STATUS UPDATES

A week in which Elmo was put in his place, a beloved horse was put down and a politician launched a gun giveaway

EUTHANIZED

Lily, the paintsplattered horse adopted last month by Jon and Tracey Stewart. The white mare was euthanized after falling and breaking a bone in its neck at the couple’s New Jersey farm, ABC News reported. Though the horse was reported to have been shot with paintballs, its previous owner later said Lily was actually made available to children for fingerpainting.

RESTRICTED

Elmo, Minnie, SpiderMan and other costumed performers, who are now confined to designated painted rectangles in Times Square. New York’s new rules were put in place after years of complaints from pedestrians and tourists about being harassed for tips, occasionally by topless painted women. Performers who venture out of bounds could face a fine of up to $500 or jail time.

ARMED

Florida State Sen. Greg Evers, who is giving away a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle — similar to the weapon used in the Orlando killings — to one constituent who has “liked and shared his Greg Evers for Congress Facebook page.” The winner of the special “Homeland Edition” of the rifle will be chosen July 4. He or she must be at least 18 and pass a background check.

UNEARTHED

A hitherto unknown sketchbook of drawings by Vincent van Gogh. Described by the French publishers who acquired it as a “stunning, dazzling” find, the collection will be published in November as The Fog

of Arles. “This sketchbook was known only to the owners, myself and the publisher,” an official of publishing house Seuil told Agence FrancePresse.

HUMANIZED

Robot workers, the subject of a draft European Parliament motion that would classify them as “electronic persons.” The proposal, drawn up by a committee on legal affairs, calls for a registry of smart, autonomous robots that would have “specific rights and obligations.” That could include social security payments, for which their owners would be liable.

RELEASED

British drug smuggler Melissa Reid, from a prison in Peru, three years after she and a friend were arrested at Lima airport with about 10 kilograms of cocaine stuffed inside packages of food. Unlike her companion, who was released in March after agreeing to remain in Peru — possibly for years — Reid applied for expulsion and is being allowed to return to the U.K.

DISARMED

Four Weddings and a

Funeral actor Simon Callow who, after resisting the idea of gay marriage, tied the knot with Sebastian Fox. The ceremony took place on Mykonos, chosen because of his love of history and because Greek civilization represents “one of the very few instances where homosexuality was an actual integrated part of society,” Callow told the Daily Mail.

OVERRUN

The latest installation by the artist Christo, an elaborate, brightly coloured walkway that connects two towns in Italy to a small island. While organizers expected 500,000 visitors over 16 days, the Floating Piers drew more than half that total in five days. The result: its 160 square kilometres of padding and fabric are sufficiently worn out that the attraction is being closed each night for repairs.