USA

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Austin Mayor Steve Adler went on vacation to Mexico with family in November as he urged people to stay home amid worsening coronavirus caseloads in Texas, at one point recording a video during the trip in which he told residents back home that now was “not the time to relax.”

The trip revealed Wednesday by the Austin American-Statesman is the latest example of a public official who has pleaded for vigilance in the face of rising cases and hospitalizations across the U.S. seeming to not heed their own guidance.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is closing out his relationship with Congress with one more power jab, threatening to veto a hugely popular defense bill unless lawmakers clamp down on big tech companies he claims were biased against him during the election.

Trump is demanding that Congress repeal so-called Section 230, a part of the communications code that shields Twitter, Facebook and others from content liability. His complaint is a battle cry of conservatives — and some Democrats — who say the social media giants treat them unfairly.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Increasingly detached from reality, President Donald Trump stood before a White House lectern and delivered a 46-minute diatribe against the election results that produced a win for Democrat Joe Biden, unspooling one misstatement after another to back his baseless claim that he really won.

NEW YORK (AP) — National lawmakers introduced a joint resolution Wednesday aimed at striking language from the U.S. Constitution that enshrines a form of slavery in America’s foundational documents.

The resolution, spearheaded and supported by Democratic members of the House and Senate, would amend the 13th Amendment’s ban on chattel enslavement to expressly prohibit involuntary servitude as a punishment for crime. As ratified, the original amendment has permitted exploitation of labor by convicted felons for over 155 years since the abolition of slavery.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Outgoing Attorney General William Barr’s decision to appoint a special counsel to investigate the handling of the Russia probe ensures his successor won’t have an easy transition.

The move, which Barr detailed to The Associated Press on Tuesday, could lead to heated confirmation hearings for President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee, who hasn’t been announced. Senate Republicans will likely use that forum to extract a pledge from the pick to commit to an independent investigation.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The last throes of Donald Trump’s presidency have turned ugly — even dangerous.

Death threats are on the rise. Local and state election officials are being hounded into hiding. A Trump campaign lawyer is declaring publicly that a federal official who defended the integrity of the election should be “drawn and quartered” or simply shot.

Neutral public servants, Democrats and a growing number of Republicans who won’t do what Trump wants are being caught in a menacing postelection undertow stirred by Trump’s grievances about the election he lost.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — U.S. hospitals slammed with COVID-19 patients are trying to lure nurses and doctors out of retirement, recruiting students and new graduates who have yet to earn their licenses and offering eye-popping salaries in a desperate bid to ease staffing shortages.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 02 (APP): The President of U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Ambassador Munir Akram of Pakistan, has called for providing emergency financing for coronavirus-hit developing countries to enable them to avoid economic collapse, as he stressed the need for international cooperation at this critical stage.

WASHINGTON, Dec 2 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — The United States imposed sanctions on a Chinese firm China National Electronics Import & Export Corporation (CEIEC), accusing it of supporting Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro efforts to undermine democracy.

The US Treasury Department said in a statement the Chinese company supported the authoritarian government of Maduro in its “efforts to restrict internet service and conduct digital surveillance and cyber operations against political opponents.”

WASHINGTON, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Tuesday that economic activity has continued to recover from its depressed second-quarter level, but momentum has slowed down in recent months.

Noting that the reopening of the economy led to a rapid rebound in economic activity in the third quarter, Powell said in a congressional hearing that "in recent months, however, the pace of improvement has moderated."