Wednesday’s top story: Sanders raises $4m from 150,000 donors in 12 hours. Plus, how conservationists are combating a spike in cactus thefts

Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s essential stories.

Sanders takes on ‘pathological liar’ and ‘racist’ Trump

Bernie Sanders has surged to the front of the Democratic pack after joining the crowded race for the party’s 2020 presidential nomination on Tuesday. The 77-year-old independent senator from Vermont raised $4m from 150,000 donors in the first 12 hours following his campaign launch, and in an interview with Vermont public radio he chose to take the fight directly to Donald Trump, calling the president a “pathological liar … a racist, a sexist, a homophobe [and] a xenophobe”.

Bernie or bust? Sanders’ 2016 candidacy rewrote the rules for the Democratic party, writes Kate Aronoff. But why re-fight the battles of the last election, asks Moira Donegan: Elizabeth Warren offers the same progressive policies, but without Bernie’s baggage.

Jay Inslee. The governor of Washington is also considering a White House run on an environmental platform. “We need a fundamental shift in our national priorities. There’s too much to risk to belittle climate change,” he tells Oliver Milman.

Cervical cancer beatable in most countries by 2100

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A Dallas teenager getting the HPV vaccination in 2007. Photograph: Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters

Cervical cancer could effectively be wiped out in most countries by the end of this century, according to new research published in the journal Lancet Oncology. Academics based in Sydney, Australia, say that administering the HPV vaccine to young girls and improving HPV screening coverage would all but eliminate the disease, which today kills more than 300,000 women worldwide each year.

Australia first. Professor Karen Canfell from the Cancer Council New South Wales, who led the study, said Australia was set to effectively eliminate cervical cancer by 2035, while the US, UK and Canada could do so by 2055-59.

White House ‘wanted to share nuclear tech with Saudis’

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Trump shakes hands with Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, in the Oval Office last year. Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Top officials in the Trump White House defied the advice of national security staff to press forward with a plan to share nuclear power technology with Saudi Arabia, according to a new congressional report. The House oversight committee has announced it intends to investigate the warnings of whistleblowers from within the administration over the proposed deal, which may violate the law.

Michael Flynn. Trump’s former national security adviser pushed the plan for US companies to build nuclear power plants in Saudi Arabia, the report claims. Before joining the administration, Flynn was an adviser to a subsidiary of the energy company behind the proposal.

Arms sales. The UK foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has urged Germany to rethink its ban on arms sales to Saudi Arabia, saying he is “concerned about the impact … on the British and European defence industry”.

Trump administration demands California rail billions

Facebook Twitter Pinterest An artist’s rendition of a California high-speed rail station. Photograph: Handout/Reuters

The frosty relationship between the Trump White House and California’s Democratic leadership has been further cooled by a spat over funding for the Golden State’s controversial, costly high-speed rail project. A week after Governor Gavin Newsom said in his state of the state address that the $77bn project, “as currently planned, would cost too much and take too long” – and Trump described it as a “disaster” – the US Department of Transportation has announced plans to cancel $929m in federal grant funds for the railway.

Money back. The transportation department also said it was “exploring legal options” to seek the return of $2.5bn previously granted to California for the project.

Flame war. Trump tweeted demanding the return of “three and a half billion dollars”. Newsom responded that the money had been “allocated by Congress for this project. We’re not giving it back.”

Crib sheet

The Denver public school system sent letters to its immigrant teachers threatening them with deportation if they participated in the wave of teachers’ strikes across the US.

Trump is expected to nominate Jeffrey Rosen, currently the deputy secretary of the US Department of Transportation, to replace Rod Rosenstein as the deputy US attorney general.

The FDA has warned that a new anti-aging fad in which older people infuse themselves with the blood of more youthful donors “should not be assumed to be safe or effective”.

A 12-year-old Akita dog named Kingston has been reunited with his owners, 101 days after he leapt from the family’s truck as they fled the Camp fire in Paradise, northern California. He is believed to have survived in the wild by eating skunks.

Must-reads

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Max Benwell found out someone else was using his photographs to approach and abuse women online. Illustration: Gabriel Alcala

How to catch a catfisher

When Max Benwell found out someone had stolen dozens of photos from his social media accounts, and was posing as him in order to approach and abuse women online, he decided to track the man down – and catfish him back.

What makes a terrorist laugh?

For his latest project, Larry Charles – the director of Borat and Curb Your Enthusiasm – travelled to danger spots like Iraq and Liberia to ask extremists what makes them laugh. “I wanted to seek out what’s funny in different environments,” he tells Kevin EG Perry.

National parks face the thorny problem of cactus theft

Across the US south-west, a hipster fashion for succulents is fuelling cactus thefts from public lands. The trend risks destroying some rare species, which is why conservationists are coming up with new ways to combat the poachers. Annette McGivney reports from Arizona.

The artists fighting climate change

From blocks of ice left to melt outside the Tate Modern to an Arctic voyage for artists and writers, the art world is at last turning its attention to the threat faced by the natural world. Oliver Krug examines the ambitious works inspired by climate change.

Opinion

Matthias Bergmann’s grandfather remained a committed Nazi until his death in the 1990s. His parents made sure Bergmann instead grew up devoutly European. To Germans like him, the EU is not an economic project, but a champion of peace and prosperity.

My best friend is a Jew from Manhattan living in Norway. Every time I visit her I cherish the thought of my grandad turning in his grave. A united Europe is our legacy.

Sport

Liverpool coach Jürgen Klopp expressed disappointment after his side’s last-16 Champions League tie against fellow European giants Bayern Munich stalled at 0-0 at Anfield on Tuesday night. The second leg is in Germany in three weeks.

MLB free agent Manny Machado has reportedly signed a 10-year, $300m deal with the San Diego Padres, which, if confirmed, would be the second-highest in baseball history, and the third-highest sports contract of all time.

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