Your Friday Evening Briefing

Michael Flynn, China Trade, Wisconsin | View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Friday, December 14, 2018 [NYTimes.com »]( [Your Friday Evening Briefing]( By JEAN RUTTER AND MARCUS PAYADUE Good evening. Here’s the latest. Jonathan Ernst/Reuters 1. The special counsel’s office rejected a suggestion from Michael Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser, [that he had been tricked into lying]( to F.B.I. agents investigating Russia’s election interference and ties to Trump associates. Prosecutors laid out a pattern of lies by Mr. Flynn, above, to Vice President Mike Pence, senior White House aides, federal investigators and the media in the weeks before and after the presidential inauguration as he scrambled to obscure the truth about his communications with Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. at the time. Neither Mr. Flynn nor his lawyers have explained why he lied. But in a memo this week [asking for little or no prison time]( they blamed the F.B.I. for not informing Mr. Flynn ahead of time that lying to agents is illegal. In court papers, prosecutors repudiated the argument. “A sitting national security adviser, former head of an intelligence agency, retired lieutenant general and 33-year veteran of the armed forces knows he should not lie to federal agents,” they said. Separately, President Trump announced that he has selected [Mick Mulvaney]( his budget director, to serve as his acting chief of staff. Mr. Mulvaney replaces John Kelly, who announced his departure last week. _____ Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times 2. China’s economy has slowed sharply in recent months: Car sales are down, the housing market is stumbling and some factory workers are heading home for the holidays two months early. Above, waiting for a train in Changping, China. The slowdown is presenting [perhaps the biggest challenge to President Xi Jinping]( in his six years as leader. At home, he faces difficult choices that could restart growth but add to the country’s long-term problems, like its heavy debt. On the world stage, he has been forced to make concessions to the U.S. as President Trump’s trade war intensifies. “Xi Jinping has likened China to an ocean that no storm can disturb,” an economist told us, “but the tempest now hitting it is by far the biggest” in years. Concerns over the slowdown sent [stocks into their deepest decline of the week](. The S&P 500-stock index fell 1.9 percent by the close of trading, and markets across Europe and Asia were also lower. _____ Jim Matthews/The Green Bay Press-Gazette, via Associated Press 3. The outgoing Republican governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, signed into law [measures that limit the power of the incoming governor,]( a Democrat. Mr. Walker, above, approved the measures over the vehement objections of Tony Evers, the Democrat who beat him in the November election. Mr. Evers has suggested that he may file suit over the changes. Mr. Walker, he said, had chosen “to ignore and override the will of the people of Wisconsin.” The move was seen as carving a path for other states, like Michigan, where Republicans are contemplating similar limits on incoming Democrats. But it also risked energizing Democrats ahead of the 2020 presidential election, when both parties will battle for the Midwest. _____ Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters 4. A lot has changed in the three years since world leaders rejoiced at the Paris climate agreement. [The world as a whole is not meeting targets]( set under the Paris pact. Emissions are rising in the U.S. and China, the world’s two largest economies. Other countries are backsliding. Around the globe, people face mounting risks from more severe and more frequent floods, droughts and wildfires. Above, a protest at a power plant near Cologne, Germany. The Paris Agreement, our international climate reporter writes, is only as good as the willingness of national leaders to keep their word. “We have the ways,” the U.N. secretary general said this week at a climate summit in Katowice, Poland. “What we need is the political will to move forward.” _____ Mark Trent 5. “Everyone I knew had a prescription for something.” For six years, our photographer [chronicled life in Greenbrier County in West Virginia]( the state with the country’s highest death rate from opioid addiction. Above, one woman’s medications. He followed a circle of friends and lovers as they bought, sold and stole drugs; as they injected and slept in one another’s arms. Not all of them survived. _____ Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse 6. The Catholic Church is facing a wave of federal and state investigations into its handling of sex abuse allegations, and bishops across the U.S. have struggled with how to react. Some have locked down defensively. Others are awaiting guidance from the Vatican. Dozens of bishops have decided to [release lists of the priests in their dioceses who were credibly accused of abuse](. But with no central reporting system, it is hard to judge how comprehensive the lists may be, and some former and current church members remain distrustful. Above, the Syracuse diocese’s list. “The civil court system, that’s the new way the Holy Spirit moves,” said an advocate for abuse victims. _____ Jim Watson/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images 7. New gun restrictions are surging. After the mass shooting in Parkland, Fla., in February, state legislatures across the U.S. passed 69 gun control measures this year — more than any other year since the Newtown, Conn., massacre in 2012, and more than three times the number passed in 2017. Above, at a rally in Washington. [In an examination of new data]( our journalists found that new laws were passed in both Republican- and Democrat-controlled state legislatures. Laws addressing domestic abuse, bump stocks and background checks were popular, we found, and Florida, New Jersey and Vermont passed the most laws. _____ Willy Sanjuan/Invision, via Associated Press 8. Taylor Swift fans at a concert in California this spring may have thought they were watching the singer’s videos. [But they may have been the ones being watched](. Swift’s security team installed a device at the Rose Bowl, above, that captured photos of fans for comparison with a database of potential stalkers, a security consultant told Rolling Stone magazine. Arenas elsewhere have begun using [facial-recognition software]( to bolster security and identify those entering the building. The tactic has raised concerns by civil rights groups, led by the A.C.L.U., which have pushed for restrictions on the technology. _____ Gregory Sawisky / Alamy Stock Photo 9. Blow a whistle. Clap your hands. Honk the car horn. Montreal has a coyote problem, and the city is teaching its humans to adapt. Since July 2017, there have been 1,000 coyote sightings, and 19 people have been bitten, the mayor said. A petition last summer accused the city of doing little to fix the problem. So this week, officials [introduced a new “hazing” policy]( modeled after one used in Denver, that teaches people different techniques to frighten the animals away. “People have to change what they do to make sure coyotes don’t see us as a food source,” one expert told us. _____ via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images 10. Finally, this is your periodic reminder that it’s not all bad news out there. An enormous cave with a roaring river running through it was discovered in British Columbia. A DNA test helped reunite a mother and daughter, above, after nearly 70 years. A baby Asian elephant took its first wobbly steps. This is [the Week in Good News](. Have a warm weekend. Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern. And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing. [Sign up here]( to get it by email in the Australian, Asian, European or American morning. Want to catch up on past briefings? [You can browse them here](. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at [briefing@nytimes.com](mailto:briefing@nytimes.com?subject=Evening%20Briefing%20Feedback). LIKE THIS EMAIL? Forward it to your friends, and let them know they can sign up [here](. ADVERTISEMENT Sponsor a Subscription Inspire the future generation of readers by contributing to The Times’s [sponsor-a-subscription program](. For questions, email sponsor@nytimes.com or call [1-844-698-2677](. 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