Weekly Review

The United Kingdom carried out a referendum on membership in the European Union, voting to leave by a margin of 52 to 48 percent. The British pound dropped to its lowest level in more than 30 years, European stock markets dipped to their lowest levels since the 2008 financial crisis, and Google claimed that the second-most popular search term in the U.K. on the day after the vote was “What is the E.U.?” British prime minister David Cameron, upon learning of the results, announced that he was resigning. “Why should I have to do all the hard shit?” he allegedly asked his aides.^[1][2][3][4] Anti-immigration politicians in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden called for their own E.U. referenda. “Now,” said the leader of Italy’s Northern League party, “it’s our turn.”^[5] In Scotland, where a majority of people voted to remain in the E.U., First Minister Nicola Sturgeon called for another referendum on Scottish independence to be held.^[6] Ten people were injured when a roller coaster in Motherwell, Scotland, went off the rails.^[7] Connecticut senator Chris Murphy staged a 15-hour filibuster to demand gun-control legislation following a massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando in which 202 rounds were fired and 49 people were killed, the Senate failed to pass four gun-control measures that would impose universal background checks on buyers and reduce access to firearms for people on terrorist watch lists, and it was reported that gun-permit applications in Florida increased by 120 percent in the days after the shooting.^[8][9][10] The Battle Creek Bombers, a baseball team in Michigan, held a “2nd Amendment Education Night,” encouraging their fans to bring guns to the ballpark. “We just had L.G.B.T. Pride Night the other night, and some people didn’t like that, either,” said the Bombers’ general manager. “You can’t please everyone.”^[11]

In a 5–3 decision, the United States Supreme Court struck down parts of a 2013 Texas law that would have required abortion clinics to meet the same standards as surgical centers, effectively reducing the number of legal clinics in the state to ten.^[12] A court in Kenya upheld its decision to conduct rectal examinations to determine whether men had participated in illegal “homosexual activities,” a judge in Georgia dared a defendant to masturbate in his courtroom and told him he “looked like a queer,” and Pope Francis said that the Catholic Church should apologize to gay people.^[13][14][15] A Texas judge ruled that the Wallace Pack Unit prison could no longer supply inmates with drinking water containing unsafe levels of arsenic, and the Arizona Department of Corrections announced in a court filing that it had run out of drugs used to execute prisoners.^[16][17] Police in La Joya, Texas, offered a woman a taco after she reported being sexually assaulted by an officer, and it was revealed that the city of Chicago has spent at least $210 million on 600 police-misconduct lawsuits since 2012.^[18][19] A former prison in Philadelphia that has served as a horror-movie set was being prepared as a detention center for protesters arrested at the upcoming Democratic National Convention, and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump fired his campaign manager. “Ding dong the witch is dead,” tweeted a Trump adviser, shortly before resigning.^[20][21]

Raptors in Scotland were lining their nests with clothing stolen from swimmers, a high school on the island of Jersey cancelled its annual beach day after concerns over the “dangers of the midday sun,” and it was reported that two dozen islands in Indonesia have disappeared since 2005 because of black-market mining for sand.^{[22][23][24][25]} A man in Liverpool, England, who had been arrested for harassing women while dressed as a Disney princess was banned from wearing women’s swimwear or “fancy dress” in public, a Seattle man was arrested after scanning his genitals at a grocery-store self-checkout line, and a man in Lincoln, Nebraska, was arrested for hiding under parked cars and touching women’s feet. “I just have this weird addiction,” he said.^[26][27] KFC announced that its to-go boxes in India would include a built-in phone charger, and a man drove from Los Angeles to Las Vegas to marry his smartphone. “We don’t really have many people,” said the owner of the Little Vegas Chapel, “that marry inanimate objects.”^[28][29] A motorcyclist in Kansas died after hitting a black cow at night, and a Chicago man named Larry Gambles won the lottery for a second time.^[30][31] More than 30 people in Dallas, Texas, were treated for burns on their feet after being encouraged to walk across hot coals by motivational speaker Tony Robbins. “In hindsight,” said one man who suffered second-degree burns on both feet, “jumping off would have been a fantastic idea.”^[32]