VOL. CLXIX . . . No. 58,538 © 2019 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2019

C M Y K Nxxx,2019-12-11,A,001,Bs-4C,E2

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It was another very warm year, leadingto low winter sea ice and growing con-cerns over sea level rise. Average tem-peratures were the second highest inrecorded history. PAGE A23

NATIONAL A16-23

Arctic Worries Continue

The musical, starring Alex Brightman,below, is a hit but still must vacate itstheater in June to make room for HughJackman’s “Music Man.” PAGE C1

ARTS C1-8

Telling ‘Beetlejuice’ to Scram

Haunting images show how the firstChechen war humiliated post-SovietRussia, strengthened hard-liners andenabled Vladimir Putin’s rise. PAGE A8

INTERNATIONAL A4-15

War That Still Shapes Russia

Thousands protested President Emman-uel Macron’s plans to overhaul the pen-sion system, but his government showedno sign of backing down. PAGE A10

Sixth Day of Strikes in France

Brexit has brought a new level of un-predictability for many of the peoplewho go to work each day in Britain,putting their lives and their livelihoodsin the balance. PAGE B4

BUSINESS B1-8

The Uncertainty of Brexit

Giant tech stocks have posted remark-able numbers, shrugging off the tradewar, political hostility and regulatorythreats. They are the stocks that havemade the market’s year. PAGE B1

Big Tech Keeps On Rolling

A shadow network of dollar vans —mini school buses that serve riderslargely neglected by the city’s transitsystem — has a new app. PAGE A24

NEW YORK A24-27

An Oasis in the Transit Desert

WASHINGTON — House Dem-ocratic leaders on Tuesday for-mally called for PresidentTrump’s removal from office, as-serting that he “ignored and in-jured the interests of the nation” intwo articles of impeachment thatcharged him with abusing hispower and obstructing Congress.

In nine short pages, the draft ar-ticles accused Mr. Trump of carry-ing out a scheme “corruptly solic-iting” election assistance from thegovernment of Ukraine in theform of investigations that wouldsmear his Democratic political ri-vals. To do so, Democratscharged, Mr. Trump used as lever-age two “official acts”: the deliv-ery of $391 million in security as-sistance and a White House meet-ing for Ukraine’s president.

“In all of this, President Trumpabused the powers of the presi-

dency by ignoring and injuringnational security and other vitalnational interests to obtain an im-proper personal political benefit,”according to a draft of the first ar-ticle. “He has also betrayed thenation by abusing his office to en-list a foreign power in corruptingdemocratic elections.”

A second article charges that byordering across-the-board defi-ance of House subpoenas for testi-mony and documents related tothe Ukraine matter, the presidentengaged in “unprecedented, cate-gorical and indiscriminate defi-ance” that harmed the House’sconstitutional rights.

“In the history of the republic,no president has ever ordered thecomplete defiance of an impeach-ment inquiry or sought to obstructand impede so comprehensivelythe ability of the House to investi-gate ‘high crimes and misde-meanors,’” the obstruction articlesays.

In announcing a pair of chargesthat was narrowly focused on theUkraine matter, Democrats madea careful political calculation in-tended to project unity and pro-tect moderate lawmakers whoface steep re-election challengesin conservative-leaning districts.

IMPEACHMENT ARTICLES SAY TRUMP ABUSED POWER, DAMAGING NATION

Representative Jerrold Nadler, center, and his Judiciary Committee inspecting the two articles of impeachment against the president.ERIN SCHAFF/THE NEW YORK TIMES

THE ARTICLES Read the full text of the drafts, with annotationsproviding analysis of the House Democrats’ wording. PAGE A16 Continued on Page A17

Democrats Put Focus on UkraineIn an Effort to Protect Moderates

By NICHOLAS FANDOS

BRUSSELS — One morninglast spring, lawmakers crowdedinto a committee room filled withstaffers, lobbyists and envi-ronmentalists to vote on a flurry ofbills that would set the course forthe European Union’s $65-billion-a-year farm policy.

For critics of the subsidy sys-

tem, one item was of special inter-est. It was known as the “BabisAmendment,” after Andrej Babis,the billionaire agriculturalist andprime minister of the Czech Re-public. It was designed to prohibitpoliticians who hand out Euro-pean Union farm subsidies fromreceiving the funds themselves.

Mr. Babis is Exhibit A of how thesystem benefits the wealthy andconnected. His government

shapes agricultural subsidy poli-cies in the Czech Republic. It alsogave $42 million in European sub-sidies last year to his domesticcompanies, according to a NewYork Times analysis. His holdingsin Germany, Hungary and Slo-vakia received another $7 million.

“The vote is open,” the agricul-tural committee chairman de-clared.

Eleven seconds passed.

Then the chairman simply said:“Rejected.”

Nobody read the proposalaloud. There was no debate. Andnobody mentioned one relevantfact: that half of the 46 committeemembers had ties to the farm in-dustry. Several lawmakers re-ceived thousands of dollars in sub-sidies. The Babis Amendmentcould have jeopardized their

Creating Billions in Farm Subsidies, Then Hoarding the BenefitsBy MATT APUZZO

and SELAM GEBREKIDAN

Continued on Page A10

The shooting began outside acemetery in Jersey City, N.J., onTuesday when a 40-year-old de-tective tried to intercept two peo-ple who were suspects in a homi-cide. They opened fire and fled,speeding off in a rented truck thathad been reported stolen andleaving the detective dead on theground.

They drove about a mile, stop-ping in a Hasidic neighborhoodwhere dozens of young ultra-Or-thodox families have relocated inrecent years. With traffic at astandstill as the police rushed to

answer 911 calls about the shoot-ing at the cemetery, the pair in-vaded a kosher market.

What followed was an all-outgun battle as police officersswarmed the area and helicopterscircled overhead. About a dozenschools went on lockdown forhours, trapping thousands of stu-dents in classrooms long after theschool day usually ends. New Jer-sey Transit suspended bus serviceand a light-rail line that runsthrough Jersey City for a time. Anearby exit off the New Jersey

Six Die, Including Police Officer,In Chaotic Jersey City Gun Battle

By JAMES BARRON and MICHAEL GOLD

Two men fled to a kosher market in Jersey City after killing an of-ficer, and they exchanged fire with the police for over an hour.

EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Continued on Page A27

ANTI-SEMITISM The president willsign an order to effectively inter-pret Judaism as a nationality tofight bias on campuses. PAGE A20

WASHINGTON — On the daythat House Democrats formallyaccused President Trump of highcrimes and misdemeanors, some-thing unusual happened in thecapital: Divided government ac-tually started to work.

Within minutes of announcingon Tuesday that Democrats wouldcharge Mr. Trump with abuse ofpower and obstruction of Con-gress, Speaker Nancy Pelosi wasbehind closed doors with her rankand file, informing them that shewas ready to deliver the presidenthis biggest economic priority:passage of a new trade deal withCanada and Mexico.

That was not all. Democrats arealso on the brink of approving a bi-partisan defense bill, the largest inthe nation’s history, after weeks ofnegotiations with Republicans,and intend to pass legislation thisweek on another issue that Mr.Trump has made a top priority:lowering the cost of prescriptiondrugs.

The sudden outbreak of biparti-san cooperation, almost certain tobe fleeting, was hardly an acci-dent. To Ms. Pelosi, it was proofthat Democrats could deliver ontheir legislative agenda, while ef-fectively stripping Mr. Trump ofthe argument that Democrats

were ignoring the important busi-ness of the country in their zeal toget rid of him.

But Mr. Trump pounced. Ad-dressing reporters on the SouthLawn of the White House on Tues-day afternoon, he called theUnited States-Mexico-CanadaAgreement, or U.S.M.C.A., “thesilver lining to impeachment,” andsaid Democrats were using it to“muffle down the impeachment,because they’re embarrassed byit.”

Ms. Pelosi has long insisted thatDemocrats could “walk and chewgum at the same time” by workingwith the president on legislationeven as they tried to oust him. Sheis well aware that if she is going tokeep her majority, and her job asspeaker, she cannot send hermembers — especially nervous

Pelosi Works to Offset Division With an Eye on Bipartisan Bills

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

Continued on Page A17

WASHINGTON — PresidentTrump and Attorney GeneralWilliam P. Barr took aim at theF.B.I. on Tuesday, escalating theirattacks on the bureau a day afteran independent watchdog con-cluded that former F.B.I. officialshad adequate reason in 2016 toopen the investigation into theTrump campaign’s ties to Russia.

Mr. Barr said for a secondstraight day that he disagreedwith the finding in a long-awaitedreport by the inspector general,Michael E. Horowitz, that theF.B.I. lawfully opened its inquiry.And he went further, saying thatObama administration officialshad spied on the president’s asso-ciates and, in the process, jeopar-dized civil liberties.

“The greatest danger to ourfree system is that the incumbentgovernment use the apparatus ofthe state, principally the law en-forcement and intelligence agen-cies, both to spy on political oppo-nents but also to use them in a waythat could affect the outcome of anelection,” Mr. Barr said in an inter-view with NBC News.

While Mr. Barr was careful toreserve his accusations forObama-era F.B.I. and intelligenceofficials, Mr. Trump drew no suchboundaries and attacked hishandpicked F.B.I. director, Chris-topher A. Wray, who has said heaccepted the inspector general’s

TRUMP AND BARRESCALATE ATTACKSAGAINST THE F.B.I.

RUSSIA REPORT FALLOUT

Leveling Accusations of a‘Broken’ Agency and

‘Gross Abuses’

By KATIE BENNERand EILEEN SULLIVAN

Continued on Page A18

WASHINGTON — The WhiteHouse and House Democratsreached an agreement tostrengthen labor, environmental,pharmaceutical and enforcementprovisions in President Trump’sNorth American trade pact, a sig-nificant development that made itall but certain that the signaturetrade deal would become law.

The agreement on a revisedUnited States-Mexico-CanadaAgreement was announced onTuesday by Speaker Nancy Pelosiafter months of negotiations,handing Mr. Trump one of his big-gest legislative victories less thanan hour after she unveiled articlesof impeachment.

Ms. Pelosi went from a newsconference on impeachment toanother on the trade deal, whereshe and top Democrats, includingRepresentative Richard E. Neal ofMassachusetts, pointed to conces-sions they had secured in closed-door negotiations with the admin-istration.

“We’re declaring victory for theAmerican worker,” Ms. Pelosisaid. “It is infinitely better thanwhat was initially proposed by theadministration.”

The timing of the handshakeagreement offers Mr. Trump acrucial victory to promote on thecampaign trail during his re-elec-tion bid and House Democratstangible proof that they are able to

Deal Is StruckTo Push Ahead

On Trade Pact

Both Sides Claim Winson NAFTA Successor

By EMILY COCHRANEand ANA SWANSON

Continued on Page A19

Thomas L. Friedman PAGE A29

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A28-29

To the best of his recollection, PeteWells names some of his favorite dishesand restaurants from 2019, like liquidolives at Mercado Little Spain. PAGE D6

FOOD D1-12

A Very Tasty Year

Late Edition

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Source: IDC, Worldwide SemiannualSoftware Tracker, October 2019.

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Today, breezy, colder, coating to inchof snow early, sunshine returning,high 37. Tonight, clear, cold, low 25.Tomorrow, sunny, cold, light wind,high 35. Weather map, Page B14.

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