Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s essential stories.
Sanders calls on supporters to help ‘complete the revolution’
Bernie Sanders is running for president again. In an email on Tuesday morning, Sanders called on supporters to help him complete his “political revolution”. But the independent senator from Vermont, who energised the left and came close to claiming the Democratic nomination from Hillary Clinton in 2016, faces a far more crowded field for 2020. While his name recognition instantly makes him a top-tier candidate, the 77-year-old must compete for progressive votes with several others who share his views on Medicare for all, the minimum wage and other issues.
Hypothetical frontrunners. Recent hypothetical 2020 polls have consistently put Sanders ahead of Donald Trump and other declared Democratic candidates, though Joe Biden and Beto O’Rourke – both yet to declare – also score highly.
Rod Rosenstein expected to stand down in March
Rod Rosenstein, the embattled US deputy attorney general, who in 2017 appointed Robert Mueller to investigate links between the Trump campaign and Russia, will stand down by mid-March as the new attorney general, William Barr, takes charge of the Justice Department. Rosenstein first made headlines for drafting the memo used by Trump to justify the firing of FBI director James Comey. Last year it was reported that he had suggested enlisting cabinet members to invoke the 25th amendment.
‘So many lies’. Trump attacked the former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe on Twitter again on Monday, following McCabe’s 60 Minutes interview, in which he said Trump had ordered Rosenstein to write the memo justifying Comey’s firing.
Isis wife wants to help deradicalise other Americans
Hoda Muthana, an Alabama woman who joined Isis in 2015 but says she deeply regrets the decision and wishes to return home, could help the US to dissuade others from becoming radicalised, her lawyer has said. The 24-year-old, who has a one-year-old son, is the only American among an estimated 1,500 foreign women and children at the vast al-Hawl refugee camp in northern Syria. In today’s podcast, the Guardian’s Martin Chulov describes his time at the camp, where he met and interviewed Muthana.
Turkish threat. The Syrian Kurdish leader Ilham Ahmed has called for international observers to be stationed at the Syrian-Turkish border to protect Kurds from the threat of crimes against humanity by Turkish forces.
Sixteen states sue Trump administration over border wall
A coalition of 16 US states has launched a legal challenge against the Trump administration, over the president’s decision to declare a national emergency to fund a wall on the US-Mexico border. The lawsuit was filed on Monday in the US district court for the northern district of California, after the Golden State’s governor, Gavin Newsom, described the emergency declaration as a “national disgrace”.
Trump vs Maduro. Speaking about the crisis in Venezuela at a rally in Miami on Monday, Trump urged the country’s military to ditch president Nicolás Maduro in favour of opposition leader Juan Guaidó, warning that otherwise they will “lose everything”.
Crib sheet
The leader of the UK’s leftwing Labour party, Jeremy Corbyn, has been urged to change direction after seven of his MPs quit to form a new independent movement in Parliament.
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau’s top adviser, Gerald Butts, has resigned amid a widening corruption scandal, despite denying allegations that he pressured Canada’s former attorney general not to prosecute the engineering firm SNC-Lavalin.
George Mendonsa, the “kissing sailor” photographed by Alfred Eisenstaedt in Times Square during celebrations at the end of the second world war, has died aged 95. The woman in the famous photo, Greta Friedman, died in 2016.
New York City has banned discrimination based on hairstyles, with what is thought to be the first such regulation in the US. The new policy gives African Americans the legal right to wear their hair in afros, cornrows, Bantu knots and other styles.
Must-reads
Is it too late to break the palm oil habit?
Palm oil is a miracle ingredient for modern life, found in biscuits, ice cream, biofuel, lipstick and shampoo. But our rapacious appetite for the fruit of the oil palm tree has brought environmental devastation to Malaysia and Indonesia, as Paul Tullis reports.
What cowboys talk about when they talk about politics
At the annual National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada, Carson Vaughan listened in as a group of cowboys discussed their differing views on climate change, immigration and other issues, “without demonising each other”.
How Office Space spoke to an anxious workplace
From Fight Club to The Matrix, 1999 produced a bumper crop of movies in which angry, ordinary men threw off the shackles of society. But Charles Bramesco says the truest hero of the time was Peter Gibbons, the deskbound protagonist of Office Space.
Tiny sculptures made from New York City trash
Yuji Agematsu has spent more than 20 years collecting trash from the streets of New York City and turning it into tiny dioramas. A collection of his work from 2017 is now showing at the Carnegie International exhibition in Pittsburgh.
Opinion
When it comes to defeating Trump, says Nathan Robinson, nobody comes close to Bernie Sanders, who has beaten the president in polls since 2016. But Robert Reich argues that Sanders’ success in driving Democrats to the left could prove his greatest weakness: he’s no longer the only progressive in the race.
He showed Democrats they could run successfully on policies like Medicare for all, free public higher education and higher taxes on the wealthy – instead of the cautious “new Democrat” centrism of Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry and Barack Obama. Bernie Sanders put “progressive” back into the Democratic party of Franklin D Roosevelt.
Sport
The figure skater Alysa Liu is a US champion at just 13 years old. Is that too young to devote oneself to elite sport, and the mental and physical strains that come with it, asks Kristen Doerer.
Manchester United made up for their loss to Chelsea in last year’s FA Cup final with a confident 2-0 victory over the holders in Monday’s fifth-round clash at Stamford Bridge, which left Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri facing jeers from his club’s own fans.
Sign up
The US morning briefing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If you’re not already signed up, subscribe now.
