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: UN resolution blocked after Saudi lobbying
United Nations diplomats say the US and other security council members have stalled a resolution calling for a halt to the fighting in Yemen, following lobbying by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Britain drafted the resolution, which demanded a ceasefire in the city of Hodeidah and the resumption of humanitarian deliveries through its port.
Crown Prince. A prosecutor in Argentina has agreed to try to prosecute the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, for alleged crimes including his regime’s infliction of mass civilian casualties in Yemen, after the prince arrived in Buenos Aires for the G20 summit.
Mueller: Trump adviser asked Farage ally for WikiLeaks emails
Investigators on Robert Mueller’s Russia inquiry believe an ally of the Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage was asked by Donald Trump’s team to obtain, from WikiLeaks, emails stolen from Trump’s opponents during the 2016 presidential election. The allegations against Ted Malloch, a London-based academic and businessman, emerged in a draft legal document drawn up by the special prosecutor.
No comment. Asked several questions by the Guardian, including whether had acted on the request, Malloch responded by email: “No and no comment.”
Trump pardons? In an interview published on Wednesday, Trump refused to rule out the possibility of pardoning Paul Manafort.
Cervical cancer killing disproportionate numbers in the south
Black women in Alabama are dying of cervical cancer at more than twice the national average, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch. The disease is preventable and curable if detected early, and could be eradicated in some industrialised nations before 2040, yet cervical cancer deaths appear to be on the increase across the American south – a trend the report blames on poverty, structural racism and inadequate health coverage.
Death statistics. On average, cervical cancer kills 2.4 US women out of every 100,000. But it kills black women in Alabama at a rate of 5.2 out of every 100,000. Deaths from the disease went up in the state by 34.5% between 2010 and 2014.
Climate change already a global health emergency
Damaged crops, dengue fever, deadly heatwaves: the health effects of climate change are already being keenly felt around the world. That is the central warning of a report by 150 experts from institutions including the World Health Organisation. The Lancet report found that the lack of political progress on combating carbon emissions threatened “both human lives and the viability of the national health systems they depend on.”
Bad diet. The global food system is broken and unsustainable, leaving billions overweight or underfed, according to yet another major, doom-laden report, which says reduced meat consumption is the single most effective way for individuals to lessen their negative impact on the planet.
Crib Sheet
House Democrats have nominated Nancy Pelosi to be the next speaker by 203 votes to 32, meaning she will most likely take back the gavel when the new Congress begins in January.
Cliven Bundy, the Trump-supporting Nevada rancher and far-right hero, has criticised the president’s anti-immigrant agenda, saying: “I don’t like walls. I think we oughta be able to get along with neighbors.”
With tensions running high between the two countries, officials in Ukraine say Russian vessels have effectively blockaded the Azov Sea ports of Berdyansk and Mariupol.
A leading San Francisco politician has called for Mark Zuckerberg’s name to be taken off a city hospital, following a string of scandals at Facebook.
Listen to Today in Focus: the strange death of John Allen Chau
John Allen Chau was the US missionary killed earlier this month by the isolated tribespeople he sought to convert, on the remote North Sentinel Island in the Andamans. Michael Safi tells Anushka Asthana why Chau’s death has caused an uproar in India.
Must-reads
Why we stopped trusting elites
Technological change and political upheaval has destroyed our traditional faith in the establishment: governments, the media, the professions. That trust is central to the health of representative democracies. William Davies doubts we can ever get it back.
Emantic Bradford’s shooting divides the city of civil rights
Emantic Bradford Jr, a 21-year-old black man, was killed by Alabama police on Thanksgiving after they mistook him for a suspect in a shooting. Khushbu Shah reports from Birmingham, a city synonymous with the fight against racial segregation, where the community is divided once again.
Ocasio-Cortez and Efron top the bill at Sundance 2019
Benjamin Lee studies the line-up for the 2019 Sundance film festival, which was unveiled on Wednesday. The bill features documentaries on figures as varied as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Harvey Weinstein, and dramas including a biopic of the serial killer Ted Bundy, starring Zac Efron.
What happens to your life after you accidentally kill someone
When he was 19, David Peters caused a freak traffic accident in which a woman lost her life. Since then, he has spoken to many more of America’s thousands of accidental killers to learn how they live with their guilt. “There is never a time when I’m not thinking about the accident,” he writes.
Opinion
Trump has suggested that he’s too intelligent to believe the dire warnings of his own administration’s climate report. But he can’t cover up the facts, say scientists Ken Kimmel and Brenda Ekwurzel: the effects of global climate change are already upon us.
When western state residents say that recent wildfires are unlike anything they’ve experienced before, there’s a reason for that. Climate change doubled the area burned by wildfires across the west between 1984 and 2015.
Sport
After three weeks and an unprecedented 12 straight draws, the Norwegian grandmaster Magnus Carlsen has retained his world championship chess title, at last defeating the American Fabiano Caruana in a tiebreak contest.
Jurgen Klopp has expressed frustration at PSG’s tactics after the French team beat his Liverpool side 2-1, leaving their Champions League hopes on life support. Tottenham, meanwhile, must now beat Barcelona to be guaranteed a place in the next stage, following their 1-0 victory over Inter.
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