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 Midwest is about to experience weather whiplash as parts of the region could see temperatures rise by 70 degrees within a few days.
The bitter cold lifted in the region after days of dangerously low temperatures left at least 22 dead and cities at a standstill. Detroit, above, hovered near zero degrees. But the thaw is setting in. The Chicago area may see a jarring 73-degree jump, from minus 21 on Thursday to possibly 52 on Monday.
The temperature swing will bring some relief and give cities and towns a chance to assess the damage. But it also brings a new set of worries: potholes, clogs, flooding and ice jams.
_____
2. President Trump wanted to talk.
He initially invited A. G. Sulzberger, the publisher of The Times, to an off-the record dinner. Mr. Sulzberger declined, and instead requested an on-the-record interview including Times reporters.
What followed was an 85-minute interview on a range of topics, in which the president said he was moving forward with a wall along the southwestern border, brushed off investigations that have ensnared his administration, and sized up the 2020 competition. Here are takeaways from the exchange.
During the interview in the Oval Office, above, Mr. Sulzberger questioned Mr. Trump about his attacks on the press. The president called himself “a victim” of unfair coverage.
_____
3. The U. S. suspended one of the last Cold War nuclear arms control treaties with Russia, setting the stage for a possible new arms race.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the suspension of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, after years of insistence that Moscow violated the Reagan-era agreement, declaring that “countries must be held accountable when they break the rules.”
But the Trump administration’s real aim is China: Constrained by the treaty’s provisions, the United States has been prevented from deploying new weapons to counter China’s efforts in the Western Pacific.
_____
4. Representatives Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, the House’s first two Muslim women, have been celebrated as symbols of diversity. But on Israel, they have exposed a divide within the Democratic Party.
The debate pits the stalwart supporters of Israel against a wing of young liberals like Ms. Tlaib, above, and Ms.
