10 things you need to know today: June 23, 2016

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1. Polls open in UK's historic Brexit referendum
2. Democrats stage sit-in calling for gun-control vote
3. Trump steps up attacks on Clinton, calling her a 'world-class liar'
4. Ex-House speaker Dennis Hastert reports to prison
5. Marco Rubio reverses pledge not to seek reelection
6. House approves $1.1 billion to fight Zika
7. Yemeni prisoner transferred from Guantanamo to Montenegro
8. NHL grants Las Vegas an expansion team
9. Golfer Rory McIlroy says he will skip Rio's Olympics over Zika
10. Solar Impulse 2 becomes first solar plane to cross the Atlantic

published 23 June 2016

1. Polls open in UK's historic Brexit referendum

Britons began voting Thursday in a referendum on whether their country should leave the European Union. Prime Minister David Cameron and other proponents of staying in the 28-nation trading bloc said leaving would have disastrous consequences for the nation's economy. Backers of the Brexit campaign said breaking away would restore the UK's independence on key issues, such as immigration. As both sides made their final pitches on Wednesday, polls indicated that the vote would be close.

Democrats staged a sit-in on the House floor on Wednesday, aiming to force the Republican leadership to hold votes on gun control proposals in the wake of last week's Orlando mass shooting. "There comes a time when you have to say something, when you have to make a little noise," said Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a civil rights icon and a leader of the sit-in. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) ordered the C-SPAN cameras turned off. Republicans briefly gaveled the House back in session early Thursday and voted to adjourn until after July 4.

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Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump escalated an exchange of insults with Hillary Clinton on Wednesday, saying his Democratic rival "may be the most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency of the United States." Speaking at a hotel he owns in Manhattan, Trump called Clinton a "world-class liar" who ran the State Department "like her own personal hedge fund," letting donations to her family's foundation influence her decisions. Clinton's campaign called that charge a lie and dismissed Trump's speech as "more hypocritical lies and nutty conspiracy theories."

Former House speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) reported to prison on Wednesday to begin serving a 15-month sentence for skirting financial rules to hide hush money he paid to cover up his sexual abuse of teenage students. The abuse occurred 30 years ago while he was a teacher and wrestling coach, before he was elected to his first term in Congress. Hastert, 74, is a diabetic and suffered a stroke last year. He will serve his time in a medical center prison in Minnesota.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) announced Wednesday that he would run for reelection, after insisting for months that he was going to become a private citizen in January at the end of his first term. In an interview with The Miami Herald, the former GOP presidential hopeful attributed his change of heart to his dissatisfaction with the presumptive Republican and Democratic presidential nominees, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Rubio said the Senate's power to "act as a check and balance on the excess of the president" motivated him to stay. He became the race's instant favorite as three GOP contenders dropped out to clear his path.

House Republicans on Thursday approved spending $1.1 billion to fight the Zika virus in a late-night vote called during a Democratic sit-in demanding a vote on gun control. President Obama had requested $1.9 billion to combat the mosquito-borne disease, and Democrats called the House plan inadequate. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said it was a "responsible compromise that can and should be signed into law."

The U.S. has transferred a Yemeni man who spent 14 years detained at Guantanamo Bay to Montenegro, the Pentagon announced Wednesday. Abdel Malik Ahmed Abdel Wahab al-Rahabi, 37, was accused of being one of Osama bin Laden's bodyguards in Afghanistan. He was brought to Guantanamo in January 2002. A review board ruled in December 2014 that he was no longer a major security threat to the U.S., and recommended his transfer. President Obama plans to speed up transfers of the remaining 79 inmates in an effort to close the detention facility before he leaves office in January.

National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman announced Wednesday that the league's Board of Governors approved an expansion franchise for Las Vegas. The team will be the NHL's 31st, and the first addition to the league since the Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild made their debuts in the 2000-2001 season. The Vegas team will start playing in the 2017-2018 season. The move makes the NHL the first professional sports league to give Las Vegas a team. Each of the NHL's 30 existing teams will get a cut of a $500 million expansion fee from an expansion bid group led by billionaire businessman Bill Foley.

Golfer Rory McIlroy on Wednesday became one of the most prominent athletes yet to announce plans to skip the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro due to concerns about the Zika virus. McIlroy was scheduled to play for Ireland. U.S. cyclist Tejay Van Garderen, and golfers Marc Leishman of Australia and Vijay Singh of Fiji also have said they will pass on going to Rio. U.S. men's volleyball coach John Speraw said he would preserve sperm for a future pregnancy as a precaution.

Pilot Bertrand Piccard of Switzerland landed the Solar Impulse 2 in Seville, Spain, early Thursday after a 71-hour flight from New York, completing the first trip across the Atlantic in a solar plane. It was the Solar 2's second longest flight — Swiss engineer and businessman Andre Borschberg flew it from Japan to Hawaii last July. Next, Borschberg is scheduled to fly to Egypt, then Piccard will likely pilot the plane to Abu Dhabi for the last leg of a trip around the world to call attention to the potential of clean energy.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.