USA

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Many Republican lawmakers in states where coronavirus cases and hospitalizations have surged are not only rejecting statewide mask mandates. They’re also resisting rules requiring them in their own capitols.

Efforts to require lawmakers and staff to wear masks have received a cool reception even in statehouses that have seen outbreaks of the virus or where Republican governors have issued statewide mandates. It’s echoing a partisan divide nationwide over a simple step that health experts say is proven to help keep others safe.

(AP) --- U.S. health officials Saturday agreed to allow emergency use of a second antibody drug to help the immune system fight COVID-19, an experimental medicine that President Donald Trump was given when he was sickened last month.

The Food and Drug Administration authorized use of the Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. drug to try to prevent hospitalization and worsening disease from developing in patients with mild-to-moderate symptoms.

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Election officials in Wisconsin’s largest county accused observers for President Donald Trump on Saturday of seeking to obstruct a recount of the presidential results, in some instances by objecting to every ballot tabulators pulled to count.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A federal judge issued a scathing order Saturday dismissing the Trump campaign’s futile effort to block the certification of votes in Pennsylvania, shooting down claims of widespread irregularities with mail-in ballots.

WASHINGTON, Nov 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will Saturday meet negotiators from the Taliban and Afghan government amid signs of progress in their talks as the United States speeds up its withdrawal.

The State Department said late Friday that Pompeo will meet separately in the Qatari capital Doha with Afghan and Taliban teams to the talks.

MEXICO CITY/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mexico has committed to the arrest of a high-level cartel leader under a deal with U.S. Attorney General William Barr to drop U.S. drug trafficking charges against a former Mexican defense minister, a senior Mexican source told Reuters.

The United States dropped the case against retired General Salvador Cienfuegos this week citing “sensitive and important” foreign policy considerations that outweighed interest in pursuing the charges.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Joe Biden on Saturday reached the two-week mark since becoming president-elect, with President Donald Trump stinging from back-to-back setbacks in his desperate, unprecedented bid to undo his election defeat.

Biden, a Democrat, is preparing to take office on Jan. 20, but Trump, a Republican, has refused to concede and is seeking to invalidate or overturn the results through lawsuits and recounts in a number of states, claiming - without proof - widespread voter fraud.

UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday that a global coalition for net zero emissions by 2050 is taking shape, while calling for more action on the climatic front.

"A great and growing global coalition for net zero emissions by 2050 is taking shape," the UN chief told reporters at a hybrid press conference held at the UN headquarters in New York.

Guterres will meet with G20 leaders online over the weekend.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. people's distrust of the government and their deep conviction that disasters are things happening to others have resulted in the country's current predicament amid the pandemic, said an opinion piece published recently by the U.S. magazine Foreign Policy.

The article, titled "Why the United States Can't Defeat the Coronavirus," pointed out that "for too many Americans, disasters are things that happen to other people, never themselves."

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia’s governor and top elections official on Friday certified results showing Joe Biden won the presidential race over Republican President Donald Trump, bringing the state one step closer to wrapping up an election fraught with unfounded accusations of fraud by Trump and his supporters.