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Joe Biden suffered a bitter political blow early on Wednesday as the Democrats suffered a shock defeat in the election for governor of Virginia.

The Democratic candidate, Terry McAuliffe, had campaigned with Biden and Barack Obama but it was not enough to prevent the Republican Glenn Youngkin pulling off an upset.

The Associated Press called the race for Youngkin in the early hours of Wednesday. The Republican took an early lead after polls closed that he maintained throughout the evening, while McAuliffe lagged in key counties that Biden swept in 2020.

Clenching his fists then clapping his hands, Youngkin addressed jubilant supporters in Chantilly just after 1am. “All righty, Virginia, we won this thing!” he exclaimed. “How much fun!”

• The battle in Virginia has been seen as a litmus test of Biden’s presidency. It coincided with his agenda stalling in Congress and his approval rating sinking to 42%.

• Youngkin did not utter the name “Trump” in his acceptance speech. He also did not mention the former president by name in any speeches on the campaign trail although he did accept Donald Trump’s endorsement.

• Education was one of the key campaign issues with Youngkin accused of stoking culture wars.

Eric Adams wins New York mayor’s race

The former police officer Eric Adams will be the next mayor of New York City, after the Democrat defeated Curtis Sliwa in Tuesday’s election.

Adams was on course to easily beat Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, with a lead of 66% to 29% after more than half of projected votes were counted.

Adams will take charge of the largest city in the US in January, when he will be faced with overseeing recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 34,500 New Yorkers.

Adams, 61, becomes only the second Black person to be elected New York mayor, after David Dinkins, who led the city from 1990 to 1993. Adams, who defeated several progressive candidates in the Democratic primary, has pledged to cut government inefficiency and made public safety a central part of his campaign.

• After winning a contentious primary, Adams was always favorite to defeat Sliwa, a Republican, in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans seven to one.

• The centrist politician has been a disappointing choice for many progressives who hoped to see radical reforms in the criminal justice system.

Ahmaud Arbery: trial of accused murderers is test for racial justice ‘in the heart of white supremacy’

On Tuesday, after 11 days of jury selection, a panel of 65 jurors was chosen from a pool of hundreds in the murder trial of three white men accused in the killing Ahmaud Arbery, the 25-year-old Black man shot dead last year while out for a jog.

Barring any unforeseen delays, including last-minute motions defense attorneys have suggested they will file, a final jury of 12 and four alternates will be seated this week, with opening arguments to follow, probably on Thursday.

The trial of the three men, who have pleaded not guilty, occurs six months after the conviction of Derek Chauvin, the white former police officer who murdered George Floyd in Minneapolis after pinning his neck to the ground for nine minutes and 29 seconds.

That trial was undoubtedly a landmark moment for police reform advocates around the country, but, say many observers, the case of Ahmaud Arbery is a sterner test for the state of racial justice in the US.

• Who is standing trial for Arbery’s murder? Gregory McMichael, 67, his 35-year-old son, Travis McMichael, and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan, 52 are accused of his murder.

• What happened? A scuffle occurred as the McMichaels, both carrying firearms, attempted to corner Arbery, who was unarmed. Travis McMichael then opened fire three times. They said they suspected Arbery of involvement in a series of burglaries in the neighborhood.

In other news …

• A photograph of a smiling and waving Cleo Smith in her hospital bed has been released by Western Australia police after the four-year-old was rescued more than two weeks after she vanished from a remote campsite. A 36-year-old man has been taken into custody following Cleo’s discovery.

• Voters in Minneapolis have rejected the idea of replacing their police department with a new department of public safety, more than a year after the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer launched a national movement to defund or abolish police.

• Joe Biden launched a stinging attack on China on Tuesday for the failure of the country’s president, Xi Jinping, to show up to the Cop26 UN climate summit, and failing to show leadership on the climate crisis. The US president said it was a “big mistake” that Xi had chosen not to attend the summit.

• Semi-animated Netflix documentary short reveals the secret story of the Jewish soldiers who watched over prisoners of war on US soil. Known as PO Box 1142, it housed such notables as the spymaster Reinhard Gehlen and rocket scientist Wernher von Braun.

Don’t miss this: Salma Hayek on being bullied by Harvey Weinstein and and becoming a superhero at 55

Hayek could have easily opted for the cosy, cosseted life of a mega-rich housewife after marrying a multimillionaire. Yet, despite possessing a walk-in closet presumably as big as an average house, Hayek is not your average gazillionaire’s wife. By the time she met François-Henri Pinault, she was 39 and a famous actor with an Oscar nomination, for 2002’s Frida. Plenty of actors before her had married wealthy men and then disappeared behind the fortress wall. But Hayek, 55, was never going to do that. “I love what I do,” she says when I ask what motivates her to work.

Or this: why Americans are quitting their jobs in record numbers

Josie, 19, landed her first “adult” job as an IT support worker last November, just a few months after graduating from high school. This August amid the rise of the Delta variant, she decided to quit – becoming one of the 4.3 million American workers to voluntarily leave their jobs during that month alone. Between January and August of this year, at least 30 million Americans quit their jobs. Whether you call it the “Great Resignation” or a “nationwide reassessment of work”, the labor market shake-up of the pandemic could have unexpected aftershocks for years to come.

Climate check: Radioactive material and pesticides among new contaminants found in US tap water

Water utilities and regulators in the US have identified 56 new contaminants in drinking water over the past two years, a list that includes dangerous substances linked to a range of health problems such as cancer, reproductive disruption, liver disease and much more. The revelation is part of an analysis of the nation’s water utilities’ contamination records by the Environmental Working Group, a clean water advocate that has now updated its database for the first time since 2019.

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Last thing: Italian couple find burglar is endangered brown bear

An Italian woman, who investigated what she thought was a burglar on her balcony, has described a petrifying encounter with a rare brown bear. The Marsican bear had climbed on to her bedroom balcony in northern Italy, just days after a bear was spotted bathing in the fountain of a neighbouring village. Annalisa Castagna and her husband, Claudio Parravano initially thought there was a burglar after hearing noises shortly after midnight. “I practically screamed in the face of the bear,” Castagna wrote in a Facebook post, adding that she could “count all its teeth”.

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