Today in Focus

With the US government in partial shutdown, the president continues to demand funding for his Mexican border wall. Lauren Gambino, in Washington DC, and Bryan Mealer, in Texas, discuss how Trump’s central campaign promise has led to this point of paralysis. Plus, John Harris looks back to the optimism of 1989

The shocking case of Imelda Cortez has put El Salvador’s strict abortion laws in the spotlight. Human rights lawyer Paula Avila-Guillen and reporter Nina Lakhani describe how a surprise verdict has given fresh hope to women in El Salvador. Plus, in opinion, Randeep Ramesh on the Guardian’s call for a citizens’ assembly to break the Brexit deadlock

As Theresa May prepares for the showdown Brexit vote on Tuesday, the government is stepping up its contingency planning for crashing out of the EU without a deal. The Guardian’s Patrick Wintour sets out the routes available to the government as the exit date fast approaches. Plus in opinion: Owen Jones on responding to increasing abuse on the streets and online

Kim Jong-un goes into 2019 with momentum to build on after last year’s historic meeting with President Donald Trump. As Kim attempts to negotiate a fresh summit, the Guardian’s Tania Branigan looks at his leadership so far and Emma Graham-Harrison describes a rare trip to Pyongyan. Plus: Catherine Shoard on the annual film awards season

The re-emergence of the disgraced doctor Andrew Wakefield has fueled a resurgence of vaccine scepticism among rightwing populists. After a surge in measles outbreaks across the EU in 2018, Sarah Boseley looks back at how confidence in the MMR vaccine was dented after Wakefield’s discredited campaign against it. Plus: Sonia Sodha on how to improve the British honours system

The UK’s living donor scheme allows six people to enter a chain, and three of them will get a new kidney from a stranger. Rachel Williams speaks to six participants. Plus: the writer Cecilia Knapp reflects on Christmas

The Guardian’s editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner, revisits the biggest stories of the year from the Windrush scandal, Cambridge Analytica and Facebook, the Brexit saga and the Trump administration to the World Cup and the royal wedding. Plus: Michael Braithwaite on how he got caught up in the Windrush scandal

A long-term plan designed to secure the future of NHS England has been delayed once again by Brexit. But as Britain’s health service heads into its annual winter beds crisis, the Guardian’s Denis Campbell visits King’s College hospital in London to find out what staff and patients need for the future – and how much it will cost. Plus: Hadley Freeman on why Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, was right to distance herself from her father and his media onslaught

The arrest of the man believed to be the head of the Sicilian mafia this month is the latest blow for an organisation struggling to rebuild after the death last year of Salvatore Riina, the ‘boss of the bosses’. Clare Longrigg, the author of several books on the mafia, describes the current state of Cosa Nostra. Plus: Jonathan Watts on what to take from the COP24 climate talks

Facebook has been hit by a series of data, privacy and hate speech scandals this year. Alex Hern, the Guardian’s UK tech editor, discusses how Mark Zuckerberg has responded. Plus the Guardian environment reporter Oliver Milman on returning to Paradise, California, after the deadliest fire in the state’s history