Biden wins Georgia recount

Election officials in the US state of Georgia have completed their hand recount of US presidential election ballots and confirmed that Joe Biden won the vote. Donald Trump, however, picked up 1,400 additional votes (out of 5m cast). Georgia’s secretary of state said the poll had been conducted fairly. Sources: Bloomberg, DW, New York Times, NPR and Reuters.

Coronavirus vaccine updates

Encouraging results: Astrazeneca and Oxford University’s covid-19 vaccine candidate was found to be safe and triggered a strong immune response in older adults in phase two trials, per CNBC, Financial Times and Reuters. December target date: Pfizer/Biontech and Moderna are expected to file for emergency authorisation for their vaccine candidates in the coming days, after successful phase three trials, and they could be available before Christmas, per AFP, CNBC and Reuters. Large-scale trial: 1m Chinese have been jabbed with Sinopharm’s vaccine, which has emergency authorisation there, with the firm saying there have been no adverse reactions so far, per The Guardian, Reuters and South China Morning Post.

WHO advises against remdesivir

A World Health Organization panel told doctors to stop giving remdesivir to treat hospitalised covid-19 patients, as “there is currently no evidence that it improves survival or the need for ventilation”. Sources: AFP, CNBC, Financial Times and Seeking Alpha.

CDC advises against Thanksgiving travel

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has told Americans they should not travel for family get-togethers during Thanksgiving (a holiday more important than Christmas for many American families). Sources: BBC, CNN, Financial Times and NPR.

Latest Luxembourg coronavirus update

Out of 11,021 PCR tests conducted on Wednesday, 670 Luxembourg residents were positive for the coronavirus. That is a rate of 107.01 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants (compared to 142.31 on Tuesday and 67.88 on Monday). The Rt effective reproduction rate was 1.03, just above the target benchmark of 1.00 (compared to 0.95 on Tuesday and 0.98 on Monday). There were 221 patients in hospital (compared to 247 on Tuesday and 236 on Monday), including 44 in intensive care (down from 48 on Tuesday and Monday). 6 people died due to covid-19, bringing the total to 254. Source: Health ministry.

HIV rate stable in 2019

The spread of HIV infections among drug users has been halted in Luxembourg. Source: Delano.

Furlough changes in 2021

Luxembourg’s government said the short-time working scheme would reimburse wages based on the number of hours worked by staff, starting on 1 January. Source: Delano.

MPs approve military satellite spending

Parliament approved an additional €139m (on top of the original €170m budgeted) for the military observation satellite Luxeosys. Source: Chamber of Deputies.

Explosive ATM heist

A cash machine was blown out of a bank wall in Wormeldange. Police asked any potential witnesses to contact them by phoning 113. Source: Grand Ducal Police.

Tram extension will cut bus traffic

The opening of the Luxtram line to the central train station on 13 December means “a total of 1,700 buses will no longer pass through the city centre,” said the Green party transport minister François Bausch. Sources: Delano and Paperjam.

Kirchberg hospital extension gest first OK

The government has agreed in principle to fund a €148.5m enlargement of the Robert Schuman hospital group’s site in Kirchberg. Source: Health ministry/Fondation des Hôpitaux Robert Schuman.

EU top court rules in favour of hemp extract

The European Court of Justice, in Kirchberg, ruled that the cannabis-derived compound CBD is not a narcotic, pushing back on a French marketing ban. Sources: Courthouse News Service, The Guardian and Politico.

British royal reportedly linked with Kirchberg-based private bank

Britain’s Prince Andrew “acted as an unofficial door opener for David Rowland and his private bank in Luxembourg, Banque Havilland SA,” including with clients “most other financial institutions would shun”, according to allegations published by Bloomberg Businessweek. A bank spokesman told Bloomberg Businessweek that none of its clients came through Prince Andrew, he was never “a paid advisor or ambassador” and “compliance with legal and regulatory requirements are the foremost priority”.

ECA report says EC antitrust inquiries are too slow

The European Court of Auditors, in Kirchberg, said the European Commission had fallen short in its role as the EU competition authority. Sources: AP, CityAM, Euractiv and Financial Times.

Brexit talks suspended

EU and UK negotiators paused Brexit talks “for a short period” after an EU official tested positive for the coronavirus. Sources: BBC, Euractiv, The Guardian and Politico.

Buzzfeed buys Huffpost

In the latest round of digital media consolidation, Buzzfeed said it would take over Huffpost in a non-cash deal with Huffpost’s owner, Verizon Media. Sources: BBC, Financial Times, The Guardian and Wall Street Journal.

Thyssenkrupp slashes workforce

The German industrial group Thyssenkrupp said it was cutting 5,000 jobs (on top 6,000 redundancies previously announced) after announcing it had burned through €5.5bn in cash in its 2019-2020 fiscal year. Sources: Bloomberg, Financial Times, Seeking Alpha and the Telegraph.

Here are 5 science & technology stories you may have missed

Archaeology: Researchers found an image of a cat etched, between 200BC and 100BC, into a desert hillside in Peru, per The Guardian. Artificial intelligence: 31 researchers have pushed back on the publication on machine learning papers in academic journals, sparked by a recent Google breast cancer paper, calling them unreproducible and simply an “advertisement for cool technology,” per MIT Technology Review. Computer security: “DDoS attacks” which block access to website and digital services “have become cheaper and easier to carry out is because of the proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices,” per ZDnet. Nature: Researchers have found a coral reef off northern Australia that is more than 500m high, taller than both the Empire State Building and the Shanghai World Financial Center, per Science magazine. Physics: Popular Science explained why space seems black at night. 

1980s Glasgow-set story wins Booker

The Scottish-American author Douglas Stuart won the Booker Prize for his debut novel “Shuggie Bain”. Sources: BBC, Financial Times, The Guardian and New York Times.

British diplomat saves student

Stephen Ellison, the UK’s consul general in Chongqing, has been praised by many in China as a hero after he jumped into a river to save a drowning 24-year-old woman last weekend. Source: AFP, BBC and Independent.

Shattering glass furniture

I didn’t realize this was a thing until I saw a Facebook post this week, but sometimes tempered glass table tops and shower doors spontaneously explode. Reports: CBS New York (from August 2018), CTV News Vancouver (September 2017), Daily Mail (November 2019), Liverpool Echo (April 2018), Metro UK (November 2017) and Straits Times (January 2020).

Today’s breakfast briefing was written by Aaron Grunwald