Vox Sentences: Another mass shooting

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A shooting in California leaves four dead, including the shooter, and 12 injured; under Brazil’s Bolsonaro, Amazon deforestation accelerates.

Police search for answers in California shooting

Another mass shooting rattled California on Sunday, injuring 12 victims and killing three, including a 6-year-old boy. [Vox / Aaron Rupar]
The shooting occurred at the annual Gilroy Garlic Festival in Christmas Hill Park in Gilroy, California. The suspect, who was shot and killed on the spot by police, has been identified as 19-year-old Santino William Legan. [NYT / Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs and Jacey Fortin]
Although security for the festival was strict, including metal detectors and bag searches, the suspect was able to bypass officials by entering from a creek area and cutting through the fence. [Guardian / Vivian Ho and Adam Gabbatt]
Three people — 6-year-old Stephen Romero, a man in his 20s named Trevor Irby, and a 13-year-old girl whose name has not been released — were fatally shot by the suspect. [CNN / Christina Maxouris, Paul Vercammen, and Eric Levenson]
Police said the suspect used an assault-type rifle purchased in Nevada earlier this month to open fire at the festival. Although the suspect is originally from Gilroy, he had spent time in Nevada living with family in the past. [LA Times / Ruben Vives, Richard Winton, Hannah Fry, Matthew Ormseth, Laura J. Nelson, Colleen Shalby, and Hailey Branson-Potts]
The police are uncertain of the suspect’s motive. According to the Associated Press, when someone shouted, “Why are you doing this,” during the shooting, he answered, “Because I’m really angry.” [AP / Kathleen Ronayne]
They are also looking through his social media to get a glimpse into his mind. On his Instagram, he posted a caption encouraging his followers to read a misogynist and anti-Semitic book that is often promoted by neo-Nazis and white supremacists. [AP]
As of July 28, the day of the shooting, there have been 259 shootings in 2019, according to Vox’s mass shootings tracker. [Vox / German Lopez and Kavya Sukumar]
People are calling for more gun control, but as Vox’s German Lopez points out, this is part of what has unfortunately become an American routine: Mass shootings stir movement for gun control bills, the debate stalls, then another shooting occurs. [Vox / German Lopez]

The Amazon and its occupants are under threat

An indigenous leader in Brazil was killed by miners, an incident that points to the larger problem of deforestation under the country’s new leader. [BBC]
Last week, heavily armed miners invaded an indigenous village in northern Brazil and stabbed one of its leaders to death. While threats from miners, loggers, and farmers aren’t uncommon, assassinations like this are rare. [NYT / Ernesto Londoño]
The attackers, however, were most likely emboldened by Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who has publicly stated that indigenous land should be opened up to industries to make them more profitable. He’s already proposed to open up more of the Amazon for mining. [Guardian / Dom Phillips]
UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet has called for an investigation into the killing and for Bolsonaro to protect indigenous land in the Amazon, for the sake of indigenous peoples’ rights to land and to avoid exacerbating climate change. [Reuters]
However, it’s unlikely that Bolsonaro will change course anytime soon: Ever since he took over last year, deforestation of the Amazon rainforest has rapidly progressed as the government has rolled back protections. Illegal land invasion, logging, and burning have become rampant in the area. [Quartz / Zoë Schlanger]
According to the latest government data, the Amazon is being deforested at a rate of three football fields a minute, and experts fear the rainforest may be pushed past a point of recovery. Without the trees to stabilize the global climate, the planet is at greater risk of a rapid global climate catastrophe. [Guardian / Jonathan Watts]
Brazil, once a leader in preventing deforestation, is no longer committed to preserving the Amazon rainforest under Bolsonaro — which will likely have global implications. [NYT / Letícia Casado and Ernesto Londoño]

Miscellaneous

“Better to have a few rats than to be one”: Trump criticized Baltimore as “rat and rodent infested mess” while attacking the district’s Congress member, Rep. Elijah Cummings. The local paper responded. [Baltimore Sun Editorial Board]
Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, who’s often at odds with Trump, is resigning from his post. Texas Rep. John Ratcliffe, a Trump loyalist who aggressively questioned Robert Mueller during the former special counsel’s congressional testimony, has been picked as his replacement. [NYT / Maggie Haberman, Julian E. Barnes, and Peter Bake]
Ethiopia has set a new world record: It planted more than 350 million trees in 12 hours to counter the effects of deforestation and climate change. [BBC]
Grasshoppers have taken over Las Vegas. They may not bite, but the images of massive swarms of insects are fuel for nightmares. [Washington Post / Hannah Knowles]
Tired of the summer heat? Sony has developed a wearable air conditioner that could lower your body temperature by 23 degrees. [USA Today / Dalvin Brown]