Friday, Feb 21, 2020 | View in browser

Good morning.

We’re covering new warnings about Russian election interference, the growing number of coronavirus cases outside China, and tensions between Google and its employees.

By Chris Stanford

Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence, at a House hearing in September. After another House briefing last week, he faced questions from President Trump. Erin Schaff/The New York Times

Russia is meddling again, lawmakers are told

Intelligence officials have warned House lawmakers that Russia is interfering in the 2020 campaign to try to get President Trump re-elected, five people familiar with the matter told The Times.

After learning of the classified briefing last week, Mr. Trump criticized Joseph Maguire, the outgoing acting director of national intelligence, for allowing the briefing to take place. The president complained that Representative Adam Schiff, who led the impeachment proceedings and was at the information session, would “weaponize” the findings.

Mr. Trump has long denounced the intelligence community’s assessment of Russian interference in 2016 as the work of a conspiracy intent on undermining him.

What’s next: The president announced this week that Richard Grenell, the ambassador to Germany, would replace Mr. Maguire, although two administration officials said the timing was a coincidence. The president said on Thursday that he was considering naming Representative Doug Collins, Republican of Georgia, as the permanent director.

Related: In a “name and shame” effort to deter Moscow from election interference, the U.S. and several allies accused Russia of a cyberattack against the country of Georgia in October.

Another angle: After Roger Stone was sentenced to more than three years in prison for lying to protect Mr. Trump, the president suggested that he would use his clemency power to spare his friend if a judge didn’t agree to a retrial.

Health officials this week near a church in Daegu, South Korea, that has been connected to a large number of coronavirus cases. Yonhap, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Coronavirus cases surge in South Korea

Officials said there were now 204 known infections in the country, 100 of them confirmed today. Only China and the Diamond Princess cruise ship, docked in Japan, have produced more.

Here are the latest updates and maps of where the virus has spread.

Go deeper: Blair Zong, 33, lives in California and was visiting relatives in Wuhan, China, when the outbreak became an epidemic. After returning to the U.S., she kept a diary of her two weeks in quarantine.

Q. and A.: With expert help, we answered some common questions about traveling during the outbreak.

Voters in Las Vegas waited last weekend to cast their ballots during early voting in Nevada's Democratic caucus. Bridget Bennett for The New York Times

Black and Latino voters seek more than just words

Unlike in Iowa and New Hampshire, white voters make up less than half of the Democratic electorate in the next two states on the nominating calendar: Nevada on Saturday and South Carolina next week.

But interviews with dozens of voters in both states in recent days found that the message from the all-white top tier of candidates isn’t always resonating with the Latino and black Democrats whose support is critical.

“We want to hear more than just some token words,” said Kristina Alvarez, a 36-year-old medical aide in Las Vegas.

Related: Michael Bloomberg’s advisers expected tough debate questions, but his lackluster performance this week has rattled his campaign.

Closer look: By the end of January, Mr. Bloomberg had spent $409 million on less than three months of campaigning, more than four other leading candidates — Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg — had spent combined since they started running.

The Daily: Today’s episode is about Bernie Sanders and the major labor union in Nevada that has declined to endorse him.

If you have some time, this is worth it

A revolt at Google

Bobby Doherty for The New York Times

From its earliest days, Google urged employees to speak out. Now it appears to be clamping down. The company has scaled back opportunities for employees to grill their bosses, tried to prevent discussions about labor rights and, in November, fired at least four internal activists.

The Times Magazine spoke to some of them, including Rebecca Rivers, above.

Here’s what else is happening

Truce in Afghanistan: A weeklong reduction in violence, a major condition for the U.S. to formally sign an initial peace deal with the Taliban, goes into effect this weekend, Afghan officials said today.

Far-right attack in Germany: “Hatred is a poison,” Chancellor Angela Merkel said after a racist extremist killed nine people in a part of Germany that prides itself on diversity and tolerance.

The Weekly: The latest episode of The Times’s TV show is about a group of adults who were abused at a group home in the Bronx, decades after enduring inhumane treatment at another institution. It premieres today on FX at 10 p.m. Eastern and will be available on Hulu starting Saturday.

Helge O. Svela

Snapshot: Above, Whisky, a Border collie in Norway, and some of her toys. A verbal prodigy, Whisky recognizes names for at least 54 toys as well as the names of different categories of toys, an animal researcher found.

In memoriam: Lawrence Tesler, a pioneering computer scientist, helped introduce innovations like cutting and pasting text and selecting text by dragging a cursor across it while holding down a mouse button. He died on Sunday at 74.

News quiz: Did you follow the headlines this week? Test yourself.

Modern Love: In this week’s column, a woman falls for a firefighter despite their divisions on race, politics and their pasts.

What we’re reading: This imagined scene from McSweeney’s of Billy Joel playing “Piano Man” to the characters he wrote the song about, who are aghast. “Hilarious,” writes Dan Saltzstein, a senior editor for Special Projects.

Now, a break from the news

Linda Xiao for The New York Times

Cook: Creamy white beans with herb oil, served with salad and good bread, makes a perfect dinner.

Watch: Can a show about gentrification be funny? The Netflix comedy series “Gentefied” follows a Hispanic family in Los Angeles whose livelihood is threatened.

Read: Isabel Allende’s new novel, which revisits the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, is among 11 books we recommend this week.

Smarter Living: Even a cocktail is part of your carbon footprint. For a greener happy hour, check where your choices were bottled and go with the closest option. Find other tips in this week’s Climate Fwd: newsletter.

And now for the Back Story on …

What we learned from 2016

As this year’s presidential race intensifies, “The Daily” recently spoke with Dean Baquet, The Times’s executive editor, to discuss the lessons of the last election and how they’ve informed our 2020 coverage. Here are excerpts from the conversation.

On his reflections from 2016:

I think that the combination of post-economic crisis and a sense that there are parts of America that were still shaken by the economic crisis, I think a lot of Americans — more Americans than we understood at the time — were rattled and were looking for something dramatic.

There were [Times] reporters out in the country who were writing stories about what was going on in the country, but we didn’t elevate them and say, “Wait a minute, there’s something powerful going on here.” We didn’t see that.

Dean Baquet, The Times's executive editor. Mike Cohen for The New York Times

On how The Times is approaching the current election:

We’ve brought in people from the business staff to go out to the country to talk about the effects of the economy. We are about to announce a plan to put writers in seven or eight states that we’re usually not in. And we give huge play now to stories about anxiety in the country.

I think if you read The New York Times right now, you read a New York Times that reflects a country that’s in some turmoil, a country that’s divided much more than we understood in 2016.

And I don’t think we’ve labeled any — the campaigns would disagree — but I don’t think we’ve made anybody feel like the inevitable candidate, or the long shot. I am extremely proud of where our coverage is right now.

On his thoughts on covering both sides of a story:

I do think that American journalism has a tendency to go for the easy version of what I call “sophisticated true objectivity.” And the easy version is: “OK, this guy said this. This guy said that. I’ll put them together. You decide.”

True objectivity is you listen, you’re empathetic. If you hear stuff you disagree with, but it’s factual and it’s worth people hearing, you write about it.

(Some answers have been condensed and edited. You can listen to the full conversation here.)

That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.

— Chris

Thank you
Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford provided the break from the news. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Today’s episode is about Bernie Sanders and Nevada.
• Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: The “N” of N.C.I.S. (five letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• Noah Weiland, who wrote our Impeachment Briefing, is starting a new beat in our Washington bureau covering health policy.