10 things you need to know today: November 14, 2016

1. President-elect Trump taps Reince Priebus, Steve Bannon as top aides

President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday picked Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus as his chief of staff. Priebus is a longtime friend of House Speaker Paul Ryan. His selection was expected to please establishment Republicans who opposed Trump's candidacy, but anger his anti-establishment base. Trump picked Priebus over Steve Bannon, his campaign CEO and controversial former Breitbart News leader, and named Bannon as his chief strategist. Civil rights groups lambasted Trump for putting Bannon in such an influential role. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a hate-watch group, said Bannon had turned Breitbart into "a white ethno-nationalist propaganda mill."

CNN The New York Times

2. Trump team calls on Obama and Clinton to calm protesters

Demonstrators marched in cities across the U.S. for a fifth straight day on Sunday to protest the election of Donald Trump as president. Several thousand people rallied in New York City's Central Park, chanting, "Say it loud, say it clear, immigrants are welcomed here." Trump's former campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said that it was up to President Obama and Hillary Clinton, who won the popular vote but lost to Trump in the Electoral College, to calm the "paid" anti-Trump protesters. Trump, in a 60 Minutes interview that aired Sunday, said a biased media was exaggerating the size of the protests.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Reuters

3. Trump tells supporters harassing minorities to 'stop it'

CBS News' Leslie Stahl questioned President-elect Donald Trump on everything from immigration to Hillary Clinton to his own harsh campaign rhetoric during an hour-long interview that aired Sunday on 60 Minutes. Trump told Stahl that his rhetoric was strategic, saying, "Sometimes you need a certain rhetoric to get people motivated." When Stahl asked Trump about reports of post-election racial slurs and threats against blacks, Hispanics and LGBTQ Americans, Trump said he was saddened by the news. "I will say this, and I will say right to the cameras: Stop it," he said.

CBS News USA Today

4. Undocumented immigrants with criminal records will be deported, Trump vows

President-elect Donald Trump said in a 60 Minutes interview that aired Sunday that he would deport two to three million undocumented immigrants with criminal records immediately after he takes office in January. Trump said the deportees would include "gang members, drug dealers," and others convicted of crimes in the U.S. Trump said his administration would make a determination on those who are in the country illegally but are "terrific people" only "after the border is secure and after everything gets normalized." Federal authorities are sending extra border agents to Texas in coming weeks after a surge in the number of people being caught illegally crossing the Mexican border into the U.S.

The Washington Post Houston Chronicle

5. Chinese leader tells Trump U.S. and China must cooperate

Chinese President Xi Jinping told U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in their first phone call that cooperation between the U.S. and China — the world's two largest economies — is "the only correct choice," Chinese state media reported on Monday. Trump harshly criticized China during the campaign, pledging 45 percent tariffs on imported Chinese goods and saying that he would brand China as a currency manipulator as soon as he takes office. Trump's transition office confirmed the call, and said the two leaders had "established a clear sense of mutual respect for one another."

Los Angeles Times

6. Giuliani promises a 'wall' between Trump's presidency and his businesses

Donald Trump adviser and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani said on Sunday news shows that Trump's three adult children — Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric — would continue to run his companies but stop advising him on his presidency once he takes office as president. Giuliani said there would be no conflict of interest because "there will be a wall" between Trump's business interests and his decisions as president. Giuliani said it would be unreasonable to expect his children, who won't have a role in his administration, to distance themselves from their father's companies, because "you would be putting them out of work."

The Washington Post

7. Another earthquake rattles New Zealand

A magnitude 6.2 earthquake hit New Zealand's South Island on Monday, less than 24 hours after a far more powerful 7.8-magnitude temblor hit the same area. At least two people died after the first quake and a series of aftershocks, Prime Minister John Key said on Monday. The first quake triggered a tsunami that hit two hours later. The epicenter of the massive earthquake hit 55 miles northeast of the city of Christchurch on Sunday. The 2.5-meter tsunami was the highest one the country had seen in 38 years, Philip Duncan of Weather Watch New Zealand said.

Reuters CNN

8. Supermoon brightest in 68 years

The closest supermoon since 1948 is lighting up skies. The phenomenon reached its most luminescent in North America before dawn on Monday. It then hits its peak in Asia and the South Pacific on Monday night, and after midnight Tuesday across the international dateline in New Zealand. The moon orbits the Earth on an oval path, and a supermoon occurs when the moon's elliptical orbit brings it closest to Earth. It will appear about 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than it does when it is farthest from Earth. The next supermoon this bright will occur in 18 years.

The Associated Press

9. Zuckerberg promises to get fake news off Facebook

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is promising to try to get fake news and hoaxes off the social network. Since last week's election, critics have said fake news posts injected disinformation into politics, possibly influencing the vote. Zuckerberg claimed that "more than 99 percent" of the news people see on Facebook is legitimate. "Only a very small amount is fake news and hoaxes," he said, and the hoaxes are not limited to "one partisan view." He said that Facebook nevertheless has launched a mechanism letting users flag hoaxes, and will let users know if it decides to make changes to its News Feed.

Facebook

10. Musician Leon Russell dies at 74

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Leon Russell died Sunday at his Nashville home, his wife said in a statement posted on his website. He was 74. A skilled songwriter whose work defied the limitations of genre, Russell collaborated with a wide range of musicians over his long career, from B.B. King to Willie Nelson to Elton John. "He was my biggest influence as a piano player, a singer, and a songwriter," John said. A native of Oklahoma, Russell suffered a heart attack in July and had recently undergone heart surgery. He passed away in his sleep.

Reuters