Nightly Newsy: A Scary Brad Pitt Death Hoax, NASA Hates Astrology + More
1. Brad Pitt is not dead! And reading the fake obituary could get you hacked. If you see an article on Facebook with the headline “RIP Brad Pitt,” don’t open it. And if you open it, definitely don’t enter your username and password when asked; it’s set up to hack people. According to one expert, though, you shouldn’t even visit the site the article’s on, as it could be malicious.
2. Serena Williams posted a strong message against police violence. News of unarmed black people, often men, shot and killed by police has been nearly constant for the last few years. Yesterday, tennis star Serena Williams wrote a post on Facebook that speaks to the ongoing fear she lives with for her relatives. “It’s not how far we have come,” she wrote, “but how much further still we have to go.”
3. NASA says your astrological sign is different than you thought, but also that astrology isn’t real. We had to see the second part coming, given that NASA is a scientific institution. But for those of us who follow astrology, the real shocker is that you’re probably not the sign you thought you were! Earth has shifted on its axis over the millennia, so the constellations that give the signs their names aren’t in the same spots they once were. And to top it all off, there’s a 13th sign: Ophiuchus.
4. Apple is logging all your iMessage contacts. You may have heard that text conversations you conduct on your iPhone are encrypted, which still appears to be true. But every time you message someone, and possibly even when you simply put a number into your contacts, it’s logged on Apple servers. And Apple hands that information over to law enforcement when asked, all of which is raising some serious questions for privacy advocates.
5. Wells Fargo’s CEO and another executive have to give back $60 million after the bank’s recent scandal. Earlier this month it was revealed that thousands of Wells Fargo workers had signed customers up for accounts and cards they didn’t want. CEO John Stumpf went to the Senate Banking Committee to say he had no idea it was happening, which Senator Elizabeth Warren didn’t buy. Now, both Stumpf and Carrie Tolstedt (who ran the branch involved and has resigned) will hand back $41 million and $19 million in bonuses, respectively.
Tweet us at @BritandCo to let us know what news you’re reading!
(Photos via Getty)
