The Duchess of Sussex has revealed she had a miscarriage in July, writing in an article of feeling “an almost unbearable grief”. “I knew, as I clutched my firstborn child, that I was losing my second,” Meghan said in a piece for the New York Times. She went on to describe how she watched “my husband’s heart break as he tried to hold the shattered pieces of mine”. Meghan wrote that “loss and pain have plagued every one of us in 2020”. The 39-year-old shared her experience to urge people to “commit to asking others, ‘are you OK?'” over the Thanksgiving holiday in the US. A source close to the duchess confirmed to the BBC that the duchess is currently in good health and the couple wanted to talk about what happened in July, having come to appreciate how common miscarriage is.

A prominent ally of Donald Trump has urged him to drop his efforts to overturn his loss to Joe Biden in the US presidential election. Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie called the president’s legal team a “national embarrassment”. President Trump has refused to concede the election, making unsubstantiated claims of widespread electoral fraud. Many Republicans have supported his legal efforts, although a small but growing number have broken ranks. Voting in the US election ended on 3 November. Mr Biden is projected to beat President Trump by 306 votes to 232 in the US electoral college when it meets to formally confirm the winner on 14 December. This is far above the 270 votes he needs.(BBC)…[+]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secretly flew to Saudi Arabia on Sunday to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Israeli media report. Flight-tracking data showed a business jet previously used by Mr Netanyahu travelled to the Red Sea city of Neom. There was no official confirmation, but an Israeli minister said he had been told about it by the foreign ministry. It would be the first known meeting between leaders of the historical foes, whom the US wants to normalise ties. President Donald Trump has recently brokered deals establishing diplomatic relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan.(BBC)…[+]

The global response to the Covid-19 crisis has had little impact on the continued rise in atmospheric concentrations of CO2, says the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). This year carbon emissions have fallen dramatically due to lockdowns that have cut transport and industry severely. But this has only marginally slowed the overall rise in concentrations, the scientists say. The details are published in the WMO’s annual greenhouse gas bulletin. This highlights the concentrations of warming gases in the atmosphere.

The US has declared as anti-Semitic a prominent international movement which calls for a complete boycott of Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) was “a cancer”, adding the US would stop funding groups linked to it.  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the move “wonderful”. BDS however rejected the charge, saying it opposed “all forms of racism, including anti-Jewish racism“. “The BDS movement for Palestinian freedom, justice and equality, stands with all those struggling for a more dignified, just and beautiful world,” it said. “With our many partners, we shall resist these McCarthyite attempts to intimidate and bully Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights defenders into accepting Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism as fate.“(BBC)…[+]

French President Emmanuel Macron has asked Muslim leaders to accept a “charter of republican values” as part of a broad clampdown on radical Islam. On Wednesday he gave the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) a 15-day ultimatum to accept the charter. The CFCM has agreed to create a National Council of Imams, which will reportedly issue imams with official accreditation which could be withdrawn. It follows three suspected Islamist attacks in little more than a month. The charter will state that Islam is a religion and not a political movement, while also prohibiting “foreign interference” in Muslim groups. Mr Macron has strongly defended French secularism in the wake of the attacks, which included the beheading of a teacher who showed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a class discussion last month.(BBC)…[+]

The EU and UK chief negotiators have stepped back from post-Brexit trade talks after a member of the EU team tested positive for Covid-19. The EU’s Michel Barnier said his UK counterpart Lord David Frost had agreed to suspend negotiations between them for a “short period”. Mr Barnier added their teams would continue discussions in “full respect” of safety guidelines. They are locked in talks as the clock counts down to a December deadline. Both sides are seeking an agreement to govern their trading relationship once the UK’s post-Brexit transition period ends in January 2021. Fishing rights, competition rules and how any deal would be enforced remain key areas of disagreement.

A federal judge in New York has granted the US government’s request to dismiss the charges against a Mexican ex-minister accused of drug trafficking. Gen Salvador Cienfuegos, who was Mexico’s defence secretary from 2012 to 2018, was arrested at Los Angeles airport last month. Prosecutors said he had links to the “extremely violent” H-2 drug cartel. But the US Department of Justice said it would seek to dismiss the charges so he could be investigated in Mexico. In a hearing on Wednesday – held just hours after the unexpected news of the Department of Justice’s request to dismiss the charges – Judge Carol Bagley Amon granted the request. “Although these are very serious charges against a very significant figure, and the old adage ‘a bird in the hand’ comes to mind, I have no reason to doubt the sincerity of the government’s decision,” the judge said at the hearing.(BBC)…[+]

Chris Krebs knew his mission this year was to protect the integrity of the US election – but he might not have predicted the way that would cost him his job. For well over a year, Mr Krebs and his cyber-security team had been gaming scenarios about what could go wrong. At one point, he said his greatest fear was that voter registration databases might be interfered with to stop people voting.

He also talked about the concern that on election night, media organisations might be hacked to prevent people knowing the results and create confusion. The experience of Russian hacking and interference in 2016 had led the whole US national security community to prepare for a re-run in 2020. But in the end that was a threat that never materialised. Perhaps that was because of the defensive work by Mr Krebs and colleagues or perhaps because of the way the National Security Agency went on the offensive against hackers in Russia and elsewhere to deter and stop them.(BBC)…[+]

The US had just over nine million Covid-19 cases when November began – now, just weeks later, the country is topping 11 million. And one west Texas county has emerged as the latest American epicentre. Right on the border with Mexico, El Paso in Texas is known for its desert landscape, military complexes and plentiful sunshine. Now, it’s making a name as one of the worst hit regions in the nation. Covid-19 patients account for more than half of all hospital admissions in the county of El Paso, and the case count continues to trend upwards. Here are five symptoms of the unfolding crisis.