The school district in Virginia where a first-grader shot his teacher will become one of the rare spots in the U.S. to have permanent metal detectors at elementary schools.

• Newport News School Board Chair Lisa Surles-Law said this week detectors would go into every school, starting at Richneck Elementary School, the site of the shooting, AP reports.

Metal detectors in schools are still rare. But they've become more popular in public schools, especially in middle and high school, as threats of school shootings and violence have increased.

• Fewer than 2% of public elementary schools had "random metal detector checks" in the 2019-2020 school year, according to the National Center for Education statistics. Daily detector checks didn't even register in the data for primary schools.

The debate over whether to submit grade school children to metal detector checks could heat up after the shooting. A 6-year-old boy brought a gun to school and shot his 25-year-old teacher, Abigail Zwerner, in the chest. She is reported to be in stable condition.

• Police described the shooting as "intentional."

"This is a real game changer," Mo Canady, executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers, told AP. “How do we begin to approach the idea of protecting students and staff from an armed 6-year-old?”

The latest: School officials now believe at least one administrator knew the child may have had the gun in his backpack, WAVY-TV reported. The superintendent said the bag was searched and nothing was found.

A U.S. crackdown targeting Chinese manufacturers — including the seizure of $1.3 billion in imports — is crippling the American solar market and freezing its supply chain, reports Alan Neuhauser of Axios Pro: Climate Deals.

• The new forced-labor law passed last year — intended to punish China for its treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang province — has brought the flow of solar imports into the U.S. to a near standstill.

Zoom in: The shrunken supply has jacked up costs — by 30% to 40% — and ground large-scale projects to a halt.

• Customs officials have confirmed to Axios that import detentions connected to the law surged 63% from October through early January of this year, with 2,600 seizures worth $806 million.

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1. 🇯🇵 New announcements on deeper military cooperation between the U.S. and Japan could give the U.S. new tools to defend against a potential invasion of Taiwan, Axios World editor Dave Lawler writes. Go deeper.
2. 💰 The government will hit its debt limit on Jan. 19 and initiate "extraordinary measures" to avoid default, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned today. Go deeper.
3. 🏛️ The State of the Union address was set for Tuesday, Feb. 7.

A 38,000-pound bronze sculpture honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. made its public debut on Boston Common today ahead of Monday's holiday.

• King gave a speech there in 1965.

The sculpture, designed by conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas, depicts King’s hug with his wife, Coretta Scott King, after he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

• The couple met and went to school in Boston.

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