January 26, 2020

Your Weekend Briefing

By remy tumin and stephen reiss

Here are the week’s top stories, and a look ahead.

Erin Schaff/The New York Times

1. President Trump’s legal team began its aggressive defense in the Senate impeachment trial.

His lawyers, above, dismissed the House impeachment inquiry as a partisan ploy that ignored the facts to cast Mr. Trump’s actions in the worst possible light. Democrats, they argued, were “asking you to tear up the ballots” by finding Mr. Trump guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors.

The president’s legal team on Saturday used only two of the 24 hours allotted to them to present their defense. Arguments will resume Monday afternoon.

The Democratic House managers concluded their arguments on Friday, saying that allowing Mr. Trump to stay in office would endanger the country.

The question of whether the Senate would compel witnesses and documents was still up in the air, even as new evidence became public: a recording of Mr. Trump ordering the U.S. ambassador’s firing.

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Guilbert Gates

2. Bernie Sanders has seized the lead in Iowa, a new Times/Siena College poll found. Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden trail him, and Elizabeth Warren lost ground.

The changing fortunes of the two liberal candidates — Mr. Sanders and Ms. Warren — underscored the volatile nature of the Democratic primary a little over a week before the Iowa caucuses.

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Last spring we asked a large pool of Democratic candidates to answer the same set of questions. We did it again, this time with a much smaller group and 20 new questions — on everything from foreign policy to celebrity crushes. Here’s what they said.

Wara Vargas Lara for The New York Times

3. Against the backdrop of impeachment and the 2020 election, the nation’s glaring divisions were on display in the streets.

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Our reporter went to three protests in one week — the Women’s March, above, a pro-gun rally in Virginia and the anti-abortion March for Life — to find out how polarized politically engaged Americans were. In more than 50 interviews, activists reflected a kind of cultural panic at the thought of the other side winning the presidential election this year.

So how did we get here? The answer is more about psychology than policy, experts say.

Dale De La Rey/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

4. The coronavirus outbreak that has spread to several continents has killed at least 56 and sickened about 2,000 in China and around the world. Here’s the latest.

Hong Kong announced that it was closing its schools for several weeks, further dampening celebrations of the Lunar New Year, above, which began on Saturday.

The disease has been linked to a wholesale market in Wuhan, China, where vendors legally sold live animals from stalls in close quarters with hundreds of others, creating what experts described as a perfect incubator for novel pathogens.

Government officials and scientists said the new contagion had ominous similarities to the 2003 SARS outbreak. And yet little has changed in the 17 years since: The government now faces increasing criticism and calls to do more to regulate or even ban the sale of wildlife.

Asanka Brendon Ratnayake for The New York Times

5. Of the Big Three in men’s tennis, Roger Federer is the pleaser and Rafael Nadal is the fighter. Call Novak Djokovic the searcher.

In a rare interview, the reigning Australian Open champion said he was no longer playing tennis to prove himself but rather to improve himself and the lives of those around him. He beat Diego Schwartzman in the fourth round overnight.

Next up, Daniil Medvedev plays Stan Wawrinka, and Rafael Nadal, who is closing in on his 20th Grand Slam title, faces off against the hometown favorite, Nick Kyrgios.

On the women’s court, Coco Gauff lost to a fellow American, Sofia Kenin. And Wang Qiang, who defeated Serena Williams in the third round, lost to Ons Jabeur.

Martin Schoeller

6. “It is important to distinguish between good and evil, and seek out the good. Find your faith.”

That’s Batsheva Dagan, above. Born in Lodz, Poland, in 1925, Ms. Dagan is a survivor of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp and one of a handful of survivors photographed for a project in Opinion.

World leaders and dignitaries will gather for a solemn ceremony at Auschwitz on Monday to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the camp. But amid a surge of anti-Semitism and a rise in dehumanizing political rhetoric, there is fear that the horrific lessons of the death camp are being lost.

Heather Sten for The New York Times

7. Jeanine Cummins wrote one of this year’s biggest, buzziest books. And then she became the story.

Even before “American Dirt” — her novel about a desperate Mexican mother and son who flee for the U.S. border after a drug cartel massacres their family — hit bookshelves, a growing chorus accused Ms. Cummins, who was born in Spain and grew up in Maryland, of having exploited the experience of migrants.

The controversy has grown into a perfect storm of industry hype and accusations of cultural appropriation amid an increasingly charged debate over immigration.

Matthew Baker/Getty Images

8. Will Lizzo rule the Grammys as she owned 2019?

She has eight nominations Sunday night, a performance slot and the devotion of fiercely loyal fans. What’s behind this Lizzo momentum? Our critics discuss.

The show starts at 8 p.m. We’ll have live coverage at nytimes.com.

Seven nominated artists opened their voice notes, hard drives, text messages and memories to our Diary of a Song team. Watch them all here.

But overshadowing the event are allegations of behind-the-scenes misbehavior. That should have everyone in the music business asking one question, one critic says: Can the Grammys be trusted?

Celeste Sloman for The New York Times

9. Bowen Yang is the first Chinese-American cast member on “Saturday Night Live.” He is also one of the first openly gay comedians. He is revered by his peers and, according to our columnist, entirely too sane to be on the legendary comedy show.

She talked to him about Chinese identity, the influence of Sandra Oh, gay conversion therapy and the audition that earned him a spot on “S.N.L.”

The show returned last night from its winter hiatus. Adam Driver hosted. Here’s the recap.

William Widmer for The New York Times

10. And finally, introducing The Weekender.

We’re bringing you the same roundup of great journalism but with a more immersive experience. This week we looked at how 17 portraits rattled a small Southern town, the Saudi connection to the 9/11 attacks, why the American bathroom is the stage set of the moment, and more.

For more ideas on what to read, watch and listen to, may we suggest these 12 new books our editors liked, a glance at the latest small-screen recommendations from Watching, and our music critics’ latest playlist.

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.

Have a lovely week.

Your Weekend Briefing is published Sundays at 6 a.m. Eastern.

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