Vox Sentences: The remarkable activism and tragic death of Kayla Mueller

1. RIP Kayla Mueller

(Mueller family)

• The parents of Kayla Mueller — an American aid worker held captive by ISIS — have confirmed that she has died.

  [NYT / Rukmini Callimachi and Eric Schmitt]

• Days earlier, ISIS had claimed Mueller died in a Jordanian airstrike. This is as yet unconfirmed, and ISIS has a record of lying about hostages and their fates.

  [Vox / Amanda Taub]

• Mueller had worked with Syrian refugees through the Danish Refugee Council and the aid group Support for Life.

  [The Guardian / Jessica Glenza]

• She had traveled and volunteered for years in India and Israel, where she engaged in anti-occupation activism and worked to support African refugees in Tel Aviv.

  [Haaretz / Danna Harmon]

• She spoke about her work with Syrian refugees to a community organization in her hometown of Prescott, AZ: "When Syrians hear I'm an American, they ask, 'Where is the world?' All I can do is cry with them, because I don't know."

  [The Daily Courier / Lisa Irish]

• Mueller's family released an absolutely devastating letter she had sent last year from captivity: "If you could say I have 'suffered' at all throughout this whole experience it is only in knowing how much suffering I have put you all through."

  [Vox / Zack Beauchamp]

• US special forces made a rescue attempt for Mueller and other hostages last summer; they found strands of her hair but she had already been moved.

  [Washington Post / Adam Goldman and Karen DeYoung]

• Meanwhile, a UN report shows that ISIS has been viciously abusing the children Mueller had gone to the Syrian border to protect, reporting "several cases of mass executions of boys, as well as reports of beheadings, crucifixions of children and burying children alive."

  [AP]

2. A police shooting with an indictment

Family members of Akai Gurley attend his funeral service at the Brown Memorial Baptist Church on December 6, 2014. (Kena Betancur/Getty Images)

• NYPD officer Peter Liang has been indicted for shooting and killing Akai Gurley, a 28-year-old unarmed black man, on November 20.

  [Vox / German Lopez]

• Gurley was killed by a bullet Liang fired that ricocheted down a stairwell in a Brooklyn housing project.

  [NYT / J. David Goodman]

• Police insist the shooting was an accident, and say Liang was trying to open a door with the same hand he held his Glock in.

  [NY Daily News / John Marzulli, Thomas Tracy, Oren Yaniv]

• The New York Times is reporting that Liang was indicted on six counts: one count each of second-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, reckless endangerment, and second-degree assault, as well as two counts of official misconduct.

  [NYT / Marc Santora, Al Baker, and J. David Goodman]

3. Obama's marriage equality fib

A sign outside the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village on May 9, 2012, when Obama first announced his support for same-sex marriage. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

• According to former Obama advisor David Axelrod's new memoir, the president has always supported same-sex marriage and just pretended to oppose it as a senator and 2008 presidential candidate.

  [Vox / Andrew Prokop]

• More to the point, Axelrod says he advised Obama to lie: "He grudgingly accepted the counsel of more pragmatic folks like me, and modified his position to support civil unions rather than marriage."

  [Time / Zeke Miller]

• The idea that he ever opposed same-sex marriage has always been kind of preposterous. He signalled support in 1996, and going from supporting to opposing it from 1996 to 2004 would be … odd.

  [Politico / Ben Smith]

• Dan Savage defends the call: "Obama made a political calculation — and it was one that gays and lesbians ultimately benefited from."

  [The Stranger / Dan Savage]

• Here are 16 times when, according to Axelrod, Obama was outright lying about his position.

  [Huffington Post / Sam Stein and Amanda Terkel]

4. Misc.

• Samsung's TVs are recording the stuff you say in front of them, and sometimes sending them to a third-party company.

  [BBC]

• Rick Rubin is annotating dozens of songs (including some of his own, like "99 Problems") on Genius.

  [Slate / Dee Lockett]

• Jeb Bush accidentally released the Social Security numbers of some Florida residents, from emails he got as governor.

  [The Verge / TC Sottek]

• "Uncombable hair syndrome" is an actual (apparently hereditary) thing.

  [Now I Know / Dan Lewis]

• Older people say "uh" not "um," and by a pretty massive margin as well.

  [BBC / Ari Daniel Shapiro]

• Inside a Chinese bitcoin farm, whose mining computers produce so much heat that technicians have to work in 100 degree temperatures in the summer.

  [Vice / Erik Franco]

5. Verbatim

• "In 2011, Adele’s … album sold more than 70 percent of all classical albums combined, and more than 60 percent of all jazz albums."

  [New Republic / William Giraldi via Marginal Revolution]

• "The 52-year-old resident of Changwon city ended up being the victim of what many believe is a peek into a dystopian future in which supposedly benign robots turn against their human masters."

  [The Guardian / Justin McCurry]

• "If we were to pick programs to try to reduce the overall mortality rate in 15- to 24-year-olds in the United States, it would make sense to focus on accidents, homicide and suicide."

  [NYT / Aaron Carroll]

• "The nearly 20 percent of Americans with mental disorders … are stuck with checklists — How anxious are you, on a scale of 1 to 10? Are you hearing voices? How's your sleep? — when what they need, some scientists believe, is direct access to the brain."

  [The Atlantic / Taylor Beck]

• "AND THEN I LIKE TO IMAGINE THAT THE PHONES AREN’T THERE AND THAT EVERYONE IS JUST MESMERIZED BY THE SIGHT OF THEIR THUMBS DANCING."

  [Fusion / Kashmir Hill]