USA

NEW YORK, Dec 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The US House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill that could close US stock and money markets to Chinese firms.

The “Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act” could be quickly placed on the desk of US President Donald Trump for final approval, since it was already passed by the Senate.

The measure introduced in 2019 by Louisiana Republican Senator John Kennedy would mandate that foreign companies listed on US stock exchanges comply with accounting requirements of the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

United Nations, Dec 3 (AP-PTI) Nearly 100 world leaders and several dozen ministers are slated to speak at the U.N. General Assembly's special session starting Thursday on the response to COVID-19 and the best path to recovery from the pandemic which has claimed 1.5 million lives, shattered economies, and left tens of millions of people unemployed in countries rich and poor.

Assembly President Volkan Bozkir said when he took the reins of the 193-member world body in September that it would have been better to hold the high-level meeting in June.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- The United States is facing the toughest time amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as a surge in hospitalizations strains hospitals nationwide, the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned on Wednesday.

"The reality is December and January and February are going to be rough times. I actually believe they're going to be the most difficult time in the public health history of this nation," CDC Director Robert Redfield said during a livestream event with U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.

Washington, Dec 3 (AP-PTI) President-elect Joe Biden is facing escalating pressure from competing factions within his own party as he finalises his choice for secretary of defense.

Black leaders have encouraged the incoming president to select an African-American to diversify what has so far been a largely white prospective Cabinet, while others are pushing him to appoint a woman to lead the Department of Defense for the first time.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- UN General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir on Wednesday called for joint efforts to fight misinformation and disinformation about COVID-19.

"Aside from the virus and its impacts, another adversary has been plaguing our response: misinformation and disinformation. COVID-19 is a communications crisis. It is not simply a pandemic. It is an 'infodemic.' And this has cost lives," said Bozkir.

WASHINGTON (AP) — After four years of President Donald Trump serving as his own chief spokesperson and frequently peddling false information and conspiracy theories in the process, successor Joe Biden is pledging to return to a more traditional approach to communicating with Americans.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden swung behind a bipartisan COVID-19 relief effort and his top Capitol Hill allies cut their demands for a $2 trillion-plus measure by more than half in hopes of breaking a monthslong logjam and delivering much-sought aid as the tempestuous congressional session speeds to a close.

Biden said Wednesday the developing aid package “wouldn’t be the answer, but it would be the immediate help for a lot of things.” He wants a relief bill to pass Congress now, with more aid to come next year.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Advocates and lawyers anticipate a flurry of clemency action from President Donald Trump in the coming weeks that could test the limits of presidential pardon power.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A mysterious object temporarily orbiting Earth is a 54-year-old rocket, not an asteroid after all, astronomers confirmed Wednesday.

Observations by a telescope in Hawaii clinched its identity, according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — President Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn Wisconsin’s election results by tossing ballots only from the state’s two most heavily Democratic counties is an “assault on democracy,” attorneys for Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said in filings with the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

The filings, made late Tuesday, come as the state’s highest court is weighing Trump’s request to disqualify more than 221,000 ballots in Milwaukee and Dane counties. Democrat Joe Biden defeated Trump by a 2-to-1 margin in those counties on his way to a 20,682-vote win statewide.