Nearly 50 lawmakers who advocate for their regions to become independent from Spain boycotted Monday&#8217;s ceremonial opening of the nation&#8217;s legislative season over the presence of the royal family, VOA news <a href="https://www.voanews.com/europe/spain-separatist-lawmakers-blast-anachronistic-monarchy">reports</a>. The representatives of five parties from the Catalonia, Basque Country and Galicia regions, all in northern Spain, say that the figure of the king is “anachronistic” and that it should be rooted out of Spanish politics. Their symbolic gesture of not attending the first session of the national parliament since a new left-wing government was sworn in last month exposes the difficulties that Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez faces in the coming months. His coalition with the far-left United We Can (Podemos) party will need votes from the separatist parties to pass the nation&#8217;s 2020 spending plan and any significant legislation. Sanchez&#8217;s Socialists have been supportive of King Felipe VI and the former monarch, King Emerit Juan Carlos I.

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Spain: Separatist Lawmakers Blast ‘Anachronistic’ Monarchy

White House lawyers are due to submit Monday a brief detailing their arguments in the impeachment trial of U.S. President Donald Trump, a day before the proceedings begin in earnest, VOA news <a href="https://www.voanews.com/usa/white-house-house-lawmakers-lay-out-impeachment-cases-trial-looms">reports</a>. 



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><a href="https://media.voltron.voanews.com/Drupal/01live-166/styles/sourced/s3/2019-04/38902B4F-ADF9-48D5-9420-6DA6635633B2.jpg?itok=-GZaMncA"><img src="https://media.voltron.voanews.com/Drupal/01live-166/styles/sourced_410px_wide/s3/2019-04/38902B4F-ADF9-48D5-9420-6DA6635633B2.jpg?itok=Q1wtG9Io" alt="FILE: Jay Sekulow, one of president's Trump lawyers says Trump is not under investigation. " width="565" height="430" /></a><figcaption>FILE: Jay Sekulow, one of president&#8217;s Trump lawyers. .</figcaption></figure>



In an earlier, shorter response to the articles of impeachment approved by the House of Representatives, lawyers Pat Cipollone and Jay Sekulow said the Senate must reject the charges against Trump because they &#8220;rest on dangerous distortions of the Constitution that would do lasting damage to our structure of government.&#8221;



They argued the House is trying to undermine the president&#8217;s power to determine foreign policy, and that it is trying to control and punish the executive branch for asserting its constitutional privileges.



Regarding the charge that Trump abused his power by asking a foreign power to launch investigations that would benefit him politically, the lawyers argued the House is trying to undermine the president&#8217;s power to determine foreign policy.



In response to the charge Trump obstructed Congress by directing members of the executive branch to not comply with subpoenas, the lawyers said those actions were a legitimate assertion of &#8220;confidentiality interests grounded in the separation of powers.&#8221;



House lawmakers serving as prosecutors have already filed their trial brief, saying it was clear that the &#8220;evidence overwhelmingly establishes&#8221; that Trump is guilty of both charges in the two articles of impeachment.



Key players in the trial argued sharply Sunday about whether the president&#8217;s actions could warrant his removal from office.



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><a href="https://media.voltron.voanews.com/Drupal/01live-166/styles/sourced/s3/2020-01/ap_dersh.jpg?itok=-PyAuWU3"><img src="https://media.voltron.voanews.com/Drupal/01live-166/styles/sourced_410px_wide/s3/2020-01/ap_dersh.jpg?itok=AUJSAGUq" alt="FILE - Attorney Alan Dershowitz leaves Manhattan Federal Court in New York, March 6, 2019. Dershowitz is among the lawyers representing President Donald Trump in his impeachment trial. " width="554" height="416" /></a><figcaption>FILE &#8211; Attorney Alan Dershowitz leaves Manhattan Federal Court in New York, March 6, 2019. Dershowitz is among the lawyers representing President Donald Trump in his impeachment trial.</figcaption></figure>



Criminal defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz, one of the team of lawyers defending Trump, told CNN&#8217;s &#8220;State of the Union&#8221; show that he will tell the 100 members of the Senate, who are acting as jurors deciding Trump&#8217;s fate, that &#8220;even if the facts as presented are true, it would not rise to the level of impeachment&#8221; to convict Trump and oust him from office.



The lawmakers will be deciding whether Trump committed &#8220;high crimes and misdemeanors,&#8221; the standard the U.S. Constitution set for removing a president from office. The Republican-majority Senate remains highly unlikely to convict Trump, a Republican, since a two-thirds vote against Trump would be necessary to remove him from the White House.



Trump last July asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to launch an investigation of one of his top 2020 Democratic challengers, former Vice President Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden&#8217;s work for a Ukrainian natural gas company, and a debunked conspiracy theory that Ukraine sought to undermine Trump&#8217;s 2016 campaign. &nbsp;The phone call between the two leaders happened at the same time Trump was temporarily blocking release of $391 million in military aid Kyiv wanted to help fight pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><a href="https://media.voltron.voanews.com/Drupal/01live-166/styles/sourced/s3/2020-01/AP_20016632022453.jpg?itok=CwW1XN2I"><img src="https://media.voltron.voanews.com/Drupal/01live-166/styles/sourced_737px_wide/s3/2020-01/AP_20016632022453.jpg?itok=eRYyx0P9" alt="Impeachment managers walk through rotunda on their way to Senate on Capitol Hill, Jan. 16, 2020. " /></a><figcaption>FILE &#8211; Impeachment managers walk through rotunda on their way to Senate on Capitol Hill, Jan. 16, 2020.</figcaption></figure>



Congressman Adam Schiff, the leader of seven House impeachment managers, told ABC News&#8217; &#8220;This Week&#8221; show, &#8220;The facts aren&#8217;t seriously contested, that the president withheld hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to an ally at war with Russia, withheld a White House meeting that the president of Ukraine desperately sought to establish with his country and with his adversary the support of the United States in order to coerce Ukraine to helping him cheat in the next election.&#8221;



Schiff added, &#8220;They really can&#8217;t contest those facts. So the only thing really new about the president&#8217;s defense is that they&#8217;re now arguing that because they can&#8217;t contest the facts that the president cannot be impeached for abusing the power of his office.&#8221;



The Senate has yet to decide whether it will hear witnesses in the impeachment trial, with new testimony opposed by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.



Democrats want to subpoena former national security adviser John Bolton, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and others to testify about their knowledge of Trump&#8217;s Ukraine actions. Trump eventually released the Ukraine military aid in September after a 55-day delay without Zelenskiy launching the Biden investigations. &nbsp;Republicans say that is proof that Trump did not engage in a reciprocal quid pro quo deal &#8212; the military aid in exchange for the investigations to help him politically.



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><a href="https://media.voltron.voanews.com/Drupal/01live-166/styles/sourced/s3/2019-12/ap_Lindsey%20Graham_09Dec19.jpg?itok=5Pz-tgwa"><img src="https://media.voltron.voanews.com/Drupal/01live-166/styles/sourced_410px_wide/s3/2019-12/ap_Lindsey%20Graham_09Dec19.jpg?itok=YR4H6eki" alt="Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., denounces a report by the Justice Department's internal watchdog, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 9, 2019. " width="578" height="386" /></a><figcaption>FILE &#8211; Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., denounces a report by the Justice Department&#8217;s internal watchdog, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 9, 2019.</figcaption></figure>



One of Trump&#8217;s staunchest Senate defenders, Sen. Lindsey Graham, on the &#8220;Fox News Sunday&#8221; show, called the impeachment effort &#8220;a partisan railroad job. It&#8217;s the first impeachment in history where there&#8217;s no allegation of a crime by the president.&#8221;



He said if Democrats demand to hear testimony from Bolton, Mulvaney and others, Trump will seek to invoke executive privilege against their testimony to protect the sanctity of private White House conversations.



&#8220;Clearly to me any president would ask for executive privilege regarding these witnesses,&#8221; Graham said, adding that if they were that important to the House case against Trump, Democrats should have sought their testimony during the House investigation.



Democrats did seek more testimony from White House aides, but Trump ordered them to not cooperate with the impeachment investigation; several aides complied with Trump&#8217;s edict while others did not. Democrats dropped their efforts to compel some testimony out of a fear that it would result in a lengthy legal battle that could have been tied up in U.S. courts for months.



Trump&#8217;s Senate impeachment trial is only the third such event in the nearly 2 1/2 centuries of U.S. history. Two other presidents —&nbsp;Andrew Johnson in the mid-19th century and Bill Clinton two decades ago —&nbsp;were impeached by the House but acquitted in Senate trials and remained in office. A fourth U.S. president, Richard Nixon in the mid-1970s, faced almost certain impeachment in the Watergate political scandal, but resigned before the House acted.

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White House, House Lawmakers Lay Out Impeachment Cases as Trial Looms

A former White House official on Thursday will call on some lawmakers investigating impeachment of U.S. President Donald Trump not to perpetuate the &#8220;alternative narrative&#8221; that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 U.S. election, according to her prepared remarks, VOA news <a href="https://www.voanews.com/usa">reports</a>. 



&#8220;I would ask that you please not promote politically driven falsehoods that so clearly advance Russian interests,&#8221; Fiona Hill, the former senior director for European and Russian Affairs on Trump&#8217;s National Security Council, wrote ahead of her public appearance.

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Ex-White House Adviser to Urge Lawmakers to Reject False Urkaine Narrative

Ukrainian lawmakers voted on Wednesday to remove a ban on the sale of farmland for the first time in nearly two decades, a move supported by the country’s foreign backers that risks a political backlash, Euronews <a href="https://www.euronews.com/2019/11/13/ukrainian-lawmakers-vote-to-lift-ban-on-sale-of-farmland-by-2020">reports</a>. 



The proposal must be voted on a second time to come into force. The ban would be lifted in October 2020 and the government says the move would add 2-3 percentage points to Ukraine’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth in its first year.



Supporters who want to scrap the moratorium say that doing so will unlock enormous investment potential in what is already one of the world’s top grain exporters.



But critics have concerns, including that it could allow local oligarchs to snap up land or that foreigners will muscle out poorer Ukrainians in purchasing plots.



As it stands, the proposed legislation stipulates that foreigners will not be able to buy land until 2024 though separately President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said the issue should be put to a referendum, without specifying a date.



“Finally, we can move away from feudalism to real market relations as a fully fledged, developed country. Ukrainians have the right to freely dispose of their property!” Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk said on Facebook after the vote.



The draft law sets a minimum starting price for farmland and limits the area that could be accumulated by one person or entity.



The economy ministry forecasts that one hectare of arable land could cost $2,200, depending on the region.



Ukraine is the world’s 44th largest country but has the ninth biggest amount of arable land, with 32.5 million hectares. It operates around 43 million hectares of farmland compared with 178 million hectares in all European Union countries.



The moratorium on land sales means landholders typically lease their plots to agriculture businesses.



The World Bank has previously estimated that Ukraine could see its&nbsp;GDP&nbsp;growth rise by 1.5 percentage points yearly if the land sale ban is lifted, boost tax revenues and attract investment that would ultimately raise crop yields.



Wednesday’s vote drew mixed reactions. Hundreds of protesters tied to opposition parties gathered outside parliament, and brought a coffin with a dead pig inside in protest. Inside the chamber, some lawmakers temporarily blocked the podium.



Brussels praised the move, though it stressed the reform should be based on the rule of law, transparency and fairness.



“The EU supports the government’s plans to open the land market in Ukraine, a move that could unleash huge potential for Ukraine’s economy,” the European Union representative office in Ukraine said on Facebook.

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Ukrainian lawmakers vote to lift ban on sale of farmland by 2020

Ukraine&#8217;s president on Wednesday urged a group of lawmakers to take a lie detector test to show they are not involved in a widening corruption scandal, VOA news <a href="https://www.voanews.com/europe/ukraines-president-urges-lawmakers-take-polygraph-test">reports</a>. 



Volodymyr Zelenskiy&#8217;s ruling party has been shaken by local media reports that several of its members at the Supreme Rada accepted up to $30,000 in bribes each for pushing through an amendment this month that would benefit property companies linked to another lawmaker.



Ukraine&#8217;s Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor&#8217;s Office earlier on Wednesday announced an investigation into reports concerning 11 lawmakers from the Servant of the People party.



Zelenskiy, who has been on a visit to Japan since early this week, put out a statement on Wednesday urging all members of the Rada&#8217;s finance committee to take the polygraph test to dispel the rumors or face the consequences.



&#8220;If this test reveals even the slightest possibility that any of the lawmakers took money for voting at the committee, anti-corruption agencies will deal with these lawmakers,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I&#8217;m not going to allow anyone inside the faction or outside to cast the shadow on the political movement that won a majority mandate from the Ukrainian people.&#8221;



David Arakhamiya, head of the Servant of the People faction at the Rada, told the Ukrainska Pravda website on Wednesday that almost all the members of the finance committee have already agreed to undergo the test.



Zelenskiy, a political novice and Ukraine&#8217;s arguably best-loved comedian, won the presidential election in April by a landslide on a promise to battle the country&#8217;s endemic corruption and pushed for a snap parliamentary election shortly after that, arguing that the previous Rada was too corrupt.



His Servant of the People party, named after the TV show in which Zelenskiy played a Ukrainian president, won an absolute majority in parliament in July, a first in Ukraine&#8217;s modern history. Analysts raised concerns about some of the new lawmakers, saying that the party list was drafted too hastily and that the individuals lower down on the party roll had not been vetted thoroughly enough.



Zelenskiy, who has said he needed a friendly parliament to embark on an ambitious program of reforms, claimed this month that many first-time members of parliament from Servant of the People are facing threats from other political parties.

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Ukraine’s President Urges Lawmakers to Take Polygraph Test

Pro-democracy lawmakers were dragged out of Hong Kong’s legislature by security guards Thursday after they heckled the city’s pro-Beijing leader for a second day running, the latest outburst of political rancor in the strife-torn city, VOA news <a href="https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-pacific/hong-kong-lawmakers-dragged-chamber-lam-heckled-again">reports</a>. 



Chief executive Carrie Lam has faced an outpouring of anger from her opponents since the legislature opened its doors for a new session Wednesday, three months after the building was trashed by masked protesters.



Lam was unable to give a State of the Union-style policy speech Wednesday after pro-democracy lawmakers, who form a minority on the pro-Beijing-stacked legislature, repeatedly interrupted her.



Instead, she was forced to deliver the address in a pre-recorded video.



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><a href="https://www.voanews.com/s3/files/styles/sourced/s3/afp-image/2019/10/5f6f80931a2cb28fdd871b59b6f24b4deb0dc172.jpg?itok=S-iI6uqj"><img src="https://media.voltron.voanews.com/Drupal/01live-166/styles/sourced_410px_wide/s3/afp-image/2019/10/5f6f80931a2cb28fdd871b59b6f24b4deb0dc172.jpg?itok=uV4VVu2V" alt="Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (R) walks past protesting pro-democracy lawmakers (behind L) as she arrives for a question…" width="576" height="384" /></a><figcaption>Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, right, walks past protesting pro-democracy lawmakers as she arrives for a question and answer session in the Legislative Council in Hong Kong, Oct. 17, 2019.</figcaption></figure>



Second day of chaos



She returned to the Legislative Council Thursday for a session in which she was to answer questions from lawmakers about the content of that policy speech.



But chaos erupted once more as her political opponents chanted slogans and were dragged one by one from the chamber.



Hong Kong has been rocked by the worst political unrest in decades.



Millions have taken to the streets, initially against a now-dropped bid by its leaders to allow extraditions to the authoritarian Chinese mainland.



But after Beijing and Lam took a hard line, the movement snowballed into a broader push for democracy and police accountability.



Activists have for years accused Beijing of eroding the city’s unique freedoms, contrary to a deal that outlined Hong Kong’s 1997 return to China from British colonial rule.



Lam, who was appointed by a pro-Beijing-stacked committee, currently boasts historically low approval ratings and has struggled to end the political crisis.



Wednesday’s policy speech was billed as an attempt to win hearts and minds after four months of seething pro-democracy protests.



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><a href="https://www.voanews.com/s3/files/styles/sourced/s3/afp-image/2019/10/4ed7786d67dd39d05f6d093c8b136628fb7c661a.jpg?itok=pJDiZgPs"><img src="https://media.voltron.voanews.com/Drupal/01live-166/styles/sourced_410px_wide/s3/afp-image/2019/10/4ed7786d67dd39d05f6d093c8b136628fb7c661a.jpg?itok=50VWZRwD" alt="Pro-democracy lawmakers, including Democratic Party politician Lam Cheuk-ting (2nd L), hold a press conference outside the…" width="582" height="388" /></a><figcaption>Pro-democracy lawmakers, including Democratic Party politician Lam Cheuk-ting, second left, hold a press conference outside the Legislative Council chamber in Hong Kong, Oct. 17, 2019.</figcaption></figure>



Focus on economy, not politics



But it was heavily criticized both by opponents and even her allies for offering little in the way of a substantive political solution.



Instead, Lam focused on economic gripes, vowing to increase housing and land supply in a city that has one of the least affordable property markets in the world, and announcing a handful of subsidies.



But she gave no political concessions to the democracy movement and said progress could only be made once violence from protesters ends.



Activists have said they will only end their huge rallies if core demands are met, including an independent inquiry into the police, an amnesty for the more than 2,500 people arrested and fully free elections.



Both Lam and Beijing have repeatedly dismissed those demands and say Hong Kong’s freedoms are being protected.

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Hong Kong Lawmakers Dragged from Chamber; Lam Heckled Again

U.S. lawmakers of both political parties on Wednesday continued to savage President Donald Trump&#8217;s decision to withdraw troops from northeastern Syria, where U.S.-allied Kurds are under attack from Turkey, VOA news <a href="https://www.voanews.com/usa/trump-under-fire-syria-troop-withdrawal">reports</a>. 



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><a href="https://media.voltron.voanews.com/Drupal/01live-166/styles/sourced/s3/2019-06/ap_graham_congress.jpg?itok=2pgD-oW_"><img src="https://media.voltron.voanews.com/Drupal/01live-166/styles/sourced_410px_wide/s3/2019-06/ap_graham_congress.jpg?itok=3a-u19H2" alt="Sen. Lindsey Graham, speaks to reporters after a briefing on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 21, 2019." width="577" height="384" /></a><figcaption>FILE &#8211; Sen. Lindsey Graham, speaks to reporters after a briefing on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 21, 2019.</figcaption></figure>



&#8220;Pray for our Kurdish allies who have been shamelessly abandoned by the Trump administration,&#8221; Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina tweeted. &#8220;This move ensures the reemergence of ISIS,&#8221; an acronym for the Islamic State.



He also tweeted he would &#8220;lead effort in Congress to make (Turkish President) Erdogan pay a heavy price&#8221; for launching a military offensive against the Kurds.



&#8220;I urge President Trump to change course while there is still time,&#8221; added Graham, who is usually one of the president&#8217;s most loyal defenders.



&#8216;Abandoning&#8217; Kurdish allies



In a statement, Delaware Democratic Senator Chris Coons accused the Trump administration of &#8220;abandoning our Syrian Kurdish allies,&#8221; adding that the offensive &#8220;is a direct result of President Trump&#8217;s failure to stand up for our partners and interests in the region — a move that calls into question the credibility and reliability of the United States.&#8221;



For his part, Trump sought to distance himself from Turkey&#8217;s action.



&#8220;The United States does not endorse this attack and has made it clear to Turkey that this operation is a bad idea,&#8221; the president said in a statement.



Trump added that no U.S. soldiers are participating in the attack area and that &#8220;Turkey has committed to protecting civilians, protecting religious minorities, including Christians, and ensuring no humanitarian crisis takes place — and we will hold them to this commitment.&#8221;



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><a href="https://media.voltron.voanews.com/Drupal/01live-166/styles/sourced/s3/2019-06/ap_rand_paul_0.jpg?itok=QYKrRy5s"><img src="https://media.voltron.voanews.com/Drupal/01live-166/styles/sourced_410px_wide/s3/2019-06/ap_rand_paul_0.jpg?itok=lKHjd_9b" alt="FILE - Republican Sen. Rand Paul pauses during a Senate committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 5, 2019." width="580" height="386" /></a><figcaption>FILE &#8211; Republican Sen. Rand Paul pauses during a Senate committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 5, 2019.</figcaption></figure>



Applauding the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria was Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who praised Trump for &#8220;stopping the endless wars&#8221; and predicted &#8220;we [the United States] will be stronger as a result.&#8221;



Paul&#8217;s praise stood in stark contrast to the condemnation of many other lawmakers.



The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Menendez of New Jersey, tweeted Trump &#8220;completely ignored the calls from Congress, from human rights advocates, from the realities on the ground, and from the Kurds themselves.&#8221;



Menendez projected that &#8220;only chaos &amp; havoc will follow&#8221; and that &#8220;this is the second chance ISIS has been waiting for.&#8221;



Virginia Democratic Senator Tim Kaine also took to Twitter, accusing Trump of leaving &#8220;our allies at risk of being slaughtered.&#8221;



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><a href="https://media.voltron.voanews.com/Drupal/01live-166/styles/sourced/s3/ap-images/2019/10/7373419da0021ba7a19e6d906e3a35c0.jpg?itok=bfsNTINu"><img src="https://media.voltron.voanews.com/Drupal/01live-166/styles/sourced_410px_wide/s3/ap-images/2019/10/7373419da0021ba7a19e6d906e3a35c0.jpg?itok=iOydXn2d" alt="Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., questions Andrew Wheeler as he testifies at a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee…" width="575" height="383" /></a><figcaption>FILE &#8211; Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., questions a witness on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 16, 2019.</figcaption></figure>



By &#8220;putting our troops and diplomats in the region at risk,&#8221; Kaine said, Trump is &#8220;playing right into the hands of our adversaries.&#8221;



Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen declared that &#8220;Turkey must pay a heavy price for attacking our Syrian Kurdish partners.&#8221;



Van Hollen predicted that Democratic or Republican senators &#8220;won&#8217;t support abandoning the one regional group most responsible for putting ISIS on its heels.&#8221;



Threatens fight against IS



House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy warned on Twitter the attack &#8220;threatens to halt momentum against ISIS, directly assaults our SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces) partners, and could give the likes of al-Qaeda and Iran new footholds in the region.&#8221;



McCarthy also called on Turkey to &#8220;stop immediately and continue to work with the US to secure the region.&#8221;



The International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian relief organization, expressed deep concern &#8220;about the lives and livelihoods of the two million people in northeast Syria who have already survived ISIS brutality and multiple displacements.&#8221;



The IRC also cautioned the offensive &#8220;could displace 300,000 people and disrupt life-saving humanitarian services, including the IRC&#8217;s.&#8221;



American minister Franklin Graham, an evangelist who appeals to Trump&#8217;s most fervent supporters, also weighed in. He tweeted: &#8220;The Turks have a dismal record on human rights &amp; they can&#8217;t be trusted. Pray for the Kurds, Christians, &amp; other minorities in the region.&#8221;

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Trump Under Fire for Syria Troop Withdrawal

Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg appeared before a U.S. Congressional committee Wednesday, urging law makers to &#8220;listen to the science&#8221; and take action on global climate change, VOA news <a href="https://www.voanews.com/usa/swedish-teen-climate-activist-urges-us-lawmakers-follow-science">reports</a>. 



The 16-year-old Thunberg has been in Washington since last week when she joined U.S. and indigenous activists for a protest designed to build support for a global climate strike on Friday and put pressure on lawmakers to take action on climate change.



She was one of four students to appear Wednesday before a joint hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, Energy, and the Environment and the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.



She submitted a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in lieu of her testimony, and told the lawmakers to &#8220;follow the science:&#8221;



&#8220;Well, well I don&#8217;t see a reason to not listen to the science, is such just such a thing that we should be taking for granted that we listen to the current best available united science. It&#8217;s just something that everyone should do. This is not political opinions, political views or my opinions, this is, this is the science, so yeah,&#8221; she said.



Later on Wednesday, Thunberg joined seven young Americans who have sued the U.S. government for failing to take action on climate change on the steps of the Supreme Court. They urged political leaders and lawmakers to support their legal fight and take action to phase out the use of fossil fuels.



Thunberg first gained notoriety last year when she began skipping school each Friday to protest outside the Swedish parliament. She was joined by other students and later founded the &#8216;Fridays for Future&#8217; weekly school walkouts around the world&nbsp; to demand government climate-change action.



Her organization of &#8220;climate strikers&#8221; reached 3.6 million people across 169 countries. She has been in the United States since last month when she sailed in to New York on a solar-powered boat to attend a U.N. climate summit.

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Swedish Teen Climate Activist Urges US Lawmakers to ‘Follow the Science’

U.S. lawmakers will move next week to begin passing legislation combating human rights abuses in Hong Kong, an action intended to send long-term support to democracy activists there, VOA news <a href="https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-pacific/us-lawmakers-pledge-support-hong-kong-pro-democracy-activists">reports</a>. 



If passed, the bill would allow President Donald Trump to use the Magnitsky Act to sanction Hong Kong and Chinese authorities for human rights abuses, while ensuring protesters are not denied entry visas to the United States and that Hong Kong is complying with U.S. sanctions and laws.



A Trump administration official told a Senate panel Wednesday the U.S. had already been successful in supporting the efforts of pro-democracy activists.



&#8220;I&#8217;ll take a little credit, the U.S. government, on having applied sufficient pressure and encouraged Beijing to do the right thing in Hong Kong,&#8221; David Stilwell, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.&nbsp;&nbsp;



After months of protests, activists in Hong Kong succeeded in forcing the withdrawal of an extradition bill widely seen as an incursion by the mainland Chinese government. Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets in June to protest that legislation, fearing it would threaten the autonomy of the city and endanger dissidents.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><a href="https://media.voltron.voanews.com/Drupal/01live-166/styles/sourced/s3/reuters-pictures/2019/09/RTS2P7VK.jpg?itok=NnxZGM3Q"><img src="https://media.voltron.voanews.com/Drupal/01live-166/styles/sourced_410px_wide/s3/reuters-pictures/2019/09/RTS2P7VK.jpg?itok=FUjCYDe5" alt="Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam addresses a news conference in Hong Kong, China September 5, 2019. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh" /></a><figcaption>Hong Kong&#8217;s Chief Executive Carrie Lam addresses a news conference in Hong Kong, Sept. 5, 2019.</figcaption></figure>



Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam withdrew the bill in September but has not responded to activists&#8217; push for other demands, including amnesty for arrested protesters and an investigation into police brutality.



Sen. Marco Rubio told VOA the Senate version of the legislation is expected to come up for a vote in the Foreign Relations Committee at the end of September.



&#8220;It is mostly technical changes on the process of determining the status of autonomy,&#8221; he said Wednesday of the work that still needs to be done on the legislation. &#8220;The State Department, which will be in charge of implementing the bill, had some technical suggestions. We&#8217;re implementing and incorporating those.&#8221;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><a href="https://media.voltron.voanews.com/Drupal/01live-166/styles/sourced/s3/2019-04/B95966C1-8C42-491B-9278-2423044BE9D6.jpg?itok=TIoEBaHE"><img src="https://media.voltron.voanews.com/Drupal/01live-166/styles/sourced_410px_wide/s3/2019-04/B95966C1-8C42-491B-9278-2423044BE9D6.jpg?itok=E0SlZwl4" alt="House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul, R-Texas, delivers a &quot;State of Homeland Security&quot; address on the war with Islamic State, Dec. 7, 2015." /></a><figcaption>House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul, R-Texas, delivers a &#8220;State of Homeland Security&#8221; address on the war with Islamic State, Dec. 7, 2015.</figcaption></figure>



House Foreign Affairs ranking member Michael McCaul said the committee would begin work marking up their version of the bill next week. The two versions of the legislation would still have to be reconciled before heading to Trump to be signed into law.



&#8220;Chinese authorities will not get away with using violence and intimidation to squash the fundamental freedoms, freedom of speech, of assembly, of demonstration that are guaranteed by law to the people of Hong Kong,&#8221; House Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel said of the House legislation. &#8220;It also sends the message that Beijing&#8217;s attempt to undermine Hong Kong&#8217;s autonomy is not just a problem for the people of Hong Kong; it&#8217;s a concern of the United States, as well.&#8221;



Pro-democracy activist Denise Ho said the House bill would send a powerful message.



&#8220;This is a message to these Hong Kong people that we are not isolated in this fight,&#8221; Ho said. &#8220;We are in the forefront of this very global fight for universal values.&#8221;



Ho is one of a number of activists in Hong Kong&#8217;s pro-democracy movement on Capitol Hill this week, pushing U.S. lawmakers to take action on the legislation.



U.S. assistance to Hong Kong enjoys an unusually bipartisan measure of support in Washington, uniting lawmakers from both sides of the aisle in support of the movement.



Lawmakers are also working on legislation that would ban the sale of police equipment to Hong Kong.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><a href="https://media.voltron.voanews.com/Drupal/01live-166/styles/sourced/s3/2019-04/9603BEE6-C201-4B2F-8921-716906CCB5C4.jpg?itok=YJlZTZlY"><img src="https://media.voltron.voanews.com/Drupal/01live-166/styles/sourced_410px_wide/s3/2019-04/9603BEE6-C201-4B2F-8921-716906CCB5C4.jpg?itok=tonbUiRo" alt="FILE - Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 7, 2014. McGovern is calling for a new U.S. policy on Tibet." /></a><figcaption>FILE &#8211; Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 7, 2014. McGovern is calling for a new U.S. policy on Tibet.</figcaption></figure>



&#8220;U.S. companies should not be complicit in the crackdown on pro-democracy protesters,&#8221; said Rep. Jim McGovern, a Democrat who is co-sponsoring the bill along with Republican Rep. Chris Smith.



Senate Democrats expressed concern the Trump administration is not fully utilizing the Hong Kong Policy Act to bring pressure to bear on China. Passed in 1992, the legislation separates Hong Kong from mainland China in U.S. eyes for trade and economic purposes. U.S. presidents can modify the act if Hong Kong becomes less autonomous, leveraging pressure on China.



&#8220;It&#8217;s difficult to nail down exactly one aspect of that or one area we can push on. I would say that I&#8217;m fully aware of the act. And we&#8217;ve been in a long discussion on its implementation, the impacts on both the U.S. and on China,&#8221; Stilwell said Wednesday.



He also said he had no information on the possibility the administration could use other legal avenues to identify individuals for financial sanctions.

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US Lawmakers Pledge Support for Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Activists

Ukraine&#8217;s parliament has voted in favor of cancelling immunity from prosecution for lawmakers, a step toward President Volodymyr Zelenskiy&#8217;s pledge to stamp out corruption, VOA news <a href="https://www.voanews.com/science-health/prince-harry-announces-massive-travel-sustainability-project">reports</a>.
In a vote on September 3, 373 deputies voted for the bill, while three abstained and 28 were absent.
Zelenskiy, who attended the parliamentary session, downplayed fears that the move would expose lawmakers to persecution by those in power, saying before the vote that the cancellation of immunity would not mean that lawmakers would be responsible for political decisions.
&#8220;I would like to dispel all the myths and political manipulations. The parliament members will preserve indemnity. They will not be responsible for their political decisions, voting or any political or public statements,&#8221; Zelenskiy said.
Zelenskiy, a 41-year-old comedian-turned-politician who has pledged to &#8220;break the system&#8221; in Ukrainian politics, won a presidential election on April 21. Three months later his Servant of the People party took a solid majority of 254 parliamentary seats in the 450-seat legislature, an unprecedented mandate that has set Zelenskiy up to carry out his campaign pledges.
Still, many Western analysts and even supporters of Zelenskiy have been waiting to see whether his parliamentary allies can push through key reforms to tackle problems like the country&#8217;s rickety gas and electricity infrastructure, the nascent state of anti-corruption laws and agencies, and an oligarchic system that has all but dictated policymaking for years.
&#8220;The abolition of parliamentary immunity must come with reforms that will guarantee the independence of prosecutors and courts, which has historically been a problem in Ukraine,&#8221; Brian Whitmore of the European Policy Center said.
&#8220;So undoing is the right first step, but it should not be the last step. Law enforcement agencies should not be involved in politics, law enforcement agencies should be solely concerned with law enforcement,&#8221; he added.
Ukraine ranked 120th in Transparency International&#8217;s 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public-sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople.

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Ukrainian Parliament Cancels Immunity for Lawmakers

Lawmakers will be unable to stop a no-deal Brexit on Oct. 31 by bringing down Britain&#8217;s government in a vote of no confidence next month, Prime Minister Boris Johnson&#8217;s top aide has advised, according to the Sunday Telegraph, VOA news <a href="https://www.voanews.com/europe/report-johnson-aide-says-uk-lawmakers-cant-stop-no-deal-brexit">reports</a>.
Dominic Cummings, one of architects of the 2016 campaign to leave the European Union, told ministers that Johnson could schedule a general election after the Oct. 31 Brexit deadline if he loses a vote of no confidence in parliament, the newspaper said, citing sources.
Johnson has promised to lead Britain out of the EU on Oct. 31 with or without a deal but has a working majority of just one after his Conservative Party lost a parliamentary seat on Friday.
Some of his lawmakers have hinted they would vote against him to prevent a no-deal Brexit — a rising prospect that has sent the pound tumbling to 30-month lows against the dollar over the last few days.
Lawmakers are unable to table a motion of no confidence before next month because the House of Commons is in recess until Sept. 3.
&#8220;[Lawmakers] don&#8217;t realize that if there is a no-confidence vote in September or October, we&#8217;ll call an election for after the 31st and leave anyway,&#8221; Cummings was quoted by one of the Sunday Telegraph&#8217;s sources as saying.
Johnson has said he would prefer to the leave the EU with a deal but has rejected the Irish backstop — an insurance policy to prevent the return of a hard border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland — which the EU says is key to any agreement.
The main opposition Labour Party has said it will oppose any Brexit deal brought forward by Johnson if it does not protect jobs, workers’ rights and the environment.

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Report: Johnson Aide Says UK Lawmakers Can’t Stop No-deal Brexit

Kenya&#8217;s parliament voted on Tuesday to nationalize the country&#8217;s main airline Kenya Airways to save it from mounting debts, VOA news <a href="https://www.voanews.com/africa/lawmakers-back-plan-nationalize-kenya-airways">reports</a>.
The loss-making airline, which is 48.9% government-owned and 7.8% held by Air France-KLM, has been struggling to return to profitability and growth.
A failed expansion drive and a slump in air travel forced it to restructure $2 billion of debt in 2017. The airline later proposed taking over the running of Nairobi&#8217;s main airport to boost its revenue.
Parliament&#8217;s transport committee, however, rejected that plan, recommending instead the nationalization of the airline in a report debated by the national assembly on June 18.
In a voice vote taken on Tuesday afternoon, the majority of lawmakers in the chamber voted to accept the report.
Kenya Airways Chairman Michael Joseph told Reuters the vote was &#8220;great news.&#8221;
&#8220;Nationalization is what is necessary to compete on a level playing field. It is not what we want, but what we need,&#8221; he said, referring to competitors such as Ethiopian Airlines which are state-run and profitable.
Air France-KLM could not immediately be reached for comment.
The government will now draw up an implementation plan, with clear time lines, said Esther Koimett, the principal secretary at the ministry of transport.
&#8220;Parliament is our boss &#8230; we will obviously take the recommendations of parliament,&#8221; she told Reuters.
Kenya is seeking to emulate countries like Ethiopia which run air transport assets from airports to fueling operations under a single company, using funds from the more profitable parts to support others, such as national airlines.
&#8220;The government is keen to take a consolidated view of aviation assets of the country in order to make sure they work in a coherent and efficient way to support the (Nairobi aviation) hub,&#8221; Koimett said.
The committee&#8217;s report proposes that Kenya set up an aviation holding company with four subsidiaries, one of which would run Kenya Airways. Another arm of the holding company would operate Nairobi&#8217;s main international airport.
The committee&#8217;s report also recommended the holding company be given tax concessions for a period to be determined and that it be exempted from paying excise duty on all goods, including jet fuel.
Koimett dismissed concerns that nationalization could lead to further mismanagement. Kenya&#8217;s state-owned enterprises sector is riddled with corporate corpses and near failures caused by theft and poor management over the decades.
&#8220;Implementation is really the key thing &#8230; Ultimately all these things have to do really with ensuring that we get the right people in the right places,&#8221; she said.