Top story: ‘Our government has failed us and our kids’

Hello, it’s Warren Murray bringing you the briefing on a sombre Thursday morning.

It is none the less horrific for being all too familiar: at least 17 people have been killed in another US high school shooting. The suspect in custody is Nikolas Cruz, 19, who had been expelled from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida. Here is what we know so far as America reels in the wake of another mass killing by a teenager armed with an assault rifle – unsurprisingly, the notorious AR-15 semi-automatic.



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At last count, 12 of the 17 victims had been identified but their names were being withheld so families could be informed. Twelve people died inside the school, two just outside, one in a nearby street and two in hospital. The dead were understood to include the football coach. “It’s a horrific, horrific day,” said Sheriff Scott Israel. “My triplets attended this school and it’s horrible, just horrible.”

'And there the carnage began': how the Florida high school shooting unfolded Read more

Teacher Melissa Falkowski said a fire alarm went off and “we got maybe 15-20 steps out of the classroom and we were told we were on code red. We ran back inside to the classroom and got down, crouched down into the closet.” As she huddled with 19 pupils for more than 40 minutes, gunshots and the screams of terrified children rang out in the school. Some made their escape as police surrounded the building – fleeing through parking lots and across fields with hands up or dragging backpacks, to be swept up by law enforcment, fire and ambulance personnel.

Cruz was arrested outside of the school campus. Dakota Mutchler, a 17-year-old junior, said he had once been friends with the suspect but he “progressively got a little more weird and I kind of cut off from him”.

Falkowski, the teacher, declared: “I feel today like our government, our country, has failed us and failed our kids and didn’t keep us safe.” After the eighth school shooting this year, it is a sentiment being echoed widely, including by Democratic Senator Chris Murphy: “We have not even hit March. This happens nowhere else than the United States of America, this epidemic of mass slaughter … as a consequence of our inaction. We are responsible.”

Donald Trump tweeted condolences, saying: “No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.” The president has courted the National Rifle Association, including promising to oppose any limits to Americans’ right to own guns.

Zuma bows out – Jacob Zuma has resigned as South Africa’s president after his ruling ANC party threatened to back a no-confidence motion in parliament. The party had earlier ordered Zuma to quit the post amid multiple allegations of graft, as well as disillusionment over the country’s decline under his leadership. Zuma’s last day as president began with a dawn raid on a business family at the centre of the recent corruption allegations levelled against him. The deputy president, Cyril Ramaphosa, who took over the leadership of the ANC in December, is expected to be elected by parliament to succeed Zuma, who had held the post since 2009.

In neighbouring Zimbabwe there has also been a seismic moment in politics: the veteran opposition figure Morgan Tsvangirai has died from colon cancer. For many years the MDC party leader was the globally recognised face of opposition to the now-deposed Robert Mugabe and his ruling Zanu-PF party. The MDC will have to scramble to install new leadership ahead of forthcoming elections.



ADHD in adulthood – The estimated 2.5% of adults who have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in Britain are going largely undiagnosed, with the condition blighting their lives and potentially costing the economy billions of dollars a year. The Demos thinktank says greater public awareness is needed, as adults with ADHD are less likely to find full-time, paid work and their productivity may also be reduced: “People with ADHD can be creative, energetic and dynamic, but too many people go through life without the support they need,” says a Demos report.

Lap of the parade ground – Donald Trump’s budget chief has spoken airily about how much the president’s whim to put on a military parade might cost. It could be “between 10 and 30 depending on the length”, said Mick Mulvaney – that’s millions of dollars. “An hour parade is different from a five-hour parade,” he informed a congressional hearing, “in terms of the cost and the equipment and those types of things.” Democratic congresswoman Barbara Lee said: “You know the parade is very similar to those held in authoritarian countries like North Korea.” Sounding rather like Trump, who specialises in making it up as he goes along, Mulvaney explained: “We’ve actually had many military parades in this country before. I think we had one as recently as the 1990s, and maybe one more recently than that.”

And finally – After Jacob Rees-Mogg warned against Britain becoming a post-Brexit “vassal state”, Boris Johnson tried to go one better by calling the EU a “teleological construction”. We have discussed the former – but what did the latter mean? Teleological essentially means driven towards an end or a goal – in other words, any thing, or any institution, constructed by humans. “Listeners might suspect,” writes Steven Poole, “that this was an example, not unheard-of with this speaker, of an attempt to bamboozle the populace with pseudo-erudition.”

Winter Olympics

Another busy day in Pyeonchang so far has seen veteran Aksel Lund Svindal finally break Norway’s gold medal duck in the men’s downhill with a thrilling victory to become the oldest Alpine skiing champion in the history of the Games. In the women’s giant slalom, American Mikaela Shiffrin was imperious while Pierre Vaultier of France defended his snowboard cross title with gold.

On the sidelines, a Kim Jong-un impersonator who identified himself only as Howard from Australia has caused a stir by cavorting in front of North Korean cheerleaders at the ice hockey. Security personnel bundled him out. “I was born with this face,” he said. “I’ve got to live with it.”



Remember to follow our live blog for the latest action – and keep up by subscribing to our special daily recap email during the Games.

Lunchtime read: The death of buy-to-let?

Housing figures show Generation Rent finally gaining a tentative foothold on the property ladder. In 2017 there were more than 365,000 first-time buyers – the most in a decade. Tory policies to wind back the buy-to-let phenomenon, by making it tougher to claim tax relief, have helped chase landlords out of the market.

For Theresa May, writes Martha Gill, it has been a rare success in bringing a policy through to execution. But more needs to be done. “If there is one area where the Tories should be aiming to right social wrongs, it is in housing, because it helps them to win elections … home ownership has always been the way to turn young people into Tories.”

Sport

How Liverpool’s forward line would prosper without Philippe Coutinho remained a legitimate question on their return to the Champions League stage but Sadio Mané’s stunning hat-trick and a 5-o win in Porto provided an emphatic answer. Paris Saint-Germain conceded twice in three minutes at the Bernabéu to leave them facing another premature European exit with a 3-1 deficit to claw back in their tie with Real Madrid.

Joe Marler, who missed England’s Six Nations games against Italy and Wales through suspension, has admitted to the pain of having to watch from afar. Chris Froome and the Team Sky principal, Dave Brailsford, presented a united and defiant front as the four-times Tour de France winner raced for the first time since his failed drugs test last year became public knowledge.

Business

There have been solid gains in Asian trading, mirroring Wall Street’s advance as investors’ inflation worries receded. The Nikkei 225 rose 1.3%, the Hang Seng advanced 1.3% and the S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.9%. Markets in mainland China, South Korea and Taiwan were closed for the lunar new year holiday.

The pound has been trading around $1.401 and €1.124 overnight.

The papers

The i gets Florida on to its front page and puts it simply: “Another American high school shooting.”

Both the Daily Mail and the Express go for how highly processed foods are contributing to cancer rates. So does the Times, but its picture slot goes to ousted South African president Jacob Zuma. Similar pic in the Telegraph (but the main story is about possible direct rule of Northern Ireland) and in the Guardian (but our splash is about university leaders getting to decide their own pay). The Mirror calls time on the lack of organ donors, demanding an opt-out law: “Don’t let any more die.” The Sun has claims that Jeremy Corbyn “briefed” a “Commie spy” from Czechoslovakia during the cold war.

For more news: www.theguardian.com

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