THE BIG STORY

“You can’t trust this president”: Democrats accuse Trump of betraying the country in impeachment trial

On the second day of opening arguments at President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, Rep. Adam Schiff ended with an impassioned speech on why senators must vote to remove the president from office.

“You can trust he will do what's right for Donald Trump. He'll do it now, he's done it before, he'll do it for the next several months, he'll do it in the election if he is allowed to,” Schiff told the senators serving as the jury in the trial.

It was a dramatic moment following a day where Republicans had been restless, with many retreating to the cloakroom where they could chat. But during Schiff's emotional closing statement everyone sat silently. Both parties seemed rapt.

Democrats spent the day focused on applying the Constitution to the president’s actions, further bolstering their impeachment case. However, they have to answer a broader question: what is their main line of attack — is it the evidence, or the cover-up?

Senate television / AP

Impeachment Today

Baby, this is what you voted for. Adam Schiff switched up the plan for the day on the go. We take you through the twists and turns of a dramatic day in the impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump. Listen and subscribe.

STAYING ON TOP OF THIS

Harvey Weinstein’s lawyer played up old myths about rape while questioning the case’s star witness Annabella Sciorra

Sciorra, the first woman to testify against Weinstein, told the jury of seven men and five women that the former producer forced his way into her New York City apartment following a group dinner and raped her. The Sopranos actor told the jury that she blacked out and fainted after the alleged attack.

Weinstein’s lawyers asked, “Why didn’t you try to run out of the apartment?” “Did you scream?” “Did you hit him?” “Try to poke him in the eyes?”

These questions that perpetuate myths about sexual assault victims came a day after Weinstein’s attorney Damon Cheronis assured the court the defence would not victim-shame witnesses.

SNAPSHOTS

The coronavirus outbreak seems to be contained in China, health officials said. International health experts reported hundreds of confirmed cases of the pneumonia-like illness, but stressed that the outbreak was overwhelmingly limited to China.

A law required the US’s top intelligence official to turn over a report on Jamal Khashoggi’s killing. He blew the deadline. Lawmakers gave the director of national intelligence 30 days to send Congress an unclassified report on Khashoggi’s death at a Saudi Arabian consulate. That deadline has passed.

A black man had the cops called on him at a bank while trying to deposit a racial discrimination settlement check. Sauntore Thomas confidentially settled a lawsuit against his former employer and went to deposit the settlement check. The bank called the police on him over accusations the check was fraudulent. It’s like rain on your wedding day.

Michelle Carter, who encouraged her boyfriend to kill himself, was released from prison early. The 23-year-old served 11 months of her 15-month prison sentence after she was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for Conrad Roy’s death.

Tinder users can soon trigger a panic alarm if they feel unsafe on a date. The app will let users input details about their dates, share location services so the app tracks them during a date, and hit a panic button if they need to alert emergency services.

Turns out James Corden isn’t always driving in Carpool Karaoke. What can I say, except nothing is real.

INACTION ON MISINFORMATION

As Mohammed bin Salman allegedly hacked Jeff Bezos, a network of accounts on Twitter were pushing Saudi propaganda

This week, UN experts said Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, was allegedly extracting information from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ iPhone. While that was happening, a coordinated Twitter campaign was attacking Bezos, Amazon, and the Washington Post, which he owns.

Marc Owen Jones, assistant professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Qatar's Hamad Bin Khalifa University, found accounts responding to reports of the hack with messages denying Saudi involvement. Jones also reported a pro-Saudi network is active on Twitter.

Those findings raise questions about whether Twitter, which has carried out at least three mass suspensions of pro-Saudi propaganda networks since 2018, has done enough to clear the site of coordinated misinformation.

MAKE SOME TEA, HAVE A GOOD SIT

Spend the weekend with these thoughtful reads

Cheer Captures What It Really Felt Like To Be A Cheerleader. Are you watching Cheer on Netflix? I am hooked, and have two episodes left, so I was thrilled to read Anne Helen Petersen reflecting on cheerleading and how it can change lives: “What popular depictions of cheerleading have always...seemed to miss is that cheerleading, like any sport, can beat you up and string you along with the promise of glory, but it can also be deeply transformative.”

Black People Deserve Better Than Tyler Perry’s Latest Movie. I am often astounded at the sheer volume of work Perry seems to churn out. Michael Blackmon’s piece on his new Netflix movie, A Fall From Grace, suggests maybe this isn't always a good thing. Blackmon writes that the film “makes it clear that it’s time he started collaborating with artists who actually have something to say.”

The Worst Thing About The Goop Lab Is How Reasonable It Seems. Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop brand has a lot to answer for. But few of those questions even come up, let alone get answered, in The Goop Lab, a mostly harmless new series. As Scaachi Koul writes, through being “harder to hate than the e-commerce empire that spawned it...The Goop Lab acts as a form of brand rehab for Goop and Paltrow in general — but there’s no indication that the underlying Goop ethos has actually changed.”

I hope you get to surprise yourself with your resilience today,

Elamin