FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida: The Florida high school where a former student shot and killed 17 people with an assault-type rifle is reopening for teachers as the community grappled with word that the armed officer on campus did nothing to stop the shooter.
That failure, plus reports of a delay in security camera footage scanned by responding police and several records indicating the 19-year-old suspect displayed behavioral troubles for years added to what the Florida House speaker described as an “abject breakdown at all levels.”
The Valentine’s Day shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School has reignited national debate over gun laws and school safety, including proposals by President Donald Trump and others to designate more people — including trained teachers — to carry arms on school grounds.
Gun-control advocates, meanwhile, have redoubled calls for bans or further restrictions on assault rifles.
Teachers were told they could return to the school Friday to collect belongings from classrooms that have been off-limits since the slayings more than a week earlier. The school plans an orientation Sunday for teachers and students, and to restart classes Wednesday.
“Our new normal has yet to be defined, but we want to get back to it,” said geography teacher Ernest Rospierski, whose classroom is on the third floor of the three-story building attacked Feb. 14. Officials have said that building will be torn down.
History teacher Ivy Schamis was teaching a Holocaust class when the shooter fired into her classroom.
She’s planning to return Monday to collect items from the room, including a big yellow banner that reads, “Never Again,” referring to the Holocaust. She wants it hanging in her next classroom. “That’s a Holocaust banner and now that’s what our slogan is becoming after this tragedy.”
The school resource officer on Feb. 14 took up a position viewing the western entrance of that building for more than four minutes after the shooting started, but “he never went in,” Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said at a news conference. The shooting lasted about six minutes.
The officer, Scot Peterson, was suspended without pay and placed under investigation, then chose to resign, Israel said. When asked what Peterson should have done, Israel said the deputy should have “went in, addressed the killer, killed the killer.”
The sheriff said he was “devastated, sick to my stomach. There are no words. I mean these families lost their children. We lost coaches. I’ve been to the funerals. ... I’ve been to the vigils. It’s just, ah, there are no words.”
A telephone message left at a listing for Peterson by The Associated Press wasn’t returned. An AP reporter who later went to Peterson’s home in a suburb of West Palm Beach saw lights on and cars in the driveway, but no one answered the door during an attempt to seek comment.
Meanwhile, new information has emerged that there was a communication issue between the person reviewing the school’s security system footage and officers who responded to the school.
Coral Springs Police Chief Tony Pustizzi said during a news conference Thursday that the footage being reviewed was 20 minutes old, so the responding officers were hearing that the shooter was in a certain place while officers already in that location were saying that wasn’t the case. Pustizzi said the confusion didn’t put anyone in danger.
Shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz, 19, has been jailed on 17 counts of murder and has admitted the attack, authorities have said. Cruz owned a collection of weapons. Defense attorneys, state records and people who knew him have described troubling incidents going back years.
Broward County incident reports show that unidentified callers contacted authorities with concerns about Cruz in February 2016 and November 2017. The first caller said they had third-hand information that Cruz planned to shoot up the school. The information was forwarded to the Stoneman Douglas resource officer. The second caller said Cruz was collecting guns and knives and believed “he could be a school shooter in the making.”
Also in November 2017, Cruz was involved in a fight with the adult son of a woman he was staying with shortly after his mother died, according to a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office report. On Nov. 28, a 22-year-old man at the Lake Worth home told the responding deputy the he tried to calm down Cruz, who had been punching holes in walls and breaking objects, but Cruz hit him in the jaw, and the man hit Cruz back.
The deputy found Cruz a short time later at a nearby park. Cruz told the deputy he had been angry because he misplaced a photo of his recently deceased mother, and he apologized for losing his temper.
The other man told the deputy he didn’t want Cruz arrested. He just wanted Cruz to calm down before coming home.
Politicians under pressure to tighten gun laws in response to the mass shooting floated various plans Thursday, but most fell short of reforms demanded by student activists who converged Wednesday on Florida’s Capitol.
Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran said Thursday night that his chamber is going to recommend creating a special commission to investigate the “abject breakdown at all levels” that led to the shooting deaths. The Republican said the commission, likely be led by a parent of one of the slain children, would have subpoena power.
Corcoran said the news about the resource officer’s failure to respond did not dissuade him from moving ahead with what he was calling the “marshal” plan to let local law-enforcement officials train and deputize someone at the school who would be authorized to carry a gun.
State Sen. Bill Galvano, who is helping craft a bill in response to the shooting deaths, insisted the idea is not the same as arming teachers. He said the program would be optional and the deputized person would have to be trained by local law-enforcement agencies.
US Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida said a visit to Stoneman Douglas prompted him to change his stance on large capacity magazines. The Republican insisted he is willing to rethink his past opposition on gun proposals if there is information the policies would prevent mass shootings.
“If we are going to infringe on the Second Amendment, it has to be a policy that will work,” Rubio said in an interview Thursday with AP.
Florida school shooting: ‘Abject breakdown at all levels’
Florida school shooting: ‘Abject breakdown at all levels’
China hosts Iranian, Russian defense ministers against backdrop of ‘momentous change’
- Beijing has long sought to present the 10-member Shanghai Cooperation Organization as a counterweight to Western-led power blocs
- The Qingdao meeting of the organization’s top defense officials comes as a fledgling ceasefire between Israel and Iran holds
Beijing has long sought to present the 10-member Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as a counterweight to Western-led power blocs and has pushed to strengthen collaboration between its member countries in politics, security, trade and science.
The Qingdao meeting of the organization’s top defense officials comes as a fledgling ceasefire between Israel and Iran holds after 12 days of fighting between the arch-foes.
It is also being held the day after a summit of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) leaders in The Hague, where members agreed to ramp up their defense spending to satisfy US President Donald Trump.
Beijing’s ties with Moscow are also in the spotlight.
China has portrayed itself as a neutral party in Russia’s war with Ukraine, although Western governments say its close ties have given Moscow crucial economic and diplomatic support.
Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov painted a bleak picture of a world seeing “worsening geopolitical tensions” when he addressed his counterparts at the meeting.
“The current military and political situation in the world remains difficult and shows signs of further deterioration,” he said, according to a statement by the Russian defense ministry.
His Chinese counterpart Dong Jun also framed Thursday’s meeting in Qingdao, home to a major Chinese naval base, as a counterweight to a world in “chaos and instability.”
“As momentous changes of the century accelerate, unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise,” Dong said as he welcomed defense chiefs from Russia, Iran, Pakistan, Belarus and elsewhere on Wednesday, according to state news agency Xinhua.
“Hegemonic, domineering and bullying acts severely undermine the international order,” he warned.
He urged his counterparts to “take more robust actions to jointly safeguard the environment for peaceful development.”
Recent fighting between Israel, Iran and the United States will likely also be discussed in Qingdao.
Beijing refrained from offering anything more than diplomatic support to its close partner Tehran throughout that conflict, reflecting its limited leverage in the region and reluctance to worsen relations with the United States.
“Public backing for Iran will come in the form of words, rather than deeds,” James Char, an expert on the Chinese army at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, told AFP.
“Other than condemning the US strikes on Iran, Beijing can be expected to continue treading cautiously in the Middle East’s security issues and would not want to be dragged into the region’s security challenges,” he said.
Iran’s defense minister will likely “discuss with China the supply of weapons but I doubt China would agree,” said Andrea Ghiselli, an expert in China foreign policy and a lecturer at Exeter University.
“It would be seen as provocative by both Israel... and, even more important for China, the US, with which Beijing is trying to stabilize relations,” Ghiselli said.
India’s Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, also in attendance in Qingdao, said SCO members should “collectively aspire to fulfil the aspirations and expectations of our people as well as tackle today’s challenges.”
“The world we live in is undergoing a drastic transformation. Globalization, which once brought us closer together, has been losing momentum,” he said in comments his office posted on social media platform X.
NGOs: Environment fears over $6 bn Indonesia EV battery project
- A CRI report this month warned the Indonesian government was allowing environmental damage to go unchecked around Weda Bay
JAKARTA: Environmental groups raised concerns Thursday over a $6 billion Indonesian EV battery megaproject backed by Chinese giant CATL which is set to open on a once-pristine island, as Jakarta exploits its huge supply of nickel.
Indonesia is both the world’s largest nickel producer and home to the biggest-known reserves, and a 2020 export ban has spurred a domestic industrial boom.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto will inaugurate the project — also backed by China’s Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt and Indonesia’s state-owned Antam — in the east of Halmahera in Indonesia’s Maluku islands on Sunday.
The complex will encompass a process from nickel mining to production of cathodes, state news agency Antara reported.
But NGOs say Indonesia and the Chinese firms involved have not given assurances about environmental protections at the site, located just kilometers from a huge industrial park where spikes in pollution and deforestation have been reported.
“CATL, Huayou Cobalt, PT Antam... must commit to respecting the rights of local communities and the environment before breaking ground,” said Brad Adams, executive director at Climate Rights International, in a statement.
“Communities are repressed, forests are cleared, and pollution goes unaddressed with impunity. This is a chance for the Prabowo government to show that it has learned from those failures.”
The presidential office did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.
Halmahera hosts the world’s largest nickel mine by production Weda Bay, where operations have grown and sparked reports of widespread environmental damage.
Greenpeace Indonesia said the new project carried “great responsibilities” and the environment and locals “must not take a back seat” to powering electric vehicles.
“If the environment and the rights of our most vulnerable people are not prioritized now... we will all pay a high price through worsening biodiversity and climate crises,” Arie Rompas, forest campaign team leader at Greenpeace, told AFP.
A CRI report this month warned the Indonesian government was allowing environmental damage to go unchecked around Weda Bay.
An AFP report last month detailed how the home of the nomadic Hongana Manyawa tribe was being eaten away by the mine.
Vietnamese tycoon’s jail term reduced in $146 million stock fraud
- Trinh Van Quyet, who owned the FLC empire of luxury resorts, golf courses and budget carrier Bamboo Airways, was given the lengthy jail term in August after a trial
HANOI: A Vietnamese appeal court on Thursday slashed a former property and aviation tycoon’s jail sentence in a $146 million fraud and stock market manipulation case from 21 years to seven.
Trinh Van Quyet, who owned the FLC empire of luxury resorts, golf courses and budget carrier Bamboo Airways, was given the lengthy jail term in August after a trial.
Quyet and 49 others including his two sisters and four stock exchange officials were punished for fraud, stock market manipulation, abuse of power and publishing incorrect stock market information.
After a 10-day hearing in Hanoi, the appeal court dropped Quyet’s three-year term for market manipulation and cut his 18-year sentence for fraud to seven years.
The appeal court gave several other defendants reduced jail terms on Thursday.
Its ruling comes after the tycoon’s family paid nearly $96 million in compensation for the losses.
According to the indictment in August, Quyet set up several stock market brokerages and registered dozens of family members, ostensibly to trade shares.
Police said while orders to buy shares were placed in hundreds of trading sessions — pushing up the value of the stock – they were canceled before being matched.
The court said there were 25,000 victims of the fraud as Quyet illegally pocketed more than $146 million between 2017 and 2022.
The appeal court said it had received 5,000 letters asking for a reduction of punishment for Quyet “from the victims, FLC staff, some associations and local authorities.”
The case is part of a national corruption crackdown that has swept up numerous officials and members of Vietnam’s business elite in recent years.
Ecuador’s most-wanted gang leader ‘Fito’ captured
- Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, known as Fito, escaped custody in Ecuador in early 2024
- American prosecutors charged him, in absentia, with seven counts of cocaine distribution, conspiracy and firearms-related crimes
QUITO: Ecuador’s president announced Wednesday that the country’s most-wanted fugitive, Los Choneros gang leader “Fito,” had been recaptured over a year after his escape from prison triggered a wave of violence.
“We have done our part to proceed with Fito’s extradition to the United States, we are awaiting their response,” Daniel Noboa wrote on X.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, known as Fito, escaped custody in Ecuador in early 2024 and American prosecutors charged him, in absentia, with seven counts of cocaine distribution, conspiracy and firearms-related crimes, including weapons smuggling.
Macias Villamar’s January 2024 escape resulted in a surge of gang-related violence in Ecuador that lasted days and left about 20 people dead.
Noboa declared a 60-day state of emergency in nearly a third of its provinces to quell the violence, but the drug lord was at-large until Wednesday’s announcement.
The months-long manhunt ended with the president stating Fito was in the custody of special military forces fighting narcotics trafficking.
The army and police reported that he was captured during a 10-hour operation in Manta, a fishing port in western Ecuador considered a stronghold for his gang.
Fito’s hideout evoked scenes from a movie thriller — local media reported that officers lifted a trap door in floor tiles of a luxury home to discover the outlaw hiding in a bunker.
The US Embassy congratulated Quito on the arrest, posting in Spanish on its X account that Washington “supports Ecuador in its efforts to combat transnational crime for the security of the region.”
Ecuador, once a peaceful haven between the world’s two top cocaine exporters Colombia and Peru, has seen violence erupt in recent years as enemy gangs vie for control and establish ties to Mexican and Colombian cartels.
Macias Villamar is the leader of Los Choneros, the leading criminal gang in a country plagued by organized crime.
Gang wars largely played out inside the country’s prisons, where Macias Villamar wielded immense control.
He had been held since 2011, serving a 34-year sentence for organized crime, drug trafficking and murder.
When he escaped, Macias Villamar was also considered a suspect in ordering the assassination of presidential candidate and anti-corruption crusader Fernando Villavicencio.
In the hours after the drug lord’s escape, prison riots broke out and four police officers were taken hostage, where one was forced to read a threatening message to Noboa.
Armed men wearing balaclavas also took over a television station during a live broadcast, forcing the terrified crew to the ground and firing shots.
Soon after, Noboa announced the country was in a state of “internal armed conflict” and ordered the military and tanks into the streets to “neutralize” the gangs.
US prosecutors allege his gang worked with Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel to control key drug trafficking routes between South America and the United States.
Ecuador’s government had offered a $1 million reward for information leading to his capture.
If convicted, Fito faces life in prison.
Trump officials to give first classified briefing to Congress on Iran strikes
- The classified briefing comes as the Senate is expected to vote this week on a resolution that would require congressional approval if Trump decides to strike Iran again
- Democrats, and some Republicans, have said that the White House overstepped its authority when it failed to seek the advice of Congress
WASHINGTON: Senators are set to meet with top national security officials Thursday as many question President Donald Trump’s decision to bomb three Iranian nuclear sites — and whether those strikes were ultimately successful.
The classified briefing, which was originally scheduled for Tuesday and was delayed, also comes as the Senate is expected to vote this week on a resolution that would require congressional approval if Trump decides to strike Iran again. Democrats, and some Republicans, have said that the White House overstepped its authority when it failed to seek the advice of Congress and they want to know more about the intelligence that Trump relied on when he authorized the attacks.
“Senators deserve full transparency, and the administration has a legal obligation to inform Congress precisely about what is happening,” said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, who said Tuesday that it was “outrageous” that the Senate and House briefings were postponed. A similar briefing for House members was pushed to Friday.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are expected to brief the senators on Thursday. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was scheduled to be at the Tuesday briefing, but will not be attending, according to a person familiar with the schedule.
The briefing could be contentious as questions have swirled around Trump’s decision to strike Iran and whether the attacks were successful. A preliminary US intelligence report found this week that Iran’s nuclear program had been set back only a few months, contradicting statements from Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the status of Iran’s nuclear facilities, according to two people familiar with the report. The people were not authorized to address the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
On Wednesday, Gabbard and Ratcliffe sent out statements backing Trump’s claims that the facilities were “completely and fully obliterated.” Gabbard posted on social media that “new intelligence confirms what @POTUS has stated numerous times: Iran’s nuclear facilities have been destroyed.”
She said that if the Iranians choose to rebuild the three facilities, it would “likely take years to do.”
Ratcliffe said in a statement from the CIA that Iran’s nuclear program has been “severely damaged” and cited new intelligence “from a historically reliable and accurate source/method that several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years.”
Most Republicans have staunchly defended Trump and hailed the tentative ceasefire he brokered in the Israel-Iran war. House Speaker Mike Johnson even went as far as to question the constitutionality of the War Powers Act, which is intended to give Congress a say in military action.
“The bottom line is the commander in chief is the president, the military reports to the president, and the person empowered to act on the nation’s behalf is the president,” Johnson told reporters.
But some Republicans – including some of Trump’s staunchest supporters – are uncomfortable with the strikes and the potential for US involvement in an extended Middle East conflict.
“I think the speaker needs to review the Constitution,” said Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky “And I think there’s a lot of evidence that our Founding Fathers did not want presidents to unilaterally go to war.”
Paul would not say if he is voting for the resolution by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, that would require congressional approval for specific military action in Iran. The resolution is likely to fail as 60 votes would be needed to pass it and Republicans have a 53-47 majority. But Kaine says it’s important to put the Senate on the record.
“You have a debate like this so that the entire American public, whose sons and daughters are in the military and whose lives will be at risk in war, get to see the debate and reach their own conclusion together with the elected officials about whether the mission is worth it or not,” Kaine said.
While he did not seek approval, Trump sent congressional leaders a short letter Monday serving as his official notice of the strikes, two days after the bombs fell.
The letter said that the strike was taken “to advance vital United States national interests, and in collective self-defense of our ally, Israel, by eliminating Iran’s nuclear program.”
