Today in one sentence: The CDC warned Americans against traveling for Thanksgiving, citing record rises in new coronavirus cases, hospitalizations, and deaths; more than 743,000 workers filed new unemployment claims; after the Wayne County Board of Canvassers certified the presidential results, Trump called both of the Republican board members who now say they want to "rescind" their votes to certify the election in the Michigan county; and the Trump campaign dropped its federal election lawsuit in Michigan seeking to block certification of the results, falsely claiming that the Wayne County Board of Canvassers certification had declined to certify the results, which had already been certified in favor of Biden.

1/ The CDC warned Americans against traveling for Thanksgiving, citing record rises in new coronavirus cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. Despite the guidance, around 50 million Americans are expected to travel for the Thanksgiving holiday next week. Officials said they were alarmed to see more than 1 million new cases reported across the U.S. within the past week. Nearly 80,000 patients are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 in the U.S. – another record. The CDC also projected that “newly reported COVID-19 deaths will likely increase over the next four weeks, with 7,300 to 16,000 new deaths likely to be reported in the week ending December 12, 2020.” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, meanwhile, called the new guidelines and restrictions “Orwellian,” adding “that’s not the American way.” (New York Times / Washington Post / CNBC / Wall Street Journal / Bloomberg)

  • 😷 Dept. of “We Have It Totally Under Control.”

  • Global: Total confirmed cases: ~56,076,000; deaths: ~1,347,000

  • U.S.: Total confirmed cases: ~11,486,000; deaths: ~251,000

  • Source: Johns Hopkins University

  • Live Blogs: New York Times / Washington Post / CNBC / NBC News / NPR / CNN / Wall Street Journal

  • The states that imposed fewer coronavirus-related restrictions now have the worst outbreaks. Outbreaks are comparatively smaller in states where efforts to contain the virus were stronger over the summer and fall. (New York Times)

  • Trump’s top medical adviser on the coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Scott Atlas, has not attended White House task force meetings in person since late September. Atlas, however, has continued to spread misinformation about the worsening health crisis. (NBC News)

2/ More than 743,000 workers filed new unemployment claims – an increase of 31,000 from the previous week. An additional 320,000 claims were processed for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, the program for gig and self-employed workers. Roughly 20.3 million people are claiming some form of unemployment insurance. About 12 millions Americans are scheduled to lose their jobless benefits the day after Christmas unless Congress passes another relief bill. (Washington Post / New York Times / NPR / ABC News)

3/ After the Wayne County Board of Canvassers certified the presidential results, Trump called both of the Republican board members who now say they want to “rescind” their votes to certify the election in the Michigan county. After briefly trying to block the county from certifying its election results, Monica Palmer and William Hartmann later voted Tuesday to certify the results of the Nov. 3 election. But in a pair of affidavits signed late Wednesday night, Palmer and Hartmann allege that they were improperly pressured into certifying the election and accused Democrats of reneging on a promise to audit votes in Detroit. The two Republicans are now seeking to rescind their decision to certify their county’s results – a day after the deadline and roughly 24 hours after Trump had spoken with Palmer and Hartmann. Trump, meanwhile, invited Michigan’s Republican state legislators to meet with him at the White House on Friday. (Washington Post / ABC News / New York Times / Detroit Free Press / Axios / CNN / Washington Post / The Guardian)

4/ The Trump campaign dropped its federal election lawsuit in Michigan seeking to block certification of the results, falsely claiming that the Wayne County Board of Canvassers certification had declined to certify the results, which had already been certified in favor of Biden. Rudy Giuliani said the campaign decided to withdraw its lawsuit “as a direct result of achieving the result we sought: to stop the election in Wayne County from being prematurely certified before residents can be assured that every legal vote has been counted and every illegal vote has not been counted.” Michigan’s secretary of state, however, said the two board members can’t rescind their votes and that the next step is for the state to certify its results on Nov. 23. (CBS News / Bloomberg / NBC News / Politico)