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By JOUMANA KHATIB AND ASHLEY CALLOWAY-BLATCH
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Good morning, and welcome to the last weekend
of 2018. Here are the week’s top stories, and a look ahead.
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Guillermo
Arias/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Al
Drago for The New York Times
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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.
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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.”
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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.”
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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.
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Janie
Osborne for The New York Times
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Hiroko
Masuike/The New York Times
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Clockwise
from top left: SSPL/Getty Images; Hulton Archive/Getty Images; Agence
France-Presse — Getty Images; Penguin; Fred Stein Archive, via Getty
Images
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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.
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In other words: Make way for the fan fiction.
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Some publishers are worried about the change, and stand
to lose money. But for readers, experts say, the additions will be a
huge boon.
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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.
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Tyler
Hicks/The New York Times
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6. There was a shake-up in Saudi Arabia’s government:
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Benjamin
Rasmussen for The New York Times
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7. The end of the year is always a great time
for reflection.
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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.
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Seth
Wenig/Associated Press
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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.
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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.
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Artwork
by Deborah Roberts
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9. Finally, no matter how you’re ringing in the
new year, don’t miss our best Weekend Reads.
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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.
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Have a wonderful end of the year, and best wishes for
2019.
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Your Weekend Briefing is published Sundays at
6 a.m. Eastern.
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