THE BIG STORY

Joe Biden officially won the Electoral College

All the old news is new again: Joe Biden has formally won more than 270 votes in the Electoral College, and will be the next president of the United States.

To be sure, this is not exactly new information. We’ve known Biden won for more than a month. The Electoral College vote is typically a quiet event that doesn’t make much news. But after weeks of President Donald Trump attempting to derail the process through false claims, it is worth spelling it out.

In an act of unspeakable bravery, Senate Republicans even declared that Biden may have possibly, technically won the election.

After officially winning the Electoral College, Biden delivered a speech that contained his most explicit and detailed rebuttal yet of Trump’s claims of election fraud.

“Once again in America, the rule of law, our Constitution, and the will of the people have prevailed. Our democracy — pushed, tested, threatened — proved to be resilient, true, and strong,” Biden said.

New York Electoral College members Hillary and Bill Clinton vote in the Assembly Chamber at the capitol building in Albany, Dec. 14. Hans Pennink / Getty Images

STAYING ON TOP OF THIS

More than 300,000 have died of the coronavirus in the US

On Monday, the US marked yet another grim milestone: 300,000 Americans have now died from the coronavirus since the pandemic began in March. In less than a month, more than 50,000 people died of COVID-19 in the US.

The milestone came as a glimmer of hope arrived. On the same day, healthcare workers in the US became the first recipients of the COVID-19 vaccine. Sandra Lindsay, a critical care nurse at a Queens hospital, was the first recipient of the vaccine in the US, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office.

The moment Sandra Lindsay received the vaccination. Mark Lennihan / Getty Images / Via pscp.tv

SNAPSHOTS

Trump says Attorney General Bill Barr will step down weeks after Barr said there wasn’t widespread voter fraud. Barr was ousted after publicly undermining Trump’s theory that the election was rigged for Biden.

Trump and his allies have lost nearly 60 legal fights in court (and counting). The campaign’s latest legal failures come as the Electoral College votes to affirm Biden’s win.

Pornhub purged most of its content — more than 10 million videos — from its site. The videos were purged after the company announced it was removing all unverified content. Some videos may be restored once the company rolls out a new process to verify users.

I believed Shia LaBeouf's apology film. I wish I hadn’t. With recent abuse allegations against him from FKA Twigs, Karolyn Pho, and Sia, it’s even clearer that a man’s apology through his art is sometimes just good PR, Scaachi Koul writes.

THE YEAR IN INFLUENCERS

How the best influencer drama got us through 2020

It would be an understatement to say 2020 was a lot. To get a break from the unrelenting reality, some of us turned to social media for a brain vacation.

After all, it’s a proven way of coping: we needed to occupy ourselves with people who are prettier and richer than us and squabbling over petty affairs, who prove time and time again they are unable to read the room.

In 2020, there was plenty of influencer drama. They came, they saw the coronavirus and fled, and they became canvases on which we projected our year's greatest anxieties and frustrations.

From TikTok houses cheating on one another, to the Call Her Daddy fallout to the Tati Westbrook/Shane Dawson incident, Tanya Chen recounts the highlights.

CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES

This college sent grads individual bags of confetti and it really captured the funny/sad energy of 2020

It’s fall graduation season, and Elliott Kunerth just graduated from Minnesota State University with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. Exciting, right?

Well, to celebrate in style, the school sent Kunerth a package of goodies, including an individual bag of confetti.

Kunerth posted a TikTok of this special/sad gift that perfectly captures how we’re all feeling in 2020. The TikTok is a work of art, and it’s no surprise it immediately went viral.

Elliott Kunerth/TikTok

Carve out a part of your morning to ground yourself in gratitude,

Elamin