Latinos, Sanders's secret weapon in Nevada, could make him unstoppable on Super Tuesday

If anyone is responsible for the huge Latino outreach effort that has helped propel Sanders to the front of the Democratic pack, it's Rocha. The innovative program is a dramatic contrast to 2016, when Clinton had highly specialized minority outreach operations and Sanders struggled to woo voters of color. This time around the Sanders campaign really has invested, and you see them everywhere,” says an operative who worked on Latino outreach for the Clinton campaign in 2016 and then worked with a 2020 candidate who left the race.

• 
  Sanders heads to big win in Nevada caucuses, Biden battles Buttigieg for second place

  Reuters
• 
  Bernie Sanders attacks Trump’s ‘greed, corruption and lies’ after historic victory in Nevada

  The Independent

Coronavirus Spread by a Second Coming ‘Cult’ Has Put South Korea on ‘Maximum Alert’

This article was updated on February 23, 2020, at 11:55 p.m. local time in South Korea. SEOUL—A South Korean church whose founder says, rather mysteriously, that he represents the second coming of Christ on Earth and has unique insights into God's revelations is getting much of the blame for a major surge in the spread of the deadly coronavirus here. Fear of the disease now known as COVID-19 actually had been on the decline in South Korea until a fresh outbreak was traced to a 61-year-old woman who belonged to the Shincheonji Church in Daegu, a city of 2.4 million about 170 miles southeast of Seoul.

A California man drove his Jeep off the roof of a six-level parking garage and crashed into a McDonald's, police say

Police in California are investigating after a man drove his Jeep off the roof of a six-level parking garage and into a McDonald's across the street. Police responded just after midnight Sunday and found a newer-model Jeep against a building, the Santa Monica Police Department said in a press release. The Santa Monica Fire Department reported it received information that the Jeep had been driven off the top of a parking garage.

10,000 mourn victims of racist shooting rampage in Germany

Around 10,000 protesters marched through the central German town of Hanau on Sunday to mourn the nine people who were killed by an immigrant-hating gunman four days ago. These days and hours are the blackest and darkest our town has ever experienced during peace times,” Hanau mayor Claus Kaminsky told the somber crowds, according to the German news agency dpa. But, he said, those who want to pull apart society won't succeed, “because we are more and we will prevent that.

Here Comes 1984: China's Regime Is An Existential Threat to the World

The Chinese communist government increasingly poses an existential threat not just to its own 1.4 billion citizens but to the world at large. China is currently in a dangerously chaotic state. And why not, when a premodern authoritarian society leaps wildly into the brave new world of high-tech science in a single generation? Predictably, the Chinese Communist Party has not developed the social, political, or cultural infrastructure to ensure that its sophisticated industrial and biological research does not go rogue and become destructive to itself and to the billions of people who are on the importing end of Chinese products and protocols.

Federal judge rejects Roger Stone's request for her recusal

A federal judge denied former Trump adviser Roger Stone's request that she recuse herself from a potential new trial, saying in an order Sunday that there was no factual or legal basis for Stone's claims. The judge, Amy Berman Jackson, of U.S. District Court in Washington, sentenced Stone to three years and four months in prison last week for obstructing a congressional investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election. In court papers filed Friday, Stone's lawyers claimed that Jackson couldn't impartially evaluate his request for a new trial over allegations of juror misconduct.

10 Amazing Facts About Polar Bears

A few things you might not have known about the largest bear in the world. From Popular Mechanics

It looks like people with no real interest in Bloomberg are signing up to be grassroots campaigners because he pays $2,500 a month

Reuters Mike Bloomberg's efforts to take social media by storm by paying people to post about him may not be working out, according to the LA Times. Several California-based operatives told the paper anonymously that they mainly signed up to campaign because of the $2,500 a month on offer. One was a Bernie Sanders supporter who followed up a campaign text to a friend saying: "Please disregard, vote Bernie or Warren."

Countdown Begins to Possible End of U.S. War in Afghanistan

The United States and the Taliban started the clock early Saturday on a plan to end America's longest war after more than 18 years, beginning with what they hope will be seven days of greatly reduced violence in Afghanistan. If the weeklong, partial truce holds, the two sides have agreed, they will meet on Feb. 29 to sign an agreement laying out a timetable for the U.S. to withdraw its troops. The pact is also meant to clear the way for peace talks involving the Taliban and the government in Kabul, and U.S. officials point to the reduction in hostilities as the first link in a fragile chain of events that could deliver peace in Afghanistan after more than four decades of conflict.

MSNBC host urged to quit after comparing Bernie Sanders win in Nevada to Nazi invasion

MSNBC's Chris Matthews is under fire after comparing Bernie Sanders' victory in the Nevada caucuses to the Nazi invasion of France in 1940. The 'Hardball' host is now under pressure to resign after invoking the historical comparison during an on-air conversation with Brian Williams. In the widely shared clip, he analyses the vote tally of Mr Sanders and compares his strong early performance to the lacklustre voting numbers of Joe Biden and other moderates.

• After Sanders' Nevada victory, Buttigieg warns Democrats not to "rush" to nomination

  CBS News Videos
• 
  CBS News projects Bernie Sanders will win the Nevada caucuses

  CBS News Videos

Hawaii holds woman over missing children amid suspicious deaths

A 46-year-old American woman with reported links to a doomsday cult and to at least three people whose deaths are being investigated has been arrested in Hawaii over the disappearance of her two children. Lori Vallow was arrested Thursday on the island of Kauai and charged with felony desertion of the children, 7-year-old Joshua Vallow, who is autistic, and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan, police said in a statement. According to US media reports, the children, who have different fathers, were last seen on September 23, 2019.

Wrong-way crash on Interstate 95 in Georgia kills 6 people, including Virginia parents and their 3 children

Six people were killed early Sunday in Georgia after police say a wrong-way driver crashed head-on into a car with five people, including three children. The crash happened just after 2 a.m. on Interstate 95 near an exit ramp in Liberty County, according to the Georgia State Police. A 77-year-old man, driving alone in a Lexus SUV, crashed head-on into another SUV while driving south in a northbound lane, GSP said in an emailed statement to USA TODAY.

Pacific NW winds shut interstate, fell tree that crushes man

High winds wreaked havoc on the Pacific Northwest on Sunday, closing a stretch of an interstate freeway in Oregon and toppling a large tree that crushed a man sleeping in an apartment complex in Washington state. The man was critically injured in Renton, Washington, after a tree fell on a six-unit apartment building during a morning of high winds and heavy rain. Elsewhere, Interstate 84 was closed in both directions between Pendleton and La Grande in northeast Oregon, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) east of Portland, because of a downer power line.

Coronavirus updates: Italian towns locked down as almost 150 test positive

Israeli prime minister holds emergency meeting • Number of deaths in China surpasses 2,400 • Ten towns in Italy on lockdown as two deaths reported • South Korea leader calls for 'unprecedented' steps to stop spread • 43 cases, eight deaths connected to coronavirus in Iran • Feds' plan to relocate coronavirus patients puts region at risk, California city says • Japan minister apologizes after woman who left virus-stricken ship tests positive Israel prime minister convenes special assessment Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has held high level meetings with senior officials in the Health Ministry's emergency situation room to discuss the coronavirus.

• 
  Coronavirus outbreak forces postponement of Italy v Scotland in women's Six Nations

  The Telegraph
• 
  A dozen towns in northern Italy are locked down after coronavirus deaths

  USA TODAY

Pope appears to disapprove of Trump's Mideast peace plan

Pope Francis on Sunday warned against "inequitable solutions" to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying they would only spark new crises, in an apparent reference to President Trump's Middle East peace proposal.

US accuses Russia of spreading conspiracies about the Wuhan coronavirus, including that it's a CIA biological weapon

that thousands of fake Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts have been found spreading theories that the US is behind the outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus. Posts reportedly included claims that the virus was a bid to "wage economic war on China," that it was a bioweapon engineered by the CIA, and that it was fostered "to push anti-China messages." According to a report produced by the State Department's Global Engagement Center and seen by AFP, the campaign was spotted in mid-January, with several thousand accounts — many of which were previously tied to Russian activities — posting "near-identical" messages about coronavirus.

• 
  WHO experts visit Chinese virus epicentre

  AFP Relax News
• 
  The Coronavirus Is Starting to Go Global

  Bloomberg

Why Black Voters Keep Picking Democrats

— but the “black wall” of overwhelming support of black voters for Democratic candidates seems impermeable. What's needed is a thoughtful, scholarly treatment of exactly why black voters remain with a Democratic party that, for many, has moved a good distance from what they most deeply value.

US accuses Russia of huge coronavirus disinformation campaign

US officials say thousands of social media accounts linked to Russia are part of a coordinated effort to spread disinformation about the new coronavirus. The campaign allegedly aims to damage the US's image and spread unfounded conspiracy theories that it is behind the outbreak which has infected nearly 78,000 globally and killed over 2,500 people. US State Department officials told AFP fake accounts were created and used on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram so the campaign could reach as many people as possible in multiple languages.

Malaysia in turmoil as Anwar denounces bid to bring down govt

Malaysian politics was in turmoil Monday after leader-in-waiting Anwar Ibrahim denounced a "betrayal" by coalition partners he said were trying to bring down the government, two years after it stormed to victory. Anwar's "Pact of Hope" alliance was thrown into crisis after his rivals within the coalition and opposition politicians met at the weekend reportedly to try to form a new government. Speculation is mounting that Anwar, who had been the presumptive successor to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed, and his lawmakers would be left out of any new coalition, ending his hopes of becoming premier any time soon.

• 
  Anwar Hails ‘Good Meeting’ With Mahathir Amid Malaysia Rumors

  Bloomberg
• 
  Anwar cries foul as Malaysian parties discuss sweeping coalition change

  Reuters

Two arrested as search for missing 15-month-old girl continues

A man and a woman have been arrested in connection to the disappearance of a 15-month-old girl from Tennessee who was last seen in December but only reported missing this week, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said Friday night. Authorities said William McCloud and Angela Boswell were arrested in Wilkes County, North Carolina, about two hours southeast of Sullivan County, Tennessee, where missing toddler Evelyn Mae Boswell lived. The arrested pair were in a gray BMW that authorities said earlier they were searching for in connection to Evelyn's disappearance, NBC affiliate WCYB in Bristol, Virginia, reported.

Haiti police exchange fire with troops near national palace

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haitian police officers exchanged gunfire for hours Sunday with soldiers of the newly reconstituted army outside the national palace, in a dangerous escalation of protests over police pay and working conditions. At least three police officers were wounded, fellow officers told The Associated Press. Haiti's raucous three-day Carnival celebration was to have started Sunday afternoon in Port-au-Prince and other major cities but the government announced Sunday night that Carnival was cancelled in the capital “to avoid a bloodbath.” Police protesters and their backers had burned dozens of Carnival floats and stands at recent protests, saying they did not believe the country should be celebrating during a crisis.

Trump says Russia leak meant to hurt Sanders

President Trump on Sunday called for an investigation into an apparent leak of classified intelligence on Russian interference in the 2020 presidential campaign and said it was meant to hurt Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

• 
  India-bound Donald Trump takes poke at Bernie Sanders and Democrats - over Russia

  USA TODAY
• 
  Trump accuses Schiff of leaking intelligence about Russia to hurt Sanders

  Reuters

Italy quarantines towns, cancels Venice's Carnival amid surprise coronavirus outbreak

Italy jumped from three reported cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus last week to four deaths at least 190 people testing positive in the northern part of the country by Monday. In response, Italy quarantined a dozen towns and sent masked police officers to guard checkpoints, canceled soccer matches and closed schools, scrapped the final day of Milan Fashion Week, and called off Venice's Carnivale, its famed annual pre-Lenten masked bacchanalia. At the same time, Italian authorities pleaded for calm, noting that the virus has a lower mortality rate than the flu and that all four people who died were elderly.

• 
  Coronavirus: British Airways flight to Italy forced to return to gate so passenger can get off

  The Independent
• 
  Coronavirus: Italy quarantines 12 towns and cancels Venice Carnival after confirming three deaths

  The Independent

Climate change could be a 'catastrophic' national security threat, report warns

Climate change could turn into a "catastrophic" threat to national and global security in the coming decades, warns a new report released Monday. "Even at scenarios of low warming, each region of the world will face severe risks to national and global security in the next three decades," the report states. The report, titled “A Security Threat Assessment of Global Climate Change: How Likely Warming Scenarios Indicate a Catastrophic Security Future" was released Monday by the Center for Climate and Security, a non-partisan security policy institute.