AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EST

Trump’s budget balloons deficits, cuts social safety net

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump unveiled a $4.4 trillion budget plan Monday that envisions steep cuts to America’s social safety net but mounting spending on the military, formally retreating from last year’s promises to balance the federal budget.

The president’s spending outline for the first time acknowledges that the Republican tax overhaul passed last year would add billions to the deficit and not “pay for itself” as Trump and his Republican allies asserted. If enacted as proposed, though no presidential budget ever is, the plan would establish an era of $1 trillion-plus yearly deficits.

The open embrace of red ink is a remarkable public reversal for Trump and his party, which spent years objecting to President Barack Obama’s increased spending during the depths of the Great Recession. Rhetoric aside, however, Trump’s pattern is in line with past Republican presidents who have overseen spikes in deficits as they simultaneously increased military spending and cut taxes.

“We’re going to have the strongest military we’ve ever had, by far,” Trump said in an Oval Office appearance Monday. “In this budget we took care of the military like it’s never been taken care of before.”

Trump’s budget revived his calls for big cuts to domestic programs that benefit the poor and middle class, such as food stamps, housing subsidies and student loans. Retirement benefits would remain mostly untouched by Trump’s plan, as he has pledged, though Medicare providers would absorb about $500 billion in cuts — a nearly 6 per cent reduction. Some beneficiaries in Social Security’s disability program would have to re-enter the workforce under proposed changes to eligibility rules.

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Senate GOP, Dem leaders say it’s time for immigration deal

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate’s two top leaders put on a show of comradery Monday as their chamber launched its immigration debate, but also laid down markers underscoring how hard it will be to reach a deal that can move through Congress.

“We really do get along, despite what you read in the press,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., at a previously scheduled appearance alongside his counterpart, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., at the University of Louisville.

There was even ribbing when Schumer presented McConnell with a bottle of bourbon made in his home New York City borough of Brooklyn. McConnell, whose state knows a thing or two about bourbon, proclaimed, “There’s no such thing as Brooklyn bourbon.”

But just days after the two leaders brokered a bipartisan $400 billion budget agreement and helped shepherd it into law, both men made clear that an immigration agreement will be tough.

“The time for political posturing is behind us,” McConnell said later Monday on the Senate floor. He said while Democrats have called for “swift action” on immigration, “Now’s the time to back up the talk with the hard work of finding a solution.”

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10 Things to Know for Tuesday

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Tuesday:

1. WHO’S REVERSING YEARS OF GOP DOGMA

Trump unveils a $4.4 trillion budget that would usher in a new era of $1 trillion-plus federal deficits and never comes close to promising a balanced budget.

2. OLYMPICS LIVING UP TO THEIR NAME

It’s the Winter Olympics — for sure — with temperatures around zero and winds reaching 50 mph.

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Year after Kim’s killing, suspected masterminds evade trial

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Lost in the glare of North Korea’s missile launches, rhetorical battles with Washington and charm offensive at the Winter Olympics, two women stand accused of a crime that could send them to the gallows — the stunning assassination of Kim Jong Un’s estranged half brother.

It’s a crime the young Southeast Asian women almost certainly had a part in — possibly without even knowing it.

But just as certainly, the slaying of Kim Jong Nam one year ago Tuesday must have required a bigger cast of characters. People who could do the meticulous planning, procure the deadly and exotic poison and carefully wait for the exact moment to act so no one would die other than the unwitting target in a crowded airport terminal in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Masterminds, in other words. Professional killers.

And those suspects are all long gone.

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Snow Queen: Kim dominates to take gold in women’s halfpipe

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea (AP) — Chloe Kim’s coronation is complete.

The 17-year-old from Torrance, California, dominated the Olympic women’s halfpipe snowboarding final on Tuesday, soaring to a gold medal four years in the making.

Kim put up a score of 93.75 on the first of her three finals runs and then bettered it with a near-perfect 98.75 on her last run with the gold already well in hand. With members of her family in the stands, including her South Korean grandmother, Kim put on a show that delivered on her considerable pre-Olympic hype.

Liu Jiayu took silver with an 89.75 to become the first Chinese snowboarder to medal at the Olympics.

American Arielle Gold, who pondered retirement last summer, edged teammate and three-time Olympic medallist Kelly Clark for bronze.

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Top German shepherd is a no-go at Westminster dog show

NEW YORK (AP) — A German shepherd that survived a brutal highway accident a few years is out of Westminster, and his show career might be over.

Fanucci was unable to walk into the ring Monday, the first day of two days of America’s most prestigious dog show.

His owners think he might have been nipped by a playful puppy recently, or perhaps he shook his ear too hard and broke a blood vessel.

The 5-year-old was considered by many the nation’s top German shepherd. But his left ear, the one closest to the judge, bubbled up and knocked him out of the competition.

Fanucci’s right rear leg was shattered in 2014 when he jumped out of a van that was being towed. He was injured so badly his owners considered euthanizing him.

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Asian shares lifted by Wall Street rally, China leads gains

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Asian shares tracked an overnight rally on Wall Street, with China leading Tuesday’s gains.

KEEPING SCORE: Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 1.0 per cent to 21,595.81 and South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.5 per cent to 2,420.05. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index surged 2.2 per cent to 30,108.75 and the Shanghai Composite Index advanced 1.8 per cent to 3,212.01. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.6 per cent to 5,854.60. Share benchmarks in Southeast Asia and New Zealand were all higher.

ANALYST’S TAKE: A key question is whether the correction has already hit bottom, said Jingyi Pan, a market strategist at IG. “Nevertheless, the worst is likely not over for this week for the simple reason that we have U.S. CPI sitting as a mammoth event risk this week,” said Pan, referring to the Wednesday release of U.S. consumer price index data for January.

WALL STREET: U.S. stocks finished higher on Monday. The Standard & Poor’s 500, the benchmark for many index funds, gained 1.4 per cent to 2,656. The Dow climbed 1.7 per cent to 24,601.27 and the Nasdaq composite advanced 1.6 per cent to 6,981.96. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks rose 0.9 per cent to 1,490.98.

WHERE THINGS STAND: Investors remain wary of turbulence. It took just nine days for stocks to plunge 10 per cent from their latest peak, which was reached on Jan. 26. A drop of that size is known on Wall Street as a market “correction.” According to LPL Financial, it was the swiftest move from a record high to a correction in the history of the S&P 500. The index rose 1.5 per cent Friday but still wound up with its worst weekly loss in more than two years.

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Satellites show warming is accelerating sea level rise

WASHINGTON (AP) — Melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are speeding up the already fast pace of sea level rise, new satellite research shows.

At the current rate, the world’s oceans on average will be at least 2 feet (61 centimetres) higher by the end of the century compared to today, according to researchers who published in Monday’s Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences.

Sea level rise is caused by warming of the ocean and melting from glaciers and ice sheets. The research, based on 25 years of satellite data, shows that pace has quickened, mainly from the melting of massive ice sheets. It confirms scientists’ computer simulations and is in line with predictions from the United Nations, which releases regular climate change reports.

“It’s a big deal” because the projected sea level rise is a conservative estimate and it is likely to be higher, said lead author Steve Nerem of the University of Colorado.

Outside scientists said even small changes in sea levels can lead to flooding and erosion.

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Olympic swimmer says she wants to save others from sex abuse

NEW YORK (AP) — Olympic swimmer Ariana Kukors said in an emotional interview Monday that her former coach “stole so much” from her in the decade she alleges he sexually abused her starting when she was a minor.

Kukors, 28, told The Associated Press that she can’t get the time back but she can speak out so others recognize the signs of people grooming others for abuse or similar misconduct.

“If I save one person who’s currently being groomed. If I have a dialogue with one parent about something that they think is alarming with their child and their coach. If I could do that, this is worth it — as painful as it is,” Kukors said through tears in New York.

Kukors alleges Sean Hutchison, who began coaching her at a swim club near Seattle, groomed her for sexual abuse when she was 13, started touching and kissing her when she was 16 and engaging in sexual activity when she was 17. The Seattle-area native also told authorities that he took thousands of sexually explicit photos of her as a minor.

Hutchison, 46, a former Olympic assistant coach, has denied the allegations and has not been charged with a crime. Federal and local investigators searched his Seattle apartment last week for computers and other devices.

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Grand Canyon copter crashed on tribal land with fewer rules

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — A helicopter crash that killed three British tourists and left four others critically injured happened on tribal land in the Grand Canyon where air tours are not as highly regulated as those inside the national park.

The group of friends was in Las Vegas to celebrate a birthday and took a helicopter sightseeing tour of the Grand Canyon on the Hualapai reservation, family and friends said. Killed were veterinary receptionist Becky Dobson, 27; her boyfriend Stuart Hill, a 30-year-old car salesman; and his brother, Jason Hill, a 32-year-old lawyer.

Unlike the national park, air tours on the Hualapai reservation are not subject to federal regulations that restrict routes, impose curfews and cap the amount of flights over the Grand Canyon each year. The Federal Aviation Administration granted the Hualapai Tribe an exemption nearly two decades ago after finding that the regulations would harm the tribe’s economy where tourism is a major driver.

Most of the flights over the reservation originate from Las Vegas, and air tour operators aggressively market them. The pilots can fly between canyon walls and land at the bottom next to the Colorado River on the reservation, which isn’t allowed at the park other than for emergency operations.

Landing pads sit upstream and downstream from where the copter owned by Papillon Grand Canyon Helicopters crashed Saturday, constantly ferrying people on and off aircraft.