Here’s what you need to know at the end of the day.
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Good evening. Here’s the latest.
1. Get ready for the deep freeze.
The bomb cyclone is gone, but it left a mess of snow in its wake along the East Coast. The authorities said at least seven fatalities appeared to be connected to the weather. Above, a scene in Boston.
And now it’s going to get very, very cold. Arctic air will create wind chills well below zero in many places. Among the most extreme: atop Mt. Washington in New Hampshire, which could feel like 100 degrees below zero.
Hundreds of flights scheduled for Friday were canceled, in addition to the thousands earlier in the week, and an electric company in Virginia scrambled to restore power to 40,000 people. Here’s the latest.
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2. President Trump headed to Camp David to meet with congressional Republicans on the budget and immigration.
Back in Washington, two members of the Senate Judiciary Committee urged the Justice Department to investigate the former British spy behind the explosive dossier about Mr. Trump’s ties to Russia that became public a year ago.
Our reporters have uncovered new information about Mr. Trump’s effort to hinder the special counsel’s investigation on Russia. Some analysts believe the president’s efforts could be seen as obstruction of justice. And the F. B. I. is once again investigating the Clinton Foundation .
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3. “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” the bombshell book by Michael Wolff, went on sale this morning after the publisher moved up the release date. We profiled Mr. Wolff, who is known as “ a prime piranha in the Manhattan media pond.”
Stephen Bannon is being abandoned by his backers — including the hedge fund magnate Robert Mercer — over his cutting remarks about the Trump family in the book.
Trevor Noah of the “The Daily Show” found a silver lining for Mr. Trump in Mr. Wolff’s narrative: “I will say this: If you believe that he didn’t want to win, then it’s hard to believe that he colluded with the Russians, right?”
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4. Here’s what you need to know about the revelations of major security flaws in the chips that run most of the world’s computers.
The flaws, called Meltdown and Spectre, could allow hackers to lift passwords, photos, documents and other data from smartphones, PCs and cloud computing services.
Yep, it’s terrifying, and it affects Apple products, too. Experts say there’s no way to replace all the chips out there, and the best defense is to keep your software updated.
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5. Our Tokyo bureau chief went to the Japanese primeval forest that was in the news this week because a YouTube star, Logan Paul, posted a video of a body hanging from a tree there.
Aokigahara Forest has a grim reputation as one of Japan’s top suicide destinations, but locals are trying to save lives there. Signs for hotline numbers line the footpaths, and residents patrol the forest, talking to people who appear at risk.
Officials believe such measures have helped reduce the number of suicides to about 30 a year, down from 100 a decade ago. But they worry that the fresh publicity could attract more of the hopeless.
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6. The latest jobs report showed the U. S. added 148,000 new jobs in December, making it the 87th consecutive month of job growth. And the unemployment rate was unchanged from November, at 4.1 percent.
Some of the most impressive gains were in blue-collar industries that pay a decent salary, while wages increased the most for people in lower-paying industries. Above, construction workers in Cincinnati.
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7. Seth Meyers, who will host the Golden Globe Awards for the first time on Sunday, has a tough task: celebrating the television industry while referencing its sexual harassment crisis.
The women attending the awards have been asked to wear black in solidarity with the #MeToo movement. Jodi Kantor, one of our reporters who broke the Harvey Weinstein story, asks if the red carpet will ever be the same. Above, a red-carpet scene at the Oscars.
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8. We talked to the actor Daniel Kaluuya, who is up for a Golden Globe for his starring role in “Get Out!”
The 28-year-old grew up in a council estate, the British equivalent of a housing project, in north London. He discussed the impact that improv classes had on him when he was growing up.
“Being young, working class and black, everything you do is policed,” he said. “If someone hits you and you hit back, you are aggressive. If you cry, you are weak. You are kind of always pretending to be something. But in those improv classes, there was no pressure to be anything except honest, and that made me happy.”
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9. Meet Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan, the reigning men’s Olympic figure skating champion and perhaps the greatest skater of any era. Our sportswriter says he’s Michael Jackson on ice, with obsessive fans to boot. Many carry Winnie the Pooh trinkets, in honor of the mascot he keeps rinkside.
“People see Hanyu for the first time and they become hysterical or they’re moved to tears,” one blogger explained. “It’s like their lives are complete.”
Hanyu is recovering from an ankle injury, and it’s not clear whether he’ll be able to compete at the Winter Olympics next month. If he does, he could become the first repeat men’s champion since Dick Button of the U. S. in 1948 and 1952.
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10. Finally, in much of the country, it’s a perfect weekend to stay at home.
Our Cooking crew has some suggestions for how to pass the time: here’s their list of 2017’s most popular soups and stews, and a less nutritious but more fun recipe for cinnamon rolls .
And from Smarter Living, here are five more things that will help you stay toasty while it’s cold outside.
Have a great weekend.
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