Wednesday, Jan 29, 2020 | View in browser

Good morning.

We’re covering a new phase in the impeachment trial, President Trump’s peace plan for the Middle East, and new stars on the campaign trail: the candidates’ dogs.

By Chris Stanford

Breaking

British Airways became the first international carrier to suspend all flights to and from China because of the coronavirus outbreak

Q. and A. at the impeachment trial

After more than a week of silently listening to the case involving President Trump, senators will get a chance to participate in the proceedings today, when they’re allowed to cross-examine both sides.

Starting around 1 p.m., senators will have as many as 16 hours over two days to submit written questions that will be read aloud by Chief Justice John Roberts, who is presiding over the trial.

The session comes a day after Mr. Trump’s lawyers finished with an appeal to disregard an account by John Bolton, the former national security adviser, that undercuts the president’s defense.

What’s next: Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, indicated on Tuesday that he doesn’t yet have the votes to block an expected push to call witnesses, which would require the support of at least four Republicans. A vote is expected on Friday.

Related: Democrats who once derided Mr. Bolton now want him to testify, while some of his former Republican friends are tossing him to the curb. John Kelly, the former White House chief of staff, didn’t always get along with Mr. Bolton but said this week, “If John Bolton says that in the book, I believe John Bolton.”

The Daily: Today’s episode is about how the trial is seen by the minority leader, Senator Chuck Schumer.

In Macau, a special administrative region of China, on Tuesday. The Chinese government has recommended that people across the country wear masks to halt the spread of a coronavirus. Anthony Kwan/Getty Images

Evacuees from Wuhan arrive in U.S.

A plane carrying more than 200 Americans from the Chinese city that is the epicenter of a coronavirus outbreak landed in Alaska on Tuesday. The passengers, including diplomats and businesspeople, were to undergo medical screening before continuing on to their final destination in California. Here are the latest updates.

Chinese officials said today that at least 132 people had died from the virus and raised the number of confirmed cases to nearly 6,000.

Governments and businesses around the world issued fresh travel warnings on Tuesday, and Americans are now discouraged from visiting China. U.S. officials said the screening of travelers from Wuhan would be expanded to 20 ports of entry.

The details: Cases in Germany, Japan, Taiwan and Vietnam involved patients who had not traveled to China. No deaths have been reported outside China. Here’s what we know about the virus.

For perspective: The flu kills roughly 35,000 Americans every year. This season, it has already sickened an estimated 15 million Americans and killed 8,200, according to C.D.C. estimates.

Another angle: Bats are considered the probable source of the outbreak. Scientists have long struggled to understand how the mammals carry so many viruses without getting sick.

President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel at the White House on Tuesday. Doug Mills/The New York Times

Middle East peace plan favors Israel

President Trump on Tuesday introduced proposals that would give Israel most of what it has sought over decades of conflict and offer Palestinians the possibility of a state with limited sovereignty.

“My vision presents a win-win opportunity for both sides,” Mr. Trump said at a White House ceremony with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. Nobody from the Palestinian leadership attended.

The details: The plan, three years in the making, would let Israel control a unified Jerusalem as its capital and not require it to uproot West Bank settlements. Mr. Trump promised $50 billion in international investment for the new Palestinian entity.

Response: The Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, played no substantive role in shaping the plan and immediately denounced it as a “conspiracy deal.” None of Washington’s Arab allies formally endorsed it.

News analysis: For a president facing an impeachment trial and an Israeli prime minister under criminal indictment, the plan “sounded more like a road map for their own futures than for the Middle East,” our national security correspondent writes.

What’s next: Mr. Netanyahu said he would move on Sunday to apply sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and to all Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Most of the world considers those settlements illegal.

If you have 6 minutes, this is worth it

Japan’s skateboarders roll out of the shadows

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

Japan has an Olympic skateboarding team that’s likely to to dominate the competition when it makes its Summer Games debut in Tokyo. But on Japan’s streets, the sport is considered a pastime of unruly children.

Olympic success could give its Japanese adherents an acceptance they’ve never had — and maybe never wanted.

Here’s what else is happening

Revised toll in Iran strike: The Pentagon said 50 U.S. service members sustained brain injuries from airstrikes on a base in Iraq this month, 16 more than it had previously acknowledged.

A final photo of Kobe Bryant: A selfie taken by a 13-year-old at his basketball academy on Saturday is perhaps the last picture of the N.B.A. star before he died.

Elizabeth Frantz for The New York Times

Snapshot: Above, Elizabeth Warren’s golden retriever, Bailey, at a campaign office in Cambridge, Mass. Some 2020 presidential candidates have turned their dogs into social media stars.

Perspective: In an opinion piece for The Times, the NPR journalist Mary Louise Kelly says that being called a liar by Mike Pompeo is not what bothered her most about her recent interview with the secretary of state.

Late-night comedy: Ms. Kelly has said that Mr. Pompeo swore at her and challenged her to find Ukraine on a map. Stephen Colbert wondered, “Why does Mike Pompeo just have unmarked maps at the ready? Is he the secretary of state or an eighth-grade social studies teacher?”

What we’re looking at: These photos in The Atlantic of locust swarms in East Africa. “For those keeping track of the plagues hitting the planet,” writes Andrea Kannapell, the Briefings editor.

Now, a break from the news

Michael Graydon & Nikole Herriott for The New York Times. Prop Stylist: Kalen Kaminski.

Cook: Farro with crispy mushrooms is similar to a risotto, without the constant stirring.

Watch: Nicolas Cage and Joely Richardson confront an evil shade of lilac in the sci-fi horror film “Color Out of Space,” directed by Richard Stanley.

Eat: Our restaurant critic, Pete Wells, visits Anton’s, which serves chopped liver, Ukrainian ham and other immigrant foods that helped form New York’s palate.

Smarter Living: Breaking up with a therapist can be nerve-racking. But doing it with these tips in mind can make it an opportunity for growth.

And now for the Back Story on …

Our man in Wuhan

Chris Buckley, our chief China correspondent, is reporting this week from the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak. Mike Ives, on the Briefings team, spoke with him by phone.

What is it like with these restrictions in place?

It may be difficult to envisage just how thoroughly people have retreated from the streets and from public life. I had to cross one of the big bridges across the Yangtze for my reporting. And there I was, on one of these Chinese share bikes that are everywhere, on an almost completely empty bridge, spanning one of China’s biggest cities, crossing its biggest river. And there were just two other people on the bridge.

A lot of people wonder how long the shutdown can last. Even now, people are worrying about the jobs they may lose, the businesses that will close, the school that they might miss.

You’ve reported that the anger on Chinese social media is intense.

Yes, and you hear that here as well. People erupt with a kind of anger and exasperation over how it was that this dangerous pathogen was among them but they didn’t understand, in many cases, how serious it was or what was going on until the city was shut down.

But that’s leavened by a sense among many people that the most pressing thing is to get through this crisis — so that as few people die as possible and life can return to a kind of normality as soon as possible.

At a hospital in Wuhan, China, on Tuesday. Chris Buckley/The New York Times

What else are you seeing there?

You see a combination of reactions when you approach people to talk. First of all, there’s a natural wariness about getting close to anybody. But once you reassure them — you’re outside, at a distance of a good 10 feet — they can be very open and also very generous.

How does that compare to the response you normally get?

The reaction you get as a foreign reporter varies quite a bit across China. But I think these circumstances, where people feel that they — and, in a sense, we — are all in this together, and that you’re there somehow experiencing this as well, make it easier to create that connection.

That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.

— Chris

Thank you
Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford provided the break from the news. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Today’s episode includes an interview with Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader.
• Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: It leaves in the spring (four letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• Jason Polan, a New York sketch artist, produced hundreds of illustrations for the print edition of The Times. He died on Monday at 37.