Did Trump Just Incriminate Himself?

Here is today’s Foreign Policy brief: The White House releases a memo of the conversation between Trump and Zelensky, Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam meets with the public, and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu is given the first shot at trying to form a government—again.

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On Wednesday, the White House released a memo—not a full transcript—of the July phone call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the center of the impeachment inquiry launched by the U.S. House of Representatives.

The memo indicates that Trump asked Zelensky to “do us a favor”—pushing for an investigation into a company associated with the FBI inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election and for a corruption investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden, his potential opponent in the 2020 presidential race.

[Read FP’s annotated version of the memo.]

Ukrainegate. Trump has tried to link the impeachment inquiry to the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, calling it a “witch hunt.” But the Ukraine inquiry differs significantly from the Mueller investigation, Elias Groll explains. For one thing, Trump is now at the center of the scandal—and it’s focused on his abuses of power while in office.

Throwing an ambassador under the bus. The document stunned current and former U.S. officials, Amy Mackinnon and Robbie Gramer report—in particular as Trump blasted his former Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, who was recalled in May. (Yovanovitch was outspoken about corruption in the country.) Zelensky concurred: “It was great that you were the first one who told me that she was a bad ambassador because I agree with you 100%,” he said.

The Ukrainian president, who met with Trump on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, has said that he didn’t know that his side of the conversation would be published.

House reactions. The U.S. House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff said that the phone call was “far more damning” than imagined. And the chair of the Judiciary Committee said that U.S. Attorney General William Barr, mentioned in the memo, should recuse himself from any Ukraine investigation.

Hong Kong’s leader holds community meeting. Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam holds her first meeting with members of the public today, seeking to resolve the ongoing political crisis that has gripped the city for almost four months. Lam will speak with 150 community members, and security is expected to be tight. Lam is desperate for a solution as Hong Kong’s economy suffers from the unrest. She is also keen to avoid protest scenes ahead of Oct. 1—the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China.

Another chance for Netanyahu to fail? Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been chosen by the country’s president to try again to put together a coalition government after elections last week didn’t give a parliamentary majority to any party—for the second time in six months. He is in an even weaker position than after the last election, with his political allies holding only 55 seats in the Knesset; 61 seats are required to form a majority coalition. Talks to form a unity government with opponent Benny Gantz appeared to have failed on Wednesday, but they could resume if there is no other way to break the deadlock. Netanyahu will now have 28 days to form a coalition, but he faces a pre-indictment hearing on corruption charges on Oct. 2, which could derail his leadership ambitions.

Unrest grows in Haiti. Facing a political crisis, Haiti’s President Jovenel Moise gave a rare national address on Wednesday to urge calm after a senator fired a gun at protesters near the parliament building this week. Demonstrations over fuel and food shortages, corruption, and the state of the economy have intensified—with protesters clashing with police. The crisis caused Moise to cancel his trip to the U.N. General Assembly in New York this week. The opposition leader, Andre Michel, has called for Moise to resign.

New U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil. The United States has announced new sanctions against Chinese companies that import Iran’s oil, putting further pressure on Iran’s economy. (China has been the biggest consumer of Iranian oil.) The move came as meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was ruled out.

Austria’s Sebastian Kurz. The former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and his party are expected to win Austria’s parliamentary election on Sunday, two years after he formed a coalition with the far-right. Observers say Kurz could again change course, and conservative politicians throughout Europe will be watching closely.

An indigenous chief in Brazil. On Wednesday, indigenous chief Raoni Metuktire called for the resignation of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro—just a day after the leader labeled Raoni a foreign pawn. The Kayapo chief is known for his lifelong fight against deforestation in the Amazon, and he has been named as a candidate for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize.

An Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released on Wednesday warns that extreme sea level events will become annual occurrences by 2050 and that sea levels could eventually rise by 4 meters if carbon emissions are not reduced. The new forecast is higher than the one made in 2014 following rapid ice melt in Antarctica.

Experts say that a crack in a giant glacier in the Alps on the French-Italian border could cause a partial collapse, risking an ice avalanche in the valley below. The detected crevasse is much wider than usual and comes after a particularly warm summer in Europe.

China has officially opened a new mega-airport in Beijing, the second in the capital. Daxing international airport was designed by the late architect Zaha Hadid and is the largest single-building airport in the world. China is expected to be the biggest global market for air travel by 2022, overtaking the United States.

Lawmakers voted to legalize recreational marijuana use in the Australian Capital Territory on Wednesday, making it the first part of the country to do so. Medical marijuana has been legal in Australia since 2016.

This essay by Ramzi Rouighi in Aeon deftly ties together strands of language, culture, and race to provide a brief history of European colonialism in North Africa—including how a poorly translated 14th-century Arabic text aided France in colonizing Algeria and dividing the local populace. —Colm Quinn

That’s it for today.

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