And then there were three It was a historic day in the U.S. For the third time in the nation’s history, the House of Representatives voted to impeach a sitting president. As Dareh Gregorian of NBC News reports, the vote came after a daylong debate on whether President Trump violated his oath in pressuring Ukraine to damage a political opponent (2 million+ shares). At NPR, Philip Ewing called it a historic rebuke, while noting that, in the upcoming Senate trial, the “majority Republicans are likely to permit him to retain his office.” 
But when will that trial actually happen? Benjamin Siegel, Katherine Faulders and Stephanie Ebbs of ABC News write about “a late twist adding even more drama to the impeachment.” At a news conference after the vote, Speaker Pelosi declined to commit to naming the House impeachment managers, and said she and her committee chairmen will decide as a group as to when to transmit the articles to the Senate. An A1 for history In Trump Impeached for Abuse of Power and Obstruction of Congress (751,000+ shares), Nicholas Fandos and Michael Shear of The New York Times write that while Senate acquittal seems likely, “Regardless of the outcome, the impeachment votes in the House put an indelible stain on Mr. Trump’s presidency that cannot be wiped from the public consciousness with a barrage of tweets or an angry tirade in front of thousands of his cheering supporters at a campaign rally.” Philip Rucker, Felicia Sonmez and Colby Itkowitz use similar terms in their coverage of the events of the day for The Washington Post, Trump is impeached by the House, creating an indelible mark on his presidency. Tweets Sonmez, “An A1 for history. Honored to share this one with @PhilipRucker, @ColbyItkowitz and colleagues.” From that piece, Rachel Van Dongen highlights, “The intensity and polarization of the debate on the House floor vividly illustrated the extent to which leaders of the two parties now believe entirely different accounts of what occurred and are motivated by different concerns.” The BBC’s coverage, Trump is impeached, becoming third US president in history to face Senate trial, is also getting a lot (900,000+) of shares. In his analysis of the vote and the expected outcome of the Senate trial, Jon Sopel writes, “Far from this being a killer blow against President Trump, it might turbo charge his bid for a second term.” Meanwhile, Nick Brown says, “I know in 2019 nothing moves the needle, but let’s please take a moment. We’ve been a nation for 243 yrs. Thrice has a president been impeached. That’s once every 81 yrs, for the math phobes. @realDonaldTrump has made history, as he always swore he would.” Must-reads 
We’ll come back to politics, but there are some other big stories making the rounds that you should know about. We’ll start with what Blake Hounshell says is a “Massive NYT project... this is unreal. Just published.” That’s Twelve Million Phones, One Dataset, Zero Privacy, an investigation into the smartphone tracking industry by Stuart A. Thompson and Charlie Warzel of The New York Times. Thompson gives us the backstory: “Months ago, someone contacted us with an astounding dataset. It tracked the precise movements of more than 12 million Americans in several major cities including Washington, New York and San Francisco. Today we published our findings.” Brian Stelter highlights, “‘The greatest trick technology companies ever played was persuading society to surveil itself.’ NYT Opinion is out with a huge new feature: ‘One Nation, Tracked.’ Read it.” Adds Kurt Andersen, “You must read this extraordinary piece of journalism about phone tracking, the first of a series that will surely deserve a Pulitzer. I’ve not been an alarmist at all about surveillance and privacy threats. I think this was my (so to speak) wakeup call.” Meanwhile, in their new piece for Bloomberg Businessweek, Wall Street’s Machine of Silence Stopped a #MeToo Revolution, Max Abelson and Katia Porzecanski reveal how Wall Street keeps avoiding its #metoo reckoning. Tweets Rebecca Greenfield, “Over the last year, @maxabelson, @KatiaPorzo and other all-stars at @business have uncovered a machine of silence that has kept Wall Street from having a #MeToo revolution.” Abelson adds, “Read this story, but watch this space. There’s more to come.” Oh come on 
Stephen Brown of the New York Daily News reports that surveillance footage of the outside of Jeffrey Epstein’s cell during his first suicide attempt is missing, because “OF COURSE IT IS,” tweets Ali Winston. Gary Baumgarten, along with literally everyone, is wondering, “How can this happen in such a high profile case? If we thought the conspiracy theories were over we can think again. (Let the new memes begin).” As Steve Schrader says, “You know, I’m starting to get suspicious.” And so it continues At The Daily Beast, Betsy Swan has the scoop that the Trump administration is fighting an aggressive new package of sanctions on Russia. Her story includes the 22-page letter a State Department official sent to a top Senate chairman on Tuesday making a wide-ranging case against a new sanctions bill. Brian Beutler thinks it “Sure would be nice to know what that interpreter’s notes said,” while Joshua Holland thinks “It’d be odd if they didn’t have something on this guy.” New from Michael Gordon and Georgi Kantchev of The Wall Street Journal, U.S. Envoy to Ukraine Was Asked to Step Aside Ahead of Pompeo Visit. The timing counters earlier suggestions that Acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor’s precise departure date was predetermined. Rebecca Ballhaus elaborates, “NEWS: Acting amb to Ukraine Bill Taylor was instructed by a top Pompeo aide to hand over responsibilities for his post just days before Pompeo planned to visit Kyiv, allow Pompeo to avoid meeting or being photographed with him.” The struggles of a great American newspaper At The Washington Post, Margaret Sullivan writes about what’s happening at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and says that Pittsburgh’s storied newspaper has become a chaotic circus — or worse. Tweets Scott Mervis, “Yoi, this lede: ‘Scratch the surface of almost any regional newspaper these days and you’re likely to find low morale, diminished staffs and anxiety about the future. But the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette may be in a class by itself.’” Matt McKinney offers a “Hat tip to @Sulliview for shining light on the struggles of – and fight to save – a great American newspaper.” Chico Harlan notes, “Perhaps no newspaper in the U.S. has been stripped of its parts (and moral compass) more needlessly than the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.” And as Sullivan points out, “The real losers in all of this chaos, of course, are the readers.” Best story of the day? 
Joy Wang is referring to the news that the USDA tariff tracker has removed Wakanda, fictional home of Black Panther, as free trade partner. And as Zach Haberman highlights, don’t miss “The lede” of that story by Phil McCausland of NBC News. P.J. Huffstutter notices, “Frozen Chinese water chestnuts are tariff free if the U.S. decided to import them from Wakanda (fictional home of Marvel’s Black Panther). Cows are also tariff free.” “Oh snap! #Impeached45’s trade war just got real,” tweets Grant Stern. All the best journalism is ‘Cats’ reviews If you’re going to read just one review of “Cats,” may we suggest Cats review – a purr-fectly dreadful hairball of woe, by Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian, because “the .......meter....of this,” says Lois Beckett. But also, as she tweets, “hellllpppppppp.” 
Janine Gibson points out that “All the best journalism is Cats reviews,” so if you want to read a few more, she recommends Cats is a baffling, humourless CGI nightmare-and the people deserve an explanation, by Caspar Salmon at Prospect magazine, and ‘Cats’ Review: They Dance, They Sing, They Lick Their Digital Fur, by Manohla Dargis of The New York Times. “Christmas has come early for film critics,” as Nick Cohen says, and “Fortunately for Star Wars, Cats is getting even worse reviews,” notes Jim Roberts. A few more | 
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