1. President Trump openly called on China to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.

The extraordinary request mirrored the one he made privately to the Ukrainian president and served as an open challenge to the Democrats investigating it as an abuse of power.This time, Mr. Trump referred to a business deal between Mr. Biden’s son Hunter and a fund that involved the state-owned Bank of China.

Tonight, The Times learned that two of President Trump’s top envoys to Ukraine drafted a statement for the country’s new president in August that would have committed Ukraine to pursuing investigations into Mr. Trump’s political rivals. The effort is more evidence that Mr. Trump’s fixation with Ukraine drove senior diplomats to bend U.S. foreign policy to the president’s political agenda.