2020 Election, Coronavirus Surge, Fall Cocktails: Your Weekend Briefing

(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.)

Here are the week’s top stories, and a look ahead.

1. With nine days to go, one of the most severe surges of the coronavirus to date is shadowing the remaining days of the campaign.

President Trump and Joe Biden presented sharply divergent cases for how they would handle the crisis still ravaging the country: Mr. Trump sought to minimize it, while Mr. Biden said there was “going to be a dark winter ahead unless we change our ways.”

3. President Trump’s economic legacy won’t be about the numbers, but in how much he has shifted the conversation around the economy. Above, a farm in Lititz, Pa.

4. The Senate is on a path to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court on Monday. But not without more debate.

5. Hundreds of people stranded by President Trump’s asylum limits are languishing in squalid conditions in a tent camp on the border.

Members of this displaced community requested refuge in the U.S. but were sent back into Mexico and told to wait. Many have been living in fraying tents for more than a year, surrounded by rotten debris, human waste and uneaten food swarming with flies. It is one of several refugee camps that have sprung up on the doorstep of the U.S. for the first time in the country’s history.

When the issue of immigration came up at the final presidential debate last week, Mr. Trump was correct in saying that the Obama administration expanded the number of border facilities with chain-linked enclosures. But separating children from parents was a policy all Mr. Trump’s own.

The Times can help you navigate the election — to separate fact from fiction, make sense of the polls and be sure your ballot counts. To support our efforts, please consider subscribing today.

6. Vogue’s September issue celebrated Black culture. But some employees say Anna Wintour, the editor, fostered a workplace that sidelined women of color.

The magazine — and by default Ms. Wintour — has defined fashion for generations of women, setting a standard that has favored white, Eurocentric notions of beauty.

Black journalists who have worked with Ms. Wintour told the Times that they had not gotten over their experiences at a magazine whose workplace mirrored its exclusive pages. Some said they felt so out of place that they created white alter egos — several used the term “doppelgänger” — just to get through the workday. A 2017 photo shoot showed several Black models wearing head scarves, above.

Ms. Wintour said in a statement that while she had made mistakes along the way, she was “committed to doing the work.”

7. Against all odds, professional sports came back in 2020. Now comes the hard part: They have to do it again.

Aggressive coronavirus testing made the restart of professional sports possible, but the financial pain of empty arenas lingers and plans for next year are up in the air. Resorting to bubblelike zones seems unrealistic for an entire season.

The N.B.A. season ended on Oct. 11, just weeks before the next one would normally start; league officials have yet to say when play will begin again. Baseball, now in the midst of the World Series, set April 1 as opening day, with a very large asterisk.

The Dodgers are one win away from the championship title after defeating the Tampa Bay Rays last night.

8. Even during the Pleistocene era, it seems, human toddlers wanted to be picked up and carried at the most inopportune times.

Scientists recently studied an exceptional set of human and animal footprints dating back several thousand years in the White Sands National Park in New Mexico. Most of the human footprints were made by a young adult, the team determined. But about every 100 yards or so, a few much smaller human prints suddenly appear.

On their journey, a mammoth and a giant ground sloth crossed their path. Studying the footprints highlights how ancient sets of fossilized footprints can reveal more than even fossilized bones.

9. New twists on some classics.

Toddies and mulled wine have a long history, with mulled wine dating to Roman antiquity and the toddy to the mid-18th century. Both have stuck through to modern times, though they deserve some revamping, Rebekah Peppler writes. The drinks’ adaptable base formulas allow for experimentation.

Toddies, normally whiskey-based, are great for showcasing aged spirits like bourbon, rum, scotch, Cognac and port; swap out water for tea for an added layer of complexity. Mulled wine, another traditionally warming beverage, can also benefit from a contemporary overhaul: Consider serving it cold.

Have peaceful week.

Your Weekend Briefing is published Sundays at 6 a.m. Eastern.

Did a friend forward you the briefing? You can sign up here.

What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at [email protected].

Browse our full range of Times newsletters here.