Wednesday, Sep 25, 2019 | View in browser

Good morning.

The biggest stories of the day broke while world leaders gathered at the U.N. General Assembly, most notably House Democrats’ decision to begin an impeachment inquiry against President Trump. Let’s dive in.

By Alisha Haridasani Gupta

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, announcing a formal impeachment inquiry against President Trump on Tuesday. Erin Schaff/The New York Times

Democrats begin impeachment inquiry into Trump

Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced on Tuesday that the House will begin a formal impeachment inquiry of President Trump over startling allegations that he sought to enlist a foreign power for his own political gain.

“The president must be held accountable,” she said, “No one is above the law.”

Impeachment 101: If the House votes on a simple majority to impeach, the proceedings then move to the Senate. If at least two-thirds of the senators find the president guilty, he is removed, and the vice president takes over.

Only three presidents in history have been subjected to impeachment proceedings. Two of them were impeached — Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998 — but completed their terms in office and Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 to avoid being impeached.

The Ukraine controversy: Mr. Trump has admitted to discussing the former vice president, Joe Biden, with the Ukrainian president in a phone call in July, raising suspicions that he was pressing for an investigation that would provide dirt on his political rival.

Mr. Trump’s order to suspend about $391 million in aid to Ukraine came days before the July phone call, opening the possibility that he did so to put added pressure on Ukraine.

Before his speech at the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, Mr. Trump said he held up the aid because European nations had not contributed their fair share. He later said that he would soon release the transcript of what he described as the “totally appropriate” call.

President Trump and Prime Minister Boris Johnson met at the U.N. on Tuesday. Doug Mills/The New York Times

Boris Johnson is also in crisis

British lawmakers are set to reconvene today after the British Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s suspension of Parliament was void.

The court’s unanimous decision was not only a resounding defeat for Mr. Johnson but also an unprecedented intervention by the judiciary into the political sphere that it has historically steered clear of.

“I disagree profoundly with what they had to say,” said Mr. Johnson, who like Mr. Trump spent much of the day at the U.N. General Assembly fending off the roiling crisis at home. “Frankly, I think we need to get on with Brexit.”

What’s next? The ruling nullifies Mr. Johnson’s suspension of Parliament, restoring crucial time for lawmakers in the run-up to the Oct. 31 Brexit deadline. They had already passed a law barring a withdrawal from the European Union without a deal but some lawmakers have signaled that they will try to close any loopholes Mr. Johnson might use.

Lady Hale: The first female president of the British Supreme Court delivered the damning ruling in calm, clipped, riveting tones. Within minutes, “Lady Hale” was trending on Twitter. We take a look at her trailblazing career as an academic, a legal reformer and a feminist.

If you have 5 minutes, this is worth it

Home-cooked meals around the world

Lauren DeCicca for The New York Times

Our team dropped in on 18 families in different corners of the world — from Thailand to the Netherlands, India to Italy, Saudi Arabia to South Africa — to see how they cook and eat on a typical weeknight.

The unifying theme: togetherness.

Here’s what else is happening

Pakistan: A 5.8-magnitude earthquake rattled northern cities, including Lahore, and some parts of the Kashmir region on Tuesday, leaving at least 10 people dead and over 300 wounded, officials said.

Hong Kong: A widely circulated video seems to show police officers kicking a man in a yellow shirt, but a police official suggested that it was in fact a “yellow object” — a statement that deepened distrust between residents and the police force.

North Korea: Kim Jong-un could meet again with President Trump and even visit South Korea if expected denuclearization talks make progress, South Korean intelligence officials said. It would be the first trip by a North Korean leader south of the Demilitarized Zone.

WeWork: The company’s co-founder, Adam Neumann, is said to be stepping down as chief executive, in a dramatic attempt to placate investors and revive interest in the company’s initial public offering.

E.U.: The bloc’s highest court ruled that the online privacy law known as “right to be forgotten” applies only within the European Union, a victory for Google against an effort to force the search engine to delete links globally.

Volkswagen: Two of the automaker’s highest-ranking executives and a former chief executive were charged in Germany with stock market manipulation. They were accused of not alerting shareholders when they learned of an investigation into the company’s diesel emissions.

From The Times: In a warning about the rising hostility toward journalists, A. G. Sulzberger, the publisher of The Times, revealed a threat to one of our own: Two years ago, The Times learned that its correspondent in Egypt faced imminent arrest. A U.S. official shared the information with us but was concerned that the Trump administration might not offer assistance.

Gianni Cipriano for The New York Times

Snapshot: Above, “Acqua,” a carved piece of Carrara marble by artist Giorgio Butini underwater in Talamone, Italy. The sculpture is part of an art installation designed to revive Talamone’s depleted marine life.

Hangovers: A court in Frankfurt defined hangovers as an illness. The decision also bars food and drink companies from marketing their products as cures for related symptoms.

What we’re reading: This Bloomberg Businessweek piece, recommended by our business and economics reporter Ben Casselman. “Libertarian Pictionary, climate-change denialism and a lounge singer with her own cryptocurrency,” he writes. “You really must read Lizzie O’Leary’s dispatch from the anti-Krugman cruise.”

Now, a break from the news

Andrew Purcell for The New York Times. Food Sylist: Barrett Washburne.

Cook: Greek lemon potatoes are tender on the inside, crisp on the outside.

Listen: How does Post Malone sound like everything and nothing? On the latest Popcast, our critics discuss the musician’s rapid rise, and the questions about genre and race that have been glossed over along the way.

Watch: The Times writer who recapped the TV series “Downton Abbey” gives his take on the show’s jump to the big screen.

Read: Ta-Nehisi Coates’s first novel, “The Water Dancer,” about a slave who has a magical power, resembles works by Stephen King and others, our critic writes.

Smarter Living: Planning a trip on the internet can sometimes lead to hiccups, like a shady hotel room or a destination that pales to the hype. If it happens to you, travel pros have some advice: Don’t be afraid to upend your agenda in search of something better, and tell your credit card company you were misled (they often refund the charges).

And the staff of Wirecutter shared six items that help them sleep well while on the road.

And now for the Back Story on …

The Polarstern

Five days after leaving Norway, the German research vessel leading the largest ever Arctic expedition is nearing the North Pole, somewhere between the Russian archipelagos of Franz Josef Land and Severnaya Zemlya.

Its mission is to become frozen into Arctic ice and drift for the next year.

Polarstern in Tromso, Norway, last week. Eszter Horvath for The New York Times

Scientists are urgently trying to understand how global warming is changing the Arctic. The international team of researchers aboard the Polarstern will be gathering crucial — and rare — firsthand data. “We’ll just go where the ice goes,” said Markus Rex, the lead researcher.

The expedition, called MOSAiC (for “Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate”) will be looking to moor to an ice floe at least five feet thick and several miles wide — big enough to accommodate a research camp as well as a landing strip for aircraft to bring in supplies.

They’ll need them. Members of the expedition will face temperatures as low as 50 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, winter days with no light and, most likely, polar bears.

Phew — that’s it for this briefing. See you next time.

— Alisha

Thank you
To Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford for the break from the news. Victoria Shannon, on the briefings team, wrote today’s Back Story. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

Corrections
Monday’s Back Story said that the widely remembered story about the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev banging his shoe during a 1960 address at the U.N. probably didn’t happen. While details of the incident have been questioned, numerous media outlets, including The Times, reported that Khrushchev did bang his shoe. for the break from the news. And yesterday’s briefing misstated the location of violent protests. They took place in Papua, not Papua New Guinea.

P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Our latest episode includes an interview with a U.S. Border Patrol agent.
• Here’s our Mini Crossword, and a clue: Kitschy garden statue (five letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• The Times has a running club, which includes about 150 employees. The team claimed the title of Fastest Media Team at this month’s Fifth Avenue Mile, an annual competition along the eastern end of Central Park.