HERE ARE THE TOP STORIES
Donald Trump’s Twitter account is a security disaster waiting to happen.
With no known special security protections, @realDonaldTrump could be exploited for financial gain, to cause geopolitical instability, or worse. His feed is the most powerful publication in the world today, with the ability to move financial markets, conduct shadowy foreign policy, and reshape the attention of the world. It is also shockingly insecure.
US Vice President Joe Biden has urged Donald Trump to “grow up,” amid an ongoing row over the president-elect publicly doubting US intelligence agencies.
My Twitter has been seriously hacked--- and we are looking for the perpetrators.
A tweet from 2013
And a little extra
Four people accused of torturing a white man in Chicago while yelling about Trump on Facebook Live have been charged with hate crimes. Members of the alt-right were quick to blame the kidnapping on Black Lives Matter — with zero evidence. People also circulated a woman’s mugshot from a completely unrelated story.
The inauguration: A historically black college in Alabama says its marching band plans to perform at Trump’s inauguration after students and alumni clashed over the invitation. And America Ferrera will chair an Artists’ Committee for the Women’s March on Washington, a large demonstration planned the day after the inauguration.
WE’RE KEEPING AN EYE ON
US House Speaker Paul Ryan says the House will vote to defund Planned Parenthood.
Ryan said members will move to defund the nonprofit organization this year in the same bill they’ll use to repeal Obamacare. That means Republicans will need just a simple majority of members to pass those measures.
Republicans across the spectrum of conservatism, from moderates to far-right members, are now lined up and prepared to support that bill and strip Planned Parenthood of federal funding.
A little extra US politics
New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, 67, is about to become the most influential Democrat in the US and says his party is ready to fight Trump. While some Democrats are worried about his deal-making instincts, Schumer told BuzzFeed News: “Watch my actions … they have to see what I do.”
Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley made it clear why bipartisan legislation to overhaul the criminal justice system stalled last year: blame the election. With that behind us, hopes for new laws reducing incarceration are looking brighter.
DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THIS?
Swedish prosecutors have received transcripts of Julian Assange’s interview over alleged sex offenses — but they’re in Spanish.
The several hundred pages of interview evidence relate to allegations by two women against the WikiLeaks founder — made in Sweden in the summer of 2010 — that have led to years of legal challenges in UK courts against extradition for Assange. Following his failed bid at the Supreme Court in 2012, Assange fled to the Ecuadorian embassy in London, prompting a diplomatic standoff now in its fifth year.
Assange was interviewed in the embassy for several days last November – but by Ecuadorian prosecutors rather than Swedish ones. Now, more than six weeks later, the results of the interviews have been passed to Swedish authorities, allowing them to consider whether to continue pursuing the case against Assange, who has returned to the headlines in recent weeks following WikiLeaks’ high-profile interventions in the US election campaign.
QUICK THINGS TO KNOW
Minimum wage increase: Workers in 19 states and 23 cities and counties in the US will get a paycheck bump this year.
From page to screen: Here are 19 books that will become movies this year. Read them, so you can say ~the book was better~.
2017 looking up already: Ed Sheeran has released two new singles at once. Please don’t leave it this long again, Ed.
Behind the scenes: Freemasons share their experiences of life in the brotherhood. BuzzFeed spoke to some of the members of the organization known for its secrecy.
Fierce: Makeup brand Maybelline has hired a guy to be the face of its new mascara — meet Manny Gutierrez.
WEEKEND READS
“Inside The Million-Dollar Get-Rich Doula Clique”: ProDoula wants to revolutionize the touchy-feely doula profession — and make millions of dollars along the way. Who really benefits from the for-profit company’s goal to rebrand doula work from a fundamental right to a luxury service?
“The Last Wingwalker”: Carol Pilon is one of a handful people on Earth who risk their lives by performing on the wings of airplanes flying 150 miles an hour hundreds of feet above the ground. And she’s trying to mentor a new generation to carry on the dying — and deadly — art form.
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