Your Friday Evening Briefing

January 10, 2020

Your Friday Evening Briefing

By remy tumin and marcus payadue

Good evening. Here’s the latest.

Mandel Ngan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

1. The stalemate over President Trump’s impeachment trial may be over.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi alerted lawmakers that she would move next week to send two articles of impeachment to the Senate, ending a weekslong impasse over the impeachment process that had left the president’s fate in limbo. Above, protesters earlier this week in Washington.

Once sent, the articles of impeachment will prompt a historic trial over charges that the president abused his office and obstructed Congress. That could happen as soon as Wednesday, based on Ms. Pelosi’s timeline.

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Erin Schaff/The New York Times

2. The U.S. unsuccessfully targeted a senior Iranian official in Yemen on the same day a drone strike killed Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani.

The failed airstrike was aimed at Abdul Reza Shahlai, an official with Iran’s Quds force and a key financier for Iran’s proxy wars. The disclosure of the second mission indicated that the Trump administration was targeting a larger set of Iranian leaders than previously known.

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And at a news conference, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, above left, confirmed that the Ukrainian flight that crashed in Iran had “likely” been shot down. Ukraine said it had narrowed it down to either a missile strike or a terrorist act. Iran continued to deny any allegations.

During the same news conference, Mr. Pompeo said he would not discuss the Iraqi prime minister’s request that the U.S. withdraw troops from his country.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

3. The U.S. added 145,000 jobs in December, capping a year of steady gains and showing that the labor market has not yet run out of breath.

There were weak spots, though. The monthly jobs report showed that the struggling manufacturing sector lost 12,000 positions in December, and that it’s still hard to get a meaningful raise despite low unemployment. Our senior economics correspondent explains the complex story.

Brittany Greeson for The New York Times

4. U.S. election defenses have improved since 2016. But as the 2020 primaries near, Russian hackers are growing more sophisticated than ever.

Hackers and trolls are working far harder to cover their tracks. They are, as one American intelligence official put it, “refreshing” their operations. At the same time, many of the vulnerabilities exploited by Moscow in 2016 remain, with new threats from other American rivals, such as Iran, increasing.

With the first primaries just weeks away, Bernie Sanders leads Democrats in a new Iowa poll. Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden are close behind.

One person who won’t be caucusing there is Marianne Williamson: The self-help author and spiritual adviser dropped out of the race.

Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times

5. Dennis Muilenberg, who ran Boeing during two deadly crashes, will leave the company with $62.2 million in stock and pension awards.

Mr. Muilenburg will not receive any additional severance or separation payments in connection with his departure, and Boeing said he had forfeited stock units worth some $14.6 million.

Boeing’s new chief, David Calhoun, will receive a $7 million bonus if he is able to get the 737 Max safely flying again.

The company’s announcement comes a day after hundreds of pages of internal documents showed how Boeing employees mocked the Federal Aviation Administration and bragged about getting it to approve the 737 Max with little new training for pilots.

Michael Reynolds/EPA, via Shutterstock

6. It’s going to be a wacky weather weekend across much of the U.S.

A vast storm threatened to unleash everything from treacherous thunderstorms in the Southeast to icy danger in the Midwest. About 40 million people were at risk of severe thunderstorms or tornadoes.

And the East Coast is expected to have unusually warm weather this weekend. In Boston, the high temperature could hit the 60s on Sunday.

“Geographically speaking, I’d say about half of the lower 48 states are under some sort of weather alert,” one meteorologist said.

Daniel Leal-Olivas/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

7. Buckingham Palace convened an emergency meeting to address the deepening rupture in the British royal family.

The goal, according to people with ties to the palace, was to find a quick accommodation with Prince Harry and Meghan, who have become dangerously isolated in the House of Windsor after announcing their plan to become part-time royals.

The meeting could have broader implications. The decision by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex may have shocked the family, but it also forced the palace to confront the changing nature — and future — of British royal life, our London bureau chief writes.

Not everyone was shocked: Many of Britain’s minority residents said they felt a burst of relief on the couple’s behalf.

Alex Welsh for The New York Times

8. And now for a glimpse of our connected tech future, courtesy of CES.

The hottest trends on display at the electronics trade show included artificially intelligent virtual assistants, connected cars and foldable screens. Amazon and Google were among the biggest players at CES, each boasting about how awesome their personal assistants were (like an Alexa-enabled truck, above). Here’s what else was trending.

The conference attracted more than 170,000 attendees this week and sprawled over 2.9 million square feet in multiple Las Vegas venues.

Gail Burton/Associated Press

9. The bar is high for the N.F.L. playoffs this weekend.

Lamar Jackson is back for the Ravens, the 49ers are healthy, the Chiefs have built a surprising defense, and the Packers are more than Aaron Rodgers. Here are our picks for the divisional round.

And is there such a thing as a “road team advantage?” Not quite — but home field advantage, once an airtight principle in sports, sure isn’t what it used to be.

Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

10. And finally, last call at New York City’s oldest bar.

Neir’s Tavern in Queens claims its limited fame from its age: It opened in the Woodhaven neighborhood in 1829, which its owner has long contended makes it the oldest bar in the city to continuously operate in the same location.

Locals say that Mae West got her start there, and the bar was immortalized in films like “Tower Heist” and “Goodfellas.” But after 190 years, the tavern will close on Sunday, unable to afford rising rent and maintenance needs.

“This area doesn’t have the money to build their own community center,” said its owner, Loy Gordon, above left, “but they had Neir’s Tavern.”

Cheers to traditions, and the weekend.

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