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The wife of Orlando gunman Omar Mateen reportedly tried to talk him out of Sunday’s attack, which killed at least 49 people at a gay nightclub.
Noor Mateen also told the FBI she was with him when he bought ammunition and a holster and that she once drove him to Pulse, the gay nightclub, so he could scope it out, NBC reports. As of Tuesday, 27 victims remained hospitalized, six of them in critical condition.
A little extra.
A majority of the victims killed in the Orlando shooting were Latino, and nearly half were Puerto Rican, BuzzFeed News’ Adolfo Flores reports. “It’s sad and alarming that this person chose to carry out this attack on Latino night, a night we look for to connect with people who look like us and listen to our music,” said Kimbu Garcia, who lost three friends in the shooting.
U.S. President Barack Obama lashed out on Tuesday against the anti-Islam rhetoric used in the wake of the Orlando massacre, saying it only does the terrorists’ jobs for them. Using the term “radical Islam” also does not change any strategy because U.S. officials “know who the enemy is,” he said.
The man who killed a French policeman and his wife near Paris on Monday had a past terrorism conviction for recruiting fighters.
The attacker, a French national identified as 25-year-old Larossi Abbala, was convicted in 2013 as part of what French prosecutors called an al-Qaeda-linked logistics cell that recruited and helped transport French fighters to Afghanistan and Pakistan for training. He was sentenced to three years in prison, but was released in 2015 and put on a watch list of people believed to be terror threats, BuzzFeed News reports. ISIS claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack.
For the latest news and updates, download the BuzzFeed News app for iOS and Android (available in Canadian, UK, Australian, and U.S. app stores).
WE’RE KEEPING AN EYE ON
Next week, Britain decides whether it’ll leave or remain in the European Union. Turkey’s relationship with Europe has become a key part of the debate.
The Leave and Remain camps are making wildly contradictory claims. But who is right? BuzzFeed News’ Alberto Nardelli has some answers:
Turkey is a proxy for the Leave side to make the EU referendum about migration, and polls suggest it might be working. The Remain side would rather voters focus on the economy.
The Leave side says Turkey is joining the European Union, while British Prime Minister David Cameron (who’s on the Remain side) says it won’t happen for decades. (The prime minister’s claim is closer to the actual state of affairs.)
Turkey is due to get visa-free travel in most of the EU, and UK diplomats have allegedly discussed visa liberalization for a million Turks. The UK government denies this.
DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THIS?
This 68-year-old man from Nepal went back to school after his wife died.
Kami, a father of six and a grandfather of eight, goes to school six days a week as a student in 10th grade at a local high school in Nepal, BuzzFeed News’ Anup Kaphle writes.
“To forget my sorrows I go to school,” he said in an interview with Reuters. Kami said he will continue to study until he dies, and hopes that his story encourages others to ignore age barriers.
Next year, Kami will join more than half a million students in taking the national School Leaving Certificate exam. He has told his classmates that he will shave his beard if he passes.
QUICK THINGS TO KNOW
U.S. presidential election: Hillary Clinton won the Democratic primary in Washington, D.C., yesterday and met with Bernie Sanders. (The Guardian) Russian government hackers gained access to the Democratic opposition research on Donald Trump. (Washington Post) And here’s the list of media organizations that have been denied press credentials by Trump. (CNN)
A 2-year-old is still missing after having been dragged into a lake by an alligator Tuesday night at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando. (BuzzFeed News)
The U.S. judge who drew outrage by sentencing former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner to six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman has been removed from an upcoming sexual assault case. (BuzzFeed News)
Scientists have warned that Australia is at a tipping point when it comes to saving the Great Barrier Reef and say that neither of the country’s two major parties fighting for victory in the upcoming federal election has fully grasped the need for immediate action. (BuzzFeed News)
Prince William has posed for the cover of a gay magazine. He’s the first member of the British royal family to do so. (BuzzFeed News)
This letter was edited and brought to you by Natasha Japanwala and Claire Moses. You can always reach us here.