THE BIG STORY

The Democrats’ impeachment narrative is complete

You could say Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the European Union, said the quiet part loud.

Remember that the whole impeachment inquiry is fundamentally about the allegations that President Donald Trump withheld military aid in exchange for Ukraine investigating his political rival Joe Biden and his family.

Yesterday, in damning testimony, Sondland testified that Trump, through lawyer Rudy Giuliani, explicitly ordered a specific “quid pro quo” deal with Ukraine.

Sondland said he became “absolutely convinced” Trump was withholding hundreds of millions of dollars of congressionally-approved military aid from Ukraine until they announced those investigations, and “it was abundantly clear to everyone.”

The groundbreaking testimony filled in big chunks of the Ukraine narrative and may have given Democrats all the ammunition they need to draft articles of impeachment.

Yet, even though Sondland said Trump engaged in a quid pro quo, Republicans are claiming victory anyway.

Here’s the deeper context for that: each round of GOP questioning is meant to create an alternate reality, made up of moments that can be flipped into Fox News segments, shared as bite-size Facebook posts, or dropped into 4chan threads.

Drew Angerer / Getty Images

IMPEACHMENT TODAY

Sondland directly implicated the president, saying he pressed Ukraine “at the express direction” of Trump. We get into the aftermath of this explosive testimony. Listen and subscribe.

STAYING ON TOP OF THIS

Prince Andrew is stepping back from his public duties following his disastrous interview about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein

The decision comes a few days after a cringey interview where the Duke of York discussed for the first time allegations that he had sex with an underage girl and answered questions about why he had visited Esptein's New York home after the financier was convicted of sex offences.

One of Epstein's victims, Virginia Giuffre, has said she had sex with Prince Andrew when she was 17 as part of years of abuse while under Epstein's control.

Andrew’s stepping back comes after several organizations with ties to the Duke of York, including the English National Ballet, announced they were reviewing their association with him.

SNAPSHOTS

The fifth Democratic debate took place last night. Sen. Cory Booker took a shot at Joe Biden for hesitating on legalization of marijuana. Biden said to support #MeToo we should “keep punching at” domestic violence. There was not a single question about LGBT rights.

A 10-year-old boy who was shot in the neck at a high school football game has died. Micah “Dew” Tennant was airlifted to a Philadelphia hospital after the attack, but he died Wednesday. Alvin Wyatt, 31, the man suspected of opening fire at the game and fatally injuring the boy, has been charged with murder.

The husband of the founder of a popular convention for moms was charged with possession of child porn. She said she was his victim. Alexzandra Higgins, the founder of MommyCon, told us the photos come from the “abusive” relationship she had with the man and the real story is much more complex than it had been portrayed.

Here are all the nominees for the 2020 Grammy awards. Lizzo leads the pack with eight nominations, followed closely by Billie Eilish and Lil Nas X who both snagged six nods. Give Tanya Tucker song of the year, you cowards.

A MODERN KIND OF PROBLEM

Her Amazon purchases are real. The reviews are fake.

How do you know if the Amazon reviews you’re reading are authentic?

Let’s talk about the story of Jessica (not her real name), who lives on the East Coast. This year alone, she has spent well over $15,000 on Amazon, buying everything from Halloween decorations to a queen-size inflatable mattress.

She's purchased over 700 products, including three vacuum cleaners, six desk chairs, and no fewer than 26 pairs of earbuds. And even though most of the products are cheaply made, she’s given each a 5-star review.

It’s not so much that she’s a bad judge of quality — the companies that sell these products on Amazon compensate her for the purchases, let her keep the items she reviews.

Dive inside the world of inauthentic reviews and what can be done about them.

AND THE WINNERS ARE

Here are the 2019 National Book Award winners

Last night, the National Book Awards were handed out. Here are some of the winners:

👉The fiction award went to Trust Exercise by Susan Choi.

👉The nonfiction award went to The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom

👉The poetry award went to Sight Lines by Arthur Sze

The rest can be found here.

Pause the world for a moment and tune in to the quiet voice inside,

Elamin