NewsReuters5 killed as gunman opens fire at Illinois warehouse
A gunman opened fire in an industrial warehouse in Aurora, Illinois, on Friday, killing five people and wounding five police officers before he was slain, law enforcement officials said. Aurora Police Chief Kristen Ziman said the gunman, identified as Gary Martin, 45, was an employee at the industrial complex. Please avoid the area," the Aurora Police Department said in a tweet shortly after 2 p.m. CST, adding that additional details would be forthcoming.
- PoliticsNational Review
Trump's Emergency Declaration Is Contemptuous of the Rule of Law
One thing that is abundantly clear from reading the full text of President Trump's declaration of a national emergency on the southern border — he's barely even deigning to explain why there is a particular crisis today, or why that crisis is so grave that it requires the military to combat it. Before today, legal writers were guessing at the statutes the president would use to justify defying the will of Congress and using the military to build his border wall. In his declaration, he's exclusively using 10 U.S.C. 2808 to reallocate up to $3.6 billion from Department of Defense construction projects — more than double the amount that Congress allocated for wall construction in its border compromise.
WorldAssociated PressAP Interview: Karzai worries Pakistan talks risk peace pact
Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Saturday that previously unscheduled peace talks between the Taliban and the United States in Pakistan risk engulfing the country in regional rivalries. In an interview with The Associated Press in the capital Kabul, Karzai worried that the accelerated peace process was being hijacked by competing territorial interests in Afghanistan, even as the country's neighbors and powerful Persian Gulf states jockey for influence after U.S. troops are gone. The talks are aimed at finding a negotiated end to Afghanistan's destructive 17-year war — America's longest.
WorldAFPNorth Koreans pay tribute to Kim's father in freezing cold
The Day of the Shining Star dawned bitterly cold in Pyongyang. Kim, the son of the isolated North's founder Kim Il Sung and the father and predecessor of current leader Kim Jong Un, was born on February 16. According to Pyongyang's orthodoxy, he came into the world in 1942, in a snow-covered hut at a secret camp on the slopes of Mount Paektu, the spiritual birthplace of the Korean people, where his father was fighting occupying Japanese forces.
- BusinessCar and Driver
It Looks Like the Land Rover Discovery SVX Is Dead
Land Rover showed a V-8–powered Discovery SVX concept in 2017, but U.K. media are reporting it's not going to reach production. The SVX name may still be used later, the sources report. UPDATE 2/15/19: Land Rover confirmed that the Discovery SVX concept will not reach production, at least not with the planned V-8 powertrain.
- BusinessUSA TODAY
Southwest declares operations 'emergency' amid labor dispute with mechanics
Southwest Airlines has had to remove an unusually high number of aircraft from service at the last minute this week, forcing the airline to declare an "operational emergency'' in a strongly worded memo to mechanics Friday. The airline, which has been in prolonged and often contentious contract talks with its mechanics, ordered all hands on deck to get the planes back in the air. Mechanics who call in sick while the emergency status is in place will need a detailed doctor's note upon return, the memo says.
WorldAssociated PressNigeria delays its election; candidates rush back to capital
The top candidates condemned the decision and blamed each other but appealed to Africa's largest democracy for calm, while they rushed back to the capital to learn more about what went wrong. The party backing top opposition challenger Atiku Abubakar accused President Muhammadu Buhari's administration of "instigating this postponement" with the aim of ensuring a low turnout at the polls. It urged Nigerians to remain calm and turn out in greater numbers a week from now.
- CelebrityArchitectural Digest
Lee Radziwill Dies at 85
I suppose I wanted to lull myself into thinking I was in the English countryside,” Lee Radziwill, who died last night at the age of 85, said in AD's January 1982 issue, when the magazine put her Park Avenue dining room, photographed by Derry Moore, on its cover. The comment surely had deeper meaning, perhaps more than she even knew; one can imagine it having been delivered in a wistful tone. The apartment was filled with flowers and plants—real but also printed, woven, blocked, embroidered, and more, making it a virtual bower, an American evocation of Turville Grange, the beloved Buckinghamshire getaway that Radziwill had left behind when she and her second husband divorced in 1974.
BusinessAFPFact-check: Does Amazon pay '$0' in taxes?
A tweet by a popular US Congresswoman spotlighted a report about US tech behemoth Amazon's tax burden for the past two years. While the company paid no US federal income tax, it reported "cash taxes paid" of $1.2 billion last year and $957 million in 2017. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a rising Democratic star in the US Congress, tweeted (1) about media reports on research by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a Washington think tank, stating Amazon paid no US federal income tax for two years.
NewsReutersIllinois factory gunman obtained firearm permit despite felony conviction
The gunman who killed five co-workers and wounded five policemen at an Illinois factory was a violent felon who nevertheless obtained a state permit to buy a firearm despite being legally barred from owning one, authorities said on Saturday. Gary Martin, 45, who carried his pistol to work on Friday apparently suspecting he faced dismissal from his job, opened fire after being told of his termination in a meeting at the Henry Pratt Company plant in Aurora, Illinois, about 40 miles (64 km) west of Chicago, police said. The dead included the plant manager, a human resources supervisor, a human resources intern and two other workers.
- PoliticsNational Review
Sasse Warns Trump That National Emergency Could Set Dangerous Precedent
Senator Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) on Friday warned President Trump that his national emergency declaration may set a dangerous precedent that will be exploited by a future Democratic administration. In a statement provided to National Review, Sasse endorsed President Trump's claim that a lack of attention to security has created a “crisis” at the southern border, but warned that resolving the issue through a national-emergency declaration would prove counterproductive for conservatives in the future. “We absolutely have a crisis at the border, but as a Constitutional conservative I don't want a future Democratic President unilaterally rewriting gun laws or climate policy,” Sasse said in the statement.
- WorldThe Independent
US 'tells India it respects its right to self-defence' after cross-border militant attack kills 44 paramilitary police
The US has supported India's right to “self defence” against cross-border terrorism after an attack claimed by Pakistan-based militants killed at least 44 police officers in the disputed territory of Kashmir. In comments that will please Indian hawks but also raise fears that tensions between India and Pakistan could escalate yet further, US national security advisor John Bolton reportedly told his counterpart in Delhi, that America “offered all assistance to India” to bring the perpetrators of the attack to justice. Mr Bolton and Ajit Doval also “resolved to hold Pakistan to account for its obligations under UN resolutions”, India's foreign ministry said in a statement.
- U.S.WLS – Chicago
Aurora shooting: Victims identified in shooting at Henry Pratt Company; gunman also dead
Five people are dead, five City of Aurora police officers were shot, and at least six others were injured in a workplace mass shooting in west suburban Aurora Friday afternoon. The gunman is also dead, police said.
- ScienceTime
How to Watch the Super Snow Moon, the Biggest Supermoon of 2019
Good news for sky watchers and selenophiles, the next full moon is set to be the biggest and brightest of the year, according to NASA. While the upcoming “super snow moon” won't be the extravagant astronomical spectacle that January's “super blood wolf moon eclipse” was, it will be larger and brighter, and definitely command attention in the sky. Here's what to know about the upcoming “super snow moon” — and what the best time is to see it.
BusinessReutersMerck, Pfizer drug combo extends kidney cancer survival: study
A combination of Merck & Co's immunotherapy Keytruda and Pfizer Inc's Inlyta helped patients with advanced kidney cancer live longer than those receiving and older Pfizer standalone therapy, according to data from a late-stage study presented on Saturday. Nearly 90 percent of patients who received the combination therapy were still alive after 12 months compared with about 78 percent of patients who were alive after a year when treated with the older drug Sutent, data showed. Merck on Monday released interim data from the trial, saying the combination reduced the risk of death by 47 percent compared with Sutent.
WorldAssociated PressUS military planes land near Venezuela border with aid
The U.S. military airlifted tons of humanitarian aid to a Colombian town on the Venezuelan border Saturday as part of an effort meant to undermine socialist President Nicolas Maduro and back his rival for the leadership of the South American nation. Three scheduled Air Force C-17 cargo planes that took off from Homestead Air Reserve Base in Florida had landed in Cucuta. That border city, swollen by a flood of migrants from Venezuela, is a collection point for aid that's supposed to be distributed by supporters of Juan Guaido, the congressional leader who is recognized by the U.S. and many other nations as Venezuela's legitimate president.
- PoliticsUSA TODAY
Green New Deal: Republicans talk up climate change plan – but not because they like it
WASHINGTON – Republicans are talking a lot about the Green New Deal after its rollout on Capitol Hill this month by liberal Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. It's not because the GOP supports the transformation of the electric grid from fossil fuels to renewable energy called for in the plan to combat climate change. Or because Republicans agree with the approach the plan lays out for boosting Americans' economic security and giving people access to affordable health care.
WorldAssociated PressThe Latest: Cardinal calls McCarrick punishment 'important'
Cardinal Sean O'Malley issued a statement Saturday after the announcement that McCarrick had been found guilty by the Vatican of sex abuse, including while hearing confession. O'Malley says church leaders "must enforce accountability for cardinals and bishops." O'Malley says his archdiocese is committed to taking reports of abuse seriously, saying it has a "moral responsibility" to be always vigilant.
WorldAFPIran launches 'cruise missile capable' submarine
Iran on Sunday launched a new locally-made submarine capable of firing cruise missiles, state TV said, in the country's latest show of military might at a time of heightened tensions with the US. The launch ceremony, led by President Hassan Rouhani, took place in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas. "Today, the Islamic Republic of Iran is fully self-reliant on land, air and sea," Rouhani said.
- WorldBloomberg
U.S. Appeal for NATO Personnel in Syria Brushed Off by Spain
A U.S. appeal for NATO allies to fill the void left by its imminent withdrawal from Syria was dismissed by Spain's foreign minister, still bristling at Donald Trump's unilateral decision to bring his troops home. Vice President Mike Pence told reporters at the Munich Security Conference that the U.S. is asking NATO members and other partners to provide "the resources and the support and the personnel" required to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State once U.S. operations conclude. "Requests between countries aren't made in press releases or conference comments," Spain's Josep Borrell said at a briefing in Munich on Saturday.
WorldAFPIndia ends police protection for Kashmir leaders after bombing
Indian authorities withdrew police protection for five separatist leaders in Kashmir on Sunday amid mounting fallout from a suicide bombing that killed 41 soldiers in the disputed region. New Delhi has vowed to retaliate after a van packed with explosives ripped through a convoy transporting 2,500 soldiers across the Indian-administered territory on Thursday, the deadliest-ever attack in a 30-year-old armed conflict. Indian officials said police protection had been withdrawn for Muslim cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and four other leaders.
- LifestyleThe Telegraph
Potato rösti
This potato rösti is the perfect way to use up that last bit of cheese in the fridge. SERVES Two INGREDIENTS 500g potatoes, ideally a nice waxy chip potato 1 small onion, finely sliced 1 garlic clove, crushed and chopped Pinch of dried chilli 50g butter 120g mixed grated cheese such as cheddar, gruyere or comté (a great opportunity to use up leftovers) Large pinch of fresh or dried sage METHOD Peel the potatoes and coarsely grate them into a bowl. Add the onion, garlic and chilli and season well.
ScienceMashableNASA posts image of ghostly blue objects, deep in the cosmos
NASA's long-lived Hubble Space Telescope captured vivid bright clumps moving through the cosmos at some 1,000 light years from Earth. Seen as the vivid blue, ephemeral clumps in the top center of the new image below, these are telltale signs of an energy-rich gas, or plasma, colliding with a huge collection of dust and gas in deep space. NASA doesn't identify the new star itself, called SVS 13, perhaps because it's obscured by thick clouds of cosmic matter.
- WorldReuters
Israel trims funds to Palestinians over militant stipends
Under interim peace deals, Israel collects taxes on behalf the Palestinians, who put the current sums at $222 million a month. With negotiations stalled since 2014, Israel has at times withheld money as a measure of protest or pressure. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, though facing steep aid cuts by Donald Trump's administration that he has boycotted over perceived bias, has held to paying stipends to the families of Palestinians jailed as security offenders or killed by Israel.
NewsAssociated PressMedical emergency triggers stampede at San Francisco theater
Chaos broke out during a performance of the musical "Hamilton" at San Francisco's Orpheum theater Friday night after audience members mistook a medical emergency for a shooting. A woman had a heart attack and someone broke open an emergency defibrillator, activating an alarm at the same time that gunfire went off on stage as part of the show's duel scene, city fire department spokesman Jonathan Baxter said. The scene depicts the deadly duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.
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