Reuters News Now

Highlights

At least one shooter has killed 49 people and wounded more than 20 in New Zealand. A gunman, who broadcast live footage on Facebook, attacked a mosque in Christchurch after publishing a “manifesto” in which he denounced immigrants, calling them “invaders”. Political and Islamic leaders have expressed their disgust at the deadly shooting, and thousands have gathered in Istanbul, Turkey to protest. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has called this “one of New Zealand’s darkest days”.

Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have been included in a list of 10 most urgent cases of journalists whose global press freedoms are being abused or whose situations demand justice. The pair were sentenced to seven years in jail in Myanmar after reporting on a security force massacre of Rohingya men and boys in western Rakhine State. You can read the latest updates on their case here.

U.S.

A powerful late winter storm, dubbed a “bomb cyclone” left blizzards, floods and tornados in its wake after hitting the U.S. Mountain and Plains states this week, before pushing east into the Midwest and the Great Lakes Region. Flood warnings and watches remain in effect for Nebraska, Iowa and Michigan, forecasters said.

Only one in five U.S. taxpayers expect to pay less income tax this year as a result of the tax reform law passed in 2017 by Republicans who promised big savings for everyday Americans, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll. The poll suggests that the tax overhaul, mostly geared to helping businesses, may not be as strong a 2020 campaign talking point as Republicans and President Donald Trump had hoped.

President Donald Trump has vowed to ‘VETO!’ after The Senate voted to end his border emergency declaration. The 59-41 vote was a bipartisan repudiation of Trump’s decision to circumvent Congress and take money already designated for other programs and redirect it to pay for his U.S.-Mexico border wall, which he promised to build during his 2016 campaign.

North Korea is considering suspending talks with the United States and may rethink a ban on missile and nuclear tests unless Washington makes concessions, news reports from the North’s capital on Friday quoted a senior diplomat as saying. Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said Washington threw away a golden opportunity at the summit, saying that “the gangster-like stand of the U.S. will eventually put the situation in danger.”

World

“Climate change is worse than Voldemort,” read a handmade sign carried by a student in Wellington, New Zealand, as thousands of school students around the world walked out of classes to protest against government inaction on climate change. The worldwide student movement started in August 2018, when 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg began protesting outside her parliament on school days. She has since been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Algeria’s ruling FLN party showed more signs of turning its back on long-serving president Abdelaziz Bouteflika as new protests against him began on Friday. One senior party figure said in an interview overnight that he was “history now”.

Israeli military aircraft bombed Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip early on Friday, hours after two rockets were launched at Tel Aviv in the first such attack since a 2014 war. In a statement, the Israeli military said it had struck “approximately 100 military targets” belonging to Hamas, the Islamist militant group which controls Gaza.