Your Tuesday Briefing

Tuesday, Nov 19, 2019 | View in browser

Good morning.

We’re covering impeachment testimony in Washington, a reversal of U.S. policy on Israeli settlements and a reappraisal of the artist Paul Gauguin.

By Mike Ives

Week 2 of public impeachment hearings

Four witnesses are to appear before the House Intelligence Committee today as it ramps up its investigation into President Trump’s efforts to extract political help from Ukraine while holding up $391 million in security aid.

Among those testifying today are Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the top Ukraine expert at the National Security Council, and Kurt Volker, the former special envoy to Ukraine.

The proceedings start at 9 a.m. Eastern, and our reporters will provide real-time context and analysis. Here’s what to expect from the hearings.

Background: Witnesses have described the pressure campaign as a “threat,” a “drug deal” and “troubling.” Here’s the key testimony so far.

Catch up: We have a timeline of the crucial figures and dates, and a look at how the impeachment process works.

Response: Mr. Trump has largely remained out of sight in recent days, but he wrote on Twitter on Monday that he would “strongly consider” testifying.

Another angle: House impeachment investigators are exploring whether President Trump lied in written answers to the special counsel’s questions in the Russia inquiry.

Givat Zeev, an Israeli settlement near the Palestinian city of Ramallah in the West Bank. Ahmad Gharabli/Agence France-Presse ? Getty Images

U.S. sides with Israel on settlements

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Monday that the U.S. would no longer consider Israeli settlements in the West Bank a violation of international law. The move reverses four decades of American policy.

It may also doom any peace efforts, as Palestinians have demanded the land for a future state — a goal supported by the United Nations, European governments and American allies across the Middle East. We have a guide on settlements’ legal status.

Today: Israel intercepted four rockets launched from Syria toward the Golan Heights, days after a clash with militants in Gaza.

Europe faces its ISIS militants

President Trump’s decision last month to withdraw U.S. forces from northern Syria cleared the way for Turkey to take control of detained Islamic State members.

After having sought alternative ways to prosecute them — in an international tribunal, on Iraqi soil, anywhere but on the Continent — Western European countries are now grappling with the return of radicalized citizens.

The issue is further complicated because nearly two-thirds of the roughly 700 West European detainees are children, and many have lost at least one parent.

Closer look: Officials in Turkey say that the country is holding 2,280 Islamic State members from 30 nations and that all of them will be deported.

Ayanna Pressley, left, and Abigail Spanberger are part of a wave of Democrats who took office this year. Paola Kudacki for The New York Times

You made it to Congress. Now what?

When they took office in January, Representatives Ayanna Pressley and Abigail Spanberger were seen as possible future stars of the Democratic Party.

Ms. Pressley, a former city councilwoman in Boston, is considered a progressive who can lure more first-time voters. Ms. Spanberger, an ex-C.I.A. officer, has a political platform that resonates with both Democrats and moderate Republicans in her historically conservative Virginia district.

But both lawmakers have struggled in a bitterly divided Washington. Among the questions: What does it mean to “get things done” in the House if the Republican-controlled Senate won’t bring Democratic-led legislation to the floor?

Related: Dulce Gutiérrez, 26, is among the first Latino politicians elected in the Yakima Valley of Central Washington. The demographic and political changes in her city mirror the nation’s.

Another angle: As Representative Elise Stefanik of New York took a leading role at the impeachment hearings, her Democratic challenger raked in donations.

If you have several minutes, this is worth it

Should Gauguin be canceled?

The Art Institute of Chicago

The French painter Paul Gauguin, who died in 1903, is still popular with curators, but he had sex with teenage girls and called the Polynesian people he painted “savages.” Now, some museums are reassessing his legacy.

But some worry that re-examining the past from a 21st-century perspective could lead to a boycott of great art.

PAID POST: A MESSAGE FROM EMMA

Seeing the Unseen

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MEET AIDA

Here’s what else is happening

Hong Kong protests: About 100 demonstrators were holed up inside a besieged university campus as a standoff with the police stretched into a third day.

Trump’s hospital visit: The president’s physician issued a late-night statement attributing an unannounced trip to Walter Reed Medical Center to “regular, primary preventive care.”

Prisoner swap: The Taliban freed an American and an Australian in an exchange with the Afghan government, which hopes the move will help peace talks.

California vs. automakers: The state will stop buying vehicles from Fiat Chrysler, General Motors, Toyota and other car manufacturers that do not recognize its authority to set emissions standards.

Stephen Miller’s emails: President Trump’s chief immigration adviser promoted anti-immigrant views by referring to white nationalist websites when he was a Senate aide.

Climate action: A new study described how some cities and states had successfully reduced flooding risk, even as homes are still going up in vulnerable areas.

Secret cables: Several Iraqi officials named in a Times report based on leaked Iranian intelligence documents denied that they had given information to Tehran.

“Meth. We’re on it”: That’s South Dakota’s slogan for a new campaign against methamphetamine addiction. Critics have called it tone-deaf.

Libby March for The New York Times

Snapshot: Immigration policies aimed at controlling the frontier with Mexico are affecting crossings at the Canadian border. Nancy Davis, above, a cafe owner in Malone, N.Y., said that many of her Canadian customers had stopped coming.

What is a “Jeopardy!” showdown? Three record-breaking players — James Holzhauer, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter — will compete against each other in January.

Cry babies: Newborns whose mothers speak tonal languages, such as Mandarin, tend to produce more complex cry melodies, a study on infants’ sounds discovered.

Late-night comedy: Stephen Colbert said he was relieved that there appeared to be nothing wrong with President Trump’s health: “I don’t want him to leave the White House feet first. I want handcuffs first.”

What we’re listening to: Slate’s “Slow Burn” podcast. “As a child of the ’90s,” writes our London-based home page editor Claire Moses, “I’m enjoying the third season, about the murders of Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur. (And there’s music!)”

Now, a break from the news

Johnny Miller for The New York Times

Cook: Weeknight fancy chicken is the one-pot meal you need. (Our Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter has more recommendations.)

Read: If you love “The Crown,” we have a list of supplemental reading, including “Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch.”

Listen: After a year of rocket-fueled fame, Billie Eilish offers a melancholic new single, “Everything I Wanted.”

Smarter Living: Here’s how to master two simple magic tricks (and why you should learn them).

And now for the Back Story on …

Our revelations about Iran’s power in Iraq

I’m Tim Arango, one of the leads on a team of 10 reporters behind the scoop The Times published this week about how Iran outmaneuvered the U.S. in Iraq.

News organizations are often competitors, but this was an extraordinarily fruitful collaboration that stretched over months.

The Intercept shared an unprecedented leak of secret Iranian intelligence cables with The Times, drawing on our expertise in the region.

We’ve maintained a bureau in Baghdad for more than 16 years, staying put — at great expense and risk — when many other news organizations moved on.

Tim Arango, center, reporting in Iraq in 2014, when he was The Times?s Baghdad bureau chief. Bryan Denton for The New York Times

I took the lead on The Times’s analysis of the material because I was the Baghdad bureau chief for seven years, including 2014 and 2015, the period covered by the cables. Those were the momentous years in which the Islamic State rose up and took control of about a third of Iraq.

What I saw in the raw, unfiltered documents confirmed and added depth to my earlier reporting, revealing Iran’s use of agents, spies and bribery to infiltrate the highest echelons of the Iraqi government.

It took time, resources and reporting experience to understand what the cables showed. If you want to be a part of more groundbreaking reporting, please subscribe to The Times. We’re offering a special price of $1 per week exclusively to our Morning Briefing readers.

A correction: Yesterday’s briefing misstated how many episodes of “The Weekly” Times subscribers in the U.S. can watch on our website. The most recent episode and several more from early in the season are available, not the full season. (More episodes will be made available each week.)

That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.

— Mike

Thank you
Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford provided the break from the news. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Today’s episode is on corporate America and the Trump tax cuts.
• Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Slightly off-kilter (five letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• Ever wonder how our Investigations desk decides which topics to pursue? Our top editors explain.

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