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The Confederate flag was permanently removed from the South Carolina statehouse grounds in a ceremony Friday morning. Thousands watched, cheering. "Thank God almighty, we're free at last," one woman said. The flag had flown outside the Capitol for more than half a century. Its removal comes less than a month after a gunman allegedly shot and killed nine people at a historic black church in Charleston, fueling a nationwide backlash against the Confederate flag.
Dylann Roof, who is accused of fatally shooting nine people last month in a historically black Charleston church, should not have been able to purchase a gun, the FBI said Friday. Because of a loophole in the system, the people who conducted Roof's background check did not have access to a police report indicating previous drug possession, which potentially would have prevented him from purchasing a .45-caliber handgun. "We are all sick this happened," FBI Director James Comey said. “We wish we could turn back time."
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3. U.S. personnel chief resigns in light of massive data breach
Katherine Archuleta, head of the White House's Office of Personnel Management, resigned Friday, one day after announcing that the personal information of 21.5 million government background check applicants had been hacked. Archuleta has faced calls for her resignation since June, when a related cyber-attack compromised the data of 4.2 million current and former federal workers, including their Social Security numbers. Archuleta has been at the helm of the OPM since November 2013.
4. Report: Top psychologists worked with CIA, Pentagon on torture at Guantanamo
The American Psychological Association, the profession's largest U.S. organization, colluded with CIA and Pentagon officials on the nation's post-September 11 interrogation program, a new report finds. Association members, including the ethics director, intentionally released broad ethics guidelines that didn't restrict interrogations at Guantanamo Bay. The CIA was using tactics like waterboarding, widely considered torture, to obtain information from detainees. The association, which has since renounced the guidelines permitting its members to take part in interrogations, issued an apology after the report was made public Friday.
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5. Reddit CEO Ellen Pao steps down after community rebels
Ellen Pao stepped down from her post as interim Reddit CEO on Friday, a week after the firing of a popular employee caused turmoil among community moderators, who shut down hundreds of the site's subsections in protest. Pao told Re/code the decision with the site's board was mutual. Co-founder and original CEO Steve Huffman is taking over her role.
6. Greek parliament approves prime minister's bailout plan
The Greek parliament overwhelmingly backed Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' $59 billion, three-year bailout proposal to eurozone creditors Saturday. Eurozone finance ministers have started debating the proposal ahead of a midnight Sunday deadline for their countries' heads of state to determine whether they'll continue negotiating with Greece or let the country default on its loans.
7. Obama will be the first sitting president to visit a federal prison
President Barack Obama is headed to a federal prison in El Reno, Oklahoma, next Thursday, the first trip of its kind for a sitting president. Obama's meetings with law enforcement officials and inmates comes as part of his administration's focus on criminal justice reform. While at the medium-security facility, Obama will also interview with Vice for a documentary. Obama is expected to further push the issue of criminal justice next week by commuting nonviolent drug sentences for dozens of federal prisoners.
8. Serbian prime minister chased from Srebrenica massacre commemoration
This week marked the 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, in which Serb soldiers killed about 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian War during the worst mass killing since World War II. Tens of thousands of people gathered in a town cemetery to commemorate the lives lost, but the ceremony was underscored by bitterness over Serbia's longtime refusal to call the event a genocide. Protestors threw stones at Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, chasing him and his delegation from the event.
Oscar nominee and two-time Golden Globe winner Omar Sharif has died of a heart attack in Cairo, his agent said. The Egyptian-born Sharif, who had Alzheimer's disease, was perhaps most famous for his role as Ali in 1962's Lawrence of Arabia, and also played the title role in 1965's Doctor Zhivago. In 2005, Sharif was awarded UNESCO's Sergei Eisenstein Medal "in recognition of his significant contributions to world film and cultural diversity."
10. Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic to face off in Wimbledon final
Top-seeded Novak Djokovic defeated Richard Gasquet 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-4 on Friday. He'll face No. 2 Roger Federer, who bested Andy Murray 7-5, 7-5 6-4. It's a rematch of last year's Wimbledon final, when Djokovic took home the trophy after a five-set battle. Watch the action at 9 a.m. EST Sunday on ESPN.
Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.
