
Ninety per cent of Republican lawmakers in Congress have so far refused to say Joe Biden was the winner of the presidential election, according to a survey. Of all 249 Republicans in the US House and Senate, only 25 told the Washington Post they believed the Democrat won against the US president last month. Two lawmakers surveyed by the Post said Donald Trump had actually won the presidential race, in contrast with results and the electoral college, which show Mr Biden won.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) had enlisted Deloitte to advise it on the talks with privately-owned Sheffield Forgemasters, Sky News said, citing steel industry sources. An outright takeover of Sheffield Forgemasters, which traces its history back to a small blacksmith's forge in the 1750s, was only one of a number of options being considered, and that any agreement was likely to be several months away, Sky News said.

Michel Barnier is accustomed to being universally praised on his regular tours of the EU's capitals to preach the gospel against Brexit. On Tuesday, he was in the unfamiliar position of coming under friendly fire for the first time in three years as the EU's chief negotiator. It was an uncomfortable moment for Mr Barnier, who was headquartered at the Hotel Conrad in Westminster and is enmeshed in intensive Brexit negotiations with his UK counterpart David Frost.
The Mexican government pledged Saturday to investigate how a cousin of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador managed to get two contracts with the state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, known as Pemex. The issue goes to the core of López Obrador's central campaign promise to rid Mexico of corruption and insider deals. The company Litoral Laboratorios Industriales is part owned by the president's first cousin, Felipa Guadalupe Obrador Olan.
Snakes have found a safe space in Myanmar - a global hub for the illegal wildlife trade. For five years, this Buddhist temple in the city of Yangon has been taking in pythons and cobras and vipers otherwise destined for the black market. The sanctuary is run by Wilatha, a monk at the temple.

Former White House advisor Kellyanne Conway said in an interview with The 19th that "it looks like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will prevail." Conway's remarks go against President Donald Trump, who is still refusing to concede to Biden and continues to share claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election to undermine the results. With the comment, Conway joins a growing number of Republicans who are acknowledging Biden's victory.
One of the army officers behind an August coup in Mali was named on Saturday to lead a new transitional legislative body, a spokesman for the authorities said. The appointment boosts the number of military figures in key roles, something that has dismayed some political factions. After the ouster of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita on Aug. 18, hopes of a civilian-led transition were dashed by the appointment of the junta's leader as vice president, while retired colonel Bah Ndaw became president.

Zhou Xiaoxuan, 27, more widely known by her nickname Xianzi, became a pioneer of China's #MeToo movement in 2018, when she accused Zhu Jun of groping and kissing her in a dressing room in 2014. Despite police warnings, pressure on her family, online censorship and harassment, Zhou has persisted — one of the few to make it into court on claims of sexual misconduct, which China did not recognize as grounds for legal recourse until last year. A young woman pulled out her lipstick to write #MeToo on another woman's mask.

Moscow began distributing the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine via 70 clinics on Saturday, marking Russia's first mass vaccination drive against the disease, the city's coronavirus task force said. The task force said the Russian-made vaccine would first be made available to doctors and other medical workers, teachers and social workers because they ran the highest risk of exposure to the disease. "You are working at an educational institution and have top-priority for the COVID-19 vaccine, free of charge," read a text message received by one Muscovite, an elementary school teacher, early on Saturday.

President Donald Trump suggested at a big gathering on behalf of Republican senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue that he was reluctant to hold another campaign rally. Trump, who perhaps felt most comfortable during his presidency holding forth at his signature big rallies, told the crowd Saturday night that he was looking to take a break from campaigning after holding dozens of rallies in battleground states in the final weeks of his losing presidential campaign. I don't like doing them for other people,” Trump said in an odd moment of candor.

The Trump administration has blocked Joe Biden's transition team from meeting with officials at US intelligence agencies controlled by the Pentagon, current and former US officials have said. The president-elect's team had asked to meet with senior officials at military intelligence agencies within the Defense Department (DoD), which include the National Security Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency, but were not allowed to do so, the Washington Post reported. According to the report, the meetings were requested this week, and appeared to have been turned down, or delayed – although officials have since denied that was the case.

China and the United States need to proceed together with "good will" to improve relations, the Chinese ambassador to Washington said on Saturday, as ties remained fraught between the world's two biggest economic powers. On Friday, a Chinese state media editorial said ties are being shifted to "a dangerous path". "In order to put the relations on the right track, to have real improvement of the relations, both sides have to proceed with good will and good faith," Ambassador Cui Tiankai told the Annual Conference of the Institute for China-America Studies via video link.

The last jobs report to be released this year has arrived, and it's a major disappointment. The Labor Department on Friday said the U.S. economy added 245,000 jobs in November, which was down from the 440,000 jobs economists were expecting, CNBC reports. It was also "by far the lowest monthly total since the economy started its halting recovery," NBC News reports.

The Airbus A330-800neo entered service with Kuwait Airways in November after being delivered in October as Airbus' newest passenger jet. It's the smaller variant of the A330neo family but still boasts an impressive range of 8,150 nautical miles and greater efficiency thanks to new Rolls-Royce engines. With only three airlines publicly placing orders for the aircraft, however, it's likely to be a flop.

Former Hong Kong politician Ted Hui has announced he has chosen to go into exile as Beijing intensifies its crackdown on high-profile figures of the former British colony's pro-democracy movement. Mr Hui, 38, initially fled to Denmark this week where he was joined by his family, but he said he would make his way to the UK to continue his pro-democratic activities. He joins Nathan Law, a prominent Hong Kong human rights activist now based in London, and a growing diaspora of dissidents who are continuing to advocate for more international pressure on China to allow greater rights and freedoms in the Asian financial hub.
In addition to the upcoming Jupiter-Saturn conjunction, skywatchers this month will also get to enjoy the Geminid meteor shower, which is considered to be one of the best showers of the year. The Geminids are expected to peak on the night of Dec.13-14 (Sunday evening until dawn Monday), according to EarthSky. During its peak, 120 Geminid meteors can be seen per hour under perfect conditions, NASA said.

Bombing, looting and skirmishes persisted in parts of Ethiopia's Tigray on Saturday, a rebellious force in the northern region said after government troops declared they were within days of capturing the group's leaders. A month of fighting between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's federal army and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) is believed to have killed thousands of people and driven some 46,000 refugees into neighbouring Sudan. Abiy's government has said the conflict is winding down a week after it seized Tigray's regional capital, Mekelle, but TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael told Reuters in a text message on Saturday there was still fighting outside the city.

State surveys have spotted deer and other mammals already crowding onto canal banks and flood control levees that provide little shelter or forage. But wildlife managers say the high water also is benefiting wading birds, increasing the amount of fish they feed on, and also freshening up coastal areas in Florida Bay, which has been hammered by seagrass die-offs and algae blooms worsened by high salinity levels. There is concern that parts of the Everglades are too deep for some species to survive, and that flooding could hurt tree islands; but there is also some good news: flooding is creating good conditions for wading bird nesting in areas where we want them to be,” said Mark Cook, the lea...

President Donald Trump has ordered the removal of most US military and security personnel from Somalia, where they have been conducting operations against the Al Shabaab militant group, the Pentagon said Friday. After ordering major troop reductions in Iraq and Afghanistan recently, Trump's new move reflects his drive to disengage US forces from what he calls "endless wars" abroad, making good on a campaign pledge in the final weeks of his presidency. Trump "has ordered the Department of Defense and the United States Africa Command to reposition the majority of personnel and assets out of Somalia by early 2021," the Pentagon said in a statement.

The news that Brandon Bernard was scheduled for execution on Dec. 10 hit me hard. Brandon was convicted and sentenced to death in Waco, Texas, 20 years ago; I was the federal prosecutor who defended that death verdict on appeal. I wrote briefs arguing that Brandon had a fair trial and his sentence was justified, even though he was only 18 at the time of the crime.

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, Elon Musk's SpaceX, and Dynetics are competing to land NASA astronauts on the moon. NASA awarded the companies a total of nearly $1 billion to produce initial lunar-lander designs for its Artemis 3 mission, which aims to land people on the moon in 2024. On Friday, Bezos announced that Blue Origin's lunar-lander rocket engine, the BE-7, completed its fourth successful test firing.

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On the heels of an election that dramatically changed the outlook of Miami-Dade County politics, Democrats and Republicans will convene next week to choose local leaders for their respective parties. Miami-Dade Democrats appear likely to stick with current Chairman Steve Simeonidis despite an underwhelming performance last month by the party's candidates in partisan races up and down the ballot. Republicans, meanwhile, will close out a banner 2020 by choosing a replacement for outgoing Chairman Nelson Diaz, who is stepping down after eight years on the job.

India's government failed on Saturday to break a deadlock with farmers protesting over agricultural reforms and will meet again on Wednesday, the agriculture minister and union leaders said. Thousands of Indian farmers have demonstrated against the laws, which they say threaten their livelihoods, by camping on the outskirts of the capital New Delhi and blocking highways. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government says the new laws are meant to overhaul antiquated procurement procedures and give growers more options to sell their produce.

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“This metastasizing debt crisis has had tremendous social costs. An entire generation has been set back.”
“It is not the government’s job to step in and rescue those who took on more debt than their future incomes would support.”
“Many student-borrowers need relief, but well-off borrowers who are thriving — thanks to their college degrees — do not.”
“It will stimulate the lagging economy. And though not everyone will directly benefit, the country as a whole will improve.”
“Canceling student debt would cost billions of dollars each year and would exacerbate, not lessen, economic inequalities.”