First Thing: Mitch McConnell finally concedes the election, but Trump clings on

Good morning.

Joe Biden headed to Georgia on Tuesday to campaign for the Democrats in January’s crucial Senate run-off races, which will decide who controls the chamber during his administration. Back in Washington, the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, broke his silence and finally recognised Biden as the winner of the presidential election. Speaking on the Senate floor, he congratulated “president-elect Joe Biden” and said: “All Americans can take pride that our nation has a female vice-president-elect for the very first time.”

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Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell acknowledges Biden/Harris victory – video

Others, however, are still unwilling to hand over the reins; Donald Trump continued to peddle baseless claims of voter fraud, tweeting an article about the backlash against McConnell for conceding and saying it was “too soon to give up”. The press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, also refused to recognise Biden’s incoming administration, saying “the president is still involved in ongoing litigation related to the election” and describing the electoral college confirmation of Biden’s win as “one step in the constitutional process”. But Republicans’ problem with reality runs much deeper, writes David Litts, who argues that their rejection of the election result is one of many examples of the party baselessly disputing facts, from gun violence to the climate crisis.

With or without Trump’s blessing, Biden has been pushing on with preparations for his administration. He tapped former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg, who ran against him for the Democratic presidential candidacy, for transport secretary on Tuesday, and Jennifer Granholm, a former governor of Michigan, to head up the energy department.

• Populist leaders in Brazil and Mexico have finally recognised Biden’s victory after coming under fire for their six-week delay in congratulating him. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, also congratulated Biden on Tuesday.

Fauci thinks Biden should get the coronavirus vaccine ‘for security reasons’

Joe Biden should get the coronavirus vaccine as soon as possible “for security reasons”, the public health expert Anthony Fauci said on Tuesday. The Pfizer coronavirus vaccine was administered to the first people across the US on Monday, mostly high-priority healthcare workers. It comes as coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to soar in the US, with state healthcare systems creaking under the weight of the pandemic and 303,797 lives lost to date.

Nowhere in the US has been harder hit than California, where hospitalizations are currently double the previous peak during summertime and the number of average daily deaths has quadrupled from a month ago. The state is distributing 5,000 body bags to hard-hit areas, predominantly in Los Angeles and San Diego, and 60 refrigerated trailers to act as makeshift morgues. But the state is also grappling with its approach to the vaccine rollout. In a place where so many are suffering, how do you decide who gets it first?

• A World Health Organization research team is expected to travel to Wuhan, the Chinese city where Covid-19 first broke out, to investigate the origins of the virus. They are examining how the virus jumped from animals to humans, when it broke out, and where.

• New Zealand’s prime minister said her strategy on coronavirus was motivated by fear as much as ambition. The country has had one of the most successful approaches to coronavirus, with 25 deaths in a population of 5 million, and citizens have been able to return to work, school and sports stadiums without restrictions.

What you need to know about the US’s biggest government hack in years

On Monday, it emerged that US government departments had been targeted in a “highly sophisticated” hack, which had enabled the perpetrators to monitor government emails. The hackers managed to enter the systems by getting more than 18,000 private and government users to download a tainted software update, and that could have happened as early as March. Kari Paul explains what happened, who is behind the hack, and how bad it is.

In other news …

• Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have signed a multi-year podcast deal with Spotify to produce and host podcasts “that build community through shared experiences, narratives and values”. The move follows a multimillion-pound Netflix deal to produce documentaries and feature films.

• Fashion mogul Peter Nygård has been arrested over sex trafficking charges issued by US authorities. The Canadian mogul is accused of decades of criminal activity with dozens of victims in the US.

• Scientists have discovered fungi species that could support new drug discoveries. The two new species, found in Denmark, turn flies into “zombies” that continue to live once the fungi has begun to consume their bodies.

Stat of the day: Trump has executed more Americans this year than all states combined

For the first time in US history, the federal government has executed more Americans in one year than all of the states combined, a report has found. In the final year of his presidency, Trump has rushed to put 10 prisoners to death in a spree that broke from the years-long decline in the death penalty in the US. Only five states – Alabama, Georgia, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas – carried out judicial killings, and of these, only Texas sentenced more than one person to death. This produced the lowest number of executions by the states since 1983.

Don’t miss this: how natural disasters are destroying villages in Bangladesh

Many villages in Bangladesh have not re-emerged from recent floods, and the rise in extreme weather and natural disasters is making these incidents more common. The events force inhabitants to leave their homes and livelihoods to seek refuge in nearby cities, often in slums, or build new homes from scratch.

Last Thing: kangaroos can communicate with people, researchers say

A study has shown that kangaroos are capable of intentionally communicating with humans, displaying similar patterns of interaction as dogs and horses. When researchers presented the animals with a box of food they couldn’t open, many came back to the humans and gave them the box, in a marsupial version of a cry for help. Previously, this behaviour was thought to be confined to domestic animals.

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