HERE ARE THE TOP STORIES
The dashcam video of the traffic stop that led to Sandra Bland’s arrest shows a heated confrontation.
Texas officials released the nearly hourlong video showing Bland’s arrest on July 10, and “reiterated their promise to carry out a thorough and transparent investigation into her subsequent death inside her jail cell three days later,” BuzzFeed News’ Salvador Hernandez writes.
In the video, Bland is shown being pulled over by state trooper Brian Encinia “for failing to signal a lane change, and what appears to be a curt, short exchange between the two quickly turn into a violent encounter that ended with Bland in jail,” Hernandez writes. Officials are also looking into whether the video was edited, NBC News reported.
View this video on YouTube
In the video, Encinia can be heard repeatedly ordering Bland to get out of the car, as she continues to refuse. At one point, the trooper yells, “Get out of the car! I will light you up!”
Trooper Encinia has been placed on administrative leave, and “the case will most likely be referred to a Waller County grand jury scheduled to be convened in August,” the New York Times writes.
And a little extra.
“Two years after its founding — even as it remains a dispersed, bottom-up organization — Black Lives Matter has also become an increasingly vocal, commanding presence in the 2016 presidential race,” BuzzFeed News’ Darren Sands and Ruby Cramer report.
Meanwhile, in Cincinnati, an unarmed black man was fatally shot in the head during a traffic stop by a white police officer. That shooting is also under investigation.
The leader of a veteran al-Qaeda group was killed in a U.S. airstrike, the Pentagon says.
Muhsin al-Fadhli, who was a leader of the al-Qaeda-linked group sometimes called the Khorasan Group, was killed on July 8 in Syria, a spokesman for the Defense Department said in a statement. Al-Fadhli was one of the few leaders who knew in advance of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Last year, BuzzFeed News’ Rosie Gray reported on the group, which “was almost totally unknown to the American public until the U.S. started bombing them, though sources said the group has been known to the administration and to Congress for some time.”
WE’RE KEEPING AN EYE ON
Los Angeles County officials have voted to raise the county’s minimum wage to $15 an hour.
The county’s current minimum wage is $9 an hour, and, under the proposal, it would be $15 by 2020. The wage hike only applies to unincorporated areas of the county, which are areas where there’s no city-level government and the county’s government has jurisdiction, like Marina del Rey and East Pasadena. If this sounds familiar, it’s because last month, the city of Los Angeles became the largest city in the U.S. to approve a minimum wage increase to $15 an hour by 2020.
What’s next?
The changes are part of a larger movement across the country to boost the minimum wage. Seattle and San Francisco have also approved raising their minimum wages to $15 an hour. There’s also a push to raise the federal minimum wage, and “Democrats are hoping to make increases a campaign issue in 2016,” the Associated Press reports. Vice President Joe Biden visits L.A. to promote the issue today.
DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THIS?
Votes are being counted in Burundi after a contested presidential election.
The east African nation began counting ballots in “a presidential election that the U.S. and the U.K. said lacked credibility given the political violence and voter intimidation,” according to Bloomberg. Three people were killed in violence the night before the election.
Burundi’s current crisis began in April when President Nkurunziza said he would run for a third term, a violation of the state’s constitution. Scores of people were killed as outraged demonstrators clashed with police. In May, a general and former head of Burundi’s intelligence service tried to oust the president, but failed. More than 170,000 civilians have fled since April to neighboring countries like Rwanda and Tanzania.
“The unrest in Burundi has the potential to destabilize the Great Lakes region … Civil wars in the early 1990s in Burundi and Rwanda set the stage for conflict in neighboring Congo, the deadliest war in Africa’s modern history,” Bloomberg’s Desire Nimubona writes.
Today marks one year since an American reporter was arrested and locked in an Iranian prison.
One year ago today, Washington Post Iran correspondent Jason Rezaian was arrested at his home in Tehran and locked in Evin prison, known for housing political prisoners and treating them brutally, BuzzFeed News’ Anup Kaphle writes. His detention has become the longest of any Western correspondent held by the Iranian government.
For nine months, Iranian authorities held Rezaian without specifying the charges against him until this April, when he was charged with four serious crimes, including espionage. His family has said he is not guilty of any of the charges.
Rezaian’s third session of his trial was just days before the historic nuclear deal reached by world powers and Iran. “Many, including the Post’s editorial board, have insisted that Rezaian has been used as a pawn by Iranian hardliners during the nuclear negotiations,” Kaphle writes. “As the historic deal was signed, the calls for Rezaian’s release have grown.”
Quick things to know:
Partnership recognition is a legal right in Europe for same-sex couples, the European Court of Human Rights ruled. (BuzzFeed News)
Republican John Kasich is running for U.S. president. He’s governor of Ohio, a key swing state in presidential elections. (Politico)
The tragic story behind the selfies that went viral after a terror attack in Turkey. (BuzzFeed News)
At a gathering at the Vatican yesterday, mayors from around the world announced new measures to fight global warming. (Associated Press)
Donald Trump shared the private telephone number of fellow Republican presidential candidate Sen. Lindsey Graham at a press conference. (BuzzFeed News)
“Hackers remotely kill a jeep on the highway — with me in it.” (Wired)
“Jon Stewart cannot leave,” President Obama said in his final appearance as president on The Daily Show with Stewart as the host. (The Guardian)
The once-beloved Limited Too chain, which shut down in 2008, is back for “millennial moms” and their tweens. (BuzzFeed News) And 19 things we hope come back with the new Limited Too.
E. L. Doctorow, author of Ragtime, Billy Bathgate, and The March, died at 84. (New York Times)
Here’s an exclusive first look at the new Dr. Seuss book, What Pet Should I Get?, which will be released next Tuesday. (BuzzFeed)
After Nicki Minaj called out the MTV Video Music Awards for not nominating “Anaconda” for video of the year, Taylor Swift (who got a nod) responded. There are ~layers~ to this, though. (BuzzFeed)
@NICKIMINAJ I've done nothing but love & support you. It's unlike you to pit women against each other. Maybe one of the men took your slot..
Happy Wednesday
Adriana Lopez, a teacher at Public School 22 in Staten Island, New York, was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The school’s epic choir was so inspired by her fighting spirit they dedicated their final song of the year, a rendition of Martina McBride’s “I’m Gonna Love You Through It,” to her.
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