Earth Day, North Korea, Michael Cohen: Your Weekend Briefing
News Analysis: What Does Kim Jong-un Want? U.S. Fears Answer Is ‘Give a Little, Gain a Lot’
A Shadowy War’s Newest Front: A Drone Base Rising From Saharan Dust
Opinion: Adapting to American Decline
Editorial: An Opioid Crisis Foretold
Op-Ed Columnist: The Republicans’ Big Senate Mess
On Campus: The Soul-Crushing Student Essay
Opinion: States Are Doing What Scott Pruitt Won’t
Op-Ed Columnist: Barbara Bush: Fake Pearls, Real Heart
Suicide Bomber Kills at Least 31 Afghans in Kabul

Earth Day, North Korea, Michael Cohen: Your Weekend Briefing
Here’s what you need to know about the week’s top stories.

News Analysis: What Does Kim Jong-un Want? U.S. Fears Answer Is ‘Give a Little, Gain a Lot’
In Washington, most officials and experts believe that the North Korean leader is determined to cement his country’s status as a nuclear state while escaping the chokehold of economic sanctions.

A Shadowy War’s Newest Front: A Drone Base Rising From Saharan Dust
Air Force personnel are working to complete a $110 million airfield that will be used to strike extremists in West and North Africa, a region where most Americans have no idea the country is fighting.

Opinion: Adapting to American Decline
The United States is losing its influence as its relative power erodes. How should it manage the transition without destabilizing everyone else?

Editorial: An Opioid Crisis Foretold
History supplies precedents and lessons for the opioid epidemic raging in America today — but we seem to have largely forgotten both.

Op-Ed Columnist: The Republicans’ Big Senate Mess
A convict in West Virginia, bondage in Missouri and a wacky contest for control of the chamber.

On Campus: The Soul-Crushing Student Essay
A freshman finally asks the clarifying question: “Do you mean we can write with the word ‘I’?”

Opinion: States Are Doing What Scott Pruitt Won’t
The federal government may ignore the environment, but we can’t afford to.

Op-Ed Columnist: Barbara Bush: Fake Pearls, Real Heart
With the blunt and plain-spoken and often funny Barbara Bush, you always knew where you stood.

Suicide Bomber Kills at Least 31 Afghans in Kabul
The bomber struck at a government office where Afghans were registering to vote, raising concerns that violence will tarnish long-delayed elections.