The Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives voted largely along party lines (WSJ) to impeach President Donald J. Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
 
The two articles of impeachment (NYT) claim that Trump abused his public office to pressure the Ukrainian government to investigate his personal political opponent and that he blocked a congressional investigation of his actions. Trump is the third U.S. president to be impeached by the House. He will next be tried in the Republican-led Senate, where a two-thirds majority is required to convict him and remove him from office. He is expected to be acquitted. Though most world leaders did not comment (USA Today) on the House vote, Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced the charges (CNN) against Trump.

Police detained hundreds of people (Reuters) in New Delhi and the southern city of Bengaluru for protesting against the country’s new citizenship law despite recent bans on such demonstrations.
 
Afghanistan: U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad met with politicians (TOLO) including Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani, former President Hamid Karzai, and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah to discuss Afghan peace negotiations.
 
In Foreign Affairs, Carter Malkasian discusses what a U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan would look like.

Lawmakers will hold consultations (Al Jazeera) over the position today, with former Minister of Education and Higher Education Hassan Diab a reported favorite. Outgoing Prime Minister Saad Hariri has said he would not seek another term in the wake of widespread street protests.
 
In Foreign Affairs, Maha Yahya takes a cautionary look at progress in the Middle East since the 2011 Arab Spring.

The invasion (Reuters) is the country’s worst in twenty-five years, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, and has so far damaged some seventy thousand hectares of land in Somalia and neighboring Ethiopia. Conflict in Somalia has disrupted regular pesticide spraying.
 
Zimbabwe: A group of British Virgin Islands–linked companies won the right to seize (Bloomberg) more than $65 million in assets from Zimbabwe’s state mining company in a court decision on the firm’s cancellation of nickel and platinum joint ventures.

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon wrote to (Guardian) British Prime Minister Boris Johnson asking for the power to hold new Scottish independence referendums and arguing that the authority to do so should be transferred from the UK government to the Scottish Parliament.
 
Poland: The country’s Parliament will hold a debate (WaPo) today on judicial system changes that Poland’s Supreme Court warns would disqualify the country from EU membership by elevating Polish national law over EU law.
 
In Foreign Affairs, Marta Figlerowicz discusses the forward march of Poland’s right-wing Law and Justice party.

Researchers from Ontario’s Queen’s University and the University of Birmingham have heard hundreds of accounts of UN peacekeepers in Haiti fathering children (Conversation) and then abandoning them over the course of the 2004–2017 peacekeeping mission.
 
Panama: Fourteen inmates died when rival gang members who had obtained three AK-47 rifles and other firearms opened fire (AFP) in a crowded prison, the government announced.

Governments, development banks, and other groups pledged to support (UN) refugee resettlement by funding investments in education, housing, and support for host communities.