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Betsy DeVos was confirmed as President Donald Trump’s education secretary after an unprecedented tie-breaking vote.
The US Senate confirmed DeVos by a razor-thin margin Tuesday, with Vice President Mike Pence casting a vote to break a 50–50 tie. It’s the first time in congressional history that a vice president has broken a tie on a Cabinet nominee.
No Democrats voted for DeVos’s appointment and two Republicans crossed party lines to oppose her, saying they believed she was too inexperienced and narrowly focused on school choice issues like charter schools and vouchers to adequately support public schools.
And a little extra.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren was silenced by Senate Republicans after criticizing President Trump’s pick for attorney general, Jeff Sessions. After she read from a letter written by Coretta Scott King, the widow of Martin Luther King Jr., opposing Sessions’ 1986 nomination to a federal judgeship, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell moved to block her from the debate by invoking an arcane Senate rule.
A federal court held a fast-paced hearing on Tuesday over whether Trump’s refugee and travel ban should remain on hold. Judges heard arguments from Trump’s Justice Department about resuming the president’s order, but they were skeptical. The court said that a decision would “probably” come this week.
Meanwhile, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly is taking the blame for how messy the rollout of Trump’s executive order ended up being.
Trump says the confirmation process of his full Cabinet is longest in history but that’s not true yet.
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What it’s like to face your sexual abuser in court after four decades.
A key witness in the sexual abuse trial at one of Britain’s top private schools invited BuzzFeed News to accompany him as he gave evidence against the teacher who abused him.
In an unprecedented disclosure, the witness described the effects of the abuse on his life and why he came forward triggering a major police investigation. BuzzFeed News spent weeks with the survivor to reveal what it takes to face your abuser, the experience of being cross-examined, and the excruciating wait for the verdict.
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Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, are funding dozens of scientists. The couple launched a $3 billion effort to “cure, prevent, or manage all diseases” by the end of the century.
In France: The left is hoping a young independent candidate can save it. And this is what it was like at the kickoff for France’s extreme right.
Pranksters sent White House press secretary Sean Spicer bogus payment requests on Venmo, pointing out a major privacy flaw on the platform.
The US Army Corps of Engineers has told a federal court it will move forward with the Dakota Access pipeline.
Ten years since her death: From her first Playboy appearance in 1992 to her death in 2007, Anna Nicole Smith’s story was about a beautiful girl lifted up from the dust, and then about a beautiful woman destroyed.
Twitter introduced new “safe search” results, a timeline change intended to collapse “potentially abusive or low-quality” tweets, and a new effort to crack down on the creation of new abusive accounts from repeat offenders.
The dictionary keeps subtweeting Donald Trump. Here’s the full story.
Starbucks is now offering its baristas free advice on immigration law.
Barack Obama looks like he’s been having a blast since leaving the White House. He was spotted in the British Virgin Islands kitesurfing with billionaire Richard Branson. Meanwhile, people are describing the former president as America’s ex-boyfriend.
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