![Former US National Security Adviser Michael Flynn had sought to withdraw his guilty plea [File: Joshua Roberts/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2018-12-18T182542Z_1899732505_RC11DEC417E0_RTRMADP_3_USA-TRUMP-RUSSIA-FLYNN.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
![Diego Armando Maradona cheers after the Napoli team clinches its first Italian major league title in Naples on May 10, 1987 [File: Meazza Sambucetti/AP]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/AP_8705100157-1.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
![Xi expresses the hope that the two sides will uphold the spirit of non-conflict and non-confrontation [File: EPA]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/h_51129398-e1606319662365.jpg?resize=120%2C80)
![In this frame grab from Iranian state television video, British Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert is seen in Tehran, Iran [Iranian State Television via AP]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/AP_20330597753262.jpg?resize=120%2C80)
![Saudi women's rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul is seen in this undated handout picture [File: Marieke Wijntjes/Handout/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2019-03-13T093111Z_705101436_RC14DBE1A650_RTRMADP_3_SAUDI-ARRESTS-e1606244912792.jpg?resize=120%2C80)
![Rose petals form a circle surrounding a picture of Dilan Cruz on the site where he was shot during a protest to commemorate a year since his death in Bogota, Colombia, on November 23, 2020 [Daniel Munoz/AFP]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/000_8VQ9N3.jpg?resize=120%2C80)
![A man rides his bicycle cart past closed shops as Palestinians call for a general strike to protest against Bahrain's economic workshop for US's Middle East 'peace plan', in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, June 25, 2019 [File: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/a66aaae8e3c04a64b3488e08eb1c991c_18.jpeg?resize=120%2C80)
![Shepherd Bushiri faces several criminal allegations [File: Wikus De Wet/AFP]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/000_8VG4GV.jpg?resize=120%2C80)
![Trump on Wednesday repeated many of the same debunked claims of vote fraud as he made at his last news conference on the election results, November 5, 2020 [Evan Vucci/AP Photo]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/AP_20314847159863.jpg?resize=120%2C80)
![Diego Armando Maradona cheers after the Napoli team clinches its first Italian major league title in Naples on May 10, 1987 [File: Meazza Sambucetti/AP]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/AP_8705100157-1.jpg?resize=120%2C80)
Ethiopia's Tigray conflict
![A member of the Amhara Special Forces watches on at the border crossing with Eritrea while where an Imperial Ethiopian flag waves, in Humera, Ethiopia, on November 22, 2020. [Eduardo Soteras/AFP]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/000_8VP6MA.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
![The United Nations says 4,000 people were crossing into Sudan from Ethiopia every day since the conflict began on November 4 [Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2020-11-23T230243Z_230372156_RC2B9K9CA6I6_RTRMADP_3_ETHIOPIA-CONFLICT.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
![Tigray refugees who fled the conflict arriving on the banks of Tekeze river on the Sudan-Ethiopia border [Nariman El-Mofty/AP]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/AP_20326620976103-e1606225061941.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
![Children play next to the market in Humera. [Eduardo Soteras/AFP]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/000_8VP6LT.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
US markets retreat from record closings after sobering jobs news
The S&P 500 index and the Dow walked back from record closing highs, pulled lower by cyclicals and small caps.
![Wall Street appeared to be replaying the market's previous two weeks, which began with rallies driven by promising vaccine news but pulled back amid increasing COVID-19 cases and jobless claims [File: Brendan McDermid/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/nyse-2.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
Rouhani: Iran and US can return to time before Trump
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says Iran and the United States can turn time back on ‘criminal’ Trump.
![If the incoming Joe Biden administration has the political will, Iran-US relations could be very different, president says [AFP]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/000_8UJ42X-1-e1606317754102.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
Opinion
Facebook to pay Illinois users $650m to settle privacy case
The case between Facebook and users in Illinois represents the biggest consumer privacy settlement in US history.
![Facebook will be making payouts to only about a quarter of the six million Illinois residents eligible for the biggest consumer privacy settlement in US history [File: Gabby Jones/Bloomberg]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/fb.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
US markets open flat amid unexpected rise in jobless claims
The back-to-back increase in claims for US state unemployment benefits is the first since July.
![A surge in United States coronavirus cases and new lockdown measures in some communities have led to more layoffs, leading to a muted opening for Wall Street Wednesday [File: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/wallst-1.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
At least 41 killed after bus and truck collide in Brazil
Rescuers are working to help the wounded caught in the wreckage of the vehicles after crash in Sao Paulo state.
![Local media reports said the bus was carrying 53 employees of a textile company [Juliano Oliveira/AP Photo]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/AP_20330629636321.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
![Bars in Hong Kong will be forced to close for a third time in Hong Kong because of COVID-19 [File: Anthony Wallace/AFP]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/000_1SI007.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
![The chief of Qantas said his carrier will likely require passengers to have a COVID-19 vaccine once the jabs are widely available [File: Matt Hartman/AP]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/AP_20189090558309.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
![The US has surpassed 12 million confirmed coronavirus cases since the pandemic began, as infections surge in the colder months [Seth Wenig/AP Photo]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/AP_20302726697143-1.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
![Staff at the mAbxience laboratory - chosen by AstraZeneca for its Latin American production of the COVID vaccine - working in the company's plant in Garin, Buenos Aires, Argentina, August 2020 [Juan Ignacio Roncoroni/EPA]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/428a850c9b374edd93bb53dcfc4271b9_18-e1606141163970.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
![Families reunite as the first plane from Sydney arrives in Melbourne after the opening of state borders [James Ross/EPA]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/h_56515349.jpg?resize=270%2C180)