November 3 – North America: UNITED STATES
Elections
The United States is holding elections for the office of the president, 35 of the 100 Senate seats, and all 435 seats in the House of Representatives. Voters also pick governors in 13 states, as well as state, local, tribal and judicial officials. In the presidential election, Democratic former Vice President Joe Biden defeats the incumbent, Republican Donald Trump, with 306 electoral votes against 232 (270 needed to win). While the states of Florida, Ohio, and North Caroline go for Trump, Biden flips several Republican states such as Georgia and Arizona that last voted Democratic for President in 1996. He also wins the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania that Trump won four years ago.[1] More votes are cast in this election than in any U.S. election in history, with former Vice President Biden earning over 80 million votes (about 7 million more votes than President Trump). Also, the turnout rate of 66.5 percent is the highest in more than a century.[2]
Presidential election results in maps
What is the Electoral College and how does it work?
In the congressional elections, Democrats lose seats in the House of Representatives, but retain their majority. Control of the Senate will be decided on January 5th, as both of Georgia’s seats will be contested in run-off elections.[3]
Senate and House elections results in maps
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, this election saw unprecedented levels of voting by mail and early voting. After Biden’s win, President Trump refuses to concede, stalling the transfer of power, making baseless accusations of fraud and challenging the results in multiple legal suits in courts, including the U.S Supreme Court, to invalidate the votes in the swing states.[4] He is directly contradicted by election officials, who issue a statement declaring that the election “was the most secure in American history” and that “there is no evidence” any voting systems were compromised.[5]
Supreme Court Dismisses Texas Lawsuit To Overturn Election Results
More on President Trump’s legal challenges
November 9 – Global / North America / Europe / Latin America
UNITED STATES / UNITED KINGDOM / GERMANY / RUSSIA / MEXICO
Global Health: Coronavirus, or Covid-19
The number of coronavirus cases around the world reaches 50 million, with the U.S. at the top of the list with accounting to 20 percent of all cases.[6]
Tracking the global coronavirus outbreak
(Nov 9): To slow down alarming surge of the virus without shutting down the economy, many U.S. state governors strongly urge the public to wear masks, while implementing other precautions. Utah governor announces statewide mask mandate and limits social gatherings to only within households for two weeks. He also shuts down all extracurricular school activities. Utah has been reporting more than 2,000 new coronavirus cases a day over the last week with hospitals rapidly running out of beds. New Jersey orders restaurants and nightclubs to close at 10 p.m. Similar measures are introduced in Alaska, Denver, Colorado, and other states.[7] According to a new study, between March and May, restaurants, gyms and other crowded indoor venues accounted for 80 percent of new infections in the U.S.
Limiting Indoor Capacity Can Reduce Coronavirus Infections
(Nov 16): With a total of one million coronavirus cases and almost 100,000 deaths (the world’s fourth-highest toll after the United States, Brazil and India), Mexico City is closing all bars and clubs for two weeks. Mexico, along with other Latin American countries, has the highest number of coronavirus deaths per capita. The government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has been criticized over his pandemic response.[8]
(Nov 18): Two American and German companies, Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, develop coronavirus vaccines that are 95 percent effective and have no serious side effects. After receiving emergency approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the companies will be ready to deliver up to 50 million doses by the end of the year, and up to 1.3 billion by the end of next year. The vaccine has been developed in a record time, less than a year, a process that usually takes years.[9]
The University of Oxford in the United Kingdom also developed the coronavirus vaccine, which shows for now to be 70 percent effective. AstraZeneca Company pledges to make three billion doses for the world next year.[x]
Russia’s Covid-19 vaccine named Sputnik V was registered for emergency use in August, although it had only been tested on a few dozen people. The vaccine is now offered for general public despite being in the midst of trials to check that it’s safe and actually works.[11]
How the vaccine was developed in record time
More on Covid-19 vaccines and how they work
More on Russia’s Covid-19 vaccine
(Nov 27): The U.S. reaches 13 million diagnosed cases of Covid-19, with 4 million just this month, more than doubling the previous record of 1.9 million cases set in October. U.S. hospitals are at a breaking point with severe staffing and bed shortages. More than 264,000 people in the U.S. have died of the disease.[12] Public health experts warn that the virus will continue to surge during cold weather months, when people spend more time indoors and around people outside their immediate circles during the holidays.
Virus Deaths Approach Spring Record Amid Changing U.S. Crisis
Covid-19 in a small town
The Pandemic’s Dangerous New Chapter
November 9 – Europe: ARMENIA / AZERBAIJAN
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
The President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan sign the Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire agreement, an armistice brokered by Russia that ends 44 days of fighting over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Several previous ceasefires, including one mediated by the United States, have failed. Fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh erupted on September 27 with both sides accusing each other of firing first shots. Several thousand people have died on both sides. Tens of thousands have fled their homes.[13] According to the ceasefire deal, Azerbaijan will hold on to several areas that it gained control of during the conflict and Armenia will withdraw troops from them. About 2,000 Russian peacekeepers will monitor the truce.
Background
Nagorno-Karabakh is recognized internationally as part of Azerbaijan, but is inhabited mostly by ethnic Armenians and under control of Armenian separatists. The conflict goes back to 1988 when both countries were still part of the Soviet Union. The Karabakh Armenians demanded that the region be transferred from Soviet Azerbaijan to Soviet Armenia. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the conflict escalated into a full-scale war in the early 1990s.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict explained
November 10 – Middle East / Africa / North America:
ISRAEL / MOROCCO / UNITED STATES
Morocco and Israel relations
According to a deal brokered by the United States, Morocco agrees to normalize relations with Israel, making it the fourth state to agree to a deal with Israel in recent months. The other three countries are United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan. Morocco agrees to resume diplomatic relations with Israel and expand mutual economic and cultural cooperation. In exchange, the United States will recognize Morocco’s claim over the Western Sahara region and open a consulate there. While renewing its relations with Israel, Morocco promises to continue its support for the Palestinian cause, including a two-state solution.[14]
Western Sahara profil
November 11 – East Asia: CHINA / HONG KONG
Four pro-democracy legislatures are dismissed from the city’s parliament after China had passed a new resolution. The new law allows the Hong Kong government to immediately disqualify politicians who support the city’s independence, refuse to recognize the country’s sovereignty over the city, seek out foreign or external forces to interfere with domestic affairs, or engage in acts that endanger national security. In solidarity, all of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy lawmakers resign. The city’s pro-democracy legislators had 19 seats in the 70-seat legislature.[15]
Background on the pro-democracy struggle in Hong Kong
November 12 – Africa / Europe
Migrant Crisis
A motorized rubber raft carrying 120 migrants from the coast of Libya to Europe, the world’s deadliest passage on the Mediterranean Sea, capsizes drowning at least 74 people. The Libyan Coast Guard and fishermen rescue the remaining migrants. Most of these migrants were from Nigeria, Gambia and Burkina Faso. At least 900 migrants drowned in the Mediterranean while trying to reach Europe this year.
Libya is home to about 700,000 to one million migrants, mainly from Egypt, Niger, Sudan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Syria and Mali who came to Libya to work but have been forced to slave work, experience harassment, torture, and trafficking.[16]
More about who the migrants are
How the migrant crisis looks five years on