Weekly Review

After winning the state of Pennsylvania, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was declared the president-elect of the United States.¹ “Who was it called by? All the—oh my goodness! All the networks? Wow! All the networks! We have to forget about the law,” said Rudy Giuliani at a press conference held in the parking lot of Four Seasons Total Landscaping in Philadelphia.² Incumbent president Donald Trump won the highest share of black, Latino, and Asian-American votes for a Republican president since 1960, and states that expanded mail-in and early voting, such as Texas, Montana, and Vermont, increased participation by 9 to 10 percent.^{3 4 5} “We can’t let that happen to our country. We can’t be disgraced by having something like this happen,” said Trump, who has refused to concede, during a speech in which he criticized mail-in ballots and accused Democrats of orchestrating widespread fraud.⁶ “Ultimately I have a feeling judges are going to have to rule. But there’s been a lot of shenanigans, and we can’t stand for that in our country.” Trump’s campaign filed eleven lawsuits, eight of which have been dismissed. George W. Bush, who was declared the winner of the 2000 presidential election following a decision by the Supreme Court, congratulated Biden on his victory.^{7 8 9} “The American people can have confidence that this election was fundamentally fair, its integrity will be upheld, and its outcome is clear,” Bush said. A Missouri election judge supervisor died after testing positive for COVID-19 and working at the polls on Election Day, and retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson, Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, and other guests of an Election Day watch party at the White House tested positive for COVID-19.^{10 11}

John Magufuli, a devout Catholic whose nickname is “the Bulldozer,” was sworn in as president of Tanzania following a disputed vote and the arrest of opposition party leaders.^{12 13 14} Ivorian president Alassane Ouattara won a third term in office, despite the country’s two-term limit, with 94 percent of the vote; he told reporters that he would probably not seek reelection in 2025.^{15 16} Bobi Wine, a singer and presidential candidate who is challenging Yoweri Museveni’s three-decade-rule in Uganda, was taken into custody for “holding illegal processions.”¹⁷ A bill was proposed in Russian parliament that would give ex-presidents lifetime immunity, expanding protections that already prevent them from being held accountable for crimes they may have committed while in office.¹⁸ Hashim Thaçi resigned as president of Kosovo and was sent to The Hague to be tried for war crimes, and the Ethiopian prime minister and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Abiy Ahmed announced air strikes on the Tigray region of Ethiopia following months of ethnic violence.^{19 20 21} Israel razed a Bedouin village in the West Bank and displaced 78 people.²² Saudi Arabia, which has normalized relations with Israel under Trump, announced reforms to its kafala system, which requires migrant guest workers to be sponsored by citizens, and said that the kingdom will host a Formula One Grand Prix race next year.^{23 24} NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission found that the asteroid known as Bennu might be hollow.²⁵

An Australian mining company changed its name to Bravus, a Latin word that means “crooked,” “deformed,” or “assassin,” not “brave” as they had believed.²⁶ Three people were banned from Yellowstone National Park for two years after attempting to cook two chickens in the hot springs.²⁷ In anticipation of a surplus, the Indian Sugar Mills Association began a campaign to get Indians to eat more sugar.²⁸ West Point agreed to make smaller combat uniforms for female cadets.²⁹ New Zealand voted against legalizing marijuana and New Jersey voted to legalize cannabis for recreational use.^{30 31} In Vermont, where recreational marijuana is legal but retailers are not scheduled to open until 2022, Dirty Jobs host Mike Rowe received more write-in votes for president than Hillary Clinton.^{32 33} “This is a very emotional time,” Rick Santorum said of Trump and his supporters’ refusal to accept the results of the U.S. election. “Give people space to work through this.”³⁴ “I don’t even know if I want to be in politics,” said Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “You know, for real.”³⁵—Violet Lucca