The VICE Morning Bulletin

Everything you need to know about the world this morning, curated by VICE.

US News

Bump Stocks Get New Look After Florida Shooting
The president told the Justice Department to draw up new regulations barring “all devices that turn legal weapons into machine guns," though it didn't appear relevant to the mass shooting last week in a Florida high school. Meanwhile, US Senator Patrick Toomey was set to introduce a bill bolstering background checks. The Republican said: “It does feel like we have a shot at getting a little bit of momentum on background checks.”—VICE News / The Washington Post

North Korea Ditched Meeting with VP
The vice president’s office said Pence was scheduled to meet top North Korean officials, including Kim Jong Un’s sister Kim Yo Jong, at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. Nick Ayers, Pence’s chief of staff, said the North Koreans had “dangled a meeting in hopes of the vice president softening his message,” but bailed hours ahead of time.—NBC News

California Police Claim to Have Prevented Another School Shooting
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department revealed it found “multiple guns and ammunition” at the home of an El Camino High School student suspected of planning a shooting. On Friday, a security guard at the Whittier, California, school said he heard the “disgruntled” student threaten to use weapons there.—AP

HHS Official Investigated for Allegedly Spreading Fake News
Jon Cordova, principal deputy assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, was on on leave as officials examined bogus stories he shared on social media during the election. Cordova, who worked for Trump’s campaign in California, reportedly peddled conspiracy theories, including the false claim that Gold Star father Khizr Khan worked for the Muslim Brotherhood.—CNN

International News

Death Toll Approaches 300 As Attacks Continue on Rebel Holdouts in Syria
Some 250 civilians were killed in Syrian government strikes on the rebel-held area over about 48 hours earlier this week, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The organization said 106 people were killed Tuesday as aerial bombing and shelling continued. Pano Moumtzis, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Syria, said he was “appalled and distressed” by reports six hospitals in the area were hit. The bloodbath reportedly continued into Wednesday, with dozens more killed and over 100 more hurt.—Al Jazeera / Reuters

Bus Explosion in Sri Lanka Leaves 19 Wounded
The country's military suspected a bomb caused the explosion and subsequent fire on a passenger bus, injuring 12 military personnel and seven civilians. The bus was headed to Diyathalawa. It may represent the first coordinated assault on Sri Lanka's armed forces since the country’s civil war ended in 2009.—Reuters

Oxfam Loses Thousands of Donors Over Haiti Scandal
The charity's chief executive Mark Goldring told a committee of British lawmakers 7,000 people have canceled regular donations since news broke that the NGO’s staffers patronized (possibly underage) sex workers in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Goldring also said the organization received 26 new reports of sexual misconduct following the initial revelations.—The Guardian

Venezuela Launches Its Own Cryptocurrency
President Nicolas Maduro unveiled his struggling country’s new digital currency at a ceremony inside the presidential palace in Caracas, claiming the “petro” amassed $735 million in sales in its first few hours. Each unit has been valued at $60 by the embattled government. “We are on the world’s technological vanguard,” Maduro said.—AP

Everything Else

Frank Ocean Sues His Producer
The artist filed suit against Om’Mas Keith, who helped produce Blonde and his previous album Channel Orange, over Keith’s alleged attempt to be wrongly credited for co-writing 11 of the newer album’s tracks. Ocean claimed Keith did not “contribute any lyrics, melodies, or music that would give rise to any claim of authorship.”—Rolling Stone

Stars Pledge at Least $2 Million to Gun Control March
George and Amal Clooney gave $500,000 to the Parkland survivors’ “March for Our Lives” event in Washington, DC. The sum was matched by Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw, and Marilyn and Jeffrey Katzenberg.—TIME

Kendrick Lamar and SZA Sued Over Video
British-Liberian artist Lina Iris Viktor filed a copyright suit against the duo alleging her work was used in the recently-released “All the Stars” clip. Her lawyer said they were "confident that Ms. Viktor will prevail” in court, and the accused artists did not immediately respond to a request for comment.—Pitchfork

Tesla Hacked by Cryptocurrency Miners
Unidentified hackers breached Tesla’s open source system and were able to mine an unknown amount of cryptocurrency, according to RedLock security. A Tesla spokesperson said the company’s customers appeared to be unaffected by the “vulnerability.”—Motherboard

Queen Elizabeth II Attends London Fashion Week
The British monarch sat next to Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour at the front row of designer Richard Quinn’s show on Tuesday. She later presented Quinn with the Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design.—i-D

Father John Misty Drops New Song
Josh Tillman released “Mr. Tillman” on Tuesday, which appears to detail his stay at a hotel and name checks fellow songwriter Jason Isbell. The artist has previously suggested a follow-up to Pure Comedy, his 2017 LP, would be released in the near future.—Noisey

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