Vox Sentences: What we actually know about Omar Mateen

A federal court upholds net neutrality; looking into Omar Mateen; everybody hates Donald (except Republican voters and Russia).

Vox Sentences is written by Dylan Matthews and Dara Lind.

TOP NEWS

Who knows what evil lurks

Omar Mateen

• Here, three days after the Orlando nightclub shooting, is what we actually know about the motives of Omar Mateen:

• We know that several Pulse regulars said they'd seen him at the gay nightclub multiple times, and that others have claimed he had a profile on a gay dating app.

  [Gawker / Gabrielle Bluestone]

• We do not know whether, or to what extent, Mateen had same-sex inclinations! Nor, even if he did, do we know to what extent that influenced his choice of target.

• We know he claimed allegiance to ISIS during the attack. We also know there's no evidence — so far — to indicate that ISIS had anything to do with planning the attack.

  [NYT / Julie Hirschfeld Davis]

• Vox's Jennifer Williams explains why the distinction matters: Intelligence agencies should be able to catch ISIS-coordinated attacks, but it's extremely hard to prevent attacks that are planned inside one dude's head.

  [Vox / Jennifer Williams]

• We know that Mateen's wife is being questioned by the FBI. We might know — although the sourcing isn't great — that she admitted to knowing about the plot and driving him to Pulse but claimed she was trying to talk him out of it.

  [South Florida Sun-Sentinel / Del Quentin Wilber and Brian Bennett]

• Most Americans (and especially Muslim Americans, who are the best counter-extremist allies intelligence agencies have) know this already, but pro tip: If your husband wants you to drive him to a nightclub so he can shoot it up, please notify the police. Please.

  [Vox / Zack Beauchamp]

Reclassified!

Mark Wilson/Getty Images

• The DC Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Federal Communications Commission's current "net neutrality" regulations Tuesday.

  [Vox / Timothy B. Lee]

• This is a huge win for the Obama administration. Earlier versions of net neutrality regulations were rejected by the same court in 2014.

  [The Verge / Adi Robertson]

• The new regulations "reclassify" internet service providers as "telecommunications providers" (like landline phone companies), rather than information services (as they'd been classified under the Bush administration).

  [Washington Post / Brian Fung]

• The difference matters because telecommunications providers have historically been regulated like monopolies — giving the government more power to prevent them from, say, giving faster treatment (internet service) to preferred clients (apps and websites).

  [Vox / Timothy B. Lee]

• So the new regulations are more ambitious than previous attempts at net neutrality regulation — they only barely got approved by the FCC last year — but they're also easier to uphold in court.

  [Vox / Timothy B. Lee]

• At least so far they've proven more durable. Internet providers vow they're taking this all the way to the Supreme Court.

  [The Hill / Mario Trujillo]

Your day in Trump

Darren McCollester/Getty Images

• Over in Donald Trumpland, incidentally, every Muslim in America knew about the attack, and they didn't tell anyone because they all hate America.

  [Vox / Jennifer Williams]

• President Obama basically lost it on Tuesday over Trump — he blamed Trump for making the US less safe by "fueling ISIL's notion that the West hates Muslims."

  [Daily Beast / Gideon Resnick]

• Of course, Trump said Tuesday that Obama prioritizes "our enemies over our allies," so he probably isn't listening to what the president says.

  [Talking Points Memo / Allegra Kirkland]

• The press has pretty much lost it with Trump, too. The Washington Post, in an editorial Tuesday, called Trump's Monday speech "an assault on our values."

  [Washington Post ]

• Then again, Donald Trump's campaign revoked the press credentials of the Washington Post (adding it to a long, long list of news outlets banned from the Trump campaign). So Trump is probably not listening to them, either.

  [Washington Post / Paul Farhi]

• The Democratic National Committee is probably thrilled. Too bad that, as the DNC revealed today, its computers were infiltrated by Russian hackers — who hacked, in particular, into their opposition research file on Trump.

  [TechCrunch / Jonathan Schieber]

• Why? Who knows for sure. But Trump's campaign chair, Paul Manafort, is pretty tight with pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine. And Trump has expressed affection for Putin. So maybe they were doing him a favor.

  [Politifact / Aleksandra Kharchenko]

MISCELLANEOUS

Three Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio staffers explain how they slowly came to accept their fates. [Huffington Post / Sam Stein]

• Portland's Albina district is gentrifying. Its schools are not.

  [Slate / Jessica Huseman]

• Why the FAA should clear the way for more supersonic jets — this time, quieter than the Concorde.

  [WSJ / Eli Dourado and Samuel Hammond ]

• Is Orlando the deadliest mass shooting in American history? Or was Wounded Knee?

  [NPR / Eyder Peralta]

• A T. rex was on American Ninja Warrior this week and honestly didn't do half bad.

  [American Ninja Warrior Nation / Nikki Lee]

VERBATIM

"Governor Chris Christie, of New Jersey, another of Trump’s opponents early in the campaign, has transformed himself into a sort of manservant, who is constantly with Trump at events. One Republican told me that a friend of his on the Trump campaign used Snapchat to send him a video of Christie fetching Trump’s McDonald’s order." [New Yorker / Ryan Lizza]

• "I hear that shower water comes directly from pipes, so if any of it gets on my skin, I make sure to wipe it away as quickly as possible with a towelette."

  [The Hairpin / Madeleine Schwartz]

• "Winning acceptance to take an education degree in Finland is about as competitive as getting into MIT."

  [The Economist]

• "If there are 300 million guns in the United States, and we impose a tax of $3,600 per gun on the current stock, we would eliminate the federal government deficit. But $3,600 is coming nowhere close to the potential damage that a single weapon could cause."

  [Stephen Williamson]

• "'The night they were going to get dumped, I would go to the hotel room where they were staying and say, ‘I’m going to lose my job for telling you this, but he’s going to pick you—he’s going to propose,’' Shapiro said. After the contestant left the set, disconsolate, Shapiro joined her in a limousine while the stereo played a song that the contestant had been primed to see as ''their song’ for their love story with the Bachelor.' Shapiro kept jalapeños or lemons hidden in her jacket pocket—dabbing something acidic in her eye allowed her to cry on cue, which helped elicit tears from the contestant."

  [New Yorker / DT Max]

WATCH THIS

The Orlando mass shooting is a reminder of why Pride is so important [YouTube / Estelle Caswell, Gina Barton, Joe Posner, and Matteen Mokalla]

Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times

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