10 things you need to know today: November 15, 2016

Trump campaign CEO Stephen Bannon and campaign manager Kellyanne Conway

(Image credit: Getty Images)

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1. Trump selection of Bannon as top strategist angers opponents
2. Obama says Trump indicated he would honor U.S. alliances
3. Trump and Putin pledge to improve 'unsatisfactory' U.S.-Russia relations
4. Newscaster Gwen Ifill dies at 61
5. Ellison announces bid to be DNC chair
6. Georgia father convicted of murder for son's death in hot car
7. Giuliani reportedly Trump's favorite for secretary of state
8. Anti-Muslim hate crimes spiked in 2015
9. Egyptian court overturns Morsi's death sentence
10. Judge orders release of Brendan Dassey in Making A Murderer case

published 15 November 2016

1. Trump selection of Bannon as top strategist angers opponents

President-elect Donald Trump faced a backlash on Monday over his selection of right-wing firebrand Stephen Bannon as his chief strategist. Civil rights groups, Democrats, and some Republicans publicly denounced Bannon for what they called racist and white nationalist views. The Council on American-Islamic Relations said the appointment sent the message "that anti-Muslim conspiracy theories and white nationalist ideology will be welcome in the White House." Kellyanne Conway, a key Trump adviser, defended Bannon as a "brilliant tactician" and said she was "personally offended" at the critics' characterization of Bannon, who was CEO of Trump's campaign. White nationalists praised the appointment.

President Obama on Monday urged Americans to give President-elect Donald Trump a chance, saying in his first news conference since last week's election that Trump would govern in a more pragmatic way than he indicated in his campaign. "This office has a way of waking you up," said Obama, who met with Trump last week. Obama said Trump is not "ideological," but would need to rein in "certain elements of his temperament." Obama made the remarks before starting a week-long trip to Greece, Germany, and Peru on Tuesday. He said that during the trip he would assure European leaders that Trump, who downplayed NATO's importance during the campaign, has "expressed a great interest in maintaining our strategic relationships."

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President-elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone on Monday and agreed to work together on the "unsatisfactory" relations between their countries, the Kremlin said in a statement. Trump and Putin discussed working together to fight terrorism and finding "a settlement for the crisis in Syria," the statement said. Trump's office said Putin had called to congratulate Trump on his victory in last week's election, and that the two leaders discussed a wide range of topics, and that Trump had told Putin "he is very much looking forward to having a strong and enduring relationship with Russia and the people of Russia."

PBS NewsHour co-anchor Gwen Ifill died of endometrial cancer on Monday. She was 61. Ifill worked as a reporter for The New York Times and The Washington Post before entering broadcast journalism. She was picked to lead Washington Week in Review in 1999, becoming one of the first African-American women to anchor a major national political program. "Gwen was a standard bearer for courage, fairness, and integrity in an industry going through seismic change," Sara Just, PBS NewsHour executive producer, said in statement. "She was a journalist's journalist."

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) announced his candidacy for chair of the Democratic National Committee on Monday, buoyed by support already offered by such party heavy-hitters as Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), as well as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who energized the party's progressive wing with his unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. Howard Dean, a former DNC chair and Vermont governor, also has announced he will run for the job, which he held from 2005 to 2009. Other possible candidates include former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley, Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.), and New Hampshire Democratic Party chairman and DNC vice chair Raymond Buckley.

A Georgia jury found Justin Ross Harris, 35, guilty of murder on Monday for the death of his 22-month-old son, Cooper, after he was left in a hot car for seven hours. Harris said he forgot to drop the child off at day care and went to his job as a Home Depot web developer without realizing the boy was still in his car seat. Investigators found out that Harris was sexting with six women, including one minor, and prosecutors said he left the boy to die on purpose because he wanted to free himself from family obligations.

Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani reportedly is the leading candidate to be President-elect Donald Trump's secretary of state. Hawkish former United Nations ambassador John Bolton also remains in contention for the job. Former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich told The Kelly File on Fox News that he believed Giuliani, a former prosecutor with no international experience, was interested in being nominated as attorney general or homeland security secretary, but that he would do well as America's top diplomat because he is "already known worldwide." The bottom line, Gingrich said, is: "If Rudy wants it, he'll get it."

Reported anti-Muslim hate crimes increased in 2015 to the highest level since just after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, according to FBI data released Monday. There were 257 cases of violence or harassment against Muslims in 2015, the year of the Paris and San Bernardino terror attacks, and Donald Trump's call for banning Muslims from entering the U.S. That marked a 67 percent increase over the 154 incidents reported in 2014. Overall, law enforcement agencies reported 5,850 hate crimes to the FBI in 2015, up from 5,479 in 2014. Fifty-two percent of the hate crimes in 2015 targeted African-Americans, while 18.7 percent targeted white people, and 9.3 percent Latinos.

Egypt's Court of Cassation on Tuesday overturned the death sentence of Mohammed Morsi, the country's ousted Islamist president. A lower court sentenced Morsi to die for his role in a mass prison break during the country's 2011 uprising. Morsi now will get a new trial, as will five others who, like Morsi, were leaders of the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood. Their death sentences also were thrown out, as were life sentences against 21 other Muslim Brotherhood members. The Court of Cassation last month upheld Morsi's 20-year sentence related to the killing of prisoners in 2012.

A Wisconsin judge on Monday ordered Brendan Dassey, one of the defendants in the Netflix documentary series Making A Murderer, to be released from prison. Judge William Duffin overturned Dassey's conviction in August. Duffin said Dassey now should be allowed to leave prison under supervision, pending further developments in the case. Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel's office moved to block the release, saying it would file an emergency motion in a federal appeals court to stay the order. Dassey, 27, was convicted along with his uncle, Steven Avery, and sentenced to life in 2007 for the 2005 murder of photographer Teresa Halbach.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.