News Wrap: Republicans dismiss Obama’s final budget plan

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• GWEN IFILL:

  In the day's other news, President Obama sent his eighth and final budget to Congress. The $4.1 trillion blueprint includes new spending on cyber-security and cancer research, and a $10-a-barrel tax on oil to pay for transportation needs.

  Hours after it arrived at the Capitol, the president touted the plan's benefits at the White House.

• PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:

  The budget that we're releasing today reflects my priorities and the priorities that I believe will help advance security and prosperity in America for many years to come. These are proposals reflected in the budget that work for us and not against us.

• GWEN IFILL:

  But Republicans dismissed the plan before it even arrived on Capitol Hill. Arizona Senator John McCain said there's not enough spending for defense. And Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker said the president should have consulted with GOP leaders first.

  SEN. ROGER WICKER (R), Mississippi: The president's new budget, his final budget as president of the United States, has arrived with a resounding thud here in the Congress of the United States. This final budget of the Obama administration misses the president's final opportunity to reach out and do big things in a time of divided government.

• GWEN IFILL:

  Republican leaders pledged to release their own budget plan in the coming weeks.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  The head of U.S. intelligence confirmed today that North Korea has restarted its plutonium reactor and ramped up uranium enrichment. Both are key components of a nuclear weapons program.

  The director of national intelligence, James Clapper, says the North could begin recovering plutonium for bomb-making in a matter of weeks or months.

• GWEN IFILL:

  In Hong Kong, lunar new year celebrations erupted into the worst violence since 2014, leaving dozens injured. It started after police tried to shut down unlicensed food vendors. With that, hundreds of protesters rushed police lines, hurling bricks and swinging sticks. Officers fought back with batons and rounds of pepper spray. They arrested more than 60 people.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Safety officials in Southern Germany are trying to understand what caused a deadly train wreck. The crash today in Bavaria killed at least 10 people and injured scores more.

  Emma Murphy of Independent Television News reports from the scene.

• EMMA MURPHY:

  On one of the safest rail networks in the world, what's left of two commuter trains. They collided at full speed, just before 7:00 this morning, outside the spa town of Bad Aibling, an hour from Munich. It was a head-on collision, both trains on the same track, the impact crushing the front carriages and flipping others off the tracks.

  This mobile phone footage a glimpse of the dreadfulness that greeted emergency services.

• MAN (through interpreter):

  You could hear people screaming for help. You could hear how glass was being broken to help people get out. And one by one, people were getting out, covered in blood, limping.

• EMMA MURPHY:

  This is the same route the trains were on. It's fitted with an automatic braking system, which should have stopped them if the track wasn't clear. Why it didn't, whether through human or technical failure, is part of the investigation.

  Walking to this site, what strikes you is that it's straight all the way, the rail track running parallel with the canal, until you get to the part where the two trains collided. That is where there is something of a bend. The trains would have been going at top speed, around 60 miles an hour. By the time they came out of that bend on the same track, they wouldn't have had time to stop. And the investigation now must establish why they were in the same place at the same time.

  The crash happened down a single-track road between a canal and forest, which meant huge problems for the 700-strong team of emergency service staff. Casualties were put into small inflatable ribs to be moved to helicopters and ambulances in Germany and Austria.

  Dreadful as this day has been, the only relief is that more were not killed. Usually, these trains would be full of schoolchildren, but they were off school today for a carnival.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  One person is still missing in the wreckage, but officials had to call off the search at nightfall.

• GWEN IFILL:

  Staggering new numbers today on the European migrant crisis. The International Organization for Migration reports that more than 76,000 migrants have arrived on the continent by sea just since January 1. That comes to nearly 2,000 arrivals a day, and it's about 10 times more than the same period last year. More than 400 people have died in the crossing attempt this year, up from 69 at this same time last year.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Back in this country, Hawaii's Big Island has declared a state of emergency over an outbreak of dengue fever. There've been 250 confirmed cases of the mosquito-borne illness since late October, the most since the 1940s. The state of emergency allows landfills to accept old tires, which are often breeding spots for mosquitoes.

• GWEN IFILL:

  Wall Street struggled today to avoid another sell-off. In the end, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 12 points to close at 16014. The Nasdaq fell 15 points, and the S&P 500 dropped one.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  And thousands of people had to brave cold winds in New Orleans today for the climax of Mardi Gras. Despite the chill, revelers filled the streets of the Big Easy to enjoy traditional parades, elaborate floats and all the beads they could catch. The celebrations mark the culmination of the Carnival season as Lent is ushered in.