Who’s -1? The House Intelligence Committee released its Impeachment Inquiry Report yesterday, and you can read the whole thing here. In fact, says, Alex Howard, “I hope every American reads this for themselves. Skip bad faith spin: evaluate the evidence laid out here on its own merits.” 
Admittedly, there’s a lot to digest. Sharon LaFraniere and Julian Barnes of The New York Times focus on a mysterious ‘-1’ and other call records that show how Giuliani pressured Ukraine. As Christopher Dickey says, “About that mysterious number ( -1 ) in the Giuliani phone records: Investigators are trying to determine whether it belongs to Trump, said Schiff. ... I have a feeling #minus1 will become a thing.” Ben Greenman is already on it, tweeting, “Individual number negative one,” while Dennis Romero points out, “‘We’re negative 1’ would NOT make a great American campaign motto.” Paul Sonne, Rosalind Helderman and Greg Miller are digging into the report for The Washington Post, also pointing out that the phone call records show extensive contact between Giuliani and the White House during key moments of the Ukraine saga. Tweets John Stoehr, “Friends, this is the most granular detail we have seen so far of the president leading an international criminal conspiracy to defraud the American people. This is a giant of a scandal.” #ToddlerinChief on the loose in London Over at the NATO Summit in London, Trump has made at least 21 false claims, according to Daniel Dale’s fact-checking for CNN. “At least,” emphasizes Brian Stelter. “READER: You say lies don’t matter to politicians. It’s the fake news media that lies, not the president. ME: Except, perhaps, for the 21 false statements he made in 2 hours at NATO meetings,” tweets EJ Montini. 
A CBC video of world leaders seemingly commiserating about Trump has also gotten a lot of attention. But “The Canadian premier’s remark was not the only moment that upended hopes for a drama-free NATO gathering — and wasn’t even the only hot-mic incident of the two-day meeting,” tweets Annie Karni, of her reporting with Katie Rogers for The New York Times on that video and Trump’s clever retort, “He’s two-faced,” referring to Trudeau. And yes, that was Princess Anne (or at least Princess Anne’s hairdo) that you saw with Trudeau, Macron, Rutte and Johnson, as Tufayel Ahmed points out at Newsweek. At the Independent, Negar Mortazavi writes that Macron is feuding with Trump - and other world leaders could soon follow his example. Let’s check in with Daniel Drezner on that. He tweets, “As the curator of the #ToddlerinChief thread it’s tempting to conclude that Macron exploited Trump’s oppositional behavior to get him to support NATO. Alas, I don’t think it’s quite that simple.” Read his piece at The Washington Post on how to psych out Trump, Did Emmanuel Macron figure out the life hack to managing Donald Trump? Drezner says, “If I’m right, even though Trump is furious right now he's not gonna blow up NATO because he can't afford to do it.” The decline of American diplomacy If you’re worried Trump might be alienating our allies or damaging our diplomacy efforts, well, it’s probably even worse than you think. At GQ, Julia Ioffe reveals that Trump Is Waging War on America’s Diplomats. Tweets Geoffrey Gagnon, “Inside the quiet effort to hallow out the foreign service. @juliaioffe on the politicization of American diplomacy. ‘One foreign service officer described a politically appointed ambassador inquiring about the difference between the NSA and CIA.’” “This is a very good and troubling piece about the decline of American diplomacy for partisan reasons,” says Steven Erlanger. And Miriam Elder highlights, “Great story from @juliaioffe on Trump’s war on the State Dept, including news that deputy chief of mission at US embassy in London was fired for mentioning Obama in a speech.” Yep, you read that right. America’s top dirty cop speaks Next up, Chris Geidner links to some “Really incredibly disgusting commentary — a threat, more or less — from the Attorney General of the United States.” As Sanjana Karanth reports at HuffPost, William Barr Says Those Who Don’t Show More Respect To Cops May Not Get Police Protection. Barr made the questionable remarks while giving a speech at the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service in Policing. Anthony De Rosa dubs it, “America’s top dirty cop issues mobster-style threat.” Put another way, “This is straight-up fascism,” tweets Will Bunch. Tim Elfrink also writes about the remarks for The Washington Post, emphasizing a few key phrases: William Barr says ‘communities’ that protest cops could lose ‘the police protection they need.’ While there’s surely plenty of competition for the distinction, Ali Velshi thinks, “This might be one of the most totalitarian-like statements issued yet by a member of the Trump administration.” Harris drops out Yesterday, Kamala Harris announced that she was suspending her campaign for president. At Politico, Christopher Cadelago called it a premature departure for the senator who was once heralded as a top-tier contender for the nomination. Even though she qualified for the December debate, “she was running dangerously low on cash — lacking the resources to air TV ads in Iowa — and her staff was gripped by long-running internal turmoil.” Zach Montellaro shares “A debate aside: Harris is the only candidate besides Swalwell to qualify for a debate but drop out before participating.” And Adrian Morrow offers a perspective we haven’t seen anywhere else: ‘BREAKING: Leonard Cohen to remain most notable alum of Westmount High.” 
At The New York Times, Astead Herndon reports that Harris did a financial audit of her operation and was told her campaign would have to go into debt in order to continue. “Another one down... and yet @TulsiGabbard remains as @SenKamalaHarris is out of the 2020 race,” as Ben Swann points out. Vice’s Harry Cheadle explains the problem: Kamala Harris’s Biggest Mistake: She Isn’t Stupidly Rich. This story is crazy Matt Pearce links to the investigation by Ian MacDougall, co-published by The New York Times and ProPublica, into How McKinsey Helped the Trump Administration Carry Out Its Immigration Policies. As MacDougall writes, McKinsey consultants “proposed cuts in spending on food for migrants, as well as on medical care and supervision of detainees.” That’s according to interviews with people who worked on the project and 1,500 pages of documents ProPublica got access to after filing a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act. One of the crazy parts Pearce highlights is this: “The consulting firm’s sway at ICE grew to the point that McKinsey’s staff even ghostwrote a government contracting document that defined the consulting team’s own responsibilities and justified the firm’s retention, a contract extension worth $2.2 million.” “Phew. Good thing most media companies have asked these folks to help determine the future of journalism,” says Claire Howorth. The article is also posted at ProPublica here. Tweets Anand Giridharadas, “The moral meltdown of McKinsey is one of the more devastating business stories of our era, and evidence of a deeper rot in a culture that values money over people. Read this important story from @i_m_m and @propublica. We are a better country than this.” An alternately riveting and sickening story On to another big ProPublica story, this time co-published with The New York Times Magazine. As Keri Blakinger tweets, “RISE AND SHINE everrrryone @pamelacolloff’s latest story has just posted! Make your coffee and settle in for a long read ☕️☕️☕️” She’s referring to Pamela Colloft’s latest, He’s a Liar, a Con Artist and a Snitch. His Testimony Could Soon Send a Man to His Death. Meg Marco summarizes it this way: “🚨Florida is about to execute a man based largely on the word of a jailhouse snitch who claims the man confessed. The snitch went free following his testimony. @pamelacolloff found the snitch testified in 37 different cases in *just one FL county.*” “Read this alternately riveting and sickening story about how prosecutors used a known con artist to paper over weak cases and put men on death row. One who may soon be executed,” Tracy Weber advises, adding, “After you read @pamelacolloff enraging tale of how prosecutors used conman Paul Skalnik to put men on death row....look at the work that went in to exposing it.” A few more C.J. Chivers links to “this week’s must read: the monumental research of @johnismay, grimly exposing the origins and bloody history of a fratricidal american weapon — and the pentagon’s willful blindness to the record.” At The New York Times, John Ismay reveals America’s Dark History of Killing Its Own Troops With Cluster Munitions. And “This is horrifying. 629 Pakistani girls were sold as brides to China in human trafficking schemes since 2018. Worse, Pakistani govt officials who knew about it did nothing to stop it, and even worked to halt investigations. Good work by @Kathygannon.” Jack Moore links to the AP exclusive by Kathy Gannon, who reports that the list obtained by The Associated Press gives the most concrete figure yet for the number of women caught up in the trafficking schemes since 2018. Obligatory Peloton coverage 
Brekke Fletcher admits, “I've seen the Peloton ad 4,285 times in the last week. I’ve been going quietly insane. Nice to know I’m not alone.” No, you are definitely not alone. In fact, as Scottie Andrew of CNN reports, Peloton’s perplexing new holiday ad has incensed the internet. Or as Brittany Shammas puts it at The Washington Post, This Peloton ad is a dystopian fitness inspo hellscape. You could also call it “When you accidentally send your stock tumbling 9%,” notes Christopher Ingraham. Wednesday round-up - Deanna Paul of The Washington Post reports that Devin Nunes is suing CNN for $435 million, alleging it published a ‘false hit piece.’ Richard Silverstein thinks, “Devin Nunes is angry under VA law he can’t sue a defaming cow.”
- In Britain deserves better, the New Statesman declines to endorse any party in the upcoming U.K. general election, writing that Jeremy Corbyn’s “reluctance to apologise for the anti-Semitism in Labour and to take a stance on Brexit, the biggest issue facing the country, make him unfit to be prime minister.”
- Fran Unsworth, the BBC’s director of news and current affairs, defends its election coverage in a piece for The Guardian, At the BBC, impartiality is precious. We will protect it.
- Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have announced that they’re stepping aside, and that Sundar Pichai is now CEO of Alphabet and Google. Or as Alex Kantrowitz puts it, “Sundar takes over the whole dang thing.”
- Graeme Demianyk of HuffPost UK reports on the revival of the Words By Women Awards, Awards Celebrating Women In Journalism Return As Lack Of Gender Balance Persists.
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