
The Trump administration's director of national intelligence on Sunday refused to acknowledge a Biden administration, the latest denial as the president and his allies launch increasingly desperate bids to stall or overturn the transfer of power. “Well, these election issues, we'll see who's in what seats and whether there is a Biden administration,” said DNI director John Ratcliffe, after Fox News host Maria Bartiromo asked what the official thought of Mr Biden's cabinet picks and their approach to China. During the interview, Mr Ratcliffe also cast doubt on the use of mail-in voting, long considered safe and used by the president himself this election, and further echoed conspiracies from the president and his allies.

Officially, the U.S. death toll in the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor is 2,403. But the books have yet to be closed on identifying the available remains of more than 150 of those killed on what President Franklin D. Roosevelt called a "day that will live in infamy." Ahead of remembrance ceremonies in Hawaii on the 79th anniversary of the attacks, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced Dec. 1 that the remains of four more sailors from that day had been identified, including two brothers.

Rountree is a cashier at a Walmart less than two miles from her home, and while at work on Nov. 28, she heard a flurry of activity by the ice machine and saw that customers and employees were chasing a dog that had walked into the store. As the dog came closer to her register, Rountree saw that it looked a lot like Abby, and when she called out, the pup came running. "I was in complete shock and just couldn't believe it," Rountree told The Washington Post.

With time running out, lawmakers on Sunday closed in on a proposed COVID-19 relief bill that would provide roughly $300 in extra federal weekly unemployment benefits but not another round of $1,200 in direct payments to most Americans, leaving that issue for President-elect Joe Biden to wrestle over with a new Congress next year. The $908 billion aid package to be released Monday would be attached to a larger year-end spending bill needed to avert a government shutdown this coming weekend. The cash payments were popular when they were first distributed after the pandemic hit, and Biden on Friday had expressed hope that a second wave might come after weekend negotiations.

A California man punched a 350-pound bear in the face after it began attacking his dog Buddy. Kaleb Benham rescued his pitbull from the bear attack outside their home in Grass Valley, California the day before Thanksgiving. "I just ran down there, plowed into the bear, tackled it and grabbed it by the throat and started hitting it in the face and the eye until it let go," he told CBS Sacramento.

A Texas medical examiner's preliminary findings say a man found dead Thursday was killed by a wild animal, possibly a mountain lion, but state wildlife officials are disputing that report. Christopher Allen Whiteley's body was found in a wooded area by deputies a day after he vanished near Lipan, 50 miles southwest of Fort Worth, according to the Hood County Sheriff's office. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner said Whiteley, 28, died from a wild animal attack, according to the sheriff's office. On Sunday, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said its biologists, Texas Game Wardens, and subject matter experts inspected the scene and found no evidence of a predatory attack by a mountain lion.

Take your home garden to the next level this winter Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
Video shared online shows police moving in on the protesters and hitting them with batons. One protester was reportedly arrested. Protesters say they are opposed to Garcetti, who co-chaired Biden's campaign, based on his handling of issues such as homelessness and the COVID-19 pandemic.

President Donald Trump says his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani has tested positive for the coronavirus, making him the latest in Trump's inner circle to contract the disease that is now surging across the U.S. Giuliani was exhibiting some symptoms and was admitted Sunday to Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly. The 76-year-old former New York mayor has traveled extensively to battleground states in an effort to help Trump subvert his election loss to Joe Biden. On numerous occasions he has met with officials for hours at a time without wearing a mask.

The Japanese navy attacked the US fleet at Pearl Harbor 79 years ago, bringing the US into World War II with a devastating blow. Now it's possible to compare Pearl Harbor's present-day idyllic settings with the scenes on that "day of infamy" eight decades years ago. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A surfer in Seaside, Oregon, was bitten by a shark and suffered non-life-threatening injuries to his lower leg. CBS affiliate KOIN-TV reports the incident took place about 3:20 p.m. Sunday in a popular surfing spot in South Seaside known as The Cove, near Tillamook Head, according to Jon Rahl, a spokesman for the city. Video from Jennifer Causer shows emergency personnel carrying a person off a beach in Seaside after the person was attacked by a shark this afternoon.

India looks set to be the first country where “vaccine tourism” could become a bona fide cottage industry after the world's largest vaccine manufacturer, Serum Institute of India, said it would begin selling the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine privately from “March or April.” Serum Institute has a licensing deal to produce (and has indeed already manufactured 40 million doses) of the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. On Monday, Serum Institute lodged the first formal application for emergency use approval for AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine and India expects to have the jab approved for use in the new year.

Since 2007, Senator Mitch McConnell has been the leader of the Republican caucus in the Senate and by far the most effective political strategist in his party. He was the architect of the scorched-earth opposition to everything President Obama did, which paid dividends in the form of the Republican wave in 2010 and eventually Donald Trump's victory in 2016. McConnell did all he could to hold open federal court seats during Obama's terms, which allowed Trump to stuff the district and appellate courts, and the Supreme Court, with far-right partisans.

Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said in an interview Sunday that the COVID-19 vaccine is "critical," but it wouldn't save Americans from the impending surge of COVID-19 infections. Moncef Slaoui, the head of the White House operation "Warp Speed" said Sunday that the vaccine could be available to some people in the US by the end of this week, part of a slow rollout that will first prioritize healthcare workers and at-risk populations.

Nine months into the coronavirus pandemic and people are still throwing tantrums about wearing masks in public places. Last Thursday, a passenger on a Frontier Airlines flight from Cincinnati to Tampa had such a tantrum, Fox News first reported. Videos taken by a friend of Fox producer Griffin Frank shows a little of the action.

Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace interrupted Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar mid-interview on Sunday to remind the Trump Cabinet official that Joe Biden is in fact the president-elect, and should no longer be referred to by his previous title of “vice president.” Mr Azar was downplaying the significance of Mr Biden announcing he will publicly advocate for all Americans to wear masks in the early days of his presidency, saying the Trump administration has been promoting mask-wearing for months to stop the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. “We welcome Vice President Biden to the club,” Mr Azar said .

Before 2020 comes to a close, Jupiter and Saturn will be so close that they will appear to form a "double planet." The great conjunction, as the planetary alignment has come to be known, hasn't occurred in nearly 800 years. When their orbits align every 20 years, Jupiter and Saturn get extremely close to one another.

Weeks before her family turns the White House over to President-elect Joe Biden, Melania Trump announced Monday that a new tennis pavilion on the south grounds is ready for action. The project included sprucing up an existing tennis court and children's garden, in addition to construction of the pavilion, which replaces a smaller structure. The first lady's office said the pavilion's design was inspired by the architecture of the White House, especially the East and West Wings.

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington has issued a new report estimating that the US coronavirus death toll will reach 539,000 by April. About 282,000 American deaths from the virus had been reported as of Monday. The report predicts COVID-19 vaccines will prevent 9,000 deaths before April 1 and "speed the transition back to normal" later in the year.

USA TODAY's coverage of the 2020 election and President-elect Joe Biden's transition continues this week as he rolls out more of his picks for top jobs in his administration and the final states certify their vote counts before the Electoral College ballots are officially cast on Dec. 14. President Donald Trump has cleared the way for Biden's team to use federal resources and get briefings during the transition, although Trump has yet to formally concede the race. Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City and President Donald Trump's personal attorney, has tested positive for COVID-19.

An influential Saudi prince launched a bitter attack on Israel at a regional conference Sunday, drawing retorts from the Jewish state's foreign minister who addressed the gathering virtually. The row erupted months after the UAE and Bahrain broke decades of Arab consensus by normalising ties with Israel, a move condemned as a "stab in the back" by Palestinians. Prince Turki al-Faisal, a Saudi former intelligence chief who is said to be close to the country's top leadership, reiterated strong support for the Palestinian cause in a fiery presentation to the Manama Dialogue security forum.
There was confusion and panic in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh on Sunday (December 6), as at least 227 people were admitted to hospital, having contracted an unknown disease. The first case of the mysterious illness was reported on Saturday. Doctors said the symptoms include dizziness, nausea, headache and epilepsy-like symptoms, affecting both young and old alike.

The storm is expected to unleash snow, rain and strong winds across parts of the central United States, but the exact strength and track of the storm will determine how intense conditions become and which areas will get a dose of wintry weather. Travel disruptions are possible with the potential for accumulating snow in cities such as Minneapolis; Omaha, Nebraska; Des Moines, Iowa; Chicago and Milwaukee, depending on the path and intensity of the system. "At this early stage, it seems, regardless of the storm track and strength, areas from northern Wisconsin to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan are most likely to receive significant snow," AccuWeather Meteorologist Matt Benz said.

When she heard a knock on the door, Colin Monahan figured it had to be about the new garage. Monahan and her wife, Shannon Lastowski Monahan, had just finished dinner. Colin had just finished installing a new, prefabricated garage on their property, painted in a shade of brown to complement the waving grasses of the surrounding valley.

Donald Trump and his relatives are being sued by a group of tenants in New York City, who accuse them of a decades-long scheme to illicitly push up their rents. The new lawsuit, filed on 2 October in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, has been filed by 20 people who live or lived in more than 30 apartment complexes across Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island which previously belonged to the president's father, Fred Trump. The buildings were sold in 2004, but the plaintiffs claim that the fraudulent scheme began in 1992 and the artificially-raised rents carried on after the sale.


“The prospect of a 2024 run is politically significant. It’s also a complete fiction.”
“His flirtation with a 2024 bid ensures he’ll remain the dominant force in the Republican Party.”
“He shouldn’t run for president again. There’s a better job and life for him on the horizon.”
“Trump is in for years of scandals and humiliations…He’ll have to devote much of his energy to trying to stay out of prison.”
“If Trump himself passes on the opportunity, his two very political children could also potentially pick up the mantle.”