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Good evening. Here’s the latest.
1. “Mr. President, are you a racist?”
That was the question shouted by a reporter after President Trump signed a proclamation honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the White House.
Mr. Trump ignored it. In an earlier tweet, he vaguely denied calling Haiti and African nations “shithole countries” during a meeting with lawmakers on immigration.
But Senator Richard Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, who was at the meeting on Thursday, insisted that the president did use the term.
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2. Leaders across the African continent condemned President Trump’s remarks. On social media, Africans shared pictures of beautiful beaches, tree-lined streets and glamorous tourist resorts captioned with the insult.
Haiti’s ambassador to Washington said it was distressing that the uproar came on the eighth anniversary of the 2010 earthquake, which killed about 220,000 people on the island. Above, a memorial.
Continue reading the main storyToday on “The Daily,” we discuss the immigration proposal that prompted the president’s comments.
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3. The Wall Street Journal reported that a lawyer for President Trump arranged a $130,000 payout to a former star of pornographic movies, Stephanie Clifford, above, who performed under the name Stormy Daniels.
The payment was made a month before the election to keep her from discussing a sexual encounter she claimed she had with Mr. Trump in 2006, The Journal reported. The White House denied the claim.
In other White House news, Mr. Trump canceled a visit to London to dedicate the new U.S. embassy. The news was welcomed by his many critics there.
And the president again stopped short of imposing sanctions on Iran that could end the nuclear deal. But he set a 120-day deadline to overhaul the agreement.
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4. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan may skip the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in South Korea as tensions flare anew over World War II-era “comfort women.”
The term refers to women forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese military. As part of a 2015 settlement, Japan apologized and vowed to provide millions in funding for survivors.
But the new South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, has pledged to review the deal. Above, in Seoul, mascots for the Games.
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5. “We can’t find Mom.” We’re learning the identities of some of the California residents killed in this week’s sudden, intense mudslides.
Montecito, northwest of Los Angeles, had been hardest hit by last month’s wildfires, leaving the land stripped and vulnerable.
The mudslides killed 17 people there, and as many as 43 people are still missing. These photos show the devastation.
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6. Mark Zuckerberg spoke to us about sweeping changes being made to Facebook’s News Feed.
“We want to make sure that our products are not just fun but are good for people,” said Mr. Zuckerberg, the company’s founder. “We need to refocus the system.”
If you’re among the network’s more than two billion users, expect to see fewer viral videos and news articles in the coming weeks, and more posts that include interactions between you and the people you know.
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7. And now, a little escapism: Come with us on a tour of one of America’s last pencil factories.
These mesmerizing photos by Christopher Payne show the inner workings of the General Pencil Company in New Jersey, which has been in the business since 1889. He visited the factory dozens of times over the past few years, documenting every phase of the manufacturing process.
The images “preserve the secret origins of objects we tend to take for granted.”
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8. Our movie critic loved the new live-action children’s film “Paddington 2.”
The film finds the beloved bear in London, where he comes across a pop-up book filled with illustrations of the city’s landmarks. He wants to send it to Peru as a birthday present for his aunt Lucy, but a dastardly villain gets in his way.
The director Paul King and his team of actors and animators “spin good writing and seamless digital effects into Rococo children’s entertainment,” our critic writes.
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9. The head of our Cooking team, Sam Sifton, has some ideas about what to cook this weekend.
In his latest newsletter, he has links to a diverse array of dishes, from hippie tofu, above, to homemade pizza.
Market Snapshot View Full Overview
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10. Finally, sometimes it seems as if we’re living under a constant barrage of heavy news.
But it isn’t all bad out there. This week’s roundup of good news includes a figure skater who loves Winnie the Pooh (that’s Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan, above), winter heroes and baby turtles.
Have a great weekend.
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