don't forget to subscribe to The World's Latest Edition podcast using your favorite podcast player: [RadioPublic](, [Apple Podcasts](, [Stitcher](, [Soundcloud](, [RSS]( [The World logo]( [The World on Facebook]( [The World's Twitter account]( [Donate]( | [Forward to a friend]( | [Subscribe]( | [Edit your subscription]( | [Unsubscribe]( | [View in your browser]( Top of the World is written weekday mornings by the team at [The World](. 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