cluding someone standing on astreet corner, Broward CountySheriff Scott Israel said. Two morevictims died of their injuries in lo-cal hospitals. The aftermath at theschool was an eerie shrine, withchairs upended, a computerscreen shattered with bullet holesand floors stained with blood.

“This is catastrophic,” saidSheriff Israel, who has three chil-dren who graduated from the highschool. “There really are nowords.”

Mr. Cruz was arrested in CoralSprings, a neighboring city a cou-ple of miles from the school, aboutan hour after fleeing the scene, theauthorities said. He had slippedout of the building by mixing inwith crowds of students. In addi-tion to the rifle, Sheriff Israel said,Mr. Cruz had “countless maga-zines.”

PARKLAND, Fla. — A heavilyarmed young man barged into hisformer high school about an hournorthwest of Miami on Wednes-day, opening fire on terrified stu-dents and teachers and leaving adeath toll of 17 that could rise evenhigher, the authorities said.

Students huddled in horror intheir classrooms, with some ofthem training their cellphones onthe carnage, capturing sprawledbodies, screams and gunfire thatbegan with a few shots and thencontinued with more and more.The dead included students andadults, some of whom were shotoutside the school and others in-side the sprawling three-storybuilding.

The gunman, armed with asemiautomatic AR-15 rifle, wasidentified as Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old who had been expelledfrom the school, the authoritiessaid. He began his shooting ram-page outside Marjory StonemanDouglas High School in this sub-urban neighborhood shortly be-fore dismissal time around 2:40p.m. He then made his way insideand proceeded down hallways heknew well, firing at students andteachers who were scurrying forcover, the authorities said.

“Oh my God! Oh my God!” onestudent yelled over and over inone video circulating on social me-dia, as more than 40 gunshotsboomed in the background.

By the end of the rampage, Mr.Cruz had killed 12 people insidethe school and three outside it, in-

Continued on Page A23

HORROR AT FLORIDA SCHOOL; EX-STUDENT HELD

By AUDRA D. S. BURCH and PATRICIA MAZZEI

At Least 17 Die as Gunman RoamsHalls in Rampage Near Miami

A shooting victim was assisted Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., northwest of Miami.JOHN McCALL/SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

Anguished parents awaited in-formation outside the school.

JOEL AUERBACH/ASSOCIATED PRESS

VOL. CLXVII . . . No. 57,874 © 2018 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2018

C M Y K Nxxx,2018-02-15,A,001,Bs-4C,E2

U(D54G1D)y+"!_!&!#!{

Worshipers feel powerless as Beijingand the Vatican try to settle a disputeover who appoints clerics. PAGE A4

INTERNATIONAL A4-13

Unease for Catholics in China

After months of looking, no one has beenfound to succeed Carmen Fariña aschancellor of city schools. PAGE A24

NEW YORK A24-27

Help Still WantedHow a Chinese defector’s story changedNathan Chen, America’s best shot at agold medal in figure skating. PAGE B10

A Jumper Finds His Art

Nicholas Kristof PAGE A31

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A30-31

CROSSVILLE, Tenn. — Thegravel parking lot at the Fitzger-ald family’s truck dealership herein central Tennessee was packedlast week with shiny new Peterbiltand Freightliner trucks, as well asa steady stream of buyers fromacross the country.

But there is something unusualabout the big rigs sold by theFitzgeralds: They are equippedwith rebuilt diesel engines that donot need to comply with rules onmodern emissions controls. Thatmakes them cheaper to operate,but means that they spew 40 to 55times the air pollution of othernew trucks, according to federalestimates, including toxinsblamed for asthma, lung cancer

and a range of other ailments.The special treatment for the

Fitzgerald trucks is made possibleby a loophole in federal law thatthe Obama administration tried toclose, and the Trump administra-tion is now championing. Thetrucks, originally intended as away to reuse a relatively new en-gine and other parts after an acci-dent, became attractive for theirability to evade modern emissionsstandards and other regulations.

The survival of this loophole is astory of money, politics and sus-pected academic misconduct, ac-cording to interviews and govern-ment and private documents, and

has been facilitated by ScottPruitt, the administrator of theEnvironmental ProtectionAgency, who has staked out posi-tions in environmental fights thatbenefit the Trump administra-tion’s corporate backers.

Fitzgerald welcomed PresidentTrump at one of its dealershipsduring the campaign, and it sellsbaseball caps with the slogan“Make Trucks Great Again.”

The loophole has been con-demned in recent weeks by an ar-ray of businesses and envi-ronmentalists: major truck mak-ers like Volvo and Navistar; fleetowners like the United ParcelService; lobbying powerhouseslike the National Association ofManufacturers; health and envi-ronmental groups like the Ameri-

Steering Big Rigs Around Emissions StandardsBy ERIC LIPTON

Trucks with rebuilt engines at Fitzgerald in Crossville, Tenn., need not comply with exhaust rules.KYLE DEAN REINFORD FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A20

TRUMP RULES

Special Treatment

JERUSALEM — As Prime Min-ister Benjamin Netanyahu foughtback Wednesday against a policefinding that he had acceptednearly $300,000 in bribes, his coolself-confidence betrayed not theslightest worry that he could beforced to step down anytime soon.

“The coalition is stable, and no

one, me or anyone else, has plansto go to elections,” he declared inTel Aviv. “We will continue to worktogether with you for the citizensof the State of Israel, until the endof our term,” in late 2019.

If Mr. Netanyahu had entered adangerous new period in which hemust battle for his political sur-vival and avoid imprisonment, hedid so possessed of political ad-vantages that no Israeli prime

minister has enjoyed before.Beloved by his base and re-

spected even by his adversariesas a guardian of Israel’s security,Mr. Netanyahu remains the domi-nant figure on the Israeli stage, hiscombined 12 years as prime min-ister closing in on the record ofDavid Ben-Gurion, Israel’s princi-pal founder.

And he has defended that posi-tion in part by steadily chipping

away at the institutions that bal-ance the powers of his office inways that seem to echo the ag-gressive tactics of PresidentTrump, except that he was doing itbefore there was a PresidentTrump.

He and his governing coalitionhave campaigned to curb the ac-tivist Israeli judiciary, demonizedthe rambunctious press as a bas-

Netanyahu Vows to Stay as Prosecutors Consider Bribery ChargesBy DAVID M. HALBFINGER

Continued on Page A6

JOHANNESBURG — WhenPresident Jacob Zuma of SouthAfrica resigned on Wednesday, hedid not yield to South Africa’s vot-ers, courts or opposition parties,but to his own party, the AfricanNational Congress.

Mr. Zuma once said the partywas more important than the na-tion itself, contending that itwould govern South Africa untilJesus returned. And during hisnearly nine-year presidency thatwas marred by scandal, corrup-tion and mismanagement, A.N.C.officials had repeatedly rallied be-hind him as their leader.

In the end, though, his partyturned against him, asking him tostep down a full year and a half be-fore the end of his second term.Cyril Ramaphosa, the deputypresident and A.N.C. leader, isnow acting president.

Under Mr. Zuma’s leadership,South Africa’s image tumbled.The country that had inspired theworld with Nelson Mandela’s ideaof peaceful reconciliation, and thecontinent with Thabo Mbeki’s vi-sion of an “African renaissance,”became known for corrupt leader-ship and a wide range of thornyproblems.

Neighbors in the region oftenasked visitors from South Africathe same question: What wentwrong?

“It was a period when South Af-rica, which was thought to be ashining example of the Africancontinent, an economic power-house and also a vibrant democra-cy, was tested to the limit,” said So-

Continued on Page A10

Zuma LeavesThorny LegacyIn South Africa

By NORIMITSU ONISHI

WASHINGTON — One weekafter Rob Porter, his staff secre-tary, resigned amid spousal abuseallegations, President Trump saidon Wednesday that he was “to-tally opposed to domestic vio-lence,” his first condemnation ofthe alleged conduct behind a scan-dal that has engulfed the WhiteHouse.

His statement, which membersof both parties had said was longoverdue, came as John F. Kelly,Mr. Trump’s chief of staff, facednew questions about his handlingof Mr. Porter’s case, including howhe could have held a temporaryhigh-level security clearance formore than a year in light of the al-legations, and as committees inboth the House and the Senate an-nounced they would investigatethe circumstances surroundingthe granting of Mr. Porter’s clear-ance.

Mr. Kelly told senior aides lastfall to put an immediate end togranting new interim securityclearances like the one given toMr. Porter and directed them toresolve any issues preventing em-ployees who held them at the timefrom receiving a full clearance, ac-cording to two people familiarwith the discussion.

At a meeting in the West Wing,Mr. Kelly said he was assigningKirstjen Nielsen, then his deputy,to enforce the new policy, the peo-ple said. But it is not knownwhether Mr. Kelly, Ms. Nielsen orany other senior officials soughtto delve into why Mr. Porter wasoperating with only an interimclearance.

Mr. Porter resigned last weekafter allegations that he had

Continued on Page A16

After a Week,Trump Relents,Assailing Abuse

This article is by Julie HirschfeldDavis, Maggie Haberman and Mi-chael D. Shear. WASHINGTON — A broad bi-

partisan group of senatorsreached agreement Wednesdayon a narrow rewrite of the nation’simmigration laws that would bol-ster border security and resolvethe fate of the so-called Dreamers,even as President Trump sug-gested he would veto any planthat does not adhere to his harder-line approach.

Their compromise legislationsets up a clash pitting the politicalcenter of the Senate against Mr.Trump and the Republican con-gressional leadership.

Senators in both parties havebeen racing against a self-im-posed end-of-the-week deadline towrite legislation that could winwide support by increasing bor-der security while at the sametime offering a path to citizenshipfor young immigrants brought tothe United States illegally as chil-dren.

Members of the bipartisangroup, which calls itself the Com-mon Sense Coalition, said theirdeal does just that. They wereworking Wednesday evening todetermine whether their bill couldgarner the 60 votes necessary tobreak a filibuster.

“The president’s going to have avote on his concept. I don’t think itwill get 60 votes,” said SenatorLindsey Graham, Republican ofSouth Carolina and a member ofthe group, adding: “The bottomline then is: What do you do next?You can do what we’ve done forthe last 35 years — blame eachother. Or you can actually start fix-ing the broken immigration sys-tem. If you came out of this withstrong border security — the pres-ident getting his wall and the

Continued on Page A22

Senators AgreeOn ImmigrantsIn Face of VetoBy SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

and MICHAEL D. SHEAR

The snowboarder Lindsey Jacobelliswants to be defined by her talent, not a12-year-old Olympic blooper. PAGE B9

SPORTSTHURSDAY B9-18

Changing the NarrativeMarvel’s new film, with Lupita Nyong’o,left, and Letitia Wright, has parents ofyoung fans facing questions about raceand cultural appropriation. PAGE D1

THURSDAY STYLES D1-8

Wearing Black Panther’s Mask

President Trump wants a militaryparade. His budget director says itcould cost the government up to $30million. PAGE A22

NATIONAL A14-23

Millions for Display of MightWith just about every nation on earthgrowing, economists fear inflation willaccelerate. One reason for their con-cern: not enough truckers. PAGE B1

BUSINESS DAY B1-7

Why Chicken Costs More

Sufjan Stevens and Mary J. Blige arefirst-time nominees in a category thathas always been a mash-up of hits,snoozers and misfires. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-8

Best Song, an Oscars CuriosityA voting reform put in place in Califor-nia could end up keeping Democrats offthe ballot in key districts. PAGE A15

Edge for G.O.P. in California

Pakistan has outlawed Valentine’s Day,but plenty of couples in the capital foundways to celebrate the holiday. PAGE A12

‘You Can’t Ban Love’

THE SCENE Many students used their cellphones to contact terrifiedparents, and to record the carnage occurring around them. PAGE A23

Late EditionToday, morning clouds, then sun-shine, a mild afternoon, high 63. To-night, periodic rain late, low 53. To-morrow, a few morning showers,high 58. Weather map, Page B8.

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