Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s headlines. If you’d like to receive this briefing by email, sign up here.
Top story: president targets CIA and judges on Thanksgiving
As is customary, the US president put in a Thanksgiving phone call to troops deployed overseas on Thursday. But unlike other presidents, Donald Trump soon turned the conversation to himself. “I made a tremendous difference in this country,” he said. “Nobody’s done more for the military than me.”
In recent weeks, Trump has faced criticism for sending troops to the Mexican border as a political stunt, and for attacking William McRaven, who oversaw the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
Trump v intelligence. Talking to reporters at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday, Trump disputed the reported conclusion of the CIA that the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, had ordered Jamal Khashoggi’s murder.
Trump v justice. The president also took to Twitter over the holiday to renew his attack on the ninth circuit court of appeals, despite a rebuke from John Roberts, the supreme court’s chief justice.
Hillary Clinton: media must ‘get smarter’ to tackle Trump
Hillary Clinton has sharply criticised the US media’s coverage of Trump, telling the Guardian that journalists ought to “get smarter” in their reporting of the presidential circus. The former secretary of state told the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, that the press “does not know how to cover these candidates who are setting themselves on fire every day, who are masters of diversion and distraction”.
Ugly spectacle. Clinton also rebuked Republicans, saying the party had “collapsed in the face of Trump” and allowed its base to be enthralled by the president’s “insults and attacks and entertainment and spectacle”.
Battling populism. Wintour spoke to Clinton, Tony Blair and Matteo Renzi for the Guardian’s new populism series, asking how they were beaten by the populist right, and how to fight back.
Black Friday: the darkest date for retail workers
On Black Friday in 2017, 54.9% of all US online transactions were made through Amazon. Cyber Monday last year was the biggest sales day in the company’s history. Good news for Jeff Bezos, but not so good for US retail staff at Amazon and elsewhere, who are working extended hours, often without extra compensation to account for the holiday season, as Michael Sainato reports from Albany.
Logging on. Online sales on Black Friday went up by 18% from 2016 to 2017, while the number of people shopping in retail stores decreased by 4% .
A ‘remarkably inexpensive’ solution to climate change?
Scientists have suggested that an answer to climate change could cost no more than $2bn a year. Solar geoengineering would require new planes with enormous wings to inject sulphate particles into the stratosphere to block the sun, mimicking the cooling effects of major volcanic eruptions. According to a study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, this process could be “remarkably inexpensive”.
A controversial concept. Many environmentalists argue geoengineering could have damaging side-effects, such as drought and crop damage, while diminishing efforts to cut the carbon emissions that cause climate change.
Crib sheet
More than 8,000 Cuban doctors are being pulled out of poor and remote regions of Brazil after the far-right president-elect, Jair Bolsonaro, threatened to cut diplomatic ties with Cuba.
The pilot of the Lion Air plane that crashed in Indonesia last month, killing 189 people, fought to keep the aircraft in the air to the very end, investigators have revealed.
The decision to name Chile’s biggest airport after Pablo Neruda has been criticised by human rights activists, who say the poet does not deserve the honour because he confessed to rape in his memoirs.
A Ukrainian bank is offering a 21% interest rate on savings accounts to customers who can prove they are taking 10,000 steps a day, in an attempt to combat the country’s economic and obesity crises simultaneously.
Listen to Today in Focus: is big pharma ignoring the poor?
Are thousands dying every year from curable diseases, just because the treatments aren’t profitable enough for pharmaceutical giants? The Guardian’s health editor, Sarah Boseley, investigates.
Must-reads
How the world’s leading architects fell for Instagram
Architects are increasingly being encouraged to create photogenic structures and spaces, commissioned partly on the basis of their social media shareability. Oliver Wainwright explains how Instagram became a major force in shaping our built environment.
One man’s 10-year quest to cure the hangover
From boiled cabbage to bungee jumping, Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall has spent a decade in search of a cure for his hangovers. “It’s probably the most common malady,” he tells Adam Gabbatt. “So why can’t we put a little bit of effort into figuring this out?”
Is Mary Poppins really a feminist?
Mary Poppins is returning to the big screen this Christmas, in a reboot starring Emily Blunt. Feminist or not, the magical governess still has plenty to teach us, says Emma Brockes.
Field of dreams: the World Ploughing Championships
One British contender prepared by drinking five pints of beer the night before. America’s greatest hope was a 16-year-old girl who beat her father to qualify. Sophie Elmhirst tells the full story of the 2018 World Ploughing Championships.
Opinion
When the left attacks “elites”, they mean the rich. When rightwing populists do it, they focus on culture: artists, journalists, scientists, city-dwellers, opinion-formers. That’s how men like Trump manage to ally themselves with “ordinary people”, says Gary Younge.
There is a paternalist streak in liberalism that is more comfortable in providing for the poor than listening to and empowering them, which is not only morally wrong but strategically self-defeating.
Sport
Chelsea face Tottenham at Wembley on Saturday, with both teams badly needing a win if they aspire to challenge an imperious Manchester City for the title. That’s one of 10 things to look out for in the Premier League this weekend.
The Rockets are up, the Nuggets back down, and the Warriors are still the team to beat. Or are they? After Thanksgiving but before Christmas: it’s that time in the NBA season for unlikely theories and wild predictions, writes Devin Gordon.
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