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Senate, Supreme Court, Menendez: Your Friday Evening Briefing

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Here’s what you need to know at the end of the day.
(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up .)
Good evening. Here’s the latest.
1. The scramble continues on Capitol Hill to strike a deal on a spending bill — and avoid a government shutdown at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.
Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, said he “made some progress” with President Trump in a closed-door meeting at the White House. The Democrats are demanding that the legislation include protections for young undocumented immigrants. Here’s a breakdown of the standoff in Congress.
Mr. Trump also did a live broadcast, above, to the anti-abortion March for Life, which took place on the National Mall.
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2. The Supreme Court will hear a challenge to President Trump’s latest travel ban.
Challengers of the ban, issued as a presidential proclamation in September, said it was tainted by religious animus and not adequately justified by national security concerns. Above, Yemeni-Americans protested against it last month.
The high court’s decision to hear the case comes almost a year after Mr. Trump signed the first iteration of the ban. A new report concluded that the Department of Homeland Security wasn’t prepared to enforce it — and was largely unaware of its reach.
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3. The White House has a plan to overhaul the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Namely, it would nix the parts about tobacco and alcohol, which date back to Prohibition and aren’t really part of the agency’s mandate these days.
One possibility for its new name: the Bureau of Arson, Explosives and Firearms, or A. E. F.
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4. The mayor of Baltimore abruptly fired the city’s police commissioner after a record number of murders last year.
Mayor Catherine Pugh said that Darryl De Sousa, a 30-year veteran of the department, would replace Kevin Davis, above, who became commissioner in 2015.
There were 343 murders in Baltimore last year. By comparison, New York, which has more than 10 times the number of people, had 286.
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5. Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, a Democrat, will face a new trial on federal corruption charges. The first one ended in mistrial last year.
Mr. Menendez is up for re-election in 2018, and while he has not officially announced that is running, he has given no indication that he intends to retire. He locked up every key endorsement in the state after the first trial.
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6. The Olympic gymnasts Jordyn Wieber and Aly Raisman were among dozens of women who spoke out in a Michigan court this week about sexual abuse by the former U. S. gymnastics team doctor, Larry Nassar.
Dr. Nassar pleaded guilty to molestation charges in November. The women spoke as part of the sentencing proceedings, and he was in the courtroom to hear it.
“Larry, you do realize now that we, this group of women you so heartlessly abused over such a long period of time, are now a force and you are nothing,” Ms. Raisman said.
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7. From 1936 to 1966, a travel guide helped African-American travelers navigate the U. S. Originally called “The Negro Motorist Green Book,” it listed businesses that welcomed African-Americans when many did not.
And now, the artist Derrick Adams is using it as inspiration for “Sanctuary,” an immersive installation of works at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York.
“I’ve thought a lot about the freedom people must have felt from the Green Books, not worrying about where to stop and what’s going to be on the other side, pre-Yelp,” he said.
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8. Our movie critic gave an enthusiastic thumbs-up to “Tall: The American Skyscraper and Louis Sullivan,” which tells the story of the Chicago architect who pioneered the form.
Also in theaters this weekend: “Den of Thieves,” a “thoroughly ludicrous” crime thriller set in Los Angeles and starring Gerard Butler, above.
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9. Our Cooking editor, Sam Sifton, says that with snow on the ground, stew’s on the menu.
That might mean a big pot of galbijjim, above, a Korean short-rib stew adapted from a recipe by the Los Angeles chef Roy Choi.
Here are Mr. Sifton’s other ideas for what to cook this weekend . (Don’t worry, dessert is included.)
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10. Finally, the daily barrage of hard news can be heavy. But it isn’t all bad out there. Here are seven great things we covered this week, from promising medical advances to an app that identifies your art doppelgänger.
Have a great weekend.
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Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern.
And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing, posted weekdays at 6 a.m. Eastern, and Your Weekend Briefing, posted at 6 a.m. Sundays.
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