THE BIG STORY

Four key witnesses testify at Trump’s impeachment hearings

Yesterday saw the testimony of significant figures in the saga of Donald Trump’s impeachment.

To refresh your memory, the impeachment inquiry surrounds the allegations that Trump and his associates withheld long-standing American military aid to Ukraine, asking the the country to agree to investigate Joe Biden, his family, and a false conspiracy theory about the 2016 election.

At the heart of these allegations is a July phone call between Trump and Ukraine’s president.

In yesterday’s hearings:

👉 Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the National Security Council's Ukraine specialist, who listened to the call, testified that he considered it “improper.”

👉Jennifer Williams, a Russia expert working in Vice President Mike Pence's office, described the call as “unusual.”

👉Tim Morrison, who recently left the NSC, told investigators that he listened to the call and doesn’t think anything was improper.

👉Kurt Volker, the special envoy to Ukraine who has since resigned, said that he helped run US policy to Ukraine outside of normal channels — working with Trump associate Rudy Giuliani, who has no role in government.

Vindman, a military veteran who has been awarded a Purple Heart, told his dad “do not worry” even though he’s getting threats for speaking out at Trump’s impeachment hearings.

Impeachment Today: For an in-depth discussion of yesterday’s testimony, listen and subscribe to our daily impeachment podcast. It’s like the highlights reel of the impeachment hearings.

Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

STAYING ON TOP OF THIS

Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson was shut out of the debate, so she spent it WhatsApping us

In the UK, as Conservative leader Boris Johnson and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn squared off in a televised debate ahead of the Dec. 12 election, Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson was barred from taking part. She even lost a court battle trying to make it onto the stage.

So instead, she spent the evening WhatsApping BuzzFeed News her reactions to the policies being discussed.

SNAPSHOTS

The guards responsible for Jeffrey Epstein were allegedly online shopping and sleeping when he died. The guards — Tova Noel, 31, and Michael Thomas, 41 — were charged with falsifying records to indicate inmates were being regularly checked on the night Epstein killed himself.

A white teenager was arrested after allegedly planning to attack a local black church. Police said a white 16-year-old girl in Georgia was arrested after allegedly planning to attack a predominantly black church in the area with knives.

Syracuse University students say a white supremacist manifesto was airdropped to their phones and now authorities are investigating. The university received multiple reports that the document, which appeared to be a copy of the anti-Muslim manifesto by the perpetrator of the Christchurch mosque shootings, was airdropped to several cell phones of people in the library.

Brace yourselves, the new Cats movie trailer is here. It’s kind of like the first one, but a lot more cats and Cats. This isn’t meant as a threat, but it might come across like one.

INSIDE TENSIONS

What’s really happening at the New York Times

The New York Times is in the news a lot these days — whether it’s about its headlines, tweets, columnists, or bigger questions about covering the Trump presidency.

Critics of the Times tend to imagine heated debates at the paper along the lines of “How can we stop Donald Trump?” In reality, Ben Smith writes, what’s unfolding “is the beginning of an old-fashioned internal succession contest, featuring big personalities and decisions about the future of the most important news organization in the world.”

Among the soul-searching questions the Times has to answer: Can the Times hold its tenuous footing on the old neutrality of newspaper journalism, and fall back on it whenever Donald Trump’s departure restores the old normal?

READING LIST

13 books to read over Thanksgiving break

Families can be difficult, and for that reason, holidays themselves can certainly be a fraught time. We put together a list of 13 books that, from memoir to fiction, are about families that may or may not be more difficult than yours.

I definitely want to read many of these. Which one sticks out for you?

I'm rooting for you and your dreams today,

Elamin