The Overnight News Digest is a nightly series dedicated to chronicling the eschaton. Please add news or other items in the comments.
Miami Herald The victims of the Douglas High mass shootingThe Broward County Sheriff’s Office late Thursday released the names of the 17 people killed in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Wednesday. Earlier Thursday, relatives and friends of the victims took to social media to mourn and honor the people they lost. The victims were:
Alyssa Alhadeff, 14
Scott Beigel, 35
Martin Duque, 14
Nicholas Dworet, 17
Aaron Feis, 37
Jaime Guttenberg, 14
Chris Hixon, 49
Luke Hoyer, 15
Cara Loughran, 14
Gina Montalto, 14
Joaquin Oliver, 17
Alaina Petty, 14
Meadow Pollack, 18
Helena Ramsay, 17
Alex Schachter, 14
Carmen Schentrup, 16
Peter Wong, 15
NBC NewsFamiliar responses from Congress in wake of the latest mass shooting
Congress on Thursday began the familiar process of discussing the nation's gun laws with little likelihood of taking action following the 18th school shooting of the year.
Congressional reaction to the death of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Wednesday broke down along predictably partisan lines as Republicans urged caution against drawing abrupt conclusions and Democrats expressed outrage over a lack of legislative action as the number of mass shootings mount. And the prospects for any legislative action continue to remain dim in the GOP-controlled Congress.
House Speaker Paul Ryan said Congress needs to “take a breath and collect the facts.”
“We don’t just knee-jerk before we even have all the facts and the data,” Ryan said on WIBC Radio of Indianapolis.
Washington PostMax Boot: The Second Amendment is being turned into a suicide pact
In 1791, when the Second Amendment was adopted, the state-of-the-art firearm was a flintlock musket firing paper cartridges loaded with gunpowder and a lead ball. Given the laborious loading procedures, a skilled soldier could fire at most two or three shots a minute. The smoothbore flintlock lacked both stopping power and accuracy; hence the need for lines of soldiers to fire from point-blank range at each other.
[The murderer] did not come to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., toting a musket. Police say he came with an AR-15 rifle, which typically comes equipped with 30-round magazines and can easily fire 45 rounds per minute. And it fires not lead balls but .223 rounds that at close range could make the head of a Viet Cong soldier “explode” or turn his torso into “one big hole.” […]
No other country experiences this kind of terror on an ongoing basis — save places such as Afghanistan and Syria that are actually at war. […]
It simply beggars the imagination that Republicans, in thrall to the National Rifle Association, continue to insist there is no relationship between gun ownership and gun crime. Instead of effective regulations, they offer “thoughts and prayers,” as if mass shootings were acts of God like earthquakes and hurricanes that mere mortals are powerless to prevent.
Public confrontations prompted Pruitt to switch to first-class travel, EPA says
Verbal confrontations with members of the public prompted Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt to switch to flying first or business class whenever possible, officials said Thursday.
Henry Barnet, who directs EPA’s Office of Criminal Enforcement, Forensics and Training, said in an interview that the head of Pruitt’s security detail, Pasquale Perrotta, recommended in May that he fly in either first or business class to provide “a buffer” between him and the public. Perrotta’s memo was prompted by an incident that month when a person approached Pruitt “with threatening language” that was “vulgar,” Barnet said.
“They felt they could not protect him appropriately, based on the amount of times he was being recognized and the way that some members of the public were acting toward him in a threatening manner,” Barnet said.
Trump’s inaugural committee paid $26 million for event production services to a firm connected to a friend of first lady Melania Trump, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who serves as a volunteer adviser in the East Wing, according to officials and newly released tax filings.
The firm passed along the vast majority of the funds — $24 million — to other vendors who provided entertainment, staffing and other services, according to a committee document detailing the spending. Wolkoff, who employed about a dozen staff members for the event, retained $1.62 million for consulting and executive production, according to a person familiar with the arrangement.
Immigration bills fail in Congress, leaving ‘dreamers’ in limbo
Weeks of intense negotiations for a bipartisan deal on immigration collapsed in Congress on Thursday, leaving hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants facing possible deportation. […]
In a sharp rebuke, the Republican-led Senate blocked an immigration plan backed by […] Trump, with the bill mustering just 39 votes. It highlighted the divisions even within GOP ranks, with some wary that granting legal status to undocumented immigrants would amount to amnesty. […]
Ahead of the votes, the White House mobilized a full-fledged effort to scuttle the bipartisan immigration plan that was emerging as the best hope for a legislative deal.
CNNExclusive: A top Trump campaign adviser close to plea deal with Mueller
Former Trump campaign adviser Rick Gates is finalizing a plea deal with special counsel Robert Mueller's office, indicating he's poised to cooperate in the investigation, according to sources familiar with the case.
Gates has already spoken to Mueller's team about his case and has been in plea negotiations for about a month. He's had what criminal lawyers call a "Queen for a Day" interview, in which a defendant answers any questions from the prosecutors' team, including about his own case and other potential criminal activity he witnessed.
Gates' cooperation could be another building block for Mueller in a possible case against […] Donald Trump or key members of his team.
"President Trump, please do something! Do something. Action! We need it now! These kids need safety now!"
With tears rolling down her face, Lori Alhadeff screamed into a microphone, glared into a camera, and begged [Trump] to address the nation's deadly gun epidemic.
Alhadeff's 14-year-old daughter, Alyssa, was one of 17 people killed during Wednesday's school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Alhadeff's grief was coupled with anger and a demand for answers.
The GuardianSuspect escaped Florida shooting scene by hiding among students as they fled
The suspect in the school shooting that left 17 people dead in Parkland, Florida, escaped the scene by dropping his rifle and backpack and mixing in with the crowd of fleeing students, authorities confirmed at a press conference Thursday.
Officials also confirmed that the AR-15 rifle he used in the massacre was purchased lawfully in Florida by the gunman over a year ago.
US wasting billions on nuclear bombs that serve no purpose and are security liability – experts
The US is to spend billions of dollars upgrading 150 nuclear bombs positioned in Europe, although the weapons may be useless as a deterrent and a potentially catastrophic security liability, according to a new report by arms experts.
A third of the B61 bombs in Europe under joint US and Nato control are thought to be kept at Incirlik base in Turkey, 70 miles from the Syrian border, which has been the subject of serious concerns.
The threat to the base posed by Islamic State militants was considered serious enough in March 2016 to evacuate the families of military officers.
Federal penalties against polluters at lowest level in a decade under Trump
The Environmental Protection Agency’s enforcement activity against polluters has fallen to its lowest level in a decade, with the first year of the Trump administration seeing a sharp drop in fines for companies that break environmental rules.
Figures released by the EPA show that 115 environmental crime cases were opened in the 2017 financial year, down from a peak of nearly 400 in the 2009 financial year, which was largely under the Obama administration.
A total of $1.6bn in new penalties were levied against polluters in 2017, in the fiscal year that ended 30 September. This was around a fifth of the $5.9bn instigated by the Obama administration in 2016 but still higher than any other year stretching back to 2007.
BBC News'100,000 orangutans' killed in 16 years
More than 100,000 Critically Endangered orangutans have been killed in Borneo since 1999, research has revealed.
Scientists who carried out a 16-year survey on the island described the figure as "mind-boggling". Deforestation, driven by logging, oil palm, mining and paper mills, continues to be the main culprit.
But the research, published in the journal Current Biology, also revealed that animals were "disappearing" from areas that remained forested.
Trump-Russia: Steve Bannon questioned in Mueller inquiry
Donald Trump's former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, has been interviewed as part of an investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
He met with special counsel Robert Mueller, who leads the inquiry, over two days this week. Mr Bannon was chairman of Mr Trump's presidential campaign before becoming a top White House official. […]
Investigators believe Mr Bannon may hold crucial information on the Trump administration, including details on why former FBI Director James Comey was fired by the president.
UK and US blame Russia for 'malicious' NotPetya cyber-attack
The Russian military was directly behind a "malicious" cyber-attack on Ukraine that spread globally last year, the US and Britain have said.
The White House said June's NotPetya ransomware attack caused billions of dollars in damage across Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
UK Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said Russia was "ripping up the rule book" and the UK would respond.
Moscow denies being behind the attack, calling such claims "Russophobic".
ReutersU.S. spy agencies to brief state officials on election threats
U.S. intelligence and security agencies will meet with senior election officials from all 50 states this weekend to lay out threats to the integrity of U.S. elections and security measures they can take, the top U.S. spy agency said on Thursday.
The office of Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said the classified briefings are part of an “effort to ensure the integrity and security of the nation’s election infrastructure, particularly as the risk environment evolves.”
It said representatives of ODNI, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security would brief state officials. The three agencies share federal-level responsibility for election security precautions.
No 'bloody nose' plan for North Korea: U.S. official, senators
The senior U.S. diplomat for Asia, Susan Thornton, said on Thursday she understood the Trump administration had no strategy for a so-called bloody nose strike on North Korea, but Pyongyang would be forced to give up its nuclear weapons “one way or another.”
[…] Trump’s administration says it prefers a diplomatic solution to the crisis over North Korea’s development of nuclear missiles capable of hitting the United States.
But U.S. officials have told Reuters and other media that Trump and his advisers have discussed the possibility of a limited strike on North Korea that would neither knock out its program nor overthrow leader Kim Jong Un’s government.
Live ScienceThe Solar Storm Hitting Earth Today Might Look Awesome
Tonight (Feb. 15), skywatchers may be rewarded by a dazzling atmospheric show — thanks to a halo of radiation that blasted from the sun on Monday (Feb. 12).
A minor geomagnetic storm has just settled over Canada and the northern United States, according to a news alert from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center — and it could result in visible aurora borealis in some states tonight. The aurora can most likely be seen north of the Canadian border, NOAA said, but could appear in the night sky as far south as northern Maine and Michigan.
Depending on its strength, solar storms like this one can cause adverse effects in the atmosphere, including temporary power grid disruptions or satellite failures. Tonight, however, NOAA predicts only a minor event characterized by clearer-than-normal auroras in the sky. [Aurora photos: 10 Breathtaking Views of The Northern Lights]