10 things you need to know today: December 11, 2019

1. Democrats announce two articles of impeachment against Trump

House Democratic leaders unveiled two articles of impeachment against President Trump on Tuesday, formally calling for his removal from office. The first draft article said Trump "ignored and injured the interests of the Nation" by "corruptly soliciting" help from Ukraine to investigate Democrats, including former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. The articles accuse Trump of using the promise of a White House meeting and the withholding of military aid as leverage to get Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to do what Trump wanted. The second article of impeachment accuses Trump of obstructing justice by ordering government officials to defy House subpoenas for testimony and documents. Trump and Republican lawmakers say Democrats have no evidence to justify the charges.

The New York Times

2. Democrats, White House reach new North America trade deal

House Democrats said Tuesday they had reached a deal with the White House to advance a new U.S.-Canada-Mexico trade deal after months of negotiations. The agreement is designed to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump has criticized. "There is no question of course that this trade agreement is much better than NAFTA," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Tuesday, saying that changes to the trade deal amount to "a victory for the American worker." If the pact is ratified, it will amount to Trump's main legislative success since Democrats regained control of the House in last year's midterms.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

CNN

3. Trump harshly criticizes FBI Director Christopher Wray

President Trump leveled harsh criticism at FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday for noting that the Justice Department's inspector general had determined that the FBI acted with "appropriate predication and authorization" when it opened the investigation into Russian election meddling. Wray did order more than 40 corrective steps to address recommendations in the report but said "the investigation was opened with appropriate predication and authorization." Trump later tweeted: "I don't know what report current Director of the FBI Christopher Wray was reading, but it sure wasn't the one given to me. With that kind of attitude, he will never be able to fix the FBI, which is badly broken despite having some of the greatest men & women working there!"

The Washington Post

4. Judge blocks Trump's use of military funds for border wall

A federal judge in Texas on Tuesday ruled that the Trump administration can't use military construction money to build President Trump's wall on the Mexican border. U.S. District Judge David Briones ruled in favor of El Paso County, Texas, and Border Network for Human Rights, which challenged the shifting of Pentagon funds to pay for Trump's barrier. Congress allocated $1.4 billion for Trump's border projects. The lawsuit said Trump overstepped his authority by declaring a national emergency to give him access to $3.6 billion more in military funds for 11 wall projects. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper authorized the move in September.

CNN

5. Navy suspends Saudi flight students after shooting

The Navy has suspended flight training for Saudi military students at three bases in Florida following last week's shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola by a member of the Saudi Royal Air Force. About 300 Saudi students will be affected, the Navy said Tuesday. While flight training is suspended, classroom instruction will continue. Three people were killed and eight injured in Friday's attack, and the gunman, Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, 21, was shot and killed by a sheriff's deputy. His motive remains unknown, and the FBI is operating on the assumption the shooting was an act of terrorism.

The New York Times

6. 6 killed in New Jersey firefight

Two people opened fire at a Jersey City, New Jersey, kosher market on Tuesday, igniting a shootout that left five people dead in the store, including three bystanders and the two suspects. One police officer was killed trying to detain the suspects before they went to the store. Local officials said the firefight turned a residential area into what witnesses described as a war zone. "Our officers were under fire for hours," said the Jersey City police chief, Michael Kelly. Authorities said the store, in a Hasidic neighborhood, appeared to have been targeted, although they did not immediately say whether the motive was anti-Semitism. Two other officers and a bystander were wounded in the shootout, and were being treated in stable condition.

The New York Times

7. Trump slams Democrats during Pennsylvania rally

President Trump told cheering supporters on Tuesday that the impeachment process would backfire on Democrats. "They're embarrassed by the impeachment," Trump said in a rally in Pennsylvania, a potentially critical state in the 2020 election. "This is the lightest, weakest impeachment ... This is 'impeachment light.'" The appearance came hours after House Democrats unveiled two articles of impeachment that accuse him of abusing his power in an attempt to get Ukraine to investigate Democrats, including former Vice President Joe Biden, and obstructing Congress' investigation. Trump attempted to undermine the push to impeach him by saying he committed no crime.

USA Today The Philadelphia Inquirer

8. Pompeo, Lavrov spar over Russian election meddling

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov clashed over allegations of Russian election meddling in a joint appearance Tuesday. Pompeo said he told Russia's top diplomat in a Tuesday meeting that it was "unacceptable" for Moscow to attempt to influence U.S. elections. Lavrov said after talking with Pompeo and President Trump that allegations of Russian election meddling were "baseless." He said he had called for Pompeo to release 2016 and 2017 diplomatic cables that would prove Russia did nothing to affect the 2016 vote. "Let's publish this cross-channel correspondence, so it would all become very clear," Lavrov said. "This administration refused to do so."

USA Today

9. Greenland ice sheet loss speeds up

Greenland's ice sheet losses have accelerated dramatically since the 1990s, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Nature. The losses have increased from 33 billion tons of ice per year in the 1990s to 254 billion tons per year. Nearly four trillion tons of Greenland's ice have gone into the ocean since 1992, enough to raise global sea levels by a centimeter. Such change can be catastrophic, according to the 89 scientists who conducted the study using satellites. "Around the planet, just 1 centimeter of sea-level rise brings another 6 million people into seasonal, annual floods," said Andrew Shepherd, a University of Leeds professor who co-led the massive collaboration with NASA researcher Erik Ivins.

The Washington Post

10. Appeals court upholds Cosby sexual assault conviction

An appeals court on Tuesday upheld Bill Cosby's sexual assault conviction. "This decision is a reminder that no one is above the law," Andrea Constand, the victim in the case against the actor and comedian, told The Associated Press in a text message. In the ruling, the Superior Court ruled that prosecutors had the right to let five women testify to bolster Constand's case during the retrial last year in Philadelphia. The court said the women's testimony shed light on Cosby's "unique sexual assault playbook," and debunked his claim that he was "unaware of or mistaken" about his victims' lack of consent. Cosby has called himself a political prisoner. "This isn't about justice," his spokesman Andrew Wyatt said. "This is a political scheme to destroy America's Dad."

The Associated Press