Wednesday, Nov 13, 2019 | View in browser

Good morning.

We’re covering today’s congressional hearings in the impeachment investigation, a major report on the world’s energy, and the possibility of Colin Kaepernick returning to the N.F.L.

By Chris Stanford

Impeachment inquiry goes public

After weeks of largely closed-door testimony, the investigation into whether President Trump abused his power in his dealings with Ukraine enters a new phase today with a public hearing before the House Intelligence Committee. Here are the basics:

■ William Taylor, the top American diplomat in Ukraine, and George Kent, a senior State Department official in charge of Ukraine policy, will appear for joint testimony.

■ The hearing starts at 10 a.m. Eastern and is expected to last until midafternoon. Lawmakers from both parties will be allowed to question the witnesses.

■ The Times will stream the testimony live, and our reporters will provide real-time context and analysis.

The players: The committee’s chairman, Representative Adam Schiff of California, and Mr. Trump’s Republican allies in the House are among the major figures.

Fact check: The Times examined some defenses made by Mr. Trump and his supporters, including denials of a quid pro quo and attacks on witnesses.

Looking back: Today will be only the third time in modern U.S. history that a public hearing will consider the impeachment of a president. Our chief White House correspondent revisited the case against President Bill Clinton 21 years ago, and our chief TV critic watched the Watergate hearings.

The Daily: In today’s episode, we answer a third grader’s questions about the inquiry.

Justices seem inclined to rule against ‘Dreamers’

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority appeared on Tuesday to support President Trump’s efforts to end the program that protects about 700,000 undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.

Chief Justice John Roberts indicated that the administration was on solid legal footing in saying that the Obama-era program, called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, was unlawful. But he said the court could rule in a way that would minimize the hardships that participants would face.

Chief Justice Roberts noted that the Obama and Trump administrations have said they wouldn’t deport DACA participants. “The whole thing was about work authorization and these other benefits,” the chief justice said. “Both administrations have said they’re not going to deport the people.”

Another angle: The court also cleared the way for relatives of Sandy Hook victims to sue Remington, the maker of the rifle used in the school shooting.

A wind farm near Stanton, Texas. Wind power technology is becoming an increasingly attractive option for some countries. Brandon Thibodeaux for The New York Times

Global trends for the future of energy

Wind turbines, solar panels and electric vehicles spread far more quickly last year than many predictions, but not fast enough to get global warming under control.

That’s one conclusion in an annual report released on Tuesday by the International Energy Agency, which warned that current policies could cause greenhouse gas emissions to continue rising for the next 20 years. Here are some of the main takeaways.

The details: The report predicted that renewable energy would surpass coal as the world’s dominant source of electricity by 2030.

Sheila and Bob Bentley at their diner in Ripley, N.Y. They have avoided layoffs despite rising labor costs. Allison Farrand for The New York Times

A test case for raising the minimum wage

The minimum wage in New York State is $11.10 and is set to reach $12.50 next year, while neighboring Pennsylvania has stuck by the federal minimum of $7.25.

That discrepancy provides an opportunity to test higher wage floors during a push to raise the federal minimum to $15 an hour.

Recent research by the Federal Reserve suggested that higher minimum wages didn’t cost jobs in border counties. An analysis of the data by The Times, paired with on-the-ground reporting, generally supports those findings, with caveats.

Another angle: Employment growth and the jobless rate are roughly equivalent in both Democratic- and Republican-leaning metro areas. But a closer look shows stark differences between blue and red economies.

If you have 15 minutes, this is worth it

SoftBank’s big money hits hard downstream

Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters

Through its $100 billion Vision Fund, the Japanese tech giant SoftBank has poured cash into fledgling companies that dangled incentives and other payments to attract armies of contractors.

But when the start-ups stumbled, they often slashed or reneged on incentives. Many contractors have been financially and personally devastated.

The Times reviewed contracts and internal company documents and interviewed dozens of workers with SoftBank-funded start-ups in places like Chicago, New Delhi, Beijing and Bogotá, Colombia. Above, a 2018 protest against Ola, an Indian ride-hailing service in which SoftBank invested.

Here’s what else is happening

Bolivia turmoil: Senator Jeanine Añez Chavez declared herself president, but the former leader, Evo Morales, vowed to return from exile in Mexico.

Double-lung transplant: A 17-year-old boy whose lungs were damaged by vaping would have died without the procedure, according to doctors. “What I saw in his lungs is like nothing I’ve seen before,” the lead surgeon said.

Plague in China: Two people from a sparsely populated region were diagnosed today with a form of the highly infectious disease. Chinese officials said that the risks of further transmission were “extremely low.”

Rising hate-crime attacks: The F.B.I. said violence motivated by bias reached a 16-year high in 2018. Data showed fewer attacks against Muslims and Arab-Americans, but more against Latinos.

Jimmy Carter recovering: The former president, 95, will remain hospitalized for the foreseeable future after surgery to relieve pressure from bleeding in his head.

Stephanie Keith/Getty Images

Snapshot: Above, in New York on Tuesday, when temperatures fell into the mid-20s. The cold weather across much of the U.S. is forecast to last at least through today.

Opportunity for Colin Kaepernick: The quarterback who knelt to protest police brutality hasn’t played in the N.F.L. since 2016. Teams have been invited to watch him work out so they can evaluate whether to sign him.

52 Places traveler: In his latest dispatch, our columnist visits the Setouchi Islands in Japan, where an art extravaganza is revitalizing communities.

Late-night comedy: Looking forward to today’s congressional hearing, Stephen Colbert decorated an “impeachment tree” with some “quid pro snow.”

What we’re reading: This Twitter thread follows up on the uproar after editors at the Northwestern University newspaper apologized for how they covered protests. “A reporter shared raw memories of his own early, tough calls,” writes Andrea Kannapell, the briefings editor. “It’s a powerful reminder of what journalists do, and why.”

Now, a break from the news

Sarah Anne Ward for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Amy Elise Wilson.

Cook: This cake is completely about chocolate, so choose one you love.

Watch: Hollywood never really knew what to do with Joe Pesci, so it put him in broad comedies. But “The Irishman” shows what we’ve been missing, our critic concludes.

Eat: Llama San, in Greenwich Village, is inspired by Japanese cooks living in Peru. Read our review.

Smarter Living: Despite a few glitches, Disney Plus arrived in the U.S. and Canada. Here are the 50 best things to stream.

And now for the Back Story on …

How our SoftBank article came together

I’m Nathaniel Popper, the lead reporter on our featured article about how one giant tech investor has disrupted lives around the world.

SoftBank’s Vision Fund has $100 billion, dwarfing any venture capital fund before it. When I started digging in, I saw that many of its biggest investments were in companies that borrowed the Uber business model, hiring armies of contractors to provide cheap services to consumers. And most were outside the U.S.

This is where I was able to harness The Times’s incredible network of reporters. I enlisted colleagues in China, India and South America to go out and talk to workers.

SoftBank's chief executive, Masayoshi Son, in Tokyo in 2017. Shizuo Kambayashi/Associated Press

We kept hearing the same complaints over and over, about falling wages and a sense of having been misled. And that ended up being confirmed by data we were able to dig up — and by lots of local protests against the companies.

It ended up taking us about five months to do all our interviews and put the pieces together, creating a picture of how the evolution of tech investing touches the lives of millions of ordinary people across many countries.

I think reporting like this has never been more crucial, and it takes a news organization willing to devote time and resources to answer the big questions. If you want to help make more reporting like this possible, please subscribe for $1 a week.

That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.

— Chris

Thank you
Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford provided the break from the news. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Today’s episode is a guide to the impeachment hearings by a third grader.
• Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Homeless animal (five letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• The latest addition to The Times’s Beijing bureau is Vivian Wang, a Metro reporter.