Por Jeremy Herb y Kristen Holmes, CNN

Tras un tiroteo atroz que conmocionó al país, el presidente Donald Trump rompió de forma tajante con los grupos defensores de las armas en comentarios improvisados: “Primero quiten las armas, luego sigan el debido proceso”, dijo Trump durante una reunión televisada con legisladores.

Eso ocurrió hace casi ocho años, después de un tiroteo masivo en 2018 en una escuela secundaria de Parkland, Florida, donde un atacante armado mató a 17 personas. Trump planteó entonces leyes más estrictas sobre verificaciones de antecedentes y elevar la edad mínima para comprar ciertas armas de fuego. Pero tras las objeciones de la Asociación Nacional del Rifle (NRA, por sus siglas en inglés) y otros grupos a favor del derecho a poseer y portar armas, dio marcha atrás.

La semana pasada, Trump volvió a poner a esos grupos a la defensiva cuando dijo que el manifestante de Minneapolis Alex Pretti no debería haber tenido un arma cuando murió tras recibir disparos de agentes federales.

“No se puede tener armas. No se puede ir con armas. Simplemente no se puede”, dijo Trump a los periodistas afuera de la Casa Blanca, en declaraciones que parecían culpar a Pretti por llevar un arma en la cintura cuando fue baleado y murió.

Trump, quien se ha descrito a sí mismo como “el mejor amigo que los dueños de armas han tenido jamás en la Casa Blanca”, recibió un rápido reproche de activistas proarmas, que argumentaron que Pretti tenía un claro derecho, amparado por la Segunda Enmienda, a manifestarse portando un arma. Algunos grupos criticaron abiertamente al presidente, mientras que la NRA, el mayor grupo defensor de las armas en Estados Unidos, no mencionó directamente al presidente ni a sus comentarios.

“La NRA cree inequívocamente que todos los ciudadanos que cumplen la ley tienen derecho a poseer y portar armas en cualquier lugar donde tengan un derecho legal a estar”, escribió la organización en X la semana pasada.

Los comentarios de Trump resultaron aún más llamativos porque se produjeron después de críticas de grupos proarmas contra altos funcionarios del Gobierno de Trump, incluidos el director del FBI, Kash Patel, y la secretaria de Seguridad Nacional, Kristi Noem, quienes sugirieron en los momentos inmediatamente posteriores que Pretti representaba una amenaza por portar un arma.

Fue apenas el episodio más reciente en el que las acciones y la retórica del presidente lo han enfrentado con los grupos defensores de las armas —aunque el historial de su Gobierno se inclina en gran medida a favor de esos derechos—, desordenando la política en torno a las armas de fuego y, en ocasiones, creando alianzas inesperadas.

“Trump siempre ha sido un objetivo algo cambiante cuando se trata de los derechos sobre las armas”, dijo Rob Doar, presidente del Minnesota Gun Owners Law Center, quien ha rechazado las afirmaciones de funcionarios de Trump de que Pretti estaba violando la ley de Minnesota al portar un arma.

“Creo que los defensores siempre son un poco cautelosos a la hora de confiar en Trump como un portavoz sólido de la Segunda Enmienda. Su Gobierno, en cambio, ha hecho algunas cosas realmente fuertes”, dijo Doar.

Las posturas de Trump sobre las armas han cambiado: pasó de apoyar una prohibición de las armas de asalto en el año 2000 a una campaña presidencial en 2016 en la que la NRA gastó millones para ayudarlo a llegar a la Casa Blanca.

Pero mucho ha cambiado desde la primera elección de Trump. La NRA ya no es la poderosa fuerza de lobby que solía ser, debilitada por escándalos financieros y años de conflictos internos que derivaron en la renuncia, en 2024, de su presidente Wayne LaPierre.

Un estratega republicano que trabaja directamente con varios legisladores en el Capitolio describió la irrupción de la NRA en la conversación sobre la muerte de Pretti como un intento de la organización por mantenerse r

By Lily Hautau, CNN

(CNN) — NASA’s Artemis II mission is set to launch as early as February 6, putting human spaceflight to the moon back in the spotlight after a 50-plus year hiatus which may inspire future filmmakers to explore the possibilities of space travel in their own work.

In celebration of our IRL return to the drama and wonder of space, we asked 11 astronauts to share their favorite space films that capture the thrill of leaving Earth behind. Did your favorite make it?

‘The Martian’: Survival, science and teamwork on the Red Planet

Directed by Ridley Scott and adapted from a book by Andy Weir, “The Martian” is at turns funny and perilous. Matt Damon, in the title character, portrays a stranded astronaut, alone on the Red Planet. He uses his botany and mechanical engineering skills to survive, but also the collective brain trust and courage of NASA and his fellow mission astronauts.

For Clayton C. Anderson, who spent five months aboard the International Space Station in 2007, the depiction of teamwork in “The Martian,” which also starred Jessica Chastain, hit close to home. “It shows the dedication of NASA’s workforce, working together, sometimes at huge personal sacrifice, to get the job done,” he said.

Having completed a 152-day tour of duty in orbit, Anderson knows how essential that collaboration is. “That job starts with protecting the crew, the vehicle and mission objectives, with all three defining mission success,” he said.

Dr. Kate Rubins, who logged nearly 300 days in space and became the first person to sequence DNA beyond Earth, praised the Oscar-nominated film for its scientific realism. “It does a great job of showing how biology and chemistry can be used to make what you need from what you have on hand,” she said.

Scenes in which Damon’s character must grow his own food felt especially authentic. For astronauts, resourcefulness isn’t cinematic flair — it’s mission-critical. Having to utilize what you are given is “critical during space missions, like growing food or making essential materials, instead of relying upon resupply from Earth,” Rubins added.

‘Apollo 13’: A true story of ingenuity and arguably NASA’s finest hour

That same spirit of ingenuity and teamwork is at the heart of another astronaut favorite: “Apollo 13,” the true story of the nearly ill-fated moon mission, starring Ed Harris, Bill Paxton and Tom Hanks as the mission’s commander Jim Lovell.

Four retired astronauts praised its realism, emotional impact and tribute to NASA’s professional collaborations.

Nicole Stott, who flew two space shuttle missions and spent more than 100 days aboard the International Space Station, said the best picture nominee embodied lessons she learned early in her career as a NASA engineer. “To really make things happen, we have to adopt a ‘here’s how we can, not why we can’t’ approach to everything,” she wrote via email.

The film’s attention to detail left a lasting impression on Michael Massimino, who flew multiple shuttle missions and performed spacewalks to service the Hubble Space Telescope. He said the movie, which was inducted into the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 2023, “paid well deserved tribute to the dedicated men and women of Mission Control.”

Others pointed to how accurately the film captured the true high stakes peril of spaceflight. “Ron Howard directed it to be as close to reality as he could, even using the real dialogue between the wounded Apollo capsule and Mission Control,” said Chris Hadfield, who commanded the ISS in 2013. “It intensely dramatizes the urgent, high-stakes, life-or-death reality of spaceflight.”

Howard “did an incredible job reflecting the real tension that b

By Edward-Isaac Dovere, CNN

(CNN) — Wes Moore struggles to describe how he’d feel if he falls short in his push to gerrymander another Democratic seat in his state and the US House of Representatives ends up staying Republican.

The easy smile and motivational speaker energy evaporate. The prepared lines disappear. His eyes close.

“So angry,” he says, after a beat.

The Maryland governor is so popular in his solidly blue state that former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, who’d been eager to take another run at his old job, preemptively pulled the plug on a comeback campaign. Moore is a Rhodes Scholar and bestselling author. Oprah Winfrey spoke at Moore’s 2022 inauguration, candidates around the country are already putting in requests for him to join them, and George Clooney keeps saying he wants Moore to run for president, even hosting the governor on his yacht off the coast of Italy last Labor Day.

But neither Moore nor national Democrats have swayed Bill Ferguson, the Baltimore-based president of the Maryland Senate. Ferguson is blocking Moore’s push to redraw the state’s US House maps and try to eliminate the only Republican-held seat out of eight, rejecting even holding a vote on a proposal that moved easily through the state House of Delegates.

Ferguson warns that going for an 8-0 map could backfire in court, potentially letting judges draw a map that costs Democrats a seat. He cautions against bowing to anger at President Donald Trump and his launching of the national battle to redraw maps ahead of the midterms.

Moore knows that if redistricting doesn’t happen in Maryland, national Democrats who want a no-holds-barred approach to Trump won’t blame state legislators whose names they don’t even know.

For all that he can tout about bringing crime down and economic development up, the redistricting fight will be one measure of what Moore can deliver as a governor with full party control of his state heading into a potential 2028 White House run.

“If we end up with a Republican House and part of the reason is because Maryland did not move, none of that — forget politically, right?” Moore told CNN in an interview giving his most extensive comments about his own role in the redistricting battle. “For my soul, none of that will matter, because it just means that we kowtowed as a state.”

In part, what’s happening in Maryland is a well-worn tale of state legislators rebuffing a governor from their own party whom they brush off as not knowing history or the way things really work around the capital. There are parallels to the Republican state senators in Indiana who rejected Trump’s pushing them on redistricting last year.

But Moore also allowed Ferguson to get out in front of him to oppose Maryland redistricting, letting momentum and time dissipate. He waited to formally launch his redrawing effort until the morning after Gov. Gavin Newsom’s big gerrymandering win in November’s California ballot proposition.

Moore argues his delays were only about getting the process right.

“When I hear people say, ‘Don’t worry about it, because we’re going to win overwhelmingly anyway,’ my answer always back is, ‘Says who?’” Moore said. “I would never forgive myself, nor anyone else, if we come up short and the reason that we have to keep on dealing with this is because we didn’t do our job. That would be unforgivable.”

The potential value of one seat

A single seat in Maryland takes on heightened importance for Democrats, who are three seats behind Republicans in the redistricting battles, according to

By Harmeet Kaur, CNN

(CNN) — For decades, the stereotype of the American gun owner has been an older, conservative, white man, and the leading gun organizations have identified more and more closely with the Republican Party. While many gun owners still fit that description, more women, gay people and people of color have taken up arms in recent years, particularly after 2020.

Now, after the killing of Alex Pretti by federal agents, and with President Donald Trump sending a surge of armed federal agents into communities around the country, even more once gun-shy liberals and leftists are considering getting armed.

Several niche, left-leaning gun advocacy groups said that since Pretti was killed, they can hardly keep up with the surging demand for firearms training. Pretti’s killing has scrambled the world of gun politics.

Weekend classes at L.A. Progressive Shooters are sold out through March. Registrations for permit-to-carry courses at Pink Pistols Twin Cities, which serves LGBTQ people in Minneapolis and St. Paul, are up from an average of five people per class to 25 — the group recently added seven more courses to accommodate increased interest, and those are filling up, too. To paraphrase a recent meme: The right is arguing for gun control, and the left is buying guns.

“In the past couple of days, there has been a shift,” Lara Smith, national spokesperson for the Liberal Gun Club, says. “This changed views on the left.”

Alex Pretti, a beloved ICU nurse who cared for ailing veterans and an outdoorsman who was concerned about the environment, was also, like one-third of Americans, a gun owner. He was carrying his lawfully owned weapon in a holster before federal agents disarmed him and then fatally shot him.

Trump and members of his administration have tried to use the fact that Pretti had a firearm on his person, though not in his hands, to justify his killing. The National Rifle Association, which is typically a fierce defender of people’s right to carry weapons, has been muted in response. The day Pretti was killed, the organization appeared to blame his death on progressive politicians, accusing them of inciting violence against immigration agents. A few days later, the NRA issued a more forceful statement affirming the right of “law-abiding citizens” to bear arms, but stopped short of mentioning Pretti by name. CNN has reached out to the NRA for comment.

Jordan Levine, founder of the inclusive gun community A Better Way 2A, says his organization has seen an influx of gun groups and instructors asking to join its resource page in the last few weeks — Ready Rainbow in Chicago, Grassroots Defense in Iowa and Solidarity Defense in Sacramento are a few recent additions. “People are scared and angry and want to equalize the power imbalance that we’re seeing on the news, where you’ve got ICE steamrolling people with no recourse,” he adds.

Philip Smith, founder and president of the National African American Gun Association, says membership in his organization has grown since Trump’s second term began and since Pretti was killed. “People join when they’re scared,” Smith says. “People join when certain people get in office, because it scares them. People join when they see these shootings across

Por Djenane Villanueva, CNN en Español

Como sucedió en otros países de la región el año pasado, Costa Rica acudirá este domingo a las urnas para definir la presidencia de la república, dos vicepresidencias y las 57 curules de la Asamblea Legislativa con una preocupación creciente por la seguridad, que, según los sondeos, es la prioridad de los votantes a la hora de definir por qué candidato se decantarán.

Otras inquietudes novedosas movilizarán también a los costarricenses: el deterioro de la educación pública y la ausencia de un diálogo social que permita trazar un rumbo claro para el país.

El proceso electoral cuenta con 20 candidatos, pero los expertos coinciden en que la fragmentación política no fue acompañada de una discusión nacional profunda sobre los principales desafíos. Seguridad ciudadana, deterioro de la educación y de la atención sanitaria, y la necesidad de un modelo de desarrollo que responda a esos retos son temas centrales, pero sin consensos ni acuerdos de largo plazo. Todo lo contrario, la polarización marcó la campaña para suceder a Rodrigo Chaves.

La oficialista Laura Fernández, exministra de Planificación Nacional, de 39 años, encabeza la intención de voto con un 43,8 %, de acuerdo con la encuesta más reciente del Centro de Investigación y Estudios Políticos de la Universidad de Costa Rica (CIEP-UCR). Con estos resultados, Fernández se mantiene cerca de asegurar la presidencia en primera ronda, mientras que el segundo puesto lo ocupan los indecisos, un 25,9 % del electorado.

En Costa Rica, una candidatura debe obtener al menos el 40 % de los votos válidos para ganar la presidencia en primera ronda. Si ninguna alcanza ese umbral, las dos personas con mayor cantidad de votos deben disputar una segunda ronda electoral, según establece el Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones (TSE).

Según el informe del Estado de la Nación 2025 (PEN), una iniciativa que analiza el desempeño del país desde hace más de 30 años, Costa Rica experimentó un repunte económico 2024 y la primera mitad de 2025, y se posicionó como el país con el mejor comportamiento económico dentro de la Organización para la Cooperación y el Desarrollo Económicos (OCDE).

Si bien esta bonanza permitió una mayor estabilidad de precios y una reducción en algunos indicadores, como la pobreza, el estudio advierte que el éxito es desigual: el dinamismo sigue concentrado en las zonas francas, mientras que la economía tradicional y la generación de empleo formal crecen a un ritmo mucho más lento, lo que profundiza la brecha social.

Según la Encuesta Nacional de Hogares (Enaho) 2025, la pobreza en Costa Rica bajó al 15,2 %, una reducción significativa de 2,8 puntos porcentuales respecto al 18 % registrado en 2024.

La ley de régimen de zonas francas acoge industrias en un área delimitada y con un conjunto de incentivos que el Estado otorga a las empresas que realicen inversiones nuevas en el país, como los dispositivos médicos que lideran las exportaciones a Estados Unido