Your Weekend Briefing

Trump Announcement, Winter Storm Warning View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Sunday, January 20, 2019 [NYTimes.com »]( [Your Weekend Briefing]( By ZACH JOHNK AND LANCE BOOTH Here are the week’s top stories, and a look ahead. Tom Brenner for The New York Times 1. The government shutdown lives on, but [there have been hints of movement](. President Trump is still insisting on $5.7 billion for his wall on the southern border, and he [announced Saturday that he would extend deportation protections]( for some undocumented immigrants in exchange for the wall money. But it looked unlikely that Democrats, who had added more than $1 billion in border-related spending to their funding bills to try to get him to relent, would budge. Eight hundred thousand federal employees are still going without pay. Separately, the president [is set to meet with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un]( for a second time, in late February. Their dialogue has eased tensions but hasn’t led to progress in eliminating North Korea’s nuclear arsenal. _____ Stephanie Keith for The New York Times 2. Robert Mueller is among the quietest figures in Washington. That changed briefly when the special counsel’s team issued a rare public statement [disputing a BuzzFeed News report]( that said President Trump had directed Michael Cohen, above, his longtime fixer, to lie to Congress about negotiations to build a skyscraper in Moscow. The explosive report had led to a flurry of talk among Democrats about possible impeachment proceedings if the details proved to be accurate. This all came against the backdrop of confirmation hearings for William Barr, the president’s nominee for attorney general. Mr. Barr [vowed to let Mr. Mueller finish his inquiry]( and he seems all but assured of confirmation. _____ Leon Neal/Getty Images 3. Britain is paralyzed over Brexit. Prime Minister Theresa May [suffered a humiliating defeat]( over her plan to withdraw from the European Union. She then [narrowly survived]( a no-confidence vote in Parliament. No one knows what will happen next, and [our reporter Ellen Barry found that precisely one person seems to be having fun]( John Bercow, the speaker of the House of Commons. From his silk-canopied chair, she wrote, he “looked out over Britain’s squabbling Parliament and brayed, ‘Order! Order!’ in that undrownoutable voice, something like an air-raid siren with postnasal drip.” 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](. _____ Oasa/EPA, via Shutterstock 4. At least 66 people died in a [gas explosion north of Mexico City]( after thieves ruptured a pipeline. Above, soldiers stood guard afterward. Mexico’s president vowed to keep up his crackdown on fuel theft: “We will not stop. We will eradicate this.” Elsewhere in the world, Shabab militants [stormed a luxury hotel and office complex]( in Nairobi, Kenya, killing at least 21. And in Syria, an Islamic State suicide bomber [killed at least 15 people]( including four Americans. _____ Abel Uribe/Chicago Tribune, via Associated Press 5. An enormous snowstorm [raced across the northern United States]( this weekend. The wintry conditions led to thousands of canceled flights and many spoiled plans for the three-day weekend from Kansas to New England. Above, snow was cleared in Chicago’s Millennium Park. But hey, at least (most of us) aren’t relying on horses anymore. Take a look at [these early New York Times pictures]( to see the havoc a blizzard could visit on the city in the late 1800s and early 1900s. _____ Ryan Christopher Jones for The New York Times 6. The Trump administration most likely [separated thousands more children from their parents]( at the southern border than was previously believed. That’s according to a report that found that the official count of 2,700 migrant children began only after a court order in June. The real number may never be known. Above, a mother and son reunited after 34 days. While the policy was framed as a zero-tolerance decision to prosecute those who entered the country illegally, it caused agonizing uncertainty for thousands of migrant families. An A.C.L.U. lawyer said, “This report confirms what we suspected: This cruel family separation practice was way bigger than the administration let on.” _____ Andrew Cullen for The New York Times 7. Thirty thousand teachers went on strike in Los Angeles. In addition to demanding higher pay, smaller class sizes and more support staff, they are trying to [combat the spread of charter schools]( which the union says siphon off students and money from public schools. Prominent Democrats are supportive of the teachers, but [deeply divided on the charter school question](. Separately, the second anniversary of the Women’s March [brought smaller crowds]( as the movement has weathered a storm of controversy. _____ Elizabeth D. Herman and Celeste Sloman for The New York Times 8. Older white men have always defined the halls of power. Ever so slowly, that’s changing. Our [portraits series]( shows how the 2018 midterm elections accelerated this shift in representation. For the first time, more than 100 women serve in the House of Representatives — out of 435 seats — and members of color were elected in more states than ever before. Above, from left, Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Representative Carol Miller of West Virginia, and Representative Deb Haaland of New Mexico. _____ Isabella de Maddalena for The New York Times 9. Shh. Residents of Cremona, Italy, are hearing a lot of that lately. The city, the birthplace of the world’s finest string instruments, has [thrown itself behind an effort to preserve every note]( before the instruments are too fragile to play. That requires absolute silence in the cobblestoned area around the auditorium where the sounds of Stradivarius instruments are being recorded. The streets are shut down, and a dropped glass or even the sound of a woman’s high heels clicking make for an “an auditory nightmare,” said one of the people behind the project. Above, the Museo del Violino, which is helping with the project. _____ Ben C. Solomon/The New York Times 10. Finally, our [Best Weekend Reads]( include disconcerting imagery from Kazakhstan, where a warming climate is rapidly shrinking the Tuyuksu glacier, above. As glaciers melt worldwide, the hundreds of millions who rely on them for water will suffer. Trying to focus more on what you can control? Read Mary Pipher’s essay for Opinion about the joy of being a woman in her 70s, by which point, she writes, “many of us have learned that happiness is a skill and a choice.” Others are happy and they can’t help it. Like Sphen and Magic, two gay male penguins in Australia who are contentedly and diligently raising a baby together. For more suggestions on what to read, watch and listen to, may we suggest these [eight new books our editors liked]( a glance at the latest small-screen recommendations from [Watching]( and our [music critics’ latest playlist](. Have a great week. Your Weekend Briefing is published Sundays at 6 a.m. Eastern. 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