Here’s what you need to know at the end of the day.
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Good evening. Here’s the latest.
1. Top leaders of intelligence agencies made their annual appearance before the Senate to discuss the biggest threats to national security.
Cyberthreats from China and Russia were high on the agenda. Among other observations: North Korea is “unlikely to give up” all of its nuclear stockpiles and Iran is not actively trying to make a nuclear bomb — both direct contradictions of President Trump’s foreign policy tenets. Above from left, the F. B. I. director, Christopher Wray; the C. I. A. director, Gina Haspel; and the director of national intelligence, Dan Coats.
Also notable was the absence of any rationale for building a wall along the southwestern border, which Mr. Trump has characterized as the country’s most critical security threat.
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2. It’s so cold that…
This is not the setup to a bad joke. Temperatures are growing dangerously low across the Midwest this week. You could get frostbite in as little as five minutes; it will be warmer in Antarctica than in Des Moines; it could feel like minus 65 in Minneapolis.
Hundreds of schools are being closed, and the governors of Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin have declared emergencies. Above, Lake Michigan freezing over in Chicago.
How can it get so cold if the Earth is warming? Because climate and weather are not the same thing .
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3. British lawmakers, voting on a broad spectrum of amendments to Prime Minister Theresa May’s E. U. withdrawal plan, embraced a measure that, in principle, rules out withdrawing without a deal .
Parliament also rejected delaying Brexit beyond the March 29 deadline. Above, protesters on both sides of the issue outside Parliament on Tuesday.
Before the voting session, Mrs. May raised the stakes by promising to reopen negotiations on the agreement — a 585-page text that the E. U. has said was its final offer. Critics think she is trying to run down the clock to present them with two options: her plan or no deal.
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4. The U. S. State Department said it gave Juan Guaidó, above, the right to control Venezuelan assets and property in U. S. banks, one week after he declared himself the interim president of his country.
