Marco Rubio, Provincetown, Belle and Sebastian, Greenland Shark, James Ellington: HOT LINKS

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Marco Rubio, Provincetown, Belle and Sebastian, Greenland Shark, James Ellington: HOT LINKS

FLORIDA. Marco Rubio’s lead evaporates. “Incumbent Republican Senate candidates in the three key swing states surveyed — Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio — all polled better than Trump, the survey showed. But in Florida and Pennsylvania, both considered crucial to the party’s efforts to maintain control of the Senate, the races are now too close to call.”

HILLARY CLINTON. New ad shows Republicans pressing Trump to release his tax returns: “Clinton will release her 2015 tax returns “in the coming days,” a Clinton campaign official said, adding that Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine and his wife will also release a decade of tax returns.”

HEARTBREAKING. Levels of violence against LGBT teens show far greater risk: “These adolescents were three times more likely than straight students to have been raped. They skipped school far more often because they did not feel safe; at least a third had been bullied on school property. And they were twice as likely as heterosexual students to have been threatened or injured with a weapon on school property.”

GREENLAND SHARK. The longest-living vertebrate. “She was born during the reign of James I, was a youngster when René Descartes set out his rules of thought and the great fire of London raged, saw out her adolescent years as George II ascended the throne, reached adulthood around the time that the American revolution kicked off, and lived through two world wars. Living to an estimated age of nearly 400 years, a female Greenland shark has set a new record for longevity, scientists have revealed.”

RIO 2016. No Chinese among the openly gay Olympians: “The absence of Chinese athletes ‘shows that the environment isn’t here for sexual minorities to come out yet,’ Mr. Peng said in a telephone interview.”

MINNESOTA. Former banker Stephen Habberstad may get $3.5 million after court rules he was fired because he’s gay: “People can have their own views on sexual orientation. That’s not the issue,” [attorney] Lienemann said. “The issue is that people have a right to work without that impacting their employment and their ability to earn a living. Discrimination happens even among people who you think are your friends and family who support you. It’s a hard reality for a lot of people.”

THE RAY. Greg Berlanti developing first animated DC superhero series with a gay lead: “Berlanti will produce an animated series about DC Comics Freedom Fighter The Ray, with an eye on a future live-action iteration. Like so many other super mantles, The Ray identity has been assumed by multiple characters in the comics. But it’s the Ray Terrill iteration from Grant Morrison’s Multiversity that will inform the TV character. According to the CW Seed, Terrill’s backstory is that he’s a reporter who stumbles upon “a group of government scientists working on a secret project to turn light into a weapon of mass destruction.” Unfortunately, before he can get to a payphone to dictate the story to a transcriber, Ray is exposed to a “genetic light bomb,” and ends up with light-based powers.”

PROVINCETOWN. Still the place to paint and party: “Rent was always expensive in Provincetown; everything cost a lot,” insisted Mr. Waters, who first hitchhiked here in 1964 and has returned every summer since. “I don’t think it’s changed. Times have changed. And I’m 70 now, not 20. I’ve always liked to ride a bicycle here. The difference is that I used to steal a bike the first night I came and then paint it a different color the next day.”

BELLE AND SEBASTIAN. Olympic Village, 6 am. “Belle and Sebastian dig the Olympics, love the Olympic ideal, love that the world gets together for a big ‘sports day’ once every four years. We can’t be part of it, though we’d like to be. So we recorded a piece of music with Rio In mind: specifically the Track and Field. Here it is.”

FRIDAY FLESH. Team GB sprinter James Ellington.