USA

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Joe Biden is facing increasingly formidable competition in South Carolina, a state his campaign has long assumed was safely in his column and one he’s repeatedly described as a “firewall” in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and billionaire activist Tom Steyer are challenging the former vice president’s standing in South Carolina. The Feb. 29 primary is the first contest in the South on the 2020 election calendar and serves as an important gauge of black support.

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — The Latest on the 2020 Democratic presidential race and Tuesday’s primary in New Hampshire (all times local):

6:45 p.m.

Elizabeth Warren is tweaking her standard campaign speech, saying that she’s in the best position to win what some see as an “unwinnable” election for any Democrat against President Donald Trump.

NEW YORK (AP) — A gunman was arrested after he ambushed police officers in the Bronx twice in 12 hours, authorities said, wounding two in attacks that brought outrage from officials who blamed the violence on an atmosphere of anti-police rhetoric.

Robert Williams, 45, of the Bronx, was captured after he walked into a police station in the Bronx and started shooting shortly before 8 a.m. Sunday, police said. His shots struck a lieutenant in the arm and narrowly missed other police personnel before he ran out of bullets, lay down and tossed his pistol, officials said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Confronted with the threat of trillion-dollar-plus deficits for as far as the eye can see, President Donald Trump is offering a $4.8 trillion budget plan for the upcoming fiscal year that rehashes previously rejected spending cuts while leaving Social Security and Medicare benefits untouched.

Trump’s fiscal 2021 budget plan, to be released Monday, isn’t likely to generate a serious Washington dialogue about what to do, if anything this election year, about entrenched fiscal problems that have deficits surging despite a healthy economy.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, a close ally of President Donald Trump, said Sunday that the Justice Department has established a way to review information gathered in Ukraine by Trump personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who has targeted Democrat Joe Biden and his son.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Attorney General William Barr told him during a conversation Sunday that the department has “created a process that Rudy could give information and they would see if it’s verified.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign plans to ask for a “partial recanvass” of the results of last week’s Iowa caucuses.

A campaign aide confirmed the plans Sunday night, ahead of a Monday deadline for candidates to ask the Iowa Democratic Party to recanvass the results. A recanvass is not a recount, but a check of the vote count against paper records to ensure the counts were reported accurately.

The state party released updated results on Sunday showing Pete Buttigieg leading Sanders by two state delegate equivalents out of 2,152 counted.

DOVER, N.H. (AP) — Pete Buttigieg spent Sunday on defense as his Democratic presidential rivals attacked him on everything from his struggle to connect with black voters to accepting campaign contributions from large donors in an effort to blunt any momentum heading into Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary.

NEW YORK, Feb 09 (APP): Braving severe cold weather, a large number of Kashmiris, Pakistanis and Sikhs — some of them holding candles — demonstrated in New York City’s iconic Times Square Saturday night condemning India’s annexation of Jammu and Kashmir and calling on the international community to play its role in the implementation
of U.N. resolutions that pledged to them the right of self-determination.

The demonstration, organized by the Kashmiri-American Council, was part of a number of activities planned for the week in connection with Kashmir Solidarity Day.

WASHINGTON, February 9. /TASS/: Russia’s US Ambassador Anatoly Antonov has commented on various aspects of the Russian-US relations, including the current situation regarding the arrest of Russian diplomatic property in the United States, Russian President Vladimir Putin's initiative to host a summit of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and the 'hockey diplomacy' announced by his US colleague.

ALEXANDRIA, the United States, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- Firefighters have contained a massive building fire in the Alexandria section of Fairfax County, eastern U.S. state of Virginia, fire authorities said Saturday.

Fire crews are hitting hotspots and units are expected to remain on scene for an undetermined length of time, Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department tweeted Saturday afternoon.

The four-alarm fire broke out in a five-story townhouse complex construction site on Saturday morning, according to authorities.