HOW TO THINK ABOUT IT

Courts still matter … Britain’s Supreme Court ruled that Johnson’s decision to suspend Parliament for five weeks — which was seen as a way to force through his own vision for Brexit — was “unlawful, void and of no effect.” That dealt a major blow to his two-month-old premiership, and while rushing back from the U.N. General Assembly in New York after the verdict, Johnson (below) said he disagreed “profoundly” with the court. But his opponents have smelled blood: His chances of securing any Brexit deal by an Oct. 19 deadline stand severely diminished, experts say, meaning he could face a no-confidence vote. Now it’s clear that Johnson’s political gambit, widely criticized as tampering with democracy, has seriously backfired.

… and so do voters. In Israel, meanwhile, Netanyahu also faces what could be the most serious political challenge of his three-decade career. The country’s longest-serving prime minister was punished during last week’s elections when voters gave the opposition Blue and White Party one more seat. Netanyahu, whose hard-line rule has yanked Israel decisively away from searching for a two-state solution with the Palestinians, is a master at coalition building. But power-sharing negotiations failed Wednesday with Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, leading Israel President Reuven Rivlin to give Netanyahu another shot to form a governing coalition — or face a third election this year. And it gets worse: Failure to stay in power could expose Netanyahu to prosecution for major corruption charges.

But what about Congress? The White House this morning released a transcript of Trump's call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky — based on Situation Room notes and not a verbatim account — which shows Trump saying “I would like you to do us a favor” right after Zelensky brings up buying more Javelin missiles from the U.S. The favor? Trump’s ask is hard to follow, but it involves investigating the firm CrowdStrike, which connected the 2016 hack of Democratic National Committee servers to Russia. Trump then goes on to ask Zelensky about investigating Biden and his son Hunter Biden, saying he’ll have both Attorney General Bill Barr and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani talk to Zelensky further. Department of Justice officials told reporters they determined that Trump didn’t commit a crime because help with a government investigation wasn’t a “thing of value” to his campaign. Next up in the nascent impeachment probe, Congress is demanding to see the full whistleblower report that started this whole affair, and the whistleblower will likely testify. The aim is to get to the bottom of how a request for dirt on a political foe played into Trump’s decision to hold up nearly $400 million in taxpayer-funded military aid to Ukraine.

WHAT TO READ

Inside Trumpworld, Public Defiance vs. Private Anxiety Over Impeachment by Nancy Cook in Politico
“The White House is betting Trump can ride out this ‘outrage du jour,’ as one senior administration official called it, and move on just as he has skated through the release of the Mueller Report … and dozens of other threats to his presidency.”

Democrats’ Double Standard on Ukraine by Marc Thiessen in The Washington Post
“So, it’s okay for Democratic senators to encourage Ukraine to investigate Trump, but it’s not okay for the president to allegedly encourage Ukraine to investigate Hunter Biden?”

WHAT TO WATCH