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Good morning,

We start today with a possible constitutional clash over President Trump’s border wall and Amazon’s decision to scrap its plans for a campus in New York. The U.S. also has a new attorney general.

President Trump plans to bypass Congress

The president is preparing to declare a national emergency that would let him divert funds to build a wall on the southwestern border, White House officials said, after he agreed to sign a bipartisan spending measure that doesn’t include funding for the wall. He is scheduled to speak from the Rose Garden at 10 a.m. Eastern today.

Mr. Trump’s plan would then be to combine money from other programs with funds included in the spending package that Congress passed on Thursday and that would avert another government shutdown.

The impact: Legal experts said the decision to circumvent Congress would violate constitutional norms and set a precedent of presidents acting unilaterally to achieve their policy goals.

What’s next: Lawmakers could override the emergency declaration, but they most likely wouldn’t have the votes to overcome a presidential veto. They could also challenge the decision in court.

The Daily: Today’s episode is about the dispute.

Amazon’s retreat forces a reckoning in New York

The company’s announcement on Thursday that it was scrapping plans for headquarters in Queens exposed deep disagreements within the Democratic Party in New York and beyond. It also highlighted how cities try to lure wealthy companies with lavish incentives financed by taxpayers.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio had promoted the deal, which Amazon said would create 25,000 jobs. But activists and other elected officials, including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, said the company didn’t deserve nearly $3 billion in tax breaks. Read more about the political fallout.

The background: Polls showed that New Yorkers largely supported the plan, but Amazon learned that “happy customers don’t necessarily translate to political power,” our technology columnist writes.

Europe’s shrinking middle class

Since the recession of the late 2000s, the middle class has shrunk in more than two-thirds of the countries in the European Union. It’s a decline similar to one in the U.S., and while middle-class households are more prevalent in Europe, they face new levels of vulnerability.

Our correspondent reports on the trend from Spain, which made great progress after the financial crisis but where economic uncertainty persists.

Another angle: Germany’s economy barely avoided sliding into a recession in the final quarter of last year, data released on Thursday showed. One reason is the global trade conflict.

Blaming politics, Trump Organization scraps hotel plans

The Trump family business, which faces scrutiny from federal prosecutors and congressional investigators, is shelving plans for two hotel lines.

Eric Trump, who runs the business with his brother Donald Trump Jr., said in a statement on Thursday: “We live in a climate where everything will be used against us, whether by the fake news or by Democrats who are only interested in presidential harassment and wasting everyone’s time, barraging us with nonsense letters.”

The details: An ethics code that President Trump was encouraged to adopt has prevented the company from doing new business abroad while he’s in office. In the U.S., the firm has called off plans for a new hotel in the Mississippi Delta.

If you have 6 minutes, this is worth it

Australia’s first tech billionaires

First they confused Silicon Valley. Then they confused Australia. In a country where great wealth often comes from mining or banking, Scott Farquhar and Mike Cannon-Brookes of the software company Atlassian are a new kind of mogul.

Now, as Australian politics shift to the right, they are beginning to make noise.

Here’s what else is happening

New attorney general: William Barr was sworn in on Thursday after being confirmed for a second stint as the leader of the Justice Department. Mr. Barr, who is known for his broad view of presidential power, is now in charge of the department’s investigation into links between Russia and the Trump campaign.

Turmoil in Spain: Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has called a snap general election for April, as the territorial conflict over Catalonia continues to weigh on the country’s politics.

Deadly attack in Kashmir: A suicide bombing that hit a convoy of Indian paramilitary forces has killed at least 40 soldiers, raising tensions between India and Pakistan, which control different parts of the disputed region.

Jussie Smollett case: The Chicago police have interviewed two men in connection with a reported attack last month on Mr. Smollet, a star of the TV show “Empire.” The police said one of the men had appeared on the show.

Snapshot: Above, a memorial to the 17 victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Thursday, the first anniversary of one of the country’s deadliest school shootings.

News quiz: Did you follow the headlines this week? Test yourself.

Late-night comedy: James Corden didn’t seem worried that the president might bypass Congress and declare a national emergency: “I mean, at this point in Trump’s term, what’s one more constitutional crisis? Like, we can deal with this.”

What we’re reading: This article from The Atlantic’s archives. Lynda Richardson, an editor in Travel, writes: “Why is it that a big toothy smile is a dead giveaway that someone is American? I found this theory — drawing a direct line to immigration and the country’s diversity — fascinating.”

Now, a break from the news

Cook: For a light meal, serve simmered kabocha squash over rice with a fried egg.

See: There is a lulling, mesmerizing grandeur to a new production of the 1980 opera “Improvement (Don Leaves Linda).” It’s a Critic’s Pick.

Watch: The writer and director Dan Gilroy narrates a sequence from his movie “Velvet Buzzsaw,” a cutting satire of the contemporary art world.

Read: Considering a trip to one of our “52 Places to Go in 2019”? We’ve collected books to help you explore each spot. We also recommend nine new books.

Smarter Living: That bouquet of roses might have a higher environmental price tag than you think. What’s a romantic to do? Look for responsibly grown blooms from farms with low environmental impact and fair wages. Your local florists should be able to tell you where their flowers are from.

We also have tips on how to be a green traveler.

And now for the Back Story on …

Telling the temperature, Part II

Our Back Story on Wednesday on the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales included a fact surprising to us: The temperature scale devised by Anders Celsius in the early 18th century set the boiling point at zero degrees and the freezing point at 100, the opposite of current use.

It was also a surprise to some readers, who wrote in to ask whether we had our facts straight.

Fortunately, we did. Celsius, from Sweden, wanted to be able to measure frigid temperatures without using negative numbers, because the minus sign could be overlooked, resulting in errors.

Many attribute the reversal to Carl Linnaeus, known as the father of taxonomy. Also a Swede, he ordered a thermometer in the 1740s using Celsius gradations, but with calibration shifted to move in the same direction as Fahrenheit’s.

Know of any other facts that are so counter to conventional understanding that they sound wrong? Email us, with “Odd fact” in the subject line.

That’s it for this briefing.

A programming note: The Morning Briefing will be off on Monday for Presidents’ Day. We’ll return on Tuesday.

— Chris

Thank you
To the usual suspects, including Andrea Kannapell, who wrote today’s Back Story. We also want to especially thank Anne-Sophie Bolon, a longtime editor of this briefing who’s leaving The Times. You don't see her name very often, but you see her work every day, and we're going to miss her very much. You can reach the team at [email protected].

P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Today’s episode is about President Trump’s plan to declare a national emergency.
• Here’s today’s mini crossword puzzle, and a clue: Things checked at nice restaurants (5 letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• The Times building in New York City was completed in 2007 and has an outer layer of ceramic rods that the architect, Renzo Piano, designed for energy efficiency. A few feet of the rods were removed after three people in five weeks used them to climb the building.

Chris Stanford is based in London and writes the U.S. version of the Morning Briefing. He also compiles a weekly news quiz. He was previously a producer for the desktop home page and mobile site, helping to present The New York Times’s news report to readers. Before joining The Times in 2013, he was an editor and designer at The Washington Post and other news organizations. @stanfordc

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