Welcome to the Weekend Briefing. We’re covering the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump, the housing crisis in the U.S. and a preview of the Super Bowl. |
 | | Pete Marovich for The New York Times |
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1. Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial begins. |
House impeachment managers are preparing to prosecute the former president on the charge of “incitement of an insurrection” for inflaming the mob that attacked the Capitol last month. Opening arguments begin Tuesday. |
Mr. Trump’s lawyers have denied that he incited the assault on the Capitol and will argue that the Senate has no power to try a former president. Mr. Trump’s words to supporters, they say, are protected by his First Amendment right to free speech. (More than 100 leading constitutional lawyers called that claim “legally frivolous.”) |
 | | Guillermo Arias/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
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2. Thousands of migrants are arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. |
Many are hoping to benefit from President Biden’s pledge for a more compassionate immigration policy — and indeed, Border Patrol agents have already released hundreds of migrant families into the country. Above, a protest in Tijuana the day before Mr. Biden’s inauguration last month. |
Migrants still hoping to enter from the Mexican side during the pandemic could create a backlash for Mr. Biden. They are trying to enter not just by land: Record numbers are risking everything on the open ocean. |
 | | Sarahbeth Maney for The New York Times |
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3. There was a U.S. housing crisis long before the pandemic. Now it’s worse. |
A study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia showed that tenants who lost jobs during the Covid-19 crisis had amassed $11 billion in rental arrears; a broader measure estimated that as of January, renters owed $53 billion in missed rent, utility payments and late fees. |
President Biden said the rental assistance in his $1.9 trillion relief plan was essential to keeping people from “being thrown out in the street.” But the aid might miss the most desperate, like Angelica Gabriel and Felix Cesario, above, who are improvising by moving into even more crowded homes, pairing up with friends and family, or taking in subtenants. |
 | | The New York Times |
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4. Cautious optimism: The worst of the current wave of coronavirus infections seems to be behind us. |
At the same time, the number of coronavirus tests administered daily in the U.S. has been trending downward for more than two weeks, raising the possibility that testing has reached a ceiling or that the ramping up of vaccine distribution is fostering complacency. |
 | | John Lamparski/Getty Images |
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5. Litigation represents a new front in the war against misinformation. |
The use of defamation suits has also raised questions about how to police a news media that counts on First Amendment protections. But one liberal lawyer said, “It’s gotten to the point where the problem is so bad right now there’s virtually no other way to do it.” |
 | | The New York Times |
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6. The new reality in Myanmar includes arrests, beatings by mysterious thugs and communications blackouts. But civil disobedience defiantly persists. |
On Saturday, thousands of people in hard hats and face masks marched in Yangon, the largest rallies since the coup on Monday that ousted the civilian leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. But the world could not watch. Live social-media feeds of the protests were abruptly shut off. |
Subtler forms of protests have appeared: Balloons showed support for Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, and cities have resounded with the clanging of pots and pans, a traditional send-off for the devil. |
 | | Jamie Squire/Getty Images, Rob Carr/Getty Images |
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7. The biggest event in American sports comes down to a battle of the ages. |
 | | Filippa Trozelli |
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8. “Bridgerton” is just the cherry on top for fans of period clothing. |
“You can’t really understand history until you’ve worn it,” said Filippa Trozelli, an antique jewelry appraiser in Stockholm who is pictured above in hot pink. “You get a whole different understanding.” |
 | | Frédéric Soltan/Corbis, via Getty Images |
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9. Ten thousand years ago or more, people started painting the walls of these caves near Bhopal, India, above. |
In March, visiting scientists spotted something else: what looks an awful lot like an imprint of a 550-million-year-old fossil from the first bloom of complex life on Earth. |
Even if it’s just another example of cave art, that, too, could prove to be remarkable — a trace from the dawn of life nearly overwritten by the dawn of human creativity. |
Going further back in time: Scientists are now able to recreate precisely the journeys of Earth’s tectonic plates over the last billion years of its history, modeling the migration of continents. |
 | | Karsten Moran for The New York Times |
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10. And finally, make time for some great reads. |
The charming marriage of the actor and singer Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody. How humans have made the ocean a noisy place for marine life. The downside to life in a supertall tower. These and more await you in The Weekender. |
The East Coast has another snowstorm heading its way today. Wherever you are, have a temperate week. |
Your Weekend Briefing is published Sundays at 6:30 a.m. Eastern. |
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