Your Weekend Briefing

Brexit, Offshore Drilling, N.C.A.A. View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Sunday, March 31, 2019 [NYTimes.com »]( [Your Weekend Briefing]( By REMY TUMIN AND LANCE BOOTH Here are the week’s top stories, and a look ahead. Matt Dunham/Associated Press 1. You may have had enough Brexit news to last a lifetime, but wait: There’s more. After Parliament rejected a third plan from Prime Minister Theresa May to extricate Britain from the E.U., Britons on both sides of the issue are angry and embarrassed. [And they are losing faith in their political system](. “We’re in the last hour,” a firefighter said. “I’m wondering: What does more damage? Leaving without a deal? Or the total annihilation of faith in democracy?” On Monday, Parliament will take one more stab at an alternative plan to leave the bloc by the April 12 deadline. If that fails, the country may very well leave the E.U. without a deal or request another extension from the bloc’s leaders. [Here’s a guide to what happens next](. 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](. ____ Ruth Fremson/The New York Times 2. Black box data is said to suggest that the crashes of two Boeing jets — in both the Ethiopian Airlines flight and the disaster in Indonesia — [involved problems with the same faulty sensors and automatic system](. The system is believed to have pushed the front of the plane down, leading to a nosedive that killed all 157 people aboard the Ethiopian Airlines flight. Above, 737 Max 8 airplanes on the assembly line in Renton, Wash., last week. [Here’s a visual breakdown]( of the dangerous flaws in the Boeing 737 Max that may have caused two deadly crashes in five months. ____ Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times 3. A judge struck down President Trump’s order to lift an Obama-era ban on oil and gas drilling in the Arctic Ocean, dealing a major legal blow to the president’s push to [expand offshore oil and gas development](. She wrote that an executive order by Mr. Trump revoking the drilling ban “is unlawful, as it exceeded the president’s authority.” Separately, a [spring surge of migrants]( is stretching border facilities far beyond capacity. A makeshift encampment under a bridge in El Paso, above, was set up after the main border processing center reached up to 400 percent of its capacity. The influx comes as Mr. Trump said he would [cut off all foreign aid]( to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador over migrant caravans, and threatened to close the Mexican border as soon as this week. Looking ahead, the NATO secretary general will address a joint meeting of Congress to observe the 70th anniversary of the alliance, which Mr. Trump has often criticized. ____ Lucia Buricelli for The New York Times 4. New York is poised to become the first city in the U.S. to [introduce congestion pricing]( part of a state budget lawmakers will vote on today after reaching a late-night agreement with Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The toll on cars entering Manhattan’s busiest areas would help provide badly needed financial assistance for mass transit. The budget would also impose a statewide ban on [most types of single-use plastic bags]( from retail sales, the second such ban in the country. Plastic or paper? [Here’s what to consider at the grocery store.]( Separately, the state has filed a [sweeping lawsuit against members of the Sackler family]( owners of Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin. The suit accuses them of turning a “collective blind eye” for years while dangerous opioids were “dispensed like candy” throughout the state. ____ Alex Welsh for The New York Times 5. It was also a busy week in the business world. Lyft began trading on the public markets, becoming one of the [most valuable American companies]( to go public in the last decade and signaling the start of a new chapter: the gig economy on Wall Street. [Here’s who gets rich]( once companies like Lyft, Uber and other so-called unicorns go public. Facebook [banned white nationalist content]( as countries like Australia and New Zealand [consider sweeping restrictions]( against the spread of hate and violence on social media. The U.S. also announced it was [suing Facebook for housing discrimination](. On the executive front: We took a look at the tensions at [Nissan under Carlos Ghosn]( who now faces charges of financial wrongdoing after being forced out of the company. And Wells Fargo is [searching for a new leader]( after its chief executive, Timothy Sloan, abruptly resigned. ____ Demetrius Freeman for The New York Times 6. It’s been 50 years since affirmative action began to affect the college admissions process. A look back through the decades shows what went right, and what it got wrong. Columbia University provided a unique setting for the practice back in 1969, with a record number of black students admitted that year. [We tracked some of them down to hear their stories]( including Gregory Peterson, pictured above. In the wake of a sprawling admissions cheating scandal, elite colleges are now trumpeting [record low admissions rates](. The actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman are due in federal court this week alongside other defendants to face charges in the admissions scheme. ____ Tolga Akmen/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images 7. A painting of Jesus attributed to Leonardo da Vinci sold for $450 million, the most expensive painting ever auctioned. Now, “Salvator Mundi” is shrouded in a new mystery: Where is it? Since a Saudi royal, most likely Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, bought the painting in 2017, [it has vanished from view](. It was supposed to appear in the Louvre Abu Dhabi. Now the Louvre in Paris wants it, too. But none of the curators know where it is. Some have speculated that the crown prince might simply have decided to keep it. ____ Robert Hanashiro/USA Today Sports, via Reuters 8. The men’s college basketball tournament is heating up. No. 1 Duke will play No. 2 Michigan State tonight after narrowly [escaping a loss]( to Virginia Tech on Friday. The University of North Carolina, Duke’s archrival, didn’t fare as well — the Tar Heels were [ousted by Auburn](. Auburn will now play for a trip to its first Final Four, facing second-seeded Kentucky. Already in the Final Four are [Virginia]( and [Texas Tech]( which both won Saturday night. Above, Texas Tech versus Gonzaga. We also have [updates from the women’s college basketball tournament](. ____ Photo Illustration by The New York Times; Getty Images 9. What began as a means to fame turned into empire. Ahead of the premiere of the 16th season of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” on Sunday night, our reporter took [a deep dive into the family that has redefined American culture]( and entrepreneurship. She spoke with all five of the sisters — Kim, Khloé, Kourtney, Kendall and Kylie — and the mom in chief, Kris, about their never-ending hustle. ____ Mary Turner for The New York Times 10. Finally, it’s time to catch up on some great [Weekend Reads](. We have articles about a 71-year-old woman, above, who has never felt pain or anxiety (scientists now know why); a sweeping new novel, reviewed by Salman Rushdie; and Generation Z, the most diverse generation in history, in their own words. And as Women’s History Month comes to a close, we turned the lens around to highlight the [first female staff photographers at The Times](. For more suggestions, take a look at these [10 new books]( our editors liked, a glance at the latest [small-screen recommendations]( from Watching and [our music critics’ latest playlist](. In like a lion, out like a lamb — we made it through March. Have a great week. ____ 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? 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