Hired

U.S. employers added 266,000 jobs in November, raising hiring to its highest level since January. Wages rose 3.1 percent compared with a year earlier, and unemployment matched the 50-year low set in September at 3.5 percent. The return to work of 40,000 striking autoworkers at General Motors helped drive the increase in jobs, as did other factories adding 13,000 jobs. Retailers added 2,000 jobs for the holiday season.

Attacked

An Indian woman was attacked and severely burned on her way to testify against her alleged rapists in court. The 23-year-old filed a case against two men months ago in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. She was traveling to the train station, according to local media, when a crowd of men grabbed her, dragged her to a field, and set her on fire. Police say they have arrested five men, including two of her alleged rapists, in connection with the incident. This case is similar to a July incident in Uttar Pradesh where a woman accused a lawmaker of rape and was later seriously injured in a car crash that killed two of her aunts. Police are investigating the crash as murder.

Resigned

Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Bishop Richard Malone, whose Roman Catholic diocese in Buffalo, N.Y., faces more than 220 lawsuits filed by people claiming priests sexually abused them. Malone faces widespread criticism from his staff, priests, and the public over how he handled allegations of clergy misconduct. Malone offered to step down two years before the mandatory retirement age of 75 after learning the (so far unreleased to the public) results of a Vatican-mandated inquiry into abuse cases in his diocese. The Vatican named Bishop Edward Scharfenberger of Albany, N.Y., to head the diocese temporarily.

Introduced

China is introducing mandatory face scans for anyone registering new mobile phones. The new law appears to be part of its longtime effort to register the real-life identities of the country’s millions of internet users. Currently, anyone signing up for a mobile phone plan has to show a national ID and have a photo taken. Internet platforms are also required to ensure they know a user’s true identity before the user can post online. Hundreds of social media users commented about fears regarding the new face-scan requirement, including worries about thieves, scam callers, and increasing government surveillance.

Surged

More than 140,000 people died from measles globally in 2018, according to official estimates from the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most of those who died were children under 5 years of age. Recently, the United States has suffered its worst outbreak in 25 years, and there have been emergencies in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Ukraine, and the Pacific nation of Samoa. The WHO director-general, Dr. Tedros Ghebreysus, called the issue an “outrage” and pointed out that children should not be dying from a vaccine-preventable disease. According to the BBC, a recent surge in deaths is likely due to the difficulty in accessing vaccines, especially in poor countries worldwide. Overall, though, measles deaths have fallen by 73 percent globally since 2000.