Trump Suspends WHO Funding
On April 14, President Trump announced that he will be suspending payments to the World Health Organization (WHO), a United Nations agency, in response to its handling of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The president has been critical in recent months of the WHO’s unwillingness to hold China accountable for its role in the virus’ spread, echoing concerns of other countries’ leaders: Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso proposed in March that the WHO change its name to the “Chinese Health Agency.” 

​This anti-WHO and anti-UN rhetoric among Republican politicians is not an isolated incident, however, and reflects decades of policies with the same sentiment: the US pays far too much towards the UN operating budget in comparison to other countries. ​

Roger Stone Pardon
In the latest installment of our saga of foreign interference and executive power abuse in the White House, Trump advisor Roger Stone was sentenced to three years and four months in prison for witness tampering and lying to Congress in relation to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s special investigation into Russian interference during the 2016 Trump presidential campaign. That’s a mouthful. Here’s the Stone saga, explained:​

Impeachment Update (A Big One!): On Friday, January 31, the Senate ruled to close Trump’s impeachment trial without calling additional witnesses and instead proceeding straight to the final vote. The 49-51 vote on whether or not to subpoena witnesses was almost perfectly along party lines, with Sens. Mitt Romney and Susan Collins joining the 47 Democrats. Because a simple majority was not reached, no witnesses will be called.
Democrats wanted to call four witnesses in particular: national security advisor John Bolton, former White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, senior advisor to acting White House Chief of Staff Robert Blair, and Office of Management and Budget official Michael Duffey. 
Not all Republicans were completely opposed to witness testimony: some had talked about subpoenaing the Bidens (even though there is no evidence of any wrongdoing by the Bidens). 
Prior to Friday’s vote, Trump’s impeachment managers and Trump’s defense lawyers both had three days to make their cases. The managers––Representatives named by Nancy Pelosi––made their case long and intentionally repetitive: they wanted to stretch out the process, as opposed to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who wanted the trial to end in a speedy acquittal. Democratic Rep. Schiff alone would sometimes speak for hours at a time, while Trump’s legal team took up less than two hours on January 25. During the arguments, senators were observed falling asleep, playing with fidget spinners, talking, and breaking other rules of the trial. 
Democratic arguments centered on Trump’s actions as alleged by the two articles of impeachment (obstruction of Congress and abuse of power), while Trump’s lawyers argued that the President had done “absolutely nothing wrong.” In particular, they argued that Trump’s asking Ukraine's President Zelensky during the July 25 phone call to “do us a favor” proved that he was acting in the public interest, since he didn’t say “do me a favor.” 
After the arguments wrapped up, senators were given the opportunity to ask the teams questions in writing. During the questioning, Trump’s lawyers argued that it was difficult to prove that Trump wasn’t acting in the public interest, and that if he was, then he committed no impeachable offenses. 
The final vote on Trump’s fate took place on February 5th-- Trump was unsurprisingly acquitted. 
Worth watching, however, is Mitt Romney's speech explaining why he was voting in the minority to convict Trump. 

What You Can Do:
What's important is that we continue to call attention to everything that he has done wrong, and use it to fuel tireless work for 2020. It's still good that we set a historical precedent of impeachment in a time where the president committed an egregious wrong. Unfortunately, there is not much we can do about impeachment now.
For now? Start studying up on 2020: ​https://www.nytimes.com/news-event/2020-election

Australia Bushfires
​In November, after dozens of bushfires erupted in New South Wales, Australia, the national government declared a state of emergency. Since then, the bushfires have spread across the continent, burning an area about the size of South Korea, and forcing many people to evacuate from their homes. At least 27 people are dead and roughly 2000 homes have been destroyed thus far. And even those who retain their homes are unsafe — Vox reports that breathing the air in Sydney is as bad as smoking 37 cigarettes. And due to Australian wind climate, the bushfires are only supposed to get worse throughout the rest of January and early February. The bushfires have been most devastating to Australian wildlife, with over 1 billion animals dead thus far. Scientists say that the wildfire crisis — directly associated with climate change, which has been causing extreme wildfires of greater frequency and size in recent decades — will cause long-term damage for ecosystems across Australia, generating a continent-wide heat wave, and endangering many animal and plant species. Online, videos of koalas with skin burns being rescued from the fires have emerged across social media platforms, and shocking photos of a continent immersed in smoke have moved many to action. Here’s what you can do to help those affected by the bushfires across Australia:

• Donate to organizations who are on the ground in Australia helping families who have lost their homes and supplies:
  • The Australian Red Cross Disaster Relief and Recovery Fund is sending volunteers to communities affected by the fire and providing support to displaced families
  • GIVIT is an Australian organization that matches donated goods with items requested by fire victims, such as car batteries or gas pumps​

Impeachment in the House: Before we jump into this, we're going to link you to our previous impeachment updates in chronological order, just to cover all the background:

• The Impeachment Explainer breaks down the process of impeachment, its definition, etc. It also covers how this all started with Trump.
• Quid Pro What Now? from Nov. 12th explains Quid Pro Quo, the whistleblower, and all the pre-testimony stuff.
• Pumpkins and Primaries from Dec. 1st covers some of the results of the testimonies.

So back to now: The House of Representatives has officially impeached President Trump on two articles of impeachment! The House Judiciary Committee voted last week to send the articles to a floor vote and the vote occurred this Wednesday, December 18th. It happened along party lines, with only a few Democrats voting against it and no Republicans voting for it.
The first article is abuse of power. Trump asked the government of Ukraine to publicly announce investigations into Vice President Joe Biden, a political rival of Trump’s. Trump threatened to withhold a White House meeting and $391 million of military aid from Ukraine if these investigations were not announced. The article claims that these interactions with Ukraine were detrimental to national security and formal U.S.-Ukraine policy. Since Trump put his own interests above those of the United States, he abused his power for personal and political gain. 
The second article is obstruction of Congress. This means that Trump hindered the ability of Congress to exercise their Constitutional power of impeachment. Trump told executive agencies and officials to defy the subpoenas issued to them by House committees. Those that refused to comply with their subpoenas include the Department of State, the Office of Management and Budget, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Defense, as well as nine executive bureaucrats including the White House Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney. According to the article, Trump’s interference in the impeachment process was a violation of his Constitutional responsibilities to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, faithfully execute the office of President, and take care that the laws be faithfully executed.
The Senate will hold a trial in early 2020 to determine whether Trump should be removed from office. Two thirds of the present Senate members would have to vote to convict for him to be removed. Since the Senate is controlled by Republicans, Trump’s political allies, it is more likely that Trump will be acquitted. 
The articles of impeachment are available to read here. 

What You Can Do: 

• If you support Trump’s removal from office, call your senator and urge them to vote to convict. However, it's of note that the vote will likely happen along party lines again. While that outcome would be disappointing, it's still highly valuable to be investigating Trump in this way and laying out all of his wrongdoings, especially before an election. 
• Remember that, even if Trump is removed from office, it is still just as important to vote in the 2020 presidential election. ​

Antisemitic Shooting in Jersey City:  On Tuesday, December 10, 2019 six people in Jersey City, NJ were shot and killed by an assailant. The assailant first opened fire at Bay View Cemetery, where police officer Detective Joseph Seals was shot and killed.  The shooting, according to officials, began when Detective Seals approached one of the gunmen at Bay View and asked about a separate homicide investigation, and was shot dead.  From this point the gunmen escaped in their truck and then went to a nearby kosher market, where they then opened fire on both police officers and local residents.  A firefight ensued and could be heard throughout the area for most of the next hour, and local schools were put on lockdown. At the kosher market, three bystanders were shot and killed: Mindy Ferencz, who was tending to the store when the assailants entered, Moshe Deutsch, and Miguel Rodriguez. One of the assailants, David N. Anderson, first approached the store and opened fire almost immediately, and was followed by Francine Graham. Both suspects were carrying rifles.  A fourth person was shot inside the market but survived and is not being publicly identified. At first, officials thought that the choice to open fire at the kosher market was random, but after investigation, it became clear that the choice to go to a popular Jewish space was not accidental.  Four guns were found inside the assailants' U-Haul, two of which were bought in Ohio.  A live pipe bomb was also found inside the truck, along with a "brief and rambling" manifesto that tipped off authorities to the antisemitic motivation of the shooting. The shooters were found to have ties to the Black Hebrew Israelites fringe movement, which has been characterized by brash antisemitism but, until now, had not posed a violent threat. 
What You Can Do:

• Ask your Senator to cosponsor Chris Murphy's Background Check Expansion Act. You can check to see if your Senator is already cosponsoring it here (spoiler alert: a lot aren't!). If your Senator is already cosponsoring, ask them to prioritize it.
  Script: Hi, my name is _____, I'm from _____, and I'm calling to ask you to cosponsor/prioritize/support S. 42, the Background Check Expansion Act. The recent shooting in New Jersey was only one example of the epidemic of gun violence in our nation. We need to ensure that guns are not getting into the hands of people who could use them for destruction. I urge you to use your conscience in making this decision. Thank you.
  Number: 202-224-3121 and get connected to your Senator.
• ​Stand up against antisemitism. You can look in our Index by the Issue page for all of our work that has covered the topic and all the resources we have about fighting it. It's an ancient hatred that is all too capable of destruction and violence.