Fahrenheit 451 In a dramatic press conference, U.K. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn “wafted a huge sheaf of leaked papers” — 451 pages, to be exact — that he claims proves US officials put the NHS on the table in Brexit trade talks (89,000+ shares). Dan Bloom has the report for the Mirror, tweeting, “FULLY UPDATED - we are trawling through the US/UK trade talks leaked documents, here is a 1,500-word story of what we know so far.” Saima Mohsin highlights, “UNREDACTED DOCUMENTS REVEAL NHS TALKS WITH USA #BorisJohnson talks with #Trump ‘Evidence under Boris Johnson NHS is on the table & up for sale’ This is really worrying Should be top story everywhere!!” It sure seems to be. Andrew Woodcock’s coverage at The Independent, Corbyn reveals secret documents that ‘confirm Tories plot to sell off NHS in US trade talks with Trump,’ is up to 250,000+ journalist shares, and Sunny Hundal notes, “This by the Indy is the second-most ‘over-performing’ story in the British media on Facebook right now, according to Crowdtangle.” Jeremy Allen, who’s calling it “Fahrenheit 451,” links to the coverage by Frances Perraudin at The Guardian, Jeremy Corbyn reveals dossier ‘proving NHS up for sale’ (42,000+ shares). Adam Lowe notes, “To be clear: this is possibly about extending drug patents, & therefore seeing some drug prices more than double. It’s still scary stuff.” David Walsh points out, “British people literally cannot conceive how bad healthcare is in the United States, which is a major reason they seem to be hurdling towards this future.” And for the record, the BBC is also following the row over Labour’s ‘NHS for sale’ claim. Tweets Alistair Coleman, “From the I Don’t Believe I’m Fact-Checking This When I Should Be Fact-Checking Other Things department: Yes, the BBC IS covering the Labour NHS announcement. Don’t let people convince you otherwise.” A rare encouraging moment 
Back in the U.S., there’s been some drama over the past 24 hours over Michael Harriot’s piece for The Root (the one claiming Pete Buttigieg Is a Lying MF). That headline was trending on Twitter all day, but now we have an update: Pete Buttigieg Called Me. Here’s What Happened, writes Harriot, and you should definitely read this continuation of the story. As Carolyn Kellogg says, “This is a remarkable two-fer. Only read this part after you’ve read this” (linking to the lying MF story). Radley Balko adds, “When I read the original article, I remember thinking I really hope Buttigieg will take it seriously. Looks like he did. A rare encouraging moment in an era of utterly dismal politics.” Karen Tumulty agrees, tweeting, “This is what our politics should be.” #Impeachment drama 
A few breaking stories have brought some new details to light in the impeachment saga. First up, from Michael S. Schmidt, Julian Barnes and Maggie Haberman at The New York Times, in what Jim Roberts calls “Yet another smoking gun,” Trump Knew of the Whistle-Blower Complaint When He Released Aid to Ukraine. In other words, “He knew before he unfroze the aid and before he used the phrase ‘no quid pro quo’ in denial to Sondland,” tweets Jim Sciutto. So that seems kind of important. Or as Pedro Rafael Rosado puts it, “Holy crap!” And at The Washington Post, Erica Werner reports that Mark Sandy, a career official at the White House Office of Management and Budget, revealed in testimony to impeachment investigators that two OMB officials resigned voicing concerns over Ukraine aid hold (73,000+ shares). As David Roberts says, “Hey look, it’s yet more confirmation that Trump did what he’s accused of.” And Rachel Van Dongen notices, “Civil servants continue to play starring role in #impeachment drama. It’s really striking the extent to which they’ve served as a guardrail against alleged misdeeds — from Ambs Taylor and Yovanovitch, to Lt Col Vindman and Fiona Hill to OMB officials.” 
Meanwhile, “I think Trump just threw Rudy under the bus,” says Blake Hounshell. As Justin Sink reports at Bloomberg, in an interview with Bill O’Reilly, Trump denied sending Rudy Giuliani to Ukraine for Biden probe. “Looks like Rudy might need that insurance after all,” says Anthony De Rosa. Quite an operation Rudy was running And then there’s this “Drip, drip, drip…” Will Bunch links to the new report by Rosalind Helderman, Devlin Barrett, Matt Zapotosky and Tom Hamburger of The Washington Post: A wealthy Venezuelan hosted Giuliani as he pursued Ukraine campaign. Then Giuliani lobbied the Justice Department on his behalf. “Well, it didn’t take long to connect Giuliani to one of Venezuela’s biggest corruption scandals in recent years. Here he is lobbying on behalf of one of the central figures. Viva la Bolibourgeoisie! This is incredible,” tweets Eli Lopez. “Quite an operation Rudy was running here,” adds Kim Masters. David Corn is wondering, “Will this man do anything for a buck?” Do you really need to ask? 2020 news Noah Rothman thinks “This poll may drive the online left over a cliff.” He’s referring to the latest Quinnipiac University National Poll, which shows Biden retaking the lead, Warren plunging and Buttigieg rising. Well, wait’ll the online left sees this. In a new “Upshot” column at The New York Times, Nate Cohn and Claire Cain Miller take a look at battleground state voters who voted for Trump in 2016 but went for the Democrat in the midterms and find, Two-thirds of them say they will return to the president next year. Glass half-empty/half-full, though? Mark Gongloff points out, “Another way this story could have been framed: More than a third of Trump’s swing-state voters are abandoning him.” But Jonathan Tamari highlights, “‘7% of those who supported Mrs. Clinton in 2016 said they now approved of the president’s performance’ A small number, but if PA and other swing states are as close as we expect, potentially very important.” 
Pedro Rafael Rosado urges, “Read some of the quotes. Eye-opening! It’s clear that the small percentage of white man polled like a certain message Trump is sending. They’re blissfully unconcerned about his lawlessness.” But read at your own risk, because “Is there anything more frustrating for anyone who actively follows politics than reading how undecided, low-information swing voters justify their choices?” tweets Joshua Benton. A sobering reminder As Lucia Moses says, this “Must-read Bloomberg piece by @beckpeterson @jktrotter @NicoleEinbinder is a sobering reminder of how much abhorrent behavior women still face at even prestige co’s.” In their new piece for Business Insider, Becky Peterson, J.K. Trotter and Nicole Einbinder reveal, Michael Bloomberg built a $54 billion dollar company. For 2 decades, women who worked there have called it a toxic, sexually charged nightmare. John Cook notes, “Michael Bloomberg has apologized (through a spokesman) for making sexist remarks. He hasn’t apologized for building a company that has been repeatedly described as a highly sexualized, predatory environment for the women who work there.” What in the actual hell? Seyward Darby links to the story by Niraj Warikoo of the Detroit Free Press, who reports that ICE has arrested about 250 foreign students of a fake university created by the Department of Homeland Security. Andy Campbell describes it as “An ongoing scam by the US government to trick young immigrants into signing up and forking over thousands of dollars, only to be deported. This should be illegal.” The inequality of disaster recovery New FEMA data obtained by The New York Times reveals that, two years after Hurricanes Maria and Irma, FEMA’s Hurricane Aid to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands Has Stalled. Mark Walker, Christopher Gregory and Zolan Kanno-Youngs have the details in what Neena Satija calls an “Important story on the inequality of disaster recovery.” Patricia Mazzei tweets the tally: “190 projects have been funded in Puerto Rico out of 9,000 requests. On the Virgin Islands, about 218 projects had funding out of 1,500 requests. In contrast, about 3,700 projects had funding in Texas. More than 3,700 projects had been funded in Florida.” RIP Barbara Hillary Don’t miss Katharine Q. Seelye’s New York Times obituary for Barbara Hillary, the first black woman to reach the Poles, who died on Saturday at 88. After retiring from a 55-year career as a nurse, she went dog-sledding in Quebec and photographed polar bears in Manitoba. “She then learned that no African-American woman had ever made it to the North Pole and challenged herself to become the first, though she had no funding and no organization behind her and had lost 25 percent of her breathing capacity from surgery for her lung cancer,” Seelye writes. “Oh, my. This woman,” tweets Andrea Kannapell. And Katie Honan highlights this excellent “Life advice from Barbara Hillary, the first black woman to reach the poles & the founder of the Arverne Action Association: ‘One, mind your own business; two, maintain a sense of humor; and three, tell an individual to go to hell when it’s needed.’” Sandler is playing the game Jamie Lauren Keiles tweets about the “culmination of an almost three-year chase! my profile of adam sandler is out today.” That’s her New York Times profile of Sandler, which highlights Adam Sandler’s Everlasting Shtick. “This is such a fun read. In another, ‘Toll Booth Willie,’ Sandler plays an affable Mass Pike worker who, for reasons that go totally unexplained, is gratuitously insulted by every single motorist passing through Worcester,” David Schatsky quotes. 
Kristina Monllos points out, “Last year, Bradley Cooper acted like a NYT profile was the last thing he wanted to do. He didn’t play the game and didn’t win an Oscar. This year, Sandler is playing the game. At least, with this profile. Did he learn from Cooper’s mistake?” Well, as Patrick LaForge shares, “The @UhhYeahDude podcast theory is if Adam Sandler appears in a film without wearing shorts he will win an Oscar for best actor. It will also begin the Oscaropocalypse.” The #BabyYoda phenomenon “His sideways bunny ears are the color of a sunset on your happiest day. His supple skin is the texture of pistachio pudding, and his bottomless black eyes are so massively dilated they can only see the goodness in us. All about the #BabyYoda phenomenon.” That’s Anthony Breznican waxing poetically in his Vanity Fair piece, Baby Yoda Is Our God Now. As Katey Rich tweets, “When Werner Herzog learned the Mandalorian team was considering replacing puppet Baby Yoda with CGI, he had a devastating response: ‘You are cowards. Leave it.’” “‘It all comes back to Herzog, a man for whom the childishness of puppet infatuation seems anathema. Yet he cannot help himself.’ OK, but did he hug the puppet?” John Serba wants to know. A few more | 
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