FLORIDA: No mention of fire arms or gun control, President Donald Trump's statement Thursday skirted the big issues and demanded to know how a “disturbed” former student with an obsession with firearms slipped through the net to sow carnage at a Florida high school, killing at least 17 people in the latest gun massacre to rock the nation.
The 19-year-old suspect Nikolas Cruz has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder over Wednesday’s deadly rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, America’s worst school shooting since the Sandy Hook massacre left 20 children and six teachers dead in 2012.
After a night of questioning in police custody, the young man was reportedly transferred to a local Florida jail early yesterday.
Trump ordered flags to fly at half-staff and was to deliver a televised address later Thursday, to a nation stunned by the mounting toll of school shootings which US authorities have so far appeared powerless to stop.
Wednesday’s harrowing shooting spree saw terrified students hiding in closets and under desks as they texted for help, while the gunman stalked the school with a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle.
Fifteen people were killed at the school itself, and two later died in hospital. One of those killed was a football coach in Parkland, a city of about 30,000 people, located 50 miles north of Miami.
The president weighed in on the tragedy on Twitter by pointing to indications the shooter — who had been expelled for disciplinary reasons — was “mentally disturbed.”
“So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior,” Trump wrote.
“Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!“
Cruz was reportedly known to have firearms at home and had talked about using them.
A teacher at the school said Cruz had been identified previously as a potential threat to his classmates.
“We were told last year that he wasn’t allowed on campus with a backpack on him,” math teacher Jim Gard said in a Miami Herald interview.
“There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus.”
According to a BuzzFeed report, the FBI had been informed Cruz could carry out a school shooting last year, after the teen commented on a video: “I’m going to be a professional school shooter.”
The creator of the video tipped off both the FBI and YouTube, BuzzFeed said.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio on Thursday called Cruz a “deeply disturbed person,” and questioned how the teenager “escaped detection, was able to acquire this weapon, and then go on and kill 17 people and injure many more.”
“This was someone that people knew was a danger,” Rubio said.
The United States has been hit by almost 20 school shootings since the start of the year, a terrifying phenomenon that is part of a broader epidemic of gun violence in a country that loses 33,000 people to gun-related deaths each year.
While the latest mass shooting has inevitably reignited questions about America’s permissive gun laws, Trump — who is the first president to have addressed the NRA gun lobby — is staunchly opposed to any additional gun control.
Opponents of gun control have consistently sought to steer public debate away from the issue, and onto the behavior and motives of people using the weapons.
When questioned at a press conference late Wednesday, Florida Governor Rick Scott — who described the massacre as “just pure evil” — declined to make a statement on gun control.
“There’s a time to continue to have these conversations about how through law enforcement, how through mental illness funding that we make sure people are safe, and we’ll continue to do that,” said Scott, a Republican.
Cruz had mixed in with students fleeing the school before being caught, officials said.
“We have already begun to dissect his websites and things on social media that he was on and some of the things... are very, very disturbing,” Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said.
“If a person is predisposed to commit such a horrific event by going to a school and shooting people ... there’s not anybody or not a lot law enforcement can do about it.”
“This is a terrible day for Parkland,” Israel said.
The FBI said it was assisting local law enforcement with the investigation.
Parkland Mayor Christine Hunschofsky said a police officer was always stationed at the school and there was a “single point of entry.”
Since January 2013, there have been at least 291 school shootings across the country — an average of about one a week, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a non-profit group that advocates for gun control.
“It is pretty clear that we’re failing our kids here,” said Melissa Falkowski, a teacher who squeezed 19 students into a closet to shield them from harm.
Trump demands answers after 17 gunned down at Florida school
Trump demands answers after 17 gunned down at Florida school
Artificial glaciers boost water supply in northern Pakistan
- Water is piped from streams into villages, and sprayed into air during freezing winter temperatures
- Gilgit-Baltistan has 13,000 glaciers—more than any other country on Earth outside the polar regions
Hussainabad, Pakistan: At the foot of Pakistan’s impossibly high mountains whitened by frost all year round, farmers grappling with a lack of water have created their own ice towers.
Warmer winters as a result of climate change have reduced the snowfall and subsequent seasonal snowmelt that feeds the valleys of Gilgit-Baltistan, a remote region home to K2, the world’s second-highest peak.
Farmers in the Skardu valley, at an altitude of up to 2,600 meters (8,200 feet) in the shadow of the Karakoram mountain range, searched online for help in how to irrigate their apple and apricot orchards.
“We discovered artificial glaciers on YouTube,” Ghulam Haider Hashmi told AFP.
They watched the videos of Sonam Wangchuk, an environmental activist and engineer in the Indian region of Ladakh, less than 200 kilometers away across a heavily patrolled border, who developed the technique about 10 years ago.
Water is piped from streams into the village, and sprayed into the air during the freezing winter temperatures.
“The water must be propelled so that it freezes in the air when temperatures drop below zero, creating ice towers,” said Zakir Hussain Zakir, a professor at the University of Baltistan.
The ice forms in the shape of cones that resemble Buddhist stupas and act as a storage system — steadily melting throughout spring when temperatures rise.
Gilgit-Baltistan has 13,000 glaciers — more than any other country on Earth outside the polar regions.
Their beauty has made the region one of the country’s top tourist destinations — towering peaks loom over the Old Silk Road, still visible from a highway transporting tourists between cherry orchards, glaciers and ice-blue lakes.
Sher Muhammad, a specialist in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan mountain range that stretches from Afghanistan to Myanmar, however said most of the region’s water supply comes from snow melt in spring, with a fraction from annual glacial melt in summers.
“From late October until early April, we were receiving heavy snowfall. But in the past few years, it’s quite dry,” Muhammad, a researcher at the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), told AFP.
The first “ice stupas” in Gilgit-Baltistan were created in 2018.
Now, more than 20 villages make them every winter, and “more than 16,000 residents have access to water without having to build reservoirs or tanks,” said Rashid-ud-Din, provincial head of GLOF-2, a UN-Pakistan plan to adapt to the effects of climate change.
Farmer Muhammad Raza told AFP that eight stupas were built in his village of Hussainabad this winter, trapping approximately 20 million liters of water in the ice.
“We no longer have water shortages during planting,” he said, since the open-air reservoirs appeared on the slopes of the valley.
“Before, we had to wait for the glaciers to melt in June to get water, but the stupas saved our fields,” said Ali Kazim, also a farmer in the valley.
Before the stupas, “we planted our crops in May,” said 26-year-old Bashir Ahmed who grows potatoes, wheat and barley in nearby Pari village which has also adopted the method.
And “we only had one growing season, whereas now we can plant two or three times” a year.
Temperatures in Pakistan rose twice as fast between 1981 and 2005 compared to the global average, putting the country on the front line of climate change impacts, including water scarcity.
Its 240 million inhabitants live in a territory that is 80 percent arid or semi-arid and depends on rivers and streams originating in neighboring countries for more than three-quarters of its water.
Glaciers are melting rapidly in Pakistan and across the world, with a few exceptions, including the Karakoram mountain range, increasing the risk of flooding and reducing water supply over the long term.
“Faced with climate change, there are neither rich nor poor, neither urban nor rural; the whole world has become vulnerable,” said 24-year-old Yasir Parvi.
“In our village, with the ice stupas, we decided to take a chance.”
US interagency delegation to arrive in Islamabad next week to attend Pakistan Minerals Investment Forum
- Pakistan’s landscape is a treasure trove of diverse mineral deposits from huge coal reserves to gold and copper deposits to gemstone mines
- Islamabad has designated mining and minerals as a priority sector for national economic development, aiming to reduce its reliance on imports
ISLAMABAD: A United States (US) interagency delegation will arrive in Islamabad on Tuesday to participate in the Pakistan Minerals Investment Forum, Pakistani state media reported on Saturday.
Pakistan’s landscape is a treasure trove of diverse mineral deposits from huge coal reserves in the southern Sindh province to gold and copper deposits in the southwestern Balochistan province. The northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province is home to several gemstone mines, including emerald mines in Swat, Mardan’s pink topaz mines, and peridot mines in Kohistan.
Islamabad has designated mining and minerals as a priority sector for national economic development, aiming to reduce its reliance on imports and enhance exports. The government has launched a series of reforms and events to attract local and international investment in the sector and will be highlighting the country’s mineral wealth at the high-profile Pakistan Minerals Investment Forum 2025 on April 8-9.
The US delegation will be led by Eric Meyer, a senior official of the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, the state-run Radio Pakistan broadcaster reported.
“Mayer will meet with senior Pakistani officials to expand opportunities for American businesses in Pakistan and promote the deepening of economic ties between our two countries,” the report read. “The delegation will hold wide range of talks to advance United States interests in the critical minerals sector at the Pakistan Minerals Investment Forum.”
Last month, Pakistan Press Information Department (PID) said Copenhagen-based multinational mining company, FLSmidth, will train 100 Pakistani engineers in mining, amid Islamabad’s efforts to utilize the country’s vast mineral resources.
The statement came after Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik’s meeting with Danish Ambassador to Pakistan Jakob Linulf in Islamabad that focused on bilateral cooperation in the energy sector, particularly in mining and technological collaboration.
“FLSmidth will be launching a training program named BRIMM (Bradshaw Research Initiative for Minerals and Mining) under which hundred Pakistani engineers will be provided training,” the PID said, citing the Danish ambassador.
“FLSmidth has already entered into 5 partnership agreements in minerals sector of Pakistan.”
The South Asian country is currently making efforts to utilize these vast mineral resources through foreign investment and collaboration to stabilize its $350 billion economy.
Petroleum Minister Malik expressed Pakistan’s keen interest in leveraging Danish technology and investment to optimize resource extraction and processing, as the South Asian country has significant mineral reserves, according to the PID statement. He extended his full support and offered the government’s good offices to facilitate Danish investment and technology transfer in Pakistan’s growing mining sector.
Briton Hudson-Smith crowned Grand Slam’s first champion, Bednarek dominates
- The start-up’s super-sized purses have lured some of the sport’s top competitors, including 200m Olympic champion Gabby Thomas and 400m hurdles world record holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone
- Ethiopia’s world silver medalist Diribe Welteji surged through the final turn of the 1,500m to win in 4:04.51 and clinch the women’s short distance group
KINGSTON: Briton Matthew Hudson-Smith was crowned Grand Slam Track’s first-ever Grand Slam champion in the men’s long sprints group on Saturday, as he won the 200 meters on day two of the novel circuit’s debut meet in Kingston, Jamaica.
Hudson-Smith was second in the standings after Friday’s 400m and he won the group outright with a total of 20 points after reeling in the field in the back half of the shorter distance on Saturday, crossing the line in 20.77 seconds.
“Great to get the first one, I’m really excited and grateful,” the Paris 400m silver medalist said in televised remarks, as he leaves Kingston $100,000 (77,579.52 pounds) richer.
“I’m getting to the end of my career so it’s time to start saving,” the 30-year-old said.
American Kenny Bednarek, a twice Olympic champion, built up an enormous lead around the turn and stumbled through the tape to win the 200m in 20.07, three-tenths of a second ahead of Briton Zharnel Hughes, and clinch the men’s short sprints slam.
He won Friday’s 100m as well, for a point total of 24.
The new circuit fronted by retired American sprinter Michael Johnson, a four-time Olympic gold medalist, off its first of four meets this week with an aim of making Grand Slam Track the “Formula One of athlete racing.”
Athletes in 12 groups — men’s and women’s short sprints, long sprints, short hurdles, long hurdles, short distance and long distance — compete over two races per meet with the point totals from those runs determining the champion of each group.
The start-up’s super-sized purses have lured some of the sport’s top competitors, including 200m Olympic champion Gabby Thomas and 400m hurdles world record holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who each notched wins on the meet’s opening day.
The trickier task, so far, has been filling the stands at Kingston’s National Stadium, as empty seats were abundant on Saturday after online critics slammed Friday’s even more sparsely attended opening night.
Thomas finished first in Friday’s 200m and was crowned the slam champion for the women’s longer sprints after finishing second in the 400m on Saturday in 49.14 behind Bahrain’s Olympic silver medalist Salwa Eid Naser (48.67), for 20 points total.
“I’m not sure I’ve ever been more tired in my life,” said Thomas, who nearly let the second-place spot slip through her fingers in the final meters under threat from the Olympic champion Marileidy Paulino (49.35).
“I heard them on the home stretch — ‘$100,000 on the line’ — and so it really motivated me.”
Ethiopia’s world silver medalist Diribe Welteji surged through the final turn of the 1,500m to win in 4:04.51 and clinch the women’s short distance group, after notching a second-place finish in Friday’s 800m race.
Kenya’s 800m Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi provided one of the more entertaining finishes of the night as he held off all three of the men’s 1,500m Paris podium finishers down the final straight in the metric mile in 3:35.18.
Americans Yared Nuguse (3:35.36) and Cole Hocker (3:35.52) will hope to make up ground when they compete in Sunday’s 800m.
The Kingston Grand Slam Track meet ends on Sunday.
US to revoke all South Sudan visas over failure to accept repatriation of citizens: Rubio
- South Sudan had failed to respect the principle that every country must accept the return of its citizens in a timely manner, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said
- Washington “will be prepared to review these actions when South Sudan is in full cooperation,” he added
WASHINGTON: The US said on Saturday it would revoke all visas held by South Sudanese passport holders over South Sudan’s failure to accept the return of its repatriated citizens, at a time when many in Africa fear that country could return to civil war.
US President Donald Trump’s administration has taken aggressive measures to ramp up immigration enforcement, including the repatriation of people deemed to be in the US illegally.
The administration has warned that countries that do not swiftly take back their citizens will face consequences, including visa sanctions or tariffs.
South Sudan had failed to respect the principle that every country must accept the return of its citizens in a timely manner when another country, including the US, seeks to remove them, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.
“Effective immediately, the United States Department of State is taking actions to revoke all visas held by South Sudanese passport holders and prevent further issuance to prevent entry into the United States by South Sudanese passport holders,” Rubio said.
“We will be prepared to review these actions when South Sudan is in full cooperation,” Rubio said.
It is time for South Sudan’s transitional government to “stop taking advantage of the United States,” he said.
South Sudan’s embassy in Washington did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
African Union mediators arrived in South Sudan’s capital Juba this week for talks aimed at averting a new civil war in the country after its First Vice President Riek Machar was placed under house arrest last week.
South Sudan President Salva Kiir’s government has accused Machar, a longtime rival who led rebel forces during a 2013-18 war that killed hundreds of thousands, of trying to stir up a new rebellion.
Machar’s detention followed weeks of fighting in the northern Upper Nile state between the military and the White Army militia. Machar’s forces were allied with the White Army during the civil war but deny any current links.
The 2013-18 war was contested largely along ethnic lines, with fighters from the Dinka, the country’s largest group, lining up behind Kiir, and those from the Nuer, the second-largest group, supporting Machar.
Barcelona held by Betis, miss chance to extend league lead
- The draw moves Hansi Flick’s Barca on to 67 points, four ahead of rivals Real Madrid who slumped to a 2-1 defeat at home by Valencia earlier on Saturday
- Gavi: If we won we would be higher up the table, but in the end it’s football
BARCELONA: Barcelona spurned the chance to extend their lead at the top of the LaLiga standings when they were held at home 1-1 by Real Betis on Saturday, with visiting defender Natan canceling out Gavi’s early opener.
The draw moves Hansi Flick’s Barca on to 67 points, four ahead of rivals Real Madrid who slumped to a 2-1 defeat at home by Valencia earlier on Saturday, while Betis climbed to fifth on 48 points.
The hosts had been given further motivation by Real’s shocking loss and had a great start when Gavi opened the scoring from close range, brilliantly assisted by Ferran Torres in a great team play seven minutes after kickoff.
However, Natan headed the equalizer from a corner in the 17th minute and though they dominated, Barca could not find a way past 38-year-old goalkeeper Adrian who made a string of saves later on to frustrate the hosts.
Adrian’s brilliant performance started even before Barca opened the scoring, when he palmed away Pedri’s strike from inside the box, but there was nothing he could do to keep Gavi from scoring moments later.
Barca kept up the pressure after taking the lead but Betis equalized from a Giovanni lo Celso corner which Natan jumped higher than defender Ronald Araujo to meet and head into the back of the net.
Adrian came to the rescue again as he made a stunning one-handed save from a Lamine Yamal curling strike from inside the box in the 38th minute.
Coach Hansi Flick subbed on Raphinha in the second half and Barca came back even stronger, dominating more than 75 percent of possession but wasting too many chances.
The Brazilian forward was a constant menace and missed with a curling strike from the edge of the box, with Adrian making two great efforts to deny a Jules Kounde strike in the 55th minute and a Fermin Lopez shot in the 85th.
“If we won we would be higher up the table, but in the end it’s football,” Gavi told Movistar Plus.
“We’re bitter about the result, because we couldn’t take advantage of the chances we had throughout the match, but we have to accept it and move on.”
