HERE ARE THE TOP STORIES
Six Baltimore police officers have been formally charged in the death of Freddie Gray.
A Baltimore grand jury has indicted all six officers involved in the fatal arrest of Freddie Gray, State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced yesterday. Gray, a 25-year-old black man, died on April 19 after sustaining a spinal injury while in police custody, sparking weeks of protest, some of which became violent. Mosby said on May 1 that she intended to file criminal charges against the officers. The charges the grand jury confirmed range from manslaughter to “second-degree depraved heart murder.” The officers are due in court on July 2.
Baltimore Police Department via AP Photo
ISIS now “controls 50% of Syria” after capturing the historic city of Palmyra.
Now that it’s seized the Syrian city of Palmyra, ISIS is thought to control more territory in the country than anyone else, according to The Guardian. The New York Times has a great graphic on how ISIS expands — by controlling and governing, infiltrating communities, and absorbing other groups. “A year after announcing its expansion goals, it is operating or has cells in more than a dozen countries,” the Times writes.
And a little extra.
BuzzFeed News’ Mike Giglio and contributor Munzer al-Awad tracked down some smugglers who see an opportunity now that ISIS has taken over Palmyra. “Much of the world is looking on with horror as ISIS storms the ancient city of Palmyra. Smugglers who trade in the booming black market of Syrian antiquities, though, say they sense a lucrative opportunity,” Giglio and al-Awad report from Gaziantep, Turkey.
The ancient Syrian city of Palmyra was captured by ISIS.
STR / AFP / Getty Images
WE’RE KEEPING AN EYE ON
A bill to give President Obama more authority to make a trade deal has cleared a key Senate vote.
The Senate vote that allows the bill to move forward to a final vote was “critical to the future of the president’s goal of securing a new trade,” according to Politico. The bill would give Obama “fast track” authority to finish negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation trade deal that would encompass 40% of the world’s economy. “Fast track authority” would allow Obama to make trade deals that Congress could either accept or reject, but not change.
“But the real political divide is over the value of international trade agreements themselves, and the result has been a blurring of traditional political lines,” the Associated Press writes. Supporters say it would lower barriers to trade and benefit the economy, while opponents, including Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, say the deal would hurt U.S. jobs. Warren is one of the most prominent opponents of the trade deal in the president’s own party, while Republicans are largely backing Obama on the deal.
What’s next?
The trade bill will likely face a final Senate vote before the weekend. The Senate will still have to vote on a bunch of amendments today, “some of them highly problematic for the bill’s ultimate fate,” according to the New York Times. If the bill passes, the House will likely take it up early next month.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., about the “fast track” bill.
Evan Vucci / AP Photo
DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THIS?
The president of the Boy Scouts said the group’s ban on gay leaders “cannot be sustained.”
Robert Gates, the former U.S. defense secretary and now president of the Boy Scouts, said the organization needs to make changes to the rule “sooner rather than later.” Gates was leading the the U.S. military in 2011 when Congress ended “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the country’s ban on openly gay service members, and “is now leading the Boy Scouts as it addresses its ban on gay members,” BuzzFeed News’ Chris Geidner writes. Gates didn’t ask for immediate changes to the current policy, but suggested allowing local chapters to choose their own standards.
Boy Scouts carry an American flag in the annual Memorial Day Parade on May 26, 2014, in Fairfield, Connecticut.
Spencer Platt / Getty Images
Environmentalists are seizing on the latest oil spill in Southern California.
The spill along the Santa Barbara coast involving 105,000 gallons of oil “has become a new rallying point for environmentalists in their battle against drilling and fossil fuels,” according to the AP. A big spill in the area in 1969 gave rise to the modern environmental movement. “The timing of the leak — days after a federal agency approved Shell's plan for drilling in the Arctic, and while the Obama administration considers opening the Atlantic to exploration — could work to the advantage of environmental groups,” the AP writes. California Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency Wednesday to speed up cleanup efforts.
A volunteer holds an octopus covered in oil along the coast of Refugio State Beach on Wednesday.
Lucy Nicholson / Reuters
Quick things to know:
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Ireland is voting today on a measure to allow same-sex marriage. If it passes, it would make Ireland the first country in the world to adopt same-sex marriage through a nationwide popular vote. (CNN) And Irish people from all over the world are traveling #hometovote.
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There’s no good reason to exclude female athletes based on their hormone levels, researchers argue in a new paper. (BuzzFeed News)
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Many women are hidden from unemployment numbers, a study says. (BuzzFeed News)
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It only took a few minutes after President Obama opened his new @POTUS Twitter account for hate-filled posts and replies to roll in. (New York Times)
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Google is adding fingerprint authentication to the next version of Android. (BuzzFeed News)
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The Official Scrabble Words list has some new additions, including obvs, twerk, emoji, and shizzle. (NPR)
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Happy Memorial Day to those in the U.S., but don’t try making plans for the long weekend on Facebook: Facebook’s spam filter accidentally blocked users from messaging the phrase “What are you guys doing this weekend?” (BuzzFeed News)
How well you do know what happened in the news this week? Take the BuzzFeed News Quiz!
FOR THE WEEKEND
Our special guest today is BuzzFeed’s Sylvia Obell, sharing a few stories she especially enjoyed this week.
As a Columbia J-School alum this disappointed me: Emma Sulkowicz, “the student who protested Columbia University’s handling of her sexual assault complaint by carrying a mattress around campus all year” carried it for the last time as she crossed the stage at a graduation ceremony, the New York Times’ Kate Taylor writes.
Women go topless to protest killings of unarmed black women by police. Demonstrators took to the streets of San Francisco to draw attention to the police-related deaths of black women. The movement was spurred by the recent report “Say Her Name: Resisting Police Brutality Against Black Women,” BuzzFeed News’ Tamerra Griffin writes.
What will happen when Harlem becomes white? “While many black residents, old and new, are thankful for the new amenities that gentrification brings, others worry that an emerging brand of black pride could do away with the community’s politically nourished roots,” writes Rose Hackman in The Guardian.
Swearing off the modern man: “The Modern Man has an iPhone 6 Plus and goes to Coachella every year. He’s thinking about starting a blog and … has a fun Twitter feed and interesting theories about what could happen on House of Cards,” Jochebed Smith writes in the New York Times.
HAPPY FRIDAY
If planet Earth had a flag, here is what it would look like. Swedish student Oskar Pernefeldt designed a flag and put together a website showing several ways it could be used. Pernefeldt says the flag is a reminder that we’re all members of the same planet who should look after one another.
flagofplanetearth.com / Via flagofplanetearth.com
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