Here’s what you need to know about the week’s top stories.
Here are the week’s top stories, and a look ahead.
1. Virginia’s lieutenant governor, Justin E. Fairfax, above, has refused to resign in the face of sexual assault allegations, giving Democrats an excruciating choice: whether to impeach a black leader at a moment when the state’s two other top leaders, both white, are also resisting calls to quit after admitting to racist behavior.
A second woman said on Friday that Mr. Fairfax had sexually assaulted her, echoing an accusation made earlier in the week. Both accusations came within a few days of Gov. Ralph Northam and Attorney General Mark R. Herring acknowledging that they wore blackface as young men. How Virginia Democrats handle these three state officials — who swept into office in 2017 on the first wave of backlash after President Trump’s election — will reverberate beyond the state’s borders.
We examine how Virginia’s history of race and politics is now under intense scrutiny and give a day-by-day breakdown of the scandals.
Have you been keeping up with the headlines? Test your knowledge with our news quiz. And here’s the front page of our Sunday paper, the Sunday Review from Opinion and our crossword puzzles.
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2. President Trump delivered a message of unity on Tuesday night during his second State of the Union address — but continued to push the hard-line immigration policies that have divided the capital and the nation. We checked the facts on some of Mr. Trump’s remarks.
From Nancy Pelosi of California presiding as House speaker to the island of white created by the women on one side of the chamber, the Democrats’ resurgence was on full display at the State of the Union, our chief Washington correspondent writes.
And with the looming Feb. 15 deadline to prevent another government shutdown, Mr. Trump is moving toward accepting a border security deal that would fall short of his demand for $5.7 billion in funds for a wall along the southwestern border.
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3. Pope Francis acknowledged that priests and bishops in the Roman Catholic Church have sexually abused nuns, the first time he has publicly addressed the issue. Above, a nun outside Vatican City in August.
A recent article in a Vatican magazine mentioned nuns having abortions or giving birth to the children of priests. “It’s true,” the pope replied when he was asked to comment on Tuesday. “There are priests and bishops who have done that.”
Advocates of abused nuns were relieved that Francis had finally put the issue on the church’s radar. But they also noted that this problem has existed for years, and that the pope did not seem to suggest there would be a speedy solution.
