Christmas celebrations are in jeopardy if Canadians don't stop gathering with friends and family now https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/13/world/canada-covid-thanksgiving-surge-trnd/index.html

The new coronavirus was circulating in Italy since September 2019, a study by the National Cancer Institute (INT) of the Italian city of Milan shows, signaling that COVID-19 might have spread beyond China earlier than previously thought. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-italy-timing-idUSKBN27V0KF

Sixty-three million people voted for Donald Trump in 2016. Seventy-one million voted for him in 2020, more than any candidate besides the one who beat him, and all that after four years where the worst predictions about Trump’s presidency came to pass.
Ignorance and immorality simply cannot account for 71 million votes. https://thecorrespondent.com/790/not-every-trump-voter-is-racist-or-misled-theres-a-rational-trump-voter-too/104587469580-70c2eef0

"No One Is Listening to Us" More people than ever are hospitalized with COVID-19. Health-care workers can’t go on like this. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/11/third-surge-breaking-healthcare-workers/617091/

US president had asked what ‘options were available’ to take action against Iran’s key nuclear site, says the New York Times. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/11/17/trump-considered-attacking-iran-nuclear-site-nyt-report

Trump Sought Options for Attacking Iran to Stop Its Growing Nuclear Program
The president was dissuaded from moving ahead with a strike by advisers who warned that it could escalate into a broader conflict in his last weeks in office https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/16/us/politics/trump-iran-nuclear.html

Reporters were right not to trust the current US president, because Americans have in fact died at a greater rate than Europeans since March, according to new data provided to The Intercept by Danish researchers who monitor excess mortality in Europe, and a separate analysis of deaths during the pandemic from Oxford University economists published on Tuesday. https://theintercept.com/2020/09/29/excess-mortality-data-shows-trump-lying-covid-deadly-europe/

The drug maker Pfizer said on Wednesday that its coronavirus vaccine was 95 percent effective and had no serious side effects — the first set of complete results from a late-stage vaccine trial as Covid-19 cases skyrocket around the globe. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/18/health/pfizer-covid-vaccine.html

The US is likely in the "last big surge" before a possible Covid-19 vaccine can start to offer help in the coming months, one expert says. But for now, the country is continuing to set grim case and hospitalization records and the pandemic shows no signs of slowing down. https://edition.cnn.com/videos/health/2020/11/17/dr-francis-collins-nih-coronavirus-vaccine-development-pfizer-moderna-tsr-vpx.cnn

All of Georgia's 159 counties are on track to finish a full hand-count audit of the presidential contest by Wednesday's midnight deadline, and while uncounted votes have been found in three counties, the secretary of state's office has continued to refute false claims about the audit and the election, defending the integrity of both. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/refuting-falsehoods-georgia-election-officials-defend-integrity-of-audit-election/ar-BB1b7ZIW?ocid=Peregrine

The coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech appears to protect 94% of adults over 65 years old.
More data released from their continuing phase three trial suggests it works equally well in people of all ages and ethnicities.
The companies say they will now apply for authorisation for emergency use of the jab in the US. https://www.bbc.com/news/health-54986208

The euro was the most used currency for global payments last month, the first time it has outpaced the dollar since February 2013.
Data from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications, which handles cross-border payment messages for more than 11,000 financial institutions in 200 countries, showed the European Union’s single currency and the greenback were followed by the British pound and the Japanese yen. The Canadian dollar overtook China’s yuan for the fifth spot, Swift said. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-19/euro-tops-dollar-as-payments-currency-for-first-time-since-2013?sref=KUEUnb10

Germany was seen as a beacon for other European countries during the first coronavirus wave and hailed for one of the world's best health care systems. But it is now beginning to struggle with more severe infections than at any other point during the pandemic. https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/21/europe/germany-icu-beds-covid-intl/index.html

More than 80 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Minnesota were traced to this summer's Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in neighboring South Dakota, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a new report. https://abcnews.go.com/US/80-covid-19-cases-minnesota-traced-sturgis-rally/story?id=74336914

With Thanksgiving canceled, doctors quitting their practices and grocers limiting purchase quantities (again), Americans have the ambient sense that our safety net is unraveling. Not only are things not returning to normal, they may not return to normal for a long time. https://www.axios.com/season-covid-uncertainty-7558f740-88f8-4934-8686-2e799811a36d.html

A COVID-19 antibody therapy used to treat President Donald Trump was approved by the US drug regulator on Saturday for people who aren't yet hospitalized by the disease but are at high risk.
The green light for drugmaker Regeneron came after REGEN-COV2, a combination of two lab-made antibodies, was shown to reduce COVID-19-related hospitalizations or emergency room visits in patients with underlying conditions. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-11-regeneron-antibody-treatment-trump.html

The African crested rat (Lophiomys imhausi) is hardly the continent's most fearsome-looking creature—the rabbit-sized rodent resembles a gray puffball crossed with a skunk—yet its fur is packed with a poison so lethal it can fell an elephant and just a few milligrams can kill a human. https://phys.org/news/2020-11-secret-social-giant-poisonous-rats.html

Bill Gates warns that we’ll likely see 2,000 COVID-19 deaths a day before vaccinations are widespread. https://youtu.be/4QGOAgtyVXo

“I went to my nephew’s house and loved seeing my family, but now, I’m fighting against covid-19,” Aragonez said in a video message. “Please protect yourself. It’s real.”
Aragonez is one of 15 family members who contracted the coronavirus after a small indoor birthday celebration earlier this month where no one wore masks. Weeks later, in an emotional video shared by the city of Arlington, the family is begging others to avoid gathering with anyone outside their immediate household. https://twitter.com/CityOfArlington/status/1329578026607243265

July 30, 1966 was meant to be one of England's finest moments: the day it won the World Cup. But with five members of the starting XI that day having suffered dementia, new questions arise over brain injury in football. https://edition.cnn.com/videos/sports/2020/11/09/dementia-brain-injury-disease-football-england-1966-spt-intl-lon-orig.cnn