Your Weekend Briefing

Trump, E.P.A., New Year’s Eve View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Sunday, December 30, 2018 [NYTimes.com »]( [Your Weekend Briefing]( By JOUMANA KHATIB AND ASHLEY CALLOWAY-BLATCH Good morning, and welcome to the last weekend of 2018. Here are the week’s top stories, and a look ahead. Guillermo Arias/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images 1. President Trump [stuck to his demands]( for border wall funding as the government shutdown entered its first full week, and he threatened to close down the southern border if the “obstructionist Democrats” didn’t budge. The impasse will be the [first major challenge]( for the incoming speaker, Nancy Pelosi of California, as the Democrats take control of the House next week. And federal workers, 800,000 of whom are furloughed or working without pay, are [beginning to get anxious]( about the prospect of a protracted shutdown. “This one feels different,” said one T.S.A. officer who was worried about her mortgage and medical expenses. In another push for his wall, Mr. Trump on Saturday [blamed Democrats for the deaths]( of two migrant children in U.S. custody; an 8-year-old boy died on Dec. 24, and a 7-year-old girl died three weeks earlier. The president said people were making the arduous journeys to the border because of “pathetic” immigration policies. “If we had a wall, they wouldn’t even try!” he tweeted. Above, a migrant looks from Tijuana, Mexico, into San Diego County. Have you been keeping up with the headlines? Test your knowledge with our [news quiz](. And [here’s the front page of our Sunday paper]( [the Sunday Review]( from Opinion and our [crossword puzzles](. ____ Al Drago for The New York Times 2. In his first visit to troops stationed in a combat zone, President Trump, above, [went to see American forces in Iraq]( on Wednesday. He was met with a standing ovation from about 100 American servicewomen and men at Al Asad Air Base, some of them wearing “Make America Great Again” caps. The president singled out people wearing the caps and accused Democrats of being weak on border security, leading [some to criticize Mr. Trump]( for turning the visit into “a campaign rally.” During the visit, Mr. Trump defended his intention to pull U.S. forces from foreign wars in Syria and Afghanistan, saying that “the United States cannot continue to be the policeman of the world.” Mr. Trump’s abrupt decision to withdraw the troops has managed to [unite the left and right]( against his plans, our White House correspondent writes. ____ Janie Osborne for The New York Times 3. The Trump administration on Friday [proposed major changes]( to the way the federal government calculates the benefits of restricting mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants. The Environmental Protection Agency, using a different formula, declared that the federal rules imposed on mercury by the Obama administration are too costly to justify. Above, a coal-fired plant in Sidney, Mont. In just two years, President Trump has unleashed a regulatory rollback with little parallel in the past half-century. The trade-offs, while often out of the glare of Washington, are frighteningly real for the health and safety of people around the country. We took an up-close look at four places in the U.S. where Mr. Trump’s retreat on the environment [is unfolding in consequential ways](. ____ Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times 4. Stocks rose or fell sharply for most of the holiday week, sometimes doing both in the same day. The raucous week on Wall Street [ended quietly on Friday]( as stocks drifted between gains and losses before closing slightly lower. Above, outside the New York Stock Exchange. Most of the seesawing can be attributed to lighter-than-usual volume, which is typical for a holiday week, but volatility has become a hallmark of trading lately. Shares experienced their steepest drop in several weeks on Monday as investors worried over President Trump’s [attacks on the Federal Reserve](. Both the treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, and the president’s incoming chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, have tried to assure the public that Mr. Trump does not intend to fire Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chairman. ____ Clockwise from top left: SSPL/Getty Images; Hulton Archive/Getty Images; Agence France-Presse — Getty Images; Penguin; Fred Stein Archive, via Getty Images 5. For the first time in 20 years, a large pool of literary works [will lose their copyrighted status]( and enter the public domain. That means books will likely be cheaper, and artists can create new works based on classic stories without fear of an intellectual property lawsuit. In other words: Make way for the fan fiction. Some publishers are worried about the change, and stand to lose money. But for readers, experts say, the additions will be a huge boon. Thousands of artists and writers — including Kahlil Gibran, Zelda Fitzgerald, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Agatha Christie, Jean Toomer and Thomas Mann, pictured clockwise from left — will have their work enter the public domain. ____ Tyler Hicks/The New York Times 6. There was a shake-up in Saudi Arabia’s government: King Salman of Saudi Arabia named new ministers and security chiefs while [keeping power firmly in the hands of his son]( Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Many of those promoted are close associates of the crown prince, who already has near-total control of the kingdom. Why it matters: Western intelligence agencies have concluded that Prince Mohammed knew about and most likely ordered the killing of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi in October. And the crown prince has directed the Saudi military campaign in Yemen that has contributed to a humanitarian crisis and drawn growing opposition in the West. The Saudis say they are battling to rescue Yemen from a hostile faction backed by Iran. But to do it, the Saudis have used their vast oil wealth to [outsource the war]( mainly by hiring what Sudanese soldiers say are tens of thousands of desperate survivors of the conflict in Darfur to fight, many of them children. Above, Sudanese soldiers in Hudaydah, Yemen. ____ Benjamin Rasmussen for The New York Times 7. The end of the year is always a great time for reflection. At The Times, we highlighted 18 people who [left indelible impressions]( on both our readers and journalists in 2018, including a woman battling the severe addiction crisis in her community and a man, above, fighting efforts to weaken the Native American vote in Utah. We also have six athletes who [changed the game]( this year, and a few notable moments from 2018 when [the internet was actually funny](. ____ Seth Wenig/Associated Press 8. Not one of the million people expected to show up in Times Square this year? Stay in [with a novel]( recommended by one of our Book Review editors, and perhaps look wistfully at [scenes of Times Square]( from past New Years celebrations. Or you can follow the process of [getting 3,000 pounds of confetti]( to drop on Times Square, above, on New Year’s, starting with Jan. 1, when applications go out for next year’s Confetti Crew. ____ [ ]Artwork by Deborah Roberts 9. Finally, no matter how you’re ringing in the new year, don’t miss our [best Weekend Reads](. This week, we have our annual “The Lives They Lived” features, where writers pay tribute to the artists, innovators and thinkers who died this year. We also have features on the relentlessness of modern parenting, Lin-Manual Miranda’s passion for Puerto Rico and more. Have a wonderful end of the year, and best wishes for 2019. Your Weekend Briefing is published Sundays at 6 a.m. Eastern. You can [sign up here]( to get our Morning Briefings by email in the Australian, Asian, European or American morning, or [here]( to receive an Evening Briefing on U.S. weeknights. Browse our full range of Times newsletters [here](. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at [briefing@nytimes.com](mailto:briefing@nytimes.com?subject=Weekend%20Briefing%20Feedback). LIKE THIS EMAIL? Forward it to your friends, and let them know they can sign up [here](. 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