NPR News

The Horn of Africa, one of the world's most impoverished regions, is being ransacked by billions of tiny invaders.

Farmers look on in horror as desert locusts moving in vast cloud-like swarms darken the sky. The insects blast through fields of crops at an astonishing pace, decimating livelihoods in the process.

Local newspapers have steadily gone out of business throughout the digital age. We’ll dig into the fate of local journalism and what can be done to save it.

Guests

John Thornton, co-founder of the American Journalism Project, a venture philanthropy organization dedicated to local news. Founder of the Texas Tribune. (@thorntonaustin)

Democrats take the debate stage. President Trump issues a round of pardons. Former DOJ prosecutors call for AG Barr’s resignation. The roundtable is here.

Guests

Astead Herndon, national political reporter for The New York Times. (@AsteadWesley)

Betsy Woodruff Swan, political reporter for The Daily Beast. (@woodruffbets)

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has now spent some $452 million on advertising since entering the Democratic presidential race in late November, according to the ad-tracking firm Advertising Analytics.

The multibillionaire, who is self-funding his campaign, has already spent more than $401 million on television and radio ads alone. That surpasses the $338.3 million that President Barack Obama's campaign spent on those ads during his entire 2012 campaign, according to Advertising Analytics.

A homicide that shocked Lesotho has become more shocking still: Police say Prime Minister Thomas Thabane will be charged in the killing of his estranged wife.

But rather than appear in court as he was supposed to Friday, the 80-year-old leader has gone to South Africa to seek medical treatment. "He's not fled the country," Thabane's son Potlako told Reuters. The prime minister's office says he will go to court when he returns.

A task force studying the use of facial recognition for law enforcement found no wrongdoing in the way the state was handling that system. And an upgrade and expansion of the system is now likely.

Last fall, Malvo, an indie K-pop artist, was walking to the parking lot after a long day. He had just finished a show at a university festival near Seoul, South Korea. In the lot, a middle-aged man approached the musician, saying he had a "marketing opportunity" for Malvo and his songs. He didn't give his phone number, or his name.