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HC Wake-Up Call: Trump Administration Lifts Refugee Ban, Fitbit App Spills Top Secret Military Info & Starbucks Has Pink Lattes, but There’s a Catch

Good morning Her Campus! With a break-neck news cycle, there is no possible way for you to stay on top of every story that comes across your feeds—we’re all only human, after all.

But, life comes at you fast. So grab a cup of coffee and settle in for this quick and dirty guide to stories you might’ve been sleeping on (like, literally. It’s early.)

The Trump Administration Has Lifted Its Ban on Refugees From 11 Countries

On Monday, the Trump administration announced its plans to lift a ban on admitting refugees from 11 predominantly Muslim countries including Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Mali, North Korea, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, BuzzFeed News reports. Despite the lift on the (extremely) controversial plan, the White House did say that additional screening and vetting measures would be taken for “high risk” immigrants and refugees coming from these countries moving forward. Officials say new security procedures would likely take effect by June of this year.

This Fitbit App Accidentally Revealed Top-Secret Military Information

Um, yikes. A Fitbit app called Strava, which allows users to time and map their workouts for their friends to see, has come under fire after security analysts found it was accidentally revealing the locations of multiple U.S. military bases in sensitive areas such as Syria and Afghanistan, and mapping the habits of American forces there, the New York Times reports. In November, the app added a “global heat map” which shows worldwide the workouts of every single user on the app — which is all fine and good, except for the fact that experts say squiggles and lines on the map can easily be tracked to show the locations of American military bases, where few locals would own fitness devices and therefore wouldn’t be tracked on the app. While the news is pretty terrifying, the company has released a statement saying that privacy settings can be used to turn off this feature moving forward.

Starbucks Now Has Millennial Pink Lattes — but There’s a Catch

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Starbucks has officially taken the one thing missing from our millennial pink lives and made it our favorite color: Lattes. Called the Pink Medley Tea Latte, the drink uses a blend of pink teas to achieve its Instagrammable color. Except, sorry guys, because it turns out that the company has only made the drink available in Japan — and I’m bummed to say the least. Starbucks, if you can hear me, Americans like pink lattes too, just FYI. I guess we’ll just have to settle for the OG pink drink for now.

 

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What to look out for…

Trump’s first State of the Union speech is tonight at 9 p.m. EST. And while anyone’s guess as to what we could possibly expect is as good as mine, it’s clearly off to a great start, what with the typos on the official tickets to the speech and all.

Caroline is the Evening/Weekend Editor and Style Editor at Her Campus, a senior public relations major at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a leather jacket enthusiast.  You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram @c_pirozzolo.