Senators to come together for gun control measures
Senators from both parties have vowed to work together in an effort to prevent individuals on terror watch lists from buying guns. The effort comes a day after legislators failed to reach any agreement on similar measures. This rare “No Fly, No Buy” compromise on guns, modest in the scale of its ambition, would prevent watch-listed individuals from legally buying guns. The agency has said Omar Mateen, the gunman who killed 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando last week, was on a terrorist watch list from 2013 to 2014. The NRA opposes the measure, describing the proposals as “unconstitutional”.
In part three of a Guardian investigation on gun control, we look at how reform depends on treating thoughtful gun owners with more respect.
Senators unveil bipartisan proposal to tighten gun control laws after Orlando
Trump to double size of small team
Donald Trump is looking to beef up his skeletal campaign staff, said Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s recently fired campaign manager. Trump’s campaign is outnumbered 10 to one by the Clinton operation. Lewandowski reiterated Trump’s plan to swing states like New York, which has not voted Republican since Ronald Reagan’s victory in 1984. But can Trump pivot to a national campaign?
Donald Trump to double size of his campaign team, fired manager predicts
California wildfires ‘0% contained’
Firefighters in California say southern California’s two wildfires are 0% contained. The fires in the San Gabriel mountains 20 miles north-east of downtown Los Angeles have forced the evacuations of residents from hundreds of threatened homes in California and the south-west. Blazes are reported near the US-Mexico border south-east of San Diego as well as in Utah, Arizona and New Mexico.
Wildfires raging near LA are ‘0% contained’ say authorities
Politicians make last-ditch appeals on EU referendum
With polling still tight in the UK, supporters of the Remain and Leave camps in the UK Brexit vote are making their last appeals for support from undecided swing voters. The UK prime minister, David Cameron, who may be forced to resign on Thursday if the vote goes against him, warned that “Britain will be a more insular and inward-looking country if it votes to leave the European Union.” Meanwhile, Vote Leave campaigner Boris Johnson, who is touring Britain by helicopter, said: “There is a very clear choice between those on their side who speak of nothing but fear of the consequences of leaving the EU, and we on our side, who offer hope.”
Brexit could only hurt the US, writes Ben Jacobs.
Senior figures set to criss-cross UK in final day of referendum campaign
Venezuela’s worsening crisis
With unrest threatening the government of Nicolás Maduro, the Guardian’s Julian Borger looks at the worst economic crisis in the country’s history. Venezuela has the world’s worst negative growth rate (-8%), and the worst inflation rate (482%). Unemployment is expected to climb to near 30%. Ordinary people in the oil-rich country are regularly going without food. Three-quarter empty supermarkets are being ransacked by angry, hungry mobs and this just three years since the death of revolutionary strongman, Hugo Chávez.
Venezuela’s worsening economic crisis – the Guardian briefing
Instagram hits milestone
Facebook’s photo-sharing app has passed half a billion users, with 300 million using the app every day, said Kevin Systrom, one of its founders. Launched in 2010, it was bought by Facebook for $1bn (£680m) when it had 30 million users. “This scale is not a badge on our uniform, but a signal of our ambition,” Systrom said. “If we can have a billion or a billion and a half on Instagram, we get closer to capturing every experience in the world.”
Instagram hits half a billion users
USA falls to Argentina in Copa América
To little surprise, USA was monstered by a dominant Argentina in 4-0 defeat in Houston in the Copa América. Argentina will now meet Chile or Colombia, who play in Chicago tonight. The Euro 2016 championship is also heating up, however, as the competition progresses past the group stage. Off the pitch, Portugal’s Ronaldo threw a reporter’s microphone into a lake.
Euro 2016 The complete guide – and every player rated
The bleak future of ‘zombie coral’
Exacerbating an already grim prognosis for the world’s coral reefs affected by climate change and ocean acidification, scientists have discovered the existence of “zombie corals” which look healthy but cannot reproduce. In some places, including two sites in the Florida Keys, researchers found elkhorn corals lacking any ability to reproduce. The scientists said corals are essentially walking dead.
‘Zombie corals’ pose new threat to world’s reefs
San Francisco’s gay pride marshal wary of discrimination
Members of the LGBT community gearing up for this weekend’s gay pride march say increased security from a police force accused of harassment and discrimination doesn’t make them feel safer. “You’re turning out an armed force that has a record of racist violence against people of color in a march themed Black Lives Matter. If folks can’t see the irony of that, I don’t know what to tell you,” said Malkia Cyril, a member of Black Lives Matter, the organizational grand marshal for this year’s parade.
LGBT people of color alienated by San Francisco Pride’s plan for more police
And another thing …
Insult, provoke, repeat
Does Donald Trump resemble a Latin American populist leader like Hugo Chávez? Rory Carroll finds eerie similarities. Like Trump, the Venezuelan leader dominated the news with insults and provocations. “He hired and fired people live on air. Humiliated and taunted foes and bragged about winning. He could be funny and coarse and buffoonish and broke all the rules about presidential conduct,” Carroll writes. “[Trump’s] remedies may be opportunistic demagoguery but his supporters now feel heard. Chávez did the same for Venezuela’s poor.
How Donald Trump became America’s Hugo Chávez
