US briefing: Fiona Hill, Lula interview and Tesla's pickup truck

Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s essential stories.

Fiona Hill says White House Ukraine scheme was ‘very clear’

The White House’s former top Russia expert has rebuked Republican attempts to push a “fictional narrative” that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 US presidential election, describing it as a conspiracy theory that plays into Vladimir Putin’s hands. Speaking at the impeachment hearings on Thursday, Fiona Hill, a miner’s daughter born in England, also said it was “very clear” a White House meeting between Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president was contingent on Ukraine announcing investigations into Joe Biden.

• ‘National treasure.’ In her six hours of testimony to the House intelligence committee, writes Julian Borger, Hill emerged as a heroine, for her mastery of facts and argument, and her coolness under pressure.

Lula da Silva: Bolsonaro ‘turning back the clock’ on Brazil

Brazil’s leftwing former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was freed two weeks ago after spending more than 18 months in prison, for controversial corruption charges that he says were designed to prevent him running against the eventually victorious far-right candidate, Jair Bolsonaro, in 2018. In his first interview for a foreign newspaper, Lula told the Guardian’s Sam Cowie that his mission now is to “battle for democracy” against Bolsonaro’s attempts to “destroy all of the democratic and social conquests from the last decades.”

• US relations. Lula expressed dismay at alleged links between Bolsonaro and organized crime, and described the rightwing populist president’s “submission to Trump” as “embarrassing”.

Israeli PM Netanyahu indicted in three corruption cases

The embattled Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been indicted on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust by the country’s attorney general, with Israel still in political limbo following its second inconclusive election in September. Netanyahu said in a televised speech that the “false” and “politically motivated” corruption charges – the first ever levelled against a sitting Israeli leader – amounted to an “attempted coup” against him.

• Third time lucky? Israel looks set to go to the polls for an unprecedented third successive election, after both Netanyahu and the opposition leader Benny Gantz failed to form a working coalition government.

Elon Musk’s ‘Cybertruck’ hits a pothole at launch event

The Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, on Wednesday unveiled his company’s first pickup truck, the armoured, sustainably-powered “Cybertruck”. But the glitzy launch did not go entirely to plan: when its chief designer tested the vehicle’s durability by lobbing hefty metal balls at it, he smashed two of the reinforced windows. “Not bad, room for improvement,” responded Musk, who said the Cybertruck was designed to compete with the Ford, Chevrolet and Chrysler pickups that remain America’s top-selling vehicles.

• Bond film. The Cybertruck’s futuristic design is based in part on the Lotus Esprit sportscar that transformed into a submersible in the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me.

Cheat sheet

• The wave of protests sweeping through Latin America has reached Colombia, where hundreds of thousands took to the streets on Thursday in a mass demonstration of dissatisfaction with the centrist government of the president, Iván Duque.

• The Trump adviser Stephen Miller said in a recently resurfaced 2016 radio interview with Breitbart that immigration could “decimate” the US, evoking the white nationalist sentiments for which he is facing demands to resign.

• Another woman, Teala Davies, has sued the estate of Jeffrey Epstein, calling herself “the perfect victim” and claiming she was sexually abused by the the late disgraced financier at several of his properties when she was 17 years old.

• South Korea has said the superstar members of the musical group BTS must perform military service, defying calls from the K-pop boyband’s fanbase to grant an exemption for the country’s most popular cultural export.

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Must-reads

How Cynthia Erivo took the US by storm

The British-born Broadway star Cynthia Erivo is well on her way to conquering Hollywood, playing the great slave-turned-emancipator Harriet Tubman in the new hit Harriet. She tells Steve Rose how she broke America, with a little help from Aretha and Oprah.

What a doctor learned from his suicidal patients

As an emergency room doctor in Edinburgh, Gavin Francis treated his fair share of “jumpers”, who had tried to take their own lives by leaping from the nearby Forth Bridge. Now, as a family doctor, he uses that experience to try to help patients suffering suicidal thoughts.

The artist preserving a relic of Tamir Rice’s death

The Chicago visual artist Theaster Gates collects neglected black cultural objects, hoping to preserve and display the complicated history of race in America. Three years ago, he acquired the gazebo under which 12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot by police. Caring for it “felt like my duty as a black man,” he tells André Wheeler.

New York’s subway cops go viral over food vendor arrests

The New York MTA announced in September that it would employ 500 new police officers to curb “quality of life issues” in the transit system. Now their excessive policing is the subject of a slew of viral videos, including a recent clip of cops cuffing a churros vendor, which has racked up nearly 3m views. Lauren Aratani reports.

Opinion

Pete Buttigieg may be the new frontrunner in Iowa, but he’s still polling at 0% among African Americans in South Carolina. That’s hardly surprising, says Malaika Jabali, in a Democratic primary process that privileges the concerns of white midwestern voters.

Sport

José Mourinho takes the reins at Tottenham for the first time on Saturday, promising to “give absolutely everything I have” to the club as they face West Ham. Unai Emery will be hoping a win against Southampton can inject fresh optimism into his demoralised Arsenal side. Those are two of 10 things to look out for amid the weekend’s action in the Premier League.

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph has denied uttering a racial slur in his confrontation with Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett, which led to an all-out brawl between the two teams. The claim was reportedly made by Garrett as he appealed against his suspension at NFL headquarters on Wednesday.

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