CHICO, Calif: Bernie Sanders first touched down in California 10 months ago, and close to 28,000 people filled the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena to see him. Just two staffers made the trip. There was something dreamlike about the crowd, and something promising, too.
"By December, when we were looking down the road, California stuck out as a place to compete," said Sanders's campaign manager Jeff Weaver in an interview.
Today, Sanders travels around California in a caravan of SUVs and campaign buses. The Secret Service guards his hotel rooms and scans the lines where people wait up to six hours to hear the senator speak. And at long last, his crowds look just like the electorate of the state he is trying to win - young and racially diverse - and they howl with approval after every sentence of a speech that has hardly changed since Iowa.
Sanders is in striking range of a victory in the nation's largest state thanks to an early decision to play here and a long campaign to convert nonwhite voters that has taken root here in ways that it didn't in other states that front-runner Hillary Clinton won. The principal reason? Young Latinos and Asian Americans, who have registered in huge numbers here in part to oppose Donald Trump, and who seem to be coalescing around Sanders.
It may be too late for Sanders. He could win California Tuesday and still effectively lose the nomination the same day, when five other states will also hold primaries. And the campaign worries that Clinton's virtually insurmountable delegate lead could lead television networks to call the race early and depress late-in-the-day turnout on the west coast.
But in the Sanders stump speech, and in his interactions with voters, there are clues to how he broke through with non-white votes. Immigration is now an issue of morality and workers' dignity; gone are the days when, in sync with some labor leaders, he said that only people like David and Charles Koch wanted "open borders." At a Thursday rally in Modesto, Sanders promised to legalize workers by executive order if Congress did not pass "comprehensive" reform.
"Today, there are 11 undocumented people in this country, and when you are a worker, and when you are undocumented, you get cheated and you get exploited every single day," he said. "What your employer can do to you if you are an undocumented worker is a disgrace."
One day earlier, at a forum for Asian American and Pacific Islander voters in Palo Alto, Sanders traded the microphone with activists who raised specific concerns about racism and job security. As he has long done at forums like this, Sanders pivoted with every answer to talk about the larger systemic problems with the country.
But that changed when one voter brought up immigration. She asked Sanders about the "two million plus" people deported under the Obama Administration, and about deportations to come. He started his answer with a story about his parents, immigrants from Poland. Then he described his visit to Friendship Park, along the U.S.-Mexican border, one of the events meant to penetrate Spanish-speaking media.
"Anyone been there?" he asked. "It's a beautiful park, right on the ocean. At that park, there is a fence - a very heavily screened fence - and as I understand it, on weekends, for a few hours, people from both sides of the border can get through the border and talk to each other."
The room was cramped, and hot, with a few open doors doing little to air it out. Sanders did not usually get this personal.
"Literally, because of the nature of the screen - which is very, very tight - the only physical contact that husbands and wives and children can have, is literally putting their pinkies through their fence," he said. "No hugging. No kissing. That's the kind of contact they have. And what a tragedy that is."
Since the start of primary season, Sanders has struggled to earn the support of minorities. The main barrier has been black voters, who overwhelmingly rejected the self-described democratic socialist and handed Clinton her still-strong delegate lead in a string of southern states. Sanders had hoped to do better with Latinos, but his ability to do so seemed shaky after he lost the Texas primary to Clinton back in March.
But California offered a unique opportunity. According to a January 2016 study by the Pew Research Center based on tabulations of 2014 Census data,, eligible voters who are Hispanic skew younger in California than elsewhere in the country, and make up a larger slice of the state's Democratic electorate. As another Pew study from 2011 noted, the average age of Latinos born in California was just 18; the average age of white Californians was 44.
There was also hope for Sanders in polling. A Field Poll of the Democratic race last May put his overall support among likely Democratic voters at 5 percent. By the end of the year, he had climbed to 35 percent overall, and to 32 percent among nonwhites.
"That was even though he'd barely campaigned in California," said Weaver. "We hadn't even advertised here. There was just a tremendous movement with Latino voters."
The Clinton campaign watched this happen all year, and at key moments, like Nevada's caucuses and Illinois's close primary, it appeared to hold off the tide. In 2008, Clinton won California's Latino voters by a 35-point margin over Barack Obama. Among Latinos younger than 30, she won by 30 points.
Yet in this week's final pre-primary Field Poll, Clinton led with Latinos by just four points. The Sanders campaign believes he has progressively sliced into her numbers by winning landslide support from younger voters, including Latinos.
Sanders sees these gains as evidence that early losses with nonwhite voters were tricks of the front-loaded Southern campaign schedule. In California, he proved that nonwhite voters could be won over if they simply learned who he was. In a telephone interview Thursday, he said his message is now resonating more with minority voters not because he's doing much differently but because of a greater familiarity with him.
"Let me give you my prediction," he said of his performance in California. "If there is a record-breaking turnout, I think we will win by big numbers."
"We focused on three things in California: Bernie barnstorming the state, outreach to new voters, and campaigning heavily among the Latino community," said Robert Becker, who served as the campaign's state director in Iowa and Michigan before decamping here. "The last poll has shown we're currently winning there, and that's not an accident. We've put a heavy emphasis in holding conversations with those communities."
In the first six months of 2016, 1.8 million new California voters were registered. Latino registration was up 123 percent compared to the same period in 2012. The rise of Donald Trump propelled that increase, but Sanders seemed to reap the benefits.
"We're doing very well with Latinos, in general, and very, very well with younger Latinos," Sanders told Rolling Stone last week. "What's been very interesting is that the demographic splits have been less white, black and Latino than they have been on age."
The support has gotten impossible to miss. Last week, at Sanders's rally in Ventura, some voters wore T-shirts portraying a young Sanders wincing as police wrest him away from a civil rights protest. The sound system, cycling through the usual mix of revolution-centric songs by Pearl Jam and Tracy Chapman, added Latin hits including "Lo Gozadera" and "Madre Tierra (Oye)."
One voter, 35-year old Guadalupe Potocacetpl, showed up in the "brown beret" gear of a Chicano nationalist group. He'd protested Trump at a Phoenix rally and started having conversations with fellow alienated activists who'd jumped aboard with Bernie.
"I met a lot of Bernie supporters, and I liked every single reason they were supporting him," he said. "At one point, I wasn't even going to vote because of the outcome of what Obama did - the deportations, the promises that didn't come through. But then I saw Bernie and he gave me a little bit of hope again."
Not far away, brothers John and Brian Meza, 22 and 19, were talking about the reasons they'd come to Bernie and the reasons their elders had not.
"I started finding news about Bernie on social media, and finding out about Hillary the same way - what she'd said, whether she had changed her mind," said Brian Meza. "The older people are getting their news from TV so they don't see that."
Sanders has not ignored TV. He was on the California airwaves, to the tune of $1.5 million, before Clinton was. More importantly, three months before the primary, his campaign shelled out to broadcast a short film called "Tenemos Familias" on Univision. It told the story of Florida tomato pickers, which Sanders had discovered while in his first Senate term, and which he had promoted from his Washington perch.
The ad did not make much of a dent in Florida, but the Sanders campaign could not focus on Florida as it could California. At the end of April, Sanders earned is-it-over headlines when early-state staffs were fired. But the plan was always to consolidate in California.
"I think you see on an overall basis that he does much better when he has been able to focus on a single state," said Weaver. "You can build on the rallies in single states, versus in multiple states, where the impact is diluted."
Has Bernie Sanders finally figured out how to appeal to minorities?
Has Bernie Sanders finally figured out how to appeal to minorities?

High energy costs threaten UK manufacturing’s future, industry warns

- Manufacturing association Make UK said it should cancel climate levies imposed on industrial energy costs and adopt a fixed industrial energy price
MANCHESTER, England: Britain needs to cut industrial energy bills that are the highest among major advanced economies if its aspirations for a healthy manufacturing sector are to succeed, industry body Make UK said on Monday.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government is working on an industrial strategy to put British manufacturing — hit hard by Brexit, soaring energy costs and global trade wars — on a solid footing for the years ahead.
Manufacturing association Make UK said it should cancel climate levies imposed on industrial energy costs and adopt a fixed industrial energy price.
Britain had the highest industrial energy prices out of any International Energy Agency member country in 2023, reflecting its dependence on gas and its role in setting electricity prices.
“If we do not address the issue of high industrial energy costs in the UK as a priority, we risk the security of our country,” Make UK chief executive officer Stephen Phipson said.
“We will fail to attract investment in the manufacturing sector and will rapidly enter a phase of renewed de-industrialization.”
Britain has de-industrialized — defined as the share of manufacturing in overall economic output — faster than in any other major European country over the last 30 years, according to a Reuters analysis of national accounts data.
Manufacturing hit a record low 9 percent of economic output last year, crowded out by the dominant services sector which now drives the majority of the country’s exports — a first among Group of Seven advanced economies.
Alan Johnson, a senior executive for manufacturing, supply chain and purchasing at Nissan Motor, said its Sunderland plant in the north east of England had the highest energy costs out of any of its facilities in the world.
“The proposals being put forward by Make UK ... would send a strong message to investors that the UK remains committed to creating a more competitive environment for electric vehicle manufacturing,” Johnson said.
Ukraine destroys 40 aircraft deep inside Russia ahead of peace talks in Istanbul

- Ukraine's President Zelensky says 117 drones were used in the attack on Russian air bases
- 34 percent of Russia’s fleet of air missile carriers with damages estimated at $7 billion, says Ukraine military
KYIV, Ukraine: A Ukrainian drone attack has destroyed more than 40 Russian planes deep in Russia’s territory, Ukraine’s Security Service said on Sunday, while Moscow pounded Ukraine with missiles and drones just hours before a new round of direct peace talks in Istanbul.
A military official, who spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to disclose operational details, said the far-reaching attack took more than a year and a half to execute and was personally supervised by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

In his evening address, Zelensky said that 117 drones had been used in the operation. He claimed the operation had been headquartered out of an office next to the local FSB headquarters. The FSB is the Russian intelligence and security service.
The military source said it was an “extremely complex” operation, involving the smuggling of first-person view, or FPV, drones to Russia, where they were then placed in mobile wooden houses.
“Later, drones were hidden under the roofs of these houses while already placed on trucks. At the right moment, the roofs of the houses were remotely opened, and the drones flew to hit Russian bombers,” the source said.
Social media footage shared by Russian media appeared to show the drones rising from inside containers while other panels lay discarded on the road. One clip appeared to show men climbing onto a truck in an attempt to halt the drones.
Long-range bombers targeted
The drones hit 41 planes stationed at military airfields on Sunday afternoon, including A-50, Tu-95 and Tu-22M aircraft, the official said. Moscow has previously used Tupolev Tu-95 and Tu-22 long-range bombers to launch missiles at Ukraine, while A-50s are used to coordinate targets and detect air defenses and guided missiles.
The Security Service of Ukraine said that the operation, which it codenamed “Web”, had destroyed 34 percent of Russia’s fleet of air missile carriers with damages estimated at $7 billion. The claim could not be independently verified.

Russia’s Defense Ministry in a statement confirmed the attacks, which damaged aircraft and sparked fires on air bases in the Irkutsk region, more than 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) from Ukraine, as well as the Murmansk region in the north, it said. Strikes were also repelled in the Amur region in Russia’s Far East and in the western regions of Ivanovo and Ryazan, the ministry said.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was briefed on Ukraine’s attack Russia during a stop at Nellis Air Force Base and was monitoring the situation. A senior defense official said on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters that the US was not given notification before the attack. The official said it represented a level of sophistication the US had not seen before.
Also on Sunday, Russia’s top investigative body said that explosions had caused two bridges to collapse and derailed two trains in western Russia overnight, killing seven in one of the incidents and injuring dozens more. Russian officials, however, did not say what had caused the blasts and the word “explosions” was later removed from an Investigative Committee press release.

Attack ahead of talks
The drone attack came the same day as Zelensky said Ukraine will send a delegation to Istanbul for a new round of direct peace talks with Russia on Monday.
In a statement on Telegram, Zelensky said that Defense Minister Rustem Umerov will lead the Ukrainian delegation. “We are doing everything to protect our independence, our state and our people,” Zelensky said.
Ukrainian officials had previously called on the Kremlin to provide a promised memorandum setting out its position on ending the war before the meeting takes place. Moscow had said it would share its memorandum during the talks.
Russian strike hits an army unit
Russia on Sunday launched the biggest number of drones — 472 — on Ukraine since the full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukraine’s air force said.

Russian forces also launched seven missiles alongside the barrage of drones, said Yuriy Ignat, head of communications for the air force. Earlier Sunday, Ukraine’s army said at least 12 Ukrainian service members were killed and more than 60 were injured in a Russian missile strike on an army training unit.
Ukrainian army commander Mykhailo Drapatyi later Sunday submitted his resignation following the attack. He was a respected commander whose leadership saw Ukraine regain land on the eastern front for the first time since Kyiv’s 2022 counteroffensive.
The training unit was located to the rear of the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) active front line, where Russian reconnaissance and strike drones are able to strike. Ukraine’s forces lack troops and take extra precautions to avoid mass gatherings as the skies across the front line are saturated with Russian drones looking for targets.
Poland on a knife’s edge as exit poll shows a near tie in presidential runoff

- Runoff pitted Trzaskowski, a liberal pro-EU politician, against Karol Nawrock, a conservative historian backed by the right-wing Law and Justice party and aligned with US conservatives
WARSAW, Poland: Exit polls in Poland’s presidential runoff on Sunday showed the two candidates in a statistical tie with the race still too close to call in the deeply divided nation. The results could set the course for the nation’s political future and its relations with the European Union.
A first exit poll showed liberal Warsaw mayor Rafał Trzaskowski with a slight lead over conservative historian Karol Nawrocki, but two hours later an updated “late poll” showed Nawrocki winning 50.7 percent, more than Trzaskowski with 49.3 percent

The polls have a margin of error and it was still not clear who the winner was.
Claims of victory amid uncertainty
Though the final result was still unclear with the two locked in a near dead heat, both men claimed to have won in meetings with their supporters in Warsaw.
“We won,” Trzaskowski told his supporters to chants of “Rafał, Rafał.”
“This is truly a special moment in Poland’s history. I am convinced that it will allow us to move forward and focus on the future,” Trzaskowski said. “I will be your president.”
Nawrocki, speaking to his supporters at a separate event in Warsaw, said he believed he was on track to win. “We will win and save Poland,” he said. “We must win tonight.”
The final results were expected Monday.
A divided country
The decisive presidential runoff pitted Trzaskowski, a liberal pro-EU politician, against Nawrocki, a conservative historian backed by the right-wing Law and Justice party and aligned with US conservatives, including President Donald Trump.
The fact that it was so close underlined how deep the social divisions have become in Poland.
The outcome will determine whether Poland takes a more nationalist path or pivots more decisively toward liberal democratic norms. With conservative President Andrzej Duda completing his second and final term, the new president will have significant influence over whether Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s centrist government can fulfill its agenda, given the presidential power to veto laws.
“We will not allow Donald Tusk’s grip on power to be completed,” Nawrocki said.
The runoff follows a tightly contested first round of voting on May 18, in which Trzaskowski won just over 31 percent and Nawrocki nearly 30 percent, eliminating 11 other candidates.
Katarzyna Malek, a 29-year-old voter in Warsaw, cast her ballot in the first round for a left-wing candidate but went for Trzaskowski on Sunday, viewing him as more competent and more likely to pursue stronger ties with foreign partners and lower social tensions.
“I hope there will be less division, that maybe there will be more dialogue,” she said.
The campaign has highlighted stark ideological divides. Trzaskowski, 53, has promised to restore judicial independence, ease abortion restrictions and promote constructive ties with European partners. Nawrocki, 42, has positioned himself as a defender of traditional Polish values and skeptical of the EU.
Allegations against Nawrocki
Nawrocki’s candidacy has been clouded by allegations of past connections to criminal figures and participation in a violent street battle. He denies the criminal links but acknowledges having taken part in “noble” fights. The revelations have not appeared to dent his support among right-wing voters, many of whom see the allegations as politically motivated.

“We managed to unite the entire patriotic camp in Poland, the entire camp of people who want a normal Poland, want a Poland without illegal migrants, a safe Poland. We managed to unite all those who want social, community security,” Nawrocki said. It was an apparent reference to those who supported far-right candidates in the first round and who supported him on Sunday.
Some of those voting for Nawrocki in Warsaw dismissed the allegations against him, saying he shouldn’t be punished for his past and that Trzaskowski has also made mistakes as mayor.
Władysława Wąsowska, an 82-year-old former history teacher, recalled instilling patriotism in her students during the communist era, when Poland was under Moscow’s influence.
“I’m a right-wing conservative. I love God, the church and the homeland,” she said, explaining that Nawrocki for her is the only patriotic choice now, and accusing Trzaskowski of serving foreign interests.
“He’s controlled by Germany,” she said. “I want a sovereign, independent, democratic Poland — and a Catholic one.”
International echoes
Amid rising security fears over Russia’s war in neighboring Ukraine, both candidates support aid to Kyiv, though Nawrocki opposes NATO membership for Ukraine, while Trzaskowski supports it in the future.
Nawrocki’s campaign has echoed themes popular on the American right, including an emphasis on traditional values. His supporters feel that Trzaskowski, with his pro-EU views, would hand over control of key Polish affairs to larger European powers like France and Germany.
Many European centrists rooted for Trzaskowski, seeing in him someone who would defend democratic values under pressure from authoritarian forces across the globe.
Lavrov, Rubio discuss settlement of war in Ukraine, forthcoming talks, agencies report

- “S.V. Lavrov and M. Rubio exchanged views on various initiatives concerning a settlement of the Ukraine crisis
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed on Sunday prospects for settling the conflict in Ukraine and Russia-Ukraine talks set for Monday in Turkiye, Lavrov’s ministry said.
“The situation linked to the Ukraine crisis was discussed,” the ministry said in a statement on its website.
“S.V. Lavrov and M. Rubio also exchanged views on various initiatives concerning a settlement of the Ukraine crisis, including plans to resume direct Russian-Ukrainian talks in Istanbul on June 2.”
The US State Department, which noted the call was at Russia’s request, said Rubio reiterated US President Donald Trump’s call for continued direct talks between Russia and Ukraine to achieve “a lasting peace.”
The ministry also said that during the conversation Rubio expressed condolences over deaths that occurred when two bridges were blown up in separate Russian regions bordering Ukraine.
“It was stressed on the Russian side that competent bodies will proceed with a thorough investigation and the results will be published. The guilty parties will be identified and will without doubt be subject to a worthy punishment.”
Russian officials said at least seven people were killed and 69 injured when the two bridges were blown up on Saturday.
UK to expand submarine fleet as defense review calls for ‘warfighting readiness’

- The new submarines will be a model jointly developed by the UK, US and Australia under the security partnership known as AUKUS
LONDON: Britain will increase the size of its nuclear-powered attack submarine fleet, the government has announced ahead of a defense review expected to say the country must invest billions to be ready and equipped to fight a modern war.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, like other leaders across Europe, is racing to rebuild his country’s defense capabilities after US President Donald Trump told the continent it needed to take more responsibility for its own security.
Monday’s Strategic Defense Review will call for Britain’s armed forces to move to a state of “warfighting readiness,” spelling out changing security threats and which defense technologies are needed to counter them.
“We know that threats are increasing and we must act decisively to face down Russian aggression,” defense minister John Healey said in a statement.
Britain will build up to 12 of its next-generation attack submarines, which are nuclear-powered but carry conventional non-nuclear weapons, to replace the current fleet of seven from the late 2030s, the Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
Britain operates a separate fleet of submarines armed with nuclear weapons. The government for the first time said a pre-existing program to develop a new nuclear warhead to replace the model used by that fleet would cost 15 billion pounds.
“With new state-of-the-art submarines patrolling international waters and our own nuclear warhead program on British shores, we are making Britain secure at home and strong abroad,” Healey added.
The new submarines will be a model jointly developed by the UK, US and Australia under the security partnership known as AUKUS.
REVERSE DECLINE
In light of Trump’s decision to upend decades of strategic reliance on the US by Europe, Starmer has already committed to increasing Britain’s defense spending in an attempt to reverse a long-term decline in its military capability.
He has promised to raise defense spending to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2027 and target a 3 percent level over the longer term. On Sunday he warned Britain must be ready to fight and win a war against states with advanced military forces.
In the days running up to the Strategic Defense Review, which Starmer commissioned shortly after taking office last July, the government has announced plans to spend billions on munitions plants, battlefield technology and military housing.
Juggling severely strained public finances, a slow-growing economy and declining popularity among an increasingly dissatisfied electorate, Starmer has sought to cast increased spending on defense as a way to create jobs and wealth. “This plan will ensure Britain is secure at home and strong abroad, while delivering a defense dividend of well-paid jobs up and down the country,” he is expected to say in a speech launching Monday’s review.