Prince Harry, Bali, Myanmar: Your Tuesday Briefing

Good morning.

Here’s what you need to know:

CreditVincenzo Pinto/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

• Pope Francismeets today with Aung San Suu Kyi, the de facto leader of Myanmar’s government, on a trip that is forcing him to balance his moral authority with the country’s path to democracy, as well as the safety of the country’s tiny Catholic population.

Despite international criticism that Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi she has not done enough to halt the military’s campaign of violence against Rohingya Muslims, the pope’s allies have urged him to lend her his support. Many see her as the country’s best chance to prevent a backslide into absolute military rule.

The pope met with Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the commander of Myanmar’s military, on Monday.

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• In Washington, lawmakers are back from a break to try to hurtle a sweeping tax plan through Congress. A provision in the House’s version would repeal a 1954 law banning churches and other nonprofit groups from engaging in political activity.

Congress is also under growing pressure to end Capitol Hill’s culture of secrecy over sexual harassment.

Under a 1995 law, complaints are handled confidentially — and settlements, which use taxpayers’ money, are also kept secret. Members of both parties are calling for such practices to end.

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CreditFirdia Lisnawati/Associated Press

• Indonesia raised its alert for Mount Agung to the highest level, and said 100,000 people need to be evacuated from a danger zone that was extended to six miles around the Bali volcano.

Officials warned of potential hazards including pyroclastic flows — a mix of hot gases, lava fragments and blanketing ash — that Agung could project up to six miles away in minutes.

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CreditAamir Qureshi/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

• In Pakistan, the government struck a deal with leaders of an Islamist protest movement to end weeks of paralyzing protests in the capital that became the focus of violent clashes with the police over the weekend.

The country’s embattled law minister, Zahid Hamid, will step down to satisfy the protesters’ accusations that his rewording of an oath of office constituted blasphemy.

Many Pakistanis saw the agreement as yet another government capitulation to religious extremists.

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• Australia’s Parliament was supposed to be in session this week, focused on same-sex marriage legislation. Instead, the government of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has been paralyzed by a line in the Constitution that prohibits dual citizens from serving as lawmakers — — nine parliamentarians have had to resign, including the deputy prime minister.

Representatives now have until Dec. 5 to turn in documentation to prove their citizenship status.

Many Australians have responded to the political turmoil with anger and loss of faith in democracy and Mr. Turnbull. We asked legal scholars how this mess might have been avoided, and how it might be fixed.

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• It’s official:Prince Harry is engaged to his girlfriend, Meghan Markle. Their wedding is set for next spring.

The warmth with which the royal family announced the marriage underscores just how much the British royal family has changed: Ms. Markle, an American actress, is biracial and divorced.

Last year, the prince denounced the “racial undertones” of the intense media scrutiny of their relationship.

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Business

• Amazon is aggressively recruiting Indian vendors to sell their goods directly on the e-commerce giant’s U.S. site. At least 27,000 Indian sellers have signed up.

• Bitcoin surged past $9,700 in value as it continued to defy bubble warnings.

• Time Inc., the publisher of magazines including Time, Sports Illustrated and People, was bought by the Iowa-based Meredith Corporation in a nearly $3 billion cash transaction made possible by the Koch brothers, fossil-fuel billionaires who have long supported conservative causes.

• U.S. stocks were mixed. Here’s a snapshot of global markets.

In the News

CreditCong Tuong/VNA, via Associated Press

• Vietnam sentenced a 22-year-old blogger to seven years in prison for posting reports about a chemical spill last year that devastated the central coastline. [The New York Times]

• A group of Australian doctors urged their government to let them conduct an immediate review of the health of hundreds of asylum seekers who were cleared out of a detention center on Manus Island on Friday, ending their three-week protest. [Reuters]

• Don Burke, an Australian celebrity known for a TV gardening show, admitted “he might have terrified a few people” but denied accusations of sexual harassment. [ABC]

• Our correspondent in Tehran reports: “After years of cynicism, sneering or simply tuning out all things political, Iran’s urban middle classes have been swept up in a wave of nationalist fervor.” [The New York Times]

• Ivanka Trump arrives in India for the annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit, possibly her most high-profile global appearance to date. [Quartz]

• Our article on an American Nazi sympathizer has drawn much feedback, most of it sharply critical. [The New York Times]

• Chinese scientists are working on a new type of spy satellite that could foil high-tech radar absorption materials on a stealth aircraft or warship with so-called ghost imaging. [South China Morning Post]

Smarter Living

Tips, both new and old, for a more fulfilling life.

• Go about painting your apartment like a pro.

• Do not, repeat, do not eat raw cookie dough.

• Recipe of the day: Orange beef with a side of baby bok choy is a quick dinner.

Noteworthy

CreditKoji Watanabe/Samurai Japan, via Getty Images

• A superstar of Japanese baseball, Shohei Ohtani, 23, is coming to Major League Baseball with a goal worthy of Babe Ruth: to play two ways, as a starting pitcher and an everyday batter.

• Roya Sadat, an Afghan filmmaker, sold her apartment, car and jewelry to make a movie that deepens the conversation on women’s rights. Now it’s up for an Oscar.

• Finally, meet Fiona. Videos of the baby hippo twirling around in the water, Rubenesque and graceful, are racking up millions of views online. “I feel like I represent Beyoncé,” said an official at her zoo in the central U.S.

Back Story

CreditAssociated Press

Though no longer an official holiday in Hawaii, Nov. 28 was once celebrated as Hawaiian Independence Day, or Lā Kūʻokoʻa in the Hawaiian language. It marked the day in 1843 that Britain and France recognized Hawaii as an independent kingdom.

The first European to reach the Hawaiian islands was James Cook in 1778, and he was soon followed by missionaries and sugar cane growers. In 1842, King Kamehameha III, concerned that foreign powers might seize Hawaiian territory, tried to negotiate independence treaties with the U.S., Britain and France.

The king had good reason to be worried. The following year, a British naval captain occupied the Hawaiian kingdom for five months before his superiors arrived to overrule him. The kingdom’s return to Kamehameha’s rule on July 31, 1843, became known as Sovereignty Restoration Day.

A few months later, Britain and France recognized Hawaiian independence.

It was, however, short-lived. A group of Americans and Europeans overthrew Queen Liliuokalani in 1893 when she tried to rewrite the kingdom’s constitution, and Hawaii was annexed by the U.S. in 1898. In 1959, it became the 50th state.

Hawaiian Independence Day and Sovereignty Restoration Day continue to be observed by sovereignty activists who say the islands are still being occupied, only now by the U.S.

Jennifer Jett contributed reporting.

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