Women have long been the leaders in Navajo culture. Now they’re steering the fight against Covid

Ever since coronavirus arrived on the Navajo Nation, women in this matriarchal society have put themselves at risk, taking on more responsibilities, culturally and in everyday life

Sitting in the passenger seat of her husband’s pickup truck just before dusk, Eugenia Charles-Newton watched a young Navajo girl, her niece, at a traditional kinaaldá ceremony in Shiprock, New Mexico.

The coming-of-age ceremony was unlike any other kinaaldá she’d seen. Scores of family members were missing and there was only a small cake, just enough to feed the immediate family. That morning, the girl’s female relatives hadn’t gathered to sing and tell stories as they mixed the cake batter. When the girl ran toward the east before the sun rose, she didn’t have throngs of relatives running behind her to fill the dawn air with happy screams and shouts, celebrating her transition into womanhood. Only the young woman’s brothers ran after her.

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Dr Fauci allays Covid vaccine development speed concerns, reiterates public health measures – video

Dr Anthony Fauci speaks at the coronavirus task force press briefing, marking his first appearance at the White House podium in months. The infectious disease expert has moved to allay concerns about the speed with which the coronavirus vaccine has been developed, and implored Americans to continue basic public health measures until it is rolled out

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China says Five Eyes alliance will be ‘poked and blinded’ over Hong Kong stance

Foreign ministry rejects calls by western security grouping to reinstate ousted pro-democracy lawmakers

China has rejected criticism by the Five Eyes alliance of its Hong Kong policy, saying it “should face up to the reality” that the former British colony has been returned to China.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian was responding to a statement on Hong Kong issued by the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, which together make up an intelligence partnership known as the Five Eyes.

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Cut off for nine months, Pacific atoll conservationists emerge to Covid pandemic

Isolated from the rest of the planet since February, group learned about virus sweeping the globe but have escaped its impact – until now

In February, just as the coronavirus pandemic began to take hold, four people set sail for one of the most remote places on Earth — a small camp on Kure Atoll, at the edge of the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

There, more than 2,200km from Honolulu, they lived in isolation for nearly nine months while working to restore the island’s environment.

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US to shut down famed huge Arecibo space telescope in Puerto Rico jungle

The observatory has played a key part in space exploration – and a few movies – but two accidents have rendered the 305m-wide instrument unsafe

A huge US space telescope nestled deep in the Puerto Rican jungle will be shut down after suffering two destructive mishaps in recent months, ending 57 years of astronomical discoveries.

Operations at the Arecibo observatory, one of the largest in the world, were halted in August when one of its supportive cables slipped loose from its socket, falling and gashing a 30-metre (100ft) hole in its 305m-wide (1,000ft) reflector dish.

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California enacts coronavirus curfew for majority of state’s 40m residents

Governor Gavin Newsom announced the stay-at-home order for all non-essential work and gatherings from 10pm to 5 am

California is imposing a curfew affecting nearly all of its 40 million residents beginning this weekend, as the state tries to control a surge in coronavirus cases.

The state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, announced what officials are describing as a limited stay-at-home order on Thursday, saying that all nonessential work and gathering must stop from 10pm to 5am. The order will apply to the 41 counties currently in the most restrictive tier of reopening rules, which accounts for 94% of the state’s 40 million residents.

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Rudy Giuliani baselessly links new election fraud claims to ‘communist money’ from Venezuela – video

President Donald Trump's election legal team holds a press conference to spout a number of conspiracy theories and baseless claims of voter fraud that they falsely claim changed the results of the 2020 election. Rudy Giuliani and other Trump lawyers repeatedly accuse the media of disregarding their claims and argue a debunked conspiracy theory that Venezuela could have hacked election results through machines used by local authorities 

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Sweaty Rudy Giuliani suffers hair malfunction in latest bizarre press conference

Trump’s personal lawyer was trying to drum up interest in tales of election rigging – but viewers were drawn to the drama on his head

On 7 November, the day the presidential election was called for Joe Biden, former New York mayor turned Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani addressed the media at a landscaping company between a sex shop and a crematorium on Philadelphia’s industrial fringe.

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Trump administration in ‘staggering’ isolation at UN on health issues

US left with few allies as it tries to change wording on topic of reproductive healthcare

The outgoing Trump administration’s final days at the United Nations have resulted in a deepening of US isolation on social and health issues, with only a handful of allies including Russia, Belarus and Syria.

In one vote this week, the US was entirely alone in backing its own amendment to a seemingly uncontroversial resolution about efforts to treat medical complications from childbirth. It called for the removal of references to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Population Fund.

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Biden nears record 80m votes as Trump persists in trying to overturn result

Rising Biden tally and his popular vote lead overshadowed by Trump escalating his false insistence that he actually won

Joe Biden is approaching a record 80m votes, with ballots still being counted and having already recorded the highest number of votes for a US presidential election winner, as Donald Trump persisted on Thursday in denying the result and trying to overturn it.

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Mike Pompeo makes unprecedented visit to Israeli settlement

Trump’s top diplomat becomes first US secretary of state to officially visit a settlement

Israel’s military occupation has received a symbolic US stamp of approval after Mike Pompeo toured an archaeological dig run by a far-right settler group and visited a settlement that farms grapes on land Palestinians say was stolen from them.

The trips on Wednesday and Thursday marked the first time a US secretary of state had officially visited settlements, a deeply provocative move that previous American administrations went to lengths to avoid.

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Trump rails against election defeat as US Covid deaths top 250,000 – live

Former official in the George W. Bush administration Matt Becker has a blunt message for General Services Administration (GSA) Administrator Emily Murphy today. She’s the person who has so far failed to sign the documents to begin the official transition process to a Biden-Harris administration. Becker writes this morning:

When you serve in the executive branch, you are required to take an oath of office on your first day. Your oath is not to the president of the United States but to the Constitution and the American people. When Emily accepted this leadership role, she also accepted the responsibility to make the tough choices. This is one of those times.

Make no mistake, I absolutely want the Trump campaign to expose fraud, if it is there. As a father, small business owner and lifelong Republican, I do not want a Joe Biden presidency. I simply do not agree with Joe Biden on how to move America forward. But, as an American, I know elections have consequences and my support of our Constitution outweighs my distress at who will be in the Oval Office.

New claims for unemployment benefits in the US rose to 742,000 last week. It is the first increase since early October, as a surge in coronavirus cases keeps a tight check on the US economic recovery.

More than 21 million Americans are currently claiming some form of unemployment insurance.

Even with news of two promising vaccines, the consumer spending that powers the nation’s economic growth could shrivel amid extended business closures.

While the holiday season traditionally brings enormous sales volume for retailers, restaurants, and movie theaters, many are facing a challenging season. Travel is at a near-standstill, consumers’ wallets are already tightly squeezed, and extended pandemic unemployment assistance is set to expire by the end of December.

The economic pain from the coronavirus pandemic continues. The U.S. Department of Labor just reported that another 742,000 unemployed Americans filed for first-time unemployment benefits just last week. Meanwhile, there’s still no badly needed Covid-19 economic stimulus package.

Red flag: 4.4 million Americans are receiving "Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation," up from 1.4 million in August.

That's the program for people who have been unemployed for months and exhausted their regular UI.

**It will end on Dec. 26 if Congress does not act** pic.twitter.com/tzDRIbW2tE

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Coronavirus live news: Russia exceeds 2m cases; Danish mink Covid mutation ‘most likely extinct’

Russia passes landmark number as 23,610 new cases reported; Denmark says no further cases of mutation since mid-September

The UK will be urged to reconsider its opposition to waiving intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines and treatments at a World Trade Organization meeting on Friday, a move that would allow mass production of treatments and inoculations against the disease and could significantly shorten the length of the pandemic, campaigners say.

India and South Africa have proposed that WTO member states be allowed to waive patents and other intellectual property (IP) rights on any treatments and tools related to Covid-19 until the end of the pandemic, including for the Moderna and Pfizer/BionNTech vaccines that are set to be approved for use in the coming weeks.

Related: UK faces calls to drop opposition to patent-free Covid vaccines

More mink mutation news: a number of cases of Covid-19 have been found in people who work in the mink industry in Sweden.

In a statement the Swedish Public Health Agency said it and “the Swedish Veterinary Institute, the Swedish Board of Agriculture and local infection control units are jointly investigating whether there is any connection between the cases and their contact with minks.”

Flera myndigheter utreder fall av covid-19 inom minknäringen. https://t.co/TRDin3ZZHG

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Bobby Brown Jr found dead in Los Angeles home at age 28

Police pronounced son of singer Bobby Brown dead at the scene but provided no additional details

Bobby Brown Jr, the son of singer Bobby Brown, was found dead at a Los Angeles home late Wednesday. He was 28.

Los Angeles Police spokesman Jeff Lee said officers were responding to a medical emergency when they found Brown Jr’s body around 1pm at a home in Encino, the Los Angeles Times reported.

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‘Integrity still matters’: the unlikely Republican standing up to Trump’s voter fraud lies

The Georgia secretary of state tells the Guardian he’s received death threats for pushing back against the president’s claims

Of all the Republicans to push back on Donald Trump’s baseless claims about voter fraud, Brad Raffensperger, the mild-mannered top election official in Georgia, did not seem like a likely candidate.

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Senior Biden adviser set for key role has ties to oil and gas, climate activists warn

Climate advocates urge Louisiana congressman Cedric Richmond to leverage his new position to help bring attention to their plight

As Louisiana congressman Cedric Richmond takes a senior role in the incoming Biden administration, climate advocates and leaders in the fight against toxic air pollution in his district have warned of his history of poor engagement with vulnerable communities and his ties to the oil and gas industry.

But they also have urged him to leverage his new position to help direct attention to their plight.

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Joe Biden’s win was a ‘sigh of relief’ for LGBTQ+ people. Now activists want stronger protections

The new administration has promised to undo Trump’s discriminatory policies, but advocates want to see bold support for queer and trans rights

Joe Biden has promised to undo years of anti-LGBTQ+ policies by Donald Trump’s administration, but advocates and civil rights leaders are urging the president-elect to go further in expanding protections and opportunities for queer and transgender people.

In its four years in office, the Trump administration systematically attacked the fundamental rights of LGBTQ+ people, stripping away safeguards enacted in the previous administration in education, immigration, healthcare, housing and criminal justice.

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Will Trump’s major foreign policy legacy be Israel and Palestine?

From ‘peace’ deals to gutting aid, the US president has had a major impact on the region

Donald Trump has cast himself as an isolationist president focused on Americans. However, in one major foreign policy issue, Israel and Palestine, the US leader has possibly made more of an impact than any of his predecessors.

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Naya Rivera drowning: wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of Glee actor’s son

Lawsuit alleges boats lacked safety equipment and that there were no warning signs around California lake where she died in July

A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed over the drowning of Glee actor Naya Rivera, who died in July while boating with her four-year-old son on a lake in California.

The suit was filed on Tuesday against Ventura County and managers of Lake Piru over her accidental death on 8 July at the lake north-west of Los Angeles. It was filed on behalf of her son, Josey Hollis Dorsey, by Ryan Dorsey — Rivera’s ex-husband and the boy’s father and guardian — and also on behalf of her estate.

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