“They are players who come along once in a generation. You have to keep hold of them but the dynamics of keeping hold of them are harder and harder the whole time.

“The value is what the marketplace says it is. If someone is willing to offer £1million, then he is worth a million. You then have to work out what the value is to yourselves. It is always going to turn your head if you are going to be offered those big numbers. ”

Cockerill admitted that he was not absolutely confident that the player would commit given the sums of money involved. Tuilagi had salary offers of £750,000 floated in front of him with Worcester, Bristol and Toulouse all reportedly in the hunt at various times.

Leicester have no doubt that the 24-year-old will bolster their fortunes when he returns to action. He is at a more advanced stage in his rehabilitation than he has been at any point in the last 12 months.

Leicester have managed to keep hold of one of their prized assets in Tuilagi

He has been re-integrated into back-line drills and has been taking contact. All the indications are that he will be ready to take up a new midfield partnership with former Springbok captain, Jean de Villiers, who is almost recovered from the broken jaw that brought his World Cup, and international career, to a premature end. De Villiers arrived at Welford Rd last month and is also approaching full fitness.

“Manu has just returned to contact,” said Cockerill. “It has been quite interesting to see him running into people for the first time. It has been good to see that hunger and desire.

“He is lighter now than he was when he came back to us from his holidays. When he left he was 111kgs and he came back at 127 kilos, so he had a good holiday. Now he is back down to 110kgs, which is a perfect weight for him.

“There has been no adverse reaction to training. We are just building up his load. You’d like to think that he will be getting somewhere near playing in the next few weeks. The corner has been turned.”

Richard Cockerill is excited about what Leicester are building Photo: GETTY IMAGES

And so, seemingly, for Leicester. They have not fallen entirely from grace for they did make the Premiership play-offs last season but after a run of 10 successive finals have not made it through to Twickenham in the last two seasons.

Allied to that, they have been relatively muted in the transfer market with the likes of Bath, Toulon and several other French clubs, taking the limelight. Tuilagi, Ben Youngs, lock Ed Slater and fly-half Freddie Burns have all just committed their futures to the club despite being draw cards for others. The prized services of Wallaby centre Matt Toomua have also already been secured for next season. Leicester are back punching their weight.

“We get criticised that we are not always in the market place for marquee players,” acknowledged Cockerill. “The four we have just signed are all marquee players and we believe that these players can deliver for us. We are big-hitters in the game. So, yes, of course, we like to see this as a statement.”

The influence of new backs coach, former All Black centre, Aaron Mauger, has been marked with club captain, Slater, believing that the more expansive outlook has been a significant factor in players re-signing.

“You can feel the buzz at the training ground off the back off Aaron’s arrival and Manu wanted to be part of that,” said Slater. “The whole package was what was important to him or he would have gone off to chase the big man. It’s a big statement on the club’s part, too. They have invested heavily in Manu and he has not been short-changed.”

Manu Tuilagi, 24, centre, Leicester £425,000: Out with a groin injury since October 2014 but Leicester still deemed it worth pushing the boat to keep the powerful centre.

John Afoa, 32, tighthead prop, Gloucester £400,000: Became the highest-paid player in the Premiership when he signed for Gloucester in 2014 from Ulster. Value for money has been debatable.

Danny Care, 28, scrum-half, Harlequins £320,000: Appointed club captain this season. Fell down the England pecking order but has been in resurgent form for Harlequins.

Chris Robshaw, 29, flanker, Harlequins £320,000: England’s World Cup captain is adored at Harlequins where he recently committed his future as part of a triple contract signing.

Mike Brown, 30, full-back, Harlequins £320,000: Among a select band of England players to enhance their reputations at the World Cup and a ferocious competitor for club and country.

Summary: England centre is one of a raft of contract extensions announced at Leicester,   deals that Cockerill believes sends out a signal to the rest of the game   that the club is back as a major player on the European circuit


Harassment of women is to be recorded as a hate crime in a bid to tackle sexist abuse.

Nottinghamshire Police said it would expand its categories to include misogynistic incidents.

It means abuse or harassment which might not be a crime can be reported to and investigated by the police, and support for the victim put in place.

Nottingham Women's Centre said it hopes it will help give more victims the courage to report incidents.

Chief Constable Sue Fish claimed it will make the county a safer place for women.

"What women face, often on a daily basis, is absolutely unacceptable and can be extremely distressing," she said.

"Nottinghamshire Police is committed to taking misogynistic hate crime seriously and encourages anyone who is affected by it to contact us without hesitation."

Work on the idea first started with the Nottinghamshire Safer for Women Conference last year, co-hosted by the police with the Nottingham Women's Centre.

BBC TV reporter Sarah Teale was harassed in the street while reporting on the conference.

The force defines misogyny hate crime as: "Incidents against women that are motivated by an attitude of a man towards a woman and includes behaviour targeted towards a woman by men simply because they are a woman."

The classification now means people can report incidents which might not be considered to be a crime and the police will investigate.

Nottingham Women's Centre has been helping train call centre, force control staff and officers on the beat to recognise misogynistic hate crime and ways to tackle it.

These officers will also examine if and how a victim can be supported or if anything can be done to help prevent them being targeted again.

Domestic abuse will not be recorded as a misogyny hate crime because it has its own procedure, the force said.

Melanie Jeffs, centre manager at Nottingham Women's Centre, said: "We're pleased to see Nottinghamshire Police recognise the breadth of violence and intimidation that women experience on a daily basis in our communities."

She added: "Recording this as a hate crime will give us a detailed picture of how often, when and where it is happening. It has been very difficult to build that picture before but we will now get detailed data to analyse.

"Showing that the police take it seriously will also give people the confidence to come forward and report offences."

A crime that the victim or any other person perceives to be motivated by hostility or prejudice towards any aspect of a person's identity.

Police forces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland annually monitor five strands of hate crime:

Forces can include their own definition of a hate crime with several recently adding sub cultures.

Summary: Harassment of women is to be designated a hate crime in a bid to tackle sexist abuse.


07/20/2016 AT 11:15 AM EDT

for her father Donald Trump's wife, Melania, 46, who is now under fire following the delivery of a

at the Republican National Convention on Monday, during which she

large passages from the speech Michelle Obama gave in 2008.

When asked how the campaign has impacted Melania and her son, Ivanka's youngest sibling Barron, 10, Ivanka, 34, came to Melania's defense for frequently sitting out political events.

"Melania is an unbelievable mother," Ivanka tells PEOPLE. "It's pretty uncommon for wives of candidates to not be on the campaign trail every day. And she made a decision I totally respect which is that she has a young son, he needs stability, he needs routine. My father's traveling so frequently and she is an unbelievably consistent, loving and reliable figure in Barron's life."

Ivanka (left) and Melania Trump

Stephen Lovekin / REX / Shutterstock; D Dipasupil / FilmMagic

Ivanka praised Melania for her devotion to her son.

"She takes him to school every day, picks him up every day. It's a really remarkable thing and she's a great inspiration to me as I raise my own children in terms of family first and having the right priorities," Ivanka continued.

Amid what has been a historically controversial and often ugly campaign, Ivanka also credits Melania for shielding her son.

"I think she's done an amazing job also sheltering him from the chaos that comes along with a Presidential campaign," she says.

"She's really tried to keep him protected and keep him out of the public eye so he can have some normalcy, which is so important for a ten-year-old to have."

As for what Melania's role might be if she were to become first lady, "Melania is very smart, she's very warm, she's got an incredible heart," Ivanka says. "She's always been very charitable and there are many organizations that she's worked with. Not just for a season but over the course of many years and decades in some cases."

"So I'll leave it to her to put forth what her platform will be but I know that she'll be a very powerful and impactful first woman. I know that anything she sets her mind to she does with her full heart so I have no doubt that when she decides which platform she's going to prioritize, she'll be incredible effective in that regard."

Summary: Ivanka Trump speaks highly of her father's wife Melania following the controversy surrounding her RNC speech


07/21/2016 AT 04:30 PM EDT

Cleveland, Ohio, is ground zero this week for politics, protesters, press, plenty of

and a fair share of

But if all that comes with a little too much controversy for you, Bianca, Alexis and Elena of the

are also here, spreading some good ol' American cheer in song and dance.

"We wanted to come so we could support America and everyone here," Elena tells PEOPLE on Wednesday.

The trio is from from Naples, Florida, and their spirited, toe-tapping, earworm-worthy performance at a Trump rally

was a viral Internet sensation. This week, they were back in their matching dresses of red, white and blue and on the streets of Cleveland, posing with fans and breaking into dance – complete with an ending salute.

They even have an album coming out in August called

"We hope to make people smile and happy," Bianca explains. "That's our specialty," Alexis added.

The Republican National Convention concludes Thursday night in Cleveland.

Summary: "We love USA, USA!" USA Freedom Kids sing and dance for America in Cleveland


When Gina Lollobrigida left her native Italy for Toronto in 1960, LIFE Magazine called her “the most fetching argument ever advanced for liberal immigration policies.” Intended as a compliment then but reading much more like objectification today, the statement certainly captured the mania that surrounded the actress at the height of her career—or at least, the first of her several careers.

Affectionately nicknamed La Lollo and Gina Bambina by her fans, Lollobrigida emerged as a star at around the same time as Sophia Loren, despite being eight years her senior. After placing third in the Miss Italia pageant in 1947, she began acting in Italian films, and then opposite some of America’s biggest leading men: Errol Flynn, Rock Hudson, Frank Sinatra.

Lollobrigida and Loren shared good looks, sometimes-scarlet coiffures and successful international acting careers, leading to intense speculation about a rivalry. Though Lollobrigida later chalked it up to rumors fanned by Loren’s publicity team, she didn’t quite deny it at the time, telling LIFE, “We are as different as a fine race horse and a goat.”

When LIFE featured the actress at the time of her move to Canada (for the purposes of lower taxes and legal status for her Yugoslavian husband), she was well into a film career that would last another decade before slowing significantly. But Lollobrigida was a reluctant star to begin with, later explaining that she only became an actress “because the public wanted me to be one.”

Having studied art in school before her film career, she went on to pursue sculpting once the demands of being an international sex symbol, for better or for worse, lessened. And her art has been only one of several second-act careers. Lollobrigida became a well-regarded photojournalist in the 1970s, scoring an exclusive interview with Fidel Castro. Having moved back from Canada to Italy, she made a brief detour, in 1999, to run (unsuccessfully) for a seat in European Parliament.

A magazine profile half a century ago may have focused on the oglers and the beauty and the fame, but Lollobrigida has gone on to prove that there was more to her story than her status as a bombshell.

Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter @lizabethronk.

Summary: Gina Lollobrigida has had a long and storied life in the limelight


Show: HARDBALLDate: June 20, 2016Guest: Nina Turner, Yamiche Alcindor, Evan Siegfried, Caitlin Huey-Burns, John Brabender, Barbara Boxer; Ann Kirkpatrick

JOY REID, HOST: Lewandowski, you`re fired.

Good evening, everyone. I`m Joy Reid, in tonight for Chris Matthews.

With four weeks to go to the Republican convention, there`s been a big shakeup in the Trump campaign. Campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was shown the door – literally. More on that in a moment.

The news comes as Trump is slipping in the polls, badly behind in fund-raising and under pressure for failing to curb his habit of making controversial comments, particularly in the last several weeks. One campaign insider told NBC the move was meant to signal to Republicans that Trump understands things haven`t been working and that changes are needed.

According to NBC`s Katy Tur, Lewandowski was notified by phone and was escorted from Trump Tower by security. Trump`s son, Donald Trump, Jr., said that was just how things are done.

DONALD TRUMP, JR., DONALD TRUMP`S SON: There`s protocols that are in place. I don`t care if you`re an intern, I don`t care if you`re this. When those things happen, that`s what happens.

REID: Lewandowski has been with Trump from the start of the campaign. Trump stood by him earlier in the year when he was accused of physically assaulting a female reporter.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I know it`d be very easy for me to discard people. I don`t discard people. I stay with people. That`s why I stay with this country. That`s why I stay with a lot of people that are treated unfairly, and that`s one of the reasons I`m the front-runner by a lot.

REID: According to Bloomberg, Trump advisers huddled today to discuss a political strategy shift as he looks to move beyond recent missteps.

This afternoon, Lewandowski told MSNBC he was honored to be a part of the campaign.

COREY LEWANDOWSKI, FMR. TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: I had a great conversation with Mr. Trump. And I can tell you this. It`s been a privilege for me to serve the last 19 (sic) months on this campaign, a campaign that no one gave us any credit on being successful, and I have a small part of that. And I can tell you I have no regrets. It`s been an honor. And I respect Mr. Trump. I respect him moreso than any other person who`s ever entered this race, and I can tell you that I will do everything possible through me and my friends and my family to ensure that Donald Trump is the next president of the United States.

REID: In a sign of just how unusual the Trump campaign is, one of Trump`s top advisers, Michael Caputo, responded to the news of Lewandowski`s firing with glee. He wrote on Twitter just minutes after the news broke, “Ding dong, the witch is dead.” Late today, Caputo resigned his position on the campaign, saying he regretted sending out that tweet.

Meanwhile, there`s also new evidence of ow much ground Trump has to make up. A Monmouth University poll released today shows Hillary Clinton leading Trump by 7 points among registered voters nationwide, 47 to 40. In swing states, Clinton leads by 8 points, 47 to 39 percent. Can Trump make up that ground?

NBC`s Katy Tur is outside Trump Tower in New York. John Brabender is a Republican strategist. And Howard Fineman is global editorial director of the HuffingtonPost and an MSNBC political analyst .

And Katy, I want you to walk us through this extraordinary day of events. Give us a little bit of a tick-tock of how the Lewandowski firing went down.

KATY TUR, NBC CORRESPONDENT: I`m told Lewandowski was blindsided by this, Joy. He was texting with reporters this morning, unaware that this was going to happen. I`m also told that the RNC was given notice before Lewandowski was told.

I am told that he was alerted of news in person this morning around 9:30 AM, and then he had a phone conversation with Donald Trump, which was described as amicable. He was also escorted from the premises here at Trump Tower by security, Donald Trump, Jr., telling me that is just standard protocol for anybody that has been fired from their organization or from the campaign.

Why did this happen, Joy? Well, we`ve been hearing issues with Corey Lewandowski now for almost the entirety of the campaign, certainly coming to a head in the past few months. According to sources both inside and outside the campaign and close to the candidate, they say Corey Lewandowski did not get along with his colleagues, that he was trying to undercut them and block staffing. He was trying to consolidate power and block information getting to Donald Trump that he did not agree with.

When Paul Manafort was brought on board, he felt threatened by this, according to sources, and that`s when he tried to undercut Manafort`s influence. He also, according to multiple sources again, did not get along with people at the RNC. He was problematic. He has a loose, hot temper.

He wasn`t necessarily clear in his messaging. Often, Paul Manafort would make a decision, and then Corey Lewandowski would go against that decision. It wasn`t clear who was really in charge of the campaign.

The kids were also not on his side. They`ve been trying to convince their dad for months that Lewandowski was not right to helm the campaign, that they needed somebody with more experience, somebody who knew how to run a presidential campaign, somebody who was a little bit steadier, somebody who could give Donald Trump the advice and the strategy he needed.

Corey Lewandowski`s model this entire time had been “Let Trump be Trump,” and it had worked for him. They won the primaries, and part of the reason I`m told Donald Trump did not let him go sooner was that they were winning. There was no reason to fix something that wasn`t broken.

But now the past few weeks, Donald Trump has been slipping in polls. He`s being outspent $23 million to zero in battleground states by Hillary Clinton. And he`s facing a mutiny within the Republican Party. Now was the time to change things up.

I`m also told that Ivanka had a big say in this, that she had not been pleased with Lewandowski for some time, even before he was accused of assaulting a reporter back in March. Today was the day, though, they finally got their message through to their father, and today was the day that he saw that it was a problem, as well, and that he needed to make a change before this campaign sputtered even more.

REID: Katy, one more quick question to you because you talked there about the – you know, the Trump children, who`ve been all over the news cycle today as being influential over their father. But we know at the end of the day, candidates make these decisions about their own campaigns.

Do you get a sense from your reporting and from talking to folks in the campaign – do they think that the problem was the campaign apparatus and Corey Lewandowski not doing a good job, or they at all believe that the problem might actually be the candidate?

TUR: Well, it`s mixed. There are those who say that the campaign itself was problematic and that Corey blocked anyone from getting Donald Trump`s ear and from advising him to back off things.

I have from my previous reporting been told by multiple sources that that is not necessarily true. Donors, campaign staff, aides, family members, party sources, party leaders have all told Donald Trump on numerous occasions that certain rhetoric went too far, specifically when it came to the Judge Curiel comments.

But ultimately, you saw Donald Trump continue on with that. That is because Donald Trump is very much his own best adviser. He claims that he listens to his gut more than anything else, and that`s why you`re seeing that.

But there is hope – there is hope among the party and there`s hope among the children, there`s hope among campaign aides who are still left that Paul Manafort, who`s now going to be in charge of the campaign, I`m told, will be able to better have Trump`s ear, that he`ll be able to positively influence him on rhetoric in a way that Corey Lewandowski did not.

There is hope about this, Joy, “hope” being the operative word. Remember, Donald Trump has been problematic with his own words in the past, and there is little trust right now between many members of the Republican Party that he`s actually going to change. They`ve long talked about this pivot. They say that they`re going to believe it when they see it.

REID: Yes. Indeed. Well, yesterday, to that very point, Donald Trump said that it`s “common sense,” quote, unquote, to consider profiling Muslims in America.

TRUMP: I think profiling is something that we`re going to have to start thinking about as a country. I hate the concept of profiling, but we have to start using common sense and we have to use – you know, we have to use our heads.

REID: Trump also suggested that if the people in the club last week in Orlando were armed, things might have turned out differently.

TRUMP: If some of those wonderful people had guns strapped right here, right to their waist or right to their ankle, and this son of a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) comes out and starts shooting, and one of the people in that room happened to have it and goes, Boom, boom, you know what? That would have been a beautiful, beautiful sight, folks!

REID: So that seemed to go too far even for NRA leaders Wayne LaPierre and Chris Cox. Let`s watch.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donald Trump has suggested concealed carry in a nightclub where people are drinking?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t think you should have firearms where people are drinking.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No one thinks that people should go in a nightclub drinking and carrying firearms. That`s – that defies common sense. It also defies the law.

REID: Trump clarified his remarks in a tweet this morning. Quote, “When I said that if within the Orlando club, you had people with guns, I was obviously talking about additional guards or employees.” Uh-huh.

John Brabender, obviously, he was not. He was talking about this beautiful scene he thought would unfold if the people in the club could have, while drinking and on the dance floor, gone Rambo and somehow stopped that shooter. Is that a Corey Lewandowski problem, or is that a Donald Trump problem?

JOHN BRABENDER, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, I think that a lot of that probably is a Donald Trump problem, probably unfair to put that onto Corey. However, I do think this. I do think they had to make the change today not because of Corey, but they have a lot of nervous Republicans, particularly big donors, who are looking for some type of signal that things are going to change.

Obviously, the family did an intervention over the weekend. Donald Trump had been dating two different campaign managers for months now, and he didn`t to get serious with one of them, Paul Manafort, and get rid of Corey.

You know, it`s not fair to blame it on Corey, but the campaign had to make some changes, and they go to make more changes in the coming weeks.

REID: But you know, Howard, I think this begs the question. Is this an attempt to put somebody into the White House who – I suppose they`re assuming that Paul Manafort will manage to keep him from doing things that disturb and terrify and rattle the entire country for what, four years? Is that the idea, that they can patch him together to make him president and then patch him together for four years in the office?

HOWARD FINEMAN, HUFFINGTON POST GLOBAL EDITORIAL DIR., MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think at this point, the people around Donald Trump are hoping they can keep him quiet for a day or two. I mean, they would consider that a victory.

Paul Manafort`s background is advising all manner of egomaniacs all over the world, the Marcos family, Jonas Savimbi, strongmen in the Ukraine, et cetera. I guess the theory is that Paul, who mixes that background with some knowledge, deep knowledge of Republican Party mechanics, can be the guy to do it.

But you asked the right question. If it`s constantly a matter of trying to tie Donald Trump down, you know, like in a Jonathan Swift story of “Gulliver`s Travels,” you know, I don`t know how that`s really going to work.

I think this is a victory internally for Paul Manafort and his crew. They`re generally older, more seasoned, more knowledgeable. They do know the Republican Party. But I think what was happening here, as John said, Republican leaders in Congress, Republican donors, Republican governors and senators, corporate leaders, people who have a long-term investment in the Republican Party were saying, This guy is definitely going to wreck the entire party unless somebody gets a handle on him, not necessarily to win the election, but just to keep this election cycle from being a holocaust for Republicans. And that`s what the concern is.

And I think even the inner Trump circle, meaning Donald Trump in his own mind, realizing that – realized that he was heading into Cleveland, which is still a month away – and a month is a lifetime in politics – with the real danger of a rebellion at the convention of some kind. Improbable as it sounds, if Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan decided they wanted to pull the plug on him, they would try it.

REID: Well, and it just brings – you know, before we go back to the convention, John Brabender, this begs the question once again – if this – the idea that the party is so destabilized by the idea of Donald Trump being able to get through November, well, what if – what if he messes around and wins? What are they going to do for four years? I mean, I don`t know that there`s evidence that Paul Manafort was able to change the fundamental behavior of Mobutu Sese Seko or Ferdinand Marcos, right?

BRABENDER: Well, I want to…

REID: Is the idea that he would somehow evolve from November until January of next year?

BRABENDER: I want to be clear on this. First of all, it would be a mistake to think that Republicans think that Donald Trump cannot win. They think that he`s had some bad weeks. The bigger problem, quite frankly, is his campaign was totally developed to win primary elections, particularly early primary elections. The problem is he has no general election organization in place.

I was up at Trump Towers just a couple weeks ago, just dropped in just to say hello because I know some of the people there. It looked like a challenger race for Congress, not a presidential race. That`s because they were billed as a PR machine to win the nomination, which worked, but it`s put them in a tough situation now. They have got to move quickly to change things, and I think they`re trying to do that.

REID: Yes, and I guess if he wins that Paul Manafort will just seize his phone for four years. That should work out nicely.

REID: Katy Tur, John Brabender and Howard Fineman, thank you very much.

REID: And coming up – thank you. Chilling new details from inside the Pulse nightclub as the deadly terror attack was under way. We`ve got the latest on that.

Plus, challenging John McCain. The Arizona senator took plenty of heat for saying President Obama was directly responsible for the Orlando attack. McCain walked it back, but not before his Senate challenger, Ann Kirkpatrick, pounced. Tonight, Congressman Kirkpatrick is coming here to HARDBALL.

And later, a tale of two Clevelands. The city is ecstatic over the Cavaliers winning the NBA title, but at the same time, there`s a lot of nervousness about next month`s Republican convention in Cleveland. And the list of top Republicans and corporate sponsors who are skipping Trump`s party keeps growing.

Finally, the HARDBALL roundtable is here to tell me something about the presidential race that I don`t know.

This is HARDBALL, the place for politics.

REID: The city of Cleveland, Ohio, will host Donald Trump at his convention next month, but today residents welcomed their hometown hero, Lebron James, and the victorious Cleveland Cavaliers.

The Cavs last night ended a half century of drought for Cleveland sports fans, capping an historic comeback from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Golden State Warriors 93 to 89 in game 7 of the NBA finals and fulfilling a promise by King James to deliver a championship to the city.

It had been 52 years since the city saw one, back when the Browns won the NFL title in 1964 before the NFL even called it the Super Bowl.

But could the Cavs` win also be good news for Hillary Clinton? Take a look at this. Since the NBA began in 1950, each year a Democrat won the presidency, the Eastern Conference team had won the finals.

REID: Welcome back to HARDBALL. Within the last hour, the U.S. Senate voted on four versions of gun control proposals, and all four failed. A Democratic proposal for “No fly, no buy” if you`re on the terrorism watch list, a Republican proposal that says the attorney general could delay the purchases of guns and arrest terror suspects, also a Democratic proposal to expand universal background checks and close the gun show loophole and a Republican version which would improve the background check system.

And joining me now fresh off the floor of the U.S. Senate is California senator Barbara Boxer. So Senator Boxer, if we cannot pass gun reform in the wake of Sandy Hook and 26 little kids and their teachers getting slaughtered, can`t do anything after Charleston when people are killed in church, and now we can`t even get Republicans to sign on board when there`s a terrorism-related attack, do you have any hope that gun reform can ever pass the United States Senate?

SEN. BARBARA BOXER (D), CALIFORNIA: I always have hope. That`s why you have elections. But if I`m a voter, I want to know how my senator voted. We saw today that 90 percent of the Democrats voted two common sense reforms, Joy. One basically said if the attorney general suspects you`re a terrorist, you can`t get a gun. Then you get due process, if you want to argue with it.

And the other one, which is tighten the background checks if you bought on line or at a gun show. So these two measures supported by my colleagues, 90 percent of them, written by Dianne Feinstein and Chris Murphy – they`re supported by 75, 85, 90 percent of the American people. What is going on? Remember, we had San Bernardino, where we had also a lone wolf person who was inspired by ISIS. This situation is outrageous.

And I just want to mention this to you. You know, when I came into politics, it was long before you were probably even maybe born – I`m not sure – but it was a long time ago, and we had something called the Vietnam War.

And over the 10-year period, we lost 60,000 beautiful soldiers there. And this country over that 10-year period was divided and arguing and fighting. We lost 4,000 beautiful soldiers in Iraq over 10 years, and the same thing. But we lose 300,000 people over 10 years to gun violence, and it`s a ho-hummer. And it`s gotten to the point where people need to make this a voting issue.

And, Senator, we just put up a statistic that, at this point, according to a Pew poll, even 57 percent of Americans favor returning to an assault weapons ban, to say nothing of the stats you talked about, about the overwhelming support for things like background checks.

REID: What do your colleagues on the other side of the aisle, how do they explain to you why they won`t vote even to keep somebody on a terrorism watch list getting their hands on high-powered rifles, high-powered weapons of war, essentially?

BOXER: My own opinion is, they just listen to the National Rifle Association and they parrot those reasons, which are, it goes too far, there`s no due process, this is bad.

It has nothing to do with the issue at hand. And then they write some little phony response of a bill that does nothing. So let`s be clear what`s happened. It`s not even the NRA members. They support these commonsense measures. It`s the board. And I have to think they are owned and operated by the gun manufacturers.

They just want everyone to be armed. That`s their vision of what makes a great America. And I have to tell you, if you look around the world, Joy, I held up an incredible graphic. We are – we don`t compare to any other industrialized nation on how many people are killed every year.

In California, where we have commonsense controls, we have seen gun violence go down by more than 50 percent. Is it perfect? No. In Connecticut, where they took action, gun violence went down by 40 percent. Is it perfect? No.

But we know we can`t stop everything, but we can stop some of this outrage. And we`re only 100 senators. And, tonight, we had a chance to prove that we stood for something, protecting our people. And we walked away.

And it – you know, I have been here a long time, and it breaks my heart, because I was here when we voted in the assault weapons ban, Senator Feinstein`s bill, in the `90s. It lasted for 10 years. Then it expired.

Well, thank you very much, Senator.

REID: We really appreciate you continuing – your continuing advocacy on this issue. Senator Barbara Boxer, thank you.

REID: And, today, the FBI released a transcript of phone calls between the man who committed the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history and a 911 dispatcher and police negotiators.

The gunman, Omar Mateen, paused from his killing spree inside the Pulse nightclub to call 911, identify himself to police dispatchers and confess to his crime. In calls to a crisis negotiation team, Mateen identifies himself as an Islamic soldier and said America should stop bombing Syria and Iraq and that that was he was quote “out here right now.”

When a negotiator asked the shooter what he had done, Mateen said – quote – “No, you already know what I did.”

The gunman also falsely warned that there were explosives in a car outside the nightclub.

And joining me now is NBC justice correspondent Pete Williams.

Pete, two questions. Number one, why do you suppose there was such a lengthy amount of time? The thing that striking me at least about this timeline, the number of hours that passed between the initiation of the first 911 calls and the resolution. Why – is there anything in this transcript that lets you know why it took so long?

PETE WILLIAMS, NBC NEWS JUSTICE CHIEF CORRESPONDENT: Yes, quite a bit, actually.

This is the most detail we have had. It`s really an extraordinary amount of detail for this far along into an investigation, because the police never have given us much on what they were doing during that time.

So, we know that the 911 call was made, but we learned today that he talked three times to members of the Orlando Police Department for a total of 28 minutes. They were in essence crisis negotiators. It doesn`t seem to be much negotiation that was going on.

But you referenced some of this. He said at one point that he was wearing an explosive vest – quote – “like the ones they have in France.”

He also said there were explosives in his van, and then later on, some of the folks inside the club told the police that they had heard him saying that he was going to put explosive vests on four people inside the nightclub.

Now, there never were any explosives found, but that`s one of the reasons police moved more slowly. We also learned some of the things they were doing during this time. They, for example, pulled an air conditioner unit out of the wall. And that allowed people to – additional people to get out.

And, finally, we learned that, as they were preparing to go in, they say no additional shots were fired, that all the shots that were fired that killed the victims were at the beginning, and then the police shooting of Mateen at the very end, those three hours later.

REID: Yes. And very quickly, Pete, does it say anything to you that there don`t seem to be any at least overt mentions of an anti-gay motive in the shooting, at least not in the transcript?

WILLIAMS: Well, that`s been a poser all along.

We learned today that, as the FBI has gone through his electronic devices, looked at his communication history, they have never found gay dating apps on his phone. They find no sign that he ever used Web sites to hook up with men, although he was trying to get dates with women. And they can`t confirm – there`s no hard evidence that he was ever in that nightclub before, even though people in Orlando have said they saw him there.

The FBI has yet to find any proof of that, credit card receipts, locational information using his cell phone, for example. They are still looking into that, but that whole aspect of it remains a mystery at this point.

Well, thank you very much. Very interesting. Pete Williams, really appreciate it.

And coming up: John McCain has represented Arizona since 1982, but this fall, he may face his toughest challenge yet. McCain`s opponent, Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick, makes her case when we come back.

This is HARDBALL, the place for politics.

MILISSA REHBERGER, MSNBC CORRESPONDENT: I`m Milissa Rehberger. Here`s what`s happening.

Dangerous heat continues to bake portions of the Southwestern U.S. Parts of California and Arizona have seen temperatures sore past 120 degrees.

Several wildfires are burning across the region, including the Dog Head wildfire in New Mexico. It`s only 9 percent contained.

And mourners gathered at a wake for 2-year-old Lane Graves in Elkhorn, Nebraska. The little boy was dragged into a lagoon by an alligator at a Walt Disney World resort – back to HARDBALL.

REID: Welcome back to HARDBALL.

Senator John McCain is in a tough reelection fight in Arizona. While we expect new numbers tomorrow, the most recent polling shows McCain and his Democratic, U.S. Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick, tied at 42 percent each. That`s according to a Rocky Mountain poll from back in April.

Last Thursday, Senator McCain accused President Obama of being directly responsible for the terrorism attack in Orlando.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Barack Obama is directly responsible for it, because, when he pulled everybody out of Iraq, al Qaeda went to Syria, became ISIS, and ISIS is what it is today thanks to Barack Obama`s failures, utter failures by pulling everybody out of Iraq, thinking that conflicts end just because you leave.

So, the responsibility for it lies with President Barack Obama and his failed policies.

QUESTION: How do you say he`s directly responsible.

MCCAIN: Directly responsible, because he pulled everybody out of Iraq. And I predicted at the time that ISIS would go unchecked and there would be attacks on the United States of America. It`s a matter of record.

So, he is directly responsible.

REID: Later that day, McCain put out a statement trying to clarify, saying – quote – “I misspoke. I did not mean to imply that the president was personally responsible. I was referring to the president`s national security decisions, not the president himself.”

The Huffington Post response McCain`s comment turned into a fund-raising bonanza for his opponent, Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick, who joins me now.

So, Congresswoman Kirkpatrick, thank you for being here.

Tell me how that comment by McCain, which sort of reflects his stay in Iraq forever kind of war hawk stance, how is that playing with your constituents?

REP. ANN KIRKPATRICK (D), ARIZONA: Well, Joy, I will tell you, like most Americans, I was shocked that he said that.

And I think most people are shocked. You were probably shocked when you heard him say that. And, look, these terrible, tragic mass shootings have to stop. We have to do something.

And you just reported that there were bills on the floor of the Senate today they couldn`t pass. And, look, people want commonsense solutions. And I will tell you, I was born and raised on the Apache Nation in Arizona. And I grew up with guns. My dad taught me to hunt. But like most gun owners, we have to do something to stop these mass shootings.

REID: You know, John McCain had a tough reelect six years ago he managed to get through it. And he`s been very durable. He`s been around since 1928. Despite the tightness in the polls, what is your strategy to actually defeat him in November?

KIRKPATRICK: Arizonans want new leadership, because they want someone who will put our state first over partisan politics.

And that`s something that John McCain seems to have forgotten in his 33 years here in Washington. And the voters are mad. So I`m all over the state of Arizona. I`m listening to their concerns. They would like commonsense gun legislation passed by Congress.

REID: Now, in addition to the gun issue, I want to talk a little bit about Hispanic voters in your state. It`s a state that has a large and growing Hispanic population. John McCain has expressed a lot of anxiety in the wake of Donald Trump`s comments about Judge Curiel, that he could have a problem there.

But John McCain right now, you look at that poll right there in the last polling back in April, he was leading you among Hispanic voters 50-37. What do you think that`s about? And what is your strategy to turn that around?

KIRKPATRICK: I was just down at the border in Nogales.

And I do a lot of Latino roundtables with the businesspeople. And, look, here is what they tell me. They said, look, Trump`s personal to us. We do billions of dollars in trade with Mexico. A wall at the border is bad for business. But deporting 12 million people, that`s personal to them.

REID: And Donald Trump – I mean, I`m sorry, John McCain actually does have a primary opponent who is a Trump supporter. She`s very much for building the wall.

So, do you expect John McCain to go further to the right before he gets a chance at that general election, and do you think that would help you?

KIRKPATRICK: I don`t know what to expect from him. But I will tell you that I`m focused on my race, focused on putting Arizona first, learning and listening about Arizonans` concerns.

And, look, one of the other issues, big issue for Arizonans, is the fact that he not only supports Trump, but thinks Trump should fill the Supreme Court vacancy.

KIRKPATRICK: He came out right away and said, no, no, no, don`t fill. We`re not going to do our job in the Senate. We`re not going to fill that seat until Trump becomes president.

KIRKPATRICK: And that`s wildly unpopular in Arizona.

REID: Yes. All right. Well, Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick, good luck, and thank you very much.

KIRKPATRICK: Thank you, Joy. Thanks so much.

And coming up, Bernie Sanders returns to the Senate. He`s still not giving up his presidential campaign, but the Secret Service detail that comes with it is costing taxpayers – a look at what Bernie wants and whether he will get it next.

You`re watching HARDBALL, the place for politics.

REID: Welcome back to HARDBALL.

Today, the self-described Democratic socialist Bernie Sanders cast his first vote in five months. He voted for two of the Democratic amendments supporting gun control that ultimately failed.

Accompanying him, a cadre of Secret Service agents that have not left his side since February, which, according to “The Washington Post,” is costing nearly $40,000 a day.

And when asked if he would dismiss the detail before the convention, he didn`t respond.

While Hillary Clinton was declared the presumptive nominee nearly three weeks ago, Senator Sanders refuses to bow out, but at what cost? Aides say that Sanders is focused on trying to parlay his power into concrete changes to the party`s platform.

Not so fast, says the Congressional Black Caucus, which fired off a terse letter to both the Clinton and Sanders campaigns, objecting to two of Sanders` primary proposals, abolishing superdelegates and opening up the primary process.

Here`s what G.K. Butterfield, chairman of the CBC, wrote – quote – “The Democratic Party benefits from the current system of unpledged delegates to the national convention by virtue of rules that allow House members, members of the House and Senate, to be seated as a delegate without the burdensome necessity of competing against constituents.”

And for more, I`m joined by Sanders supporter from state Senator from Ohio Nina Turner, and Perry Bacon Jr., senior political reporter at NBC News.

Let`s dispense with the Secret Service story first.

Nina Turner, do you – do you – what do you say to those who have been criticizing the senator for keeping his detail?

NINA TURNER (D), FORMER OHIO STATE SENATOR: I mean, it`s a Trojan horse, Joy, I think.

I mean, he`s keeping to his word. He said, let everybody vote, and then that he`s going all the way to the convention. And that`s exactly what he`s doing.

We all know that those details are given to a presidential candidate, you know, to protect safety, you know, and for other reasons. So, I think that is much to do about nothing and I will – you know, I question who is making a big deal of this.

REID: Yes, you know, it`s not the Secret Service wouldn`t be – you know, they are being paid anyway. They are already costing many millions of dollars.

Perry Bacon, Jr., let`s talk more about I think what the more important question is, which is whether or not Bernie Sanders still has leverage going into the convention. I talked to a lot of people who said his point of maximum leverage was before California when it wasn`t clear who`s going to win that state and that his leverage diminished significantly since then.

What do you think of that?

PERRY BACON, JR., NBC NEWS SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: I think that`s true. As he leverages higher, maybe earlier in the primary process as well when -- and to be fair to him, he`s already moved Hillary Clinton certain ways. She`s been more opposed to TPP than before he ran. She moved to have a $15 minimum wage instead of $12 minimum wage.

So, I think he already exercised a lot of leverage and now, we`re getting to the point where I think he`ll be pushed more to endorse her and I`m not sure how much more in terms of this party platform fight he can move her. She has now won the nomination.

REID: Yes, you know, to that point, Nina, on superdelegates specifically, the Congressional Black Caucus really came out swinging against the idea of getting rid of superdelegates and the CBC and J.K. Butterfield and all, saying it essentially would disenfranchise African-American elected leaders by making them have to essentially run for delegate against their own constituents, what do you make of that?

TURNER: I did read that leader, Joy, and I`m a little perplexed myself, especially the CBC who represents a group of people, African-American folks who have been victims of a rigged system in this country for generations, that they would not even want to have the conversation about whether or not our party should look at them. Their letter said they don`t want to entertain that as a possibility, but it is a very real concern and I know they pointed out a concern by a few, but I wouldn`t call millions and millions of voters a few people.

The bottom line is this, is that we should be working to try to change a system to make it better and, Joy, you know, I had an opportunity to talk to some high level folks who actually worked on Reverend Jesse Jackson`s campaign back in the `80s, and people may not remember, but the reverend had a problem with superdelegates as well. We had some very real concerns about the superdelegates.

So, we should at least have the conversation but the way the letter was written is that the CBC has just closed off any conversation about that whatsoever, and I don`t think that`s fair.

REID: And, you know, very quickly over to you, Perry, on this question of what Sanders might negotiate, does he risk negotiating too much on process and not about substantive platform items that could be about policy?

BACON: I think he does. On this issue of the superdelegates, I think he might have a stronger case for it. I was surprised with the CBC letter in part because superdelegates are more white and more male as a group than the Democratic electorate overall. So, I was surprised that the independent issue he`s talking about, that`s a hard one. A lot of people in the Democratic Party want the Democratic voters to vote for the primary in part because they are worried about getting a Donald Trump or a Bernie Sanders leader who the party on all issues if you don`t have the primaries that are more closed.

So, that issue he`s probably not going to win. The superdelegates issue will be discussed and he has more leverage on.

REID: Yes. And, Nina Turner, lastly, do you plan to endorse Senator Hillary Clinton and what would it take to get your endorsement of her?

TURNER: Joy, I`m going all the way. I mean, this is not just about rhetoric. I want to see real action. I`m going all the way with Senator Sanders to the convention unless I want you to ask me that question after the convention.

REID: All right. And I definitely will.

Thank you very much, Nina Turner and Perry Bacon, Jr. Appreciate it.

Coming up, the city of Cleveland are celebrating the big win by the Cavs. But some aren`t so excited about Donald Trump`s convention there next month. The roundtable is coming here next.

This is HARDBALL, the place for politics.

REID: You can play HARDBALL all week long online. Follow the show on Twitter and Instagram and like us on Facebook. You`ll get exclusive access to show videos, behind-the-scene photos, and top analysis of the race for 2016. We will be right back.

REID: And we are back.

Just hours after the Cavaliers clenched the NBA title last night, crews began construction at Cleveland`s Quicken Loans arena to prepare for the Republican Convention, where Donald Trump will receive his party`s nomination next month.

While Donald Trump has promised that the convention will have a showbiz feel, he`s had a difficult time attracting Republican political stars for speaking roles. As columnist Frank Bruni pointed out in “The New York Times”, “In the year, Trump Republicans are racing for the exits, it`s as if the Emerald City suddenly turned into Chernobyl.”

One congressional staffer even predicted, it is going to resemble a funeral for a relative everyone hates.

Many Republicans, including four former presidential nominees, have said they plan to skip the convention entirely. In other troubling move, tech giant Apple joined the growing list of companies that have decided not to sponsor the week-long event, alongside iconic brands like Coca-Cola and Ford.

Convention planners are also considering alternative proposals that include featuring non-political speakers or even using Trump on every night of the convention.

I`m joined now by the roundtable. Yamiche Alcindor is a reporter with “The New York Times”, Evan Siegfried is a Republican strategist and former campaign aid to Rudy Giuliani, and Caitlin Huey-Burns is a reporter for “Real Clear Politics”.

All right. I`ll throw this to the panel and I come to you first on this, Caitlin.

The Republican Party is now losing sponsors. There is a prospect of a convention that doesn`t have the typical signage of a convention. What is the party planning to do about that?

CAITLIN HUEY-BURNS, REAL CLEAR POLITICS: Well, that`s a good question. They are talking about party unity. The convention is conventionally, traditionally served as a platform for that. But this is very much going to be a Donald Trump show as we know so far. The nominee always runs the convention, but they are usually really in sync with the party apparatus and operation at this point.

Donald Trump is not. So, there are lots of question marks to left as to how this is actually going to go.

REID: And, Evan, does it matter that you doesn`t have the previous president of the United States, his dad, the previous president of the United States, the governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, that you don`t have like the sort of seminal families of the Republican world? I mean, George W. Bush wasn`t at Mitt Romney`s convention either, right? In the end, does it substantively matter?

EVAN SIEGFRIED, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: We don`t have not only the marquee names. We don`t have the mid level names. Essentially, we have the jayvee squad of the jayvee squad coming out to speak to Republican delegates.

And who really wants to be there? Donald Trump himself is very toxic. So, if I`m a sitting member of Congress or the Senate, why do I even want to be associated with him? Because he`s polling so terribly among every key demographic, any candidate needs to win an election.

REID: I mean, that`s a really important point, Yamiche, because you saw at the last convention, at the Romney convention in 2012, this real effort to highlight the diversity in the Republican Party. The Republican Party has made a lot of their – South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley made a lot – Tim Scott made a lot of sort of their change, to the point where it was almost kind of comical, the way they were sort of corralling all the people of color on the convention floor.

If you have a candidate whose main selling point is he`s hurting party so much with Hispanics, he`s hurting the part so much with women, how does the party even plan to put that together? Would do kind of politicians even show up, those kind of politicians?

YAMICHE ALCINDOR, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Well, some of the people you mentioned, including Governor Nikki Haley, she`s saying, I`m not going to be there. I think it`s going to be hard for them to put together this kind of all-star – he`s talked about this idea that it`s going to be the jayvee team.

The interesting thing about this, though, when I talk to some voters, they don`t care about these kind of establishment figures. Obviously, we`re talking about the convention. You want to put on a big show. But part of it is the convention`s going to be a reflection of Donald Trump.

So, if he wants to pull out his reality star people, if we`re going to see someone like Mike Tyson come out and say, here`s the celebrity that really is backing me, here are the people that are really – that really matter, and here`s the people that American people matter – matter to the American people. This is going to be really interesting.

I think also to point out, if you`re going to have Donald Trump speaking every single night, we know from covering Donald Trump that that could really kind of open him up to a lot of issues. So, if he says one thing on Monday night that could be controversial, is that going to dominate the media coverage of the convention for the entire time?

So, I think the other thing Republicans are thinking about is, let`s fill these spots because the last thing we want to do is have Donald Trump say something really toxic and then we have to talk about that the next four days.

REID: I think one of the points that Yamiche makes is really important, Caitlin, that this has been a revolt from the bottom up in the Republican Party. It hasn`t been about the elites. The elites are the ones trying to come up with the never Trump plan for the convention.

If you basically have a convention with Gary Busey, and Mike Tyson, a couple celebrities who like Donald Trump, doesn`t that kind of solidify him with the people who like him in the first place?

HUEY-BURNS: Oh, sure. I think this has been a big part of his appeal, that he`s just basically not dealing with the establishment, not going the route of traditional candidates, traditional nominees. That`s certainly appealing to his base.

But it`s also – there`s going to be some missed opportunities then in terms of the convention. It as time to really showcase and get voters excited. This is traditionally a time that they`re starting to tune in. This is obviously a different cycle.

But if Trump speaks every night, he does manage to make news, as you said. And that will keep people coming back. So, that`s certainly what he has in mind in terms of the ratings.

REID: But, one of the other issues is sort of what the other thing these conventions are for, the Clinton campaign and its allies, they`ve already spent $23 million on television advertising. The Trump team has yet to spend a single dollar. The goal of the Clinton camp is to define Trump as being unfit for office before he can respond.

Here`s the latest from the super PAC Priorities USA which backs Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, POLITICAL AD)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who are you consulting with consistently so that you`re ready on day one?

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I`m speaking with myself, number one.

Here`s the Trump theory on war. I`m really good at war. I love war in a certain way.

Including with nukes, yes. Including with nukes.

I want to be unpredictable. I`m not going to tell you right now what I`m going to do.

I know more about ISIS than the generals do, believe me.

REID: Evan, this points out the problem that the convention is not just a party for Trump`s core supporters, it`s also a commercial, it`s a way to introduce him nationally to the country. If it`s just sort of the B team and a few celebrities and Hillary Clinton is doing that, then how much of a hole does that put the Republican Party in?

SIEGRIED: Well, listen, the convention is an opportunity for the Republican Party to highlight our agenda where we can provide economic and educational opportunity for Americans. And we can`t do that when we`re just talking about Donald Trump and whether or not he said something completely crazy or what his policies that don`t even fit in the conservative platform are.

And what you can also see based upon him not going up in the air with ads is a real problem that his campaign is having in that he doesn`t have the money. On Saturday, his campaign sent out an e-mail to all supporters asking for an emergency fund-raising deadline of $100,000. In the modern day, what presidential candidate has ever begged for $100,000? That was absolutely pathetic.

REID: I thought he was rich enough to self-fund, laughing at the idea of fund-raising.

All right. The roundtable is staying with us.

And up next, these three will tell me something I don`t know.

You`re watching HARDBALL, the place for politics.

REID: All right. We`re back with the HARDBALL roundtable.

Yamiche, tell me something I don`t know.

ALCINDOR: Something that you don`t know is that while Bernie Sanders, everybody`s calling for Bernie Sanders to leave the race, some of the actual staffers that work for him are also really feeling like they`re being held hostage because they want new jobs, they`re kind of avoiding people asking them for new jobs, telling them they want new jobs, because they want to seem loyal. That`s really an issue there that people aren`t talking about, they`re talking about kind of his party, the party unity issue.

But there are also people that are like, I need a job tomorrow, when this is actually going to happen?

Evan, what do I not know?

SIEGFRIED: There are pro-gay and pro-marriage equality Republican groups that are taking Donald Trump`s words last week about how he`d be great for the gay community and begging him to put his money where his mouth is and change the campaign – change the Republican Party`s platform in Cleveland for marriage equality.

REID: That`s if they can get it together and have a normal convention.

HUEY-BURNS: Donald Trump is meeting with hundreds of evangelical leaders tomorrow in New York. This is a big deal, because a lot of these people while we see in the polls and in the primaries, evangelicals were supportive of Donald Trump, they`re not so sure he`s their candidate. I talked to one person who said they`re really looking to see what his responses are, especially on Supreme Court issues and the like, and are not sure if they`re going to support him.

REID: The last time he met with a group of black evangelicals they came out, he was asking for endorsement, is there any chance of that?

HUEY-BURNS: There`s not, not yet. But could be. We`ll see.

REID: All right. Yamiche Alcindor, Evan Siegfried, Caitlin Huey-Burns – thank you very much.

That`s HARDBALL for now. Thanks for being with us.

“ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES” starts right now.

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Summary: Show: HARDBALLDate: June 20, 2016Guest: Nina Turner, Yamiche Alcindor, Evan Siegfried, Caitlin Huey-Burns, John Brabender, Barbara Boxer; Ann Kirkpatrick JOY REID, HOST: Lewandowski, you`re fired. Let`s play HARDBALL. Good evening, everyone. I`m Joy Reid, in tonight for Chris Matthews. With four weeks to go to the Republican convention, there`s been a big shakeup in the Trump campaign. Campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was shown the door – literally. More on that in a moment.


The remain camp have also made claims that are difficult to verify, such as the assertion that two thirds of British manufacturing jobs are dependent on Europe, or that leaving the EU would cost each household £4,300.

One senior BBC executive said: “It appears to have been the case that campaigners have been happy to peddle misleading claims, just to get them talked about – even if the conversation that follows is to correct or overturn the initial claim.”

Other senior BBC figures have also expressed disappointment about the conduct of the referendum camps. Justin Webb, Robinson’s Today programme colleague, likened the debate to the fractious atmosphere in the American presidential campaign, in which Donald Trump has made a series of outlandish claims.

Summary: The European Union referendum campaign has been a “deeply demoralising experience” in which both sides have acted in a “deeply misleading way”, Nick Robinson has claimed.


After spending years fixing up his Montana ranch, investor Robert Burch is seeking greener pastures, listing his roughly 30,000-acre spread for $35 million. “It’s been a really fun project,” Mr. Burch said of his Hobble Diamond Ranch, but “unfortunately, there’s nothing left to do.” Mr. Burch, who lives primarily in Philadelphia, said he will look for another ranch that needs work and can accommodate more cattle than the roughly 1,000 Hobble Diamond runs.

The ranch is located halfway between Bozeman and Billings on the Yellowstone River. Mr. Burch said he bought the first 9,000 acres in 1998 and acquired adjacent properties as they became available. He refurbished ranch buildings and built new ones, including a six-bedroom, timber-and-stone house of about 10,000 square feet. The home’s lower level has a sauna, massage room, billiard room and wine cellar with a tasting room.

The property, with about 6 miles of frontage on the Yellowstone River, also includes guest houses, staff houses, a horse barn, corrals and other ranch facilities, says listing agent Joel Leadbetter of Hall and Hall.

Mr. Burch, 62, co-founded clothing company Eagle’s Eye with his brother J. Christopher Burch. The brothers sold 70% of the company for about $60 million in the late 1980s, and the rest of the company a decade later. J. Christopher Burch went on to launch Tory Burch with his then-wife.

Write to Candace Taylor at Candace.Taylor@wsj.com

Summary: Investor Robert Burch is selling his roughly 30,000-acre Hobble Diamond Ranch on Montana’s Yellowstone River


Despite healthcare reform efforts in recent years aimed at reining in costs, hospitals, doctors and pharmaceutical companies have still found a way to profit on pure waste—packaging drugs so patients and insurers are basically forced to pay for medicine that gets thrown away.

Combined, Medicare and private health insurers spend $1.8 billion on drugs that ultimately get tossed out. And another $1 billion is paid in the form of mark-ups to doctors and hospitals on throw-away drugs, according to a report by a group of cancer researchers published in the BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal) Tuesday.

Many cancer drugs are administered in doses tailored specifically to the body size of individual patients. Pharmaceutical companies force patients—and the insurance companies that cover them—to pay for unused drugs by packaging the medicine in quantities that don’t correspond to the doses typically needed, even though extra amounts of a drug can almost never be put to use since the drugs have to be administered immediately after opening.

“The leftover drug still has to be paid for, even when discarded, making it possible for drug companies to artificially increase the amount of drug they sell per treated patient by increasing the amount in each single dose vial relative to the typical required dose,” study authors report.

For example, a patient may need 150 mg of drug X, which comes packaged only in 100 mg vials. The patient would of course have to open two such packages, and the remaining 50 mg in the second package would have to be discarded after opening. Doctors and hospitals typically add a mark-up onto drugs when they administer them, even for those quantities of a drug that are trashed. Congress sets the mark-up for Federal Medicare patients at 6%, but for private insurers (which cover most Americans) the mark-up tacked on by doctors and hospitals can be much higher—closer to 22% and 142% respectively, say study authors.

“Drug companies are quietly making billions forcing little old ladies to buy enough medicine to treat football players, and regulators have completely missed it,” study co-author Dr. Peter B. Bach told The New York Times. “If we’re ever going to start saving money in health care, this is an obvious place to cut.”

The study’s authors say ambiguous and at times even contradictory regulations are the ultimate cause of the problem. Instead, they say, regulators could tweak rules by, for instance, requiring drug manufacturers to package drugs in a variety of sizes to reduce the amount of waste. The amount of money spent on wasted drugs could be reduced from $1.8 billion to $400 million.

Summary: Clever packaging means drugs are sold but never used.


If there’s one sure sign that an opponent has gotten under Donald Trump’s skin, it’s when he gives them a nickname. Now Michael Bloomberg knows how that feels.

At a rally Thursday, Trump attacked Bloomberg without naming him, saying, “I was going to hit one guy in particular, a very little guy,” the Washington Post reports. “I was going to hit this guy so hard his head would spin, he wouldn’t know what the hell happened. And he came out of nowhere.”

Trump’s own tweet Friday morning clarified who the “little guy” was, saying, “‘Little’ Michael Bloomberg, who never had the guts to run for president, knows nothing about me. His last term as Mayor was a disaster!”

"Little" Michael Bloomberg, who never had the guts to run for president, knows nothing about me. His last term as Mayor was a disaster!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2016

The battle of the billionaires began in earnest on Wednesday when Bloomberg, the former Republican mayor of New York City who then became an Independent, endorsed Hillary Clinton at the Democratic convention. “Donald Trump says he wants to run the country like he runs his business,” he said. “God help us. I’m a New Yorker, and I know a con when I see one… Let’s elect a sane, competent person with sane, international experience.”

Maybe Bloomberg should consult Trump’s erstwhile foe “Little Marco” Rubio on how to shed the nickname.

Summary: When an opponent gets under Donald Trump's skin, he gives them a nickname


Venezuela faces plunging oil revenue, widespread shortages, dwindling foreign reserves, and an economy poised to contract 8% this year. Yet on Friday, the country appears set to hand over $1.5 billion for its debt payment to foreign bondholders.

The oil exporter has remained steadfast in making debt payments to Wall Street, despite its leftist government’s frequent attacks on “imperialist” governments like the U.S.

Summary: The country, struggling with an economy in crisis, appears set to hand over $1.5 billion for its debt payment to foreign bondholders.


Go to lunch with an ask. Don’t be afraid to be transactional. Make yourself go to the cocktail party.

“Networking is like exercise,” says Candace Corlett, president of WSL, a retail strategy consulting firm. “You know you must, but do you? And you know if you do, you’ll feel better.”

Professional relationships create opportunities and outlets for sounding off about career challenges, say senior executive women, who attribute...

Summary: Women executives have fewer connections than men to help them network and advance in their careers, according to data in a study by Lean In and McKinsey. New programs try to counter that.


Of all the inane things that have been said about the war between Israel and Hamas, surely one dishonorable mention belongs to comments made over the weekend by Benjamin J. Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications.

Interviewed by CNN's Candy Crowley, Mr. Rhodes offered the now-standard administration line that Israel has a right to defend itself but needs to do more to avoid civilian casualties. Ms....

Summary: In The Wall Street Journal, Global View columnist Bret Stephens writes that to argue the Palestinian side, in the Gaza war, is to make the case for barbarism.


Savannah Guthrie, Today anchor, announced on the NBC show Tuesday morning that she was expecting her second child, and would not cover the Summer Olympics in Brazil based on her concerns about the Zika virus.

NBCUniversal employees are not required to travel to Rio if they are concerned about Zika, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The mosquito-borne virus can cause birth defects in pregnant women, such as microcephaly, in which the baby is born with an abnormally small head. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that pregnant women avoid traveling to areas within parts of South America, Central America, the Pacific Islands and the Caribbean — including Brazil.

“I’m not going to be able to go to Rio, so you’ll have to go to beach volleyball without me,” Guthrie said Tuesday morning on Today, sitting with her colleagues.

Some athletes have voiced concern about exposure to Zika in Rio as well, and American cyclist Tejay van Garderen declined to participate in the Games due to his wife’s pregnancy.

Summary: The "Today" anchor announced she was expecting her second child


U.S. forces killed another to ISIS leader this week, but experts say removing top officials won’t be enough to take the terror organization down.

The U.S.-led coalition against ISIS confirmed the death on Tuesday of one of the group’s biggest operatives, Omar al-Shishani. The Georgian national, who is also known as Omar the Chechen, is believed to have died from injuries sustained in a U.S. airstrike earlier in March.

But while killing top ISIS officials is sure to negatively affect the organization, it’s unlikely to be decisive. Patrick Skinner, special projects director of the Soufan Group, a private intelligence firm based in New York, says that ISIS has become so large that, like al-Qaeda, killing even its top leader won’t bring it down. “They are not going to fall apart if they lose one person,” Skinner says.

The assassination campaign has also been a victim of its own success. ISIS has filled the roles of slain leaders who, like Shishani, have been targeted during airstrikes over the past few months. But according to Skinner, the replacements won’t be announced because doing so would cause “that person to become a target.”

That said, experts have identified other top ISIS leaders who remain on the coalition’s hit list. Still at large are:

The group’s leader and self-proclaimed caliph has played an instrumental part in creating and gathering new supporters for ISIS. The shadowy figure, who has a $10 million bounty on his head, has revealed little about himself, reportedly wearing a mask while addressing fighters. He is thought to be 44 years old. Compared to Shishani, who was a decorated military man, al-Baghdadi “is not the main military figure in ISIS,” according to Omar Ashour, a lecturer in security studies at the University of Exeter and an associate fellow at Chatham House. Instead, Ashour says the ISIS leader’s strengths lie in theology—al-Baghdadi received a PhD in Islamic studies—while also symbolizing the successes of ISIS’s expansion from Mosul in Iraq to Aleppo in Syria. His skill at warping Islam for his own ends have enabled ISIS to recruit thousands members and helped justify the group’s trademark atrocities in the eyes of some believers.

This senior ISIS operative was one of the oldest members of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), an al-Qaeda offshoot started by the notorious Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who masterminded the Sunni insurgency in Iraq and created the foundation of what would become ISIS. Al-Qaduli, like al-Baghdadi after him, served as al-Zarqawi’s right-hand man before Zarqawi was killed in an airstrike in 2006. In 2012, al-Qaduli allegedly escaped from prison and joined the early iteration of ISIS, since becoming a second-in-command to al-Baghdadi. According to the BBC, he is alleged to have acted as ISIS’s leader when al-Baghdadi was wounded in an airstrike in March. There has been an unconfirmed report of his death during an airstrike in Tal Afar, Iraq, but the Department of Justice continues to offer up to $7 million for any information his whereabouts. “Many allege that he is one of the main figures of ISIS,” says Ashour of al-Qaduli. “He is certainly the most experienced.”

The 38-year-old Syrian from the northwestern city of Idlib became the senior spokesman for the group in 2014. According to CNN, it is believed he spent time in a U.S. detention facility, Camp Bucca, between 2005 and 2010, and he was also the first to declare ISIS’s “caliphate” for areas in Syria and Iraq. The charismatic spokesperson is also known for his bombing campaigns against Iraqis and the expansion of ISIS into Syria, reports the Associated Press. Iraq officials say al-Adnani was wounded in an Iraqi airstrike in January, but the Syrian still has a $5 million bounty on his head. “He would be a top target,” says Skinner, of the Soufan Group, who explains that Adnani’s role as “a really effective press secretary” would have given him access to unreleased operational details of ISIS. “He is a guy you want to capture because he is clearly plugged in, he has access (al-)Baghdadi,” Skinner adds.

Summary: And why picking off top leaders won't be enough


Live Nation Entertainment is close to finalizing a deal to acquire about a 50% stake in Insomniac Events for $50 million, according to people familiar with the matter.

Insomniac Events, which produces electronic-dance-music festivals and is known for its Electric Daisy Carnival, which drew more than 300,000 fans to Las Vegas last year, would be a coup for Live Nation, the nation's biggest concert promoter.

Summary: Live Nation Entertainment is close to finalizing a deal to acquire about a 50% stake in Insomniac Events, which produces electronic dance music festivals and is known for its Electric Daisy Carnival.


Just as the Olympics attract the world’s best athletes, the Games also lure many of the world’s greatest photographers to capture their superhuman feats. Their tools are many: multiple exposures, robotic underwater cameras, remotes hanging from rafters, and good old-fashioned sideline shooting. The result is a daily flood of thousands upon thousands of images.

Among the very best of them are Reuters photographer Dominic Ebenbichler capturing swimmer Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian ever, reveling in yet another gold; Fabrizio Bensch of Reuters suspending time as gymnast Simone Biles is airborne above the balance beam; Katie Ledecky’s world record-setting swim is immortalized in a sublime, underwater photo by the AP’s David J. Phillip, and in a quieter frame, Russia’s Yulia Efimova’s anguish over a second-place finish is intimately documented by the AP’s Matt Slocum.

Here, TIME has selected just 37 of the most spectacular photographs made so far at the Rio Olympic Summer Games.

Summary: From Michael Phelps reveling in another gold win to an airborne Simone Biles


A cheap blood test which can identify people who are at high risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease in just three hours, has been developed by scientists.

People carrying the APOE4 genetic mutation are up to 12 times more likely to develop dementia in later life, making them ideal candidates for early intervention to prevent the disease.

However current DNA testing is expensive and can take days for results to come back.

The new £25 test, developed by London-based biotech company Randox Laboaratories uses a biochip – a type of ‘lab on a chip’ – to quickly analyse genetic material in the blood and look for mutant genes.

Tests have shown that it is 100 per cent accurate, meaning there is no chance of a false positive, or the chip missing a high-risk patient.

The biochip is likely to be used for research purposes in the first instance but could later become part of widespread screening for Alzheimer’s disease. The company said several major healthcare providers had already expressed interest.


Two of the best days for stocks this year began to undo two of the worst, putting major U.S. indexes back into the black for 2016.

The rebound comes as investors shake off their initial panic over the U.K.’s decision last week to leave the European Union and try to sort out the consequences of the vote.

But still-strong demand for the...

Summary: Two of the best days for stocks this year began to undo two of the worst, putting major U.S. indexes back into the black for 2016. But still strong demand for the safety of government bonds and currencies like the yen shows that markets are far from sounding the all-clear.


After 24 hours of frenzied and secret negotiations, officials from USA Track & Field announced fresh regulations for how the runners — and all other runners who have the misfortune of ending in a dead heat — can determine who will qualify for the Olympics and who will get the fourth spot, the ultimate consolation prize.

The basics are this: the athletes will be given a choice between breaking the tie with a coin toss or a runoff. If they agree on which option they prefer, that method will be used; if there is a disagreement, a runoff will be held.

USA Track & Field is very specific about the coin which must be used if Felix and Tarmoh opt for the coin toss (and why wouldn't they?) to decide their athletic futures.

[A] United States Quarter Dollar coin with the image of George Washington appearing on the obverse hub of the coin and an Eagle appearing on the reverse hub of the coin.

This apparently negates any of the 'America the Beautiful' series of quarters currently in circulation. It's George Washington, first President of the United States, or nothing.

That is, unless the pair decide to have a run-off. This is made all the more complicated by the fact that both will also be competing in the 200m.

If one were to win the 200m title, they might decide to exit the 100m competition altogether. In the meantime, the coin toss/run-off decision awaits.

Summary: New rules dictate that a dead heat for third place in the women’s 100m at the   United States Olympic trials on Saturday may be decided by tossing a coin.


South Australia's emergency crews and volunteers have responded to more than 2000 calls for help since the severe storms started lashing the state last week.

State Emergency Service volunteers, supported by metropolitan and country fire crews, have been dealing with everything from flooded homes and fallen trees to drivers trapped in raging floodwaters since the wild weather started on Wednesday.

SES chief officer Chris Beattie said this figure of 2000 does not include calls to police so the total number of emergency responses is in fact even higher.

"We've seen significant storm damage and flooding," he told reporters in Adelaide on Monday.

"It's a very heavy effort from all agencies in response to this emergency."

Strike teams of volunteers from Western Australia and Victoria have also assisted in the relief efforts in SA.

Country Fire Service assistant chief officer Rob Sandford said CFS volunteers had put a lot of effort into sandbagging and diverting floodwaters away from homes.

But one of the most important parts of their role has been simply to be there to reassure the community during a tough time.

""Whatever the community's needing, our people will try their very best to provide that support," Mr Sandford said.

Mr Beattie said too many call outs had been for drivers who had attempted to take on floodwaters despite warnings against doing so.

"One of our great frustrations has been the behaviour of drivers who tackle flooded roads and bridges," he said.

But he said drivers seem to have finally heeded the message, with no floodwater rescues needed on Monday.

As more rain is predicted on Monday night, Mr Beattie urged those returning to Adelaide from long weekend trips to get home safely.

"We've seen some horrific accidents over the last 24 hours," he said, referring to a fatal crash in Stockwell on Sunday afternoon.

"I want to encourage everyone to drive to the conditions and be patient with one another."

Summary: South Australians hit by wild weather over the past week have made more than 2000 calls for help to emergency crews.


Victoria's long-running pay dispute involving CFA firefighters proves enterprise agreements should be limited to the employer-employee relationship only, a conservative think tank says.

The Institute of Public Affairs released a report on Monday backing changes to the federal Fair Work Act in response to the on-going battle between the CFA, volunteers and the United Firefighters Union.

"This would not restrict the ability of unions to raise issues of concern with an employer, but would prevent them from using the system to thwart operational decisions with the backing of the Fair Work Commission," the IPA report says.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has won the support of One Nation for his plan to intervene in the Victorian dispute, meaning the federal government's planned changes to the Fair Work Act are all but guaranteed to pass parliament.

Summary: The Institute of Public Affairs backs changes to the federal Fair Work Act to prevent unions seeking to control operational decisions through pay negotiations.


Donald Trump has urged his supporters to go vote on November 28, a date which falls almost three weeks after the election will actually be held.

The business mogul and former reality television star urged voters to register by Wednesday's extended registration deadline during a campaign rally in Panama City, Florida, on Tuesday.

Trump's misstatement came after he told voters the deadline had been extended in Florida due to Hurricane Matthew.

However, he failed to mention that Rick Scott - Florida's Republican governor and the chair of one of his independent campaign groups - attempted to prevent the extension.

"Go and register. Make sure you get out vote November 28," Trump told the crowd at the event.

Anti-Trump campaigners and journalists were quick to point out the gaffe on Twitter.

Americans will be heading to the polls on November 8th.

Donald Trump is yet to address his misstatement on Twitter.

© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2016


Political leaders are doing their best to convince wary tourists the Gold Coast is safe and open for business, despite Dreamworld's deadly raft ride accident.

Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and federal Tourism Minister Steve Ciobo all backed the city in the aftermath of the tragedy.

Mr Tate admitted there were major concerns some families and tourists would turn their backs on the holiday strip following the deaths of four people on Tuesday.

"Tourism is one of our key economic drivers and we rightly pride ourselves in the product and service we offer," he told AAP.

"We need people to know that their time on the Gold Coast, at any of our many attractions, is as safe as it possibly can be."

Combined, the Gold Coast's four theme parts attract about 1.8 million visitors annually, and had never suffered a fatality until Tuesday's catastrophic malfunction on Dreamworld's River Rapids ride.

While Dreamworld remains closed indefinitely, rival theme parks Sea World, Movie World and Wet 'n' Wild were open on Wednesday.

"Those parks operate under stringent safety protocols," Mr Tate said.

"I can understand that they want to ensure their valued clients experience everything that is fantastic about our city."

Mr Tate's comments came after Gold Coast-based Mr Ciobo passed on his sympathies to all involved.

"The Gold Coast has long been a destination for families and thrill-seekers - we are, after all, 'famous for fun'," he said.

"The heartbreak of this incident will be felt for a long time, and it's important now we come together as a city and support those in need."

Ms Palaszczuk also urged families not to cancel holiday plans.

"Please continue to show your support to the Gold Coast and to Queensland," she told the Nine Network.

Summary: Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has pleaded with tourists not to abandon the Gold Coast after a ride malfunction killed four people at Dreamworld.


Two teens have been charged after they crashed a stolen luxury car in Melbourne.

Police alleged one of the men broke into a Doncaster garage on Sunday morning, picked up another man and later crashed the car into a pole in Cheltenham.

Both men, 18-year-olds from Pakenham, will face the Ringwood Magistrates Court on May 19.

Summary: Two teens will face court next year after they crashed a stolen luxury car into a pole in Melbourne.


Homes in working class suburbs of Brisbane are now pushing the $1 million mark as peak demand sends prices skywards.

Peak demand for homes is at an all-time high for Brisbane's outer-ring suburbs of Nudgee, Clontarf, Moorooka, Springwood, Kingston and Booval, according to real estate agent Rob Honeycombe of Bees Nees City Realty.

“They're not places you'd expect to see a million-dollar home, but if you've got a large parcel of land of new home you might tip through that mark,” Mr Honeycombe said.

Also getting close to the million-dollar price tag are the suburbs of Capalaba, Cannon Hill and Coopers Plains.

Ross Heldom bought his Nudgee property two years ago for $550,000. After renovating the cottage and building a new home at the back, he believes it’s now worth significantly more.

“If we can get $1.6 million we'll be very happy,” Mr Heldom told 9NEWS.

New infrastructure like rail lines, tunnels and arterials are making once-relegated areas more desirable, according to Mr Honeycombe.

Brisbane's construction boom has also provided an additional boost to prices of new and renovated home, with building and materials costs selling at a premium.

“Median sized home across Australia are now about 230 square metres, so that can cost you $400,000 to $500,000 dollars in construction costs,” Mr Honeycombe said.

© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2016