New York

Happening Today: Mosque Shootings, Midwest Floods, Boeing, Eggs, Apple Watch, Meghan Markle, Dick Dale

What to Know

  • A New Zealand gun shop acknowledged selling guns online to the 28-year-old white supremacist accused of killing 50 in mosque shootings
  • The latest U.S. research on eggs won't go over easy for those can't eat breakfast without them
  • Meghan Markle and Prince Harry just want to blaze their own trail, but someone is reportedly throwing cold water on their plans

Get the top headlines of the day in your morning briefing from NBC 4 New York, Monday through Friday. Sign up for our newsletter here.

Christchurch Gun Shop Sold Rifles Online to Accused Shooter

A Christchurch gun shop acknowledged selling guns online to the 28-year-old white supremacist accused of killing 50 people in mosque shootings that have upturned New Zealand's reputation as among the world's most tolerant and safe nations. At a news conference, Gun City owner David Tipple said the store sold four guns and ammunition to Brenton Harrison Tarrant through a "police-verified online mail order process." The store "detected nothing extraordinary," about the buyer, he said. Separately, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said gun law reforms would be announced within 10 days and an inquiry conducted into intelligence and security services who failed to detect the risk from the attacker or his plans. There have been concerns intelligence agencies have been overly focused on the Muslim community in detecting and preventing security risks. The police commissioner Mike Bush said police are certain Tarrant was the only gunman but aren't ruling out that he had support.

More Evacuations in Midwest as Floodwaters Head Downstream

Residents in parts of southwestern Iowa were forced out of their homes as a torrent of Missouri River water flowed over and through levees, putting them in a situation similar to hundreds of people in neighboring Nebraska who have been displaced by the late-winter flood. Heavy rainfall and snowmelt have led to dangerously high water in creeks and rivers across several Midwestern states, with the Missouri River hitting record-high levels in many areas. At least two deaths were blamed on flooding, and two other men have been missing for days. While river depths were starting to level off in parts of Nebraska, the water is so high in many places that serious flooding is expected to remain for several days. And downstream communities in Kansas and Missouri were bracing for likely flooding. In Iowa, the Missouri River reached 30.2 feet in Fremont County in the state's far southwestern corner, 2 feet above the record set in 2011. People in the towns of Bartlett and Thurman were being evacuated as levees were breached and overtopped.

Clear Similarity Between Two Crashes, Ethiopia Minister Says

Preliminary information from the flight data recorder of an Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed a week ago and killed 157 people shows "clear similarities" with an earlier disaster involving the same kind of Boeing aircraft in Indonesia, Ethiopia's transport minister said. The disclosure came as thousands marched in the capital of Addis Ababa, accompanying 17 empty caskets at a funeral for the Ethiopian victims of Flight 302. The caskets were empty because authorities have said that recovering and identifying the remains will take months. The crash of Ethiopian Flight 302 on March 10 and that of a Lion Air plane in Indonesia in October — both of them Boeing 737 Max 8 jetliners — have prompted the United States and other countries to ground the aircraft. The flight recorders from Flight 302 that went down shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa for Nairobi were recovered "in a good condition that enabled us to extract almost all the data inside," Transport Minister Dagmawit Moges told reporters.

Are Eggs Good or Bad for You? New Research Rekindles Debate

The latest U.S. research on eggs won't go over easy for those can't eat breakfast without them. Adults who ate about 1 ½ eggs daily had a slightly higher risk of heart disease than those who ate no eggs. The study showed the more eggs, the greater the risk. The chances of dying early were also elevated. The researchers say the culprit is cholesterol, found in egg yolks and other foods, including shellfish, dairy products and red meat. The study focused on eggs because they're among the most commonly eaten cholesterol-rich foods. They can still be part of a healthy diet, but in smaller quantities than many Americans have gotten used to, the researchers say. U.S. dietary guidelines that eased limits on cholesterol have helped eggs make a comeback. The study has limitations and contradicts recent research, but is likely to rekindle the long-standing debate about eggs. The new results were published online in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Apple Watch May Spot Heart Problem But More Research Needed

A huge study suggests the Apple Watch can detect a worrisome irregular heartbeat at least sometimes — but experts say more work is needed to tell if using wearable technology to screen for heart problems really helps. More than 419,000 Apple Watch users signed up for the unusual study, making it the largest ever to explore screening seemingly healthy people for atrial fibrillation, a condition that if untreated eventually can trigger strokes. Stanford University researchers reported the watch didn't panic flocks of people, warning just half a percent of participants — about 2,100 — that they might have a problem. But even among those flagged, "it's not perfect," cautioned Dr. Richard Kovacs of the American College of Cardiology, who wasn't involved with the study.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's Bid Vetoed by Queen, Report Says

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry just want to blaze their own trail, but someone is reportedly throwing cold water on their plans. That person is the Duke of Sussex's grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II. According to the Sunday Times, Meghan and Harry are understood to have lobbied for an autonomous new court, but the Queen and Harry's father Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, who will jointly fund their office, were not having it. “They wanted their household to be entirely independent of Buckingham Palace, but were told 'no,'" a royal source told the newspaper. "There is an institutional structure that doesn't allow that kind of independence. The feeling is that it's good to have the Sussexes under the jurisdiction of Buckingham Palace, so they can't just go off and do their own thing." The Sunday Times reported Meghan and Harry want to build a global "Sussex brand" of philanthropy and humanitarianism, and that the duchess is also understood to want to continue in her role as an "activist." Buckingham Palace, which represents the Queen, and Kensington Palace, which represents Meghan and Harry as well as his brother Prince William and wife Kate Middleton, have not commented on the report by the Times, the U.K.'s most trusted newspaper.

Dick Dale, King of Surf Guitar, Is Dead at 81, Former Bassist Says

Dick Dale, whose pounding, blaringly loud power-chord instrumentals on songs like "Miserlou" and "Let's Go Trippin'" earned him the title King of the Surf Guitar, has died at age 81. His former bassist Sam Bolle says Dick Dale passed away Saturday night. No other details were available. Dale liked to say it was he and not the Beach Boys who invented surf music — and some critics have said he was right. An avid surfer, Dale started building a devoted Los Angeles fan base in the late 1950s with repeated appearances at Newport Beach's old Rendezvous Ballroom. He played "Miserlou," ''The Wedge," ''Night Rider" and other compositions at wall-rattling volume on a custom-made Fender Stratocaster guitar. His fingering style was so frenetic that he shredded guitar picks during songs, a technique that forced him to stash spares on his guitar's body.

Contact Us