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Economic Times | 23 Nov, 2020 | 11.31PM IST
US election 2020 Live updates: Biden focuses on Cabinet as Trump's hopes of overturning election fade
Biden, working in his home state of Delaware, has pushed ahead with his transition plans despite the lack of cooperation from the current administration.
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Biden picks John Kerry for climate change role
- Kerry is a former secretary of state, senator from Massachusetts and Democratic presidential nominee.
- John Kerry will lead the incoming administration's effort to combat climate change.
Biden names 2 aides to legislative affairs team
- Reema Dodin and Shuwanza Goff will serve as deputy directors of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs.
- Dodin has been working on the transition team already, leading its legislative engagement with lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
- Goff served as floor director for House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. She helped craft the House Democrats' legislative agenda.
Germany hopes for joint transatlantic approach on Iran under Biden
Germany sees a chance to return to a joint transatlantic approach in tackling Iran's nuclear programme once the new U.S. administration under President-elect Joe Biden takes office, a German official said on Monday.
Women to serve at key positions in Joe Biden administration
Citing figures from the transition team, The Hill further said that 53 per cent of Biden-Harris senior transition staff are women and 52 per cent of all transition staff are women.
Republican former national security officials urge party to demand Trump concession
More than 100 former Republican national security officials demanded that party leaders denounce President Donald Trump's refusal to concede the presidential election, calling it a dangerous and anti-democratic assault on U.S. institutions.
What we know about a suddenly important Michigan Elections Board
The national spotlight fell on one of the board’s normally mundane tasks: reviewing results from the presidential election that have been certified by Michigan’s 83 counties and giving a stamp of approval.
Netanyahu met Saudi crown prince, Pompeo in Saudi Arabia: Israeli Minister
As Trump's term winds down, Pompeo has been trying to coax Saudi Arabia to follow the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan in moving toward formal diplomatic relations with Israel.
European powers see hope for Iran accord in US transition
The German, French and British foreign ministers to discuss the future of the international agreement on Iran's nuclear program amid hopes that the incoming U.S. administration might help breathe new life into the accord, Germany's Foreign Ministry said.
Anthony Blinken is expected to be nominated as the Secretary of State
Blinken served on the National Security Council during the Clinton administration before becoming staff director for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when Biden was chair of the panel.
With Inauguration Day for US President-elect Joe Biden still two months away, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country is likely to increase to 20 million by the end of January, nearly doubling the current level of 12 million cases, predicts a new study.
On Saturday, a federal judge in Pennsylvania said Trump's challenge to mail-in ballots in the state had been "haphazardly stitched together" like "Frankenstein's monster."
U.S. President Donald Trump's campaign and his allies have suffered a string of judicial defeats in their bid to prevent states from certifying President-Elect Joe Biden as the winner of the Nov. 3 presidential election.
If Biden focuses on national security that day, Michele Flournoy, a veteran of Pentagon policy jobs, is a top choice to lead the Defense Department. Jake Sullivan, a longtime adviser to Biden and Hillary Clinton, is also in the mix for a top job, including White House national security adviser.
President Donald Trump's administration provided precision-guided missiles and other weapons to help the Philippines battle Islamic State group-aligned militants and renewed a pledge to defend its treaty ally if it comes under attack in the disputed South China Sea.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday became the latest world leader to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden on his election victory, saying she offered to share her nation's expertise on dealing with the coronavirus.
On its way out the door, the Trump administration is enacting new rules, regulations and orders that it hopes will box in President-elect Joe Biden's administration on numerous foreign policy matters and cement President Donald Trump's “America First” legacy in international affairs.
While most Republicans continue to either publicly back Trump's efforts or remain silent, a steadily growing chorus is imploring him to concede the election and assist with the transition to Biden's administration.
U.S. President Donald Trump's increasingly tenuous efforts to reverse his election loss to President-elect Joe Biden could be dealt a lethal blow on Monday, as Biden turns to the task of building his cabinet.
Trump's campaign has filed a petition for another recount in Georgia. A previous laborious hand recount reaffirmed Biden's victory by a margin of more than 12,000 votes in the southern state, a longtime Republican bastion in presidential elections.
Trump has golfed on every weekend day since the election, though he took part virtually in the conference of the G20 leading economies this weekend -- skipping a Saturday session on the pandemic.
A growing number of Republicans have either recognized Biden's victory or at least urged the General Services Administration -- the usually low-profile agency that manages the federal bureaucracy -- to release federal funds for the Biden transition.
Biden is likely to name his Cabinet picks in tranches, with groups of nominees focused on a specific top area, like the economy, national security or public health, being announced at once. Advisers to the president-elect's transition have said they'll make their first Cabinet announcements on Tuesday.
US hopes to start virus vaccines in December as pandemic surges
- The United States hopes to begin coronavirus vaccinations in early December, a top government health official said Sunday, the latest positive news to emerge even as cases surge across the worst-hit nation and elsewhere around the globe.
- The beginning of vaccinations could be a crucial shift in the battle against a virus that has claimed more than 1.4 million lives worldwide, including 255,000 just in the US, since emerging from China late last year.
- Encouraging results from vaccine trials have bolstered hopes for an end to the pandemic, as nations reimpose restrictions and lockdowns that slowed the spread earlier this year but turned lives and economies upside down across the globe.
- Two leading vaccine candidates -- one by Pfizer and German partner BioNTech and another by US firm Moderna -- have been shown to be 95 percent effective in trials, and Pfizer has already applied for emergency use approval from US health authorities.
Advisers to President-elect Joe Biden are planning for the increasing likelihood that the United States economy is headed for a “double-dip” recession early next year. They are pushing for Democratic leaders in Congress to reach a quick stimulus deal with Senate Republicans, even if it falls short of the larger package Democrats have been seeking, according to people familiar with the discussions.
President Donald Trump is appealing a federal judge's dismissal of his campaign's effort to block the certification of votes in Pennsylvania. The president and other plaintiffs filed notice of appeal to the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals on Sunday, a day after the judge issued a scathing order shooting down claims of widespread irregularities with mail-in ballots.
China must drop its illusion that its relations with the United States will automatically improve under President-elect Joe Biden's administration, a Chinese government advisor has said, adding that Beijing should be prepared for a tough stance from Washington.
Trump campaign legal team distances itself from Powell
- Perhaps Sidney Powell has gone too far for even Rudy Giuliani this time.
- The Trump campaign's legal team moved to distance itself Sunday from the firebrand conservative attorney after a tumultuous several days in which Powell made multiple incorrect statements about the voting process, unspooled unsupported and complex conspiracy theories and vowed to ``blow up'' Georgia with a ``biblical'' lawsuit.
- ``Sidney Powell is practicing law on her own. She is not a member of the Trump Legal Team. She is also not a lawyer for the President in his personal capacity,`` Giuliani and another lawyer for Trump, Jenna Ellis, said in a statement.
