Midday Roundup: Jordanian king channels Clint Eastwood in ISIS fight

Unforgiven. Shortly after vowing an “earth-shaking” response to the murder of a captured air force pilot, Jordanian officials executed two terrorists convicted of working with al-Qaeda. ISIS militants who killed Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh by burning him to death had demanded one of the jailed terrorists in exchange for sparing the pilot’s life. But officials today said they had evidence al-Kaseasbeh had been dead for at least a month, even though the video showing his murder did not appear on the internet until yesterday. Jordan’s King Abdullah II was in Washington when news of the video broke. U.S. officials said he was visibly angry and resolute. “He said there is going to be retribution like ISIS hasn’t seen,” said Rep. Duncan Hunter Jr., R-Calif., a Marine Corps veteran who met with the king. “He mentioned Unforgiven and he mentioned Clint Eastwood, and he actually quoted a part of the movie.”

Deadly crash. A New York commuter train struck an SUV in Valhalla, N.Y., last night, killing the driver and five people in the train’s first car. Officials said the driver appeared to have gotten her Mercedes SUV stuck on the track shortly before the train hit her. She reportedly got out of the vehicle to see why it wouldn’t move, but climbed back in to try to get it off the track shortly before the train struck. As the train pushed the vehicle down the track, the track’s third rail lifted up and rammed through the train’s first car, which caught on fire. Passengers in the other cars broke windows to escape after they figured out what had happened. Officials described the crash as the deadliest in Metro-North Railroad’s 32-year history.

History repeats. Bobbi Kristina Brown, daughter of entertainers Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, remains hospitalized at an undisclosed location after she was found face down in a bathtub at her Atlanta-area home earlier this week. Investigators have not said what they believe led up to the incident, which was eerily similar to the circumstances surrounding her mother’s death in 2012. Although media reports speculated the 21-year-old aspiring actress might have been involved with drugs or alcohol, investigators said they found no evidence at the scene suggesting substance abuse. According to police reports, Brown was not breathing and had no heartbeat when paramedics arrived. Doctors placed her in a medically induced coma and put her on a ventilator. A source close to the family said they are “praying for a miracle.”

Office romance. The top two office supply retailers are joining forces in a deal worth $6.3 billion. Staples—the top purveyor of copy paper, pens, and binders—inked a deal to buy rival Office Depot in a merger that is sure to earn careful scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission. Regulators rejected a merger between the two in 1997, but analysts say the deal could go through this time because so many other retailers, including Walmart and Amazon, sell the same products.