The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Irinej, died in a Belgrade hospital on Friday after contracting coronavirus, according to a statement from the church. Irinej, who was 90, led an open-casket funeral service for the church's top cleric in Montenegro, Metropolitan Amfilohije Radović, on November 1. Three days later, Irinej was admitted to hospital after testing positive for Covid-19. Amfilohije's body had been displayed in an open casket during the service before being interred in the crypt of the church in Podgorica, Montenegro. A large crowd had gathered in front of the crowded church, with only a few of the attendees inside the building wearing face coverings. Video of the service showed mourners kissing the deceased cleric's hands and forehead, as is custom.

I am seriously doubting that Biden will do anything that is remotely tough on the Kingdom.

The former Deputy Secretary of Veteran Affairs has claimed in an exclusive interview with Newsweek that he was fired for refusing to damage the reputation of a female Navy veteran who alleged she was the victim of a sexual assault in a V.A. facility. Former Deputy Secretary James Byrne is a Marine veteran and former federal prosecutor. He was Senate-confirmed as V.A. general counsel in August 2017 and then nominated by the president the following year for deputy secretary, a position in which he served in an acting capacity until September 2019, when he again was Senate-confirmed just four days before the alleged incident. According to Byrne, Secretary of Veteran Affairs Robert Wilkie embarked on a mission to discredit the female veteran, citing the name of a U.S. congressman to help support his disparaging claims in an attempt to shut down her sexual assault allegations and attack her reputation. Byrne told Newsweek that his refusal to go along with the conspiracy contributed to his eventual ouster from the V.A. and a forced retirement.

Noble bird or nuisance? Gerald the rose garden turkey inspired a debate among Oaklanders about the place of nature in our city.

From her Everest scoop to her journey as a trans woman, the author’s authoritative voice and questioning mind found an eager audience

President-elect Joe Biden has made assembling a diverse team a priority. He also faces pressure from the progressive wing of his party to limit corporate influence on hires for his administration, avoiding candidates from Wall Street or company boardrooms. But narrowing the candidate pool that way won’t help create a more representative administration, some suggest. “Big Business is here to help,” said Ron Parker, the chief executive of the National Association of Securities Professionals. He told DealBook that women and people of color in business have “a unique experience that lends itself to being heard.” This week, the N.A.S.P. and seven other trade groups sent a letter to Mr. Biden urging him to prioritize diversity in top economic policy positions and to “reject demands for a blanket exclusion on potential appointees with experience in the corporate sector or financial services field specifically.”

Shana Blackwell, 19 Position: CAP 2 associate (night stocker), Walmart Started: April 2019 Quit: October 2020 Salary: $11.22 per hour Shana Blackwell quit her job at Walmart via intercom. Maybe you saw the video—she posted it to Twitter in October, and it quickly went viral. “Attention all Walmart shoppers, associates, and managers,” she announced before launching into a speech in which she called out specific employees for having made what she said were racist or sexual comments. “I hope you don’t talk to your daughters the way you talk to me,” she added, naming a group of “perverts.” As for Walmart itself, she said, “This company treats their employees like shit.” She closed by saying, “Fuck the managers, fuck this company, fuck this position….I fucking quit.” At the moment the video has more than 55,000 likes and 11,000 retweets.

The British Library is nearing the end of a project to make 40,000 early maps and views freely available online for the first time.

Two years ago, I lived through a coup in Sri Lanka. It was stupid. The minority party threw chili powder at everyone in Parliament and took over by farce. Math, however, requires a majority and the courts kicked them out. They gave in. We’d been protesting for weeks and yay, we won. No. I didn’t know it at the time, but we had already lost. No one knew — but oh my God, what we lost. The legitimate government came back but it was divided and weak. We were divided and weak. We were vulnerable. Four months later, on Easter Sunday, some assholes attacked multiple churches and hotels, killing 269 of us. My wife and kids were at church, I had to frantically call them back. Our nation was shattered. Mobs began attacking innocent Muslims. It was out of control. The coup broke our government, and four months later, that broke us.

- A divided federal appeals court on Friday struck down laws in south Florida that prohibited therapists from offering so-called conversion therapy to children struggling with their sexual orientation or gender identity. In a 2-1 decision, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the laws in Boca Raton and Palm Beach county were unconstitutional content-based restrictions on speech that violated the First Amendment. The laws had been challenged by two therapists who said their clients typically had “sincerely held religious beliefs conflicting with homosexuality,” and sought counseling to conform their identities and behaviors with those beliefs. Both judges in the majority were appointed to the bench by Republican President Donald Trump, while the dissenting judge was appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama.

America’s 40th president was a lot of things: a right-wing talk radio host, a Hollywood actor, a Red Scare monger, a charismatic liar. A great leader wasn’t one of them but for some reason Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War seems keen to revive that long-standing conservative fantasy.

At least three major streaming devices are hosting multiple channels dedicated to the dangerous QAnon conspiracy theory, despite its supporters’ ties to violence -- and seemingly in violation of the platforms’ terms of service. Most of these QAnon channels appear to be using the same video hosting service, Secure Server TV, which facilitates the channels’ distribution across streaming platforms.  In recent months, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube have all cracked down on the QAnon conspiracy theory, which is premised on claims that President Donald Trump is part of a secret fight against a cabal of pedophiles and the so-called “deep state.” The conspiracy theory has been connected to multiple killings and multiple kidnappings and has been embraced by some militia groups. The FBI in 2019 warned that the theory’s supporters presented a potential domestic terrorism threat. Additionally, QAnon supporters regularly circulate harmful falsehoods, ranging from unfounded wildfire conspiracy theories to election misinformation and coronavirus misinformation, along with anti-Semitism. Nevertheless, at least 10 QAnon channels -- nearly all of which used to be on YouTube before the platform’s crackdown -- still have a home on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and Apple TV. Most of the channels use a video hosting service called Secure Server TV, which describes itself as “an OTT (over the top media service) platform designed to distribute your content on multiple platforms all while securing your content with military grade encryption.” The service adds that through its service “you will be featured on your own Web TV site, Roku, Amazon Fire, Google TV, Apple TV, iOS and Android Mobile Apps.”

“I’ve had strange cars driving back and forth past my house. I get threatening messages from people saying they’re watching me. “They followed my family to the park and took pictures of my kids. How insane is that? “I know it’s my job to be out front talking about the importance of public health — educating people, keeping them safe. Now it kind of scares me. “The police here have been really great. The elementary school says they’re watching over my kids and they’re on high alert. I have a security system now at my house. “I locked down my email and took all my family photos off of Facebook, but you start wondering: Is this worth it? Could anything possibly be worth it? “I don’t go out in public very much anymore. It’s work and then back home. I don’t want to be recognized. I don’t want my kids to see any of that hate. “The one place where I had to draw the line was that my son plays baseball, and honestly, his games are the most normal I’ve felt all year. “But then, a little while ago, somebody took a photo at a game of me with my daughter. We were outside and social-distanced, so we weren’t wearing masks. “The photo got posted all over social media, and it was the usual comments. Bitch. Communist. Hypocrite.” – Missouri health official Amber Elliot, who resigned yesterday.

Federal appeals court Judge Merrick Garland is under consideration to serve as attorney general in the administration of President-elect Joe Biden, NPR has learned from two people closely following the process. Garland, 68, is the widely respected former chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He launched his career at the Justice Department decades ago. Garland oversaw the prosecution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and gained significant management experience inside the sprawling department in the 1990s. More recently, Garland was nominated to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court by President Barack Obama, to fill the seat vacated by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

President Donald Trump is down in the dumps. As he gradually comes to term with election defeat, Fox News correspondent-at-large Geraldo Rivera has come up with a bright idea to cheer him up. Speaking on Friday morning’s Fox & Friends, Rivera suggested naming the COVID-19 vaccine after Trump so he doesn’t feel so bad about himself. Rivera said: “With the world so divided and everybody telling him he’s got to give up and it’s time to leave and time to transition and all the rest of it, why not name the vaccine ‘The Trump?’ Make it like, ‘Have you gotten your Trump yet?’ It would be a nice gesture to him, and, years from now, it would become just a kind of generic name.” Last week, Trump wrongly claimed full credit for Pfizer’s announcement that its COVID-19 vaccine was effective—it fact, the drug marker did not accept government money for the project.

...In recent weeks, FBI agents in New York contacted witnesses and asked new questions about Giuliani's efforts in Ukraine and possible connections to Russian intelligence, according to a person briefed on the matter. The FBI investigators, who have spoken to at least one witness previously months ago, came back to ask new questions recently about possible origins of emails and documents related to Hunter Biden that appear similar to those that the New York Post reported that Giuliani and others helped provide. CNN has previously reported that the ongoing probe is examining whether Giuliani is wittingly or unwittingly part of a Russian influence operation, according to people briefed on the matter.

Shawn Parcells made national news in 2014 after he helped with the private autopsy of Michael Brown, who was killed by a Ferguson police officer.

The president’s push to prevent states from certifying electors and get legislators to override voters’ will eclipses even the bitter 1876 election as an audacious use of brute political force.

Police have arrested a man suspected of sexually-motivated murder and cannibalism after a victim's bones were found in a park in northern Berlin. Forensic experts determined that the bones were the remains of a 44-year-old man who went missing two months ago. Sniffer dogs led police to the suspect's Berlin apartment, German media reported. He is reported to be a 41-year-old maths teacher. People strolling in the park in Buch found the bones on 8 November. A policeman told the Berlin daily BZ that one bone was "totally devoid of flesh" and there were other indications "which make us strongly suspect that Stefan T was the victim of a cannibal". The suspected killer - named only as Stefan R - had visited "relevant internet chatrooms", Germany's DPA news agency reported. It is customary under German privacy laws not to reveal surnames in police investigations.

To combat the awfulness of 2020, many people are decorating their homes for the holidays early this year—turning their living rooms into winter wonderlands. This is a story about a home that decided to go all in on that concept.