The Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday recommended the impeachment of President Donald Trump over his dealings with the government of Ukraine. The full House is to take up the matter next week. If the Democratic-controlled chamber votes to impeach, it will make Trump the third president in American history to face the ultimate constitutional sanction. Any trial before the Senate would take place in the new year. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court agreed to consider whether Trump’s financial records can remain private, or whether Congress and a state grand jury get a peek. —David E. Rovella

Here are today’s top stories

The U.S. and China said they agreed to the details of the first phase of a broader trade agreement in a move that will see the U.S. reduce tariffs.

U.S. stocks ended a tumultuous session higher with major benchmarks notching records as investors assessed the impact of the trade accord.

David Fickling writes in Bloomberg Opinion that a partial end to the trade war begun by Trump is like someone deciding to stop punching themselves in the face. The tentative deal itself, Fickling writes, more or less leaves the U.S. and China where they started.

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson won an election victory that redraws the political map of Britain and makes Brexit much more likely.

Erik Prince, a private security mogul with ties to the Trump administration, held secret talks in Caracas last month with Venezuela’s vice president.

Personal banking information for tens of thousands of Facebook workers in the U.S. was compromised in November when several corporate hard drives were stolen from an employee’s car.

What’s Luke Kawa thinking about? The Bloomberg cross-asset reporter reflected on Christine Lagarde’s press conference Thursday as the new president of the European Central Bank. Lagarde said exercising freedom to speak about fiscal policy (not just monetary policy) was necessary because “it takes many to actually dance the economic ballet that would deliver on price stability but also employment and growth.”

(In the Dec. 12 edition of the Evening Briefing, we incorrectly stated that the partial trade deal between the U.S. and China had been signed by Trump. He has approved the proposal.)

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