Here's the biggest news you missed this weekend

Editors, USA TODAY
·4 min read

Trump says Biden 'won' election, then backtracks

President Donald Trump acknowledged for the first time Sunday that Joe Biden won the election, but again refused to concede the race. "He won because the Election was Rigged," Trump tweeted early Sunday. Biden defeated Trump in a series of crucial battleground states, achieving the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidential race with room to spare. Trump's former national security adviser, John Bolton, said Sunday that Trump's refusal to concede was harmful to the country: "Every day that he delays... ultimately is to the country's disadvantage." For instance, federal resources for Biden's transition team remain blocked by Trump as he has refused to allow the president-elect access to high-level classified briefings.

President Donald Trump waves to supporters from his motorcade as people gather for a march Nov. 14, 2020, in Washington.
President Donald Trump waves to supporters from his motorcade as people gather for a march Nov. 14, 2020, in Washington.

The pandemic is only worsening

Nearly 70,000 Americans were in hospitals Saturday due to COVID-19 as the United States grapples with a surge in cases not seen since spring. New infections have surpassed 100,000 daily for almost two weeks. And Tom Frieden, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned that the U.S. could report 2,000 deaths daily by the end of the year without a unified effort to halt the surge. Is your state or city reimplementing COVID-19 restrictions? Here's a list.

In better news: Top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said the nation could "start getting things back to relative normal" as soon as the spring if early testing on vaccines holds up and people agree to be vaccinated. In addition, better COVID-19 treatments at hospitals have helped decrease the disease's fatality rate by 30% since April, according to University of Washington's influential Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation model.

Real quick

Four astronauts poised to make history with SpaceX launch

SpaceX's Resilience successfully launched Sunday at 7:27 p.m. EST, shepherding four astronauts to the International Space Station for the first ever operational commercial crew mission. The historic launch is the first NASA flight certified by the Federal Aviation Administration. SpaceX says over the next 15 months they will fly seven crew and cargo dragon missions for NASA. The crew flying will be Commander Mike Hopkins, Pilot Victor Glover and Mission Specialists Shannon Walker and Soichi Noguchi. Approximately 27 hours after launch the crew will arrive and dock at the ISS late Monday night at around 11 p.m. EST.

Dustin Johnson wins Masters in record-breaking fashion

The world’s No. 1-ranked golfer stays on top. Dustin Johnson won the Masters in dominating fashion this weekend, breaking the legendary tournament’s all-time scoring record with a staggeringly low mark of 20 strokes under par. The win gives Johnson his first green jacket and his second victory in a major tournament. This year’s Masters was unlike any other, and not just because of Johnson’s dominance. The annual tournament at Augusta National was uprooted from its usual spot in early April and postponed more than six months, making this year the first time it was ever played in November.

Round 4: Dustin Johnson plays from the fairway on the 18th hole.
Round 4: Dustin Johnson plays from the fairway on the 18th hole.

Iota strengthens into hurricane, threatens Central America as Category 4

Iota strengthened to hurricane status Sunday, taking furious aim for Central American countries still reeling from Hurricane Eta's devastating landfall that killed more than 120 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless less than two weeks ago. Iota was a Category 1 hurricane Sunday afternoon with sustained winds of 90 mph. The storm was moving west-northwest at 9 mph, its center located about 315 miles east of Cabo Gracias a Dios on the Nicaragua-Honduras border. Daniel Brown, a meteorologist with the National Hurricane Center, said Iota is forecast to be an "extremely dangerous" Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of at least 130 mph when it approaches Central America.

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This is a compilation of stories from across the USA TODAY Network. Contributing: Associated Press.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: COVID-19, Trump, Biden, SpaceX, Iota: The weekend's biggest news