Impeachment, Trade, Self-Care
Your Tuesday Evening Briefing |
Good evening. Here’s the latest. |
 | | Erin Schaff/The New York Times |
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1. It was a historic day in Washington as lawmakers unveiled articles of impeachment against President Trump. The move brings a sitting president to the brink of removal from office for the fourth time in American history. |
The two articles charge Mr. Trump with abusing his power and obstructing Congress, and assert that he “ignored and injured the interests of the Nation” in “corruptly soliciting” election assistance from the government of Ukraine in the form of investigations that would smear his Democratic political rivals. |
Read the articles of impeachment, being reviewed above before the release by the House Judiciary Committee. The panel could vote by Thursday to recommend the charges to the full chamber for final approval. The final step, a trial in the Senate, could come early in the new year. |
 | | T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times |
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The new provisions, solidified after months of negotiations between House Democrats and the Trump administration, would strengthen the trade deal’s protections for workers. |
The agreement handed the administration one of its biggest legislative victories just an hour after Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced formal charges against Mr. Trump. Democrats are also on the verge of approving a bipartisan defense bill and a bill that would lower the cost of prescription drugs. |
The outbreak of cooperation amid impeachment proceedings was hardly an accident. It’s the Democrats’ strategy to show that they can “walk and chew gum at the same time.” |
 | | Bryan Anselm for The New York Times |
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3. Six people were killed, including at least one police officer, in a huge gunfight in Jersey City, N.J., just across the Hudson River from Manhattan. |
The two gunmen were killed, along with three people in a store, in a firefight involving dozens of law enforcement officers that turned a residential area into a war zone. Helicopters hovered overhead. Schools were on lockdown. |
 | | Ben Stansall/AFP/Pool via REUTERS |
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4. In the waning days of an otherwise sluggish election race, many British voters are having the dawning realization that Brexit could threaten a cherished British institution: the National Health Service. |
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s vow to complete Brexit could leave the country vulnerable to price hikes for pharmaceuticals, and the N.H.S. has already deteriorated under his Conservative Party’s watch. Some polls show the health service is neck and neck with Brexit in importance to voters. Above, Mr. Johnson during a campaign event at a construction company today. |
 | | Felipe Dana/Associated Press |
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5. Confirmed: Climate change is ravaging the Arctic. |
The government’s annual, peer-reviewed Arctic report card showed its temperatures for the year ending in September were the second highest since 1900, leading to low summer sea ice, cascading impacts on the regional food web and growing concerns over sea level rise. |
The past six years have been the warmest ever recorded in the region. |
Separately, the Interior Department’s internal watchdog found that a top official there violated federal ethics rules when he met with his former employer, Texas Public Policy Foundation, to discuss Interior business. |
The foundation, which has received substantial funding from Charles and David Koch, has salted the Trump administration with many of its top officials. |
 | | Anthony Russo |
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Executives for Facebook’s WhatsApp and Messenger services say that creating a so-called backdoor would make their users vulnerable to hackers and repressive governments. With 1.5 billion users, WhatsApp is perhaps the world’s most popular encrypted communications platform. |
The standoff is just the latest trouble for Big Tech. Major organizations have pledged millions of dollars to take it on. Bipartisan political hostility and regulatory threats are growing. And yet, thanks to rate cuts and a lull in trade tensions, tech stocks have soared. |
 | | Jonathan Ernst/Reuters |
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7. Economists have published the first rigorous study to find that health coverage leads to fewer deaths. It came about by accident. |
Three years ago, the I.R.S. sent 3.9 million Americans a letter. It said they’d recently paid a fine for not carrying health insurance and suggested possible ways to enroll in coverage. Because of budget constraints, a random 600,000 uninsured taxpayers weren’t sent the letter. |
Voilà — a large-scale, randomized controlled trial. Above, a rally in July to support the Affordable Care Act. |
Obtaining insurance reduced premature deaths by an amount that exceeded all expectations, the Treasury Department economists found: 12 percent over two years. In other words, the letters, and the access to health care, saved 700 lives. |
 | | Matt Rourke/Associated Press |
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8. Eli Manning was (briefly) Eli Manning again. |
A rookie took his spot 11 weeks ago, but for a half against the Eagles on Monday night, he returned to starting quarterback and resurrected the Giants. But then “the Giants turned back into the pumpkins they have been all season,” our sports reporter writes. |
In college football, three big games determine the national champion, and since there are 40 postseason games, everyone gets a taste of the glory. Here’s a look at all the games, celebrating roses, peaches, independence and … Cheez-Its. (Crunch.) |
 | | Jack Davison for The New York Times |
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9. It was a very good year for acting. |
Our critics A.O. Scott and Wesley Morris selected 10 performers, including Lupita Nyong’o, above, they found most captivating, challenging, shocking and inspiring in 2019. Interesting note: Most of them were portraying other performing artists. |
But they didn’t just embody stars of the past. They created new ones. |
On the music front, it took months for the songwriter and dancer FKA twigs to perfect “Mary Magdalene,” the title track and centerpiece to her critically acclaimed new album. Our latest “Diary of a Song” shows how she did it. |
10. And finally, the gift of self-care for the holiday season. |
Haemin Sunim was a frustrated graduate student when a friend told him the solution was to “be good to yourself first — then to others.” Now a Buddhist monk, he espouses the power of self-care through Buddhist teachings. |
“Even if you feel there are many things in your life that are imperfect,” he says, “if you look at them in a compassionate way, you discover that imperfection, in and of itself, is beautiful and has meaning.” |
Have a transcendent night. |
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