10 things you need to know today: November 28, 2016

1. Trump baselessly claims millions 'voted illegally' against him

President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday stepped up his criticism of an effort to recount votes in Wisconsin and possibly Michigan and Pennsylvania — all states that Trump narrowly won — saying via Twitter that he won the Electoral College "in a landslide" and would have beaten Democrat Hillary Clinton in the popular vote, too, "if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally." He did not cite any evidence to support his claim of voter fraud. Trump also said he could have easily won the "so-called popular vote" if he had campaigned more in certain states, rather than focusing on areas where he could pick up electoral votes. Election tallies give Trump a decisive victory in the Electoral College, but show Clinton ahead of him by about 2 million in the popular vote.

The New York Times

2. Cuba starts public mourning ceremony for Fidel Castro

Cuba launches a two-day memorial for Fidel Castro, who died Friday at age 90, in Havana's Revolution Square on Monday. The communist-run Caribbean nation's leaders and ordinary Cubans are expected to lay wreaths at the monument to Cuban national hero Jose Marti in memory of Castro, the revolutionary leader who ruled the nation unchecked for half a century. The Ladies in White, a dissident group made up of wives of political prisoners, called off a weekly protest on Sunday to avoid stirring up tensions during a nine-day mourning period for Castro, who handed over power to his brother Raul a decade ago. On Wednesday, a funeral cortege carrying Castro's ashes will leave Havana and cross the country to the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba, his final resting place.

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BBC News Reuters

3. Top Trump aide steps up criticism of Mitt Romney

Kellyanne Conway, a top aide to President-elect Donald Trump, on Sunday publicly aired the transition team's infighting over the consideration of Mitt Romney as a possible secretary of state nominee, saying loyalists would "feel betrayed" if someone so critical of Trump were given such a key cabinet position. "I'm all for party unity, but I'm not sure we have to pay for that with secretary of state position," she said. Conway noted that Romney, the Republican Party's 2012 presidential nominee, had gone "out of his way to hurt" Trump during the primaries, calling him a "fraud" and fighting against the now president-elect instead of Democrat Hillary Clinton. "We don't even know if he voted for Donald Trump," she said.

The Washington Post The New York Times

4. Syrian military gains more ground from rebels in Aleppo

The Syrian army and its allies continued its advance in Aleppo on Monday, driving rebels out of a strategically important section of the eastern part of the divided city, according to the Syrian military and the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Observatory said that government forces had taken control of a third of eastern Aleppo in the last few days, with Monday's capture of the al-Sakhour area splitting the parts of eastern Aleppo still held by the opposition. One rebel official denied that al-Sakhour had been taken over by the Syrian military.

Reuters

5. Charleston church massacre trial to resume

Jury selection is scheduled to resume Monday in the trial of Dylann Roof, the 22-year-old white man charged with fatally shooting nine black parishioners at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Church in Charleston, South Carolina, last year. The process was halted on Nov. 7 for a psychiatric evaluation after defense lawyers questioned whether Roof understood the case against him. In addition to murder charges, Roof has been accused of hate crimes and obstruction of religion related to the attack, which occurred during a Bible study in June 2015. He faces the possibility of the death penalty.

The Associated Press

6. Francois Fillon wins France's conservative primary runoff

Francois Fillon won France's center-right presidential primary runoff in a landslide on Sunday. Fillon, a free-market former prime minister, entered the second round of the vote as the clear favorite over Bordeaux Mayor Alain Juppe, also an ex-premier. The centrist Juppe was the frontrunner in polls as recently as two weeks ago, with many voters backing him for his ability to build a broad coalition to beat Marine Le Pen, the anti-European Union, anti-immigration leader of the far-right National Front. Fillon's vows to slash public spending and provide tax breaks for business anger the left, but polls still suggest he would easily beat anyone the ruling Socialist party backs in the general election, then defeat Le Pen in a runoff.

Reuters The Wall Street Journal

7. Traffic falls as online sales surge at start of holiday shopping

Sales fell at brick-and-mortar stores on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday, in part because stores had lured in shoppers early by offering discounts far ahead of the big weekend. Another reason for the dip was the continued rise of online shopping. Internet sales increased by double digits and exceeded $3 billion on Black Friday for the first time, with Cyber Monday — the traditional day for big online discounts — still to come, according to data from analytics firm RetailNext.

Reuters

8. Manila police destroy suspected bomb near U.S. embassy

Police in the Philippines on Monday detonated what they believed to be a home-made bomb found near the U.S. embassy in Manila. A city street sweeper discovered the device — a cellphone attached by wires to a cylinder wrapped in black tape — in a trash can. She alerted embassy guards, who called police. No injuries were reported. Police said local militants sympathetic to the Islamic State might have been responsible.

NBC News

9. Federal authorities say they won't forcibly remove pipeline protesters

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said in a statement Sunday that it had "no plans for forcible removal" of people protesting against construction of an oil pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota. The agency on Friday sent a statement that it was closing the federal land where the main protest camp is located. It explained Sunday that it merely wanted a "peaceful and orderly transition" of protesters to a site where people will be safer in "the harsh North Dakota winter conditions." The agency said anyone remaining at the site would be subject to citations. Protest organizers said Saturday the 5,000 people at the protest camp had no intention to move.

Reuters

10. Disney's Moana scores second biggest Thanksgiving debut ever

Walt Disney Animation Studios' Moana, one of the best-reviewed films of 2016, crushed the competition at the box office over the long Thanksgiving weekend, collecting $81.1 million at domestic theaters for the second-best Thanksgiving opening ever. Only Frozen, another Disney film, has done better, raking in $93.6 million in 2013. Moana's success came despite several pre-release controversies, including one about an oversize male character. The musical, about a princess' mythical journey in ancient Polynesia, features the voice of Dwayne Johnson and songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creative force behind the smash Broadway hip-hop musical Hamilton. J.K. Rowling's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them fell to second over the five-day weekend, earning $65.8 million.

The New York Times