Good morning, NBC News readers.
The Democrats have indicated that they are moving full speed ahead with the impeachment of President Donald Trump, the Justice Department's inspector general report into the FBI's Russia investigation revealed no political bias and the U.K. is two days away from its pivotal "Brexit elections."
Here's what we're watching this Tuesday morning.
Democrats expected to announce two articles of impeachment
Democrats plan to announce two articles of impeachment — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — against President Trump on Tuesday, multiple sources told NBC News.
The House Judiciary Committee heard from lawyers for both parties for more than nine hours on findings from the Intelligence Committee's impeachment inquiry over allegations that Trump withheld aid to pressure Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.
We've got a good summary of arguments made by both sides for and against impeachment here.
In the wake of the lawyers' testimony, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office announced late Monday that the leaders of the various committees would "announce the next steps in the House impeachment inquiry" during a 9 a.m. ET news conference.
After Monday's testimony, NBC News' Jonathan Allen writes in a news analysis that the GOP's defense of Trump boils down to this: Get over it.
IG Report: Trump-Russia probe not biased, but there were 'serious' failures
The highly anticipated report by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz — two years in the making — concluded that the FBI and the Justice Department launched their investigation into the 2016 campaign not for political reasons, but because of evidence the Russian government was trying to influence the election.
However it was also harshly critical of the FBI’s court application for permission to conduct surveillance on Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser, saying there were serious management failures.
And Trump and Attorney General William Barr wasted no time in jumping on those criticisms.
Barr called the FBI's investigation into Moscow's interference "intrusive" and said it had been launched "on the thinnest of suspicions."
And in a stunning move, the federal prosecutor Barr appointed to conduct a separate but related investigation, U.S. Attorney for Connecticut John Durham, also said in a statement that he disagreed with the report.
But for former FBI Director James Comey, the report was a vindication and proves that Trump's attacks on him and other FBI officials were "all nonsense."
One thing the report did show is that the FBI's warrant system for spying on Americans is a mess, NBC News' Ken Dilanian writes in a news analysis.
Meantime, in what may be an example of strange scheduling, Trump plans to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the White House on Tuesday.
Lavrov's last meeting with Trump came in 2017, less than 24 hours after Comey was fired, as questions swirled about the president's relationship with Russia.
U.K. heads into pivotal 'Brexit elections': Who's who and why does it matter?
The final hours of campaigning have begun ahead of Thursday’s election, which is being called the most fractious vote in the United Kingdom’s recent history with the outcome of Brexit still in the balance.
Polls have consistently shown Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s ruling Conservative Party with a lead against left-wing Labour, which would allow him to form the next government and fulfill his main campaign promise to "get Brexit done."
Labour, the main opposition party led by socialist Jeremy Corbyn, and others have been keen to emphasize domestic issues such as public health service, school funding and poor transport links outside of London.
Still, this will still be remembered as the Brexit election with the split between Leave and Remain voters representing a cultural fault line in British society.
Eight missing after New Zealand volcanic eruption presumed dead
Eight people still missing after the sudden eruption of a volcano off the coast of New Zealand are presumed to have died in the hail of burning ash, steam and gas, officials said Tuesday.
These deaths — which included one American — would raise the number of people killed in the disaster to 14.
"I would strongly suggest that there is no one that has survived on the island," said John Tims, deputy commissioner of the national police.
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Plus
- A trove of government documents shows that U.S. officials systematically misled the public about the war in Afghanistan during three presidential administrations, The Washington Post reported in an explosive story Monday.
- The late rapper Juice WRLD had several bottles of codeine and 70 pounds of marijuana on the plane he was on before he died, police say.
- Amazon says Trump’s personal determination to "screw" the company led to it losing out on a $10 billion Pentagon contract for cloud services.
- "A noble fighter": Peter Frates, the inspiration for the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, died at 34.
- A former Boeing manager says he warned the company of problems prior to the 737 crashes.
- "That was last week," Peloton CEO says, dodging questions about controversial exercise-bike ad.
THINK about it
Trump's LGBTQ "pride" merchandise is a hypocritical insult to queer Americans, Michelangelo Signorile writes in an opinion piece.
Live BETTER
Know someone who loves to run? From shoes to jackets, we’ve got your holiday shopping list covered.
One fun thing
After receiving a life-saving bone marrow transplant from an anonymous donor, 11-year-old Laila Anderson met her donor for the first time at the inaugural "Be The Match" soiree.
Their emotional meeting was something to see.
"I don't care if we go to dinner or go to Disney World, I just want to spend time with you," the overjoyed Laila told Kenton Felmlee, her 19-year-old donor.
Thanks for reading the Morning Rundown.
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Thanks, Petra
