Wait, What?

According to a new public opinion poll, 57% of Americans think the Confederate flag is a symbol of Southern pride and not of racism. That figure is around the same as a poll taken in 2000 (59%), with opinions about the flag not surprisingly sharply divided by race. The survey of more than 1,000 adults found that 72% of blacks surveyed said the flag had racist connotations, while 66% of whites said it represented Southern pride.

In addition, the poll found that 57% of those surveyed said flags with Confederate emblems should not be redesigned to remove references to the Confederacy (59% of blacks said they should, while 61% of whites said they shouldn’t.) Asked whether the murder of 9 members of the AME church in Charleston should be considered an act of terrorism, 57% said no, while 55% of black respondents said yes; 92% of black respondents and 86% of whites said the massacre should be considered a hate crime.

Volkswagen Worker Killed By Robot

Volkswagen confirmed on Wednesday that a 22-year-old contract worker from Saxony died this week when an assembly line robot he was helping to set up at one of its German plants grabbed him and crushed him against a metal plate. When the robot started up, it pulled the man off his feet, giving him severe contusions in his chest. While he was resuscitated at the scene, he died later at a hospital. Officials said human error is likely to blame and that there was no malfunction in the robot.

Thousands Evacuated In Tennessee After Train Derailment

Toxic fumes from a derailed train that burst into flames on Thursday morning (July 2) caused the evacuation of more than 5,000 people near Knoxville. One of the 60 cars on the train was carrying a highly flammable and toxic chemical compound called acrylonitrile, used to manufacture plastics. Inhaling the chemical can cause anemia, headaches, jaundice, kidney problems and nausea and at press time at least 7 first responders were hospitalized after breathing the fumes.

Episcopal Church Votes To Allow Same-Sex Weddings

A decade after electing its first openly gay bishop, the Episcopal church voted overwhelmingly (129-26) on Wednesday to allow religious weddings for same-sex couples. The sometimes contentious debate over the ruling lasted for five hours, but in the end it paved the way to eliminate gender-specific language from church laws so that "husband" and "wife" are now replaced by "the couple" in proceedings; clergy can, however, still decline to perform the ceremonies if they choose. With the ruling, the Episcopal Church (which claims around 2 million members in the U.S.) joins two other mainline Protestant groups that allow gay marriage: the United Church of Christ and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Quick Take: Sir Nicholas Winton, the British man who prevented the deaths of nearly 700 children during the Holocaust, has died at the age of 106. Known as the "British Schindler," stockbroker Winton sprung to action after visiting a friend in Prague in 1938 and being disgusted by what he saw. He then arranged for 8 trains to take children out of Prague to Britain before the start of WWII and found them homes where they could stay until they turned 17. Winton – who did not speak about his valiant works until his wife found a dusty scrapbook in their attic in 1988 -- died on the same day his largest train delivered 241 children out of Prague in 1939.