USA

(AP) --- The surging coronavirus is taking an increasingly dire toll across the U.S. just as a vaccine appears close at hand, with the country now averaging over 1,300 COVID-19 deaths per day — the highest level since the calamitous spring in and around New York City.

The overall U.S. death toll has reached about 254,000, by far the most in the world. Confirmed infections have eclipsed more than 11.8 million, after the biggest one-day gain on record Thursday — almost 188,000. And the number of people in the hospital with COVID-19 hit another all-time high at more than 80,000.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump sought to leverage the power of the Oval Office on Friday in an extraordinary attempt to block President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, but his pleas to Michigan lawmakers to overturn the will of their constituents appeared to have left them unswayed.

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 20 (APP): With Pakistan calling it a ‘beacon of hope’, a key committee of the United Nations General Assembly Thursday unanimously adopted a resolution reaffirming the right to self-determination for people who are subjected to colonial, foreign and alien occupation.

Co-sponsored by 71 countries, the resolution, submitted by Pakistan, was adopted without a vote in the 193-member Assembly’s Third Committee, which deals with Social, humanitarian and cultural issues.

WASHINGTON, Nov 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United States’ top infectious disease official said Thursday that two coronavirus vaccines being tested were “solid,” and that the speed at which they were developed has not compromised safety or integrity.

Anthony Fauci spoke at a rare briefing from the White House virus task force to reassure some public concerns about the two vaccines — one from Pfizer/BioNTech and the other by Moderna — after both companies announced successful trials.

(Reuters) - President Donald Trump will meet with Republican leaders from Michigan at the White House on Friday as his campaign pursues an increasingly desperate bid to overturn the Nov. 3 election following a series of courtroom defeats.

The Trump campaign’s latest strategy, as described by three people familiar with the plan, is to convince Republican-controlled legislatures in battleground states won by President-elect Joe Biden, such as Michigan, to set aside the results and determine Trump the winner.

(Reuters) - Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans said Friday he was disappointed by U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s decision Thursday to end several of the Fed’s key pandemic lending programs on Dec. 31.

“I think that backstop role my be quite important for quite some time so it’s disappointing,” Evans said in an interview on CNBC.

20 Nov 2020; MEMO: US Congress passed a law on Wednesday to support Libya's stability and impose sanctions on parties fuelling the conflict in the country. Currently, talks are being held between the warring parties to agree on new terms to rule the state in preparation for the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections.

20 Nov 2020; MEMO: The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has condemned the statements of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in which he described the movement as "anti-Semitic".

"The administration of US President Donald Trump is trying to discredit the movement," the BDS movement announced in a press release, of which Anadolu Agency received a copy.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- U.S. non-essential travel restrictions across its borders with Canada and Mexico will be extended through Dec. 21 due to COVID-19, U.S. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said on Thursday.

"In order to continue to prevent the spread of COVID, the US, Mexico, & Canada will extend the restrictions on non-essential travel through Dec 21. We are working closely with Mexico & Canada to keep essential trade & travel open while also protecting our citizens from the virus," Wolf tweeted.

CHICAGO, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- Economists at University of Michigan (UM) are expecting a rebound in economic activity, falling unemployment and life returning to "close-to-normal" by the end of next year in the United States.

In their annual U.S. Economic Outlook released on Thursday, UM economists forecast the real gross domestic product (GDP) in the United States will rise by 4.2 percent in 2021, against an anticipated 3.6-percent drop in 2020, and real GDP may return to pre-pandemic levels in the second half of 2021.