Polls have opened in New Hampshire for the first primary of the election season. On Monday night, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders held a massive rally and concert at the University of New Hampshire in Durham attended by over 7,500 people.

Sen. Bernie Sanders: “The reason that we are going to win is the American people, no matter what their political views may be, are sick and tired of a president who is a pathological liar, who is running a corrupt administration, who is a bully and a vindictive person, who is a racist, a sexist, a xenophobe, a homophobe and a religious bigot.”

Meanwhile, the campaign of Senator Amy Klobuchar has picked up the endorsements of three major newspapers in New Hampshire as the Minnesota senator hopes for a stronger result after placing fifth in the Iowa caucuses.
The campaigns of Senator Sanders and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg have called for a partial recanvass in Iowa after results showed Sanders winning the popular vote but Buttigieg narrowly edging him out in the delegate count.

Meanwhile, audio has leaked of 2020 presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg defending the use of stop-and-frisk in 2015 at the Aspen Institute.
We’ll have more on New Hampshire later in the broadcast.

The death toll from coronavirus has now topped 1,000, with 42,000 confirmed cases. Monday was the deadliest day yet as 108 people succumbed to the disease in mainland China. In the city of Tianjin, thousands of people were ordered to quarantine after an outbreak linked to a shopping mall infected over 30 people. Meanwhile, newly identified cases in Hong Kong are raising fears the disease could be spread through pipes after two cases were identified in the same apartment building.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is calling on all 74 federal inspectors general to investigate retaliation-based firings of whistleblowers or witnesses who report presidential misconduct. Two days after his impeachment acquittal last week, Trump fired two key figures from the House’s impeachment proceedings: the National Security Council’s Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman and U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland.

Attorney General William Barr confirmed Monday the Justice Department would review information provided by Rudy Giuliani that he gathered from Ukrainian sources about former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Senator Lindsey Graham first shared the news on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday.

The Justice Department charged four Chinese military members over the hacking of credit monitoring agency Equifax Monday. The 2017 breach affected around 147 million Americans, whose personal data was stolen, including Social Security numbers, birthdates and driver’s license information. Attorney General William Barr said China was responsible for “state-sponsored computer intrusions.”

The Salvadoran congress is condemning what they call an attempted coup d’état, after President Nayib Bukele stormed the Legislative Assembly Sunday accompanied by heavily armed soldiers and police officers. Bukele is demanding lawmakers vote to approve a $109 million loan to equip military and law enforcement personnel. Bukele addressed his supporters at a rally in El Salvador Sunday.

President Nayib Bukele: “If those shameless people don’t approve the plan of territorial control this week, we’ll summon you here again on Sunday to call for God’s support, saying, 'God, you asked me for patience, but those without shame don't want to work for the people.’”

In the Philippines, four environmental and human rights defenders and a journalist are being detained after they were arrested Friday night in Tacloban City. The 1-year-old baby of organizer Marissa Cabaljao was also taken but has since been released. Police say the activists were arrested for illegally possessing weapons, and accused them of belonging to communist groups. Critics warn that such attacks on activists are on the rise. Local media is reporting police have hundreds of arrest warrants for other activists.

In more news from the Philippines, the government is moving to shut down the country’s leading broadcast network, ABS-CBN, in President Duterte’s ongoing crackdown on media outlets that are critical of his rule and his deadly drug war.

In Ireland, Sinn Féin is attempting to form a coalition with other left-wing parties after a stunning victory in the general election in which the party won the popular vote. The final count of the vote revealed today that Sinn Féin took 37 parliamentary seats, putting it just one seat behind center-right party Fianna Fáil. Sinn Féin, which originally formed as the political wing of the IRA, focused their campaign on social issues including housing, homelessness and healthcare. This is Mary Lou McDonald, president of Sinn Féin.

Mary Lou McDonald: “You know, it’s a big statement of change. It is a big statement that this is no longer a two-party system. It’s a statement that people want a different type of government and that people have great confidence in us. And I say that with all humility.”

Turkish and Syrian forces clashed in northwestern Syria as tensions rise following the killing of five Turkish troops by Syrian forces Monday. Nearly three-quarters of a million people have fled the area since the fighting escalated in December. The U.N. is warning the ongoing attacks in Idlib province are creating a humanitarian disaster that could lead to famine in the region.

The U.N. is warning that the massive swarms of locusts devastating crops in a number of East African countries could become the worst infestation the region has seen in decades. Countries that have already been affected or are at risk are Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Uganda, South Sudan, Eritrea and Djibouti. Experts say higher temperatures and heavier rainfall due to the climate crisis are leading to worse locust swarms. A small swarm can work its way through enough food to feed 35,000 people in just a single day.

In Canada, 47 people were arrested Monday while protesting in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en land defenders as they are raided by Canadian police. Protesters around the country blockaded ports, railways and other sites of transportation. The blockades affected 20,000 rail passengers and prevented 200 freight trains from traveling. Indigenous activists have been in a protracted battle to protect their land from the construction of TransCanada’s 400-mile, $4.7 billion Coastal GasLink pipeline.

The Seattle City Council voted Monday to bar some residential evictions during winter months. Socialist City Councilmember Kshama Sawant sponsored the bill. If enacted, it would prohibit most evictions in the months of December through February, though the initial bill proposed a longer ban period.

In Arizona, the contractor hired to build a portion of Trump’s U.S.-Mexico border wall has begun destroying a sacred Tohono O’odham burial site. Monument Hill is partly located within the Roosevelt Reservation west of the border town of Lukeville, Arizona. The site was once used for religious ceremonies, and its cultural significance traces back hundreds of years. Since construction of the border wall began at the Arizona border in August, construction crews have also been ripping out saguaros and other protected cactus varieties, as well as pumping scarce water resources.

A South Dakota Senate committee has deferred action on House Bill 1057, effectively killing the controversial anti-transgender legislation. The bill would have criminalized doctors for providing transition-related healthcare to trans youth. The “no” vote came after a sustained campaign against the bill led by transgender activists and youth. Click here to see our coverage of this story with the ACLU’s Chase Strangio and the Oscar-nominated trans director Yance Ford.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance says he is considering reopening the investigation into Malcolm X’s murder, over half a century after the civil rights leader was killed in 1965. The announcement came just days after the release of a new Netflix documentary titled “Who Killed Malcolm X?” that sheds new light on the case.

Puerto Rico’s financial control board has struck a deal with bondholders to shed about $24 billion from its general obligation debt. The deal announced Sunday will cut the island’s outstanding general obligation debt from $35 billion to about $11 billion. However, the island would have to pay about $3.8 billion upfront. The agreement will still need to be approved by Puerto Rico’s Legislature. Puerto Rico’s financial control board filed for bankruptcy in 2017 to attempt to restructure $129 billion in debt. The board, which is often referred to as “La Junta,” is an unelected board that runs much of Puerto Rico’s economic affairs and has for years been plagued by corruption allegations.