USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — After the Parkland school shooting in Florida two years ago, President Donald Trump chided Republican lawmakers for being too “scared” of the National Rifle Association to tighten gun laws — then backed away from the idea.

After back-to-back mass shootings in Ohio and Texas in 2019, Trump embraced calls for “strong background checks” — only to backpedal once again.

USA (AP) --- New Hampshire has been holding the first-in-the-nation presidential primary for 100 years, but a significant number of Tuesday’s ballots could be cast by newcomers to that storied tradition.

New Hampshire has one of the nation’s lowest percentages of native-born residents, with only a third of those age 25 and older having been born in the state. And one-fifth of the state’s potential voters either resided somewhere else four years ago or were not old enough to vote, according to a recent analysis of demographic trends by the University of New Hampshire.

FORREST CITY, Ark. (AP) — Two police officers were wounded and a gunman was killed Monday morning in an exchange of gunfire at a Walmart store in eastern Arkansas, authorities said.

Forrest City Police Chief Deon Lee said one of the officers was taken to a hospital about 45 miles (70 kilometers) to the east in Memphis where he was in surgery, and the initial prognosis is “he’s going to be OK.”

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Eager to put on a show of force in a general election battleground state, President Donald Trump tried to rattle Democrats on Monday with a rally in New Hampshire on the eve of the state’s first-in-the-nation primaries.

Trump, on a high after his acquittal last week on impeachment charges, boasted about the nation’s strong economy, tore into his possible general election foes and launched an assault on the Democrats who tried to remove him from office, calling the episode a “pathetic partisan crusade.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department ratcheted up legal pressure Monday on local governments over “sanctuary” policies that hinder federal immigration officers, bringing two new lawsuits and launching a coordinated messaging campaign to highlight an election-year priority of President Donald Trump.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Four members of the Chinese military have been charged with breaking into the computer networks of the Equifax credit reporting agency and stealing the personal information of tens of millions of Americans, the Justice Department said Monday, blaming Beijing for one of the largest hacks in history to target consumer data.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of U.S. service members diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries has shot up to more than 100, the Pentagon said Monday, as more troops suffer the aftereffects of the Iranian ballistic missile attack early last month in Iraq.

The department said the latest total is 109 military members who have been treated for mild TBI, a significant increase over the 64 reported a little over a week ago.

CHICAGO, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- One person was arrested after two men were shot to death during a robbery that happened early Sunday morning in Chinatown on the south side of Chicago.

The men, aged 38 and 39, respectively, were standing in the parking lot of an apartment complex at 2:13 a.m. with a 44-year-old woman when someone walked up and tried to rob them, local media quoted Chicago police as saying.

The men resisted, and the suspect fired multiple shots at their heads. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Europe and NASA’s Solar Orbiter rocketed into space Sunday night on an unprecedented mission to capture the first pictures of the sun’s elusive poles.

“We’re on the way to the sun. Go Solar Orbiter!” said Cesar Garcia Marirrodriga, project manager for the European Space Agency. “It’s a fantastic moment ... it’s like, well, we’re unstoppable.”

The $1.5 billion spacecraft will join NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, launched 1 1/2 years ago, in coming perilously close to the sun to unveil its secrets.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is offering a $4.8 trillion election-year budget plan that recycles previously rejected cuts to domestic programs to promise a balanced budget in 15 years — all while boosting the military and leaving Social Security and Medicare benefits untouched.

Trump’s fiscal 2021 plan, to be released Monday, promises the government’s deficit will crest above $1 trillion only for the current budget year before steadily decreasing to more manageable levels.